cars

why the hell is everything black and white all of a sudden?

an amazingly red, and yellow from certain angles, french (sorry fiat, italy) 1961 abarth simca 1300 s1. now just try and find one.

most people associate abarth with fiat, but a very successful liaison was also formed with simca. the lesser known french company was partly owned by fiat at the time, and when they wanted to appeal to a younger market with a more sporty model, they turned to the italian giant for help. fiat in turn went to abarth, who received sponsorship from the larger company. a deal was struck whereby simca shipped floorplans of their 1000 sabour to abarth, who then cut 4″ out of the chassis and built handsome lightweight aluminum bodies around them. the engine was an all-abarth 1300cc four-cylinder twin-cam unit which produced up to 140 bhp and was mounted in the rear, while suspension was nearly stock simca 1000, incorporating a transverse front leaf spring with telescopic dampers and upper wishbones and rear semi-trailing arms a la porsche. with this car, abarth won the world championship for makes in 1962. the racing version of the abarth simca was developed throughout the 1960s, and the winning design was found to be more than a match for its competitors. in two-liter, 202 bhp specification, the simca abarth was easily able to beat the porsche 904 on the track and won the european mountain climb challenge outright. by xy

CATEGORIES: cars

yellow: the true color of a Ferrari

the ferrari’s iconic red comes about due to the way the sport of racing began, where each country was assigned a color, and italy was assigned red. the red for ferrari has remained despite the “fact” that yellow is the decisive color of choice for a ferrari : ) by xy

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british genius: The Hawker Siddeley Harrier jump jet V/STOL

the first V/STOL aircraft in production (vertical/short take off and landing)

below the awkwardly shaped USAF x-13 and lockheed-XFV-1, the U.S.’s attempt at the V/STOL

 

 

you don’t have to be a military guru to appreciate the harrier. all you need is some heart for engineering, design and problem solving. the small and originally considered, “silly-looking” harrier was developed to operate from ad-hoc facilities such as car parks or forest clearings, avoiding the need for large runways and bases that are generally vulnerable to air or missile strikes. later the design was adapted for use from aircraft carriers and the harrier found its place not only in the british RAF but also in the nato, U.S., spain, thailand and others. this documentary shows a bit of its history and its quite fascinating. by dd

CATEGORIES: cars, design

The Daimler double six


daimler is not so much mercedes benz as it is jaguar. the double six (a V12) is one of my favorites not to mention the later models that resembled the XJ6. daimler is one of britain’s oldest marques and has a history stretching back to the dawn of the automobile.

“their very first cars were built under license from gottlieb daimler and quickly became official transportation for british royalty. fit for kings, daimlers were well appointed, and this reputation was enhanced in 1909 with the adoption of sleeve valves. the double six is named after a taxable RAC rating of 50 hp, but the modern rating is somewhere between 130-150 bhp. less then 10 cars were ordered with the Double Six 50 engine. Despite offering numerous models and having royal support, daimler wanted to take an extra step after rolls-royce released their feature-rich phantom in 1925. to stay competitive, chief engineer laurence pomeroy decided to make the most of daimler’s engineering and adopt sleeve valves in a new seven liter ‘double six’ V12. to do so, he mated two existing 6-cylinder, 25/85 hp engines to a common aluminum crankcase and refined the sleeves to reduce oil consumption. the few cars released became collectors. for decades one of the few remaining models was retained by a single family which clung onto their prize possession. for a purchase price upwards up $5,000,000, RM restorations secured the car and finished an immaculate restoration for its next owner robert lee. lucky man he is”. by dd

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the Vignale Maserati Mexico: 1966 coupe tipo 112

here is another one of my favorites. the maserati mexico has a good story behind it; it was never meant to be a production car. the one of a kind body was originally designed in 1964 for an “important mexican client” to include 4 seats and a powerful V8 engine. the important mexican crashed the car soon after delivery, and sent it right back to italy along with its 5000GT chasis. it was referred to, at the factory, as the “mexico” for that very reason. ironically, maserati won the mexican grand prix the following year and the model was then shown in 1965 in torino. it was so well received that a limited series were produced and released at the paris show the following year, 1966. while the car was quite fancy for the time its funny to note that, radio was an optional accessory on a maserati in 1966. this one (above specimen) has an after market unit glued to the console below the lovely toggle switches! shame. by dd

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for chris: range rover YVB151H in english racing green


chris… this is the one you wanted! in the color you wanted…

 

this is one of the earliest series of range rover refered to as the YVB151H. as with most pure english breed cars, it is a beautiful fully balanced exterior design with a horrid electrical system and problematic motors. like the XJ6’s maybe an entire new engine could be place in the “bonet” but then expect to climb speed bumps, rather than mountains. by uh

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monteverdi palm beach: 1974 maroon


another swiss masterpiece referring to the earlier posts on the monteverdi car designs. you can see the similarities between this and the 70’s aston martin, being  considerably more expensive than the aston i’d be surprised if the inspiration wasn’t reverse. by dd

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from land-rover to road-rover to range-rover: the series 1 range rover

range rover “road-rover” was the original range rover prototype 1967

the 1st range rover “road-rover” full size clay model that resembles the production series 1 model

wednesday 17th june 1970 range rover was announced to the worlds motoring press

the original range rover was designed to be an upscale land rover purposed for estate drives. in its original inception it was a two wheel drive to shuttle the land-owners and royalty about the estate premises before it became 4 wheel drive terrain vehicle. unfortunately, and as with most cars today, i hate the modern versions of the range rover as it lost all its character and simple utilitarian lines. but what i miss the most about the range rover series 1 is that in the original design the side windows where quite large allowing you to rest your arm out the window sitting high on the platform seats with out raiding your shoulder, and allowing a open cockpit with 360 view of the terrain. the newer models partly due to US safety restrictions, have shortened the windows and raised the door panels lowering the driver. in subsequent models then they went about adding all sorts of “performance” cues/gadgets like fake aggressive air intakes ports and nonsense aerodynamic lines on a car that is simply not intended for speed but rather stability and might. RIP series one range rover the best 4×4 perhaps next to the monteverdi safari. by dd

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