Whew. That’s a lot of supercharged horses getting ready for the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Imagine the feeling of the vibration in the air standing this close to it.
Just fantastic.
Author: Harlo
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Available in Connecticut: Type 547 Engine
I know, you can’t do much with just an engine. And at $127,000, this engine is some serious bread. This is no ordinary engine, my friend. This is the Porsche 4-cam. This magical little marvel of engineering powered the Porsche 550, the 356 Carrera GT, and the early Porsche 904s to many a victory. You may not be able to do much with just an engine, but this would be perfect just as a display piece. Better yet, drop it in your 356. It may be sacrilege to some, but bolting this into a 550 kit would be pure driving joy.
Give it a listen in this video. Couldn’t you just hear that all day? More info at the classified listing on the Pelican Forums and at the owner’s page.
What a wonderful sound.
Google Books’ archive of Life Magazine has turned up another wonderful bit of racing history in this ominously titled article about the arrival of Grand Prix cars and drivers at the Brickyard.
“Invasion at Full Throttle” may have been a year or two early, but the prediction about the impending dominance of the rear-engined menace from across the pond was fairly accurate. It wouldn’t be long before Jim Clark would indeed be enjoying a bottle of milk at the end of the Indianapolis 500. Of course the author of this particular article would have been in a good position to know a thing or two about the funny little cars heading to the 500; Stirling Moss penned this piece. I’m sure Mr. Moss wasn’t to worried about ruffling a feather or two when he wrote, “I have a hunch that the U.S. will be shocked by what happens. In effect, the race will be an international showdown between our all-purpose, all-weather cars and drivers and your closed-circuit specialists who steer only to the left in beautifully built, overdeveloped, unsophisticated cars that belong to the past.” Overdeveloped AND unsophisticated? Ok, Stirling.
I can just imagine a midwestern race fan not finishing the article once he reached that passage and throwing the crumpled magazine across the living room. But Moss does backtrack a bit, describing his own experience behind an Indy Roadster at the Monza-napolis 500 several years earlier. It’s a wonderful read, especially with the knowledge of hindsight of the Indy at the front/rear engine transition and the impact of the European GP drivers on this most American of races.
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Es el Momento de la Carrera Panamericana
La Carrera Panamericana 2009 is set to start in a few short days. While most of us won’t be making the trip, Coop will be photoblogging from the road. He’s already begun with photos of the trip down to Huatulco for the start. Head on over to his blog for updates over the next several days. Have a great race, Coop.
Coop’s a veteran of a few Carreras. Check out his photos from his previous races.
Update: Coop made it safely back and has hundreds of photos on his Flickr stream.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. People just don’t put the care into track maps that they used to. This isometric illustration of the track at Riverside is impressive. Before we had Google Maps’ satellite view, we had illustrators. When it comes to track maps, I’m not so sure we’re better off.
No further comment necessary — don’t you agree?
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Available in Italy: OSCA 1600 GT Zagato
I’ve often read of the interesting origins of Officine Specializzate Costruzioni Automobili – Fratelli Maserati SpA (sensibly shortened to O.S.C.A). This is, you’ll remember, the company that the Maserati brothers founded in 1947, 10 years after selling their namesake sportscar company to Adolfo Orsi. Ernesto, Ettore, and Bindo Maserati were gifted sportscar engineers. If they could have managed their business operations better I wouldn’t doubt that we’d still be talking of the rivalry between Ferrari, Porsche, and OSCA today.
I’d long been aware of the Bologna-based OSCA. I’d seen a few photos and read some race reports. It wasn’t until I finally saw an OSCA 1600 in the flesh at this summer’s Kohler International Challenge at Road America, that I could truly appreciate the simple beauty of this wonderful car. Photographs of sportscars, particularly Italian sportscars, seldom do justice to the cars themselves. Perfect proportions and lines can be appreciated, but the scale is always lost until you get up close to them. That was certainly the case for me and the OSCA 1600. The lines and proportions in photographs lend it an essence reminiscent of the Jaguar E-Type or an Aston-Martin. The comparison to any Grand Tourer, though, is completely lost when you stand next to it. The scale is compact; not small. It’s no bigger than it needs to be to wrap a slippery aluminum body around 4 wheels, a hot-rodded 1500 Fiat engine, and two passengers. It is beautiful economy of construction and aesthetic. It’s remarkable.
Recently, one of the even rarer Zagato-bodied OSCA 1600’s has come available in Italy. Auto Classic is offering one of the 32 1600 GT Zagato’s to come out of the OSCA workshop. Even more precious, this particular example is one of the initial prototypes. This one looks to have been race prepped; that aluminum footbox doesn’t match the interior of other road versions that I’ve seen. Without the chassis number, which sadly isn’t listed among the listed details, I can’t be certain if this race preparation was done during the recent restoration or at the factory. Each of the 32 examples was custom built to the purchaser’s specifications, so there’s quite a bit of variety between each example.
The paint looks almost over-restored in these photographs. This looks especially glossy and over clear-coated for a 1962 car, particularly if it was indeed prepared for the track. I’m very particular about red cars. I’ve never owned a red car, and never plan to unless she’s Italian. It’s not exactly an issue of traditional racing colors either. I just think that red is a difficult color that only suits a few cars – Jaguars, Corvettes, and Porsches look absolutely dreadful in red. But maybe that’s just me. It certainly doesn’t stop people from buying them in droves. Another example though, that sold at the 2007 Geneva auction is absolutely sublime in light blue. Stunning. She looks great on the track too.
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Around Rouen with Graham Hill
With a first row start and fastest lap in the race, the 1962 French Grand Prix really should have belonged to Graham Hill. But a minor bump with a privateer and later engine problems forced Graham to finish 10 laps off the pace. This race was made famous, of course, by Gurney’s win in a Porsche — the first Formula 1 win for both. Let’s take a spin around the forests of Normandy with Graham Hill at the wheel of his unlucky BRM, shall we?
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Porsche Archive Find: Going for Broke
Sometimes it pays to dig around the archives of sportscar manufacturer’s web sites. The other day I spent some time sifting through the depths of porsche.com. Porsche does more than most to inform contemporary car buyers about the history of the marque’s many glories on the track. Their Targa Florio multimedia experience of a few years back is among the best example of using racing heritage to sell contemporary road cars that I’ve seen in recent years.
Despite this, even Porsche could do more to bring their archives to the public. In the digital era, access to Porsche’s (or any other similar maker’s) archives could be easily opened up to the public through the web at minimal cost to the manufacturer. This is particularly true in Porsche’s case, as they already manage a very extensive archives available not only as an internal resource, but also to outside journalists, scientists, and researchers. This archive, part of the new Porsche museum, catalogs the entire history of the company and the Porsche family and includes: 2.5 million images, more than 1,000 hours of video, and 3,000 volumes of text. And that’s just one manufacturer’s history! What I wouldn’t give for manufacturing blueprints for the 4-cam 547 engine and a skilled machinist.
We’re not quite there yet. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not completely without vintage archival information. Porsche has posted “Going for Broke”, a wonderful article about the 1969 World Sportscar Championship season from the Porsche customer magazine, Cristophorus. While the arrival of the 917 in 1970 sealed the deal for Porsche’s Le Mans dream, the 908 of the previous year was a tremendous car that has been sadly overshadowed by its younger brother. This is, after all, a car that clinched the manufacturer’s championship at the hands of Porsche’s talented pool of drivers frequently led by Brian Redman and Jo Siffert.
The article tells an extraordinary tale of openness. After celebrating the championship, race engineer Peter Falk invited the sporting press to examine the broken parts that cost Porsche dearly: The shredded camshaft gear teeth that cost them the 24 Hours of Daytona, The cracked chassis that forced Redman/Siffert out of the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 917’s failed clutch from LeMans. While most manufacturers would hide these failed parts away, if not destroy them, Falk and the Porsche team viewed these apparent failures as the very reason for eventual success. Through these experiments and missteps, progress is made, and that should be shared with the wider world. Incredible. Ah, the age before the PR department. This spirit of openness is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about in this call to further open up historic archives of this type.
The complete article is fantastic, read it here.
Check out this stunning photography of a very special Honda RC166 from the Honda Racing Heritage collection. This example bearing number 7, was piloted by Mike Hailwood to victory in the 1966 Isle of Man TT. It wasn’t just on the ring around the dependency that Hailwood brought the 166 in for the laurels. Hailwood won 10 championship races in 1966 onboard RC166. This is an incredible racing machine, which captured the World Manufacturers Championship for Honda in the 250cc category for two years on a trot in the mid-60s.
Looking at these photographs, it’s little wonder that the Hailwood RC166 has become such a popular inspiration for tribute cafe bikes in a variety of engine configurations. The demand for 1960s Hondas remains high as a source for cafe bikes sporting this livery. I must admit, these photos certainly whet my appetite for one of these small displacement racers. Like their 4-wheeled counterparts, the barchettas, these small displacement bikes are the epitome of sports riding for me. Short wheelbases, light weights, and high maneuverability is a recipe for fun on the road or track. There are few machines on two wheels or four that would compete with this Honda RC166 (or it’s many imitators) for a magical afternoon on a twisty stretch of road. Check out the complete gallery, including some video and ringtones(!), on Honda’s MotoGP history gallery.
I found this via the motorcycling photography spotters at Bike EXIF, which also turned up this wonderful 50cc Honda Dream 50R. Hot.
More on this and other early Honda racers at vf750fd.com.