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.
Old racing ads are just better, aren’t they? I also love that they focus on a variety of racing types, not just NASCAR like contemporary racing advertising does.
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The Life Magazine Archives
Following on the success of Google Images archive of the Life Magazine photographic collection, Life has extended the relationship with Google and has uploaded their entire pre-1970 archive of magazines to the Google Books service. Another trove of auto racing booty awaits!
Let’s start with the October 28, 1966 issue’s piece by Hugh Moffett about the then-upcoming Cinerama popcorn movie, John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix. Yes, it’s another Grand Prix post. It’s an obsession.
While the article is a pretty light and typical ‘upcoming fare from Hollywood’ piece, it does reveal a few details about the project. Among them that the 16 camera crews shooting compiled over 300 hours of footage. That simple tid-bit makes the features included in the Grand Prix Two-Disc Special Edition DVD release feel woefully underdone. There has been a long-standing search underway by Nostalgia Forum commenters for the missing footage, including a rumored shooting session filmed at the Nurburgring that Frankenheimer was compelled not to use owing to a exclusive agreement between Nurburgring management and another film project. This article doesn’t mention the Nurburgring footage, but does give some delightful detail about the Formula 1 greats that participated in the movie, including a wonderful story about the thrill the writer got when Phil Hill popped him into the passenger seat of a race-prepped Ford Cobra for a few flying laps around a wet Brand Hatch.
Well worth a read: see the complete article here on Google Books.
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Cars and Boats and Planes, Oh My!
As the vintage racing season starts to wind down in the North half of the US, it’s easy for us to forget that those of you in warmer climates can just keep on going. Scheduling of this interesting event that combines vintage aircraft and boating displays with a historic autocross in November sounds like pure folly to this Mid-Westerner. Which is, of course, the benefit of hosting the 2009 Roar ‘n’ Soar in Polk City Florida.
The Roar ‘n’ Soar weekend looks like a great day out for every variety of gearhead and vintage enthusiast. Vintage aircraft from the Fantasy of Flight Collection will be on display, with aerial demonstrations on their little brothers: hang gliders, paragliders, and RC planes. A display of vintage racing boats will pepper Lake Agnes in conjunction with the Classic Race Boat Association. Photos of a previous year’s event show show a large contingent of hot air balloons as well, but I don’t know if that’s continuing this year.
Of particular interest to Chicane readers though, is the adjoining autocross sponsored by the Jaguar Club of Florida. I’ve been to my share of autocrosses, and I’ve never before considered them particularly good spectator events. A great deal of fun to participate in, to be sure. But with no overtaking, it simply pales in comparison to wheel-to-wheel action. I think the team behind the Roar ‘n’ Soar has found a way to change all that. The simple overload of vintage machines at every angle make the autocross part competition, part high-speed car show. This is one autocross I would definitely attend as a spectator. Better yet, bring your vintage machine.
Any vintage machine, apparently.
Fiat Chassis? Check. Hot Rodded 1.5 Liter Fiat straight-6 with and inline overhead cam? Check. Coachbuilt aluminum bodywork? Check. So far, so good, right? That description is basically the formula for every perfect little Italian sportscar. The wrench in the works in this very unique case is that the coachbuilt bodywork isn’t Italian in design, it’s Dutch.
This 1948 Gatso 1500 Sport is a fantastic little racer designed and built by Maus Gatsonides; the inventor and Dutch racing and rallying prodigy. He was a race winner before his 20th birthday, and when the time came to create his own racing car, it sure looks like he did a right good job of it. The Fiat chassis was shortened for greater maneuverability. The high compression Fiat 6 banger was good for 55hp at 5,500 rpm. The experimental French-made brake drums were lightweight and finned for greater cooling (although their fragility would be this car’s downfall).
After Gatsonides was forced to sell off this brilliant little car during financial hardship, the car largely disappeared until a Maserati collector happened on it quite by chance in 1974. A 16 year restoration followed, and now this amazing little racer is available in The Netherlands for €148,000.
These swooping curves in the bodywork and lovely little proportions make for a beautiful little gem of a car. I find it hard to even look at it without imagining whipping through autumn leaves on a narrow country lane. She’s lovely.
More information on Dutch dealer The Gallery’s detail page. More photos can be found from Flickr member willemalink’s visit to The Gallery.
Read more about Gatso cars here.
I followed this project—experiment really—as it was being developed in 2005-6. It was an audacious project. More than that; it was a journey of discovery—an archeology of sorts. I was reminded of this sheer insanity of this experiment this morning, and looking back through it again today I am still amazed that it paid off. Paul Bodie’s build of a 1919 Excelsior Auto Cycle boardtracker might be the boldest home engineering and machining project I’ve ever seen.
It’s uderselling it a bit to call Paul a home-engineer. His motorcycle shop, Flashback Fabrications, has spent many years building and maintaining race bikes of unusual origin. Racing takes a toll on any machine. If you’re going to go through the headache of rebuild after rebuild, and burn through a steady supply of disposable maintenance parts, you’ll want to do yourself a favor and pick a race vehicle common enough to not make every rebuild a quest for parts made of unobtainium. Paul is having none of that though, he raced a series of Aermaccis.
All of this ended up being good training for what was to come: building a replica of a 1919 Excelsior. This is a bike with no surviving examples. There are a scant few photos of the bike, all of them from the right side. Armed with the photos and a partial engine case, he set about building the bike. The frame is easy enough, but engineering a overhead-cam V-twin from scratch, from a photo, that’s something else. There is no surviving engine to copy. There is no archive of technical drawings. Just a photo. Madness.
And somehow, he pulled if off. More importantly, he was careful to document it thoroughly for us to enjoy. Dig through the project page-by-page to see how you can mold a combustion chamber from perforated metal and bondo (to be sand cast later), and other seemingly impossible tasks. It’s a mind blower.
The site chronicles the build from photo reference and sketches through the construction of a prototype. Paul has since built 4 more examples (of an eventual 10) which he’s selling at $155,000. That’s no small price for a motorcycle without brakes that you can’t drive on the street. Looking through the chronicle of the work that went into its development though; it’s a bargain.
In the time since developing this replica, Paul has since turned his attention to re-creating an 1896 Roper Steam Bike. I guess the plain-old Excelsior V-Twin was too easy for him.