The Fantastic Bocar XP-5
Square tubular space frame for springs $795.00
Round 4130 chrome-moly space frame for torsion bars $995.00
The body of the magic touch…. $598
Finished cars from …. $3800
Aerodynamic to 200 M.P.H. · Beautiful — Functional · Spacious Interiors · Optional Hardtops · 7 Optional Suspension Systems · Available for Immediate Delivery.
Designed, Manufactured & Distributed by — Bocar of Denver. Write or Phone:
Bocar Mfg. Co. 1240 Harlan Street, Dept. MT4. Denver, Colorado, BElmont 7-2217
Tag: vintage sportscar
Gurney and Lotus Crack Nassau Record with Autolite Spark Plugs!
Dan Gurney averages a record 89.54 miles an hour, wins the International Nassau Trophy Race, his first major solo victory in six years. Dan’s reward: some $10,000—more than $1.00 per second of driving time. His car: a flame-colored 2½-liter rear-engine Lotus. His spark plugs: Autolite. Lesson for the day? Makes no difference if you own a Lotus or your name is Dan, Autolite Spark Plugs can’t be beat. There’s a set made especially for the car you drive. As Gurney and the Lotus well prove, you’re always right with Autolite.
Autolite
Spark Plug Division · Toledo 1, Ohio
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2010 InterMarque Spring Kickoff
I headed to the InterMarque Spring Kickoff event this morning in St. Paul, MN, which had a very good turnout of vintage sportscars despite the gloomy weather. The highlight of the show for me was this homebuilt Crosley Special, garage-built in 1951 and with hillclimb and gymkhana history in Indiana going to back to the mid 50s. It was a stunning little car, and far and away my favorite of the day.
As gorgeous as this little Crosley was, it was by no means the only show-stopper on hand. There was a very strong showing from a variety of makes: Plenty of Citroens, MGs, Healeys, Triumphs, and Jags—with a few Maseratis, pre-war luxury cars, and a few vintage bikes as well. A wonderful mix of cars, in conditions ranging from Pebble Beach Competitors (the Daimler pictured below has competed there), to well preserved, to rusty and rattle-canned. Excellent variety of cars at virtually every level of collecting.
The Vintage Foreign Motors of the Upper Midwest hosts a very fun event that has grown many-fold in recent years. Excellent!
Here’s a few more shots from the event.
“The disc brakes fitted to the Sprite were masters of the situation under all conditions and their high speed behaviour was beyond criticism”
Call me crazy, but I actually find the hyperbole of this ad copy charming. Not to mention the tremendous graphic fantasticness of the Girling “G” logo.
I clicked on over to Amazon and pre-ordered this one seconds after I heard about it.
As a graphic designer (that’s my day job, I’m a web designer) and a racecar geek, there’s no way Sven Voelker’s Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars couldn’t be on my shelf. I didn’t even have time to translate the German blurb before I was adding this one to my cart. Look for a review on The Chicane when I receive it.
Ok, here’s that translation now, courtesy of Google which is less than elegant in its conversion but gets the job (mostly) done:
“Strip strike, numbers, colors and logo – the visual appearance of a race car needs so you can distinguish the car at first glance from the other when it raced at top speed. Most do not know, however, that the race cars from Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati and Lotus, its appearance is not the work of brand strategists and graphic designers, but often due to chance. Go Faster collected over 100 examples of car design, these carefree anarchy of the document creation process. In the book, each brightly decorated cars will be presented next to an unpainted, white model. This juxtaposition Go Faster takes his readers not only with a fast ride through images in racing history, but shows exactly how the graphics modulates the appearance of a racing car. “This book by Prof. Sven Voelker published by Gestalten Verlag, linking not only gasoline junkies and graphic designer, but definitely belongs in every bookshelf of these two groups.”
I can’t wait to read it.
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Targa Florio 1966 Film
Is there anything more romantic than the Circuito Madonie?
Professional Italian Production:
And amateur shot 8mm:
Bellissimo.
Price as advertised (1955): £750
Adjusted for inflation (2008): £15,120 (US $24,169.32)
What that buys today: Mini Cooper S, Volkswagen GTI, well equipped Mazda Miata
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McQueen on 911
Speaking of early 911s, let’s hear what Sports Illustrated’s guest sportscar reviewer, Steve McQueen, thought of the 911 in 1966. This is excerpted from a larger article in which Steve drove the latest sportscars from Porsche, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Alfa, Mercedes, Jaguar, and the latest Cobra and Corvette.
“Like the 230SL, the other German car, the Porsche 911, was a six. The Mercedes straight-six is in the front. The Porsche flat-six, with horizontally opposed cylinders—an engine developed from the Grand Prix car of a few seasons ago—is in the rear. I was curious to see how much the Porsche had changed since I raced my Super, which had the four-cylinder engine. Boy, it’s changed. Road noise used to be a problem with that rear-engine location, but on the 911 I got very little noise. The old Porsches had that violent oversteer tendency, and they would get out of whack with no warning. You’d be hung out and locked in your steering with nowhere to go. We used to decamber the rear wheels 2½° to 3½°, so they kind of looked like somebody had sat on them, and toe them in half a degree to get a certain amount of stability. Now the problem has been corrected. The 911 was a very neutral-handling car, very docile, very pleasant to drive, and the five-speed gearbox sure was easy to use. The brakes were just fine. Once a gust of wind caught me on the back straight and slid me over a few feet, but the car didn’t get radical in its handling.
There is a four-cylinder Porsche—the less expensive 912—and I imagine it has a little more snap at low RPM than the 911 but not as much top speed. With that six the 911 honks right along.”
Steve McQueen
There you have it, the cooler king’s impressions reacquainting himself with Porsche, which of course worked out splendidly for the next few years. After all, like the poster says, McQueen drives Porsche. All that and a bonus handling modification tip for 356 drivers.
Thanks, Steve.