Cars and stars you may remember

[onetrack]

Ya wooden want to have a crash in that!

[old man emu]

I was created by a splinter group of car designers.

[facthunter]

3 ply panels and tires. Easy to burn one off.  Nev

[Litespeed]

Forget your wee willy woodies and movie stars.

 

The car is the star.

 

It is industrial Art in a symphony of form and function that is greater than the sum of its parts. It never gets old but is timeless as a masterpiece.

 

I present a rare Alfa 8C 2900. 

 

Winner 1938 Mille Miglia.

 

Edited November 15 by Litespeed

[Litespeed]

Same chassis and motor aka a  racing machine but clothed to perfection in a voluptuous form fitting black dress.

 

Yes, it's ultra rare and more than $20 million worth.

 

These are the hand built supercar of the time, and for road touring at race like speeds, were the world's fastest road car.

A Le mans winner in a tasty suit.

Only a handful were made in Lungo or spider of this exact version but many variations were available in the late 30's.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15 by Litespeed

[Litespeed]

Just as beautiful on the inside as well.

 

2.9 l straight eight with twin superchargers.

190 HP @ 5200rpm.

A lightweight 2200 lbs/1000 kg in luxury coupe form. 190hp/ton made the road version the ultimate weapon of choice on Europe's roads.

 

 

[Litespeed]

Correction the luxury  4 seaters ones were up to 1350 kg.

 

Power 220hp in race spec.

Only 40 of all race car and customer triad cars were made. They dominated road racing in the era.

 

Here is a sexy post war beauty of 1953, now think about what else was available then. Even if shown as a concept in 1973 it would still be amazing.

The 6c 3000.

 

Turn up the volume, the sound is erotic to go with the looks.

 

 

[facthunter]

A Straight 8  is a horrible configuration no matter whose name is on it. Bugatti made one also.., You won't find any these days.  Jabiru made a few 8's which is really fourx2, Discontinued. . It probably sounded good too..  Nev

[nomadpete]

40 minutes ago, facthunter said:

A Straight 8  is a horrible configuration no matter whose name is on it. Bugatti made one also.., You won't find any these days.  Jabiru made a few 8's which is really fourx2, Discontinued. . It probably sounded good too..  Nev

Don't bring logic into it. Car purchase is an exercise in trying to make a logical excuse for an emotional decision.

If it looks nice and sounds great, it is desirable. Just like women.

[onetrack]

There are dozens of Straight 8's. Isotta-Fraschini was first, followed by Leyland, Duesenberg, Bentley, Bugatti, Marmon, Pontiac, Buick, Studebaker, Packard, Rolls-Royce, Alfa-Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Miller, just to name a few.

The Studebaker Straight 8's ran in the Indianapolis 500 in the 1930's and gained an excellent reputation for durability and power.

 

The Straight 8's suffered mostly from crankshaft torsional problems, due to the crankshaft length. A crankshaft vibrational/torsional damper is critical to the success of a Straight 8.

The Buick 8's were buggers for running bearings if you hammered them at high speed for an extended period. The lack of pressure feed to the GM engines bottom ends in that era, didn't help.

 

By far the most stunning Straight 8 car I've ever seen locally was a 1929 Marmon Roosevelt sedan. It came with a factory radio, and fully silver-plated doorhandles and dash panel, and a huge recessed dash, that was stunning for the era.

Incredibly, the Marmon Roosevelt sold for under US$1000, probably a major part of the reason Marmon stopped manufacturing cars in May 1933. 

 

https://www.justcars.com.au/cars-for-sale/1929-marmon-roosevelt-collapsible-coupe-roadster/JACFD5245961#&gid=1&pid=6

 

Edited Saturday at 02:20 AM by onetrack

[facthunter]

The Buicks were pressure fed. Chevs and Hudsons had dippers.. 1000$ is about 3x the cost of lower end vehicles at the time. Packard was a consistently good car. The Lincon V 12 was  an extended SV "Flathead" FORD V8 and must have been an incredible block casting. The Mercury was a "better " version of the same year Ford V8. GM's V8's were Cadillac and La Salle. .   Nev

[Marty_d]

What's the optimal cylinder layout? V6?

[Jerry_Atrick]

H. Those IO540s are music to my ears...

[spacesailor]

The first Ford V4 & V6 were faulty , as their heads were higher than the radiator,  and when stopped,  the water boiled of those cylinder heads.

spacesailor

[onetrack]

Jerry, why not an IO720? They sound great! Pity about the fuel consumption, though!

[Jerry_Atrick]

Never driven an aicraft with one

[onetrack]

I don't think too many pilots would have, they're a relatively rare engine - although I was surprised to see how many twins used them. The crop dusters love them, plenty of grunt with 400HP.

[Litespeed]

As an aside..

 

The Alfa Romeo straight eights were two complete fours joined end to end. They did not suffer from the long crank syndrome and proved extremely robust.

 

Post WW2 they were unbeatable for the first two Grand prix seasons, if they turned up, they won. After they pulled out from racing, Ferrari got their chance.

 

The 158/159 Alfetta cars were 1.5 litre and made 400hp plus in race trim. They were the prewar models tarted up for the new rules.

[facthunter]

 Driving  long shaft engines from the Centre can obviate problems with that layout.. It's dropped out of favour because of its deficiencies.  Nev

Edited Tuesday at 05:29 AM by facthunter
typo

[facthunter]

Having a lot of main bearings can aggravate Torsional stiffness problems. Pontiac made a V8 with mainbearings between each throw. Not a success. Nev