Automotive Car Magazine: aerodynamics

Showing posts with label aerodynamics. Show all posts

Friday, June 3, 2011

Pheonix Art Museum spotlights aerodynamic 30's and 40's cars

http://phxart.org/exhibitions/curves.asp for 9 nice pics of what examples of what they are showing

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/automobiles/15CURVES.html?ex=1178856000&en=eecce089c5e19a61&ei=5070

Makingthe statement that some auto's are sculpture, they feature some beauties in the slide show. Bit of irratation to log-in first, but... it's worth the bother.

'35 Stout Scarab, '35 Auburn Boattail, '36 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, '38 Talbot Lago, '39 Delahaye Cabriolet, '41 Chrysler Thunderbolt, '48 Tatra, '57 Ferrari 625/250 Testa Rossa and others. A really good read, and slideshow.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/automobiles/collectiblecars/?excamp=GGAUsportscar Here for a look at the NY Times online car section without the log in.

1934 Chrysler Imperial Airflow
851 Speedster
1936 Stout Scarab
1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Coupe
1936 Peugeot 402 Darl’mat Coupe
1937 Cord 812 Sportsman
1937 Delahaye 145 “Million Franc Prize” car
1937 Dubonnet Hispano-Suiza H-6c Xenia by Saoutchik
1938 Embiricos Bentley
1938 Talbot-Lago T150C “Teardrop” Figoni et Falaschi coupe
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900
1938 Darracq-Talbot Lago T-150 c by Figoni et Falaschi
1938 Delage D8-120 S Pourtout Aréo Coupé
1939 Delahaye 165 Cabriolet by Figoni et Falaschi
1939 Lincoln Zephyr
1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt
1948 Tatra T87
1948 Tucker
1952 SoCal Belly Tank
1957 Ferrari 625/250 Testa Rossa TRC
1986 Oldsmobile Aerotech
1994 McLaren F1

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

1937 REO Speed Tanker, proves there may never be a day in the future when we have rediscovered all the cool designs that have been forgotten and lost

This is a REO Speed Tanker
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/category/trucks-and-jeeps/vans/

reminds me of the Diamond T "Doodlebug" http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/07/cool-rvs-some-because-they-melded.html

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The 1925 Rolls-Royce Aerodynamic Coupe,

Some photos are from my girlfriend Tere, http://justacargal.blogspot.com/ and it goes to show that it takes different points of view to see something completely.

Originally the car was a 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I with a body built in 1934 by Jonckheere of Belgium. Like all other prewar Rolls-Royce motorcars, this Phantom I was delivered new in chassis-only form to a coachbuilder. Hooper & Co. was the chosen body maker and in 1925, the completed vehicle was delivered with cabriolet coachwork to its first owner, a Mrs. Hugh Dillman of Detroit. Mrs. Dillman reportedly did not like the car and it appears never to have left England.

The Rolls-Royce was purchased by the Raja of Nanpara before being passed on to an unknown number of other owners and by 1932 was seen in Belgium. Two years later its then owner sent the car to Jonckheere of Belgium to be stripped of its cabriolet body and fitted with fashionably aerodynamic coachwork complete with twin sunroofs, a large fin, a sloping radiator shell, and round doors.

Although the design was controversial and not highly regarded by most Rolls-Royce aficionados, the car was well received by Concours d’Elegance judges of the day and was reported to have taken a Prix d’Honneur at the August, 1936 Cannes Concours d’Elegance.

The prize winning car then passed through the hands of several other owners, and was observed in Bar Harbor, Maine before World War II being driven by a chauffeur who was supposedly so obese, that he could not get out of the car to assist his employer to disembark. The Round Door Rolls was next discovered in the 1950’s, in New Jersey, in a junk yard.

It is not known who rescued the car from being scrapped, but East Coast entrepreneur Max Obie eventually acquired the unusual Rolls-Royce and had it refurbished. Obie would take it to shopping malls, making claims that the car had been owned by royalty and charged admission for people to look at it.

In the Spring of 2001, the Peterson Automotive Museum took possession, and Mr. and Mrs. Petersen decided to bring the car back to its concours winning glory. Every component was removed, checked for wear and authenticity, then reconditioned or replaced as needed. The car was painted black which highlights its subtle contours and striking profile.

http://classiccars.about.com/b/2008/04/24/1925-round-door-rolls-royce-at-the-petersen-museum.htm

http://justacargal.blogspot.com/2009/01/la-jolla-motor-classic-rolls-royce.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BynpHOvLqlU from a perspective across the street on on the roof of the nearby hotel

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=324570 a gallery from a H.A.M.B. member

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The stunning beauty of design, yes? Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Aerodinamica Spider

A lot has happened in between the car’s construction and its acquisition by the current owner, of course.

Jano was fired from Alfa in 1937 but fortunately the car was pretty much finished, although any prospect of slotting in the new V12 vanished along with Jano.

The Jankovits brothers retained the Aerospider and registered it for street use – the original Fiume licence plates are still with the car. They added a large and hideously inappropriate windscreen, bumpers and turn signals, which ruined the looks but did at least make it acceptable as a road car.

In 1941, however, it was stored away for the duration of the war.
After the war, the Jankovits found themselves under a new Communist regime, their town rechristened Rijeka in the newly formed state of Yugoslavia. Realizing that they were about to lose everything, the brothers dug the car out of storage on Christmas Day 1946 and the same night made a dash through the border and into Italy.

Caught by surprise, the border guards fired after the speeding Alfa – and the bullets left dents in the bodywork that would be rediscovered 60 years later during its restoration.

http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/features/octane_features/233224/alfa_romeo_aerodinamica_spider.html

Via: http://www.motor-klassik.de/medien/foto-shows/auto/mpsfshw_show_505743_14700.hbs?ext_index=0

For another gallery of this car: http://lord-k.livejournal.com/619800.html#cutid1

Sunday, August 31, 2008

A look at the beauty and art of LeMans competitors, 1937 Adler Rennlimousine Competition Coupe

1937 Adler Rennlimousine Competition Coupe

Winning its class at LeMans in 1938, and 7th overall, this 1937 front wheel drive German car is from the Adler company that made cars from 1900 to 1957. They later became part of Auto Union.

In 1996 it was an award winner at the Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance. Temporarily owned by the Blackhawk Collection and shown at the 2001 Meadow Brook Hall Concours d'Elegance http://www.mbhconcours.org/ , it has now found a home in Jay Leno's Big Dog Garage. http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/your_garage/cars/7363.shtml

Jim, who discovered the car in Southfield, Michigan wrote this on the H.A.M.B.

"I've got one for all of you guys that might qualify as the rarest. It's a 1937 Adler Streamliner that raced at Lemans in 1937 and 1938.

It was also used to "inspire" the 1963 split window Corvette. When I first saw it in a shed in Southfield Michigan I thought it WAS a 63 Vette. GM stole the design for the 63 vette.

The owner went to the 60 or 61 Michigan state fair in this car and a exec for GM was there and gave him his card and asked him to bring it to the GM Vandyke design center. He thought they were going to buy it so he had someone follow him over there. When he got there they had him pull it on the cobblestoned turntable. There were three camera's on tri-pods around it and they spun the car around a few times and told him thank you for coming by. He was PISSED that they led him on and did not buy it.

It sounded pluasible since the design was SOOO close. A few years later I had met David Holls at a car show and asked him about the 63 Vette story. He invited me to his home, when I went there he had an extensive library and a binder on the Adler (and several on the Vettes) which included some of the pictures from the cobblstone turntable that Rubin had told me about!

I asked about Rubins claim that the 63 vette was taken from this car and he said that my answer was in the clay model prototype pics. He said to check the dates on all of the "older" style clay model pics, then look at the clay model pics of the clay Vettes the next few weeks AFTER the day the Adler was on the turntable. After comparing it became obvious that the designs changed radically right after Rubin's visit with the Adler. So I asked David directly WAS the split window Vette design taken from this car. He looked at me with a smile and shook his head yes, but at the same time said "absolutely not"!!

The car did also turn out to be a Lemans Race car just as Rubin had said it was. It raced in 1937 and 1938 and won it's class and came in 7th overall in 1938. Adler was the only Jewish owned car manufacturer in pre-war Germany and were some of the first cars to go down the autobahn in a big ceremony with Hitler present, so who knows. .. First closed car, and first streamliner, and first wind tunnel designed car to race at Lemans (designed by the same man who designed the Chrysler Airflow) and the first woman to drive at Lemans.

the Blackhawk Collection had it restored at the prison resto shop in Arizona.They tell me that the car is now in a private collection in Europe. I still have a letter from Baron Fristz Hueske Von Hanstein who raced it with Madamme Annie Iteire in 1937. He tells me about them being blackflagged for improper fueling and him then having to "console" Annie in her tent for hours and hours."
_______West Peterson, EditorAntique Automobile (AACA) http://forums.aaca.org/f169/1937-adler-rennlimousine-competition-272656.html