Audi A3 2013

Well today I got  a new Audi A3! I haven't really gotten to drive it much yet, but I did spend quite some time playing with the interior. The dash is quite different from the norm, there is only a strip across the middle with AC controls and a few other buttons like the hazard light switch. Otherwise there is no screen. When you do need the screen for the radio or to change the car settings it pops up from the top of the dash. There's a round knob/toggle that you control everything with, very much like the BMWs but much simpler to use.

For the moment I only have pictures in low light as that's when I had it delivered, Ill post some more in the sun when the opportunity rises as this low light doesn't do the pearl/metallic white any justice.

This car will also serve as a showcase for a new style of Hydyne Motorsport wheels! For the moment all I will say is that they will be 18 inch 2 piece wheels and will most likely be battleship gray, or maybe Ill go with a nice bright color. Stay tuned...

Hydyne Motorsport 19" 3 piece Mustang wheel

Well I just received a shipment with Hydyne Motorsports new 19in. 3 piece Star wheel! Looks damn good if I do say so myself with that gold center and brushed lip. This wheel is a one off destined for a 2013 mustang. As soon as its mounted Ill post some more pics...

BMW Z13 concept 1993

Maybe its just me but it seems that the concept cars that were made during the late 80s and early 90s were much more adventurous than the ones now. Sure there are some beautiful styli9ng exercises done now and sometimes a lot of what goes to shows ends up being mass produced but in those cases it either becomes something impossibly impractical, or in the later case something too "normal".

In the early 90s BMW made a series of concept cars dubbed Zxx. The Z stood for Zukunft or future in German. Ill start with the Z13 and show some other ones later on.

If I were in the market for a small city car right now I would take this bar none! No Fiat 500 or Mini Cooper for me...this little thing just looks hot! The wide arches manage to make it look like a proper sports car not a city run about. Plus it was a three seater, had a half glass roof AND was rear engined! I mean...how many quirky things did they want to cram into one car!?

There were two cars built, both the blue and red ones used K series motorcycle engines but the blue one used a CVT transmission and the red one a standard 5 speed. The original designer of the Z13, Robert Powell, actually drove the red one around as a regular daily driver as it was a fully functioning car.

Sadly when BMW bought Rover, and along with it Mini, they deemed that this project was no longer useful since they had the rights to the Mini brand. The Mini of course went on to be a huge success...but I would much rather have preferred this!

Epsilon Euskadi EE1 LMP1 with JUDD V10 2008

The Epsilon Euskadi was an extremely ambitious project which had as an ultimate goal to create a high tech motorsport center in the northern Spain Basque region. It was run by former McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton mechanic/manager Juan Villadelprat. Epsilon Euskadi first entered various one-make racing series, and in 2005 Polish driver Robert Kubica won the World Series by Renault in an Epsilon Euskadi entered machine, which leapfrogged him into Formula 1.

Unfortunately even though the design for the car was started by former Lola designer John Travis, and finished by Sergio Rinland after John Travis left for Ferrari, it never had much success. A lack of budget meant that there was very little testing done before races. At its first Le Mans series race the weight distribution was so far off the rear tires would get chewed up before the front ones would heat up.

Eventually the team folded its Le Mans ambitions but continued to race in World Series by Renault.

ULF Sensor 2005

There is very little information on the ULF Sensor, but judging from the pictures available it looks like it was a dream car that never got past the stage of being a mock up. The completely black windows make me suspect as much.

In any case it has a nice design. Not overly burdened with the usual super car add-ons, but still sporty looking. Looks like it would have made a very nice sportscar in the vein of the inexpensive ones coming out of Japan in the 90s such as the MR-2 or Supra

BAC Mono 2011

 This is one of the latest track day cars from the UK...its absolutely gorgeous! It only has a 2.3 liter 280 hp 4 cylinder, but it weighs only 1190 lbs (540 kg.)! So it does an awesome 0-60 in 2.8 seconds. The fact that it has an F3 gearbox with paddle shifter also helps greatly. Fpr me the coolest featuire is that it only has one centraly located seat. Even though it is road legal it doesnt pretend to be able to take a passenger to the grocery store or make a long trip. Its purely a track day tool!

Cholmondeley Pageant of Power 2012

 One thing I love about having moved to the UK is that there is an amazing variety of car shows, clubs, events etc etc all the time. Not far from my house is the Ace Cafe for example...they have gatherings there EVERY single day! Its really fantastic. In that vein a couple of weeks ago I went to the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power and saw some amazingly varied and cool stuff! Here is a tiny selection of some of the things there...there was way more. And part of the fun is that in many cases you could speak to the owners of these machines and they would gladly sit there chatting and really enjoying describing their cars or bikes. I also got a ride (a very fast ride with full launch included!) in a Nissan GT-R. It was in a word, amazing. After I finish my Firebird I know what Im saving up for!

Here's a brake assembly from a racing GT-R from Sumo Power racing team. Its interesting because Ive never seen a disc completely covered by the cooling duct before outside of F1.

This Lancia S4 looked really fantastic. Maybe a bit TOO fantastic? It was too clean. Well, turns out its a replica! Hard to believe because from a few yards away its impossible to tell. But once you look in the engine bay you see that theres a turbo engine from the FIAT coupe in there. Still...beautiful looking project! I later found out that a person I work with is having this same builder make him a Lancia 037 replica!

What can I say. Well one thing...looked hard as hell to ride that thing!

 

Looks like a regular delivery van with some graphics and a pair of nice seats right? Talk about a sleeper! Theres a full fledged Jaguar XJ-220 engine and transaxle back there!

Speaking of Jaguars, personally one of the most beautiful cars ever made...the XJR-15. Unlike the XJ-220 this one had the full Jag 12 cylinder in it. Apparently beauty is only skin deep in this case...seems like most professional drivers think its a bear to drive.

One of the nice things about this event is that all cars get driven. The sound this Lotus F1 was making out of its Lamborghini V-12 was fantastic!

This Bentley was just awe inspiring. That's a Packard V-12 in there...same as on the P-51 Mustangs! Needless to say it created its own crowd control...and that was just at idle!

 This Bentley had a sweet temp gauge. You can just see the gears making the needle move. I forgot to write down what year it was.

Well...we can at least say the show goers weren't taking themselves too seriously!

Ford 1.0 liter Ecoboost 3 cylinder

Drove the new Ford Focus with the 1.o Ecoboost 3 cylinder. I must say...I was really impressed! Considering its only a 1.0 with 125 horsepower it reved very nicely, and was torquey all the way from idle to redline. It was also really surprising how smooth it was, I could barely tell the engine was on from inside. I was wondering how they managed to balance a three cylinder so well but it turns out this was all NVH tuning. When the hood was poped open thye engine vibrated quite a bit at idle. However, the performance was incredibly good, it even made some nice sporty sounds as it reved up, never sounded like it was running out opf breath. That was also suprising considering the size of the turbo! You can see how small it is compared to my hand. It really goes to show how far a modern engine can go now when good fuel injection, variable vane turbo, and variable valve timming are combined!

Big Red Camaro: Driving Fast & Taking Chances

Big Red...not the first road race Camaro, but most likely the first one that people took notice of and set the bar for the start of the Pro-Touring builds. Whatever its place in car history theres no arguing with an 1107hp @ 7000RPM 598 ci naturally aspirated big block!



                                        

Hughes XF-11 1946

The Hughes XF-11 is in my opinion one of the prettiest propeller airplanes ever built! It resembles a sleeker P-38 which is definitively in the top 5 for cool propeller airplanes.

The XF-11 was a prototype military reconnaissance aircraft, designed and flown by Howard Hughes for the United States Army Air Force (no independent Air Force yet back then). The XF-11 suffered a crash that nearly killed Hughes when one of its counter rotating propellers suddenly reversed thrust during a test flight.

The second prototype was fitted with conventional propellers and tested. However, it was found to be hard to control at slower speeds and the build costs was very high so the program was cancelled.

Aston Martin GT 700 by David Ellis Motorsport 1994

This Aston Martin to me fully shows what a car looks like when it is designed by one persons commitment rather than by committee. The owner of David Ellis Motorsport (David Ellis himself naturally) decided to build his own racecar from scratch using the Aston Martin 6.0 liter V8s his shop developed.

 

The GT700R was front mid engined with the aforementioned 6.0 liter V8 developing 730 hp, and used a Hewland transaxle in the rear. The car is very sleek being only 41 inches tall. With the low height, huge diffuser and a very light 950 kg. fully fueled weight this must be one heck of a ride!

 

In fact...if anyone has the cash to find out just how cool a ride this is I think its still for sale over on racecarsdirect.com

DeTomaso Guara 1994

The De Tomaso Guara was the last project that Alejandro de Tomaso put into the market. Presented at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show, the Guarà was available as a coupe, spider (only 5 made) and a barchetta. The Guara was based on the Maserati Barchetta Stradale a prototype from 1991, which was later used in a one make race series.


The Guara seems like a nice project, even though the styling isnt to everyones taste. The suspension had double wishbones with rocker actuated coilovers front and rear, the bodywork was composite, and it was mid engined. The engine varied between a BMW V8 with 280 hp in the first cars made to a Mustang 4.6 32 valve V8 with 320 hp in the later production runs. I guess De Tomaso never meant for the Guara to be an all out supercar, more of a well balanced sportscar with good handling and styling that was meant to set it apart.

Apparently the Guara was still produced (probably only by order) until DeTomaso shut down in 2004.

Custom van

Do any of you remember back in the day when custom vans were huge?? There were tons of van magazines, van articles in Hot Rod and other magazines that had nothing to do with vans, tons of parts catalogues, van meetings and tours etc etc. Its funny how such a huge scene in the custom car world just ups and dissapears. This example with the top chop and all the other details actually looks pretty cool!

Wonder if sometime soon we will start to see super custom van found as barn finds and brought back to life...

Leyton House CG 901B startup proceedure

Its really amazing how just starting an F1 car is so complex! And this was before the fully digital steering wheels etc etc. This makes me think about those few people that have Ferrari F1 cars, no wonder Ferrari has a whole department just to take care of them!

Alfa Romeo 155 Ti DTM

One of the most exciting race series ever must have been the DTM series from the mid 90s. The cars were incredibly high tech and almost anything went. Pictured above is the 1993 car at Goodwood taken by Richard Bets.


The 1993 season was dominated by Nicola Larini winning 11 of 22 races. Another driver on that season in Alfa Corse was Alessandro Nannini, who in 1990 had a helicopter accident which severed his fore arm and ended his F1 career which up to that point had been going well with 65 points from 4 years in F1 with Minardi and Benetton.


The 1996 version (which was the last season for Alfa in the DTM) had a 2.5 L 90° V6 engine delivering 490 PS (360 kW; 480 hp) at 11,900 rpm, had a top speed of around 300 kph (190 mph) and weighed 1,060 kg (2,300 lb) all versions however were equiped with the newly developed Q4 four-wheel drive system from the very start. An interesting thing about the layout is that the engine actually sat in front of the front axle line! Completely against normal practice of placing the engine as far back so to compensate they placed the gearbox towards where the back seat would be to compensate and improve the weight distribution.


Unfortunately after Alfa romeo and Opel withdrew from the DTM at the end of the 1996 season (by then called the ITC) the series came to an end.

Desmodromic valve actuation

I really enjoy this style of drawing, and it fits perfectly to depict a desmodromic valve system. I think this is a Ducati system but Im not sure. Desmodromic valve systems are first mentioned in patents in 1896 by Gustav Mees, and in 1907 the Ariès is described as having a V4 engine with "desmodromique" valve actuation, but details are scarce. Basically a valve is opened as well as closed by a camshaft instead of being closed by a spring. This eliminated valve float and spring failures back when it was invented. Nowadays with pneumatic valve actuators this system is not really needed any more. I guess Ducati still uses it to continue some type of marketing thing.