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.