beautiful cars, being driven quickly; Monaco 1955 Lancia d50, one of my favorite cars; brilliant design-
spotted this just now turning around in front of the house. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
If only. Look at this, OMG. What a mess: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I'm thinking the pursuit of aerodynamics has gone over the edge.......I really doubt this design could be proven to be the most slippery. Simply too much/too many stick-ons...... Oh, and its fugly too.........
And that the younger generations of designers grew up on Anime and everything needs to look like a Gundam
I don’t get what they are thinking at all anymore. Their new design themes look like cobbled together kit cars. I’ll take the P1.
Back to aerodynamics- way, way back! As I've mentioned before, I fill the streets of my Christmas Village with cars and trucks from the mid-1920s to the early 1950s, with an emphasis on Art Deco cars from the 1930s. While treasure hunting, I came across this unusual design and had to have it. Although it predates the Art Deco era by 20 years, it fits right in on the streets. It is a 1914 Alfa Ricotti prototype. It seemed to be inspired by the aerodynamic air ships of the day. Image Unavailable, Please Login The packaging was a bit unusual given the placement of the driver's location given that the car had a convention powertrain layout: Image Unavailable, Please Login More on its history here: https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/mystery_friday_foto_65_can_you_identify_this_very_unique_automobile A 360 degree tour: (plus there are some other interesting Alphas in the background)
Gave a speech once about car design and talked about car aero and it's history. IIRC, this was the first car to employ aero for aero sakes. https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/02/an-illustrated-history-of-automotive-aerodynamics-in-three-parts/ Image Unavailable, Please Login An Illustrated History Of Automotive Aerodynamics – In Three Parts By Paul Niedermeyer on February 14, 2010 That air presented the greatest obstacle to automotive speed and economy was understood intuitively, if not scientifically since the dawn of the automobile. Putting it into practice was quite another story. Engineers, racers and entrepreneurs were lured by the potential for the profound gains aerodynamics offered. The efforts to do so yielded some of the more remarkable cars ever made, even if they challenged the aesthetic assumptions of their times. We’ve finally arrived at the place where a highly aerodynamic car like the Prius is mainstream. But getting there was not without turbulence. Image Unavailable, Please Login . Racers, particularly those chasing the coveted Land Speed Record (LSR), were generally the first to employ aerodynamic aids. The La Jamais Contente (The Never Satisfied) was the first automobile to break the 100kmh (62 mph) record, in 1899. Like all the first batch of LSR holders, it was an EV. The driver’s position seems to negate the aerodynamic aids, or maybe he was just posing, and more likely crouched down for the actual run. Image Unavailable, Please Login The evolution of aerodynamics for LSR cars was remarkably rapid, as this Stanley Steamer Rocket of 1906 evidently shows. And the increase in speed was even more dramatic: the Rocket broke the 200km barrier, with a run of 205.44 kmh (127.66 mph). That would not be bettered until 1924, and not until 2009 for steam powered vehicles. Image Unavailable, Please Login The first known attempt at streamlining a passenger car is this Alfa Romeo from 1914, built by the coach builder Castagna for the Italian Count Ricotti. Due to the very heavy bodywork, it turned out to not improve on the top speed of the open Alfa it was based on. Image Unavailable, Please Login Undoubtedly, the real breakthrough aerodynamic passenger car was the German Rumpler “Tropfenwagen” (teardrop car) of 1921. Unlike the impractical and heavy Castagna Alfa, the Rumpler was as dramatically different (and influential) for its completely integrated and original design and engineering. It had a mid-engined W6 engine, and four wheel independent suspension using swing axles which Rumpler patented. The Tropfenwagen was tested in VW’s wind tunnel in 1979, and achieved a remarkable Coefficient of drag (Cd) of .28; a degree of slipperiness that VW’s Passat wouldn’t equal until 1988. Image Unavailable, Please Login It’s important to remember that the Cd is a coefficient, and denotes the relative aerodynamic slipperiness of a body, regardless of its overall size. A brick of any size has a Cd of 1.0; a bullet about .295. To arrive at the critical total aerodynamic drag that determines power required and efficiency, the frontal area (cross section of the vehicle looking straight on) is multiplied by the Cd. The Rumpler was relatively very aerodynamic, but it was also quite tall and boxy, which resulted in the one hundred or so production cars being used primarily as taxis. An ironic ending for Rumpler, but his ideas spawned imitations and extensions world-wide, and opened the whole field. Image Unavailable, Please Login To put the nascent field of automotive aerodynamics in perspective, the typical two-box car of the twenties was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards, as this ass-backwards car showed. That brings back memories of Bob Lutz stating that the Volt concept would have had better aerodynamics if they put it in the wind tunnel backwards. Image Unavailable, Please Login Hungarian-born Paul Jaray used his experience working int the aeronautical field, and especially designing Zeppelins, to develop a specific formula for automotive aerodynamic design principles that lead to a patent, applied for in 1922 and issued in 1927. His approach was influential, and numerous companies used Jaray licensed bodies during the streamliner craze that unfolded in the early thirties. His early designs tended to be very tall, and with questionable proportions and space utilization (below). Image Unavailable, Please Login His designs eventually became more mainstream, and Mercedes, Opel, Maybach, and numerous other makes, primarily German, built special streamliner versions using Jaray bodies, like this Mercedes below: Image Unavailable, Please Login The limitation of these cars is like the Castagna Alfa, they were re-bodied conventional cars with frames, front engines and RWD. Jaray only addressed the aerodynamics, not the complete vehicle like Rumpler had. It was a start, but others were taking up where Rumpler left off, like the English Burney, below: Image Unavailable, Please Login Obviously more Rumpler influenced and less by Jaray, the 1930 English Burney featured a then-radical rear engine and also four wheel independent suspension. One of the most influential and lasting designers of the whole era was Austrian Hans Ledwinka. After he took over as chief design engineer at the Czech firm Tatra in 1921, he developed the basis of a series of remarkable Tatra cars and eventually streamliners with platform frames, independent suspensions and rear air-cooled engines that Ferdinand Porsche cribbed from heavily in his design of the Volkswagen (VW made a substantial payment to Tatra in the 1960s to compensate them for this theft of IP). Image Unavailable, Please Login The compact Tatra v570 of 1933 (above) is the forerunner of both the larger Tatras soon to come, and obviously of the Volkswagen. We’ll come back to Tatra later. Image Unavailable, Please Login This Volkswagen prototype from 1934 (above) shows a very strong resemblance to the cribbed Tatra v570, with the benefit of some further refinement. Although the visual cues are not really as significant as they might appear to us now, because these were the leading-edge design elements of the time, and widely imitated or shared, on both side of the Atlantic. Image Unavailable, Please Login As this 1934 prototype for an American rear-engined sedan by John Tjaarda shows, the Europeans weren’t working alone. This fairly radical design became tamed-down for the production 1936 front-engined Lincoln Zephyr, of which the less common but handsome coupe version is shown below: Image Unavailable, Please Login Of course, Americans’ introduction to streamlining had come two years earlier in 1934, with the stunning Chrysler Airflow (below). An essentially pragmatic approach, the Airflow also kept the traditional Body On Frame (BOF) front-engine RWD standard, but made some significant advances in terms vehicle design by pushing the engine further forward over the front wheels. This, combined with a wider body, dramatically improved interior space and accommodations. The Airflow had the same basic configuration as American cars from the late forties and early fifties. Progress is not always linear. Image Unavailable, Please Login The failure of the practical Airflow can probably comes down to one thing: that overly flat waterfall grille. That was too much of a break for the symbolism still engendered in the remnants of the classic car prow. The Zephyr had one, and it was a success, despite not being nearly as a good a car as the Airflow. Image Unavailable, Please Login An even less pragmatic but remarkably practical and effective American vehicle was the Stout Scarab (above). Aviation engineer William B. Stout designed this extremely roomy mini-van precursor using a unitized body structure and a rear Ford V8 engine. The first was built in 1932, and several more variations, a total of nine, were built in the mid thirties, but series production never got off the ground, due to an asking price almost four times higher than a Chrysler Imperial Airflow of the times, and even those weren’t selling so well just then. Image Unavailable, Please Login A much more radical approaches to streamlining was Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion. The first of several prototypes also saw the light of day in 1933, in the midst of this fertile period on both side of the Atlantic. The Dymaxion also had a rear Ford V8, but with a tricycle carriage and rear wheel steering, which allowed it to turn on the length of its body. Image Unavailable, Please Login Another lesser-know variation of the popular Ford V8 engined aerodynamic vehicles was this Dubonnet Ford of 1936, whose very slippery body allowed it to reach 108 mph. I appears to have Isetta-type front doors for the front seat passengers. About as much crumple zone too. Image Unavailable, Please Login Let’s jump back to Czechoslovakia and the fertile Tatra design studios. Here are some clays from about 1933 or so, showing the development of both the smaller VW-like v570 on the right, and the larger streamliners in the rear. The first of these, the T77, arrived in 1934 (below): Image Unavailable, Please Login The T77 was measured to have a Cd of .212, a number that was not broken by a production car until GM’s EV-1 of 1995, which measured at .195. A remarkable achievement, the long-tailed T77 was powered by a rear air-cooled V8, and began a long series of Tatras until the 1980’s along similar lines. My retrospective of Tatra is here. Image Unavailable, Please Login Tatra became synonymous with the advanced streamliner of the pre-war era, enabling remarkably fast travel (100 mph) on the fledgling Autobahns of the Third Reich. Favored especially by Luftwaffe brass, they had a nasty habit of killing them, due to its wickedly-abrupt oversteer, thanks to the combination of rear V8 and swing axles. That earned it the nick name of “the Czech secret weapon”. So many died at its hands, that supposedly Hitler forbade his best men to drive them. In many (other) ways, the Tatra 87 was the Porsche Panamera of its time. Image Unavailable, Please Login To demonstrate just how far the aerodynamic envelope was pushed in this golden decade of streamlining, this 1939 Schlörwagen prototype was tested originally at Cd .186, and a model of it was retested by VW in the seventies with a Cd of .15. Either of these values put the “pillbug” at or near the top of the list of the most aerodynamic concept cars ever built, like the Ford Probe V of 1985, with a Cd of .137. Built on the chassis of the rear-engine Mercedes 170H, it was substantially faster as well as 20% to 40% more fuel efficient than its donor car. The Russians took the Schlörwagen as war booty and conducted tests as a propeller driven vehicle. It represents a state of aerodynamic efficiency in league with the most aerodynamic cars being considered today, such as the Aptera. Image Unavailable, Please Login Its important to note that the rise of interest in aerodynamics in the 1930s arose out of the desire to reinvent the automobile from its horse and wagon origins and the assumptions that average driving speeds would be on the rise with modern roads. This made it a forward looking undertaking, as most drivers were plodding along at 35-45 mph outside of cities. But the first freeways were being built in Germany, and improvements in US roads, including the first parkways and freeways were taking place. It also explains the particularly strong interest and adoption of streamlining in Germany. Image Unavailable, Please Login Note that I have not attempted to survey the influence of aerodynamics on the styling of cars in the latter thirties and up to WW II. Needless to say the influence was utterly profound, and gave us some of the most remarkable cars of the late classic era. But this had relatively more to do with style (and even affectation) than a genuine effort to push the envelope in terms of leading edge aerodynamics. Nevertheless, the benefits and beauty that resulted, like in this Bugatti Atlantique coupe are undeniable, but beyond our scope here. Part 2: 1939 to 1955
roadster mania Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login https://www.motor1.com/news/462607/daihatsu-tokyo-auto-salon-2021/
Cool article about 'custom' builds. https://www.undiscoveredclassics.com/undiscovered-classics-archives/modern-archives/undiscovered-classics-print/2018-2/2018-pebble-beach-driven-to-build/?fbclid=IwAR2MmVlJ0Lm-6-Ccw0q2MMgUJQGQ2FbqJ-UcKduxNgFH8WzXIdggggFJhWU Image Unavailable, Please Login
With John here it seems unlikely, but I don't remember having seen this posted here - C2 for me tho -
I'd love to see a comeback for custom coachbuilding with today's electric car platforms. It really lends itself to it.
Interview with FCA/Jeep designer Irina Zavatski She does some very cool automotive art. Hey, Anthony, a CIA student! Also CCS. https://www.formtrends.com/automotive-artists-exterior-designer-irina-zavatski/?fbclid=IwAR2ErVwo4Vf2QXycV4OjP66DHf3ljLCvJwl3wzNLvOwt5Xw_ifPa6JfEHjs
