GMC vs DMC: when a dream car crashes into war, politics and drugs

john delorean and his wife cristina ferrare

the design of the DMC 12 by giorgetto giugiaro

the factory in belfast smack in the middle of the IRA wars

great BBC docu on the downfall

john delorean worked at GMC (general motors company) and became one of its highly paid presidents, he was cocky and brash and surely pissed off a lot of top brass at the company. he was fired / he resigned (depending whom you ask) to build his dream car company named DMC (delorean motors company). GMC was not happy. margaret thatcher and ronlad reagans FBI somehow were involved in bringing the company down and convicting john delorean on drug charges. he was ruined, the company went bankrupt, but all charges where dropped. john became a born again christian and supposedly went to heaven. by uh

the last race : 1957 Mille Miglia

peter collins in the 1957 ferrari 335 sport scaglietti s/n 0700. on left is mechanic ascanio lucchi, in middle is enzo ferrari and on the right in black shirt is martino severi, a test driver.

1955 ferrari 750 monza – the horrific 1957 ferrari crash that ended the mille miglia race

in april of 1956, the year before this, the ferrari racing team was victorious at the mille miglia, winning the first four places. the grand champion was eugenio castellotti, one of the brightest young stars on team ferrari… less than two months later, personal tragedy struck enzo and his wife laura. their beloved 24-year-old son, dino, succumbed to a years-long battle with muscular dystrophy. enzo was inconsolable and briefly considered quitting ferrari. when he was finally ready to return to work, enzo suffered a second painful blow—his star driver castellotti was killed in a training accident on the ferrari test track in modena.

castellotti’s death came just weeks before the 1957 edition of the mille miglia. for the first time in his life, enzo ferrari publicly expressed doubts about dedicating his life to such a dangerous sport. “something had changed within enzo and the way he was looking at motor racing,” says luca dal monte, author of the biography enzo ferrari: power, politics, and the making of an automotive empire.

the night before the start of the 1957 mille miglia, ferrari gave a speech at a big banquet in brescia. “maybe it was the deaths of dino or castellotti that made him more sensible to the whole issue of dying,” says dal monte. “he expressed doubts the night before the race—that what he’s doing is actually bringing death to people.” those words where haunting given the faith of alfonso de portago who thundering down the road at 155 miles per hour, when something punctured the left front tire of the ferrari which killed him and 9 spectators during the crash

the 24. edizione mille miglia (italian for “one thousand miles”) was an auto race held on a course totalling 992.332 miles (1,597.004 km), made up entirely of public roads around italy, mostly on the outer parts of the country on 11–12 may 1957. the route was based on a round trip between brescia and rome, with start/finish in brescia.

as in previous years, the event was a race against the clock, as the cars were released at one-minute intervals. in the mille miglia, the smaller displacement, slower cars started first. each car number related to their allocated start time. for example, wolfgang von trips’s car had the number 532, he left brescia at 5:32am, while the first cars had started late in the evening on the previous day. some drivers went with navigators, others didn’t; a number of local italian drivers had knowledge of the routes being used and felt confident enough that they wouldn’t need one.

this race was won by scuderia ferrari driver piero taruffi without the aid of a navigator. he completed the 992-mile distance in 10 hours, 27 minutes and 47 seconds- an average speed of 94.841 mph (152.632 km/h). the italian finished 3 minutes in front of his second-placed team-mate, the german driver, von trips. olivier gendebien and jacques washer were next, ensuring scuderia ferrari finished 1-2-3. by uh

hotwheels or matchbox : digital track for your iphone

hot wheels digital track – watch out for those sharp turns

o.k. this is hilarious – big-up to all the nerds out there 🙏 stay goofy. by ar

Rare Italian Delight : the 1962 Fiat 1600S OSCA

1962 fiat 1600s OSCA

the fiat 1600s ‘osca’ is the result of cooperation between three great names in car history. towards the end of the 50’s the maserati brothers with their osca (officine spezializzata costruzioni automobili) company were looking to transfer their racing expertise into production cars. racing alone did not generate enough income. in 1957 ernesto maserati started to speak to dante giacosa, fiat’s head of development. he put forward an idea to build a lightweight 4-cylinder engine, an idea that appealed to giacosa. fiat at that time, stuck with slow 1100 and 1200cc engines, decided to go ahead with osca’s engines. pinin farina were allowed to design the bodywork and build too. initially they used a 1500cc osca power plant with a 75 hp output, by october ‘62 upgraded to a 1600cc developing for early ‘60’s an admirable 90 hp. the 1600s is pricey and the production numbers remain low with overall about 814 1600s osca’s built. by uh

Russia Ukraine: Russian Sukhoi SU27 that is flying over kiev looking very much like the US F15

a bit of history… above is the US F15 fighter jet

this is the russian SU27 fighter jet – i always assumed russia copied the US but that is not necessarily the case

russian sukhoi fighter jet performing the cobra maneuver

lets hope this gif plays!

 

beautiful profile of the SU27 with its ‘drop nose”

illustration of the SU 27 showing the drop nose

interesting documentary on the history of the Su27 (drop nose) and the F15, interesting for you industrial designers. by dd

renault alpine rally: the renault you didn’t think existed

beautiful low profile and those lovely multi headlights

a beautiful finish on the tail… something rarely seen in modern cars thanks to practicality of the boot space, and the convince of carrying your groceries for all the new breed of human hippos… pork out people! see what that did to us all…

in action at the rally…

here’s a little history on a car from a manufacturer that COULD, but didn’t. not unlike citroen, renault made some fantastic cars… but the french lost their groove looking at america and the mass market for cues, not doing either one very well, they ended up bringing us the ugly ducklings of today.  well, we have some history atleast to admire. vive la “old” france. by xy

slot cars: the original interactive game…

the beatles, playing with now considered vintage slot cars back in the 1960’s

john lennon approved! need we say more…

history of slot racing PART I

scalextric out of UK was the first manufacturer of what we know today as slotcars.

here is a little history about how these toys came to be and how they died out on a mass level but flourished in cult communities after the invention of video games. scalextric are quietly flourishing today under hornby. but they are beginning to come back in a strange way, from car commercials featuring slot cars (audi even making a experiential track complete with ipad camera view), to barneys new york using a slot  car track in their NY window displays, to pierre hardy using slot cars for their campaign, to a $300,000 model offered at neiman marcus created by slotmods!!!! and all the way down to a simple set for under $200 that you can pick up online at carrera toys.

cars meant something beyound bling and power. before alexander mcqueen designed looks for lady gaga, his older uncle, steve mcqueen, drove around in the coolest cars… actually im joking doubt they are related.

a very rare “Fly” slot car model of steve mcqueen’s porsche 917K in gulf livery… yes thats a camera in the front. Steve used that to shoot his film “le mans” worth a watch.

history of slot racing PART II

there are still several manufacturers besides scalextric such as carrera slot cars out of germany, slot it out of italy,  AFX and autoart out of the US an many from places like australia, spain, and even france.

a blue buggatti type 251 by cartrix made in recent years…

and here’s a little natgeo video of how this stuff was made.

a recent issue of a vintage lotus in high detail by scalextric 1 of only 4000…

 

Can women drive? Woman driver wins Argentina 1962 rally in her mercedes-benz 220 SE

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the swedish ewy rosqvist (and her co-driver – not shown – ursula wirt).

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the mercedes-benz 220 SE.

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not the cuban missile crisis: but the two blondes from scandinavia who dominated the headlines.

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here is to women drivers, not in saudi arabia, but in argentina in 1962:

“before the start, the newspapers still somewhat ridiculed the fact that a women’s team were setting out on the marathon rally through argentina. when rosqvist and wirth chalked up a victory on the first stage, their success was soon praised as a respectable achievement. however, when the duo then also won the second stage, there was no more holding back and the swedish women were wildly celebrated by the country’s media. the state of the nation at that time was captured in the german language newspaper “freie presse”, which was published in buenos aires: “it was not the cuban missile crisis, but rather the two blondes from scandinavia who dominated the headlines in the country’s daily newspapers. the entire country excitedly celebrated the outstanding victory of the mercedes-benz women’s team in south america’s tough long-distance rally. proof that women actually can drive, and drive well… just as long as they are blond and don’t live in saudi arabia. by dd

I don’t want anything else but the new Jaguar low drag GT

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more aerodynamically efficient than a ferrari 250GTO

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malcolm sayer was a genius… just memorize that

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interior with original toggle switches…. no gold, no fancy wood, nor excess leather with dollar bill signs…. drool!

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in a world of shit cars, here is a brand new car with airbag, ABS breaking, AC and all the stupid necessary things we all want and need, but cant find in a vintage car, packaged in a beautifully proportioned body of a legend. this car is individually built for each client to his or her specs so the sky is the limit.

a little background on the low drag GT: the jaguar low drag GT is based on the prototype made from the original e-type by jaguar back in the 60’s. efforts to create an optimized racing e-type, with reduced weight and a further enhanced aerodynamic profile for the factory-resulted in the low drag version as the company began to plan the 1962 racing season. in conjunction with the development of the low drag, jaguar were also putting focus into the all-aluminum ‘lightweight’’ e-type, with uprated engines, suspension and brakes. 12 of these all-aluminum were developed, and they soon became the focus of the racing development at jaguar. this left the beautiful low drag prototype in the shade, and although development continued as an ‘after hours’ project, much more focus went into the eventual 12 lightweight jags. malcolm sayer who tested the low drag in a wind tunnel in those after hours, discovered that the shape was more aerodynamically efficient than a ferrari 250GTO (10%) and the standard e-type (20%) but the low drag was left behind as the lightweight jags took the ascendant position and redyed for the 1962 race. it took several decades for the low drag to reemerge from the archives but now you can have a custom one made just for you! now what a treat that would be? the cost, pending your requirements of course, would start around £650,000 i wont mention what that is in dollars. by uh

70’s gems: ferrari 365 GTS4 daytona spider

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ferrari 365 GTS4 daytona spider in production from 1968-1973

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with a tipo 251, engine sporting 4.4 L, V12 and 365 cc per cylinder (thus the 365GTB)

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(above) later model retractable headlights vs (below) the original open headlights covered with glass/acrylic

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below the lamborghini miura (shape and proportions) in production between 1966-1973

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the ferrari 365 GTB/4, better known by the unofficial name ferrari daytona, is a grand-tourer produced from 1968 to 1973. the name daytona was given to the car by the press rather than ferrari officials at its launch during the paris auto show in 1968, possibly because of ferrari incredible 1, 2, 3 finish the year before at the datona race in 1967. its sharp-edged styling resembled a lamborghini (miura) more than a traditional pininfarina ferrari. early daytonas featured fixed headlights behind a glass cover. this particular setup was completely abandoned in 1971 favor of retractable pop-up twin headlights due to new safety regulations in the US, which outlawed headlights behind covers (think of the e-type and the like). we actually prefer the later models with the covered headlights but regardless either would be a dream to posses. price range low of $700,000 and up. by uh