Non-Volvo car chat megathread

[BlackBart]

I can't resist the noise of the glorious Porsche 917.
One of the great engines.

[MoVolvos]

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My favorite racing personality, team and car. Now I don't follow any of it but my son does and knows a lot more about racing then I ever did. The teams, personalities, classes and cars. I think he would like to race one day. ME: Only after getting his 4 years degree.

AL UNSER JR., Two-time Indy 500 winner, two-time 24 Hours of Daytona winner with Holbert: “Al was a very special friend of mine. We actually became friends during the Can-Am season in 1982. We were racing for the championship that year. We were neck and neck for the season title then. He got into the IndyCars for just the one year in 1984 and he got fourth at Indy. A great showing. He called me in the winter and asked me if I would be one of his drivers at Daytona in the Lowenbrau Porsche. Wow, that was huge honor to have him ask me to drive that car. I said, ‘Heck, I’m there!’ That really connected us and elevated our friendship. I drove for Al in the Lowenbrau car for three years. I drove five or six races with him in 1985. It was great to get to know him. He was an all-around great guy. Very much a Christian. He showed me real love in a friendship. From a race car point of view, other than my father, no one showed me that closeness. He just took me under his wing and I got to know him as a man. He definitely helped my career. It wasn’t just winning Daytona twice and other races. He taught me so much when I was driving for him. And I was very young, 24 or 25 years old. Things that he taught me are still with me today. And he taught me as a person too. Honestly, when I heard he had died, it was crushing. He was more than just a friend.

Sep 27, 2018
Racing world remembers Al Holbert 30 years after his tragic death
5-time IMSA champion left his mark on the racing world

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... gic-death/

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[BlackBart]

The 956 / 962 Porsche was a fantastic design, and dominated Le Mans for 10 years. Designed and engineered by Norbert Singer, it was one of the first really successful uses of ground effects using the body shell and underside. The drag is far less than the 917 with its big wedge to hold it down, but creates maybe three times the downforce at speed.

It used essentially a 935 / 936 turbo flat six engine variation with 2.6 liters, with a spooled rear end instead of a differential for straight line stability on the long tracks. In order to make the ground effects work with the flat six, they tipped the engine and transaxle up at the back of the car to increase the tunnel size.

The difference between the 956 and the 962 is a bit more wheel base to meet new safety regulations keeping the drivers feet behind the front axle line. The PDK dual clutch gearbox was developed for that car.

The 956 and driver Stefan Bellof still hold the lap record at the Nurburgring from 1983.

The factory raced them, and also sold a lot of customer cars and they filled the grids in endurance racing.

By the end of the 80s, the Jaguar XJR-V12 could outrun it because of more advanced aero and therefore better efficiency.

Here's a 956 at Le Mans 1984. Interesting to see because there is no chicane going up the hill to the Dunlop bridge from the main straight, and no chicanes on the 6 km long Mulsanne straight.



Chris Harris gets to meet Norbert Singer and drive the 1987 LeMans winning Rothmans 962 (the Holbert car)....this is a classic

[matthew1]

How about a Macho with Hooker headers? https://barnfinds.com/1-of-2-1979-ponti ... tUkOlWUiKU

Suuuper cool car. Great story too.

1979-Pontiac-Macho-TA-2-e1617649418323.jpg (140.53 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

1979-Pontiac-Macho-TA-1-e1617593942868.jpg (195.12 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

[BlackBart]

Muy muy macho! It's stunning that an American V8 with 400 ci could only put out 220 hp, isn't it? An engine that size now can produce 400, 500 no problem, run way cleaner, and get almost twice the mileage.

[matthew1]

It's really sad, that era.

[BlackBart]

IMG_7373.JPG (49.32 KiB) Viewed 1042 times

[RickHaleParker]

Muy muy macho! It's stunning that an American V8 with 400 ci could only put out 220 hp, isn't it? An engine that size now can produce 400, 500 no problem, run way cleaner, and get almost twice the mileage.

I had a 79 will a 400. White with a fire chicken on the hood. The 400 was POS. Yea I got it up to 165 mph. Then it started coming apart.

One of the other guys had a black one. His little brother took it and rolled it down main street ... literally.


Like everything else precision is the key to technology advancement.
An improvement in the precision of one of the seven basic measurement is always followed by a technology leap.

1. Length - meter (m)
2. Time - second (s)
3. Amount of substance - mole (mole)
4. Electric current - ampere (A)
5. Temperature - kelvin (K)
6. Luminous intensity - candela (cd)
7. Mass - kilogram (kg)

[BlackBart]

And the manufacturers took the cheap route to deal with emissions - low compression, timing backed way off, restrictive carburation vs injection, restrictive cats, no O2 sensors, etc. They couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t until the mid to late 80s that some efficient engines and engine management started to come out, mostly from Germany and Sweden.

[MoVolvos]

The 956 / 962 Porsche was a fantastic design, and dominated Le Mans for 10 years. Designed and engineered by Norbert Singer, it was one of the first really successful uses of ground effects using the body shell and underside. The drag is far less than the 917 with its big wedge to hold it down, but creates maybe three times the downforce at speed.

It used essentially a 935 / 936 turbo flat six engine variation with 2.6 liters, with a spooled rear end instead of a differential for straight line stability on the long tracks. In order to make the ground effects work with the flat six, they tipped the engine and transaxle up at the back of the car to increase the tunnel size.

The difference between the 956 and the 962 is a bit more wheel base to meet new safety regulations keeping the drivers feet behind the front axle line. The PDK dual clutch gearbox was developed for that car.

The 956 and driver Stefan Bellof still hold the lap record at the Nurburgring from 1983.

The factory raced them, and also sold a lot of customer cars and they filled the grids in endurance racing.

By the end of the 80s, the Jaguar XJR-V12 could outrun it because of more advanced aero and therefore better efficiency.

Here's a 956 at Le Mans 1984. Interesting to see because there is no chicane going up the hill to the Dunlop bridge from the main straight, and no chicanes on the 6 km long Mulsanne straight.



Chris Harris gets to meet Norbert Singer and drive the 1987 LeMans winning Rothmans 962 (the Holbert car)....this is a classic

Don't remember much but the V12, are you referring to the Group 44 Hurley Haywood or Silk Cats in Europe? I also like this video but I can't find the other one where Derek narrates the drive.



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