Non-Volvo car chat megathread

[BlackBart]

That's a nice one. Derek Bell is great. He's done so many things in his career. And 30 years later and with a nearly priceless car, he's not going to push it too hard.

Bellof was either a genius who made a tiny mistake, or half insane and took too many risks. We won't really know, but he was very very good. This article says he always had something to prove, and drove on a knife's edge all the time.

"Nobody in his right mind would try to pass on what may be the most difficult corner in the world."

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/trag ... an-bellof/


I looked up Le Mans wins for that era -

In the late 70s to early 80s the Porsche 935 / 936s were fairly dominant. In that era you regularly saw Derek Bell and Jackie Ickx on the top step.

In 1982, the 956 arrived, and the factory team of... Derek Bell and Jackie Ickx took first.

1983: Vern Schuppan, Al Holbert, and Hurley Haywood / Rothmanns Porsche 956

1984: Ludwig and Pescarolo / Joest Porsche 956

1985: Ludwig, Barilla, and Winter / Joest Porsche 956

1986: Bell, Stuck, and Holbert / Rothmans Porsche 962C

1987: Bell, Stuck, and Holbert / Rothmans Porsche 962C (same team)

1988: Lammers, Dumfries, and Wallace / Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9LM

1989: Mass, Reuter, and Dickens / Sauber Mercedes C-9

1990: Silk Cut Jaguar again, with the XJR-12 and Martin Brundle driving - who I think is a tv racing commentator now.

Then the wild Mazda 787B screaming rotary, then a couple of years of Peugeot, and then in 1994 Dalmas, Haywood, and Baldi won in the Dauer 962, which was a 962 chassis engineered and built by Dauer though a rule loophole instead of Porsche. It had a flat bottom and other modifications. It ran with Porsche factory support however. That was the last hurrah as rules changes made the 962 obsolete.

[June]

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.

1974 we got the EGR valve which made most of the gas petal travel a gigantic flat spot! Then in 1975 came the whole gamut of emissions devices including the catalytic converter. For 77,78,79 most American V8 engines had crazy low compression. The 1978 Ford 400 had 5;9 to 1 compression ratio. They call this the melees era... but go back to 1969, 1970 and high compression, high powered big blocks were in everything! My absolute favorite big block was the Ford 429. My 2.9 twin changed T6 reminds me of driving a 429 equipped car. The 1969 LTD was my favorite 429 equipped car! Notice the torque and horsepower rating! 480 ftlbs of torque at 2,800 rpm 360 horsepower. The Buck 455 my second favorite!!! June

[Sveedy]

Found myself driving along with a BMW model that I don't recall seeing before; 740 IL
Nice looking saloon style but not sure of the year.

[MoVolvos]

Found myself driving along with a BMW model that I don't recall seeing before; 740 IL
Nice looking saloon style but not sure of the year.

93 was first year for 740 IL before new model year and considered classic BMW look.

https://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/ ... 740il.html

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=1993+bmw+740i ... ia=images3

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[MoVolvos]

That's a nice one. Derek Bell is great. He's done so many things in his career. And 30 years later and with a nearly priceless car, he's not going to push it too hard.

Bellof was either a genius who made a tiny mistake, or half insane and took too many risks. We won't really know, but he was very very good. This article says he always had something to prove, and drove on a knife's edge all the time.

"Nobody in his right mind would try to pass on what may be the most difficult corner in the world."

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/trag ... an-bellof/


I looked up Le Mans wins for that era -

In the late 70s to early 80s the Porsche 935 / 936s were fairly dominant. In that era you regularly saw Derek Bell and Jackie Ickx on the top step.

In 1982, the 956 arrived, and the factory team of... Derek Bell and Jackie Ickx took first.

1983: Vern Schuppan, Al Holbert, and Hurley Haywood / Rothmanns Porsche 956

1984: Ludwig and Pescarolo / Joest Porsche 956

1985: Ludwig, Barilla, and Winter / Joest Porsche 956

1986: Bell, Stuck, and Holbert / Rothmans Porsche 962C

1987: Bell, Stuck, and Holbert / Rothmans Porsche 962C (same team)

1988: Lammers, Dumfries, and Wallace / Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9LM

1989: Mass, Reuter, and Dickens / Sauber Mercedes C-9

1990: Silk Cut Jaguar again, with the XJR-12 and Martin Brundle driving - who I think is a tv racing commentator now.

Then the wild Mazda 787B screaming rotary, then a couple of years of Peugeot, and then in 1994 Dalmas, Haywood, and Baldi won in the Dauer 962, which was a 962 chassis engineered and built by Dauer though a rule loophole instead of Porsche. It had a flat bottom and other modifications. It ran with Porsche factory support however. That was the last hurrah as rules changes made the 962 obsolete.

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Nice summary! A documentary showed Derek was a ladies man. Also liked Bob Wollek, Hans Stuck, Jochen Mass and Klaus Ludwig.

https://www.72stagpower.com/en/drivers/bob-wollek/

https://presskit.porsche.de/anniversari ... s-665.html

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[MoVolvos]

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Group 44 and Silk Cut. Sometimes I call it Silk Cat.

https://www.motorsport.com/imsa-others/ ... -3/316960/
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Group 44.png (1.7 MiB) Viewed 922 times

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https://rmstyle-24lm.blogspot.com/2016/ ... ar-n3.html
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Silk Cut.png (483.39 KiB) Viewed 922 times

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[BlackBart]

Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint in a color that might be "Pistachio." Circa 1957-1959 I think. Designed by Franco Scaglione at Bertone.

Giulietta Sprint.JPG (55.34 KiB) Viewed 909 times

Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale, heavily modified. Late 50s, early 60s. Also Scaglione / Bertone. Drag coefficient is .28, not surpassed in a production car for 20 years. I believe this very car was featured in a Petrolicious video.

Alfa GSS.JPG (267.41 KiB) Viewed 909 times

[BlackBart]

Last weekend some familiar faces and some new ones met up for the first Saturday coffee in a long time. Small group but a great collection of interesting cars.


This is not a 4 million dollar car. They only built maybe 90 of them, and they dominated 1500cc racing classes in the 50s.
He drives it all the time. It's a very accurate replica of a Porsche 550 Spyder (unfortunately known now as the James Dean car). It's really well done, if you squint you can imagine it's real. It has a tube steel chassis and a fiberglass body instead of aluminum. Modern hotrod mid-engine VW engine and transaxle, more power than the original. Big oval center exhaust like the originals. A blast to ride in! Weighs maybe 1200 lbs. Also owns a P1800 Volvo.

He modified the wheelwells slightly to match the originals, to fit the aluminum brake drums and 16" wheels with correct 4"x16" bias ply racing tires.

Mid-60s Austin Healey 3000 BJ7. Built from scratch from a repaired frame up. Non-original Grizzly Maroon. He also has a Bugeye Sprite.

1967 short wheelbase 911 with straight pipes.

Pristine 1959 Porsche 356B coupe. Restored 10 years ago. I helped him put the engine back in this last year and learned a lot.

A super nice '74 2002. Lowered, sport springs, tweaked suspension, new interior, free-breathing engine. The doors on a 2002 shut with such a nice tight clunk.

A real Mini-Cooper. And get this - it's a '91! I didn't know they made them that long. So it has a more modern injected engine, A/C, and it's an automatic.

Then of course we had to sneak off and drive the Lotus 7!

[abscate]

A mini with a slush box? That’s as bad asan egg crate.....

June, I drove a high school friends 429 SCJ Ford once....it had 429 HP I think, probably made up number by marketing, but it did go like a BOOH

Twin 4 barrel carbs...Rochester, I think?

[BlackBart]

I was so surprised at an auto Mini. Who knew?

I do think some of those HP numbers were just made up. The manufacturers were under a sort of volunteer moratorium on being directly involved in motorsport, but there was a pipeline from the back door of the factories. Nascar. The 427's in the Cobra's and GT40's. The '63 Grand Sport Corvettes. 426 Hemi's in the Superbirds.

The other number you don't see as often is torque rating of 500, 600 lb-ft. which overcame much of the enormous mass of those cars.


https://simeonemuseum.org/collection/19 ... and-sport/