Automania Quiz
Last week I asked which car was built on a Mini front sub frame, complete with East-West engine, seating three people in a row behind the engine, with the
front two who had to wear crash helmets while the last one did not. The question was why did the third person not have to wear a helmet and secondly, what was the name of the
vehicle?
Well this weird thing was called the Stimson Scorcher and was officially classified as a motorcycle and sidecar. Consequently the front two had to wear
helmets, but the third, ostensibly in the “sidecar” did not have to. As usual, bureaucracy gone mad.
Talking about regulations and suchlike, I once imported a Bangkok Tuk-Tuk into Australia and didn’t that have the rule makers in a tizz when I wanted to
register it. They could not agree whether it was a car, whereupon I would be forced to fit seat belts front and rear, or whether it was a motorcycle and everyone in/on it
would be required to wear helmets. Was great fun to ride around in, but the attention I got from the police was such that it soon became too much of a problem. But sometimes
late at night ... Tuk-Tuk-Tuk-Tuk!
So let’s get into this week and get into Eff Wun again. There’s so much words
flying around the world about the youngsters like Button and now Raikkonen, that you would imagine no young drivers had ever raced in F1. There have actually been lots of
novices who have run in the premier formula, but let’s ask this week, who was the youngest F1 driver to win a GP? And how old was he? Clue - he wasn’t a Brit.
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct answer to fax 427 596 or email [email protected].
Female emancipation at long last!
I’m sure you will all be as relieved as I was to read that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the USA are now going to use female
crash dummies for the first time in their testing. I wonder if it was an oversight found out by the Bureau of Political Correctness, or a push by the female lobby. You’re
as underwhelmed as I am by all this?
But here’s one with nuts!
Also from America, comes the news that the latest Yankee super car
could be on sale as early as 2001. It is the Mosler MT900, and if you are wondering where this manufacturer bobbed up from, it is a hobby company owned by millionaire
inventor Warren Mosler. The car is a mid engine coupe with heavily breathed upon twin turbo Corvette V8 power. Initial reports say that 0-100 kph should be under 4 seconds.
The RRP in the US will be around 12 million baht, so by the time you get it here expect to pay about 50 million, give or take a Satang or two.
The MT900 began in 1996, when designer Rod Trenne first approached car builder Warren Mosler with the idea of creating a new American supercar in
cyberspace.
That car, the MT900 (Mosler, Trenne, 900kg) is pictured here. It is the first supercar of its type to have tooling machined from computer data rather than
pulled off a hand-made clay model. It is also the first supercar to be created entirely in cyberspace without the use of clay models or conceptual drawings of any kind.
Like Mosler Automotive’s other products, the monocoque chassis features a core of aluminum honeycomb surrounded by vacuum-formed fiberglass. Suspension
is from a Corvette C5 with fabricated lower arms and pushrod-operated inboard coil/overs shock absorbers. In the prototype, a Chevrolet LS1 V8 is mated to a six-speed Porsche
911 transaxle and bolts to a steel sub-frame. Mosler indicates production versions will be offered with the Lingenfelter modified Twin Turbo 650.
Bangkok Motor Show goes “International”
Looks as though the Bangkok International Motor Show has become truly “international” with recognition of the status of the show about to be officially
given by the French group OICA (the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles). This will put the Bangkok Show on the same sort of level as the Tokyo
Motor Show.
Our local show has been getting better and better over the past three years and the Grand Prix Group (the local organizers) are to be complimented on the
effort (and money) they have put into the event.
It will be held March 30th through till April 8th at the BITEC location on Km 1 Bangna-Trat.
Anyone for an SSKL?
Probably some of the most exciting vehicles in the late 20’s and
early 30’s were the SS Mercedes Benz’s which were originally designed by Dr. Porsche and then refined (?) by Hans Nibel, the designer of the fearsome 200 bhp Blitzen
Benz, a car which held the world land speed record at 227 kph in 1911. Mercedes and Benz only amalgamated in 1926, thus bringing the talents of their designers, Porsche and
Nibel together.
These supercharged SS’s were truly awesome, in the correct sense of the word. Sports cars which were quicker than the GP cars of the day. For example, at
the Nurburgring in 1928 three SS cars beat the GP Bugatti’s, with the winner being the legendary Rudi Caracciola. These vehicles had 7 litre engines that could deliver 225
bhp.
The supercharger was also interesting, in that it only worked when you floored the
accelerator. The factory also strongly suggested that the enthusiastic driver not engage the kompressor for more than 20 seconds at one time. It was rumoured that after
prolonged use of the supercharger the engine would self destruct and spit itself out of its own exhaust pipes! Unsubstantiated, I hasten to add.
The next development was the SSK, where the K stood for “Kurz” (short) rather than for Kompressor. In this car Caracciola even entered the Monaco round
the houses GP of 1929 and would have won if he had not had to stop and change tyres - in those days a five minute job, not the five second pit stops of today. As it was, he
still came third behind two GP Bugatti’s, and only two minutes behind.
The final phase of the development of these sports cars was the SSKL where the L stood for “leicht” (lightweight). The lightness was produced by
literally making the SSK’s into Swiss Cheese specials. The chassis’s were drilled out with huge holes and the engines were kitted out with huge superchargers and
delivered around 300 BHP.
Caracciola ran an SSKL in the 1931 Mille Miglia, driving single handedly and at one stage was averaging 95 MPH. Needles to say, he won the race. He also
ran the SSKL in the German GP of that year and won with his sports car against the also legendary Tazio Nuvolari in a Grand Prix Alfa Romeo and the entire factory team of GP
Bugatti’s.
Make no mistake about it, these were real cars. An SS would top 175 kph, and an SSK would see 190 kph, while a special bodied SSKL in the hands of Manfred
Von Brauhitsch reached 250 kph. Real men didn’t eat quiche and drove SSKL’s! The law makers would ban such beasts today.
