Would you pay 130 million baht for this car?
Well, I certainly would not, but somebody
in America put down 3.24 million dollars to buy this 1954
Oldsmobile F88 Concept car!
Oldsmobile
F88
This news item was brought to my attention
by regular reader John Gilding in America, who did not pay the
3.24 million either! This was the highest bid when the car was
auctioned at the 34th annual Barrett-Jackson classic car
auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. The $3.24 million was the
highest price ever paid at that auction. The previous record,
USD 2 million, was paid for a Hispano-Suiza J12 Binder, 15
years previously.
The 3.2 mill car was initially known as the
XP-20 project, but later more commonly became known as F-88
and was a pet project of GM styling engineer Harley Earl. Four
cars came out of the project, but only styling order #2265
(this newly auctioned car) survived. It was sold in 1955 (or
given) to E.L. Cord whose empire included at its height,
Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, Lycoming, the Limousine Body Company,
Stimson Aircraft Corporation and some American airlines.
Hundreds of internal GM documents and original blueprints went
with the car. But 3.24 million?
The significance of this car was partly
because of its rarity. “While most of their brethren were
destroyed after their debuts at GM’s Motorama shows, the
gold-toned Olds survived this fate to become one of the most
historically significant vehicles of its era,” said Craig
Jackson, president and CEO of the classic car auction company
Barrett-Jackson. “Many automobile historians consider the
roadster to be one of the greatest expressions of automotive
design to ever come from North America.”
That last remark might be gilding the lily
somewhat, especially since the Corvette line also came from
the same design studio, but it is a 51 year old one-of-a-kind
vehicle, I suppose.
There were other cars that changed hands at
the auction, including a 1934 Duesenberg Model J convertible
coupe that sold for $2.75 million.
Another high ticket item was the 1953
Ferrari 250 Mille Miglia Berlinetta sold for $1.43 million.
From the UK came a 1962 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato that
sold for $2.7 million, while for the US historians was a 1962
Lincoln Continental “Bubbletop” limousine used by
President John F. Kennedy (presumably not the one he was shot
in). According to R.M. Auctions it was used frequently by
President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and by
President Lyndon Johnson, Pope Paul VI, and the Apollo
astronauts. History was yours for the asking at around
$600,000!
Autotrivia
Quiz
Last week, I mentioned that folklore would
have it that the first cars to be built in Australia were the
Holdens in 1948, with the FJ now being an Australian icon.
However, it was not the first car to be built Down-under. The
first was built in 1898. I asked what was it called? It was
called the Pioneer, built by the Australian Horseless Carriage
Syndicate in Melbourne. It was of the ‘buggy without the
horse’ type, with wooden wheels, a kerosene engine, chain
drive and the usual ‘worm and tiller’ steering.
So to this week. The red flag is used in
motor racing to stop a race. However, the red flag also gave a
name to a car released at the Leipzig Fair in 1960. What was
this car? Clue: think chopsticks!
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Oz Eff Wun GP
to feature a street parade through Melbourne
With the start of the 2005 F1 season in two
weeks at Albert Park in Melbourne Australia, the city is to
celebrate the fact that this is the 10th anniversary (of when
they ‘stole’ it from Adelaide) and will have a street
parade of the F1 cars and the home-grown heroes, the Aussie V8
Supercars.
The mayor of Melbourne is all enthusiastic
and is modelling it on the very successful London street
appearance of the F1 cars last year. He expects 200,000 people
to watch the race cars going round Melbourne’s street
corners.
Now while this is on one hand a very good idea to promote
motor racing, which I am all in favour of, what about all
these new rules? Is the trip past Flinders Street Station part
of the two race weekends rule for the F1 cars this year as far
as engine life is concerned? If the car stops because it
overheats at the slow speeds, does the driver go to the rear
of the grid on Sunday? It will be interesting to see, because
at least one, if not two of the multi-gazillion dollar Eff Wun
cars won’t make it to the Melbourne City Hall, believe me.
They may be fast, but only a certain manufacturer of red cars
seemed to be able to make them last the distance in 2004.
New drivers amongst old
drivers for the 2005 season
India gets its first F1 race driver in
history, when Narain Karthikeyan takes to the tracks in
Melbourne in his Jordan on March 6. All the tailor shops in
Thailand will be closed on that Sunday while they hang up
their tape measures to watch the GP. No longer will the
catch-cry be “Would you like a suit, Sir?” It will be
“Would you like to sit and watch the Formula One, Sir, and
your suit will be ready as soon as the race is over!”
The other driver new to F1 is the second
Jordan driver, Portugal’s Tiago Monteiro, who came second
last year in the Nissan Dallara series. With neither having
raced in F1, this is a very brave move by Jordan, which itself
has been bought out by a group calling themselves Midland F1,
owned by a Russian, Alex Schnaider.
Midland F1 plan to use Russian testers,
with Russian Roman Rusinov rushin’ off to be the first in
line. Midland F1 also plan to build a new car for the 2006
season, at which time I believe they will drop the Jordan
name. With all that, do not expect Jordan to be fighting
anyone other than Minardi, and getting in everyone’s way!
The other new driver is in a Minardi, so the bottom 10th of
the grid has been reserved. This guy is Christijan Albers, a
Dutchman, who has been in the DTM German Touring Car series
for the past couple of years, coming third in 2004. This is a
very competitive series, so Christijan is used to close
racing.
Putting the brakes on
progress?
Disc brakes are just an accepted part of
today’s automobiles and have obviously been used
‘forever’. However, there are those who can remember back
a little further and say that ‘forever’ began with Jaguar
introducing disc brakes into competition during the 1952 Mille
Miglia, but both these points of view are not quite correct.
Disc brakes were actually ‘invented’ by
Dr. Fred Lanchester (1868-1946) and were used in the
Lanchester cars of 1903. They were not a breathtaking success,
or should I say, they didn’t stop the world in its tracks,
and the next appearance of disc brakes was in 1919 with the AC
vehicles. Again they went out of favour until 1949 when the
top of the line Chryslers had 4 wheel disc brakes. (Another
first for Uncle Sam!)
Since then, disc brakes are ‘de rigeur’
for all performance vehicles, and now they are used on about
everything, other than the smallest, lightest and cheapest
production automobiles.
In recent years, production cars have
gotten faster. The need for good brakes has become greater. To
get over this need for better braking, the answer has been to
increase the diameter of the disc brake. This has in turn
brought about an increase in wheel size, to get the larger
disc brake and its calliper inside the wheel rim. Ever
wondered why production cars have gone from 15 inch to 16
inch, to 17 inch, to 18 inch and even larger? Now you know.
However, there is another way of looking at this brak
ing problem. If one disc brake dissipates X
amount of energy, do two disc brakes dissipate 2X? Simple
mathematics would say yes, but life (and physics) is never
that simple. Other variables come into play, so the end result
is around 1.7X, according to those who are able to do the
measurements. That is still almost twice as good as a single
disc brake.
One group that discovered this many years
ago were the motorcycle engineers. Look at the front wheel of
any half decent motorcycle and you will see twin disc brakes.
And with the speeds these motorcycles can do, they are not
there for looks. They are there for their stopping ability.
Now come back to automobiles again, and
start applying that technology. To get the same ability in
retardation, you can go to smaller discs (when you use two of
them), and then you can revert to smaller wheels and tyres,
all cost saving, just for starters, with no loss of braking
performance. It all seems so obvious, you wonder why has it
not been used for cars? Well it has.
Delphi Corp. has developed this technology
that it believes will help solve many of the challenges
currently faced by braking engineers. Based on a twin floating
disc architecture with a single piston, the Advanced Disc
System (ADS) provides a high specific torque capability, with
substantial improvements in thermal management that can lead
to benefits in weight, packaging and NVH (Noise Vibration and
Harshness) refinement.
The way this is done in the ADS is by using
two discs floating on the outside diameter of the hub. A
hydraulically actuated piston applies braking force via pads
that operate on the outside and inside faces of each disc,
providing four friction surfaces.
The twin disc design also provides four
cooling surfaces, without the need for vanes or cooling
channels, substantially reducing thermal stress on the brake
and hub-mounted components.
Delphi’s testing indicates that in a
typical high-performance SUV application, ADS could remove the
need for several brake system specifications, reduce the
maximum operating temperature by more than 100ฐC,
improve NVH (refinement) and offer either reduced pedal travel
by up to 25 mm (due to the reduced volume of fluid required
for actuation) or booster downsizing by around 40 mm. Total
vehicle weight saving could be as much as 7 kg, depending on
system specification and the level of integration.
Delphi says that ADS could be in production
by 2006. Its technology will enable new automatic functions
including electric park brake and hill-hold, improved pedal
feel, help to simplify assembly and allow an enhanced interior
layout and recycling benefits. These brakes will then be
combining hydraulics and electronics.
Dr. Fred Lanchester didn’t really know
what he was starting. Or should I say - stopping!
Who is where in 2005?
Heidfeld
and Webber
Button
and Sato
Red
Bull RB1
Here is the latest in the musical chairs
department:
Ferrari Michael Schumacher
Rubens Barichello
McLaren Juan Pablo Montoya
Kimi Raikkonen
Williams Mark Webber
Nick Heidfeld
Renault Giancarlo Fisichella
Fernando Alonso
BAR Jenson Button
Takuma Sato
Sauber Jacques Villeneuve
Felipe Massa
Red Bull David Coulthard
Christian Klien or
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Toyota Ralf Schumacher
Jarno Trulli
Jordan Narain Karthikeyan
Tiago Monteiro
Minardi Christijan Albers
A somebody with money!
