Random Idea, Free To A Good Home

The 1957 Thunderbird: best-looking 'Bird of them all, and one of the best-looking cars of the 1950's.

A mildly "resto-modded" '57 Thunderbird crossed the block at a Mecum auction.  It looked original at first glance (or even second), but had a Boss 302 under the hood.  I thought it was a clever idea.  The old "Y-block" V-8 from the '50's was a boat anchor.

Here's a better one: a "pro-touring" '57 'Bird.  With the modern aluminum 4-cam under the hood and its companion Tremec right behind.  Big disc brakes, lowered suspension with upgrades including a Watts-link rear axle or XK-E i.r.s.  A performance-oriented interior.  If you're gonna update/upgrade a '57 Bird, turn it up to 11.  And it might be one of one.  Pro-touring Chevelles, Camaros, and Mustangs are fairly common, but I've never seen an early Bird restored that way.

This owner has the right idea, but the shape of the rear wheel arches needs to echo the fronts, and it needs real
performance-oriented wheels and tires.

WHAT A Season! (Formula 1)

I can't recall being this absorbed in a Formula 1 season since my days of rooting for Nigel Mansell 20-odd years ago.  Even last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix was an edge-of-your-seater.  Hungary!  And my beloved Spa-Francorchamps, steeped in history, is next.  I'm already doing my rain dance.

It's true enough in 2014 that a Mercedes will likely win the Championship--but which--Rosberg or Hamilton?  Hamilton appears to have more outright pace, but he makes more mistakes.  And, with the banning of interactive suspension, Mercedes appears to be having even more trouble with their KERS and brakes.  Nobody else can compete on pace, but Mercedes's reliability remains a question.

Red Bull's Ricciardo has two wins while his 4-time World Champion teammate Vettel still hasn't found a handle on the new-spec car, or race strategy for that matter.  It's true enough that Red Bull is the only team other than Mercedes to win.  But, on consistent pace from race to race, the Williams and both of its drivers (Bottas and Massa) are faster.  I love rooting for underdogs, and keep hoping that Williams's race strategy will come up to the level of their car.  As it is, they are giving Ferrari--Ferrari!--a run for its money in the Manufacturer's Championship.

Speaking of Ferrari, Fernando Alonso remains the driver I love to watch on race day.  He turned in another staggering performance on worn tires at Hungary.  As I've posted several times before, nobody gets more out of a car on race day than Alonso.

Given the topsy-turvey world of manufacturers coming to grips with the new regulations and cars, and the "last shall be first" inversions of driver performances, it will not be a surprise if we see a lot of drivers changing teams for 2015.

Fernando Alonso: in my book, the best driver of the post-Schumacher era,
although he will never have the World Championships to show for it.

Blower Bentley LeMans Demo (Video)

Not the same car the video was shot from, but a Blower Bentley at LeMans: close enough

Here's a fun video invoking the days when tires were skinny and drivers were fat.  The Bentley 4.5 liter lacked synchromesh on all gears:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfNxoVVPIRU


I dimly recalled that the most iconic Bentley of them all didn't win LeMans--the race it was built for.  (It has often seemed to me that the British fascination with LeMans in the '30's, '40's, and '50's stemmed from Bentley's wins there in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930.  And also because the U.K. couldn't field a competitive Formula 1 car in those decades.)  So off I went to Wikipedia for the story of the Blower Bentley.  Here's the link for those who want more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley_4½_Litre


It turns out that W.O. Bentley didn't approve of supercharging, which, by 1930, was commonly used by Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, and Mercedes-Benz for racing.  W.O. wanted torque, which required cubic inches. He believed in big engines in big cars: 3, 4.5, and 6.5 liter fours and sixes.  The standard 4.5 liter weighed 3600 lbs.  This was the antithesis of the Alfas and Bugattis of the day and led to a notable passive-aggressive put-down by Ettore Bugatti: "Monsieur Bentley builds excellent trucks."  (Bentley was not opposed to high-tech, though: the 4.5 liter had 4 valves per cylinder driven by an overhead cam.)

One of the Bentley Boys, Tim Birkin, wanted more power for LeMans.  Another, Woolf Barnato, had bought a considerable stake in Bentley, and was a Director.  He agreed with Birkin, so W.O. couldn't prevent the project from going forward.  They hired Villiers to design and build 5 Roots-type blower editions of the 4.5 for racing generally and LeMans in particular.  But W.O. didn't have to cooperate, and he didn't.  He refused to redesign the 4.5 to use a gear train to drive the supercharger.  This resulted in the Blower Bentley's iconic look: the supercharger was visible without raising the hood, hung off the front of the engine between the frame rails.

Iconic looks can come from pure chance: the Blower Bentley's large Roots-type blower was run from the front of the
crankshaft because W.O. Bentley refused to redesign the engine to accommodate power take-off under the hood.
W.O. wanted nothing to do with the Bentley that became the most famous of all.

Where To See Supercars

Why would you do a track day when you can cruise Michigan Ave. with your sweetie and her Poodle?

In my neck of the woods, on the road, we see mostly monster truck wannabes and tuner cars.  I once saw a Ferrari 458 Italia carefully parked at Blackhawk Farms to discourage passers-by from anointing it with sticky fingers.  And a Nissan GT-R doing HSAX at Autobahn Country Club.  Killboy puts up pictures of supercars in his Highlights, but I've not personally seen one on the Dragon.

Last Saturday evening my son and I ate some very good (and expensive) Spanish food, al fresco, at the corner of Michigan and Balbo Avenues, across from Grant Park, in downtown Chicago.  In an hour, we saw a Ferrari 599, a Lamborghini Gallardo, a couple of notables I don't recall, and countless Porsche 911's.  (No "real" air-cooled ones.  ;-) )

The 599 finished second in the Being Seen Contest.  It was a red Spider, top down, with beige leather. Swimming in a sea of traffic, the driver had no opportunity to show off.  But I admired his sangfroid: the essence of cool with all those honking cabs and SUV's inches from his sheet metal.

The clear winner was the black Gallardo.  It too was a Spider, top down, the better to display the driver's cute girlfriend holding her white Miniature Poodle.  Ohio plates.  They had an animated conversation with the fare in a cab in the next lane.  When the light turned green, the Gallardo driver nailed his V-12 for the benefit of the fare and us bystanding campesinos.  Glorious.

I've been looking for supercars in the wrong places.  Seek them not at club circuits or on the Dragon. Seek them Being Seen in major cities on summer Saturday evenings.

Ride 'im, Cowboy!

Hoo-wee!  Racing a stick-axle Corvette with cross-ply tires in the rain!  This is Don Yenko at Virginia International Raceway in 1961.  Image from the VIR History Pages website; for other devotees of old- timey stuff, here's the link:

http://www.virhistory.com/vir.html

2014 Tour de France

Crashes, rain, more crashes, more rain, cobblestones, more crashes, more rain, and more crashes.  The 2014 Tour de
France reminds me of LeMans in the days when the favorites to win were just guesses.

I'm watching the Tour this year for the first time since the doping scandals.  It's the helicopter shots of the lovely French countryside that have always appealed to me.  (And when the weather permitted this year, they have again been gorgeous.)  While the athleticism and skill of the riders is admirable, I don't understand bike racing.

The Tour has always reminded me, vaguely, of LeMans.  Even in the modern era of 24-hour sprint races by major manufacturers with mega-budgets and nearly bullet-proof race cars, LeMans involves surprise, disappointment, and persistence in the face of adversity.  In that way, the flavor of both races is similar.

But the first week+ of this year's Tour reminds me of The Good Old Days at LeMans.  Appalling weather.  Many of the favorites crashed early or were otherwise surprisingly eliminated.  Teams imploded.  Strategy and tactics were revised--several times--on the fly.  More than most Tours, 2014 appears to be a case of "the last man standing."

Resurrection Can Be Fun

Bradley Price in his Alfa Giulietta Veloce Spider at "New Thompson."

I don't need much of an excuse to do another post about the Alfa Giulietta.  One of the blogs I follow is Bradley Price's Automobiliac, especially since he began vintage racing his lovely Alfa.  Here's a link to his high-quality video and his account of the race at Thompson:

http://www.automobiliac.com/automobiliac/2014/6/30/my-first-wheel-to-wheel-battle.html

The Greater New York City area has less than its fair share of road courses since mid-century, so it's great to see Thompson resurrected as a club circuit with some challenging, technical, corners.