No...... just wasting my breaks at work.......... Christian Lautenschlagerffice Mercedes 18/100 <ST1Lyon 1914 ACF GP "Night before the hill race in Gallion 1909, count Alexander Kolowrat's racing car had not arrived . Just before the actual race he decided to quickly convert his own Skoda car (with 18.000 km on the clock) to a racing car, he entered the race and he won ". Zborowski <O</O Keith . .
Keith, That's a great story about the Skoda. Guess it was a case of 'run what you brung'. I beleive this Sunbeam also ran at Gaillon. Correct me if i'm wrong. Another shot of Rene Thomas with Albert Divo and Robert Benoist, circa 1924.
I'm sure I've told you guys I lost this car @20 years ago. It sat enginless in the Mid West and I'd call every month, it wasn't for sale. I skipped one month only to find out it DID sell...........for $10,000. If I ever will PowerBall or the Lottery I do plan to buy it.
First of a long tradition of race cars from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com</st1:City>Eisenach: The Wartburg 80hp, built for the 1902 <st1:City w:st="on">Paris-to-Vienna</ST1lace </st1:City>race. <O</O <O></O> . .
Auto-Union ?? 2001 Aldo Zana suddenly found the plans for the Porsche car named Typ-90 in the Daimler Benz archives . <O</O <O</O <O</O <O></O> <O</O Released from constraints of the 750kg formula, in 1937 the designers started thinking primarly of fully enclosed streamliners for the 1938 season. On 22 March 1937 the Porsche organisation showed Daimler-Benz executives two proposals for the 1938 GP car. Both were rear engined on a 280 cm wheelbase with swing-axle rear suspension and fuel tanks along the sides. A quarter scale model of one of the cars was made and tunnel-tested together with Daimler-Benz' own design. The results indicated that the Porsche car had lower Cd but was less stable than the Daimler-Benz car. Daimler-Benz decided to build a front engined car but made improvements to the body in accordance with the test results. . .
Rosemeyers Baby <O</O By early 1934, the road car project had been given its own identity and was designated typ 52. Komenda's chassis drawings show he had added a longitudinal framework to which the body and large twin exhausts could be fixed. Hubs have also been drawn either side of the V16 to carry spare wheels, presumably in order to afford some luggage space in the rear of the body. The tyres on the road car were to be 5.50x20 all round, rather than the differently sized rubber of the racer. Although the engine capacity of the Typ 52 was to remain at 4.4 litres (supercharged) the power was to be reduced from the racer's 295bhp at 450Orpm to a more manageable 200bhp at 3650 rpm. This, the Porsche design team believed, would give the sports car a maximum speed of 125mph in fifth gear and a 0 60mph time of around 8.5 secs, a quite sensational performance for 1934 . . </O
I just realised this thread has surpassed 500 posts. To be honest, starting a thread on a traditional Hotrod and Kustom site about prewar motor racing is something i thought long and hard about but seeing the popularity of the Boardtrack thread i came to realise there are some folks here who really do appreciate the roots of the automobile. So, thankyou to all who have contributed. I hope there is another 500 or 5,000 posts to come. A special thankyou to our moderators for allowing this thread to live. This is a photo for you. 1925 BROOKLANDS. H.M. WALTERS. Jappic 1cyl. 350cc.
That race had an "American" in it, Alexander "Todd" Orley, driving the first Veritas single-seater. He was a Russian immigrant to the US.
FABULOUS PICTURE!! Reminds me of the great classic comedy skit by Peter Ustinov entitled "Grand Prix Du Rock" (Still available on CD) where "Herr Alt-Bauer" talks about the light weight 'Schnoor-cedes' racers. JG
Unfortunately i don't have anymore pics. Maybe do a search on the Brooklands site. Some info: Car was fitted with a 344cc JAP engine. It held the Class J flying mile record at 70.33MPH. In 1926 it was refitted with a 495cc JAP engine and later bought by Mrs. Gwenda Stewart, a well know speed queen at the time. Later she changed the name of the car to Hawkes-Stewart and re-installed the original 344cc engine. This car was eventually destroyed in a garage fire at Montlhery in 1932. JG, I gotta get that DVD. That sounds like a good laugh. Thanks for the info.
Thank you Kurtis! As soon as I get a REAL camera I can add at least 100 more photos. Best wishes, Bob
That little cigar kind of reminds me of the 1914 Cornelian that Louis Chevrolet raced at Indy in 1915. The Cornelian was made by the Blood Brothers in Michigan and carried a 4 cylinder Sterling motor-right around 100 cubic inches and with a curb weight of the whole car just over 1000lbs. Boyer was a better fit in the car and qualified it for Chevrolet, although Louis drove it in the race to a disappointing 20th position. This neat little car I believe was the first monocoque racer to run in competition (I am sure if I am wrong you guys will let me have it). It also had a four wheel independent suspension. There were earlier cigar shaped racers and the earliest and fastest that I have in my files is the 1905 "Wogglebug" driven by Louis Ross at Ormond in 1905. He set a bunch of records on the Ormond beach races and won the Dewar Trophy all with a steam car. His fastest time I believe was just a tick below 95mph, a record that stood for about a half hour until a Napier took it at 104+. The Stanley Brothers came back to Ormond in 1906 though with another cigar shaped creation, the "Rocket" and set the land speed record of 127+ which stood until Bltizen Benz took it a few years later. The picture of the Ormond Garage, the first real racing garage is of 1905 with the Wogglebug in front of Herbert Bowden's 120 hp Mercedes (somewhere I have a better picture of this but can't put my hands on it right now-some of my original pictures from the 1905 races are disappearing on the paper-I try to keep them out of light). This car had two 60 hp 4 cylinder Mercedes and was called the Flying Dutchman. Bowden took the car out after the Napier set the record and set the Land speed record of 109.75 but the snivelling little whiners that made themselves the worlds sanctioning body (Automobile Club de France)took his record away because the car did not meet THEIR WEIGHT restrictions. Cigar shaped cars was just a normal deal long before Xydias thunk about the belly tanks.-Jim Louis Chevrolet in the Cornelian Ross in the Wogglebug Ross in front of Bowden at Ormond Garage Bowden's Flying Dutchman Record setting car Two 60hp Mercs FE Stanley in the 1906 Stanley Rocket driven by Marriott ER Thomas and Willy K in their Mercs and the Record setting Napier and Ross in his Wogglebug Stevens in a 90 hp Mercedes-can't figure how this car did not dominate
These pics were in my great uncle Elmer Spatz's car racing pictures from the 20's... Any one know what this car was built from? There was nothing written on the back, so I don't know if it was even his car. I do know he raced this Fronty T on the west coast dirt track circuit in 26 and 27... Neal
Wow, I love that Fronty Ford # 1 car. The other one... well it is interesting! Neat stuff,do you have any more of his photos??
Hi Neal, Very cool photo. Elmer Spatz, along with other "Ascot" drivers like Francis Quinn and Jimmy Sharpe, came north and raced up here in Canada in 1926. Here's a couple info links from my blog: http://befastpast.blogspot.com/2009/02/early-vancouver-part-19.html http://befastpast.blogspot.com/2009/01/early-vancouver-racing-part-18.html I also have some info on them racing further south that same year at Bagley Field, in Vancouver, WA. Legend has it this was the year and place that famous black racer Rajo Jack got his start although I couldn't find anything to prove or disprove that claim. cheers, bfp
Quite a few, actually... Thanks for the links...that's neat to see Elmer's name in more clippings than I have. I did do an article in Hop Up #9, titled Elmer Spatz/Uncle Elmer. The Hop Up staff did a great job...but you can't fit everything into the confines of a magazine article. So here is more of the story and pics below. Elmer was my great uncle. My dad was given a envelope of pictures and newspaper clippings after Elmer's death in 1986. We knew he had raced dirt track when he was younger...but he never really talked about it. My memories of Unlce Elmer were of him sitting in his recliner in the "TV room" watching sports. Every once in a while my dad would get him to talk about old cars...but he'd usually ask my dad why he wanted to mess around with that old junk. Elmer did quietly watch my dad's progress on his T speedster project, unfortunately he passed away a few months before the car was done. A few years ago I borrowed Uncle Elmer's envelope from my dad. As I peiced things together from the articles and pictures, I was able to figure out that he raced during the 1926 and 1927 seasons at Ascot and up through the Pacific NorthWest. He is pictured in car #1...which is somewhat of a mystery, as that typically denotes a championship. I do have a 1927 LA Times article titled "Spatz Entered in Ascot Race - Labor Day Victor to Drive Brockman Special Here Next Sunday" . The article states that "Elmer Spatz, who will drive the Brockman Special with which he copped the dirt track championship of the Pacific Northwest on Labor Day..." Funny thing is that the dirt track historians I have spoken to have no records of an Elmer Spatz. I sure wish he was still around to fill in the blanks. I have A LOT of pics, but I will start with a few of my favorites. Here's the pic I posted above, which is Elmer in what I presume is the "Brockman Special". Same picture used in the newspaper article... That last one says, "Took out seven 6" x 8" posts. This is the way I stopped." He also operated the Palm Ave Garage in Alhambra in the late 20's/early 30's. He later moved to Temple City, where he owned and operated Standard Motor Service until his retirement in the 1960's. I'll post up more pics if there is interest. Neal
He must have been respected and known for the headline to simply say "He races at Vancouver this afternoon". If they could refer to him as "He", they expected the reader to know who he was. Nice looking car.
The Jalopy Journal
