From Mechanix Illustrated, 1952: "An amazing contraption, I thought, as the odd-looking car was unloaded from a truck onto the Appian Way, just south of Rome. The kind of vehicle that springs full-grown out of fantastic comic books. But, it w... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
oh man, cool story, it ends just as its getting good. Did he ever make the indianapolis classic......i want to see the suspension and everything he designed.....
Way cool! Does it exist today? I've said this before about cool old vehicles "I'd love to drive it to work"!!!
There are quite a few of these around like OSI Silver Fox and the Nardi Bisiluro. Here's a less cool twin boom, also from old Mechanix Illustrated http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/08/10/car-made-from-jet-fuel-tanks/
The Nardi Bisiluro ran in the 1955 24 Hrs. of Lemans. A 735cc Gannini engine sits in the driverless torpedo. Not exactly sucessful but that's obvious by the lack of twin torpedo race cars today.
may be a stupid question, but why they pour "pre-heated" oil into the motor? I figure the motor oil would be warmed with the 2 warm up laps they mentioned. Him being the engineer must have thought it important, but why?
HEMI32's b&w shot also appears to show the Mercedes Benz 300SLR following with it's rear deck raised for maximum braking.
It may have to do with the type of oil used. If castor oil was used, I could see where it would be best to preheat it beforehand, and then quickly drain it back out afterward before it congealed.
An Australian buisnessman named Peter Briggs has a twin boom Taruffi called Tarf2, which looks identical to the car pictured. Same paint and all. Last time I saw was in the York motor museum near Perth. Very tight cockpit with two sticks to steer, it would be different to drive. I read a magazine article earlier this year that said he had planned to run it at Lake Gardiner but the meeting was canncelled due to rain.
... and here's a couple pics of the 1948 Tarf-Gilera at the 2007 Goodwood Festival of Speed: Built in 1948 by Piero Taruffi, originally with a 500cc engine, one torpedo holds the driver and the fuel and the other a 350cc twin cylinder engine and drivetrain.
The Howard's Automotive (yellow) Twin-Tank Streamliner ... circa 1960: ... driver now in the right tank and the engine in the left ... Flatty was replaced with a '52 DeSoto Hemi ... Johansen vowed to return to the salt in 1961 running a SBC (both supercharged & normally aspirated).
Yet another Twin-Tank Streamliner: 1965 Bonneville entry #666 ... the Fritz Offutt & Auto Parts Performance D Streamliner ... ran 194.800mph ... driver Fritz Offutt sat in the right tank ... and a 182ci Chevy V8 (sleeved & destroked) in the left tank.
These things are everywhere it seems! This one was at the Fremantle Motor Museum that closed down a few months ago (very sad), which for all you foreigners, is located in Western Australia. Looks a hell of a lot like that one in the first pictures.
Here's some photographs of Howard Johansen's "Twin Boom" Bonneville car (powered by a '52 DeSoto HEMI) taken in 1954 by J.R. Eyerman for LIFE Magazine:
It must be incredibly loud for the driver. The right side engine exhaust points directly at the driver.
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