You sayin you are stretching your definition of "Traditional hotrods" from this idea to add a Porsche Spyder? I've always thought track "tuned" sports cars or any tuned for racing cars were "hotrods" anyway..but...(Still on the meds?) are we moving into anything "pre-smog" and after manufacture high-performance?
THAT'S IT! I love 550 spyders. They were built for one thing, winning races. The germans are the best at engineering and Dr. Porsche was the Man. He worked on the Mercedes and the Autocars and designed some revolutionary equipment. Ryan's line of thinking here kicks ***. I couldn't do it. I'm too much old school. I hate technology. Hell, I hate this computer! lol. I like my low tech, bare bones, american iron.
Porsche was a genious. You and I are not. Just because something is old doesn't mean its old school. It was revolutionary when originally designed, unlike american race cars which were mostly homebuilt and somewhat crude. Very rarely would an American auto win a prestigious race. Racing was so much more popular in Europe.
Certainly not as wonderful as a real RSK550 Spyder, the Beck Spyder is probably not far off the mark in terms of performance. At around $25,000 turnkey, it's a fraction of what the original sells for today.
[ QUOTE ] unlike american race cars which were mostly homebuilt and somewhat crude. [/ QUOTE ] I hope you are not including the Novi Indy cars, Lance Reventlow's Scarabs and Jim Hall's Chaparrals in that... Jim Hall was not the first guy to put a upside down airplane airfoil on a car, but he developed the idea untill it could not be ignored anymore. My guess it that the man belongs in the short list of genius car builders, with Ettore Bugatti, Colin Chapman, Ferdinand Porsche and a few others... Edit, I did not look this up so I could be wrong, but I dont think that Ferdinand Porsche was involved with the 550 at all. I believe he spent some time in a French prison cell after the war, and he did not do much designing after that. It was probably his son Ferry...
this page has some pics in another direction that also is awesome http://www.pierluigisurace.it/imagerie/transp0002.htm
Since we're talking "aerodynamic", and "pure function", permit me to offer some "non-Aryan" variations. Don't get me wrong, German cars are great, (Hell, I still mourn my old turbo-Audi 5000 Quattro, that temperamental *****-goddess gave me the greatest drives of my life), but sometimes they just lack some FUNK (funny, cuz it's a German word). Ryan, for pure silver form, how about a 1956(!) Lotus Eleven? Or, here it is in road-going form: Or, one of my all-time favorites, a C-type Jag (1952) Continuing with our metallic theme, how about the Miller Golden Submarine? more on that here And, back to silver.............we are talking FUNKY!!! Gabriel Voisin's "Laboratoire"! (1923) More on that bad boy here (ya don't need French for the pictures). Maybe even I could do the metal work on that "cubist" hallucination. Okay, I'll stop for now, this thread has really got me going.
Your right, Ferry Porsche was responsible for the early cars. I also agree with your Jim Hall comments. Truly great racing cars.
The Voisin look is going to take me another 40+ years to get used to. Hope this form follows function shot us more pleasing. Note how the late '30's -'40's over the frame flow of the body matches the ARDUN V-8-60 rocker covers.
i thought this new VOLVO TANDEM fit a few questions that were posted , about a tandem seat car ,with areo looks, kind of wierd to see everyone thinking about this ,
I'm sorry but does anyone else think it's just sick and wrong that 'Agent Cody Banks'Frankie Munez of 'Malcolm in the Middle' had a 550 Spyder when he was 16?I saw the episode of 'Punk'd' where they pretended to steal it. That was hilarious, but at least he was upset about it.
check out htis car link kid of speaks for it self, 2 seater panel fabbed ,it could be done today and redefine a direction this post has been very good to open up thinking for everyone http://www.oilstick.com/info/1.html
The Jalopy Journal
