What is this thing? The nose is vaguely reminiscent of the Auto Union Type C streamline.
Most "Race-car-looking" race car ever?
- Thread starter GordonW
- Start date
Mercedes T80. Beautifully on display in their (amazing) museum.
That reminds me strongly of Sir H. O. D Segrave's Irving-Napier "Golden Arrow" land speed car, that preceded that Mercedes.
At first glance at the Mercedes picture- I immediately wondered if the shape of the rear, was the result of the same design constraints that the Golden Arrow had. It used a Napier Lion W-12 (three banks of four cylinders, in an "W" shape), of which's vertical center cylinder bank dictated the center "bulge", and the outer two banks were just incorporated into the fairings behind the tires.
Regards,
Gordon.
Even has the oil leak.16 cylinders
In the mid to late 60's when you said race car this what a lot of boys thought of, myself included.
Both incredible land speed machines indeed.
The Merc never made the attempt because Germany’s focus shifted to other ehh, activities at the time.
"As ambitiously planned, Hans Stuck would have driven the T80 over a special stretch of the Reichsautobahn Berlin — Halle/Leipzig, which passed south of Dessau (now part of the modern A9 Autobahn) between the modern A9 exits 11 and 12, which was 25 m (82 ft) wide and almost 10 km (6 mi) long with the median paved over as the Dessauer Rennstrecke (Dessau racetrack). The date was set for the January 1940 "RekordWoche" (Record Week), but the war begun on September 1, 1939 prevented the T80 run. In 1939, the vehicle had been unofficially nicknamed Schwarzer Vogel (Black Bird) by Adolf Hitler and was to be painted in German nationalistic colours, complete with German eagle and Nazi swastika, but the event was cancelled and the T80 garaged."
This 44.52 L (2,717 cu in), engined beast on 6 wheels was projected to reach 750KMH (466 MPH) with its 3452 brake horsepower.
Porsche 917-30 for me. Psychotic, unbeatable car.
This one is Steve McQueen’s old 917.
This one is Steve McQueen’s old 917.
The fastest car ever built in a backyard garage.
One of the first model kits I ever built was the 1966 Gurney Eagle-Westlake F1 car. In general, most late-'60s F1 cars are pretty great-looking to me.
Spitfirejoe
Cheap Audio Aficionado
Weren't the CanAm cars all required to have open cockpit? I'm not at all sure...
Edit: Did not realize the age of the post I replied to!
I've only seen one in real life. Owned by a surgeon at work. His was the traditional Gulf light blue with orange stripes.