Vintage sports and racing cars pictures.

[birlinn]

Monster!
Had a bit of a ding,. I see.

[John Meachen]

Wasn't it a year later that the Jaguars turned up with disc brakes?

[Andrew2]

Here's my two cents worth. A '52 Morgan F Super chassis.Attachment 128049

I recall helping a friend of my brother's refit the 1172 Ford engine into his Morgan. Three of us were hefting the donk in by hand. Prob was, the splines wouldn't enter the clutch plate. So, we tried, he filed a bit, we tried again, he filed. The engine wasn't heavy, but it got a bit tiresome.

Oh, currently rebuilding a Ginetta G2. Same old 1172 Ford running gear. You have to be an enthusiast..

[fredvv44]

The Ford 10 was a great little engine. There was an 1172cc class for racing them. Lots of hop up parts available since the '50's. Here is my engine. All this gave it another 10HP!! That is a 33% increase.engine2.jpg

[birlinn]

I seem to remember, if you could not afford the Climax engine, Lotus would sell you the Club version of these with a Ford 1172 engine.

lotus 11.jpg

[John B]

This Buckler from a few pages back is Ford 10 based.
20220904_110036 (1).jpg
The wheels are the first hint.

[Canoeyawl]

Have we done this one?
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/201...ured-existence

66BD5FD9-8DF8-4814-BB7A-26BB480C3065.jpg

1ADB92E5-07AF-419E-B66D-C1ABC1F6183D.jpg

[John Meachen]

Not a car for the claustrophobic!

[Andrew2]

Did they call it Gort?

[skuthorp]

When I bought my TC around 1970 it had a rather unwell Vanguard engine, but the original engine came with it. I had it done up and refitted it.

[John Meachen]

A similar sort of wheel treatment,I wonder if there was any cross fertilisation of ideas.

[Paul Pless]

[Canoeyawl]

A similar sort of wheel treatment,I wonder if there was any cross fertilisation of ideas.

Incest is rampant in the automotive industry

[birlinn]

Presumably John referred to the streamlined wheel fairings on the two record cars?
Regarding the wheels on the red Bugatti Type 43, Miller had a patent for a similar design of spoked aluminium wheel before Bugatti's first ones appeared in 1924. Miller's I seem to remember had seven spokes. Not sure if Bugatti saw the patent.

[birlinn]

And the grand-daddy of aluminium spoked wheels, the 1901 Singer Motor Wheel....

singer.jpg

[John Meachen]

Presumably John referred to the streamlined wheel fairings on the two record cars?
Regarding the wheels on the red Bugatti Type 43, Miller had a patent for a similar design of spoked aluminium wheel before Bugatti's first ones appeared in 1924. Miller's I seem to remember had seven spokes. Not sure if Bugatti saw the patent.

Indeed I was referring to the fairings.a feature that has cropped up a number of times on a variety of cars,even this Lister shows a version.

Lister2.jpg

[Garret]

Seems that the first Corvette off the production line was not destroyed as people thought:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/clas...kbarhover&ei=6

[Paul Pless]

[Paul Pless]

updated cobra, from a company calling themselves 'ac'
rollover protection integrated into flush windshield mount
airbags
carbon fibre body

[Jim Mahan]

Why folks with an open car leave the friggin windows up is a mystery to me. And some of them actually drive it that way. LIke leaving the fenders out away from the dock.

"Ooh, my hair! Bobby, slow down! I'm gonna hurl! Why can't we take the essyoubee?"

Funny looking headlights on that Cobra. LED? Shouldn't it have side pipes, too?

[Hugh MacD]

Back in the neolithic times I had a Spitfire (still have it) with roll-up windows, but no top. I habitually drove with my foulie raincoat on in "iffy" weather. Got stopped at a light one time and it started to rain, so I leaned out with one hand to check, rolled up my window, pulled up my hood and drove away from the light. Lady sitting next to me got honked at.

[Garret]

Why folks with an open car leave the friggin windows up is a mystery to me. And some of them actually drive it that way. LIke leaving the fenders out away from the dock.

"Ooh, my hair! Bobby, slow down! I'm gonna hurl! Why can't we take the essyoubee?"

Funny looking headlights on that Cobra. LED? Shouldn't it have side pipes, too?

Depending on the car, having the windows up can cut down on buffeting. IIRC, some Porsches have a screen behind the seats to do the same.

[Jim Mahan]

Both my Boxster and my current Z3 came with the behind the seat screen. Took 'em off. They just make turbulence and fluff your hair up from behind. You know that thing they used to say about wearing a rubber when showering with your sister, that's what driving with the top down and the windows up is like. Sorta. I guess most people who buy a convertible, judging by what I've seen on the road, keep the top up all the time and only put it down on a sunny Sunday morning going for brunch at the winery. I don't get that. I don't get why out of a hundred cars on the road, in gorgeous beautiful weather, ninety-eight of them are some form of hardtop. There's not a chance in hell, if I won the lottery and went shopping for a new car, that I'd buy a sedan or a coupe or an essyoubee. Not unless it was going to be the only I car I could own and I had eight kids to take to school every day.

One time, on the boulevard leaving work, in the Miata, I think, I was first in line waiting at a stop light, watching a big ol' summer thunderstorm roll closer, and just as the first drops started hitting my windshield, enough to turn on the wipers, a woman in a car hehind me yelled, "you're gonna get wet!" Like I was too dumb to stop and put the top up because of the weather. Just as the light turned, I yelled back, "I was born wet," and sped off toward the freeway on-ramp.

Another favorite memory of WX in a convertible was when I was driving my Fiat spider in the evening commute, going north over the Golden Gate. Just as I crested the Waldo grade, coming out of the tunnel, headed down into Marin above Sausalito, heavy thick clouds of fog had just started rolling over the ridge and covering the freeway. Big fat raindrops hit the windshield. And then suddenly, doing the limit in the fast lane, right at the foot of the grade, I drove out of the fog bank and into bright late afternoon sunshine. And I heard God say, "pay attention Jim." Not literally, but you sorta had to be there.

If you're going the right speed, most of the water is carried by the laminar flow over the windshield and you stay mostly dry, just hunched up a bit closer to the dash. When I got home, only my watch cap was wet.

[Garret]

Both my Boxster and my current Z3 came with the behind the seat screen. Took 'em off. They just make turbulence and fluff your hair up from behind. You know that thing they used to say about wearing a rubber when showering with your sister, that's what driving with the top down and the windows up is like. Sorta. I guess most people who buy a convertible, judging by what I've seen on the road, keep the top up all the time and only put it down on a sunny Sunday morning going for brunch at the winery. I don't get that. I don't get why out of a hundred cars on the road, in gorgeous beautiful weather, ninety-eight of them are some form of hardtop. There's not a chance in hell, if I won the lottery and went shopping for a new car, that I'd buy a sedan or a coupe or an essyoubee. Not unless it was going to be the only I car I could own and I had eight kids to take to school every day.

One time, on the boulevard leaving work, in the Miata, I think, I was first in line waiting at a stop light, watching a big ol' summer thunderstorm roll closer, and just as the first drops started hitting my windshield, enough to turn on the wipers, a woman in a car hehind me yelled, "you're gonna get wet!" Like I was too dumb to stop and put the top up because of the weather. Just as the light turned, I yelled back, "I was born wet," and sped off toward the freeway on-ramp.

Another favorite memory of WX in a convertible was when I was driving my Fiat spider in the evening commute, going north over the Golden Gate. Just as I crested the Waldo grade, coming out of the tunnel, headed down into Marin above Sausalito, heavy thick clouds of fog had just started rolling over the ridge and covering the freeway. Big fat raindrops hit the windshield. And then suddenly, doing the limit in the fast lane, right at the foot of the grade, I drove out of the fog bank and into bright late afternoon sunshine. And I heard God say, "pay attention Jim." Not literally, but you sorta had to be there.

If you're going the right speed, most of the water is carried by the laminar flow over the windshield and you stay mostly dry, just hunched up a bit closer to the dash. When I got home, only my watch cap was wet.

I get it. Only time I've driven with windows up & top down is to keep rain puddle splash off me. I have a lap robe from my grandfather's 19teens Cadillac. It's weighted, so the breeze doesn't blow it around & allows me to be comfortable down into the 40's - heater full blast of course.

Few things finer than top down on a clear crisp autumn night on a country road with the sky full of stars.

[Paul Pless]

a lap robe?

tmi

[Garret]

a lap robe?

tmi

No dancing involved. Actually, it's a really cool thick plush with lead sewn into the seams around the edges.

Now what goes on under the lap robe...

[Paul Pless]

these qualify for antique/historic plates in michigan

[Garret]

Mercedes sure can make some unattractive cars! That looks like something the WRX type tuner crowd go a hold of.

[John Meachen]

By way of contrast.

SSK.jpg

[Garret]

By way of contrast.

Now that's beautiful. I should've caveated my comment with "recent".

[Paul Pless]

i thought the clk gtr's were good looking cars for their era in a brutish sort of way
and famous for the ironic back flips sort of putting an exclamation point (two exclamation points actually) on mercedes return to le mans

[Gerarddm]

Jim- When driving my Fiat 124 Spider in dry cold weather, i.e. in the 30s or slightly lower, having the windows up helps keep a bubble of warmer air in the cockpit. Other than that, I don't.

What I always found amusing were those older convertibles that had smaller rear side windows, and with the top down the owners would forget to retract the windows and they looked like little shark fins sticking up. For some reason looked particularly dumb on Chryslers.

[Hugh MacD]

E-Ticket" ride! Driver OK? I watched with sound off...can't hear stuff well enough to use the computer speakers.

[Nicholas Carey]

Jim- When driving my Fiat 124 Spider in dry cold weather, i.e. in the 30s or slightly lower, having the windows up helps keep a bubble of warmer air in the cockpit. Other than that, I don't.

What I always found amusing were those older convertibles that had smaller rear side windows, and with the top down the owners would forget to retract the windows and they looked like little shark fins sticking up. For some reason looked particularly dumb on Chryslers.

My Fiat X1/9 (targa) was great. With the top removed and the windows up, at least at 50+ mph, you could drive in the rain and not get wet, so long as it wasn't a real downpour. In a Michigan winter, with the top off, windows up and the heater going, it might not have been what you'd call warm, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

[birlinn]

They don't have to be silver or white...

merc.jpg