Sunday, January 31, 2010

Type 80

We all know the Types 60, 64K10, 166, 82E but what about the Type 80?

This was the vehicle developed to break the land speed record prior to WWII. Although it is a Mercedes-Benz race car, the body is by Porsche, with a target speed of 600 km/h (373 mph).
By late 1939, when the project was finished, the target speed was now an eye watering 750km/h (465mph). The land speed record attempt was planned to take place on German soil and Hitler envisioned the T80 as another propaganda triumph of German technological superiority. The attempt was set for January 1940, although the outbreak of war prevented the T80 run.

By 1939 the T80 was completed at a cost of RM 600,000 and was powered by a massive 44.5 litre, Daimler-Benz DB 603 inverted V12 motor, derived from the DB 601 which powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109. The DB 603 was the third generation prototype and tuned to an amazing 3000hp running on a mixture of methyl alchol (63%), benzene (16%), ethanol (12%), acetone (4.4%), nitrobenzolo (2.2%), avgas (2%) and ether (0.4%) with methanol water injection for charge cooling and boost pressure.
The powerful engine ran the two rear axels for maximum traction, at a weight of 2.7 ton and 8 meters long this is a beast and needed all 3000hp together with the aerodynamics to attain the projected speed of 750 km/h.

The vehicle had been unofficially nicknamed Schwarz Vogel (Black Bird) by Hitler and was to be painted in German nationalistic colours complete with German Adler (Eagle) and Hakenkreuz (Swastika). But with the beginning of WWII the engine was removed and the T80 put into storage.

The T80 survived WWII and now resides in the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart, so if you plan on visiting the new Porsche Museum, the Mercedes-Benz museum is only a few kms down the road.
While you are there also be sure to check out the 300SLR, another famous Le Mans racer.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

On the drawing board

We can see an end to these freezing cold dark days and the Springtime is just around the corner.
Attention is turning again back to thinking about improving our cars and future Oldspeed projects.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Don't try this at home!


We don't recommend that you try this at home
and won't be trying this on our cars ;-)

Sunday, January 24, 2010

'54 sunroof welding pt7

After some modification, the heater channel now fits perfectly with the bottom.
There is a story there also;
Having already used one of our sets of NOS heater channel bottoms on the '51 restoration, we were having second thoughts to use the other set we have and at this time only the half section repair was available.
So, we contacted hooky of hooky's panels and sent him our NOS ones as a master for him to start reproducing exact copies.
This way we got to keep our NOS ones and had some exact copies to use also everyone else now had access to perfect replacements.
Three birds with one stone, as they say

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Happy Motoring

Should you be driving along in your Split window or Barndoor and need to visit your nearest VW dealer.
Just reach for your Dealer network service map......

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Little Bastard



Was Dean really driving the "little Bastard" on that tragic day and was the car cursed?
We are not really into conspiracy theories, but if you wish to watch the whole TV documentary, you can here.
For Mac users, you will need to borrow a PC to view it :-(

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Summer dreaming

In these freezing cold, snowy days, we can't wait until the Spring and we can bring our cars out of the garage again........

Monday, January 11, 2010

Together again (nearly)

One of our "Overseas" members just sent us some photo's of the progress on his '52 cab.
The work is progressing very nicely, the pan is finished and the body freshly back from the painters.
The painter in question is no other than Art Himsl, a legend in the Hot Rod world as a custom painter and pin striper, he has painted guitars for Eddie Van Halen and cars for ZZ top.

As you see from the photo's some modifications have been made along the way.
The gearbox is a type 519 (preA) with speedster gearing inside, ZF steering box and 356 A brakes. This will all be driven along by Denzel power :-)

It's such a shame that you live over the other side of the water, we would love to put our L-R-L car up against your Denzel power, we're sure we would give you a good run for your money ;-)

Keep up the good work R.C and we look forward to more photo's of the progress in the near future.

Friday, January 1, 2010

The Clock is ticking

It's 2010, and the clock is ticking for the Le Mans Classic, which has become a perfect stop gap between H.O and B.C.
With only 189 days to go we thought we would wet your appetite with some articles from 1952 Les 24 Heures du Mans, Programme officiel.
After their successful class win in '51 Porsche returned again to the '52 event with three Gmünd SL cars, two entered in the 1100cc class and the third in the 1500cc.
Porsche went on again to win the 1100cc class and 11th overall with the car driven by Auguste Veuillet and Edmond Mouche completing 220 laps.
For the eagle eyed one's among us, you will have spotted the second Gmünd 1100cc car was driven by Huschke Von Hanstein and PeterMax Müller, but unfortunately they never completed the race, retiring after 6 hours with a broken gearbox.
The 1500cc Gmünd also DNF with a crash 5 hours before the end of the race.

As you can also see the track in '52 was the original, before it was altered around Maison Blanc and two chicanes were added to the Mulsanne straight.

See you there ;-)