It's interesting that Ryan posted the F1 series in the Journal today... I was thinking about something along those lines last night. I think Hot Rodders of all eras had an eye to the European Sports/Racecar scene for design cues and speed secrets. I see a lot of details in hot rods from all eras that seem to be pulled from those 'supercars.' And with good reason... Many of the monsters of Europe created some truely awe-inspiring machines. And the debate rages about when was the greatest time to live to enjoy Hot Rodding's finest time... Modern Hot Rodders say that the late 40's was the Heyday of hot rodding, while others say that the '50s was the time, and still others would point to the '60s.... Some sick and twisted individuals might even say it was the '70s. But, then again the '20's and '30s were truely the birth of Hot Rodding.... But when do you think the heyday of European Race/Sportcar was? Personally, the Mercedes W196 that Fangio drove in 1954 shown below, is the pinnacle of automotive design. It stands head and shoulders above any other car from any other era... But that's just me... When do you think it was? (WITH PICTURES!!!) Was it the '20s? Was it the '30s? The '40s? The '50s? The '60s? The answer doesn't matter, as long as the pictures and ideas get your creative juices flowing and inspire you to mosey out to the garage... Again...
My personal favorite would have to be the 50's. Jag wins three straight at Le Mans, a record that wasn't equalled until almost fifty years later by Audi. Second would have to be the thirties...those Auto Union Cars-Gott im Himmel! Just my pair of pennies...
I've always dug prototype racing.....esp endurance, late 60's-early 70's. The cars of the 30's were beautiful however.... But the pinnacle may arguably be the late 50's-early 60's....great cars, great racing! And the cars/racing of the mid-late 90's were AWESOME! Prototypes from Jag, Panoz, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, Toyota....24 hours of LeMans was cool to watch, esp. at night. I'm a Porsche geek...so for me, the pinnacle of racing sports cars would be the 917....the ULTIMATE race car......everything on the car was for ONE purpose.....to haul SERIOUS ass......
"Heyday," like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The 30s, with nations bankrolling their manufactuers made incredbile speed contests, on sick tracks, with unreal banking (Monza, the `ring, Brescia, et al, ain't nuthin' like they used to be) were the scene of incredible innovation and engineering For style, it's hard to imagine race cars more graceful than the D-type Jag or a Ferrari 250SWB or even the 250 LM. The early 60s (read, first cars with the engine behind the driver - thanks Colin Chapman) Ferrari F1 cars were incredibly beautiful, with those lovely "spaghetti" white headers. For sheer rip-snorting scary fast power, one has to respect the late 60s Porsche 917 and it's variants through `73 when the turboe'd 917K cars were outlawed out of competition. Porsche was kicking a$$ throughout the 50s and 60s SCCA scene, with cars so bulletproof, guys would drive to places like Lime Rock in their race cars with racing tires stuffed in the car or pulled behind on a trailer, swap tires and tune, and go kick butt, then swap it back and drive home. But then you say "sports" cars. . .and my mind goes to the late 60s. While Detroit was making barges with Hemis and big-blocks, the Italians came out with the Lamborghini Miura and Ferrari 365 GTB, more graceful curves were never seen, IMO.
ANYTHING Alfa-Romeo produced in the 1930's is just fine with me, same thing with Maserati. They ran well and were gorgeous to look at.
European Road Racing has been going on since year 1, how about Good Ole Amercian road racing and Amercian built cars. Here is a picture of the last Huffacker Genie (#17) that dominated tracks in the 70's with its SBC topped by 4 Weber 48's. Nothing like this going by at 180 across the start finish screaming 9500RPM at Laguna Seca.
i would say between the 20's and 30's. I love the 20's racers,and have a passion for the silver arrows of the 30's,to a really sick degree.
Start you own thread... I like american racing too, but this thread is about European sports/race car design as it influenced traditional american Hot Rodding... And which era you thought was the pinnacle of European sports/race cars...
As far as the European design I'd have to go with 40s-50s as influential for US hotrodding. After WWII the traditional "decades" get a little fuzzier than before the War. The Fifties really carried into the early 60s, ended with the Kennedy assassination. The 60s ended with the Viet-Nam War in the 70s.
The dominance and beauty of the Alfas in the early 30 was incredible. These cars have withstood the passage of time and still can roll down the road with the best of them. Works of art in their own right. regards ken
The pinnacle of "design" was the late 20's and 30's era with the minimal rules books employed then. Starting with Bugatti, Delahaye, Maserati and evolving with the incredible Alfa's and the British ERA. Then came the "pièce de résistance" which of course is the Mercedes and Auto Union juggernauts. Beautiful cars and creative engineering and much faster than later racecars were for decades to follow. And obviously the racecars influenced the sportscars ala 8C2300, 8C2900, Type 57, SSK that were spinoffs of that technology.
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