Always enjoy this thread - really good pictures of most cars I really like. Thanks. The '57 Maserati 450S, Costin designed and Zagato bodied, always looked to me that someone found a windscreen, actually looks to be a backlite, several inches too wide for the design of the body and things went down hill from there. The result was a bit lumpy at best. I think most of Costin's efforts are very swoopy and efficient. Wish I could find his approach using math to predict air flow over surfaces, at least I think it was him, I read about it years ago, it made sense but was way beyond my abilities. Guess it is CFD these days.
It was the width of the greenhouse and the lack of "window sills" that got me to thinking of the Marcos, but when I found the Marcos picture the effect seemed less pronounced than I'd remembered it. I'm sure I must have been thinking of another car, possibly not even a Costin design but definitely British. It was that wide windscreen that rung bells. Any ideas? As regards Frank Costin's math, what I'd come across of it was rather basic and common-sensical, like proceeding from the assumption that if you measure and/or extrapolate the total cross-sectional area of all the air passages through a radiator, that'll be about the size of the hole you'll need on the front of the car. Of course it isn't really that simple, especially when one starts to calculate the effect of added heat on air velocity and try to use that to offset radiator drag, but it's still remarkably useful in practice.
Early lsr behemoth hanging on the wall of the MB museum, and Moss' 54 F1 full bodied car.. Photo(s) taken around 1990.
Fred, those qualify as a pretty fine swoopy collection! Is the other Ferrari in your driveway a PF coupe? Those are among my absolute favorite cars of all time -- not really swoopy, but the perfect Businessman's Express!
Thank you for this great thread! It can't be dead, though!! I've seen a little bit of stretching in what qualifies, so I believe I am not too out of line by adding the following personal inspirations: 1. Several well done, low slung (tube chassis or otherwise), Ford 27 T Roadsters. The first one that stopped me in my tracks was Dick Williams 1927 Ford Roadster. According to the write up in Hot Rod Milestones by Dain Gingerelli, it went 123 MPH on the Dry Lakes AND won AMBR at Oakland in 1953. It showed me what was possible with a 27 T Roadster. 2. Bubble Tops. Cushenberry has several amazing ones, of course. But there are others (Anthony C's Bandit, Grote's Atomic Punk) that have shown what is possible with that formula. Being a sci-fi nut, they appeal to me quite a bit. I believe there is much unexplored potential there. 3. Porsche RS-60 Spyders. 4. (Already mentioned) Karmann Ghia's. Whether the design was stolen or not (have heard this, too), and despite VW's great sense of humor about the stock configuration's, ahem, "performance", these are beautiful cars, IMO. I was inspired one evening, in a restaurant parking lot, hungry. Heading to the door, there it sat, backed into a parking spot, a consistent brown patina, and no bumpers. Yet it stopped me, and just quietly evoked such beauty. Apparently, they can also quite readily be made into well handling little sports cars, as several folks race them (not just at Drag Strips). And, in the 60's a company called Dacon built up several of these and had two of the Fittipaldi's racing them in Brazil, quite successfully from what I have read. Anyway, my contributions are my "thank you" for a great thread.
CarLowz, I share your enthusiasm for well-done '27s. I have long thought that the Dick Williams car was one of the best hot rods ever; I wish that Blackie would restore it to its '53 configuration. Spyders are great cars too, of course. I hope the thread isn't dead, too, but I kinda ran out of things to say!
'54 Maserati A6 GCS by Pininfarina..... Abarth 205 Monza.... Porsche/Abarth 356B.... ....and did McQueen have it goin' on, or what?
Ferrari "Double Bubble" Coupe, by Zagato..... '53 Allard J2X LeMans..... '62 Ferrari 250GT Bertone Coupe.....
Those are great, Rick. I particularly like the Farina Maserati for its aggressiveness and the Bertone Ferrari for its grace.
Ya know... conceptually, I think that Kurtis/Offy thing is neat, but I've seen it up close and I think it's really rather clumsy. It's narrow, relatively tall, and just not as rakish as, say, even a stock Auburn speedster. It's had a couple of exhaust systems over the years, and they all look like HVAC installations rather than an Indy Offy header, for example. Certainly a cool car, nonetheless.
Hey Tony, Yeah, the " Tommy Lee " ride is kinda heavy handed, but I'll bet the development time for the design was much shorter than what Buehrig spent on the Auburn's lines. Given how wacked out Tommy was, I'm bettin he was pushin for an early compleation date, too! " Meanwhyle, back aboard The Tainted Pork "
I just browsed through this elderly thread again, because I'm writing a related one, and I ran across this car that I had overlooked when it was originally posted. I don't think it's exceptionally swoopy, but it's a killer looking little hardtop -- obviously tweaked a little in this particular case. I used to travel to Japan a lot, and paid attention to the cars on the road, but this is a model that I have never seen before (unless the one in this picture has really been modified a lot). Anyway, I think it's bitchin'. I wonder if any of them ever got over here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Luce#R130 "A rotary-powered Luce appeared in 1969. The Luce R130 was produced from October 1969 to 1972. It used a 1.3 L 13A engine, which produced 126 hp (94 kW) and 127 lb·ft (172 Nm). Quarter-mile (400 m) performance was 16.9 seconds. This model was a front-wheel-drive two-door coupé with front disc brakes. This model, Mazda's only front-wheel-drive rotary, is now a collector's item and very rare." I've often wondered if a transverse fwd Mazda rotary installation would work. It'd have been perfect for the BD-series 323 "GTi" that never was. That's more Dogfight material, though.
Thanks, Dawie. The one I posted has clearly benefitted from several inches of lowering; that never hurts the appearance of a car!
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