History Auto racing 1894-1942

What a great thread, since im from the land of ice and snow i start with
1933 Ramnen grand prix...

And then some unknown Swedish 30´s winter racing...

 

Monza 1924...

 

It was based on the 1920 Leyland Eight, with which the company hoped to enter the luxury car market. Parry Thomas was Leyland's Chief Engineer and he designed the car with the help of Reid Railton, but it was far too expensive and it's believed only eighteen were built - only one survives, a beautiful 1927 roadster-bodied version at the Heritage Motoring Centre at Gaydon. While it's not as big as a Bugatti Royale (but then what is?), the picture linked on the Wiki page shows it next to a modern Rolls Royce Phantom and in touring-bodied or limousine form it would probably be about the same size as a Grosser Mercedes 770 or a Hispano Suiza H6!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_Eight

 

Parlez-vous Francais?

 

Wishful thinking?

 

Would not WW I interfered with this at that time? Was not Paris under duress?

Ago

 

I heard somewhere that when Auto Union went from their C type or D type to their D type or E type (sorry, can't remember properly this question of C, D or E types), they chopped off two cylinders (in other words they went from a 16 cyl to 14 cyl, or from 14 cyl to 12 cyl, you still following me?). But, as they didn't want the competition (Mercedes-Benz) to know that they had chopped off two cylinders for their latest evolution engine, they included one more exhaust pipe on each bank of cylinders (as if nothing had changed). They thought they could fool the Merc engineers with this, but no, as one Merc engineer was quick to point out when observing the Auto Union mechanics fire up their new engine: "Vy eez zer no smoke coming out from zee last exhaust pipe on eeeech zide?"", he asked.

Is this a true story?

 

Not really. It was well behind the lines and although there were very occasional Zeppelin raids they had to cross 200 miles of well-defended hostile territory from their nearest base at Metz to get there. Paris was also protected by a balloon barrage and the loss of four Zeppelins over Verdun wouldn't have encouraged further attempts!

http://www.firstworldwar.com/airwar/bombers_zeppelins.htm

The Germans did develop bomber aircraft later in the war, but did not start bombing Paris until early 1917. This prompted the French to build a decoy "Paris 2" in early 1918. Britain used similar strategies during WW2, with some success - both at home and elsewhere.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...s-end-of-First-World-War-to-fool-Germans.html

 

Wasn't the hotel room in France that Loius saw the wallpaper with bowties on it that inspired the Chevy logo? I'm sure it would have had to been an earlier trip though.

 

Doug, I think that was Durant that picked the logo in 1914. Bob

 

Doug I think Heinz saw pickel wall paper....... and counted them.......

 

Alright you two, I had a stroke and I'm mixed up. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

 

Whatever it takes to get you two active again. Bob

 

World War I impacted everyone in both Europe and the United States. I would imagine that Louie Chevrolet was very concerned about his brother Alfred's welfare, and was desperately trying to contact him. I did read somewhere that the German Army came through the village where Alfred lived in 1918. I've also found information that the U.S. Army had a field hospital near Chevrolet's home town of Beaune France in the summer of 1918.

Here is a article published by Ken Kaufman of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America that digs into the history of the Bow Tie logo.

http://home.earthlink.net/~scrippsbooth/chevbowtiehistory.html

The logo was trademarked by Durant in October of 1913 (see attached).

ZZZ

 

Board track construction...

 

Construction photo of Napier-Railton

 

Man!!! That took a lot of trees. There was one south of Pittsburgh Pa. near Uniontown, (Hopwood). Read it was very active before WWII. It had good attendance.



Ago

 

I know of a wonderful bridge in Brooklyn that you seem just the type of fellow who might be happy to buy it from me, for a great price....




The Alphabet designations for the Auto-Union machines was a post-WW2 invention to help the British author Laurence Pomeroy with the different types of the A-U machines that were used. Apparently, it was van Eberhorst who explained them to Pomeroy using letters rather than the designations that A-U actually used: Typ 1934, Typ 1935, Typ 1938, u.s.w.; keep in mind that Pomeroy also gave us the "P3" Alfa (Tipo B) and the Mercedes "M163" (M154).

 

Uniontown Speedway a bit further towards completion

http://www.uniontownspeedway.com/

 

Daimler-Benz used the "M" designation for engines, and "W" for vehicles. M=Motor, W=Wagen.

 

Touche, meant "W154," but Pomeroy -- and damn near everybody else for nearly half a century -- still got it wrong.

 

Photo of my dad (behind the wheel) circa 1934

 

That's a treasure. Thanks for posting it ZigZagZ.

 

Here is Hans Stuck guiding an Austro Daimler in the 1930 Klausenrennen.Image via the Bernhard Bragger archive.

 

^ love that hood strap - it looks like it doubles as a tow rope! Gary

 

x2 Excellent pic!

 

I thought this was an interesting image.I have no idea what kind of car it is.

 

^^^ Bob, That is Henry Ford in "Sweepstakes" the race car that really got Ford Motor Car started. Bob Check this out, really well done. http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130711/NEWS/130719976/henry-fords-legendary-sweeps