Thanks for sharing the photos Russ. GREAT cars, all.
Were the last shots of the vintage early Ferraris , shown at Cavallino this past January ?
And what are those rims on your CSL ? TSW ? or OZ ?
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Thanks for sharing the photos Russ. GREAT cars, all.
Were the last shots of the vintage early Ferraris , shown at Cavallino this past January ?
And what are those rims on your CSL ? TSW ? or OZ ?
"Say hello to my little friend"....
A WW2 US Navy Corsair F4 and a Messerschmitt KR 200 microcar share hangar space at the Virginia Beach Vintage Military Airport. (Located right next door to "The Fighter Factory"). Very cool place, it has all functioning aircraft and uses an unpaved grass runway.
This is actually intended as my response to Popowitz's "My Hero" post, also on this forum. This is the weekend the Wine Country Classic is being held at Sears Point, but before all the pedants apoplectically reach for their keyboards & mice, let me quickly state that neither of course is the correct name, the event having been re-christened the SONOMA HISTORIC MOTORSPORTS FESTIVAL three years ago when Steve Earl, the founder of the Monterey Historics, took over organizing it, and it is held at Infineon Raceway, the new, neutered name for glorious old Sears Point - but since this thread seems to be visited very rarely, and then only by a few old farts who purposely seek it out and who have been following this sport for much longer than some of the young "know-it-alls" have been alive, I thought I'd put it in a more familiar context.
As I walked through the pits yesterday I came across the one car which instantly made my weekend, if not my whole summer of vintage racing: a '52 W-194 M-B 300 3.0 liter race car. It just doesn't get much more historic or significant than this. One of ten werke units built for the '52 season, this car, Serial # 194-007/52, is the first German car ever to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Hermann Lang and Fritz Reiss driving. The owner of this car, one of the world's most prominent & accomplished car collectors, is the only driver of this car in vintage races worldwide.The man obviously has exquisite taste.
Designed under the forceful and inspired leadership of Rudolf Uhlenhaut, 300 SLs were designed in large part as a racing version of the premier series of 300S sedans, featuring the Company's new 3.0 liter six-cylinder in-line OHC motor with three Solex carbs, making about 175 HP at a relatively sedate 5200 rpm. In order to allow a much lower hood line for the sake of a smaller frontal cross-section and a significantly lower center of gravity the engine block was laid over 50 degrees from the horizontal, coupled to a 4-speed gearbox and to a swing axle independent rear suspension. Aluminum drum brakes at all four corners provided stopping power. For maximum stiffness with minimum weight, ( the car weighs 1080 kilograms ) since the all-aluminum hand-made body contributed nothing in terms of stiffness, a small tube diameter space frame ( with particular emphasis put on controlling bending forces ) made for very high sills, making it impractical to incorporate conventional doors, thus the "Gullwing" door configuration was adopted, which permitted entry and exit. I recall two aspects which were the center of much lewd and tongue-in-cheek discussion when the regular production Gullwings appeared for sale to the public 2 years later..........the inevitable and numerous opportunities for the ever present paparazzi to catch interesting shots of starlets and famous beauties getting in and out of Gullwing coupes, and more responsibly, the genuine concern of the FIA and DMVs worldwide of a driver and / or passenger safely bailing out of a 300SL should it ever be in an accident and wind up on its roof, in which case one could not open the door..........hence the pop-out side windows, which could obviously not be roll-downs due to the contour of the doors.
Since this series of race cars had no opening windows per se, the racing coupes had a driver operated center vent at the rear of the top of the roof for a modicum of flow-through ventilation, as well as sliding & pivoting side windows in the plexiglas main door windows to allow for communication with the pit crew.
This particular car has a very well known history, having been rebodied by the factory into a roadster for a couple of seasons, and then being returned to its original coupe configuration after the end of Mercedes's racing efforts after the '55 Le Mans calamity. I had seen this car once before at the '09 Pebble Beach Concours, but it was totally inaccessible at that venue at the time, so yesterday's opportunity to really look this treasure over and have the attendants open various panels and talk to me about the car in detail really ranks right up there with the Race Car Classic of last October.
Thanks for looking
and more............
and more still..........
and a final four to show a little more of the engine installation, ( it's amazing how close to stock this engine really was, virtually a stock three liter lifted right out of an "Adenauer" sedan- my father owned one in post-war Vienna, it was in the creme color which is on Ruprecht's engine lid and license plate panel and trunk lid these days - with red leather interior) some space frame details, and a photo of a spectator grinning to himself from ear to ear in sheer, unadulterated delight at seeing a car which was one of the crowning achievements of 20th century automotive developement.
".... a car which was one of the crowning achievements of 20th century automotive development."
True that! Whoof. Thank you for sharing those, John.
John, this historically significant (and wonderful) 300SL should have its own thread in "Other Car Cultures" and not just be appended to Chuck Miller's announcement of the sub-forum...
-- David
Bugatti 57SC Atlantic
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in both pictures i see 2nd one is really impressive collection !