When epoch-making design has little effect

Bruno von Rotz
01/31/2020

Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic (1953) (© Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM/Sotheby's)

Innovative design studies and prototypes have been and continue to be shown at international motor shows. But even if what was shown attracted everyone's attention and was widely commented on, only a few of the high-flying ideas ever made it into series production.

One example is the "Supersonic" line from Ghia. The first of these Supersonic coupés was created in 1953, the designer was Savonuzzi, the car Ghia Supersonic Alfa Romeo 1900 Conrero. The car burned out in the same year, but the design was reused for some special bodies based on the Fiat 8V (later Jaguar XK120 and Aston Martin DB2/4).

Heck des Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic (1953) (© Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM/Sotheby's)

The flowing lines with jet-age attributes must have made quite an impression at the time, because next to a VW Beetle, Ford Anglia or Renault 4 CV, the coupé, which looked fast even when stationary, certainly looked like a vehicle from the future. Nevertheless, there were hardly any imitators and the design of series-produced cars developed in other directions.

Lancia Stratos HF Zero (1970)

The same can be said of the Lancia Stratos HF Zeroby Bertone, which caused a sensation at the 1970 motor shows. Although the car was built in a wedge shape for over a decade, the specific design elements of the Zero hardly ever found their way into series production. In the case of the Stratos, this was certainly due to the fact that nobody wanted an everyday car with such a low height. But why didn't a VW Karmann-Ghia look a bit like the Ghia Supersonic?

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The plug generation

Bruno von Rotz
01/30/2020

Generation Stecker

You probably remember the "Golf generation", the people who were born between 1965 and 1975 and grew up with the VW Golf.

Well, today's children are more likely to belong to the "plug generation". They are used to plugging everything in and then using it again on the move. Of course, this starts with the Gameboy and the cell phone, continues with the laptop and tablet, the watch, the e-bike or electric scooter, and finally the car, which you can/must also plug in nowadays. For this generation, it is completely normal to think about battery life and not to forget to recharge, even if it is only because the bicycle helmet should continue to show its warning light.

However, the plug-in generation doesn't have much more than charging in mind. The idea of checking the brake fluid or oil level before every major journey in a car is completely out of the mind of the plug-accustomed driver.

In five or ten years' time, there will be young people who have never had any direct contact with a car with a combustion engine, because their parents drove electric cars and so did those around them.

Whether this plug-in generation will ever be able to find a real connection to the historic automobile is the big question that keeps many classic car owners and clubs awake at night, because without new blood it will be difficult ...

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Bye bye beetle

Bruno von Rotz
01/29/2020

Ade Käfer

Volkswagen built the last Beetle in July 2019. It was, so to speak, the last Beetle to be built, more than 80 years after the first production model. As we all know, things only really got going in the 1950s. And while the original Beetle replaced the Ford Estate as the world production champion, its more modern successors were not quite as successful.

To say farewell, Volkswagen has produced a short film that provides a wonderfully sentimental transition to the successor ...

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The Formula 1 showcase on a one-to-one scale

Daniel Reinhard
01/28/2020

Besuch bei Hall&Hall (© Daniel Reinhard)

The winter period is the preparation phase for the coming season. While the current cars are in their final production phase just weeks before the presentation, the historic cars are prepared for the coming season or even rebuilt. The English company Hall&Hall has been restoring and looking after racing cars of all kinds for many years. Bourne, a small town around 200 km north of London, is the birthplace of two companies, each with three letters: ERA (English Racing Automobiles Ltd.) and BRM (British Racing Motors).

Besuch bei Hall&Hall (© Daniel Reinhard)

The Hall&Hall company is just as old as BRM is dead. In 1977, two years after patron Sir Alfred Owen died, the racing team founded by Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon in 1947 came to an end.

Many of the racing cars of that time, in all classes, are still preserved and are kept alive by some former BRM employees under the direction of Rick Hall. Three of them, already over 80 years old, are still involved today and report to work two days a week.

Rob Hall (© Daniel Reinhard)

Today, Rick's son Rob Hall runs a business with a total of 23 employees, which benefits from the fact that current racing cars with their highly complicated electronics are less and less suitable for historic racing. Today's racing cars will probably go straight from the racetracks to the museum, as in 20 or more years it would probably take more than 10 engineers to get the complex hybrid technology up and running again. In addition, it is not certain whether the old operating systems will still be able to be read on current computers in the distant future. The technically simple, old, mechanical racing cars with engine, gearbox and chassis only partially concealed under a beautiful mold will always remain desirable to drive and will also increase in value thanks to their relatively simple mobility.

Hall&Hall is the perfect place to stockpile, rebuild, restore or simply prepare these racing cars for their next outing.

Besuch bei Hall&Hall (© Daniel Reinhard)

The workshop doesn't look tidy in any way, but the visual chaos is very well organized. In one corner, Ernesto Brambilla's beautiful F2 Ferrari is being rebuilt, while the newly prepared 6-cylinder engine is already waiting to be installed in the 166 chassis. Two McLaren M23s are also being prepared for their next outing. In the middle you can see the aluminum body recently mounted on the Maserati tubular frame. In front of it is the beautiful Lotus Elan 26R. Whether a 12-cylinder flat engine from Ferrari or a V8 from Coventy Climax from the 1.5-liter era, the Hall's get everything back into shape.

For this purpose, a fourth of only three V16-cylinder BRM engines produced in the 1950s is rebuilt to scale according to original drawings. The owner of the P15 prefers to let off steam on the racetrack with the plagiarized version instead of the valuable original. What's more, the parts rebuilt using today's technology are more reliable than the originals. Rob Hall: "We have well over 33,000 drawings from BRM alone in our archive and can therefore reproduce any part true to the original."

Besuch bei Hall&Hall (© Daniel Reinhard)

Various shelves are also stacked with engine blocks, crankshafts, cylinder heads, gearbox housings, brakes, noses, wings and other cladding parts from all kinds of manufacturers.

Besuch bei Hall&Hall (© Daniel Reinhard)

His customers are now not only BRMs, but also owners of Ferraris, Maseratis, Lotus Shadows and even Vanwalls.

Hall&Hall's all-round carefree package looks like this: "We drive their racing cars to the races in our two vans, book flights, hotels and yachts, prepare the cars and refurbish them after use. The owners just have to drive them." Naturally, Graham Hill Way in Bourne is very busy before major motor shows or classic car events in Goodwood or Monaco.

Besuch bei Hall&Hall (© Daniel Reinhard)

Customers come from all over the world, but many of their cars have their home in Bourne. The hall with over 100 racing cars looks like an oversized model car store. Of course, almost all BRM models are represented here in real life. They are joined by a large number of F1s from Shadow, Tyrrell, Hesketh, ISO Marlboro, Lotus, March and Arrows, as well as various F2s and F3s. The Lancia Ferrari D50 and the 250F Maserati, two cars that have not been seen so close together since the starting grid for the 1955 Grand Prix in Argentina, Monaco and Belgium, also shine brightly in this hall.

At the end of our visit, Rob Hall shows us the old BRM company buildings that still exist and also the villa of racing team founder Raymond May, who lived there all his life. We park in the narrow street in front of it. "This is where Raymond May himself drove the 16-cylinder BRM Type 15 in traffic to see how the engine worked on a country road outside the town."

Later, back in the workshop, he shows us the photo and says goodbye: "Yes, it's hard to believe that this little town won a world championship in 1962 with the BRM P57 and Graham Hill at the wheel." It's another one of the many typical English motorsport stories.

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How does a synchronized gearbox actually work?

Bruno von Rotz
01/27/2020

Nowadays, hardly anyone knows what a simple four-speed gearbox feels like, what with all the torque converter automatics and eight-speed DSGs. However, even back then, not everyone was aware of how a synchronized gearbox really worked. That's why "auto motor und sport" made an attempt in 1952 to explain how the transmission works in an understandable way. It sounded something like this:

"You're driving in some lower gear, you've revved the engine and want to go into the next gear. So disengage the clutch, release the accelerator at the same time, pull the gearshift over and it starts to screech. This is because your rear axle and the transmission parts connected to it are still turning at the same speed. However, in order to be able to engage the new gear immediately, the engine speed must have already dropped - and you have shifted too quickly! The art of noiseless and smooth upshifting is based on giving the engine, which has just been cheering loudly, enough time to calm down to the speed corresponding to the new, higher gear after the low gear has been pulled out. This primarily requires time. You can try this out - pull out a low gear, consciously force yourself to wait, engage a higher gear. You will then quickly find out how long you have to wait between gears until you can engage them smoothly. Make things easy for yourself: keep the clutch disengaged! Of course, it is an advantage to let go of the clutch while waiting between gears and only depress it again to engage the gear - don't do that at the beginning, try waiting a little between gears, that will help a lot. And when your hand has mastered this without thinking, then teach your left leg to double-clutch, i.e. to temporarily release the clutch until you depress the clutch again to engage the new gear. By the way: There are people who like to set a fairly fast idle, me too - you have to take a little longer breaks when changing gear, the engine then takes longer to drop down with the revs.

So, and now the other way round: you're in high gear and want to go into a lower gear. The transmission parts connected to the rear axle continue to run unchanged, and the lower gear cannot be engaged because the engine would have to rev higher than before. To be able to pull out the big gear, you have disengaged the clutch and taken your foot off the accelerator - someone once told you that you have to take your foot off the accelerator to engage the clutch. Your engine doesn't think about revving higher than before!
I do this by disengaging the clutch - but not very low, just low enough so that the big gear can be pulled out. I also take the throttle off - but not all of it. When the big gear is out, the engine cheers all by itself and the smaller gear can be pushed in. . .."

Of course, this did not explain how the gearbox works, but you could read on for a while. And there was also an illustration to enjoy in the article in issue 3/1952 of auto motor und sport .

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The last twelve cylinders

Bruno von Rotz
01/26/2020

Die letzten Zwölfzylinder (© AMS)

It was around 37 years ago. Back then, "auto motor und sport" printed a cover story about the last 12-cylindercars. In fact, the field was pretty thinned out back then, because apart from Ferrari (512 BBi, 400i), Lamborghini (Countach) and Jaguar (XJ 12, XJ-S), no more 12-cylinder vehicles were on offer. And it didn't look like that was going to change.

But then, surprisingly, there was a small renaissance, as BMW reintroduced a V12 engine in 1987 with the E32 series Siebner. Mercedes-Benz did not want to be left behind and also added a V12 engine to the S-Class W140. The twelve-cylinder engine also survived at both Ferrari and Lamborghini, only Jaguar withdrew from the 12-cylinder club.

Aston Martin also joined the club with the doubled Sierra Ford engine, as did Audi with a twelve-cylinder in a W arrangement. Bentley also had the Audi engine, while Rolls-Royce benefited from BMW developments. Small-series manufacturers bought from the major suppliers, such as Pagani, which used Daimler technology. And then there was (and still is) the Toyota Century with a V12.

You could probably write the same article today as you did in 1983, because although it is somewhat larger, the club of V12 vehicles has remained manageable. And there is a good chance that current CO2 limits could get in the way of other V12 manufacturers.

But back to 1983: the performance data was modest compared to today: the 4.8 to 5.3 liter twelve-cylinder engines produced 295 to 375 hp. They consumed 19.1 to 23.8 liters of super per 100 km and were able to accelerate the 1.365 to 1.93 ton cars from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.2 to 9.1 seconds. None of them managed more than 293 km/h, and the Jaguar XJ 12 5.3 only managed 233 km/h. Of course, a modern four-cylinder engine can do all this and more with a third of the fuel consumption, but the smooth running of a twelve-cylinder engine is still unmatched today. And anyone who has ever heard a high-revving Countach engine will understand why the V12 still has so many fans today.

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Ercole Spada's car

Werner Bartholai
01/25/2020

Ercole Spadas Auto

Last Thursday evening, Ercole Spada, the famous Zagato chief designer from 1959 to 1969, paid his respects at the "Swiss Car Register Academy" in Safenwil. This time, however, he was not the center of attention; as a proud father, he accompanied his son Paolo, who is responsible for the design of the e.go "Life" and "Mover" models.

The e.go Life (seen in the background) was also on display, as was Ercole Spada's only car bearing his design, which he also owns. "All the other models I have designed are too expensive for me," he smiles, knowing that the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, which he designed in 1959 and which is now one of the most sought-after classics and most beautiful models in the world, is labeled with a price tag of over EUR 10 million...

Back to his car: he designed it himself, of course. In his private garage, Zagato sheet metal artist Bruno Gezzi hammered the aluminum for the body to shape after work. Spada used a Fiat 500 model as the basis. The approximately 20 hp of the engine had to get the 440 kg of the car moving. As always with his designs, Spada took care to achieve the greatest possible wind resistance and the lowest possible center of gravity. The recesses for the driver and passenger seats were "lowered" (i.e. lowered) and the fuel tank was virtually moved to the rear axle. This was intended to improve traction. The car was also compact and therefore certainly a source of constant driving pleasure ...

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Some like it hot: Kraftwerk

Bruno von Rotz
01/24/2020

VW Golf GTI von 1979 in der Werbung

In fact, "Kraftwerk" was the title of the advertisement for the VW Golf GTI in 1979.

The text below the picture then explained why this was the case:

"Some like it hot. And that's why we build the Golf GTI. This is the Golf in its most powerful version. Its fuel-injected engine effortlessly delivers 81 kW (110 PS). It sprints from a standstill to 100 km/h in 9 seconds and easily reaches a top speed of 182 km/h.
This powerful performance would suit many an exotic car. But it can certainly do even more. Thanks to its internally ventilated disc brakes, it is able to bring itself to a standstill again in just a few seconds.
And its wide-track chassis with wide rims and super-wide steel-belted tires ensures optimum safety on all roads.
The biggest thing, however, is its fuel consumption. Compared to the performance on offer, it is astonishingly economical: a modest 8.0 l of premium fuel per 100 km according to DIN. The Golf GTI is simply an inexpensive force at work. "

Yes, those were the days when 175 tires were considered "super-wide, the performance of 110 hp was on a par with sports cars and a fuel consumption of eight liters per 100 km could be mentioned in advertising ...

Here is a picture of the entire advertisement, now over 40 years old, which can of course also be found in large format in the Zwischengas picture archive :

VW Golf GTI von 1979 in der Werbung auf A4

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A luxury problem

Bruno von Rotz
01/23/2020

What are the classic prices doing? This is a question we are often asked. General observations usually don't help. A few days ago, we reported on the auction results from Scottsdale/Arizona, and we will soon be following the auctions in Paris.

But what is the long-term trend? The valuations of Classic Data and the like are often unable to fully reflect the changes, especially when the change in value happens quickly.

Let's take the example of the Ferrari 250 GT/L Lusso, built 351 times between 1962 and 1964. 28 transactions are listed in our auction database between 2012 and 2019. If the sales prices achieved are placed on the time axis, the following picture emerges:

Wertentwicklung Ferrari 250 GT Lusso (1962-1946) gemäss Zwischengas-Auktionsdatenbank

The curved curve shows the trend (in the form of a polynomial curve). Due to the limited number of data points, the trend should not be overestimated, but it is clear that prices rose until around 2016 and then fell again. Currently, it seems that Lussos are trading at around the 2012/2013 level. An interesting anomaly can be seen in 2015/16, when four cars were offered that could not be sold. Presumably, the consignors had hoped to still receive prices at 2014 levels. This was not successful. Estimates and reserve prices later fell again and sales were completed.

And what is the "right" price for a Lusso today? As always, it depends on the condition and history, of course, but a Lusso will always be an attractive car that only exists in small numbers. Classic Data currently quotes EUR 1.4 million for a 250 GT/L in condition 2. A certain downward correction of the values is probably still necessary here.

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We missed that one

Bruno von Rotz
01/22/2020

We reported on the three major auctions in Scottsdale/Arizona , in which Bonhams, Gooding & Co and RM/Sotheby's together sold over 300 cars worth USD 50 million. Unfortunately, we were unable to cover the volume auctions of Mecum and Barrett-Jackson.

However, we also missed out on one or two surprises, such as the prices for several BMW M3 E36 Lightweight, which went for between USD 220,000 and USD 385,000, probably also because they came from the Paul Walker estate. And because only 115 of them were built.

However, neither was the case for a 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer (also pictured above), which was worth a proud USD 110,000 to one buyer. With only 8000 miles on the clock and completely original, it is certainly a rarity, but the price is still astonishing.

There must have been quite a bit of sentimentality involved. After all, the Jeep is probably much more practical in everyday use than one of Paul Walker's lightweight M3 E36s ...

If you want to work your way through all the results of the Barrett-Jackson auction, which lasted several days and amounted to over USD 140 million with 1900 lots, you can find the results on the auction house's website, including a Ford Bronco for USD 110,000 ...

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