A feast for the eyes

Bruno von Rotz
11/30/2020

Cover (Ausschnitt) von Road & Track 1/1965

We rave about it all the time, but magazine covers used to be much more attractive! A wonderful example can be found in issue 1/1965 of Road & Track.

It shows a line-up of vehicles, probably getting ready for a sports car race. A Shelby Cobra in the foreground, two Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupés further back and a Ferrari 250 GTO at the far left. This starting grid would probably be worth several hundred million USD today, back then they were simply racing cars, bought for one season and used regardless of losses. One look at the cover of the magazine is enough for us to go into raptures.

Here is the whole cover:

Cover von Road & Track 1/1965

If you like looking at magazine covers, then take a look at our many titles that we have already bibliographed together with Zwischengas readers in the media library .

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Oliver Winterbottom, the man of sharp edges (obituary)

Bruno von Rotz
11/29/2020

Oliver Winterbotton mit dem Lotus-Prototyp M90 (© Lotus / Werk)

A little late, we would like to remember the British designer Oliver Winterbottom, who passed away on November 6, 2020 at the age of 76.

His name may not be as well-known as Michelotti's or Giugiaro's, but his cars certainly are.

He began his career as a designer at Jaguar. More visible than his work on the XJ21 prototype were his contributions to Lotus from 1969 onwards.

Oliver Winterbotton mit dem Lotus Elite Prototyp (© Lotus / Werk)

He designed the Lotus Elite and later also the Lotus Eclat, both representatives of the wedge shape.

TVR Tasmin von 1981

Winterbottom moved on to TVR in 1978 and designed the Tasmin, probably one of his most successful designs ever. However, he must not have liked the way the design developed over the coming years. The collaboration with TVR was relatively short-lived.

Back at Lotus, he worked on the M90 prototype (pictured above) from 1980 onwards, although it never reached production maturity. In 1985, Oliver left Lotus again to join General Motors in Detroit, only to return to Lotus a year later and remain there until 1998. Winterbottom then ran his own design consultancy until his retirement.

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Operating philosophy

Bruno von Rotz
11/28/2020

Isuzu Piazza Turbo Coupé von 1980 - Bedienungssatellit links vom Lenkrad (© Bruno von Rotz)

Question to Radio Yerevan: "Why does the Tesla have an 'autopilot'?

Answer: "The operation of secondary functions via the touch panel in the center console distracts the driver so much that the car drives better autonomously".

Of course, Tesla is not the only car manufacturer to have more and more operating functions handled via a touch-sensitive LCD screen. However, the Americans are probably going a little further than Volkswagen or Mercedes, for example, where there are at least a few more buttons. According to an ams survey in Germany, this operating philosophy is not very well received by car drivers, with more than half disliking it.

In the 1980s, the Isuzu brand took a completely different approach with the Piazza coupé.

Isuzu Piazza Turbo Coupé von 1980 - Bedienungssatellit rechts vom Lenkrad (© Bruno von Rotz)

Almost all functions (except the radio controls) were arranged in two satellites to the left and right of the steering wheel. Whether you want to switch on the lights, turn on the rear window heating or turn down the air conditioning, the switches are never more than ten centimeters away from the steering wheel. They are even arranged reasonably logically and can be used even by Isuzu novices after a short familiarization period.

Now, Isuzu was not the first car manufacturer to have control satellites on the steering wheel; Citroën, for example, had already done this. However, the Japanese went one step further, as the satellites are adjustable and can be adapted to the size of the hand, so to speak, using a knurled screw under the satellites.

Isuzu Piazza Turbo Coupé von 1980 - Bedienungssatellit mit Rändelschraube (© Bruno von Rotz)

The control satellites on the steering wheel did not catch on, they probably did not look sporty enough and certainly had disadvantages. Looking back, however, it has to be said that they were actually quite practical.

P.S. As most Zwischengas readers have noticed, the operating philosophy of zwischengas.com also changed slightly when we rolled out a redesigned version on November 20, 2020 . We have already received a lot of feedback and for most readers the positive aspects of the modified application outweigh the negative. But there have also been criticisms. And we're just as happy about that, because unlike a car manufacturer that can't constantly change its models, web technology allows us to make modifications and optimize our application at almost any time. So if there is anything that bothers you about the "new Zwischengas", just get in touch. Because we want to implement the most efficient and effective operating philosophy possible.

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Kimi Raikkonen is the longest-serving driver in Formula 1

Daniel Reinhard
11/27/2020

Auto Union am Klausenrennen 2002 (© Daniel Reinhard)

Kimi Raikkonen (41) is the longest-serving F1 driver with 327 Grand Prix starts. He is currently four starts ahead of the Brazilian Rubens Barrichello (323).

Three more will be added by the end of the year, by which time the Swiss-based Finn will have 330 races under his belt. As he will be back next season, the number will rise to an incredible plus-minus 350 races (depending on coronavirus).

In comparison, Jackie Stewart drove 99, Niki Lauda 171, Nigel Mansell 187 and Michael Schumacher 307 Formula 1 races.

Of course, Raikkonen's F1 career did not start before the war, together with Hans Stuck or Bernd Rosemeyer in the Auto Union. So why these photos?

The optical illusion is the reason, because who exactly is sitting in the car? It's definitely not Raikkonen, but the driver (pictured above) resembles him like an identical twin brother. The pictures were taken at the Klausen race in 2002.

Martin Tomczyk im Auto Union am Klausenrennen 2002 (© Daniel Reinhard)

The car was driven up the mountain by Martin Tomczyk (pictured with helmet), but Raikkonen's doppelganger (with white dust cap) was responsible for transporting it back.

Incidentally, the Klausen Race celebrates its 100th birthday on August 27, 2022 (it was first held on August 27, 1922). Unfortunately, all efforts to celebrate the big birthday in two years' time have been neglected over the years.

After all, a memorial event was held in 1993, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2013, but since then the racing engines have remained silent on the Klausen. At least the first four events had the potential to compete with the Mille Miglia or the Le Mans Classic. After all, there was no other place in the world where so many top-class pre-war racing cars gathered to compete on such a long and difficult mountain course.
The lack of a continuation is also sad for the entire Glarnerland region, which would have a first-class tourist attraction with the Klausen Race.

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1000 cars or so ...

Bruno von Rotz
11/26/2020

Lexus LS 400 von 1990 (© Bruno von Rotz)

When we look back on ten years of Zwischengas on the occasion of our anniversary , what comes to mind? And above all, have we lost our passion for old cars after driving or photographing around a thousand different classics, from the Renault 4 and Mercedes /8 to the Aston Martin DB6 or Lamborghini Diablo? Can we still enjoy simple cars at all?

The answer is simple. We haven't lost the desire, nor do we believe that expensive or faster cars are more fun. Perhaps even the opposite effect is at play, because some of the rides that are most etched in our brains were in pre-war automobiles and cabin scooters. And we also can't understand why James May (formerly of Top Gear) has sold all his classic cars because he only wants to deal with modern cars.

We, on the other hand, are pleased that the range in the classic car segment alone is getting bigger and bigger, because every year a new vintage is added and reveals new surprises.

And yes, the Lexus LS 400 is now also a classic car; the car pictured even has Swiss veteran registration, similar to the German H license plate. And at the other end of the time spectrum, a 1900 Gladiator is waiting for us, which we want to photograph next year. You certainly can't complain about a lack of versatility!

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Tip number 2 on the new design of zwischengas.com

Balz Schreier
11/26/2020

The new design of zwischengas.com finally went live a few days ago. For all those who have known and used Zwischengas for years, it is certainly a change. We would therefore like to take a closer look at a few changes and give you a few tips.

First of all, our main articles have a striking new feature: every visitor, whether anonymous or Premium PRO, will in most cases see a large image at the top of the article. We are proud of our images, and only at a certain size can you really show the quality, so we have decided to show at least the lead image really nice and big for everyone.

The new article header

But let's move on to the new article header, the area with the many icons.

On the left-hand side are all the controls that are directly related to the content:

Number of photos: Click on it! This will take you to a view where you can immediately see all the pictures! Enjoy the pictures on a black background, and in full size!
Facsimiles (as PDF): Click on this PDF symbol to jump directly to the brochures.
Recommended articles: Our editorial team is always looking for really good articles that fit the topic, you can find them here. Click on it, you will jump directly there.
Sound samples: Fancy some music? Click and play. It's easy.
Ratings: We update our Classic-Data vehicle ratings every two months. You can jump directly to them here.
Comments: Our readers know a lot, and here you can read comments or pass on your knowledge and comment on something yourself. We look forward to it!

On the right-hand side are controls with so-called user functions:

Translation: If you have set a main language other than "German" in your profile, a translation symbol will appear here first. With one click, the article appears in the saved language.
Print: Our articles can now be printed in PDF format (only available for Premium PRO)
Personal archive: With one click you can save content to your personal archive so that you can find it again later.
Dossier: You can add content to a dossier, which is like a view folder, or a folder to which you add certain content.
Share: Would you like to send certain content to a friend? Then use this share icon. The usual sharing options such as Whatsapp, email, SMS and others are automatically available on your cell phone. Try it out!

The new photo carousel

Have you seen it yet? There are little arrows in the picture, click on them to go to the next picture. The caption adjusts automatically.

There is a magnifying glass symbol at the bottom right of the caption. Clicking on it will take you to the detailed view of the image just shown and give you much more information about the image and also the option of downloading even larger versions of the image (Premium PRO members can download any image in its original resolution).

Now we hope you have learned something and hope you enjoy browsing through our content.

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Pioneers almost 60 years ago

Bruno von Rotz
11/25/2020

Max Pichler und Heinz (Horst) Schaardt (© Daniel Reinhard)

The day before yesterday, on November 23, 2020, zwischengas.com celebrated its 10th anniversary. We got started in 2010 and were also a bit of pioneers - after all, the approach pursued by zwischengas.com had never been implemented to this extent before. A magazine archive that now contains over 580,000 pages covering practically the entire history of the automobile and hundreds of thousands of photos from then and now, plus a sound archive, an auction database, a media library and much more. To this day, zwischengas.com remains unrivaled.

But of course, other people have done pioneering work before us. For example, Max Pichler and Heinz Schaardt (pictured above), who published a racing magazine from Switzerland from 1963 onwards that was largely unparalleled, at least in the German-speaking world.

Redaktion Powerslide 1963

Powerslide" was founded by Rico Steinemann, Arthur Blank and Max Pichler, Heinz (Horst) Schaardt soon joined them to organize the distribution and also to help with the photos and reports. None of the pioneers had much idea of how to make a magazine. They learned by doing. Pichler took gripping photos, Steinemann wrote exciting texts and Blank made sure that the result looked presentable.

The result was one of the most famous magazines of the time and it was published in this form on a monthly basis until the early 1970s. It then became the weekly "Motorsport Aktuell", which still exists today and is published by Motor Presse.

A photo from that time, which Heinz Schaardt sent us on the occasion of our 10th anniversary, illustrates wonderfully that media work and racing were closer together back then than they are today. The caption reads:
Photo 1964 Hillclimb Schauinsland D: from top left Heinz Horst Schaardt, Rico Steinemann, "Seppi" Siffert and Marianne Steinemann.

Bergrennen Schauinsland D 1964: von oben links Heinz Horst Schaardt, Rico Steinemann, «Seppi» Siffert und Marianne Steinemann

Powerslide can be read page by page in the Zwischengas magazine archive , from the first issue in 1963 to the last issue in 1975 (before the name change).

Powerslide Titelseiten 1963 und 1975

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The major and minor misadventures in 10 years of Zwischengas

Bruno von Rotz
11/24/2020

Benzinpanne mit einem Maserati Ghibli

Zwischengas turned 10 years old yesterday, and we not only revamped our entire website for the big day, but also published special reports and put together an anniversary quiz with a competition.

Over the last ten years, we have achieved a lot as planned, but from time to time we have also had minor or major mishaps. Mostly this has always happened during test drives when taking photos with old cars. But our server, which we used to provide the online platform, also crashed completely in August 2013, but after an interruption of several hours we were live again. And since then without any major interruptions.

But back to the minor and major accidents during hundreds of photo shoots. There were several petrol breakdowns, the worst of which happened to a Ferrari in Hergiswil when the twelve-cylinder car stopped in the middle of a road with one lane of traffic and traffic lights on both sides, with the result that cars then drove into the roadworks from both sides. And we were in the middle. Not a nice situation.

And there was the Maserati Ghibli that slowed us down without gas (picture above). We then filled up the wrong tank, whereupon the Maserati, which you can switch manually from tank 1 to tank 2 if you know how, still wouldn't start.

On another Ferrari, the ignition key broke off in the lock during the photo drive, and on another exotic car the key could no longer be removed. Both engines could neither be stopped nor restarted without the key.

We also came to a standstill several times with a flat battery, sometimes pushing the engine helped, but mostly we had to look for starting assistance. And an Italian classic lost almost all its engine oil on one trip. Only towing helped. In any case, we sometimes had to be towed by a younger car when the technology was no longer up to the job, for example when we were traveling in a Citroën 2 CV.

The photo equipment didn't always cooperate either, for example the flash system failed or the cameras refused to work in the heavy rain. Only blow-drying in the hotel saved the SLR.

Verunfallter BMW unseres Fotografen

And then there was the avoidable accident when a delivery van at the Red Bull Ring completely overlooked our photographer's BMW, which was stationary and waiting for us, and at a speed of 30 km/h or more, it was a total loss.

On the whole, however, we always got off lightly, so our application has been running with over 99.97% availability for the last 10 years. And somehow we always managed to get back up and running even after car breakdowns. You can't complain about that.

We have also immortalized a few of our memories of the more than 1000 photo shoots of the last 10 years in our current anniversary quiz . There's even something to win!

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10 years zwischengas.com - what a journey!

Bruno von Rotz
11/23/2020

10 Jahre Zwischengas - wir feiern!

What once started as a hobby has developed into a serious business, with more than half a dozen people who depend directly or indirectly on the success of zwischengas.com. And millions of readers every year!

At the time, we thought that "Zwischengas" was a sensible name for our classic car and youngtimer website, because people who could relate to the term would also like our online solution.

Vor 10 Jahren - die erste Version von Zwischengas geht live

Over the last ten years, however, we ourselves have mainly been at full throttle, moving - in a figurative sense - mostly at the rev limit or the limiter, running the turbocharger and supercharger hot to increase performance and reporting on the world of classic and vintage cars almost around the clock.

Over 11,000 reports, short articles and news items were published and over 300,000 photos were taken. Our readers contributed almost 10,000 comments, archived 115,000 pieces of content and enjoyed 100 car quizzes and around 200 questions of the week. The magazine archive has grown to over 570,000 pages in ten years.

In order to have the latest reports and reviews online in time for Tuesday morning, many a night turned into day and the number of completely work-free weekends in the last ten years can probably be counted on one or two hands. But we were happy to do it, enjoyed the test and photo drives with around a thousand historic cars, all of which had their own endearing characteristics.

Der Fiat 500 Topolino zum 500. Newsletter

We found driving a Fiat Topolino just as interesting as driving a Jaguar XJ220 or Ferrari F40, even if the latter naturally produced a little more adrenaline for us. We enjoyed so-called bread-and-butter cars just as much as small-series exotics. And we also devoted reports to vehicles that are usually ignored by the classic car press.

And we still enjoy researching forgotten cars and rummaging for lost photos.

A lot has changed in ten years. When we started in 2010, many cars that are now considered veritable classic cars were still youngtimers. Many of the "classic pearls of the future" we described have now become sought-after collectors' cars. Initially, we thought that it would be enough to have a magazine archive online up to the year 1980, but over the years we have corrected this and extended the online archive up to the year 2000. And we will probably soon have to upgrade here too.

We have never run out of work in recent years and unfortunately we have not always been able to complete all the projects we started, so the list of planned improvements is still huge.

Zum 10. Jubiläum - Fahrt im Fiat 508 S Balilla

But after all, the next ten years are just beginning and hardly anyone can imagine what the car world and the classic car/youngtimer scene will look like in 2030.

Zwischengas will still be part of it then, and we are working on it every day, as the new version of our website that has just been launchedproves - you could actually call it Zwischengas Mark II!

To mark the 10th anniversary of zwischengas.com, we have not only produced a special article entitled "Dreams in red" , but also an anniversary quiz with a competition!

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Increasing acceptance for online purchases of classic and vintage cars (question of the week)

Bruno von Rotz
11/22/2020

Frage der Woche 169 - Oldtimer online kaufen?

In the age of the coronavirus pandemic, auction houses have increasingly turned to the online channel. And with success. Even classics worth millions have been knocked down online. More and more bidders seem to be taking part in auctions online. We took the pulse on this topic for the first time around 2.5 years ago, and now we are naturally interested in whether opinions have changed. So we launched another "question of the week"on this topic.

And now the answers are in, 235 readers have expressed their opinion this time:

27.2Percent can't imagine buying online at all, which is in line with the result two years ago.

37.9 percent can imagine checking for a car online when the right opportunity arises (in 2018, this figure was 30 percent).

30.6 percent consider it conceivable, with restrictions (32 percent)

3 percent consider an online purchase to be the most efficient way to get a new classic car, although this was still six percent 2.5 years ago.

1.3 percent were unable to give an answer, compared to 2 percent in the last survey.

Overall, there has been a certain shift towards a willingness to buy and sell online. Just 2.5 years ago, 68 percent could imagine bidding for cars online, now the figure is 71 percent.

We have also summarized the figures graphically, with the values from 2018 in brackets, when 136 readers took part.

Frage der Woche 169 - Ergebnisse

We have already published a new "Question of the week" . We are very interested to hear what you think of the redesigned Zwischengas website.

And, of course, you can still read the results of all previous "Questions of the Week" in the corresponding topic channel .

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Zwischengas has been publishing a daily blog post here since 2010

For more entries, please use the navigation by year and month.