#wiesmann for the Mondays
Thing of beauty that Wiesmann gt mf5
Wiesmann MF5 for #caseofmondays
Classic Formula 1 Engines & sounds
Several examples of Toyota, Honda, Renault, BMW, Ferrari and Cosworth engines.
Watch this amazing compilation of F1 engines on dyno shooting flames:
Ayrton Senna’s Williams FW16 – Renault RS6 3.5 V10
(Ayrton Senna’s) Williams FW16 – Renault RS6 3.5 V10
1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari (Imola)
© Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd. / ESPN
A few more epic moments from Senna’s racing career:
McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 all go LEGO in 2015
We’re buying everything in the Speed Champions line.
Gah! Unbridled glee! The days of Ferrari having an exclusive hold on branded LEGO cars are officially over. Next year, you’ll be able to buy a minifig-scale McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, and LaFerrari. (Yes, we know about the Mini and VW stuff, but Maranello has been dominant.) We will take one of each, thank you.
These leaked images come courtesy of YouTube user just2good, so no prices yet, but the kits looks small enough that they should come in around 20 bucks. Again, we don’t care. Buying.
McLaren P1 (75909)
Is that a snowboard acting as the P1’s wing? Yes, yes it is.
LaFerrari (75899)
Some authentic Italian stubble on the LaFerrari test driver. Also: Why didn’t I think of making brick pylons?
All three cars have production-correct wheel designs, the 918’s being the coolest. And each car comes with a wrench, because, uh, why not?
There are also a few competition-inspired sets in the 2015 Speed Champions line, too: a sponsor-sticker-tastic 458 Italia GT2 (75908); a pair of 911 GT cars with podium, mechanics, and LEGO four-way (75912); a full pit-stop setup for the McLaren F1 team (75911); and (yet another) Ferrari F1 transporter (75913). I’m guessing the brick separators included in the F1 sets are in place of wheel guns.
We’ll forgive the similar look of the hypercars because there’s only so much you can do at minifig scale, and come on, minifig-scale hypercars! It’s nice to see few—if any—unique parts. The stickers differentiate them pretty well.
GAS TURBINE TECHNOLOGY
Whilst scouring the web for images of Americana, I came across these amazing pictures of Graham hill-driven Turbine Indy car from around 1968 in the Life Photo Archive.
In the race to produce an alternative to the internally combusted, piston-and-crankshaft model of car propulsion, there have been many interesting experiments. The gas turbine was one of most audacious and surely the least fuel-efficient.
Gas turbines use combustion like normal car engines, but instead of crankshafts and pistons, gases forced over blades of the turbine rotate, creating the drive.
Among the most high profile early turbine experimenters were Colin Chapman of Lotus fame. Chapman introduced the Lotus 56B F1 car in 1971, powered by a Pratt & Whitney gas turbine.
Turbine powered cars, with no gearbox and incredible power, had achieved some success in American Indy oval racing, where the turbines could be opened up at a constant rate for long periods, but apparently problems with two-way turbo lag in the more dynamic F1 context, which required staccatto braking and acceleration for hours on end, forced Chapman to abandon the project before the car had raced in anger.
Turbine engine
I imagine that gas turbine’s one-dimensional power arc might even have an application on the razor-straight, grid like road system of contemporary America. Every vehicle I have driven in America, from taxi cab to bus to Hhotrod seems great at going forward, loudly, with as little effort as possible, but the bump and grind of a twisty road is another proposition entirely.
CONCEPT CORNER: MUGEN NSX RR
Mugen is amongst the aristocracy of tuning companies.
As the brainchild of Hirotoshi Honda (Soichiro’s son), it has always had a pure bloodline of producing tuned road cars and race vehicles straight out of the Honda factory. And when Honda unveiled this Honda NSX Mugen RR concept at the 2008 Tokyo Auto Salon, anyone who loves the brand was aghast.
We’re suckers for louvres…
Just look at it. It takes all the gobsmackingly futuristic elements of Honda’s Senna-developed Ferrari slayer and just goes large.
For aero oomph is features a widened front, multi-grooved rear diffuser and an adjustable rear wing. But the power unit is where it really got interesting. It came with a modified 3.2L V6 that was mounted in the more traditional longtitudal situation, whereas the original of course had been tranversely mounted. The revert to the trad here allowed the inclusion of a more conventional and barking exhaust system, and would of course had made the weight distribution different.
and bulbous air intakes…
The donor NSX, with that long, low profile and huge rear over hang was not back happy like a 911 – rather in long, sweepy corners it drifts smoothly and controllably. We reckon the longitudal mount would make that controlled drift a little more sketchy.
On the positive side, the re-mount would have allowed for better power transfer to the rear wheels as well as that more conventionally efficient exhaust outlet.
We’d kill for a chance to test THAT particular theory.
We’re suckers for louvres…
and bulbous air intakes…
and fattened wings and red calipers and….
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