Friday, January 28, 2011

1955 Lancia Aurelia B24 Spider Burago 1:18












From Wikipedia:
 The Lancia Aurelia is a car produced by Italian manufacturer Lancia from 1950 to the summer of 1958. It is noted for using one of the first series-production V6 engines. Several body styles were offered: 4-door saloon, 2-door GT coupé (B20), 2-door spider/convertible (B24), and a chassis to be custom bodied by external coachbuilders.

Establishing a post-war Lancia tradition, the car was named after a Roman road: the Via Aurelia, leading from Rome to Pisa. An Aurelia-based car is now produced by Thornley Kelham.

The Aurelia was designed under the direction of engineer Vittorio Jano. Its engine, one of the first production V6 engines, a 60° design developed by Francesco de Virgilio, who was between 1943 and 1948 a Lancia engineer, and who worked under Jano. During production, capacity grew from 1.8 l to 2.5 l. Prototype engines used a bore and stroke of 68 mm x 72 mm for 1,569 cc; these were tested between 1946 and 1948. It was an all-alloy pushrod design with a single camshaft between the cylinder banks. A hemispherical combustion chamber and in-line valves were used. A single Solex or Weber carburettor completed the engine. Some uprated 1,991 cc models were fitted with twin carburettors.

At the rear was an innovative combination transaxle with the gearbox, clutch, differential, and inboard-mounted drum brakes. The front suspension was a sliding pillar design, with rear semi-trailing arms replaced by a de Dion tube in the Fourth series. The Aurelia was also first car to be fitted with radial tires as standard equipment. Initially 165SR400 Michelin X and later on the sports models fitted with 165HR400 Pirelli Cinturato.

Friday, January 21, 2011

1955 Chevrolet Pickup Stepside Jada 1:24











 
1955 Chevrolet Srtepside Jada 1:24.

El modelo del año 1955 fue una continuación de las camionetas de 1947. La primera linea A fueron duraderas y se vendían bien pero la nueva Ford de 1953, así como los nuevos modelos de Dodge en 1954, provocaron un re-diseño de los Chevrolet buscando modernizarse. Tomando el estilo de la exitosa plataforma de las furgonetas de la  segunda serie de Chevrolet.

Montaron en un nuevo chasis de seis travesaño, permitiendo la instalación de ballestas delanteras y traseras. La serie estándar de media tonelada, la  3100 tenía una «distancia entre ejes, que se comparte con la serie 3124 . Los más pesados de la serie 3200 tienen una caja de carga más larga. Los modelos de 3/4 de tonelada utilizan las denominaciones 3.500 y 3.700.

Instalaciones eléctricas, actualizados de 6 a 12 voltios, fueron una de las muchas mejoras.

Lo más importante es el nuevo motor de Chevrolet de bloque pequeño V-8, introducido en 1955 en los modelos de vehículos para pasajeros, ahora se ofrecen en sus utilitarios.

Más eficiente y más potente que el motor de seis cilindros, el V8 de 4.426 cc fue también de unos 15 kg más liviano. El V-8 no tenía filtro de aceite sino un cartucho del filtro montado encima de la caja del termostato, pero opcional.

Friday, January 14, 2011

1970 Chevelle SS Wagon Hot Wheels 1:64









From Fandom:
 The '70 Chevelle SS Wagon was released in 2009 and was designed by Phil Riehlman.  In reality, the Chevrolet Chevelle Wagon was not sold with the Super Sport package, but some hot rodders have added the bigger engine and SS badges to Chevelle wagons themselves. Some releases of this car have the back side windows filled in, forming a sedan delivery.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Janet Guthrie 1976 Kelly Girl Chevy #68 Laguna 1:64 NASCAR












Janet Guthrie (born March 7, 1938) is a retired professional race car driver and the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.

Guthrie was originally an aerospace engineer and after graduating from the University of Michigan, she worked with Republic Aviation. She began racing in 1963 on the SCCA circuit in a Jaguar XK140 and by 1972, she was racing on a full-time basis. Her sportscar racing career included two class wins in the famed 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race.

In the 1976 World 600, Guthrie finished 15th, becoming the first woman to compete in a NASCAR Winston Cup superspeedway race. Guthrie would go on to compete in four more races that season. The following season, she competed in her first Daytona 500, finishing 12th when her car's engine blew two cylinders with ten laps to go. For the race, though, she still earned the honor of Top Rookie. Overall, Guthrie went on to compete in 33 races in NASCAR over four seasons. Her highest finish, sixth place at Bristol in 1977, is the best finish by a woman in a top-tier NASCAR race, now currently tied with Danica Patrick in 2014.

Guthrie qualified for and competed in the 1977 Indianapolis 500, in a car entered by Rolla Vollstedt, but finished 29th with engine troubles. She would compete in two more Indy 500s, finishing ninth in the 1978 race while driving with a fractured wrist (injured in a charity tennis event two days earlier) she hid from race officials. Overall, she competed in 11 Indy car events with a best finish of fifth. During her unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 1976 race, many of the drivers in the male-dominated sport stated that the reason she did not qualify was mainly due to her gender. These comments angered then three-time champion A. J. Foyt to the point he lent Guthrie a back-up car to conduct a shake-down test. Her top practice lap in Foyt's car would have been adequate to qualify for the field. She was unable to obtain funding through corporate sponsorship, and was forced into retirement.

Nevertheless, Guthrie's place in history was secure. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Guthrie's name and picture.[8] Her helmet and race suit can be found in the Smithsonian Institution and Guthrie was one of the first elected to the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame on April 27, 2006. Her 2005 autobiography, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle, has received critical praise in such publications as Sports Illustrated.

Guthrie married Warren Levine, an airline pilot, in 1989. He died in 2006.

In 2011, Guthrie signed a petition in support of the right of women in Saudi Arabia to drive. The petition called on Saudi King Abdullah to sponsor a Saudi Women's Grand Prix. The project was the idea of human rights activist David Keyes.

Qualified, an episode of ESPN 30 for 30 covering her racing career, aired on May 28, 2019. In it she is quoted "You can go back to antiquity to find women doing extraordinary things, but their history is forgotten. Or denied to have ever existed. So women keep reinventing the wheel. Women have always done these things, and they always will."

In 2019, Guthrie was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame for her achievements in motorsports. She is the 5th woman to be inducted.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

1966 Mercedes-Benz 280SE Cabriolet Maisto 1:18













From Wikipedia:

The Mercedes-Benz W111 was a chassis code given to a range of Mercedes-Benz vehicles produced between 1959 and 1971, including four-door saloons (1959-1968) and two-door coupés and cabriolets (1961 to 1971). Their bodywork featured distinctive tailfins that gave the models their Heckflosse nickname — German for "fintail".

Introduced with a 2.2-litre inline 6-cylinder engine, the W111 spawned a pair of variant lines which bracketed it in 1961: downscale entry-level inline 4-cylinder engined vehicles sharing the W111 chassis and bodies, designated the W110; and the W112, a high-end luxury saloon built on the W111 chassis with its body but exclusive features, elaborate appointments, and the Mercedes-Benz 300d Adenauer's fuel-injected 3-litre M189 six-cylinder engine – at the time the company's largest.

Somewhat confusingly, both the W111 and W112 lines included vehicles with different Paul Bracq-designed bodywork, the 2-door coupé and cabriolet.