Tuesday, October 28, 2008

1968 FIAT 500L Abarth Burago 1:16












The Fiat 500 (Italian: Cinquecento, pronounced [ˌtʃiŋkweˈtʃɛnto]) is a rear-engined, four-seat, small city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 to 1975 over a single generation in two-door saloon and two-door station wagon bodystyles.

Launched as the Nuova (new) 500 in July 1957, as a successor to the 500 "Topolino", it was an inexpensive and practical small car. Measuring 2.97 metres (9 feet 9 inches) long, and originally powered by a 479 cc two-cylinder, air-cooled engine, the 500 was 24.5 centimetres (9.6 inches) smaller than Fiat's 600, launched two years earlier, and is considered one of the first purpose-designed city cars.

In 1959, Dante Giacosa received a Compasso d'Oro industrial design prize for the Fiat 500. It was the first time when it was awarded to an automotive industry.

In 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Nuova 500's launch, Fiat launched another new 500, stylistically inspired by the 1957 Nuova 500, featuring a front-mounted engine and front-wheel drive.

In 2017 Fiat celebrated the 60th anniversary with an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and received one of the Corporate Art Awards by pptArt at an event hosted by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

1972 Buick Riviera Coupe 1:43










The Buick Riviera is a personal luxury car that was marketed by Buick from 1963 to 1999, with the exception of the 1994 model year.

As General Motors' first entry into the personal luxury car market segment, the Riviera was highly praised by automotive journalists upon its high-profile debut. It was a ground-up design on a new GM E platform debuting for the 1963 model year and was also Buick's first unique Riviera model.

Unlike its subsequent GM E platform stablemates, the Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado, the Riviera was initially a front engine/rear-wheel drive platform, switching to front-wheel drive starting with the 1979 model year.

While the early models stayed close to their original form, eight subsequent generations varied substantially in size and styling. A total of 1,127,261 Rivieras were produced.

The Riviera name was resurrected for two concept cars that were displayed at auto shows in 2007 and in 2013.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Renault Megane Schlesser Rally Dakar Burago 1:26

 
 
 







The Buggy Schlesser is an off-road competition car specially designed by the French racing driver Jean-Louis Schlesser to take part in the rally raids.

The word from the off-road racing community in the United States, is the car was designed and built by Race Car Dynamics located in San Diego California, before being shipped to France. Early versions of the car featured a Fortin Transaxle, that was popular with off-road race teams located on the West coast of the US at the time. The cast lettering 'Fortin' was "ground off" of the transmission casings, to hide the name of the transmission manufacturer.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

1997 TVR Cerbera Speed 12 Hot Wheels 1:18












El TVR Cerbera Speed 12, originalmente conocido como el proyecto 7/12, era un vehículo conceptual de alto rendimiento, diseñado por TVR en 1997. Basado en parte en el entonces actual hardware de TVR, el vehículo fue pensado para ser el automóvil de calle con el rendimiento más alto del mundo. Sin embargo, debido a problemas durante su desarrollo, los cambios en las regulaciones de la clase GT1 y la eventual decisión de que el vehículo era simplemente incapaz de ser utilizado como un coche de calle, le dio fin a la idea, forzando a los ejecutivos de TVR a abandonar el proyecto.1
El motor del Cerbera Speed, con 7.7 litros y doce cilindros, era supuestamente capaz de producir casi mil caballos de fuerza, aunque nunca fue hecha una medida exacta. No obstante, se dijo que su funcionamiento era asombroso, y era capaz de alcanzar 60 millas por hora (94 km/h) en menos de 3 segundos, y tener una velocidad máxima cercana a la del McLaren F1. Lleva montado un motor V12 capaz de generar 811cv de potencia.

The vehicle, known as the TVR Project 7/12, first appeared at the 1996 Birmingham Motor Show and dominated the show once it was unveiled, attracting more crowds than any other cars in the show. The number "7" referred to the 7.7 litre (actually 7.73 L) engine, and "12" for the number of cylinders in the engine. TVR claimed that the engine would have a power output of more than 800 hp (597 kW) and be faster than the McLaren F1. The first concepts shown were based on FIA GT1 class race rules which meant that they would be restricted to 660 hp (492 kW) but the weight would be kept at roughly 1,000 kg (2,205 lb). The road car would weigh the same but without the restrictors, the power was greatly increased. Despite the claims, the actual output figure was not recorded. It had a specially built 6-speed manual transmission and clutch. The engine was essentially made from two TVR AJP6 straight-6 engines mated on a single crankshaft. Unusually for an automobile of its type, the Speed Twelve's engine block was not constructed of cast iron or aluminium alloy, but rather of steel and was designed by John Ravenscroft.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

2000 Cadillac Northstar Le Mans Prototype Hot Wheels 1:18

 










The Cadillac Northstar LMP was a series of Le Mans Prototypes built by Cadillac for use in the American Le Mans Series as well as an attempt to return Cadillac to the 24 Hours of Le Mans since they first entered in 1950. The Northstar LMPs were named after the Northstar V8 engines which powered them. The Cadillac project ran from 2000 until 2002 when General Motors decided to cancel the project to concentrate solely on their Chevrolet Corvette program. Cadillac returned to prototype racing in 2017 with the Cadillac DPi-V.R in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

In planning the new Cadillac LMP project, GM turned to Riley & Scott, builders of the successful Mk III chassis. Riley & Scott developed a from-scratch LMP based around a bespoke carbon fiber monocoque. The new design featured elements of Cadillac's new Art & Science design theme such as the functional egg-crate grill on the nose, as well as the addition of large side scoops to feed the turbochargers.

A highly modified 650 hp (485 kW) version of this engine was used by General Motors racing division initially for Indy Racing League competition starting in 1995, then was later used in the Cadillac Northstar LMP program in 2000. Both engines retained the 4.0 L capacity, but the Northstar LMP version was twin-turbocharged. The engine for the Northstar LMP was based on a smaller 4.0 Liter variant of the Northstar used in Cadillacs, known as the L47, used in GM's Oldsmobile Aurora sedan. It had already been adapted for racing in 1995 for use in the Indy Racing League, but was thoroughly modified in order to not only increase power, but increase longevity. McLaren Engines assisted in the development of the new prototype engine, while Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) produced twin turbochargers to increase output.

A total of seven monocoques were built, with two going to Team Cadillac in the United States, three to DAMS in France, one assigned as the crash test car (became the show car), and one spare tub that was delivered to GM at the end of the program.