Post by tomato007 on Oct 6, 2018 14:30:30 GMT -5
I have to say that I didn‘t knew a lot about pre-war GP racing before this proxy has been announced. I started to read and found some interesting cars and even more interesting stories.
Besides the GP cars there has been another class with smaller engines. The voiturette class has been less dominated over the Years by the Mercedes and Audi race cars than in the big class.
In the year 1938 the Italiens decided after several years of Mercedes dominance in the GP races for new rules that they could keep out the Germans by limiting the machine to 1500cc. These rules should be applied at the at that time important race 1939 in Tripoli in Lybia which has been under italian supervision at that time. Alfa and Merati had a lot of experience with these smaller engines.
Mercedes started secretely to build a race car optimized for the new rules within a few months and shocked the competitors mainly from Italy when they presented the small car with a double root compressor engine fired with a crude mixture of solvents which nobody would be allowed to use nowadays.
commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mercedes-Benz_W165?uselang=de#/media/File%3AMercedes-Benz_W165_1939_Tripoli_Hermann_Lang_LSide_MBMuse_9June2013_(14980483041).jpg
This completely new W165 dominated the race in Africa complety. First place with #16 Lang, the second place for #24 Carraciola. The third place went to an Alfa driven by Villoresi. There is an intersting report about the race (http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/gp392.htm) online.
i will try to build a W165 from scratch. First rough and quick body design with a piece of polyurethane foam. Because I don‘t have a bandsaw I‘m trying to shape with a swiss army knife and some sanding paper.
This is the first status after two hours of joyful work.
I‘ll keep posting and give you also some details about the real car later on.
I don‘t know yet how I will motorize the car but it would be nice to shift the FF-50 motor forward to allow a full cockpit. Could have a negative effect on the performance of the car.
Best regards
Thomas
Besides the GP cars there has been another class with smaller engines. The voiturette class has been less dominated over the Years by the Mercedes and Audi race cars than in the big class.
In the year 1938 the Italiens decided after several years of Mercedes dominance in the GP races for new rules that they could keep out the Germans by limiting the machine to 1500cc. These rules should be applied at the at that time important race 1939 in Tripoli in Lybia which has been under italian supervision at that time. Alfa and Merati had a lot of experience with these smaller engines.
Mercedes started secretely to build a race car optimized for the new rules within a few months and shocked the competitors mainly from Italy when they presented the small car with a double root compressor engine fired with a crude mixture of solvents which nobody would be allowed to use nowadays.
commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mercedes-Benz_W165?uselang=de#/media/File%3AMercedes-Benz_W165_1939_Tripoli_Hermann_Lang_LSide_MBMuse_9June2013_(14980483041).jpg
This completely new W165 dominated the race in Africa complety. First place with #16 Lang, the second place for #24 Carraciola. The third place went to an Alfa driven by Villoresi. There is an intersting report about the race (http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/gp392.htm) online.
i will try to build a W165 from scratch. First rough and quick body design with a piece of polyurethane foam. Because I don‘t have a bandsaw I‘m trying to shape with a swiss army knife and some sanding paper.
This is the first status after two hours of joyful work.
I‘ll keep posting and give you also some details about the real car later on.
I don‘t know yet how I will motorize the car but it would be nice to shift the FF-50 motor forward to allow a full cockpit. Could have a negative effect on the performance of the car.
Best regards
Thomas