Cars and Engines

 

	This car is the fabled Shelby Cobra. It was powered by any one of an array of Ford motors. The two most popular being the 289 and the 427. They were considered a driver's car. Because of their lack of weight and massively torquey engines, they were a chore to drive. These cars were, however, very effective for those who COULD drive them. With a heavy foot, these cars would slide "steer" from the rear. The front wheels were more-or-less used as damage control!!!!
	Honestly, I am not sure what this is. I know it is a "boattail" car. I thought it was an Auburn because of the rear contours, but after careful examination of several pics, I believe now that it is a Duesenberg. Why? Auburns had the exhaust pipes mounted on the left side, Duesenbergs' were on the right.
	This, however, I DO know to be the Duesenberg straight 8. What a beautiful engine. It actually had double over-head cams.
	Ah yes, the Indian with a small-block Chevy. Need I say more???
	And yet, another beautiful rendering from Ford (GT40). They called this one "The Ferrari Slayer" because it was built to do just that.... and it DID. That's how A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney got so famous. The fact of the name is that this car is only 3' 4" from top to pavement--that's right, only 40 inches.
	Baddest, fastest Bentley ever made........ bling, bling.
	Ford Indigo. Hmmmmm, not blue. Looks good anyway, though.
	This is a Tatra motor. Tatra is a Czech automaker. They have specialized in air cooled (that's right) V8's since the late 20's. This one happens to be a turbo-diesel truck motor.
	A GMC 351. What??? you say there is no such thing?????? Look it up. In the 1950's, GMC made a 351 ci 6 cylinder truck motor. This happens to be a cross-section.
	A pretty V16. Unfortunately, I have no clue who makes it.
	This is a Lotus Elise. Notice the air-dams in the front. This, like ground effects, produces downforce. As a matter of fact, it produces enough downforce that, with it's mid-engine design, it's handling is quite lively at higher speeds. The car comes with an inline 4, but is very light yielding an extremely sporty horsepower-to-weight ratio.
	This car is what every sport import enthusiast wants.... a Nissan Skyline. With an R34, 0-60 times come in at under 4 seconds. The R34 also has a dual turbocharged inline 6 sylinder that can produce over 500 hp. All modern Skylines come with an all wheel traction system.What's the hardest part about getting one of these cars? You CAN'T buy them in the U.S.
	This car SHOULD'VE been produced for the road, but it wasn't. This is the TVR Speed 12. Each part of the name is correct."TVR"-it's manufacturer, "Speed"- over 241 mph, and "12"- as in 12 cylinders. Quite literally the fastest British car ever built, perhaps even in the world. It goes faster than the McLaren F1.
	This is the Toyota Supra. I love Toyotas, by-the-way. I've seen mods of these with over 1000 horsepower. Smokin'.
	This is another Tatra with a rear mounted, air-cooled V8. They said it was possible to put a body (dead or alive) under the back seat. Apparently, these were used 'back in the day' for that exact purpose by quite a few people.
	This is the Suzuki Escudo (sister car to the Vatara) only its made in Japan. The vehicle pictured here is VERY special. See, it's a race car-specifically a Pike's Peak rally car. (or "truck" if you prefer) It has 2 double turbo-charged V6 engines. Yep, 2 engines! One is mid mounted and the other is rear mounted. It has 4wd and weighs about as much as an old VW beetle (or less). With 981 horsepower, this is truly a monster.
	This is that GMC 351 V6, only doubled. That makes this a GMC 702 V12. Crazy, huh?
	One of my favorite cars of all time. The 1958 Chevy. This was the year that Chevy came out with the tri-power (three two-barrel carbeuretors) 348 motor. It looked alot like the 409 "W" head motor because well, it kinda was. It used basically all of the same design conventions. The 409 was just its evolutionary sister. Americana at it's finest.
	This is a early 40's Lincoln (Zephyr) V12. Flathead and all. Pretty cool.
	This is a working model of a classic Ford "flathead" V8. (see the ring in front of it?) The Ford flathead was the first mass produced V8. Must I explain why they called it a flathead? Alot of early hotrodders used this engine because not only was it easy to modify, but it was just a good powerful engine. It fit into the space that any straight6 would fit, and it was cheap and looked cool.
	This is yet another picture of the flathead 8. Of course, no one can deny the retro cool of this engine. However, many design factors caused for it's fading to the modern head designed motors. Even though it was actually less complicated than a modern valve train system, the flathead had a valve up and to the side type of system. This did several things to inhibit the engine's performance.(#1) It made the intake and exhaust flow much less straight. (#2) It forced the compression to be lower because of the valve placement at the cylinder side instead of top. (#3) It forced the exhaust through the side of the block around the cylinders making it slightly restricted and forcing the cooling water to work double duty. This also limited the amount one could bore this motor. Routing the exhaust through the block left less space to work with inside the engine and also caused it to be heavier. (#4) Since the valves were block mounted, you were also limited to the size at which you could port the intake or exhaust. But, this is still a fine engine.

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