Lotus back in Formula One painted in Green and Yellow

Lotus presented its 2010 Formula 1 race car, the Lotus T127, last Friday. It took 16 years since 1994) to have a Lotus in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. And it's certainly a nice touch that the car is painted in green and yellow (again). Whether it will be competitive with its Cosworth engine and the xtrac gear box, we will see. But it certainly brings a bit of history and tradition back into the formula 1 circus.

Remember Double Clutching?

When I was eighteen and learned how to drive a car, all cars already had fully synchronized transmissions and you could shift gears directly. But it felt sporty todo double clutching. When I did it the first time in driving school the driving teacher almost exploded. He thought there would be more valuable things to think about than reducing wear of the clutch. Actually I have never owned a car with an unsynchronized transmission, but I owned quite a number of cars suffering from weak synchromesh. and some earlier cars had unsynchronized first gears.
Recently I had lunch with a guy doing business around oldtimer and classic cars. And he surprised me with saying that he doesn't know what double clutching is. Yes, he was quite a bit younger than me, but still! By the way, what is called double clutching in English, we call "Zwischengas" in German. Translating this word by word leads to "operating the throttle in between". Funny enough the shifting up with double clutching is called "Doppelkuppeln", which means exactly the same what the English term says. And this also gave the name to the new transmissions, such as the PDK of Porsche or the DSG of Volkswagen. There have been debates on whether it's still useful to apply double clutching in modern cars. The answer is yes, and some modern robotized transmissions and sequential gearboxes even do it by themselves - thanks to electronics.
If you want to know more about double clutching, there are some good articles here and here. And thanks to YouTube you can also see it in full motion and color for example here.
By the way, the picture shows my Grantura's clutch. It would have taken more than a bit of double clutching to save this one.

A car Still Live - Mercedes /8 Coupé, Renault Espace, Citroen Type H

Following up on my recent post concerning classic cars in the winter, here's another picture, I would call it a "still live". It brings three classic cars together that probably are on very few people's "cars to be collected" list. The Mercedes /8 Coupé was designed by Paul Bracq and was both popular because of its clear and straight forward lines but also because of its reliability. Even today you can find them (and the limousines) as daily commuters. The Citroen Type H (and its sisters) represented a very practical truck type car for people in need of transportation capacity. It's design again was unique and its habit exactly like you would it expect. The last of the three cars is the Renault Espace, one of the first series. After an adventurous engineering phase with multiple car brands taking care off (i.e. Chrysler, Matra, Renault) and with significant English involvement (very few people know this) it became the start of a new car category, sporty family vans. Seeing these three cars gathered in the snow showcasing such different approaches and objectives and colors typical to the time when the cars were built is fascinating.

Grey sportscars - where is the color?

I have been writing about the fact that more and more cars come with boring colors and are mostly ordered in grey, silver or black. Well, what started with limousines and company cars has continued with compact cars and also with sportscars! Even the Italian cars are painted more and more in silver or grey. Have a look at this picture showing four Maserati Granturismo GT Coupés. Three are silver or grey, and only one is in red. And you would really wonder who the brave man was to order this car in red ...
By the way, not too many Maseratis were painted in red except the race cars. Maseratis often were ordered in blue or silver, even in the sixties. But there were many yellow Ghibli and Merak on the other side too.

Classic Cars in the Winter time

Many/most of us probably couldn't sleep well if they knew their cherished classic car being parked on the street during the cold winter nights with salt on the streets and snow everywhere. Well, there must be people thinking differently as these pictures show. They have all been taken in Berlin this week. All of these cars are classics and some of them even are technology master pieces. My favorite car here is the Citroen Maserati SM. It's kind of the combination of the Citroen ID/DS with the six cylinder Maserati engine. The shape is breath taking and it certainly was a pleasure to drive when new and fresh. But also the ID/DS pictured here is a collector's item and the Mercedes-Benz SLC as well. Hopefully somebody will rescue these cars eventually and bring them home in a warm garage!

Air Conditioning in cars - a long journey since the 60ies

In 1939 Packard equipped the first car with Air Conditioning. The system apparently used the whole trunk space. Since then we came a long way. Not only the systems got smaller and lighter, they also became more efficient and effective. In 1969 already more than half of all domestic cars were sold with an air conditioner. Not so in Europe, where it took quite a bit longer to achieve this level of adoption. This had also to do with pricing. In 1980 for example the air conditioning option for a BMW or Mercedes was priced at about DM 3'000 to 4'000, about half the price of a decent compact car, or 5-15% of a family sedan! And some of these systems were pretty crude, i.e. you could turn them on or off and maybe influence the "cooling down" factor and the wind speed of the vent. At least that's what the system in my Berlinetta Boxer was all about. Many of these systems actually were not able to really cool down a car on a hot day. Today this is quite different, as a lot of engineering has gone into this (mostly standard) option. Not only they need much less energy, they are also fairly small and quite unexpensive. Forgotten the days when you had to turn the aircon off if you wanted to overtake. Air conditioning makes driving cars safer not only because the driver's reactions are better in a cooler environment, but also because the systems take humidity out of the air and improve overall visibility. So, all in all, here's some good engineering applied to everyday's problems.

Picture of the week - Volkswagen Beetle meets Jaguar E-Type

Here's a nice shot picturing the wheel and wing of an old Volkswagen Beetle mirroring the wire wheel of a Jaguar E-Type. It's kind of nice to see these old style wheels that were born before wheels got wider and wider, bigger and bigger. Also remember, tires like this were quite cheap, a replacement would certainly be less than 50 € in today's currency. Of course today they are more expensive, as now they are produced only in small numbers and for the collectors who can afford it ...

Visiting the Meilenwerk in Berlin

Recently I had the opportunity to take a look at the Meilenwerk in Berlin. Built inside an old "Tram Remise" it offers a selection of oldtimer specialists, service providers, restaurants, shops and event locations. It's quite a nice place to spend an afternoon and thanks to well known specialists such as Thiessen you can look at quite exquisite cars. Examples? Ford GT40, Dino 206 GT, Lancia Stratos, Mercedes 300 SL, Bugatti EB110, but also Goggomobil, Volkswagen Käfer (Bug/Beetle), Mercedes 230 SL and others.
All in all the whole setup was actually smaller than I had expected, but still worth a visit.
Possibly due to winter time there wasn't too much "traffic", i.e. people. Whether financially such a project is a success is difficult to judge. At least there are all kinds of such projects popping up in different countries and in Germany alone there a three places where you can find a "Meilenwerk".

BMW 5 Series - getting heavier and heavier

BMW has recently presented its new 5 Series sedan. The BMW 5 Series is very important for BMW as this is the car that is widely used as company car, not just in Germany but often also in the UK, Switzerland and other countries. Failing to meet the requirements and taste of potential buyers would mean to put the company on risk basically. Well, if you look at the new car, BMW has done a good job and didn't take any risks really. Of course the car got bigger as it has over the last series too, but it also got quite a bit heavier, basically 100 kg more than its predecessor. Having owned a number of these cars myself (E60, E39 and E34) I am not too pleased with this weight gain. Already the E60 was quite heavy, especially with the Diesel 6 cylinder engine and 4x4 set-up, it actually felt a bit like a truck to drive. Previous series were lighter and also smaller, my E39 had a petrol 6 cylinder 3.5 engine and the E34 came even with the small 8 cylinder engine. All the cars I owned were showing quite well what was possible in their period and the new one will continue this story. What once more is impressive with the new car is how fuel efficient even such a heavy car can be, at least when you apply the official standards (i.e. ECE standards). And as always the 5 Series opens the world of luxury to (rich) drivers with the accessories and goodies coming from the 7 Series, but all at a price. The fact that a well equipped BMW 5 Series scratches 70 to 100'000 € is probably not really fitting to the recession times we just try to overcome.

Ferrari Daytona 365 GTB/4 - candidate for the design of the century award

Before Ferrari finally followed Lamborghini and presented the Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer with a mid mounted engine, they introduced the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 as an "interim solution", knowing it would be replaced soon. But, what an interim solution this was. The design came of course from Pininfarina and clearly was a master piece. Very rarely a front engine Ferrari has been packaged more convincingly. And besides these spectacular lines some pretty interesting details were part of the package as well. Look at these front lights (later versions had another approach though). The 365 GTB/4, unofficially called the "Daytona", was a success with 1'284 produced cars, plus 125 convertibles (called 365 GTS/4) over four years. Yes, at that time this was a big numbers, while every Ferrari model today is rather in the 5'000-10'000 volume range. That's probably one of the reason why Daytonas fetch good prices today. And if it's a group 4 competition version (they built three per year offic), half a million USD will not even be enough enough. I was pretty close buying one of these a couple of years ago and knowing what they are worth today, I probably should have done it. But there are a couple of things speaking against the car: It's quite heavy, feels a bit like a truck to drive and is better suited for long straights and "Autobahn" than race tracks and mountain serpentines. But the design, absolutely wonderful!
By the way, this specific car is located in the "Autobau", a very nice museum situated in Romanshorn in Switzerland, worth visiting from time to time!

Porsche with low emission sportscar concept in 1980

30 years ago Porsche was planning to build a low emission sportscar. With a wind slippery body (cw 0.25) and a low not too wide body, combined with a 4 cylinder 2 liter engine it would have been fast enough with less than 10 seconds from 0-100 km/h (yes this was still fairly fast in 1980) and a 200+ km/h top speed. And thanks to the low weight of less than 800 kg Porsche calculated a (ECE standard) fuel consumption of less than 4.8 l/100 km. Even today, this would be quite impressive.
Well, we know, Porsche never produced this car. And to be fair, it's pretty probable that it wouldn't have been a sales success. But what I am really wondering is that if they thought a 4.8 l/100 km sportscar was possible in 1980 why on earth can't we build a 2-3 l/100 km sportscar today? I am totally convinced that all it takes is available! And, differently to the good old days, it might be well possible that people actually would buy the car. Look at the Smart Coupé, people actually did like it and it sold, even if it didn't meet the volume expectations of Mercedes.

What Sportscar to choose in 1961?

Here's another one of my "let's have a look into an old car magazine". This time, 1961, "hobby" asked the question, what classical sportscar you could pick. What is interesting is that out of the nine cars, actually four were British, two Italian and three German. Actually there's wasn't that much choice in 1961 if you wanted to buy an affordable sportscar, at least if you didn't want to include small production cars (e.g. TVR, Alpine, etc.) or top end sportscars (e.g. Jaguar XK, Aston Martin, Ferrari). Anyway if you read the test the conclusion is not that straight forward, too different are these cars and the prices as well. I probably would have chosen the Alfa Giulietta or the Porsche 1600 S then, despite the fact that I actually like the design of the MG A.

Best 10 car investment opportunities for 2010

In their current issue Octane proposed "The Smart Buys of 2010". There list includes the following ten cars that they expect to rise in value: Ferrari 550, Porsche 911 Turbo, Aston Martin DB7, Jaguar Mk1 3.4, Jaguar E-Type S1/S2 FHC, Lotus Elan, Aston Martin V8 Zagato, Aston Martin V8 Virage, Ferrari 308 GT/4 and Mercedes-Benz SL (R107). While I do agree with some of these cars as good candidates to gain in value, I think the list is very "UK focused" and misses a couple of exciting investment opportunities. So here's my list as an alternative:

(1) BMW M3 (E30) - great car for everyday and exciting track cars for the special occasions, not too many were built and there's lots of racing pedigree
(2) Porsche 924 Carrera GT - I wrote about this car before, it's clearly undervalued, was produced in very little numbers and has more racing pedigree than any Ferrari since the GTO
(3) Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS - I consider these cars as still undervalued especially in comparison with some of the 12 cylinders. These cars are great to drive and less expensive to own than the bigger cars and the design is just magnificent
(4) Mercedes SL (R07) - great classics, were built over 17 years, the last ones are not only reliable but also inexpensive to own. They are not rare in comparison, but they even have catalyst converters and therefore can be driven even in protective cities
(5) Alfa-Romeo GTV 6 - again an instant classic with an unbelievable soundtrack. Not that expensive to buy, but some money is needed for maintenance. Many have disappeared appreciating the value of the remaining cars.
(6) Lotus Esprit S2, S2.2, S3 - great and fairly revolutionary shape in the 70ies, thanks to Giugiaro. S2.2 very rare, but even S2 and S3 reached small numbers in comparison to other classics. Inexpensive to own if it's a well sorted one.
(7) BMW M1 - as close to a race car as you can get. It was developed to win in racing, the road going sportscar was sort of a by-product, less than 500 cars produced make it very rare. Prices are climbing quickly though. A few years ago I was offered a M1 for less than € 50'000, now they are twice to three times this price level
(8) TVR 3000M/Taimar/3000 S - easy to own and maintain british sportscar, low number produced, especially in LHD. You can't go wrong if you buy a well sorted one
(9) Lotus Elite - less popular than the ever loved Lotus Elan, but actually much more nimble, exclusive and much closer to racing than its successor. The Elite competed in Le Mans successfully and the road car was fairly close to what the guys were using there. Prices are not too much higher than for good Elans but you get a Climax engine and lots of engineering ideas from Colin Chapman. Not a car for everybody though. But the shape is just exquisite, especially for a car of its size
(10) Aston Martin DB7 - okay, I had to take one of these onto the list. Not that it's really a great car in terms of technology and engineering, but the design is so much better than most alternatives you can buy for the same money that it's worth being considered.

So, that's the list, and of course there are many that could be added. And remember: if bought only for making money, probably none of them will bring enough interests due to all the cost that come with owning an exclusive car. But if you include your passion and pleasure in the equation, then you can forget oil, gold, platinum or any other investment ....

Picture of the week - Morris Minor

It's interesting to see how cars that basically dominated the streets some years before have almost totally disappeared. Examples? Take the Volkswagen Beetle/Bug. If you look at a photograph taken in Germany or Switzerland in the mid sixties you will see lots of these cars and they clearly outnumbered anything else. Probably same with the Morris Minor in the UK for example. Today though it's quite special to see one independently of classic car events or special occasions. Well, the Morris Minor pictured here was just parking outside a house close to where I live. It may have seen better times, but it's a lovely piece of machinery and so much different to what people buy today to commute and drive to holiday destinations.

No end of the winter to be seen - cars have to wait

The winter is still very present in Europe, lots of snow and temperatures below 0 degrees celsius. Which means that all the classic cars and oldtimers have to wait and sit in garages. And no end is visible. But let's be patient the next season will certainly arrive. Until then batteries can be refreshed, tires pumped up and histories tracked.