In the world of R/C cars there are your standard off-the-shelf designs popular with kids and adults alike, then there are the slightly more serious vehicles like this – the 70+ mph Cobra Dragster.
The Cobra Dragster was built by Jimmy Parker of Performance Drag Products in the early 1990s, it’s powered by a 3 hp Zenoah two-stroke engine that runs on a 64:1 fuel/oil mixture with nitrous oxide, and it has an 8,500 rpm red line.
Power is sent to the rear wheels via a centrifugal clutch and a straight driveshaft. The car measures in at 8.25 feet long, or 99 inches/251 cm, it weighs 25 lbs (11.3 kgs), and it uses a remote control handset to operate the throttle, brakes, and steering.
The car has a frame made up of strong, lightweight chromoly steel tubing and the engine is mounted behind the driver. The single-cylinder Zenoah engine is a simple air-cooled unit that has been used in a wide variety of R/C vehicles over the years, and a modern version of this engine is still in production by the company today.
Above Video:Footage of amateur drag racing in Brooklyn, it’s astonishing how quick some of these cars are able to get off the line. Skip ahead to 5:12 to see R/C drag racers like the one pictured here in action.
R/C drag racing is a highly competitive subset of the R/C racing world with local, national, and international competition levels. For fans of drag racing this offers a far cheaper and easier way to get into the sport, with the added benefit of being able to carry your car to and from the start line.
If you’d like to read more about this unusual 1:4 scale dragster or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on RM Sotheby’s. It’s due to cross the auction block in early May and at the time of writing there’s no price guide.
This is an Alvis Sabre light tank and it’s historically notable for a couple of reasons, the most significant of which is that it’s directly based on the FV101 Scorpion light tank which holds the Guinness World Record for being the fastest production tank in the world – it achieved 82.23 km/h (51.10 mph) during testing.
The Alvis Sabre Light Tank
Interestingly the Alvis Sabre was never really meant to exist. Its design is an amalgam that includes the turret from the wheeled Fox Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle mounted on the hull of the tracked FV101 Scorpion light tank. The resulting vehicle was called the Sabre, it benefitted from the high-speed tracked platform of the Scorpion coupled with the 30mm RARDEN cannon from the Fox.
The Sabre was a late addition to the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) or CVR(T) family of vehicles built by Alvis. If the name Alvis sounds vaguely familiar to you it may be because they started out building cars in England in 1919. Alvis would build regular cars, luxury cars, racing cars, and aircraft engines before diversifying into military vehicles.
Alvis stopped building cars in 1967 after it was acquired by Rover in 1965, all focus was then shifted to the firm’s successful armored vehicle division which would remain in production until it was taken over by the BAE Systems Land & Armaments group where it remains today.
The Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) originally began development in the 1960s with a view to replacing the Alvis Saladin armoured car, which had been in production since 1958. This new family of armored vehicles would be designed to share as many parts as possible while also being extensible enough to fulfill a multitude of roles for both British armed forces and the armed forces of customer nations.
The most famous member of the CVR(T) family is likely the FV101 Scorpion due to its famous top speed record but other members of the family include the FV102 Striker, FV103 Spartan, FV104 Samaritan, FV105 Sultan, FV106 Samson, FV107 Scimitar, and of course, the Sabre.
When first developed the CVR(T) vehicles were designed to use many automotive components and suspension in order to keep costs down and to ensure that spare parts would be both cheap and plentiful. The engine that was first used was the 4.2 litre version of the Jaguar XK DOHC straight-six petrol engine – an engine that had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans under the hood of the D-Type in 1955, 1956, and 1957.
Later versions of these vehicles would be fitted with the Cummins BTA 5.9 diesel engine, which was both more powerful and more fuel efficient, though sadly without the Le Mans distinction. The Sabre was fitted with the aforementioned 30mm RARDEN cannon as well as a co-axial L94A1 7.62mm chain gun, with smoke grenade launchers to keep the vehicle hidden from view when required.
Typically, each Alvis Sabre would be equipped with 160 rounds of Armour-Piercing Enhanced Penetration (APEP) and High Explosive (HE) ammunition, as well as 3,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition. A crew of three was assigned to each tank which included a commander, a driver, and a gunner.
It’s believed that 136 examples of the Sabre were built, entering service in 1995 and leaving service in 2004. Today many of them are either in museums or in private hands where due to their smaller size and higher speeds they make popular road-legal tanks.
The Alvis Sabre Shown Here
The Sabre you see here is a relatively low-mileage example with just 6,088 miles on the clock. It’s believed to be fitted with a petrol engine, likely the Jaguar XK straight-six, and both its cannon and machine gun have been decommissioned.
If you’d like to read more about it or place a bit it’s currently for sale on Collecting Cars with 15 bids cast and the current bid sitting at £15,250 at the time of writing. You can click here to visit the listing, please note that the tank is currently located in North Yorkshire.
This mini Jeep is modeled on the WW2-era military MB/GPW Jeeps from the early to mid 1940s. Just like the original full sized Jeep this one uses steel body-on-frame construction, it’s army green with a folding canvas top, and it has a front-mounted gasoline engine.
Each one of these mini Jeeps was built by East Coast Mini Classics of Sanford, Maine to a surprisingly detailed level – even the tire tread pattern is correct for the era. Inside you’ll find seating for two children, though no age limits are listed, and the steering wheel is mounted on the left with a large throttle pedal.
The vehicle is powered by a 13 hp Honda gasoline engine with an electric starter, it uses a hydrostatic drive with reverse, as well as rack-and-pinion steering, all-wheel suspension, and it has a full-floating rear axle with an aluminum differential.
The engine has a heavy-duty oil cooling system, it has dual hydraulic disc brakes, and an emergency parking brake. The mini Jeep has a complete lighting system including headlights which is powered by a 20 amp alternator, and it has a new deep cycle maintenance-free battery.
Above Image: The Mini Jeep has seating for two children, a fully functioning lighting system, rack and pinion steering, and a 13 hp gasoline engine mounted up front.
Interestingly the team at East Coast Mini Classics fitted it with a functional front-mounted Warn winch as well as authentic military surplus accessories such as a jerry can, canteens, a shovel, an axe, camouflage netting, and storage pouches.
The top speed isn’t listed however it’s safe to expect that it would be modest, the reasonable ground clearance would make it suitable for some simple off-asphalt excursions and the folding top will come in handy if the weather takes a turn for the worse.
This mini Jeep is due to cross the auction block with RM Sotheby’s in early May, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.
This is the first 4K resolution scan of Master Hands, a film described as a classic capitalist realist drama showing the manufacture of Chevrolet automobiles from the foundry to the finished vehicles rolling out of the factory.
Unlike many similar films from this era, this one is largely free of that booming narration that was so common at the time. Instead you get a light soundtrack of classical music playing alongside truly remarkable footage of the full production cycle – from liquid iron being poured into moulds to final assembly.
The industrial might of the United States during this period in history was unmatched, as the world would see when America was dragged into the war by the bombing of Pearl Harbor in late 1941. The country quickly tooled up for the war effort, supplying equipment to both American and Allied forces around the world, helping to hasten the end of the conflict.
This film was made by the Jam Handy Organization in 1936 and later selected for the 1999 National Film Registry of “artistically, culturally, and socially significant” films.
Master Hands provides a fascinating insight into just how much manual labour went into auto manufacturing before the age of robotics and computerization. The lack of safety considerations is also notable with no sign of safety glasses, high-visibility vests, or hard hats.
This Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 custom was built by Mark Hawwa, a man best known in the global vintage and custom motorcycle world as the founder of The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride – an annual charity ride that raises millions of dollars for prostate cancer research, men’s mental health, and suicide prevention.
The project to build a cafe racer version of the Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 began last year when the Indian motorcycle manufacturer approached Mark with the idea. The concept included the caveat that the customizations would be bolt-on in order to ensure that GT 650 owners around the world would be able to do them too regardless of skill level.
Mark is well known for his love of fast cars and motorcycles so it was clear from the outset that this build was never going to be purely cosmetic. The bike would have to be not only changed from an aesthetic perspective but it would also have to be upgraded from a performance perspective.
With the above criteria in mind the first order of business once the shiny new GT650 arrived was to take it to Sydney Motorsport Park for a visit to the team at motoDNA to set a baseline lap around the circuit – the best number of the day was 1 minute 20 seconds.
The next step after this was a visit to Harley Borkowski of RB Racing, he rolled the bike up onto his dyno and recorded a baseline power reading of 42 hp. With the lap time and dyno readings giving a starting point, the build began in earnest.
The first step would be to help the engine breathe a little easier, so the stock exhaust was removed and replaced with a new system from James at Spread Cheese Fabrication. James built new stainless steel headers for the bike and paired them with a pair of 13″ Big Mouth stainless steel reverse cone megaphones. This dropped the curb weight of the bike by a remarkable 14 kilograms (30.8 lbs) and significantly eased the engine’s breathing.
Above Video: Watch the full 11 episodes showing Mark and the team transforming the bike.
A new Power Commander was added and the bike was taken back to Harley for tuning on the dyno, with just these two modifications engine power jumped almost 15% to 48 hp.
Attention now shifted to the suspension and making it better suited to handling the 105 kilogram (231 lb) curb weight of Mark Hawwa. The forks were removed and sent to Suspensions R US in Victoria who worked their magic on them, they were shipped back accompanied by a pair of YSS Suspension RG362 piggyback shock absorbers for the rear.
Once it had all been bolted together it was inspected by Brad at Tracker & Co, a popular motorcycle guru in Sydney who’s seen it all before and helped many (including your humble scribe) though all manner of mechanical maladies.
Once Brad gave the bike the green light it was ridden over to Jason at Gasoline Motor Co. who provided some some C-Racer parts for the build including a new seat and cowl, and Autologue Design sent over the side covers and that eye-catching “Reck 2.0” front fairing.
With all the parts now in place just one job was left – paint. As most of you know, the paintwork can make or break a project and it’s far harder to get right than the average person realizes. Because of this Mark went directly to guys at Colourfuel in Kirrawee – the most respected motorcycle paint crew in Sydney.
Above Image: Mark Hawwa standing next to the newly finished GT 650 on a rooftop in Sydney, Australia.
After much discussion a new paint scheme was chosen, the base color would be British racing green as a hat tip to the British origins of Royal Enfield, this would be joined by orange accents as a clever reference to the Indian national flag.
With the bike now complete there was only one thing left to do – return to Sydney Motorsport Park and set a new lap time to see how the bike would perform. Remarkably Mark was able to set a time of 1 minute 14 seconds – 6 seconds faster than his original lap. Later in the afternoon the bike was handed over to a professional who brought the time down further still to 1 minute 10 seconds.
“I came to the track excited to see how it would perform but not in my wildest fantasies did I think it would turn into the most fun I’ve had on track. Part of that was the battle with a professional racer to set the fastest time and part of it was just carving corners knee down and outperforming other intermediate riders on litre plus sports bikes.” – Mark Hawwa
With the bike now complete Mark is waiting to see if he’ll get approval from Royal Enfield for a stage two to the project, to add more power and get those lap times down further.
If you’d like to read more about this project you can click here to visit the article on Pipeburn.com
This is one of just 115 examples of the “John Player Special” version of the Lotus Elan +2 130S/5 that were finished in the same black and gold “JPS” livery as the Lotus Formula 1 cars of the period, which were being driven by the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti.
Of all the versions of the Elan +2, the 130S/5 is generally considered to be the best thanks to the fact it’s fitted wth a highway-friendly 5-speed gearbox and the “Big Valve” version of the Lotus Twin Cam engine producing 126 bhp. This means it’s the fastest of the Elan +2s wth a top speed of over 120 mph (193 km/h) and a 0 to 60 mph time of approximately 7.7 seconds.
The Lotus Elan +2
The Lotus Elan +2 was designed with an almost impossible task laid out before it. Colin Chapman wanted to create a larger version of the legendary Elan sports car that would be capable of accommodating two adults, two children, and some luggage in the trunk.
Of course with the original two-seater Elan this would have been impossible, so a new car was designed that was 12 inches longer and seven inches wider. Now the original Elan had become a legend in its own lifetime for its exceptional handling and its remarkable steering feel – so much so that decades later Gordon Murray would be quoted as saying that his only regret with the McLaren F1 supercar was that it didn’t quite have the perfect steering of the Lotus Elan.
When it came time to design the Lotus Elan +2 Colin Chapman and his team of engineers used the same fundamental architecture as the regular Elan – a steel backbone chassis with a fiberglass body, a front mounted twin cam engine, independent suspension on all four corners, and disc brakes front and back.
Above Image: The interior of the +2 has seating for two adults up front with two small seats for children in the rear.
The design of the body was updated significantly to better suit the new car’s proportions, and unlike the two-seater Elan, the +2 would only be offered as a coupe. There are some who think the +2 is the better looking of the two early Elans, though no one can deny that both cars are beautifully styled.
Power for the new +2 would be provided by the same 1,558cc Lotus Twin Cam engine as the first Elan. This engine was based on the Ford Kent (pre-Crossflow) 4-cylinder 1,498cc engine. It included a number of modifications, the most significant of which was the Harry Mundy-designed alloy double overhead cam head. Ford would be so impressed with this engine they would later buy the rights to it and rename it the “Lotus-Ford Twin Cam.”
The reviews received by the +2 when it was released were glowing, some even preferred it to the smaller, narrower Elan two-seater. Although the regular Elan is preferred by many collectors there is a strong community of +2 aficionados in the UK, US, and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand.
Interestingly, no one actually knows how many Lotus Elan +2s were built. There are a few numbers out there that rely on different sources however Lotus record keeping being what it was, it’s likely that we’ll never have a solid number – the best guesses are between 3,300 and 5,200.
The Rare John Player Special Elan +2 130S/5 Shown Here
The car you see here is arguably the most desirable of any of the +2 cars built thanks to its combination of a 5-speed gearbox, more powerful “Big Valve” Lotus Twin Cam engine, and its beautiful John Player Special livery taken from the Lotus F1 cars.
This vehicle was rediscovered recently after having been tucked away and dry stored since 2002 – almost 20 years ago. Although it remains complete the car is clearly going to need a frame-off restoration to bring it back to its former glory. The good news is that it still has its matching numbers engine, and there are a number of Lotus specialists in Britain who are more than capable of doing the work.
If you’d like to read more or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on H&H Classics, it’s due to roll across the auction block on the 26th of May and it’s being offered with no reserve.
The car you see here was the first and most significant prototype made for the Lancia Rally 037, a vehicle with significant historic significance due to the fact that it was the first car to win the World Rally Championship under the then-new Group B rules, and was the last two-wheel drive car to ever win the WRC title.
The 037 was the first car to begin development to take advantage of the upcoming Group B regulations that stripped away many restrictions and allowed engineers to develop what would become the fastest and most powerful rally cars in history up until that point.
The project to build this car was a joint effort between three of Italy’s biggest automotive names – Lancia, Abarth, and Pininfarina. Due to the relatively tight development schedule it was decided to base their new car on the shell/frame of a pre-existing design – the Lancia Beta Montecarlo which would go on to win the World Championship for Makes in Group 5 silhouette form in 1980 and 1981.
This central monocoque section from the Montecarlo would then have new tubular steel sub frames added front and back which would accommodate the suspension, wheels, and ancillaries. The first one of these to be built for testing was the car you see pictured here chassis, SE037-001.
From the outset the Rally 037 was designed to take full advantage of the flexibility offered by the new Group B class, just 200 road-legal homologation cars had to be built which allowed much more creativity in the development process.
The subframes of the 037 were fitted with double wishbone suspension front and back with coil springs, a single tubular shock absorber was used on each side up front with twin shock absorbers used on each side at the back. The front and rear bodywork is all lightweight fiberglass that was designed to get up and out of the way, giving engineers and mechanics unfettered access to the suspension, engine, brakes, and gearbox – a vitally important feature for any Group B car.
There had been some debate about which engine to use in the 037, some had even suggested a Ferrari V8 should be used, however in the end they settled on the simple, lightweight inline-four cylinder engine from the Lancia Trevi – an engine originally designed by legendary engineer Aurelio Lampredi.
It was clear that the 2.0 litre, 16 valve engine was going to require forced induction to reach the required power levels. The engineering team made the unusual decision to use a supercharger rather than a turbocharger, resulting in no lag and instant power – a critical advantage that helped the 037 win the 1983 World Rally Championship for Manufacturers.
Thanks to the work of the German engineers over at Audi it was quickly becoming clear in the early 1980s that all-wheel drive cars were going to dominate Group B racing. That said, the 037 put up one of the most valiant and memorable efforts in the short history of Group B to take a slew of wins as well as that 1983 championship against the hard charging Audis.
Today the Lancia Rally 037 is looked back upon as one of the most beloved rally cars of the Group B era and as the last hurrah of the tail-happy, rear-wheel drive cars that had enjoyed so much success in rally racing before the arrival of the AWD cars.
As the first and most important prototype of the 037 this car has immeasurable historic significance. Interestingly it was originally destined to be scrapped however it was saved by its original designer, Sergio Limone, who bought the car from Abarth directly before embarking on a meticulous restoration to return the car to its 1981 development prototype configuration.
The car is now due to be offered for sale by RM Sotheby’s in Milan on the 15th of June, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.
