MY FEEDLY

The Original Cizeta-Moroder V16T Design Study – 1:1 Scale

The car you see here the first 1:1 scale model of the car that would go on to become the Cizeta-Moroder V16T– one of the most genuinely remarkable supercars of its age powered by a transversely-mounted V16 engine.

If you read that last sentence and thought to yourself “this writer doesn’t know what transversely mounted means” I assure you I do – the car was powered by a hand-built V16 engine mounted sideways directly behind the seats in the rear-mid engine bay.

The car was designed by one of the greatest automotive designers to walk the earth – Marcello Gandini. Gandini’s work includes a slew of bedroom wall poster cars like the Lamborghini Miura, Countach, and Diablo (prototype), as well as other classics like the Lancia Stratos, De Tomaso Pantera, and the Iso Grifo 90 to name just a few.

The car you see here is the non-functional design study of the first design intended for the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, it was styled by Gandini using a slew of design touches that would help characterize the brand new supercar maker and influence their designs going forwards.

In the end, company Claudio Zampolli asked Gandini for a revised design based on this car, and it would be this revised design that would go into production as the car we know today as the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, or just the Cizeta V16T.

Above Image: This is the production version of the Cizeta V16T, click here to read more about it.

As a design study this car was never designed to be drivable, it’s essentially just a full scale body with glass and fixtures in place to showcase the design. The interior is not accessible though the car does roll making it easy enough to transport.

The styling of this model is quintessentially Gandini and you can see some similarities to both the final Cizeta V16T and the Lamborghini Diablo, a car that Gandini had designed up to the prototype stage before leaving Lamborghini after disagreements about styling direction. His original design intention for the Diablo would be more closely represented in the car that would become the V16T than the car that would become the production version of the Diablo.

The width of this model is a good indication of just how wide that transverse V16 is, Claudio Zampolli developed the engine with a small team of engineers in order to compete directly with the 12 cylinder engines in rival Italian supercars from Ferrari and Lamborghini.

As an original Gandini design study in 1:1 this vehicle will attract serious attention from collectors, particularly anyone with one or more Gandini cars in their garage. It’s currently being auctioned by Collecting Cars with two days remaining and the bidding is at €1,600.

If you’d like to read more about this car or bid on it yourself you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post The Original Cizeta-Moroder V16T Design Study – 1:1 Scale appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/cizeta-moroder-v16t-design-study/
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Elton John’s Ferrari Daytona Is For Sale

Sir Elton John is not a man famous for his discreet fashion sense or shy on-stage persona, so it should probably come as no surprise that he bought himself a Ferrari Daytona back in the 1970s. Over the decades since he first became a global star Sir Elton developed a reputation as a bit of a petrolhead, he’s owned a significant number of notable cars including supercars, sports cars, and luxury vehicles.

At various times in his life he’s owned an Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante, a Jaguar E-Type, a Bentley Turbo R Saloon, a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage V550, a Ferrari 512TR, and of course the car you see here – a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona.

Now the first thing any red-blooded classic car person will tell you is that the Ferrari Daytona isn’t really called the Daytona, it’s called the Ferrari 365 GTB/4. The Daytona moniker was given to the car by the world’s motoring media shortly after it was introduced in 1968. The reason the nickname was chosen was due to Ferrari’s spectacular 1-2-3 finish in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967, with their 330 P3/4, 330 P4, and 412 P.

It’s believed that Enzo Ferrari never really liked this nickname and still to this day Ferrari only rarely uses the name when referring to the car, instead preferring its official model designation.

The Ferrari Daytona And The Usurping Miura

When the Lamborghini Miura first landed in 1966 it’s safe to say that it sent shockwaves through the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello. The Miura is a beautifully sleek mid-engined V12 that many point to as being the first real supercar. The fact that it was faster than any street-legal Ferrari then in production and built by Ferruccio Lamborghini, a man who had become a nemesis to Enzo Ferrari, made it all the more galling.

Ferrari engineers set to work creating a new car to replace the Ferrari 275 GTB, and of course to trounce the gleaming new Lamborghini. Enzo was famously opposed to using a mid-engined configuration for his V12 cars, he felt that it would provide too much of a challenge for untrained drivers. Lamborghini has no such compunction and as a result, the Miura had turned into a global sensation.

Above Image: The Daytona was styled by Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina, and today it’s lauded as one of his most popular designs.

The car developed by Ferrari for this herculean task was the 365 GTB/4, or Daytona, a sporting GT car with a front mounted 4.4 litre Colombo V12 producing 347 hp at 7,500 rpm and capable of 174 mph – exactly 3 mph faster than the Miura.

The Elton John Daytona

Depending on who you listen to Elton John took delivery of the car you see here in either 1972 or 1973. 1973 was the year he really shot to global stardom for the first time, the release of the album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player went to number one on the charts in the UK, USA, Australia, and a number of other countries.

Later in 1973 he would release Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, this cemented him as a leading light of the glam rock movement and went to number one in charts around the world.

It was right in the middle of all this that Elton owned the car you see here – a right-hand drive 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona. The car is one of only 158 built by the factory in right-hand drive, it’s finished in the best possible color combination for a Daytona – Rosso Chiro with a Nero interior.

The car recently attained Ferrari Classiche “Red Book” status, meaning it’s been thoroughly examined by Ferrari experts and deemed to be all original, including matching engine and gearbox numbers.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Silverstone Auctions. It’s due to roll across the block on the 5th of June with a price guide of £440,000 to £500,000 which works out to approximately $622,000 to $70,700 USD.

Images courtesy of Silverstone Auctions

The post Elton John’s Ferrari Daytona Is For Sale appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/elton-john-ferrari-daytona/
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Barn Find Daimler SP250 Dart – A British Corvette Or An Ugly Duckling?

The Daimler SP250, originally named the Daimler Dart, was a car that should have been a huge success for the British automaker. It has a lightweight composite body, a low curb weight, a hemi-head V8 engine, and a top speed of over 120 mph – all great features by the standards of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The reason the SP250 wasn’t a runaway success is widely thought to come down to one factor, it has what’s been described as a “droopy mouth” and the design has been widely panned for decades since its 1959 debut.

That said, there is a sold fanbase for this car around the world including people who will yell at you if you try to tell them the car is stylistically challenged. When it was first shown to the public at the 1959 New York Motor Show it was awarded the unofficial title of “Ugliest Car In Show.” This must have set alarm bells ringing back in England at Daimler headquarters as the USA was anticipated to be the car’s number one market by quite some margin.

Daimler had originally intended to call the car the “Daimler Dart” however on introducing the car to the American market they were told in no uncertain terms by Chrysler’s lawyers that they would be sued into oblivion – Chrysler had trademarked the Dart name for their own cars. The name was quickly changed to “SP250” which had been the original internal project number for the car.

This poor reception suffered by the car in the USA was troubling, you could go so far as to say that the Daimler SP250 had been developed specifically for the American market. The company believed that 2/3rds of the models sales would be in North America, a market that had been white hot for British sports cars since the curtain fell on World War II.

The project to develop the car that would become the Daimler SP250 was assigned to Edward Turner, designer of the now famous Triumph parallel twin engine that helped to transform the British motorcycle industry.

Above Image: The styling of the car has always been somewhat divisive, but it does have a solid group of enthusiasts around the world keeping them running and on the road.

Turner was appointed to the Managing Director role of BSA’s Automotive Division in 1956 and tasked with developing a new sports car with a V8 engine. V8s were famously popular with American buyers of course, and cars like the Chevrolet Corvette with its fibreglass body and V8 engine likely provided no small amount of inspiration.

Interestingly the V8 engine option in the Corvette was offered for the first time in 1955, just a year before development of the SP250 began, and with its lightweight composite body there were many who believed the Corvette may represent the future direction of the global sports car market.

There can be no denying that Turner was a brilliant engineer, the V8 he developed for the SP250 is still winning him fans today over half a century later. The 140 hp engine has a swept capacity of 2,547cc, a centrally-mounted camshaft that actuates 16 overhead valves in the heads via pushrods. The block is iron and the heads are alloy, and the engine has hemispherical combustion chambers fed by twin SU carburetors.

A fiberglass body was designed for the new car, this helped to keep weight low but it also saved a small fortune on tooling costs – steel stamping dies are far more costly than fiberglass moulds. The chassis is a 14 gauge ladder frame with cruciform bracing, and the car rides on independent front suspension with a live axle in the rear being sent power from the 4-speed transmission.

The first car to be introduced is now retroactively known as the A-spec SP250, there would be two further iterations, namely the B-spec and C-spec cars which are generally more sought after by collectors. The reason the later cars tend to be more popular is that the original A-spec model was the first Daimler to have a fiberglass body, due to inexperience with the material the chassis was too flexible which led to poor handling and an unnerving propensity for doors to fly open when cornering hard.

Jaguar would acquire Daimler in 1960, they immediately set to work on improving the SP250 with a particular focus on the chassis. The original chassis was significantly strengthened with new outriggers and a strengthening brace between the A-pillars which solved the problems suffered by the first models.

Above Image: The Edward Turner-designed V8 has proven to be enduringly popular, it would be produced in large numbers to fill demand for the later Daimler 2.5 V8 four-door saloon car.

Possibly due to the somewhat controversial styling the sales for the Daimler SP250 had never been stellar and had fallen far short of early projections. By the time Jaguar killed the model off in 1964 just 2,654 had been built, it had been hoped the company would sell 3,000 per year.

The V9 that had been developed for the SP250 would later be fitted to a version of the Jaguar Mk2 which would be sold with Daimler 2.5 V8 (later V8-250) badging. This would go on to become the single highest production model for a Daimler up until that point in history.

Although the SP250 had a troubled production life it did become a popular choice for police departments in the United Kingdom and further afield in places like Australia and New Zealand. The British Metropolitan Police in London famously used police-specification SP250s to chase down and arrest cafe racers – amateur motorcycle racers considered a scourge in London at the time who would later go on to become counter culture heroes.

It’s not known how many Daimler SP250s remain, most estimates are well under 1,000, and as a result they’re becoming more popular as time goes by and more people discover the simple joys of that Turner-developed V8.

If you’d like to read more about the car you see here or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on H&H Auctioneers. It’s due to roll across the auction block on the 26th of May with a price guide of £14,000 to £18,000.

Images courtesy of H&H Auctioneers

The post Barn Find Daimler SP250 Dart – A British Corvette Or An Ugly Duckling? appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/daimler-sp250-dart-car/
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The Unusual Citröen 2CV Roadster by Burton – $10,000 to $15,000 USD

This unusual looking car is actually a Citröen 2CV under the skin, a vehicle that we don’t typically associate with sporting driving but the team at Burton saw potential in the 2CV for an entirely new look, and a new driving experience to boot.

The project to develop what would become the Burton Citröen 2CV Roadster started in the late 1990s, brothers Dimitri and Iwan Göbel took a 2CV chassis and began creating a mould based on it using 160 kilograms of filler and a wall of inspiration that included images of many classic mid-century cars like Jaguars, Morgans, Bugattis, and Delayahes.

It took a few tries but they eventually landed on a design they liked and created the first set of fiberglass moulds. These moulds were then used to create the first body which was affixed to a 2CV chassis and shown to the world for the first time at Citromobile in the year 2000 – the biggest Citröen car show in the Netherlands.

By 2001 the car was ready for production and orders began to pour in, the kits were offered cheaply enough that essentially anyone could afford to buy a 2CV and a Burton kit to crate their own little roadster.

Over time a hardtop with gullwing doors was developed and the company faced so much demand for Citröen parts that they developed their own in-house parts supplier than can now offer any parts you may require as well as full rolling 2CV chassis.

Above Image: This is what the original 2CV looked like for reference. Citröen became famous for their eye-catching and oftentimes humorous ads.

Citröen 2CV Burton Roadster

As you may have guessed the performance specifications of the Burton 2CV roadster are somewhat humble.

The car is powered by a the two-cylinder, air-cooled Citröen 2CV engine that can produce anywhere from 9 hp to 30+ hp depending on model and the state of tune. Engine capacity ranges from 375cc up to 602cc and there are big bore kits available to increase this further.

Although the engine output may be a little on the low side the actual weight of the vehicle is just 480 kilograms or 1,058 lbs. The cars typically use approximately 5 litres to over 100 kilometers and they can offer over 700 litres of luggage space depending on configuration.

Over the course of the 20 years of production over 1,300 of these cars have been built all over the world, most reside in Europe however they have been put together in America, Ibiza, Africa, and further afield.

With its low price tag and exceedingly affordable operating costs cars like the Burton 2CV roadster have opened the door to classic car ownership to many people who would otherwise never have experienced it.

There is now an avid community of Burton owners around the world and the company is even working in developing a 100% electric version of the car.

The Burton roadster you see here has an enlarged engine with a capacity of 652cc up from 602cc, it’s also fitted with the Burton PowerTube air intake, and it’s mated to a 4-speed manual transmission.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on RM Sotheby’s. It’s due to roll across the auction block in May with an affordable price guide between $10,000 to $15,000 USD.

The post The Unusual Citröen 2CV Roadster by Burton – $10,000 to $15,000 USD appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/citroen-2cv-roadster-burton/
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The New Stirling Moss No. 7 Sweatshirt By Goodwood

This is the new Stirling Moss No. 7 sweatshirt from the team over at Goodwood, it was designed as an homage to Sir Stirling’s Ferrari 250 GT SWB, which he famously drove to three back to back victories in 1960 including one popular win at the Goodwood Circuit.

It was during this race at Goodwood that Moss famously tuned the Ferrari’s radio in to the local radio commentary to learn what was happening in the race around him. So well-equipped was the 250 GT SWB that it it included its radio and many other amenities usually removed from racing cars for weight savings – even with them all still fitted the SWB make short work of its competition.

The 250 GT SWB remains one of the most popular of the Ferrari 250 GT series, through the 250 GTO is notably more expensive and generally more famous, the SWB has long been a favorite among enthusiasts.

Each one of these sweatshirts is made from 100% cotton to ensure it’s both comfortable and period correct. It uses the same dark navy blue as Moss’ Ferrari with the lucky number 7 on the front upper left.

The folks at Goodwood are offering this sweatshirt in sizes from XS all the way up to XXXL and they cost £50.00 apiece. Worldwide shipping is available as you would expect and this sweatshirt is joined by a new coffee cup carrying the same Moss-inspired livery.

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