1980 Fiat 238: A Lamborghini “Roadside Assistance” Van

This is a 1980 Fiat 238 van that’s ready to go out and start rescuing Lamborghini owners who have found themselves parked by the side of the road, with a vehicle that’s turned itself into an attractive Italian paperweight.

The Fiat 238 is one of the most popular vans ever made by the Italian automaker and unsurprisingly it’s been used by companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini for roadside assistance duties – typically with their own distinctive livery.

Fast Facts – The Fiat 238 Van

• The Fiat 238 van was introduced in 1965 as the replacement for the outgoing Fiat 1100T van. The 238 is based on the front-wheel drive Autobianchi Primula platform with power provided by the Fiat 124 engine.
• The use of front-wheel drive allowed a lower flat floor in the rear, as no driveshaft needed to be accommodated, which maximized the space available for cargo. This design feature also made the 238 popular with camper conversion companies.
• The Fiat 238 would remain in production until 1983, the original plan had been to phase it out when the Fiat 242 van was introduced in 1974, however the sales of the 238 remained so strong that Fiat kept it in production for 10 more years.
• The van you see here has been restored to a high level, in fact it’s the nicest job we’ve seen on in 238 in recent memory. It’s been finished in a period correct Lamborghini roadside assistance livery that’ll ensure it always draws a crowd at shows.

The Fiat 238 Van

The Fiat 238 was released in 1965 to replace the venerable Fiat 1100T van, it was a member of a long line of Fiat commercial vehicles dating all the way back to the Fiat 24 Horse Power of 1903.

This van is in excellent shape, it has one of the nicest interiors we’ve ever seen on a 238.

Named for its power output of 24 steam horsepower, the 24HP was one of the first vehicles ever developed by Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, better known now simply as FIAT.

A number of truck and van commercial vehicles would follow, production was drastically increased in WWII, with Fiat becoming one of the biggest automotive manufacturers in Europe by the time of the war.

The introduction of the Fiat 238 in the mid-1960s represented a major shift in design attitudes, it was powered by a transversely mounted, front wheel drive arrangement that allowed a lower floor in the rear, as no driveshaft had to be accommodated for.

The Fiat 238 would be built in a huge variety of sub-types, from the standard van to pickup trucks, campers, minibuses, ambulances, and more.

The 238 became a common daily sight on the streets of Italy and Europe as a whole, and as more and more enthusiasts are drawn to vintage vans the popularity of the 238 is climbing steadily.

Due to the front wheel drive which allowed low flat floor in the rear, the Fiat 238 was ideal for use as a mobile workshop as there was so much space for shelving, tools, spares, and equipment in the back.

The Fiat 238 Lamborghini Roadside Assistance Van Shown Here

The 238 you see here has clearly been through a comprehensive restoration, in fact the front passenger compartment is the nicest 238 cockpit we’ve ever seen.

The van has a white top to help keep it cool, with aquamarine blue sides featuring Lamborghini livery. It rides on classic steel wheels and the swing doors at the back of the van open to show a tidy but empty interior.

The new owner will be the one to decide if they turn it into a camper, use it as a regular cargo van, or perhaps even fill it with tool and go looking for stranded Italian exotics to rescue.

It’s due to roll across the auction block with Historics Auctioneers on the 12th of March with a price guide of $26,400 – $33,100 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Historics Auctioneers

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from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/fiat-238-lamborghini-roadside-assistance-van/
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A Sauber C32 Ferrari Formula 1 Exhaust Sculpture

This is a Sauber C32-Ferrari exhaust sculpture by Mike O’Connor, a major figure in the classic Formula 1 world who owns the company Vintage Formula – a company that sells classic F1 cars as well as art created from them.

Back in 2014 O’Connor bought the remains of the Benetton F1 Team including the cars and parts needed to operate them, adding them all to his already expansive collection.

He also founded the Fastest.Club, an owners club for people who own operational classic Formula 1 cars, and the club provides them with opportunities to get their cars out on track as a support event for a number of F1 races around the world.

These are just a few of the Formula 1 cars that Mike O’Connor has in his collection, all stored away in a bunker at a secret location in England.

The Sauber C32-Ferrari exhaust sculpture you see here was built from a real exhaust from the 2013 Sauber F1 car. It was powered by a Ferrari Type 056 naturally aspirated 2.4 liter 90º V8 with a 18,000 RPM redline that produces up to 785 hp.

This sculpture by O’Connor features the left and right bank exhaust headers from the engine joined at the ports to create a symmetrical and almost alien-like piece that is mounted to a display stand.

This sculpture is currently for sale out of Britain, it’s being auctioned live online by Collecting Cars and you can click here if you would like to read more or register to bid.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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An NSU Ro80: The Rare Wankel Rotary-Powered Sedan That Killed Its Maker

The NSU Ro80 is an advanced passenger sedan released in the 1960s that would ultimately kill the company that developed it and result in the founding of a company we all know today as Audi.

With a front-mounted twin rotor Wankel engine, a semi-automatic three speed transmission, four wheel independent suspension, four wheel disc brakes, power steering, and excellent aerodynamics, the NSU Ro80 was intended to be a car of the future – but reliability problems with the rotary engine would lead to its demise.

Fast Facts – The NSU Ro80

• In the 1950s NSU was one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers in the world, they released the world’s first Wankel rotary-engined car, the NSU Spider or “Wankelspider,” in 1964 followed by the rotary engined NSU Ro80 in 1967.
• NSU were world leaders in Wankel rotary engine technology, selling patent licenses to many of the world’s leading automobile (and some motorcycle) companies – most notably Mazda and Norton.
• In the 1960s many believed that the Wankel rotary engine was the engine of the future, countless millions were spent refining the design however problems with apex seals, high emissions, and poor fuel economy have dogged the design for decades.
• The NSR Ro80 is powered by a twin rotor Wankel engine with a displacement of 995cc and 113 bhp at 6,500 rpm and 101 ft lbs of torque at 3,000 rpm. The top speed was 180 km/h (112 mph) and the car had an excellent drag coefficient for the era – just 0.355 Cd.

Developing The NSU Ro80

The engineering team assigned to the NSU Ro80 in the mid-60s developed a car that would still be more technologically advanced than many of its competitors a decade later in the late 1970s.

The interior of the car is reminiscent of many other German cars of the era, particularly Audis and BMWs.

They designed a steel unibody frame and gave it independent front and rear suspension with MacPherson struts up front and semi-trailing arm suspension in the rear.

The body was one of the most aerodynamic four door sedans in the world at the time of its release in 1967 with a drag coefficient of 0.355 Cd, and usually for the era it was fitted with ATE Dunlop disc brakes at each corner, with the front brakes being inboard to reduce unsprung mass.

If a standard Otto cycle engine has been fitted, an engine with normal pistons, valves, cams, connecting rods, etc, it’s likely that the NSU Ro80 would still be celebrated today in the same way as four door sedans like the Jaguar Mk2 and the Citroen DS.

NSU had gambled big on Wankel rotary engine technology, in fact the company had hired Felix Wankel after WWII and funded the development of the first working Wankel engine in 1957. It was hoped that the shortcomings of the engine – namely the wear-prone apex seals, high emissions, and poor fuel economy could be worked out with enough time, money, and engineers assigned to the project.

The NSR Ro80 is powered by a twin rotor Wankel engine with a displacement of 995cc and 113 bhp at 6,500 rpm and 101 ft lbs of torque at 3,000 rpm.

The Release Of The Ro80

The NSU Ro80 was fitted with a twin rotor Wankel engine with a displacement of 995cc, power was sent to the front wheels by way of a three-speed semi-automatic transmission that had a push-down shifter knob for actuating the clutch – rather than the more common third pedal.

Truth be told, when the Ro80 was released in 1967 the engine just wasn’t ready to be used in an automobile that would be driven daily, covering high miles in all manner of weather conditions.

On its release consumer sentiment around the car was glowing, everyone wanted to own one of these futuristic new NSU cars and sales were excellent, the model even won the Car of the Year award for 1968.

Felix Wankel even had one himself, he was never able to drive it as he suffered from extreme shortsightedness however he had a driver to ferry him around in his Ro80 as he listened to the sound of his creation whirring under the hood.

The inventor of the Wankel rotary engine, Felix Wankel, had an NSU Ro80 himself, he was never able to drive it as he suffered from extreme shortsightedness however he had a driver and used the car for regular daily transportation.

The Beginning Of The End

As owners drove their cars and the mileage increased so did the number of failures, apex seals, also known as rotor tip seals, could fail in cars with mileages as low as 25,000 to 50,000 kms (15,500 to 31,100 miles).

NSU engineers worked hard to develop new apex seals that solved the earlier problems, but there was little they could do about the fuel economy problem that led to cars getting somewhere in the region of 13 – 16 L/100 km, or approximately 18 – 15 US mpg.

Bad press and a growing negative reputation did great harm to the NSU R080 and sales never recovered. By the 1977 the writing was on the wall, production of the car ceased and the company was acquired by Volkswagen.

It was then joined together with Auto Union to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG – more commonly known simply as Audi.

The styling of the NSU Ro80 was advanced by the standards of the mid-1960s, it still looked modern over a decade later in the late 1970s.

The NSU Ro80 Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1975 NSU Ro80 from later in the model’s production life, this overwhelmingly original car still has its original NSU rotary engine under the hood, avoiding the fate of many of its contemporaries that were fitted with Ford V4 engines by aftermarket specialists.

With a little over 40,000 miles on the odometer this car is now being offered for sale out of a collection of quirky and interesting cars in the UK. The price guide is £13,000 – £16,000 which works out to approximately $17,600 – $21,700 USD.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual NSU or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Historics Auctioneers.

Images courtesy of Historics Auctioneers

The post An NSU Ro80: The Rare Wankel Rotary-Powered Sedan That Killed Its Maker appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/nsu-ro80-car/
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For Sale: DeLorean DMC-12 5-Speed – With The “Stage II” Engine Upgrade

This is a 1982 DeLorean DMC-12 fitted with the desirable Stage II performance kit to boost power output. The original DeLorean was famously low on power, producing just 130 bhp which resulted in disappointing performance – it could barely surpass 100 mph.

The Stage II kit changes all of this, it adds engine mods as well as new brakes and new suspension, to give the car the performance it should have had from the get go. Power output is now claimed to be in the region of 215 bhp with the 0 – 60 mph dash taking seven seconds.

Fast Facts – The Stage II DeLorean DMC-12

• The DeLorean DMC-12 was the ill-fated creation of John DeLorean, a former auto industry whizz kid who had been promoted to head the Pontiac Division at General Motors when he was just 40 years old, making him the youngest GM division head in the company’s history.
• DeLorean had a dream to develop and build his own car under his own brandname, he managed to get enough funding to launch the project, helped in part by an injection of funds from the government of Northern Ireland.
• The unusual DMC-12 was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, with much of the engineering done by Colin Chapman of Lotus. The original Wankel rotary engine chosen for the car was unavailable, and so compromises were made.
• The final production DMC-12 was powered by a rear-mounted 2.85 liter PRV V6 engine producing 130 bhp and 153 ft lbs of torque. The Stage II aftermarket kit provides engine modifications to increase power to a claimed 215 bhp, suspension and braking modifications are also included.

All Show And No Go

If it wasn’t for the fact that the DeLorean DMC-12 featured prominently in the much-loved Back To The Future film trilogy it’s likely it would be remembered with much less fondness, perhaps more like the Bricklin SV-1.

Above Video: This is the Regular Car Reviews episode dedicated to Matt Farah’s Stage II DeLorean, a car very similar to the one you see pictured here in this article.

The original design for the DeLorean included the use of a chassis made using the elastic reservoir moulding (ERM) process. This technology was found to be unsuitable and so the development was largely turned over to Colin Chapman and his team at Lotus.

Lotus And The DeLorean

Chapman developed the new DeLorean using technology he knew well – the car would have a steel backbone chassis and a fiberglass body. Stamped stainless steel body panels would then be glued to the fiberglass body giving the car its distinctive look.

The original engine for the car was intended to be a Wankel rotary however it was discontinued before production began, a turbo version of the Citroën CX 2000 engine was then investigated, but eventually the fuel-injected V6 PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) engine was chosen.

By the time the long-delayed DeLorean actually reached showroom floors the price had increased from the originally projected figure of $12,000 USD to $25,000 USD or more. Sales weren’t helped by poor reviews and lackluster performance, the company filed for bankruptcy in February 1982 – 8,975 cars were built in total.

The Stage II benefits from a slew of engines to boost the output from 130 bhp to claimed 215 bhp, taking the 0 – 60 mph time from 10.5 seconds to 7 seconds.

Back To The Future

Three years later in 1985 a Hollywood film about a mad scientist, his dog Einstein, and his young friend named Marty opened at cinemas across the United States. It was titled “Back To The Future” and it would become one of the highest grossing film series of the decade.

The DeLorean would play a central role in all three films in the trilogy, it was the time machine that allowed travel back and forth from the 1800s to the 1950s, 1980s, and into the 2000s.

Back To The Future launched the DeLorean from relative obscurity into a global phenomenon. Values of them soared after the film was released and John DeLorean must have wondered if things would have played out differently for him if the film had been released in 1981 rather than 1985, as it may very well have saved his company.

This car has the 5-speed manual gearbox option and it’d fitted with a gated shifter.

The Stage II DeLorean Shown Here

The car you see here is the vehicle that DeLorean should have released back in 1980 when they started production.

Rather than the 130 bhp of the original engine it’s now producing a claimed 215 bhp thanks to a slew of engine modifications including ported and polished heads, uprated camshafts, uprated catalytic converters and exhaust headers, a new stainless steel exhaust system, a new air intake and high flow filter, and a few smaller improvements.

With its 5-speed manual transmission (gated no less) and its more appropriate power levels, this DeLorean looks to be vastly more entertaining to drive than one of the originals.

It’s currently being offered for sale on Bring A Trailer out of Seattle, Washington, and at the time of writing there are still a few days left to bid – you can click here if you’d like to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Bring A Trailer

The post For Sale: DeLorean DMC-12 5-Speed – With The “Stage II” Engine Upgrade appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/delorean-dmc-12-stage-ii/
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