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For Sale: A Period-Correct 1950s Airstream Globetrotter

This beautifully preserved 1950s Airstream Globetrotter camper is one of just seven that were made to this specification and it currently belongs to the official painter of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, François Bruère.

Bruère had owned the Globetrotter for a decade and had many adventures towing it behind his Cadillac in France, sometimes to the Circuit de la Sarthe for the Le Mans weekend. Rumor has it that this Airstream was formerly owned by a Hollywood actor who used it for weekends in the Californian desert.

Fast Facts – A 1950s Airstream Globetrotter

The travel trailers by Airstream are known for their gleaming aluminum alloy bodies and their long history, a history that dates all the way back to the late 1920s.
Airstream was founded by Wally Byam in 1931 but he had built his first travel trailer on a Model T Ford chassis back in 1929.
The first Airstream trailers were made from Masonite in Byam’s backyard, but when Hawley Bowlus (designer of the Spirit of St. Louis) developed a aluminum monocoque travel trailer it revolutionized the industry, and Wally Byam followed suit.
Of the hundreds of companies building travel trailers Airstream would be one of very few to restart production after WWII – Airstream quickly became a nationally-known brand and their travel trailers were bought by everyone from NASA to regular suburban families.

Airstream And The Spirit of St. Louis

Airstream was founded by Wally Byam in 1931, however he had been experimenting with travel trailer designs for two to three years by this point as an amateur. His designs had attracted so much attention that people started commissioning him to build them to order.

The Airstream has become a 209th century icon, its gleaming alloy body showcases the aircraft design principles that led to its creation.

His first travel trailer, or caravan as they’re called in many parts of the world, was a simple tent-like structure built on a Model T Ford chassis. His later designs were more refined, they were made from Masonite and they offered good protection from the elements.

A little later in the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, an engineer and designer named Hawley Bowlus oversaw the construction of the Spirit of St. Louis, it would be the first aircraft to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic from New York to Paris.

Bowlus took his expertise in aircraft design and applied it to travel trailer design, doing up with a new aerodynamic shape and building it from aluminum. It would be the first monocoque aluminum travel trailer, and it triggered a revolution within the industry.

Wally Byam quickly realized that aluminum construction was the future of the industry, so he left his Masonite behind and developed a new streamlined camper with a polished alloy exterior.

The horseshoe lounge in this 1950s Airstream Globetrotter can be quickly converted into a double bed, and the dining table and chairs can be set up indoors or out depending on your preference.

In the years since the company has continued to evolve the designs, Airstreams would be used by NASA for decades when quarantining returning astronauts to ensure they didn’t have any unusual pathogens, and they became a common sight in campgrounds across the USA as people used them as mobile holiday homes.

The 1950s Airstream Globetrotter Camper Shown Here

The Airstream Globetrotter you see here is one of seven that were made in this configuration, it has three front and rear windows with mosquito nets instead of bay windows, and it’s been carefully kept in period-correct condition inside.

More recently the seals have been changed and the body work polished, the floor has been redone, the interior was restored (while retaining the period furniture), and it has an oven, gas cookers, a range hood, a sink, and a refrigerator.

The horseshoe bench seat can be quickly converted into a double bed and the front dining set up can be set up indoors or outdoors depending on the weather.

This Airstream Globetrotter is due to roll across the auction block with Artcurial on the 2nd of July at the Le Mans Classic sale. The price guide is $63,300 – $105,500 USD, and you can visit the listing here if you’d like to read more or register to bid.

Images courtesy of Artcurial – ©Kevin Van Campenhout

The post For Sale: A Period-Correct 1950s Airstream Globetrotter appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/airstream-globetrotter-vintage/
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For Sale: A Triumph TR6 Trophy “Desert Sled”

The Triumph TR6 650 Trophy was already a highly regarded motorcycle in 1964 when Steve McQueen and Bud Ekins formed a team of off-road motorcycle racing specialists to compete in the International Six Days Trial – arguably the toughest motorcycle competition in the world.

The TR6 Trophy was nicknamed the “Desert Sled” thanks to its well-known abilities as a race bike in the deserts of Southern California. The bike had been piloted by riders to wins in all the major off-road races, and the modern retro scrambler trend owes much of its existence to the tough old TR6.

Fast Facts – The Triumph TR6 Trophy

The Triumph TR6 Trophy was originally released in 1956 as the “Trophybird” to accompany the 650cc “Thunderbird” model in Triumph’s model line up. The Trophybird name was dropped in 1961, it was simplified to just “Trophy.”
In many respects the 650cc TR6 Trophy was developed as a larger-engined big brother to the popular 500cc TR5 model. Both were frequently used in off-road racing both in Britain and the United States.
American racers embraced the TR6 Trophy and made it their own, with a number of simple modifications the bike became the de facto “Desert Sled,” winning all of the major desert races of the era.
The motorcycle you see here is a TR6 Trophy that’s been given a period-correct desert sled rebuild, with the lighting all deleted for weight savings, a pair of high-exit straight pipes fitted, a thickly padded single-occupant seat, and a front fender delete.

The Triumph TR6 650 Trophy

In the 1950s the British motorcycle industry was a dominant force, the country was producing more motorcycles than any other nation, and many of the world’s fastest motorcycles were built there.

Above Video: Steve McQueen was riding a Triumph TR6 Trophy during the famous chase scene in The Great Escape, the bike had been dressed up to better resemble a German military motorcycle for the sequence.

This dominance would continue well into the 1960s of course, helped along by strong demand from customers in the United States who just couldn’t get enough of the big singles and parallel twins from England.

The biggest market for Triumph Motorcycles at the time was the USA, and the biggest market in the USA was California. Triumph has always had a special relationship with the Golden State, and one of the reasons for that is the motorcycle you see here – the TR6 Trophy.

It’s not known exactly how many examples of the TR6 Trophy (and earlier Trophy-bird) were sold in California over the 1956 to 1973 production runabout it was enough for the model to become a ubiquitous sight in essentially all off-road races that were held, with both professionals and amateurs often preferring the model.

The actual engineering that went into the TR6 was relatively standard for the era, with a tubular steel frame, an air-cooled unit construction parallel twin driving a 4-speed transmission with a chain final drive.

Standard examples of the TR6 Trophy would be modified with straight pipes, thickly padded single seats, a lighting delete, and some other changes to turn them into successful off-road racing desert sleds.

Suspension consisted of hydraulic forks up front with rubber gaiters, twin shock absorbers in the rear, and braking was accomplished with front and rear drum brakes.

There were changes over the course of the model’s production run of course, 5-speed gearboxes later became an option, and from 1971 onwards the new (and not particularly popular) oil-in-frame model was introduced.

American riders would often modify their TR6s into desert sleds by adding high-exit straight exhaust pipes, swapping out the original two person seat for a thickly padded single seat, removing the lights, adding a bash plate under the crankcase, adding racing numbers, and some also deleted the front fender.

TR6 Trophy desert sleds would win an almost absurd list of off-road races including the Big Bear Run, the International Six Days Trial, the Catalina Grand Prix, the Greenhorn Enduro, the AMA National Hare and Hound Championship, the Peoria TT, the East Coast Scrambles Championship, the Hi-Mountain 200-Mile, the AMA Cross Country Championship, the Barstow to Vegas 150-Mile, and countless others.

The 650cc parallel twin is a relatively simple affair, with two pushrod actuated valves per cylinder, a single carburetor, a 4-speed gearbox, and it produced approximately 45 bhp.

Today there are many who still build and ride these motorcycles off-road, for the visceral and purely analogue experience it gives you.

The 1969 Triumph TR6 650 Trophy Shown Here

The bike you see here is a 1969 Triumph TR6 Trophy that has been built up to proper period correct desert sled specification.

As a 1969 model this bike is pre oil-in-frame, which makes it more desirable for many, and the listing states that although the lighting has all been removed at present the wiring is still there, allowing it to all be re-fitted if the new owner so wishes.

The odometer currently shows just 5 miles, believed to be the accurate mileage since the rebuild was completed. The bike is road-legal in the UK and bit’s currently being sold out of Walton On Thames, Surrey.

If you’d like to read more about this motorcycle you can visit the listing here on Collecting Cars.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post For Sale: A Triumph TR6 Trophy “Desert Sled” appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/triumph-tr6-trophy-desert-sled-bike/
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There’s A Porsche 944 “Safari Rally” Specification For Sale

This is a 1986 Porsche 944 that has been given a comprehensive rebuild to “Safari Rally” specification. It now boasts 11 inches of ground clearance thanks to its lifted (and fully-adjustable) suspension, and it has a front-mounted winch just in case you ever get stuck.

The Porsche 944 model series proved highly successful in motorsport throughout the 1980s on both sides of the Atlantic, and today they make an increasingly attractive option for those looking to enter the world of Porsche ownership.

Fast Facts – A “Safari Rally” Porsche 944

The Porsche 944 was introduced in 1982 as a new mid-range Porsche that sat above the Porsche 924 and below the Porsche 911 and Porsche 928.
The 944 is largely based on the earlier 924, it has wider wheel arches and a slew of upgrades to differentiate it from its less-costly sibling, and it would later form the foundation of the Porsche 968 model that would succeed it.
All 944s were powered by inline-four cylinder engines ranging in displacement from 2.5 to 3.0 liters, the top of the line Turbo models were the fastest – and today the most desirable.
The “Safari Rally” specification Porsche 944 you see here has received a slew of modifications to turn it into an off-road capable racer. It now has almost a foot of ground clearance.

The Porsche 944

The Porsche 944 was released in 1982 as an upgraded version of the Porsche 924 and it was sold as a new model alongside its sibling.

We’ve rarely seen Porsche 944s that look quite like this, with 11 inches of ground clearance and a front-mounted winch, this 944 is ready to go many places the original couldn’t.

The 924 had originally been developed as a Porsche/Volkswagen project as a new affordable sports car, VW would eventually cancel the deal but Porsche bought the rights to the design and put it into production themselves as their own entry level vehicle.

It’s possible that this decision saved the company as both the 924 and 944 sold well, in fact up until that point in history the 944 was the most produced sports car in Porsche history, with over 163,000 built.

The 944 is believed to have been closely based on the styling of the aggressive Porsche 924 Carrera GT released in 1979. This was an out-and-out race car that competed in both rally and circuit racing, it was developed for Group 4 competition and it was powered by a turbocharged and intercooled version of the 924 inline-four.

Porsche would keep the 944 in production from 1982 until 1991. It became one of the true 1980s classics and it remains popular with the Radwood faithful today. Thanks in part to their high production numbers its still possible to buy 944s for relatively little money, though of course the Turbo and “S” models always fetch a bit more.

The interior has been tastefully upgraded with a Momo steering wheel, an Alcantara upholstered dashboard, and new Braum Racing Elite X seats with red Sabelt harnesses.

The “Safari Rally” Specification Porsche 944 Shown Here

The Porsche 944 you see here now benefits from a wide range of upgrades to turn it into the Safari Rally car we all wish Porsche had built in the 1980s. The original suspension has been removed and replaced with lifted, fully-adjustable suspension on all four corners.

This has given the car a full 11 inches of ground clearance, and it now rides on a set of white 15 inch “Teledial” alloy wheels, fitted with with BFGoodrich K02 Baja Champion tires. A basket-type roof rack has been installed, it contains a red ATS “Cookie Cutter” spare wheel and matching K02 tire.

For better nighttime visibility a custom-built light bar is mounted on the front bumper, it hosts four 9-inch Hella 4000 rally spotlights and there’s a toggle switch in the cabin to fire them up. A functional 2,500 lb winch is also mounted within the front bumper to help get you out of difficult situations.

The car is now carrying a period correct Rothmans color scheme, the same one used on the legendary 1986 Paris-Dakar-winning Porsche. Inside you’ll find a burgundy interior that’s been fitted with two burgundy Braum Racing Elite X seats and red Sabelt harnesses, and the dashboard is now covered with Alcantara.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can visit the listing here on Collecting Cars. It’s being sold out of Los Angeles, California.