RUMCars Forum
General Category => Unusual Microcar Discussion => Topic started by: richard on February 04, 2014, 05:46:44 PM
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what can we make of this one ? if you've spotted it elsewhere shhhh for a bit
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Nice photo.
Er, driver in white is Norman Wisdom, about to fall over and shout "Oi, Mr Grimsdale, Mr GRIMSDALE!"
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From the trees and the flatness it looks like Hockenhiem. I imagine the Tannoy has just announced a Tiger has flipped breaking the single heirless drivers neck and the remains need to be moved by 9 pm tonight; in the middle of the humpty dumpty look alike competition.
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Can anything of interest be found in the car park ? At least a couple of Beetles and is that a Porsche ? But what else ?
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Is that a frisky sport next to the 2 black beetles and adjacent to the tribune.
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2 Isettas?
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Good showing of Deeks. There is what looks like a Borgward but I think is actually a rarer Hansa 1800. Not seeing any bubbles. You must have better eyes than I have. I think the open car is to large to be a Frisky, if that is the suggestion, compare it to what is next to it. It is more NSU Spyder sized, but that was later than this picture, so I would guess at Alfa Spyder or Fiat.
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Extreme left 600, and top left background 300?
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Not getting it. Then I am not magnifying the image off the forum. Looks like another Lloyd beyond the BMW 600. There is a building with people in-front of it. The might be something parked next to the otherwise lone car over at the wood edge.
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White car number 3, extreme left. Looking again, it's hard to tell if the distant one in front of the trees and fence is the front end of an Isetta or rear of 4 wheeler car....isetta Isetta?
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Front row, BMW 600, Puch or Abarth 500 (?) (the badge doesn't look Fiat), three Lloyd LP600 (with the indicators on top of the front wings), NSU Prinz 1. I can't make out what is to the left of the BMW 600. Maybe, maybe an Isetta, but looks a bit too high for it.
At the rear, two Beetles, don't know what the soft top behind them or what the car to the left is. Then a DKW which may be an Auto Union 1000S. Behind it perhaps a Renault Fregate, not sure. To the right a mystery car. The rear looks a bit like an Isetta, but it appears to have a bonnet and the screen is too flat. Further to the right two more AUs, a Porsche 356, a Merc 180 or 200, an unknown convertible (Opel?), Borgward Isabella (definitely Isabella, Al - its has the small rhombus, so post 1958), another AU 1000S, and an unidentifiable one (could it be another Porsche?). I wouldn't want to comment on the car in front of the trees, not even with max magnification.
But keep them coming, Richard!
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yeah but do you know who won? ;)
(I'll post a pic)
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The stumbling driver in white make me think of Stirling Moss for some reason
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under the steps MGA softop ?
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further info from the source - flikr again . i'd guess the 4pm race judging by the length of the shadows if it's end of May , but then again with the time difference .......
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugo90/4285726708/in/pool-bubblecars
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To the right a mystery car. The rear looks a bit like an Isetta, but it appears to have a bonnet and the screen is too flat.
Could the 'mystery car' be an Autobianchi Bianchina?
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C381084#
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Apparently this 1958 race generated a lot of hot air - Separate adverts appearing immediately after the race claiming a great victory for both Lloyd and a great victory for BMW. The event was devised as a fairly laid-back sort of economy test for largely standard microcars, but manufacturers seized the opportunity and none of them entered anything remotely like standard cars! The organisers had devised a complex points formula based on each cars total fuel consumption for the race while running at up to 85% of their maximum speed for the race duration (or something along those lines) along with other adjustments for the weight of the vehicle and it's driver. Some minor alterations were permitted, but the organisers were perhaps a bit vague about what this meant. Lloyd decided nobody would care about economy providing they crossed the line first and along with Fiat, tuned their cars for speed, BMW however, embraced the economy aspect and set their cars up to minimise fuel consumption. The organisers got suspicious during practice when most of the cars were managing to lap substantially faster than their advertised top speeds, but decided to carry on with the rules as they were, on the basis that the cars seemed to be so highly tuned they were bound to blow up well before the end of 12 hours, (ultimately only six of the thirty-two cars entered failed to finish). A Lloyd crossed the line first having averaged over 110km/h for the entire 12 hour race (including fuel & tyre stops & driver changes) despite having an advertised maximum speed of only 100Km/h. A chequered flag was waved, spectators cheered and then after they'd all gone home, BMW were calculated to have taken the first four places in the economy run. Lloyd threatened BMW with legal action when their ads appeared, but it doesn't appear to have gone any further than that.
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Terrific story well done !
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Yup, terrific, cheers!
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It is interesting, as of course it was BMW management that was imposed on the artificially bankrupted Borgward group of companies sum years later, and which quickly asset stripped the company to BMW's advantage, before the truth of the stitch up was revealed. By that time there was no way back. Carl Borgward was left to die stitched up and heart broken. Some kind of revenge there then.
So which circuit was it they were using? Odd start for an economy run too. However Le Mans start was fashionable until banned as dangerous.
The result, well it has to be to the rules and regs. Passing the post first is good advertising of course, as 'winning' is reportage. However index of performance offers many a strange result as it depends on the rules and who they suit. You can even change the rules part the way through, if your favoured team is not winning - Citroen DS 'beating' the Mini Cooper S on the Monaco Rally. Yeah, that worked well, who even looks at the Monaco Rally now. Its meaningless when it was a premier event. Cheating does that.
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Click on my last link al. It says Hockenheim as you thought
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Interesting story, Malcolm, what are your sources for the 1958 race?
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Mainly the coverage it got in Der Spiegel shortly afterwards