Author Topic: old photo  (Read 8346 times)

wilksie

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Re: old photo
« Reply #15 on: February 05, 2014, 06:37:49 PM »
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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Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)

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Re: old photo
« Reply #16 on: February 06, 2014, 12:56:48 AM »
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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richard

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Re: old photo
« Reply #17 on: February 06, 2014, 06:29:39 AM »
Terrific story well done !
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marcus

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Re: old photo
« Reply #18 on: February 06, 2014, 08:04:51 AM »
Yup, terrific, cheers!
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Big Al

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Re: old photo
« Reply #19 on: February 06, 2014, 10:26:11 AM »
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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richard

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Re: old photo
« Reply #20 on: February 06, 2014, 11:05:46 AM »
Click on my last link al. It says Hockenheim as you thought
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wilksie

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Re: old photo
« Reply #21 on: February 06, 2014, 11:59:38 AM »
Interesting story, Malcolm, what are your sources for the 1958 race?
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Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)

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Re: old photo
« Reply #22 on: February 06, 2014, 06:19:32 PM »
Mainly the coverage it got in Der Spiegel shortly afterwards
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