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Cult cars

a_majoor

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Reading this Jay Leno piece reminded me of my first car, a SAAB 99 Turbo, purchased for no better reason than it was the "coolest" car in the parking lot (everyone else was buying Cameros and Firebirds). Sadly, when SAAB was purchased by General Motors, the brand was mismanaged into the ground. Trying to sell Saab's alongside Saturns made no sense from any perspective that I could see, and rebadging Chevy Blazers with the SAAB grill and emblem (along with various other vehicles from different companies) certainly did not make these vehicles SAAB's.

For me, the essence of SAAB was the fact they were essentially designed by aircraft designers with extra time on their hands ("Hey Sven, come over here. We're going to build a car!"), and the way a SAAB was designed and built reflected a sheer love of engineering for its own sake, rather than bean counting. The only other car company I ever encountered with a similar philosophy was Citroen, and that identity was erased when Peugeot bought them out. SAAB has changed hands several times now, but I don't see them coming back as a car company. Pity:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/jay-leno/vintage/long-live-saab-jay-leno-remembers-the-quirky-carmaker-9989519?click=pp

Long Live Saab! Jay Leno Remembers the Quirky Carmaker
Yet another company is trying to pick Saab up off the scrap heap and revive the marque. But the Saab that Jay Leno knew and loved is gone. Here's why it's worth celebrating the achievements of this weird but innovative automaker.
By Jay Leno

A handy bracket holds a spare can of two-stroke oil.

John Lamm

July 30, 2012 6:30 AM
Somewhere over in Sweden there's a Dumpster full of Saab letterhead, employee ID badges, and day planners. There are guys going through what once were Saab's offices, hanging auction tags on the furniture, computers, printers, and water coolers.

Saab went bankrupt in December 2011; in June, a company called National Electric Vehicle Sweden AN (NEVS) announced it would buy the marque, reportedly to make electric vehicles bearing the venerable name. NEVS is owned 51/49 by Chinese and Japanese interests, respectively, and China is the initial target market for the next generation of Saabs. But the Saab I knew and loved is gone, and I miss it.

When I was a kid, Saabs were unique. I first rode in one while I was in high school. A friend's mother had an old model with a two-stroke engine and a differential incorporating a freewheel hub system like the one on a 10-speed bicycle. It didn't go fast, but when my friend's mom took her foot off the accelerator pedal, there was no compression braking. The car just kept rolling along. I was fascinated.

Saabs were front-drivers when every American car had rear drive. Their two-stroke, three-cylinder engines sounded like popcorn machines—poppoppoppaaawwwp!—while other cars were muffled into silence. The first Saab car, the 1950 model 92, was built around an aerodynamically slick unibody. It rode on an all-independent torsion bar suspension and used something called rack-and-pinion steering. It was impossible to over-rev a Saab's engine because it ran out of power before the redline. So you just threw your boot at the gas pedal and shifted up until there was evidence of forward momentum. All that unconventional engineering led to good fuel economy: Saabs got better than 25 mpg.

In the '50s and '60s, owning a Saab meant more than having an odd car in your garage; it was a lifestyle choice. With that two-stroke engine, you had to premix your gas and oil. So you trudged to the gas station with two 5-gallon cans, filled them up most of the way with gasoline, and then topped them off with oil at a 50:1 ratio. After a shaking to mix them up—and remember, gas weighs more than 6 pounds a gallon—you could fill the Saab's fuel tank. But there was never any oil sump to drain and virtually no other routine engine maintenance. Under the hood a clamp held an extra quart of premix oil.

On cold mornings, if you wanted to warm up a Saab's engine more quickly, you pulled a chain dangling from the dashboard to lower a "shade" that blocked airflow to the radiator. Naturally, the cabin heater was phenomenal.

My Saab is a 1958 model 93B. It doesn't have the key on the floor like later Saabs, but this was the first year for the one-piece front windshield, and the doors are hinged at the back, suicide style. With a 750-cc engine making about 33 hp, it's not fast. But you can go 70 mph down the road with four people in it. It has cruise control too; just put your foot to the floor and keep it there.

To me, however, my Saab's most fascinating detail is the water pump that's located on the back end of the generator. The Swedes could made it work, but imagine if a British car company had tried this. At best it would have functioned correctly; at worst it would have electrocuted anyone who touched it.

Beyond their engineering idiosyncrasies, though, Saabs were effective. The company was building rigid, lightweight, and aerodynamic cars when other manufacturers ignored these considerations in their engineering. A Saab didn't look or drive like anything else on the road, and it attracted buyers to match.

It seemed for a while that every time a professor at a college in New England was awarded tenure, he or she got a Saab to go along with it. Intellectuals, eccentrics, and other free-minded, countercultural types seemed to adopt Saabs almost instinctively. The author Kurt Vonnegut even owned a Saab dealership—Saab Cape Cod—in the late '50s.

When Saab switched to Ford-sourced four-stroke V-4 engines in 1967, the brand lost some of its charm for me. Of course, Saab did some innovative things after that. The 1978 Saab 99 Turbo ushered in a new era of efficiency, and the later 900 Turbo was sophisticated. Then GM bought Saab, intending to turn it into a BMW competitor. Suddenly there were Saabs that were Subarus with new badges or Chevy TrailBlazers with their ignition key on the floor. Without quirkiness, Saab became just another car.

Read more: Long Live Saab! Jay Leno Remembers the Quirky Carmaker - Popular Mechanics
 
medicineman said:
So this didn't make it into the cult car list?
I remember those. Had one.
1976 & even had the optional bigger motor of 258 ci.
 
Some real cult cars from the 1930's, at the height of the Art Deco movement. Poetry literally in motion:

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/glory-days-automotive-design-bugatti-voisin-vehicles-nissan-cube-gallery-1.1164882?pmSlide=0
 
How about the white 1970 Dodge Challenger from the movie Vanishing Point?

I believe it was supposed to have a 440 ci engine with a six pack on it.
 
The Mustang that might have been. Having to choose between a mid engine sports car or a '68 "Boss" Mustang would actually be a difficult choice...

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/06/the-mustang-that-never-was/
 
While not a car, this electric motorcycle demonstrates some of the limits to what is possible. The bit about how long it takes to charge using a 110 V outlet should be a warning for anyone who seriously is advocating for electric cars; imagine an entire neighbourhood "plugging in" for the night...

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-reviews/first-drives/2014-mission-rs-electric-motorcycle-first-ride-review

First Ride: 2014 Mission RS
A game-changing electric tour de force.

By Wes Siler August 2, 2013 / Photos by Kynan Tait

The Mission RS promises to be the first electric motorcycle to compete with gas bikes on outright performance. Two years ago, it set a new lap record at Laguna Seca of 1:31.3, good enough that it would have qualified fifth on the grid of the AMA Daytona Sportbike race happening the same weekend. Thats with a top speed restricted to just 130 mph to conserve battery power, mind you.

Electric powertrains have held much promise in motorcycles for years. They should deliver more performance than their internal-combustion equivalents. But they haven’t, until now.

It’s common for a gas-powered superbike to exceed the Mission’s 160-hp figure, but 120 lb-ft of torque is 20 or so more than even the most powerful Ducatis. And all of it is available all the time, with no need to chase revs or gears. Thrust is simply a function of how far you twist the throttle. And you’d better hang on—this bike is powerful enough to wheelie on full throttle or, if you’re more restrained, run 0–60 mph in around three seconds. It’ll keep running all they way to a top speed of 150 mph. (It’s limited to that in the interest of range conservation.)

Without the reciprocating inertia and vibration of a traditional internal-combustion engine, the Mission delivers a level of feedback hitherto impossible. Rider inputs are,better informed, and the bike reacts more immediately than ever before.

540 pounds is a lot of weight to push around a driveway, garage or parking lot, but clustering the heavy components (the batteries) around an ideal center of gravity pays huge dividends. Once underway, the Mission’s heft simply disappears, creating a bike with rapid steering, yet excellent stability.

The Mission features a bespoke operating system and huge, touchscreen interface. It's also Internet connected, allowing you to record and share 1080p image-stabilized video of your ride, along with a Google map of your route and telemetry data like lean angles, acceleration and pretty much anything else you can imagine.

While you don’t feel it on the road, 540 lbs is a lot to push around a driveway, garage or parking lot. Recharge time on a standard 110v outlet is so bad that Mission doesn’t disclose it. When plugged into a 220v line with the available twin-charger system, the 17 kWh battery recharges fully in under two hours. Operating range is around 140 miles highway (Mission calls it "real world") or 230 miles in the city.

Finally realizing the promise of electric motivation, the Mission RS is superior to every performance motorcycle yet created. On real roads, it’s faster and better handling than any conventionally powered bike, delivering unprecedented feel and control while connecting emotionally with its rider in a whole new way—it sounds like a TIE Fighter on an attack run.

This $58,999 RS model is limited to just 40 units. Once it’s delivered, the Mission R will enter production starting at just $32,499 (before a $2,500 federal tax credit), blunted only by a slightly lower-quality (but still extremely nice) suspension and wheels.

On two wheels at least, gas power just became obsolete.

Regular readers should know my particular hobbyhorse for electric vehicles is the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC), which can convert thee chemical energy fo hydrocarbons directly to electrical energy. Exchanging the battery pack for an SOFC and fuel tank should provide the same performance (the electric engine does not care where the power is coming from) with lower weight and the range and conveinience of a gasoline powered motorcycle. The only other bike that made a real point of grouping everything in order to concentrate and lower the center of gravity prior to this was the ELF-E raceing bike (which even had the fuel tank under the engine in the interest of a low COG).
 
A great slideshow of analog sports cars: ones with little or no automtion (traction control, electronic or automatic gearboxes etc). Entries range from the Dodge Viper to the Mazda Miata, and Lotus, Porsche and Ferrari all have entries as well as Toyota(?) Who woud have thunk?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/vintage-speed/10-great-analog-sports-cars?click=pp#slide-1
 
Thucydides said:
Some real cult cars from the 1930's, at the height of the Art Deco movement. Poetry literally in motion:

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/glory-days-automotive-design-bugatti-voisin-vehicles-nissan-cube-gallery-1.1164882?pmSlide=0

I agree. You can really see the time and passion put into designing those 1930's Bugatti's and such. Fine curves and a flowing design. Looking at cars such as the Nissan Cube, those are gimmick cars. I can picture the design team of that car, 2 AM, fast food wrappers laying on the table, struggling to meet the 8 o'clock deadline. That said, there are some beautiful cars on the road today too though.
 
Babe Ruth's last Lincoln:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/10/babe-ruth-lincoln-628.jpg
 
A '49 Cadillac at Pikes Peak. Follow the link for hte video:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-videos/1949-cadillac-pikes-peak-better-than-coffee
 
100 hottest cars of all time? You decide:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/fuel-economy/the-100-hottest-cars-of-all-time#slide-1
 
And more art deco cars at an exhibition:

http://www.sportscardigest.com/sensuous-steel-art-deco-automobiles-photo-gallery

Enjoy
 
Modified VW pickup trucks do a cross country run across Russia from Moscow to the Bering Sea. Sadly even the stock version of the truck isn't available in North America:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/06/volkswagens-beastly-pickup-breaks-off-roading-record-on-the-way-to-the-olympics/

Volkswagen’s Beastly Pickup Breaks Off-Roading Record on the Way to the Olympics
Feb. 6, 2014 10:30pm
Elizabeth Kreft

Volkswagen built three beastly, souped-up versions of their Amarok pickup to promote the 2014 Winter Olympics in more rural areas of Russia. Along the way, they busted through the world record for the longest off-road trek in a single country.

Volkswagens Beastly Pickup Breaks Off Roading Record on the Way to the Olympics
Two in the trio of Volkswagen Amarok pickups trek through the brush along the Russian landscape. (Volkswagen).
The Amarok — which means ‘arctic wolf’ in the Inuit languages — is an appropriate name for these automobiles, that look more like monster trucks than road-worthy vehicles.

The Volkswagen team set a new Guinness World Record with the outrageous trucks by traveling 16,000 kilometers (just under 10,000 miles) over 60 days between the Russian capitol of Moscow and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – one of the worlds largest cities that sits on the Bering Sea and has no road leading into it, Wired reported.

Volkswagens Beastly Pickup Breaks Off Roading Record on the Way to the Olympics

According to Wired, the nine-man team traveled across a huge variety of terrain, including Lake Baikal, where they slipped their way over three-foot thick ice, and Iultin Pass, where the crew — despite the amazing off-roading abilities of the suped-up trucks — still managed to get stuck in the incredibly deep Russian snow.

Volkswagens Beastly Pickup Breaks Off Roading Record on the Way to the Olympics
According to Interbrand.com, “Amarok” means “arctic wolf” in the Inuit language, and the animal is considered, by the Eskimos of Northern Canada and Greenland, to be the king of the wild.

The specially-made trucks were equipped with “an array of GPS and navigation equipment essential for the backcountry trip across Siberia, along with enormous off-road tires and heavy-duty shocks, additional exterior lighting and storage, a roll cage, and more,” Wired reported. But the greasy bits were left alone, including the Amarok’s stock 2.0-liter diesel engine and 4Motion all-wheel drive.

Volkswagens Beastly Pickup Breaks Off Roading Record on the Way to the Olympics
This photo shows just how high the Amarok body sits off the ground due to the fat tires and heavy-duty shocks. (Volkswagen).
Volkswagens Beastly Pickup Breaks Off Roading Record on the Way to the Olympics
The Amarok Expedition Trek covered nearly two-thirds of the frozen country (Volkswagen).
Sadly, the Olympic version of the Amarok won’t be mass-produced for sale, and U.S. readers can’t even get their hands on the standard version of the Amarok as it isn’t sold in America.

Volkswagen Group is a German-owned, multinational car company and is the second largest automotive revenue company in the world. The company provided more than 3,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Škoda vehicles to the Sochi 2014 organizing committee, in addition to the specially built pickups.

Check out their trek video here:
 
Perhaps not to surprisingly, Bugatti also dabbled in aircraft design, at one point working on an aircraft to attack the world airspeed record. As an expression of the engineering and art deco aesthetic of the time, the 100P was an exquisite flying sculpture, but alas, was never flown due to the intervention of the Second World War. The world air speed record was achieved by the Germans with the rather brutish ME-209, which was essentially an engine with a small airframe wrapped around it, hardly elegant or even particularly advanced for the time. Now a team has used the plans and drawings to recreate the 100P:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/go/news/finishing-bugatti-dream-100p

Finishing Bugatti's dream: the completed 100P's public debut
A 1930's technological marvel comes alive.

By Eddy Eckart February 12, 2014 / Photos by Mullin Automotive Museum

Veyron owners take note: your vehicle will no longer be the fastest Bugatti in existence. Some 77 years after it was originally conceived, a completed Bugatti 100P airplane will see the light of day at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California as a part of the Art of Bugatti Exhibit. Designed to reach speeds of nearly 500 mph, the beautiful and technologically advanced 100P was a collaboration between Ettore Bugatti and Belgian engineer Louis de Monge. Development of the 100P began in 1937 but World War II and the advancing German army forced Bugatti to put the plane into hiding in 1940.

READ THIS: Paris-bound Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Waterspeed Collection pays homage to 1937 hydroplane

The public will have the chance to view this Art Deco-style airplane and its technological marvels beginning March 20. The compact and light 100P features mid-mounted twin 450-hp engines powering counter-rotating propellers, allowing speeds only achieved at that time by planes with twice the horsepower. The forward-pitched wings and zero drag cooling system predate many of the most advanced military aircraft of the era. Most interestingly, the plane also features an automatic flap adjustment system utilizing an advanced analog computer, that sets the flaps according to air pressure, throttle, and air speed. It was in the original patent for the 100P, but was never implemented due to the war.

Mullin Automotive Museum
Scott Wilson, John Lawson, and Simon Birney of Le Reve Blue ("the Blue Dream") began construction of the 100P in 2009 based on the patents, aerodynamic designs, and dimensions of the original, which, while it survived the war, was no longer suitable for flight. The completion of the 100P represents a highlight of the storied career of Ettore Bugatti, whose vehicles represented the pinnacle of prewar design and technology. Now, if only we could arrange a comparison test between a Veyron Super Sport and the 100P.

Read more: http://www.roadandtrack.com/go/news/finishing-bugatti-dream-100p#ixzz2tRmFuWH9
 
The return of Saab! We will have to see how this will turn out:

https://globalconnections.hsbc.com/global/en/articles/sweden-saab-restarts-car-production?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=click&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=global+gc+2013

Sweden: Saab restarts car production

Economist Intelligence Unit
Saab has restarted production at its Trollhattan factory in western Sweden today, two years after its bankruptcy and subsequent takeover by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), a Swedish-Chinese consortium.

~~NEVS, an investment group formed by Hong Kong's National Energy Holdings and a Japanese investment group, Sun Investment, bought Saab in June 2012. It initially planned to transform the company into a manufacturer of electric vehicles, using the 9-3 sedan model as a basis for the first range of cars due in early 2014. For now, Saab will produce petrol-powered versions instead, with a view to launching an electric car, using Japanese drivetrain technology, at some point in the New Year. Production volumes are expected to be low from the outset, rising according to market demand.

The Saab model currently in production, a petrol version of the 9-3 sedan from 2011, has the same exterior and interior as the old model, but a new navigation system. Thousands of these cars will be shipped to China, where Saab already produces a similar model and where emissions standards are less rigorous than the EU. Over the long term, NEVS plans to adapt Saab's current production platform, in order to make it "suitable" for fully electric vehicles.

Production will therefore be aimed initially at China, rather than Europe, where Saab's troubled history has dented its reputation. The Swedish carmaker sold around 133,000 vehicles a year as recently as 2006, but was severely affected by the global financial crisis as well as a lack of investment. Ownership passed from General Motors to Spyker, a Dutch sportscar maker, in 2010 only to declare bankruptcy less than two years later after production halted. Saab's assets were bought by NEVS, which launched production in China and then reopened Saab's Trollhattan plant in Sweden this year. Saab's vehicle parts business continues to be owned by the Swedish National Debt Office and was not included in the NEVS deal.

Another Swedish brand under Asian ownership, Volvo, is also looking to shift its focus, announcing plans to launch an on-road test of 100 self-driving vehicles in 2017. Volvo, owned by the Chinese firm Geely, will deploy the cars in "everyday driving conditions", across 50km of typical motorway and commuter routes in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

Entitled "Drive Me", the project is a joint collaboration with the Swedish Transport Administration and Transport Agency, and forms part of the government's Vision Zero initiative, aimed at reducing road traffic injuries and fatalities to zero by 2020. The first phase of the Drive Me project will begin in 2014, where the focus will be on research and development, along with the creation of a user interface and cloud functionality. Overall, the project will deal with issues such as traffic efficiency, road safety, autonomous car infrastructure, customer confidence and the way that drivers of traditional vehicles interact with self-driving cars.

© 2013 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved.
Whilst efforts have been taken to verify the accuracy of this information, neither The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. nor its affiliates can accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this information.

From viewswire.com, published under license. The original article, can be found at: www.viewswire.com
 
The British are masters of irony indeed. The writers of this regulation must have been fans of Monty Python or Yes Minister:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/go/news/new-legislation-would-ban-the-jaguar-e-type-from-downtown-london

New legislation would ban Jaguar E-Type from downtown London
England tries to excommunicate its icons and golden geese.

By Max Prince March 17, 2014 / Photos by Newspress UK

In an effort to further reduce pollution in Great Britain, new regulations have been proposed that would effectively ban all classic cars from London's city center. R&T understands that the mandate, which was first floated last February, would establish an Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), disallowing all pre-2005-registered vehicles from entering a prime area of downtown London effective 2020.

Will it disrupt the lives of anybody who can't afford a newer car (see: the entire middle class) if enacted? Yes. How about those affluent Londoners who own an investment vehicle and live in the city center? Yep, them too. Don't worry, it'll also hurt working-class mechanics, truck drivers, and parts suppliers.

In case you hadn't heard, vintage cars have been one of the best-performing investments over the past decade, second only to gold. Gold. And the de facto classic car capital of the world is? You guessed it: England, particularly central London's posh business district, where many of the large banks, financiers, and importers are based. (Naturally, a fair number of those investors gobbling up Ferrari 250s and antique Bugattis at a prodigious rate also work and live in that area.)

READ MORE: First Drive: 2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe

For the UK, classic cars constitute a $7.48 billion business that employs almost 30,000 people. In a country with a GDP of $2.43 trillion and a workforce of around 30 million, that's a huge slice of the mincemeat pie. And said $7.48 billion isn't even counting capital circulated into London's hotels, restaurants, and retailers from events like the London to Brighton Rally or the Regency Street Motor Show, both held inside the proposed area, the latter of which has an annual attendance of around 250,000.

Britain, always fertile ground for irony, also seems to have forgotten that its auto industry hasn't contributed anything truly noteworthy to the motoring zeitgeist in roughly half a century (with a few notable exceptions, such as the McLaren F1). Thus, the ULEZ would take every great English car ever made—the Jaguar E-Type, Aston Martin DB5, Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, the Lotus Esprit Series 1, and even the original city car, Issigonis's Mini—and promptly ban them all from entering the most visible area of the nation's capital.

Take a moment to let that sink in.

Well-intentioned? Sure, but the proposed ULEZ is ignorant at best and outright draconian at worst. Narrow the scope, then try again. The last time a major European city tried this, the proposal went down in flames. Hopefully London's plan will follow suit.
 
I owned landrovers for all my life and 2 Rangerovers. A 1990's ex-military Defender can fetch between $15,000-$29,000, crazy money.
 
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