MAZDA RX-7—ENGINEERING WIZARD YAMAMOTO PERFECTS THE WANKEL
THE WANKEL ENGINE got off to a tough start. An early R&T citation quipped “Winkle winkle, little Wankel,/How I wonder if your crank’ll/Wind up all around itself/And you’ll end up … Continue reading
HENRY N. MANNEY III AND THE BROOKLANDS RILEY
SALON FEATURES IN R&T were generally of three types: the purely historical (“…and then on the morning of August 17, 1927, …”), the first-person tentative (“I might have driven this … Continue reading
ONE SWIFT AND AGILE FORMULA FORD—A GREAT QUARTER POUNDER TOO
TRACK TESTING WAS good fun at R&T. And testing the national champion Swift DB-1 Formula Ford in March 1984 was particularly satisfying. Here are tidbits on our time with the … Continue reading
1981 LOTUS 88—BERTRAND RUSSELL WOULD HAVE LOVED IT!
IT’S IMMODEST TO quote oneself. But what the hey, my 1981 commentary on the Lotus 88 Formula 1 car is still spot-on for today’s topic here at SimanaitisSays. Background: Racing … Continue reading
TREVITHICK’S MERRY ADVENTURES (MULLED DRINKS AND STUFFED GOOSE INCLUDED)
ENGLISH INVENTOR RICHARD TREVITHICK had a novel idea: Why not use steam power to transport people? Here are tidbits on his 1801 steam carriage, a 21st-century recreation of its 1802 … Continue reading
LE CAR POPPED STEROIDS
BACK IN 1972, Renault introduced the 5, a competitor to the ubiquitous Volkswagen Beetle, the Austin Mini, and other small four-passenger cars of the era. The Renault 5 did particularly … Continue reading
FORMULA ONE FUEL TIDBITS PART 2
YESTERDAY, IT WAS SUGGESTED that Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from last month’s Hungarian GP was not unrelated to Formula One rocket fuels of the late 1980s until 1991. Today in Part … Continue reading
FORMULA ONE FUEL TIDBITS PART 1
FORMULA ONE IS SERIOUS about its racing fuels. Ask Sebastian Vettel, whose Aston Martin-Mercedes got disqualified from second at last month’s Hungarian GP for not having the required 1.0 liter … Continue reading
A JEOPARDY SETUP (AND AN R&T ROAD TEST)
THE JEOPARDY CATEGORY is “Celebrity Cars.” The setup is “This British-bodied GT coupe is piloted by a driver known by two different names.” Ah. Easy-peasy: “What is James Bond/007’s Aston … Continue reading
INNES’S GRANDE EPREUVE WIN PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE SET the stage for the 1961 U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Team Lotus’s first Formula One victory, and Innes Ireland’s sole Grand Epreuve win. Today, R&T’s Jim … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 