TARUFFI’S BISILURI
PIERO TARUFFI was a race driver—and also a dott. Ing. This Italian doctorate, equivalent to the English MEng degree, gave Taruffi the ability, and ambition, to design his own competition … Continue reading
LIFE WITH A MOGGIE TRIKE
THE GOOD folks of HB Automotive just attended to a 12,000-mile servicing of my Honda Crosstour, an oil change of Mobil 1 Synthetic, a new oil filter and a look … Continue reading
ALLARD TALES
SYDNEY ALLARD wasn’t your typical Englishman. For one thing, he got the point of drag racing. For another, years before Carroll Shelby stuffed American V-8s into British sports cars, Sydney … Continue reading
A FOURSOME OF FRONTENACS
SO THERE I was, preparing a remembrance of Quebec City’s Hotel Frontenac, when my research reveals yet more valve orchestrations. The resulting foursome of Frontenacs includes the famed hotel, a … Continue reading
VALVE ORCHESTRATIONS, OPUS 2
THE INTAKE and exhaust valves of an automotive engine have busy lives, operating each time the engine fires. Actuation of these depends on (at least) one crankshaft-driven camshaft, with a … Continue reading
VALVE ORCHESTRATIONS
AT 2400 RPM, a conventional engine has an orchestration of its intake and exhaust valves, each operating 10 times every second. Multiply this by a factor of six for a … Continue reading
AUTOMOBILES AND ARCHITECTS
BUILDINGS ARE stationary; automobiles move, a truism that would seem to separate architects from automobile designers. However, there have been synergies between the two, with interesting results from the likes … Continue reading
PIËCH’S 917
FERDINAND PIËCH, who was ousted from Volkswagen AG’s supervisory board on April 25, 2015, carefully chose—and won—many of his other battles. An example concerns the all-conquering Porsche 917 and its … Continue reading
LANCIA BETA MONTECARLO GROUP 5 TURBO
MY FIRST drive of an out-and-out competition car was dually memorable. The machine was the 1981 Lancia Beta Montecarlo Group 5 Turbo, two-thirds of the way to its triple crown … Continue reading
THE ROADS OF ROSE AND RAKEMAN
AS PART of the U.S. Sesquicentennial in 1926, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads assembled an historical exhibit on American roads. Its dioramas evolved into a book published in the … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 