Alfa "Bimotore" weight?
#1
Posted 05 December 2004 - 20:05
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#2
Posted 05 December 2004 - 20:36
#3
Posted 05 December 2004 - 21:38
"Dry weight of the two finished 'Bimotori' was quoted as 1000kg (2205 lbs) rising to 1350kg (2888 lbs) fully laden".
#4
Posted 05 December 2004 - 23:34
#5
Posted 06 December 2004 - 00:24
"Twice c. 255bhp at 5400 rpm - total c. 510 bhp (no, NOT at 10,800 rpm)"
#6
Posted 06 December 2004 - 01:02
Originally posted by dretceterini
A 3000 pound car with something like 500 horsepower on the crappy tires of the period must have been very exciting to drive!
On "straight line blast" circuits like AVUS and Brooklands it was actually said to be quite well-behaved, apart from the fact that the tyres couldn't cope with the power at AVUS! Austin Dobson found the main problem was stopping the thing .....
#7
Posted 06 December 2004 - 08:31
DCN
#8
Posted 06 December 2004 - 15:49
As you have driven the car and other 1934-1935 GP machinery, would you say the Bimotore is a more difficult car to drive than the Auto Union?
#9
Posted 06 December 2004 - 16:17
#10
Posted 06 December 2004 - 23:00
Originally posted by dretceterini
Doug:
As you have driven the car and other 1934-1935 GP machinery, would you say the Bimotore is a more difficult car to drive than the Auto Union?
I haven't driven a genuine Auto Union. From what I hear I presume the Bimotore to have been somewhat more predictable to drive than the V16 AU but it would have been infinitely worse than the apparently well-mannered V12 AU....I think...
DCN
#11
Posted 06 December 2004 - 23:08
#12
Posted 08 December 2004 - 01:45
#13
Posted 08 December 2004 - 09:00
DCN
#14
Posted 08 December 2004 - 22:58
Anyway, we were chatting away over a meal or a drink and one of the guys, Scott, remarked to me that he had recently visited the Donington Collection with his uncle. He then proceeded to show me a photo on his digital camera or mobile phone of his uncle sitting at the wheel of the Bimotore in the museum and went on to add that his uncle had raced this car once! His uncle's name was Doug Algie.
So it is a small world! Scott only has a passing interest in motorsport and I think he only really mentioned it at all because he knew I was interested in the history side of things... Maybe one of our Kiwi TNFers can add some more detail to Doug Algie's experiences with this marvellous beast of a car!
#15
Posted 09 December 2004 - 14:58
I can add something as I recently wrote an article on the Bimotore, due to be published soon in the Ruoteclassiche magazine. Reading some contemprary articles on the Nuvolari record dash at Lucca-Altopascio on June 15, 1935 I found that the full laden weight was said to be 1,100 kg, which is coherent with Fusi's 1,000 kg dry, considering the lightening of the body for the trecord attempt and the limited amount of fuel on board.
I didn't find any mention of the car spinning during the runs.
The car was said to be a real beast to drive, even in straight line. The combination of suspensions (not finely tuned like in today machine) and asymmetry of power output by the two coupled engines made traction and balance quite erratic, and hard to predict.
As far as I can understand, the car was above the 750 kg limit of the GP Formula since the original design: nobody ever dared to think at it as a GP contender. It could only be raced in Formula Libre events like Tripoli and Avus, which, by the way, were among the richest events of the season.
#16
Posted 10 December 2004 - 14:46
Could you please explain what you mean with "asymetry of power output by the two engines".
they were both coupled to a single gearbox, thus the only thing that could affect the car's behaviour was possibly any delay in the response of one of the two engines, causing power to be less than expected (like the well known turbo-lag of much moderner eras) at a certain moment.
While that could be frightening enough, with such a car, when cornering, it should not have affected the straight record run.