33 replies to this topic

[f1steveuk]

Digging around some old pictures and post cards, I came across



which got me thinking, how many, and why, did some engineers/designers see the twin boom layout of any use? I am aware of record breakers and Indianapolis cars, but can't think of any true circuit cars, unless of course.....................

[D-Type]

Hmmm...
Tarf record breakers
Smokey Yunick's Indianapolis sidecar
and the 1955 Le Mans Nardi

Are there any more?

[Tim Murray]

There was the Adams Escort, mentioned in this thread:

Adams Escort Can-Am and Side Engined Cars

but the photo links no longer seem to work, so have a look at:

http://www.racingspo...3-07-04-010.jpg

http://www.racingspo...-06-05-010b.jpg

There's another thread on twin-boom cars:

Twin torpedo cars

The Adams thread also features the Ardex S80 which failed to qualify at Le Mans in 1981.

[Marticelli]

Piero Taruffi's racer certainly used to reside in the York Motor Museum in Western Australia... Not sure if its still there... If you look at <http://forums.autosp...pic=20124&st=0> post #29 you will see a pic of the cockpit... Hope ths helps!

Marticelli

[f1steveuk]

There's a few, but WHY!!!!??? What could the possible advantages be?

[RStock]

Piero Taruffi's racer certainly used to reside in the York Motor Museum in Western Australia... Not sure if its still there... If you look at <http://forums.autosp...pic=20124&st=0> post #29 you will see a pic of the cockpit... Hope ths helps!

Marticelli

I'm pretty sure the postcard in the first post is Taruffi's car . It looks a bit like a "colorized" black and white photo .

[David Beard]

There's a few, but WHY!!!!??? What could the possible advantages be?

You could incorporate one hell of a ground effect tunnel between the booms?

[fredeuce]

There's a few, but WHY!!!!??? What could the possible advantages be?

Reduced frontal area coupled with a fully faired wheels and axles all in the quest to reduce drag.

Perhaps not surprising since there were aircraft built in similar fashion at the time such as P38 Lightning and the De Havilland Vampire. Designers over the years have taken styling cues from aircraft.

[Roger Clark]

Piero Taruffi wrote an article in Autosport Vo 1, No. 1 (1951) about the gestation of the Tarf and Italcourse. He drew on experience gaised with the pre-war Gilera and Rondine record breaking motorcycles.

Edited by Roger Clark, 21 January 2010 - 22:51.

[Barry Boor]

This one has been modelled by Fernando Pinto's Bizarre company:

[img]http://62.149.36.46/...bin/nardi61.JPG[/im]

This is the car that Mike Hawthorn maintains his Jaguar 'blew off the road' at Le Mans in 1955.

Edited by Barry Boor, 22 January 2010 - 08:29.

[Jones Foyer]

This one has been modelled by Fernando Pinto's Bizarre company:



This is the car that Mike Hawthorn maintains his Jaguar 'blew off the road' at Le Mans in 1955.

Fixed it.

I'm pretty sure I remember seeing in a book on dry lakes hot rods a rough looking twin boom drop tank racer. One side was the driver, the other was the motor.

[RStock]

I'm pretty sure I remember seeing in a book on dry lakes hot rods a rough looking twin boom drop tank racer. One side was the driver, the other was the motor.

Is this the one you're refering to ?

http://images.google...c78a33be8d73ab3

http://images.google...d8457efbb195a31

http://images.google...c26700e234f01bf

http://images.google...3263cddd75d5409

Edited by REDARMYSOJA, 22 January 2010 - 23:51.

[eldougo]

Top pic is Tarf 2 a Maserati engine car 1950 and another of Tarf 1 a Guzzi & Gilera engine power car as shown at the start of this Thread.

Edited by eldougo, 19 February 2010 - 03:58.

[f1steveuk]

You really wouldn't want to hit anything in that would you?

[Giraffe]

You really wouldn't want to hit anything in that would you?

Well half of you wouldn't....................

[hansfohr]

In 1952 Piero crushed the 2L sportscar record in the 1.7L Maserati powered Double Bullet, averaging almost 300 km/h. With that success Piero hoped to find sponsors enabling him to enter a similar car for the Indy 500. Is there any evidence that such an Indycar was designed?




EDIT: He also raced a Gilera powered car in 1954

Edited by hansfohr, 19 February 2010 - 17:45.

[D-Type]

It appears that the Tarf-Gilera was left hand drive and the Tarf-Maserati right hand drive. Presumably this was to get the weight distribution to suit anticlockwise circuits as Taruffi was heavier than a Gilera engine and lighter than a Maserati engine.

The cutaway is LHD so must be the Gilera-powered car.

[hansfohr]

The cutaway is LHD so must be the Gilera-powered car.

Thanks, I edited my post. (need new glasses LOL)

Edited by hansfohr, 19 February 2010 - 17:51.

[Carter Hendricks]

There's a few, but WHY!!!!??? What could the possible advantages be?

There were reasons behind the "Nardi" car. It was designed by Carlo Mollino,
with the driver and driveline spread to the sides and connected by a shaped
wing. The center shape was calculated--I know--to produce 30kg of downforce.
The front of the wing was a surface cooling element. There was a rotating air
brake. It all unraveled, of course, but the small project is fascinating. The
recent book on Nardi, by Dino Brunori and Andrea Curami, describes the
Damonte-Mollino-Nardi "DaMolNar" in great detail, and explains the series of
naive mistakes that doomed the bisiluro. It is interesting to imagine a 1956
DaMolNar, but instead the project devolved into bickering and lawsuits. The
car was squirrely at LeMans, but it was a handful at all speeds, after a main
frame tube was cut to fit the passenger seat that Mollino forgot. In the race it
ran off the road at the Mulsanne corner at the end of Les Hunaudieres
and got stuck in the mud.

--Carter

Enrico Nardi: a Fast Life by Dino Brunari and Andrea Curami. Foundazione
Negri 2009. disorganized, fascinating, highly recommended.

Edited by Carter Hendricks, 21 February 2010 - 06:36.

[hansfohr]

The Nardi-Crosley 750 LM in the 1955 Le Mans 24H until it flew off at Les Hunaudieres. The twin torpedo finally ended up in the Leonarda da Vinci museum im Milan.

Edited by hansfohr, 20 February 2010 - 23:55.

[fredeuce]

The car depicted in this cutaway drawing "Twin Tank" streamliner is powered by a modified flathead Ford V8. In modifed form these engines could run capacities as high as 296 cubic inches. A shade under 5 litres. A pure American car built for Bonneville.
I dont see any connection with Gilera.

[hansfohr]

The car depicted in this cutaway drawing "Twin Tank" streamliner is powered by a modified flathead Ford V8. In modifed form these engines could run capacities as high as 296 cubic inches. A shade under 5 litres. A pure American car built for Bonneville. I dont see any connection with Gilera.

Did I misinterprete my source or is it fully wrong? http://jalopnik.com/...g-double-bullet

Edited by hansfohr, 20 February 2010 - 22:27.

[fredeuce]

Did I misinterprete my source or is it fully wrong? http://jalopnik.com/...g-double-bullet

hansfohr,
I think you can be forgiven for the way you have read the article as it is apt to confuse. It text in the article does state "(unlike the cutaway in the gallery used for illustration)".

With that statement it is fair to say that's all it is. It is an illustration designed to give some insight to the nature of the construction of the twin boom style of car but no more than that.

[Carter Hendricks]

The Nardi-Crosley 750 LM in the 1955 Le Mans 24H until it flew off at Les Hunaudieres. The twin torpedo finally ended up in the Leonarda da Vinci museum im Milan.

The Brunori book shows this same photo, but not cropped, and I thought that
it was from the same sequence as the crash photos on the same page.

The two photos show the bisiluro looping into the slow Mulsanne corner
at the end of the straight and then a second photo of the ~undamaged car
sitting in the mud. In the first photo the Kieft LDA 172 approaches to pass
on the inside. The car did loose control on the straight but the faults seem
structural [the cut frame] and the flying stories are overblown. But I edited
out the word "simply" in my earlier post.

The bisiluro was powered by a Giannini G2 DOHC engine, which is not
Crosley based. This is clear in all press photos of the car.

--Carter

Edited by Carter Hendricks, 21 February 2010 - 06:40.

[hansfohr]

The bisiluro was powered by a Giannini G2 DOHC engine, which is not
Crosley based. This is clear in all press photos of the car.

--Carter

Thanks for the correction, once more! I need to purchase the Enrico Nardi book to get the proper info.

[etceterini.com]

Here is where to get the book:

http://www.velocetod...e/italian-books

-cliff

[eldougo]

This is the Catamaran styled OSI Silver Fox made in 1967 in Turin Italy it was powered by an Alpine engine 1000cc? (Iam guessing it a Renault ) which is strange because most other cars of that time had a Italian made motors.
It sure looks like a boat ,the engine is mounted in the middle you can see the cover between the seats and was rear wheel drive.It seem to have a ground effects air tunnel. most unusual.

[Barry Boor]

Was the car named Silver Fox in honour of Piero Taruffi, perchance?

[D-Type]

Was the car named Silver Fox in honour of Piero Taruffi, perchance?

In the parallel thread Twin Torpedo Cars I asked the same question and was told that Taruffi headed up the organisation producing the OSI.

Twinny! Should these threads be merged?

Edited by D-Type, 22 February 2010 - 22:38.

[eldougo]

That is a good question you raised Barry....and i would guess it to be true ,and now with D-type info it sure sound feasible.

[arttidesco]

 

Twin boom nostalgia in the making, F24+ class BY-Pod from Chipping Sodbury School at Castle Combe last weekend.

 

More inspiring 24v engineering here.

[f1steveuk]

Headrest or airbrake?

[2F-001]

Maybe the regs demand a minimum height for roll-over protection and they made some attempt to streamline it.

[arttidesco]

Headrest or airbrake?

 

I am not sure, but I believe Tony has hit the nail on the head.

 

One reason for opting for the twin boom layout on this vehicle may have been to attempt to increase the track dramatically for better handling in the corners while keeping the  front cross section low.

 

Apparently this was the second or third twin boom electric car built by Chipping Sodbury School.