Saturday, October 15, 2016

the Velam Isetta that set 7 international class records

BMW wasn't the only company to license the Isetta from Iso of Italy – there were two others; Romi in Brazil and VELAM in France.

VELAM stood for “Véhiculer léger à Moteur”, translated light vehicle with motor. It was a dedicated company with genuine production lines set up by Michel Cromback in Anthony Lago’s old Talbot factory in Suresnes.

VELAM built a variety of models based both around the original, and it built one very sporty looking record car that was also registered and used on the road. In addition, there was an open Sports model that appears to have remained a one-off.

The record/ race car has at times been called the Isetta Spéciale, at others the Corse (Course), and even the Aero. In contrast, when it appeared in the 1957 French Automobile Annual, it was given no special name.

The aluminium body VELAM prepared for the record car was cigar shaped, described by some as a ‘mini Zeppelin’, and was painted French racing blue.

The record car used the standard base, meaning same wheelbase and tracks. Width is only a few millimetres less, but significantly the height is only 590mm to the top of the body – less than half.

This record class allowed both supercharging and standard atmospheric engines to compete under the one heading, but VELAM chose to keep things pretty standard; the only notable deviation was the use of a special doped fuel mix that increased power to 12bhp. For this a special carburettor was fitted and Solex provided an uprated fuel pump.

A designer by the name of Bianchi created the body shape which with headrest fitted lifted the height to 730mm. Longer or taller gear ratios were installed too to make full use of the more streamlined body shape and additional power. With 12bhp the standard VELAM bodied car would expect to be capable of 85kph max, but the best lap at Montlhéry resulted in 118.55kph, with many consistent laps at 117kph.

Wheels were fitted with Englebert tyres run at 2.6 to 2.8 bars instead of the standard 1.2 to 1.4 bar.

On 30th July 1957 Bianchi and Claude drove to 7 international class K records, with a further 11 taken between the 30th September and the 10th January 1957.

the round the world Vespa in the St Tropez Piaggio Museum

amazing, semi trailer converts to carnival ride. The Rabbat family F1 traveling carnival ride

Stilts are added, the trailer is raised off the tires, and then the rolling assembly is removed and the trailer is lowered to the parking lot. The roof signs are unfolded to a raised position

the sides are folded up, and the inner sides are lowered down

the cars are unwrapped, and the guard rails are installed

Its fixed expenses list for four weeks for his small Formula 1 circuit: reantal cost for location is € 1,900 plus electricity and water, that's € 4,200 costs. Plus traveling expenses, means this has to make € 5,500 before it becomes profitable, and that is not taking into account the cost of the trailer/ride.  for a much more thorough gallery

who was Oscar Egg? The most winningest cyclist of his day


He captured the world hour record three times before the First World War. He also won major road races and stages of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia.

Egg's 1914 mark of 44.247 km then stood until 1933, and only two other men have ever set the world hour record 3 times. None have done that more.

A common race was a 6 day race, and he won 8 of them in the 9 years between 1915 and 1924.

a very anthropomorphic tractor

a restored Renault street sweeper

Friday, October 14, 2016

Bugs Bunny on a B17

Lady Luck on a B24

the most deadly animal in the country, which is responsible for over 200 American deaths every year. The winner? The whitetail deer vs biker

While very few car-deer collisions hurt or kill the driver of the vehicle involved, the vast majority of collisions between deer and motorcycles end in either injury or fatality to the rider - 69.9%, according to the Washington state DOT.

Check out this camera car

Kim knew how to blow my mind... a half track Bugatti Royale model

Thanks Kim! 

when taking out the old brass cars for a get together, pick a beautiful day and a terrific old location

Roman Emperor Augustus ordered this aqueduct built, and Emperor Napoleon had it restored in 1855, it supplies water 21 kilometers from source to city.

Quadrillette Peugeot tandem

Bugatti Royale

Siegfried Bettmann adopted England as his home and created the Triumph Company, and was even elected mayor of Coventry. If he'd never left Germany, would he still have created one of the most famous motorcycle companies of all the past 100 years?

He left Germany at age 22, went to work for White Sewing Machines, and a year later began Triumph Cycles. WW1 proved to be the kick off for success, and by 1918, Triumph was Englands largest motorbike manufacturer.

66 employees of Triumph were KIA in WW1, and Bettman commissioned a memorial for them built in Coventry's London Road cemetery in 1921 

In the 30's the car and motorcycle business suffered from the great depression, and they were bought up by Ariel

this Caterpillar 797B costs 5.5 million dollars, and the tires are 250,000 a set

Each dump truck driver makes about $55 an hour in Canada's oil fields, and with overtime, that's well into over a hundred thou a year

Each tire contains nearly 2,000 pounds of steel, enough to build two small cars and enough rubber to make 600 tires to put on them

the problem? No one has figured out to do with the huge tires when they are used up

How those enormous tires are mounted