I’ve just been reading about the new £235+k Rolls Royce Wraith.
The V12 engine develops 624bhp (thought RR usually kept the output secret?)
The 8 speed gearbox has satellite aided changes; apparently the sat nav reads
the road ahead and selects gear according to the conditions and the driving
style. What’s next? Sat nav aided steering?
Volvo already have this in some of their trucks as an optional extra. Think its called iSee or something like that.
When RR was a British company something like bhp was too vulgar to be discussed and the cars were reserved refined and quietly handsome, now its German and vulgar is the new creed and the more look at me bling the better.
Your paid to much if your looking at cars like that.
Oh how hard we all work so that others can have this. BHP may be vulgar to us Brits but the Germans certainly know how to make us work harder and longer for them!
Just have to keep buying that lottery ticket.
axletramp:
I’ve just been reading about the new £235+k Rolls Royce Wraith.
The V12 engine develops 624bhp(thought RR usually kept the output secret?)
The 8 speed gearbox has satellite aided changes; apparently the sat nav reads
the road ahead and selects gear according to the conditions and the driving
style. What’s next? Sat nav aided steering?
plenty of tractors have it
Reminds me of that saying
See the boss drive into the car park the other day in a lovely new red Ferrari , I said “lovely motor boss” , he replied "well , if you work hard and do loads of overtime , next year I’ll buy another "
Wagman:
Reminds me of that sayingSee the boss drive into the car park the other day in a lovely new red Ferrari , I said “lovely motor boss” , he replied "well , if you work hard and do loads of overtime , next year I’ll buy another "
You see? If we’d let Germany win the last argument we could have been building VW Beetles at Crewe instead of those overpowered tanks!
Retired Old ■■■■:
You see? If we’d let Germany win the last argument we could have been building VW Beetles at Crewe instead of those overpowered tanks!
When we won the last argument, we had the rights to the Beetle production and all the factories, but were not interested
JLS it was a British Army officer who was responsible for Beetle production, this was done to give the defeated Germans a start in rebuilding their industry.Think they’ve
done rather well. As for the Rolls Royce I do get to play around now and again in a Bentley Arnage, not the most reliable of cars,doubt a Rolls Royce is any better, we think
it’s to do with the cars being hand built, human flaws but it looks great parked up.
JLS Driver SOS:
Retired Old ■■■■:
You see? If we’d let Germany win the last argument we could have been building VW Beetles at Crewe instead of those overpowered tanks!When we won the last argument, we had the rights to the Beetle production and all the factories, but were not interested
We could have seized all their engineering know-how- as we were entitled to- but, of course, we British are gentlemen and gave them a hand up instead. Then, in the 1970’s, we go and ask Fritz if we can join their club!
Armagedon:
JLS it was a British Army officer who was responsible for Beetle production, this was done to give the defeated Germans a start in rebuilding their industry.Think they’ve
done rather well. As for the Rolls Royce I do get to play around now and again in a Bentley Arnage, not the most reliable of cars,doubt a Rolls Royce is any better, we think
it’s to do with the cars being hand built, human flaws but it looks great parked up.
They were not defeated in 1938 and it was Porsche who designed the VW Beetle
The Army Officer just found some bits and built the Radclyffe Roadster using German labour
The allied forces won the war,but we all know who won the peace.Then the good old Yanks came along and bankrupted us.Thanks and you know where to stuff the special relationship.
Not quite Wheel Nut, the Radclyffe roadster was a one off built for Colonel Radclyffe from spare parts,a four seater version was built for Major Ivan Hirst the man responsible
for getting the factory up and running again building up to 1,000 Volkswagens each month,it wasn’t even called the Beetle for a long while.One helluva company now.
damoq:
Volvo already have this in some of their trucks as an optional extra. Think its called iSee or something like that.
Wheel Nut:
They were not defeated in 1938 and it was Porsche who designed the VW Beetle
No, it wasn’t. He just stole some ideas from his collegue. It was actually Hans Ledwinka, Austro-Hungarian engineer with Czech citizenship and his team in Tatra who designed car that Beetle was based upon.
They were doing bigger and more sophiscitated streamlined cars in 1930:
but Hans Ledwinka’s idea was to create a popular car. For that, the Czechoslovakian market was too small. He tried to get Hitler interested and to sell his car in Germany as well.
Hitler was a real Petrolhead and he really liked the concept, that looked like this:
Here Hitler watches the undercarriage of Tatra prototype (famous Ledwinka’s tube:)
(Ledwinka is the guy right from Hitler).
But Hitler wasn’t interesting in buying Tatras. What’s the point of buying a beer when one can has a whole brewery? So he told Porsche “I want to have car like this” and Porsche started to work on similar project. All basic concepts were “inspired” - as he told himself - “by looking over Ledwinka’s shoulder”, only he abandoned idea of Ledwinka’s tube as it was too characteristic for Tatras and decided to go for a classic solution instead.
Still Ledwinka was not happy with Porsche’s work and when realised that while playing a collegue who likes to exchange ideas, he actually steals them of him, Ledwinka sued Porsche, but Hitler told Porsche to do not get involved in court case. “Soon it won’t matters anymore” he told to Porsche. And indeed, soon thanks to second funniest joke of the ■■ century
((c) by Monty Python )
Germany took over Czechoslovakia and Tatra factory with it. He banned it from the production of its most famous streamlined, rear engined cars to ensure that Beetle has no competition. Still, the T97 was a favourite car of German officers, as it was able to go as fast as 150 km/h, but after many died in the accident, German army banned them from driving it.
After war, Hans Ledwinka was accused of collaboration with Nazis and selling them Beetle project and was jailed. When released, he emigrated to Munich where he spent rest of his life in small pension paid to him by Volkswagen. Meanwhile Tatra, that was seased by the communists and became state-owned company sued Volkswagen and in early 1960’s VW went for some out of court settlement and paid them a hefty sum. Ledwinka haven’t seen a single penny of it.
Some say that one of the reason Porsche left Volkswagen was a guilt towards Ledwinka. He wanted to show that he can design his own cars. Still, he was using Tatra’s concept with rear air-cooled engine.
Meanwhile Tatra continued to manufacture this type of cars up to about 2000 with tatra T700:
which I had a pleasure to drive once. It’s ugly, but it drives like a Porsche (or rather, in the light of the fact above, Porsche drives like it) and if I had a choice between this one and 1980 Carrera I once also had a pleasure, I would not think twice and go Czech.
Nowadays Tatra manufactures trucks only and despite them looking as DAFs thanks to the cabs, they are still made on Ledwinka’s ideas with central tube and have great off road capabilities.
I am a great fan of Tatras and I think Ledwinka was a tragic figure in the automotive history, while it shows how complicated and hard the history of this part of Europe is. He was an Austrian of Polish surname who considered himself to be Czech, and despite being a genius, he suffered so much from both of his own nations…
If any of you will be ever in Koprivnice in Czech Republic, I highly recommend Tatra museum there:
tatramuseum.cz/index.php?r=5&idj=1
My pics from it:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=89131&p=1259368&hilit=tatra+museum#p1259368
One of the best automotive museums I ever been (and I have been to few).
Unbelievable Tekkers !
That’s some automotive knowledge you have there dude !
Retired Old ■■■■:
You see? If we’d let Germany win the last argument we could have been building VW Beetles at Crewe instead of those overpowered tanks!
Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m 99% sure it’s Bentley’s that are built in Crew, not Rolls Royce’s.
You’re not wrong at all, lad, it’s just that many of us are of an age when Rolls-Royces were indeed made at CrewE. This was, of course, before the days of badge engineering and Hans’ takeovers.