thebear's archive of motorsports trivia

[thebear]

AUG 03, 1977

"The Spy Who Loved Me" released, features Lotus Esprit

On this day in 1977, "The Spy Who Loved Me," starring Roger Moore as the suave superspy James Bond, known for his love of fast cars and dangerous women, is released in theaters across America. The film features one of the most memorable Bond cars of all time--a sleek, powerful Lotus Esprit sports car that does double duty as a submarine.

As "The Spy Who Loved Me" begins, Bond is sent to investigate the hijacking of British and Soviet submarines loaded with nuclear warheads. To defeat his adversary, shipping tycoon Karl Stromberg (Curt Jurgens), and avert global nuclear war, Bond must free the captured submarines. In one of the film's key sequences, Bond skillfully maneuvers his Lotus Esprit in order to save himself and his Soviet counterpart, the beautiful KGB agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), from the attacks of Stromberg's henchmen. With the sultry helicopter pilot Naomi (Caroline Munro) in pursuit along the coastal roads of Sardinia, Bond drives the Lotus off a pier into the ocean. The car transforms into a submarine, complete with tail fins and a periscope, and Bond is able to blast Naomi's helicopter out of the sky with a sea-to-air missile.

Two different Lotus Esprits were used in the production of "The Spy Who Loved Me," including a specially modified model, dubbed "Wet Nellie," for the filming of the underwater scenes, in Nassau, Bahamas. At the time of filming, the Lotus Esprit was the latest innovation by the Lotus Engineering Company, founded in 1952 by the British engineer and race car driver Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. After debuting the original styling concept at the Turin Motorshow in 1972, Lotus unveiled the Esprit at the Paris Motor Show in October 1975 and launched its production the following year. Renowned designer Giorgetto Giugiaro (chosen by more than 100 automotive journalists around the world as the winner of the Car Designer of the Century award in 1999) provided the Esprit's sleek styling. While critics praised the car's lightweight frame and superior steering and handling, they gave it lesser marks for power, noise and other more minor points.

In 1980, Lotus launched the Esprit Turbo, which made its own star turn in the 1981 Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only." The company made continued improvements to the Esprit line throughout the next two decades, and in 1992 celebrated the 20th anniversary of the car's initial introduction in Turin and its place among the world's fastest and most respected sports cars. Esprit production ended in 2003.

[thebear]

August 13, 1902

Rotary engine inventor Felix Wankel born

The German engineer Felix Wankel, inventor of a rotary engine that will be used in racing and sports cars, is born on August 13, 1902, in Lahr, Germany.

Wankel reportedly came up with the basic idea for a new type of internal combustion gasoline engine when he was only 17 years old. In 1924, Wankel set up a small laboratory where he began the research and development of his dream engine, which would be able to attain intake, compression, combustion and exhaust, all while rotating. He brought his knowledge of rotary valves to his work with the German Aeronautical Research Establishment during World War II, and to a leading German motorcycle company, NSU Motorenwerk AG, beginning in 1951. Wankel completed his first design of a rotary-piston engine in 1954, and the first unit was tested in 1957.

After NSU officially announced the completion of the Wankel rotary engine in late 1959, some 100 companies around the world rushed to propose partnerships that would get the engine inside their products. Mazda, the Japanese automaker, signed a formal contract with NSU in July 1961, after receiving approval from the Japanese government.

In an attempt to experiment with the rotary engine and perfect it for use in its vehicles, Mazda formed an RE (Rotary Engine) Research Department in 1963. The Cosmo Sport, which Mazda released in May 1967, was the planet's first dual-rotor rotary engine car. With futuristic styling and superior performance, the Cosmo wowed car enthusiasts worldwide. Mazda began installing rotary engines in its sedans and coupes in 1968, and the vehicles hit the U.S. market in 1971. In the wake of a global oil crisis in 1973-74, Mazda continually worked on improving its rotary engines to improve fuel efficiency, and by the end of that decade its sports cars had become popular in both Europe and the United States In addition to Mazda, a number of other companies licensed the Wankel engine during the 1960s and 1970s, including Daimler-Benz, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce, Porsche, General Motors, Suzuki and Toyota.

Meanwhile, Wankel continued his own work with the rotary piston engine, forming his own research establishment in Lindau, Germany, in the mid-1970s. In 1986, he sold the institute for 100 million Deutschmarks (around $41 million) to Daimler Benz, maker of the Mercedes. Wankel filed a new patent as late as 1987; the following year, he died after a long illness.

[thebear]

Aug 14, 1998

Hundred-year-old Michelin Man makes appearance in Monterey

As part of a yearlong celebration of its 100th anniversary, a redesigned version of the Michelin Man--the corporate symbol of one of the world's largest tire manufacturers, makes an appearance at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in Monterey, California, beginning on this day in 1998.

The history of Michelin dates back to 1889, when two brothers named Edouard and Andre Michelin took over a struggling rubber factory in the French industrial city of Clermont-Ferrand. The Michelins later became France's leading producer of pneumatic (inflatable) bicycle tires, and in June 1895 they entered the first car to be equipped with pneumatic tires in the historic Paris-Bordeaux-Paris auto race.

As the story goes, their now-iconic corporate symbol originated with Edouard Michelin's observation that a stack of tires resembled a human figure. A cartoonist named Maurice Rossillon, who signed his work O'Galop, created a series of sketches based on this idea. One depicted a man made of tires raising a glass of champagne and declaring "Nunc est bibendum" ("Now is the time to drink"). The figure's white color mirrored the pale hue of rubber tires at the time, before manufacturers began using carbon black as a preservative around 1912. The symbol subsequently became known as Bibendum (sometimes Bibidendum or Mr. Bib), or the Michelin Man.

The original poster, produced from 1898 to 1914, was followed by a variety of other posters and signs featuring Bibendum smoking a cigar, wearing gladiator garb, riding a bicycle and carrying a load of tires, among other activities. Ubiquitous in France, the logo's fame spread along with the popularity and success of Michelin tires around the world. In 1923, the Michelin Man was redesigned, losing some of his rings to reflect the introduction of wider, low-pressure tires. During the 1980s, he grew slimmer to conform to the healthy-living trend, a process that continued with the 1998 redesign. By that time, Bibendum was one of the oldest and most recognized advertising symbols in the world.

On January 1, 1998, the Michelin Man kicked off his centennial celebration by appearing on his own birthday float at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. The Monterey Historic Automobile Races, held at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey that August 14-16, welcomed the Michelin Man as part of its own 25th anniversary celebration. Two years later, an international jury of 22 designers, advertising executives and branding experts voted Bibendum the winner of a competition co-sponsored by The Financial Times, proclaiming him the "greatest logo in history."

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[thebear]

AUG 17, 1915

Charles Kettering receives patent for electric self-starter

Charles F. Kettering, co-founder of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO) in Dayton, Ohio, is issued U.S. Patent No. 1,150,523 for his "engine-starting device"--the first electric ignition device for automobiles--on August 17, 1915.

In the early years of the automobile, drivers used iron hand cranks to start the internal combustion process that powered the engines on their cars. In addition to requiring great hand and arm strength, this system was not without certain risks: If the driver forgot to turn his ignition off before turning the crank, the car could backfire or roll forward, as at the time most vehicles had no brakes. Clearly a better system was needed, and in 1911 Cadillac head Henry M. Leland gave Charles Kettering the task of developing one.

Before founding DELCO with his partner Edward Deeds in 1909, Kettering had worked at the National Cash Register Company, where he helped develop the first electric cash register. He drew on this experience when approaching his work with automobiles. Just as the touch of a button had started a motor that opened the drawer of the cash register, Kettering would eventually use a key to turn on his self-starting motor. The self-starter was introduced in the 1912 Cadillac, patented by Kettering in 1915, and by the 1920s would come standard on nearly every new automobile. By making cars easier and safer to operate, especially for women, the self-starting engine caused a huge jump in sales, and helped foster a fast-growing automobile culture in America.

The main reason that no sucessful `self starters' were deemed feasible was the thought of the time that a huge electric motor would be required. The falacy was that the motor only operated intermittently and for short periods of time. Kettering's motor was in fact `highly overstressed' according to contemporary engineering standards but 10-15 seconds of service was all that was required, not hours on end.

United Motors Corporation (later General Motors) bought DELCO in 1916, and Kettering worked as vice president and director of research at GM from 1920 to 1947. Other important auto-related innovations developed during Kettering's tenure were quick-drying automotive paint, spark plugs, leaded gasoline, shock absorbers, the automatic transmission, four-wheel brakes, the diesel engine and safety glass. He helped develop the refrigerant Freon, used in refrigerators and air conditioners, and the Kettering home in Dayton was the first in the country to be air-conditioned. In the realm of medicine, Kettering created a treatment for venereal disease and an incubator for premature infants, and in 1945 he and longtime General Motors head Alfred P. Sloan established the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City. Kettering died in 1958.

[thebear]

AUG 19, 1909


Louis Schwitzer wins first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

In front of some 12,000 spectators, automotive engineer Louis Schwitzer wins the two-lap, five-mile inaugural race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 19, 1909.

Conceived by local businessmen as a testing facility for Indiana's growing automobile industry, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would later become famous as the home to the now world-famous Indianapolis 500 race, which was first held in 1911. In that inaugural race, Schwitzer (then the chief engineer at Stoddard-Dayton) drove a stripped-down Stoddard Dayton touring car with a four-cylinder engine. He achieved an average speed of 57.4 mph on the new track, which was then covered in macadam, or crushed pieces of rock layered and bound by tar. Later, the speedway would be covered with 3.2 million paving bricks, which earned it its enduring nickname, "The Brickyard."

Born in Silesia in northwestern Austria in 1881, Schwitzer earned advanced degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering before immigrating to America around the turn of the century. His first job in the auto industry was with Pierce Arrow, as an engineer, working on one of the very first six-cylinder engines; he then began working for Canada Cycle and Motor Company, designing the Russell motor car. There, he met the prosperous automaker Howard Marmon (of the Marmon Motor Car Company), and would later earn lasting fame as the designer of the famous "Marmon Yellow Jacket" engine, which powered the vehicle of Ray Harroun, winner of the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911.

After leaving racing, Schwitzer remained active in the sport's development, joining the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Technical Committee in 1912 (he was its chairman from 1919 through 1945). He served in the United States Army Motor Transport Corps during World War I, then returned to Indianapolis to start his own business, which later became Schwitzer-Cummins. After developing improved automotive cooling systems and water pumps, Schwitzer began producing superchargers for gasoline and diesel engines, which helped both truck and boat engines produce increased horsepower. He then moved on to so-called "turbochargers," the first of which was introduced on a Cummins diesel-powered racing car which won the pole position for the 1952 Indianapolis 500.

In 1965, Schwitzer suffered a stroke while riding a horse on his farm. He was paralyzed, and for a time lost his ability to speak English, reverting to Hungarian. He died in 1967.

To honor Schwitzer's legacy, the Society of Professional Engineers now presents an individual or group involved with the Indianapolis 500 with the annual Louis Schwitzer Award for Engineering Excellence.

[thebear]

AUG 21, 1897

Olds Motor Works founded

Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Michigan, founds Olds Motors Works--which will later become Oldsmobile--on August 21, 1897.

Born in Geneva, Ohio, in 1864, Olds went to work for his family's machine-repair and engine-building business in 1883. In 1896, Olds completed his first gasoline-powered vehicle, and the following year he founded Olds Motor Works with financial backing from Samuel L. Smith, who had made his fortune in lumber. After the company moved from Lansing to Detroit in 1900, a fire destroyed all of its cars except its small, one-cylinder curved-dash model. Light, reliable and relatively powerful, the curved-dash Oldsmobile (as Olds had renamed his company) became a commercial sensation after appearing at the New York Auto Show in 1901. Olds returned to Lansing in 1902 and began large-scale production of the car.

The curved-dash Oldsmobile was the first American car to be produced using the progressive assembly-line system, and the first to become a commercial success. Olds soon split with Smith and his board of directors over the future direction of the company, however: Olds wanted to continue the focus on smaller cars, while the others favored the production of larger, more expensive automobiles. In 1904, Olds left to found the Reo Motor Car Company (for his initials, R.E.O.). After his departure, Oldsmobile struggled, and in 1908 it was swallowed up by the new General Motors (GM) conglomerate.

By the 1920s, Oldsmobile's six- and eight-cylinder models sat solidly in the middle of GM's lineup--less expensive than Buick or Cadillac, but still comfortably ahead of Chevrolet. Oldsmobile survived the Great Depression years and earned a reputation as GM's "experimental" division, introducing the so-called "safety automatic transmission" in 1938, a precursor to 1940's "Hydra-Matic," which was the first successful fully automatic transmission. The 135-horsepower "Rocket" engine, introduced in the new 88 model in 1949, made Oldsmobile one of the world's top-performing cars. In 1961, with the release of the upscale compact F-85 (powered by a V-8 engine), Oldsmobile launched its Cutlass, which would become one of the industry's longest-running and most successful names. The Cutlass Supreme would reign as the best-selling American car for much of the 1970s and early 1980s.

In the 1980s, however, Oldsmobile sales declined, and in 1992 a story in The Washington Post--denied by both Oldsmobile and GM--claimed that GM had seriously considered killing the brand. In August 1997, Oldsmobile celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding. Despite efforts to compete with foreign imports with smaller, more fuel-efficient models like the Aurora, Intrigue, Alero and Bravada, Oldsmobile continued to struggle, and in 2004 GM finally discontinued the brand. At the time of its demise, Oldsmobile was America's oldest continuously operating automaker.

[thebear]

AUG 24, 1958

Maria Teresa de Filippis--the first woman ever to compete in Formula One racing--drives a Maserati in the Portuguese Grand Prix at Oporto on August 24, 1958.

The F1 season consists of a series of events known as Grand Prix races; since 1950, the circuit has awarded a driver's world championship title, and since 1958, it has given one for the top constructor. From 1958 to 2009, only five women have ever competed in F1 racing; in 1980, the South African driver Desire Wilson became the only female driver to win a F1 race, at Britain's Brands Hatch circuit.

Born in Naples, Italy, in 1926, De Filippis got her start racing small Fiat 500s when she was around 22. As she told the British newspaper The Observer during a 2006 interview, she began her racing career after two of her brothers made a bet with each other that she couldn't drive fast. De Fillipis won her first race at Salerno-Cava dei Tirreni in a 500. After she finished second in the 1954 Italian sports car championship, the Italian automaker Maserati hired her as a works driver, testing their high-performance cars, and in 1958 she became the first woman to compete in a Formula One world championship race.

De Filippis raced in three Grand Prix events for Maserati that year, posting her best finish--10th place, two laps behind the winner--in her first race, the Belgian Grand Prix. At Oporto that August 24, she was forced to quit the race due to engine troubles. The British driver Stirling Moss, driving a Vanwall, won the event after his countryman Mike Hawthorn (the year's eventual world champion) spun out and stalled his Ferrari and was forced to push-start it in order to get back in the race.

De Filippis used the same Maserati that the great Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio drove when he won his then-record fifth world championship title in 1957. As De Filippis told The Observer, Fangio had warned her of her tendency to drive too fast, to take risks: "I wasn't frightened of speed, you see, and that's not always a good thing. He worried I might have an accident." As it turned out, De Filippis quit the sport the following year and started a family. In 1979, she joined the International Club of Former F1 Grand Prix Drivers; she became its vice president in 1997, and was also president of the Maserati Club.

[thebear]

AUG 25, 1991

Michael Schumacher makes Formula One debut

The German race car driver Michael Schumacher makes his Formula One debut in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps on this day in 1991.

Schumacher was born in Hurth-Hermulhein, West Germany, in 1969. His father managed a go-kart track in the town of Kerpen, and young Michael won the German junior karting championship in 1984 and 1985 and the German and European titles in 1987. He left school to work as a car mechanic and in 1988 began racing on the Formula Three circuit, which features less-powerful vehicles than those of Formula One. After winning the German Formula Three championship in 1990, Schumacher made the move to the big time: The next August, he made his Formula One debut at Spa, racing for Irish businessman Eddie Jordan's team.

Though Schumacher retired during the first lap of that first Grand Prix with clutch problems, he drew the attention of Benetton, another Formula One constructor owned by the same family as the international clothing store chain. Benetton soon snapped up the rising young star (he and Jordan had not signed a contract), beginning a successful five-year collaboration. Schumacher won the drivers' world championship, Formula One's top honor, for the team in 1994--a season marred by the death of the Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna in the San Marino Grand Prix and accusations of technical irregularities against the Benetton team--and 1995.

Schumacher signed with the venerable Ferrari team before the 1996 season. Things began well, despite an incident in 1997 when Schumacher tried in vain to ram the car of his top rival, Jacques Villeneuve, off the road during the final race, at Jerez in Spain; he was stripped of his second-place finish as punishment. After crashing his Ferrari during the 1999 British Grand Prix--he emerged with a broken leg, the only injury of his career to date--Schumacher won the 2000 drivers' world championship (Ferrari's first since 1979). He went on to win the title another four years in a row, racking up nine Grand Prix wins in 2001 and 11 in 2002. His sixth drivers' title in 2003 broke the previous record, held by the Argentine driver Juan Manual Fangio. In 2004, Schumacher won 13 of 18 total Grand Prix races held that year, easily securing his seventh championship.

At the age of 37, still at the top of his game, Schumacher retired from racing. During his final season in 2006, he won seven Grand Prix races, bringing his career total to 91, and making him by far the winningest driver in Formula One history (his closest rival, the French driver Alain Prost, had 51).

He unretired in 2010 but has yet to perform as anticipated.

[thebear]

Anyone remember Hellé Nice? She was a very suceesful racing and rally driver. If you click HERE you will be taken to a Google search.

If you click HERE you will be taken to a (French) website and a French newsreel of her running at Montlhéry in 1929. A unique feature is the on car camera AND sound recording.

There is some `banter' (in French, of course) from the presenters before the newsreel starts. The Hellé Nice segment is very short and followed by one on agriculture in America if you are intersted.

Bon chance!

[thebear]

Sept. 14, 1904

The first TT race is run on The Isle of Man. It was an automobile race and the first one was won by Clifford Earl.

The first motorcycle race was run on May 28 1907. The single cylinder class was won by Charles R. Collier on Matchless. The Twin-Cylinder class was won by Rem Fowler on Norton.

Full details HERE.

[thebear]

Price upon APPLICATION. . .

[thebear]

A bit of US sportscar history: Meadowdale Raceway in Illinois..

[John Turner]

Interesting link there. I often wonder whether we should start another subforum that deals with circuit histories and provides links to some of these websites specialising in individual ones.

[thebear]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Interesting link there. I often wonder whether we should start another subforum that deals with circuit histories and provides links to some of these websites specialising in individual ones.

Sounds like a good plan and won't cost anything.

What do the other netizens think? .

[SAMD]

Nice idea.

[thebear]

Classic motorsports photos from the 1950s.

[thebear]

The 16th annual Best of France and Italy, or BOFI for short.

November 7, 2010 .

[thebear]

Dec. 31, 1938

Cops in Indianapolis put the drunkometer to its first practical New Year’s Eve test as a breath analyzer. It proves a success.. .

[thebear]

Reims ’54 – Mercedes Returns to GP Racing.

[thebear]

These photographs document some of the drag racing action on and off the strips of Northern California between 1957 and1964. .

[thebear]

Ralph Lauren's car collection on display in France. Click HERE for information and audio of the cars.

[thebear]

William Phelps Eno (June 3, 1858-December 3, 1945) was responsible for the origination of uniform traffic rules in New York City.

They were published in the NY Times, 20 JAN 1903.

[thebear]

Sergio Scaglietti: 1920-2011. . .

[thebear]

The marvellous Magyar microcars -
How Hungary circumvented Stalin and also had a bit of fun .