This link leads to a display of some of the most amazing automobiles I’ve ever seen. There’s a button at the top of each page that allows you to hear the engines.
Just click on “The Cars”.
Want.
Thanks for the link.
Here’s some more pics of the collection from Wired. The overhead shot of the Count Trossi Mercedes is my new desktop. Fantastic collection.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/ralph-lauren-collection/?pid=980&viewall=true
The body of the 1938 Bugatti 57S Atlantic was made of magnesium. What advantages would that bring?
The Discovery Channel had a show on his cars as well as he prepared them for a special museum display at (I think) the MFA, Boston. It would not suck to be him.
My guess is that it’s both light and strong.
Advantage: Lightweight
Disadvatage: Flammable
I went to that show. That guy has very, very good taste in cars.
Beat me to my own answer, Robot Arm! Oh well, I already wrote it, so I’ll post it anyway:
Ahh, it’s much more common in autos than I thought. From Wikipedia:
Magnesium is the third most commonly used structural metal, following iron and aluminium. It has been called the lightest useful metal by The Periodic Table of Videos.
Magnesium, in its purest form, can be compared with aluminium, and is strong and light, so it is used in several high volume part manufacturing applications, including automotive and truck components. Specialty, high-grade car wheels of magnesium alloy are called “mag wheels”, although the term is often more broadly misapplied to include aluminum wheels. In 1957, a Corvette SS, designed for racing, was constructed with magnesium body panels. An earlier Mercedes-Benz race car model, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, had a body made from Elektron, a magnesium alloy; these cars ran (with successes) at Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, and other world-class race events in 1955…Porsche’s all-out quest to decrease the weight of their race cars led to the use of magnesium frames in the famous 917/053 that won Le Mans in 1971, and still holds the absolute distance record. The 917/30 Can-Am car also featured a magnesium frame, helping it to make the most of its prodigious 1100–1500 hp. Volkswagen Group has used magnesium in its engine components for many years. For a long time, Porsche used magnesium alloy for its engine blocks due to the weight advantage.
Caption of a picture of a flaming auto wreck:
The magnesium-bodied Honda RA302 of Jo Schlesser crashes and burns during the 1968 French Grand Prix. Schlesser was killed. The magnesium car body did not cause the fire or the death, but it greatly hindered attempts to douse the fire with water.
OK there’s the rub, I guess. Light and strong like aluminum, but burns extremely hot once ignited.
I’m trying to decide which one I want to take home. I’m leaning toward the 1938 Alfa Romeo.
I organize a local European car show every year in Omaha with about 125 great cars but these are making me drool, swoon and faint!