25 June 2012
I read an item recently - I don't recall where - and the author was speculating;
if you could travel back in time say 20 years, how amazed would Steve Jobs be with today's Macbook Pro and for how much could you sell it to him?
If you could travel back in time with a car on sale today and try and sell it to it's founding father, what car would you choose, how far back in time would you travel and who would you be trying to sell it to?
I think William Lyons would love the current XJ.
17 July 2009
I think William Lyons would love the current XJ.
In terms of its exterior lines and the loss of the distinctive twin headlights and grille, I doubt it.
Anyhow, a nice topic, Leslie. I'd choose the Smart car because I enjoy a real challenge, and for its creator, Swiss Swatch watch genius, Nikolas Hayek, it turned out to be Mount Everest. But he reached the top, eventually.
15 June 2012
I think Colin Chapman would love a Caterham R500 Superlight.
27 July 2010
I don't have sufficient engineering knowledge to be the best guide, but I'd love to give Marc Birkigt a tour of the modern car engine. Before penning the OHC straight 6 in the Hispano Suizas of the 20s, he designed very successful WW1 V8 aero engines. He pioneered putting cylinders in a block with liners, instead of in separate castings, making them stiffer and lighter (the block was made of aluminium). His aero engine was the first to have a hollow propeller shaft through which a gun could be fired i.e. easy aiming without having a synchroniser to shoot between the prop blades. He had loads of patents. I think he would be amazed by the electronic revolution of the past 25 years and astounded at specific power and fuel consumption figures obtained today. He also designed great brakes which RR used under patent; I think he lived just long enough to see disc brakes, but he may have been gaga by then.
17 July 2009
to be
I'd love to give Marc Birkigt a tour of the modern car engine. Before penning the OHC straight 6 in the Hispano Suizas of the 20s, he designed very successful WW1 V8 aero engines. He pioneered putting cylinders in a block with liners, instead of in separate castings, making them stiffer and lighter (the block was made of aluminium). His aero engine was the first to have a hollow propeller shaft through which a gun could be fired i.e. easy aiming without having a synchroniser to shoot between the prop blades. He had loads of patents.
I came across him when in Barcelona, 275. I know he was Swiss born before moving there because he helped found Hispano-Suiza. There is not an H-S car I don't find attractive; models such a the 1927 H6B with the fine straight six you allude to are rather too ostentatious for my retro-taste. I'd love instead to own one of the boattails. And of course, he designed boats.
The new automotive museum in Malaga has an H-S among its illustrious collection of cars 1890 to 1950 - can't remember which one, most of the collection is from the Art Deco era, including the first centred, (I believe) steering wheel limo. Anyhow, I discovered Birkigt when studying the Pegaso company's short-lived sport cars. His time in Spain was troubled by legal claims of profiteering eventually causing him to live and work in France. His achievements seem ignored in English automotive history books, a state not untypical of our attitude to Johnny Foreigner.
8 November 2008
I read somewhere that the Skoda plant in the seventies / eighties had lots of innovative prototypes they were never allowed to put into production. Wouldn't it be good to take a Yeti, a Superb or an Octavian VRS back in time and tell these guys, "it all comes right in the end"?
"There's a fine line between wrong and visionary. Unfortunately, you have to be a visionary to see it." - Dr Sheldon Cooper
6 March 2012
I'd rather like Ferdinand Porsche to have a look at the current 911 Turbo. I think he'd be amazed on the one hand at the advances since his passing (in 1951), and on the other at just how enduring a design he came up with, and how little the platform and concept has lost its purity whilst remaining one of the most capable cars on the planet.
1 June 2010
I think he would be amazed by the electronic revolution of the past 25 years and astounded at specific power and fuel consumption figures obtained today.
Great choice Marc Birkigt! I think that at the beginning he would be amazed by todays engines "numbers" and the increased control over injection and cobustion but after a pair of weeks exploring todays technological possibilities he would be very deluded by the lack of new solutions. He would be developing revolutionary engine layouts today. Sadly the automotive industry is so mature and statical that really open minded engineers are not so welcome. Getting maximum results changing almost anything. Only changes that can bring immediate savings are accepted.