Jump to content

Name this car....


Recommended Posts

Hello, back in my old thread and very funny to see the old 1994 Porsche C88 prototype made as a "gift" by Porsche for China. You can google the background story including Wedekings funny presentation speech in Mandarin in Bejing. Several later Chinese design studies of truck factories for a "peoples car" look pretty similar. Anybody surprised?  :p

Link to post
Share on other sites

Am I correct in thinking that the prototypes Porsche have made for other makers, have not been a roaring success? Was it Seat that they made a prototype for, pre take over by VW and another one for Lada? I had forgotten about the C33 with its one child seat, as of course, the Chinese are only allowed one child. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks, Arto. Will screen my archive for the next one.

 

Wilson, they made several prototypes for others, but not all of them ever went public like the C88. With complete cars they might have failed, but design and technology details went into series production. I stumbled over a lot of design studies and ideas during the last 20 years (like the cardan-shaft drive in Yamaha motorcycles etc.). They badly needed "other" income in the 90s and even today you can "order" if you pay well enough. Was much cheaper in the 90s though ;-)

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks, Arto. Will screen my archive for the next one.

 

Wilson, they made several prototypes for others, but not all of them ever went public like the C88. With complete cars they might have failed, but design and technology details went into series production. I stumbled over a lot of design studies and ideas during the last 20 years (like the cardan-shaft in Yamaha motorcycles etc.). They badly needed "other" income in the 90s and even today you can "order" if you pay well enough. Was much cheaper in the 90s though ;-)

 

Pity it took Porsche 18 months to restock the gearbox synchro hub wearing parts for my 1977 911RSR. I was not too impressed, given that these only have a life of only around 12,000 km and all period RSR owners still using the homologated 915 gearbox, need them regularly. 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

side note:

 

Mercedes also took part in that "peoples car design competition" of the Chinese Gov. and their vehicle (the Mercedes FCC = Family Car China) looked 95% like the years later introduced Mercedes A class. That was three years before the A-class! Chinese Gov. said "thank you" to all participating western car makers and never declared a "winner", so no money had to be paid and no order for series cars had to be placed.

 

Wilson: When was that? Have you checked possible 3rd party distributors or gearbox specialists who had them in stock?

Link to post
Share on other sites

side note:

 

 

 

Wilson: When was that? Have you checked possible 3rd party distributors or gearbox specialists who had them in stock?

 

Ronald,

 

The problem arose because I made the error of being persuaded by local Porsche main dealer, that they were going to make a big splash on working on classic and older competition Porsches. My experiences with them servicing my modern 996 and then 997 Turbo S cars had been excellent. The additional advantage was that they would provide a warranty on the work, which is unusual on a competition car. The downside is that they would only fit official Porsche parts. Porsche told them that the standard synchro hubs had been improved and were now suitable for use on an RSR spec 915 box, so they fitted those. The gearbox lasted barely 20 road miles before the new 2nd gear hub failed catastrophically, causing a lot of damage. It then took another 14 months to get all the parts to complete a proper repair, finally getting the car back in February of this year. Now the classic Porsche mechanic has left the main dealer anyway and moved to another garage, so they have given up classic work. The good news is that the garage he moved to, a classic and competition Porsche specialist, is just 6km away from my UK house, so very convenient. When I was originally having the car rebuilt to Group 2 rally spec from the race car I found in a California scrap yard in 2009, we found it had a welded shut sun roof. I had that re-opened again for additional ventilation when doing rallies in Europe in midsummer but it had never really worked well, often sticking part way open or worse, part way closed, when the rain came on. The new Porsche garage (Precision Porsche) has now got it working perfectly by fitting modified new 964 operating cables and cleaning up the tracks. 

 

Wilson

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Synchros? You don't need synchros, they're just another unnecessary part added to modern cars that are designed to fail and supply a revenue stream for the dealer!

 

Although when I drove my employers' Rolls I did find the lack of them made downshifting rather difficult. :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Synchros? You don't need synchros, they're just another unnecessary part added to modern cars that are designed to fail and supply a revenue stream for the dealer!

 

Although when I drove my employers' Rolls I did find the lack of them made downshifting rather difficult. :)

 

Mike,

 

Porsche racing gearboxes have always used synchro. I think they might have felt it made for fewer missed shifts and "buzzed"engines: See the cartoon below by the wonderful Russell Brockbank. I actually don't mind "crash" gearboxes but the best ones are the dog clutch non-synchro but constant mesh type gearbox, like many folks are now fitting in vintage and post vintage cars. The Alfa Romeo 8C2600 I sometimes get to drive, has had a non-synchro dog box fitted and it has transformed the pleasure of driving the car. Before that 2nd and 3rd gear-lever positions, were in separate post codes. 

 

Wilson

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Hope you don't mind me butting in with one car I used to own. This car was in the US, a place it never would have been allowed but it slipped through the cracks.
Link to post
Share on other sites

It´s a pre-twin model "Brezel", so before 1952/53 because of the single side window of the door. It´s a Standard model because of the three stroke steering wheel. It´s NOT a prewar prototype/preserial model because the strokes were thicker in those.

 

I´d say it´s between 1947 and 1950, maybe even 1951. Not sure if one could identify the year more accurate from the details you´ve showed.

 

You said "special". Well, thought about a CCG Beetle, but not an early one (pre- 1947) because I miss the engraved "VW"-logo in the dash (which the pre-war/war cars, very early postwar cars had).

 

The odo shows mp/h, not km/h, because there is a "40" at 6 o´clock, not a "60" like the km/h-odos show. So could this also be a very early non-German beetle, maybe Ireland (Dublin) where they´ve built it since 1950 or South Africa (Uintenhage since 1951).

Link to post
Share on other sites

As a follow up for the last riddle here´s my new car. (we should run that parallel to your Beetle, ok?)

 

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...