You’re looking at the most insane car ever built. It’s a 1935 Monaco Trossi racer with an air-cooled, two-stroke 16-cylinder radial engine driving the front wheels. Just picture it howling down the straight at Monza at 150 miles per hour, looking like a lit cigar on wheels, engine roaring, headers glowing.
It was the brainchild of technician Augusto Monico. It was built on an aircraft-style space frame and rocked independent suspension all around. It also had hydraulic brakes, a rarity for the time. Unfortunately, the car had 75/25 front/rear weight distribution and suffered from uncontrollable oversteer. It never actually raced and was only driven a few times during the testing phase. Today it’s locked up in the Museo dell’Automobile in Turin, its version of Arkham Asylum. Will the batshit car ever escape and get a chance to vaporize its front tires and kill race car drivers? One can hope.
John Fluevog designs funky ’50s-inspired footwear. He also designed his slinky custom ‘65 Jag. The car was a rusted-out lump before restoration/customization began. He chopped its top, modified nearly every body panel, and dropped the whole thing on a custom frame. He also stuck a Chevy V-8 under the hood for good measure. Most builders don’t have the balls to mess with such a classic design, and for good reason—it’s easy to mess up. Fluevog actually made the thing look better, and made it unmistakably Fluevog. Check out Fluevog’s site for more pics and a brief story on the resto.
A man of your means should be driving this black 16C Bugatti Galibier. This subtle, understated treatment conveys an air of sophistication. Polished aluminum slab sides are so gauche! You, sir, are beyond pomp and flash! And with a twin-superchaged W-16, it has more than enough power to plow through the throngs of paupers begging for scraps beyond the walls of your estate.
When you’re drifting your FD RX-7 through the streets of Tokyo and need to snatch a bite of sashimi at Tsukiji fish market, these carbon fiber chopsticks are the only way to go.
There’s something horribly wrong with the U.S. education system. In our community college automotive repair programs, kids are learning how to repair the brakes on Toyota appliances. In Sweden, the students at Thorildsplans Gymnasium technical school are building batshit-crazy Yamaha R1-powered go carts. 145 horsepower in something that weights as much as a Radio Flyer. This video shows the fruits of their labor. Pardon the crap-rock soundtrack.
The most significant automotive news of this century seems to have slipped under the radar. A ratty, busted-to-hell Citroën completed the 24 Hours of LeMons this weekend. Complex hydraulic system and all. As the venerable Murilee Martin said, “It is impossible to overstate the magnitude of this achievement.”
Team Air Prance Schitroën essentially dug the ‘72 ID out of the trash. It had been sitting for 20 years and wasn’t running until the Friday before the race. They literally revived it hours before they hit the track. And it finished without exploding into a cloud of unobtainable French parts or spraying the track with Citroën hydraulic fluid. The feat is on par with firing up the Large Hadron Collider. Somebody should make this day a holiday.
The Falcon gets a bad rap. Ford’s ’60s entry-level ride has been called frumpy, plain, and just plain ugly. I love it. It’s classic, sleek, and simple and looks better than many later designs, even the venerable Mustang. This bright-yellow beast has a 260 ci. V-8 and three-speed column-shifted manual. It’s riding on new, lowered suspension, and has spanking-new paint inside and out. The stance on this one is just perfect and I’d love to add it to my stable and maybe even use it as a daily driver. Alas, it’s not meant for me, but perhaps you can be the proud new owner of this beauty.
Most manufacturers were too busy greenwashing their lineups this year to come up with something truly astonishing for Geneva. But the French, ah the French, remembered that car shows—and especially Geneva—are all about insanely gorgeous and futuristic concept cars. Gaze in wonder at the Citroën Survolt, the ultimate show car at Geneva 2010. What powers this magnificent creation? How fast is it? What’s its ‘ring time? Citroën scoffs at your petty questions! Ce n’est pas important! The Survolt is pure beauty and futurism. That is all.
Built by famed tuners Novitech Rosso, the 848 RACE has TWO superchargers and two intercoolers and is good for 848 horsepower at 7,900 rpm and 621 pound-feet of torque at 6,300 rpm. It’ll hit 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and charge all the way up to a top speed of 214 mph. It’s also the sexiest 599 I’ve ever seen.
The 848 RACE will debut at Geneva this year. Hit the jump for more photos and the press release.
Beware fellow autonauts, for this be a forsaken land full of sorrow and heartache. Even the bold tremble and quake at the horrors that lie beyond these gates. If you choose to enter, be forewarned. You may not return.
