The Bugatti 100P is a streamlined organic flying manta ray with counter-rotating propellers and two screaming supercharged straight eights. It’s half flying machine, half H.P. dream. Bugatti only made one and sadly, it never flew the skies in anger. Now, however, a group of intrepid engineers are bringing it back to life in the form of a meticulous, full-size reproduction.

Ettore Bugatti built the 100P to compete in the 1939 Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup Race. This was the hay day of aviation, when winged monsters like the Gee Bee tore the skies asunder in pursuit of ultimate speed. Usually in the presence of an audience. It was by all accounts, incredible.

The 100P, like all of Bugatti’s creations, was wildly innovative. Its design was stunning, with forward-swept wings, a Y-shaped empennage (tail section) and an almost totally transparent cockpit. Its mechanicals were equally marvelous, featuring two Bugatti 50P supercharged straight eight engines mounted behind the pilot. Twin drive shafts ran from each engine (spinning in opposite directions) to turn the dual propellers up front. Special radiators were mounted in the fuselage with air intakes at the leading edge of the stabilizers. Each engine was good for 450 horsepower.

The 100P was a stupendous aeronautical achievement and would likely have set speed records in the skies over Europe. Then the Nazis marched on Paris. The plane was put in storage during the war. After the war, it was rescued and restored, but not flown. It eventually ended up in the hands of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which displays the plane at the Air Venture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Bugatti and experimental aircraft enthusiasts have long dreamed of seeing the 100P soar. That’s why businessman Scotty Wilson started a project to recreate the plane almost 30 years ago. Remarkably, he and his team are nearly finished with the reproduction. They need just $50,000 to finish. And they’ve turned to Kickstarter for help. Head on over to the project page to give them some love. The 100P is probably the most beautiful flying machine ever devised and it deserves to, well, fly.

Porsche is getting ready for its return to Le Mans in 2014. And it wants to remind you all that in 1971 it thoroughly and properly kicked ass. The monstrous 240-mile-an-hour 917 took first and second places, setting multiple records along the way. Oh, and 10 of the 13 cars that finished that year were Porsches.

In 1971 Porsche built the first magnesium-framed 917. The delicate birdcage of highly flammable and ultra-lightweight metal weighed just 42 kilograms, or 92 pounds. The frame was swathed in gossamer sheets of flowing fiberglass and perspex and given menacing tail fins. Then Porsche gingerly installed their latest creation: A magnesium and titanium air-cooled flat 12 good for more than 600 horsepower. The results were positively manic. Click through to see a highlight reel from the season, featuring the tarmac-swallowing, fire-breathing, time-warping 917.

The 917/30 variant could hit 62 mph in just 2.3 seconds and 124 in 5.3. It had a top speed of more than 240 mph. The comparable Ferrari of the day, the 512, had trouble breaking 200 mph.

In testing, driver Jackie Oliver did an average 155 mph per lap, the highest average speed ever recorded. The Martini Racing team went on to win Le Mans that year. Drivers Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep went 3,315 miles, a distance record, at an average speed of 155 mph, a speed record. The record remained untouched for decades.

A Porsche 917 in Gulf livery also took second place. Porsche 911s and even 907s took the majority of the other positions in the race. Only two Ferraris finished.

If the video below doesn’t get you excited about Porsche’s return to Le Mans next year, you’re not human.

The Vixen RV and its campy promo video has gone viral. But, really, the Vixen was a miserable lump and an almost complete failure. The GMC motorhome, however, was the ultimate in RV luxury and technology, a shagadelic masterpiece of late ’70s style. It’s one of the most advanced motorhomes ever devised, featuring fully independent suspension, front wheel drive and a great, big torquey V8. Custom murals optional.

The GMC Motorhome is special. It was (and is) the only motorhome to be designed and built by an automotive manufacturer. GMC built the chassis, engine, bodies and in most cases interiors of these monsters. Nobody does that. It usually works like this: A manufacturer like GMC will assemble a chassis, then ship it off to a coach builder like Bounder to finish the job. GMC approached their motorhome like any other car or truck in their line. They designed it from the ground up and built the whole thing in house. It was bonkers. Motorhomes are low-volume specialty vehicles. Any major automaker would be insane to build one.

But this was GM in the ’70s, which by all reports was totally batshit. So in the early ’70s they got a bunch of GM geniuses in a room and asked, “What’s the perfect motorhome?”

The result was, really, spectacular. The team devised a steel ladder chassis with self-adjusting, fully independent suspension and disc brakes. Then they dropped in the massive 455 cubic-inch V8 and transmission from a Oldsmobile Toronado. They designed a properly ’70s-tastic futuristic body to put on top of it all. Finally, they built a full-scale, 26-foot clay model—likely in a Hunter S. Thompson-esque drug-addled haze. It was the biggest clay model GM ever built.

The motorhome went into production in 1972. Its body was made of aluminum and fiberglass. The floor, marine plywood. It had massive windows, air conditioning, an 8-track stereo and cruise control. It made moustaches and chest hair everywhere tingle with delight.

The GMC motorhome was produced until 1978 in 23 and 26-foot varieties. Many survive today due to their stout, rust-proof construction and have a cult-like following. It’s easy to see why. The motorhome still looks futuristic and definitely has charm. One can imagine piloting it across the country like some giant beige shuttlecraft, seeking out new life and civilizations. Boldly going where no one wearing a gold chain and Hawaiian shirt has gone before.

Sources: Wikipedia, GMC Motorhome

The Triumph Spitfire is adorable. It’s perky. It’s sweet. And that’s exactly why it needs a screaming, searing, sky-splitting, pavement-melting turbine engine from a helicopter. The appropriately named StanceWorks forums member godzillus is installing a 320-horsepower Allison T63C18 turbine into a rusty Spitfire as you read this post. Oh, and it’s a senior design project for engineering school. Who said school isn’t any fun?

Some perspective: The Spitfire was designed in 1957 by Giovanni Michelotti and was based on the sedate Triumph Herald saloon. It was a nimble, fun and very pretty little roadster produced from 1962 to 1980. Originally it was equipped with a torquey little 1.1 liter (1,147 cc) push-rod inline four. By 1974 the engine had grown to a respectable 1.5 liters (1493 cc). It never weighed more than 1750 pounds. Imagine then, a proper little British roadster with a 320-horsepower turbine engine that tops out at 53,000 rpm and generates 425 ft-lbs of torque at idle. Running stock suspension and brakes. Yep.

godzillus tells us, via the StanceWorks thread, that he and a team of students are building the beast as a senior design project for (the world’s most awesome) engineering school. They say they’re doing it to test a digital turbine controller, but come on. We all know they’re doing it in the name of hoons everywhere.

The team received the car as a gift from the local Triumph club and they’re borrowing the Allison turbine, which retails for more than $250,000. The students have scraped together $3,000 for the build, which is mostly going into fabricating parts for the engine swap, a roll cage and safety equipment. Thus there’s no extra cash for upgraded brakes and suspension. Sadly, the team ”will never get to drive this thing in anger,” says godzillus.

As you can see from the pics below, the team has already made great progress. They’ve patched the rusty bits, sprayed the car with primer and have mocked up the engine in the car. They’ve also created some trick 3D CAD files to design the seven-inch exhaust that will no doubt leave burn marks on the asphalt. Heck, if we’re lucky, the exhaust may even light the asphalt on fire.

Godzillus, on behalf of the entire Ridelust readership, I demand a video of this masterpiece ripping a hole in the space-time continuum!

It seems Fisker is finally succumbing to the relentless seas of misfortune. It’s been battered by storms, supplier problems and financial troubles. Founder Henrik Fisker has fled. Its workforce has been laid off. Nearly all of them. Things are grim. But should petrol-guzzling, tire-burning, fire-breathing gear heads like you care? Yes. Yes, you should.

You should care about Fisker for one simple reason: It’s disruptive. The automotive industry is big, old and stagnant. It moves at a glacial pace and changes very little. Fisker, and other new car companies, are free to innovate, to explore new technology, and to do crazy things like use a turbocharged Pontiac Solstice engine just to spin a generator.

But let’s back up. What, exactly, happened? Some of the first Karmas had a faulty hose clamp that could cause coolant to leak into the battery compartment. Then a few of the cars burst into flames without warning. A recall ensued. Then Fisker’s battery manufacturer, A123, went bankrupt, causing a crippling battery shortage. Then Superstorm Sandy totaled more than 300 brand-new Karmas at a port in New Jersey. Then the Department of Energy froze Fisker’s massive $528 million loan. Finally, Fisker himself stepped down as head of the company mid March, citing a disagreement with the rest of Fisker management.

Then, of course, there were rumors that the Chinese were going to buy out Fisker and save the day. Fisker co-founder Bernhard Kohler even said in an interview with Auto Bild that Chinese automaker DongFeng submitted a bid to bail the company out. No one knows, however, if the deal will go through.

Last week, even more bad news: Fisker laid off 160 employees on a calm Friday morning. Right now it looks like Fisker is going away. And that makes me sad.

The Karma is a beautiful car. An impractical, silly, insane and beautiful car. It weighs an absurd 5,300 pounds, yet can magically accelerate to 60 mph in just 6.3 seconds. It can only travel 32 miles on its massive batteries, after which time it revs up a 2-liter, 260-horsepower GM Ecotec four cylinder for juice. And revs up it does, sustaining a blistering wail regardless of throttle position. It is 16 feet long, yet has less luggage space than a MINI. It has 22-inch wheels. It is a Hot Wheels car writ large. And I love it.

It’s a shame that such a technologically advanced and stupendously ludicrous vehicle will be lost to bad luck and poor management. Automobiles are more than economically sensible means of transportation. They’re expressions of speed and power and beauty. They’re mobile art. We need more cars like the Karma, even if they aren’t economical, practical or even viable business propositions. Because, simply put, they’re inspiring.

Ah, zombies. You’ve shambled into our psyches and captured our collective conscience like no other. Is it your chilling resemblance to our mindless consumerist culture? Or is it simply that we all want to brain each other with blunt objects? At any rate, we obviously want you to take over. When you do, we’ll be driving this. It’s the HEMTT A3 Diesel Electric by Oshkosh. It’s an armored, eight-wheel-drive beast that can run on diesel, biodiesel and even veggie oil. And it carries its own power station. 

Everybody’s a zombie. Your neighbors are zombies. Your best friend is a zombie. Your mom is a zombie. Zombies have overpowered the strongest and most advanced military on the planet. But somehow you and a ragtag group of Ruby on Rails developers and extremely attractive women have survived. If you want to discover the zombie-free paradise of your dreams, you’ll need a vehicle. This, my friend, is the Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) A3 Diesel Electric (note: Photos may not be actual HEMTT A3 Diesel electric, but a variation of the HEMTT chassis).

It is the biggest, baddest eight-wheel-drive truck the US has to offer. Made by the legendary Oshkosh corporation in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the HEMTT is what the US military uses when it needs to move heavy objects over rough terrain. It’s the workhorse of field operations, an armored dreadnaught capable of traversing vast distances with enormous cargo. Weighing in at more than 84,000 pounds and with superb all-wheel traction, it can plow through any zombie horde that gets in its way.

But the HEMTT A3 Diesel Electric isn’t just a massive, go-anywhere, zombie-crushing rig. It’s a super-efficient hybrid with an onboard generator that can power an airfield. 

The HEMTT Diesel Electric is powered by a 470-horsepower turbo diesel engine (green) that spins a 340 kw generator (purple). That generator feeds four 480-volt A/C motors, one at each axle (blue). It uses 1.9 megajoule long-life ultracapacitors to capture energy from braking and can carry 130 gallons of diesel fuel. Flip a switch and the onboard generator can provide 120 kw of electricity for all your zombie-fighting needs.

It’s a go-anywhere power station with room for a shipping container on the back.

Oshkosh doesn’t say the HEMTT A3 Diesel Electric will run on biodiesel or veggie oil, but I’m sure one of the devs in your crew can do the conversion. That’ll turn every abandoned fast food joint between here and paradise into a refueling station.

The rig is also built to military specifications. Its ultracapacitors are rated for 25 years of use without service and it was designed to be easily repaired in the field.

Imagine charging down America’s backroads, crushing zombie hordes and pushing abandoned cars aside like styrofoam. When you reach your destination, you’ll unpack your gear, fire up the generator and enjoy civilized life. Or maybe set up an electric fence to fry invading zombies. The possibilities are limitless.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is THE ultimate vehicle for the zombie apocalypse.  Will you be ready?

Source: DieselPower

The new McLaren P1 dropped last week and it’s orange. Just like its grandaddy, the achingly awesome F1. Why? Because orange is the best color ever. It’s not garish and angry like red or psychotically cheery like yellow. No, it’s eye-searingly incredible and it tells the universe: I mean business.

The brutal 1967 M6A Can-Am racer was the first McLaren to be slathered in aneurysm-inducing orange. Why? McLaren wanted the competition to quake and quiver at the sight of the roaring beast, to treat it with caution and fear. Or maybe they just really liked orange. Nobody knows for sure, but McLaren orange became a legend.

Until the mid 70s, when McLaren signed a deal with the Devil (Marlboro) and had to switch to red-and-white livery.

In 1992 McLaren made the legendary F1 super car. Metallic orange was one of the early colors, a seductive and simultaneously arresting shade that paid homage to the early days.

The F1 is one of the greatest cars ever made. Just to remind you: It can reach 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds and thunder on to a top speed of 242 miles per hour. It has a 6.1-liter V12 good for 618 horsepower. It wears orange proudly.

But the F1 got better. In 1995 McLaren set the the car loose at Le Mans. F1s took 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th places. To commemorate the slaughter, erm, victory, McLaren built the meanest, baddest F1 ever: The F1 LM. Only five were made and they were all painted “Historic Orange” to honor the Can-Am monsters of yore.

Now the P1 wears a variant of McLaren orange, a glittery, futuristic hue that shows off the new car’s angry curves quite nicely. McLaren hasn’t divulged the specs, but rumor is the P1 will rock an 800+ horsepower turbocharged 3.8 V8 and a KERS system good for a 100+ horsepower boost at the push of a button.

The P1 certainly looks the business. No doubt it will live up to the F1 and do its orange paint justice.

Source: eGarage

I kinda have a thing for Mazdas. Even the lowliest Mazda dances like a Braavosi sword master . But most Mazdas aren’t what you’d call beautiful. This 1972 Mazda 1800 sedan, however, is simply stunning. And for good reason: It was penned by one of the most legendary automotive designers in history. Here in the US, the 1800 is exceedingly rare. Only 2100 or so were imported. This 1800 is for sale on Craigslist for the low price of $4500.

In Japan the 1800 was known as the Luce (pronounced lu-che). The name is derived from the Italian word for “light” and the little sedan certainly shines. You see, the Luce was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro in 1965. Yes, that Giorgetto Giugiaro. The man behind the Ferrari 250, the De Tomaso Mangusta, Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT , the MK 1 Golf and even the freaking De Lorean.

The Luce was one of Giugiaro’s earliest efforts, a luscious piece of work with soft curves and sharp angles in all the right places. It’s drop-dead gorgeous and arguably the most beautiful Mazda ever made. Until you see the coupe version:

Initially the Luce was powered by a peppy 1500cc inline four good for about 78 horsepower. By 1972, the Luce had a positively brawny 105-hp 1800cc four. In 1969 the Luce coupe was fitted with a screaming 1300cc rotary good for 126 hp.

1972 was the last year of production for Giugiaro’s Luce. This example, for sale on Craigslist in Port Angels, WA, is said to have just a touch over 60,000 miles on the odometer. It seems to be in fabulous shape and it’s just dripping with style.

Unfortunately, the column-shifted slushbox gives it the slightest scent of geezer. Everything else about the car, however, just screams suave.

What do you think? Is it a worthy collector?

Source: Bring a Trailer

We’re all familiar with the venerable Otto cycle—intake, compression, expansion, exhaust. But that’s just not enough for veteran race engine builder and performance aftermarket mogul Bruce Cower. He added another two. The Crower Six Stroke promised to boost power and efficiency while eliminating the cooling system altogether years ago. So what happened to the concept engine? 

The Crower Six-stroke may be old news to a lot of you, but apparently I’ve been lost in an engineering Bermuda Triangle and have only now learned of its existence. First, a little about Bruce. Crower is a truly epic figure in hot rodding. They guy built and sold parts for ’32 roadsters in high school. Today Crower Cams sells ultra-high-performance cams and a ton of other go-fast accessories.

Crower is a mechanical genius. And like any mechanical genius, he can’t stop rethinking engineering conventions. Like cooling. Seriously, radiators and cooling systems are huge, heavy and inefficient. If only there were a way to eliminate them altogether while retaining all the benefits of a water-cooled engine. Crower thought of a way: The six-stroke engine.

On a very basic level, Crower’s system works like this: Squirt water directly into the combustion chamber.

Water injection happens after the exhaust stroke. Water hits the hot piston, instantly turns to steam and expands, providing an additional power stroke while cooling the engine. It’s brilliant. And it works.

Crower built a functional single-cylinder prototype. The thing runs without any cooling system. And it runs cool. This is what Crower told Autoweek way back in 2006:

“It’ll run for an hour and you can literally put your hand on it. It’s warm, yeah, but it’s not scorching hot. Any conventional engine running without a water jacket or fins, you couldn’t do that.”

The secret, of course, is in the cams. Crower developed double-lobe exhaust cams that keep the exhaust valve closed after the first power stroke. This recompresses the combustion gasses and increases the force of the steam stroke.

There are many benefits to the Crower six stroke. The steam stroke provides extra power. You can replace heavy cooling systems with a small water tank. The engine runs so cool that Crower estimates you’d be able to bump compression all the way up to 13:1 on low-octane pump gas.

Again, from Autoweek:
“I’ve done this many times on regular engines: 15-to-1 on gasoline for the first five seconds works pretty good until you get some chamber heat and then suddenly it gets into pinging. But with the chamber being chilled, I bet 12-, 13-to-1 will be no problem on cheap fuel. So what we can maybe do is have fuels that aren’t quite as good…It’ll save a nickel a gallon not having to keep three grades going.”

Overall efficiency, says Crower, could also be boosted into the stratosphere:
“Can you imagine how much fuel goes into radiator losses every day in America? A good spark-ignition engine is about 24 percent efficient; ie., about 24 cents of your gasoline dollar ends up in power. The rest goes out in heat loss through the exhaust or radiator, and in driving the water pump and the fan and other friction losses. A good diesel is about 30 percent efficient, a good turbo diesel about 33 percent. But you still have radiators and heavy components, and fan losses are extremely high on a big diesel truck.”

Crower thinks the six-stroke could reach 40 percent, easy.

So that was all in 2006. What happened to the Crower Six-Stroke? Unfortunately, Crower fell ill and was unable to continue research. According to representatives from Crower Cams, the project is currently on hold.

Hopefully Crower or the engineers at Crower Cams can revive the project. It showed a lot of promise and we’re in dire need of cheaper, high-efficiency engines.

Source: Autoweek

De Tomaso is known for stuffing huge lumps of American iron into gorgeous Italian bodies. The company’s first car, however, was a bit more modest. The Vallelunga was powered by the venerable 1.5-liter Ford Kent four cylinder and used a VW transaxle. It was the world’s first mid-engine production car. And any respectable gearhead should know all about it.

Argentine Alejandro De Tomaso founded De Tomaso in 1959 in Modena, Italy, in 1959 to build race cars. He started working on his first production car in the early ’60s raise more money for his race teams. The Vallelunga was his first effort, a fiberglass-bodied mid-engined sports car with a steel spine and disc brakes all around. It was essentially a race car wrapped in a gorgeous, low-slung body.

The car used fully adjustable unequal-length wishbone suspension up front and reversed lower wishbone, top-link and radius-arm suspension out back. The rear suspension was bolted directly to the engine and transaxle, just like the Formula Fords of the time. For motivation Vallelunga used the famous 1.5-liter Ford Kent four-cylinder, good for about 105 horsepower. Top speed was around 130.

The car weighted just 1,600 pounds.