Tail Fins on Wheels??

[len_newstrum]

I was reading a post by DJ about our impressions of a new aftermarket wheel that he is considering adding to his inventory when a random thought crossed my mind. (I have no opinion on the wheel, by the way.)

Fancy wheels have become the vogue over the last few years, but are they anything other than a styling fad similar to the infamous tailfins of yesteryear? Are they actually any better, from a performance standpoint to a pressed sheet steel wheel from a weight and deflection standpoint for the same side-load requirement? Wheel and brake weight is the dominant factor in unsprung weight: it has a significant effect on road adhesion over bumps and in ride-quality.

I then thought about the wheels on a car that I once owned prior to the advent of disk brakes. A picture follows. It had an aluminum brake drum, with fins outboard of the wheel (where it gets great cooling) and a steel insert for the brake shoes to act on. The drum itself is a tremendously strong and rigid structure that takes loads directly from the wheel rim! This also allowed the brake drum to be almost as large as the wheel rim. The brake shoes were interchangeable with the Studebaker Hawk, but the car only weighed 1200 pounds. The result was incredible braking with never, ever getting brake fade.

Drum brakes are obsolete technology today, thank goodness, but are we sacrificing performance on the altar of "sexiness"? The same goes for 'spoilers' that merely increase air drag when added to a car that never goes fast enough to benefit from additional loading of the rear tires.

IMHO, putting chrome wheels and a whale tail on a classic Lancia makes about as much sense as painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa.

Oh well, I guess I'm just a grumpy old man rambling on about the idiocy of the younger generation(s).>:D

http://i805.photobucket.com/albums/yy338/Len_Newstrum/20807.jpg

[Todd D.]

I think we should start a contest to identify that car.
My gut tells me its French.

[fay66]

I think we should start a contest to identify that car.
My gut tells me its French.

Panhard crossed my mind but the wheelarch doen't look right.
brian:confused:

[Georgemia]

I think we should start a contest to identify that car.
My gut tells me its French.

Was thinking Matra Djet, but don't think they had the vent behind the wheel......

[Georgemia]

Most wheels probably are heavier than stock, and purely decorative, the most obvious example being the 22" wheels on big Sport Utility Vehicles, especially those with spinners.

Some alloys are probably lighter, and do improve performance.

[1,6 HF]

Todd's right about French, and I think Brian's pretty close with Panhard, but I do believe that's a Deutsch-Bonnet.

Georgemia, you're also fairly close with a Matra Djet, but that car had disc brakes. However, the Djet was originally the Bonnet Djet, because it was produced by René Bonnet, so there's a definite connection.

[DJ]

Yeah, Len's just leading us along with more DB teasers.

[1,6 HF]

We usually see a D-B or two at the annual Best of France and Italy show out here. In the late '60s, I used to see an ex-Le Mans D-B at Algar Enterprises (about 20 miles due west of Philadelphia). Aside from having the odd race car hanging around, Algar was the US distributor for Lancia (just to bring this back home...) as well as Ferrari and Maserati, so a friend and I used to go there from time to time to gawk at exotica.

[len_newstrum]

Todd's right about French, and I think Brian's pretty close with Panhard, but I do believe that's a Deutsch-Bonnet.

Georgemia, you're about a decade off with a Matra Djet, and that car had disc brakes. But the Djet was originally called the Bonnet Djet, because it was designed by René Bonnet, so there's an indirect connection.Right. It is a 1960 D-B. I posted a some pictures here last year as a mystery car and a couple of people got it right off the bat (maybe with a little cheating because the D-B logo was visible). It used the Panhard running gear. I kick myself at least once a year for not keeping it. It was the best performing car that I've ever owned. I traded it off for a 36' Ketch.:'(

I think, but could be wrong, that when Citroen pulled the plug on Panhard it meant that DB either had to redesign or fold. It folded and Bonnet went it alone for a couple of years, then sold out to Matra.

The original D-B was 850 cc's two-cylinder opposed, front-wheel drive, and fiberglass bodied. It topped out at at 105 mph in street tune where it ran out of revs, not power. The Bonnet Djet looked almost identical from the front and sides, but had a 1.1 liter Renault mid-engine which eliminated the (miniscule) back seat. With the bigger engine, it was 2 mph slower! I've heard that the Panhard engine was based on a BMW motorcycle engine. It was a screamer, putting out 80+ hp from 52 cubic inches--on pushrods, no less.

In 1960 if a D-B showed up at an SCCA race it almost automatically took production class H (they made 200 cars per year). In '61 or '62 SCCA changed the rules from straight displacement to some sillyness about if one marque was winning too much they moved it up. The result was that the D-B ended up as a class H car racing in class F against Porche Normals. It did still win sometimes, but all too often it ended with a blown engine. For LeMan they used a 950 engine with one side-draft Weber on each cylinder. That version peaked out at 140 mph.

I never competed, it was just my daily driver. It got a consistent 45 mpg even when driven hard. I do miss that machine.

Would you believe that I bought it new for $2,137?

If anybody is interested I could post some other pix of D-Bs; none of them mine, though, just examples.

Len

[fay66]

Can we have some pictures please Len.

Brian

[Georgemia]

Todd's right about French, and I think Brian's pretty close with Panhard, but I do believe that's a Deutsch-Bonnet.

Georgemia, you're also fairly close with a Matra Djet, but that car had disc brakes. However, the Djet was originally the Bonnet Djet, because it was produced by René Bonnet, so there's a definite connection.

You're right!

http://lecruchon2.free.fr/1959_Deutsch_Bonnet_HBR/1959_Deutsch-Bonnet_HBR_09.jpg

[len_newstrum]

Can we have some pictures please Len.

Brian
http://s805.photobucket.com/albums/yy338/Len_Newstrum/Deutsch-Bonnet/

As requested! None of these are my car, although the white one looks identical. And none are as beautiful as the one that Georgemia posted.

The most interesting, to me, are the one with the body suspended over Tee configuration big tube chassis and the one that shows the drive train bay.

To pull the engine you raised the hood to vertical and lifted. No bolts. Then you removed 6 nuts on the front of the engine that held the exhaust pipes on, the starter and generator cables, choke and throttle cable, the spark advance/retard cable (there was a lever on the steering column), 2 spark plug wires, and 4 bolts that connected the engine to the gearbox. Then you simply cradled the engine in your arms, pulled it forward, lifted it out, and carried it into the kitchen table for disassembly. With luck you could get it fixed and back out to the car before your wife returned.8) The one time that I did this my former wife returned early.:eek:

BTW. The D-B isn't the only car not normally found in the US that I've owned; MG-ZB Magnette sedan, Taunus 12-M (early German Ford), Sunbeam Alpine for instance. I'm on my second Beta. My first is now my parts car. It has 300,000 miles on it and was still running well when I retired it. (We don't salt our roads.)

Len