Ford Club Coupe 454, 1938

Ford Club Coupe 454, 1938

Ford Club Coupe 454, 1938 

Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 Alfetta, 1938

Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 Alfetta, 1938

The Alfa Romeo 158/159, also known as the Alfetta (Little Alfa in Italian), is one of the most successful racing cars ever produced. The Alfa Romeo 158 and its derivative, the 159, took 47 wins from 54 Grands Prix entered. It was originally developed for the pre-World War II voiturette formula (1937) and has a 1.5 litre straight-8 supercharged engine. Following World War II, the car was eligible for the new Formula One introduced in 1947. In the hands of drivers such as Nino Farina, Juan-Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli, it dominated the first two seasons of the Formula One World Championship.

The first version of this successful racing car, the Alfa Romeo 158, was made during 1937/1938. The main responsibility for engineering was given to Gioacchino Colombo.

The car's name refers to its 1.5 litre engine and eight cylinders. The voiturette class was for racing cars with 1.5 litre engines, standing in the same relation to the top 'Grand Prix' formula (usually for 3 litre engines) as the GP2 series does to Formula One today. Alfa's 3 litre racing cars in 1938 and 1939 were the Tipo 308, 312 and 316.

The Alfa Romeo 158 debuted with the works Alfa Corse team at the Coppa Ciano Junior in August 1938 at Livorno, Italy, where Emilio Villoresi took the car's first victory. At that time the 1479 cc engine produced around 200 bhp (150 kW) at 7000 rpm. with the help of a single-stage Roots blower. More success came at the Coppa Acerbo, Coppa Ciano and Tripoli Grand Prix in May 1940. Soon World War II stopped development of the car for six years. After the war the engine was developed further to push out 254 bhp (189 kW) in 1946.

In 1947, the Alfetta became eligible for the newly-created Formula One. The new rules allowed 1500 cc supercharged and 4500 cc naturally aspirated engines. The Alfa Romeo 158 was modified again, this time to produce over 300 bhp (220 kW) and was denoted as Alfa Romeo Tipo 158/47. The car made a tragic debut in the 1948 Swiss Grand Prix where Achille Varzi lost control of his car and was killed. Another loss for the team came in practice for the 1949 Buenos Aires Grand Prix, where Jean-Pierre Wimille was killed in an accident (driving with Simca-Gordini).

The car won every race in which it competed during 1950; it was incredible that a car which had originated in 1938 was so victorious. The Alfa Romeo team included talented drivers such as Giuseppe Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio, the latter of whom later won the World Drivers' Championship five times.

At the end of the 1950 season, a further updated version known as the Alfa Romeo 159 was produced.

Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Mille Miglia, 1938

Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Mille Miglia, 1938

The Alfa Romeo 6C name was used on road, race and sports cars made between 1925-1954 by Alfa Romeo. 6C refers to a straight 6 engine. Bodies to these cars were made by coachbuilders such as James Young, Zagato, Touring, Castagna, and Pininfarina. Starting from 1933 there was also a 6C version with a factory Alfa body, built in Portello.

The Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 (2309 cc) was designed by Vittorio Jano as a cheaper alternative to the Alfa Romeo 8C.

Buick Yjob Concept, 1938

Buick Yjob Concept, 1938

 

Buick Yjob Concept, 1938

Volks Wagen Beetle, 1938

Volks Wagen Beetle, 1938

 

The Volkswagen Type 1, more commonly known as the Beetle, Fusca, Coccinelle, Vocho, Bug, Volky or Käfer (German), is a compact car, produced by Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003. Although the names "Beetle" and "Bug" were quickly adopted by the public, it was not until August of 1967 that VW began using the name in marketing materials. It had previously been known only as either the "Type I" or as the 1200 (twelve-hundred), 1300 (thirteen-hundred) or 1500 (fifteen-hundred), which had been the names under which the vehicle was marketed in Europe prior to 1967; the numbers denoted the vehicle's engine size in cubic centimetres. In 1998, many years after the original model had been dropped from the lineup in most of the world (it continued in Mexico and a handful of other countries until 2003) VW introduced a "New Beetle" (built on a Volkswagen Golf platform), bearing a strong resemblance to the original.

In the international poll for the award of the world's most influential car of the twentieth century the Beetle came fourth after the Ford Model T, the Mini and the Citroën DS.

"The People's Car"
The origins of the car date back to 1925, when Béla Barényi submitted his concepts to the Maschinenbauanstant Wien. Further influences came from the 1931 Tatra T97, and the 1931 Porsche Typ 12.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler met with Ferdinand Porsche to discuss the development of a "Volks-Wagen" ("People Car"), a basic vehicle that should be capable of transporting two adults and three children at a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph), and which should cost no more than a 990 reichsmark (at an average income of 32RM/week).

Advertisement from ca. 1936 says "Five mark a week you must put aside - If in your own car you want to ride!"

Ferdinand Porsche formulated the original parameters of the Beetle several years before it was commissioned. However its production only became financially viable when it was backed by the Third Reich.

The Type 1's mechanics and chassis were shared with several German military vehicles of the period, including the Kübelwagen ("bucket car", later adapted for civil use as the Type 181 or "Thing"), used by both the German military and the SS, and the amphibious Schwimmwagen, built in small numbers
Ferdinand's career continued on to designing an iconic supercar of the 21st century - Porsche.

The military Beetle
Prototypes of the Kdf-Wagen appeared from 1935 onwards — the first prototypes were produced by Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart, Germany. The car already had its distinctive round shape and its air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. However, the factory had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. Consequently, the first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis were military vehicles, the Jeep-like Kübelwagen Typ 82 (approx. 52,000 built) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen Typ 166 (approx. 14,000 built).

The car was designed to be as simple as possible mechanically, so that there was less to go wrong; the aircooled 985 cc 25 hp (19 kW) motors proved especially effective in actions of the German Afrika Korps in North Africa's desert heat. This was due to the built-in fan-cooling and the superior performance of the flat-four engine configuration. The innovative suspension design used compact torsion beams instead of coil or leaf springs.

A handful of civilian-specific Beetles were produced, primarily for the Nazi elite, in the years 1940–1945, but production figures were small. In response to gasoline shortages, a few wartime "Holzbrenner" Beetles were fueled by wood pyrolysis gas producers under the hood. 

In addition to the Kübelwagen, Schwimmwagen, and a handful of others, the factory managed another wartime vehicle:
the Kommandeurwagen; a Beetle body mounted on the 4WD Kübelwagen chassis. A total of 669 Kommandeurwagens were produced until 1945, when all production was halted due to heavy damage sustained in Allied air raids on the factory. Much of the essential equipment had already been moved to underground bunkers for protection, allowing production to resume quickly once hostilities had ended.

Opel Kadett Roadster, 1938

Opel Kadett Roadster, 1938

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Opel is one of the most tradition-rich brands in the industry. Over so many years, some developments are forgotten along the way and reappear again much later down the road. As the company prepares the start of the 10th compact class generation with the new Opel Astra, pictures of an unfamiliar Opel roadster were discovered in an old data base. Opel classic car experts' research shows that Opel engineers built the prototype of a two-seat convertible in 1938, evidently based on the first Opel compact class generation, the Opel Kadett from the 1930's. The name of the car is noted on the pictures that were found: Opel Kadett Two-Seat "Strolch", which means vagabond.

The chic, charming roadster never made it to series production. The old minutes from a management meeting indicate that this project wasn't pursued due to a scarcity of steel before WWII and to relatively low numbers of units in this segment. But evidently Opel was already well prepared for the market launch, as evidenced by a brochure found in old archive records. Ready for printing, the brochure proudly presented the technical details of the Strolch powertrain: 1.1 liter displacement, 23 hp, three-speed transmission, maximum speed 98 km/h. But prototypes of the roadster were not included.

The Opel classic experts were so fascinated by the 3.62-meter long study that they came up with the idea of producing the Strolch 70 years after its was initially developed. In this way they could also demonstrate that even back during the first compact class generation, Opel engineers put a tremendous amount of imagination and passion into their work on new models.

A normal Opel Kadett from 1938 in the classic car collection that has served as a source for spare parts is to be used as the basis. The technology specialists in the classic team immediately started in on their new project. Particularly challenging were the design of the aerodynamic rear and work on other body parts that were not part of the Opel Kadett series. Building the folding fabric top without detailed plans required a lot of imagination and technical skills, especially because the only reference materials were the old pictures.

But the engineers managed to elicit even some of the old pictures' secrets. In order to determine the color of the old prototype, the historical black-white pictures were put through a precise greyscale analysis. This showed that the original Strolch was a bright red.

Dodge Airflow Tanker Truck, 1938

Dodge Airflow Tanker Truck, 1938

Dodge Airflow Tanker Truck, 1938

Citroen Traction Avant 11B Cabrio, 1938

Citroen Traction Avant 11B Cabrio, 1938

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The Citroën Traction Avant was an automobile produced by the French manufacturer Citroën.

The Traction Avant, designed by André Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni in late 1933 / early 1934, was the first front wheel drive car in large scale production. Cord had built front wheel drive vehicles a few years earlier in limited quantities at high prices.

The car introduced the use of an arc-welded monocoque frame, where other cars of the era were based on a frame onto which the body ("coachwork") was built. Monocoque construction results in a lighter vehicle, and is now used for virtually all car construction, although body-on-frame construction is still suitable for larger vehicles such as trucks.

The method of construction was viewed with great suspicion in many quarters, with doubts about its strength. A type of crash test was developed, taking the form of driving the car off a cliff, to illustrate its great inherent resilience.

The novel design made the car seem very low-slung relative to its contemporaries — the Traction Avant always possessed a unique look, which went from appearing rakish in 1934 to familiar and somewhat old fashioned by 1955.