It all started with the Palace Revolt of 1961, a monumental event in the history of Ferrari, in which Maranello’s gifted Head of Design Giotto Bizzarrini was forced out of the company, along with brilliant Technical Director Carlo Chiti, proven Scuderia Manager Romolo Tavoni, and several other important figures. Their crime, as Enzo saw it, was protesting the firing of Sales Manager Girolamo Gardini, whom himself had given Il Commendatore a bold ultimatum–either Ferrari’s equally imperious wife Laura leave Gardini and his factory coworkers to labor in peace, or forfeit retaining their services. Then, much as now, Maranello followed a rigid, top-down hierarchy, and hugely valuable or not, no employee could be allowed to question The King.
Free to offer his services on the open market, Bizzarrini went to work designing Lamborghini’s long-serving V12, the stunning but stillborn ATS 2500GT, the Iso Rivolta, Iso Grifo, and finally under his own name, the 5300 GT, which in connection with the closely-related Grifo, made for some of the most beautiful, exotic, and downright brutal sports and racing cars ever seen–as Giotto himself is said to have put it, “I started with the idea of the 250 GTO and set about trying to improve on it.”
Without delving too much into the incredible complexities of Iso/Bizzarrini model cross-pollination and nomenclature, the Iso Grifo and Bizzarrini 5300 were both based on the Iso Rivolta, a luxurious GT car engineered for wealthy Milan industrialist Renzo Rivolta. This meant welded sheet steel semi-monocoque chassis under a tubular, body-supporting space frame, with suspension consisting of double wishbones in front and a de Dion rear end, itself located by twin radius rods and a Watts linkage.
Brakes were four-wheel discs concealed by cast-magnesium 15″ wheels measuring seven inches wide in front and nine in the rear, while steering was by recirculating ball. Of the ~115 made, a minority were bodied in aluminum, with panels secured to the chassis using no fewer than 7,000 hand-driven rivets.
Said bodywork, whether made of steel, fiberglass, or aluminum, was the artful work of a young Giorgetto Giugiaro working under Bertone, and to us remains one of the most distinct and attractive shapes ever put on four wheels.
Bizzarrini’s choice of engine was unquestionably designed to save time and money, but contrary to how most cost-cutting measures work, the real motivation behind this move was to spend the resultant savings where they’d really count.
Besides, the Chevy 327 was a proven motor, having established itself as a hugely durable, tunable engine in countless production cars, though most visibly as the motivating force behind Corvettes both on the street and on the track. Compared to the complex, race-bred OHC and DOHC units Bizzarrini was normally involved with, the SBC was similarly compact and powerful, albeit much less demanding in terms of maintenance and tuning.
Producing a thundering, bassy rumble rather than a crescendo of thrashing chains, gears, and combustion cycles, the 5.4 liter V8 sounded very different from the traditional Italian V12 as well, but no less dramatic or inspiring.
Available with a single four-barrel or a quarter of dual-choke Webers as seen here, the 327 made at least 365 HP and usually retained scripted Corvette rocker covers. For ideal weight distribution, the engine was placed so far back in the chassis that distributor access was restricted to a small door atop the dashboard. This also forced heavily offset pedals and made for a very hot cabin, but there’s no arguing the results.
These included a claimed 180 MPH top speed, though in reality it was probably somewhere in between 165-170. Zero to 60 MPH took around five seconds. Handling and roadholding were roundly praised, helping an early, Iso A3/C-badged car clinch 14th outright and 4th in class at Le Mans in 1964, as well as 19th at the Nurburgring 1000km that same year. Things were off to a rocky start for 1965, with two cars destroyed in accidents at Sebring and Daytona, though a class win (GT, >5000cc) at Le Mans and 5th outright at the Monza 1000km were bright spots.
That same Le Mans-winning car is the star of one of our favorite Jay Leno’s Garage videos. Clear yourself 25 minutes and check it out.
Though the A3C/5300 was ultimately rather conventional under sinuous, flowing bodywork, it was its inspired mix of off-the-shelf and newly engineered components and the degree to which these parts were refined that made the car so technically interesting. With proper, Ferrari-level funding for development the platform would have almost certainly been a world-beater, though somehow the its troubled history only adds to its mystique.
The Rolls‑Royce Cullinan is here to redefine super luxury travel
Family-orientated and fun to drive, with fold-down rear seats and a huge hatchback boot, yes welcome folks to the new… Rolls-Royce. Goodwood born and bred, the “best car in the world” today (May 10th) joins the SUV crowd with the unveiling of the Cullinan.
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Cullinan officially named – the jewel in RR's crown?
SUV? Or high-sided all-terrain vehicle as we had been encouraged to call it? Rolls-Royce seems to have overcome its coyness about the S acronym: SUV appears no fewer than 13 times in the 6500-word press information. It still doesn’t mean the Cullinan – with its promise of “taking the world in its stride” and “redefining the parameters of super-luxury travel” – is much like your typical sports utility vehicle.
So what is this new gold standard of off-road adventuring like exactly? Well, it’s the largest, biggest-engined and will undoubtedly be the most expensive production SUV the world has ever seen. This really is the Phantom of 4x4s. No surprises there then.
What is more fascinating is how Rolls-Royce has reconciled super-luxury and utility. Can one car really offer an authentic Rolls-Royce experience while doing all those SUV things – accommodating kids, dogs and sports equipment, driving across muddy fields, yes maybe even swallowing up Ikea flat-pack furniture – that people find so useful about SUVs? The answer is: the Cullinan can, and it’s thanks to plenty of old Henry Royce’s “take the best that exists and make it better” ingenuity.
Take Cullinan’s rear-end, for example, design-wise the thing that people are probably going to latch on to more than anything else. It was always going to be interesting to see how design director Giles Taylor and his team resolved the need for a lift-up tailgate with something approaching recognisable Rolls-Royce proportions. A tailgate is not a very Rolls-Royce thing, after all, and something no Rolls has ever had before. The solution is what the R-R designers claim is the first-ever three-box (ie, bonnet, cabin, boot) car in the SUV sector.
The abbreviated nature of its back end is perhaps more “bustle” than boot, but we see what they mean. Rolls, in fact, likens the design to the ‘D-Back’ Rolls-Royces of the 1930s that carried luggage on a shelf outside the car. Certainly, the vast rear door when lifted (electrically) provides the perfect sheltered spot for the event seating – complete with drinks tray – which slides into position (also electrically).
Hatchbacks though come with plebeian drawbacks, so how will Cullinan occupants be isolated from noise, draughts and the smell of a wet dog? Now this is clever. Instead of a typical movable shelf between cabin and boot the Cullinan has an insulated glass partition. It seals the cabin in sumptuous luxury – no dog pongs here – while at the same time allowing the rear seats to fold down (another R-R first) for a maximum boot length when needed of 2,245mm. That’s longer than the boot in a Mercedes E-Class estate and, in the unlikely event owners need to know, is plenty long enough for that visit to Ikea.
If all this is pointing to something it is this: the company chairman might go to work in a chauffeur-driven Phantom but he will have a Cullinan at home to drive himself and his family around in at weekends. As well as being the most versatile Rolls-Royce ever it is also, says the firm, “family orientated and fun to drive”.
“Our customers do not accept limitations or compromises in their lives and how they live them,” adds Giles Taylor. “It’s not just a case of travelling around the country estate and then on to the townhouse or doing it at the fastest speed possible. Our customers are the new pioneers, and for them it’s about their sense of adventure and daring in how they live their experiences.”
Those experiences, of course, can be as much off-road as on. Rolls-Royces are no strangers to gruelling off-road adventures – they have survived all kinds of reliability trials and wartime adventures going back to the Silver Ghost. But they have come through more because of their inherent engineering integrity than any off-road design prowess. The Cullinan decisively changes that. It is the first-ever Rolls with all-wheel drive and it comes with self-levelling air suspension, beefed-up running gear – yes, even skid plates back and front.
How much of an off-roader is it? Here’s Giles Taylor again: “The label SUV is now applied to anything with a two-box silhouette and the least suggestion of going off tarmac. We envisioned an all-terrain car with a convention-challenging design and absolute capability that would satisfy the adventurous urges of our clients.”
So the suggestion is it’s not going to be afraid to get up to its axles in mud. There is adjustable ride height and hill descent control, but there are no low-range gears or locking diffs. Just one button, dubbed by the engineers as the “Everywhere” button, marshals all the control systems to effect the best progress over whatever the terrain happens to be. Including water. With a wading depth of 540mm Rolls says it is the best swimmer of any of the super-luxury SUV breed (but just to keep things in perspective here, a Range Rover SVA has a wading depth of 900mm).
One very Rolls feature is the coach doors which wrap a little way under the car. The reason? So you don’t get covered in muck when getting in or out. Rolls-Royce puts it rather more elegantly: “Although the Cullinan will have traversed terrain that will have besmirched its exterior with mud, slush or dust, no trouser leg will be dirtied on exit.” That’s a relief then.
In all other ways, the Cullinan offers the expected heady cocktail of unmistakable Rolls-Royce design cues, finely-crafted interior, and engineering excellence. True, seeing the familiar Pantheon grille juxtaposed to a protective skid plate is a novelty, but there could never be any mistaking what this car is; design chief Taylor says it has the commanding stance and toughness of a Saxon warrior.
The Cullinan is also big: higher but shorter than the new Phantom with which it shares its bespoke all-aluminium spaceframe construction. There’s no shared platform here. The Cullinan is 140mm longer than the longest Range Rover and at full height is 1836mm tall on its 22-inch wheels. For its size and all its luxury, there’s no shame in its 2,660 kg kerb weight.
Like the Phantom, the Cullinan is powered by the firm’s twin-turbo V12 but in reworked 6.75-litre form which purrs out the same power as the Phantom, 563bhp, but with more torque: 627lbft from just 1600rpm. Transmission is a ZF eight-speed automatic. There are no performance figures as yet, apart from a quoted top speed of 155mph.
And inside? It is sumptuously appointed with the finest materials, as expected, but the huge interior space is also notable for its completely flat floor which with the wide-opening coach doors should make entry and exit easy. Press a button to open a door (they are all powered) and the car automatically drops down 40mm to make entry easier still.
Those who want unbridled luxury, complete with drinks cabinet and champagne chiller in the back, will go for the individual seats interior option. You get a pair of expansive and electrically adjustable chairs in the back. More practical types, and certainly budding Ikea shoppers, will tick the 'Lounge Seats' box which provides a three-person bench seat in the back with two-thirds/one-third split fold-down backrests. All push button of course.
So that, at this early stage at least, is what we know about this first new diamond in the rough from Goodwood. For Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief executive officer Torsten Müller-Ötvös the Cullinan is Rolls-Royce’s answer for the “visionaries, adventurers, explorers and those who believe in the supremacy of liberty.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös adds: “Cullinan dramatically evolves the parameters of super-luxury travel, translating Rolls-Royce’s ethos of ‘Effortlessness’ into physical capability, anywhere in the world. Cullinan will simply take the world in its stride.”
Show and competition time:
In Europe the big Historic race festivals combined with car shows and auctions are in full swing, with very competitive racing and full starting grids, in the USA it is about the same but in that part of the world it is more show than go!! and here in Canada there is some Historic racing but general on a low level it seems that we are more interested in the static car shows, however there are some very interesting "alternative shows" even in our province.
The Ford model T race series, yes you read this correct..
Mark your calender July 28 Bruderheim will a Ford model T race weekend, combined with car and bike show, all presented in period style, last year was the their first show in Bruderheim and it was very refreshing to see, the set up is more or less the same as our own very successful day at the track event.
But wait there is more..... We have in Canada a very special event the Targa Newfounland there are only three of these events in the world, the original one on the island of Sicily.
Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1973. While the first races consisted of a whole tour of the island, the track length in the race's last decades was limited to the 72 kilometres (45 mi) of the Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie, which was lapped 11 times.
After 1973, it was a national sports car event until it was discontinued in 1977 due to safety concerns.
Since 1992 the event has lent its name to a modern recreation, staged half-a-world away in the form of the famous road rally Targa Tasmania held on the island state of Tasmania, off the Southern coast of Australia, there are also the Targa New Zealand since 1995 and the Targa Newfoundland since 2002.
We will focus our attention on the last one this coming months.
2018 Important Dates
Targa 2018 is scheduled for September 13th through the 22nd. The event will be based out of St. John’s, with other overnight locations in Torbay, Clarenville, and Conception Bay North. A two-day optional Motorsports School is scheduled for September 13th and 14th in Flatrock, which is about 15 minutes outside of St. John’s. They also have a Awards Gala on September 22nd.
Targa Newfoundland is the first and only tarmac rally of its kind to be held in North America!
With 2018 being their 17th annual event, every aspect of this high end automotive adventure just keeps getting better! As motorsports enthusiasts, we know that limits were made to be pushed and cars were designed to be driven. It’s about the drive!
It is a 1,600 kilometre course with scenery and competition we know you won’t find anywhere else in Canada.
Competitive sections are held on roads closed to the general public and comprise approximately 30% of the total course.
There are four distinct ways to participate:
- Targa Division which includes Classic, Modern, and Open classes. Fully prepared race vehicles, roll cages, safety equipment, and powerful engines compete to see who sets the fast times.
- Grand Touring Division is a time-speed-distance style competition for vehicles not prepped for racing. This division permits integrated distance, time and speed computing aids.
- Fast Tour Division is not a competition. It is a tour within Targa that is designed to allow car owners to drive them the way they were built to be driven, within the limits prescribed by the event, but without the stress of competition.
- Quick Tour Division is a part of Fast Tour, but does not require you to be involved in the event for the full week. A minimum of one day or maximum of three days will get you to experience what it is like to participate in Targa without having to be here for the full event.