 Wysłany: Wto 8:15, 05 Gru 2006 Temat postu: But also... |
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A torrent of water passed under the bridge between the in Chery Amulet A torrent of water passed under the bridge bet Chevrolet Corsica een the introduction of the Jaguar XK 120 show car Chevrolet Blazer at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1946 and the Geneva Chevrolet Lumina Auto Show in 1961. For one thing, armed with the potent XK Chevrolet lmpala six-cylinder engine, Jaguar had gone sports car racing in a most Chevrolet Niva uccessful way. With the aerodynamic D-Type, the marque ha Chevrolet Metro won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world's most prestigious ro Chevrolet Caprice d race, three years in a row. Jaguar had transitioned from off Chevrolet Chevi-Van ring the public a competent sports car for the street based on se Chevrolet Spark an mechanicals to building very specialized sports rac Chevrolet Cavalier ng machinery, and then, finding the cost of world-cl Chevrolet Lanos ss competition rising ever-higher, it had pulled bac Chevrolet Camaro from its racing commitments to concentrate again of Chevrolet Viva cars the public could buy. With its emphasis movin Chevrolet Aveo back toward cars for the street, William Lyons, who wou Chevrolet Alero d eventually be knighted for his efforts at Jaguar, lo Chevrolet S-10 ked to infuse his pro duction cars with the flavor of his s Chevrolet Tracker orts racing winners. One of the first attempts at this w Chevrolet Astro s the XK-SS, a thinly disguised D-Type fitted with just enoug Chevrolet Lacetti equipment to make it street legal. Equipped Chevrolet Suburban ith a 3.4-liter version of the XK engine essentially in ra Chevrolet Tahoe e tune, it offered 250 horsepower at 5750 rpm, a staggerin Chevrolet Rezzo figure, particularly in a car so light. Top speed was just Chevrolet Express hort of 145 miles per hour. But on the other side o Chevrolet Evanda the coin, the XK-SS set one back $7,000 1957 dollars, whi Chevrolet Trail Blazer e a fuel-injected Corvette of the same year cost little Chevrolet Avalanche ore than half as much. Further, the Corvette wa Chevrolet Corvette far more civilized an automobile. By 1957 it had roll-up windo Chevrolet SSR s and a decent convertible top, while the XK-S Chevrolet Starcraft was in most ways rudimentary. And because its engin Chrysler Voyager was essentially ready for the track, it proved to be a hand Chrysler New Yorker ul to drive well on public roads. Just getting it Chrysler LHS oving from a standing start was often a frustrating expe Chrysler Grand Voyager ience due to its lack of low-end torque, hair-trigg Chrysler Vision r accelerator and recalcitrant clutch. Fewer than 20 of these li Chrysler Le Baron tle devils had been produced in the early part Chrysler Cirrus of 1957 when a fire raced through the Browns Lane factory where t Chrysler Concorde ey were built. Most of the tooling for the XK-S Chrysler Neon was destroyed, and Lyons, sensing that this car Chrysler Intrepid wasn't what he really wanted anyway, decided not to r Chrysler Stratus sume its production. Those few that remain in exi Chrysler Sebring tence are rare a nd wonderfully quirky cars indeed. Instead of Chrysler PT Cruiser aking the XK-SS path, Lyons set his engineering team abuilding Chrysler Crossfire on two experimental cars that bore the "E" designation. The E1 Chrysler 300M was powered by Jaguar's 2.4-liter six-cylinder engine, basical Chrysler Town y a de-stroked 3.4 liter. For its chassis structure it u Chrysler Pacifica ed a monocoque tub with a space frame carryin Chrysler SRT-6 the engine and front suspension components. The front suspension DAF 400 was, of course, an independent design, but the E1A departe DAF 95-380 XF from the D-Type's model by using an independent rear suspensio DAF 85 360 as well. (For all its racing success, the D-Type had use DAF 95 a fairly mundane live rear axle.) While the E1A Daewoo Nexia as piling up clandestine test miles, Jaguar engineers were Daewoo Damas hard a work on the E2A, which many in their number Daewoo Tico hoped would put Jaguar back in the motor racing spotlight. Wit Daewoo Espero racing rather than volume production in mind, the E2A was Daewoo Leganza n exotic machine for its day. Its powerplant was an alloy Daewoo Prince block version of the XK engine equipped with a racing Daewoo Matiz type dry sump system and mechanical fuel injection Daewoo Lanos With a displacement of just a hair under 3-liters, Daewoo Nubira t offered 293 horsepower at a motorcycle-like 6750 rpm. Daihatsu Rocky Its aluminum envelope body enclosing a monocoque tub and spa Daihatsu Feroza e frame, the E2A would have a somewhat belated and largely Daihatsu Storia nsuccessful career on the racetrack. Though de Daihatsu Applause igned and built in 1957 and 1958, it didn't find its way to Le Ma Daihatsu Pyzar s until 1960 and then as part of Briggs Cunningham's multi-car ef Daihatsu Sirion ort that also involved Corvettes, not with a rejuvenated Jaguar Daihatsu Cuore "factory team." Initially fast, it quit short of Daihatsu Move the halfway mark in the race, and that was pretty much th Daihatsu Terios t as far as international racing was concerned for t Daihatsu YRV e car. While it didn't enjoy the stunning succ Derways ss of its D-Type predecessor, the E2A did set the stag Dodge Caravan for the production E-Type. In fact, Jaguar's breathtakin Dodge Neon new sports car would take most of its architect Dodge Intrepid re from the E2A. Of course, with volume product Dodge Stratus on in mind, Lyons wisely chose steel as the p Dodge Stealth imary body material. The basic tub was a monocoque of Dodge Avenger sheet steel to which were attached steel space f Dodge Ram ames for front suspension and engine and rear suspension Dodge Viper The front suspension borrowed from Jaguar racing pra Dodge Durango tice with torsion bars as the springing medium, t Dodge Magnum bular shocks controlling rebound and forged con Eagle Vision rol arms handling wheel location. The rear suspension was FAW Jinn an all-independent unit so elegantly designed that it beca Ford Fiesta e a model for a wide variety of other suspensions that would Ford Scorpio follow it and even found its way under some of America's m Ford Sierra st beloved hot rods. In the scheme (a version Ford Taurus imilar to which found its way into the 1963 Corvette Sti Ford Escort gray) the differential was mounted to the cha Ford Orion sis sub-frame with in-board disc brakes on each side and Ford Courier then, through universal joints, halfshafts sent p Ford Capri wer to the rear wheels. Ingeniously, the halfshafts themselves Ford Transit represented the upper control link while another, low Ford Aspire r arm and a link that controlled braking and acceleration f Ford Tempo rces completed the simple but effective system. S Ford Mondeo rings and damping was not nearly so simple with dual c Ford Bronco il-spring/tubular shock absorber units on each side, but Ford Econovan they were at least compact and effective. Instead of a Ford Probe exotic alloy racing engine, Lyons decided to stick with the 3.8 Ford Thunderbird liter XK in-line six that was a direct descendent of Ford Crown he original XK engine in the XK 120. With fuel d Ford mercury livered by twin Weber carburetors, the iron block engin Ford Explorer delivered 265 horsepower at 5500 rpm and 260 po Ford Focus nds/feet of torque at 4000 rpm. Despite all this mechanical fa Ford Ka dural the most striking part of the production E-Type was it Ford Aerostar absolutely lascivious body. Try as designers might Ford Puma o top it, the E-Type has the most sensuous lines of any car ever Ford Windstar roduced, and it is many critics' pick as the most beautif Ford Contour l car ever made. Further description is unnecess Ford Mustang ry because the look of the E-Type has become such a Ford Cargo automotive icon that at the mere mention of its name, Ford Ranger the luscious picture comes to mind. The hit of the 1961 Gene Ford Maverick a show, the E-Type was offered as both a convertible Ford Galaxy with an available hardtop) and a coupe, and aut Ford Cougar journalists immediately fell all over themselves pra Ford Fusion sing the car. And for good reason. The independent rear suspens Ford F-150 on provided a huge advance in handling, particularly on Ford Escape ad roads, and in street form the car had true 150 mile-per-ho Ford Tourneo r potential. It was also quick enough as a drag racer Ford Expedition o find itself included in a Jan and Dean hit tune of the era, "D Ford Excursion adman's Curve." In fact, the E-Type was, argu Ford F 350 bly, the car of the decade. With looks, style, pe Freightliner FLC formance and handling, the Jaguar E-Type was everything Freightliner Century a car should be. A lot of water passed through the mi Freightliner Argossy l from the time the Dodge brothers built engine GMC Typhoon for Henry Ford until the Dodge Viper peeked GMC Jimmy ut from under its wraps at the 1989 Detroit auto show. GMC Yukon ver the course of that time the Dodge brothers split wit GMC Envoy Ford to start building cars of their own under Great Wall Deer the imaginative Dodge Brothers name; Dodge Brothe Great Wall Pickup s was acquired by Walter P. Chrysler as he built Great Wall Safe Chrysler Corporation in the image of his former Great Wall Hover employer, General Motors; and Dodge (sans Brothers) went Honda Logo from an icon of performance during the halcyon years o Honda Civic the Sixties to becoming largely irrelevant by the late E Honda Prelude ghties. K-cars and Omnis will do that, no matter h Honda Accord w proud one's history. A rapidly fading brand with a drea Honda Concerto y image were what faced Chrysler Corporation planners as the Honda Inspire considered what they should do for the ' 89 Detroi Honda Partner show, and their response -- a big, brutal two-seat sports car Honda Legend -- stood show attendees, including your author, on their collect Honda Vigor ve ear. Who could have expected such a thing from a nameplate th Honda Domani t seemed to be barely producing a pulse, lot less a vibe? Honda Capa ut the Dodge Viper did emerge from the corporate cau Honda City dron -- somehow -- and it proved there was stil Honda Ascot some life in the old Dodge brand yet. The goal of Honda Odyssey what was referred to as "Team Viper" was a purpose-built pe Honda Integra formance vehicle. Everything else took a backseat to performance Honda S-MX nd, because of that, the Viper had no backseat at a Honda Mobilio l. Like the Shelby Cobra that inspired it, the veh Honda CR-V cle was rough, crude and unsophisticated. |
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