Only 100 examples of the Lotus C-01 were built, it was a motorcycle that appeared to come out of nowhere in 2014 when it was announced by German racing team Kodewa (now ByKolles Racing), German motorsport and aerospace company Holzer Group, and acclaimed industrial designer Daniel Simon. The Lotus C-01 looks like no other…
It isn’t common knowledge that Porsche sold a significant number of modified 356 engines to the Americans for use in helicopters, including both the XRON-I Rotorcycle (or YRON-I) and the US Navy’s QH-50 DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter). The horizontally opposed 4-cylinder Porsche engine was perfect for small helicopter use, it’s an air-cooled motor built with…
The Ner-a-Car, known as the Neracar in the United States, was a revolutionary motorcycle design from 1918 that could very well have forever changed the trajectory of motorcycle design and engineering. As it stands today the Ner-a-Car was the most prolifically manufactured motorcycle with hub-center steering right up to the modern day, with over 15,000…
This article was written by the remarkable Daniel Burton, an inspiring young man living with Asperger’s who has spent years carefully designing his own road-legal race car. The design is now ready for testing and final tweaks before being built. If you would like to contact Daniel regarding the Burton Trackster and you think you…
No Ghosts is a somewhat unusually named 1935 film about Chevrolet chassis design. The title of the film makes sense once you’ve seen it, but you have to watch through the first two minutes or so while the scene is set for the rest of the film. 1935 was a time when almost every motor…
This is a brand new, unused Cosworth XG 3.0 litre V8 engine originally developed for the 2004 IRL IndyCar Series. It was nicknamed the “Chevworth” as it was badged as a Chevrolet engine, however it was entirely developed and built by Cosworth. Once assembled and fitted to a suitable car this engine is capable of…
The Martin-Baker Mk 5 ejection seat was developed alongside the Mk 4 in the 1950s as a tougher variant created to meet the specifications laid out by the US Navy. The MK 5 was installed in a wide variety of fighter, combat, and training aircraft including the F-4 Phantom, the F-86D Sabre, the Vought…
This is an original 1948 Tucker engine, the Tucker 48 is undoubtably one of the most famous low-production number cars of the 20th century and it was powered by a re-purposed 5.5 litre helicopter engine. The car was made famous in mainstream society thanks to the film Tucker: The Man and His Dream by…
The Jenvey Heritage DCOE throttle body was developed to evoke the styling of the classic Weber DCOE – the acronym stands for “Doppio Corpo Orizzontale E” which means “double body horizontal” in Italian. The Weber DCOE was fitted to countless high-performance engines over the decades, and they’re one of the most common carburettors for use in…
The Ford 427 ci SOHC “Cammer” V8 engine was nicknamed the “90 Day Wonder” by the team at Ford’s version of Area 51 – the X-Garage. The development timeline of the engine was exceedingly short, the mission brief was to develop a high-revving single overhead cam engine for use in NASCAR to take the…
We still frequently use the term horsepower as the primary indicator of how much power an engine produces, but very few can explain what it actually means and how it was originally calculated. This concise 9 minute short film explains the origins of the term, how it was calculated by James Watt, and why it…
This Dodge 426 Hemi V8 was constructed by the factory back in the late 1960s as a cutaway display engine for the car show circuit. Display engines like this require an enormous amount of work to get right, carefully pre-planned sections need to be expertly cut, milled, and polished in order to expose the internal…
