Disco Volante Deja Vu!

Back in 2011 I wrote about a special group of automotive artisans based in Milano, Italy, who created a striking shooting brake, based on a Bentley Continental GT convertible.


Called the Flying Star, the car was exhibited at the Geneva Auto Salon by Touring Superleggera of Milano.

This contemporary expression of bespoke coachbuilding, the Bentley Flying Star, is from a company which was originally founded back in 1926 by Felice Bianchi Anderloni. The craftsmanship of the Flying Star is exquisite, the finish is exemplary, and embodies all of the special legends about the Italian Carrozzeria, created by the great design houses of Pinifarina, Bertone, Ghia and Ital Design.

Now, borrowing from a great Italian automotive icon circa 1952, Touring Superleggera has created a modern interpretation of the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante - and it is a stunning and superlative design.

Styled by Louis de Fabribeckers, it's based on the platform and mechanicals of the fabulous Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.

Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione

The new Disco Volante (which will only be built in limited numbers to special order) was a huge hit in Geneva this year, 60 years after the original concept also stunned the crowds at the Salon de l’Auto.

Whilst the original concept was built first as an open car, with a coupe added later, the 2013 Disco Volante is a glamorous coupe, with impeccable finish, and attention to detail,
with its front-central mounted 4.7 litre V8 engine and a transaxle rear drive with unmodified specifications.

Each unit, of which the construction requires 4,000 hours of manual work, will be built only on demand.

Many elements were changed from the styling study which was presented in 2012, like a slightly higher bonnet needed for the engine bay ventilation. Still, the original proportions were retained, so these changes will be hardly noticed. The final result is even more dramatic and impressive than the original concept.

The Alfa Romeo 8C’s steel space-frame and other structural elements were retained to guarantee torsional stiffness, high performance, and impressive integrity. The frame members and the central carbon cell remained unchanged. Elements of the underpinning and the body, such as the engine bay and firewall, the windscreen and cowl, the a-pillar and the locks and hinges have been retained too, just as the dashboard and instruments, the pedals and the steering wheel.

Parts like door frames, the roof frame and the c-pillar have been modified to match with the new shape. 

The layout of a front-central mounted engine, a transaxle transmission and rear-wheel drive offers an optimal weight distribution of 49-51% between the front and rear axles. To ensure excellent handling the front and rear double-wishbone suspension scheme is combined with hub carriers of forged aluminium and additional trailing arms for the rear suspension. 

The lightweight and compact 4.7 litre V8 engine delivers 450HP and 480Nm peak torque. It is coupled with a six-speed sequential transaxle gearbox with electronic control and paddle-shift gear selection. Together with a limited-slip differential and a state-of-the-art braking system with large diameter, ventilated discs a precise, dynamic and proactive drive is ensured.

The Disco Volante can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 4,2 seconds and has a top speed of about 290 km/h (181 mph).

Touring Superleggera is synonymous with the manufacture of lightweight bodywork. The weight advantage of aluminium is one of the assets of Touring Superleggera's construction methods. Nowadays however, the craft of hand-beating aluminium panels is combined with the use of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP).

For the Disco Volante, Touring decided to use this combination of aluminium and CFRP. This has been the result of a study conducted to define optimal use of materials for the bodywork in terms of weight, resistance, precision, finish and quality, and ease of repair in case of damage.

The CFRP is used for specific components like the front bumper and grille, the bonnet, the skirts, the boot lid and the integrated rear-window frame. The bonnet and the boot lid are sandwich-built with Nomex filler in-between to obtain a better stiffness/weight ratio and to dampen vibration and noise. 

The aluminium panels are hand-beaten using an epoxy mould. Since the inner frames of most parts of the bodywork are made of CFRP, this requires glueing aluminium to carbon fibre. This technique adds to the rigidity as the adhesive bonding has structural properties. 

The body panels are pre-assembled on a laser measurement platform using a jig. This ensures that the strict tolerance required is maintained. After adjustments, the panels are either welded or glued. The body-in-white is then used to preassemble and fit all trim components, brightware and moulding.

To ensure constant and repeatable quality, the entire production process is documented and digitally logged. Like in series production, there is a quantified manufacturing cycle and a Bill of Materials. Tolerances, measurements and other quality standards are quantified.

I don’t need to include details of the quality control standards, because I’m sure the photographs attest to the excellence of the presentation.

It gives me huge pleasure to report that there is still a kernel of coachbuilding excellence existing in Italy, and that Touring Superleggera maintains traditions based on a historic pursuit of individuality, innovation and most importantly Italian style!

Holy Flying Saucers! It's the Disco Volante

As the cardinals are in conclave in Rome, it seems timely to focus on another notable Italian, made in Milan by a small carrozzeria, called Touring of Milan.

Its automotive artisans took the mechanicals of the 1951 Alfa Romeo 1900 (the first Alfa Romeo to be made on a production line), and fashioned a beautiful, striking and slippery body, and named it the Disco Volante - Italian for 'Flying Saucer'.

Alfa Romeo Disco Volante by Touring of Milan

This car was a dazzling design for its day, and some say it may have been the launching pad for design ideas that Malcolm Sayer included in his epochal Jaguar e-Type!

Original concept car being loaded for the Geneva Salon

The Disco Volante has been re-created, again by the modern company Touring of Milan Superleggera, but that’s another story, direct from this year's Geneva Salon.

The original designs were racing car concepts with mechanics from the Alfa Romeo 1900, the engine was a slightly tuned 1900 engine (1997 cc) now producing 158 bhp (118 kW). The car was very streamlined, wind-tunnel-tested, and the body was built on a tubular space frame. The highly aerodynamic shape made a top speed of 220 kilometres per hour (140 mph) possible.

Alfa Romeo 1900 C competing in the Mille Miglia Re-run

Three different body styles were made: one open seater and two different coupé styles.

Disco Volante Coupe

There was even a 3.5 L version made for Juan Manuel Fangio. None of these automobiles ever attained the status of truly successful racing cars although they were tried a few times, with one victory having been taken at the Gran Premio Supercortemaggiore.

The unique 3.5-liter car is preserved in the Museo Nazionale dell’Automotbile in Turin. Two 2.0-liter prototypes are preserved in the Alfa Romeo museum in Arese, and are regularly used in classic car races. Estimated value of each is between 1 and 2 million Euros.

(Source: Wikipedia)

In 2010 one of the open cars was shipped to the USA to be displayed (along with a number of Alfa Romeo classics) at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, again to celebrate Alfa Romeo’s centenary.

Disco Volante at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'E;egance

The original design highlights the appeal of the magic name of Alfa Romeo, which enjoyed great success in Grands Prix with its Tipo 158 and 159 Alfetta monopostos.

Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 Alfetta

As for Part Two of this story, it's in a forthcoming post!

How The Americans Saved Jaguar

Anyone connected with a ‘Brand’ knows that retaining customers and growing sales from that base is much more cost-effective than trying to get conquest sales, but customer retention methods vary.

Most methods could be described as a bribe really, either in the form of a cash bonus, a discount or buy one, get one free.

In the early 90s Jaguar Cars in the USA faced a serious problem. Its customer retention rate fell as low as 27%, reflecting its reputation for poor quality cars. Jaguar dealers really only sold cars two ways - cash, or hire purchase, and once customers came to grips with the reality of poor quality they were usually lost to the brand.

Jaguar’s owner, Ford Motor Company, appointed Jim Padilla, one of its top engineers and quality control experts as Chief Engineer. He worked a form of magic to ‘design-in’ better components, and reverse the line workers attitude to quality. His efforts effected massive quality improvements in just two years.

Despite vastly improved cars, Jaguar’s reputation remained tarnished, and although the public relations programs were aimed at getting the word out, it was clearly going to take a long time before the ‘new and improved’ image penetrated the phobia most potential buyers suffered from.

Jaguar got great press, and the media acknowledged the cars were clearly much improved. Even Jaguar dealers, who were as critical as the customers were impressed. But, Jaguar needed something extra to bring in the buyers, and more importantly, retain them as loyal owners.

Ford operated a very successful leasing program, called ‘Red Carpet Leasing’ and Jaguar decided that leasing could not only increase sales, but may also lead to stronger customer retention.

Just two years into the leasing program the signs were good. Jaguar’s rating in the influential J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) shot up near the top, and dealers told the company that the customers regularly reported their satisfaction with the quality of the cars.

Sales rates also climbed as a result of the new leasing program, and thanks to an innovative way of dealing with cars at the end of the lease contract, it looked like all the factors which improve the residual (or retained) value of off-lease cars were pointed in the right direction.

Jaguar had taken the decision that as cars were returned at the end of the lease contract, rather than let them be sold on the open used car market (where there would be no control over prices), it would take in all the cars, and after a very exhaustive mechanical check, would auction them only to Jaguar dealers, via one of America’s most respected auction companies.

This way the best ‘used’ Jaguars were only available through its dealer network. This had two benefits - first, it helped maintain good prices (retained value), but more importantly the second benefit was that it made ‘cheaper’ Jaguars available to a new class of buyer - people who always lusted after a Jaguar, but couldn’t afford a new model.

All America's Jaguar dealers sang with one voice: "It was the leasing program which helped Jaguar turn the corner in its biggest and most important market". 

Keeping in mind that most lease contracts were for 36 months, after just six years Jaguar’s customer retention rate had soared to more than 65%.

So, Jaguar’s method of building a stronger customer base wasn’t a bribe, because it was quite a complex and expensive gamble involving a new way of getting people to consider a sort of ‘try before you buy’ scheme, and let them experience Jaguar’s improved quality. It was also much easier for the dealers to replace an off-lease car at the end of the lease contract with a new model - and that’s when the customer retention rate ratcheted up and confirmed the success of the program.

Concurrent with the lease program Jaguar took an even riskier retailing gamble, by offering a 30 day money back guarantee to any buyers who paid cash, or took the car on hire purchase! Auto industry experts in America thought it was crazy! Given Jaguar’s poor reputation for quality, this was sure to lead to hundreds of cars being returned!

In reality, for the duration of the year-long program, Jaguar only repurchased less than two dozen cars. Some of course, were frivolous returns, from buyers testing the scheme, but there we some genuine cases. However, that program, helped convince potential customers that Jaguar must have truly gotten on top of the quality issues.

All of which goes to prove that if you want to get really serious about retaining customers it’s going to cost time, money and genuine effort, to bring about change. Remember, you get nothing for nothing!

Oh, lastly. Sales? From a nadir of 9,651 in 1991, along to 1996 when Jaguar was selling close to 22,000 cars a year to Americans.

BMW's Numbers Game - 60 from 1

Over my years of car testing I’ve driven lots of BMWs and always enjoyed them. Back in the 70s, in Munich, I got a lecture from the then PR Chief about how BMWs were drivers’ cars and that the design and engineering principles were inviolate.

 

As far as I’m concerned BMW has religiously stuck to its brief, but at this year’s Geneva Salon BMW will break a covenant – front wheel drive models from the company that prides itself on producing only rear wheel drive cars!

 

While the new 1-Series (below) features a twin-turbocharged diesel engine that delivers 60 mpg (4.4 l/100km), I believe we will see the first production FWD cars, which evolved from the Active Tourer Concept design model shown at the Paris Salon last year.

 

BMW enthusiasts should not be the slightest bit concerned about this shift – if this company can produce a great car like the Mini, then a FWD BMW should be a doddle.

 

Looking back to BMWs I’ve driven recently, it is the diesels I have most admired.

Sure, I truly enjoyed a petrol-powered M3 coupe, which was launched to the media in Port Macquarie, and a fantastic drive up through the Great Dividing Range, along the Oxley Highway to Walcha – then back down the mountain to a fabulous dinner, replete with great driving stories recalled from the day’s drive.

 

However, I think the BMW X3 2.0D, the 520D and the 730D are the cars that I’ve really enjoyed – not only for their driving pleasure, but the delivery of a great experience from a diesel powerplant.

 

I drove the X3 SUV around the Mount Macedon region, just outside Melbourne – and I came away thinking: “Why would you want a bigger, more powerful SUV?” This practical off-roader has loads of room, compact dimensions, and terrific performance.

 

Then I drove the 520D along what is called the ‘Burke & Wills Track’ and marvelled at how a 2-litre diesel had been fitted to a (relatively) big car, and how the performance hardly seemed to suffer – certainly not by my subjective judgement! It’s a great highway cruiser.

 

A spin on the Queensland Gold Coast’s mountainous Hinterland roads in a 730d showed that even the biggest of BMW’s models had been enhanced by a torquey, quiet, and fuel-efficient oil-burner.

If the Active Tourer Concept (below) comes to market looking like it did in Paris, I think BMW will have another winner on its hands. Front-Wheel-Drive? No worries.

 

 

BMW has stuck to its principles and despite the fact that (in size) it’s a minnow, compared to Daimler-Benz and Volkswagen Group, I think that as long as we are able to enjoy driving great cars, we will love the fact that BMW continues to adhere to the principle of the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’.

Matthew's the Man!

Is there no limit to the talent streaming through the Brabham family? Recently, I had lunch with Matthew Brabham, son of Geoff and grandson of the great Sir Jack Brabham. This wasn’t any old lunch meeting, our group was recognizing Matthew for an outstanding racing season in 2012, in which he performed very well in the UK in Formula Renault, but the icing on the cake was winning the U.S. Formula 2000 championship.

Matthew finished 8th in the final race, to clinch the title, and as the 'Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda'  is part of the ladder system leading to Indycars, he won USD$375,000 towards his 2013 season.

Only 18 years of age, but displaying maturity beyond his years, Matthew was delightful to talk to. He’s level-headed, a no BS sort of guy and appears to possess the trademark Brabham determination.

He was sitting alongside his famous grandfather at lunch, and whilst talking with Jack I could tell that he’s immensely proud of Matthew’s results.

“He’s a good kid, with a ton of talent, but a great personality.” said Jack.

Grandad is right. Matthew is straight-up, and whilst he does nothing to ignore his family lineage, he certainly doesn’t appear to trade on it in the hotly-competitive racing world in which he operates. He’s enormously pragmatic about his potential, his talent and his future.

Matthew said: “I don’t have any fancy ideas about being at the front of the pack, because I’m from the Brabham family. You only get to the front if you’re good enough, and determined enough.” I can see from this brief meeting, he’s all of that and more.

Expect to see this bright, young Brabham on the top step on more and more podiums in the immediate future.

Surfers Paradise 1966

It was good to catch up with Jack, whom I first met in 1966 at the very first race meeting held at Keith William’s Surfers Paradise racetrack.


He was friendly, and open and our interview was not just a thrill, but a pleasure. After we finished, one of his mates from Repco said: "The reason he opened up, was because he recognized you knew your stuff." Nothing's changed with Jack.

Although today his hearing problems make lengthy conversation difficult, I’ve learned over the years that concise, intelligent questions always get a straight answer.

I’m amazed at how well he looks, given that he’s on dialysis three days week, but I’m so proud to be able to say we’re friends. We reminisced about a meeting we had in Sydney in  1997 when the editor of the Honda Australia Owners’ magazine commissioned me to write the story of Brabham’s tilt at Formula Two in 1967.

Sydney 1997 - photo courtesy of Lady Margaret Brabham

I have to thank my good friend, Grahame Ward, for inviting me along to the lunch to meet Jack and Matthew. And, I’d also like to thank my old mate Max Stahl for taking the memorable photos of me with the two Brabhams. Thanks guys.

Been a Bit Quiet Round Here, Right?

That’s because Driving&Life has been on vacation (again?), and indulging in the pleasures of a cruise around the South American continent - starting from Valparaiso in Chile, passing Glacier Alley, around Cape Horn and finishing in Rio de Janeiro.

Cruising along Glacier Alley

What‘s always fascinating of course are the cars you see and the way the markets segment. What was really interesting (after visiting many cities in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil) was the almost total lack of visibility on the road of any form of luxury car!

I did find one to photograph, a matte finish Mercedes coupe! Shortly after I took the photograph, the owner rushed out from his Ipanema apartment, and moved it down to his locked, security garage under the building!

Of course most big South American cities have extensive, popular, cheap and accessible public transport. Buses are well subscribed and there’s lots of them, and they’re air-conditioned. Taxis are plentiful and cheap, but the drivers are basically rogues-in-disguise.

So the basic recipe for a private car in South America is a small-medium five door hatch, probably made by Volkswagen or Fiat, with lots of Renaults in Argentina. Of course Ford and GM are well-represented with oval or bowtie-badged models which emanated from somewhere in the Ford/GM global model program.

Volkswagen Gol

Volkswagen is a very interesting study. For many years, after it set up one of its most successful global operations, Volkswagen do Brasil, it built cars solely for South American consumption based on unique platforms, and sometimes even with engines shared with Joint-Venture partners like Ford.

Volkswagen Fox

Model names like Fox and Gol were cars unique to South America, and only recently have those variants been brought into the global family of platforms. However after all this talk about models based on various platforms you must not forget that there’s still a lot of old cars on the road in this huge continent. A couple of examples stood out.

In Montevideo, Uruguay there was an effort to maintain a very old Opel. 

In Buenos Aires I spotted a very well-worn Renault 12.

A very common sight among the taxi fleets is Renault's low cost production car, the Logan, It's very popular, but when you get up close, it's a pretty small car.

Renault Logan

Traffic Light Grands Prix is still a popular sport, but then these  are Latin countries with supercharged testosterone added to the fuel mix.

Traffic jams are just as common in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro as they are anywhere else, but on the day we arrived in Rio a spectacular accident at 3pm had completely blocked the three lanes from downtown Rio to the beach suburbs at Copacabana and Ipanema. A 13 km stretch, with no chance to divert!

Of course in Rio, in highly Catholicised Brazil, the statue of Christ the Redeemer watches over everyone from Corcovado, so I was hoping a little religious surveillance might have helped resolve the traffic issues. Not so, it still took two hours to travel from the main port to Ipanema.

I guess one of the biggest highlights for me was a real surprise, in Buenos Aires. At the end of a city tour the tour bus drove quickly past a bronze statue in a city park, before dropping us near an excellent Argentinian BBQ restaurant. After lunch I walked back to the park to find it was a fantastic bronze of Juan Manuel Fangio and a Mercedes W196, just opposite BA’s main Mercedes-Benz dealer.

My wife asked me; “If Buenos Aires can do this for JMF, why can’t London do the same for Sir Stirling Moss?” I decided to write to Boris Johnson on my return home and suggest that very idea.

The real reason I was keen to visit South America, was the final stop in Rio de Janeiro. For me, its special value is the Home of Bossa Nova music, my all time favourite jazz genre. I grew up on a diet of Tom Jobim's seductive rhythmns which of course began with The Girl From Ipanema.

Garota de Ipanema

As it turned out we dined in the restaurant named for the song, Garota de Ipanema, presumably where composers (Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes) watched the inspiration for the song, passing by each day.

Vinicius Piano Bar, Ipanema

After dinner we walked to the opposite corner to the Vinicius Piano Bar, a well-known hangout for fans of Bossa Nova.

Toni Barreto

We were lucky to catch local star Toni Barreto perform a string of Bossa Nova standards as well as some his own songs. What a great way to end the night!

Helo Pinheiro circa 1961

The girl of Ipanema is a real person, and today, still a stunner. Her name is Helo Pinheiro, and the much-publicised shot of her emerging from the surf was taken around 1961.

Today, she's a  beautiful, cultured ambassador for Ipanema, and her daughter, Ticiane, is working as a model. She's found the right niche! Right!

Helo & Ticiane Pinheiro

The beach at Ipanema was everything I expected it to be. The sand is soft, white powder (just like Queensland's Gold Coast beaches); it's long, broad and washed by seabreezes - however the locals tell me it's only warm enough to swim between February and April, due to the cold current which sweeps down the Brazilian coast from the middle of the Atlantic!

Ipanema Beach late Friday afternoon

Ipanema Beach on Sayurday morning

South America was interesting, fascinating and humbling because of its size, populations and cultural conflicts. Let’s not forget that the expeditions to this continent by the Spanish and Portuguese were some of the most violent and punitive colonial conquests in human history.

In addition the area was the beginning of the slave trade from Africa, so this mix of Africans, local native tribes and Europeans has truly compounded the cultural chaos that exists today. However, at a casual glance the South Americans seem to handle this diversity much better than the North Americans - where racial unrest still exists today, not far below the surface!

In a broad sense, when we look back at the era of discovery and conquest (1492-1572), there’s not a lot to be proud of, especially in how native peoples were treated. However, this is what we’ve ended up with and the people of these South American countries are making the best of their lot.

They’re great food producers and manufacturing centres, and of course they are now among the biggest producers of raw materials for the giant Chinese economy. In a sense, coping with that success, and how it translates to its people is the biggest challenge ahead.

Despite many years of poltical stability in Chile, Uruguay and Brazil, there is still trouble bubbling just under the surface in Argentinia - and that could blow, any time!

On an optimistic note, what you need to find in any city you visit is a positive, optimistic, happy and friendly guy like our cab driver in Rio, Heinrich. On our way to the hotel from the Port, he humbly suggested he could take us on a full guided tour of Rio and environs next day for a very modest sum.

Sugar Loaf, Tijuca Rainforest and Favelas (shanties)

What a day! We took in Corcovado, Sugar Loaf, Tijuca rainforest, Jardim Botanico and some real hidden spots in the city. It was worth every Brazilian Real we paid. Not only did we see stuff, with a local, but also a friendly and charming man who was very proud of his city.

Obrigado, Heinirich!