What do you call a Mini when its wearing a Bertone styled
body? The Innocenti Mini. Now you’d be expecting this to be an alternative from
a separate company offering a “modernised” Mini which by 1974 was 15 years old.
But this alternative was effectively offered by British Leyland who built the
Mini at the time and owned the very Italian sounding marque Innocenti.
Today Engine-Cylinder Deactivation transforming fuel hungry V8’s to V4’s when cruising to save fuel, but this
approach is nothing new. Back in the late 70’s with the fuel crisis General
Motors were first to give this a go on a commercial scale. The result was the V8-6-4 which as you can
tell by its name would run on 8,6 or 4 cylinders depending on demand. This new
engine, developed by Eaton Corporation, was rolled out virtually the entire
Cadillac range from 1981.
An overcast Sunday in north Wales walking round a Volkswagen show what
could be better and the Alltypes show has something for everyone from
Aircooled to retro and 90’s to modern. Throw into the mix rat-look, air-ride
and lots of vans what more could you want.
I just love this picture, the way it looks like it could
have been take at the turn of the century as well as the sheer size of that bike. It was
however built as a one off in 1962 using aircraft specification tubing which
held the 2.4ltr, 4 cylinder Chevy Nova engine with its 2 speed automatic
transmission, that ran into a modified Chevy truck differential outback via a
shaft drive. Add to that it was fitted with Corvette disc brakes and 4
hydraulic rams that drop down when it’s parked!!!! To get an idea of its massive
size, its wheelbase is 126 inches and its turning circle 110 feet!!!!! Unbelievably
despite its unwieldy size Bill covered a reported 20,000 miles within a year of
completion.
Right first off we’re classing this as one of the largest
optional extras I suppose you could get, it’s also one of the rarest!!!!
Built as a response to the oil embargo of the early 70’s by
Bob Keyes, from 1974 until 1978, 27 were custom built in Ventura California and
classed as motorcycles. The original ones were powered by Fiat 850 engines which
despite the additional weight would still get 50-65mpg.
666 no not the number of the beast, it stood for 6 cylinders,
6 seats and 6 gears. This was produced
as a prototype in 1947 by French company Mathis and had a few innovative features. One was mentioned in
its name, it came with a 6 speed gear box, which is very modern by todays
standards. The other was that 6 cylinder 2.4ltr engine that was a boxer unit
and mounted up front and drinving the front wheels.
