LightAuto
Greyhounds
The Story of the Light Sports Coupe
The Nineteen Thirties
As I have already stated in the introduction,
the first true lightweight sports coupes were conceived in Germany and
Italy during the nineteen thirties, for the purpose of research and motor
racing, with only the Fiat 508c MM going into series production. The others
were from Italy, the Lancia Aprilia based coupe by Pinin Farina, and Germany
the Volkswagen type 64, developed from the Volkswagen by it’s creator
Professor Porsche. In time this would lead to the Porsche 356, one of the
greatest cars of the class. As I have only limited data on the cars of
this period, I have assumed that by their purpose and form that they conform
to the spirit of the class.
As data is available for most of the post
war cars, I will be more definite with my selection.
The two figures that stand out amongst the
pioneers of automobile aerodynamics are Paul Jarey and Dr Wunibold Kamm.
They both promoted the use of wind tunnels to refine the shape of car bodies
at a time when most cars had the aerodynamics of a brick, they introduced
principles of body design that have had a major bearing on the shape of
cars in use today.History records one big difference in their approach
to the application of aerodynamics to a cars body form, Kamm promoted the
cut off ”Kamm” tail form and Jarey the long tapered form of tail. Practical
and aesthetic considerations have since led to both extremes to being compromised.
It could be envisaged that the lightweight coupe would not have been possible
without their pioneering work, but fortunately their idea’s were followed
up by various engineers of vision and led to the creation of the first
of the type.
The Fiat 508c MM was conceived by Dante
Giacosa, as an aerodynamic coupe development of his newly designed 508c
introduced in 1937 as a means publicising the new model and was the result
of wind tunnel tests carried out on scale models at Turin polytechnic In
basic form the 1089cc engine in the 508c produced 32 bhp, giving it a maximum
speed of 68 mph. In the 508c MM it was tuned to produce 42 bhp and with
the improved aerodynamic form, a maximum speed of 95 mph was attained.The
body shape was based on the principles of Professor Kamm, but was of a
high build due to to the use of an existing chassis, it was constructed
by the Savio Brothers of Turin. The “MM” designation short for Mille Miglia,
was added as a result of a class win in that event in 1938.Another racing
success was another class win in the Tobruk/Tripoli race of 1939. Production
ran from 1938 to 1940, when approximately 400 were built.
Link to data sheet and picturesFiat
508c MM
The Lancia Aprilia Coupe was derived from
the Aprilia saloon the first to feature unitary construction in Europe,
first introduced in 1937. It was light and had superb road holding due
to having Independent suspension on all four wheels very rare at the time,
by sliding pillar at the front as on the Morgan and a transverse leaf spring
and
torsion bars at the rear, this combined with it’s compact o.h.c narrow
V4 engine with an output of 46bhp produced a lively performance for a 1352cc
car with a top speed of 80mph . Fortunately a platform chassis was also
available for specialist coach builders to work on and this was the basis
of the Coupes created by Pinin Farina. Farina was interested in exploring
aerodynamic body forms, and as he was very familiar with Lancia cars chose
the Aprilia for this work. With the body’s following the Jaray principles
of aerodynamics. Farina produced a series of five experimental cars and
then the “Aerodynamic Coupe” model before the beginning of the second world
war caused all such activities to stop.Lancia Aprilia
Coupe
The Volkswagen was designed by the Porsche
design bureau and was developed and ready for production by 1938 and it
was decided to develop a sports version of it to be run in a race from
Berlin to Rome and back to take place in 1939. Three cars were built, named
the Volkswagen type 64, based on the Volkswagen saloon platform chassis
with an aerodynamic sports coupe body designed by Erwin Komenda of
the Porsche design office. The tuned Volkswagen engine produced 40bhp and
that was sufficient to give the car a maximum speed of 91mph, which would
have been used a great deal in the race as it. was to be run the Autobahn
recently built in Germany. The Volkswagen engine was ideal for this as
it was designed to run for long periods on the autobahn a task it fulfilled
with distinction in Volkswagens and the early Porsche coupes after the
war. The race was cancelled due to the outbreak of the second world war,
but Professor Porsche drove one of the cars throughout the war and that
car survived to take part in post war motor sport in the hands of an Austrian
driver. The next time the Porsche design office worked on a sport car it
was a evolution of the type 64 but carried the Porsche name. Volkswagen
type 64
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