Author Topic: Second puzzle from Pieter - Solved! Bizzarrini 500 Coupé  (Read 2137 times)

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Offline pieter

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Second puzzle from Pieter - Solved! Bizzarrini 500 Coupé
« on: March 13, 2007, 03:10:24 AM »
What is it? (Maybe not what it seems)
« Last Edit: July 20, 2020, 02:31:00 PM by Carnut »

Offline Otto Puzzell

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2007, 04:43:48 AM »
Tiny!
You wanna be the man, you gotta Name That Car!

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2007, 04:21:09 AM »
Was this maybe more an expert level puzzle? Before we move it over, I'll give another view of the car
« Last Edit: July 20, 2020, 02:32:17 PM by Carnut »

Offline Ultra

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2007, 03:15:43 PM »
Monte Carlo Rally?
“Honi soit qui mal y pense”


Click the pic....... Name the car

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2007, 02:46:42 AM »
Don't know, but it appears on the Mille Miglia modern day rerun list of participants; my guess is that that is where the pics come from.

Offline grantgray

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2007, 03:13:29 AM »
Is it French or Italian?

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2007, 03:29:12 AM »
Yes. :lmao:






OK, rather than the usual exchange of words with a double question; French? Non. Italian? Si.

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2007, 09:18:52 AM »
Okay, another clue: It was built as a university project by someone who would eventually build exotics in relatively small numbers

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2007, 03:13:50 AM »
Karn, should we move it to the expert section?

Offline GRAYWOLF

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2007, 10:33:35 AM »
Is the grill a clue, or is it borrowed from a production car? That grill looks like a production grill I came across in my searching, but I can't remember what it was.
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun."-Patrick Henry

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2007, 10:37:59 AM »
The grille owes nothing to the car it was based on

Offline grobmotorix

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2007, 01:24:13 PM »
I found another pic of exactely the same car on my hard disc drive.

 I´ve filed it in the Osca section, but I´m really not sure as I´ve got no more information.

The pic shows the front end very detailed and there is no badges or other hints at all.

I think it could be a frech Gordini
« Last Edit: March 21, 2007, 02:15:15 PM by grobmotorix »

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2007, 03:00:44 AM »
See a few posts up - it is not French

Offline SeaLion

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2007, 10:15:59 PM »
It is the Bizzarrini 500 Coupé from 1952, a Mille Miglia special.

Offline grobmotorix

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #14 on: March 24, 2007, 06:05:22 AM »
Fine little car. I was really interested in this so I´ve tried to find out more. Here are my webfinds:

"1952 Bizzarrini 500 'Macchinetta'
Colour pale blue. Engine : 4 cilinder with 2 motorcycle DellOrto carburettors.
Displacement : 569 cc. Max Speed : 155 km/h.
Chassis/Body : Tubular space frame/Belinetta-Coupé.
Virtualy the first car built by Bizzarrini.
Based on Fiat 500. Originaly rebuilt in the 40's as barchetta with Fiat 500 Topolino engine with SIATA head. Restored in 1992 by Fausto Manara, Brescia, Italy (current owner). The car was entered in six Historical Mille Miglia"

"Originaly built in the 40s as barchetta with Fiat 500 Topolino engine with SIATA head.
Bought by University of Pisa student Giotto Bizzarrini.
Bizzarrini was obsessed with Ferrari sport cars so he used his own car to develope his ideas.
He mounted the engine far back in a tubular space frame chassis.
He also fit a early fuel pneumatic injection to the motorcycle DellOrto carbs.
Bizzarrini remember this car as fast as the Alfa Romeo 1900 berlina when he was working for Alfa Romeo, during tests.
Legend talk about Mr.
Enzo Ferrari surprise when he saw the car: If this man is able to built and drive that thing, Im sure he is suitable to enter Ferrari.
Fausto Manara, claims this car as the first Giotto Bizzarrini creation in 1952, so the car is eligibile for events like Mille Miglia.
This unique car is being to be sold with two engines (the first original and another that belongs to the history of the car)."

Does anyone have more photos or links regarding the "Macchinetta"?


Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #15 on: March 26, 2007, 02:27:44 AM »
Correct!

This is where I found it: http://www.linkremoved.com , where they say the following:

Bizzarrini 500 Coupe
Young Giotto Bizzarrini's college car at the University of Pisa was a step up from the average student's. The original Fiat 500--nicknamed "Topolino" (little mouse) both for its diminutive size and similarity to the cartoon car driven by Disney's Mickey--was the world's first "people's car"; the Topolino became available to the public in 1936, while both the Volkswagen and Citroen 2CV had to wait until after the war to reach the public.

The first series 500 A had run its course by the time Giotto came along, so he bought himself a 500 B. These Topolinos, introduced in 1948, were marginally better than the As; the tiny 569cc two-main-bearing engine now had overhead valves (instead of side valves) and 16.5 hp instead of the A's measly 13 hp. If you find it hard to believe the future creator of a 400hp Italo-American hybrid would settle for that kind of horsepower, you're right: Bizzarrini fitted his new B with a special cylinder head from Turin-based "hot-rodder" SIATA. He also bought the special barchetta body--the word means "little boat" and aptly describes the rounded silhouette that resulted when you chopped the top off the little Topolino sedan.

Even with these improvements, the car was fairly commonplace. Everybody who could afford it modified these bare bones automobiles--in fact, the list of fuoriserie (custom-built) Topolinos is so long it fills an entire book! But as Bizzarrini neared graduation, his little Topolino seemed the perfect palate for demonstrating his skills in automotive engineering.

Bizzarini 5300 Strada interior shot of dashboard detail
First, he designed a closed coupe body using a tubular structure similar to that used on the fascinating new Ferrari coupes. His aerodynamic studies suggested that the "teardrop" slipped through air the best; thus the egg shape on this unique little coupe.

Bizzarrini tested his budding theory on engine placement in this car by removing the engine from the front (in the standard Topolino it rides over the front wheels) and pushing it back into the center of the frame, almost inside the passenger compartment.

For extra power Bizzarrini removed the tiny original carburetor and installed two Dell'Orto motorcycle-like twin carburetors. These were still too simple, though; Bizzarrini thus developed a "pneumatic injection" system that allowed the driver to enrich the fuel supply in the two carburetors by activating a pear-shaped push-button inside the cockpit.

The completed car, painted in its original light blue, no doubt impressed Bizzarrini's supervisors at Alfa Romeo. They let him run the little coupe on the company test track, where he pegged 155 km/h (about 95 mph), equal to the speeds posted by Alfa's own 1900 saloon! When Enzo Ferrari heard about Giotto Bizzarrini and the odd car he drove, he reportedly said, "Anyone crazy enough to drive such a strange car is surely fit for working in Maranello!"

Bizzarrini himself was pleased to learn of the car's resurrection and restoration in 1992. "I worked out this car according to the same principals I used with the Ferrari GTO and with the Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada," he said. "They all bear my technical signature."

Today, the car competes regularly in the Mille Miglia Storico, a tribute both to the versatility and diversity of Fiat 500-based automobiles and to the talents of one of Italy's greatest freelance engineers, Giotto Bizzarrini.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 06:50:23 AM by Otto Puzzell »

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2007, 02:53:58 AM »
And this is where grobmotorix found his info: <<<link removed>>>
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 06:50:58 AM by Otto Puzzell »

Offline pieter

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Re: Second puzzle from Pieter
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2007, 03:03:31 AM »
And this is where I found the Mille Miglia entry list I referred to: (see number 227)

<<<link removed>>>
« Last Edit: February 22, 2009, 06:51:09 AM by Otto Puzzell »