por elmotorizado43 » Dom, 04 Ene 2009 4:56 pm
Algo mas de informacion que encontre, aparentemente estaban inspirados en el Cisitalia en algunos aspectos.
Rebuscando me encontre con los dibujos originales en una subasta, de los cuales por supuesto no muestran foto.
Sacha-Gordine
Anyone thinking that the Cisitalia-Porsche had seen enough embarrassment through its years of non-competition, think again. There is even more non-competition connected to it that meets the eye. And as the man responsible for one of the biggest what-might-have-beens in the history of motorsport was a respected French film producer, the project can only have been bigger than life. Indeed, Sacha Gordine?s racing ambitions involved no less than five engine variations for three prestigious racing categories: F1, F2 and sportscars, i.e. Le Mans.
This was at a time when the old Talbots were finally retired and the little Gordinis were left as the only French representatives in the World Championships. Perhaps Monsieur Gordine, a keen amateur rally driver, could have put his wealth to better use by simply pouring funds into the ever cash-strapped stable of his almost-namesake. One can only imagine what Amed?e Gordini could have achieved if he hadn?t been forced to survive one financial crisis after another. Instead, the maecenic ambitions of Sacha Gordine went much further than that ? the result of his work would be as much France?s pride as that of his own.
And so, in 1952, Gordine established his own racing stable, based in Levallois-Perret. The name he chose was Sacha-Gordine, hyphenating his first name and surname to avoid confusion with Gordini?s valiant efforts. Above all, he wanted his racing cars to be modern, bold and progressive, and by supporting the ideas of an ex-Porsche understudy by the name of Vigna he got what he wanted.
Looking at the design characteristics of the Sacha-Gordine Grand Prix car Vigna got his inspiration from the ill-fated Cisitalia 360. It was rear-engined, used similar front suspension, and carried a motorcycle-style sequential gearbox, just like the 360. On the other hand, it was much lighter through the use of expensive magnesium, proving Gordine?s money-no-object approach, but most of all ? as it was the eye-catching part ? it was substantially smaller and extremely low-slung, the car?s huge nostril intakes making it even more futuristic. Indeed, the look would not be seen again until the ?sharknose? Ferrari of 1961. It caused the January 1953 presentation of the completed F2 car to be buzzing with excitement.
With 1.5-litre, 2-litre, 2.5-litre, 3-litre sportscar and 4.5-litre versions of the Sacha-Gordine 90-degree V8 engine planned it was only logical that the first finished product would be a Formula 2 car ? it had become the World Championship category the year before and would remain so until superseeded by the 2.5-litre formula. Still, Vigna and French-Siamese development engineer Perkins had been busy working on the obsolete 1.5-litre s/c variation which, given the fact that the original F1 was now an insignificant formula and would be a definitive thing of the past in 1954, seems to have been an utter waste of time and effort. The 2-litre engine was a fully completed job, though. It was a magnesium alloy-cast block using dry sump lubrication and four double-choke carburettors. Power was claimed to be 191hp at 8000rpm. This would have meant that it was easily the fastest F2 car around.
Two cars were built up and tested once at Montlh?ry by Jean Behra and possibly Andr? Simon as well, either late 1952 or early 1953, before an entry was made for the 1953 Pau GP, held over Easter weekend. Then, suddenly, a full stop ? an anticlimactic end unworthy of a man in the business of selling celluloid dreams. But there it was all the same. Before a car bearing the name of Sacha-Gordine could ever show its mettle the project was completely shut down and written off as a tax loss. Probably the bean counters working behind the scenes made him realise that he couldn?t go on much longer throwing money away by the shovel load, and so Gordine simply pulled the plug. The harsh real world had caught up with the movie prince.
This meant that the sequel to the Cisitalia-Porsche adventure was concluded even before the full Autoar drama down in Argentina had a chance to fully pan out?
elmotorizado
