serenissima battery

Up to this point the property of Count Volpi, founder of the manufacturer and race team Serenissima, this 1966 Serenissima Spyder appears to have been wheeled straight into storage after the ‘66 Le Mans 24-hour race. The Serenissima hasn’t suffered the patched-up race damage, bodywork alterations, engine swaps, and fumbled restorations which have sullied many other vintage race cars. It is the only surviving Spyder of the pair that were built, and Artcurial’s pre-sale estimate for the car is €1.3M – €1.3M ($1.48M – $2.05M). The car raced just once, at Le Mans in ‘66, and has remained untouched ever since.

In that famous race, all eyes were on the battle of the egos between Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari. The two automotive titans had spent months negotiating a deal whereby Ford would buy the Italian company so the former could go endurance racing, but Ferrari pulled out at the last minute, unhappy about losing control of his beloved racing team. In truth the Commendatore probably never envisaged his company under the control of the Americans; he wanted to force Agnelli, owner of Fiat, to invest in his firm. Ford hit back with a vengeance, not just aiming to embarrass, but to destroy Ferrari at their favorite playground—Le Mans. For the 1966 race, almost a third of cars entered were Fords, flush with high expectations despite the fact that all of the GT40s had retired from the previous year’s race.

Count Volpi had previously campaigned Ferraris, Maseratis, and a few Porsches wearing his coat of arms. In 1962, however, his relationship with Ferrari soured when he agreed to finance a fifth of a company called ATS. The firm in question was created by some of Maranello’s pariahs following an internal schism at Ferrari 1961 when a number of senior figures departed after serving Enzo an ultimatum: either his wife (who had been involved in running the company) went, or they did. Needless to say, Ferrari stopped providing race cars to Volpi once he cast his lot with ATS.

Volpi’s relationship with the new company would not last the year, but this impassioned lover of beautiful machines had now caught the scent of glamour which can only attend respected constructors. He had an itch to build something of his own. Girolamo Gardini, who had been Ferrari’s commercial and sports director until he left as part of the 1961 scandal, went to Volpi with designs for a passenger car engineered by Alberto Massimino, whose career had led him from Alfa Romeo to Ferrari via Maserati. In nine months a newly-conceived 3.0-litre V-8 was coming together on the workbench. Three months later, the Serenissima’s wheels turned for the first time.

Massimino designed the tubular chassis and all the mechanical parts, including the gearbox, while the body was penned by Franco Salomone. Following standard practice of the era, the first car was built as a draft, a kind of working prototype and design study. It quickly became a donor for the cars that followed. The second Serenissima, the 308V Jet Berlinetta fashioned by carrozzeria Fantuzzi, was more successful and gave birth to two Spyder variants, one of which is the car headed to Rétromobile. For Volpi, Serenissima was a laboratory, and its road models were capable of being driven by everyone (hence the synchronized gearbox).

The Serenissima Spyder sporting number 24 (with the numbers still visible on the white roundels) entered the ‘66 race at Le Mans with two Frenchmen at the helm, Jean-Claude Sauer and Jean de Mortemart. More than a half-century later, the Dymo labels are still stuck below switches and rockers in an astonishing state of preservation, with each function typed out in French. Unfortunately the adventure was cut short; the Spyder had to bow out of the race with a broken transmission after five hours.

Despite its poor performance, this Serenissima deserves attention. It’s a rare survivor from this largely forgotten manufacturer. The brand and the racing team disappeared in 1970, as competition became more professionalized and rising operational budgets prevented Volpi and Serenissima from being able to keep up with the big teams.

The sale of this Spyder this February is a reminder of how small companies could still compete in racing 50 years ago, one that feels particularly timely in light of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s efforts to rein in the outrageous budgets needed to effectively compete at Le Mans. Always rare, the Serenissima has now been transformed by time into something else: precious and serene, indeed.

-from https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/serenissima-spyder-is-forgotten-racing-relic/

Sold for 4,218,800 euros on 8 February, what fate now awaits the Serenissima Spyder? Will its new American owner conserve the car as it was at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans? Will he decide to restore it, thereby rendering it ineligible to take part in any major vintage car races like the Le Mans Classic? Only time will tell.

-from https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/serenissima-and-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-1966-2-2-51010






































I am currently creating a reproduction battery that mimics the Italian Magneti Marelli batteries from the era for the Serenissima shown above. AMS asked me to create a battery case that has the proper camera case texture, logo, and "tar top" look that the battery shouyld have and they are placing modern battery cells inside this box and wiring it to that is looks period correct. The car is to be put back into as raced condition to preserve its heritage and then it will be shown in a few months at Pebble Beach. The protptype battery that you see here is a proof of concept. I modeled the outside texture and box in Rhino  and then it was printed in PETG filament. The top outer surround lifts off and allows the top plate to be removed. The terminals will be wired to the battery inside so that it is functional from the outside and the lead bus bars are just visual to recreate the look of the original battery. I cast these components in lead. The red caps will eventually be 3D printed in red filament and will be removable, whereas, these were painted. I am also currently creating a German battery for the Porsche 550A that fits into the standard 6 volt battery location without modification. 

froebel

 

blocks

Lately, memories of building things in kindergarten and elementary school have been flooding back to me. Some of my earliest memories involve playing with wood blocks (most likely made and distributed by milton bradley, tootsietoy or playskool). At home I used a set of woodblocks that I assume my father had made for me. These blocks were various sizes made from smooth hard heavy wood. I used those blocks with most toys that I played with. The shag carpet in my room needed smooth roads for my hot wheels and matchbox cars to run on so that the carpet wouldn't get caught in the wheels of my cars. The blocks provided a smooth road surface and allowed me to build a network of roads for play to occur. Later I used these same blocks with star wars and gi joe figures to build structures. I assume that these blocks were cut off pieces from my Dad's shop. I'm trying to figure out if my little brother remembers where they ended up. Anyway, this thought was triggered my Wisdom of the Hands author Doug Stowe.

Physicists have noted and proven that if you take two particles, introduce them to each other and then thrust them apart to the furthest reaches of the universe, what is done to one is noted within the behavior of the other. The phenomenon is called quantum entanglement and may someday help us to understand higher levels of human inter-connectedness and inner-connectedness.

Friedrich Froebel had been born the son of a Lutheran minister and his mother had died at a very early age. He was a bright child and cherished by his father's second wife until her own children came along. At that point he was left to fend for himself to obtain the emotional support every child needs. At an early age he was sent to live with an uncle and became apprenticed to a forester, and it was there in the Thuringian forest that Froebel discovered a love of botany and the seeds were planted for what would become Kindergarten, a garden of children. In witnessing the wonders of nature he likely gained a first glimpse of the inter-connectedness of all things.

In college Froebel had planned to become an architect but had an opportunity to work as an assistant to Christian Samuel Weiss, a leading authority on minerals and crystallography. Helping to organize the collection of minerals for Dr. Weiss, Froebel was to witness how things of great beauty grow from patterns inherent within. Should children, given the right circumstances, not grow in the same manner? You see the impact of his work with Dr. Weiss in Froebel's development of his gifts, one through 6 which were designed to lead the child into an exploration of the structure of the universe and through association with other Kindergarten activities, construct their own place within it.

Many of us have seen, even before the internet and before facebook and tik tok, evidence of our inter-connectedness and inner-connectedness. Living in a small town and knowing a few folks, I'll think of someone as I drive through town and then see them coming toward me in the next car. This is not always the case but happens often enough to make me wonder. Under such circumstances, we don't need facebook to remind us that we are a part of one another and that what we do reflects who we are and may be guided by unseen patterns within.

And so, what are we to make of all this? Froebel had suggested three uses for the Froebel gifts. One was to use blocks to create what he called forms of knowledge. Forms of knowledge were used to represent numbers and mathematical constructs important to the growth of the child. Another use was to create forms of beauty. These were to develop the child's design sense through representations of symmetry and rhythm. The third use was to create what Froebel referred to as forms of life, representing the objects to be found in everyday life, thus connecting with the child's natural inclination to serve others by making useful things. So you take these three things, development of intellect, artistic sense, and inclination to serve and you have the formula for growth.

It's ironic that Froebel did not become an architect of buildings, but instead an architect for a system of education that allowed the child to grow from within, as a crystal or flower might grow. In his autobiography Frank Lloyd Wright said about his play with Froebel blocks and their impact, "I can still feel those maple blocks in my hands to this day."

I've become fascinated of late, by the simple realization that when a light shines upon an object, its colors are reflected outward without limit into the whole of the universe. So where do we set the boundaries of self?

The illustration from wikipedia shows an experiment demonstrating quantum entanglement.

If you are reading this, we are entangled.

Make, fix and create...

When Friedrich Froebel established the first system for educating young children, he created a series of playthings to provide children with focussed educational experiences. Up until that time, toys were intended for amusement and education was provided through books and instruction. Froebel's Kindergarten used play as its engine and his Spielgaben ("play gifts") were the fuel. During his lifetime he codified the series of Froebel® Gifts up through Gift 6. After his death in 1852, his followers extended the

series of educational toys by numbering other materials used in his school.

Froebel Gifts 2 through 6 (aka "the Building Gifts") are wood blocks in various shapes and quantities. Known most commonly as Froebel Blocks, these toys were made famous in the USA by the Milton Bradley Company. Milton Bradley himself was a strong advocate of the Froebel method. Josef Albers, Charles Eames, Buckminster Fuller, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, and Frank Lloyd Wright are famous examples of children educated with the Froebel materials. The stone version of Froebel® Blocks made in Germany by the Anker Steinbaukasten GmbH factory (founded by Adolf Richter, a wealthy businessman in Froebel's village of Rudolstadt) were a favorite toy of Albert Einstein.

-https://froebelblocks.com/

Kindergarten as a concept was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel’s German kindergartens encouraged children to enjoy natural studies, music, stories, play with manipulative learning toys. He recommended teachers use geometric shapes and crafts for teaching and advocated the use of ‘gifts’ or playthings in the form of geometric shapes to promote learning and occupations or activities. Froebel also incorporated learning through expression, systematized play and social imitation. The first kindergarten opened in Germany in 1837; the first in the US was opened by Margarethe Schurz to a German speaking community in Wisconsin in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston. Over time, kindergarten was introduced into public schools with the changed purpose of providing an early academic foundation for 5 and 6-year old children preparing for 1st grade.

This set of blocks is the sixth “gift” in the series manufactured by the Milton Bradley Company. The blocks are in a square cherry wood box with a removable sliding top and a faded green label on one side. The box contains thirty-six wood blocks of three standard sizes: sixteen long, wide rectangular blocks; six long, thin rectangular blocks; and fourteen short, wide rectangular blocks.

Milton Bradley Company was established by Milton Bradley (1836-1911) in 1860. A mechanical draughtsman and patent agent interested in lithography, board games and puzzles, Milton Bradley became interested in the kindergarten movement after he attended a lecture by Elizabeth Peabody in 1869. Elizabeth and her sister Mary, who was by then the widow of educator Horace Mann, were devoted to promoting Froebel’s philosophy of creative play for pre-school children and helped spread of the Kindergarten Movement to America’s cities. These “gift boxes” are examples of school equipment made by Milton Bradley sometime between 1880 to 1900 for use in kindergartens. Milton Bradley produced educational materials free of charge for the kindergartens in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and was committed to developing kindergarten educational materials such as these gifts, colored papers and paints.

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- https://www.si.edu/object/kindergarten-block-set-gift-no-6-milton-bradley%3Anmah_1825929

aluminum skin

 

It doesn't get much better than this. What is it about aluminum "skins" that I'm attracted to? The metal needs to feel as though it's shrink-wrapped over a structure/skeleton beneath. Paint ruins it by adding an extra thickness. Polished surface is not nearly as good as satin finish because a polished surface is too reflective. The aluminum actually needs to feel like stretched skin. I'm not certain that you could achieve this any other way than thin aluminum sheet that is formed over a understructure. The cars from this era are what they are (designed objects) because of the curvilinear forms, thin aluminum, and the method in which they were constructed. I need to remember this in future work.

pooper and cooper chassis design

Owen Maddock

Following unsuccessful approaches to HRD and Trojan,[5] Maddock was taken on by the Cooper Car Company, run by father and son team Charles and John Cooper. Charles Cooper had been involved in motorsport since the 1920s, having acted as racing mechanic to Kaye Don for many years, and had built John a racing special as a twelfth birthday present in 1936. Working at the family garage in Surbiton, the pair constructed their first motorcycle-engined 500 cc (31 cu in) racing car in 1946. A string of wins followed, raising the reputation of the Cooper 500 to such an extent that they were able to begin selling replicas to fellow competitors.

Despite their growing popularity, by the time Maddock joined the company in September 1948[6] they were still not large enough to be able to justify taking on a full-time engineer. In addition to his drafting duties Maddock therefore also filled the roles of fitter, storekeeper and van driver, among many.[6] Gradually the Coopers began to make more use of Maddock's drafting skills, however, realising that having proper technical drawings was preferable to sketching designs to full scale on the walls, where they were frequently painted over![7] Some smaller parts were fabricated from crude sketches, or frequently simply by eye. During his time with Cooper Maddock became renowned for the detail and artistry of his blueprints, and with a talent for lateral thinking his contribution to the design of Cooper's cars grew rapidly. By the time of Cooper's heyday the design process was essentially a three-way tag match between Maddock, John Cooper and star driver Jack Brabham. Maddock's protégé and eventual successor, Eddie Stait, later recalled to historian Doug Nye that "John had a lot of the original ideas and then Owen would add some very original thinking in developing those ideas; they were a team ... and Jack of course contributed a lot."[8]

Unusually for the time Maddock sported a full beard. As a result of this he quickly became known around the Cooper establishment as "The Beard", while to Charles Cooper he would always be "Whiskers".[7] His mercurial temperament and volatile temper sometimes grated against his employers' nerves. Once, when a potential new recruit arrived for a job interview, Charles Cooper asked his secretary whether he had a beard. On being told that he did, Cooper told her to "Send 'im home. I've got enough trouble with the one I've got!".[9]

Early Formula Three and Formula Two work[edit]

Eventually Maddock was installed in his own drawing office within the Cooper building, although it was somewhat cramped, being located beneath the works stores.[10] Initially, Maddock's duties revolved around drawing or redrawing existing components and developing refinements on the existing Cooper 500 and 1000 cars. However, in 1953 Maddock was instrumental in introducing two design features that became Cooper trademarks for the rest of the decade: the curved-tube chassis frame and the "curly leaf" leaf spring location bracket. The car that both of these design innovations were pioneered on was the Mark VIII version of the Cooper 500 Formula Three machine.

The curved-tube chassis[edit]

The curved-tube chassis was the more controversial of the two novel ideas.[11] The existing Cooper 500 chassis design process had been one of evolution since the earliest production 500s rolled out of the Surbiton works in 1947, and had been based on simple, traditional twin longitudinal box-section ladder frame. With the introduction of the Mark V in 1950 this was augmented by a beefed-up and stiffened body support structure,[12] creating a semi-space frame chassis. This was refined further over the next two years, with the Mark VI marking a switch to equally sized tubular upper and lower longerons, and the Mark VIIA introducing tubular upright sections as well.[13] However, for 1953's Mark VIII the Coopers decided to start afresh with a completely new chassis design.

A true space frame design uses only straight tubes, properly triangulated to pass loads either in tension or compression.[14] Following proper engineering practice, when he started to develop plans for the new chassis design Maddock sketched out various straight-tubed space frame designs. However, when he showed each to Charlie Cooper his response was "Nah, Whiskers, that's not it..."[11] Frustrated, Maddock finally went away and drew a frame in which every tube was bent. To his surprise, rather than dismissing it Cooper's reaction was to snatch the plans out of Maddock's hands and exclaim "That's it..."[11] Although the curved tube design broke several engineering rules Maddock and the Coopers later rationalised their decision. Their arguments were that curved tubes could be located and routed so as to leave adequate space for mechanical components, and as the tubes could be run close under the car's bodywork this could be attached directly to the frame, saving the weight and complexity of a dedicated bodywork frame.[11] Although the idea started as a joke Maddock would later defend the design, even in the teeth of strong criticism from Cooper's star driver Jack Brabham. Brabham would come to recall that Maddock was latterly an even more staunch defender of the curved-tube concept than Charles Cooper.[15]

The T43 chassis was made of the usual Cooper 1 1/2 inch steel tube. The Mark 1 tall frame hoop encircled the seat back bulkhead and was unbraced whereas here (below) it was unbraced but the top chassis longerons each side of the engine bay were braced against the lower longerons by a three piece ‘Y member’.

What about those Cooper chassis’ which have always offended the purists- a true multi-tubulars spaceframe chassis should use straight tubes only, each stressed in either compression or tension.

Famously, after laying out several straight tube designs for the Mark 8, and in John’s absence having them rejected by Charles Cooper, Owen Maddocks decided to take the piss and presented an option in which every tube was bent- to his surprise it was embraced by Charles, a good intuitive Engineer.

Doug Nye recounts Owens account of the discussion about the approach when John Cooper returned.

’Curving the top frame rails down to meet the bottom ones reduced wracking through the frame. You could run curved tubes where they wouldn’t interfere with fuel tanks and suchlike. One of our very good welders always told me he preferred simple joints- with just one tube jointed into another- to multiple joints with with three or four tubes involved. We didn’t like weld overlapping weld and so tried to arrange things to avoid that. With curved tubes we could follow the body lines more closely, so we didn’t need the old strip -steel frame to support the body panels. What had started as a joke began to look quite logical, and very practical…’