Monocoque

Monocoque (pronounced mon-uh-kohk or mon-oh-kok (non-U))

(1) A type of boat, aircraft, or rocket construction in which the shell carries most of the stresses.

(2) A type of automotive construction in which the body is combined with the chassis as a single unit.

(3) A unit of this type.

1911: An English borrowing from the French monocoque, the construct being mono + coque.  Mono is from the Ancient Greek μόνος (monos) (alone, only, sole, single), from the primitive Indo-European root men (small, isolated).  Coque is from the Old French coque (shell) and concha (conch, shell), from the Latin coccum (berry) and concha (conch, shell) from the Ancient Greek kokkos (berry, seed).  In the early twentieth century, it was the French who were most dominant in the development of aviation.  Words like monocoque, aileron, fuselage and empennage are of French origin and endure in English because it’s a vacuum-cleaner of a language which sucks in anything from anywhere which is handy and manageable.

Noted monocoques

Deperdussin Monocoque, 1912.

A monocoque (sometime referred to as structural skin) is a form of structural engineering where loads and stresses are distributed through an object's external skin rather than a frame; concept is most analogous with an egg shell. Early airplanes were built using wood or steel tubes covered with starched fabric, the fabric rendering contributing only a small part to rigidity.  A monocoque construction integrates skin and frame into a single load-bearing shell, reducing weight and adding strength.  Although examples flew as early as 1911, airframes built as aluminium-alloy monocoques would not become common until the mid 1930s.  In a pure design where only function matters, almost anything can be made a stressed component, even engine blocks and windscreens.

Lotus 25, 1962.

In automotive design, the word monocoque is often misused, treated as a descriptor for anything built without a separate chassis.  In fact, most road vehicles, apart from a handful of expensive exotics, are built either with a separate chassis (trucks and some SUVs) or are of unibody/unitary construction where box sections, bulkheads and tubes to provide most of the structural integrity, the outer-skin adding little or no strength or stiffness.  Monocoque construction was first seen in Formula one in 1962, rendered always in aluminium alloys until 1981 when McLaren adopted carbon-fibre.  A year later, the McLaren F1 followed the same principles, becoming the first road car built as a carbon-fibre monocoque.

BRM P83 (H16), 1966.

In 1966, there was nothing revolutionary about the BRM P83’s monocoque chassis.  Four years earlier, in the second season of the voiturette era, that revolution had been triggered by the Lotus 25, built with the first fully stressed monocoque chassis, an epoch still unfolding as materials engineering evolves; the carbon-fibre monocoques seen first in the 1981 McLaren MP4/1 becoming soon ubiquitous.  The P83 used a monocoque made from riveted Duralumin (the word a portmanteau of durable and aluminium), an orthodox construction for the time.  Its novelty was that the engine was a stressed part of the monocoque.

BRM Type 15 (V16), 1949.

The innovation was born of necessity.  Not discouraged by the glorious failure of the extraordinary V16 BRM had built, with much fanfare and little success, shortly after the war, the decision was taken again to join together two V8s in one sixteen cylinder unit.  Whereas in 1949, the V8s had been coupled at the centre to create a V16, for 1966, the engines were re-cast as 180^o flat 8s with one mounted atop another in an H configuration, a two-crankshaft arrangement not seen since the big Napier-Sabre H24 aero-engines used in the last days of the war.  The design yielded the advantage that it was short, affording designers some flexibility in lineal placement, but little else.  It was heavy and tall, exacerbating further the high centre of gravity already created by the need to raise the engine location so the lower exhaust systems would clear the ground.  Just as significantly, it was wide, too wide to fit into a monocoque socket and thus was taken the decision to make the engine an integral, load-bearing element of the chassis.  There was no other choice.

BRM H16 engine and gearbox, 1966.

 

Structurally, it worked, the monocoque was strong and stable and despite the weight and height, the P83 might have worked if the H16 had delivered the promised horsepower but the numbers were never realised.  The early power output was higher than the opposition but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the drawbacks inherent in the design and, these being so fundamental they couldn’t be corrected, the only hope was even more power.  The path to power was followed and modest increases were gained but it was never enough and time ran out before the plan to go from 32 to 64 valves could come to fruition, an endeavour some suggested would merely have “compounded the existing error on an even grander scale.”  Additionally, with every increase in power and weight, the already high fuel consumption worsened.

The H16 did win one grand prix, albeit in a Lotus rather than a BRM monocoque, but that was a rare success; of the forty times it started a race, twenty-seven ended prematurely.  The irony of the tale is that in the two seasons BRM ran the 440 horsepower H16 with its sixteen cylinders, two crankshafts, eight camshafts and thirty-two valves, the championship in both years was won by the Repco-Brabham, its engine with 320 horsepower, eight cylinders, one crankshaft, two camshafts and sixteen valves.  Adding insult to the exquisitely bespoke H16’s injury, the Repco engine was based on an old Oldsmobile block which General Motors had abandoned.  After two seasons the H16 venture was retired, replaced by a conventional V12.

Elan

Elan (pronounced ay-lahn (U) or e-lan (non-U))

(1) Dash; impetuous ardor; a combination of style and vigour.

(2) In astronomy, as ELAN, the acronym of Enormous Lyman-Alpha Nebula (large gas cloud (nebula) larger than galaxies, found in intergalactic space).

1875–1880: From the Modern French, from the Middle French eslan (a dash, rush), noun derivative of éslancer to (dart).  Élan was thus a deverbal of élancer, the construct being é- (from the Old French es-, from Latin ex- & ē- (the prefix indicating away, moving away from) +‎ lan(cer) (from Old French lancier, from the Late Latin lanceāre, present active infinitive of lanceō, from the Latin lancea.  It was related to the Catalan llançar, the Italian lanciare, the Occitan and Portuguese lançar and the Spanish lanzar.  The sense is best understood by comparison with the French élancer (to throw forth) from the Classical Latin lancea (lance), the Roman auxiliaries' short javelin; a light spear or lance.  Ultimate root is thought to be Celtic/Celtiberian, possibly from the primitive Indo-European plehzk- (to hit) and connected also to the Ancient λόγχη (lónkhē).

Lindsay Lohan in hijab and halal make-up at the inaugural London Modest Fashion Week (LMFW), staged by London-based fashion house Haute Elan, February 2018.

Haute Elan is an interesting example of the novel corporate structures made possible by the distributed connectivity of the internet, acting as an umbrella organization for designers and distributers (output) and a kind of clearing house, offering a conduit for access and enquiries by media and customers (input).  For designers, the attraction is the association with a platform which can reduce the cost of promotional activities while allowing a brand to be built.  Pragmatically, it also reduces the cost of failure.

The companion word is the noun éclat (brilliant display or effect), also used by Lotus as a model name (Types 76 & 84; 1975-1982).  For elan, there’s really no exact single-word synonym in English, the closest including animation, ardor, dash, flair, impetus, life, oomph, panache, spirit, style, verve, vigor, vim, zest, zing, brio, esprit & impetuosity.  The usual spelling in English is elan and it’s often used with a modifier (eg “a certain elan”); the alternative spelling is the French élan.  The alternative spelling is the French élite and use of the French pronunciation the "U" ay-lahn rather than the "non-U" e-lan is one of the "class identifiers" on which readers of publications like Country Life focus when meeting folk.

The Lotus Elan

1962 Lotus Elan S1 DHC.

Lotus introduced the Elan in 1962, production continuing in four series until 1973, a companion four-seat (though really a 2+2) version made for a further two years.  Unlike the its predecessor, the exquisite Elite, the Elan would be offered as a convertible, the range adopting the English nomenclature of the time, the roadster a drop-head coupé (DHC, Type 26 (later 45)) and the closed version, introduced in 1966, a fixed-head coupé (FHC, Type 36).  

Lotus Elan chassis.

Abandoning the expensive and troublesome monocoque shell of the Elite, the Elan used a steel backbone chassis, the body this time a multi-piece affair, made again from fibreglass but using techniques which made it cheaper to manufacturer while maintaining quality; Lotus would use this method of construction for almost three decades.  Just as important was that for the first time, there would be imposed some rigor in standardization and production-line rationalization.  Profits flowed. 

Mrs Emma Peel (Diana Rigg (1938–2020)) in The Avengers (1965–1968).  1966 Lotus Elan S3 DHC. 

Overcoming the fragility of the Elite did come a cost and that was weight, the 1,500 lb (680 kg) Elan heavier by about 385 lb (175 kg) but by any other standard, the new car was still lithe and to compensate, there was more power.  One prototype Elite had been built the new 1.5 litre "Lotus Twin Cam" engine, based on the mundane but lively and tough Ford Kent four-cylinder unit, transformed by the addition of an in-house designed, aluminum double overhead camshaft (DOHC) head and this was adopted as the Elan’s power-plant.  In the Lotus community, some regard the two-dozen odd 1.5 litre cars built as something like prototypes, all subsequent Elans built with 1.6 litre engines although the specifications and power outputs would vary according to improvements made and detuning demanded by emission control laws in some markets.   Like the Kent itself, the DOHC would enjoy a long life in both Ford and Lotus vehicles.

1968 Lotus Elan S3 FHC.

Dynamically, the Elan was from the start acclaimed, even compared to more expensive machines, the performance, handling and economy were the best compromise of the era, the steering especially praised; indeed, that’s one aspect of the Elan which has rarely been matched.  The more professional approach to cost-control and production line efficiencies brought benefits beyond the quality of the cars, Lotus for the first time a genuinely profitable operation, the revenue generating funds not only new models but also the Formula One program of the 1960s which would be the company’s golden era, yielding multiple driver’s and constructor’s championships.  The corollary of being a successful road car however meant it had to be built to appeal to a wider market than the highly strung Elite which had been more at home on the track than the street.  Accordingly, Lotus never envisaged a racing career for the new car, its suspension tuned softly enough to cope with the bumps and undulations of the real world better than the dainty Elite which was at its best exploring its limits on the billiard table-like surface of a racetrack.

1965 Lotus Type 26R.

Owners were however convinced of its potential and around the world, in both standard and unmodified form, the Elan was soon a popular race-car and the factory began to receive requests for parts suitable for competition.  The customer being always right, Lotus responded, factory support soon forthcoming, culminating as early as 1964 in a racing version, the type 26R which featured lighter components, a strengthened drive-train, stiffer suspension, better brakes and more horsepower from a BRM-built engine.

1971 Lotus Elite Sprint DHC.

For the road cars, upgrades were frequent, a detachable hardtop soon offered and luxuries inconceivable in the Elite, such as lush carpeting, walnut trim and electric windows appeared at intervals.  Power increases over the years appear modest, the early versions rated at 105 bhp (78 kW) and the most potent at 126 bhp (94 kW) and there were variations as laws changed but the general trend was upwards.

1975 Lotus Elan +2S 130/5.

The Elan had been very much in the cottage-industry Lotus tradition, offered even in kit form for owners to assemble themselves, a practice which lasted until 1973 when changes to the UK’s value added tax (VAT, the UK’s consumption tax) rendered the practice unviable.  Very different and a harbinger of the Lotus of the 1970s was the Elan +2 (Type 50), introduced in 1967.  Available only as a FHC, although visually inspired by the Elan, the +2 was wider, built on a longer wheelbase and included two rear seats, although the legroom meant they were suitable only for young children.  That however was the target market: the young men (and increasingly, even then, women), for whom a newly arrived family would otherwise have compelled a purchase from another manufacturer after outgrowing their Elan.  Never a big seller, it filled the same niche as Jaguar’s 2+2 E-Type and was popular enough to remain on sale for two years after Elan production ended in 1973, the last versions the most desirable, fitted with the five-speed gearbox included on a handful of the final Elan Sprints.

Well made imitation, the 1989 Mazda Maita (MX-5).

The Elan name was revived for a run of sports cars produced between 1989-1995 which were said to be very good but, being front-wheel drive with all that implies, didn’t capture the imagination in the same way.  The Elan was also the template for Mazda’s very successful MX-5 (labelled in some markets variously as the Roadster or Miata), one of the more blatant pieces of far-east plagiarism, Mazda’s design centre known to have obtained at least two original Elans to study.  A typical Japanese product, the 1989 MX-5 corrected all the Elan’s faults and is probably as close to perfect as any car ever made.

Lotus

Lotus (pronounced loh-tuhs)

(1) In Greek mythology, a plant believed to be a jujube or elm, referred to as yielding a fruit that induced a state of forgetfulness and a dreamy languor in those who ate it.

(2) Any aquatic plant of the genus, Nelumbo nucifera, of the water lily family, having shield-like leaves and showy, solitary flowers usually projecting above the water.

(3) Any of several water lilies of the genus Nymphaea.

(4) A decorative motif derived from such a plant and used widely in ancient art, as on the capitals of Egyptian columns.

(5) Any shrubby plant of the genus Lotus, of the legume family, having red, pink, yellow, or white flowers.

(6) An English manufacturer of lightweight sports and racing cars, best known for its successes in Formula One between 1962-1978.

1530–1540:  From the Classical Latin, lōtus or lōtos, perfect passive participle of lavō (wash), from the Ancient Greek λωτός (lōtós) (the lotus plant), the origin of which is unknown but thought probably related to Semitic plant names such as Hebrew לוט‎ (lōt) (myrrh).  The feminine was lōta, the neuter lōtum.  The circa 1500 lote was an Englished form of lotus and it survives as Lote-tree.  The yogic sense is attested from 1848.

From the 1540s, the name was, rather casually, bestowed on many plants, some related, some not even alike and that had been the pattern of the Greek lōtós which was applied to several plants before it came exclusively to mean Egyptian white lotus (a sense attested in English from 1580s), a plant prominent part in the mythology of India, Egypt, China.  The Homeric lotus later was held to be a North African shrub, from which "a kind of wine" can be made and historians conclude that was a reference to the effects rather than the taste.  The name has also been given to several species of water-lilies and a bean that grows in water.   The noun lotion is from the circa 1400 Middle English loscion (liquid preparation for application to the skin), from the fourteenth century Old French lotion, from the Latin lotionem (nominative lotio) (a washing), a noun of action from lotus (varied contraction of lavatus (a popular form of lautus, past participle of lavere (to wash) from the primitive Indo-European root leue- (to wash)).

The circa 1600 noun lotophagi (literally “lotus-eaters”) was from the Greek lotophagoi (plural), the construct being lotos + -phagos (eating), from the primitive Indo-European root bhag- (to share out, apportion; to get a share), the more common literary form of which was lotophagous.  The lotus was believed to induce a dreamy forgetfulness, hence the mention of the lotus-eater as "one who finds pleasure in a listless life" (1812) from the Greek lotophagoi, mentioned in book IX of Homer’s Odyssey.  Odysseus had to force his lethargic sailors back on board after the lotus-eaters had shared with them the narcotic fruit.  It’s one of the earliest warnings against drug use.

Of the plural

Lindsay Lohan with former special friend Samantha Ronson at a charity fundraiser for the Children’s Miracle Network, Lotus Lounge,  Washington DC, October 2008.

The use of plural forms in English is not consistent, though the wise attempt always to append just s or es as required.  This linguistic pragmatism (or Anglo-Saxon laziness if you prefer) simplifies things and plurals like stadia and referenda, while not extinct, are probably now archaic.  That said, plurals can sometimes need to end in an i, aux or a, often more for elegance than sticking to the rules.  Rare plurals persist because they’re useful within niche communities; scientists and statisticians being punctilious in the use of datum, the rest of us calling all such stuff, singular or plural, data.  Patterns of use in English, if of sufficient longevity (though not of necessity breadth of adoption), can re-define words borrowed from other languages.  The modern English agenda (from the Latin agenda (things that ought to be done)) is now singular, the plural being agendas and the individual components, items.  In the original, agenda was plural of agendum.  However, criterion is singular and criteria plural; any other use is a more recent lapse and remains wrong.  English is best evolving its own rules.  Lotuses isn’t pretty which is a good a reason as any for a word to vanish but under Latin rules the plural would be loti which is no better but anyway, lotus is of Greek origin.  So, because both lotos and lotus appear in the Latin texts and the plural in Greek was oi, not i, lotoi is in the same documents.   That’s also why which is why the persistent octopi is wrong and that’s a shame because it’s better than the standard English plural which is octopuses.  However, octopus comes from the Ancient Greek; the correct plural form is octopodes.

By 1968, the makers of the Lotus Formula One and sports cars responded to having their machinery called Loti and Lotaux by issuing a press release advising the company would henceforth adopt Lotus as both plural and possessive and hinted everyone should do the same.  Lotus thought all others, including the historically correct Lotuses, “horrible words”.  The press release had no effect.

The footnote: The Lotus 43

BRM H16 engine.

The change from the 1.5 litre (92 cubic inch) voiturette formula (1961-1965) to a 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch) displacement for the 1966 Formula One season meant not only would the teams need new engines but also bigger, stronger chassis.  Lotus had an advantage in solving the latter problem because it was able to modify the Lotus 38 which had won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 when fitted with a 4.2 litre (256 cubic inch Ford V8).  The 38 was a strong and adaptable design, many of the elements of which would be incorporated into the later Lotus 49 and many racing cars of the era were to some extent Lotus 38 clones.  For an engine, for a number of reasons, Lotus choose to use the BRM H16, a unit created by reconfiguring the successful 1.5 litre BRM V8 into a 180^o (flat) configuration and mounting one atop another, thereby creating a 3.0 litre H16 which had the advantage of a relatively short development cycle because so many existing components were able to be used but the drawbacks were weight, size and height.

BRM H16 in Lotus 43.

Although commendably short, the H16 was tall which meant a high centre of gravity, something exacerbated by having to mount the block high in the chassis to permit sufficient clearance for the exhaust systems of the lower banks of cylinders.  It was also wide, too wide to fit into a monocoque socket and thus was taken the decision to make the engine an integral, load-bearing element of the chassis.  There was no other choice but that aspect worked well.  Had the H16 had delivered the promised horsepower the Lotus 43 might have been a success but the numbers were never realized.  The early power output was higher than the opposition but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the drawbacks inherent in the design and, these being so fundamental they couldn’t be corrected, the only hope was even more power.  The path to power was followed and modest increases were gained but it was never enough and time ran out before the plan to go from 32 to 64 valves could come to fruition, an endeavor some suggested would merely have “compounded the existing error on an even grander scale.”  Additionally, with every increase in power and weight, the already high fuel consumption worsened.

Lotus 43, US Grand Prix, Watkins Glen, 1966.

In winning the 1966 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, the Lotus 43 delivered the H16 its sole victory, something BRM never managed when the engine was mounted in their chassis.  The 1.5 litre BRM V8 had enjoyed outstanding reliability but of the forty times the H16 started a race, twenty-seven ended prematurely.  The irony of the tale is that in the two seasons BRM ran the 400 horsepower H16 with its sixteen cylinders, two crankshafts, eight camshafts and thirty-two valves, the championship in both years was won by the Repco-Brabham, its engine with 320 horsepower, eight cylinders, one crankshaft, two camshafts and sixteen valves.  Adding insult to the exquisitely bespoke H16’s injury, the Repco engine was based on an old Oldsmobile block which General Motors had abandoned several year earlier (the engine blocks used by Brabham could be purchased by any customer for around US$20, a number which must have astonished outfits like Scuderia Ferrari).  After two seasons the H16 venture was retired, replaced by a conventional V12; Lotus sold the two 43s to a privateer who installed 4.7 liter (289 cubic inch) Ford (Windsor) V8s and campaigned them in Formula 5000 events.  The new Lotus 49 used the 3.0 litre Ford Cosworth (DFV) V8, a combination which enjoyed, remarkably, three successful seasons.

Gullwing & Gull-wing

Gullwing & Gull-wing (pronounced guhl-wing)

(1) In aviation, an airplane wing that slants briefly upward from the fuselage and then extends horizontally outward (ie a short upward-sloping inner section and a longer horizontal outer section).

(2) Of doors, a door hinged at the top and opening upward (applied usually to cars but can be used in aviation, aerospace and architecture).

(3) Anything having or resembling (extended and partially extended) wings of a gull (and many other birds).

(4) In electronic hardware, a type of board connector for a small outline integrated circuit (SOIC).

(5) In historic admiralty jargon, a synonym of goose wing (a sail position).

Gull is from the Middle English gulle, from the Brythonic, from the Proto-Celtic wēlannā (seagull) and was cognate with the Cornish guilan, the Welsh gwylan, the Breton gouelan and the Old Irish faílenn.  The noun Gull was used (in a cook-book!) to describe the shore bird in the 1400s, probably from the Brythonic Celtic; it was related to the Welsh gwylan (gull), the Cornish guilan, the Breton goelann; all from Old Celtic voilenno-.  Gull replaced the Old English mæw.

The verb form meaning “to dupe, cheat, mislead by deception" dates from the 1540s, an adaptation by analogy from the earlier (1520) meaning "to swallow", ultimately from the sense of "throat, gullet" from the early 1400s.  The meaning was the idea of someone so gullible to “swallow whatever they’re told”.  As a cant term for "dupe, sucker, credulous person", it’s noted from the 1590s and is of uncertain origin but may be from the verb meaning "to dupe or cheat".  Another possibility is a link to the late fourteenth century Middle English gull & goll (newly hatched bird" which may have been influenced by the Old Norse golr (yellow), the link being the hue of the bird’s down.

Wing was from the late twelfth century Middle English winge & wenge (forelimb fitted for flight of a bird or bat), applied also to the part of certain insects which resembled a wing in form or function, from the Old Norse vængr (wing of a bird, aisle etc) from the Proto-Germanic wēinga & wēingan-.  It was cognate with the Danish vinge (“wing”), the Icelandic vængur (wing), the West Frisian wjuk (wing) and the Swedish vinge (“wing”), of unknown origin but possibly from the Proto-Germanic we-ingjaz ( a suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European root we- (blow), source of the Old English wawan (to blow).  It replaced the native Middle English fither, from the Old English fiþre & feðra (plural (and related to the modern feather)) from the Proto-Germanic fiþriją, which merged with fether, from the Old English feþer, from the Proto-Germanic feþrō).  The meaning "either of two divisions of a political party, army etc dates from circa 1400; the use in the architectures was first recorded in 1790 and applied figuratively almost immediately.  The slang sense of earn (one's) wings is 1940s, from the wing-shaped badges awarded to air cadets on graduation. To be under (someone's) wing "protected by (someone)" is recorded from the early thirteenth century; the phrase “on a wing and a prayer” is title of a 1943 song about landing a damaged aircraft.

A Gull in flight (left), inverted gull-wing on 1944 Voight Corsair (centre) & gull-wing on 1971 Piaggio P.136 (Royal Gull) (right).

In aviation, the design actually pre-dates powered flight (1903) by half a millennium, appearing in the speculative drawings of flying machines by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and others, an inevitable consequence of being influenced by the flapping wings of birds.  There were experiments, circa 1911, to apply the gull-wing principle to some of the early monoplanes in a quest to combine greater surface area with enhanced strength but it wasn’t until the 1920s it began widely to be used, firstly in gliders for some aerodynamic advantage and later, powered-aircraft.  In powered aircraft, the gull-wing offered little aerodynamically but had structural advantages in that it allowed designers more easily to ensure (1) increasingly larger propellers would have sufficient clearance, (2) undercarriage length could be reduced (and consequently strengthened) and (3) wing-spans could slightly be reduced, a thing of great significance when operations began on aircraft carriers, the gull-wing being especially suited to the folding-wing model.  Depending on the advantage(s) sought, designers used either a classic gull-wing or the inverted gull-wing.  The correct form is for all purposes except when applied to the the (1954-1957) Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupé is the hyphenated gull-wing; only the 1950s Mercedes-Benz are called Gullwings.

1945 Jamin-Bouffort JB.

Cars with gull-wing doors had been built before Mercedes-Benz started making them at scale and the principle was known in both aviation and marine architecture.  One was the 1945 Jamin-Bouffort JB, the creation of French aeronautical engineer Victor-Albert Bouffort (1912-1995) who had a long history of clever, practical (and sometimes unappreciated) designs.  The Jamin-Bouffort JB was a relatively small three-wheeler built using some of the techniques of construction used in light aircraft, the gull-wing doors the most obvious novelty.  Anticipating the 1950s boom in micro-cars, there was potential but with European industry recovering from the war, most effort was directed to resuming production of pre-war vehicles using surviving tooling and there was little interest in pursuing anything which required development time.  Monsieur Bouffort would go on to design other concepts ahead of their time, some of his ideas adopted by others decades after his prototypes appeared.

Bugatti Type 64 with gull-wing body fabricated using original conceptual sketches on 1939 Type 64 chassis.

In 1939, Jean Bugatti drew up plans for the Type 64, a vehicle with gull-wing doors, his sketches an example of the great interest being shown by European manufacturers in aerodynamics, then called usually streamlining.  Although two Type 64s were completed in 1939, neither used the gull-wing doors and it would be another eighty-odd years before Bugatti’s design was realised when collector & president of the American Bugatti Club, Peter Mullin (b 1941), arranged the fabrication of the coachwork, based on the original drawings.  Built in exactly the same way craftsmen would have accomplished the task in 1939, the body was mounted on the surviving Type 64 chassis (64002), united for the first time with what Jean Bugatti called papillon (butterfly) doors which all (except the French) now call gull-wings.

Mercedes-Benz and the gull-wing.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL prototype (W194).

By 1951, although the Wirtschaftswunder (the post-war German “economic miracle”) still lay ahead, structural changes (the most important being the retreat by the occupying forces in the western zones from the punitive model initially adopted and the subsequent creation in 1948 of the stable deutschmark), had already generated an economy of unexpected strength and Mercedes-Benz was ready to make a serious return to the circuits.  Because the rules then governing Formula One didn’t suit what it was at the time practical to achieve, the first foray was into sports car racing, the target the ambitious goal of winning the Le Mans 24 hour race, despite a tight budget which precluded the development of new engines or transmissions and dictated the use of as much already-in-production as possible.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL prototype (W194).

It was the use of a production car engine designed not for ultimate power but smoothness, reliability and a wide torque band which ultimately dictated the use of the gull-wing doors.  The engine was the 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch) M186 straight-six used in the big 300 limousines and its two door derivatives, of advanced design by the standards of the time but also big, tall and heavy, attributes not helpful to race-car designers who prefer components which are compact, light and able to be mounted low in a frame.  A new engine not being possible, the factory instead created a variation, the M194, which used the triple-carburetor induction of the 300S coupés in an improved cylinder head, the innovation being the iron-block now lying at a 50^o angle, thereby solving the problem of height by allowing it to be installed while canted to the side, permitting a lower bonnet line.  Using the existing gearbox, it was still a heavy engine-transmission combination, especially in relation to its modest power-output and such was the interest in lightness that, initially, the conventional wet-sump was retained so the additional weight of the more desirable dry-sump plumbing wouldn’t be added.  It was only later in the development-cycle that dry-sump lubrication was added.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL space-frame (W194).

The calculations made suggested that with the power available, the W194 would be competitive only if lightness and aerodynamics were optimized.  Although the relationship between low-drag and down-force were still not well-understood, despite the scientific brain-drain to the US and USSR (forced and otherwise) in the aftermath of the war, the Germans still had a considerable knowledge-base in aerodynamics and this was utilized to design a small, slippery shape into which the now slanted straight-six would be slotted.  There being neither the time nor the money to build the car as a monocoque, the engineers knew the frame had to be light.  A conventional chassis was out of the question because of the weight and they knew from the pre-war experience of the SSKL how expensive and difficult it was to reduce mass while retaining strength.  The solution was a space-frame, made from tubular aluminum it was light, weighing only between 50-70 kg (110-155 lb) in it’s various incarnations yet impressively stiff and the design offered the team to opportunity to use either closed or open bodies as race regulations required.

However, as with many forms of extreme engineering, there were compromises, the most obvious of which being that the strength and torsional rigidity was in part achieved by mounting the side tubes so high that the use of conventionally opening doors was precluded.  In a race car, that was of no concern and access to the cockpit in the early W194s was granted by what were essentially top-hinged windows which meant ingress and egress was not elegant and barely even possible for those of a certain girth but again, this was though hardly to matter in a race car.  In this form, the first prototypes were built, without even the truck-like access step low on the flanks which had been in the original plans.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL production coupé (W194).

Actually, it turned out having gull-wing windows instead of gull-wing doors did matter.  Although the rules of motorsport’s pettifogging regulatory body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation) were silent on the types and direction of opening doors and, in the pre-war era they had tolerated some essentially fake doors, their scrutineers still raised objections during inspection for the 1952 Mille Miglia.  The inspectors were forced to relent when unable to point to any rule actually being broken but it was clear they’d be out for revenge and the factory modified the frame to permit doors extending down the flanks, thereby assuming the final shape which would come to define the gull-wing door.  Relocating some of the aluminum tubing to preserve strength added a few kilograms but forestalled any retrospective FIA nit-picking.  To this day, the FIA's legions of bureaucrats seem not to realise why they’ve for so long been regarded as impediments to competition and innovation.

Le Mans, 1952.

First tested on the Nürburgring and Hockenheimring in late 1951, the W194, now dubbed 300 SL for promotional purposes, was in March 1952 presented to the press on the Stuttgart to Heilbronn autobahn.  In those happy days, there was nothing strange about demonstrating race cars on public highways.  The SL stood for Super Leicht (super light), reflecting the priority the engineers had pursued.  For decades, it was said by many, even normally reliable sources, that it stood for sports Sports Leicht (sports light), and the history of the Mercedes-Benz alphabet soup was such that it could have been either way (the SSKL of 1931 was the (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht (light)) and from the 1950s on even the factory used both Sports Leicht and Super Leicht.  It was only in 2017 it published a 1952 paper discovered in the corporate archive confirming the correct abbreviation is Super-Leicht.  Ten W194s were built for the 1952 season and success was immediate, second in the Mille Miglia; a trademark 1-2-3 result in the annual sports car race in Bern and, the crowning achievement, a 1-2 finish in the twenty-four hour classic at Le Mans.

Neither usually the most powerful nor the fastest car in the races it contested, the 300 SL nevertheless so often prevailed because of a combination of virtues.  Despite the heavy drive-train, it was light enough not to impose undue stress on tyres, brakes or mechanical components, the limousine engine was tough and durable and the outstanding aerodynamics returned surprising good fuel economy; in endurance racing, reliability and economy compensate for a lot of absent horsepower.

Nürburgring, 1952.

After the triumph at Le Mans, the SL won at the Eifelrennen and was then entered into in a race on the Nürburgring and to shed some weight, engineers converted three of the coupés to roadsters, emulating the body of one of the original ten which had been open-topped from the start.  To avoid any unpleasantness with the FIA, the section of the doors extending into the side of the car was retained and a smaller windscreen was installed to improve aerodynamics and afford the driver some protection from the weather and bugs unfortunate enough to be caught in the path.  The roofectomy reduced weight by about 100 kg (220 lb) which presumably helped, the four finishing in the first four places.

Winning W194, 1952 Carrera Panamericana Mexico, the metal struts were an ad-hoc addition after a bird strike.

One final adventure for the year yielded a perhaps unexpected success.  In November 1952, the factory entered two coupés and two roadsters in the third Carrera Panamericana Mexico, a race of 3100 kilometres (1925 miles) over five days and eight stages, their engines now bored out to 3.1 litres (189 cubic inches) increasing power from 175 bhp (130kw) to 180 (135).  The cars finished 1-2-3 although the third was disqualified for a rule violation and the winning car endured the intrusion at speed of a vulture through the windscreen.  Unlike the 300 SL, the unlucky bird didn’t survive.  There was however one final outing for the W194.  In 1955 it won the Rally Stella Alpina, the last time the event would be run in competitive form, one of many cancelled in the wake of the disaster at Le Mans that year in which 84 died and almost two-hundred injured.  Coincidently, that accident involved the W194’s successor, the 300 SLR.

1953 300 SL Prototype.

The 300 SL was re-engineered for the 1953 season, the bodywork now made from magnesium, lighter even than aluminum, the design of which had seen the car return to the wind-tunnel after which it gained a revised front section which not only reduced drag but also improved cooling by optimizing airflow to the radiator and engine compartment.  Power rose too.  Again drawing from wartime experience with the DB60x V12 aero-engine used in many German warplanes, direct fuel-injection was introduced which boosted output from 180 bhp (135 kw) to 215 bhp (158 kW).  Nor were the underpinnings neglected, the rear suspension design improved (somewhat) with the addition of the low-pivot single-joint swing axle (which would later appear on some production 300 SLs) while the transmission was flanged on the rear axle, not quite a transaxle but much improving the weight distribution.  The wheelbase was shortened by 100 millimetres (4 inches) and 16-inch wheels were adopted.  Even disk brakes were considered but the factory judged them years from being ready and it wouldn’t be until 1961 that they appeared on a Mercedes-Benz, more than half a decade after others had proved the technology on road and track.  There was however one exception to that, a disc brake had been installed between propeller shaft and differential on the high-speed truck built in 1954 to carry the Grand Prix cars between the factory and circuits in Europe.

The revised 300 SL however was never raced, the factory’s attention now turning to the Formula One campaign which, with the W196, would so successfully be conducted in 1954-1955, an off-shoot of which would be the W194’s replacement, the W196S sports car which would be based on the Grand Prix machine and dubbed, a bit opportunistically, the 300 SLR (Sport Leicht Rennen (Sport Light-Racing)).  Such was the impression made by the futuristic W194 that it would inspire production of the road-going 300 SL Gullwing (W198), 1400 of which were built during 1954-1957 (including 29 with aluminium bodies).

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (W194) (1954-1957).

Although the public found them glamorous, the engineers at Mercedes-Benz had never been enamoured by the 300 SL’s gull-wing doors, regarding them a necessary compromise imposed by the high side-structure of the space-frame which supported the body.  Never intended for use on road-cars, it was the guarantee of the US importer of Mercedes-Benz to underwrite the sale of a thousand gull-wing coupés that saw the 300 SL Gullwing enter production in 1954.  The sales predictions proved accurate and of the 1400 built, some eighty percent were delivered to North American buyers.  The W198 300SL was the model which became entrenched in the public imagination as “the Gullwing” and it’s the only instance where the word doesn’t need to be hyphenated.  Glamorous those doors may have been, they did impose compromises.  The side windows didn’t roll down, ventilation was marginal and air-conditioning didn’t exist; in a hot climate, one really had to want to drive a Gullwing.  There was also the safety issue, some drivers taking the precaution of carrying a hammer in case, in a roll-over, the inability to open the doors made the windscreen the only means of escape and roll-overs were perhaps more likely in a Gullwing than many other machines, the behavior of the swing axles sometimes inducing unwanted behavior in what was one of the fastest cars on the road although, in fairness, on the tyres available in the 1950s that was less of an issue than it would become on later, stickier rubber.

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (W196S), Stirling Moss & Denis Jenkinson, Mille Miglia, Italy, 1955.

The 300 SLR (W196S) was a sports car, nine of which were built to contest the 1955 World Sportscar Championship.  Essentially the W196 Formula One car with the straight-eight engine enlarged from 2.5 to 3.0 litres (152 to 183 cubic inches), the roadster is most famous for the run in the 1955 Mille Miglia in Italy which was won over a distance of 992 miles (1597 km) with an average speed of almost 100 mph (160 km/h); nothing like that has since been achieved.  There's infamy too attached to the 300 SLR; one being involved in the catastrophic crash and fire at Le Mans in 1955.

1955 300 SLR (W196S “Uhlenhaut” coupé). 

Two of the 300 SLRs were built with coupé bodies, complete with gull-wing doors.  Intended to be used in the 1955 Carrera Panamericana Mexico, they were rendered instantly redundant when both race and the Mercedes-Benz racing programme was cancelled after the Le Mans disaster.  The head of the programme, Rudolf Uhlenhaut (1906-1989), added an external muffler to one of the coupés, registered it for road use (such things were once possible when the planet was a happier place) and used it for a while as his company car.  It was then the fastest road-car in the world, an English journalist recording a top speed of 183 mph (295 km/h) on a quiet stretch of autobahn but Herr Uhlenhaut paid a price for the only partially effective muffler, needing hearing aids later in life.  Two were built (rot (red) & blau (blue), the names based on their interior trim) and for decades they remained either in the factory museum or making an occasional ceremonial appearance at race meetings.  However, in a surprise announcement, in June 2022 it was revealed rot had been sold in a private auction in Stuttgart for a world-record US$142 million, the most expensive car ever sold.  The buyer's identity was not released but it's believed rot is destined for a collection in the Middle East.  It's rumoured also the same buyer has offered US$100 million should an authentic 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSKL ever be uncovered.  

1970 Mercedes-Benz C-111 (1968-1970 (Wankel versions)).

Although the C-111 would have a second career in the late 1970s in a series of 5-cylinder diesel and V8 petrol engined cars used to set long-distance endurance records, its best remembered in its original incarnation as the lurid-colored (safety-orange according to the factory) three and four-rotor Wankel-engined gullwing coupés, sixteen of which were built.  The original was a pure test-bed for the Wankel engine in which so many manufacturers once had so much hope.  The first built looked like a failed high-school project but the second and third versions were both finished to production-car standards with typically high-quality German workmanship.  Although from the school of functional brutalism rather than the lovely things they might have been had styling been out-sourced to the Italians, the gull-winged wedges attracted much attention and soon cheques were enclosed in letters mailed to Stuttgart asking for one.  The cheques were returned, apparently there had never been plans for production even had the Wankel experiment proved a success.  The C-111 was fast, the four-rotor version said to reach 300 km/h (188 mph), faster than any production vehicle then available.

1991 Mercedes-Benz C112.

The C112 was an experimental mid-engined concept car built in 1991.  Designed to be essentially a road-going version of the Sauber-built C11 Group C prototype race car developed for the 1990 World Sports-Prototype Championship, it was powered by the 6.0 litre (366 cubic-inch) M120 V12 used in the R129 SL and C140/W140 S-Class variously between 1991-2001.  The C112 does appear to have been what the factory always claimed it was: purely a test-bed for technologies such as the electronically-controlled spring & damper units (which would later be included on some models as ABC (active body control)), traction control, rear wheel steering, tyre-pressure monitoring and distance-sensing radar.  As an indication it wasn't any sort of prototype intended for production, it offered no luggage space but, like the C111 twenty years earlier, it’s said hundreds of orders were received.  It was 1991 however and with the world in the depths of a severe recession, not even that would have been enough for a flirtation with thoughts of a production model.  After the C112, thoughts of a gull-wing were put on ice for another two decades, the SLR-McLaren (2003-2009) using what were technically “butterfly” door, hinged from the A-pillars.

2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS-AMG (2101-2014).

The factory’s most recent outing of the gull-wing door, the SLS, which used the naturally aspirated 6.2 litre (379 cubic inch) M159 DOHC V8, was produced between (2010-2014), a roadster version also available.  To allay any doubt, it was announced at the time of release that SLS stands for Super Leicht Sport (Super Light Sport) although such things are relative, the SLS a hefty 1600-odd kg (3,500 lb) although, in fairness, the original Gullwing wasn’t that much lighter and the SLS does pack a lot more gear, including windows which can be opened and air-conditioning.  In the way of modern marketing, many special versions were made available during the SLS’s relatively short life, even an all-wheel-drive electric version with a motor for each wheel.  Such is the lure of the gull-wing motif for Mercedes-Benz, it’s unlikely the SLS will be the last and a high-priced revival is expected to become a feature of the marketing cycle every couple of decades but we're unlikely to see any more V8s or V12s unless perhaps as a swan-song, AMG indicating recently they expect their 4.0 litre (244 cubic inch) V8 to remain in production for another ten years, Greta Thunberg (b 2003) and her henchmen the humorless EU bureaucrats permitting.

Lindsay Lohan at the Nicholas Kirkwood catwalk show, London Fashion Week 2015 with a prop vehicle (one of the gull-wing DMC DeLoreans modified closely to resemble the one used in the popular film Back to the Future (1985)).

Tesla Model X with falcon-wing doors.

Such was the allure of the 300 SL’s gull-wing doors that in the shadow they’ve cast for seventy-odd years, literally dozens of cars have appeared with the features, some of questionable aesthetic quality, some well-executed and while most were one-offs or produced only in small runs, there’s been the occasional (usually brief) success and of late some Teslas have been so equipped and with the novelty of them being the back doors, the front units conventionally hinged.  Tesla calls them “falcon wings” because the design was influenced by the bird.  However, the biomimicry was (for obvious reasons) not an attempt to gain the aerodynamic advantages of the falcon’s wing shape which affords exceptional maneuverability in flight but simply an adoption of the specific bone structure.  Unlike the fixed structure of the classic gull-wing door, the Tesla’s falcon-wing is fitted with an additional central joint which permits them to be opened in cramped spaces, aiding passenger ingress and egress.  Some Tesla engineers have however admitted the attraction of them as way to generate publicity and (hopefully) attract sales may have been considered during the design process.

Bricklin SV-1 (1974-1975, left) and DMC DeLorean (1981-1983, right).

Two of the best known of the doomed gull-wing cars were the Bricklin SV1 and the DeLorean, both the creations of individuals with interesting histories.  Malcolm Bricklin’s (b 1939) first flirtation with the automotive business was his introduction into the US market of the Subarus, built by the Japanese conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries.  Having successfully imported the company’s scooters for some years, the model Mr Bricklin in 1968 chose was the 360, a tiny, egg-shaped device which had been sold in Japan for a decade, the rationale underlying his selection being it was so small and light it was exempt from just about any regulations.  Although really unsuited to US motoring conditions it was (at US$1300) several hundred dollars cheaper than a Volkswagen Beetle and had a fuel consumption around a third that delivered by the even the more economical US-built cars so it found a niche and some ten-thousand were sold before that gap in the market was saturated.  Ever imaginative, Mr Bricklin then took his hundreds of unsold 360s and re-purposed them essentially as large dodgem-cars, renting unused shopping-mall car-parks as ad-hoc race tracks and offering “laps” for as little as $US1.00.  He advertised “no speed limits” to attract the youth market but given the little machines took a reported 56 seconds for the 0-60 mph (0-100 km/h) run, reaching the legal limit in a car-park would have been a challenge.  Mr Bricklin achieved further success with Subaru’s more conventional (in a front wheel drive (FWD) context) 1000 and the corporation would later buy out his US interests for was thought to be a most lucrative transaction for both parties.

1969 Subaru 360 Deluxe.

His eponymous gull-winged creation was the SV-1 which, although nominally positioned as a “sports car” was marketed also as a “safety-vehicle” (hence the SV).  It certainly contained all of the safety features of the time and in that vein was offered mostly in lurid “high visibility” colors although the prototypes for an up-market “Chairman” version were displayed in more restrained black or white.  It was ahead of its time in one way, being fitted with neither ash-trays nor cigarette lighters, Mr Bricklin not approving of smoking and regarding the distractions of lighting-up while at the wheel a safety hazard.  Whether in stable conditions the car could have succeeded is speculative but the timing was extraordinarily unlucky.  The V8-powered car arrived on the market in 1974 shortly after the first oil shock saw a spike in the price of gasoline and in the midst of the recession and inflation which followed in the wake of that.  Between its introduction and demise, the costs of the SV1 more than doubled and there were disruptions to the production process because supply problems (or unpaid bills depending on who was asked) meant the AMC engine had to be replaced with a Ford power-plant.  By the time production ended, some 3000 had been built, but, not discouraged, Mr Bricklin would go on to import Fiat sports cars and the infamous Yugo before being involved with a variety of co-ventures with Chinese partners.

1970 Pontiac GTO.

John DeLorean (1925–2005) was a genuinely gifted engineer who emerged as one of the charismatic characters responsible for some of the memorable machines General Motors (GM) produced during its golden age of the 1950s & 1960s.  Under Mr DeLorean’s leadership, Pontiac in 1964 released the GTO which is considered (though contested by some) the first “muscle car” and the one responsible for the whole genre which would flourish for a crazy half-dozen years and in 1969 the Grand Prix which defined a whole market segment.  Apparently, the Grand Prix, produced at a low cost and sold at a high price was one of the most profitable lines of the era.  Given this, Mr DeLorean expected a smooth path to the top of GM but for a variety of reasons there were internal tensions and in 1973 he resigned to pursue his dream of making his own car.  It took years however to reach fruition because the 1970s were troubled times and like the Bricklin SV1, the DeLorean Motor Company’s (DMC) gull-winged DeLorean was released into a world less welcoming then had been anticipated.  By 1981, the world was again in recession and the complicated web of financing arrangements and agreements with the UK government to subsidize productions could have worked only if the design was good, demand was strong and the product was well-built, none of which was true.

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix 428 SJ.

As the inventory of unsold cars grew, so did the debt and desperate for cash, Mr DeLorean was persuaded (apparently without great difficulty) to become involved in the cocaine trafficking business which certainly offered fast money but his co-conspirator turned out to be an FBI informant who was a career criminal seeking a reduced sentence (on a unrelated matter) by providing the bureau with “a big scalp”.  At trial in 1984, Mr DeLorean was acquitted on all charges under the rule of "entrapment" but by then DMC was long bankrupt.  In the years since, the car has found a cult following, something due more to its part in the Back to the Future films than any dynamic qualities it possessed.  It was competent as a road car despite the rear-engine configuration and the use of an uninspiring power-plant but, apart from the stainless-steel bodywork and of course the doors, it had little to commend it although over the years there have been a number of (ultimately aborted) revivals and plans remain afoot for an electric gull-wing machine using the name to be released in 2024 or 2025.