photos from Germany's fine museums

[zelatore]

Gee....I go all the way to Europe and instead of seeing all the culturally important stuff what do I do? I go to a bunch of car museums.

(OK, we did some of the cultural stuff too, but you get the point)

Anyway, a few pictures that I though might be intersting to the group.
This first set is from the Porsche museum. It's a marinized 928 V8 done for an offshore boat owned by driver Jacky Ickx.

[zelatore]

The next photos are a series of BMW aircraft engines. In particular, I thought George would like the double-row rotary motor. I couldn't begin to get all the details of it in the picture - it's ungodly complicated just to look at!

[zelatore]

Of course, I've got a ton more photos but I doubt eveybody really cares much. If you'd like to see some more of the BMW museum and BMW Welt (which I highly recomend if you're in Munich) here's a link to the photos I posted on a pic hosting site for some friends.

http://s816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/BMW%20museum%20and%20BMW%20Welt/

[gcarter]

Don, thanks for the pictures of the 801 !!!!!!!!
Did they happen to mention they built (or at least the parts for) a "double" version of that engine?
So it had either 28 or 36 cylinders (I don't remember which, I'll have to look it up) and rated at more than 4,000 HP!!!!!!!
One of the things really unusual about it was it took the power from the rear portion of the engine to the front through shafts that ran between the front cylinders!!!
Pretty interesting stuff.

[ACE51]

Cool stuff!

The KKK makes turbochargers? :confused:

[The Hedgehog]

Went to the Deutche Museum when I was a kid. Loved it.

[MOP]

George dug out a few fabulous aircraft engine books when Ken and I went to visit him, the intricacy of some of the designs was amazing.

[zelatore]

Don, thanks for the pictures of the 801 !!!!!!!!
Did they happen to mention they built (or at least the parts for) a "double" version of that engine?
So it had either 28 or 36 cylinders (I don't remember which, I'll have to look it up) and rated at more than 4,000 HP!!!!!!!
One of the things really unusual about it was it took the power from the rear portion of the engine to the front through shafts that ran between the front cylinders!!!
Pretty interesting stuff.

Not much aviation stuff, only what you see in the pics. In the background of one of the 801 pics you can also see a jet motor they produced toward the end of the war, however the guide said it was basically a failure as by that point they simply didn't have the resources (men or materials) to do a proper job on a new technology like that.

Typically, you can look at just about any engine and see 'how it works' at a glance, at least if you've ever torn down an engine yourself. I can walk up to an F1 motor or a massive diesel and everything's familer and fairly obvious. But the big double rotary is just overwhelming. I can't even imagine how massive the 4-row version would have been! :eek:

At the Mercedes museum, they did have a little bit of boat stuff from their very early, turn of the century, days. Here are a few photos of showing uses of their first engine in the first patented motor car, a 'motorcycle', and a river launch. Also a pic of a slightly later, more powerfull version of that motor by itself. This would be before there was a 'mercedes'; from the days of Daimler and Benz each working concurently but seperatly in Germany.

I have to say, I only went to the Mercedes museum because I was already in the area to see the Porsche museum. I'm not really a big Mercedes fan, but I came away with more respect for them and the role they've played in automotive history.