CTA arsenal

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CTA Arsenal at the Monaco Historic Vehicle Grand Prix, 2010

The CTA Arsenal was a French Grand Prix - race cars of 1946/47 have been built by the three copies. CTA Arsenal were entered for the 1947 and 1948 French Grand Prix .

Not least thanks to the relationships between the French racing legend Raymond Sommer , the Center d'étude technique de l'automobile et du cycle (CTA), the forerunner of the Union technique de l'automobile, du motocycle et du cycle , UTAC, managed to obtain state funding for the construction of a new racing car. It should build on the French prewar successes of Bugatti , Delahaye and Talbot . Sommer was also part of the design team. The project manager was the longtime chief engineer of Delage, Albert Lory, who worked for the defense and aviation company Arsenal de l'Aéronautique in Châtillon (Hauts-de-Seine) . Lory had previously designed the engine for the very successful Delage Grand Prix of 1926. The racing cars were built in the Arsenal, from which the name is derived.

V8 engine

Lory also contributed the engine here. According to the formula valid at the time - a maximum displacement of 4500 cm³ for uncharged engines or 1500 cm³ for supercharged engines with no weight limit - he designed a cast-iron V8 with a fork angle of 90 ° and a displacement of 1482 cm³ ( bore × stroke = 60 × 65.6 mm). The cylinder heads were not removable. Provided four overhead were further camshaft , two valves per cylinder and dual ignition (two spark plugs per cylinder) and as a loader two Roots blower with a pressure of 2.6 bar. The original output was 215 hp (158 kW) at 6000 rpm and could be increased to a competitive 265 hp (195 kW) at 7500 rpm or by 1948 to 275 hp at 8000 rpm.

Power transmission

Indicating attracts the engine was a four-speed gearbox of Cotal in which the programs were selected electrically. The gear change was only triggered when the clutch pedal was pressed (“pre-selection gear”). A multi-disc clutch from De Ram transmitted the power to the horizontally inclined cardan shaft.

Chassis and body

The chassis consisted of a simple ladder frame with independent front and rear suspension . The wheels were stored in horizontally movable silent blocks . The suspension consisted of two torsion bars at the front and two at the rear, the front ones being mounted lengthways and the rear ones crossed. The hydraulically operated, self-adjusting Lockheed - drum brakes worked on all four wheels. These were wire- spoke wheels with central locking from the Rudge- Whitworth brand with Dunlop tires measuring 500 × 17 at the front and 700 × 16 at the rear. The body was made by hand from chrome - molybdenum - sheet steel , a material that was more readily available immediately after the Second World War than the usual light metals.

Problems

It turned out that the vehicle with 737 kg was significantly heavier than the competition (especially Alfa-Romeo and Maserati) with 585–610 kg.

However, this handicap was not the main point of criticism. The car was considered to be too complex, the ladder frame was unable to cope with the performance and was also much too high, partly caused by the cardan shaft running under the driver . The result was disastrous driving characteristics. When it was first tested in early September 1947 on the Montlhéry test track, the vehicle could not be kept in a straight line at high speed.

Racing disaster

Although there was obviously a lot of development work to be done, the CTA arsenal was announced for launch at the French Grand Prix in Lyon on September 21st . It can be assumed that the government put pressure on and wanted to see the CTA at the start of the domestic race.

Even the qualification was sobering: Of 25 vehicles registered, 18 made it into the grid, the CTA Arsenal in 13th place. Half a minute was missing to catch up with top drivers Henri Louveau ( Maserati 4CL ) and Louis Chiron ( Talbot-Lago T26C ). It got worse. The clutch failed at the start, which led to engine damage; the CTA arsenal didn't even make it across the starting line.

The racing car was not revised; instead, two more vehicles were built for the French Grand Prix on July 18, 1948 in Reims . Sommer and Eugene Martin were again scheduled as drivers. When it became clear that the CTA Arsenal had no chance again, they were withdrawn after the first day of training. A presentation at the Salon de l'Auto in Paris in October and then at the Grand Palais were the last public appearances of a CTA arsenal for decades.

Both CTA arsenals were then located in the Talbot plant in Suresnes for several years , although it is not clear whether Talbot owner Anthony Lago had bought them or only approved their accommodation. Then the track of one vehicle is lost. The other was in the early 1960s, the Automobile Museum of Jackie Pichon in Clères ( Normandy ). It was entered for the Grand Prix historique de Monaco in 2010. The mechanical repairs to the car were only completed shortly before the event and the vehicle had not yet been painted. Above all, there was no time for thorough tests - an ironic parallel to the unsuccessful start in Lyon. The car could only take part in the second qualification, where it achieved a respectable result. However, they did not participate in the race itself due to uncertainties about the brakes, which is also ironic: the third start of a CTA arsenal also failed, even if it was done out of caution this time and not because of a defect.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  2. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  3. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  4. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  5. ↑ CTA ARSENAL - Definición - Significado (motorgiga.com), accessed on June 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  6. ↑ CTA ARSENAL - Definición - Significado (motorgiga.com), accessed on June 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  7. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  8. ↑ CTA ARSENAL - Definición - Significado (motorgiga.com), accessed on June 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  9. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  10. ↑ CTA ARSENAL - Definición - Significado (motorgiga.com), accessed on June 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  11. ↑ CTA ARSENAL - Definición - Significado (motorgiga.com), accessed on June 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  12. ↑ molybdenum
  13. ↑ CTA ARSENAL - Definición - Significado (motorgiga.com), accessed on June 23, 2011 (Spanish)
  14. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed June 24, 2011 (English)
  15. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  16. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed on June 23, 2011 (English)
  17. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed June 24, 2011 (English)
  18. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed June 24, 2011 (English)
  19. ↑ CTA ARSENAL - Definición - Significado (motorgiga.com), accessed on June 24, 2011 (Spanish)
  20. ↑ leblogauto.com 2007 on the death of Eugene Martin
  21. ↑ French pride rebuffed again! (8W), accessed June 24, 2011 (English)
  22. ↑ 2010 Monaco Historic Grand Prix (ultimatecarpage.com), accessed on June 24, 2011 (English)
  23. ↑ Forum ten-tenths.com the French Grand Prix at Rouen in 1962
  24. ↑ 2010 Monaco Historic Grand Prix (ultimatecarpage.com), accessed on June 24, 2011 (English)
  25. ↑ 2010 Monaco Historic Grand Prix (ultimatecarpage.com), accessed on June 24, 2011 (English)