Desmodromic Valves

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@xxxxxxxxx>]

I haven't *seen* desmodromic valves in an automobile, but I've *heard*
them.  The Mercedes Grand Prix car (W196, right?) of 1955 used them. 
And when Juan Manuel Fangio was the guest of honor at the Historics a
couple of years ago (or was it Mercedes' year, and he was reunited with
his old ride?), we were treated to a delicious display of him motoring
that car around the track.  

The best part: Mercedes had a camera crew taking shots of JMF from on
track.  The crew was riding in a 560SL with the top down; the
photographer was pointed backwards, clinging to the roll bar while the
driver tried to stay ahead of Fangio.  When they'd come through the
Corkscrew, where we were sitting, Fangio would *rush* forwards and then
drop back, *rush* and drop, trying to get the car to sound and look
right without ramming the back of the SL.

About the third or fourth time around, the cars disappeared under the
turn 9 bridge and, several seconds later, a roar arose from thousands of
throats on the other side of the hill.  Word came from the loudspeaker:
the camera car had spun, and was in the dirt at the side of the track. 
Fangio, never slow even in his late 70s as he was at the time, took
advantage of this to rocket past them.  He next appeared in the
Corkscrew many seconds sooner than his previous laps, and we got to see
him *bolt* down the hill.  As the engine shrieked up to the high part of
its powerband, he turned to the crowd, a huge grin visible under his
pudding-basin helmet, he lifted a hand off the wheel and waved just
before shifting.  The rear end squatted, gave a slight wiggle, and he
shot off with more of that high-frequency desmo roar.

As I've said before... THAT is the kind of little old man *I* wanna be
when I grow up.

- --Scott "The last of life, for which the first was made" Fisher

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