Description

A sports car (sportscar or sport car) is a small, usually two seat,two door automobile designed for spirited performance and nimblehandling.[2] Sports cars may be spartan or luxurious but highmaneuverability and minimum weight are requisite. The sports cartraces its roots to early 20th century touring cars and roadsters.These raced in early rallys, such as the Herkomer Cup, PrinzHeinrich Fahrt, and Monte Carlo. Though the term would not becoined until after World War One, the first sports cars areconsidered to be the 3 litre 1910 Vauxhall 20 hp (15 kW) and the27/80PS Austro-Daimler designed by Ferdinand Porsche. These wouldshortly be joined by the French DFP (which became sporters aftertuning by H.M. and W. O. Bentley) and the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.In the U.S., where the type was variously called roadster,speedster, runabout, or raceabout, there was Apperson, Kissel,Marion, Midland, National, Overland, Stoddard-Dayton, and Thomasamong small models, while Chadwick, Mercer, Stutz, and Simplex wereamong large models. In 1921, Ballot premiered its 2LS, with aremarkable 75 hp (56 kW) DOHC two liter, designed by Ernest Henry(formerly of Peugeot's Grand Prix program), capable of 150 km/h (90mph); at most, one hundred were built in four years. This wasfollowed by the SOHC 2LT and 2LTS. The same year, Benz built asupercharged 28/95PS four for the Coppa Florio; Max Sailer won.Simson in 1924 offered a Paul Henze-designed 60 hp (45 kW) DOHC 2liter four, the Simson Supra Type S, in a long-wheelbase 120 km/h(60 mph) tourer and 115 km/h (71 mph) twin-carburettor sporter;only thirty were sold, against around three hundred of the SOHCmodel and 750 of the pushrod-six Type R. Duerkopp's Zoller-blowntwo liter in 1924, as well.[4] There was a clear cleavage by 1925.As four-seaters were more profitable, two-seaters increasinglyturned over to specialist manufacturers, led by Alvis,Aston-Martin, and Frazer-Nash, with shoestring budgets, fanaticfollowers, and limited sales (today exemplified by Aston andMorgan): between 1921 and 1939, 350 Astons were built; 323Frazer-Nashes in the period 1924–39. By the end of the 1920s, ACproduced a 2 liter six, the 3.5 liter Nazzaro had a three-valve OHC(only until 1922), while French makers Amilcar, Bignan,Hispano-Suiza, and Samson had the typical small four-cylindersporters and Delage, Hotchkiss, and Chenard-Walcker the largetourers. Benz introduced the powerful SS and SSK, and Alfa Romeo,the Vittorio Jano-designed 6C. Two companies would offer the firstreally reliable sports cars: Austin with the Seven and MorrisGarages (MG) with the Midget.[citation needed] The Seven wouldquickly be "rodded" by numerous companies (as the Type 1 would be ageneration later), including Bassett and Dingle (Hammersmith,London); in 1928, a Cozette blower was fitted to the Seven SuperSports, while Cecil Kimber fitted an 847 cc Minor engine, and soldmore Midgets in the first year than MG's entire previousproduction.