Johnny's Garage - The Secrets of Cars

Johnny's Garage - The Secrets of Cars

By Johnny GarageLeisureAutomotive
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Johnny's Garage - The Secrets of Cars episodes

  • The Secrets of BMW M1 E26, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    In the 70s, BMW needed a car to fight against Porsche in GT Championship.

    So they established an agreement with Lamborghini to design and realize a sports car from white paper to race on tracks. After some years BMW decided to complete by themself the project of the car, that during its process of development had involved, Giampaolo Dallara, Italengineering, Giorgetto Giugiaro.
    Top BMW-6-cylinder engine with 24 valves, dry-sump, and tubular steel space frame chassis, made one of the best cars ever made.

    9 min
  • The Secrets of Alfa Romeo SZ, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    Alfa Romeo SZ born in 1989, with its astonishing design made a fixed mark in the minds of Alfa Romeo enthusiasts. Last development of Alfetta platform (born in 1972), with all the evolution of the last 17 years, with synthetic resin body panels (but the roof on aluminum), 6 headlights, was a race car for daily use.  

    Yes, it deserved more power, the 210 hp was enough to enjoy the good drivability, but was clear or anyone that with 300-350 hp they could write new parameters.
    The Beauty Monster.

    12 min
  • The Secrets of Lancia Aurelia, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    During WWII, Lancia was thinking about the new car to substitute Lancia Aprilia.

    They developed many different solutions on prototypes, as:
    - middle V8 engine
    - central drive steering
    - V8 frontal engine
    - V6 engine with different angles to avoid vibration, between 40° and 80°
    In the end, they made a V6 60° frontal engine, transaxle rear gearbox, drum brakes close the differential to central weight, and to lower the not suspended masses of wheels.
    All of this developed between 1942 and 1950.  
    This car was produced from 1950 in 1958.

    8 min
  • The Secrets of Subaru Impreza, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    Subaru Impreza: Natural Born Rally Car. This is the "normal-production" car closest to what a Rally Car should be:  - Low center of Gravity - no vibration engine, so high rpm without any problem and a boxer engine gives you that - perfectly balanced car as weight distribution - All Wheels Drive with symmetrical torque distribution, so no delay on traction - powerful and reliable engine: one of the best engines ever made - do you need others?

    10 min
  • The Secrets of Chevrolet Corvette C1, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    Chevrolet needed a sports-car with simple but reliable mechanics and good performance.

    After the first 6-line-cylinder engine version, not really impressive about hp, they put the for V-8-engine of Chevrolet after 40 years.
    The success begins and is still alive today, with the C8 version with the middle engine. Here we talk about the C1 Corvette.

    9 min
  • The Secrets of Mercedes W124, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    W124 is an iconic model that represents very well Mercedes in its evolution from classic Mercedes of 60s and 70s to the modern and actual system and process that Mercedes uses to realize cars.

    They introduced CAD in developing design, in developing chassis and engineered systems (suspensions, engines, gearbox, frames, and subframes) they developed safety for driver and occupants and even for the pedestrians in case of impact, they developed one of the best aerodynamic for the class of car, they introduced microprocessor in car's managing.
    They developed this project in about 7 years before introducing the car to the folks. This car is not only one of the nicest of ever made by Mercedes (thanks Bruno Sacco for this design) but is even the exposition of the Mercedes process of developing and realize cars in the 80s.
    Today, unfortunately, Mercedes not reserve this brand attention to all of its production.

    11 min
  • The Secrets of Audi TT, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    TT is a coupe car made by Audi since 1998. Based on the platform used for Golf and A3, exprime an original and unique design that immediately made this car as a piece of art. The first series had a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine turbocharged and was front wheels drive or AWD.

    Dynamically nervous, due to weight distribution (all in the front part) and suspension tuned for steering precision, was later got better for the average driver.
    The first series is my favorite.

    6 min
  • The Secrets of Chevrolet Corvair, Italian POV | Johnny's Garage

    Chevrolet in 60s needed an entry-level car to win against Europe-small cars after WWII was imported in the US. Competitors were Volkswagen Beetle, Renault Dauphine, and other middle-size cars, with rear and air-cooled engines, with low fuel need, low maintenance, and fair performance. The result was a car with a 6-cylinder rear boxer air-cooled engine, with very nice design, better room inside, better performance, and beautiful sound. Yes, some adjustment for suspensions and brakes was needed, but nobody is perfect.

    7 min

About Johnny's Garage - The Secrets of Cars

From the publisher's feed

I'm the mildly eccentric author of this car's enthusiast PodCast channel where I offer my Italian opinion about car's Secrets.