Darracq V8
Darracq
Automobiles Darracq S.A. was a French motor vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1896 by Alexandre Darracq.
Using part of the substantial profit he had made from selling his Gladiator bicycle factory, Alexandre Darracq began operating from a plant in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes. The company started by building electric motor carriages until 1900 when they produced their first vehicle with an internal combustion engine. The Darracq automobile company prospered and the 1904 "Flying Fifteen" was a production model of exceptional quality that helped the company capture a ten percent share of the French auto market.
In 1902, Alexandre Darracq signed a contract with Adam Opel to jointly produce vehicles in the German Empire under the brand name "Opel Darracq." Three years later, the company expanded to the Britain, incorporating the A. Darracq Company (1905) Limited with a capitalization of £650,000. In 1906 the company expanded to Portello, a Milan suburb in Italy. They established Società Italiana Automobili Darracq (SIAD) through a licensing with Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan. The business did not do well and Darracq shut it down in 1909 but a new partnership called Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (A.L.F.A.) acquired the business which a few years later was called Alfa Romeo. In 1907, Darracq formed Sociedad Anonima Espanola de Automoviles Darracq in Vitoria, Spain with a capitalization of 1,000,000 pesetas.
V8 Engines
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft.
In its simplest form, it is basically two straight-4 engines sharing a common crankshaft. However, this simple configuration, with a single-plane crankshaft, has the same secondary dynamic imbalance problems as two straight-4s, resulting in vibrations in large engine displacements. As a result, since the 1920s most V8s have used the somewhat more complex crossplane crankshaft with heavy counterweights to eliminate the vibrations. This results in an engine which is smoother than a V6, while being considerably less expensive than a V12 engine. Racing V8s continue to use the single plane crankshaft because it allows faster acceleration and more efficient exhaust system designs.
A Century
A century (from the Latin centum, meaning one hundred) is one hundred consecutive years. It is also a Roman term. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages.