Kraft Haus Technik [1984 KHT Nemesis]

[squidhead]

Disclamer - this design is made by TurboJ, and is awesome. I only added the blinkers, 'cause I don't want to spoil it.
Click for more J.S.C. works
Also - this is how awesome of a story you get if you come around with your own premise to "why you need KHT to work on your cars"

1960 Cisitalia J.S.C. 1100 KHT Stradale

In 1955 Cisitalia coachbuilders have collaborated with J.S.C, in building the Cisitalia J.S.C. GT-C 1100. A light weight single seater racer, powered by a 1.1 liter i4 rear mounted engine. The car was campaigned by Cisitalia - J.S.C. in Mille Miglia through 56 and 57, reaching high results by the end of the campaign. By 1958 the project was dropped by Cisitalia, seeing as Mille Miglia would not return in 1958, leavign J.S.C. with 17 racecars not compliant with any racing reglament, rendering them virtually useless.

In 1959, Kraft Haus Technik has started to put themselves on the world manufacturer's map, which prompted J.S.C. to contact the small German company. Seeing how OSCA and Abarth are selling their essentially racing cars with minor modifications to the public as road going vehicles, Kraft Haus Technik was given the assignment to convert 16 of the 17 cars to road going specification, with the intent to sell them to private owners. First car arrived in Germany in late 1959, just as the last Monaco roadster has rolled off the production line.

Right after KHT test driver lost his driver's license and fined for driving a road illegal vehicle in the streets, KHT began their work on legalizing the car. The 115hp high revving engine had to be tamed down, to comply with the noise regulations, as well as being able to run on a more common 92 ron petrol, so the compression ratio was dropped through the use of modified OEM pistons and a thicker head gasket. First prototype used 2 head gaskets instead of one, while all the rest used custom gaskets provided by J.S.C. The exhaust was left relatively untouched, with only one muffler bringing the noise down to legal levels. By adjusting the ignition the knock was eliminated and the result was a still pretty decent 106hp and 106nm of torque, and retained it's high redline.

The safety standards, thankfully were not too strict, and by re-welding some of the sub-frame, and with minor modifications to the bumpers and the interior the safety was raised to high enough standards for the car to receive the approval of TUV technical inspection. The interior, which pretty much was bare metal was mostly left unchanged, with only leather trim covering the doors, dashboard, and now included a carpet covering the floor. Seats were changed from racing buckets to comfortable but sporty seats, also covered in leather. Finishing off the interior was a basic radio, taken from the spare parts box of the now out of production Monaco Roadster.

The suspension was left unchanged in general, but received serious overhaul in the setup department, new springs and shocks, combined with antiroll bars and highly aggressive camber settings made for a more stable handling, with mild understeer replacing snap oversteer of the original. The last part was the racing slick tires, which had to be replaced by a road worthy analog. Continental AG provided their hardest slick tires, which were then hand modified to have rain grooves by Kraft Haus Technik (Note - using sports, not slicks, so this is fair street use). This was enough to consider the Cisitalia JSC a road car, and by the end of 1960 all 16 examples were converted.

Customers were allowed to purchase a what was essentially a race proven, de-tuned pieces of racing history for $57,000.


One of the Stradale versions of the Cisitalia J.S.C. fully restored and functional at Scottsdale Cars and Coffee.


Stats

0-100kph
Before - 7.5s/ After - 9.1

Top Speed
Before - 225kph / After - 206kph

Weight
Before - 576kg / After - 659kg

Max G
Before - 0.78/ After - 0.91

Engine

Max power
Before - 115hp / After - 106hp

Max torque
Before - 116nm / After - 106nm

Responsiveness
Before - 52.5 / After - 51.6

Loudness
Before - 90 / After - 66.3

Smoothness
Before - 36.3 / After - 33.2

Reliability
Before - 28.9 / After - 36.2

Misc

Comfort
Before - 3.7 / After - 10.9

Driveability
Before - 7.7 / After - 33.1

Sportiness
Before - 22.3 / After - 27.0

Economy
Before - 12.25L/100km / After -13.6L/100km


Chassis history as of 2016

Being such a low production car, literally no manuals or information on maintenance or it's engineering is available, which makes it easy for KHT to track all of the Stradale versions, once the owners contact us with questions regarding the car.

#01 - Company owned by Kraft Haus Technik, Hamburg, Germany.
#02 - Private owned, Oslo, Norway
#03 - Private owned, Doha, Quatar.
#04 - Lethal crash in 1984 in the Alps.
#05 - Private owned, Moscow, Russia.
#06 - Converted back to race spec, crashed in 2014, Nurburgring, during the Historic Grand Prix
#07 - Private owned, Rome, Italy.
#08 - Private owned, converted back to race spec, Brisbane, Australia.
#09 - Company owned by Brown's Classic Autos, Scottsdale, USA, is for sale.
#10 - Private owned, Oslo, Norway.
#11 - Private owned, Stockholm, Sweden
#12 - Crashed in 1991 in Spain.
#13 - Private owned, Yokohama, Japan
#14 - Destroyed by rust during transportation on a deck of a ship from Kiel to Virginia USA.
#15 - Lost track in 1978.
#16 - Private owned, Tartu, Estonia.
#17 - Was never converted for street use and resides in J.S.C. private collection

[Oskiinus]

This looks like how Mirage would look in uber-racing trim... lol

[Awildgermanappears]

IMP is IMPressed by this design. (Ok that was terrible, I'll stahp now) But the 'shop ain't bad.

[Sillyworld]

I love the details of the owners. Nice photoshop as well

[squidhead]

IMP is IMPressed by this design. (Ok that was terrible, I'll stahp now) But the 'shop ain't bad.

That was a crIMPworthy pun.... no... that's even worse

[Vri404]

The owners for car #08 lines up quite well with my company. Doubt it would be in the GAG collection though.

[squidhead]

1971 Mulsanne.

Effectively solving the engine sourcing problem of the concept car, Kraft Haus started working on updating the design both of the body and the Typ850 engine. Having obtained more precise machinery, and quite a few highly experienced engineers team began work on the Mulsanne, the car to replace the now highly aging Brooklands.

Still using the twin 4 barrel carburetors, the revised engine now spotted long tubular race inspired headers, higher compression ratio pistons and demanded no less than 98 ron petrol. In return you got 300hp and 467nm of torque of pushrod glory that proved itself in the 1966 BRC championship and the streets, in the street legal version of the Brooklands.



A new 5 speed manual with an open diff was also built, based off the Getrag design used in the previously and now manufactured in-house by Flug automotive, which is also where the engines, brake and suspensions were now assembled. Essentially Kraft Haus Technik became a design and engineering studio, with a small plant where they assembled cars out of parts delivered from Flug.

Car wise, the thing that really stood the Mulsanne from the outgoing brooklands was the interior, as the mulsanne was not a racing car to begin with, so a highly luxurious hand made high quality interior was fitted, as well as 8-track player and sound system created especially for the car by Danish specialists from Bang & Olufsen. The interior for the first time in KHT history included soft plastics under the leather to reduce trauma in case of a crash, and the similar attention to detail was seen everywhere in the mulsanne.



Dynamically wise, the 300hp 1.3 ton supercar swapped the first 100km in just 5.1 seconds, and went on to top out at 265kph. The handling was perfected over the past 3 years by KHT's team of test drivers, now being able to reach a 1.05G through the corners. The run of the Mulsanne was very short, starting in 1971 and ending in 1972, with ony 1600 ever made. Each was sold at a hefty price of $70,000 with a 50% markup, bringing nice money to KHT, but it was all about to change.

In 1972 Viktor Kruger, KHT PR manager and Flug owner saw the potential of Flug automotive and proposed to close down KHT and concentrate on highly profitable Flug. This proposition brought on a quarrel between Viktor and Kaspar Becker, the second founder of Kraft Haus Technik. In mid 1972 Flug automotive separated themselves from KHT and stopped provision of parts required to build the Mulsanne, in an attempt to pressure KHT into selling themselves to Flug Automotive, becoming their racing team, working on Flug racing program only. This attempt failed, and by 1972 KHT had no production, but was still independent, now run by the company's original founder Kaspar Becker alone.

[TurboJ]

I think I'll need a new keyboard because of a short circuit from my excessive drooling.

The Mulsanne is seriously cool - racing spirit combined with vintage elegance - I like this style.
Your photoshop work is also getting even better (if possible). Love the KHT logos on the centercaps

[Awildgermanappears]

That Mulsanne must have been a massive success considering the ridiculously short production run. Lamborghini only managed to sell a tad over 2000 Countach during its 16-year run.

[squidhead]

That Mulsanne must have been a massive success considering the ridiculously short production run. Lamborghini only managed to sell a tad over 2000 Countach during its 16-year run.

1. Pricetag. Just by basic inflation calculations, which are not included in the game, we're looking at a pricetag of $70,000 compared to lambo's adjusted $400,000.
2. Quality. Unlike the Countach the mulsanne did not try to poison or burn the driver, and was of the high German quality, unlike the Lambo (And we're talking quality sliders of +4 on hand made interior and +12 of the stereo.
3. We are actually a small factory, not a bunch of guys in a shed hand building everything, so we can produce a quite a few cars per day when we really want it.
4. I am guessing due to our motorsport campaign we are also more visible on the buyer's radar than Lamborghini

[Awildgermanappears]

Even with comparatively good value for money it is a huge number for any 1970s sports car.

[squidhead]

Even with comparatively good value for money it is a huge number for any 1970s sports car.

Hypercar desirability level is way over 160, so I'm guessing it sells good.

[Awildgermanappears]

As if it was difficult to game the desirability caculator in those earlier years.

[TurboJ]

As if it was difficult to game the desirability caculator in those earlier years.

Some people play the game to see a lot of green blocks on the market window, others play to create an alternative history...

[squidhead]

1973 Parabolica

As Flug and Viktor Kruger separated themselves In 1972, Kraft Haus has been left out to dry, with no access to mass producing engines and some highly advanced machinery. Fortunately previous contracts paid off, and a deal was easily struck with JSC S.p.A Motori Speciali. Unfortunately, even though KHT could now resume production of the Mulsanne, it meant that the whole engine bay would have to be re-modeled to house a new engine, and to add to the problems, the customer engines were almost 80hp less powerful than the engines previously used in the Mulsanne, meaning the performance drop would be massive. Without much hesitation, using limited funds they had KHT once again had to work overtime based on pure enthusiasm for half the pay a specialist should be getting to present a completely new chassis, able to take advantage of the lighter 3.5 unit from JSC.

The new chief designer of KHT, Marco Noto had a lot to prove, as this was his first work designing the exterior and interior. Working closely with Claus Hoch, the materials specialist a FR prototype was built using lightweight fiberglass, covering the chassis designed by Kaspar Becker, which was also the last chassis he designed before ultimately retiring in 1976. The shape of the car was a mix between the classic 70's and the outlandish futuristic concepts, and was very polarizing in opinions, but Becker liked what he saw from Noto and greenlit the body.


Mk1 Parabolica GTS in original condition.

What resulted in 1973 was a 1100kg lightweight rear drive sports car. The interior was finished off with even more detailed high quality than the mulsanne, and used a similar Bang & Olufsen stereo system, which sadly, restricted the car to be a 2 seater only. 220hp engine fed the wheels through a 5 speed manual gearbox, managing a 0-100 run to be done with in 6.5 seconds, with a top speed of 216kph. The car proved itself worthy of it's market in GT categories, costing a tremendous for KHT $70,000 with a gigantic 70% markup from KHT.


Mk1 Parabolica still interests the modern petrolhead world, as many became affordable enough to be a weekend toy or a project.


By 1974 the shockwave of the parabolica died down and the design stopped being it's main selling point, so a restyle was in order. Noto began his work on making the parabolica more aggressive, and re-worked the front and rear ends of the car, while a new contract with JSC was formed, this time for the new turbocharged versions. As the design was already done before the engines first arrived a problem arised. The cooling was nowhere near enough to run the engine reliably and the power output was suffering due to the intercooler not getting enough air. A quick re-design of the hood was done providing more airflow, while the intercooling problem was solved in the most Italian way possible - by mounting it outside the car.


MK2 parabolica GT-T, fully original condition

The increased power output required much wider tires, so Avon was once again contracted to produce bespoke tires for the car, and once again, like with the Mulsanne prototype - the width of the new wheels meant they would not fit the original body. Thankfully solution was already found once, even though it was not as elegant as KHT CEO would have hoped for. Marco Noto was once again let loose on the car, which he cut and riveted to his own desires, producing the now very sought after GT-T body, sporting flared wheel arches, increasing the aggressive look, borderlining on racing design.


The rear of the Mk2 Parabolica in GT-T trim.

1975 saw the release of the restyled car, and the regular GTS trim was still available, sporting most of the design features, but not the flared arches and the intercooler, since it was still powered by the 220hp N/A version of the 3.5 liter v8. Many considered the GTS to be the better car, as turbocharging was still a new technology, and the cleaner design was welcomed more by the people who had to make sure their car looked good parked next to astons and ferraris. The GT-T however, now sported a 290hp twinturbo engine, still powering the rear wheels through the 5 speed gearbox. 0-100 now took 6.2 seconds, and top speed reached 245kph. The mediocre sales of the car however prompted KHT to reduce the quality of the interior while still retaining it bespoke hand made units. Handling was refined on race tracks, but was still more geared towards comfort and GT class cruising.

The parabolica did not get KHT out of it's troubles, but it did buy some valuable time and breathing room to come back stronger than ever, sadly that comeback was not as good as they hoped, but that is another story.