The wildest car at Pebble Beach....a Hoffman X8

[RDMcG]

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120821/CARNEWS04...

I have never even heard of an X8 engine, but someone built one.....a true outlier in automotive history this.......

Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 21st August 14:39

[hesnotthemessiah]

Wildest did you say?


Hmmmmm......not sure about wildest but it certainly is different.


Looks like the love child of a ménage à trois between a Fiat 500, a Citroen 2CV and a Beetle.

[nicanary]

It's not in Georgano's Encyclopedia, but I'm not surprised. At first I thought an X8 must be a rotary, but it's upright in the rear, and must be two v4s back to back, with a common crankcase.How do you lubricate that?

[LordBretSinclair]

hesnotthemessiah said:

Looks like the love child of a ménage à trois between a Fiat 500, a Citroen 2CV and a Beetle.

Maybe a foursome with a Jowett Javelin

[Steve Zodiac]

I much prefer the 1937 Czech Tatra air cooled V8, amazing car, .212 drag coefficient

[jamesatcandsc]

I was lucky to be there and see the Hoffman. I know its owner anyway because he is dedicated to weirdies (cars not me). He owns the one and only Paxton Phoenix, the Gregory, Mazda Cosmo and even a Greek-built Reliant Robin.
I wouldn't say the Hoffman was by any means the 'wildest' car at Pebble this year because the event was awash with Yankee specials and other super wild stuff, but the Hoffman was probably the most intriguing engineering blind alley.
The engine is very odd. I suppose you could call it an X, but it was more like two boxer fours turned on their sides and then mated in the middle.
Apparently it is neither particularly quick or torquey.
Fascinating thing, though, and I am desperate to drive it. In fact I was meant to, but the clutch gave out. So, another time...
I have a load of pictures of the car. If anyone is interested, I'll post a few tomorrow.

[RDMcG]

jamesatcandsc said:

I was lucky to be there and see the Hoffman. I know its owner anyway because he is dedicated to weirdies (cars not me). He owns the one and only Paxton Phoenix, the Gregory, Mazda Cosmo and even a Greek-built Reliant Robin.
I wouldn't say the Hoffman was by any means the 'wildest' car at Pebble this year because the event was awash with Yankee specials and other super wild stuff, but the Hoffman was probably the most intriguing engineering blind alley.
The engine is very odd. I suppose you could call it an X, but it was more like two boxer fours turned on their sides and then mated in the middle.
Apparently it is neither particularly quick or torquey.
Fascinating thing, though, and I am desperate to drive it. In fact I was meant to, but the clutch gave out. So, another time...
I have a load of pictures of the car. If anyone is interested, I'll post a few tomorrow.

Yea..grateful if you would post some. Its a real oddity.

[jamesatcandsc]

RDMcG said:

Yea..grateful if you would post some. Its a real oddity.

Probably be Friday now, on a photoshoot tomorrow. Sorry.

[jamesatcandsc]

As promised.
The people in the pictures are owner Myron Vernis, David Stevens (Brooks' son) and Jay Leno who showed a great interest in the car.

[LuS1fer]

I'd love to drive that round.

[Roy C]

Waiting for Jay Leno's video of it.

[RDMcG]

For what was basically a prototype, its surprisingly well executed, and looks like a production car.