"All images courtesy RM Auctions Of all the many beautiful Ferraris of the sixties, it's hard to pick a favourite. There was something so individual and unique about each of the cars that were made in Maranello in that golden "
The Joy of Weber
Now, we’re no mechanics here at Influx towers, but there’s something we love about a good old fashioned carburettor.
And for some reason, when it has the word Weber on it, they have something of a carnal quality that tips us over the edge.
There’s must be something about the mechanical wheez, link and flow of a car that predates fuel injection that turns us on. They may not be the most efficient way of controlling the mixture of gas and fluid that enters the engine, but boy do the right kind of carbs look good.
Weber carbs in particular, all shiny potted and menacing looking, reached their apogee of beauty when applied to the engine of Ferrari’s 250TR (top), we reckon. But they also look lovely applied to a nice small block chevy head (above).
And Weber was always an Italian company (which surprises us), and they now operate from Spain, apparently. We imagined that Webers were good old, gas guzzling American boys.
We’d take these pieces of mechanistic beauty over the hidden chimera that is the fuel injector any day. At least, from an aesthetic point of view.
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1989 i had a mini 1275gt it was british raceing green with a white roof under the bonnet was an `a` series engine bored out to 1380 a scatter cam, lcb peco big bore exhaust and a single 45 dcoe webber carb the sound the carb made was great a noise you dont here any more a sort of a sucking roar. the car went like stink until the gearbox failed sold the decent stuff and scrapped the car brought a mark 3 xr3i after still miss the noise that carb made now.
weber,dellorto,sidedraft,downdraft….all words that evoke nostalgia and dread in equal measure.remember when i was a sprog and still had cars simple enough to wave a spanner at,maxing out 3 credit cards to buy throttle bodies and emerald management for a project i had on webers.missed the induction noise but didnt miss it stalling on hot days and cold days in equal measure.i had it to every mechanic worth his salt and they all blamed the cams i was using for the sporadic delivery….1 day with the throttle bodies and a rolling road set up and i had a car you could barely hold back and would start first turn of the key.
however they did not sound (or look) as good.
There is a good reason why Weber carbs are still so popular for kit cars and modified vehicles; they are just so reliable and simple and do exactly what it says on the tin. In these days where fuel injection kit, Megasquirts and bike carbs are all affordable alternatives the Weber is still king for most of us. Whether it’s linkage is progressive or synchronous, whether it’s a single downdraught DGAV or twin sidedraught 45 DCOEs there nothing to beat this king of the inlet manifold.