GALPOT Weekly #32

Welcome to the review of blogs at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres", known as GALPOT Weekly #32.




This week started of at the at the Simply Italian parade at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. Where GALPOT regular David Root's ALFA Romeo 4C Special, above, won second place in an audience vote for best car present. You can see some of the competition David's Special was up against on this link.



Almost unbelievably the MG 14/40 MK IV sports, which won the Bristol Classic Car show Best Vintage Car Award winner, spent an unknown number of years disassembled and care fully stored under the concrete base of a shed until it was found in 1999.



The first ever DAF passenger car, seen above at last years Goodwood Festival of Speed, was only the second ever production vehicle to be offered with a variomatic gear box, more about the DAF 33 Luxe can be on this link.



For Americana Thursday we traveled back 50 years for the first of two visits to the 1962 Indianapolis 500. Honorary Pace car for the month of May was the recently launched Studebaker Avanti about which you can read more on this link.



The kink in the top rail of the door of the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta was the give away clue as to the identity of the car in the photo above. Strangely this is the only photo I took of a Ferrari on track between 1983 and 2011.

For all it's beauty no sooner had the works Cosworth DFX engine been installed in the back of the Lotus 96 Indy Challenger than the money ran out and the project was halted. Find out more about the still born Lotus 96 on this link.



Pole position for the 1962 Indy 500 went to Parnelli Jones who was given one hundred and fifty silver dollars by a rival owner being the first person to average 150 mph on all four of his qualifying laps, at the time a world record. Parnelli can be seen starting the race from the inside of the front row while the race winner Roger Ward starts right next to him. Find out what happened on the Roger's way to victory lane on this link.

I hope you have enjoyed catching up with last weeks events on "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" and I hope you will join me again next week when I'll start by looking at some of the exhibits on display at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #31

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #31 an overview of daily blogs posted at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres'.



Week #31 started off at Castle Combe with a look at the recent Motors TV Live Race Day, an action packed day of thirteen races of which I managed to catch 12. Chris Smiley is seen above in the second MINI Challenge race hanging on to third place prior to getting sent into the barriers, without injury, as his tyre is about to blow.



You can find out all about the 1927 MG 14/28 above and the "Imshi" chassis on which it is based, which I looked at on Tuesday on this link.



On Wednesday I started a new continental feature, first of the curious continentals featured was the 2 cylinder powered Panhard 24 bt.



Fifteen 1955 Chevrolet Bel Airs were present at the 1955 Indy 500 in a pace car capacity, the car that Chevrolet Sales Manager Thomas H Keating drove to pace the field in 1955 had a hole in the boot / trunk lid for a rear facing movie camera, which means that it was probably not the Bel Air above which I looked at on Thursday.



Ferrari's 250GT Pinin Farina Coupé, which was featured on Friday, was the first Ferrari designed for series production, the 1958 example above was delivered to 1958 World Champion Mike Hawthorns Tourist Trophy Garage and sold to an Irishman.



Yesterday I looked at the Lotus 77 'Adjustacar' which after a shaky start and a season of many modifications returned Lotus and Mario Andretti to victory lane in the season ending 1976 Japanese Grand Prix for the first time since 1974 and 1971 respectively. Above Grand Prix rookie Gunnar Nilsson is seen at the 1976 British Grand Prix.



Today's post features nine Group C sports cars which first appeared in Britain at Silverstone in May 1982. Above is the unsuccessful M482 from the hitherto successful, at Le Mans, Rondeau Team, which but for a Porsche 911 would have won the inaugural 1982 World Endurance Championship.

Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT Weekly #32" edition of "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres". I hope you will enjoy catching up using the links to last weeks posts and that you will join me again at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" for a blog in which a GALPOT reader won a prize at the Simply Italian parade at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu last weekend. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #30

Welcome to GALPOT Weekley #30 a review of the daily posts on the 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' blog.



This week I started off with a visit to the Spring Performance Car Action day at Castle Combe, which despite unseasonal inclement weather was an all blingin', slamin, surfin' and driftin' affair as exemplified by the Nissan Skyline drifting the wrong way through Camp Corner above.



Tom Killeen took out patent's on the design features of the monocoque Killeen K1 designed in 1950 and built for the 1953 season. It was Colin Coopers privilege to own the Killeen from 1979 to 1985 and he can be seen at the wheel above at Donington Park in 1983.



MK III Ford Cortina's were the subject of Wednesday's blog. The base 1300 model above, seen in Malta, is one of the lightly face lifted TD models introduced in late 1973 I did not know it at the time of the original post but a Ford Cortina features in a car chase in the 2011 Robert De Niro action movie 'Killer Elite'.



Like Europe's Ford Cortina the contemporary US Ford mid size car has featured in a relatively recent action film in the later case the 'Easy Handler' car gave it's name 'Gran Torino' to the Clint Eastwood thriller.



Ferrari Fridays post was dedicated to the memory of the most entertaining open wheel driver it has been my privilege to ever see in action.



The famous twin wing Lotus 76, which I looked at in yesterday blog, featured an electrically operated clutch and caused quite a stir when it was first shown to the public in 1974 however it proved to be a huge disappointment and nowhere near as competitive as the venerable Lotus 72.



Today's post reviews the Auto Italia Day at Brooklands last weekend where the AC Zagato AC 378 GT was one of a number of vehicles I had not seen before.

Thanks for joining me on "GALPOT Weekly #30", I hope you will enjoy catching up through the links and that you will join me on "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" in the week ahead when I'll be covering last Bank Holiday Mondays action packed race meeting at Castle Combe, on Wednesday I'll be starting a new regular "Continental" feature looking at cars made built in Europe starting with a Panhard. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #29

Welcome to GALPOT Weekley #29, the 2012 season is now well underway and this is reflected in the increased numbers of events I and the GALPOT team have been attending of late. The week started with a trip to a soaking Prescott where the 2012 Avon Tyres MSA British Hillclimb Championship got underway, Scott Rayson driving the mighty Chevrolet Special sand racer above did not come close to making the top 12 run off but was the fastest of the four sand racers present. Colin Cooper took no shortcuts when he hand cut the tubing for his Kayne Special III seen above at Oulton Park, the car was designed for towing his Kayne Special II to events but it turned out to be a handy competitor on the hills and in speed events. On Wednesday I looked at the Ford Corsair 2000E, one thing I forgot to mention was that in 1967 Eric Jackson and Ken Chambers took part in an epic race racing their Ford Corsair from Cape Town to Southampton against the RMS Windsor Castle. There are many myths about the events surrounding this competition for the full accurate story I highly recommend reading the Damn Long Way posts and disregarding almost everything else that has been posted on the internet regarding this http://damnlongway.com/blog/records/racing-the-windsor-castle/. Following up this story it has transpired that the story of the Corsair setting records at Monza is a myth that appears to have started in the Ford publicity department. I have amended the original Corcair post in the light of these findings. Thanks to Kerry Williams Thursdays GALPOT blog paid a trip to last weekends Classic Motorsports Mitty presented by Mazda at Road Atlanta, which taught me about the BRE TR 250K which I had never seen or even heard of before. For Ferrari Fridays blog I visited the set of Ron Howard's movie 'Rush' a film about the rivalry between James Hunt (#11 McLaren) and Niki Lauda #1 Ferrari, the scene above is a reenactment of the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix from which John Watson in the #28 Penske has just retired with a blown engine. The Lotus Europa Special, featured on Saturdays GALPOT blog, was originally conceived as a limited edition with for a production run of just 200 but the demand for the model led to a total production number of 3130 big valve Lotus Type 74's. Today's post review's last Saturday's Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival where one of the stars of the show was this Lancia Volumex powered FIAT X1/9. Over the Bank holiday weekend I have already visited the Auto Italian Car Day at Brooklands and will be visiting Castle Combe tomorrow and will be posting blogs on these events along with features on the Patent Monocoque Killeen K1 once owned by Colin Cooper in the days ahead. Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #29, I hope you will enjoy the links and that you will join me again at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' blog during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !