The week started with a visit to The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu which as one might expect houses an interesting collection of vehicles some of which are well known and others less so, in the latter category in journalist John Bolsters special Bloody Mary seen above.
On Tuesday I looked at an MG 18/80 of which nothing remains from the original body and not much from the original interior except the unique silver plated steering wheel boss.
The Tecno DAF open wheeler, that I looked at on Wednesday, features DAF's variomatic transmission, which did not prove a significant unfair advantage except in the rain. It was however effective enough to win a few Formula 3 races and advances made in belt drive technology were enough for the system to be specifically banned from Formula One in the mid 1990's after variomatic transmission had been tried in just a single test session in the back of a Williams.
Juan Manuel Fangio averaged 53.5 mph driving this Chevrolet Master 85 Coupé, featured on Americana Thursday, in a 5900 mile race across Argentina and Peru and in 1940, one of many victories that earned him a state sponsored trip to Europe that led to him becoming motor racing's first five time World Champion.
On Ferrari Friday I got up close to one of the most attractive Ferrari's since the 288 GTO namely the 200 mph Ferrari 458 Italia which is powered by the worlds most powerful per litre / cui normally aspirated production engine.
The Lotus Ford 78 which I looked at yesterday was a championship contender for Mario Andretti in 1977, save for the unreliability of it's motors Mario might well have won the first of two championships that year, find out why the Lotus 78 was so special on this link.
The 1939 Delahaye Type 165 Cabriolet with body work by Figoni et Falaschi, above, was judged to require all adjectives to define exquisite at the recent Marin Sanoma Concours d'Elegance. Find out what the other contenders were in today's blog linked here.
Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT #33" edition of "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" I hope you enjoyed following the links to catch up with the past weeks blogs, and that you will join me again at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" in the week ahead which starts tomorrow with a Silver Jubilee celebration. Don't forget to come back now !
