Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres !

GALPOT Weekly #18

2012-02-19T00:01:00.006Z

Looking forward to going to Race Retro in a couple of weeks and restocking my library of photo's with new material despite the fact I have far from finished with all the photo's I took last year.

Last week started with a bit of Armless Fun in the form of a multiple Burn Out championship winning supercharged Ford P100 pick up.

For Valentines Day GALPOT towers went romantic with a look at this two seater MG 'TF' sports car.

My school friend Sven's Ford Capri 2.8i, which gave me my first hands on experience in motorsport as part of the pit crew, was the subject of Wednesdays blog.

The Chrysler 300 letter series represented some exclusive muscle, on Thursday I looked at this Elwood Engel designed Chrysler 300L.

Jody Scheckter won the 1979 World Drivers Championship in 1979 and Gilles Villeneuve came second securing the Constructors Championship in the Ferrari 312 T4's I looked at on Friday.

Photo Ed Arnaudin

Jim Clark qualified on poll for the ill feted 1964 Indianapolis 500 but suffered tyre failure after just 47 laps, Parnelli Jones, who still owns this quad cam Lotus Ford 34 which I looked at yesterday, bought it and came in second at the Indy 500 in 1965.

Today's blog is all about the game changing Honda NSX super car that raised the bar for future Ferrari and McLaren Super Cars in terms of handling, refinement, performance and price.

Coming up next week a '66 Chevrolet El Camino, and a Special K Convertible Terraplane with around 50,000 miles on the clock, don't miss all this and more at GALPOT !

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #17 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #17

2012-02-12T13:25:00.000Z

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #17 a review of events on the 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' blog.

Photo Courtesy Wayne Graefen

The GALPOT week started a story about the restoration of an unusual half ton Terraplane Six Cab Pickup Express which dates back to 1934 that was found by Wayne Graefen in McMinnville Portland Oregon back in the mid 1980's.

On Tuesday I looked at the story behind the MG Bellevue Special a vehicle that was built by Wilkie Wilkinson for hire to drivers wishing to pit their skills against the fearsome Brooklands race track in the 1930's.

Ford's Escort Mk II a collaboration between Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany code named Brenda was the subject of Wednesday's blog.

For Americana Thursday I stuck with the Blue Oval and went behind the scenes to find out what lay behind the development 2013 Ford Fusion Sprint Cup car.

On Ferrari Friday I continued the potted history of the Flat 12 Ferrari Grand Prix cars with a look at the Ferrari 312 T3 which Gilles Villeneuve drove to his first Grand Prix victory in Canada in 1978.

Continuing my potted history of Lotus, on Saturday I looked at the Group 7 unlimited sports car class Lotus 30 which despite it's good looks is generally not recognised to have been one of Colin Chapmans best idea's although it did win a few races in the capable hands of Jim Clark among others.

The 325 hp TVR 400SE is the subject of today's GALPOT blog the last in the line of TVR Wedges based on a design by Oliver Winterbottom well known for two wedge shaped Lotus designs.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #17 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #16

2012-02-05T12:51:00.000Z

Welcome to GALPOT Weekley #16, this week my competition season kicked off with a navigation exercise.

Bob Bull kindly took me along, in his 'daughters' supercharged Mini Cooper S, as a navigator for the Bristol Pegasus Motor Clubs January Navigation Exercise. See how I got on by following this link.

My potted history of MG Cars continued on Tuesday with a look at Andrew Moreland's supercharged MG PA.

Wednesdays blog featured a special Ford Mexico that turned out to be a multi purpose vehicle having been used as a racer, run around and wedding car by it's original owner John Webb.

The 501st GALPOT blog featured a Kurtis 500S a sports car frame with an Indy winning heritage.

Photo Courtesy Sven Platt.

Ron Howard is making a film called "Rush" at the moment about the extraordinary 1976 Grand Prix season one of the vehicles that should feature in the film should be the Ferrari 312 T2 as driven by Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni that I looked at on Ferrari Friday. I wonder if Ron's legendary attention to detail will pick up that Niki's new car for the 1976 British GP, seen above, appeared in practice with his name missing from the side of the cockpit ? Details that maketh the film for us anoraks :-)

Photo Ed Arnaudin courtesy Steve Arnaudin.

Yesterday I looked at the first monocoque chassis car to appear at the Indianapolis 500 since the Cornelean driven by Louis Chevrolet in 1915. The Lotus 29 chassis 29/3 driven by Jim Clark led 28 laps in the 1963 Indy 500 before getting beaten by Parnelli Jones and then the following year the car was rechristened the Pure Firebird Special and given to Bobby Marsham to drive, see photo above. Find out what happened next on this Lotus 29 link.

Derek Buckler like Colin Chapman started out building a successful competition special and then built a small company making copies of it on the back of his success. Derek allegedly gave his first model the Buckler Mk V name so that customers would not think this was his first design.

Coming up next week I'll be looking at a commercial Terraplane that I had no idea even existed until a couple of weeks ago, on Tuesday I'll be looking at an MG that was prepared in Wandsworth for hire to racing drivers at Brooklands and on Thursday I'll be taking a behind the scenes look at Fords 2013 Fusion NASCAR Sprint Cup challenger which already seems to have gone along way to achieving it's aim of re engaging the public.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #16 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #15

2012-01-29T12:57:00.002Z

Despite partying all night I am pleased to bring this weeks GALPOT Weekly back on to the Sunday schedule.

The GALPOT week started of with the top of the range Hemi powered Dodge RAM 1500 Larimie, that turned not to be an import from somewhere west of Cheyenne Wyoming.

The Tuesday MG series of blogs featured a well storied supercharged MG K3 that is a mixture of chassis and bodywork that can trace it's history back to two entries that came in first and second in class at the conclusion of the 1933 Mille Miglia.

The winner of the Ultra Marathon of all Rally events, the 1970 World Cup Rally was the subject of Wednesdays blog, the bombproof Ford Escort 1850 GT registered FEV 1 is possibly amongst the most loved and treasured of all Fords.

The vintage Hudson Super Six that featured in Thursdays blog appears to be a replica of the 1917 built Indy cars that took part in the 1919 Indy 500.

Ferrari Friday featured a period photo of a Jacky Ickx dominating the 1972 British Grand Prix in his Ferrari 312 B2 #005, Jacky was forced to retire while leading but one the subsequent German Grand Prix in the same car from team mate Clay Regazzoni driving chassis #007 which I featured last week.

Yesterday I looked at the Lotus 27 Formula Junior car that initially followed Colin Chapman's adage of "adding lightness" a step too far meaning the monocoque was a little too weak, until this was rectified Peter Arundell was having a lot of trouble defending his British Formula Junior title in 1963.

Today's GALPOT blog features an Alpine Renault A110 1600 S that was shipped all the way to Réunion a small island in the Indian Ocean where it dominated the mid 1970's Rally scene.

Tomorrow I'll be starting the week with a look at a multiple 'Burn Out' championship winning Ford P100 pick up, while another MG will be featured on Tuesday and on Wednesday the versatility of a special Ford Escort Mexico will be examined.

If you have missed any of this weeks GALPOT blogs you can catch up with the full blogs linked by the high lighted text above.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #15, I hope you will join me at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' again in the week to come. Don't forget to come back now !

STOP PRESS Tomorrow's blog will tell the tale of the start of my 2012 competition season, not the 'Burn Out' Champion as mentioned above which will be held over to Monday 13th Feb.

GALPOT Weekly #14

2012-01-23T12:16:00.000Z

Last week started with the answers to and the announcement that Mike Mansmith was the winner of, the Automobiliart / GALPOT Seasonal Quiz.

Mike chose the Grand Prix Engines of the 1950's set of cards by Paul Chenard. Congratulations Mike, thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to Paul at Automobiliart for generously donating the prize.

On Tuesday I had a look at an MG J2 a Quintessential British Sports Car that has been in the same family since 1953.

I looked below some impressive paintwork and RS body panels on Wednesday to find a Ford Capri GLX fitted with a Rover V8 motor.

The sad Philippine love story behind an Auburn 851 SC was the subject of Thursdays blog.

On Ferrari Friday I looked at the Formula One Ferrari 312 B2 chassis 007 which scored a best second place finish in the 1972 German Grand Prix when it was driven by Clay Regazzoni, next week I'll be talking looking at the car that one the 1972 German Grand Prix.

Über Classic racer Tony Thompson's successful Lotus 26R with which he won four championships and finished runner up four times between 1985 and 1993 was the subject of Saturdays blog.

Yesterday I had a look at the superb one off Bristol Britannia the only one ever made to S4 spec with a unique set of body panels. This is an extreme example of a company going out of it's way to build a car to a customers specifications.

This week at GALPOT starts with a blog on the High End Dodge Laramie and continues tomorrow with a storied MG K3.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT weekly #14 I hope you enjoy catching up with any blogs you missed last week with the links above and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #13

2012-01-17T00:54:00.000Z

Another busy week at GALPOT Towers has simply flown by so fast I have almost forgotten my weekly review !

Last week started with a look at a hot 1959 Chevrolet El Camino estimated to be capable of 130 mph when it was first launched !

On Tuesday I started an ongoing series of Tuesday MG blogs with a look at the 8/33 M - Type Midget that personifies the pre WW2 British Sports Car.

'The Car You Always Promised Yourself' in the form of a Ford Capri 1600 L was the subject of Wednesdays post, a pony car for us Europeans that became a smash hit particularly with medallion men in the 1970's.

Despite it's success on the track with the MT900 GT3, Mosler cannot generate sufficient sales to enter GT3 races without special dispensation, the Mosler MT 900 GT3 above, which I looked at on Thursday, belongs to Paul White who with Calum Lockie won Class A of the Britcar Championship in 2011.

Thanks to the launch of the Honda NSX, Ferrari had to significantly up their game in order to become a world class sports car leader when they replaced the 348ts with the Ferrari 355 two of which were featured on last weeks Ferrari Friday post.

On Saturday I took a look at one of the iconic Formula One designs of the 1960's the Lotus 25, both of the million dollar cars featured having fascinating well documented histories involving Jim Clark.

I rounded out last week with a look at a contender for one of the most beautiful models ever devised in Turin the extremely rare SIATA 400F.

This week I'll be announcing the winner of the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz and continuing the stories of MG and the Ford Capri.

Thanks for joining me on this 13th GALPOT Weekly edition of 'Gettin a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will have fun checking out some of last weeks posts, linked by the highlighted text above and that you will join me again in the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #12

2012-01-09T01:16:00.000Z

Gettin' the enthusiasm cranked up has been a little difficult this week after taking the week of excess off and then going straight into an upbeat training program thanks to my friends dog 'Z' who requires three hours of vigorous exercise a day or he will tear my friends house apart while they are on holiday in the warm climbs of India.

Anyway enough moaning it's been another fun week compiling GALPOT in between physical exertions, Monday saw the last questions, on the works of Paul Chenard for the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz posted. If you have not given it a shot you have until midnight GMT tonight to post me your answers. From what I have seen so far no one has attempted to answer all the questions yet so why not give it a shot ? Here is a link to the first days questions :-)

For Tuesday I finally dusted of the cobwebs and posted my first 'proper' blog of the year all about a limited edition Opel Manta known as the i200 of which only 25 Right Hand Drive versions were built for the UK.

Wednesdys blog gave an overview of the Ford Cortina MK2 a car that knocked British Leyland from the top of the sales charts and saw Ford emerge as the dominant manufacturer in the UK through the 1970's and 1980's.

On Americana Thursday I looked at the humungus 'large and in charge' Duesenberg J Derham Tourster billed as the largest, fastest and most expensive vehicle of the depression era.

Lucien Bianchi won the 1962 Angola GP in this Ferrari 250 GTO #3527 that I looked at on Ferrari Friday. The recently repainted Russo Kev coloured car seen here on last years Tour Britannia now belongs to Baron Laidlow.

Lotus was the subject of yesterdays blog as has been the case on Saturdays for some weeks and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, the last Lotus Grand Prix car designed with customers in mind was the 1962 Lotus 24 #947 such as the one seen at Goodwood above.

Today marks another GALPOT first in so much as I am reviewing two books by Hazen Wardle who has been restoring this Triumph GT6 since 1997.

Tomorrow sees GALPOT return to the occasional series of Monday pick ups with a souped up El Camino.

Tuesday sees the first of a series of Tuesday MG blogs. I hope you will join me for all this and more in the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Don't forget ... CLOSING DATE MIDNIGHT GMT TODAY !

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th - January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950's

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn's Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th - January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

GALPOT Weekly #11

2012-01-01T20:05:00.000Z

Been enjoying a couple of days writing regular blogs for a couple of days over the festive season this last week as GALPOT has been running the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz this week.

If you you can answer questions on ...

(Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Horton)

vehicles that starred in films and television,

Formula One,

NASCAR

Indy Cars

Ferrari,

Sports Cars

and Concour's d'Elegance click on the links and give the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz ago.

The final questions will appear tomorrow, Monday January 2nd 2012 and the closing date for entries is Sunday January 8th 2012.

Tuesday sees the return of the familiar GALPOT blogs first up a one of 25 Right hand Drive Opel Manta i200. I hope you will join me for all this and more in the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Don't forget ...

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th - January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950's

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn's Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th - January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea's? Visit Automobiliart Now !

GALPOT Weekly #10

2011-12-26T00:21:00.001Z

Welcome to the tenth edition of GALPOT Weekly, last week was spent reviewing what I can only describe as an unexpectedly interesting year.

On Monday I started with a review of some of the Museums I have visited this year, amongst many vehicles I have seen in the flesh for the first time was this 1976 Hill GH2 at the Donington Park Museum.

Throughout the year Geoffry Horton has kindly sent me photo's from the Concours d'Elegance events some of which I reviewed on Tuesday. Among the many completely unknown vehicle manufacturers to me until Geoffrey sent me photographs was this 1952 Maverick Sportster seen above at Palos Verdes Concours d'Elegance in September.

Of the events I reviewed on Wednesday my first visit to Brooklands and seeing some of the cars of the Brooklands era noodling around what remains of the banking was amongst the most memorable.

On Thursday I reviewed some of the motor sporting highlights of my year which included winning a trophy for driving up a muddy hill and seeing the Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 being shared by Phil Dryburgh and John Gaw take an overall win at Castle Combe.

Friday I cast an all too brief swift glance over some of the Ferrari's that I have seen and featured this year including the 312 B3 Chassis #010 the very first Ferrari I ever saw taking part in a race.

For Christmas Eve yesterday I retold the amazing story of Mr Leonard Williams '32 Highboy Ford Boeing Roadster the first privately owned gas turbine powered car, which today resides with the Le May Museum.

For Christmas Day I have been looking at the Allard J2 on Lake Orion which belonged to Del Lee and today belongs to GALPOT Birthday Boy John Aibel.

The next 8 days will be taken up with the Automobiliart/GALPOT Seasonal Quiz details of which can be found below.

I hope you will join me daily for the Automobiliart/GALPOT Seasonal Quiz in the week ahead at GALPOT. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Don't forget ...

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th - January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950's

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn's Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th - January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea's? Visit Automobiliart Now !

GALPOT Weekly #9

2011-12-18T22:36:00.000Z

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #9, most weeks I manage to have my posts prepared a week in advance so this week I have been preparing the Automobiliart / GALPOT seasonal quiz, the experience has proved to be a strange mixture of sadism and masochism on the one hand the more difficult the questions the more fun the quiz on the other hand the more difficult the questions the more difficult it has been to establish the facts that constitute the answers. I hope I have struck a balance that ensures that everyone who reads the blog gets some pleasure from answering the questions.

On to the last weeks blogs, I started the week with my very first mini road test, the model under scrutiny was the frugal Honda CR-Z a hybrid small on the outside comfortably spacious on the inside and on the evidence of the short test it should be a hit for commuters.

It's hard not to like the type of car you first had the opportunity to drive at 100 mph, legally. Such is the case with the shapely Opel Manta S which I looked at on Tuesday, not exactly a muscle car but for us young Europeans wanting to be cool definitely an affordable fastback to aspire to.

On Wednesday I looked at possibly one of the last vehicles designed in the opulent style of the optimistic '50's Project Sunbird which became the Ford Consul Capri was a pretty cool looking car for the 1950's but it's poor sales figures perhaps reflect the fact that it was not available to the public until 1961 by which time a less gregarious more functional style was beginning to take hold of the automotive markets imagination.

I returned to look at a traditional muscle car on Americana Thursday a 1970 Pontiac Le Mans Sport not quite as cool as the Pontiac GTO of the period but most eyes in Europe would probably not be able to tell the difference, I, a Two Lane Black Top fan, certainly struggled to identify it correctly.

On Friday courtesy of Geoffrey Horton I was able to take a look at story of the Ferrari 375MM Viganle chassis #0286AM that Phil Hill drove with Ritchie Ginther on the 1954 Carrera Panamericana recording an average speed of 137 mph over the 572 miles of the last days stage of the event on which they recovered a second place finish after running out of fuel the previous day.

The cute little Lotus Climax 21 Formula Junior car was the subject of yesterday's blog, the British Racing Green and yellow paintwork of which certainly resonates with some readers.

Today's GALPOT blog is all about the road going version of Fords Le Mans sportscar racing programme the rare Ford GT40 Mk 3 of which only seven were built despite the success of the racing siblings of which 100 were produced.

Coming up next week I'll be reviewing the GALPOT year starting with a review of Museums visited tomorrow a review of Concours d'Elegance vehicles on Tuesday and moving on to motoring and sporting events towards the end of the week.

I hope you will join me daily for all this and more to come in the week ahead at GALPOT. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Don't forget ...

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th - January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950's

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn's Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th - January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea's? Visit Automobiliart Now !

GALPOT Weekly #8

2011-12-11T13:53:00.000Z

Seems like only yesterday I started the first GALPOT weekly and suddenly I am on week 8, how time flies when your having fun.

This week started with a look at the Piagio Ape Cross Country, a youth orientated pick up based on a ubiquitous vehicle which not only keeps a large part of the Italian economy on wheels but also keeps a large number of passengers on the move on the Indian sub continent.

Getting Smart on Tuesday I looked at the Opel GT a mini European Corvette which featured on the intro to the 1969/70 to the a well known secret agent TV series.

On Wednesday I looked at a unique camper based on the Ford Zodiac Mk 4 featuring a camper addition built by the founders of the Ginetta sports car manufacturer.

Thursdays blog featuring the Martini Corvette used in endurance racing by the John H Daniel team was dedicated to my friend and Corvette fan Sebastian who got married yesterday.

For Ferrari Friday I looked at the latest in stylish shooting brakes the 208 mph all wheel drive Ferrari FF.

Yesterday it was a return to a little light carceaology with a look at a Lotus 23 with some hill climbing history in Austria.

Rounding out the week today I am looking at the bespoke Aston Martin Virage that was designed to use parts from Audi, Volkswagen, General Motor's, Chrysler and Ford prior to the latter taking over the marque in in 1988.

Coming up next week I'll be looking at the future of motoring with first ever GALPOT road test tomorrow, on Tuesday I'll be featuring a model of the type in which I first legally clocked 100 mph, and on Wednesday I'll be keeping warm looking at Project Sunbird.

I hope you will join me daily for all this and more to come in the week ahead at GALPOT. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Don't forget ...

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th - January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950's

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn's Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th - January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea's? Visit Automobiliart Now !

Galpot Weekly #7

2011-12-04T11:29:00.003Z

Another riveting week at GALPOT started with a visit courtesy of Geoffrey Horton to the Peterson Museum.

Amongst the many photo's Geoffrey kindly sent me from the Phil Hill Tribute Night was this one of the Pierce Arrow in which Phil Hill learned to drive.

On Tuesday it back to the swinging sixties at Goodwood Festival of Speed for a look at the Vauxhall XVR this manufacturers first ever concept vehicle designed by Wayne Cherry and David Jones.

On Wednesday one of GALPOT's regular readers and staunchest supporters was thrilled to learn that his wife's favorite actress, Dame Judi Dench, starred in an episode of Z - Cars (pronounced Zed) a kitchen sink police drama that featured Mk 3 Ford Zephyrs like the one above as patrol cars.

The evocative artwork of Paul Chenard, like the drawing of the Maserati 250 F motor above was featured on Thursdays GALPOT. Paul's work can be acquired direct from his Automobiliart.com site. Paul has kindly agreed to sponsor the Automobiliart Season Quiz which will start on December 26th, see details at the conclusion of this post, the winner will be invited to choose his prize from one of five sets of greetings cards.

Ferrari Friday featured the 456M the last Ferrari model built with pop up head lights.

Yesterday GALPOT retold the remarkable story of the Lotus 22 and scandalous accusations in a German Magazine that lead to a £1000 pound bet between Lotus founder Colin Chapman and German journalist Richard von Frankenberg.

Galpot rounds out the week with a look at one of just 20 Maserati A6G/54 GT Zagato Coupé's.

Thanks for joining me on this weeks GALPOT round up if you have not already had a look at the full blogs summarized here I hope you'll find time to click on the links down lighted in grey.

I'll be starting the week ahead with a look at an Italian pick up with an unusual name tomorrow, Tuesday I'll be getting smart and looking at a TV star, and Wednesday I'll be looking at a camper combination that has a Ginetta connection.

I hope you will join me daily for all this and more to come in the week ahead at GALPOT. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Don't forget ...

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th - January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950's

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn's Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th - January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea's? Visit Automobiliart Now !

GALPOT Weekly #6

2011-11-27T15:17:00.001Z

A week of comic discovery has passed here at GALPOT.

Starting with the Monster Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD LT who's purpose seems to be to carry a giant ghetto blaster and a couple of tins of cafeinated beverages.

On Tuesday GALPOT got serious about speed with the Pro ET Race Ventora, Britains equivalent of a 1970's Chevy Impala built for drag racing.

The 'Three Graces' were the subject of Wednesday's edition of GALPOT including the delightful Abbot bodied Farnham camping combination.

GALPOT turned comic on Thursday with the discovery that this 1935 Hudson Suburban Sedan once belonged to the managing editor of DC Thompson in Dundee responsible for the Beano and The Dandy publications that had touched the lives of many youngsters in post war Britain.

For Ferrari Friday GALPOT looked at a 1990 Mondial t the last incarnation of the V8 2+2.

Yesterday there was an element of Irish comedy as GALPOT discovered the reason behind the curiously high mounted mirrors on his recently acquired Formula Junior Lotus 20.

Today GALPOT goes French Revolutionary with a look at a 1966 Matra Bonnet Djet VS, which I was surprised to discover lays claim to being the worlds first mid rear engine production sports car in the world.

My sincerest thanks as always to everyone who has made the first two months of GALPOT's new home such a tremendous success. Looking at the sitemeter stats after two months on line on the new wordpress home it looks like GALPOT will receive it's 10,000th hit in the next day or so.

Thanks for joining me on this weeks GALPOT round up if you have not already had a look at the full blogs summarized here I hope you'll find time to click on the links down lighted in grey.

There are some exciting developments planned for the week ahead at GALPOT which will start with a look at the recent Phil Hill Tribute night held at the Peterson Museum. Tuesday GALPOT will be looking at one of three Vauxhall XVR concept cars built in the middle of the swinging sixties, and on Wednesday a British built Ford that could be said to be related to the Edsel. GALPOT has an important announcement to make on Thursday in preparation for the festive season of goodwill.

I hope you will join me daily for all this and more to come in the week ahead at GALPOT. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #5

2011-11-21T01:40:00.001Z

Another busy week at GALPOT, thank goodness I got the spam filter fixed somehow I'm attracting between 500 and 2000 spam posts a day !

The week started with a beat up old pick up truck from FIAT the Fiorino.

On Tuesday I looked at the Lincolnesque Vauxhall which is said to have over 101 improvements over the previous Victor model from which it takes its name.

The Abbot bodied 1953 Ford Zephyr Farnham estate / station wagon was the star of the GALPOT show on Wednesday, as Kim said on the GALPOT Facebook page the front of the Zephyr looks a little like a Mercedes Benz 180, though the Ford is actually the older car.

On Americana Thursday GALPOT had a look a humungous 1958 Dodge Sierra, just the kind of monster I'd love to take on a leisurely cruise along Route 66 in.

Bertone only designed one Ferrari the 308 Dino which was featured on Ferrari Friday.

The Ferrari theme continued yesterday with a look at possibly the only Lotus ever to race with a Ferrari engine the Lotus 19B chassis 952 which now has an original spec Climax engine installed.

I rounded out the week today with some photo's by Geoffrey Horton of the BMW 327/28 Pillarless Coupé one of only two such cars known to have been built.

I've just finished watching Tony Stewart round out a tremendous victory at Homestead Miami over his championship rival Carl Edwards. Kudos to all the fans of the Big 14 what an achievement to win the Cup as an owner driver. Commiserations to Carl who has earned my admiration for the way he competed and handled his defeat having drawn with Tony on points and lost on tie braking victories. Can't wait until the new season starts at Daytona in February.

Thanks for joining me on this weeks GALPOT round up if you have not already had a look at the full blogs summarized here I hope you'll find time to click on the links down lighted in grey.

Tomorrow the GALPOT week will start with a look at a Monster Silverado, on Tuesday I'll be looking at a Pro ET Vauxhall Ventora and at Ford's Three Graces and on Wednesday and look out for a truly Comic Discovery on Thursday.

All this and more to come in the week ahead at GALPOT, I look forward to you joining me daily. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #4

2011-11-13T19:01:00.001Z

Gosh how time flies when your having fun, it's been another busy week on GALPOT not least because it would appear that spammers have found the site. I seem have found away to stay on top of the situation for now I hope it stays that way.

Of the cars I looked at this week started with the tiny Reliant Fox Pick Up which started life as a concept designed in Greece, type approved in the UK, built in Greece and then finally had it's life extended with a production run in the UK !

On Tuesday I had a look at the highest interpretation of the 1950's US Dream Car concept built in Britain namely the Vauxhall Cresta PA a big for the UK 6 seater that would look quite comfortable if a little small barreling along US highways at 89 mph.

Maurice ‘Maus’ Gatsonides and Peter Worledge drove the Ford Zephyr 6, the subject of Wednesdays blog to victory on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1953, such was his search for perfection in his driving technique that he delivered the GATSO camera to the world.

Staying on the 50's theme on Thursday I looked at a '54 Chevrolet Bel Air used as a support vehicle by the GAS Racing drag team at Shakespeare County Raceway.

On Friday I had a dig at a television presenter who not only once destroyed a Routemaster Bus but also described the Ferrari 400i as 'Awful in every way !'. I spent the whole day yesterday writing "If I can't say anything good, I will not say it at all" as penance.

It was a great pleasure to retell how British Treasure Sir Stirling Moss won the Monte Carlo GP not once but twice in Rob Walkers privately entered Lotus 18 yesterday.

I have rounded out the week with a second helping of Italian eye candy the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, billed as the most expensive car in the world when it was launched on the market in 1968.

Thanks for joining me on this weeks GALPOT round up if you have not already had a look at the full blogs summarized here I hope you'll find to click on he links down lighted in grey.

Coming up next week I'll be starting with an Italian pickup truck, looking at a British interpretation of the 1960 Lincoln Continental, and looking at UK and US interpretations of the Estate / Station Wagon concepts.

All this and more to come in the week ahead at GALPOT, I look forward to you joining me daily. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #3

2011-11-06T12:06:00.000Z

Just noticed I got the dates completely wrong on last weeks GALPOT Weekly so I'll just number them for the time being. This week was highlighted by two Birthday Editions of Galpot.

Monday started with Racer 187's birthday edition looking at a RHD Daimler Sovereign Coupé from Remscheid, Germany that is/was looking for a new home.

On Tuesday I concluded a series on vintage Vauxhalls with a brief look at a Vauxhall Bearcat a 14/40 chassis fitted with a Stutz motor.

A trip to Shakespeare County Raceway on Wednesday revealed a dinky li'l hot rod in the form of a Ford Anglia sibling of the Ford Prefect I looked at a week earlier.

Returning to the mean streets of Bristol for Americana Thursday I had took a look at a 1975 Plymouth Voyager Sport probably as rare a sighting in this country as a Ferrari in the USA.

Continuing with another prancing horse saddled for carrying extra cases of beer, on Ferrari Friday I looked at the stylishly understated 365 GTC/4 2+2.

Yesterday it was off to Silverstone and Oulton Park for a look at a couple of 2 foot tall low riding Lotus 15's.

Today GALPOT rounds out the week as it started this time with the Jeff Fuller Birthday edition featuring some street and competition Lancia Beta Monte Carlo's.

Thanks for joining me on this weeks GALPOT round up if you have not already had a look at the full blogs summarized here I hope you'll find to click on he links down lighted in grey.

Coming up next week I'll be starting with a cute li'l pickup truck designed in Greece, looking at a British interpretation of the 50's American Dream Car concept and looking at the remains of the car that carried the inventor of the Gatso speed camera to victory in the Monte Carlo Rally, in 1953.

All this and more to come in the week ahead at GALPOT, I look forward to you joining me daily. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly 24/11 - 30/11

2011-10-30T08:50:00.000Z

Another busy week at GALPOT started with a days marshalling at The Regency Landry Pegasus Sprint where John Dando in his Volvo 144 above was among nearly 120 competitors taking part.

On Tuesday GALPOT covered the story behind a vintage Vauxhall 30/98 with a new chassis and a known history of some of it's parts that goes back only to 1949.

GALPOT then looked at a Ford Prefect which appeared to be in roadworthy condition despite the evidence that it had not been taxed since 1979.

'Why Worry' a 40 mph Scammell Highwayman used by John Carter & Sons steam fair was the surreal subject of Thursdays blog that heralded the start of Steve Arnaudin's birthday.

Moving up a few gears for Ferrari Friday GALPOT looked at Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 possibly one of just 54 Right Hand Drive examples built.

One of '6 ot 7' Lotus Mk X's was the subject of yesterdays blog this one Bristol powered is seen in the hands of Nick Adams at the Silverstone Classic back in July.

The GALPOT week finishes today with a look at a Jensen Interceptor seen in some circles as a plagiarised Brasanica Uiraputu.

Thanks for joining me on this weekly summary edition of 'Getting' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will follow some of the links to get the full stories on these vehicles.

Coming up next week we start the week celebrating Racer 187's Birthday no guessing what the make of car will be then. On Tuesday a brief look at a one off Vauxhall 14/40 and Wednesday a look at the two door sibling of the Ford Prefect. All this and more can be found everyday on this link.

I hope you'll join me again, don't forget to come back now !

Daily GALPOT Blog Has Moved - Summary

2011-10-23T09:32:00.000+01:00

Some months ago I decided that with the amount of time I was spending writing GALPOT blogs I probably was generating enough material to start a stand alone GALPOT website, and with the help of my friend Mike Stuart at disphoria.co.uk I finally got the GALPOT site started last week. So if you have been missing my daily posts and in case your wondering what happened the blog continues on THIS LINK. For the time being I plan to keep this Blogger hosted page active with a weekly summary of what has been going on at the new GALPOT Home Page with links to the full blogs.

I started the week by going back to my own motoring roots with a look at an Austin A40 Countryman of the same type that was our very first family car back in 1964.

Dan Wheldon photograph courtesy Jeff Fuller.

With thanks to Jeff Fuller for his photograph Tuesdays blog was dedicated to the memory of Dan Wheldon.

I'd like to thank Racer 187 for pointing out that I had some link buttons for making comments missing and for testing them once they were up on Wednesdays Ford Model A blog.

To make a comment on the new GALPOT blogs write your comment in the 'Leave a Reply' comment box press 'Post Comment' and on the Word Press sign in page press the 'facebook' button and your comment should get posted without any further ado, so long as you are signed in to facebook.

On Thursday I looked at the Kellison J4 Grand Turismo a kit car recently acquired, sans windscreen wipers, by Lord March.

For Ferrari Friday, a feature that seems to come round every three days but is actually 'only' weekly I looked at one of a mystery batch of 12 Ferrari 196S models allegedly built in Modena by some 'Old Timers' that had worked for the Fantuzzi coach works.

Yesterday I looked at the Lotus 12 designed for the 2nd tier Formula 2 series that after an engine upgrade also became Colin Chapman's first Formula One design.

Today's blog is about a Jaguar that was conceived out of hours in 'The Saturday Club' and eventually made it into production.

The week ahead will start with a visit to The Regency Laundry Pegasus Sprint where I was a marshall last week, continue with a look at a Vintage Vauxhall and a classic Ford.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the GALPOT blog, I hope you will find time to continue to support me on the stand alone GALPOT site.

Don't forget to come back now !

A Clockwork Orange - Adams Probe 16 AB/4

2011-10-16T10:58:00.000+01:00

For anyone, like me, who was a kid during the fierce competition to conquer space through the 1960's part of the vision for the future included mandatory white jump suits, jet packs and incredibly cool cars like the Adams Probe 16 seen here at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier this year.

This design came about as a result of an investigation into the extremes of styling by Dennis and Peter Adams who are credited as having introducing a number of modifications to the Marcos GT which became the Marcos Fastback GT.

With a roof line at just 34" above the ground, that is a full 6" shorter than the Le Mans winning Ford GT 40 which took it's name from it's 40" height, access to the Probe 16 is effected through a slide back glass roof panel.

It would appear that the three Probe 16's were manufactured at the the old Marcos factory at Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, power came from a mid mounted 4 cylinder motor sourced from, an at the time very common, front wheel drive Austin 1800.

Winning the award for the best British Styling Exercise at the London Motor Show in 1969 did not raise the public profile of this vehicle enough for it to go into volume production. Though four similar Probe 2001's were manufactured by the Probe Motor Company and WT Nugent Engineering between 1970 and 1972. Up to 48 further vehicles which used some of the Probe 16 body moulds are thought to have been built under the Centaur brand.

Of the three original Probe 16's one went to Wichita Lineman singer song writer Jim Webb, by way of complete contrast another Probe 16 went to Sunshine Of Your Love singer song writer Jack Bruce. Jack passed his Probe 16 on to Mountain drummer on the Nantucket Sleigh Ride Cody Laing.

However AB/4 seen here is arguably the most famous of the trio of Probe 16's having played the role of Durango 95 in the Stanley Kubric ultra violence shock flic A Clockwork Orange. After its flirtation with the silver screen AB/4 spent many years in the Pollock Auto Showcase.

AB/4 still painted it's original yellow, was repatriated in 1987 and featured in the pseudo comedy television series Top Gear at the beginning of the century.

More detailed information about all of the Probe 16 related cars can be found on the probe2001.com website, on the linked page some photos of AB/4 can be seen of the car being driven around Brands Hatch. Thanks to The Nostalgia Forum reader MCS the driver of the car at Brands Hatch has been identified as most likely being Ray Allen who immortalised his place in the annals of motor racing history for winning the worlds very first Formula Ford race.

My thanks to MCS abd everyone else who contributed to the Adams Probe 16 thread at The Nostalgia Forum.

Thanks for joining me on this A Clockwork Orange edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

POST SCRIPT, this will be my last daily post from this site all future daily posts will be made from a new dedicated site, linked here, with the hope that it will be much easier to leave comments than is presently possible with this particular web page.

I really can't thank everyone who has contributed to the success of this particular page enough, however I hope moving on to the new GALPOT site serves as a small token of my appreciation for now. Please do not forget to come back here now !

Designed By An Accountant #2 - Lotus Elite

2011-10-15T00:19:00.001+01:00

After he had finished with his Lotus VI PGP182 complete with a body of his own design Peter Kirwan Taylor purchased one of the last Doretti sports cars and 'took the back off' and turned it into a Coupé too meet his needs.

A couple of years later he was talking to Peter Lumsden and Paul Fletcher who planned on compete at Le Mans in 1956 with a Lotus XI and he suggested that they might fair better with a Coupé body. Peter K-T put the idea to Colin Chapman who responded that they would be better starting with a fresh design from scratch with the idea of designing of designing a car that would be competitive on the race track and be a viable proposition for 'driving to the office'.

As on his special bodied Lotus VI Peter again opted for designing a car with a high waist line but now with an integral roof influenced by the design of his Doretti Coupé, the design was finalised in collaboration with Frank Costin, who not only had developed a special bodied Lotus Mark VIII but was also an aerodynamicist at the aircraft manufacturer de Havilland where Peter coincidentally was also working in his day time capacity as an accountant.

The uncluttered design has a drag coefficient of just 0.29 that compares favourably with vehicles being designed and manufactured today. The Elite, as the new Mark 14 became known, features a glass fibre monocoque with a steel sub frame to carry the engine and front suspension. Power came from a 75 hp Coventry Climax four cylinder engine which was inclined to lower the bonnet / hood line.

On the track the Elite was a huge success with six class wins scored at Le Mans, two of them including winning the Index of Thermal Efficiency, former ESPN commentator David Hobbs fitted his with a special 4 speed automatic gearbox took 15 wins from 18 starts during 1961 and '62 and in the Antipodes Leo Geoghegan won the 1960 Australian GT championship also driving an Elite.

This particular well known example, seen here at Castle Combe, was first registered in 1962 and now belongs to a fellow member of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club who restored it after it had been lying in bits for 20 years.

Thanks for joining me on this second accountants edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at an award winning orange movie star. Don't forget to come back now !

Road Legal Ferrari's A Brief History - Niello Serrano Concours

2011-10-13T18:04:00.001+01:00

For Ferrari Friday GALPOT continues yesterdays perusal of vehicles on display at the Niello Serrano Concours thanks to Geoffrey Hortons photographs.

First up a Ferrari 250 GT/E 2+2's, one these models was Enzo Ferrari's daily driver, early GALPOT readers may remember such a vehicle appearing in a previous blog, albeit modified into a replica 250 GT SWB Competizione.

More exclusive, one of just 200 models built between 1965 and 1968, is this Ferrari 275 GTS powered by a 3.3 litre / 201 cui V12.

The V6 Ferrari Dino had been in production for two years and two distinct series from 1969 to 1971 before the first Series III Dino's were manufactured for the US market, this is one of 1,431 Series III Dinos produced between 1971 and 1974.

Manufactured between 1971 and 1972 the Ferrari 365 GTC/4 is a 2+2. One of the 500 examples produced appeared in the 1977 film Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo alongside several other Ferraris including a slightly more powerful 365 GTB/4 Daytona with which the GTC/4 shares a common chassis.

Representing Maranello's prancing black horse for the 1980's at Niello Serrano was this Ferrari 328 GTS of which some 7400 were manufactured between 1985 and 1989.

Ferrari returned to manufacturing motor cars with the engine in front of the driver in 1996 with the beefy 550. With a boot / trunk large enough to carry a set of golf clubs the Ferrari 550 was turned into a handy racer at Le Mans by the likes of Prodrive.

Twentieth model in Ferraris catalogue of street legal exotics is the Ferrari 360 a model produced from 1999 - 2005 which you may remember from an earlier blog was made available with an optional Tubi Style exhaust to provide extra horsepower and amplify the sound.

With a 200 mph top speed the Ferrari F430 that replaced the 360 in 2004 arguably had no need of gimmicks like optional Tubi Style exhausts. It looks good, sounds good and goes fast, pretty much everything one could want from a Ferrari except of course it's replacement the F458 Italia.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing the delights of the California Concours season with us at GALPOT, I look forward to seeing what motoring delights he will find next year.

Thanks for joining me for Ferrari Friday, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at an innovative Lotus with a body designed by Peter Kirwan-Taylor. Don't forget to come back now !

Post Script, this will be the last Ferrari Friday post coming from the Blogger site that I have been using for the last year, from Monday I shall be publishing from the dedicated GALPOT site and I'll be posting a weekly digest on this site for the foreseeable future. If you have been keeping in touch with this blog via Facebook you have no need to worry I'll be posting links to FB as usual.

For the forseeable future no posts will be removed from this site and all of the posts on this site will be available on the new GALPOT site.

I hope you will all find the transition to the stand alone GALPOT site a smooth one, one of the advantages of the new site will be that you will only have to sign in once to leave comments, if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to e-mail me the address is at the bottom of this page and in my Blogger Contact details.

Thanks to every one on all five continents that have made GALPOT such an unexpected success. I look forward to making this transition and look forward to hearing your candid comments.

US Convertibles - Niello Serrano Concours

2011-10-13T16:54:00.001+01:00

Thanks to the generosity of Geoffrey Horton today's images come from the 2011 Niello Serrano Concours held the weekend before last in the El Dorado hills of sunny California. Today I'll be focusing on a fabulous array of American made convertibles seen at the show.

Vehicles manufactured by Cord Corporation were the feature Marque of the event so it was most fitting that grandson of the Cord Corporations founding father E.L. Cord should be seen here in one of the companies original models the 1929 Cord L29 Phaeton, which was the first US built front wheel drive car offered to the American public.

Of all the photo's that Geoffrey sent to me this one of a 1930 Cord L29 Coupé with it's bizarre, even by todays standards headlights and racy two tone paintwork, gets my nomination for car of the show. The front wheel drive L29 was the brainchild of Carl Van Ranst who had previously worked on the successful front wheel drive Miller open wheel racing cars that won that won the Indianapolis 500 on four occasions between 1926 and 1932.

Continuing on a vaguely Indianapolis related theme Geoffrey tells me this 1931 12 cylinder Cadillac 370A Roadster, was an Indy pace car in 1931. It was pulled out of a barn and restored by the owner 18 months ago.

One, of many, things I have learned thanks to these photo's is that Cord was a brand name of cars manufactured by Auburn a company that ueber salesman E.L. Cord turned around during a leveraged buyout, above is a 1935 Auburn 851 Boat Tail Speedster manufactured just two years before both names went bust in the wake of the Great Depression.

The last model developed by Cord was the headlight popping 810 which had onlookers standing on the running boards of rival manufacturers cars when it was launched in New York in 1936. Rushed development and production schedules meant it gained a bad reliability reputation. For 1937 front wheel drive Cord 810's were rebadged 812's and although they had ironed out all of the reliability issues of the previous year the 812 series could not save Cord from financially tanking. This 1937 Cord 812 Convertible Coupe is particularly rare, if I have understood Card lore correctly, it is one of only six that were ordered without the exterior chrome exhausts sticking out of the sides of the bonnet.

Despite the now give away giant bonnet ornament it took me a good half hour to work out that the car above is a 1949 Packard Super 8 Convertible with a pre WW2 bathtub body style.

I'll let you see if you can guess what this mystery car is before you reach the end of this blog, this car was highly rated by Time and Life magazines, Good Houskeeping described this model as a 'social phenomenon'. Designed in Italy but not built by one of the 'big three' the car is said to have had 50/50 weight distribution about the axles and counted amongst it's star owners Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin drove one in the film Kiss Me Stupid and Ronald Reagan allegedly lost his to President Lyndon Johnson in a poker game. This is one of the 99 cars built from 1956 to 1957 from a planned production run of 300.

I know the designer of my all time favourite Formula One car is a fan of the 1959 Buick Le Saber Convertible all though he would probably prefer the Invicta version in bright red.

Representing the swinging, in the UK anyway, sixties at Niello Serrano were the slab sided 1963 Lincoln Continental Convertible with it's rear suicide doors, which are all the rage at Rolls Royce these days,

and the infinitely more modest 1964 Dodge Dart Convertible, which in optional automatic form had push buttons to select the gears.

The mystery car is the Dual Ghia, designed by Ghia in Italy and built by Dual motors in Detroit with Chrysler running gear.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for his excellent photographs without which todays post would not have been possible.

Thanks for joining me on this US convertible edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at some of the Ferrari's at Niello Serrano Concours. Don't forget to come back now !

E-Type - Vauxhall 30-98 Velox Tourer

2011-10-12T01:50:00.001+01:00

In 1913 Vauxhall announced their replacement for the Vauxhall D-Type known officially as the 30-98 or E-Type. 13 chassis were built before the Great War of 1914 - 1918, during which period Vauxhall fulfilled orders from the War Department to build the older D-type models for the use of nobility and Generals alike.

Between the cessation of hostilities and 1922 it is thought around 270 further 30-98 E-types were built with 90 hp 4,525 cc / 276 cui four cylinder side valve engines which gave the car when striped down a 100 mph capability. Above Mark Butterworth negotiates the Pardon Hainpin at Prescott in his 1921 model. Unlike the equally fast contemporary Bentleys, Vauxhall 30-98 models only acquired front brakes during the production span of the model.

The 30-98 E type was fitted with an improved 115 hp overhead valve engine in 1922, known as the OE to distinguish it from its older side valve engined siblings. Above Phil Dobbin can be seen lining up his 1924 30-98 OE for the start of a run up the hill at Loton Park.

1924 was the most successful year for the 30/98 E-type when 111 examples were built. Nicola Quartermaine's 30-98 seen above negotiating the Triangle at Loton Park above comprises an older 1921 pre OE chassis and a 1924 4224 cc / 258 cui OE motor.

Around 60% of all 30-98 E-types, like the 1924 chassis OE 102 driven by Roger Thorpe at Prescott above were exported to Australia, some have since made their way back to the mother land.

Vauxhall 30-98 E-types were available with either 4 seater tourer or 2 seater 'Wesum' boat tail body work with a 'dicky' (fold out) seat in the boat tail from the factory, alternatively a chassis could be ordered and sent to a coachworks for a bespoke body. Grosvenor Carriage Company for example, part of the Vauxhall dealer Shaw & Kilburn empire, built bodies for Vauxhalls exclusively during the production life of the 30-98. Above Adam Jones drives a 1925 4 seater with a tourer body, similar to all the vehicle bodies featured in today's post. Note the absence of a drivers door on all of the vehicles featured in today's post !

The class leading speed and later 4 wheel braking of the 30-98 was not enough to deliver consistent earnings for Vauxhall and in 1925 the company was sold for US$ 2.5 million to General Motors who set about challenging Ford at a lower end of the UK market than Vauxhall had hitherto catered for. Above Dr Nick Bell above drives a 1927 30-98 OE tourer, chassis OE 304, one of the last of the in total 312 OE's built since 1922.

Thanks for joining me on this E-Type edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

English T Variations - Ford Model T

2011-10-11T09:16:00.000+01:00

Ford Motor Company started manufacturing vehicles in 1903 and that same year three Model A's were exported to Great Britian, by 1909 the Ford Motor Company (England) was established and began working from an Office in London on March 8th 1911.

Ford's first overseas assembly plant was opened in 1911 at Trafford Park in Manchester where Ford Model T's were assembled with imported chassis, mechanical parts and locally manufactured bodies. The 1911 Model T above has the distinction of being the first car to be driven up Ben Nevis.

22 year old Henry Alexander, on the instruction of his father the first Ford dealer in Scotland, spent six weeks preparing a route to the top Britains highest peak 4,409 ft / 1,344 m above sea level. It then took Mr Alexander 5 days to reach the summit along the precarious route he had prepared. Mr Alexander repeated the feat in 1928 and to mark Centenary of the Model T reaching the top of Ben Nevis, earlier this year a team of 71 volunteers carried a replica model T to the summit assembled it and then disassembled it and brought it back down again !

Although the three pedal system for operating motor cars as used in most cars to this day was familiar when the first Model T's were built in 1908 the Model T relied on a hand throttle operated on the steering wheel a left pedal that when fully depressed engaged a low gear, when part depressed disengaged the gear box and when not depressed engaged a high gear. The centre pedal when depressed engaged reverse and the right pedal operated the brakes which were attached to the rear wheels only.

Above is a 1912 Landaulet offering minimal weather protection to the front seat occupants while giving the rear seat occupants a choice of protection thanks to a folding roof. The Landaulet body style was a hangover from the age of the horse drawn carriage and has largely disappeared only Maybach are known to offer a Landaulet option at the time of writing.

When designing the Model T Henry Ford new that as well as a motor car he wanted his vehicle to be adaptable to the requirements of a great variety of users in agriculture and industry. Amongst the stranger applications of the Model T was the mobile aircraft starter version.

The long pole that extends beyond the front of this 1915 'Huck Starter' Model T can be aligned with the propellor shaft of an aeroplane and then engaged with it. The chain to the left of the operator connects the aeroplane starter shaft to the drive of the Model T which when engaged will rotate the aircraft engine until it fires under its own power.

When production of the Model T started it took around 12 and half hours to assemble one. By the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 production time had been slashed to just 93 minutes , at one time nearly half of all the worlds motor vehicles were thought to be Fords, in the UK in 1919 41% of all new cars registered for the road were Fords.

The Model T was easily adapted into trucks and buses above is a 1923 fire engine that served on the estate of the Earl of Derbyshire from 1924 to 1948.

One of the great myths about the Model T was that one could have a Model T any colour one wanted so long as it was black. In fact this was only true after 1914, up until then Model's T's were not available in black at all, from 1912 to 1914 Model T's were only available in Midnight Blue with black wings / fenders. After 1914 over 30 different black paints were developed to satisfy the various means of applying the paint to different parts of the cars.

The 1924 Model T above is little changed from the 1911 example seen at the top of the post.

With over 15 million examples produced when production of the Model T ceased in 1927, the Model T held the title of the worlds most popular vehicle until 1972 when it was eclipsed by the VW Beetle, though it should be noted the Beetle had undergone many more changes in it's life time than the Model T.

The 1924 example above can be seen at the Attwell Wilson Museum.

Forward Control Flathead - Fordson 7V

2011-10-10T08:09:00.001+01:00

The Fordson 7V truck built in Britain from 1937 to 1948 had two enduring innovations.

The first was it's flathead V8 the first Ford V8 which was originally built in the USA in 1932. This motor in various guises from 136 CUI / 2.2 litre to 337 CUI 5.7 litre was in production until 1973 when German built trucks with a variation of this motor ceased production. This easy to maintain and upgrade motor was popular with hot rodders and racers alike, indeed Allard amongst other special builders also installed a variation this motor in some of its most successful competition models.

The second innovative feature of the Fordson 7V was the forward control cab which placed the driver alongside the motor which improved the drivers vision of the road and allowed for greater maneuverability in congested urban environments. This particular feature did not take off until the 1960's Ford having taken a step back placing the driver in the traditional position behind the motor with it's 1950's Trader models. Note the cab also has an unusual for the period one piece windscreen.

Fordson 7V's like this particular one were the vehicle of choice for Britain's National Fire Service during the 2nd World War and painted grey they were an all to familiar sight during the Blitz Krieg. The Fordson 7V chassis was also adapted during the 2nd World War to build the armoured flathead V8 powered tracked Loyd Carrier.

With the cessation of hostilities and the post war boom in motor racing Fordon 7V's fitted with Flathead V8's were much in demand for use as racing transporters giving many fire tenders a second lease of life.

The Clarke family use this 1937 example, seen at the Rare Breeds Show, to transport their collection of replica Stock Cars as raced in the 1950's.

Thanks for joining me on today's transporter edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at British built variations of one of the worlds most popular cars. Don't forget to come back now !

Rare Mini Variation - Ogle SX 1000

2011-10-09T00:51:00.001+01:00

After serving as a decorated and honoured Supermarine Seafire pilot in the Second World War David Ogle DSC MBE attended the Central School of Art to study Industrial Design.

On completion of his studies he worked for Murphy Radio and later Bush Radio where he was credited with the design of the TR82 transistor radio.

In 1954 David founded his own industrial design studio which has been credited with the design of all manor of wheeled transport from Chopper Bicycles (1970), through the Reliant Scimitar, to award wining truck cabs for Leyland Road Train vehicles.

In 1959 Ogle design started building the first of three series of glass fibre bodied cars the 1.5 built on a Riley Chassis with a BMC (British Motor Corporation) motor of which eight were built.

In 1962 Ogle launched the SX1000, as seen here at Goodwood, initially as a conversion built around a customer supplied Mini.

It is thought 66 of these vehicles were built with the last one leaving the factory in 1964. The slippery Coupé was capable of 110 mph when fitted with a top of the range Mini Cooper S engine.

After David Ogle died driving an SX1000 on the way to Brands Hatch and car production at Ogle had been wound up the SX1000 body moulds were sold to a boat builder in the Midlands who exhibited his self named Fletcher GT at the Racing Car Show in 1967.

Today with only 26 of the original SX1000's thought to have survived Nostalgia Cars in Taunton Somerset produce identical replica SX1275 models as kits for Mini enthusiasts.

Thanks for joining me on todays SX1000 edition of 'Gettin a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Designed By An Accountant #1 - Lotus VI #34

2011-10-08T00:22:00.003+01:00

In 1942 Peter Kirwan-Taylor was 12 when he returned to England after a temporary evacuation to North America. He accompanied his step father Charles Loraine Hill, a director of Lagonda Cars, on trips to visit Lagonda and Westland the aircraft manufacturer where his interest in design took hold.

After a military career, during which he was member of the British Sking team, Peter settled down to follow his fathers footsteps and trained as an accountant. On the April 13th 1954 in between his 3 nights a week studies Peter found time to purchase and build a new Lotus VI, chassis #34, and decided to design his own body for it.

He provided Williams & Pritchard with the drawings and a claymodel which featured a high crease line and because of the suspension set up when the body was mounted to the chassis the car accidentally had a futuristic wedge appearance due the forward sloping aspect of the crease line.

Peter raced the car several times and as his family and career in finance took off he sold PGP 182 after two years.

Brands Hatch Undated, #19 Lotus VI, body by Peter Kirwan-Taylor

Reproduced courtesy Ted Walker www.ferret1.co.uk

The exact details of the ownership of PGP 182 from 1956 to 1963 are not recorded however as can be seen on this link we do know Peter's car made an appearance at Silverstone in June 1957 in the hands of Tony Wilson-Spratt. (See postscript below)

Thomas Kikaldy owned PGP 182 from 1963 to 1969 and he removed the unique body and sold it to an Italian restaurant owner in London and it has not been seen in public since.

In 1983 Len Pritchard, who produced the panels for the original Lotus VI kits, fabricated new panels for PGP 182 in the style of original Lotus VI's with which the car, seen on this link 4th from right, is fitted today.

Peter Ross of the Historic Lotus Register informs me that the whereabouts of the drawings for Peter Kirwan Taylors bodywork are known and his one off body work could be recreated if some one desired.

As we shall see next Saturday Peter Kirwan-Taylor's friendship with Lotus founder Colin Chapman grew from the time he purchased PGP 182 and he would design another Lotus which made a larger mark on the Lotus Cars story.

My thanks to Paul Rochdale of The Nostalgia Forum for first identifying PGP 182 as a Lotus VI to Peter Ross from the Historic Lotus Register for details about Peter Kirwan-Taylor and PGP 182 and to Ted Walker aka Ferret Fotographics for permission to use today's photograph.

Thanks for joining me on this accountants edition of 'Gettin a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

10/10/11 POSTSCRIPT. Peter Ross of the Historic Lotus Register has kindly sent a few comments about this blog it would appear the photograph in the link is of Tony Wilson-Spratt at the wheel and the photographer was Neville Bradshaw.

Peter also informs me that an article 'The Story of the Kirwan-Taylor bodied Lotus VI' appeared in the Historic Lotus magazine issue #64 which can be ordered through the HLR website linked here.

Dino Remembered - Ferrari 246S

2011-10-07T00:35:00.001+01:00

At the end of 1955 Alfredo 'Dino' Ferrari proposed the idea of building a twin over head cam 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui V6 motor for use in second tier open wheel Formula 2 racing to his father Enzo. Soon afterwards 'Dino' was hospitalised with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, while in hospital 'Dino' discussed the technical details of his idea with legendary engineer Vittorio Jano.

Jano translated his disscusions with 'Dino' into what would become the first 'Dino' V6 which was used in Formula 2 races in 1957, by which time 'Dino' had fatally succumbed to his illness.

The motor had the two banks of cylinders unusually inclined at 65 degrees by 1958 a larger version of the 'Dino' V6 had been installed in Ferrari's Grand Prix cars and used by Mike Hawthorn to win the 1958 World Drivers Championship.

A 2 litre / 122 cui version of the 'Dino' engine was installed in a sports car, s/n #0740, for Peter Collins to drive at Goodwood in the 1958 Sussex trophy where he came 2nd. THe sports car was indistinguishable from the older Fantusi bodied 250TR apart from the 3 twin choke carburetors sticking out of the bonnet /hood where the larger engined 250 TR had 6.

Several more variations of the Dino V6 were built and raced including single over head cam versions with 60 degree inclinations between the cylinders. #0784 seen here in the hands of Bobby Verdon Roe at the Silverstone Classic was the last of the 246S models to be built in 1959.

#0784 was fitted with a twin cam V6 and uniquely with Formula One derived independent rear suspension. On it's debut Phil Hill and Graf Berghe 'Taffy' von Trips drove this chassis into second place in the 1960 Targa Florio. This would remain the cars best result despite the best efforts Richie Ginther, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Ed Hugus, Alan, Cornell jr, Ricardo & Pedro Rodriguez, and Bob Grossman.

In 1962 the car was fitted with the high tail body seen on the car today. Among it's many owners since the 1960's was Nick Mason's friend and Pink Floyd Manager Steve O'Rourke who was briefly the custodian of #0784 in 1997. More recently in 2009 Bobby Verdon Rowe and Nick Leventis took this 246S to victory lane in a one hour race at the Goodwood revival in 2009.

Thanks for joining me on the Dino V6 edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Booby Prize from Wide Track Country - Pontiac Firebird

2011-10-06T01:14:00.001+01:00

In 1954 vice president of engineering at General Motors Oliver K Kelly called Packards head of Research and Development John DeLorean to offer him a choice of jobs across the five divisions on General Motors. DeLorean who at the time also had the choice of moving to Studebaker with whom Packard had just merged settled on becoming assistant to chief engineer Elliot 'Pete' Estes at Pontiac.

By 1963 John had become chief engineer at Pontiac, and Estes had become general Manager when they together with engine specialist Russell Gee and chassis engineer Bill Collins convinced the GM management to let them offer a $296 performance package on the Pontiac LeMans Coupé and Convertible body stiles that included a 325 hp 6.4 litre / 389 cui V8 motor normally found in the full size Pontiac Catalina and Bonneville models, from whence the 'Wide Track' strap line was born and named it GTO a name John picked up from the Ferrari 250 GTO.

The Pontiac GTO with initial production limited to 5,000, by a disbelieving Pontiac Sales Manager Frank Bridge, was an instant hit with Ronnie and the Daytonas, the youth market at which it was aimed and GM Management. The GTO was responsible for transforming the image of the brand from an 'aunties car' to a youth orientated performance brand with over 32, 000 units built in 1964.

As the GTO was launched John DeLorean moved on to the development of the Pontiac Banshee a concept car to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette which was killed by GM's top management. DeLorean seen as Pontiacs golden boy was promoted to head of the entire Pontiac division and given the consolation task of turning the Chevrolet Camaro into a Pontiac Pony Car with the proviso that there could be no alterations to the sheet metal except to the front and rear panels.

By incorporating a signature Pontiac split grill with built in bumper at the front and a version of the rear strip lights seen on the two Banshee concept cars the Pontiac Pony car was easily distinguishable from it's Chevrolet sibling, Having failed to acquire the Banshee naming rights from rocket scientist Eugene F. Lally, who had successfully raced a Corvette powered special of the same name, for less than ¢50 per car, the name Firebird which had been previously used by GM on three seriously out landish gas turbine concept cars, was eventually adopted for the Pontiac pony car.

The absence of marker lights, Federally mandated in 1968, and the E suffix on the registration plate confirm this as most likely one of the five variations of the 1967 model line up.

The Ram Air bonnet / hood suggests this car had the top of the range 6.6 litre / 400 cui motor installed when it left the factory.

Just over 100,132 1967 Firebirds are thought to have been manufactured of which 9,980 were convertible.

Thanks for joining me on this Wide Track Country edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

A little bit of this and a little bit of that - Vauxhall A/D Type 1914/1918

2011-10-05T00:32:00.001+01:00

The Vauxhall A type was one of the preeminent 3 litre / 183 cui cars of its day competing for a share of a limited market for prestige vehicles alongside Bentley, Rolls Royce, Daimler for favour amongst European nobility.

The A-Type was the first production car designed by Laurence Pomeroy, it evolved through 4 distinct stages between 1908 and 1914 along the way amongst its notable achievements were many wins in a variety of events from trials and reliability events in the hands of customers while the factory built a single seat streamlined version that became the first 20 hp car timed at over 100 mph over a flying half mile at Brooklands.

Of the 940 total production less than two dozen are thought to have survived many of them are in the Antipodes where these rugged vehicles were extremely popular.

In 1912 Pomeroy introduced a new 4 cylinder engine design featuring a chain drive for the cam and magneto. The new engine was built in 3 litre / 183 cui and 4 litre / 244 cui sizes with the smaller engine being fitted to A types and the larger engine to the larger D-Type chassis, remember body work was usually supplied separately to customers bespoke requirements by independent coach builders. The D-Type won a contract from the Ministry of Defence for Staff Cars during the Great War 1914 - 1918.

This particular car owned by Dr. A. N. Lockhart and driven by James Gunn seen here at Prescott last year, comprises a 1914 A-Type chassis one of just four thought to be in the UK, with the larger 4 litre / 244 cui 1918 D-type motor.

My thanks to Dr A.N. Lockhart who's web page on the Vauxhall Type A and D's proved indispensable.

Thanks for joining me on this 244 cui edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Spirit of the 60's - Dyrham Park

2011-10-04T02:01:00.001+01:00

On Sunday I ambled through the back lanes of Gloucestershire with a couple of friends to visit Dyrham Park a Neo Classic country mansion, that was built for William III's Secretary at War William Blathwayt, set in a 274 acre deer park.

The house was made over to the state in the late 1950's and the National Trust subsequently took over the running of the estate in 1961. That same year the Bristol Motor Cycle & Light Car Club organised a hillclimb on an 800 yard course that started at the Mansion house and went up the winding front drive towards the main gates of the estate.

To celebrate the centenary of what is now known as the Bristol Motor Club a Spirit of the 60's demonstration was organised at Dyrham Park to mark the six events that were organised from 1961 - 1966. Not all the vehicles present on Sunday, like Tony Wallens 1971 Lotus 69 were strictly of the correct period but they all added to flavour on another Indian Summers day.

Making his way through the hairpin to the start line is Chris Merrick in a Brabham BT18 / Buick V8 that once belonged to Bryan Eccles who set, probably for all time, the course record of 30.05 secs in 1966.

Some of you may remember I stumbled across a Berkeley B105 earlier this year at the Silverstone Classic, this 1959 example heading for the assembly area belongs to Neil Barber.

Steve Hillcox in the 302 cui Mustang Fastback can is seen above preparing to leave the assembly area for his run up the narrow 800 yard course.

Following the Suzuki Pace Car heading for the sweeps on one of the demonstration runs are Jeffrey Allen in his 1967 Mini Cooper, Steve Dowling in his 1959 Austin A35 and David Valsler in his Turner which he found in Ohio.

John Robbins above negotiates the hairpin in his 1967 VW Notchback ahead of Colin Gale in his 1966 Austin Healey Sprite.

I believe this is Ron Clements in his 1933 Morgan Super Sport which bears a quote from two time Le Mans winner Sir Tim Birkin on the side "Better to die at full throttle than to live behind a desk." Sir Tim died from as a result of burns sustained while racing a Maserati in the 1933 Tripoli Grand Prix.

One of the slower passes up the hill had they been timed would possibly have gone to former British Saloon car stalwart Vince Woodman on this Honda monkey bike,

though without doubt had the event been timed he would have been in the running for top tin top with his 3.4 litre 1973 Cologne Capri seen here rounding Neptune before the finish straight.

Somewhere between 4-5000 spectators are thought to have been entertained by over one hundred cars that each made several runs up the hill, apparently at one point the gates had to be closed because the A46 Bath Road had become blocked. At 4 pm the course car passed for the last time bringing an entertaining day to an end.

Thanks for joining me on this Dyrham Park edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't for get to come back now !

RIP WB - William Boddy Brooklands Tribute

2011-10-03T02:02:00.006+01:00

On Saturday events conspired to allow me to visit for the first time the worlds first purpose built motor sport venue, Brooklands.

Brooklands was built in 1907, it was simultaneously also one of Britains first airfields. Brooklands became a centre of engineering excellence and racing continued their interrupted only by the Great War of 1914 - 1918. By 1939 what would become the all time lap record was set at 143.44 mph by John Cobb. A well known photo of John's record breaking run show's his 24 litre / 1461 cui Napier Railton, weighing several tons, flying along with all four wheels off the ground ! Such was the unevenness of the track. After the second world war racing failed to resume as industrial and residential pressures on the previously rural circuit took it's toll on the circuits fabric.

Enthusiasts gathered on Saturday to pay tribute to William 'Bill' Boddy MBE who in a career spanning 81 years served as editor of the publication Motor Sport from 1936 - to 1991. He famously kept the magazine going through out WW2 during his spare time while working for the Ministry of Aircraft Production.

Bill passed away in July and this Saturdays gathering included many of the actual cars, like this 1926 Sunbeam 3 Litre Super Sports, with which Bill had been associated during a career that played a significant part in firing this writers imagination during his miss spent youth. Owner of the Sunbeam Oliver Heal tells me WB was a passenger in this car one cold wet November day while being chaufferred by John Wyer future team manager at Aston Martin, Ford and of his own Gulf Sponsored JWA teams that successfully ran Ford, Porsche and Mirage chassis in sports car races.

In 1930 Bills first article published in Motor Sport was on the history Brooklands, the above 1907 Berliet V8 seen on The Hill is contemporaneous with the year the track opened 20 years before Bill made his first visit to Brooklands.

One of my favourite irregular features in Motor Sport is Bills 'Forgotten Makes' series into which category I would have to include this 1926 Gwynne 8 of which WB, as Bill was known to his readers, owned 3 using one as his transport through out WW2.

The 'racing dentist' Tony Brooks is seen above on the left retelling his memories of WB when his career was in the ascendant scoring the first Grand Prix win, since 1923, by an Englishman driving a British built car, the Connaught, at Syracuse in 1955.

While working at the Ministry of Aircraft Production WB met conscientious objector Denis 'DSJ' Jenkinson who was building a motorcycle by torch light in a shed during the WW2. WB would eventually employ DSJ, who was so obsessed with racing that when he settled down he eschewed both mains electricity and mains water, to become Continental Correspondent at Motor Sport. Among many cars that DSJ enjoyed was the red E-Type Jaguar above in which he drove 110,000 miles between 1965 and 1970 visiting all the top races and the best circuits in Europe during that time.

This 1947 Volkswagen was road tested by WB in 1952, he was so impressed VW's that he used them for editorial transportation. This particular vehicle is possibly also responsible for coining the 'Beetle' name for the model, VW importer and owner of this car John Colborne-Barber founded the VW Owners Club of Great Britain and published a magazine called 'Beetling' because contemporaries of his sons at school referred to this very car as a 'Beetle'.

Finally perhaps the greatest thrill of the WB tribute day was to see a few of the cars, including Cobb's Napier-Railton, that made history at Brooklands being demonstrated out on part of the remains of the famous 100 ft wide Brooklands banking. Sure they were only tootling about having fun, but the noise was absolutely unforgettable and sure to have been heard by the spirit of WB where ever it resides. A fitting tribute to the man who was involved in saving much of what remains at Brooklands for us to enjoy well into the future.

Thanks for joining me on this Bill Boddy edition of 'Gettin' a little psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

For A Few £'s More - Jensen S-V8

2011-10-02T00:32:00.002+01:00

After the owner of WJ Smiths & Sons a body works passed away in 1934 two employees, the brothers Richard and Alan Jensen bought the assets and founded Jensen as a coachbuilding firm. Building customised bodies for proprietary chassis supplied by Morris, Singer, Standard and Wolseley. One of their early commissions was for a car based on a Ford V8 for Hollywood legend Clark Gable, this highly acclaimed car facilitated a deal with Ford to produce a limited edition of Jensen Fords.

The following year Jensen launched the Jensen S type also powered by a Ford V8. Jensen diversified into light commercial vehicles marketed under the JNSN brand and during the war were engaged to make tank turrets and specialised vehicles, ambulances and fire engines.

After the 2nd World War Jensen produced the Jen Tug light truck for hauling trailers around goods yards and won a number of contracts to produce bodies for among others the military all wheel drive Austin Gipsy, the Austin A40 Sports, Austin-Healey 100, Volvo P1800 and Sunbeam Tiger.

Concurrently Jensen built an Austin parts bin based Interceptor, and fibreglass bodied 541 Coupé. Perhaps their best known model is the Chrysler powered Interceptor introduced in 1966 with a steel body designed by Carrozzeria Touring and built by Vignale.

The Interceptor remained in production until the company folded in 1976, several attempts were made to revive production one resulting in 11 MK4 Interceptors being built. In 1998 the Ford Mustang Cobra V8 powered aluminium bodied Jensen S-V8, harking back to the 50's and 60's 541 and CV8 models was shown to the public and 300 orders were taken to build the car at a new £9 million facility at Speke in Liverpool.

Unfortunately quality problems including the manufacture of the aluminium body panels slowed the expected production rate and only 20 vehicles were produced, including the one seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed, before the company again went under in 2002. The Oselli company purchased a licence to complete a further 12 cars, all with heavier easier to manufacture steel bodies, and retained the parts from a further 6 vehicles for spares.

Since production of the 20 original £40,000 cars has ceased at an average unit cost to investors of £450,000 it has been claimed that Jensen went under for the want of just £500,000 to see them through.

Thanks for joining me on this underfunded edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Awaiting TLC #3 - Lotus Mark 6

2011-10-01T00:07:00.001+01:00

Third in my occasional series of blogs about cars in need of tender loving care is this uniquely ungainly looking Lotus Mark 6 seen earlier this year at the Silverstone Classic.

The Lotus Mark 6 was the first Lotus design to go into to production and it was sold in kit form saving purchasers a small fortune in new car taxes. The reason this particular vehicle is both unique and ungainly is because it is the only Lotus Mark 6 built as a mud plugging trials car requiring more ground clearance than either the road going or track racing versions.

The chassis with Williams & Pritchard built body was originally supplied to Mr Horace Sinclair Sweeney in 1953 at a cost of £110. Once Mr Sweeney had finished installing the engine and running gear he entered and won the London Motor Club's Annecy Spring Sporting Trial on the 7th of June 1953.

The motor is an Aquaplane tuned 1172 cc / 71.5 cui side valve E93A unit sourced from a Ford 10 built in the 1930's.

In 1954 Mr Arthur Hay acquired this Mark 6 and over the next ten years won three Motor Cycling Club (MCC) Triple awards for completing the Exeter, Lands End and Edinburgh trials unpenalised in three separate calendar years. Since then car has remained in the Hay family, but unused since 1964.

The current owner hopes to restore the car to working order and use it for sporting trials as originally intended by Mr Sweeney.

Thanks for joining me on this mud plugging edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at a Jensen. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood RAC TT Celebration - Ferraris

2011-09-30T02:38:00.002+01:00

The RAC TT or International Tourist Trophy is a more or less annual award given to the winners of a selected motor race. It was first awarded in 1905 making it the longest lasting trophy in Motorsport. Among the many venues that hosted the RAC TT is Goodwood which ran TT races from 1958 to 1964. Below are 9 of the 10 Ferrari's that took part in the Revival Celebration TT practice sessions a couple of weeks ago.

The #14 Ferrari 250 GT Drogo started life as a 250 GT SWB (Short Wheel Base) Competizione chassis #2445GT in 1961, it was supplied to Garages Francorchamps in Belgium and is known to have won at least seven European races in the hands of Robert Crevits in the 1961 and '62 seasons. At Le Mans in 1962 Robert Darville crashed the car and it was subsequently sent to Piero Drogo in Modena where the current bodywork was fitted. Apparently James Coburn briefly owned this car in 1964. Dutchman David Hart shared the #14 with 2006 RAC TT winner Michael Bartels at Goodwood.

Readers from Rowdy.com may remember my blog on the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Breadvan, I'll repost the whole blog here if I find myself getting short of Ferraris to write about, chassis #2819 is a bastard in so much as it also started life as a 1961 250 GT SWB, but Count di Misurata had his car upgraded by Giotto Bizzarrini, the man responsible for designing both the Ferrari 250 GT SWB and the later 250 GTO. The 'Breadvan' was driven at Goodwood by Nicholas Minassian and Max Werner.

One of my all time heroes Art Merzario shared the #19 250 GT SWB/C with Kilian Koenig. This 1960 model chassis #1811GT was another car originally supplied to Garages Francorchamps and in the hands of Robert Crevits won 3 races outright in the 1961 season.

Conrad Ulrich shared his #20 250 GT SWB chassis #3107GT with Frank Stippler at Goodwood. This chassis was originally supplied to M. Auregli in Italy and has no race history, that I can discern, until the current owner acquired it in 1999.

This light weight 1961 250GT SWB Compitizione was originally entered by the North American Racing Team in the Paris 1000 kms for the Mexican Rodriguez brothers who won on the cars debut race. Subsequently it was sold to Doug Thiem in the USA who succesfully campaigned this chassis #3005GT in 1962. The #21 car now belongs to Lukas Hueni who shared it with Carlo Voegele at Goodwood.

Gregory Whitten's #23 250 GTO chassis #3413 was originally used as a spare car and tested by Graham Hill and engineer Mauro 'Fury' Fogheri on the Targa Florio in 1962, later that year #3413 was acquired by Edoardo Lualdi who scored numerous overall and class wins hillclimbing with it. In 1963 Gianni Bulgari raced it scoring a class win on the Targa and an overall win at Monza. In 1964 the car was fitted with '64 GTO bodywork at the Ferrari factory for new owner Corrado Ferlaino who promptly took another class win on the Targa and at least two more hillclimb class wins. In 1967 Jack Le Fort acquired #3413 for £6000 /@ US$ 15,000 after several further changes of ownership Gregory Whitten acquired it in 2000 for US$ 7 million ! Greg shared his car with 6 time Le Mans winner Derek 'Dinger' Bell at Goodwood.

The #24 Ferrari 250 GTO chassis #3767GT was raced with the #8 by original owner David Piper to 5th place in the 1962 Tourist Trophy at Goodwood. David won races in Angola and South Africa with this car in 1962. In 1963 David shared the car at Sebring with the cars next owner Ed Cantrell who clocked up further class wins with the car through to the end of 1964. Since 1974 #3767 has been the property of heavy plant magnet Anthony Bamford at Goodwood his son Jo shared the drivng duties with Alain de Cadenet.

Jose Albuquerque, of Portugal brought his 250GT Compitizione to Goodwood and shared it with Barrie Williams. Chassis #2159GT was originally supplied to Garage Montchoisy, Geneva, CH and Gérard Spinedi won on his debut in the 1000m sprint at Cern, Spinedi scored numerous overall and class victories in races, rallies and on the hills up to 1964. Mr Albuquerque has been the custodian of this car since 2001.

Finally Garage Francochamps appears to have acquired this 1960 steel bodied 250GT SWB Berlinetta chassis #2069GT from Baron de Fierlant in 1962, apart from a 2nd place in the 1962 Ardenne hillclimb with Robert Crevits at the wheel, the car has no discernable competition history until the turn of this century when Vincent Gáye acquired it. Vincent was sharing #2060GT with former national hillclimb champion David Franklin in the RAC TT celebration.

My thanks to PauloSF at Ferrari Chat for his contribution to todays blog.

Thanks for joining me on this RAC TT edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

SOT Thanks to a strong alignment of favourable planets I'll be attending the Bill Boddy Tribute Day at Bill's spiritual home Brooklands tomorrow, if I had not picked up a copy of Motor Sport, edited by Bill Boddy, in January 1973 I'd never have been bitten by the passion I still have 38 years later for all things motoring.

Killed By A Pony - Ford Falcon Sprint V8

2011-09-29T00:43:00.001+01:00

The stand out car in the Goodwood car park last week was this Ford Falcon Sprint V8, there is something about the unmolested patina of old racing cars I simply find irresistible, something all to easy to underestimate that speaks of both achievement and subsequent precarious survival.

There are four strands to Ford Falcon history, the US built cars such as the one seen here which were in production from 1960 until 1970, the Argentinian built Falcons in production from 1962 to 1991, the Australian built Falcons which have been in production since 1960 and the US built Falcon 'E series' 8 seat vans built from 1961 to 1967.

Allegedly Edsel Ford first came up with the Falcon name for the design of a luxury car in 1935, he felt the name did not quite fit and renamed the car Mercury which was launched as a luxury brand in 1938.

The Ford Falcon was launched in 1960, like the contemporary Chevrolet Corvair, Chrysler / Plymouth Valiant, Studebaker Lark and AMC Rambler, the design evolved from market research which identified that many US families were in the market for a smaller than full size second vehicle primarily to be driven by women. The first generation Falcons were in production from 1960 -1963.

The second generation Falcon was redesigned in 1964 and aimed at a more youthful market. Falcons were available in two door, 4 door, sedan, 2 door coupé like this 1964 model, 2 door convertible, 2 door coupé utility and 3 or 5 door station wagon forms.

Six engine options were available from 2.4 litre / 144 cui in line sixes through to 4.9 litre / 302 cui Windsor V8's along with 4 transmission options 2 speed (ford o matic) auto, 3 speed auto and 3 or 4 speed manual.

Despite over a million sales in the first two years of the first generation Falcon, second series Falcon sales tanked thanks in no small part to another vehicle in the Ford range that was based on the second generation Falcon but aimed at an even more youthful market known as the Ford Mustang which was launched in April 1964.

To try and keep sales up the Sprint V8 with 4.7 litre / 289 cui, as seen here, and later even 4.9 litre / 302 cui variations were introduced but the slightly more expensive Mustang with the same power trains was the car everyone wanted.

The secrets of this particular cars past remain hidden to me for now, a signature above the lighter on the dash looks like that of two time British Saloon car champion Jack Sears. I have not been able to find any evidence Jack drove such a car after winning the 1963 British Saloon Car Championship driving a Ford Cortina GT, a Lotus Cortina and a Ford Galaxy 500.

Thanks for joining me on this Sprint V8 edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Worth Getting Up At Dawn For - Volvo 480ES

2011-09-28T00:31:00.002+01:00

One day in April 1987 I spent the day at Donington Park where Volvo Concessionaires officially introduced the '87 model range to members of it's dealer network. This was the first opportunity many of us would have to drive the much anticipated Volvo 480ES.

Unlike Volvo's previous coupé the P1800 which was based on an existing Amazon platform, the 480 was a completely fresh front wheel drive design by Robert Koch, John de Vries and interior by Corien Pompe. The 480 platform would then later be used for the 440 hatchback and 460 saloon variants.

The car bristled with idea's new to Volvo including a Porsche tuned transverse 90 hp engine and front wheel drive, engine management by Electronic Control Unit, digital dash instrumentation, and a Lotus tuned suspension that gave the car staggering road holding.

By the time the car was launched the pop up head lights were not strictly necessary as the European Laws that had required them to meet a minimum head light height had been repealed, however this change in the law came so late the design remained unchanged.

During the course of the day I had the opportunity of driving the car around the Donington Park Circuit with a racing instructor at my side and I simply could not drive the car anything like fast enough to explore it's road holding potential, it went every where I wanted it to go safely regardless of the speed I was doing.

Some weeks later I was given the 480 ES, seen here, for a week in exchange for getting up at some improbably early hour to go and drum up some business at New Covent Garden Fruit Vegetable Market in Central London.

From 1986 to 1995 80,463 Volvo 480 ES, Turbo and 2 litre / 122 cui variants were manufactured at the former DAF works at Born in the Netherlands.

Thanks for joining me on this New Covent Garden edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

A Passage From India - Rover CityRover

2011-09-27T01:16:00.002+01:00

In 2000 BMW gave up on it's attempt to revive the Rover Group after six years and sold most of the assets packaged as the MG Rover Group to the Phoenix consortium. At this point all models, bar one the '75', in the MG Rover groups portfolio were around five years old and Phoenix determined that their first new car would be aimed at the city car market segment that had once been an almost exclusive preserve of the Mini, a product of earlier incarnations of the MG Rover Group.

MG Rover Group did not have any research and development assets so they looked for a partner that would be offered a stake in the group in return for a new car. A deal was done with Indian manufacturers TATA who would build a version of the first ever completely indigenous Indian passenger car the Indica.

The design criteria for the Indica were that it would be the size of a Maruti Zen, similar to the Suzuki Cervo Mode, the internal dimensions of the Hindustan Ambasador, a cast off from a previous in carnation of the MG Rover Group that is still in production who's design heritage can be traced back to the Morris Oxford of 1948, the price of a Maruti 800, another Suzuki related product, and the running cost of a diesel.

The design work was carried out by I.D.E.A. in Italy and after a false start with some quality issues the TATA Indicia, launched in 1998, with a Peugeot derived motor proved to be a big hit on the Indian sub continent. Despite the absence of a development budget, apart from the badging, alterations made to the Indicia to suit the needs of European motoring included an upgraded engine to produce 84 hp and exceed more stringent emissions regulations, increase in road wheel size from 13 to 14 inches and corresponding alteration of gear ratio's, stiffer front and rear spring rates, lowered suspension and increased gearing for the steering.

Production of the Rover CityRover began in Pune India in 2003 but the cars launch was marred by questions over the MG Rover Groups finances and by the newly crowned 2004 European Car of the year the FIAT Panda which was a game changing generation ahead of the CityRover and cheaper too.

While the CityRover was praised for it's performance and handling it was let down by interior quality, lack of equipment and above all headlining city car market segment price. In July 2005 MG Rover was liquidated with the loss of 6,000 jobs in the company and a further 25,000 jobs in related suppliers companies. Nanjing acquired the assets of the MG Rover Group.

Around 6000 CityRovers, such as the base Solo model seen here, were sold in it's first year and a further 1200 Mk2 versions were sold through non franchised dealers after the MG Rover Groups liquidation.

Thanks for joining me on this 'CityRover' edition of getting a lil' psycho on tyres'. I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at a Coupé built in The Netherlands. Don't forget to come back now !

So You Think You Know Your Sports Cars - Palos Verdes C d' E

2011-09-26T01:12:00.001+01:00

Thanks to photo's sent by Geoffrey Horton, I am pleased to bring you another dose of California sunshine from the Palos Verdes Concours d' Elegance held last weekend.

About the most difficult vehicle to identify in this over view is the Mazda Como Sport unless like me you have wasted a little time playing Grand Turismo 4. Easiest vehicle to identify for regular GALPOT readers should be Geoffrey's Jaguar XK140 FHC, which was up against a Mercedes Gullwing this time out. Shocking to me was that Geoffrey sent me photo's of five vehicles who's manufacturers I had never heard of.

Oldest of the five was this 1940 Coachcraft 'Yanke Doodle' Roadster, a one off with a chassis frame built from Hudson Essex and Ford models by 17 year old Seward Allan with a body by Coachcraft of West Hollywood and modifications by Frank Kurtis.

My favourite of the five is this this 1952 Maverick Sportster, a 210 lbs boat tail fibre glass body built by Sterling Gladwin sitting on top of a Flathead Cadillac powered LaSalle chassis. This particular vehicle appears to be the prototype which is recognisable by the absence of any doors.

Next up we have a car of the type that starred in the reckless and thrilling film 'Johnny Dark' namely a Woodhill Wild Fire built by California Dodge dealer Robert 'Woody' Woodhill, who dreamed of owning a Jaguar XK120 and ended up building two fibre glass specials. With Willys running gear and tailor made Glasspar bodies, Woodhill was unsuccessful at selling his sportscar to Kaiser, owner of Willy's, and after modifying his car to run with Ford running gear he then built similar Buick and Cadillac examples. Again failing to gain manufacturer support Woodhill settled for building his sports cars with Ford running gear and selling then as kit cars that could be assembled in 14 hours, famously demonstrating a 4 hour build on TV.

The company that started the glass fibre revolution in US sports car production appears to be Glasspar a company specialising in building fibre glass fibre boats who built a, Bill Tritt designed, special, the Brooks Boxer, for USAF Major Ken Brooks. The mould for the Brooks Boxer was then used to produce the Glasspar G2 of the type seen here. A modified version of the G2 body was supplied to Robert Woodhill for his Wild Fire kits.

Finally the fibre glass body vehicle above is known as a 1960 Hirsch Roadster, sources on the internet suspect the date since the car is described as having Fiero steering, Datsun 280Z rear axle, and a 1966 289 Ford V8 connected to a similarly sourced 5 speed transmission. The owner believes the cars roots lie in a business that failed to get off the ground in Orange County. If you know anything about the Hirsch or indeed about any of the cars above please do not hesitate to either leave a message or get in touch be e-mail, my address is on the bottom of the page.

My thanks again to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs from Palos Verdes.

Thanks for joining me on this glass fibre edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at a Rover. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #7 Jaguar Foxbat

2011-09-25T08:10:00.001+01:00

In the last of this series of blogs about the Goodwood Revival, today we are looking at a unique Jaguar XK150.

The XK150 was launched in 1957, updating the XK140 with a one piece windscreen, higher wing line over thinner doors and wider bonnet.

The XK150 was powered by the same 3.4 litre double overhead cam iron block straight 6 motor which was available with a standard 180 hp or with an SE spec 210 hp featuring a modified cylinder head.

Initially the XK150 was slower than the XK140 until the introduction of a 250 hp 'S' motor featuring triple carburettors and straight ported cylinder head.

Legend has it that this 1959 car belonged to an industrial chemist in Swindon called Geoffrey Stevens in the mid 1970's. Mr & Mrs Stevens wanted a car that could carry their two Labradors.

Over a period of two years from 1975 to 1977 Mr Stevens set about restoring his rusty XK150 and grafting the back of a Morris Minor Traveller onto the back of his car turning it into a shooting break, with enough space to carry his dogs.

The rear lights come from a Mini Traveller, apparently the badges on the boot were hand cut by my Stevens.

The Foxbat came up for auction at Goodwood with an estimated value of £30,000 - £35,000, surprisingly it did not find a buyer.

Thanks for joining me on this Foxbat edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me tomorrow when I'll be looking at some of the vehicles that took part in last weekends Palos Verdes Concours, if you think you know your motorcars you might be surprised at some of these most of which I had not heard of until Geoffrey Horton sent me his photo's. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #6 - Dress Code

2011-09-24T06:58:00.003+01:00

The Goodwood Revival is probably the nations largest annual period dress party covering the years from when Goodwood operated as a second world war airbase to 1966 when the race track around the airfield closed to regular competition.

This year Ford of Britain was celebrating it's centenary at Goodwood so the period dress on view went right back to 1911. Above Laurel & Hardy look alikes demonstrate a left hand drive 1924 Model T.

Willys Jeeps were built under licence by Ford of Britain during WW2, note this is also a left hand drive, presumably because it was foreseen that most of these vehicles would be required for the invasion of Europe. This particular vehicle appeared in the blue as used on airfields by the Royal Airforce and the driver is attired in a Royal Air Force officers uniform.

These two ladies dressed up as land girls part of a huge civilian Women's Land Army who replaced the male agricultural work force that had gone to war. Typically Land Girls wore somewhat unbecoming if practical trousers in place of skirts and dresses.

Moving into the paddock and forward a decade team mechanics are requested to wear period dress in the Goodwood Revival paddock, anyone visiting the pit area is also requested to dress in period. Above a mechanic tends Peter Thorntons 1955 Austin Healey 100 S.

Recently retired from competitive driving Sir Stirling Moss came close to loosing his life at Goodwood in 1962 after an accident that effectively ended his top level career. Stirling is seen here on a demonstration run in perhaps the ultimate Goodwood period accessory a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR raced solo by his team mate Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1955 Mille Miglia to 2nd place 22 minuets behind Moss and Dennis Jenkinson in the #722 300 SLR.

Competitors and spectators from far and wide come to the Goodwood Revival here a party from France who came with a splendid 1950's Citroen H Van and Citroen DS enjoy breakfast before the racing gets under way.

Throughout the three day Revival a scramble event was run for bikes dating from 1957 to 1966. Here the riders in period outfits are waiting to be let loose on a full lap of the racing circuit.

THe Ford Popular 103E was in production from 1953 to 1959 by which time early models such as this 1953 model were to be found on the F2 Stock Car circuit. Note the owners period brogue shoes, suit and trilby. Hard to believe this photo was taken last week.

This Left Hand Drive Goodwood Revival Transport Corps Fiat 600 Multipla was built in 1961, when tested in 1956 the 6 seat Multipla was found to be capable of reaching 50 mph from rest in 43 seconds and having a top speed of 57.1 mph. The driver of this taxi wears a patterned dress that matches the lime green colour of the lower half of the vehicle.

The gentleman to the right of this Hillman Super Minx convertible wears an outfit typical of many Goodwood Revival spectators, check sports jacket though his flat hat has deer stalker ear flaps.

Goodwood is set in a rural area of West Sussex, the ultimate period farming accessory for the Revival has to be the Ford Triple D, Doe Dual Drive, tractor built in 1963. Invented by George Pryor who wanted a more powerful tractor than any of those available to him, he came up with the idea of taking two Fordson tractors and attaching them together with an articulated coupling that with the aid of hydraulic rams could steer the vehicle through a 90 degree turn. This is a latter 130 hp model manufactured by Ernest Doe & Sons using two Ford F5000 tractors. The main draw back of the vehicle was that it was too powerful for most of the existing implements so stronger implements had to also be manufactured by Ernst Doe & Sons. Around 300 of these vehicles were sold in the UK and USA, recently a 1962 Triple D fetched a staggering £61,000 at auction.

Carry on Films were a low budget saucey national institution in 1960's Britain, featuring fairly simple plots of everyday people such as Doctors, Nurses, Policeman, Sailors and such, in 1963 the 'Carry On' team, which included a regular cast from one film to the next, released Carry On Cabby a tail of rival cab companies operated by a married couple. 48 years later at Goodwood this period Glam Cab Ford Cortina and its drivers look like they have come straight off set.

In the 50's & 60's if one wanted a convertible or estate / station wagon variant of a Ford one would usually have to take it to a coachworks like Crayford to have the work done, as was the case with this 1963 Ford Corsair, at the time this Corsair was built Mini skirts and boots were all the rage, I remember my English Teacher wearing an outfit like this at my London primary school in 1966 and she was the talk of the school for being so 'with it'.

Even the track marshals working along the start / finish straight, seen here rushing to the aid of Gerhard Berger, get into period dress for the Goodwood Revival.

There was a pot puri of military dress code on display at this years Revival covering Allied forces from WW2 through to Vietnam. Here two US personal fraternise with a British Army Sargeant and a Women's Auxiliary Air Force Sargeant.

Among the bravest spectators in period costume at an otherwise testosterone fuelled Goodwood were these two cross dressers,

while these two bikers were amongst those enjoying an equally wild side of dress code, note the fur lined parker of the 'Mod' in the back ground, back in the day 'Mods' and 'Bikers' were at each others throats as immortalised in the film Quadrophenia.

Finally bringing us to the end of the racing era at Goodwood in 1966 this cameraman epitomises the effect the Beatles Sgt Peppers Album had on fashions when it was released on the 1st of June 1966 one month and one day before the Goodwood circuit closed gates for thirty two years.

Thanks for joining me on this Goodwood Dress Code edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at an unusual woody that was up for auction at the Bonham's revival sale. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #5 - Ferrari Open Wheel

2011-09-23T00:19:00.001+01:00

Last Friday I managed to get photo's of many of the Ferrari's on track and just the one off track at Goodwood. In order to break these photo's down into manageable blogs today I'll be looking at five of the single seaters present at last weeks Revival meeting.

Oldest of the open wheelers present was this 1952 Ferrari 500/625 chassis #0482, this type started life as a 2 litre / 122 cui Formula 2 vehicle for the 1952 and 1953 World Championship seasons and was then upgraded for the 1954 season to 2.5 litre / 153 cui for the 1954 World Championship which was run to new Formula One regulations. I am not entirely sure what the exact history of this particular chassis is.

So far as I can tell this Lancia Ferrari is a recreation of the 1956 D50a type, as used by Juan Manuel Fangio to win his forth World Championship in 1956. This particular car, built by Jm Stokes who has manufactured six such vehicles, has Alain de Cadenet operating the loud pedal of the throaty V8, by some considerable margin making the best sound of the day on the track.

This V6 powered 1959 #33 Ferrari Dino 246 owned by Ian Wade and driven by Rick Hall is also a recreation,

while the #12 1960 Dino seen here driven by Tony Smith is genuine with a history. The chassis number was originally #0007 Phil Hill led a Ferrari 1-2-3 victory at the 1960 Italian Grand Prix with this car. This was Phil's first ever Grand Prix win and the last ever recorded for a Formula One car with a front mounted motor. Genesis and Metallica manager
Tony Smith can be seen talking about and driving this car on this link.

Finally the 1961 Ferrari 156 #0002R, above with Jan Biekens at the wheel, is a recreation of the type of vehicle that Phil Hill drove to become the first American World Drives Champion. This car is a recreation, again by Jim Stokes, of 156 chassis #0002, with a 65 degree V6, as used by Oliver Geneblen to finish 4th in the 1961 Belgian GP, Geneblen's car was painted yellow in deference to the Equipe Nationale Belge team which entered him into the race.

Thanks for joining me on this open wheel edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be taking a look at some of the fashion that graced the Goodwood last weekend. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #4 - North Americana

2011-09-22T01:07:00.005+01:00

Among the many fascinating things to see at the Goodwood Revival last weekend was a fine collection of vehicles and a few drivers from the North American continent here is a small selection of highlights.

I imagine this front wing / fender trim on a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 serves a double purpose aiding drivers positioning of the car in a tight maneuver.

My vote for Car of the Car Park at Goodwood was this 1964 Falcon Sprint V8 which looks like it has been neglected for a decade or two, more pix of this car next week.

Bonhams offered a fine selection of vehicles at their auction including this 1950 Ford V8 Custom Deluxe 'Woodie' Station Wagon Chassis no. BOEG164430, which was imported to the UK in 2009, the vehicle does not appear to have found a new owner.

I have not seen an Edsel before, this 1958 model brought home just how colossal a beast an Edsel really is, well suited to the open spaces of North America but a bit like a duck out of water on Englands winding narrow lanes.

When I was younger I remember being bewildered by the attention to detail of the bright work on some of the 1960's land yachts, who could fail to be impressed by the jet age rear light cluster of a 1963 Ford Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe.

Probably in the running for the largest vehicle in the Goodwood Classic car park was this 1959 Cadillac 6200 Sedan Flat Top, quite simply an awesome automobile, I can just imagine the Chuck Berry hits pouring out of the radio.

One of several vehicles built in Canada racing at the Revival was this 1958 Sadler Chevrolet Mk3, I am not sure if this was a one off but counting amongst the drivers of a vehicle of this type were Bob Said father of sometime NASCAR racer Boris Said and Eddie Sachs.

This 1962 Kellison J4 Grand Turismo drew an instant Wow ! reaction when I saw it lurking behind the start grandstand, another vehicle I had not heard of before, Kellison kit cars were the brainchild of Korean Airforce Vet Jim Kellison, this one based on a Corvette C1 chassis. These cars could be fitted with any US proprietary V8 and drive train. The #905 was used on factory Kellison's at Bonneville where a best speed of 186 mph was recorded in one of these simple but effective devices.

I am not really a motor cycle man and if I was I'd go for a café racer like the Triton, but this Harley Davidson looks topically cool with its checkered flame tank, rather like the gargantuan Edsel and Caddy 6200 Series probably not the most suitable of machines for the conditions usually found in West Sussex.

Of all of the WW2 era aeroplanes none says speed quite like the P51 Mustang with its Rolls Royce Merlin V12 motor built under license by Packard. I am not entirely sure if this is an airworthy airframe or just for show but it looked the business surrounded by a B-17 and a host of similarly powered Spitfires.

Last time I recall seeing the distinctive red helmet of Rupert Keegan was when he drove the #16 Ultramar Newsweek Lola T610 in 1982. After an ill feted attempt to run in CART with the Machinist Union team in the mid 1980's the 1979 British Formula One Champion, note not a world title but a national one, completely disappeared from my radar until I saw him driving the #85 1965 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa belonging to Bruce Chapman.

In the same race as the Corvair was the #17 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 pedalled by Kiwi two time winner of the world touring car cup Paul Radisich and owner, seen at the wheel here, Jim Woodley.

Another vehicle coming from Canada was the 1966 Chinook Chevrolet Mk 2. Built in Toronto by Hungarian Canadian George Frejer. The car is seen here in the hands of rapid F5000 exponent Jay Esterer who won the Whitsun Trophy on Sunday.

Ed Hamill appears to have built two Hamill Chevrolet SR3's one for himself that started with an Oldsmobile motor and a second one for the Tero Corvette Team for Hamills workshop neighbour Roy Kumnick to drive in 1966. So far as I can tell this is the Roy Kumnick car, now driven by Chris Chiles, which if I am correct features a rounded steel tube frame as opposed to the square steel tube frame Hamill used to build his own SR3.

George Anderson was responsible for the design of this 1965 Wolverine Chevrolet LD65 and it was built by Lee Dykstra who went on to achieve much with the Bob Tullis Group 44 Jaguar programme and in the CART Indycar Series. The Wolverine was driven by Jerry Hanson in the 1966 Can Am series, third owner Frank Opalka had the car painted white in 1968 as it is seen here being driven by Mogens Christensen.

Capable of 186 mph, with a body designed by Peter Brock, the 1964 Shelby American Cobra Daytona Coupé CSX 2300 entered by Daniella Ellerbrock for 1999 Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack and 8 time Le Mans Winner Tom Kristensen, seen at the wheel here, was the second of the five cars finished by Carrozzeria Gransport in Modena. This car leased from Alan Mann Racing first appeared painted white with red & blue stipes driven by Bob Bondurant and Jochen Neerpach later to become head of competition at Ford, BMW and Mercedes. The car was repainted in Guards blue when it returned to Alan Mann Racing.

The 1964 #98 AC 289 is the English built variant of the 'Cobra', a name that belonged to Shelby before he sold it on to Ford. This one was driven by Kevin Kivlochan and 1998 Indy 500 winner Eddie Cheever. Edit 22/09 Bill P has informed me Kevin's car is chassis #COB6008, which was originally supplied to Bruce Ropener owner of the Croft Circuit in North East England.

Taking it's model name from a weepy Hollywood film about a stray mongrel 1959 Balchowsky-Buick Ol' Yeller II this vehicle is also a mongrel with a Studebacker Champion solid rear end, Buick V8, Buick aluminium drum brakes and a Morris Minor steering rack and white wall tyres more commonly found on station wagons. Max Balchowsky chose all these items for the car drawing on his experience with previous race cars and hotrods. When it held together this inexpensive, $1452.76, sports car driven by the like of Max himself, Dan Gurney, Bob Drake, Bob Bondurant, Carrol Shelby and Jerry Entin, could hold it's own against Ferrari's.

My final piece of North Americana is a replica of a 1964 BRP-BRM a British design, faithfully replicated in New Zealand, currently owned and driven by Kurt DelBene who I understand has a day job in Silicon Valley. Great to see someone out racing with one of the more obscure British Formula One manufacturers, helps me to believe that one day I will see the Connew back on it's wheels and driven with vigour.

My thanks to Tony 'Giraffe' Gallagher, Doug Nye, Paul Parker, Jerry Entin, and bill p at The Nostalgia Forum for their valuable contributions to today's blog.

Thanks for joining me for this North Americana edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me tomorrow for an over view of some of the Ferrari's at Goodwood last weekend. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #3 - Volvo P1800S

2011-09-21T01:16:00.001+01:00

The Volvo P1800 designed by Pelle Peterson, is celebrating it's 50th Anniversary along with the E-Type Jaguar this year, surprisingly in the UK the Volvo was the more expensive of the two models.

Like the E-Type the P1800 was launched at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, with a 4 cylinder 115hp B18 motor this 1967 model is capable of 109 mph.

The producers of the thriller TV series The Saint initially approached Jaguar to see if they would supply a couple of, the much in demand, E-Types for the show, after they were turned down they asked Volvo for a couple of P1800's who obliged by supplying two British bodied, built by Jensen, P1800's for the first series and a Swedish built P1800S for a later series.

The actor Roger Moore star of The Saint, which immortalised the P1800, liked the P1800 so much he bought one.

In the late 80's I came very close to taking on a P1800S as an investment, a second look at the car in daylight revealed I'd need to double my investment just to stay ahead of the rust, the following year the economy tanked. Wonderful cars full of character that the P1800's are, I'm glad I played it safe on that particular occasion.

Thanks for joining me on this Simon Templar edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you join me again for some Goodwood Americana tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #2 - Rover 2000TC

2011-09-20T00:21:00.001+01:00

Welcome to the 365th edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' when I started this blog one year ago I thought I might struggle to make it last a week, I can't quite believe that my enthusiasm now is stronger than it was then, this is in no small part due to every one of the 44,000 plus hits that I have had from over 20,000 views.

I'd like to thank every one who has popped by, all those who have left comments and especially all those who have generously given, tickets, invitations, time and effort donating photographs details on the vehicles and stories for me to publish. Over the next couple of weeks I will be powering up a dedicated GALPOT website for these blogs, all of the existing blogs will be kept on line, you will receive timely updates as the new website progresses.

Today's car the Rover 2000TC is a personal favourite, identical to a little Corgi model I had that featured jewel head lights, a sky roof and golden jacks so that I could swap the wheels. I must have driven that toy Rover 2000TC several hundred thousand miles on my hands and knees and changed the wheels several thousand times too.

Launched in 1963 the Rover 2000 was originally supplied with 104 hp single carburettor 4 cylinder motor, by 1966 Rover launched an export the model with a more powerful 124 hp Twin Carburettor (TC) motor.

Initially the 2000TC was only made available to export markets, officially because the twin carb manifolds were in short supply and because of a 70 mph speed limit introduced in the UK in 1965.

Six months after the 2000 TC was launched supply of twin carburettor inlet manifolds improved and the 2000 TC was made available in Britain.

Unlike rivals like the Citroen DS and Triumph 2000 the heavily sculpted rear seats of the P6 meant only two passengers could be carried in the back.

The de Dion rear suspension used in the construction of the P6 limited the amount of space in the boot and many P6's used to carry a spare tyre wrapped in a purpose made vinyl bag, on top of the boot lid.

Additional P6 blogs can be found on the following links, P6 Cabriolet, P6 2200SC, P6 Estoura.

Thanks for joining me on this 1st anniversary edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again for the 366th edition tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #1 - Track Action

2011-09-19T00:22:00.003+01:00

After four all to brief hours sleep I woke up at 4:30 am on Friday and got togged up in swinging sixtyish accessorized fancy dress which included button collard shirt, period scarf, flat hat and a pair of round blue shades.

By 5.30 am I was headed back towards Lord Marches renowned Goodwood estate, this time to visit his private race track which I had not seen since in 1987. Back then I was visiting to take part in a track day, the circuit had not been used for racing since 1966 and the facilities were in a sad state of disrepair.

Five years after the runaway success of the inaugural 1993 Goodwood Festival of Speed, held on a special hill climb track round the main buildings of his estate, Lord March decided to revive events on his racing circuit with an event dedicated to vehicles that raced in the Circuits halcyon days from 1948 to 1966.

The Revival has become a huge fancy dress party covering possibly the most optimistic two decades the Western World has ever known. More on the fancy dress side of the Revival will follow with a special blog on Saturday. Like the Festival of Speed the Goodwood Revival has also become a runaway success both racing days this year were completely sold out. Seen here a Standard 6CWT Pickup, XK140 and a Mk2 Jaguar.

I got to the track in plenty of time to catch all the practice sesions which were held on the Friday, but I had not counted on spending well over an hour dribbling around the car park reserved for those spectators arriving in classic cars ! The first action I caught on track came courtesy of the touring cars, here Brian Redman in his Mercedes Benz 300SE leads another former Grand Prix driver and, in my humble opinion, one of the better former Top Gear presenters, Tiff Needell driving a Ford Anglia through Woodcote.

Organisers hoped to gather 15 Supermarine Spitfires at last weekends event here a Mk5, short wing 5 blade screw Mk 15 and two seater Mk9 fly past these awesome machines are powered by 24 litre / 1465 cui Rolls Royce Merlin motors.

Ford of Britain celebrated it's centenary with a stupendous collection of passenger, military and commercial vehicles, none quite as breathtaking as the Ford 3 litre / 183 cui formula 1 DFV powered Ford P68 /F3L designed by Len Bailey and built by Alan Mann Racing. Jim Clark was to have driven this car on it's debut at Brands Hatch but because of conflicting tyre contracts Jim ended up racing a Formula 2 car at Hockenheim with fatal consequences.

Surprise car of the meeting that I had never heard of before is the #23 Marina Special powered by Rolls Royce V8 driven by Mark Ashworth, turns out this car was built by Alan MacDonald at the Beagle Aircraft Hanger in Shoreham for Alan Mann who would later be responsible for the Ford P68. Rolls Royce were not in the least impressed with the Marina RR and the car appears to have been exiled in Belgium for fear that it might be impounded.

Ueber Formula One aerodynamicist Adrian Newey has an important day job at with reigning Formula One Champions Red Bull Racing, during this rare weekend off he teamed up to drive the #25 E-type Jagaur with 10 time Grand Prix winner Gerhard Berger. Some interesting tweaks to the boot lid helped the pair stick this car on pole over 2 seconds clear of the rest of the field for Saturdays Fordwater Trophy Race.

I had never seen or heard a screaming formula Junior car before Friday and their 1100 cc / 67 cui 4 cylinder scream enough to make your eyes water. The #9 Elfin Ford above of Bill Hemming was one of two Antipodean designed and built Formula Junior cars entered in the Chichester Cup.

Among the many features was a display of cars driven by the first five time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. The #1 Maserati 250 F seen above was driven by Fangio to his last and perhaps the most masterful Grand Prix victory of all time at the Nurburging in 1957, after a botched pit stop Fangio made up over 50 seconds on two Ferrari's over taking them on the penultimate lap and holding on to win by three seconds. Seen at the wheel of a 250F for the first time in his trade mark hat is Sir Jackie Stewart, who by his own admission also drove his finest race at the Nurburgring winning a wet and foggy 1968 German Grand Prix by four minutes despite driving round the torturous 14 mile track with a broken wrist !

Among many evocative vehicles of US origin at Goodwood was this 1953 type Cadillac powered Cunningham C4R, initially designed to compete at Le Mans, driven by Ben Shuckburgh during practice for the in the Freddie March Memorial Race.

The Madgwick Cup for under 3 litre / 183 cui sports cars built between 1960 and 1966 featured this rare Elva Porsche Mk 7P driven by Helmut Ries. Most Elva's entered for the Madgwick Cup were BMW powered.

The Richmond Trophy of the last front engined Grand Prix Cars had a fittingly international entry of vehicles, Hubert Fabri is seen here at the wheel of his Aston Martin DBR4.

The one and only Stig Blomquvist, 1984 World Rally Champion, mercifully no relation to the poor imitation on Top Gear, shared the 2 stroke #28 1963 Saab 96 Sport with Anders Jensen seen here at the wheel during the second touring car practice for the St Mary's Trophy.

I made time to take a break from the on track action to catch fellow blogger artist Paul Chenard who came all the way from Nova Scotia to promote his latest publication the illustrated story of the 1934 Grand Prix season "Silver Clouds". Apparently the Daimler Benz Museum were so impressed with this hand bound limited edition they have acquired two copies. Going fast, act now ! To avoid forthcoming seasonal disappointment you can contact Paul to order your copy on his blog here.

A number of incidents during the days qualifying sessions for the races held on Saturday and Sunday conspired to delay the proceedings by up to an hour. Gerhard Berger, sharing Grahame Bryant's #1 AC Cobra entered in the Glover RAC TT Celebration race, left the course going into Woodcote,

the resultant damage precluded the vehicles participation in the rest of the weekends proceedings.

Fortunately Gerhard was not seriously injured and finished second sharing Adrian Newey's E-type Jaguar in the Fordwater Trophy Race on the Saturday.

The 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui era of Formula One goes back to the heyday of British driver participation in Grand Prix racing when Graham Hill, Jim Clark and John Surtees took three consecutive World titles from 1962 to 1964 and Jim Clark won his second title in 1965. Above Kurt DelBene in the 1964 #29 BRP-BRM, Roy Walzer the 1964 #1 Brabham Climax BT11 and Paul Drayson in the 1962 #18 Lotus BRM during qualifying for the Glover Trophy. This era of cars were immortalised in the film Grand Prix, though many of the chassis used in the film are actually cheaper Formula Juniors.

For romantic dreamers like myself there is a sad tale to relate to the prototype E2A 'VKV 752' seen here being driven by Tony Dron. This was the second of two E type Jaguar prototypes featuring components including the independent rear suspension that would be carried over into the production 'E-Tupe' model.

E2A was driven at Le Mans by Hangsen & Gurney without success in 1960 and used by the Cunningham team in the USA with Sir Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren amongst others at the wheel scoring a single minor victory against weak opposition. In 1961 Jaguar used E2A as a test mule back in England.

Roger Woodley Jaguar's customer competition manager at the time was allowed to save E2A from the scrap heap on condition that the car would not be raced again. Sadly the first thing new owner Stefan Ziegler did after acquiring E2A for US$4,957,000 was turn E2A into a weapons grade racer and disregard Jaguars request that the car not be raced again.

Seems rather pointless when any number of weapons grade 'D-types' can be acquired for a fraction of the cost of E2A. More on the 'to race or not to race E2A' argument can be seen on this Nostalgia Forum thread.

After the qualifying sessions were over it was time to head back through the spectators Classic Car Park, I could have stayed longer but it was getting to the dark end of an already long day.

Thanks for joining me on this Goodwood Revival edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I will continue to bring you more stories from Goodwood all week, I hope you will join me again for the first anniversary edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres' tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Jig Free - Lea Francis 30/230

2011-09-18T09:09:00.001+01:00

In August 1895 Richard Lea and Graham Francis entered into a partnership to manufacture bicycles, like the another cycle turned motor manufacturer Rover, Lea Francis was based in Coventry. In 1903 Lea Francis manufactured three unconventional vehicles with complex three cylinder motors that were not a success and from 1912 to 1924 the company manufactured motor cycles.

Lea Francis entered motor car manufacture again in 1919 with vehicles using popular Meadows engines, Lea Francis became the first marque to offer a supercharged production car, the Hyper in 1927 and the following year a Hyper won the Tourist Trophy.

The company went bankrupt in the early 1930's and was revived in 1937 to produce a fresh vehicle designed by former Riley engineer Hugh Rose, the successors to this car proved popular after the second world war in saloon and sports car forms.

Car production ceased again in 1962 since when the company was kept alive by Barrie Price who provided spares and restoration services and occasional new low volume cars. In 1996 father of the Jaguar XJ220 Professor Jim Randle was engaged to design the 30/230 seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The aluminium bodied car was to be powered by a 235 hp 3 litlre / 183 cui V6 Vauxhall (UK GM) motor.

Among the novel features the chassis was made by riveting laser cut aluminium panels, a process that requires no conventional jigs, and a patented active suspension system.

Unfortunately, like the planed Lea Francis Limousine which aimed to fill the niche left by the Daimler DS240, the 30/230 did not go into production.

Thanks for joining me on this Lea Francis edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres'. I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be reviewing some of the event's at this weekend's Goodwood Revival. Don't forget to come back now !

Perfect Car For A Wedding #6 - Rolls Royce Corniche

2011-09-17T07:23:00.003+01:00

I am off to a wedding today, the first one I have attended where my friends children are the ones getting married, so it seems appropriate to feature another Perfect Car for a wedding on today's blog.

Today's Rolls Royce is known as the Silver Shadow Mulliner Park Ward Drop Head Coupé which first appeared in 1967 was renamed Corniche in 1971 when this model scene at the Haynes International Motor Museum was built.

The Corniche assembled and finished in London by Mulliner Park Ward is based on the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow / Bentley T floor plan with the same 'adequate' aluminium 6230 cc / 380 cui Rolls Royce motor.

The Corniche name was first used by Rolls Royce in the 1930's for a Mark V prototype with Parisian coach work by van Vooren, legend has it that after 15,000 miles of Continental testing in Europe was awaiting repatriation to England when it was hit by a bomb at Dieppe docks.

In the UK it would probably take a particularly brave couple to opt for a convertible on their wedding day but then as they used to say in Rome 'Fortes fortuna adiuvat'. For the brave this Corniche can be hired from the Haynes International Motor Museum.

Wishing Lotti & Ronnie and all those getting married today all the best and many happy years together.

Thanks for joining me on this Corniche edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Two Time World Champ - Ferrari 500 #005

2011-09-16T00:20:00.001+01:00

In 1951 there was a close fought contest for the World Drivers Championship between the Alfa Romeo drivers in old pre war 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui supercharged cars and Ferrari drivers in new 4.5 litre / 274.5 cui normally aspirated cars. Juan Manuel Fangio won the title but a run of three straight victories by Ferrari drivers González and Ascari was enough to convince Alfa Romeo that they could not hope to be so competitive with their old cars and so with no money to fund the building and development of new machines they quit Grand Prix racing as two time champions.

Alfa Romeo's withdrawal left the FIA, organisers of World Championship Grand Prix Racing, with a shortage of entrants for the 1952 season only the up and coming Ferrari and brand new BRM team, who had built a beautiful sounding, but hideously complicated and unreliable 1.5 litre 91.5 cui supercharged V16 vehicle being prepared to enter events run to the existent formula one regulations.

The FIA decided that they would run the 1952 and 1953 World Championship for cars built to Formula 2 regulations with normally aspirated 2 litre / 122 cui engines while new formula one regulations would be introduced in 1954. Ferrari had all the bases covered for 1952 as he had coincidentally just instructed Aurelio Lamperdi to design a 4 cylinder 2 litre / 122 cui engine that was powerful and extremely efficient.

For 1952 Ferrari built six type '500' Formula 2 Cars cars to compete in the World Championship and they won all of seven races into which they were entered missing the Indy 500, run to different regulations in which Alberto Ascari competed with a Ferrari 375.

On his return from the 1952 Indy 500 Alberto Ascari won the six remaining World Championship races with the car, seen here at Donington Park, on his way to capturing the 1952 World Championship. Ascari retained the title using the same chassis in 1953 with another 5 victories.

The Ferrari '500' design is one of the most successful of all time only the McLaren MP4/4 which won 15 races out of 16 in 1988 as against 7 out of 8 eligible events in 1952 for the '500' is statistically more successful, though it could be argued that since the Indy 500 was not run to the same regulations as the rest of the 1952 World Championship the Ferrari '500' has a 100 % winning record for the 1952 season.

This particular #005 chassis won an unequalled 7 straight World Championship Grand Prix races from 1952 to 1953, and 9 straight world championship races entered again the 1953 Indy 500 counted as a World Championship Grand Prix in 1953, and is credited with a total of 11 World Championship Grand Prix wins in total. As the highly regarded Doug Nye says of chassis #005 "Possibly the most successful chassis in Grand Prix history."

The 4 cylinder engine went on to have a hugely successful career in sports car racing when installed in the 500 Mondial and 500 Testa Rossa's.

Thanks for joining me on this Ferrari Friday edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

The Hot One's Even Hotter - 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

2011-09-15T02:10:00.001+01:00

At the travelling 1954 General Motors Motorama motor show, attended by 1.9 million visitors, Chevrolet displayed a Corvette based concept vehicle the Nomad a 2 door estate / station wagon among Head Stylist Harley Earl's collection of 'Dream Cars'.

In 1955 Chevrolet launched it's second generation Bel Air models with the strap line 'The Hot One'. The Bel Air range included the 2 door Nomad estate / station wagon.

The second generation Bel Air and the Nomad had a three year life cycle, knowing that if the car was to sell well in the second year of production the range had to look new for 1956, even if it was not, GM upgraded the Nomad saving no expenses on styling and tooling the exterior trim, including a fresh front bumper and new full width front grill.

The '56 Chevrolet's Bel Air range was marketed with the new strap line 'The Hot One's even hotter'.

Power for the Bel Air was provided by either a 4.3 litre / 265 cui or 4.6 litre / 283 cui V8, so far as I can tell this particular Nomad, seen at Shakespeare County Raceway, has a 5.7 litre / 347 cui V8.

Chrome trim levels on the humble Nomad were comparable to contemporary high end Cadillacs.

A feature introduced on the '56 Nomad was the concealment of the filler for the petrol tank by the chrome tail light housing on the drivers side.

With $585 premium over the standard $2025 2-door Bel Air the Nomad was the most expensive vehicle in the Bel Air range.

Production numbers show that Estate Station Wagons were not top of the Bel Air demographics list of priorities in 1956, just 7,886 Nomads were built compared to 103,000 pillarless four door hard tops and 128, 000 base 2 door model Bel Airs.

Thanks for joining me on this Nomad edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow Ferrari Friday. Don't forget to come back now !

Born In A Barn - Volvo 760 Turbo Intercooler

2011-09-14T00:26:00.001+01:00

While I was a Salesman and later Quality Controller at a Volvo dealership in South London, I took these photographs of a fully loaded top of the range 1987 760 Turbo Intercooler, complete with colour coded body upgrades, parked on Downnton Avenue in Streatham which served as the dealership car park for the myriad of vehicles we were not able to keep on site for want of space.

I was fascinated to learn that thanks to a bad case of lumbago Product Manager Hans Gustavsson arranged for the barn at his summer cottage to be converted to the 760 projects operational head quarters where Jans Wilsgaard drew many of the lines for the emergent new car while Hans directed the planning of the product from his stretcher.

Development of the 760 started in 1975 when thanks to the oil crises demands on what the new car should look like were changing almost daily.

Unlike the wind cheating designs of it's many competitors including Rover 3500, Jans Wilsgaards design took it's queues from various customer surgeries in the new cars intended market the USA. If the original 240 was brick like in it's styling the 760's styling is more like that of a breeze block rather like some of it's contemporary down sized offerings from Cadillac and Chevrolet with a distinctive almost vertical rear window. The design caused outrage in some European automotive design circles because it flew in the face of received European wisdom of what designers were trying to achieve.

When the car was launched three engine's were available 182 hp turbocharged 4 cylinder as seen here, 170 hp PRV (Peugeot, Renault, Volvo) V6 or 115 hp turbo straight 6 cylinder diesel. The 182hp version seen here was capable of reaching 60 mph from rest in under 8 seconds, not something that I experienced often driving around in London traffic where the average speed is 8 mph, but when ever I had the opportunity on the motorway I used to delight in the kick as the hefty Garret T3 turbocharger boosted performance under full throttle.

The range topping 760 models were in production at plants located in Kalmar Sweden, Halifax Belgium and Ghent Belgium from 1982 to 1990 during which time 221,309 examples were built.

Thanks for joining me on this born in a barn edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

1977 ECotY - Rover Vitesse

2011-09-13T00:07:00.001+01:00

There were not many four door executive vehicles that would look comfortable parked along side a Ferrari or Maserati in the 1970's but the Rover SD1 powered by the familiar alloy Buick derived V8 and designed by David Bache is certainly one that could keep such company in any car park and not look out of place.

Thanks in part to a painfully slow process of rationalisation that was occurring at British Leyland during the early 1970's involving many duplicitous departments and management within the nationalised organisation it took 54 months for the SD1 to move from drawing board to production.

David Bache was not in the least shy about his design influences incorporated into the SD1 including these indicator lights which are almost identical to those found on a Ferrari Daytona.

Built in a new purpose built £31 million factory in Solihull the SD1 was marketed as the Rover 3500 and launched in July 1976 to an ecstatic reception regarding the styling and performance, though the quality of some of the materials used and build were short of the market leaders particularly the emerging BMW brand. The deep front spoiler and BBS pattern wheels on this model signifies a later model in this case built in 1986.

The Vitesse badge hitherto associated with Triumph models belies the fact that the SD1 had technical and marketing input from the still separate and competing Triumph design and management offices. In late 1980 the Rover Vitesse, seen here at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, was introduced as the performance version of the Rover 3500 and the Vanden Plas the Luxury version that included leather seats.

While the styling of the SD1 was ahead of it's time the rear suspension was actually a technological step back from the de Dion suspension used on the previous Rover P6 to a live rear axle, though this made the cars easier and cheaper to build the move did not compromise the handling, much praised in the contemporary press, in anyway.

Since British Leyland had so many competing brands in its range the 1977 European Car of the Year award winner was not the money spinner that it should have been because it was priced so as not to compete directly with the Jaguar XJ6 against which it was seen in an extremely favourable light.

Thanks for joining me on the 1977 European Car of the Year edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at a fully loaded turbocharged competitor of the Rover SD1. Don't forget to come back now !

Rare Breeds - Haynes International Motor Museum

2011-09-12T00:21:00.001+01:00

Last Sunday I made a 'little' detour to the Rare Breeds Car Show at the Haynes International Motor Museum on the way to the airport to pick up some friends.

Among the 70 odd vehicles on display were half a dozen Formula 500's some 50's (UK) Stock Car replica's, for those in the US these are more like 1/4 mile paved and dirt Late Sportsman race cars than NASCARs Stock Cars, and a number of interesting vehicles one is unlikely on an average everyday commute.

Around 10,000 Austin 3 litre vehicles nicknamed 'Land Lobsters' were built between 1968 and 1971 which though well appointed were no competition for the similarly sized Triumphs, Rovers and Jaguars which would soon all become merged into the same nationalised British Leyland conglomerate. There are thought to be around 60 of these vehicles left and this one has been in the Stephen's family since new.

Some of you may remember my blog on the wreck of a Bowden Super Two I wrote some months ago, this is an Austin 7 Hamblin Cadet with the smaller body that the Bowden Super Two bodywork was based on. At £34.10/- this was the cheapest bodywork on the market, it was made to fit pre war Austin 7's. The owner of this car is the son of Sid Hamblin who founded the SE Hamblin company and personally built this car.

The Austin Mini Wildgoose RV has also featured on GALPOT before, this is a 1967 model with larger wraparound cabin windows and a tilting roof incorporating canvas sides, looks a little less like an airport control tower than the original. This particular vehicle has had the original 850 cc / 51.8 cui motor replaced with a 1275 cc / 77 cui unit and gearing to match so that it can easily cruise above the minimum motorway speed limit of 50 mph.

My Uncle in Germany had a DKW 1000S before he swapped it for a more versatile square back. These two stroke powered cars were relatively expensive in the UK so not many were in imported although Jim Clark made his racing debut driving a DKW before going on to win two World Championships and the Indy 500. This Left Hand Drive (LHD) model was imported from Sweden via Norway.

From 1933 - 1939 Ford commercial vehicles in the UK were badged Fordson. This Fordson 7V served as an auxiliary fire tender during World War 2. Because of it's relatively powerful V8 motor 7V's were much in demand for use as racing car transporters after hostilities ceased.

E691 is a replica of Nev Hughes 1935 Model 48 Ford raced, in 1955, built by Keith Barber. Current owner Roy Clarke rescued it in 2006 and it recently featured, as did several of the vehicles seen in the back ground in an advertisement for the Audi R8 V10 Spyder. It can be seen painted black with red stripes under the 'B9' at 1m 01 secs in this clip.

Also featured in an earlier post has been a GAZ M21 Volga this 1962 model one of only two known to be in the UK is in considerably better condition than the one I featured on the former East German border in 2006.

Described as very difficult to drive this RHD Lafitte 5CV Cycle Car is positively bristling with innovative technology starting with an inverted Y 3 cylinder air cooled radial engine that tilts with a hand mechanism in order alter to the friction driven gear ratio. The Lafitte has way ahead of it's time independent front suspension but no foot brakes ! This car has recently been certified as roadworthy for the first time since 1964 but the owner thought discretion was the better part of valour and brought this amazing device to the show on a trailer.

There seems to be a lot of interest in triking at the moment stimulating no doubt Morgan's recent return to the manufacture of trikes. For those who cannot afford Morgan's starting price their are plenty of alternatives. The front wheel drive Spirit Gordini M3 started life as two separate front wheel drive Renault 5 / Le Car models one '79 tother '85.

Another new manufacturer to me is Tornado apparently founded in 1957 in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire by Bill Woodhouse and Tony Bullen. Amazingly this car had lain awaiting restoration when it's owner passed aeay and thanks to the Faithorpe Sports Car Club it was passed on to Bill Woodhouse who did not know what to do with it until two gap year students the Hillier brothers took it upon themselves to rebuild the car in order to gain engineering experience under the guidance of the current owner and founder of the company Mr Woodhouse. The Talisman is one of 186 Ford powered examples made.

Finally my car of the day award goes to this Triumph Spitfire based Special made by Martin Harcourt using an English Wheel and alot of effort to make the polished aluminium panels on this unique single seater. When it's complete Martin hopes to use his shiny special in sprints and hill climbs. I am sure he will have plenty of fun with it.

Thanks for joining me on this Rare Breeds edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Who Said A Spider Couldn't Fly ? - Aston Martin DB2/4 Mark II Touring Spider AM/300/1161

2011-09-11T01:31:00.002+01:00

The Aston Martin DB2/4 launched in 1953 was a 2+2 hatchback based on the Aston Martin DB2 dating back to 1950.

In 1953 David Brown the owner of the marque sent several bare chassis to a variety of Italian styling houses and coach builders and presented the finished cars at the great motor shows of the day where orders were taken for limited production runs.

The Mark II DB4/2 was launched in 1956 with a 140 hp 3 litre / 183 cui straight six motor. Three of these new chassis were sent to Carrozzeria Touring to have flamboyant Spider bodies designed by Signor Formenti fitted.

Formenti's design was a clean break from what had gone before with exceptionally clean lines for the period with unusual twin air scoops on the bonnet

and further air scoops ahead of the rear wheels.

Sales of the vehicle did not materialise as expected after the first car, seen here at the recent Silverstone Classic, was displayed at the 1956 Turin Motor Show and the second car had appeared at the Paris Motor Show.

After it's launch in Italy this particular vehicle was acquired by Associated Newspapers in London who ran a competition in the Daily Express in which the winner who could best sum up the drophead would take it home.

Mr Alexander Smith, entry "Who Said A Spider Couldn't Fly ?" was adjudged the winner, and took the, then left hand drive, car home.

AM/300/1161 remained in England and was converted to right hand drive while the two remaining examples were sold to customers in the United States where they remain to this day.

Although the first collaboration between Aston Martin and Carrozzeria Touring was not an immediate success the two companies worked together on a long line of vehicles that included the DB4/2's successors the DB4, DB5 and DB6.

Thanks for joining me on this twin air scoop edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

16 Blocks of Classics ! - Carmel by the sea Concours d'Elegnce 2011

2011-09-10T00:19:00.001+01:00

Here in the UK the Autumn is already closing in with days of rain. To cheer myself up with a hint of California sunshine I thought to share with you these fabulous photo's from last month's Carmel by the sea Concours d'Elegance kindly sent to me by Geoffrey Horton.

I understand for the day of the event sixteen blocks in central Carmel are closed down and given over to that part of the motoring fraternity that is fanatical about presenting their cars built between 1945 and 1989 in better than new condition. First up a Cadillac powered 1955 Allard J2R.

When I first started reading 'Motor Sport' in 1973 the car to have in touring car racing was the 3.0 litre / 183 cui BMW CSL which in full works Group 2 specification with 'batmobile' rear wing fairly wiped the hitherto dominant Ford Capri off the top place on the winners rostrum of the European Touring Car Championship. A #55 Jaegermeister sponsored 3.0 CSL looking very much like the car in Geoffrey's photo, but without the 1974 IMSA GTO spec vented flared wheel arches, driven by Derek Bell and Harald Ertl, won the RAC Tourist Trophy on the 23rd Sept 1973.

I have already posted a blog about the unique 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Boano Convertible, that was declared the winner of this years Carmel Concours, so with best wishes for the Birthday boy most of you know from his posts on this blog as Jr Cracker here is a Ferrari 250 GT Boano chassis 0553 GT which has gone through several colour changes and engine changes but after a twenty plus year gap now has it's original motor safely re-installed. Last sold in January 2008 for US$ 975.000.

The 1957 Indy 500 was won by Sam Hanks in the Epperly Belond Exhaust Special, Jack Turner driving the #19 Bardahl Special a Kurtis 500G started 19th and came in 11th last man to complete the full 200 laps.

I believe this wonderful Lola T70 Mk 2 is the only car to have ever to have won a Can Am race powered by a Ford V8, a 302 cui motor fitted with Westlake heads, which Dan Gurney used to take honours in the second ever Can Am race at Bridgehampton in 1966. John Surtees won the 1966 Can Am series in a similar, but Chevrolet powered, Lola T70 Mk 2.

The vintage and history of this Morgan 4-4 is still a mystery to me but nice to see someone flying the motherlands flag in a swinging sixties style.

My thanks to Geoffrey for his wonderful photos, I hope you will join me in wishing the man behind GALPOT's Ferrari Friday's, Jr Cracker, a very Happy Birthday !

Thanks for joining me on this Jr Cracker birthday edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be taking a close look at a rare Aston Martin by Touring. Don't forget to come back now !