GALPOT Weekly #16

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 !

La Machine - #17 Vollstedt - Offenhauser 77 (14)

As I have blogged elsewhere in 1978 the USAC Championship came to England and I was lucky enough to see the one of the two championship races at Silverstone and meet some of those involved at a meet and greet at Jubilee Gardens on the banks of the Thames in Central London.



One of the enduring memories of those two events was seeing the striking lines of Rolla Vollstedts #17 La Machine - Vollstedt - Offenhauser 77 [14], to my mind one of the most visually arresting open wheelers ever built, one that has a place of special veneration reserved at the top table in Art Tidesco's Automotive Temple of Speed.



1960 US Olympic Team Skiing alternate Dick Simon was the driver of the immaculately turned out Vollstedt. Simon's best finish in 1978 was 4th at Phoenix he also scored three further top tens finishing the season 18th in the Champ Car Series standings.



The master mind behind the car was Rolla Vollstedt, a man with more stories to tell than I'll ever have hot dinners. Rolla has been devoting his life to racing since 1937 when he took part in unsanctioned Oregon street races with a Buick Coupé in 1937.

Working with modest budgets among Rolla's many achievements since starting his team in 1947 are building the first rear engined Offenhauser powered Indycar complete with rear wing to improve traction and counting the legendary Jim Clark, in 1967, along with Janet Guthrie, the first woman to compete in the Indy 500 among the drivers of his Championship cars. Rolla was also the last owner to attempt to qualify an Offenhauser powered for the Indy 500 in 1983.

I would like take this opportunity to wish Rolla a happy 93rd Birthday Day and thank him for building one of the most alluring automobiles it has ever been my privilege to see.

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

Developed by Lotus - Ford Consul Cortina Lotus

It never ceases to amaze me how little I know about motor vehicles despite a lifetimes interest, for example when I took the photo's featured today, I was sure I was taking pictures of a Lotus Cortina, the clues being the Green Stripe and Lotus badges.



However when I got home I was surprised to find the name plate on the front of the car read 'Consul'. Thanks to Brian C at the Official Lotus Cortina Register Forum I have found out that the original Lotus Cortinas were badged as Consuls and indeed the car was marketed as the Consul Cortina - Developed by Lotus.



The original Lotus 28, Consul Cortina package based on the 2 door Consul Cortina body launched in 1962, included a 105hp 1558cc / 95 cui twin cam version of the Ford Kent ohv engine as used in the Lotus 23 racing car and Elan production car with a close ratio gearbox also from the Elan.

A unique A frame rear suspension was developed for the Consul Cortina by Lotus that proved so fragile that it was dropped in favour of the Cortina GT semi eliptic rear suspension when the model was upgraded in 1964 and rebadged as the 'Cortina' by Lotus.



The boot, bonnet and doors were made in light weight alloy with additional dash gauges, tachometer, oil pressure and water temperature included with a wood-rimmed steering wheel to complete this highly desirable 100 mph saloon car.



The thinking behind this model was that it should be used for racing and works Lotus driver Jim Clark was one of many to drive a Consul Cortina Lotus to victory lane.

All bar one of the original Consul Cortinas designed by Lotus were painted white with a green stripe, one suspicious customer had a dark blue stripe and Ford built several cars for racing painted red. The Consul Cortina by Lotus was not the most reliable of vehicles, the perceived performance bonuses were credited in the publics mind to Lotus while the unreliability problems were credited to Ford much to the latters annoyance.

My thanks to David Roots for his invitation to attend the recent Classic and Sports Car Action Day at Castle Combe and to Brian C at the Lotus Cortina Register Forum for his help identifying today's featured car.

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