GALPOT Weekly #29

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

GALPOT Weekly #28

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #28 the review of activities at the 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres blog', where last week I covered two events, looked at the 2nd of Colin Cooper's Kayne Special and more.



I started the week with a review of the 33rd Bristol Classic Car Show held at the Bath & West Show Grounds near Shepton Mallet, among the many exhibits that caught my eye was this 1951 Singer Roadster.




Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1983

Colin Cooper's Kayne Special II was part recycled MG B, the engine subframe and part self designed and built, the rest of the chassis, powered by a highly tuned MG B motor among many awards Colin won was the 1981 MG Car Club Speed championship. Above Colin was captured in 1983 by Frank Hall at Baitings Dam smoking his tyres.



Terry McCann's Ford Capri II 2.0S from the TV series Minder was voted 28th most popular TV car in 2005, the example above which I looked at on Wednesday was seen in the car park at the 33rd Bristol Classic Car Show I reviewed on Monday.




On Thursday I looked at the 224 in / 5690 cm long eighth generation Cadillac Eldorado, of which this is one of 51,451 built in 1973.



Ferrari Friday focused on what is possibly the most attractive steel bodied Ferrari ever built the Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Pininfarina Berlinetta, an example once owned by Steve McQueen fetched $2.3 million in 2007.



Saturday's Lotus blog featured the second generation Lotus Europa, Type 54 and debunked the 'Black Badge' myth.



Today's post looks at the Bristol Pegasus Motor Clubs, Cross Trophy which I'll be regrettably passing on to Paul who drove his 25 year old Golf II to a well deserved victory last Sunday.

My thanks to Chris Winstanley for permission to use Frank Halls photograph.

Next week I'll be reviewing a trip to Prescott for a Hill Climb event, looking at the Kayne Special III and looking at some of the machines at this weekends Classic Motorsports Mitty presented by Mazda.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #28, I hope you will enjoy the links and that you will join me again at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres blog'during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #27

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #27, a review of the week at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' which started on Monday with an interview with Special Builder and Restorer Colin Cooper.



Colin's first project was to restore an Austin 7 with a friend when both were still at school, his affinity with MG's began when his mum bought him an MG VA, seen above, for his 20th birthday. Colin subsequently went on to compete, build and restore a number of interesting vehicles and upon retiring from his professional career started a Frogeye restoration business called Central England Sports Cars.




Colin's first, of three, specials, seen above at it's first meeting in 1973, was based on a MG J2 chassis and powered by an MG PB motor which was eventually supercharged. As you can see in Tuesday's post the Kayne Special is still to be found in competition driven by Mike Painter.



Wednesday's Ford blog looked at the first three generations of the Fiesta XR2, Fords entry into the hatchback market, above the 2nd generation #23 of Norman Grimshaw is seen at Brands Hatch.



Chrome was king on US models revived after World War Two, as demonstrated by this 1948 Buick Roadmaster seen by Geoffrey Horton at the Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance earlier this year. Thursdays post revealed that the '48 Roadmaster was the first model to offer a 'Dyna Flow' automatic transmission, developed from a military tank application, with a torque converter.



Ferrari Friday looked at Ross Brawn's company 2000 Ferrari 360 Spider, seen above at the Haynes International Motor Museum, Ross was technical was part of a 'Dream Team' at Ferrari they ruled supreme in Grand Prix racing with Micheal Schumacher at the wheel.



Yesterday's Lotus blog looked at the all wheel drive Lotus 63 Grand Prix Challenger, seen above at Donington Park Museum, which achieved a best 2nd place finish in a non Championship Race at Oulton Park before it was abandoned on both safety and lack of performance grounds.



Today's post celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the Maserati Merak, seen above at last years Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival. The Merak was born when Citroen owned Maserati and shares a motor derived from the Citroen SM. Note details can be found on today's blog about next weeks Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival where I'll hope to meet a few UK based GALPOT members.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #27, I hope you will enjoy the links and that you will join me again during the week ahead. I'm now off to defend my Cross Trophy Production Car Trial title. Don't forget to come back now !

Wessex Sprint - Castle Combe

This week I will be catching up with a couple of days activity at Castle Combe, a morning at Mallory Park and a visit to the Bugatti Trust at Prescott.

A couple of weeks ago I took some advice from our Prime Minister, David Cameron, and had great fun doing my bit for the motor racing community by marshaling at the Wessex Sprint, organised by the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club, of which I am a new member and the MG Car Club (SW).

A sprint is an event in which competitors race against the clock on this occasion around a single lap of the Castle Combe Circuit. Here are a few snaps taken during the lunch break and suspension of the competition.



Jeremy Hawk told me his MG J2 above has been in his family since 1953 when it was acquired for the princely sum of £85 some years later it made STD at a sprint at Castle Combe just like it did last week.



This #73 Peugeot 309 GTi was shared by Tom Siebert and Henry Siebert Saunders was completely stripped out and running with plastic side window's to reduce weight.



Car of the day IMHO, if only because of the sound of it's 5 cylinder turbocharged motor, was the #75 Audi Quattro shared by Tim Clark and Andy Tanner, wondering if anyone knows if this a genuine works car ? It certainly looked and sounded the part. Andy just beat Tim to win the Modified Limited Production Class.



The Rover V8 powered MGB Kayne Special shared by John and Jonathan Biggs ran in the Sports Libre Class.



Tim Moreton and Dean Robertson shared the 'Dick' Terrapin a Kawasaki powered vehicle with a Wharholian paint job.



I do not remember the last time I saw a Royale RP 30 in action, but the first time was around 31 short years ago ! This example driven by Bob and Anne Adams is powered by a Vauxhall 16v motor in place of the Ford Pinto with which it was originally supplied to race in Formula Ford 2000 events. Bob took the Racing Cars over 1600 cc class honours.



Proudly displaying it's V8 kills from a couple of years ago was the similarly Vauxhall, 4 cylinder, powered but methanol fuelled Pilbeam MP62 chassis #14, built in the late 1980's, of Kevin Lealan who won the Fastest Time of the Day award.



Running cars one at a time in batches of four meant my fellow start line marshals and I only got a break from the action for lunch, very nice sweet and sour chicken with rice & chips, then again later when the weather turned sunny, the sunlight interfered with the timing beam until the beam receiver was fitted with a shroud and on a couple of occasions when the Castle Combe farmer wanted to cross the track in order to bring in his hay bales.

I would recommend volunteering to be marshal to anyone who is interested in getting involved in motor sport, you will probably have a fun day and get to make a few good friends in the local motor sport community.

Thanks for joining me on this Wessex Sprint edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at this weekends racing at Castle Combe. Don't forget to come back now !