To Roll And Not to Rock - Silverstone Classic

Thanks to my friend Caroline lending me her Audi Convertible for one last time I managed to cram a substantial part of what was happening at the Silverstone Classic this weekend into just one 10 hour visit.



If you like discovering vehicles you never new existed the Silverstone Classic is just the place for you, amongst many vehicles I have never seen before are this streamlined Porsche 'Diesel' powered Allgaier agricultural vehicle.



Unfortunately my visit coincided with qualification sessions only, Roger Willis, seen here, shared this Mercury Cyclone with 1966 British Saloon Car Champion John Fitzpatrick making a welcome change to a field dominated by Mustangs, Galaxies and a couple of Jags all of varying 1960's vintages.



The Vauxhall Ventora on which this cut down funny car is loosely based was a 4 door saloon / sedan by a General Motors owned marque.



This well known transporter reg JAH 1L was in use by Team Lotus from 1973 until the 1980's is painted here in it's original 1973 John Player Special colour scheme.



I was disappointed not to see the CGA Engineering March 761 out but this 1977 spec Formula 1 March 2 4 0 more than made up for it. Allegedly the car was built as a publicity stunt, it never raced but was used to good effect on hill climbing events.



Six wheel vehicles, and steam powered vehicles were very much in evidence at Silverstone, found the idea of having this Sentinel steam powered truck delivering tea quite amusing.



I believe the brave lads from the British Army had the tallest vehicle present, I believe this is a Foden 6x6 DROPS vehicle, the Foden marque has disappeared as has a significant contingent of the British Forces.



At the other end of the scale one of the smaller, electric kiddy Land Rover was the smallest , 4 wheel vehicles I saw was this 1959 Berkley.



Rain added a little authenticity to the late Group C practice session which was only about 20mins long, I could have stayed out all night listening to the mighty roar that eminates from the Sauber C11 of Bob Berridge by far the best sounding and looking Group C ever IMHO.



Car of the day for me was this 1953 Touring Aston DB2/4 I believe the RHD is a giveaway that this car was won by a Mr Smith who responded to a newspaper competition to sum up the cars design with a catch phrase.

Even if I had been camping I probably would have been too exhausted to catch the line up of tribute bands on the first night of the Silverstone Classic festival I guess all of my passion is focused on cars and very little of it on music.

PS It would appear NASCAR contractors who prefer to settle their differences in pit row rather than on track might want to take a leaf out of events that unfolded at the Silverstone Classic in the pit lane. See linked story by Tony 'Giraffe' Gallagher.

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

Racin' & Rockin' - #46 Hunter Brothers Chevrolet Impala

For those needing a NASCAR fix while the series is taking a break today's car is the #46 Hunter Brothers Chevrolet Impala, seen here at Palo Alto earlier this year, that operated out of Hendersonville NC in 1965.



This car was driven by US Airforce Sergeant Roy Mayne, from Sumter SC who was given permission to race while on active duty. His best finish was in 1965 when he drove this car to a 4th place finish behind Ned Jarret, Buck Baker and Darel Dieringer in the September 6th Southern 500 at Darlington.

From 1963 to 1974 Roy drove in 139 Grand National and Winston Cup events scoring 22 top ten finishes. He never compete in a whole season his best end of season standing was 25th in 1966. Roy was one of the stunt drivers in the 1968 Elvis Presley movie 'Speedway'.



The new for '65 fourth generation Chevrolet Impala set the all time industry annual sales record of more than one million units sold. Chevrolet finished 3rd in the final standings of the 1965 Grand National season behind Ford and Dodge.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sending me the photos.

Wishing all my fellow NASCAR fans a relaxing day off, see you all at Rowdy Chat for the Brickyard 400 next Sunday.

Thanks for joining me on this '65 Impala edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Nissans Fairlady - Datsun 240 Z

BRDC are the initials of the British Racing Drivers Club and signify that the owner of this vehicle, well known rally and racing driver Barrie 'Whizzo' Williams, is a member.



The Datsun 240 Z, featuring styling cue's taken from the E-Type Jaguar, was in production from 1970 - 1973.



Unknown to me until I wrote this, in Japan 2 litre / 122 cui in line 6 cylinder versions of the 240 Z, known locally as the Nissan Fairlady Z, were available with single and double overhead cam options.



For the rest of us the 150 hp 2.393 cc / 146 cui single overhead cam six cylinder is the more familiar motor. This vehicle is easily identified as a second series model by the Z in the circle on the C pillar.



Amazingly in 1971 and 1973 Datsun 240 Z's driven by Edgar Hermann and Shekhar Mehta respectively won the gruelling East African Safari Rally proving this was no flimsy boulevard cruiser.



In 1996 Nissan launched a programme to buy 240 Z's back and restore them to factory specifications and sold them for $24,000.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Fairlady edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Ferrari Testarossa

Sometime in the early 1990's I was tootling a long a one track country lane in Hampshire on a wonderful summers afternoon, with the roof of my Citroen 2CV down, when I caught site of a bright red object in my rear view mirror.



Behind me was a Ferrari Testarossa with absolutely nowhere to go until we got to the next junction. Fortunately I went straight and the Testarossa went left. A couple of minuets later I got to my friends house where there was a note requesting that I go and pick up their kids from primary school, something I had done once or twice before.



When I got to the tiny village school there in the car park was the bright red Testarossa. I had arrived a couple of minuets early and the school secretary motioned that I sit down to wait for class to be dismissed. As I did so I noticed through the glass door to one of the classrooms was the familiar, to me through hundreds of images I had seen, figure of James Hunt reading a story to what turned out to be his son Freddies class.



The kids were absolutely captivated by his magnetism and completely oblivious to the reputation of the one who was reading to them. I can't be sure the Ferrari James was driving that day was really his by then I seem to recall hearing that his Mercedes was up on blocks and that he was mostly to be found driving around in an ancient Austin A35 Van, featured yesterday, but no matter I saw a slice of James life that I will always treasure as much as his victory at the Nurburgring in 1976, which I also was lucky enough to see.



The Ferrari Testarossa was launched in 1984 as a top of the range model to replace the Ferrari 365 GTB4 / 512 Berlineta Boxer series. Powered by a 390 hp 48 valve Colomdo designed flat 12 with red cylinder heads, which was good for a top speed of 180 mph.



The Testarossa name is not to be confused with famous 1956 Ferrari Testa Rossa sports racing car which would probably be worth a lot more than a Testarossa, in any condition.



The $181,000 Testarossa, which was never raced but did make a cameo appearance in a TV show called Miami Mice, cashed in on the Ferrari reputation big time. Nearly 10,000 examples were built including 512 TR and F512 M variants launched in '92 and '95 respectively.

Hope you have enjoyed today's village school edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Bird Breeding Champions Choice - Austin A35 Van #AAVB65216

Launched in 1956 the Austin A35 was an upgrade of the successful Austin A30 featuring a larger rear window and a painted grill in place of the A30's chrome item.



Two commercial vehicles based on the A35 were manufactured the extremely rare 1956 pick up, of which just 475 were built and the more successful van, seen here, which out lived all other variants being manufactured until 1968. An A35 van came to fame in 2005 after a model of a 1964 version carrying a 1953 tax disc appeared in Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.



The name change to A35 reflected a more powerful 34 hp A series straight 4 motor which could power the compact car up to 60 mph in 3rd (top) gear, a whole 15 mph fast than the previous A30.



It is possible that champion budgerigar breeder James Simon W Hunt chose this particular vehicle as his daily driver, precisely because it's leisurely performance would not upset his birds in transit between show's.



After James, also a well known forthright commentator on Grand Prix motor racing, died in 1993 this van was sold at auction allegedly complete with a sprinkling of Trill in the boot and cigarette stubs in the ashtray. James old van has been in storage ever since.

James 1967 van, described as a runner in need of attention for road use, has come up for auction again at the Silverstone Classic on Saturday and is expected to fetch between £10,000 and £14,000 a price which reflects James better known career as 1976 World Grand Prix Drivers Champion.

Hope you have enjoyed today's champion bird breeders edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow for a Miami Mice edition of Ferrari Friday. Don't forget to come back now !

Long Lost - Wolf 1979 Series

Wolf Racing was founded by Canadian Oil Magnet Walter Wolf in 1977 after an ill feted start made in partnership with Frank Williams in 1976.



The Wolf team with Dr Harvey Postlethwaite designing the cars came flying right out of the box in Argentina 1977 scoring a debut win with Jody Scheckter at the wheel of the Wolf WR1. Scheckter impressed further by driving to two more wins in 1977. The 1977 series Wolf design ran WR1 - WR3 same as the chassis numbers.

During the following season the second series Wolf WR4 - WR6, with ground effects side pods that were all the rage in 1978, was less impressive and Jody, who had been courted by Ferrari well before his Wolf contract was up, left to join the red team from Maranello.



The third series Wolf, which ran WR7 to WR9, apparently seen here at The Cotswold Motoring Museum, was designed by Dr Harvey Postlethwaite who had been reunited with former Hesketh driver James Hunt for the 1979 season.

As ironic luck would have it former Wolf driver Jody Scheckter would go on to win the 1979 World Drivers Championship in his first season with Ferrari while ex World Champion James Hunt quit the Wolf Team after the Monaco Grand Prix having struggled to qualify better than 10th in seven races and scored one 8th place finish and six retirements.



Keke Rosberg took over the driving duties for the rest of the year but with no improvement in the teams performance Walter Wolf sold his team onto the equally struggling Fittipaldi brothers at the end of 1979.

Walter Wolf kept one of the third series cars while Fittipaldi upgraded the remaining two cars into Fittipaldi F7 spec with a centre post rear wing and heavily revised side pods with out the rear flick ups and built a third F7 from scratch.



The Fittipaldi F7 cars all but disappeared from public view in the early 80's. According to the museum description provided by the cars owner Andrew Smith by 1982 the Fittipaldi Team was in administration and all of the teams assets were acquired by ADA Engineering.

Andrew a James Hunt fan, and former Mini racer, saw WR7 race, with Keke Rosberg driving, at Silverstone in 1979 and bought the car from ADA Engineering with a Cosworth DFV engine. Some of the third series Wolf style body work, and unique '79 Monaco spec twin element front wings have been refitted to this chassis which still has F7 running gear, a Fittipaldi in Wolf clothing.

At this moment there are inconsistencies in the accounts as to which third series Wolf chassis became which Fittipaldi F7 chassis. Not having seen which, if any, chassis plate this particular vehicle, seen at the Cotswold Motoring Museum, is carrying I cannot be sure exactly which, of the two Wolf chassis or three Fittipaldi chassis this is.

If you have evidence as to which of the Wolf third series chassis were transformed into the Fittipaldi F7 series chassis please chime in below or send me an e-mail to the address which appears at the very bottom of the blog page.

My thanks to Steve Holter, and Norman Jones from The Nostalgia Forum for their contributions to today's blog.

Hope you have enjoyed todays Wolf edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a world champions daily driver that is coming up for auction on Saturday. Don't forget to come back now !

Arrested Development - McLaren M26/1

The McLaren M23 was already a four year old design when Gordon Coppucks successor the lower and lighter McLaren M26 was launched in the summer of 1976.



Unfortunately the development of the M26 was almost immediately stifled as James Hunt in his M23 and the team were waging one of the fiercest championship battles in the history of the World Divers Championship to that point in time.



The M26 did race at the Dutch Grand Prix driven by Jochen Mass in 1976 but it was quickly decided that the design needed serious development that was best postponed until the end of the season.



James subsequently won the 1976 World Drivers Championship. I am not sure why the M26 was not ready for the start of the 1977 championship but the older M23 was pressed into a fifth season of competition and it was not until the 10th round of the 17 race Grand Prix schedule that both front line McLaren drivers James Hunt and Jochen Mass had the M26 available to race.



Nearly a year after it was launched, now featuring a radiator mounted in the nose, the car was competitive and at the British Grand Prix in 1977 James recorded the first of three victories driving the M26 model, not enough to defend his World Drivers championship but a respectable achievement none the less.



James was not known for his testing skills in the same way as the much vaunted Niki Lauda and so it is perhaps no surprise that for the following 1978 season the development of the M26 did not significantly improve performance.



In 1978 the M26 was, like most of the opposition, simply outclassed by the dominant Lotus 79 design which introduced hitherto unimaginably superior handling to Grand Prix racing thanks to the venturi in it's side pods. Hunt left the McLaren Team to rejoin former Hesketh designer Dr Harvey Postlethwaite at Wolf Racing for the 1979 season.



The car featured in these photographs is thought to be chassis M26/1 which was first raced by Jochen Mass in Holland in 1976. The best result for M26/1 was fourth place scored by Jochen Mass behind winner James Hunts similar model at the 1977 British Grand Prix.



The vehicle is seen here being driven by owner Frank Lyons is expected to take part in this weekends Silverstone Classic race for Formula One cars on Sunday.

My thanks to NZALPA, VINCE H, David Lawson, Tim, Murray, Tony Gallagher, Alan Cox, Pink Snail, David Lawson, hipperson and Geoff Butcher at The Nostalgia Forum for their help identifying the chassis number and driver.

Hope you have enjoyed the Arrested Development edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again for a look at a Fittipaldi in Wolf clothing tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !§