GALPOT Weekly #25

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #25, this last week I have looked at a Pick Up with a racing heritage, a limited edition MG, something Big 'n' Green a Grand Prix car of a type driven by five World Champions and a Concours Delahaye.



The GALPOT week started with a look at a Reef Engineering Cub pick up, an idea from the fertile mind of Yorkshireman extraordinaire John Crosthwaite who's name has appeared in connection with several racing cars featured in previous in GALPOT posts.



Just over three quarters of the entire production run of 2000 MG RV8's, like the one which I looked at on Tuesday, went to Japan.



Karl Jones qualified this Ford Escort RS Turbo, which I looked at on Wednesday, on the front row of the grid for the Willhire 24 Hour race at Snetterton in 1987 but could only finish 6th, the model dominated class B of production series racing in 1986 and 1987.



Possibly representing the zenith of square acres of sheet metal per dollar was this mean 1969 Chrysler Newport with 'fuselage' styling which I looked at on Wednesday.



The Ferrari 365 GTC, which I looked at on Ferrari Friday was outwardly similar to the 330 but under the bonnet / hood was a larger engine with 20 hp more than the 330 and the gearbox was now to be found ahead of the rear axle instead of behind the engine to improve weight distribution.



What do Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Mario Andretti all have in common ? They all put a Lotus 49, like the one above which I looked at yesterday, on pole position and in 1970 future World Champion made his Grand Prix debut in an updated version of the Lotus 49, that's five world champions, albeit three of them future world champions all driving one model, a record possibly only bettered by the Maserati 250 F, if you know better please chime in below.



Today's featured car thanks to Geoffrey Horton is this Delahaye 135 Competition, to find out more about this beautifully stylish car click here.

I hope you enjoyed GALPOT Weekly #25 and that you will click on some of the links to find out more about today's featured cars.

Next week on 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I'll be going for Coffee and Croissants to meeting of Vintage and Classic car owners, and looking at a Rambler on Americana Thursday, I hope you will join me. Don't forget to come back now !

PS Just realised I forgot to press the publish button on Sunday, apologies for the delay @-)

GALPOT Weekly #24

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #24, this weeks posts have covered a classic car museum, big bumper MG B and a 4 wheel drive Ford. For Americana Thurdays blog I found out about a Ford I'd never heard of before and on Ferrari Friday I looked at a static show version of the F310 of the same type that Micheal Schumacher raced during his first two seasons at Maranello.



Among many interesting and storied vehicles at the Malta Classic Car Museum which I in Qawara, silent Q, which I looked at on Monday was this oddly named Austin Somerset Coupé which was driven by the Queen of England during her visit to the Island in her Coronation year.



This big bumper MG B MK III was built to meet the 1974 US Federal safety standards you can fin out these cars were known as Sabrina's on Tuesdays blog linked here.



Wednesdays blog featured the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4 which was built primarily for Ford to keep their hand in on the Rally scene, however it's size meant that it struggled to be competitive against the pint size hatch backs like Lancia Delta.



I'd never heard of a Ford Business Coupé which was in production from 1937 to 1940 until researching the vehicle featured in Thursdays Americana blog.



Micheal Schumacher moved to Ferrari on 1998 in a two year deal worth an estimated US $60 million. The Ferrari F310 designed by John Barnard gave him 3 wins in 1998, on Friday I looked at a static show version of the F310 which is on display at the Haynes Motor Museum.



Yesterdays featured car the Lotus 41 was designed for a variety of second and third tier open wheel formula in 1966. Despite the fact 61 of these cars were built, Piers Courage French Formula 3 Championship victory was the cars only major success.



Nissan recently announced a slight reprise of the Datsun name in Russian, Indian and Indonesian markets commencing 2014, today's featured car is a mid seventies Datsun 129A - FII was also known in Japan by the Cherry name.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #24, I hope you will enjoy catching up with the full blogs on the featured cars using the links.

Coming up in the week ahead at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' featured cars will include a pick up the brainchild of John Crosthwaite who worked with Lotus, Mickey Thompson, BRM and Reliant during his career. On Tuesday I'll be looking at an MG limited edition three quarters of which were exported to Japan. Wednesday I'll be looking at a hot hatchback from Ford.

I hope you will join me at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #23

Welcome to the 23rd edition of GALPOT weekly where you will be able to catch up on all that has been happening at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres'.



The GALPOT Week started seeped in history with a brief overview of the exhibits at Brooklands Museum hard to pic a favorite exhibit when like the Halford motor above, that was first turbocharged in 1925 and when that didn't work it was supercharged, so many of the exhibits have so many stories to tell.



MGB GT's like the example I looked at above on Tuesday were slightly slower to accelerate than the MG B Roadster I looked at last week, but conversely they also had a 5 mph higher top speed than their roadster siblings.



Mark Hales shared the #13 Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth, seen above at Brands Hatch, with former ABBA drummer Slim Borgudd to win the Willhire 25 hour race at Snetterton in 1989. On Wednesday I discovered that the Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth was built in Genk Belgium.



Geoffrey Horton's photograph above show's the only known survivor of just three Hupmobile Speedsters thought to have been built in 1932. Amongst the many fascinating things that I learned for Thursdays Americana blog was that the vehicles 103 hp 8 cylinder motor was marketed as having 'Big Bertha Power'.



It would be absolutely unthinkable at today's values for some one to turn a car with as much history as this Ferrari 246, last front engined Grand Prix winning chassis, which I looked at on Friday, into a two seat runaround road car. Yet back in 1965 New Zealander Pat Hoare did exactly that, turning this car into a replica Ferrari GTO, when this car became obsolete and he retired from racing.



Over the two years since I first posted the photo of the 1965 Indy Winning Lotus 38, which I re examined on Saturday, at Rowdy.com I was surprised to learn that Jim Clark demonstrated the forth of of the eight Lotus 38's, fitted with symmetrical suspension on a couple of Swiss Hillclimbs.



Today's 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' post is about the forerunner of the Mercedes Benz S Class the W108 chassis above was known as the Fintail without Fintails and marketed as the Mercedes Benz 250 SE.

Coming up next week an overview of a Classic Car Museum in Malta, a look at an MG racing Series from the 1980's and on Wednesday I'll be looking at the final Sierra RS Cosworth incarnation.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #23 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 #22

It's great to be back posting GALPOT Weekly back on schedule, apologies for the unavoidable interruptions to this blog with a little luck they will return to regular Sunday postings.



The GALPOT week started in Palm Springs thanks to Geoffrey Horton who sent me a selection of photographs taken at the 3rd Desert Classic Concours d'Elegance, above one of around 20 Kurtis 500M models thought to have been built between 1954 and 1955.



On Tuesday I looked at the fresh for 1962 MG-B the model which was originally fitted with a three bearing 4 cylinder engine and non synchromesh 4 speed gearbox.



Mean and Menacing the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth was the second iteration of the homologated for racing Salesmans Spaceship the which I looked at on Wednesday.



Most drag racing cars have a name but Richard Davis races his Willy's Americar door slammer, which I looked at on Thursday, without a handle.



René Arnoux was coming of a four race streak of two wins and two second places and was just 2 championship points of the championship lead when I took this photo of him qualifying his Ferrari 126 C3 4th for the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. On Friday I looked at what happened next.



Yesterday's Saturday Lotus blog looked at the Lotus Elan Sprint which was a little bit more than a series ending paint job special.



Today's GALPOT post is looking at the not so lightweight UK Spec 1973 BMW 3.0 CSL.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #22 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 #21

Once again apologies for the late appearance of GALPOT Weekly #21 due to a few technical issues I have been experiencing on 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres'.



Week 21 started with a trip to Mercedes Benz World where a replica of the 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car, generally recognised as the worlds first car, is currently on display.



On Tuesday I had a look at the MG B Roadster driven by Brad Picard and Al Pease to a 32nd place finish in the 1965 Sebring 12 Hours, the car now appears with a droop snoot nose designed by Syd Evener that was used at Le Mans on this cars sister DRX 255C at Le Mans in 1965.



In order to properly celebrate Dale Glebe's Birthday Americana Thursday temporarily moved to Wednesday when I had a look at this 1973 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.



On Thursday I looked at the first incarnation of the homologated for competition version of the Salesmans Spaceship the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth.



The Ferrari 126 C2 featured on Friday, should have been a World Championship Winning car for Gilles Villeneuve in 1982 sadly a couple of weeks after a disagreement with his team mate Didier Pironi Gilles met his fate in one, and some months later Didier also had a career ending accident in the same model. However Ferrari did salvage the World Manufacturers Championship with Dr Harvey Postlethwaites finest design.



This Lotus Elan Coupé S/E ,above, featured on Saturday belongs to Bristol Pegasus Memebership Secretary Bob.



Sunday's story about the Mini Ridgeway Conversion came about thanks to Stephen White who originally posted the photo above on the 'I Love Farnham Surrey' facebook page.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #21 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 #20

Apologies that week 20 of GALPOT Weekly is coming several weeks late but unfortunately I have been having a few 'issues' with the main 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' site
which have made unprecedented demands on my time. I am pleased to say most of these issues seem to have been resolved for the time being and over the next couple of days I hope to belatedly catch up with what should have been happening.



Week 20 was mostly about the Race Retro exhibition at Stoneliegh where amongst many anniversaries the 30th of the Porsche 956/962 series was celebrated.



On Tuesday I looked at the Mk 2 version of the MG-A 1600 with a more powerful 90 hp motor than it's predecessor.



On Wednesday I returned to Race Retro and found a 1974 Ford Capri RS3100 homologation special in the Silverstone Auctions display, it would appear the car failed to find a buyer.



For Americana Thursday I stayed in the Silverstone Auctions display and looked at this Ford Thunderbird complete with the Continental option package, the owner appears to have sustained a loss of some £11,000 as the car sold for £21,000.



For Ferrari Friday it was over to the Donington Collection for a look at this 1967 Ferrari 312 chassis #0007 driven by Chris Amon and Derek Bell.



On Saturday it was back to Race Retro for a look at this restored Lotus 31 Ford Formula 3 car which did not prove a match for it's competition but did prove to be a useful cheap to maintain open wheel training car for racing schools at Snetterton and Brands Hatch.



I rounded out the week with my fifth red car of the week a cute li'l Bertone X1/9 in Meica Red 908 which turns out to have it's origins in the Volvo paint pallet.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #20 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 #19

Another riveting week at GALPOT featured a variety of vehicles including a '66 El Camino, a couple of formula one racers and a the Surprising Skoda.



The GALPOT week started with a look at this straight original '66 Chevrolet El Camino pick up billed as a pleasure to work with in contemporary Chevrolet sales literature.



The runaway export success that found a bit part in the Elvis Presley film Blue Hawaii MGA 1600 was Tuesdays GALPOT featured car.



Somewhat surprisingly contracted Ferrari driver Niki Lauda, who celebrated his Birthday on Wednesday, managed to also drive this Ford Capri RS3100 in 1974.



Wayne Graefen had been tracking this Terrahawk Special K Convertible for 25 years before he got the opportunity to acquire it and restore it a couple of years ago.



After winnig the World Championship in 1979 Jody Scheckter and Ferrari crashed to earth in 1980 with Scheckter scoring ust two points and Gilles Villeneuve seen above scoring just six points driving the Ferrari 312 T5.



A total of three cars were prepared to Formula One regulations fitted with the compact 3 litre / 183 cui Martin V8 like the one seen here, all three came to a fiery end, yesterday GALPOT featured a recreation of the Charles Lucas Lotus 35 Martin that Allan Rennie spent 5000 hours and a small fortune on rebuilding.



Today GALPOT features a couple of cheap and cheerful competition spec Skoda Esteele 130L's said by some to handle like Porsche's.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #19 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 !