Showing posts with label 1800. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1800. Show all posts
Monday, 13 July 2015
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
Sunday, 16 October 2011
A Clockwork Orange - Adams Probe 16 AB/4
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 !
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 !
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Rootes 'n' Chrysler - Hillman Avenger Tiger Replica
The Hillman Avenger was conceived as early as 1963 to replace the Hillman Minx, however another project that became the Hillman Hunter eventually replaced the Minx and the Avenger was re conceived in 1965 as a midrange vehicle between the Hillman Imp and the Hunter going head to head in the market against the dominant Ford Cortina and much maligned Morris Marina.
Doing away with the traditional waist line and adopting a 'flow back' the Avenger avoided looking in anyway stunted alongside it's larger Hunter stablemate, the Avenger body shell was one of the earliest to benefit from the use computers in the design process.
In 1970 the Avenger was launched with a conventional, for the period, front engine rear wheel drive layout which dispensed with the conventional rear leaf springs in favour of a four link rear suspension to give the vehicle superior handling characteristics.
Two sporting versions of the Avenger were built both with 107 hp uprated engines with big valves and two Webber Carbs , the Tiger 1, launched in March '72, is externally distinguishable by square headlights, a power bulge in the bonnet, four fog lights and a set of Minilite wheels. Intended to be an edition limited to 100 the Tiger 1 ended up being limited to 200 examples, all bar 3 of the Tiger 1 models were Sundance Yellow with black stripes the exceptions all being white with Rootes Group (Chrysler) blue stripes.
The Tiger 2 featuring a matt black bonnet, four round headlights and a cheaper set of alloy wheels but retaining the rear spoiler was launched in October '72 with a production run of 400. Tiger 2's were available in Sundance Yellow or Red with the familiar black detailing.
Despite the badging on this vehicle an HPI check of the registration leads me to confidently believe that this particular vehicle is not one of only 20 original Tigers thought to exist today. Bernard Unett won the British Saloon Car Championship in 1974 and 1976 driving Mopar sponsored Avengers. In all over 600,000 Avengers were built over 11 years to 1981.
US readers might know this model better as the Plymouth Cricket, it was also sold as the Dodge Avenger - South Africa, Dodge 1800 & Polara - Brazil, Dodge 1500 in Uruguay and Argentina where it was also known as the Volkswagen 1500 !
With thanks to David Rootes who facilitated my visit to the Classic and Saloon Car Action day at Castle Combe recently.
Thanks for popping by the Tiger edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !
Doing away with the traditional waist line and adopting a 'flow back' the Avenger avoided looking in anyway stunted alongside it's larger Hunter stablemate, the Avenger body shell was one of the earliest to benefit from the use computers in the design process.
In 1970 the Avenger was launched with a conventional, for the period, front engine rear wheel drive layout which dispensed with the conventional rear leaf springs in favour of a four link rear suspension to give the vehicle superior handling characteristics.
Two sporting versions of the Avenger were built both with 107 hp uprated engines with big valves and two Webber Carbs , the Tiger 1, launched in March '72, is externally distinguishable by square headlights, a power bulge in the bonnet, four fog lights and a set of Minilite wheels. Intended to be an edition limited to 100 the Tiger 1 ended up being limited to 200 examples, all bar 3 of the Tiger 1 models were Sundance Yellow with black stripes the exceptions all being white with Rootes Group (Chrysler) blue stripes.
The Tiger 2 featuring a matt black bonnet, four round headlights and a cheaper set of alloy wheels but retaining the rear spoiler was launched in October '72 with a production run of 400. Tiger 2's were available in Sundance Yellow or Red with the familiar black detailing.
Despite the badging on this vehicle an HPI check of the registration leads me to confidently believe that this particular vehicle is not one of only 20 original Tigers thought to exist today. Bernard Unett won the British Saloon Car Championship in 1974 and 1976 driving Mopar sponsored Avengers. In all over 600,000 Avengers were built over 11 years to 1981.
US readers might know this model better as the Plymouth Cricket, it was also sold as the Dodge Avenger - South Africa, Dodge 1800 & Polara - Brazil, Dodge 1500 in Uruguay and Argentina where it was also known as the Volkswagen 1500 !
With thanks to David Rootes who facilitated my visit to the Classic and Saloon Car Action day at Castle Combe recently.
Thanks for popping by the Tiger edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !
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