GALPOT Weekly #10/13

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly 10/13 a review of the seven blogs at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" posted between March 4th and 11th. The week started with a look at this 1939 Ford One Ton Pick Up the first Blue Oval pick up to be fitted with hydraulic brakes. Tuesday's post featured this li'l 1928 Singer 8 Saloon powered by a 16.5 hp motor who's crankshaft runs in just two bearings. Thanks to Geoffrey Horton Wednesday's post featured some California sunshine as seen at the Palm Springs Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance where this 1931 Chrysler Imperial was one of the stars of the show. Cadillac's 1941 Series 62 Coupé which quadrupled was the subject of Thursday's blog. Annie Soisbault drove this 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, which was the subject of Ferrari Friday's blog, to a win in the 1965 Grand Prix of Paris. Thanks to US$ 35 million of funding from General Motors Lotus developed the Lotus M100 Elan which was launched in 1989, the 1991 Elan Turbo SE version seen here was the subject of Saturdays blog. The final post of the week featured two 1973 Surtees Ford TS14 Formula One cars which were hampered by their Firestone Tyres thanks to the suppliers imminent withdrawal from the sport and consequent lack of development. Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT Weekly #10/13" edition of "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the last seven posts using the links provided and that you will join me again daily in the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #07/13

Welcome to Galpot Weekly #07/13 a review of blogs posted at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" during week 7 11th February to 18th February. The week started with a look at this 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 Extended Cab with the 'Big Rig Look' credited to Philip E Payne that took Dodge to the top of the US pickup sales league from 1996 to 1999. Tuesday's post featured an MG Midget 1500 that Trevor Kirk ended up restoring twice in twenty years, second time round it was voted best car in the International Midget 50 celebration at Burghley House in 2011. A couple of weeks ago GALPOT ran a feature on Johnny Martinez '29 Ford Pickup, Johnny's adventures in the Grand National Roadster Show at Panoma with his neighbour Gary L Wales, who's 1919 American La France based La Bestioni V is seen above, were the subject of Wednesday's blog. This Red Hot 1958 Buick Special Convertible featured on the Valentines Day Blog. In 2008 US $ 4,000,000,000 would have bought you this 1963 steel shelled Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta that featured on Friday. Unsurprisingly after the death of founder Colin Chapman Team Lotus struggled in 1983, but hiring Frenchman Gerard Ducarouge midway through the season resulted in a dramatic upswing in the teams fortunes thanks to the Lotus Renault 94T which was designed and built in 42 days. The Berkeley SE338 Deluxe featured on Sunday was powered by an 18 hp twin carburetor Excelsior motor cycle which gave the cute li'l critter a top speed of 70 mph and a 50 mpg fuel consumption. Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT Weekly #07/13" edition of "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" I you have enjoyed catching up with the last seven posts using the links and that you will join me daily during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #39

Welcome to the 39th edition of GALPOT Weekly #39 where you can catch up on the last weeks "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" blog.




The week started with a visit to the Classic and Sports Car Action Day at Castle Combe where David Roots kindly drove me for a very slow lap around the track, the Cadbury's Creme Egg converted Bedford Rascal, above, easily won the Strangest Vehicle of the Day award.



Above is the interior of the last top of the 1931 range MG 18/80 Six deluxe Saloon MkII known to exist which featured in Tuesdays post.



Wednesday's Continental Curiosity post featured this 1959 DB Panhard HPR 5 which was found abandoned in a barn in Pennsylvania in 1982.



Peter Bryant was asked to design the 1971 Shadow Mk II Can Am car, featured on Americana Thursday, seen above in Geoffrey Horton's photo around Formula One size wheels and tyres, such was team owner Don Nichols interest in minimising the frontal area of his cars.



The last 424 2.4 litre FIAT Dino Spyders, featured on Ferrari Friday, were built along side their Ferrari Dino cousins at Maranello.



The 1963 Ford Consul Cortina by Lotus, Lotus project 28, featured yesterday, was the 17th Lotus Cortina to be built, the first to be prepared for the works team and was raced by none other than future presidential candidate Dan Gurney at Sebring in 1964 as part of the "English Ford Line".



The 1982 British Grand Prix was won by Niki Lauda driving a McLaren, but the story of the race for fan's of underdog teams was that of Derek Warwick driving the Toleman TG 181C, above which features in todays post. After a season and a half of struggling to qualify Derek raced from 16th on the grid to 2nd place before retiring with a broken CV joint.

I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the seven day's of posts at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" and that you will join me on the blog in the week ahead, when I'll be visiting the Avenue Drivers Club in Bristol and looking at the world's oldest surviving MG. Don't forget to comeback now !

GALPOT Weekly #15

Despite partying all night I am pleased to bring this weeks GALPOT Weekly back on to the Sunday schedule.



The GALPOT week started of with the top of the range Hemi powered Dodge RAM 1500 Larimie, that turned not to be an import from somewhere west of Cheyenne Wyoming.



The Tuesday MG series of blogs featured a well storied supercharged MG K3 that is a mixture of chassis and bodywork that can trace it's history back to two entries that came in first and second in class at the conclusion of the 1933 Mille Miglia.




The winner of the Ultra Marathon of all Rally events, the 1970 World Cup Rally was the subject of Wednesdays blog, the bombproof Ford Escort 1850 GT registered FEV 1 is possibly amongst the most loved and treasured of all Fords.



The vintage Hudson Super Six that featured in Thursdays blog appears to be a replica of the 1917 built Indy cars that took part in the 1919 Indy 500.



Ferrari Friday featured a period photo of a Jacky Ickx dominating the 1972 British Grand Prix in his Ferrari 312 B2 #005, Jacky was forced to retire while leading but one the subsequent German Grand Prix in the same car from team mate Clay Regazzoni driving chassis #007 which I featured last week.



Yesterday I looked at the Lotus 27 Formula Junior car that initially followed Colin Chapman's adage of "adding lightness" a step too far meaning the monocoque was a little too weak, until this was rectified Peter Arundell was having a lot of trouble defending his British Formula Junior title in 1963.



Today's GALPOT blog features an Alpine Renault A110 1600 S that was shipped all the way to Réunion a small island in the Indian Ocean where it dominated the mid 1970's Rally scene.

Tomorrow I'll be starting the week with a look at a multiple 'Burn Out' championship winning Ford P100 pick up, while another MG will be featured on Tuesday and on Wednesday the versatility of a special Ford Escort Mexico will be examined.

If you have missed any of this weeks GALPOT blogs you can catch up with the full blogs linked by the high lighted text above.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #15, I hope you will join me at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' again in the week to come. Don't forget to come back now !

STOP PRESS Tomorrow's blog will tell the tale of the start of my 2012 competition season, not the 'Burn Out' Champion as mentioned above which will be held over to Monday 13th Feb.

Ferrari's First F1 Design - Ferrari 125 F2 Spec #0114

In 1948 Ferrari built his first dedicated 125 F1 Grand Prix cars known to conform with the set of rules known as formula one and entered three of them into the 1948 Italian Grand Prix, held at Valentino Park on the 5th of September. Frenchman Raymond Sommer brought his 125 F1 home in third place. The Ferrari 125 WAS NOT however the first Ferrari ever to be entered in a race run to formula one regulations.



The 125 F1 shared it's 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui super charged V12 engine design, by Giocchino Colombo, with earlier successful Ferrari sports cars including the 166 series and the 125S series.



This particular chassis thought to have been built in 1949 for the factory racing team, appears to have been successfully raced with a normally aspirated 2 litre / 122 cui Colombo V12 to conform to the second tier Formula Two regulations in 1951 by Englishman Peter Whitehead in Europe and Australasia.



During the late 1950's this chassis had a Chevy V8 installed which was replaced by a remanufactured 2 litre V12 when Tom Wheatcroft had it restored in the 1970's for his Donington Collection where these photographs were taken.

The 125 F1 was not a great success against the older Alfa Romeo's, which led Ferrari to build his next formula one cars with larger unsupercharged engines with which one of his cars would win Ferrari's first championship formula one race in 1951.

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

Rare Side Vents - Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series 2 #1815GT

Despite the Haynes International Motor Museum having a room full of red vehicles only one of the Rosso Corsa cars is a Ferrari.



The Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series 2 was launched in 1959 featuring a Pinin Farina designed body that was simpler than the Series 1, in part was due to the intention of the Series 2 to be made for series production rather than to order.



This 1960 left hand drive model with a 3185 cc / 194 cui V12 was orginally exported to the USA and in 1987 was sold by Coy's of London with the registration 'Q 999 EGC'.



It is thought around 212 Series 2 models were manufactured as against just 36 of the Series 1 model.



While the Series 2 is known as a model manufactured in series this particular example has extremely rare, for the model type, side vents.

Thanks for joining me on this slightly tardy Ferrari Friday edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me for a stretch limo edition tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Follow that Eldorado - Shakespeare County Raceway

A couple of months ago, on my way to Race Retro, I spent several hours in the back of mini bus with 'Crazy' Chris Hartnell seen here at the wheel of 'Backdraft' a sling shot dragster, in a very short time his enthusiasm for drag racing infected me and on Sunday I finally got a chance to to go to my very first Drag meet.



The meeting was held at Shakespeare County Raceway, in deepest Warwickshire, so deep I managed to get so completely lost trying to find the venue, no Sat Nav in this weekends borrowed wheels, that the only way I found it was by following a Cadillac Eldorado I fortuitously came across while trying to work out where I was at a T junction in the middle of nowhere that I could not find on my Google Map.



The sound of V8's being tortured for up to 10 secs from the car park was unlike anything I have ever heard before, made 43 cars flying round Talledega at 190 mph sound quite tuneful by comparison.



Bevis the owner of a sumptuous red 450 hp small block road going Chevy Impala, complete with one piece California rear bumper, the subject of a future blog told me that the really big Drag meeting was actually at Santa Pod near Northampton in September, but I was happy enough easing my way into the scene on Sunday.



Against my expectations there were a few UK bodied vehicles including this Morris Minor, a Rover 400 Funny Car, a standard looking TVR Tuscan, a Ford Anglia and a couple of Mark 2 Ford Cortinas, including an Estate / Stationwagon !



I had hoped to get a photo of Crazy Chris popping a wheely, unfortunately I was a bit slow on the camera shutter, still next time I'll know what to expect. If you have never been to a drag meeting I'd certainly recommend a visit, the atmosphere is extremely friendly and relaxed in the paddock and the action is short but intense on the track, I look forward to future blogs on some of the wild rides I saw on Sunday.

Thanks to 'Crazy' Chris Hartnell infecting me with his enthusiasm, I hope you have enjoyed today's Drag edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don't for get to come back now !

1914 Indy Winner - Delage Y

Continuing this months series of blogs celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 today's photograph by Ed Arnaudin was taken in 1964 and shows the most famous of the Delage Y's which, in the hands of Rene Thomas, won the 4th running of the Indy 500 in 1914.



Designed by Arthur Michelat four Y models are thought to have been built between 1913 and 1914 at the Delage factory on Boulevard de Verdun in Courbevoie in NW Paris.

This one was fitted with a 113 hp, 4 cylinder 4.5 litre 275 cui motor, featuring 4 valves per cylinder, was connected to a 5 speed gearbox making it one of the most advanced racing cars of it's time.

In 1913 Paul Bablot drove the pictured vehicle to victory in the, latter of two, French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.

With support from British journalist in Paris WF Bradley, the Indianapolis 500 attracted the first foreign entries in 1913 which in 1914 included two Delage Y's, the 2nd Delage driven by Albert Guyot placed 3rd in the race.

Rene Thomas prior to winning the Indianapolis 500 at his first attempt is also known for surviving the worlds first mid air collision near Milan in 1910 after his Antoinette monoplane 'fell' onto the Farman biplane of Captain Bertram Dickson who was not so lucky.

Thomas went on to record a land speed record of 143 mph in 1924 at Arpajon south of Paris aboard another Delage. Amazingly after a full life of risk taking Rene Thomas died aged 89 in 1975.

The story goes that as this winning car was being loaded on to a ship to return to France it was purchased and ultimately remained in the USA. The car was later 'found' by Edgar L. Roy a founding member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America and restored by him prior to the car finding it's way to the IMS Hall of Fame Museum.

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin for sending me the scan of his Dad's photo and to E.B. of The Nostalgia Forum for identifying this vehicle.

I hope you have enjoyed today's 1914 edition of 'Getting a lil psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at a 1915 White Squadron Stutz. Don't for get to come back now !

Rustproof & Secure - Subaru Impreza WRX STi Type UK

Top of the 2007 Subaru Impreza range was the WRX STi with 260 hp, considered at the time the default Rally Replica of Choice in some circles.



The STi Type UK was available with an optional 300 hp engine with Prodrive re engineered engine parts that were stronger and or lighter than the originals including a larger air intake and intercooler.



Unique to the Type UK is a Thatcham Category 1 alarm, satellite tracking system, enhanced rust proofing ...



and 10 spoke gold alloy wheels attached to a reengineered suspension which is more stable than the standard Subaru Impreza WRX STi.



Prodrives Driver Control Centre Differential System (DCCD) allows the driver to control the oversteer (loose) and understeer (push) characteristics of the car by adjusting the front to rear torque balance delivered to the four driven wheels.



Against the contemporary Mitsubishi Evo the STi Type UK appeared the the more reasonable value.

My thanks to the Pistonhead who brought this Type UK along to the Sunday Service at the BMW plant back in January.

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

Sick Bag Not Included - Prodrive P2

In 2006 David Richards tasked every department in the Prodrive Group with developing the Prodrive P2 into a fully functional concept car in order to demonstrate " the perfect manifestation of what happens when our inspirational ideas combine with our innovative approach.”



Development from designs by Peter Stevens, whose portfolio includes the Jaguar XJR 15 and McLaren F1, to fully functioning vehicle took just 9 (nine) months.



Prodrive started by using a much modified All Wheel Drive Subaru R1 platform around which to build the P2.



Under the hood lurks a 345 hp turbocharged Subaru flat four taken from the Subaru World Rally Championship (WRC) programme complete with Prodrives Anti Lag System (ALS) tuned for the road that minimises turbo lag by burning fuel in the exhaust system at low rpm which keeps the turbo turbine spinning at high speed. Such systems which increase the throttle response of turbocharged vehicles were banned from Formula One in 1981.



The P2 also uses a modified version of the Subaru (WRC) drive train which features Prodrives ATD™ system which compares what the driver is expecting with what the vehicle is providing. The system modulates torque to individual wheels using a differential control system.

In a four wheel drive application such as the P2, if the car is understeering / pushing, then the system will deliver more torque to the back wheels, making it behave more like a rear wheel drive car; if the car is oversteering / loose then more torque will be delivered to the front wheels. ATD™ enables the car to be driven through corners at much higher speeds.



When a well known large presenter of a well known motoring programme tried the P2 with the ATD™ switched on he apparently drove the P2 in such a tight circle at such high speeds he made himself ill and had to stop the car and open the door to spill his diced carrots and peas on the tarmac.



With a power to weight ratio of 350 hp per tonne the P2 can reach 62 mph in 4 seconds and a top speed of 174 mph.

Prodrive estimated that it would have been able to retail the P2 for around £40,000 / $ 65,000 in 2006, but declined to manufacture the vehicle themselves.

Hope you have enjoyed the ride in today's ATD™ edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !