The Unvanquished Tough Nut From Chippenham - Invicta S1

Invicta is a name that has popped up from time to time in the automotive industry since 1900 when the name appeared on cars made in Finchley, London until 1905. The following year, 1906, the Invicta name was intended to be used by a vehicle manufacturer in Turin.

A third unrelated incarnation of the Invicta name was used by Clarks Eng. Wrks Ltd in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire in 1914.



The fourth and to date most successful incarnation of Invicta appeared when Noel Macklin teamed up with Tate & Lyle sugar heir Oliver Lyle in 1925. Based in Cobham, Surrey they aimed to build a range of vehicles that matched Rolls Royce for quality and Bentley for speed using proprietary 6 cylinder Meadows engines until it's demise in 1935.



The fourth incarnation of Invicta achieved a fair ampun of publicity as a result of Noel Macklins sister in law Violette Cordery being awarded the Dewar Trophy in 1926 after averaging a fraction over 70 mph over 5,000 miles (8,000 kms) at Montlhery and again in 1929 after driving 30,000 miles (48,000 kms) in 21 days averaging a fraction over 61 mph at Brooklands. Donald Healey also won the Monte Carlo Rally outright in 1931, despite bending the chassis in an accident in Norway soon after the start of the event.



In 1946 the Invicta company was reformed in Virginia Water and produced a Meadows powered Black Prince, only 16 of which were manufactured before production ceased and the brand name was sold to Frazer Nash the vehicle manufacturer, not the same Frazer Nash that bought the remains of the Bristol Car Company recently.



The Invicta name has also twice been used by Buick as a model name.



The most recent incarnation of the Invicta vehicle brand surfaced in 2004 with this monster of a sports car, built in Chippenham, available with up to 600 hp from a hand built Ford Special Vehicles Team (SVT) supplied V8.



Carrying the same name as the most successful pre-war model, used to win the Monte Carlo Rally in 1931, the S1 is built around a steel tube space frame featuring a safety roll cage and is claimed to be the strongest chassis ever tested by UK safety officials.



The body, designed by Leigh Adams and his Automotive Design & Prototyping studio, is a single piece of carbon fibre which further reinforces the chassis strength.



Invicta claim the S1 will reach 60 mph from rest in 3.8 seconds and that the aerodynamics will keep the car stable to over 200 mph.... where permitted.



Production of the S1 is limited to 50 per year, when I was on my way to Castle Combe last weekend I heard one and then saw it come cruising past in my rear view mirror, this car has an awesome presence when on the move.

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

Traffic Light King - GMC Syclone

Max Grabowsky established the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company on the 22nd December 1901 which built a truck powered by a single cylinder motor. In 1909 the company was taken over by General Motors to form the General Motors Truck Company from which the GMC Truck brand was born. In 1916 a GMC Truck was driven from Seattle to New York City in just 30 days, ten years later a 2 ton GMC Truck took five days and 30 mins to travel from New York to San Francisco.



In 1990 GMC identified a niche market for a 'performance' truck based on the GMC Sonoma complete with lowered suspension, four wheel drive, fog lights and under the bumper corner spoilers.



The Syclone model was powered by a 280 hp 4.3 litre / 262 cui turbocharged V6 motor that was coupled with a 4 speed automatic transmission. ABS brakes, to keep all those horses under control, were used for the first time on an all wheel drive truck application.



Volkswagen Golf / Rabbit GTi inspired, to European eyes, red detailing inside and out was rounded off with 16 inch alloy wheels carrying comparatively low profile tyres.



Car & Driver famously pitted the $26,000 Syclone against a $122,000 296 hp Ferrari 348ts and in all the acceleration tests up to and including the 1/4 mile drag the Syclone came out best only loosing out with a top speed of 126 mph against the Ferrari's 166 mph !



Built in Troy MI by Production Automotive Services, unlike the regular Sonoma which was built in Shreveport LA, the only downside of the Syclone was that it's lowered suspension limited the carrying capacity to just 500 lbs, still considerably more than a Ferrari, but considerably less than that 1700 lbs plus of a regular GMC Sonoma.



It is thought just 2998 Syclones were built between 1991 and '92, with just 3 made in 1992 ! 113 are thought to have been exported, with 31 returned, making today's vehicle seen in Bristol one of just 82 Syclones thought to be outside the USA.

Patrick Bedard of Car & Driver summed up the Syclone as the pick up that would 'do a Ferrari blur on the local scenery' and 'makes this capability seem like a perfectly wonderful idea.' Sounds good to me, a very good idea indeed.

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

Out of Africa - Noble M12 GTO 3

After his involvement with replica Ferrari P4's, Lotus 23's and original Ultima and Ascari cars Lee Noble founded Noble Automotive in 1999 to build relatively affordable but really fast cars.

He kept the prices of his light weight space framed chassis vehicles down by using the Hi Tech Automotive manufacturing facilities in Port Elizabeth, South Africa to assemble the basic chassis and body and then shipping them to England for drive train installation and testing.

The M12, originally planned in Coupé and Convertible forms, was in production from 2000 to 2008, only one M12 Convertible, a prototype was ever produced.

All M12's are powered by twin turbo Ford V6 Duratech engines this GTO 3 model is a 3 litre / 185 CUI 365 hp variant the top end M400 left the factory with 425hp.

The Nobel M12 production rights were sold to 1G Racing who manufacture & market their M12 as the Rossion Q1. Salica Cars also manufacture M12 derived vehicles known as the Salica GT, 550hp Salica GTR and Salica GTC convertible.

In 2006 Lee Noble sold Noble Automotive and resigned from the company in 2008, setting up Fenix Automotive in the Meridian Business Park in Leicester, a V8 powered <a href="http://noblesportscarsgallery.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&amp;updated-max=2012-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&amp;max-results=2">Fenix GT</a>, again using the Hi Tech manufacturing facilities is expected to be launched on the market this year.

My thanks to the <a href="http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/">Pistonhead</a> who brought this vehicle along to the <a href="http://psychoontyres.blogspot.com/2011/01/sunday-service-mini-plant-car-park.html">Sunday Service</a> at the BMW plant back in January.

I hope you have enjoyed today's Twin Turbo Duratech edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !