Front Wheel Drive Monocoque

Bond Formula Junior

Maserati Racers - Silverstone Classic

Silverstone Classic

GALPOT Weekly #42

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #42 a review of last seven blogs at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres".



The week started with a look at an 8 foot bed that never has to be made in the form of a Dodge Ram Mega Cab 3500 4x4 Laramie, if sleeping on the bed of a truck is not your style the seats in the back of the Mega Cab are recliners.



RAF legend Len Miller ownedthe MG PA Supercharged Sports, which was featured on Tuesday, for 59 years during which time it survived hurricane damage.



Continental Curiosity Wednesday featured the BMW 'Dixi' DA2 3/15 above which was a metricated version of the Austin Seven built under license in Germany.



Americana Thursday featured my favorite Corvette a Stingray Coupé complete with split rear screen that appeared only on the original 1963 models.



Ferrari Friday featured the 1957 Le Mans class winning 500 TRC #0682MDTR seen above at the recent Silverstone Classic.



Yesterday's Lotus Blog featured two Lotus Ford 49C's, the #3 above is chassis #R6 with which Jochen Rindt broke his duck by winning the 1969 US Grand Prix. The following year using the same chassis Jochen also won the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix which would be the last of 12 Grand Prix victories for the Lotus 49 won between 1967 and 1970.



Today's post features a Bond Equipe 2 Litre Convertible featuring a fiber glass body mounted on Triumph Vitesse Mk II running gear.

Thanks for joining me on "GALPOT Weekly #42, I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the last seven posts from "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" with the links in today's digest and that you will join me again during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

Superleggera ! A Q car to leave Mr Bond eating dust - Aston Martin DB4 GT

Anybody who thinks of them selves as any kind of a car enthusiast will have to admit a visit to a VSCC meeting at Prescott is worth it just to see the mouth watering vehicles in the car park.



The vehicle above is a case in point. When I first saw it I thought it was a DB5 or DB6 those faired in lights were a bit of a give away... but boy was I ever wrong ! The clue as to the identity of this vehicle is the 'egg box grill' which predates the horizontal bars of the grill of a DB5 or DB6, making this model a DB4 of series 3 or earlier.

The red and white badge in the centre of the grill indicates that the owner is a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists.



The car bears the legendary Superleggera badge on the side of the bonnet indicating it is built using the light weight tubeframe duraluminium construction pioneered and licensed by Carrozeria Touring of Milan.



At 5 inches shorter than the 1110 regular DB4's this car is one of only 75 DB4 GT's sharing the same short wheel base chassis as the 20 original DB4 GT Zagato's (plus 4 Sanction II's and 2 Sanction III's). The DB4 GT also has thinner body panels than the standard DB4 and an upgraded 302 hp 3750 cc / 228 cui in line 6 cylinder engine distinguishable by a twin spark plug head. It was capable of 153 mph (8 miles and hour faster than Mr Bonds DB5) and 0 - 60 in just 6.1 secs, not bad for 1959 !



The final give away that this model is a DB4 GT are the clearly visible bulky racing fuel filler caps. If like me you like your performance vehicles to be slightly understated, relative to say the DB4 GT Zagato then you'll absolutely love this car.

Thanks for dropping by, don't forget to come back now !

Best laid plans in PR - Bond Equipe 4S

Continuing the theme of rare Triumph based cars started yesterday, today we are looking at this 1965 Triumph Herald based Bond Equipe GT 4 S.



The Equipe GT 4S was built on a Triumph Herald chassis and was powered by a 63 hp 1147 cc / 69.9 cui 4 cylinder used in the Triumph Herald and Spitfire.



The opening boot was only introduced to the Equipe range with the GT 4s in 1964 ! 1934 examples of this 4S were built from 1964 - 1967. The Equipe in various guises was built from 1963 to 1970, when Bond was taken over by Reliant and the factory in Preston was closed.



A little footnote on the Bond Equipe 4S, Bond supplied several of these vehicles to the press for the official opening of a new stretch of the M6 Motorway on 23rd January 1965, big news in those days with thronging crowds as can be seen in this picture. The publicity coup however fell flat when Winston Churchill died the next day.

Hope you enjoyed todays show, don't forget to come back now !

Column Shift Racer - Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint 2

This is an Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint Series 2 is powered by a 1975 cc / 120.5 cui 4 cylinder engine.



This particular carl featuring a 5 speed column shift was delivered on the 31st March 1954.



Vehicles of this type are known to have competed in events like the Targa Florio & Mille Miglia I am not sure if these vented rear window's were part of the original specification, but they would indicate this particular car might have a competition history, if you know anything about it leave a comment below.



The body work is made by Touring of Milan using their trade mark Superleggera ( Super light) Duraluminim construction technique featuring a light steel frame covered in aluminium panels. Anyone who has seen Goldfinger might remember James Bond telling one of his molls about his 'Aston Martin DB5 Superleggera'.
in that fabulous Scottish brogue. Aston Martin bought a licence from touring to use the technique.

The construction technique has one major flaw other than being very expensive, steel and aluminium when they come into contact suffer galvanic corrosion, which is why aluminium alloy wheels corrode the steel in the brake dust reacts with the aluminium, a similar problem occurs with aluminium license plates and steel screws. Allegedly Bristol Cars with their experience in the aircraft industry are the only manufacturer to have satisfactorily minimised the problem by using a special paste.



The sunken rear lights on this car look particularly fetching though the heavy duty steel bumper rather spoils the effect IMHO.

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend, don't forget to come back now !