Maltese Heart Breaker

Mercedes Benz W121 B2 190 SL Roadster

Oillife Monitoring System

Chevrolet Camaro V6

Around The World In Five Years

Mercedes Benz W180 220S

Multi Tasking Canadian

Chevrolet Camaro Convertible

Golden Lion

Chrysler Windsor Sedan

The Crumpled Cup Auto Solo

Rolls Royce Car Park Filton

Irascible Swiss Perfectionism

Talbot AV 105

 

Floreat Lindum – F.L. Automobiles of Paris Sports

GALPOT Weekly #60

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #60 a review of the last seven posts at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" A converted Hillman Imp Super Pick Up was featured on Monday's blog, the donor car was given to the owner after the body work was found to be a little less than solid in some areas. Last of the current schedule of Hot Rover series was this shot silk chromescent MG ZT-T estate / station which was featured on Tuesday. Wednesdays continental curiosity was the Fiat 128 based Zastava Type 101, which has been marketed with many names including the Yugo 511 in the UK. On Americana Thursday I stepped up the pace with a look at this 2010 supercharged Shelby GT 500. Ferrari Friday's post was about this two owner 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza which has been raced by the likes of 1961 World Champion Phil Hill, Carol Shelby and it's current owner Jim Hall of Chaparral fame. Yesterday's Lotus blog was about the Lotus S2 Type 79 note to be confused with the Lotus 79 Formula One racing car. Todays post features this Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé designed for convivial motoring. Thanks for joining me on this " GALPOT Weekly #60" edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the last seven posts using the highlighted links and that you will join me daily during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #28

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #28 the review of activities at the 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres blog', where last week I covered two events, looked at the 2nd of Colin Cooper's Kayne Special and more.



I started the week with a review of the 33rd Bristol Classic Car Show held at the Bath & West Show Grounds near Shepton Mallet, among the many exhibits that caught my eye was this 1951 Singer Roadster.




Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1983

Colin Cooper's Kayne Special II was part recycled MG B, the engine subframe and part self designed and built, the rest of the chassis, powered by a highly tuned MG B motor among many awards Colin won was the 1981 MG Car Club Speed championship. Above Colin was captured in 1983 by Frank Hall at Baitings Dam smoking his tyres.



Terry McCann's Ford Capri II 2.0S from the TV series Minder was voted 28th most popular TV car in 2005, the example above which I looked at on Wednesday was seen in the car park at the 33rd Bristol Classic Car Show I reviewed on Monday.




On Thursday I looked at the 224 in / 5690 cm long eighth generation Cadillac Eldorado, of which this is one of 51,451 built in 1973.



Ferrari Friday focused on what is possibly the most attractive steel bodied Ferrari ever built the Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Pininfarina Berlinetta, an example once owned by Steve McQueen fetched $2.3 million in 2007.



Saturday's Lotus blog featured the second generation Lotus Europa, Type 54 and debunked the 'Black Badge' myth.



Today's post looks at the Bristol Pegasus Motor Clubs, Cross Trophy which I'll be regrettably passing on to Paul who drove his 25 year old Golf II to a well deserved victory last Sunday.

My thanks to Chris Winstanley for permission to use Frank Halls photograph.

Next week I'll be reviewing a trip to Prescott for a Hill Climb event, looking at the Kayne Special III and looking at some of the machines at this weekends Classic Motorsports Mitty presented by Mazda.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #28, I hope you will enjoy the links and that you will join me again at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres blog'during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

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 !

Booby Prize from Wide Track Country - Pontiac Firebird

In 1954 vice president of engineering at General Motors Oliver K Kelly called Packards head of Research and Development John DeLorean to offer him a choice of jobs across the five divisions on General Motors. DeLorean who at the time also had the choice of moving to Studebaker with whom Packard had just merged settled on becoming assistant to chief engineer Elliot 'Pete' Estes at Pontiac.



By 1963 John had become chief engineer at Pontiac, and Estes had become general Manager when they together with engine specialist Russell Gee and chassis engineer Bill Collins convinced the GM management to let them offer a $296 performance package on the Pontiac LeMans Coupé and Convertible body stiles that included a 325 hp 6.4 litre / 389 cui V8 motor normally found in the full size Pontiac Catalina and Bonneville models, from whence the 'Wide Track' strap line was born and named it GTO a name John picked up from the Ferrari 250 GTO.



The Pontiac GTO with initial production limited to 5,000, by a disbelieving Pontiac Sales Manager Frank Bridge, was an instant hit with Ronnie and the Daytonas, the youth market at which it was aimed and GM Management. The GTO was responsible for transforming the image of the brand from an 'aunties car' to a youth orientated performance brand with over 32, 000 units built in 1964.



As the GTO was launched John DeLorean moved on to the development of the Pontiac Banshee a concept car to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette which was killed by GM's top management. DeLorean seen as Pontiacs golden boy was promoted to head of the entire Pontiac division and given the consolation task of turning the Chevrolet Camaro into a Pontiac Pony Car with the proviso that there could be no alterations to the sheet metal except to the front and rear panels.



By incorporating a signature Pontiac split grill with built in bumper at the front and a version of the rear strip lights seen on the two Banshee concept cars the Pontiac Pony car was easily distinguishable from it's Chevrolet sibling, Having failed to acquire the Banshee naming rights from rocket scientist Eugene F. Lally, who had successfully raced a Corvette powered special of the same name, for less than ¢50 per car, the name Firebird which had been previously used by GM on three seriously out landish gas turbine concept cars, was eventually adopted for the Pontiac pony car.



The absence of marker lights, Federally mandated in 1968, and the E suffix on the registration plate confirm this as most likely one of the five variations of the 1967 model line up.



The Ram Air bonnet / hood suggests this car had the top of the range 6.6 litre / 400 cui motor installed when it left the factory.



Just over 100,132 1967 Firebirds are thought to have been manufactured of which 9,980 were convertible.

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

Awaiting TLC #3 - Lotus Mark 6

Third in my occasional series of blogs about cars in need of tender loving care is this uniquely ungainly looking Lotus Mark 6 seen earlier this year at the Silverstone Classic.



The Lotus Mark 6 was the first Lotus design to go into to production and it was sold in kit form saving purchasers a small fortune in new car taxes. The reason this particular vehicle is both unique and ungainly is because it is the only Lotus Mark 6 built as a mud plugging trials car requiring more ground clearance than either the road going or track racing versions.



The chassis with Williams & Pritchard built body was originally supplied to Mr Horace Sinclair Sweeney in 1953 at a cost of £110. Once Mr Sweeney had finished installing the engine and running gear he entered and won the London Motor Club's Annecy Spring Sporting Trial on the 7th of June 1953.



The motor is an Aquaplane tuned 1172 cc / 71.5 cui side valve E93A unit sourced from a Ford 10 built in the 1930's.



In 1954 Mr Arthur Hay acquired this Mark 6 and over the next ten years won three Motor Cycling Club (MCC) Triple awards for completing the Exeter, Lands End and Edinburgh trials unpenalised in three separate calendar years. Since then car has remained in the Hay family, but unused since 1964.



The current owner hopes to restore the car to working order and use it for sporting trials as originally intended by Mr Sweeney.

Thanks for joining me on this mud plugging edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at a Jensen. Don't forget to come back now !

A Passage From India - Rover CityRover

In 2000 BMW gave up on it's attempt to revive the Rover Group after six years and sold most of the assets packaged as the MG Rover Group to the Phoenix consortium. At this point all models, bar one the '75', in the MG Rover groups portfolio were around five years old and Phoenix determined that their first new car would be aimed at the city car market segment that had once been an almost exclusive preserve of the Mini, a product of earlier incarnations of the MG Rover Group.



MG Rover Group did not have any research and development assets so they looked for a partner that would be offered a stake in the group in return for a new car. A deal was done with Indian manufacturers TATA who would build a version of the first ever completely indigenous Indian passenger car the Indica.



The design criteria for the Indica were that it would be the size of a Maruti Zen, similar to the Suzuki Cervo Mode, the internal dimensions of the Hindustan Ambasador, a cast off from a previous in carnation of the MG Rover Group that is still in production who's design heritage can be traced back to the Morris Oxford of 1948, the price of a Maruti 800, another Suzuki related product, and the running cost of a diesel.



The design work was carried out by I.D.E.A. in Italy and after a false start with some quality issues the TATA Indicia, launched in 1998, with a Peugeot derived motor proved to be a big hit on the Indian sub continent. Despite the absence of a development budget, apart from the badging, alterations made to the Indicia to suit the needs of European motoring included an upgraded engine to produce 84 hp and exceed more stringent emissions regulations, increase in road wheel size from 13 to 14 inches and corresponding alteration of gear ratio's, stiffer front and rear spring rates, lowered suspension and increased gearing for the steering.



Production of the Rover CityRover began in Pune India in 2003 but the cars launch was marred by questions over the MG Rover Groups finances and by the newly crowned 2004 European Car of the year the FIAT Panda which was a game changing generation ahead of the CityRover and cheaper too.



While the CityRover was praised for it's performance and handling it was let down by interior quality, lack of equipment and above all headlining city car market segment price. In July 2005 MG Rover was liquidated with the loss of 6,000 jobs in the company and a further 25,000 jobs in related suppliers companies. Nanjing acquired the assets of the MG Rover Group.

Around 6000 CityRovers, such as the base Solo model seen here, were sold in it's first year and a further 1200 Mk2 versions were sold through non franchised dealers after the MG Rover Groups liquidation.

Thanks for joining me on this 'CityRover' edition of getting a lil' psycho on tyres'. I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at a Coupé built in The Netherlands. Don't forget to come back now !

Jig Free - Lea Francis 30/230

In August 1895 Richard Lea and Graham Francis entered into a partnership to manufacture bicycles, like the another cycle turned motor manufacturer Rover, Lea Francis was based in Coventry. In 1903 Lea Francis manufactured three unconventional vehicles with complex three cylinder motors that were not a success and from 1912 to 1924 the company manufactured motor cycles.



Lea Francis entered motor car manufacture again in 1919 with vehicles using popular Meadows engines, Lea Francis became the first marque to offer a supercharged production car, the Hyper in 1927 and the following year a Hyper won the Tourist Trophy.



The company went bankrupt in the early 1930's and was revived in 1937 to produce a fresh vehicle designed by former Riley engineer Hugh Rose, the successors to this car proved popular after the second world war in saloon and sports car forms.



Car production ceased again in 1962 since when the company was kept alive by Barrie Price who provided spares and restoration services and occasional new low volume cars. In 1996 father of the Jaguar XJ220 Professor Jim Randle was engaged to design the 30/230 seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed.



The aluminium bodied car was to be powered by a 235 hp 3 litlre / 183 cui V6 Vauxhall (UK GM) motor.



Among the novel features the chassis was made by riveting laser cut aluminium panels, a process that requires no conventional jigs, and a patented active suspension system.



Unfortunately, like the planed Lea Francis Limousine which aimed to fill the niche left by the Daimler DS240, the 30/230 did not go into production.

Thanks for joining me on this Lea Francis edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres'. I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be reviewing some of the event's at this weekend's Goodwood Revival. Don't forget to come back now !