Bespoke Luxury Shopping Trolley - Aston Martin Cygnet

A couple of weeks ago, returning from a trip to the Cotswold Motoring Museum, I was playing I spy with an auto knowledgeable Italian 13 year old as we drove through Cheltenham looking at the back of this car it was my turn to say I spy something beginning with C, we dispensed with the manufacturers initials after only a coupe of rounds.



C-Max he said pointing to the Ford in front of us, no I replied, he gave up quickly and I pointed to the back of this Aston Martin and said 'Cygnet'.



No no he appealed Toyota iQ just like my Auntie in Milan. I pulled over at the next junction parked the car and we went to have a look.



To stay ahead in the automotive industry just like in motor sport one has to think laterally, so when the European Union announced regulations that car manufacturers had to reduce the average fuel consumption across their fleet average Aston Martin wasted little time in finding a partner making low emissions vehicles.



Settling on a partnership with Toyota to make a high end, at £30,000 that is the extremely exclusive high end, version of the Toyota iQ a vehicle that will cost as little as £10,000.



From the rear the two cars, apart from the badging and diffuser are identical, while the front get the Aston Martin look with grills and trim that is with out doubt not from the Toyota parts bin.



The interior is also bespoke Aston Martin customers choosing abundant stitched leather in a variety of two tone colour combinations.



Performance is quoted as 107 mph with the CVT (constant velocity transmission) automatic being 0.2 secs faster than the 6 speed manual in the 60 mph dash that takes 11.6 seconds.



Aston Martin hope to sell 4000 Cygnets, which went on sale in the UK earlier this year, annually.

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

Swedish Tease - Volvo 1800 ES

In 1956 Volvo launched a sports car the P1900 a fibreglass bodied roadster, inspired by the Chevrolet Corvette, if you have never heard of it, or seen it, that is because the P1900 was a disaster so bad that after using one on a holiday weekend incoming Volvo President Gunnar Engellau cancelled further production after just 68 units had been produced.



Volvo's next attempt to crack the sports car market hinged on a design by Italian design house Pietro Frua called the P1800. In 2009 Volvo admitted that there Italian designed car was actually designed by a Swede working at Frua called Pelle Petterson who's father had designed the Volvo PV444.

The P1800 was eventually launched in 1961, with the same engine as used in the Volvo Amazon series, making the model 50 years old this year along with the much cheaper Renault 4 and slightly cheaper E-Type Jaguar. Originally scheduled to be built by Karmann in Osnabruck Germany until Karmann's biggest customer Volkswagen intervened with an emphatic 'Nein' the P1800 was initially produced under contract by Jensen. After quality issues emerged production transferred from the UK to Sweden with the introduction of P1800 S which featured a larger 118 hp motor.



In 1970 the P 1800 E was introduced with fuel injection and in 1972 the last of the P1800 models, P1800 ES seen here, was launched with a novel one piece rear glass tailgate which transformed the coupé into a versatile eye catching shooting brake for which designer Jan Wilsgaard was responsible.

The P 1800 like many contemporary models was killed off my the 1974 US safety and emissions regulations, with some 39,407 Coupé and 8,077 Shooting Brakes built the P1800 was considered a far greater success than it's predecessor. My overwhelmimg memory of driving P1800 models is that despite being 6' tall I had the feeling I was sitting in a very deep bath tub and had a great deal of difficulty determining where the corners of the car were when shuffling these models through cramped garage space.

Hope you have enjoyed today's one piece glass tailgate edition of 'Gettin' alil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Long Lost - Wolf 1979 Series

Wolf Racing was founded by Canadian Oil Magnet Walter Wolf in 1977 after an ill feted start made in partnership with Frank Williams in 1976.



The Wolf team with Dr Harvey Postlethwaite designing the cars came flying right out of the box in Argentina 1977 scoring a debut win with Jody Scheckter at the wheel of the Wolf WR1. Scheckter impressed further by driving to two more wins in 1977. The 1977 series Wolf design ran WR1 - WR3 same as the chassis numbers.

During the following season the second series Wolf WR4 - WR6, with ground effects side pods that were all the rage in 1978, was less impressive and Jody, who had been courted by Ferrari well before his Wolf contract was up, left to join the red team from Maranello.



The third series Wolf, which ran WR7 to WR9, apparently seen here at The Cotswold Motoring Museum, was designed by Dr Harvey Postlethwaite who had been reunited with former Hesketh driver James Hunt for the 1979 season.

As ironic luck would have it former Wolf driver Jody Scheckter would go on to win the 1979 World Drivers Championship in his first season with Ferrari while ex World Champion James Hunt quit the Wolf Team after the Monaco Grand Prix having struggled to qualify better than 10th in seven races and scored one 8th place finish and six retirements.



Keke Rosberg took over the driving duties for the rest of the year but with no improvement in the teams performance Walter Wolf sold his team onto the equally struggling Fittipaldi brothers at the end of 1979.

Walter Wolf kept one of the third series cars while Fittipaldi upgraded the remaining two cars into Fittipaldi F7 spec with a centre post rear wing and heavily revised side pods with out the rear flick ups and built a third F7 from scratch.



The Fittipaldi F7 cars all but disappeared from public view in the early 80's. According to the museum description provided by the cars owner Andrew Smith by 1982 the Fittipaldi Team was in administration and all of the teams assets were acquired by ADA Engineering.

Andrew a James Hunt fan, and former Mini racer, saw WR7 race, with Keke Rosberg driving, at Silverstone in 1979 and bought the car from ADA Engineering with a Cosworth DFV engine. Some of the third series Wolf style body work, and unique '79 Monaco spec twin element front wings have been refitted to this chassis which still has F7 running gear, a Fittipaldi in Wolf clothing.

At this moment there are inconsistencies in the accounts as to which third series Wolf chassis became which Fittipaldi F7 chassis. Not having seen which, if any, chassis plate this particular vehicle, seen at the Cotswold Motoring Museum, is carrying I cannot be sure exactly which, of the two Wolf chassis or three Fittipaldi chassis this is.

If you have evidence as to which of the Wolf third series chassis were transformed into the Fittipaldi F7 series chassis please chime in below or send me an e-mail to the address which appears at the very bottom of the blog page.

My thanks to Steve Holter, and Norman Jones from The Nostalgia Forum for their contributions to today's blog.

Hope you have enjoyed todays Wolf edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a world champions daily driver that is coming up for auction on Saturday. Don't forget to come back now !