Showing posts with label Escort. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Escort. Show all posts
Wednesday, 25 November 2015
Sunday, 8 November 2015
Sunday, 12 February 2012
GALPOT Weekly #17
Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #17 a review of events on the 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' blog.
Photo Courtesy Wayne Graefen
The GALPOT week started a story about the restoration of an unusual half ton Terraplane Six Cab Pickup Express which dates back to 1934 that was found by Wayne Graefen in McMinnville Portland Oregon back in the mid 1980's.
On Tuesday I looked at the story behind the MG Bellevue Special a vehicle that was built by Wilkie Wilkinson for hire to drivers wishing to pit their skills against the fearsome Brooklands race track in the 1930's.
Ford's Escort Mk II a collaboration between Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany code named Brenda was the subject of Wednesday's blog.
For Americana Thursday I stuck with the Blue Oval and went behind the scenes to find out what lay behind the development 2013 Ford Fusion Sprint Cup car.
On Ferrari Friday I continued the potted history of the Flat 12 Ferrari Grand Prix cars with a look at the Ferrari 312 T3 which Gilles Villeneuve drove to his first Grand Prix victory in Canada in 1978.
Continuing my potted history of Lotus, on Saturday I looked at the Group 7 unlimited sports car class Lotus 30 which despite it's good looks is generally not recognised to have been one of Colin Chapmans best idea's although it did win a few races in the capable hands of Jim Clark among others.
The 325 hp TVR 400SE is the subject of today's GALPOT blog the last in the line of TVR Wedges based on a design by Oliver Winterbottom well known for two wedge shaped Lotus designs.
Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #17 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !
Photo Courtesy Wayne Graefen
The GALPOT week started a story about the restoration of an unusual half ton Terraplane Six Cab Pickup Express which dates back to 1934 that was found by Wayne Graefen in McMinnville Portland Oregon back in the mid 1980's.
On Tuesday I looked at the story behind the MG Bellevue Special a vehicle that was built by Wilkie Wilkinson for hire to drivers wishing to pit their skills against the fearsome Brooklands race track in the 1930's.
Ford's Escort Mk II a collaboration between Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany code named Brenda was the subject of Wednesday's blog.
For Americana Thursday I stuck with the Blue Oval and went behind the scenes to find out what lay behind the development 2013 Ford Fusion Sprint Cup car.
On Ferrari Friday I continued the potted history of the Flat 12 Ferrari Grand Prix cars with a look at the Ferrari 312 T3 which Gilles Villeneuve drove to his first Grand Prix victory in Canada in 1978.
Continuing my potted history of Lotus, on Saturday I looked at the Group 7 unlimited sports car class Lotus 30 which despite it's good looks is generally not recognised to have been one of Colin Chapmans best idea's although it did win a few races in the capable hands of Jim Clark among others.
The 325 hp TVR 400SE is the subject of today's GALPOT blog the last in the line of TVR Wedges based on a design by Oliver Winterbottom well known for two wedge shaped Lotus designs.
Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #17 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !
Monday, 18 April 2011
Beginners Luck - Cross Trophy Car Trial
Yesterday marked my return to competitive driving, after a 21 year gap, as a rookie in the discipline of Production Car Trials, a low cost discipline that was just as unlikely as my first attempt at competition in a series for Citroen 2 CV's and in a vehicle with an equally unlikely competition history.
The Cross Trophy Car Trial was held in a field belonging to fellow competitor Duncan seen here at the wheel of his magnificent 1921 GN with his daughter just visible in the passenger seat.
A car trial is an event in which competitors are required to drive up a variety of 'off road courses' of varying difficulty, none of which on this event was more than a hundred yards long several of which were considerably shorter. The courses were marked out by Clerk of the Course Mal.
The aim of the competition is to see who can get the furthest up each hill with points being awarded on the number of markers cleared by the front wheels. Here the Westfield Ford of Malcom & Ann from Kidderminster can be seen scoring a perfect zero having cleared the last marker of a hill. The competitor with the lowest number of points wins his or her class.
I was running in the production front wheel drive class for vehicles which included this Citroen AX.
The 3 other classes included Front engine open sports cars, like this Scimitar SS1 1600 crewed by Dave and Chris from Yeovil who were running this car in for the much longer Lands End Trial next week,
front engine rear wheel drive saloon cars like this Ford Escort RS 1600 being driven by Nigel and his daughter Alice seen at the wheel here celebrating her 16th birthday,
and finally rear engine rear wheel drive cars like this Joyner being driven by fellow rookies to the discipline Ian & Tanya.
I had been unable to find a passenger for this event but fortunately 12 year old Laura seen here stepped in on the day and bravely sat alongside me in the 20 year old VW Passat as I struggled to find traction with clearly the largest car in the competition.
During scruitineering the battery and ballast security was checked, Malcom & Ann were carrying 280 lbs / 127 kgs of steel over the rear wheels of their Westfield, I had no ballast in the Passat. Tyre pressures for which a minimum permissible 14 psi was highly recommended were also checked during scruitineering.
Laura found my Passat considerably more comfortable than her Dad Andy's Marlin in which she was also a passenger and by the end of the day Andy, Laura and I had all swapped passenger roles, going up a slope in a light rear wheel drive vehicle seemed considerably easier than a heavy front wheel drive car like the Passat.
After a total of four attempts on each of the five hills the Bristol Pegasus MC's secretary Tim Murray, seen in the background here, added up the scores of all competitors and unbelievably yours truly was announced as winner of the front engine front wheel drive class, call it beginners luck or the versatility of the large and in charge Passat, I was thrilled to bits.
My thanks to Duncan, Laura, Andy, Mal, Tim, to my fellow competitors and everyone from the Bristol Pegasus MC who made this a memorable day out.
I hope you have enjoyed today's, Car Trial edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !
The Cross Trophy Car Trial was held in a field belonging to fellow competitor Duncan seen here at the wheel of his magnificent 1921 GN with his daughter just visible in the passenger seat.
A car trial is an event in which competitors are required to drive up a variety of 'off road courses' of varying difficulty, none of which on this event was more than a hundred yards long several of which were considerably shorter. The courses were marked out by Clerk of the Course Mal.
The aim of the competition is to see who can get the furthest up each hill with points being awarded on the number of markers cleared by the front wheels. Here the Westfield Ford of Malcom & Ann from Kidderminster can be seen scoring a perfect zero having cleared the last marker of a hill. The competitor with the lowest number of points wins his or her class.
I was running in the production front wheel drive class for vehicles which included this Citroen AX.
The 3 other classes included Front engine open sports cars, like this Scimitar SS1 1600 crewed by Dave and Chris from Yeovil who were running this car in for the much longer Lands End Trial next week,
front engine rear wheel drive saloon cars like this Ford Escort RS 1600 being driven by Nigel and his daughter Alice seen at the wheel here celebrating her 16th birthday,
and finally rear engine rear wheel drive cars like this Joyner being driven by fellow rookies to the discipline Ian & Tanya.
I had been unable to find a passenger for this event but fortunately 12 year old Laura seen here stepped in on the day and bravely sat alongside me in the 20 year old VW Passat as I struggled to find traction with clearly the largest car in the competition.
During scruitineering the battery and ballast security was checked, Malcom & Ann were carrying 280 lbs / 127 kgs of steel over the rear wheels of their Westfield, I had no ballast in the Passat. Tyre pressures for which a minimum permissible 14 psi was highly recommended were also checked during scruitineering.
Laura found my Passat considerably more comfortable than her Dad Andy's Marlin in which she was also a passenger and by the end of the day Andy, Laura and I had all swapped passenger roles, going up a slope in a light rear wheel drive vehicle seemed considerably easier than a heavy front wheel drive car like the Passat.
After a total of four attempts on each of the five hills the Bristol Pegasus MC's secretary Tim Murray, seen in the background here, added up the scores of all competitors and unbelievably yours truly was announced as winner of the front engine front wheel drive class, call it beginners luck or the versatility of the large and in charge Passat, I was thrilled to bits.
My thanks to Duncan, Laura, Andy, Mal, Tim, to my fellow competitors and everyone from the Bristol Pegasus MC who made this a memorable day out.
I hope you have enjoyed today's, Car Trial edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !
Monday, 4 April 2011
RIP Eddie Stobart - Ford Escort RS 1800 Replica
No trip along a British or European motorway is complete without seeing one of an immaculate fleet of Eddie Stobart trucks.
Eddie Stobart (Snr) founded an agricultural business in the 1950's and his son Eddie Stobart (Jnr) built the company into one of the best known haulage companies in Europe over a period of 30 years.
Eddie (Jnr) sold the company to his brother William and business partner Andrew Tinkler in 2004. It is sad to record that Eddie (Jnr) predeceased his father aged just 56 last week.
This Ford Escort MKII RS1800 Replica appears to have started life as a 1972 Ford Escort MK 1 1100L and been reshelled with a post 1975 style body.
This Eddie Stobart sponsored car was successfully campaigned in 2006 and 2007 in selected historic rallies by 5 time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae, father of World Rally Champion Colin McRae.
Most recently this Escort has been run by Whelan Historic Motorsport in historic rally events for Jim Whelan and co driver John Atherton.
Slightly off topic congratulations to Kevin Harvick who made it two Sprint Cup wins in a row yesterday when he won the traditional Grandfather Clock at Martinsville last night. This was the first time I have ever seen my man win a Cup Race on TV. I hope you'll join me again for another edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres'. Don't forget to come back now !
Stop press ! It is with a heavy heart that I have to report Mr Ed Arnaudin contributor of many fabulous photo's to 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' passed away during the red flag period of the Martinsville race.
A proper appreciation of Ed will follow in due course, in the meantime I hope you join me in honouring and celebrating his life by typing his name in the 'Search psycho on tyres box', in death as in life Ed has much to share. Condolences to the best friend I have never met, Steve Arnaudin and his family.
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