A little bit of this and a little bit of that - Vauxhall A/D Type 1914/1918

The Vauxhall A type was one of the preeminent 3 litre / 183 cui cars of its day competing for a share of a limited market for prestige vehicles alongside Bentley, Rolls Royce, Daimler for favour amongst European nobility.



The A-Type was the first production car designed by Laurence Pomeroy, it evolved through 4 distinct stages between 1908 and 1914 along the way amongst its notable achievements were many wins in a variety of events from trials and reliability events in the hands of customers while the factory built a single seat streamlined version that became the first 20 hp car timed at over 100 mph over a flying half mile at Brooklands.

Of the 940 total production less than two dozen are thought to have survived many of them are in the Antipodes where these rugged vehicles were extremely popular.

In 1912 Pomeroy introduced a new 4 cylinder engine design featuring a chain drive for the cam and magneto. The new engine was built in 3 litre / 183 cui and 4 litre / 244 cui sizes with the smaller engine being fitted to A types and the larger engine to the larger D-Type chassis, remember body work was usually supplied separately to customers bespoke requirements by independent coach builders. The D-Type won a contract from the Ministry of Defence for Staff Cars during the Great War 1914 - 1918.

This particular car owned by Dr. A. N. Lockhart and driven by James Gunn seen here at Prescott last year, comprises a 1914 A-Type chassis one of just four thought to be in the UK, with the larger 4 litre / 244 cui 1918 D-type motor.

My thanks to Dr A.N. Lockhart who's web page on the Vauxhall Type A and D's proved indispensable.

Thanks for joining me on this 244 cui edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Ferrari Testarossa

Sometime in the early 1990's I was tootling a long a one track country lane in Hampshire on a wonderful summers afternoon, with the roof of my Citroen 2CV down, when I caught site of a bright red object in my rear view mirror.



Behind me was a Ferrari Testarossa with absolutely nowhere to go until we got to the next junction. Fortunately I went straight and the Testarossa went left. A couple of minuets later I got to my friends house where there was a note requesting that I go and pick up their kids from primary school, something I had done once or twice before.



When I got to the tiny village school there in the car park was the bright red Testarossa. I had arrived a couple of minuets early and the school secretary motioned that I sit down to wait for class to be dismissed. As I did so I noticed through the glass door to one of the classrooms was the familiar, to me through hundreds of images I had seen, figure of James Hunt reading a story to what turned out to be his son Freddies class.



The kids were absolutely captivated by his magnetism and completely oblivious to the reputation of the one who was reading to them. I can't be sure the Ferrari James was driving that day was really his by then I seem to recall hearing that his Mercedes was up on blocks and that he was mostly to be found driving around in an ancient Austin A35 Van, featured yesterday, but no matter I saw a slice of James life that I will always treasure as much as his victory at the Nurburgring in 1976, which I also was lucky enough to see.



The Ferrari Testarossa was launched in 1984 as a top of the range model to replace the Ferrari 365 GTB4 / 512 Berlineta Boxer series. Powered by a 390 hp 48 valve Colomdo designed flat 12 with red cylinder heads, which was good for a top speed of 180 mph.



The Testarossa name is not to be confused with famous 1956 Ferrari Testa Rossa sports racing car which would probably be worth a lot more than a Testarossa, in any condition.



The $181,000 Testarossa, which was never raced but did make a cameo appearance in a TV show called Miami Mice, cashed in on the Ferrari reputation big time. Nearly 10,000 examples were built including 512 TR and F512 M variants launched in '92 and '95 respectively.

Hope you have enjoyed today's village school edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Bird Breeding Champions Choice - Austin A35 Van #AAVB65216

Launched in 1956 the Austin A35 was an upgrade of the successful Austin A30 featuring a larger rear window and a painted grill in place of the A30's chrome item.



Two commercial vehicles based on the A35 were manufactured the extremely rare 1956 pick up, of which just 475 were built and the more successful van, seen here, which out lived all other variants being manufactured until 1968. An A35 van came to fame in 2005 after a model of a 1964 version carrying a 1953 tax disc appeared in Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.



The name change to A35 reflected a more powerful 34 hp A series straight 4 motor which could power the compact car up to 60 mph in 3rd (top) gear, a whole 15 mph fast than the previous A30.



It is possible that champion budgerigar breeder James Simon W Hunt chose this particular vehicle as his daily driver, precisely because it's leisurely performance would not upset his birds in transit between show's.



After James, also a well known forthright commentator on Grand Prix motor racing, died in 1993 this van was sold at auction allegedly complete with a sprinkling of Trill in the boot and cigarette stubs in the ashtray. James old van has been in storage ever since.

James 1967 van, described as a runner in need of attention for road use, has come up for auction again at the Silverstone Classic on Saturday and is expected to fetch between £10,000 and £14,000 a price which reflects James better known career as 1976 World Grand Prix Drivers Champion.

Hope you have enjoyed today's champion bird breeders edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow for a Miami Mice edition of Ferrari Friday. 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 !

Arrested Development - McLaren M26/1

The McLaren M23 was already a four year old design when Gordon Coppucks successor the lower and lighter McLaren M26 was launched in the summer of 1976.



Unfortunately the development of the M26 was almost immediately stifled as James Hunt in his M23 and the team were waging one of the fiercest championship battles in the history of the World Divers Championship to that point in time.



The M26 did race at the Dutch Grand Prix driven by Jochen Mass in 1976 but it was quickly decided that the design needed serious development that was best postponed until the end of the season.



James subsequently won the 1976 World Drivers Championship. I am not sure why the M26 was not ready for the start of the 1977 championship but the older M23 was pressed into a fifth season of competition and it was not until the 10th round of the 17 race Grand Prix schedule that both front line McLaren drivers James Hunt and Jochen Mass had the M26 available to race.



Nearly a year after it was launched, now featuring a radiator mounted in the nose, the car was competitive and at the British Grand Prix in 1977 James recorded the first of three victories driving the M26 model, not enough to defend his World Drivers championship but a respectable achievement none the less.



James was not known for his testing skills in the same way as the much vaunted Niki Lauda and so it is perhaps no surprise that for the following 1978 season the development of the M26 did not significantly improve performance.



In 1978 the M26 was, like most of the opposition, simply outclassed by the dominant Lotus 79 design which introduced hitherto unimaginably superior handling to Grand Prix racing thanks to the venturi in it's side pods. Hunt left the McLaren Team to rejoin former Hesketh designer Dr Harvey Postlethwaite at Wolf Racing for the 1979 season.



The car featured in these photographs is thought to be chassis M26/1 which was first raced by Jochen Mass in Holland in 1976. The best result for M26/1 was fourth place scored by Jochen Mass behind winner James Hunts similar model at the 1977 British Grand Prix.



The vehicle is seen here being driven by owner Frank Lyons is expected to take part in this weekends Silverstone Classic race for Formula One cars on Sunday.

My thanks to NZALPA, VINCE H, David Lawson, Tim, Murray, Tony Gallagher, Alan Cox, Pink Snail, David Lawson, hipperson and Geoff Butcher at The Nostalgia Forum for their help identifying the chassis number and driver.

Hope you have enjoyed the Arrested Development edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again for a look at a Fittipaldi in Wolf clothing tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !§

Caution Wide Vehicle - McLaren M23 M23/6

The Ford Cosworth DFV powered McLaren M23 driven by Denny Hulme was designed by Gordon Cuppock, based on the lessons learned from the successful McLaren M16 Indy car. It burst onto the Grand Prix scene in 1973 with a pole position on its debut in South Africa. Denny scored the first win for the model in Sweden and Peter Revson followed that with wins in Great Britain and Canada in 1973.

For 1974 Denny who won his last race in an M23 in the season opening Argentinian GP was joined in the McLaren team by 1972 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi who won in Brazil, Belgium, and Canada on his way to becoming the 1974 World Champion. McLaren also won the World Constructors title in 1974.

Jochen Mass joined Emerson in the McLaren team in 1975 winning the shortened Spanish GP while Emerson won in Argentina and Great Britain to finish 2nd in the World Drivers Championship.

1976 would prove to be the chassis most successful year in terms of wins with James Hunt, who replaced Emerson in the team crossing the line first in Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada and the United States.

However 1976 was a year of high drama and comedy in Formula One first James was disqualified from the Spanish Grand Prix because his car was 1.8cm less than an inch too wide. In 1975 the McLaren had been used as a base model too set the dimensions for the 1976 Formula regulations.

McLaren successfully argued that when the tyres on the car were moving they were taller as a result of the centrifugal force taking up the slack on the side walls of the tyres and that this accounted for the discrepancy. The governing F.I.A. accepted this argument and the win was reinstated with a $3,000 fine, when the M23's next appeared they had a slightly narrower rear track.

On the first corner, Paddock Bend, of the opening lap of the British Grand Prix James Hunt was the innocent victim in a crash with Ferrari's Clay Reggazoni. The race was stopped and James who's car was severely damaged took a short cut to get back to the pits when the race was stopped.

Come the restart the organisers initially refused to allow James to line up on the grid because the team had worked to repair his car while the mess was being cleared up. However people power intervened and fearing a riot from the partisan crowd the organisers relented, James took the win, he and the partisan crowd partied long and hard into the night and later the F.I.A. disqualified both Hunt and Clay Regazzoni from the event for having failed to complete the opening lap.

Up until this point reigning Champion Niki Lauda had dominated the 1976 Championship with four wins three seconds, the last of which became 1st after Hunt's disqualification from the British GP and a third. The next race was the ill feted German Grand Prix in which Niki was eliminated in an accident that triggered an inferno from which he was lucky to escape with his life.

James won the German Grand Prix and the Dutch GP while Niki recuperated and 39 days after the inferno at the Nurburgring Niki and James met again at the Italian GP. At the end of practice for the Italian GP James and Mclaren team mate Jochen Mass and John Watson at Penske were found to be running with a fuel octane rating that was too high and had their Saturday times disallowed.

Since it had been raining during the first practice sessions on the Friday Hunt, Mass and Watson had effectively failed to qualify, however the 13 second plus off pace Otto Stuppacher was already on his way home to Austria when the announcement and the Marlboro sponsored Art Mezario withdrew as did Englishman Guy Edwards allowing Hunt, Mass and Watson to start.

Hunt crashed trying to make time and was applauded for doing so by the Tifosi and Lauda came home a remarkable 4th in his first race back.

James won both the Canadian and US Grand Prix while the brave Niki could only amass a further three championship points. Going into he last race of the season the Japanese GP Niki had a 3 point lead over James.

For the race James qualified 2nd behind Andretti with Niki just one place further back. I remember getting up at some unholy hour to watch this race live on TV in the UK and remember the disappointment when I saw the monsoon that unfolded on the track.

After much debate amongst the driver the race started and Niki who had lost his eyelids in the German inferno and yet to have them replaced through plastic surgery had little choice but to retire in the near zero visibility conditions. James took an early lead in the race but as the rain stopped and the track started to dry Hunt started losing ground dropping to 5th after a pit stop to replace a punctured tyre with just a few laps to go.

James charged back into the race managing to regain two positions which left him in third position when the flag came out for Mario Andretti to win by just over a lap from Patrick Depailler, with James Hunt, who had no idea what his position was in the race, right on his tail.

Hunt only learned that he had become champion after he got out of the car and stopped shouting at team manager Teddy Meyer for a less than perfect pit stop.

Hunt won the 1976 World Drivers title by just one point and Great Britain had it's first World Champion since Jackie Stewart had won his last crown in 1973.

The McLaren M23 was pressed into service again in 1977 but its competitiveness was on the wane James winning a non championship race before committing fully to the M26 successor which had gone through a troublesome one year gestation period before coming on song.

The works M23 had a final swan song when it introduced Gilles Villeneuve to the world of Grand Prix racing in Great Britain and Bruno Jack'O'Malley in Italy towards the end of the 1977.

I have done my best to find out exactly which of the 13 M23 chassis this is, The Donington Museum blurb identified this car as McLaren M23/8 and said it was used to win the '76 Spanish and US GP's however M23/8 was destroyed in 1975. The car was then given a new tub with the chassis number M23/8-2 and the old tub was apparently eventually repaired to 1975 tall airbox spec and now resides in the United States.

M23/8-2 went on to become one of the stars of the 1976 season being used to win the controversial Spanish GP along with those in Canada and the US GP. M23/8-2 is said to belong to BCE the man responsible for running the the whole Formula Show since 1981.

It is said that the vehicle in my photograph appeared at the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the World Grand Prix Drivers Championship in Bahrain last year, it is also suggested that the M23 which appeared at Bahrain belongs to the brave octogenarian who started a modelling career with Hublot earlier this year however I have no firm evidence of the ownership of the vehicle in the photograph at the top of this post
at this time.

Most likely the vehicle above seen at the Donington Park Museum is M23/6 which seems to meet many of the criteria hinted at on various threads of The Nostalgia Forum and who's whereabouts is listed as unknown by the respected Old Racing Car site.

M23/6 was used by Denny Hulme to win the Agentine Grand Prix in 1974 then in 1976 James Hunt drove it to win the French Grand Prix, cross the line first in Great Britain only to be disqualified .

At the next race the German Grand Prix I saw James win in this chassis which became one of a rare set of vehicles that crossed the line first in three consecutive races, though it was disqualified from one of them.

In 1977 Emilio de Villota drove M23/6 with little success in Grand Prix events, 2 starts three DNQ's, but did win two rounds of a British series open to all single seat racing cars.

My thanks to Michael Ferner, Wouter Melissen, Steve Holter, Simon Hadfield, Slurp1955, at The Nostalgia Forum for their valuable contributions to todays blog.

Hope you have enjoyed today's 1976 edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

A Noble Effort - Hesketh Ford 308B # 308-2

Mid way through 1972 James 'Hunt The Shunt' got fired by the STP March Formula 3 team for taking over a vacant seat with a rival team at Monaco after his own car had broken down and been hit by another car.



James found himself another ride with the ambitious Hesketh Team founded by Thomas 'Alexander' Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh, who inherited his title aged just four.

The Hesketh team were not experiencing much joy in the 2nd tier European Formula 2 championship and in a double or quits move Lord Hesketh decided that he may as well be loosing his fortune in the top tier Grand Prix Championship for the 1973 Season.



Things picked up rapidly as James quicky found his feet in Grand Prix racing, notably finishing second in the season ending US Grand Prix running Hesketh's March 731 engineered through the season by Dr Harvey Postlethwaite. The Hesketh team also brought a legendary ' joie de vivre' to the Grand Prix paddock.



In 1974 Dr. Postlethwaite designed a new car based heavily on the March 731 from the year before. James in the new Hesketh 308 scored a debut pole position at the non championship 1974 Race of Champions ahead of the Ferrari's of Clay Regazzoni and Niki Lauda, and then came home first from pole in the non championship International Trophy at Silverstone.

For the rest of the 1974 season the teams effort suffered from poor reliability mixed with a couple of podium finishes enough for Hesketh to finish a credible 6th in the manufacturers championship and James 8th in the drivers championship.



Lord Hesketh was adamant about not accepting sponsorship for his team and the cars were upgraded to 'B' spec for 1975, the front radiator was replaced by radiators mounted beneath the rear wing. The cars reliability was still less than stellar but when he could get across the finish line James always scored points and often podiums.

On the 22nd of June 1975 the team finally came good at the Dutch Grand Prix held on the drying Zandvoort circuit, after making an early pit stop for dry tyres James was able to leap frog leader Niki Lauda when he made his pit stop and held on to take the Hesketh teams only victory, the last ever by an unsponsored team.



James finished an impressive 4th in the 1975 drivers championship and Hesketh 4th in the constructors championship. Alas the good Lord had to call time on his Grand Prix party for lack of funds and sold up at the end of the season Dr. Postlethwaite and his last Hesketh design 308C joined a partnership between Walter Wolf and Frank Williams, while James Hunt went and drove for McLaren and the remains of the Hesketh team using revised 308B chassis upgraded to 'D' spec continued to participate in the 1976 season under the direction of Bubbles Horsely the team manager.

US readers might remember the Hesketh team going out with a front page bang, in qualifying for the the 1975 James team mate Brett Lunger was launched into flight by a chicane kerbstone and a photo of the Hesketh crashing back to earth made the front pages around the world. Brett and the car recovered to make the start of the race but retired soon after.



The car featured in today's blog is the #308-2 chassis which James drove to victory in the Dutch GP. It was owned by Lord Hesketh until 2007 and was to be auctioned at the Silverstone Classic Auction next week however it has already been snapped up and sold by private treaty.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Nobel edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be taking a look at James Hunt's world championship winning car. Don't forget to come back now !

The Super Hugger - AJ Rivers Simoniz Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Replica

While I was whizzing up to Castle Combe in the teaming rain a couple of weeks ago, I went flying past a rumbling cloud of spray that turned out to be this Chevrolet Camaro once owned by former saloon car driver and race team owner Richard Lloyd.



It turns out the wide tyres were having trouble cutting through the water lying on the motorway and the Chevy was aquaplaning at speeds far lower than those I was travelling at in my borrowed Kia Picante with skinny tyres.



This is an early second generation 1970 Camaro,



fitted with a 5700cc / 350 cui V8 rated at 360 hp as part of the



Z28 performance package, a peak in the story of muscle car performance which with the onset of the 1973 fuel crisis would never be matched in the remainder of the 20th century.



The Chevrolet Camaro Z28 had a successful career in British Saloon Car racing, Frank Gardner used one to win the 1973 British Saloon car championship outright.



For 1974 the British Saloon Car Championship was open to vehicles in a much lower state of tune known as Group 1 regulations and several Camaro's and one Plymouth Barracuda fought for top class honours, some of the Chevy's including one run by Richard Lloyd, if I remember correctly, ran with either a 7 litre / 427 cui or a 7.4 litre 451 cui motor.



Back in 1973 while Richard was still running his car with a 5.7 litre / 350 cui motor he was scheduled to run in an event called the Avon Tour of Britain, that went round the entire country taking in races at many of the best circuits, rally stages and even a drag strip.



Richard fell ill prior to the event so he drafted in his team mate from the Spa 24 hours, up and coming British Grand Prix driver, James Hunt into the Simoniz Camaro at the last minute, James promptly ended up walking away with the victors trophy.



The car seen here is a replica of Richard's AJ Rivers entered car that was built up for the 2005 Tour Britannia a mini Avon Tour of Britain for mostly historic vehicles.



Richard and his former entrant Alan Rivers competed in the Tour Britania from 2005 - 2007, but in 2008 Richard lost his life in a tragic plane crash that claimed the lives of several other well known figures from British Motorsport.



In memory of his friend Alan Rivers used the car one last time in the 2008 Tour Britania, before it was acquired by Stuart Scott and Steve Wood.



Stuart and Steve have entered this vehicle in every Tour Britannia since,



clocking class wins in 2010 and 2011.



Stuart hopes to take the Camaro to the Historic Festival at Lime Rock CT in September.

Thanks for joining me onto day's Z28 edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow when I'll be going Dutch. Don't forget to come back now !

Forgotten Marque #1 - Warwick 350GT

It's not everyday I stumble upon a vehicle manufacturer I have never heard of but at last weekends Race Retro I came across two such manufacturers the first the subject of today's blog is Warwick.



The origins of the Warwick lie in Peerless Cars Ltd founded by John Gordon and James Byrnes, Peerless built approximately 325 fiberglass vehicles with tubular space frames designed by Bernie Rodger around Triumph TR3 running gear. A Peerless GT Coupe driven by Peter Jopp and Percy Crabb finished 16th in the 1958 Le Mans 24 hour race.



Peerless Cars Ltd failed in 1960 and Bernie Rodger upgraded his design with a stiffer chassis, one piece forward hingeing bonnet and marketed it under the Warwick name though the vehicles were actually built in Colnbrook, Berkshire. Around 40 Warwicks are thought to have been manufactured from 1960 to 1962.

Meantime Peerless founder John Gordon teamed up with Jim Keeble to carry on manufacturing vehicles based on the original Peerless chassis with Chevrolet motors and completely new bodywork designed by Guigiaro and built by Bertone marketed under the Gordon - Keeble brand.



In 1961 Warwick manufactured two prototypes with all aluminium 3.5 litre / 215 cui Buick (BOP) 215 engines, the four tail pipes on this vehicle are evidence that this is one of those two prototypes.

The Warwick appeared at Race Retro on the Central Scanning stand, a company that specialises in scanning old parts so that they can be reverse engineered, thus making it theoretically possible to remanufacture almost any part for any vehicle that has ever been built so long as an original copy exists to be scanned.

I hope you have enjoyed today's Forgotten Marque edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow for another forgotten marque. Don't forget to come back now !

05/09/11 Looking into the name of this model I have come to realise it is properly called a Warwick 350GT not 305GT as originally published. Apologies for any confusion.