The Jaguar Judd

ECU Controlled Telescopic Intake Runners

Mazda 787B

600hp 4 Rotor Wankel

Mazda 767

Three Rotor Wankel

Mazda 757

Jun Jeans

Mazda RX7 253i

Razzle Dazzle

Mazda MX5

GALPOT Weekly #13/13

Welcome to GALPOT Weekley 13/13 a review of the seven blogs posted at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" from March 25th to March 31st. First up on the Monday was this cool metallic blue '51 Bonus Built Facelift Ford F1 Pickup. The Singer B37 Sports, as featured on Tuesday, was a victim of a change in corporate strategy in 1937 which meant only 12 of these 6 cylinder cars got built. I can pretend otherwise I froze my backside off marshaling at The Great Western Sprint, Wednesdays post tells what else happened. If you'd asked me before last year I'd never have guessed that the Cadillac Catera was built in Germany quite simply because I had never heard of much less seen one before. Ferrari Friday's blog featured this 250 GTO chassis #4153GT which was driven to victory in the 1964 Tour de France by Lucian Bianchi and Georges Berger. Saturday's post featured this Peter Stevens styled '88 Lotus Esprit fitted with a post '93 Julian Thompson styled bumper/spoiler. Jackie Stewart drove this Tyrrell #006, featured on Sunday to victory in the 1973 South African GP after crashing his own car and taking it over from his team mate Francois Cevert. Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT Weekly #13/13" edition of "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" and thanks to all those who have spread the word by sharing by blogs on fb, Ryan ;-), and pressed the "Like" button when the blogs have appeared on the "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" facebook page. I hope you will join me daily during the week ahead, don't forget to come back now !

He who is first will later be last - Auto Gymkhana

Flush with success after my first production car trial, last weekend I joined members of The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club and took part in an Auto Gymkhana for the first time at Sheepcot Farm not far from Chepstow.



(Ben in his Mitsubishi Colt finished 6th Overall)

There were 12 entries 11 of which stayed for the full 24 stages of the competition which centred on variations of 4 basic tests.



(Nick and Andy shared Andy's Marlin, Andy finished 2nd and Nick 8th)

The first group of tests focused on parking skills in forward and reverse alongside a plank of wood. Not such a difficult task but when done competitively in one manoeuvre surprisingly difficult to get the wheels as close to the plank as possible without touching the plank. The competitor who parked with the front wheel closest to the plank won. There were further parking tests to see who could park closest to a cone.



(Kia Picante in which I came 10th)

Next came a timed slalom first time round I got the gates a bit mixed up at the end which meant I somehow contrived to travel a longer distance than necessary. Driving my landladies mothers Kia Picante I was woeful on this test deciding that discretion was the better part of valour I aimed to improve my times through each timed run and tried to avoid scratching the car by running too close to the markers.



(Daihatsu Curore shared by Chris and Coralie who finished 3rd and 4th.

I did much better when it came to driving round the slalom holding a pint of water in my own time spilling less water than most I finished in the top 3 each on each of the 3 occasions this test was run.



(Ken in the Mercedes C220 CDi with the amazing turning circle finished 11th)

The hillclimb proved relatively simple for everyone except for Ken in his Mercedes C220 CDi which could handle the turns but had no weight over the rear axle to afford the necessary traction over the final incline which got progressively more slippery.



(Nick soon came to the conclusion that his Mazda 626 did not have a good enough turning circle)

Finally there was an autotest which involved driving round a course of tight circles parking in garages and some reversing. Nick dropped his Mazda 626 out of the competition immediately when it became apparent his car simply did not have anything like enough steering lock to compete. He ended up sharing Andy's Marlin instead.



(Alan brought his Hawk HF3000 in 9th.)

Alan driving a Hawk HF 3000 Lancia Stratos replica powered by a 3 litre ALFA Romeo V6 needed a co-driver on the autotest in order to open the passenger door and make calls on the positions of the cones when reversing ! I jumped in to help Alan on a couple of occasions and was struck by the heat coming off the radiator in front of the footwell and the engine mounted directly behind the seats. A fabulous car to sit in for the slalom though.



(Mal in his all conquering MG Midget Mk3 )

Clear winner of the event was Mal in his MG Midget Mk3 which he bought for just £250 many years ago.

My thanks to Martin and team of marshals who ran a wonderful days competition, to Tim who kept score of the days activities to Alan for the the ride in the HF 3000 and congratulations to Mal.

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

Peoples car - Жигули (Zhiguli) 2106

Well OK it is a Lada but this one is branded for the home market. Avtovaz originally called Volzhsky Avtomobliny Zavod or VAZ for short marketed its FIAT 124 derivatives under the Lada brand for export, around 60 % of production and under the Zhiguli brand inside Russia.



The cars they built were initially beefed up FIAT 124's with thicker steel panels, smaller, more robust less powerful overhead cam engines not seen on any other FIAT vehicles, designed to run on low 93 octane fuel and fitted with aluminium rear drum brakes in place of discs. Perfect for harsh conditions from Siberia all the way down to deserts of Egypt.



A couple of batches of these vehicles were supplied to the militia with rotary wankel engines allegedly based heavily on Mazda technology. Many of these militia vehicles, all supplied without revolution counters did not make it as far as their first oil change, upon failure these the motors were swapped out for the more conventional 4 cylinder 1.2 / 73 cui and 1.3 litre / 79 cui units. Rotary Zhigulis are still to be found in the preowned car market of Moscow.



The overall body was little changed during production from 1970 to 1984 when the model was replaced by the Riva, itself a model once stripped of all the plastic and lights was pretty much the same as the 2103 series seen here.



I managed to decipher Жигули in cyrillic script on the badge with a little help from Alexey Rogachev on The Nostalgia Forum. Alexey informs me that the Zhiguli name is taken from the Zhiguli Mountains at the bottom of which is a town Tolyatti, named after an Italian communist, where these vehicles were built.



It is thought somewhere around 18 million Avtovaz FIAT 124 derived vehicles have been built since 1970, incredibly later Riva derivatives are still being assembled to this day in a Suzuki plant in Egypt.

Hope you have enjoyed this cyrillic edition of Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', and that you'll join me tomorrow Ferrari Friday. Don't forget to come back now !