Emergent Red Five

Williams Honda FW10

Wanted Gofer

Lola Hart THL1

Fury, Gravity And Inertia

Ferrari 312T

’73 Chassis ’74 Body ’75 Paint

Brabham Cosworth BT42

Aeon Springs

Hesketh 308C

Increased Unsprung Weight

Tyrrell Cosworth 007

Pole Sitter & Sister

Shadow Cosworth DN5

Unreliable and Slow

BRM P201

Formula One Ferraris

Goodwood Festival Of Speed

À Vendre

Shadow Matra DN7

"GALPOT Weekly #15/13"

Welcome to "GALPOT Weekly #15/13" a review of the last seven blogs posted at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres". The week started with a look at this pre '53 split screen Chevrolet Advanced Design Pickup operated in UK drag racing by Squadron Racing. The 1948 Morris 8 Series E featured on Tuesday was a pre WW2 design, a fore runner of the Morris Monor this particular car is known as Katie. The life of the late Howard Strawford, who saved Castle Combe from closure in the 1970's, was celebrated on Easter Monday at the Howards Day meeting which provided plenty of action from the eleven race schedule. Above Elliot Stafford lifts a wheel going into Tower Corner in the first of the two Super Mighty Mini races on his way to becoming the second two time winner of the day. Geoffrey Horton kindly sent the photo's of the Continental Mark II that was the subject of Americana Thursday's post. Ferrari Friday's post revisited the 1956 Ferrari 860 Monza #0604M, which I first looked at two years ago, with some fresh photographs taken at recent Goodwood Revivals. Yesterday's post featured one of 55 Lotus Esprit Sport 350's built, one of only two painted white, that it's owner Rob has tweaked to give 500 hp. Today's post features Bruce McLarens first Formula One car the McLaren Ford M2B, Bruce opted to modify a Ford Indy motor to compete in the 1966 championship, but when this proved too heavy and underpowered he tried a lighter and equally underpowered Serenissima. By the end of the '66 season the Ford motor was back as seen in the car above. Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT Weekly #15/13" 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 have enjoyed catching up using the links and that you will join me daily during the week ahead, don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #14/13

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #14/13 a review of the seven blogs posted at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" from April 1st to April 7th. . Monday's post featured this Chevrolet AK Pickup, sans the anti rattle tailgate fastening that was mentioned in the Sales literature. 2013 marks the centenary of Morris car production so on Tuesdays this month I'll be celebrating with a look at some Morris Models which began with this 1925 Morris Oxford. On Easter Monday I visited the Thruxton Circuit for the first time in way too many years for their Easter Revival Meeting, Bristol Veterinarian Nelson Rowe, seen above driving the #87 1971 Crosslé 20F in second place was a two time winner on the day winning the Formula Ford 1600 and Formula Ford 2000 events. If your a fan of silky smooth engines you'll probably want to be driving a V12, the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr V12 featured on Thursday has some interesting options. Two wins were recorded by the Ferrari 750 Monza chassis #0504, featured on Ferrari Friday, the first was by Mike Sparken on on the cars debut in the gadir Grand Prix for sport cars and the second was in the hands of Marsten Gregory who won a race at the Portuguese track Monsanto in 1955. There were five Lotus Esprit X180R's built between 1990 and 1991 the one featured on Saturday is fitted with 1991 bodywork of the type that Doc Bundy used to win the IMSA Bridgestone Super Car Championship in 1992. This month's Sunday posts will feature four McLaren's, the manufacturer is celebrating it's fiftieth anniversary this year and is now the second oldest, behind Ferrari on the Formula One grid. The first car McLaren built was an upgrade on Roger Penske's Zerex Special sports car featuring a new chassis that was last seen in Venezuela. Bruce followed that up with another sports car the McLaren M1A which was produced in limited numbers by Trojan's subsidiary Elva who built the chassis I looked at on Sunday. Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT Weekly #14/13" 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 have enjoyed catching up using the links and that you will join me daily during the week ahead, don't forget to come back now !

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 !

GALPOT Weekly #10/13

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly 10/13 a review of the seven blogs at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" posted between March 4th and 11th. The week started with a look at this 1939 Ford One Ton Pick Up the first Blue Oval pick up to be fitted with hydraulic brakes. Tuesday's post featured this li'l 1928 Singer 8 Saloon powered by a 16.5 hp motor who's crankshaft runs in just two bearings. Thanks to Geoffrey Horton Wednesday's post featured some California sunshine as seen at the Palm Springs Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance where this 1931 Chrysler Imperial was one of the stars of the show. Cadillac's 1941 Series 62 Coupé which quadrupled was the subject of Thursday's blog. Annie Soisbault drove this 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, which was the subject of Ferrari Friday's blog, to a win in the 1965 Grand Prix of Paris. Thanks to US$ 35 million of funding from General Motors Lotus developed the Lotus M100 Elan which was launched in 1989, the 1991 Elan Turbo SE version seen here was the subject of Saturdays blog. The final post of the week featured two 1973 Surtees Ford TS14 Formula One cars which were hampered by their Firestone Tyres thanks to the suppliers imminent withdrawal from the sport and consequent lack of development. Thanks for joining me on this "GALPOT Weekly #10/13" edition of "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the last seven posts using the links provided and that you will join me again daily in the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

Ferrari's First F1 Design - Ferrari 125 F2 Spec #0114

In 1948 Ferrari built his first dedicated 125 F1 Grand Prix cars known to conform with the set of rules known as formula one and entered three of them into the 1948 Italian Grand Prix, held at Valentino Park on the 5th of September. Frenchman Raymond Sommer brought his 125 F1 home in third place. The Ferrari 125 WAS NOT however the first Ferrari ever to be entered in a race run to formula one regulations.



The 125 F1 shared it's 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui super charged V12 engine design, by Giocchino Colombo, with earlier successful Ferrari sports cars including the 166 series and the 125S series.



This particular chassis thought to have been built in 1949 for the factory racing team, appears to have been successfully raced with a normally aspirated 2 litre / 122 cui Colombo V12 to conform to the second tier Formula Two regulations in 1951 by Englishman Peter Whitehead in Europe and Australasia.



During the late 1950's this chassis had a Chevy V8 installed which was replaced by a remanufactured 2 litre V12 when Tom Wheatcroft had it restored in the 1970's for his Donington Collection where these photographs were taken.

The 125 F1 was not a great success against the older Alfa Romeo's, which led Ferrari to build his next formula one cars with larger unsupercharged engines with which one of his cars would win Ferrari's first championship formula one race in 1951.

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

Sweet dreams are made of this #2 - Connew PC1 02

Continuing the improbable but never the less true story of the Connew Grand Prix team that I started on Boxing day today I am looking at some of the trials and tribulations the team had preparing for the French Grand Prix in 1972.



Having built thier car with a dummy engine as seen in the previous Connew blog, Peter managed to secure funding from a French consortium lead by Vincent Mausset to run Francois Migault in 5 races.



The funding took the form of a 'wad' of French Francs which Peter, his cousin Barry and chief mechanic Roger Doran could only exchange to Pounds Sterling at £30 a time, thanks to foreign currency exchange restrictions in operation at the time.



Peter managed to put a deposit down on a second hand Ford Cosworth DFV engine, in need of a rebuild, from Phil Kerr at McLaren, and purchased a brand new gearbox.



Francois borrowed a truck from his brother who was in the furniture manufacturing business with a company called SAPAL, in return for the truck which was used as the teams transporter SAPAL stickers appeared on the Connew.



While final preparations of the car were made for it's first Grand Prix and the truck was fitted out for racing car transporter duties, Barry got married, heroically spending just 24 hours with his bride before returning to help the team at it's lockup in Chadwell Heath. FInally the team was ready to go with a truckie named 'Mansell' at the wheel of the SAPAL transporter, in Portsmouth customs officials were reluctant to let the truck leave the country because it was on French registration plates but the driver 'Mansell' was English.



Once in France just outside Le Mans the trucks engine blew up. The truck was towed to Le Mans, Francois home town and the team used the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit, where these photos were taken, to do some testing while the truck was repaired.

On the first day of testing it became apparent that the cars suspension had been damaged in transit and with that the teams plans to go to the French Grand Prix had to be abandoned while repairs to the car were made.

To be continued....

With thanks to Peters cousin Barry Boor for the photographs if you'd like to read the whole story of how the Connew team came together over a period of two years and it's trials and tribulations the year after please read Barry's account of his part in this 'Boys Own' adventure here.

Hope you have enjoyed the second part of the Connew story and that you will join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday. Don't for get to come back now !

Sundance Winner - Senna

Last night I was taken to the cinema at Watershed in Bristol by a non racing fan Fiona with a professional interest in documentary films to go and see 'Senna' a 90 min documentary about three time Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna.

Directed by Asif Kapadia the film is apparently unusual in being the first such documentary which is made entirely of archive footage for its visuals, with a handful of contemporary voiceovers by persons who knew and were involved with Ayrton during his 34 year life.

The film focuses on Senna's Formula One career from 1984 to 1994 using some excellent TV highlights of his driving prowess mixed with interviews, many of the best conducted in his native Portuguese language, along with drivers meetings which took place before crucial races in Ayrton's career.

I have to confess, perhaps as a result of having become aware of Grand Prix racing at a time when racing drivers were killed at an alarming rate, I was never the biggest of Senna fans. I always respected his achievements but found the aggression, which I saw him display racing wheel to wheel first hand, in the lower formula before he reached Formula One just a little too foolhardy for my tastes.

However this documentary did leave me with a useful reminder and insight into just how exciting Brazilian Ayrton Senna was to watch at the wheel and just how focused he was with the job at hand.

I loved the relatively low fi 80's TV picture quality on the giant cinema screen, and could have easily enjoyed this film if it had been an hour longer in the same vane. Much to my surprise Fiona and her partner Caroline both announced they had also enjoyed it !

This cross gender appeal of the drama of Senna's life no doubt contributed to 'Senna' wining the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

No matter how little you know or even like Formula One racing this is a seriously engaging documentary, definitely one not to miss.

My thanks to Fiona for taking me out last night.

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

Wild Goose and The Pet - MINI T Building

On Sunday I got the chance to pop in to the T Building which houses the MINI Visitor Centre at Cowley near Oxford. Here are a couple of the vehicles on display.



The MINI One Alan Aldridge Special 2008, is a work of art by 'The Graphic Entertainer' Alan Aldridge who created a well known related work with an original Mini back in 1965 that appeared on the cover of The Sunday Times Magazine at the time.



Mini Mokes have featured in this blog, before this 1968 Austin Mini Moke is for Weske & Anja over at the Belgian Mini Forum and for everyone at the Mini Moke Club Forum.



The Mini Wildgoose was aimed at folks intent on spending their kids inheritance before the kids spent it for them.



Based on the Mini Van this wild RV conversion provided four seats in a 'dinette', 'double bed', table, curtain's, cupboards and water carriers.

Optional extras included combined luggage rack and spare wheel carrier, which I guess was better than having it in the support vehicle driven by the wife, extended wing mirror's, just how could you possibly reverse with out them (?), hammock bunk and all important undersealing of the cab !



Finally The Pet MINI covered in cow hide, was exhibited alongside a mass produced chaise longue similarly covered by Le Corbusier in 1927 at the 'neue raume 07' design exhibition in Zurich, Switzerland.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Mini Museum edition of Getting a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow when I'll be looking at a 215 hp spec MINI Cooper S R56. Don't forget to come back now !