Showing posts with label Phaeton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phaeton. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Monday, 27 June 2011
Off The M4 - Atwell Wilson Motor Museum
For several years now every month I have been making a trip up to London to go and see my folks, on the way back no matter what time of day I frequently find myself in a traffic jam some where around J18 on the M4 which could add anything up to an hour on my normal 2 hour journey time.
About 18 months ago forewarned, by a big new electric message board on the M4, of an impending jam between Junction 18 and 20 I took a detour and followed the A338 from Junction 14 down to Upper Eddington and then followed the A4 west to Bristol.
Going through Calne I passed a sign for a Motor Museum, 18 months later with a little time on my hands I managed to follow the sign about a mile down Stockley Lane and on the left I found the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum.
Entrance is an unbelievably low £5 and within were over 100 2, 3, 4 wheeled vehicles, and one soon to depart 6 wheel World War 2 AEC RAF Refuelling Tanker.
The collection can broadly be divided into vintage and classic mass production vehicles with a particularly interesting collection of Limousines both British and American which are available at very reasonable rates for wedding hire.
The Atwell Wilson Museum was founded by Richard and Hasel Atwell, who lived in Wiltshire all of their lives, in 1962 they started collecting vehicles with a local connection and maintaining them in a road worthy condition. Richard passed away last year, the Museum that has grown out of the collection is run by 15 volunteers.
On the weekend of July 9th and 10th the museum will be hosting a classic car weekend, if you have a classic car, or even if you don't but would like to attend call 01249 813119 or e-mail enquiries@atwellwilson.org.uk for details. I shall look forward to attending on one of the two days.
Thanks for popping by today's Atwell - Wilson edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a closer look at the Atwell - Wilsons 1962 Plymouth Fury. Don't for get to come back now !
About 18 months ago forewarned, by a big new electric message board on the M4, of an impending jam between Junction 18 and 20 I took a detour and followed the A338 from Junction 14 down to Upper Eddington and then followed the A4 west to Bristol.
Going through Calne I passed a sign for a Motor Museum, 18 months later with a little time on my hands I managed to follow the sign about a mile down Stockley Lane and on the left I found the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum.
Entrance is an unbelievably low £5 and within were over 100 2, 3, 4 wheeled vehicles, and one soon to depart 6 wheel World War 2 AEC RAF Refuelling Tanker.
The collection can broadly be divided into vintage and classic mass production vehicles with a particularly interesting collection of Limousines both British and American which are available at very reasonable rates for wedding hire.
The Atwell Wilson Museum was founded by Richard and Hasel Atwell, who lived in Wiltshire all of their lives, in 1962 they started collecting vehicles with a local connection and maintaining them in a road worthy condition. Richard passed away last year, the Museum that has grown out of the collection is run by 15 volunteers.
On the weekend of July 9th and 10th the museum will be hosting a classic car weekend, if you have a classic car, or even if you don't but would like to attend call 01249 813119 or e-mail enquiries@atwellwilson.org.uk for details. I shall look forward to attending on one of the two days.
Thanks for popping by today's Atwell - Wilson edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a closer look at the Atwell - Wilsons 1962 Plymouth Fury. Don't for get to come back now !
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Nikita's Gull - GAZ M13 Chaika
It's always a great pleasure to blog about little known vehicles that were produced behind the Iron Curtain like today's car the GAZ M13 Chaika was seen at Haynes International Motor Museum a few weeks ago.
Since I first blogged about the GAZ M21 I have learned a little more about the company which was founded in 1929 in a cooperation between Ford and the Soviet Union as the Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod, NAZ, Nizhegorodsky Automobile Plant, at Nizhny Novgorod in the Volga Region approximately 500 miles east of Moscow.
The factory started out making Ford Model A cars and Model AA light trucks known as NAZ-A and NAZ-AA respectively. In 1933 Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky, after Maxim Gorky a writer who was born in the city and Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod was renamed Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod shortened to GAZ.
Gorky, the city, was renamed Nizhny Novgorod in 1990 but the vehicle manufacturer retained the GAZ name.
The luxury M13 Chaika seen here was produced from 1959 to 1981, though the mechanical underpinnings remained in production until 1988 fitted with a marginally more modern body until 1988.
Styling of the Chaika drew heavily on the 1956 Mercury Montclair Phaeton with a potpourri of 1956 Cadillac Series 62 inspired features thrown in. With a 195 hp being transmitted from it's V8 engine via a copy of the push button operated Chrysler TorqueFlite transmission the Chaika, translates into 'gull', was capable of 99 mph.
Seems incredible in this day and age to even conceive the idea that such a luxury vehicle was not made for sale. All 3,100 examples of the Chaika made over a period of 22 years were added to motor pools and issued to top professionals, Communist Party officials, scientists, academics and VIP's. The KGB also ordered these vehicles in large numbers.
Despite being entitled to larger ZIL limousines the Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev is known to have expressed a preference for the GAZ M13 even having one kept at his dacha.
Three versions of the Chaika were manufactured most were M13 saloons, but for ceremonial purposes open a 4 dr M13b convertible was produced from 1961 to 1962. The estate / station wagon M13A Universal is the rarest Chaika produced in the 1960's primarily for use as ambulances and funeral cars.
At the time the Chaika was first in production the Soviet Union was leading the space race, a fact possibly not lost on the stylist responsible for the M13's tail light assembly....
though he may also have admired '56 Cadillac Series 62 for its attention to detail and copied the idea of routing the exhaust pipes through the rear bumper !
Thanks for joining me for today's motor pool edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at a handcrafted Lanchester. As they might say in Russia, Не забудьте вернуться сейчас!
Since I first blogged about the GAZ M21 I have learned a little more about the company which was founded in 1929 in a cooperation between Ford and the Soviet Union as the Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod, NAZ, Nizhegorodsky Automobile Plant, at Nizhny Novgorod in the Volga Region approximately 500 miles east of Moscow.
The factory started out making Ford Model A cars and Model AA light trucks known as NAZ-A and NAZ-AA respectively. In 1933 Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky, after Maxim Gorky a writer who was born in the city and Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod was renamed Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod shortened to GAZ.
Gorky, the city, was renamed Nizhny Novgorod in 1990 but the vehicle manufacturer retained the GAZ name.
The luxury M13 Chaika seen here was produced from 1959 to 1981, though the mechanical underpinnings remained in production until 1988 fitted with a marginally more modern body until 1988.
Styling of the Chaika drew heavily on the 1956 Mercury Montclair Phaeton with a potpourri of 1956 Cadillac Series 62 inspired features thrown in. With a 195 hp being transmitted from it's V8 engine via a copy of the push button operated Chrysler TorqueFlite transmission the Chaika, translates into 'gull', was capable of 99 mph.
Seems incredible in this day and age to even conceive the idea that such a luxury vehicle was not made for sale. All 3,100 examples of the Chaika made over a period of 22 years were added to motor pools and issued to top professionals, Communist Party officials, scientists, academics and VIP's. The KGB also ordered these vehicles in large numbers.
Despite being entitled to larger ZIL limousines the Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev is known to have expressed a preference for the GAZ M13 even having one kept at his dacha.
Three versions of the Chaika were manufactured most were M13 saloons, but for ceremonial purposes open a 4 dr M13b convertible was produced from 1961 to 1962. The estate / station wagon M13A Universal is the rarest Chaika produced in the 1960's primarily for use as ambulances and funeral cars.
At the time the Chaika was first in production the Soviet Union was leading the space race, a fact possibly not lost on the stylist responsible for the M13's tail light assembly....
though he may also have admired '56 Cadillac Series 62 for its attention to detail and copied the idea of routing the exhaust pipes through the rear bumper !
Thanks for joining me for today's motor pool edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at a handcrafted Lanchester. As they might say in Russia, Не забудьте вернуться сейчас!
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