Multi Purpose Vehicle - Volvo 240 Tørslanda

The Volvo 200 series launched in 1974 was a significant update of the 140 series which is outwardly easily identifiable by federal spec of railway sleeper like low impact bumpers that gave the vehicle all the style, despite the best efforts of Jan Wilsgard, of a house brick.



From 1974 - 1993 the 200 series came with a variety of straight 4 engines, some with turbo chargers, Peugeot Renault Volvo, PRV, aluminium V6's and straight 5 cylinder or 6 cylinder diesels sourced from the Volkswagen.



Over the 19 year production run there were numerous stylistic updates which softened the more extreme features of the early 200 series, it was never considered a particularly good looking car but it's robustness and average 19 year longevity did lend the 200 series a certain status cache somewhere between a Range Rover and a Mini Van, the latter which first appeared as the 200 series production was being wound up.



The 1993 Tørslanda special edition, named after the Swedish factory that built them, was a back to basics estate station wagon model, allegedly designed to cope with harsh Scandinavian winters.



It featured, by then already retro, manual mirrors, door locks and windows front & rear, plastic trim in place of chrome which fairs badly in snow, heated seats, power steering, full length body stripes and BBS style alloy wheels.



The 200 series estates / station wagons, which accounted for a third of the 2.8 million units produced in Sweden, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Italy and Malasia, were particularly popular with those needing a large cargo area, the 41 cubic feet cargo area could carry large pieces of furniture, cookers, fridges, washing machines or hay bales and was often supplied with a dealer fitted rear facing seats that could accommodate two small children. These cars are still popular with trades people in Europe today.



Whilst outright performance was rarely top of the list of a typical 200 series customers desires, Volvo did support the development of a turbocharged two door model that allowed Gianfranco Brancatelli and Thomas Lindström driving for the Eggenberger Motorsport team to share the 1985 European Touring Car Championship.


Thanks for joining me on this Tørslanda special edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope 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 !

1914 Indy Winner - Delage Y

Continuing this months series of blogs celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 today's photograph by Ed Arnaudin was taken in 1964 and shows the most famous of the Delage Y's which, in the hands of Rene Thomas, won the 4th running of the Indy 500 in 1914.



Designed by Arthur Michelat four Y models are thought to have been built between 1913 and 1914 at the Delage factory on Boulevard de Verdun in Courbevoie in NW Paris.

This one was fitted with a 113 hp, 4 cylinder 4.5 litre 275 cui motor, featuring 4 valves per cylinder, was connected to a 5 speed gearbox making it one of the most advanced racing cars of it's time.

In 1913 Paul Bablot drove the pictured vehicle to victory in the, latter of two, French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.

With support from British journalist in Paris WF Bradley, the Indianapolis 500 attracted the first foreign entries in 1913 which in 1914 included two Delage Y's, the 2nd Delage driven by Albert Guyot placed 3rd in the race.

Rene Thomas prior to winning the Indianapolis 500 at his first attempt is also known for surviving the worlds first mid air collision near Milan in 1910 after his Antoinette monoplane 'fell' onto the Farman biplane of Captain Bertram Dickson who was not so lucky.

Thomas went on to record a land speed record of 143 mph in 1924 at Arpajon south of Paris aboard another Delage. Amazingly after a full life of risk taking Rene Thomas died aged 89 in 1975.

The story goes that as this winning car was being loaded on to a ship to return to France it was purchased and ultimately remained in the USA. The car was later 'found' by Edgar L. Roy a founding member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America and restored by him prior to the car finding it's way to the IMS Hall of Fame Museum.

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin for sending me the scan of his Dad's photo and to E.B. of The Nostalgia Forum for identifying this vehicle.

I hope you have enjoyed today's 1914 edition of 'Getting a lil psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at a 1915 White Squadron Stutz. Don't for get to come back now !

Ferrari by David Bailey - Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS

Some of you who read my Rowdy blogs may remember a blog about the 2002 celebrity Prodrive Ferrari 550 Marranello GTS (03).



That chassis took part in at least 42 Races in the GT/GTS class for at least four different teams from 2002 to 2006 and had a host of celebrity drivers including,



Colin McRae World Rally Champion, British Touring Car Champions Rickard Rydell & Alain Menu, British, Luc Alphand former World Cup Skiing Champion and Dakar winner, David Brabham Japanese GT Champion and Le Mans winner 2009, Jan Magnussen Danish Touring Car Champion, Danica Patrick queen of IRL, Darren Manning IRL driver, Christophe Bouchut 1993 Le Mans Winner, and one of my former racing instructors Tim Sugden former British and Asia Pacific GT Champion.



Prodrive prepared a batch of 20 550 Maranello GTS's for racing in Europe and the States where they were regular winners in the GT/GTS class in 2001.



In 2003 today's #88 550 Maranello GTS Chassis ZFFZR49B000108462, the 6th of the 20 Prodrive built, was driven by Thomas Enge, Jamie Davies and Peter Kox,



with around 750hp coming from it's V12 engine,



beat the Corvettes by 10 laps at the Le Mans 24 hour race winning the GTS class coming home 10th overall.



This vehicle entered exclusively by the Prodrive team is known to have run in at least 9 races in 2003 in all bar one carrying the #88, this chassis carried the #08 in it's last known final at Petite Le Mans.



When the effervescent Jackie Irwin, who has petrol running through her veins, told us on my recent visit to the Prodrive factory we were allowed to sit in some of the vehicles parked in the display area like a 12 year old I headed straight for the 550 Maranello,



the experience of sitting in this fabulous car was an odd mixture of agony and ecstasy, the seat was made for someone with hips the size of a 12 year old, yet at the same time the purposefulness of every last detail inside the vehicle sent my mind straight to Le Mans, by some strange fate I also found my self posing for this photograph taken by David Bailey , I am sure Twiggy would have felt far more comfortable in the seat, but then I doubt she would ever find herself posing for David Bailey of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club.

My thanks to David Bailey, everyone at the Bristol Pegasus MC and Prodrive who made my visit such an interesting day out.

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

What to do if your Mini Cooper S isn't fast enough ? The Castle Combe variations.

Although designed as a motorised shopping basket on wheels the Mini platform provided incredible handling characteristics and soon became the target of highly respected performance companies, none more so than John Cooper who's cars Jack Brabham had taken to successive Formula One Championships in 1959/60.



John Cooper was friends with Mini designer Alex Issigonis but still had to go behind his back to appeal to the BMC management direct inorder to get the go ahead to develop the Mini Cooper into an extremely popular performance model. It was also extremely competitive winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 '65 & '67 and was famously disqualified after winning in 1966!



Budding entrepreneur and custom car aficionado Geoff Thomas thought he could improve the Mini Copper S by producing a lighter Mini Cooper variant with a seemless body 3 inches shorter than the original.

One day in 1965 Geoff was at Castle Combe Circuit and met fellow racer Neville Trickett who prepared his own lightweight Mini racer with extensive engine modifications, impressed with the quality of Neville's work Geoff discussed his idea for manufacturing the Minisprint and after a 'ridiculously brief discussion' Neville agreed to work for Geoff and the production of Minisprints began eventually settling at Rob Walkers Garage Nr Warminster, Wiltshire.

The model shown above is registered in France, and might possibly, with the emphasis on possibly, belong to Normandy resident Neville Trickett himself ? Notice this vehicle is fitted with highly unusual triple screen wipers.

I am not sure where the square headlights idea came from nor where they were sourced ? They were not part of the original spec, but seem to have been introduced before production of Mini Sprints moved from Wiltshire to Stewart & Arden in London.




Like Cooper, ERA came form a racing background, primarily known for it's pre WW2 voiturettes powered 1.5 litre 91 CUI supercharged Riley 6 based engines. By the late 1980's ERA were primarily engaged as consultants to the motor industry.

In 1989 The ERA Mini Turbo, ERA type M (?) was conceived as a replacement for the Mini Cooper S which was out of production between 1971 and 1990. The interior of the car featured unparalleled levels of refinement including Connelly hide seats.



The fastest ever production Mini ERA Turbo used a 1300cc /79 cui Mini Metro Turbo engine capable of being serviced at regular Austin Rover Mini dealers. The suspension and brakes were also upgraded using many parts from the Metro, surprisingly the cars handling characteristics were first tested and tuned at Castle Combe prior to going into production.

Finally I'd like to welcome all new readers to this blog who are now coming from UK, USA, Canada, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Croatia, Saint Kitts and Nevis (!) and Sweden.

Wishing you all a fabulous day where ever you are, 'don't forget to come back now ! Hear !'