Showing posts with label Touring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Touring. Show all posts
Friday, 28 August 2015
Friday, 21 August 2015
Friday, 14 August 2015
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Who Said A Spider Couldn't Fly ? - Aston Martin DB2/4 Mark II Touring Spider AM/300/1161
The Aston Martin DB2/4 launched in 1953 was a 2+2 hatchback based on the Aston Martin DB2 dating back to 1950.
In 1953 David Brown the owner of the marque sent several bare chassis to a variety of Italian styling houses and coach builders and presented the finished cars at the great motor shows of the day where orders were taken for limited production runs.
The Mark II DB4/2 was launched in 1956 with a 140 hp 3 litre / 183 cui straight six motor. Three of these new chassis were sent to Carrozzeria Touring to have flamboyant Spider bodies designed by Signor Formenti fitted.
Formenti's design was a clean break from what had gone before with exceptionally clean lines for the period with unusual twin air scoops on the bonnet
and further air scoops ahead of the rear wheels.
Sales of the vehicle did not materialise as expected after the first car, seen here at the recent Silverstone Classic, was displayed at the 1956 Turin Motor Show and the second car had appeared at the Paris Motor Show.
After it's launch in Italy this particular vehicle was acquired by Associated Newspapers in London who ran a competition in the Daily Express in which the winner who could best sum up the drophead would take it home.
Mr Alexander Smith, entry "Who Said A Spider Couldn't Fly ?" was adjudged the winner, and took the, then left hand drive, car home.
AM/300/1161 remained in England and was converted to right hand drive while the two remaining examples were sold to customers in the United States where they remain to this day.
Although the first collaboration between Aston Martin and Carrozzeria Touring was not an immediate success the two companies worked together on a long line of vehicles that included the DB4/2's successors the DB4, DB5 and DB6.
Thanks for joining me on this twin air scoop edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !
In 1953 David Brown the owner of the marque sent several bare chassis to a variety of Italian styling houses and coach builders and presented the finished cars at the great motor shows of the day where orders were taken for limited production runs.
The Mark II DB4/2 was launched in 1956 with a 140 hp 3 litre / 183 cui straight six motor. Three of these new chassis were sent to Carrozzeria Touring to have flamboyant Spider bodies designed by Signor Formenti fitted.
Formenti's design was a clean break from what had gone before with exceptionally clean lines for the period with unusual twin air scoops on the bonnet
and further air scoops ahead of the rear wheels.
Sales of the vehicle did not materialise as expected after the first car, seen here at the recent Silverstone Classic, was displayed at the 1956 Turin Motor Show and the second car had appeared at the Paris Motor Show.
After it's launch in Italy this particular vehicle was acquired by Associated Newspapers in London who ran a competition in the Daily Express in which the winner who could best sum up the drophead would take it home.
Mr Alexander Smith, entry "Who Said A Spider Couldn't Fly ?" was adjudged the winner, and took the, then left hand drive, car home.
AM/300/1161 remained in England and was converted to right hand drive while the two remaining examples were sold to customers in the United States where they remain to this day.
Although the first collaboration between Aston Martin and Carrozzeria Touring was not an immediate success the two companies worked together on a long line of vehicles that included the DB4/2's successors the DB4, DB5 and DB6.
Thanks for joining me on this twin air scoop edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Bristol's big seller - Bristol 401
28 10 10 Erratum this blog was originally posted with pics I thought were of a Bristol 401 in good faith, however it has transpired thanks to Sinclairstinton & Geoffrey Hawkins at BOCForum@yahoogroups that the car pictured was in fact a Bristol 403.
Since the information posted on the 401 has proved useful and interesting to at least one Bristol owner I have decided to remove the original pictures from the text and write a new blog to cover the Bristol 403, and post new photo's of 401's kindly sourced from the archive of Teb Marius and taken by John Lomas. The original text remains with additions in italic :-
Source Teb Marius
Continuing the 100th anniversary of the Bristol aeroplane company todays vehicle is the Bristol 401, which took its styling direction from a prototype by Carrozzeria Touring in 1948. The big external change from the Bristol 400 was the addition of large side lights in the front wing and hidden door handles.
Source Teb Marius
Internally the BMW based 6 cylinder engine was upgraded from 80 to 85 hp with the use of improved carburettors.
Source Teb Marius
The 401 had a very low drag coefficient of the order of 0.36 comparable to many modern vehicles, which helped the vehicle reach 97.3 mph. Between 1948 and 1953 611 of these vehicles were built making it Bristol's all time best seller !
The model was so popular that in 1955 Mr. and Mrs. Glasby in a Bristol 401 with a total of 1497 points won class B of the second Ndola Rally in Northern Rhodesia now known as Zambia.
Note: Teb did offer some photos of 401's in concours condition however I am a huge fan of original patina and will always show vehicles on this blog with original patina over re sprayed vehicles where I have the choice.
Posted with kind permission of the copyright owner John Lomas.
As can be seen from the fabulous photo above the 401 (green closest to the camera) and 403 are almost indistinguishable if like me your not an expert, the 403 has a small chrome numeral badge to the rear of the bonnet, the bumper grill is chromed on the 403, there is a chrome numeral badge on the boot of the 403 and the roundel on the 403 Bristol badges are dark red as opposed to the orange on the 401.
Apologies for any confusion arising from my original post thanks to everyone who helped correct the error.
Thanks for popping by, wishing everyone a thriving Tuesday, don't forget to come back now !
Since the information posted on the 401 has proved useful and interesting to at least one Bristol owner I have decided to remove the original pictures from the text and write a new blog to cover the Bristol 403, and post new photo's of 401's kindly sourced from the archive of Teb Marius and taken by John Lomas. The original text remains with additions in italic :-
Source Teb Marius
Continuing the 100th anniversary of the Bristol aeroplane company todays vehicle is the Bristol 401, which took its styling direction from a prototype by Carrozzeria Touring in 1948. The big external change from the Bristol 400 was the addition of large side lights in the front wing and hidden door handles.
Source Teb Marius
Internally the BMW based 6 cylinder engine was upgraded from 80 to 85 hp with the use of improved carburettors.
Source Teb Marius
The 401 had a very low drag coefficient of the order of 0.36 comparable to many modern vehicles, which helped the vehicle reach 97.3 mph. Between 1948 and 1953 611 of these vehicles were built making it Bristol's all time best seller !
The model was so popular that in 1955 Mr. and Mrs. Glasby in a Bristol 401 with a total of 1497 points won class B of the second Ndola Rally in Northern Rhodesia now known as Zambia.
Note: Teb did offer some photos of 401's in concours condition however I am a huge fan of original patina and will always show vehicles on this blog with original patina over re sprayed vehicles where I have the choice.
Posted with kind permission of the copyright owner John Lomas.
As can be seen from the fabulous photo above the 401 (green closest to the camera) and 403 are almost indistinguishable if like me your not an expert, the 403 has a small chrome numeral badge to the rear of the bonnet, the bumper grill is chromed on the 403, there is a chrome numeral badge on the boot of the 403 and the roundel on the 403 Bristol badges are dark red as opposed to the orange on the 401.
Apologies for any confusion arising from my original post thanks to everyone who helped correct the error.
Thanks for popping by, wishing everyone a thriving Tuesday, don't forget to come back now !
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Column Shift Racer - Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint 2
This is an Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint Series 2 is powered by a 1975 cc / 120.5 cui 4 cylinder engine.
This particular carl featuring a 5 speed column shift was delivered on the 31st March 1954.
Vehicles of this type are known to have competed in events like the Targa Florio & Mille Miglia I am not sure if these vented rear window's were part of the original specification, but they would indicate this particular car might have a competition history, if you know anything about it leave a comment below.
The body work is made by Touring of Milan using their trade mark Superleggera ( Super light) Duraluminim construction technique featuring a light steel frame covered in aluminium panels. Anyone who has seen Goldfinger might remember James Bond telling one of his molls about his 'Aston Martin DB5 Superleggera'.
in that fabulous Scottish brogue. Aston Martin bought a licence from touring to use the technique.
The construction technique has one major flaw other than being very expensive, steel and aluminium when they come into contact suffer galvanic corrosion, which is why aluminium alloy wheels corrode the steel in the brake dust reacts with the aluminium, a similar problem occurs with aluminium license plates and steel screws. Allegedly Bristol Cars with their experience in the aircraft industry are the only manufacturer to have satisfactorily minimised the problem by using a special paste.
The sunken rear lights on this car look particularly fetching though the heavy duty steel bumper rather spoils the effect IMHO.
Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend, don't forget to come back now !
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