GALPOT Weekly #09/13

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #09/13 a review of the last seven posts at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres". The week started with a look at a 2009 Dodge Pace Truck seen above at Talledega where it performed in the Spring Aaron's 499. Tuesday's post, the last in the present series of Tuesday MG posts, featured a Celebrity MG Metro Turbo that was raced by invited drivers in the 1989 ESSO Metro Challenge, the car is seen above at Oulton Park with British Touring Car racer Jerry Mahoney at the wheel. Among the may fascinating vehicles on display at this years Race Retro which was reviewed on Wednesday was this recreation of a steam powered 1905 White Sprint Car that is scheduled to appear at the Sywell Classic Pistons and Props event at the end of September. Thursdays blog returned to North Carolina where this Buick Regal Short Track Cup car was built by the legendary Banjo Matthews for Bobby Allison to drive in his 1983 Cup winning season. Ferrari Friday returned to Goodwood for a look at the car that was reputedly sold privately last year for more than twice as much as any car ever sold at auction, namely the US$ 35 million Ferrari 250 GTO chassis #3505 that won two Austrian GT championships for actor actor Gunther Philipp in 1963 and 1964. Yesterdays post looked at the Lotus Honda 99T of the type that Ayrton Senna drove to the last two Lotus Grand Prix victories in 1987 which helped Ayrton and Lotus third in the World Drivers and World Constructors championships respectively. Today's post feature another Formula One contender the Ensign Ford N173 with which designer Mo Nunn and driver Rikky von Opel made their Formula One debut at the 1973 French Grand Prix. Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #09/13 edition, I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the links provided and that you will join me again daily at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

AAA Champion - Stutz White Squadron Racer

Moving forward a year from yesterdays post today we are looking at this well known 1915 Stutz White Squadron Racer thanks to another photograph by Ed Arnaudin.



The Ideal Motor Company was founded in 1911 by Harry Stutz who entered a vehicle called a Stutz powered with a Wisconsin Motor in the very first Indianapolis 500 in 1911.

Despite having under gone no testing of any sort in preparation for the race Norwegian Gil Anderson started in tenth, qualifying was decided by the order in which the entries were received (!), and completed the full 200 laps in a creditable 11th, the first finisher not to receive any prize money. The entrepreneurial Stutz claimed the result a victory with the strap line 'the car that made good in a day'.

In 1912 Charlie Merz brought his Wisconsin powered Stutz home in 4th and in 1913 went one better with a 3rd place finish. For 1914 Barney Oldfield brought his Stutz home 5th in the '500' again using a Wisconsin engine.

Harry Stutz developed an engine based on the classic 115hp 1914 Mecedes Grand Prix car complete with single overhead cam and 4 valves per cylinder in 1915 and it is this type of vehicle we see in Ed's photograph taken in 1964.

This car was driven and later owned by White Squadron driver Earl Cooper who's story is no less fascinating than his cars. Nebrasken Earl got into racing by borrowing a customers Maxwell in 1904 after the proprietor of the Maxwell dealership Earl was working for refused to sponsor him.

Cooper won first time out beating his boss in the same race which earned him a victory garland and unemployment in the process. Earl decided to pursue racing and by 1912 formed a successful partnership with Stutz securing his first of three eventual AAA National Championships winning 5 out of 8 road races in 1913.

Sidelined for most of the 1914 season and a good part of the early 1915 season for some, as yet unknown to me, medical condition Earl came back strongly with a forth place at Indianapolis going on to win one of two events held at Elgin, IL and a 500 mile speedway race at Snelling MN to take his second championship aboard this particular Stutz.

After winning the war interrupted 1917 Championship Earl retired from full time racing in 1919 only to return in 1922 taking five wins in 1923. Cooper led much of the 1924 Indy 500 only for two separate punctures to force him to settle for a second place finish.

In May 1925 Cooper became the first man to lap Indianapolis at over 110 mph he started that race 4th but finished 17th after leading 4 laps and eventually crashing. Despite starting on pole for his final race at Indianapolis in 1926 Earl's car suffered transmission failure and by 1928 he had retired for good aged 42.

Earl became a team manager building Cooper front wheel drive racing cars, one of which competed at Indianapolis into the the 1940's. He also reacquired the car seen in this photograph in 1938, restored it and then donated it to the Collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles who appear to have loaned the car to the Petersen Museum in LA where it is mostly to be found on display.

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

Hope you have enjoyed this AAA Champions edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at the first of two very different Studebakers. Don't forget to come back now !

30% More Power - Bristol 411

The first blog I did on a Series 3 411 has been lost in the mists of Rowdy but a couple of photo's remain.



Today's model is a first series Bristol 411 built from 1969 to 1971 the first Bristol model to feature a big block B series 335 hp 6,277 cc / 383 cui motor with 30 % more horsepower than the previous model that gave this car a 140 + mph capability.



The original series 411 models featured slightly enlarged windscreens than the 410 an almost imperceptible difference that can be seen in this photo of a 411 in the foreground and 410 to the left of the photograph.



Sir George White one of the three Directors in Bristol Cars in 1969 suffered serious head injuries in a road accident in September 1969 so it was left to his partner Tony Crook to take over the reins at Bristol in Sir George's absence a process that ended with Tony buying his partner out in 1973.



To help feed all that power to the road the rear axle was fitted with a limited slip differential (LSD) that allows some difference in angular velocity of the output shafts as long as there is some traction available on at least one of the wheels.

With thanks to the PistonHead who kindly brought this car to the recent Sunday Service at the BMW Plant at Cowley and to Cristopher Balfour who's book 'Bristol Cars a very British story' provided many of the insights in today's blog.

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

Going it alone - Bristol 407

Just 88 Bristol 407's were built between 1961 and 1963.

The 407 was the first Bristol model launched after ownership of the Bristol Car Company had been taken over by the Bristol Aeroplane Company founders grandson Sir George White 3rd Bt in partnership with Bristol's preeminent retailer Tony Crook in September 1960.

The exterior of the Bristol 407 is distinguished from its predecessor the 406, which I have yet to write a blog about, by a horizontal bar across the radiator grill at the front and twin exhaust pipes at the rear.

Underneath the car could not be more different, the 407 is powered by a Canadian built 5130 cc / 313 cui Chrysler V8 connected to a push button operated Torqueflight transmission, a combination which first came to the attention of of Sir Reginald Verdon Smith the Bristol Aeroplane Company director in the 1950's on a private visit to Canada.

Bristol attempted to develop it's own aluminium block V8 in the 1950's but, insufficient experience casting aluminium and lack of capital thanks to the spiralling cost of aircraft development elsewhere in the Bristol group of companies meant that the V8 never got beyond an underdeveloped prototype stage at which crankshaft main bearing housing distortion presented an obstacle to production.

Changing to the Canadian V8 from the hitherto BMW inspired straight 6 necessitated replacing the former transverse leaf front suspension with a pair of coil springs and replacing the highly praised rack and pinion steering with Marles worm driven steering.

The chassis was fitted with Dunlop disc brakes all round and the aluminium body production was moved from Jones Brothers to Park Royal Vehicles in London.

The 407 chassis set out the basic architectural features for all Bristol's with many incremental modifications right through to the introduction of the Bristol Fighter in 2004.

This particular model photographed at a Loton Park VSCC meeting is registered in Sweden, notice that it is a Right Hand Drive model, Sweden switched to Left Hand Drive in September 1967 to bring it into line with it's Scandinavian neighbours.

My thanks to Christopher Balfour who's book 'Bristol Cars a very British story' provided many of the insights in today's blog.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Marles worm driven steering edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres and that you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at the even rarer Bristol 410. Don't forget to come back now !

Bristol disambiguation - Bristol RE & Bristol 400.

I received an e-mail form Hans in Oldenburg asking if there is any connection between the Bristol Car Company and Bristol Commercial Vehicles to which the answer in German is 'jaein', yes and no.



In 1874 George White, born in Kingsdown, Bristol, round the corner from where yours truly lives, was working for a firm of solicitors responsible for the promotion of the Bristol Tramways Company and became involved with the Imperial Tramways Company operating across parts of England and London United Tramways operating in West London.



These horse drawn tram operators were merged in 1887 into the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company of which George White was Managing Director. By 1900 he had been promoted to Chairman of the BT&CC. BT&CC started building vehicles, initially with chassis from Filton fitted with bodies from it's Brislington works in 1908 after the Thorneycrofts and FIATs it had been operating were found to be too unreliable.



Bristol Commercial Vehicles, based wholly in Brislington, was separated from the bus operating company Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company in 1955. This 1969/70 Bristol RE (Rear Engine), with bodywork by Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft, was the most successful first generation rear engined bus, production started in 1962 and continued until 1982 though in it's last years it was only supplied to customers in Northern Ireland and New Zealand after being absorbed by British Leyland in 1972.



After witnessing a flight by Wilbur Wright in France in 1909 the now titled Sir George White Bt (Baronet, 6th division of aristocracy below Lords above all but two levels of Knights, a hereditary title issued to commoners of wealth originally but public service latterly) founded the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1910 for commercial aircraft production.



The Bristol Car Company was born out of the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1947 under the leadership of Sir George White Bt's grandson George Stanley Midelton White although the cars were marketed for several years as being made by the Bristol Aeroplane Company run by his father Sir George Stanley White, Bt.



So the two companies manufacturing vehicles bearing the 'Bristol' name are connected through the White family but not through any commercial or technical arrangements, of course the Bristol Car Company is the only one that survives. The blue car in the photo's is one of the 487 Bristol '400' models made between 1947 and 1950.

Thanks for joining me on today's commercial disambiguation edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you'll join me for tomorrow's Bristol Blue, edition. Don't forget to come back now !