Layout By Committee

Hardy Special III

4th Autumn Classic

Emergent Red Five

Williams Honda FW10

Tyre Contract For Sale

Spirit Cosworth 101D

Mavis

Packard Bentley

IR, FW or Apollon Fly

Williams Cosworth IR/03 / FW/03

Designed By An Accountant #1 - Lotus VI #34

In 1942 Peter Kirwan-Taylor was 12 when he returned to England after a temporary evacuation to North America. He accompanied his step father Charles Loraine Hill, a director of Lagonda Cars, on trips to visit Lagonda and Westland the aircraft manufacturer where his interest in design took hold.

After a military career, during which he was member of the British Sking team, Peter settled down to follow his fathers footsteps and trained as an accountant. On the April 13th 1954 in between his 3 nights a week studies Peter found time to purchase and build a new Lotus VI, chassis #34, and decided to design his own body for it.

He provided Williams & Pritchard with the drawings and a claymodel which featured a high crease line and because of the suspension set up when the body was mounted to the chassis the car accidentally had a futuristic wedge appearance due the forward sloping aspect of the crease line.

Peter raced the car several times and as his family and career in finance took off he sold PGP 182 after two years.



Brands Hatch Undated, #19 Lotus VI, body by Peter Kirwan-Taylor

Reproduced courtesy Ted Walker www.ferret1.co.uk

The exact details of the ownership of PGP 182 from 1956 to 1963 are not recorded however as can be seen on this link we do know Peter's car made an appearance at Silverstone in June 1957 in the hands of Tony Wilson-Spratt. (See postscript below)

Thomas Kikaldy owned PGP 182 from 1963 to 1969 and he removed the unique body and sold it to an Italian restaurant owner in London and it has not been seen in public since.

In 1983 Len Pritchard, who produced the panels for the original Lotus VI kits, fabricated new panels for PGP 182 in the style of original Lotus VI's with which the car, seen on this link 4th from right, is fitted today.

Peter Ross of the Historic Lotus Register informs me that the whereabouts of the drawings for Peter Kirwan Taylors bodywork are known and his one off body work could be recreated if some one desired.

As we shall see next Saturday Peter Kirwan-Taylor's friendship with Lotus founder Colin Chapman grew from the time he purchased PGP 182 and he would design another Lotus which made a larger mark on the Lotus Cars story.

My thanks to Paul Rochdale of The Nostalgia Forum for first identifying PGP 182 as a Lotus VI to Peter Ross from the Historic Lotus Register for details about Peter Kirwan-Taylor and PGP 182 and to Ted Walker aka Ferret Fotographics for permission to use today's photograph.

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

10/10/11 POSTSCRIPT. Peter Ross of the Historic Lotus Register has kindly sent a few comments about this blog it would appear the photograph in the link is of Tony Wilson-Spratt at the wheel and the photographer was Neville Bradshaw.

Peter also informs me that an article 'The Story of the Kirwan-Taylor bodied Lotus VI' appeared in the Historic Lotus magazine issue #64 which can be ordered through the HLR website linked here.

Awaiting TLC #3 - Lotus Mark 6

Third in my occasional series of blogs about cars in need of tender loving care is this uniquely ungainly looking Lotus Mark 6 seen earlier this year at the Silverstone Classic.



The Lotus Mark 6 was the first Lotus design to go into to production and it was sold in kit form saving purchasers a small fortune in new car taxes. The reason this particular vehicle is both unique and ungainly is because it is the only Lotus Mark 6 built as a mud plugging trials car requiring more ground clearance than either the road going or track racing versions.



The chassis with Williams & Pritchard built body was originally supplied to Mr Horace Sinclair Sweeney in 1953 at a cost of £110. Once Mr Sweeney had finished installing the engine and running gear he entered and won the London Motor Club's Annecy Spring Sporting Trial on the 7th of June 1953.



The motor is an Aquaplane tuned 1172 cc / 71.5 cui side valve E93A unit sourced from a Ford 10 built in the 1930's.



In 1954 Mr Arthur Hay acquired this Mark 6 and over the next ten years won three Motor Cycling Club (MCC) Triple awards for completing the Exeter, Lands End and Edinburgh trials unpenalised in three separate calendar years. Since then car has remained in the Hay family, but unused since 1964.



The current owner hopes to restore the car to working order and use it for sporting trials as originally intended by Mr Sweeney.

Thanks for joining me on this mud plugging edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at a Jensen. Don't forget to come back now !

Nissans Fairlady - Datsun 240 Z

BRDC are the initials of the British Racing Drivers Club and signify that the owner of this vehicle, well known rally and racing driver Barrie 'Whizzo' Williams, is a member.



The Datsun 240 Z, featuring styling cue's taken from the E-Type Jaguar, was in production from 1970 - 1973.



Unknown to me until I wrote this, in Japan 2 litre / 122 cui in line 6 cylinder versions of the 240 Z, known locally as the Nissan Fairlady Z, were available with single and double overhead cam options.



For the rest of us the 150 hp 2.393 cc / 146 cui single overhead cam six cylinder is the more familiar motor. This vehicle is easily identified as a second series model by the Z in the circle on the C pillar.



Amazingly in 1971 and 1973 Datsun 240 Z's driven by Edgar Hermann and Shekhar Mehta respectively won the gruelling East African Safari Rally proving this was no flimsy boulevard cruiser.



In 1996 Nissan launched a programme to buy 240 Z's back and restore them to factory specifications and sold them for $24,000.

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

Grand Prix City - Donington Park Museum

(Ayrton Senna & Juan Manuel Fangio)

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to drop in to the Donington Park Museum, home to the Donington Park Grand Prix Collection. Donington Park dates back to at least the Doomesday Book compiled in 1086 and is one of the longest established deer parks in the UK.



(1939 Auto Union Type D)

After serving as a Prisoner Of War camp for German officers in World War 1, a race track was built in 1931 for £12,000. The track played host to Grand Prix races featuring the Mercedes and Auto Union 'Silver Arrows' Grand Prix cars, Tazio Nuvolari driving an Auto Union during practice for the 1938 British Grand Prix fatally struck a stray deer.



(1942 Trippel SG 6)

During World War 2 Donington Park became home to 50,000 vehicles as the largest military transport depot in Europe. In 1971 local building magnate Tom Wheatcroft took over the Donington Park circuit and 8 years later racing was resumed after a nearly 40 year break. The highlight of the resumption of racing at Donington was almost certainly the 1993 European Grand Prix.



(1958 Vanwall VW9)

Tom Wheatcroft alongside his property developing business had a passion for racing, collecting vehicles associated with the circuits pre war history, vehicles used in WW2, during which Tom served in a tank regiment and British built Grand Prix cars.



(1973 March BMW 732)

He also sponsored and entered talented drivers, including Derek Bell, Richard Morgan and in particular Roger Williamson whom Wheatcroft financed in Formula 3 and 2 and an ill fated Grand Prix drive in which Roger met his untimely demise in a horrific accident during the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix.



(1970 McLaren Offy M15)

The Donington Park Museum houses the largest collection of McLaren



(1973 Williams - Ford FW 02)

and Williams vehicles outside of these two prestigious manufacturers own collections.



(1975 Hill - Ford GH2)

I spent several memorable hours going round the museum housing a veritable feast of some of the highs and low's of British Grand Prix endeavour. Situated just of the M1 near Nottingham, at just £8 a visit, I'll look forward to dropping in again when the opportunity next presents it's self.

Slightly off topic, wishing all GALPOT readers in the USA and US readers abroad Happy Independence day.

Thanks for dropping today's Donington Park edition of 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres' i hope you'll join me again tomorrow for a look an Independence day cruise in the UK. Don't forget to come back now !

Luton's Finest - Vauxhall HP Firenza 9F37REX111999

Like the recently featured South African Chevrolet Firenza Can Am the High Performance (HP) Firenza was a top of the range Viva HC Coupé model but built for the UK market and though intended to be produced in far larger numbers, 30,000 projected units, only 204 HP Firenza's were built along with a further 197 estate / station wagon variants.



The distinctive 'Droopsnoot' grp nose was restyled styled by Wayne Cherry and based on the nose of a well known Dealer Team Vauxhall Firenza raced by Gerry Marshall called 'Old Nail' that will it's self be the subject of a future GALPOT blog. The twined headlights are interchangeable with the Renault Alpine A310.

Under the unusual for the period aerodynamic nose was a 131 HP 2297 cc / 140 cui slanted 4 cylinder engine enough to power the HP Firenza with a drag co efficient of cd 0.4 from rest to 60 mph in 8 secs and to a top speed of 120 mph.



Though the paint work of this particular car built in 1975 is not the original 'Starlight Silver' this car carries similar decals to those carried by a small series of vehicles for a one off publicity race organised at Thruxton to launch the model, a race won by Barry 'Whizzo' Williams.

The HP Firenza was undoubtedly a styling triumph for Vauxhall yet the car was also an unmitigated marketing disaster thanks to the after effects of the '70's fuel crisis, though design elements of the nose did find their way into future Vauxhall products notably the Chevette and Cavalier which were in essence badge engineered Opel models.

Thanks for joining me on today's Droopsnoot edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at another performance saloon carrying a blue oval badge. Don't forget to come back now !

Added Warrington - CGA Engineering

Thanks to Tony 'Giraffe' Gallagher at The Nostalgia Forum I found myself going to Warrington with fellow TNFer and secretary of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Tim Murray. The purpose of the journey was to visit Colin Bennett and his sons who run CGA Engineering.

Colin who worked with Emerson Fittipaldi on a Brazilian excursion with the Lotus Formula 2 team in 1970 has run a huge variety of cars including March, Fittipaldi, Surtees, Williams and Ligier in a variety of British and European Series.



After a welcome which included tea and donuts Colin let half a dozen TNFers loose in his workshops to nose and poke around a mouth watering selection of vehicles, amongst the many demonstrations was how easy it would be to fire up an ex Schumacher 3 .5 litre / 213.5 cui Benetton 191 chassis #6 powered by a Ford HB engine, we were one click of a switch away from having our ears blown off !



At the opposite scale of the age range Colin was rebuilding a Lola T70 carrying the chassis plate SL76/143, there is something appealingly Romanesque about those knockoff wheel hubs.



Sitting outside the workshops was a Formula 2 spec March 71B chassis #71BM -08 painted at the behest of current owner Katsu Kubota in the colours carried by one of my hero's Ronnie Peterson who won the 1971 European Formula 2 Championship for open wheel 2 litre / 122 cui vehicles.



Back in 1976 I was extremely privileged to see this March 761 in action on a wet day of practice at the Nurburgring. The sight of this car driven by Ronnie Peterson in a series of controlled slides through a series of off camber blind apex corners is something I shall never forget. Ronnie qualified 11th and unfortunately was involved in a first lap accident.



I was at Le Mans in 1990 when this Nissan R90CK qualified 5th for the 24 hour classic unfortunately the car retired on the opening lap, like the March 71B and 761/6 today this car belongs to Katsu Kubota and is scheduled to appear at the Silverstone Classic meeting I blogged about yesterday.



The design details of the Williams FW06 by Patrick Head won much praise in 1978, although the car did not win any Grand Prix it marked the emergence of Williams Grand Prix Engineering into what would become a dominant force in Formula One in the 1980's and 1990's.

I shall look forward to bringing you more detailed blogs of some of these cars after I have seen them running in the weeks and months ahead.

My thanks to Tony, Colin and his sons for a memorable day.

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

Inspiration and Innovation - Prodrive Factory Visit

I was privileged to join fellow members of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club and Barrie 'Whizzo' Williams on a factory tour of the Prodrive Factory over the weekend.



David Richards a qualified chartered accountant and 1981 World Championship Winning Rally co-driver who started his business as a motor sport consultant in the middle east, says of his company that it's purpose is to 'inject excitement'.



That injection of excitement is backed with 25 years of Championship winning motor sports success that includes rallying



and racing ...



to the very highest levels including two spells in which David Richards ran teams in Formula One.



In 2006 Prodrive built a fully working concept car, but declined to put it into production,



After numerous successes running Aston Martin racing teams ...



David Richards led a consortium of investors in a $925 million take over of Aston Martin in 2007,



a company of which he is now the Chairman.

It was uplifting to see British engineering is alive and well in Banbury, Oxfordshire with a fascinating range of activity including the assembly of a range of competition vehicles, computer operated machining of a huge variety of items from solid blocks of material, and truly mind boggling assembly of competition spec wiring looms, if your into engineering and or motor sport the Prodrive tour run by the effervescent Jackie Irwin, who has petrol running through her veins, is an absolute must.

My thanks to everyone at the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club who organised the tour including Andy who kindly did the driving honours.

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

Austin Healey Sebring Sprite

The Austin Healey 'Sebring' Sprite name refers to any Austin Healey Sprite with front disc brakes and more recently to any Sprite with Coupé or Fastback bodywork.



Following a change in the sports car regulations in 1960 which allowed special bodies, rally and racing driver John Sprinzel commissioned Williams & Pritchard to build 6 aluminium bodied Sprites with coupé bodywork between Dec 1960 and May 1961.



This 1960 vehicle purchased new by Cyril Simson started life as a standard Austin Healey Sprite registered YLN13, Cyril changed the registration to S221 and raced it as part of Team 221 with two other sprites H221 and X221.



Paul Hawkins drove it to victory at Aintree and S221 was part of the Sprinzel Sprite Team that took team honours at the Nurburgring.



Originally powered by a 43 hp 948 cc / 57 cui motor this particular unit, prepared by Janspeed, was shown to be delivering over 85 hp at the recent Race Retro exhibition.



For 1961 the car was prepared by John Sprizel and it was one of the six Sprinzel cars sent to Williams & Pritchard to be fitted with a aluminium coupé body.



The car was then driven in practice by Stirling Moss for the Sebring 4 hours who promptly stripped the clutch and transferred to another team car after repairs were made Pat Moss & Paul Hawkins drove S221 in the four hour race. S221 was then prepared again overnight for Cyril and Paul Hawkins to drive in the Sebring 12 Hours where they came in 37th.



In August 1961 S221 was sold to Peter Clark and it was reregistered and rolled at the Karrussel on the Nurburgring. The car was repaired and an extended fast back body was fitted by Peel Coach works.

The longest term owner of this vehicle Colin Pearcy had Len Pritchard make a new alloy rear end and coupé top and most recent owner Chris Clegg reunited the car with its S221 registration and has driven it competitively for several years with Archers Motors taking care of the race preparation.

My thanks to Janspeed who facilitated the photo's of the engine and interior.

Hope you have enjoyed to days Sebring edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Classic Expo - Race Retro, Stoneleigh, Coventry 2/2.

Today I am concluding my overview of the Race Retro exhibition I started yesterday.



One of the things I loved about this exhibition was exhibitors enthusiasm to show visitors



what was under the bonnet of their exhibits.



Several exhibitors displayed their handy work and craftsmanship in the form of finished motors for display.



There was far more to see than my six hour visit would allow, I did not get a chance to look in any detail at the many motor cycles on display.



The event is best described as a mini Goodwood Festival of Speed,



slightly more intimate because of the smaller crowds but still like being a kid in a toy shop.

With thanks to Tim Murray and the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club without home this blog would not have been possible.

Hope you have enjoyed my overview of the Race Retro Exhibition and that you'll join me again tomorrow for for a look at the first of a couple of vehicle manufacturers I do not recall hearing of before visiting Race Retro. Don't forget to come back now !