Last of the line - ERA R14B

English Racing Automobiles was founded by driver Raymond Mays engine designer Peter Berthon and financier Humphrey Cook in 1933 to manufacture racing cars capable of upholding British prestige in Continental European races.



Without the financial or engineering resources made available to Mercedes Benz and Auto Union in top flight Grand Prix races, ERA focused their efforts one step down, in the GP2 or Indy Lights of its day known as voiturette racing for vehicles with supercharged motors from 1.1 litres / 67 cui to 2 litres / 122 cui.



The ERA engines came in three sizes and were based on a 6 cylinder Riley production block with a stronger crankshaft and entirely new aluminium cylinder head.



Chassis design was by Reid Railton and the body work was by George and Jack Cray to a design by a Mr Piercy who like Railton had been responsible for the design of Malcom Campbells land speed record breaking vehicle 'Bluebird'.



ERA R14B seen here is the 14th and final original 'sit up and beg' originally a pale blue vehicle built in 1938 with a 1.5 litre /91 cui Zoller supercharged engine for Johnnie Wakefield who won the 200 mile race at Brooklands and finished third in the 1938 Bern GP.



Bob Gerard acquired the car after WW2 and scored third and second place finishes at the British Grand Prix of 1948 and 1949, he continued to race the car successfully until 1956.



Current owner Donald Day purchased ERA R14B in 1958 and has raced it with a 2 litre / 122 cui motor in place of it's original 1.5 litre 91 cui unit. In 1990 14B appeared for the first time in British Racing Green.



This same vehicle was driven to victory in the pre 1959 Historic Grand Prix at Monaco by Julian Bronson in 2002.

All photo's bar the penultimate one from the September VSCC meet at Loton Park, the penultimate one was taken at the August VSCC meet at Prescott.

Thanks to David Hodgkinson for back ground information on ERA 14B.

Hope you have enjoyed todays British Racing Green edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', and will join me tomorrow for a look at a high flying special. Don't forget to come back now !

Win on Sunday sell on Monday - Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Lungo #2111022

Vehicle manufacturers love to see their vehicles win races on Sunday and then reap the rewards with sales on Monday. Now racing has become so sophisticated that what ever you see racing on Sunday bears very little relation to anything you can actually go and purchase on Monday.



When this Alfa Romeo 8C Lungo (long) was built winning on Sunday and selling on Monday was still possible.



Short wheel base chassis with the same supercharged 2336 cc / 142 cui straight 8 twin over head cam engines were used in the first of two consecutive Targa Florio victories and the first of four consecutive Le Mans victories in 1931.



8C 2300 vehicles were also driven to a one - two victory in the 1931 Italian GP which in those days was a just under a thousand mile race and took two drivers 10 hours to complete !



The straight 8 cylinder engine comprised two aluminium blocks of four cylinders each, the master work of Vittorio Jano, the Alfa Romeo Corse team was managed by Enzo Ferrari.



Thanks to an acquaintance Joerg from Chile on the Alfa BB forum this vehicle has been identified as one of just 188 8C 2300's built for road use, it took part in the 2008 version of the Mille Miglia run.

Hope you enjoyed todays win on Sunday sell on Monday edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres and that you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now!

La motte de beurre - Renault 4CV

Despite being ordered by the Germans to concentrate on the design and production of commercial vehicles for military use the design of the 4CV commenced under the instruction of Louis Renault while his factory was under occupation in 1940.



Renault called on his designers to 'make him a car like the Germans' - presumably Beetle - since the 4CV like the Beetle shares a rear engine layout.



In 1947 upon its launch the steering was direct the wheel requiring just 2 1/4 turns lock to lock however over the years this was criticised as being too difficult to handle in the wet, so by the end of production in 1961 a ridiculous 4 1/2 turns were required lock to lock.



The 4CV was the first French vehicle to break the million unit sales barrier, 4CV models were also produced in England, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, South Africa and in Japan where under the Hino brand these vehicles have a particularly good reputation for superior quality.



1950 the original water cooled in line four 747 cc / 45 cui engine was replaced by the 17 hp 760 cc / 60 cui 'Ventoux' engine which survived through various Renault guises until 1984 and then had its life extended through various Ford do Brazil incarnations until 1996 when the 4WD Ford do Brazil Pampla was phased out.



As fuel octane ratings rose and the compression ratio's of the engine increased power was raised to 21hp by the time 4CV production came to an end, Renault tuners such as Alpine managed higher outputs for their successful competition units.



The 'La motte de beurre' - the lump of butter - nickname derives from a combination of the cars shape and the fact that early models were painted with war surplus yellow paint originally intended for vehicles to be used by the Afrika Korps.

Hope you have enjoyed todays French edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres and will join me tomorrow for some vintage fun in the final run up to Christmas. Don't forget to come back now !

Under Austrian Influence - Aston Martin DB3S

Under Austrian Influence - Aston Martin DB3S #118

Its a great thrill to return to Ed Arnaudin's photo's from 20th July 1958 at Thompson CT thanks to his son Steve.



Today's vehicle is a thoroughly British Aston Martin DB3S, a lightweight version of the DB3 originally designed by Austrian Robert Eberan von Eberhorst, a pioneer in vehicle dynamics who's CV includes the design of the Auto Union D-type Silver Arrow, the Porsche project 356, which later became the Porsche 356 like the cabriolet in the background above, and the Jowett Jupiter while working for English Racing Automobiles. The DB3S was powered by a 163 horse power 2922 cc / 182 cui twin over head cam straight 6 fitted with three twin choke carburettors.



The vehicle seen here was driven into 7th place in the 7th race of the day at Thompson CT by Paul Hyatt who was doing double duty having finished last in race 6 driving his DB2-4.

I'd like to thank Ed Arnaudin for his wonderful photographs, Steve Arnaudin for sharing them with us and Terry O'Neil's Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950-1959 for the stats.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Aston Martin edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho' on tyres' and that you'll join me tomorrow for a closer look at a vehicle of the same type as the black one seen in the back ground of the photo above. Don't forget to come back now !

Edit

Thanks to Vince H the DB3S photographed by Ed has been identified as chassis #118 which can be seen being driven here by Chris Salyer at Laguna Seca in 2007.

Six Carb Standard - Ferrari 275 GTB/4 #10577

It's great to return to Ferrari Friday with a vehicle that resembles the entity that left the Ferrari factory.



The 275 GTB/4 was the penultimate of the '275 GT' vehicles Ferrari built between 1964 and 1968, at it's heart was a 3,286 cc / 200 cui V12 with 2 valves per cylinder but with twin cam heads to operate them, making 4 cams in all hence the /4 suffix. Fuel was fed through 6 carburettors as standard giving the engine a 300 horsepower rating.



Designed primarily as a road car, featuring cast magnesium wheels in place of the older wire wheels, the Scarglietti body work of the 275 GTB/4 could be powered up to 165 mph. Only 280 examples of this type were built.

Hope you have enjoyed your 165 mph Ferrari edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow to look at the Austrian influence on a very British sports car. Don't forget to come back now !

The Mini Challenger - Citroen DS3

The Citroen DS 3 launched in 2009 is the first of the 'Different Spirit' range and replaces the C2 models.



It competes in the market place against the Alfa Romeo MiTo, Audi A1 and MINi.




Top of the range DS 3's have 150 hp capable of 0-62.5 in 7.3 seconds with a top speed of 133 mph and 155 g/km CO 2 emissions.



It is award time of the year and this applies as much to motor vehicles as any other field of endeavour, in an act of unparalleled hubris Europe's top motoring magazine writers have managed to vote a vehicle called a 'Leaf' that is not yet for sale or on the roads as European Car Of the Year. For once, and this happens very rarely I am in agreement with Top Gear magazine which has handed it's gong for 2010 to the DS3 describing the car as 'The peoples champion'.



The DS 3 was launched to an unsuspecting British public with the first product placement in a video by a British recording artist. You can see this same view at 2 mins 31 secs in Pixie Lott's 'Broken Arrow' video.



For those like me who believe competition on or off the track is the best place to prove a vehicles worth, Citoren have kindly built seven, consecutive, time World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb from Alsace in France a 202 hp DS Racing version with which to defend his title, I expect the DS will remain in the public eye for a while yet.

Thanks for joining me, hope you'll join me tomorrow for Ferrari Friday, don't forget to come back now !

Prize Winning Brazilian - Avallone 11 #A1110 016

It's always a thrill to bring you the rare and unexpected and today thanks to Peter M in Switzerland it is a tremendous honour to share with you the photos and the story behind this 'Best Replica' prize winning Brazilian vehicle from the 1978 Geneva Motor Show.



In 1924 William Morris later Lord Nuffield, founder of Morris Cars and Cecil Kimber general manager of Morris Garages in Oxford (owned by William Morris) sold their 48th specially modified Morris Cowley 'Old Number One' with bodywork by Carbodies of Coventry with a special octagonal badge, thus launching MG Cars as a marque in it's own right.



In 1936 MG launched the successful 'T' range with the TA an attractive 50hp two seat sports car featuring a steel body on an ash frame. Production of the TB was interrupted by WW2 but it was not until 1955 with exports outnumbering home sales by more than 10 to 1 that production of the final incarnation of the 'T' range, the 63 horsepower TF 1500 with independent front suspension, was halted to make way for the MGA. Some cars when they go out of production are never heard of again but the MG TF has proved over 50 years since production ceased to be an inspiration of sturdier stuff.



After some market research in 1968 a small volume Italian manufacturer Siata, up until then best known for building 40 odd Crosley powered 300 BC Barchetta Sports cars, went in to production of a MGTF replica called the Siata Spring using the mechanical components of the rear engined FIAT 850 ! The Spring continued in production until 1970 when Siata failed and continued under the ORSA name until 1975.



In 1974 the Brazilian furniture manufacturer Lafer created a fibre glass TF based replica again with running gear from a rear engined vehicle the VW Fusca (Beetle to the rest of us) ! Some 4300 MP Lafers were built with 1,000 thought to have been exported over a 16 years production span.



A couple of years later Brazilian racing driver / racing impresario and hitherto racing car constructor Antonio Carlos Avallone put the feeble but fun efforts of both Siata/ORSA and Lafer to shame by constructing his Avallone 11 an MG TF replica with a Brazilian spec Chevrolet engine at the front and additional Chevrolet do Brazil mechanical running gear all round.



The fibre glass panels were so strong that Antonio used to delight in handing potential clients at his factory and at motor shows a large rubber mallet and invite them to do their best to inflict some damage to the body panels.



Unlike the Siata/ORSA Spring or PM Lafer the Antonio Carlos Avallone paid a huge amount of attention to the details of the TF and then replicating them on his Avalone 11 which included not only the instrumentation ...



but also the switch gear.



All of his dedication and hard work was rewarded when probably this very vehicle #A1110 016 was rewarded with the Best Replica Award at the 1978 Geneva Motor Show. An achievement recognised by MG with a letter of congratulation personally addressed to Antonio Carlos Avallone.



The intention of Swiss Importer Huber to introduce Avallone to the Swiss market some how got lost in the midst of time and this vehicle was found lying around in a building in 1982. With a lot of effort the previous owner managed to get the car legally registered for use on the road and drove it for some 20 years until he sold it to Peter M who informs me that the original steering wheel has been replaced with one of larger diameter, the original steel wheels have been replaced by larger wire wheels and that the original seats have been replaced with ones mounted lower in the cockpit.



Just as there seem to be a never ending stream of manufacturers making replica AC Cobra's and Porsche 356's so it is with replica MG TF other notable replica's include the Naylor 1700 of the mid 1980's and even today there is a company, TG, in new Zealand making TF kits using Maita MX5 running gear, yet none, so far as I am aware, of the other TF replica's have been awarded a prize at the Geneva Motor Show.

I'd like to thank Peter M for furnishing me with the details and photographs of his highly praised car.

Thank you for joining me on todays Brazilian edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at another award winning French vehicle.

23rd Jan 2011 PS I have a friend who is looking to purchase a Radiator Grille for another one of these Avallone 11 vehicles, if you can help anyway with either the supply or location of such an item please leave a message below or send me an e-mail which can be accessed through my personal profile page.

Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.

23 de janeiro de 2011 PS: Eu tenho um amigo que está olhando para comprar uma grade de radiador para outro desses 11 Avallone veículos, se puder ajudar de qualquer maneira com qualquer fonte ou localização de um item deste tipo, por favor deixe uma mensagem abaixo ou envie-me um e--mail que pode ser acessado através da minha página de perfil pessoal.

Agradecendo antecipadamente as suas respostas.