Purring Panther - Alfa Romeo Giulia Super

The Alfa Romeo Giulia also known as the 105 series was in production from 1962 - 1978, I first heard the distinctive sound of the twin cam Super model in Cyprus in the mid 1960's.



This 1971 vehicle is powered by a 97 hp twin carburettor 1,570cc / 95 cui engine that gave the car sports car performance in a saloon car shell. In 1965 the Giulia Super received much of the technology from the 1963 Giulia Ti Super racing programme.



This crest featuring a serpent eating or regurgitating a human known as a Biscione has been an emblem of the Visconti family for a thousand years and used in the crest belonging to the ruling Sforza family of Milan for over 600 years. It's exact origins are unknown but thought to be either from the legends of Theoderic the Great or alternatively from the biblical story of the Leviathan and Jonah.



Film buffs will remember that a number of Italian Police Giulia's, known as Panthers, were out run in the original version of 'The Italian Job'.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Biscione edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me tomorrow for a look at two Alfa Romeo's with bodywork that exudes all the hallmarks and subtlety of a back street speed shop. Don't forget to come back now !

Patina with well travelled history - Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Super Sport, #0312961

My thanks to every one at the Alfabb forum who made today's post on this 1929 Alfa Romeo possible.




The 6C 1750 was in production from 1929 to 1933 with 369 examples built. The Super Sport came in normally aspirated 64 hp or supercharged 85 hp variants.

The 1929 chassis number #0312961 seen here was originally supplied as a double overhead cam normally aspirated model, after it was successfully used in competition it was returned to the Alfa Romeo factory in 1932 and upgraded with a supercharger and replacement crank case.

The body is unusual for the type having an ash frame with steel panels rather than the steel frame with aluminium panels preferred by Zagato.

After it's initial foray in competition this vehicles adventures continued with a fire department in Ivera, Aosta near Turin. Somewhere around 1939 the vehicle turned up in Eritrea, then an Italian colony where many other vintage Alfa Romeo's including this one are known to have been used for racing, there is a possibility that during one race #0312961 may have been in collision with a donkey while leading a handicap race in Asmara, Eritrea in 1943.

In 1947 the car was acquired by a British Captain serving with the victorious occupying forces in the former Italian African colony and he imported it to the UK in 1950.

After several more changes of ownership being painted blue, then red again and an engine rebuild the car was sold to an American in Zurich in 1959 who returned with #03122961 to Ohio in 1962. The car was sold to it's present owner Nick Benwell in 2009 who then set about completing a rebuild that had started in Ohio in the 1960's.

Nick is a great fan of original patina and as can be seen he has left the bodywork more or less as he found it. With the restoration complete Nick took his car on a 2,100 mile round trip to the Alfa Centenary celebrations last year where the car was waved past 400 other Alfa's and honoured with being the first to pass through the Arese Factory gates as the oldest vehicle present.

My thanks to everyone at Alfabb.com 'Help Identifying Vintage Alfa's at Prescott ?' thread who provided clues as to which car KYR 564 is including, Odin, Orouge and Duncan Macnab who kindly showed me a copy of Simon Moore's excellent 2 part feature on this vehicle which appeared in 'The Automobile' August 2010.

Hope you have enjoyed today's journey across 5 countries on three continents and that you will join me for a look at an Alfa Romeo Giulia Super. Don't forget to come back now !

Rise and Fall - Euclid R210

It's always a thrill to bring you something remarkable here on Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres and today's humungous story comes courtesy of Gray Chandler with whom I became acquainted on The Nostalgia Forum a couple of weeks ago.



Gray from Adelaide, Australia, spent 14 years working as a heavy equipment fitter looking after 60 plus Euclid R105 mining trucks, each with a 100 ton carrying capacity, on the open cast copper mines on the then troubled tropical Bougainville Island between Papua New Guinea and the Soloman Islands north east of Australia on the South Western Pacific rim.

Gray informs me that it was possible to execute a 360 degree spin in an R105... if it was empty !



One day in the early 1970's a new $500,000 piece of kit arrived for testing and evaluation the Euclid R210.



It was carefully assembled with a crane to lift the heavier parts into place...



... the biggest crane on the Island was on the back of this 4 axle chassis. Euclid the Greek mathematician would have surely been impressed with the geometry.



The completed Euclid R210, which dwarfed the hitherto ubiquitous R105, had an empty weight of 250,000 lbs. Power came courtesy of a 1,850 hp Avco-Lycoming gas turbine engine, running on jet fuel which was used to drive a Euclid AC generator and AC/DC transformer which provided power for the DC wheel motors, the turbine and generator weighed 'only' 6000 lbs.



The R210 was soon put to work carrying 210 tons of material or 140 cubic yards at a 2:1 heap SAE.



The R210 met a premature end when the turbine 'flamed out' (self destructed) which immediately caused the generator to stop and thus the braking AND steering system to fail. The operator who gallantly stayed with his vehicle, I am not sure I would have jumped 12 feet to the ground either, became a passenger as 250,000 lbs of rolling steel brushed a puny Euclid R105 aside like a match stick, after crushing first a 3 axle CAT 14e road grader and then a 3 axle Isuzu cherry picker the R210's wheels were sufficiently fouled for it to come to rest.



Amazingly everyone involved managed to get out of the way and no one was hurt.

The mining company tried to hush the story up but our man Gray seen here in front of the Euclid R210 managed to get some photo's anyway.

Despite it's tropical paradise location Borurganville Islanders were fighting for their independence from Papua New Guinea at the time something that was not achieved until 1997. Anyone like me interested in mining communities in the 1970's will be interested to follow this link to a website which gives a fascinating insight to life in the Bougainville Copper Mining community.

I am sure you will all join me in thanking Gray Chandler for today's outsize story and photo's along with Dave Webster who took the three photo's of the Euclid R210's construction.

Hope you have enjoyed today's trip to a tropical paradise and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Holy Terraplanes ! - Triumph Dolomite 14/65

After Donald Healey was invalided out of the Royal Flying Corps at 18 he took a correspondence course in automobile engineering and then opened a garage in his home town Perranporth, Cornwall, upon the cessation of hostilities at the end of WW1.



In the early thirties his reputation as a consultant engineer and designer led to an appointment at the Triumph Motor Company where he was responsible for Triumphs new vehicles including the Dolomite launched in 1936.



The design of the radiator grill of the Dolomite 14/65 appears to have been influenced by the contemporary US gangsters automobile of choice the Hudson Terraplane, as was, to a lesser extent, the grill on Healey's post WW2 Healey Elliot and to a lesser extent still the grills on early four cylinder Austin Healey 100's.



It is believed that 33 Dolomite 14/65 roadsters with a twin carburettor 13 hp 4 cylinder motor were built and this 1938 example driven by Derry Aust is one of 13 known to have survived.

Hope you have enjoyed today's waterfall grill edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres', and I hope that you'll join me tomorrow on a tropical island paradise in the Pacific to see what happens when the brakes fail on an 1850 hp jet powered vehicle weighing 250,000 lbs (two hundred and fifty thousand pounds). Don't forget to come back now !

PS I'd like to thank Tim Fulcher who got back to me about the identity of the driver of last weeks Jaguar XK 140 in Northern Rhodesia, turns out the name of the gentleman driving the car is Ken Livingstone. Thanks again Tim :-)

Sister doing it for her self - OSCA Tipo S-187

Today we return to Lime Rock in 1959 courtesy of Ed Arnaudin for a look at this OSCA Tipo S-187 belonging to Briggs Cunningham.



Officine Specializzate Costruzioni Automobili - Fratelli Maserati SpA was set up by the three racing mad Maserati brothers Ernesto, Ettore and Bindo after their involvement with the company bearing their own name had concluded with it's sale to Adolfo Orsi in 1937 and the expiry of their subsequent 10 year consulting contracts in 1947.

The brothers focused on building extremely successful sports cars primarily with engines of 750 cc / 45 cui to 1500 cc / 91.5 cui. Cunningham's car seen here appears to be one of 17 Tipo S-187's built from 1956 - 1960 with a 70 hp 749 cc / 45 cui twin cam engine with a, for the time, high 9:1 compression ratio.



The real story behind the #23 OSCA on this day in 1959 however is the driver who took the car to victory lane, one D McCluggage from Kansas, who is well known for breaking down discriminating and prejudicial barriers in journalism and at the race track, simply D stands for Denise.

As well as regularly whooping all the boys on the race track she is a seasoned motor sports journalist who was famously sent to Indianapolis by The Herald Tribune only to find she was barred from the press box, pit lane AND garage area, unperturbed she got her story from elsewhere round the track and published anyway.

Phil Hill later described the prevailing attitude at the time "It's a bit embarrassing to me, given today's enlightened attitudes, to admit that in the late 50s I was a bit disturbed by the idea of this woman driver. It wasn't a matter of feeling threatened, but like many men in that period, I had trouble understanding what kind of statement Denise might be making with her driving efforts. The fact is, gender stereotypes aside, she was holding her own on the track."

All Denise wanted to do was win and she did often, after her career as a professional driver was over she became a founding light at AutoWeek where her accomplishments are still scene as an example for others to follow.

Denise recently became the only Journalist to ever be inducted into the Automotive Hall of fame and at over 70 she still writes her 'Drive, She Said' column syndicated in over 90 newspapers across the US and Canada.

Hat's off to Denise gentleman, for waking us up to our equals !

Thanks to Steve and Ed Arnaudin for the photograph, and to Terry O'Neil for the race day information.

Hope you have enjoyed today's prejudice free edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me tomorrow for a look at a splendid vintage Triumph Dolomite. Don't forget to come back now !

Not available in the USA - Ferrari 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer !

Friday time for some more Marranello V12 vibes.



Just 387 Ferrari 365 GT4 BB's were made from 1973 to 1976 with the model continuing in production first in 512BB and then 512 BBi guise until 1984.



Designed to replace the front engine Daytona and rival the technically more complex Lambourghini Muira with its transverse V12 mounted behind the driver, the 365 GT4 BB features a 180 degree V12 developed from the 60 degree V12 Daytona, not a boxer as the model name would suggest, mounted longitudinally behind the driver.



None of the 365 GT4 BB's were originally sold in America by Ferrari as Enzo would not sanction the cost of federalisation, though a few are now in US ownership.



With it's 344 prancing horses pulling at maximum capacity it is thought the 365 GT4 BB was capable of over 185 mph.

Hope you have enjoyed today's 70's edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow for some 1950's Girl Power and an OSCA. Don't forget to come back now !

Carroll's Cat faster than a 250 F - Lister Jaguar BHL 128

Moving on 20 years from yesterdays blog but staying with the Lister Jaguar cars of the late 50's, this one has a proud boast thanks Bobby Bell who is seen here standing in the fire suit, behind the car, at the British Grand Prix meeting where he was competing in the Lloyds & Scottish championship.

Bobby Bell, who kindly shared the details about today's story is one half of Bell & Covill purveyors of fine, approximately 25,000 at last count, motor cars which have been sold to customers from Twickenham to Tobago.

One might imagine from the BRG and yellow paint job that this vehicle had been raced by Archie Scott Brown to some of the many Lister Jaguar victories, however it transpires that nothing could be further from the truth.

According to Doug Nye's 2nd edition, reasonably priced, 'Powered by Jaguar' the 1959 Lister Jaguar BHL 128 was originally supplied to Carroll Shelby Sports Cars Inc, Dallas Texas as a rolling chassis built to accept an American made body and Chevrolet V8 engine.

BHL 128 also known as 'the Boeing Car' is said to have been part of a Land Speed Record project with input from Boeing and master minded by John Fitch, Doug's research categorically states John Fitch the former Mercedes Driver and Safety Engineer had absolutely no involvement in such a project.

What ever the outcome of the Boeing project the vehicle has no identifiable 'in period' racing history and was recovered to England around 1969 and acquired by Peter Sargent around 1970. Between 1970 and the mid 70's BHL 128 was fitted with both a 3.8 / 231 cui XK Jaguar motor and a, retrospective, 1958 low frontal area 'Knobbly' body in preference to the historically more accurate, but less successful, 1959 Costin body.

Bobby tells me that he acquired BHL 128 in the mid 70's and raced it to many historic race victories and a Lloyds & Scottish Championship.

However one of his favourite memories was the day he put BHL 128 on pole for the 1978 historic race at Le Mans, with a time that would easily have qualified for the 24 hours race proper, ahead of Stirling Moss and Willie Green one of the best if not the best historic racer of all time.

Bobby tells me that on that day BHL 128 was fitted with a 2.9 high ratio back axle which allowed him to hit approximately 175 mph on the 4 mile Mulsanne straight at 6000 rpm.

Both Willie Green in his D-type Jaguar and Moss driving a far superior handling open wheel Grand Prix Maserati 250 F made up ground on the Lister in the corners but could not keep pace with the Lister on La Sarthe's long straights.

Unfortunately on the third lap of the race, the crankshaft broke and as Bobby says, 'that was that'. Stirling might have added "Better to lose honorably in a British car than win in a foreign one", though if he did, it was not recorded on this particular occasion.

Bobby sold the car in the mid '80's and it has since undergone restoration and now belongs to a lucky Steven Gibbs.

My thanks to Bobby Bell for sharing today's story and to Doug Nye, David Mckinney, Belmondo, Dutchy, Julian Bronson, and Robert Barker at The Nostalgia Forum for additional comments going back to May last year.

Thanks for joining me for a week of Big Cat history, I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for everyone's favourite 'Ferrari Friday' when I'll be looking at one of a series of 387 Ferrari's none of which were sold as new in the United States. Don't forget to come back now !