Forgotten Marque #1 - Warwick 350GT

It's not everyday I stumble upon a vehicle manufacturer I have never heard of but at last weekends Race Retro I came across two such manufacturers the first the subject of today's blog is Warwick.



The origins of the Warwick lie in Peerless Cars Ltd founded by John Gordon and James Byrnes, Peerless built approximately 325 fiberglass vehicles with tubular space frames designed by Bernie Rodger around Triumph TR3 running gear. A Peerless GT Coupe driven by Peter Jopp and Percy Crabb finished 16th in the 1958 Le Mans 24 hour race.



Peerless Cars Ltd failed in 1960 and Bernie Rodger upgraded his design with a stiffer chassis, one piece forward hingeing bonnet and marketed it under the Warwick name though the vehicles were actually built in Colnbrook, Berkshire. Around 40 Warwicks are thought to have been manufactured from 1960 to 1962.

Meantime Peerless founder John Gordon teamed up with Jim Keeble to carry on manufacturing vehicles based on the original Peerless chassis with Chevrolet motors and completely new bodywork designed by Guigiaro and built by Bertone marketed under the Gordon - Keeble brand.



In 1961 Warwick manufactured two prototypes with all aluminium 3.5 litre / 215 cui Buick (BOP) 215 engines, the four tail pipes on this vehicle are evidence that this is one of those two prototypes.

The Warwick appeared at Race Retro on the Central Scanning stand, a company that specialises in scanning old parts so that they can be reverse engineered, thus making it theoretically possible to remanufacture almost any part for any vehicle that has ever been built so long as an original copy exists to be scanned.

I hope you have enjoyed today's Forgotten Marque edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow for another forgotten marque. Don't forget to come back now !

05/09/11 Looking into the name of this model I have come to realise it is properly called a Warwick 350GT not 305GT as originally published. Apologies for any confusion.

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 !

Classic Expo - Race Retro, Stoneleigh, Coventry 1/2

A couple of weeks ago Tim Murray, Secretary of the Pegasus Motor Club, kindly invited me to join the club for a trip to Race Retro held at the Stoneleigh Park Exhibition and Conference Centre near Coventry, UK.



Here is an oversight of some of the details I saw in a hand full of the 500 plus photo's I took, I'd filled up my phone with images just getting from the Centre's car park to the Exhibition Hall !



Amongst the many celebrations at Race Retro was a celebration of the achievements of the Italian tuning house Abarth.



On the Minibus on the way up to Stoneleigh I found myself sitting next to the legendary classic slingshot drag racer Chris Hartnell whose infectious enthusiasm was all I needed to commit myself to going to a Drag event this season !

This is the view from Adz Prices 'Go Hard or Go Home' known, I believe, as an Altered, the car features a Topolino body and a 360 Mopar with Weland Tunnel Ram. Drag lingo is something I am going to have learn fast. I hope to come back to this vehicle with a full blog in the near future.



It's the 50th Anniversary since the launch of the iconic E-Type Jaguar. I'll be back with a few E-Type blogs to celebrate in the fullness of time.



Amongst the many Jaguars and Jaguar replica's on display was this fabulous XJR15 a model I had not seen in the flesh before.



There was an awesome display of rallying Lancia's including this Group B Delta S4 which was the highest evolution of rally cars ever devised, this particular all wheel drive car had a mid mounted engine that was both turbocharged AND supercharged. It was my good fortune to see this very vehicle in action when it came second in the 1985 RAC Rally on it's debut driven by Markku Alén and Ilkka Kivimäki behind team mates Henri Toivonen and Neil Wilson. Another vehicle that will be the subject of a future blog.

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

Hope you have enjoyed the first half of my report on the Race Retro Exhibition and that you'll join me again tomorrow for part two. Don't forget to come back now !

Who can it be now ? - Vauxhall VXR8

The Vauxhall VXR8 is a badge engineered HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) Clubsport built in Clayton, Victoria Australia.



HSV Clubsports, based on the then current Holden VE Commodore body, were sold as the CSV (Chevrolet Special Vehicles) CR8 in the Middle East and Pontiac G8 in the United States.



This model is fitted with a 425 hp 6162 cc / 376 cui LS3 engine.



A Bathurst option was available with a 530 hp supercharged version of the LS3.



Regular GALPOT readers might remember the HSV strap line from my blog on the HSV Maloo R8 runs ' I just want one !' which is equally applicable to this antipodean model I think you might agree.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Clayton, Victoria edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at some of the details from this weekends Race Retro exhibition at Stoneleigh. 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 !

Millionaire Mystery - Scuderia Parravano Pt 1 of 2.

Today we are looking at the strange case of west coast entrant Antonio Parravano and his team of Ferrari's which at it's height was possibly the equal of any on either coast though ultimately less enduring.

Antonio Parravano born in Italy in 1917 became a millionaire building contractor in Los Angeles and built a fabulous racing team of mostly but not exclusively Ferrari's including three vehicles seen here in a photograph by Carlyle Blackwell.



Photo Carlyle Blackwell, Publised Courtesy Blackwell Archive, for sales enquiry's please e-mail infoATpsychoontyres.co.uk and your contact details will be forwarded to the Blackwell Archive.

From back to front the vehicles are a 750 Monza #0538 the subject of next weeks Ferrari Friday blog, a 121 LM #0484LM, and a 410S #0592CM.

As I said I will come back to the 750 Monza at the back next week. Starting with the 121 LM #0484 this car started life with the smaller 3.7 litre Ferrari straight six motor and was as such was originally designated a type 118 driven to victory lane by Pierro Taruffi in the Giro di Sicilia, a version of the Targa Florio race, in 1955.

Halfway through 1955 chassis #0484 was the only 118 to be upgraded 121 spec with a 4.4 litre straight six.

Parravano acquired the car in late 1955 and entered it for Carol Shelby in the Oulton Park International that August where Shelby recorded a DNF due to driver injury.

In 1957 Phil Hill drove #0484 to victory at Palm Springs in 1957, the car was also driven by well known open wheel legend Roger Ward under different ownership in 1959.

#0484 is thought to be the only one of the three original 118 chassis thought to have survived ironically of course with a 121 spec motor.

The car closest to camera is a 410 S built for the South American road races that got cancelled due to safety fears. Equiped with Ferrari the largest available 4900 cc / 299 cui V12 engine capable of delivering 380 hp in twin plug format. The vehicle seen here, not one of the two fitted with twin plug heads, was raced into victory lane by Carroll Shelby at Palm Springs in 1956.

Next week we will continue with the case of Antonio Parravano and his team much of which vanished in 1957.

My thanks to Carlyle Blackwell, Ed Arnaudin and his son Steve for respectively taking, purchasing and forwarding today's magnificent photograph and to GTO Freak, and Giotto at Ferrari Chat for their help identifying this weeks cars and the back ground on Tony Parravano.

I hope you have enjoyed today's triple wammy Ferrari Friday and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't for get to come back now !

28 07 12 PS My thanks to Pamela Blackwell who has kindly retrospectively given me permission to post the photo's her father took.

Lynley mystery - Bristol 410

The Bristol 410 was the fourth Bristol model to use the chassis architecture laid out for the 407 model.



Using the A block Chrysler engine now with a swept volume of 5211 cc / 318 cui for the last time before switching to the larger Chrysler B block for subsequent models the 410 marked a return to a floor mounted shift for the Torqueflight gearbox after US legislation had outlawed the previous push button system.



A Bristol 410 has two chrome strips running the length of the vehicle a feature unique to this Bristol model.



Fitted with ZF power steering as standard the 410 had a lower centre of gravity than the yet to be blogged 409 thanks to smaller 15" diameter wheels down from 16" on the previous model.

The 410 was the first Bristol fitted with separate front and rear brake circuits the servo's for which were housed between in a compartment between the front of the drivers door and the rear of the front wheel arch the top hinge of which can just be distinguished below the badge in the photo above.



Some of you may recognise this as the model that Inspector Lynley drives in some episodes of the television series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, mysteriously in the novels by Elizabeth George on which some of the episodes are based Lynley is actually described as driving a Bentley.



As ever exclusivity is the watch word for this manufacturer with just 79 Bristol 410's being built between 1968 and 1969.

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 for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !