GALPOT Weekly #21

Once again apologies for the late appearance of GALPOT Weekly #21 due to a few technical issues I have been experiencing on 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres'.



Week 21 started with a trip to Mercedes Benz World where a replica of the 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car, generally recognised as the worlds first car, is currently on display.



On Tuesday I had a look at the MG B Roadster driven by Brad Picard and Al Pease to a 32nd place finish in the 1965 Sebring 12 Hours, the car now appears with a droop snoot nose designed by Syd Evener that was used at Le Mans on this cars sister DRX 255C at Le Mans in 1965.



In order to properly celebrate Dale Glebe's Birthday Americana Thursday temporarily moved to Wednesday when I had a look at this 1973 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.



On Thursday I looked at the first incarnation of the homologated for competition version of the Salesmans Spaceship the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth.



The Ferrari 126 C2 featured on Friday, should have been a World Championship Winning car for Gilles Villeneuve in 1982 sadly a couple of weeks after a disagreement with his team mate Didier Pironi Gilles met his fate in one, and some months later Didier also had a career ending accident in the same model. However Ferrari did salvage the World Manufacturers Championship with Dr Harvey Postlethwaites finest design.



This Lotus Elan Coupé S/E ,above, featured on Saturday belongs to Bristol Pegasus Memebership Secretary Bob.



Sunday's story about the Mini Ridgeway Conversion came about thanks to Stephen White who originally posted the photo above on the 'I Love Farnham Surrey' facebook page.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #21 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #20

Apologies that week 20 of GALPOT Weekly is coming several weeks late but unfortunately I have been having a few 'issues' with the main 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' site
which have made unprecedented demands on my time. I am pleased to say most of these issues seem to have been resolved for the time being and over the next couple of days I hope to belatedly catch up with what should have been happening.



Week 20 was mostly about the Race Retro exhibition at Stoneliegh where amongst many anniversaries the 30th of the Porsche 956/962 series was celebrated.



On Tuesday I looked at the Mk 2 version of the MG-A 1600 with a more powerful 90 hp motor than it's predecessor.



On Wednesday I returned to Race Retro and found a 1974 Ford Capri RS3100 homologation special in the Silverstone Auctions display, it would appear the car failed to find a buyer.



For Americana Thursday I stayed in the Silverstone Auctions display and looked at this Ford Thunderbird complete with the Continental option package, the owner appears to have sustained a loss of some £11,000 as the car sold for £21,000.



For Ferrari Friday it was over to the Donington Collection for a look at this 1967 Ferrari 312 chassis #0007 driven by Chris Amon and Derek Bell.



On Saturday it was back to Race Retro for a look at this restored Lotus 31 Ford Formula 3 car which did not prove a match for it's competition but did prove to be a useful cheap to maintain open wheel training car for racing schools at Snetterton and Brands Hatch.



I rounded out the week with my fifth red car of the week a cute li'l Bertone X1/9 in Meica Red 908 which turns out to have it's origins in the Volvo paint pallet.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #20 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #19

Another riveting week at GALPOT featured a variety of vehicles including a '66 El Camino, a couple of formula one racers and a the Surprising Skoda.



The GALPOT week started with a look at this straight original '66 Chevrolet El Camino pick up billed as a pleasure to work with in contemporary Chevrolet sales literature.



The runaway export success that found a bit part in the Elvis Presley film Blue Hawaii MGA 1600 was Tuesdays GALPOT featured car.



Somewhat surprisingly contracted Ferrari driver Niki Lauda, who celebrated his Birthday on Wednesday, managed to also drive this Ford Capri RS3100 in 1974.



Wayne Graefen had been tracking this Terrahawk Special K Convertible for 25 years before he got the opportunity to acquire it and restore it a couple of years ago.



After winnig the World Championship in 1979 Jody Scheckter and Ferrari crashed to earth in 1980 with Scheckter scoring ust two points and Gilles Villeneuve seen above scoring just six points driving the Ferrari 312 T5.



A total of three cars were prepared to Formula One regulations fitted with the compact 3 litre / 183 cui Martin V8 like the one seen here, all three came to a fiery end, yesterday GALPOT featured a recreation of the Charles Lucas Lotus 35 Martin that Allan Rennie spent 5000 hours and a small fortune on rebuilding.



Today GALPOT features a couple of cheap and cheerful competition spec Skoda Esteele 130L's said by some to handle like Porsche's.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #19 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #18

Looking forward to going to Race Retro in a couple of weeks and restocking my library of photo's with new material despite the fact I have far from finished with all the photo's I took last year.



Last week started with a bit of Armless Fun in the form of a multiple Burn Out championship winning supercharged Ford P100 pick up.



For Valentines Day GALPOT towers went romantic with a look at this two seater MG 'TF' sports car.



My school friend Sven's Ford Capri 2.8i, which gave me my first hands on experience in motorsport as part of the pit crew, was the subject of Wednesdays blog.



The Chrysler 300 letter series represented some exclusive muscle, on Thursday I looked at this Elwood Engel designed Chrysler 300L.



Jody Scheckter won the 1979 World Drivers Championship in 1979 and Gilles Villeneuve came second securing the Constructors Championship in the Ferrari 312 T4's I looked at on Friday.



Photo Ed Arnaudin

Jim Clark qualified on poll for the ill feted 1964 Indianapolis 500 but suffered tyre failure after just 47 laps, Parnelli Jones, who still owns this quad cam Lotus Ford 34 which I looked at yesterday, bought it and came in second at the Indy 500 in 1965.



Today's blog is all about the game changing Honda NSX super car that raised the bar for future Ferrari and McLaren Super Cars in terms of handling, refinement, performance and price.

Coming up next week a '66 Chevrolet El Camino, and a Special K Convertible Terraplane with around 50,000 miles on the clock, don't miss all this and more at GALPOT !

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #17 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #17

Welcome to GALPOT Weekly #17 a review of events on the 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' blog.



Photo Courtesy Wayne Graefen

The GALPOT week started a story about the restoration of an unusual half ton Terraplane Six Cab Pickup Express which dates back to 1934 that was found by Wayne Graefen in McMinnville Portland Oregon back in the mid 1980's.



On Tuesday I looked at the story behind the MG Bellevue Special a vehicle that was built by Wilkie Wilkinson for hire to drivers wishing to pit their skills against the fearsome Brooklands race track in the 1930's.



Ford's Escort Mk II a collaboration between Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany code named Brenda was the subject of Wednesday's blog.



For Americana Thursday I stuck with the Blue Oval and went behind the scenes to find out what lay behind the development 2013 Ford Fusion Sprint Cup car.



On Ferrari Friday I continued the potted history of the Flat 12 Ferrari Grand Prix cars with a look at the Ferrari 312 T3 which Gilles Villeneuve drove to his first Grand Prix victory in Canada in 1978.



Continuing my potted history of Lotus, on Saturday I looked at the Group 7 unlimited sports car class Lotus 30 which despite it's good looks is generally not recognised to have been one of Colin Chapmans best idea's although it did win a few races in the capable hands of Jim Clark among others.



The 325 hp TVR 400SE is the subject of today's GALPOT blog the last in the line of TVR Wedges based on a design by Oliver Winterbottom well known for two wedge shaped Lotus designs.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #17 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #16

Welcome to GALPOT Weekley #16, this week my competition season kicked off with a navigation exercise.



Bob Bull kindly took me along, in his 'daughters' supercharged Mini Cooper S, as a navigator for the Bristol Pegasus Motor Clubs January Navigation Exercise. See how I got on by following this link.



My potted history of MG Cars continued on Tuesday with a look at Andrew Moreland's supercharged MG PA.




Wednesdays blog featured a special Ford Mexico that turned out to be a multi purpose vehicle having been used as a racer, run around and wedding car by it's original owner John Webb.



The 501st GALPOT blog featured a Kurtis 500S a sports car frame with an Indy winning heritage.



Photo Courtesy Sven Platt.

Ron Howard is making a film called "Rush" at the moment about the extraordinary 1976 Grand Prix season one of the vehicles that should feature in the film should be the Ferrari 312 T2 as driven by Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni that I looked at on Ferrari Friday. I wonder if Ron's legendary attention to detail will pick up that Niki's new car for the 1976 British GP, seen above, appeared in practice with his name missing from the side of the cockpit ? Details that maketh the film for us anoraks :-)



Photo Ed Arnaudin courtesy Steve Arnaudin.

Yesterday I looked at the first monocoque chassis car to appear at the Indianapolis 500 since the Cornelean driven by Louis Chevrolet in 1915. The Lotus 29 chassis 29/3 driven by Jim Clark led 28 laps in the 1963 Indy 500 before getting beaten by Parnelli Jones and then the following year the car was rechristened the Pure Firebird Special and given to Bobby Marsham to drive, see photo above. Find out what happened next on this Lotus 29 link.



Derek Buckler like Colin Chapman started out building a successful competition special and then built a small company making copies of it on the back of his success. Derek allegedly gave his first model the Buckler Mk V name so that customers would not think this was his first design.

Coming up next week I'll be looking at a commercial Terraplane that I had no idea even existed until a couple of weeks ago, on Tuesday I'll be looking at an MG that was prepared in Wandsworth for hire to racing drivers at Brooklands and on Thursday I'll be taking a behind the scenes look at Fords 2013 Fusion NASCAR Sprint Cup challenger which already seems to have gone along way to achieving it's aim of re engaging the public.

Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #16 edition of 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' I hope you'll have fun following the links above and that you will join me again at 'GALPOT' during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

GALPOT Weekly #15

Despite partying all night I am pleased to bring this weeks GALPOT Weekly back on to the Sunday schedule.



The GALPOT week started of with the top of the range Hemi powered Dodge RAM 1500 Larimie, that turned not to be an import from somewhere west of Cheyenne Wyoming.



The Tuesday MG series of blogs featured a well storied supercharged MG K3 that is a mixture of chassis and bodywork that can trace it's history back to two entries that came in first and second in class at the conclusion of the 1933 Mille Miglia.




The winner of the Ultra Marathon of all Rally events, the 1970 World Cup Rally was the subject of Wednesdays blog, the bombproof Ford Escort 1850 GT registered FEV 1 is possibly amongst the most loved and treasured of all Fords.



The vintage Hudson Super Six that featured in Thursdays blog appears to be a replica of the 1917 built Indy cars that took part in the 1919 Indy 500.



Ferrari Friday featured a period photo of a Jacky Ickx dominating the 1972 British Grand Prix in his Ferrari 312 B2 #005, Jacky was forced to retire while leading but one the subsequent German Grand Prix in the same car from team mate Clay Regazzoni driving chassis #007 which I featured last week.



Yesterday I looked at the Lotus 27 Formula Junior car that initially followed Colin Chapman's adage of "adding lightness" a step too far meaning the monocoque was a little too weak, until this was rectified Peter Arundell was having a lot of trouble defending his British Formula Junior title in 1963.



Today's GALPOT blog features an Alpine Renault A110 1600 S that was shipped all the way to Réunion a small island in the Indian Ocean where it dominated the mid 1970's Rally scene.

Tomorrow I'll be starting the week with a look at a multiple 'Burn Out' championship winning Ford P100 pick up, while another MG will be featured on Tuesday and on Wednesday the versatility of a special Ford Escort Mexico will be examined.

If you have missed any of this weeks GALPOT blogs you can catch up with the full blogs linked by the high lighted text above.

Thanks for joining me on GALPOT Weekly #15, I hope you will join me at 'Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres' again in the week to come. Don't forget to come back now !

STOP PRESS Tomorrow's blog will tell the tale of the start of my 2012 competition season, not the 'Burn Out' Champion as mentioned above which will be held over to Monday 13th Feb.