Monthly Archives: December 2010

Mini Van from the Dark Side of the Moon – Ferrari 250 GTO #3757

10 Replies

The first time I saw one of these, reg no: 5 RU #3869 GT belonging to Dave Clarke formerly of the Dave Clark Five, was on a fabulous summer afternoon in the car park of the Hotel opposite school I must have spent a good hour sitting on a wall leering at it longingly.

This particular example, third overall in the 1962 Le Mans 24 hours and winner of the Spa 500 kms race in 1963, has been the property of Nick Mason since the late 1970’s.

Allegedly one frosty morning this vehicle was the only one of his fleet that would start and so Nick ended up taking his kids to school in it, the rumour is that his kids never wanted to be driven to school in anything other than the 250 GTO thereafter which must qualify this car for the title worlds fastest mini van.

I did not know much about it until acquaintances on The Nostalgia Forum put me right some months ago. Ironically I have Nick Masons autograph from that day in my 1981 British Grand Prix programme.

Hope you have enjoyed todays edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ from the Dark Side of the Moon and hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for the first of my 12 vehicles of Chritmas series of blogs.

Slightly off topic I read this seasonal story yesterday and humbly recommend it to all.

With Seasons Greetings and best wishes for the New Year to everyone who has played apart in ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ no matter how great or small, thanks for being there to celebrate with.

PS 30 12 10 just found the photo above of #3757 taken at Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Share

2 miles a minute – 1905 Darracq 200hp

5 Replies

Using the profits from the sale of his Gladiator cycle factory, Alexandre Darracq founded Automobiles Darracq S.A.in 1896.

In 1905 he built a 200hp V8 specifically for setting Land Speed Records.

Straight out of the box Victor Hemery set an LSR on the V8 Darracq at 109 mph at Aries in France.

The Darracq was then shipped to Ormond – Daytona where Hemery’s belligerent behaviour did not go down well with officials so Louis Chevrolet was drafted in to drive the car to a 1 mile petrol powered LSR of 117.65 mph only 10 mph slower than Frank Marriott on his Stanley Steamer ! Finally Victor Demogeot set a 2 mile LSR beating the Stanley Steamer with an average speed of 122.5 mph becoming the first vehicle to cover 2 miles in less than 1 minute.

Sir Algernon Lee Guiness of the famous Brewing company became the next owner of the Darracq and he used it to set many records in the UK and France until 1909.

The car then fell into the hands of someone who scrapped the axles for no particularly obvious reason and somehow Sir Algernon retrieved the remaining car which was kept stored until 1956 when his widow sold the car to Gerald Firkins who recreated the vehicle as we see it today.

When the pistons were replaced it was found that the engine volume was 25400 cc / 1495.1 cui not 22.5 litres as had been thought for nearly 100 years !

Mark Walker purchased the vehicle in 2006 and has campaigned it regularly in hill climbs and races ever since. Notice anything missing from the front axle ? This vehicle has never had brakes acting on the front wheels yet still gets driven competitively in the rain !

Despite having no front brakes, or reverse gear, a rear axle recreated from a drawing in a 90 year old book and being well known for spitting flames the Darracq is road legal and Mark drives it to and from competitive events.

Hope you have enjoyed todays Edwardian edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, looking forward to Ferrari Friday when I’ll be presenting a Ferrari that allegedly served time as a mini van on the dark side of the moon ! Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Airways to Highways – GN JAP Grand Prix

6 Replies

A cycle car was a vehicle that weighed between 150 kg / 331 lbs and 350 kgs / 772lbs powered by an engine no larger than 1.1 litres / 67 cui that often qualified for reduced taxation. GN made such cars between 1910 and 1920 with proper wooden chassis.

On August 6th 1910 Britain’s first qualified aviator E T Willows became the first man to fly across the Bristol channel in his dirigible airship the 30 HP JAP V8 powered ‘Willow’s No.2‘ on the way from his home town Cardiff to London. He accidentally dropped his packed lunch over Bristol. Willow’s No 2 was rebuilt into Willow’s No.3 ‘City of Cardiff’ and became the first airship to cross the English Channel on it’s way from London to Paris. Willow’s celebrated his achievement on new years eve 1910/11 by flying his JAP powered airship round the Eifel Tower.

Richard Scaldwell brought together a 1919 wooden GN cyclecar chassis and E T Willows 1908 5112cc / 3111 cui JAP V8 to create the GN JAP Grand Prix special which he races in the Pre 1941 racing car class at VSCC events.

Amazingly after a days fun on the track Richard then drives his road legal racer home !

With thanks to Martin Squires for back ground information.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s high flying edition of Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres and will join me tomorrow for a look at a 200 hp Land Speed Record Breaker. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Last of the line – ERA R14B

9 Replies

English Racing Automobiles was founded by driver Raymond Mays, 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 !

Share

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

3 Replies

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!

Share

La motte de beurre – Renault 4CV

4 Replies

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 !

Share

Under Austrian Influence – Aston Martin DB3S

5 Replies

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.

Share