Monthly Archives: February 2011

RR two is company – Rhodes Ridley Road Train Tractor.

Todays blog comes courtesy of Ken Devine a Nostalgia Forum acquaintance from in Australia who posted this fabulous photo of the truly ‘unique’ Rhodes Ridley truck built in Western Australia in 1955.

The story goes that Don Rhodes was a mining, haulage and road building pioneer around the Pilbara, in Western Australia and that his fleet of British 40 ton trucks were not up to the rough dirt roads which Don’s men were constantly regrading just to keep them open.

Don & Harold Ridley a workshop manager for DFD Rhodes Pty Ltd conceived a fleet of road train vehicles that could carry between 4 – 6 times the iron and manganese ore loads their existing trucks could carry, there were no drawings as such anything that needed to be built for the Rhodes Ridley was drawn in chalk by Harold on his work shop floor.

Construction started in 1955, using custom made axles, a chassis fabricated from 5/8″ steel plate 16″ deep and 4″ wide. Two army surplus 200 hp 6/71 GM diesel motors designed for the M3 General Lee medium tank which had in this instance been originally fitted into a tank landing craft, as had the five speed gearbox and twin differentials fitted to give the vehicle a 32 mph capability.

The truck measuring 33 ft long and 11 ft wide weighed 21.5 tons with a 230 ton carrying capacity was the largest road vehicle in the southern hemisphere when it was completed in 1958.

During the period of construction the laws governing most of the roads intended for use by the Rhodes Ridley had changed, with a restricted area in which to operate plans to build further examples were scrapped and the Rhodes Ridley was reassigned, fitted with a powerhouse on it’s back, an ore screening trailer and a jaw crushing trailer to process freshly recovered ore for further transportation.

It’s not clear exactly when the Rhodes Ridley was abandoned but it’s resurrection came about thanks to former Rhodes employee Terry Joyce who formed a club for people to help him with his enormous task of putting the abandoned vehicle back on it’s wheels at the turn of the millennium.

The vehicle still needs a ‘wide vehicle’ permit to go to shows, more photo’s and the rest of the story can be seen at the Rhodes Ridley website linked here.

My thanks to Ken Devine for bringing this fascinating twin engined vehicle to my attention and for letting me share his photograph of it with you.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s two is company edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me tomorrow for the first in a short series of home built vehicles. Wishing all the romantics out there a happy Valentines Day, don’t forget to come back now !

PS slightly off topic Pocono Raceways Solar Photovoltaic System has turned the motor sports facility into the largest Solar Powered sport facility in the world, Pocono has been nominated to receive the 2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Readers’ Choice Award at the 2011 Renewable Energy World North America Conference & Expo on March 8th. Voting for this event closes today February 14th if you have not voted do so now at http://awards.renewableenergyworld.com/readerschoice/ select ‘Vote’ button and then go down the list and click ‘Pocono Raceway Solar Photovoltaic System’, no registration required no unpleasant advertising either. Thanking you in anticipation of your response. Go Pocono !

Fuzzy Long Shot – Locomobile Old No: 16

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A couple of weeks ago Steve e-mailed me “Those four slides were put in a “special place” by my dad for good reason. I scanned them, and they are fuzzy. There’s no reason for me to send these outcasts to you.”

I replied in typical ‘Prisoner’ fashion “Fuzzy out casts or not I am curious, remember ‘we want information !’ :-)”

Here is one of those 54 year old fuzzy slides that Steve’s Dad Ed took at Bridgehampton on the 20th July 1957 and what a story it has to tell.

After a few adjustments and a little cropping, I posted some copies on a new ‘Fuzzy long-shot identity ?‘ thread at The Nostalgia Forum and it took all of twenty minuets to get a response from Tim Murray that we are looking at a 1906 Locomobile Old 16 now 105 years old.

The Locomobile then owned by well known motoring artist Peter Helck is probably being driven by George Robertson who manhandled this vehicle weighing less than 1200 kgs / 2645 lbs around 11 laps of a 23.4 mile road course on Long Island to cover a distance of 258 miles in 4 hours averaging 67 mph to win the 1908 Vanderbuilt Cup by nearly 2 minuets thus becoming the first American to win an international motor race.

Going into the white flag lap George held a lead of over 4 minuets but instead of easing the pace he pressed on so hard he lost control of Old No: 16 and left the track and damaged a tire. In order to return to the race it had to be replaced on the rim a feat George and his riding mechanic Glenn Ethridge, required as a living on board fuel pump to keep the fuel pressure up amongst other things, managed in ‘just’ 2 minuets 10 seconds !

Visit the excellent Vanderbuilt Cup Race website for more fascinating information and pictures on the Vanderbuilt Cup Races, as I understand it Old No: 16 is still a runner, it’s flame spitting 90hp 4 cylinder 16,200 cc 989 cui motor can still push the car to 90 mph. Here is a link to a video of the car running in 2008.

Old No: 16 became an instant legend in 1908 and has been kept in full working condition ever since, it has never been restored and currently resides at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.

23 year old George Robertson won several races before driving with a journalist in preparation for the 1910 Vanderbuilt Cup. Entering a corner the Journalist panicked and clutched George causing an accident in which George’s right arm was so seriously injured he was unable to drive the heavy vehicles of the day competitively ever again.

My thanks to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for the photograph, Tim Murray, Doug ‘Meat and Drink’ Nye, Marticelli and D-type for all chiming in with useful information.

My thanks to Ed Arnaudin for a his fascinating series of sports car photographs it has been my privilege to research and share with you particularly over the last week or so, there are a couple more left that I will be sharing in due course, meantime I look to forward to sharing Ed’s real passion, for the Indy 500 in the coming weeks as we head into the 100th anniversary
of the running of the Indy 500.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Fuzzy Long Shot edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at a truck built in the Australian outback so big it requires two General Lee tank motors to get up to speed. Don’t forget to come back now !

Private Investigations – Maserati 300S #3053

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Thanks to Ed Arnaudin’s superb photography we can have a look at the Maserati 300S at Lime Rock on May 9th 1959 that was raced by Joe Guibardo in Northeastern America during the 1959 season.

Just 28 Maserati 300S models were built from 1955 to 1958 to compete in the World Sportscar Championship. Thanks to contributions from Sir Stirling Moss the 300S is credited with three World Sports Car Championship victories two of them on the 14 mile Nurburgring in ’56 and ’57 along with many other wins in national races in Europe and the United States. In fact as with the the Ferrari 860 Monza we looked at yesterday Juan Manuel Fangio also drove a Maserati 300S to victory this time on two occasions in Brazil in 1957.

The 300S was powered by a 3 litre / 183 cui variation, with a lengthened stroke, of the 6 cylinder motor that was used simultaneously in the Maserati 250 F with a lower compression ratio to cope with the most commonly available fuel as stipulated in Sports Car regulations of the time. The drum brakes and stiffened suspension also show strong signs of 250 F heritage.

A trellis structured chassis was covered in an aluminium body penned by Madardo Fantuzzi who was also responsible for the second version of the Maserati 150S.

Perhaps the most incredible of Maserati 300S stories is that a 300S was raced against both a Porsche 908 and 910 in Brazil as late as 1971 ! Unfortunately we do not know the end result for the Maserati in that race but even so I hope you’ll agree a quite remarkable achievement just to enter a 15 year old design into a contemporary sports car race.

Slightly of topic regular GALPOT readers who really pay attention may recognise the name of the 5th place driver at Interlagos Antônio Carlos Avallone.

Allegedly Mark Knopfler is a long term Maserati 300S Owner.

Joseph Giubardo appears to have raced in Austin Healeys and MGs from 1954 to 1962 and used this 300S chassis #3053 from at least 1957 to 1959 scoring at least one class win at Thompson CT in 1957.

My thanks as ever to the Arnaudins for taking and sending the photograph and to Walter Baemer of International Maserati Research for identifying who this vehicle belonged to.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Dire Straights edition of “Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres” and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a gargantuan Edwardian from the USA that recorded the first international race victory for an American driver. Don’t for get to come back now !

PS Slightly off topic but continuing the private investigation in to this photo graph wonderng if anybody recognises either the kid in front of, or the owner and hound in the, 1950 Cadillac Series 61 Sedan ? Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.

I’m in the wrong business – Ferrari 860 Monza #0604M

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There are photographs and then there are some photographs one could write a book about, today’s photograph by Carlyle Blackwell of then future world champion Phil “I’m in the wrong business” Hill driving a Ferrari 860 Monza to 2nd place overall and first in class at Pebble Beach on the 22nd of April 1956 is without question one of the latter. I’ll do my best to summarise the story here.

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.

The Ferrari 860 Monza is perhaps the ultimate expression of mid 1950’s sports cars before the regulations governing such vehicles changed in the aftermath of the tragedy at Le Mans in 1955. Mercedes and Jaguar had withdrawn their factory supported entries from the World Championship Sports Car races entirely, though Jaguar supported successful private entries of Ecurie Ecosse at Le Mans in 1956 and 1957.

Ferrari were the only serious contenders left for the World Sports Car Championship in 1956 and the 860 was fully poised to sweep the board with a 280 hp 3432 cc / 209 cui Lamperdi straight 4 engine.

With the withdrawal of the Mercedes team from all forms of racing no less a free agent than reigning 3 time world champion Juan ” El Maestro ” Fangio became the ‘must have’ free agent of the 1956 season if not all time and Enzo recruited him to replace Ascari who had recently died in an accident.

Ferrari did not take the 860’s to Buenos Aries for the first round of the Championship which let Maserati off the hook. For the Sebring 12 Hours chassis #0604 M pictured here was prepared for Fangio and the suave up and coming man Euginio Castellotti and duly took a comfortable 2 lap victory ahead of a sister 860 Monza.

Just one month later the Sebring winning car had changed ownership and now belonged to John von Neuman, himself a competent driver who would take #0604 to victory lane at Santa Maria later in 1956, and entered his new possession for freshly signed works Ferrari driver Phil Hill at Pebble Beach, where we can see him driving to a class victory behind Carol Shelby in an older modified Ferrari 750 Monza.

This turned out to be the last event run at the Pebble Beach venue, Ernie Macafee’s fatal accident during the race was enough to persuade organisers to seek a safer facility which led to the opening of the Laguna Seca track in 1957.

Chassis #0604 M continued to be raced until 1962 with future works Ferrari driver Richie Ginther being one of many to drive her and Lew Florence being the last to take her to Victory Lane at Shelton in 1959.

Since then #0604 M has become a sought after collectors item with former head of the Renault F1 team Jean Sage counting among it’s owners. In 2006 the vehicle was offered for sale at $3.5 million., it is said to currently reside in Italy.

Ferrari won The World Sports Car Championship in 1956 despite a second defeat at the Nurburgring by Maserati.

For those new to the history of motor racing here is a brief introduction to a hugely popular driver. Phil (no relation to the British two time champion Graham) Hill was born in Miami FL and raised in Santa Barbra, California, dropped out of college to pick up a wrench to work on racing drivers cars before becoming a driver himself.

Phil won his first race a 3 lap even at Carrell Speedway driving an MG TC in July 1949. In 1958 he drove a Maserati 250 F in his first Grand Prix and in the same year sharing a Ferrari with Olivier Gendebien won the Le Mans 24 Hours a feat he repeated with Olivier and Ferrari in 1961 and 1962.

In 1960 Phil won the Italian GP driving a Ferrari becoming the first American to win a Grand Prix in nearly 40 years and the following year he won two Grand Prix on his way to becoming the first US World Grand Prix Drivers Champion. Unfortunately a dispute between Ferrari and Grand Prix racing’s governing bodies meant Phil never got to properly celebrate on home turf in fact arguably Phil never got to compete in all the Grand Prix races in a single season.

In 1967 Phil retired after driving a Chaparral to victory in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch. He continued working in TV for Road & Track and his own vehicle restoration business Hill & Vaughan until he retired in 1995.

Phil aged 81 succumbed to complications from Parkinsons disease in 2008. He is quoted as saying of his presence on the motor racing circuit, “I’m in the wrong business. I don’t want to beat anybody, I don’t want to be the big hero. I’m a peace-loving man, basically”.

Finally I am reliably informed this photograph made the cover of Road & Track Magazine in September 1956, I have not seen it yet if you have a copy and can scan it please get in touch using the e-mail link on my profile page, I’d love to see it.

My thanks to Ed Arnaudin who purchased this slide, to his son Steve who sent it on, to El Wayne and Miltonian at Ferrari Chat who passed on essential information on the identification of the car, its location, date and details of the publication.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s “I’m in the wrong business” edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres” and that you’ll join me for a look at the Maserati model the Ferrari had to beat to win the 1956 World Sports Car title. Don’t forget 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.

Broken Promises – DB Panhard HBR

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Somehow almost overlooked this photo by Ed Arnaudin of John B Mull in his DB Panhard competing in Race 1 at Thompson CT on the 20th July 1958, although John did not finish this race, we shall see this is a significant model in the world of national and international class H up to 750 cc 45.7 cui racing.

The manufacture of DB cars commenced after a promised drive failed to materialise at the 1936 French Sports Car Grand Prix for Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet. The following year they entered a special of their own devising using the remnants of of a Citroen Traction Avant 11 CV.

Their specials placed in the very first post war race in Paris in 1945 and with the construction of the open wheel DB7 Automobiles Deutsch & Bonnet became a business entity in 1947.

Unhappy with the supply of Citroen parts they switched primarily to using flat twin Panhard motors of 744 cc / 45.4 cui. DB Panhards took class victories at the Mille Miglia, four times, Le Mans, three times, Sebring, twice and SCCA class H, the latter in 1958 with Howard Hanna at the wheel and in 1959 with Ray Heppenstall at the wheel.

Despite their on track success after building nearly 1000 vehicles, a disagreement over the architecture of their next model led to Deutsch and Bonnet going their separate ways forming CD and Automobiles René Bonnet respectively, the latter using Renault power became part of Matra Automobiles in 1965.

Panhard which as Panhard et Levassor had been in business since 1897 was absorbed in to Citroen in 1965 with the last vehicle produced in 1967 the name is still to be found in use as a brand of French built military vehicle.

The HBR model seen here was built from 1954 to 1961 on the most common DB chassis shared with Mille Miles and Coach models of which a combined total of 660 were made.

John B Mull appears to have had a collection of vehicles to race with Evelyn Mull between them they are known to have raced a Jaguar XK120, AC Ace Bristol, Austin Healey 100 S and this DB Panhard, JB is also known to have raced an OSCA S750.

Hope you have enjoyed the Race 1 Thompson CT 20th July 1958 series, my thanks to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for the photograph and to Terry O’Neil for the race results. Join me tomorrow for Ferrari Friday when we will be looking at a vehicle driven by a reigning 3 time World Grand Prix Champion on it’s victorious debut and a month later was driven to a class victory by the USA’s first future world champion. Don’t forget to come back now!

Colin’s Eleven – Lotus XI

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Today’s photographs by Ed Arnaudin conclude our coverage of Race 1 at Thompson, CT on July 20th 1958 with a look at the winning Lotus XI of Floyd Aaskov.

Approximately 270 Lotus XI’s were produced from 1956 to 1958 including the Series 2, often unofficially referred to as the XIII. the Lotus Eleven Register believes around 200 have survived.

The XI could be built to accept a variety of engines most like Floyd Aaskov’s seen here were fitted with a 4 cylinder 1098 cc /67 cui Coventry Climax engine. Like the Lotus IX we looked at yesterday the bodywork was penned by Frank Costain and crafted by Lotus neighbours in Hornsey, Williams & Pritchard.

It is believed the Lotus XI model was driven to over 148 victories in 1956, additionally Stirling Moss set a class G closed circuit lap record at Monza of over 143 mph in a 67 cui XI with a special cockpit fairing and Peter Jopp and Reg Bicknell took class G honours and 7th overall at Le Mans although the boss, Colin Chapman, driving the larger engine Class E XI having survived a miserably wet night was disappointed to retire while running second in the 1500 cc 91.5 cui class to a Porsche with engine failure.

Legend has it that the XI was so close to Colin Chapman’s affections that early Lotus road models were given names evocative of the number Eleven,hence the Elite, Elise, Elan.

Floyd Aaskov, in the #12 Lotus XI seen taking the starting flag in second place here is known to have raced from at least 1957 to 1968, records indicate he may have started racing in a ’57 Mercedes 300 SL which seems a tad fanciful though no doubt stranger things have happened. Running competitively in the GM class Lotus XI until 1962 he then moved on to the pre Can Am USRRC series with larger sports cars. Records indicate Floyds last season was 1968 when he drove a Camaro in the Trans Am series, this may not be the complete picture on his career, if you know different please chime in below !

The cars I and others have been able to discern on the grid thus far are :-

Row 1 #15 R Nerney, Abarth 207A Spider, #12 Floyd Aaskov, Lotus X1
Row 2 #92 Nick Fallone Jomar MK 2 #28 Ray Saidel, Jomar
Row 3 #113 Paul Bleustein, Cooper, #26 Len Bastrup, Lotus IX
Row 4 # ????? #27 P Sagan, Fiat Abarth 750 GT Zagato
Row 5 #95 J Iglehart, Nardi MD4 Spyder #46 J Mull D B Panhard # ?????? #?????

Interestingly one source has a #150 Lotus XI anchoring the entry list for this meeting scheduled to be driven by one and only ‘Walter Cronkite‘.

Thanks as always to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for the fascinating photographs, to Terry O’Neil for the results to everyone on the Fuzzy Longshot Identity thread at TNF including Vitesse2 and raceanouncer2003 for their contributions. I believe that is the way it was.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s eleventh hour edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at a seriously old timer at Bridgehampton in 1957. Don’t forget to come back now !

You can’t reverse that thing here mate ! – Lotus IX

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Moving up the field at Thompson CT on 20th July 1958 today Ed Arnaudin’s photo’s feature a Lotus IX driven by Len Bastrup a respected Lotus driver who finished 2nd in Race 1 for class G, HP & HM cars.

Around thirty Lotus IX models were manufactured from 1954 to 1955 with a variety of engines available from MG, Connaught and Bristol, this particular model had the most common 4 cylinder 1098 cc / 65.4 cui Coventry Climax Class G spec motor .

The body was penned by Frank Costin, brother of Mike who gave the Cos to Cosworth, and manufactured by Williams & Pritchard, who GALPOT regulars might remember were responsible for an all time favourite of mine the special body on a BMW 315/1.

Colin Chapman the dynamo behind Lotus Cars and accomplished racing driver entered a IX for the Le Mans 24 hours in 1955.

During the race he crashed his car into a sand bank. Thinking nothing of the incident he reversed out and was promptly disqualified for unauthorised reversing.

Len Bastrup was racing from at least 1953 to 1960 starting in MG’s and then moving to Lotus cars in 1955. He shared a Lotus XI at the Sebring 12 hours in 1956 with Lotus founder Colin Chapman which burst into flames after an accident in practice which caused terminal damage and withdrawal from the race before it had started.

My thanks to Ed Arnaudin for the photographs, his son Steve for sending them on and Terry O’Neil for the race results.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s 45.5cui edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring