Monthly Archives: April 2011

“Kahuna” Ed Arnaudin 1928 – 2011

It was with great sadness last Monday that I heard of the peaceful passing on April 3rd of Ed Arnaudin who’s photographs, taken at sports car races spanning 1957 – 1959, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to research and share on this blog over the last six months.

Ed showed signs of a passion for engineering in childhood with an interest in midget racing and by building powered model planes, he went on to graduate as an Engineer from Columbia University.

While serving as an Officer with the United States Marine Corps in Korea Ed married his high school sweetheart Dorothy for whom he provided well in life and in death.

Ed’s interest in racing continued from his childhood in to the late fifties when he attended sports car races where he took many of the photographs that have appeared in this blog.

In professional life Ed headed teams that were granted six US Patents from 1965 to 1975 relating to the production, coating, insulation and shielding of electric copper cables.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s Ed shared his passion for racing with his sons Rick and Steve at Indianapolis, photographs from this period will appear here in future blogs.

As a manager Ed became vice president of the Copperweld Corporation in which role he mentored younger executives who referred to him as “Kahuna” possibly a reference to the 1959 film Gidget in which the leader of a group of surfers is called ‘The Big Kahuna’.

Ed was an active member of his church where he took leading roles in Sunday School and Bible Study.

A keen golfer until his health prevented him enjoying playing further Ed continued to enjoy the game from the 19th hole.

After surviving throat cancer, in retirement Ed returned to his love of model flying becoming an award winning model glider builder.

With racing interests that also included NASCAR and Formula 1 it was surprising to learn that Ed was of the opinion that the World of Outlaws sprint cars is the superior form of motor sport, perhaps a reflection of his life long consummate ‘hard ass’ exterior personality.

Ed is survived by his wife these past 60 years Dorothy, sons Rick and Steve, the latter who kindly sent me his Dad’s photo’s to share, five grand children and brother Robert, to all of whom I hope you will join me in extending sincerest condolences.

A service of witness to the resurrection and celebration of the life of Edwin H. Arnaudin ,Jr will be held tomorrow. In lieu of flowers contributions can be made to The Brandermill Church, 4500 Millridge Parkway, Midlothian, VA 23112 and Bon Secours Hospice Foundation, 5875 Bremo Rd. Suite 710, Richmond, VA 23226.

My thanks to Steve for sharing the details of his Dad’s life.

Please join me again tomorrow when I shall be sharing the latest from the Italian Auto Moto Festival held here in Bristol City Centre. Don’t forget to come back now !

Scaglietti Pontoon – Ferrari 250 TR #0754

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I’d like to thank Geoffrey Horton for today’s photograph of David Love’s 1958 Ferrari 250 TR seen here at Danville Concours d’Elegance in 2008.

Ferrari 250TR, Danville Concours d'Elegance

The 250 TR powered by the lightweight 276 hp 2,953 cc /180 cui Colombo Tipo 125 engine was a hugely successful sports car winning the Le Mans 24 hour race, with Phil Hill and Oliver Gendebien at the wheel in 1958 and further variations winning the endurance classic in 1960 and 1961.

#0754, originally painted blue, was sold to Yugoslavian born Guatamalan Jaroslav Juhan co driver of the car, under the ‘Equipe Los Amigos’ banner, in the 1958 Le Mans 24 hours with Frenchman François Picard who collided with the Lotus of Jay Chamberlain in heavy rain six hours into the race.

After Le Mans #0754 returned to the factory for repairs to the Scaglietti pontoon bodywork and was re painted red before being shipped to Vasek Polak a friend of the now retired from racing Juhan.

Once in the USA #0754 was driven to numerous overall and class victories by Jack McAfee, George Keck and Jack Graham.

Jack Graham comprehensively damaged the car on the October 22nd 1960 when he locked his brakes at Laguna Seca and came to rest against an oak tree. After surviving serious injuries Jack retired from racing.

Bob Gengami had the car repaired and raced it in 1962 selling it on to Bob Allen who advertised #0754 TR as ‘freshly overhauled’ in 1964 when David Love acquired it.

David described the car he purchased as ‘completely unusable’ and after unsuccessfully suing the vendor began the slow process of restoration to the condition in which we see the car here. Along the way David raced the car from 1965 to 1968 and since 1974 he has raced #0754 in historic events.

The 250 TR is generally accepted as one of the two most desirable Ferrari’s amongst auctioneers, behind the 250 GTO, a 1957 250 TR was sold for US$ 12,100,000 in May 2009.

Thanking Geoffrey for sharing this sumptuous photograph, more details and photographs on the history of #0754 TR can be found on Tams old race car site here.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Scaglietti pontoon edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be celebrating the life of one of this blogs earliest contributors Mr Edwin Arnaudin. Don’t forget to come back now !

Replica or Fake – CMT

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I have to admit this one had me fooled until I did an HPI check, regrettably after I had posted my original blog, apologies for any distress I caused with my initial posting.

Turns out today’s car is not one of the 50 Jaguar XJR 15’s I first thought it was but something called a CMT.

CMT is a manufacturer so low on the grapevine that it does not even have a website, in fact this blog could well be an internet scoop since there is not so much a single photo of a CMT that I could find on the web.

All that is known about this vehicle is that what ever it is based on dates back to 1996.

The motor size quoted in the HPI check is 3.9 litres / 237 cui so it might have it’s origins in the ubiquitous Rover / Buick all alloy V8, but I do stress the ‘might’.

Like a couple of manufacturers of replica Lancia Stratos vehicles this car was goal hanging outside the Race Retro exhibition, why CMT did not simply hire a stand in the exhibition proper like a number of other replica manufacturers is hard to fathom, but there you go I’ll leave you dear reader to make your mind up if this is a good replica or bad fake.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s internet scoop edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday. Don’t for get to come back now !

The Real McCoy – Mini Cooper S

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Mini Cooper S, Prodrive

The 1964 Monte Carlo Rally boasted a superb entry including factory backed vehicles from Citroen, Ford, Mercedes, Saab, Volvo, Volkswagen and a fleet of 6 works Mini Coopers.

Starting from Athens, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Lisbon, Minsk, Monte Carlo, Oslo, Paris and Warsaw, the field converged on Rheims in France and from there on to 5 competitive stages and a couple of laps of the Monaco Grand Prix track.

The Ford Falcon Sprint of Bo Ljungfeldt won every stage of the rally including the laps around Monaco but in those days the overall results were determined by a handicapping system which translated stage times and engine size into points which meant Ljungfelds 305 hp 4.7 litre 289 cui Falcon did not have a sufficient time margin over the 70hp 1071cc / 65 cui Mini Cooper S seen here crewed by Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon which was declared the winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.

33 EJB is thought to have been built in 1963 and crewed by Hopkirk and Liddon to 3rd overall and 3rd in class in the 1963 Tour de France prior to winning the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.

The car belongs to the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon and is seen here at the Prodrive workshops because the engine was not running properly.

Like the Revenge Mini Replica I blogged about some months ago 33 EJB also has it’s Replica’s like this one built in the USA.

Finally I’d like to correct an oft repeated error reference the registrations of the works Mini’s on the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally seen in the 5th paragraph of this link.

What ever BMW or anyone else may say the registrations of the works Minis on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 were as follows :-

33 EJB #37, Hopkirk/Liddon, Cooper S, 1st overall/1st in class.
570 FMO #182 Makinen/Vanson, Cooper S 4th overall/2nd in class
569 FMO #105 Aaltonen/Ambrose, Cooper S 7th overall/3rd in class
477 BBL #39 Baxter/McMillan, Cooper 43rd overall/2nd in class.
18 CRX #187 Thompson/Heys, Cooper S crashed
277 EBL#189 Mayman/Domleo, Cooper S crashed

My thanks to Alan, Tim, Stephen, Darren, Fred at The Nostalgia Forum who helped me out with the registration numbers.

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

Dark & Sinuous – TVR Tuscan

The Bosses Car #2 – Aston Martin Rapide

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Regular readers may remember a couple of months ago when i visited the Morgan factory I happened across Charles Morgan’s limited edition Aeromax.

A couple of weeks ago I happened across Dave Richards, personal transport this fabulous ‘large and in charge’ Aston Martin Rapide while visiting Prodrive.

The Rapide is Aston Martin’s top of the range 4 door saloon, a successor to the Aston Martin V8 based Series 1 Aston Martin Lagonda of 1974/74 of which just 7 were built.

The 2010 Rapide is powered by a 470 hp 5935cc / 362 cui V12 …

that is shared in common with both the DB9 and V12 Vanquish.

This is only the second Rapide I have ever seen and it still surprises me how graceful this four dour DB9 looks.

Surprisingly this range topping model of of a well known British Marque is actually assembled at a dedicated Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria.

The standstill to 62mph performance time of 5.2 seconds and top speed of 184 mph will undoubtedly helped a near standard Rapide take second in class during the 24 hour race at the Nurburgring in 2010.

More on Aston Martin and the Rapide Luxe can be seen up the Drive Channel.

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