Monthly Archives: March 2012

Special Equipment – Lotus Elan Coupé S/E

A couple of weeks ago you may remember I attempted my first navigation exercise with Bristol Pegasus Motor Club membership secretary Bob in his ‘daughters’ Mini Cooper. Today I am looking at Bob’s own car his Lotus Elan Coupé S/E otherwise known as an Elan S3 FHC (Type 36).

Like the racing Lotus 26R the Elan Coupé S/E has a fixed hard top unlike the original Lotus 26 Elan’s which were all convertibles.

The first 36 Coupé’s were introduced in September 1965, with a 105 hp version of the Lotus Twin Cam 4 cylinder engine.

An S/E version as seen here became available in July of the following year with a 118hp ‘L Block’ version of the Lotus Twin Cam.

S/E Coupés are distinguished from all earlier Elan models by the repeater lights on the front wings and stainless steel trim on the sides.

Bob’s car was built in 1967 by which time Lotus had won two of an eventual seven Grand Prix constructors titles with the Lotus 25 and Lotus 33.

The Elan S3 body was the first Elan to have a boot lid that extended all the way to the tail of the car.

It is estimated that approximately 1,200 Elan S3 FHC’s were built between 1965 and 1968 when the S4.

My thanks to Bob for his help with this blog.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Special Equipment’ edition of ‘Getting’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow’. Don’t forget to come back now !

Just What the Doctor Ordered – Ferrari 126 C2 #061 & #060

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Ferrari’s first attempt at designing a turbo powered Grand Prix car was described by lead driver Gilles Villeneuve in 1981 as handling like ‘a big red Cadillac‘.

For the 1982 Ferrari hired Dr Harvey Poslethwaite, who had designed Grand Prix winning cars for both Hesketh and Wolf, to design the 126 C2 which would prove to be the class of the field or as Mario Andretti described it ‘the bomb’.

Despite a lack luster start to the 1982 season for round 4 the San Remo Grand Prix Ferrari had got their act together and cruised to a comfortable One Two victory except for team leader Gilles Villeneuve there was a problem, he had been out fumbled by his team mate Didier Pironi which so enraged the Canadian he promised never to speak to Pironi again.

Two weeks later at the Belgium Grand Prix Gilles met his death after a practice accident, seemingly leaving Pironi seen in the #28 chassis #060 at Brands Hatch above, to win the 1982 Championship but then three weeks after these photographs were taken Didier Pironi was seriously injured an accident during practice for the German Grand Prix in chassis #060. Didier although eventually recovering never entered a Grand Prix car again and died in power boat racing accident in 1986.

Patrick Tambay, seen in the #27 chassis 061 at Brands Hatch at the top of this post, took the place of Gilles for the remainder of the 1982 season wining the 1982 German Grand Prix. While Mario Andretti replaced Didier Pironi scoring a pole position and and third place first time out at Monza and ended his Grand Prix career at Caesers Palace with a retirement driving the chassis #061 seen in Tambay’s hands above.

Ferrari with three wins won the constructors championship from McLaren who had 4 wins but appalling reliability in between. The World Drivers Championship was won by Keke Rosberg driving a non turbocharged Williams Cosworth against all expectations with just a single win and a string of podium (top three) finishes.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Just What The Doctor Ordered’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Turbo Toni – Ford Sierra RS Cosworth

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On the 22nd September 1982 Ford of Britain launched it’s replacement for the much loved conservative Ford Cortina to an unsuspecting public. Project Toni, designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément, was unveiled as the Ford Sierra to a fair amount of public myrth and ridicule in the absence of much acclaim except in Ireland where the Sierra won the 1983 Semperit Irish Car of the Year award.

While there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the mechanical operation of the car much of which was inherited from the final incarnation of the Ford Cortina Mk 5, the styling, which was similar to the well received US Ford Probe, had been pushed a bit too far in the quest for aerodynamic efficiency leading to nick names for the Sierra like ‘the blob’ and ‘Salesmans Spaceship’.

Fortunately it was the salesmans fleet market which saved the model from sinking faster than the Edsel. The #3 above was an early leader in the 1987 Willhire 24 Hour race at Snetterton driven by Graham Scarbrough and David ‘Jess’ Yates who is standing with his back to the camera on the right.

In the spring of 1983 Stuart Turner head of Ford Motorsport Europe devised a plan to put Ford at the top of the new Group A saloon car championships which were run nationally and internationally in Europe. Above the #6 is driven by Graham Davis at Brands Hatch.

Lessons learned from Roush Racing in the USA and Andy Rouse in Britain with XR4Ti racing programmes were incorporated into the suspension while a reworked Sierra 3 door body designed by Lother Pinske was developed which featured a distinctive ‘tea tray’ rear wing deemed necessary to keep the rear wheels on the ground at speeds in excess of 186 mph.

5045 Ford Sierra Cosworths were manufactured in 1986, enough to qualify for International Group A and national Group N racing, in only three colours, all with a grey interior and with the only options being central locking and or electric windows. The racers seen here were all prepared to the lower state of tune Group N spec for the national Uniroyal and Firestone production car championships.

Keith Maxted is thought to be the driver of the #32 Goodyear Sierra RS Cosworth seen at Brands Hatch on April 23rd 1989, if you know different please chime in below.

My thanks to Alan Cox & Gregor Marshall at The Nostalgia Forum for their help identifying the drivers of the four racers.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Turbo Toni’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Energy Absorbing Bumpers – Cadillac Sedan de Ville

Wade In The Water – MGB Roaster DRX 256C

Oh Lord ! – Mercedes Benz World

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As one of many birthday treats a couple of weeks ago I re visited Brooklands and before I got there I found time to pop into Mercedes Benz World which came highly recommended by an old school buddy Dave whom I met there for a cuppa and a catch up in the Mercedes Benz World Café.

I got there a little earlier than Dave and my curiosity got the better of me the moment I walked through the door. Above a Mercedes Benz Patent Motor Car of the type that Bertha Benz took for a 110 mile spin with her sons without her husband Karl, who invented the machine even knowing about it !

Among the more unusual exhibits was this Mercedes Benz 220a which is one of 17 that has been restored and transformed into an unuseable work of art by the painter Hiro Yamagata.

Mercedes Benz officially withdrew from racing at the end of 1955 though it has since emerged that Mercedes Benz were involved in supporting the efforts of GALPOT contributor Geoffrey Horton’s uncle George Tilp and on my visit to Mercedes Benz World I was surprised to learn that Mercedes Benz also supported Hong Kong’s Mercedes Benz agent efforts to win the 1956 Macau GP. (British) Army Sergeant Doug Steane winning the race in the works prepared 121 mph 190 SLR of which just two are known to have been built in 1956.

Back in December I related in a Ferrari Friday blog the story of the Sultan of Brunei and his six Ferrari 456 GT Venice cars purchased for a cool $7 million seems that around the same time the good Sultan purchased two Mercedes Benz CLK GTR’s one of the 20 Coupés in Silver the other one of six Roadster’s in blue both easily identified because they are the only two CLK GTR cars fitted with Right Hand Drive, making the car in the foyer unique of it’s type. The Sultan will have paid a minimum of $3 million in 1999 for the two CLK GTR’s when he sold them at auction ten years later he only got just short of $1.8 back for the pair.

Mercedes Benz World has a surprising amount of art on display qualifying as the wildest in my humble opinion is View Suspended II by Dutch artist Paul Veroude which features 3200 components which nominally go to making a Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team car suspended from the ceiling, although the parts do swing in the wind they are held reasonably securely in place by steel wires which took ten people a week to hang.

It would be difficult to end this little over view of Mercedes Benz World with anything other than a range topper, unfortunately the Maybach’s in the service center were all privately owned so I hope you enjoy dribbling with me onto your keyboard while taking in the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG which went on in the United States last year for ‘less than $200,000’, so it should be well within the reach of your average jackpot winning lottery winner.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Oh Lord !’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Meica Red 908 – Bertone X1/9

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Marcello Gandini working for the Bertone studio is credited with designing the FIAT X1/9 which was based on the futuristic boat inspired Autobianchi A112 Runabout of 1969.

FIAT launched the X 1/9 in 1972 with Bertone responsible for building the monocoque body at it’s Torino factory and FIAT’s Lingotto factory responsible for the final assembly.

With 140,500 units produced unto 1982, FIAT handed over the final assembly responsibilities and marketing for the X 1/9 to Bertone in 1982. Bertone continued to develop the X 1/9 applying rust protection and revised seating to accommodate taller driver. 19,500 X 1/9’s were manufactured with Bertone badges.

The X 1/9 featured a rear mounted 4 cylinder transverse motor and transmission taken from the 1970 European Car of the Year Award wining front wheel drive FIAT 128 featuring and iron block and alloy head with a single overhead camshaft.

This 1989 example would appear to be painted Meica Red 908 a paint code borrowed form the Volvo colour palate which was used on the rare Volvo 780 Coupé which was also built by Bertone at the same time.

The longitudinally compact transverse mid engine and transmission layout not only gave the car excellent handling characteristics but also luggage space under the bonnet hood in the front and in the boot / trunk behind the engine.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Meica Red 908’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope 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