Monthly Archives: July 2012

Worlds Oldest MG – MG 14/28 Super Sports

Built on January 8th 1925 today’s MG 14/28 Super Sports, seen here at the recent Brooklands Double 12 meeting is the oldest known survivor of the MG Marque.

The very first 14/28 Super Sports were built to enhance the image of the Morris Bullnose at Morris Garages, from which the marque would eventually take it’s initials in 1928, at Alfred Lane, Oxford.

When production started in 1924 Morris supplied Oxford “Bull Nose” chassis, the engines were mildly tuned at Morris Garages and fitted with aluminium bodies.

These aluminium bodies were finished with two tone paint schemes.

Many early MG’s featured these ventilation ducts which featured an octagonal inlet on later models.

Like wise the instruments would be set in octagonal recesses on many later models.

In 1926 the Super Sport would be offered with a fabric body option when the distinctive Morris Bullnose radiator was replaced by a flat one.

This particular car was converted into a hay mower during the Second World War and was discovered in a dilapidated condition in 1990 by the present owner.

The 14/28 which cost £395 when new and was capable of 65 mph was replaced by the MG 14/40 also built on a Morris chassis with a tuned Morris motor in 1928.

Thanks for joining me on this “World’s Oldest MG” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Coffee, Croissant & Cars – Avenue Drivers Club

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Last Sunday I went to my third meeting with the Avenue Drivers Club meeting which took place just a stones throw from GALPOT Towers in Queens Square.

While I have heard of and seen a few Soviet Built UAZ’s in my travels to foreign climbs but this is the first one I have dared to see up close let alone photograph. I am not sure of it’s age but I am guessing it was originally supplied for military service which would make the model either a UAZ 469 or more likely a post 1985 UAZ 31512, these vehicles had a great reputation for reliability until first the factory started using cheaper materials for construction and then counterfeit spare parts flooded the market.

Among the many vintage vehicles present was this ‘long rad’ 1935 Model Y Ford one of around 1300 survivors of the of 170,000 built between 1933 and 1937.

Present at many of the show’s and meetings I have been to this summer has been this 1991 Nissan Figaro a retro styled vehicle that takes it’s design queue’s from the seven iterations of the Datsun Sports / Fairlady roadsters produced between 1959 and 1970.

Looking tres cool on it’s non factory alloy wheels was this 1957 Chevrolet Corvette C1, the interior if which was as immaculate as the exterior.

Vauxhall 30/90, Avenue Drivers Club, Bristol

Car of the day for me was this 1922 Vauxhall 30/90 a work in progress that was repatriated from a former British Colony in the 1970’s. Where as in Britain such vehicles exterior panels will have corroded away in the former colony, where this car spent the first fifty years of it’s life, the metal work remained in good shape but the extensive original wooden body frame had been completely munched away by termites !

This 1963 Trojan 200 three wheeler complete with single door opening forwards from the front and a soft top was built under licence from the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. Trojan went on to become a manufacturer of many racing cars including under licence several Mclarens models powered by Chevrolet V8’s for both Can Am and Formula 5000 and a one off Formula One car.

The 1974 Vauxhall Victor above was being offered for sale for £1,000 if your interested I have the phone number, usual disclaimers apply.

Close second in my favorite cars of the day was this Sunbeam Pick Up which started life as a 1929 Sunbeam 20/9. The vintage cars alone have made my outings to the Avenue Drivers Clubs meetings on the second Sunday of every month more than worth the effort.

Gracie above is a 1972 SAAB 96V4 which had less than 10,000 miles on the clock in 2006 due to the original owners putting it in storage two years after they bought after giving up driving. The car was found in a wooden garage 25 years later and underwent a thorough restoration of it’s mechanical parts which had deteriorated through lack of use.

Not sure at the time of writing weather the 3 litre / 183 cui twin cam powered 1927 Sunbeam 2 seater is a 20 hp or 35 hp model but it looks and sounds very purposeful with its tail faired in like the hull of a boat.

Personifying the gentrification of Bristol’s Queens Square was this elegant 1958 Jaguar MkIII, the car is powered by the same 190 hp motor as used in the Jaguar XK140 launched two years earlier.

Finally I had a long chat with Rich who owns the 1963 Volvo 121 above and his friend Matt, turns out they spotted this left hooker on the internet and then went to Sweden to go and get it. Their journey back through Germany was enlivened by a perished connection between the steering shafts. Rich has all the original documentation for his pride and joy and reckons it has covered over 300,000 kilometers about 240,000 miles.

Thanks for joining me on this “Coffee, Croissant and Cars” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

General Belgrano – Toleman Hart TG 181C #06

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Nearly thirty years ago, July 18th 1982, I had the privilege of taking a couple of day’s off from my summer job, at Golden Arch Foods where I was employed on the production line making 24,000 buns an hour for Ronald McDonald, to visit Brands Hatch for the British Grand Prix.

Niki Lauda driving a McLaren starting from 5th on the grid easily won the race from the Ferrari 126 C2’s of Didier Pironi and Patrick Tambay who had both fought hard from their respective 4th and 13th place starts.

One of the best stories of the race however came from the fledgling Toleman Team which was founded in 1981. Their car was designed by a Formula One novice Rory Byrne who had designed many successful open wheel vehicles first with Royale who manufactured many Ford Kent and Pinto powered racers and then with Toleman in the the second tier Formula 2 who’s Hart powered cars dominated the European Formula 2 championship in 1980 with drivers Brian Henton, who was crowned champion, and Derek Warwick came second.

For 1981 Toleman and Brian Hart made the brave move to step up to Formula one with a car designed by Byrne and a turbocharged 1.5 litre / 90.5 cui 415T four cylinder motor which was a development of the Hart 420R 2 litre / 122 cui motor successfully used in Formula 2. The team ran with unfancied Pirelli tyres who were returning to the top tier of the sport after a prolonged absence of 32 years.

During the 1981 season Henton and Warwick each made 12 attempts at pre qualifying for Grand Prix races each missing the cut for qualifying just once at Monaco. However both drivers only qualified once Henton at Monza where he finished 10th and Warwick in the parking lot at Ceasers Palace where he retired.

For the 1982 season Henton opted out and moved to the Tyrrell team while Warwick, who used to be a regular competitor at Aldershot Raceway had won the World Super Stox Championship aged 16 in 1973, was joined by Formula One novice Teo Fabi who had finished third in the 1980 Formula 2 championship.

From 28 attempts to pre qualify in 1982 Warwick and Fabi both failed make the cut once with Warwick qualifying for 11 races and Fabi 7. Warwick managed to finish just two of his 11 starts with a best of tenth place in Germany equalling Henton’s best result at Monza the year before, while Fabi did not finish any of the races he started.

The hight light of the Toleman Teams 1982 season was however the British Grand Prix, having set fastest lap during the previous Dutch Grand Prix, Warwick qualified
16th and proceeded to march through the field with some breath taking maneuver’s during the race. Having worked his way passed Elio de Angelis in a Lotus, Derek Daly in a Williams he next set about attempting to get past the Ferrari of Pironi which proved a little more troublesome as both cars had similar performance thanks to their turbocharged motors however he eventually went past Pironi on the start finish ‘straight’, it’s actually a curve, out braking the Frenchman into the heart stopping paddock bend.

Now in second place Warwick set about catching Niki Lauda who was well ahead however after 40 glorious laps Warwick retired thanks to a broken CV joint in the back of his car, chassis #06, which had acquired the ‘General Belgrano’ nick name from the ancient Argentinian battleship that had been sunk in the 1982 Falklands Conflict. The next week the hitherto back marker and underdog was on the cover of all the magazines and Toleman, Byrne and Warwick began to enjoy some hard earned respectability.

Toleman started scoring points finishes in 1983 and were taken over by Benetton in 1986. Rory Byrne penned many winning cars for them including those driven to championship victories by Micheal Schumacher in 1994 and 1995. Byrne followed Schumacher to Ferrari after a retirement that became a sabbatical for the 1997 season.
Byrnes cars driven by Schumacher dominated the sport from 1999 to 2004 securing 71 victories and six constructors championships and five drivers championships before he retired for good in 2006.

Brian Henton driving his Tyrell got fastest lap at the 1982 British GP and retired from Formula One at the end of the season. Derek Warwick gained a reputation for never being in the right place at the right time in Formula One his best championship finish being 7th in 1984 when he drove for Renault. Derek was crowned World Sports Car Champion in 1992 when he also won the Le Mans 24 hours driving for Peugeot. His 1982 Toleman Team mate Teo Fabi was crowned 1991 World Sports Car Champion in 1991 driving a Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) Jaguar.

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

The English Ford Line – Lotus 28 #17

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I first featured a Ford Consul Cortina by Lotus, Lotus Type 28, just over a year ago and believe the model is worth a second look today because the car featured here is thought to be the 17th of 1000 that were originally scheduled to be built.

Furthermore this car registered ‘166 RUR’ is the first, of a team of twelve works Team Lotus racers, that was built in 1963.

“166 RUR’s” racing career started at Oulton Park on the 20th September 1963 with inaugural, 1958, British Saloon Car Champion Jack Sears at the wheel. This ‘Lotus Cortina’ along with an earlier Ford Cortina GT and Ford Galaxie helped Jack become the British Saloon Car Champion for a second time in 1963.

The week after “166 RUR’s” debut 1963 World Driver Champion Jim Clark took over the wheel at Snetterton, Jim would become the 1964 British Saloon Car Champion driving Works Lotus Cortina’s.

This cars next appearance was as a part of “The English Ford Line” team entered for the Sebring “250” on the 22nd March 1964 with Dan Gurney at the wheel. Dan came in 16th while Clark in the sister team car came home third behind Augie Pabst, driving a Galaxie, and Walt Hangsen driving a Falcon Sprint.

Dan Gurney’s 1964 presidential campaign started by Car and Driver Editor David E. Davis Jr did not get under way until May 1964, just over a month after Dan drove this car.

A variety of drivers continued to campaign “166 RUR” through 1964 including Sir John Whitmore winner at Pensacola, Grand Prix driver Peter Arundell, 6th at Riverside, abd towards the end of the year future TV pundit David Hobbs shared the car with Dave Clark, no relation to Jim, for a 9th place finish in the Marlboro 12 hours in Virginia.

Thanks for joining me on this “The English Ford Line” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now.

When Is A FIAT A Ferrari ? – FIAT Dino 2.4 Spider

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With sales volumes falling production of the FIAT Dino Coupé and Spider was moved from FIAT’s production facilities in Turin to Ferrari’s at Maranello in 1969.

Amongst the changes to the specifications of the Maranello built FIAT Dino’s was an engine upgrade to the larger 178 hp 2.4 litre / 146 cui version of the Dino V6.

An iron block replaced the aluminium block of the smaller motor but aluminium heads were retained. Curiously although the FIAT and Ferrari, as used in the mid engined Dino 206 & 246 GT’s, motors all came from the same production line in Turin Ferrari always liked to quote higher hp figures for ‘his’ motors than FIAT.

The FIAT Dino’s Girling disc brakes are said to be interchangeable with those fitted to the de Tomaso Pantera and Lamboughini Miura.

With the Pininfarina bodied FIAT Spider being built along side the Pininfarina bodied 246 GTS there was not much to tell the two vehicles apart for anyone except the FIAT marketing department. Of the two models the FIAT Dino Spider with only 424 examples built is the rarer against 1,274 Ferrari Dino GT Spiders.

When production of the FIAT Dino Spider moved to Maranello the original live axle and leaf spring rear suspension was replaced with a coil sprung independent rear suspension which shares much in common with the FIAT 130.

Today’s featured 1970 model, seen at last years Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival was acquired as a non runner in 1987 and has been gradually restored ever since.

Thanks for joining me on this “When Is A FIAT A Ferrari” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Formula One Wheels – Shadow Mk II

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A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to receive today’s featured photo’s from Geoffrey Horton of a Shadow Mk II , a vehicle that had been built for Jackie Oliver to drive in the 1971 Can Am Series.

The story of the Shadow racing team begins with an orphan Don Nichols who as a child was influenced by The Shadow radio series, after service in the ’39 – ’45 war and a career in military intelligence Don appears to have gravitated to the world of motor racing supplying American tyres to the Japanese racing fraternity during the 1960’s.

In 1970 Don founded Advanced Vehicle Systems which built a red vehicle notorious for it’s tiny size and wheels designed by Trevor Harris called the Shadow Mk I. The car qualified well with first George Folmer and then Vic Elford at the wheel, but was hampered with a 100% unreliability record not finishing any races.

in 1969 Peter Bryant had designed and entered his titanium chassised Ti 22 Can Am car which Jackie Oliver had been qualifying even better, than the Shadow, ever since it was first seen and managed two 2nd place finishes in 1970.

Bryant ran out of funds for the Ti 22 and both he and Jackie Oliver joined Don Nichols for the 1971 season. Don was keen that Peter keep the frontal area of the Shadow Mark II to a minimum and so the Mk II was designed around Formula One size wheels and tyres which were smaller than those ordinarily found in Can Am.

Powered by a 8.1 litre / 494 cui Chaparral prepared Chevrolet V8 Jackie scored a best third place finish at Edmonton when the car appeared painted white with black lettering on all the upward facing surfaces except the rear wing. Jackie used chassis Mk II #1 through out the 1971 season.

As we shall see next week Peter Bryant was responsible for designing the 1972 Shadow MK III and Jackie for driving it. What I did not know until recently was that Advanced Vehicle Systems built three Mk II monocoque tubs and that all three were used to build the Shadow Mk III which ran on full size Can Am tyres.

In 2009 Don Nichols sold off the chassis, seen here at Marin Sanoma Concours d’Elegance where it won it’s class, which is actually the third chassis that was only ever raced in Mk III specification. Mr Losher the owner decided, that as the first two chassis are still in 1972 Mk III spec, he would build his up to the older 1971 Mk II Formula One wheel spec.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sending me these photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Formula One Wheels” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho” on tyres”, next week I’ll be looking at the Shadow Mk III on Americana Thursday, meantime I hope you will join me for another edition of Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Derelict & Abandoned In Pennsylvania – DB Panhard HBR 5 #1004

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It’s hard to believe that nothing is known about this DB (Deutsch Bonnet) HBR 5, seen at Brooklands a few weeks ago, between it’s export from France to the USA in 1959 until it’s discovery derelict and abandoned in Pennsylvania in 1982.

After restoration to racing spec in 1985 it was shown and raced regularly until 1991 and then stored until 1999.

The current owner acquired it in 2001 and restored it to European road legal condition by 2005.

HBR 5’s were manufactured between 1954 and and 1961. The 850 cc / 51.8 cui 2 cylinder Panhard motors sourced from the Panhard Dyna Z was upgraded from 42 hp to 58 hp spec by René Bonnet.

The upgraded Panhard motor which could be taken up to 6500 rpm when combined with the slippery Charles Deutsch designed body produced a vehicle capable of 140 mph though acceleration was rather leisurely with a rest to 62 mph time of 21.5 seconds.

Available as Coupé’s, Convertibles or outright racers the DB HBR 5 had a long competition career winning it’s class in the Mille Miglia, Le Mans and Sebring multiple times.

Thanks for joining me on this “Derelict & Abandoned In Pennsylvania” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking into the shadow’s on Americana Thursday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Monthly Archives: July 2012

Worlds Oldest MG – MG 14/28 Super Sports

Coffee, Croissant & Cars – Avenue Drivers Club

General Belgrano – Toleman Hart TG 181C #06

The English Ford Line – Lotus 28 #17

When Is A FIAT A Ferrari ? – FIAT Dino 2.4 Spider

Formula One Wheels – Shadow Mk II

Derelict & Abandoned In Pennsylvania – DB Panhard HBR 5 #1004