Monthly Archives: June 2015

The Short One – Alpine A220 #1731

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Following the mixed fortunes of the M series and A210 prototypes Alpine built from 1963 to 1966 the Dieppe based concern decided that the future lay in the new top level Championnat Internationale des Marques for prototype sports cars restricted to using 3 litre / 183 cui motors.

Accordingly in 1967 Alpine built a 3 litre V8 motor with twin overhead chain driven cams and two 1500 cc / 91.5 cui Renault sourced cylinder blocks sharing a common crank.

Alpine A220, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

The A211 chassis for the new engine was a beefed up version of the A210 Len Terry design using larger diameter tubes and similar suspension.

Two A211’s were entered for the 1967 Le Mans 24 hours, but neither arrived and subsequently only one, chassis #1727, appears to have been raced scoring a best third place, three laps in arrears, with Patrick Depailler and André de Cortanze sharing the wheel at Monza in 1968.

Alpine A220, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

Undeterred Alpine revised the A211 in 1968 to become the A220, distinguished by mid mounted radiators ahead of the rear wheels, stronger suspension and larger ventilated disc brakes.

Today’s featured A220 was the second to be built and completed in April 1968 and was taken to the Le Mans Test weekend in April where Mauro Bianchi and Roger Delageneste recorded the 4th best time.

Alpine A220, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

#1731 retired from it’s first two races, at Zeltweg Mauro Bianchi and André de Cortanze retired with an oil leak and Le Mans where Jean Guichet and Jean-Pierre Jabouille retired with alternator failure after 16 hours.

Jean Guichet and Henri Grandsire are believed to have driven this car to a 4th place finish in the 1968 Paris 1000kms.

Alpine A220, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

At the 1968 Moroccan Grand Prix André Guelfi retired #1731 with engine failure and in 1969 1000km race at Spa Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Henri Grandsire are believed to have retired the car with either gearbox or damper failure.

Jean-Luc Thérier and Jean-Pierre Nicolas qualified #1731 19th on the grid with a time of 3m 45s at Le Mans but retired, as did the other three A220’s, after 12 hours with head gasket failure.

Jean Vinatier then competed with #1731 twice recording a 3rd best time on the Chamrousse Hillclimb and 2nd place finish at Nogaro.

Finally Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Jean-Claude Guénard retired today’s featured car, seen at last years Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham, from the Critérium Des Cévennes with alternator failure.

#1731 is unique among A220’s because the aerodynamic tail was shortend in July 1969 and road registered in anticipation of taking part in events like the Tour d’France, plans for which never came to fruition as Alpine withdrew from prototype sports car racing until 1974 when it’s return culminated in winning the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hour race with a the A442 B.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Short One” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be paying a visit to Bournemouth. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Three Rotor Wankel – Mazda 757 #003

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For 1986 the Lucky Strike sponsored Mazdaspeed team employed Nigel Stroud to design a new challenger for Le Mans which was to compete in the IMSA GTP class with a new 3 rotor type 13G Wankel rotary engine rated at 1962 cc / 119 cui.

Three 757 chassis were built #001 was given it’s debut at Suzuka in April 1986 where Yoshimi Katayama, Youjirou Terada and Takashi Yorino finished 6th from 12th on the grid.

#90 URD David Mercer, Jens Winther, #201 Mazda David Kennedy, Takashi Yorino, Kouros 1000 Kms Silverstone,

Chassis #002 and today’s featured #003 got their first runs in the Kouros 1000 Kms at Silverstone where Yoshimi Katayama and Youjirou Terada finished 13th overall and first in GTP with chassis #002.

David Kennedy and Takashi Yorino, seen battling with the #90 URD driven by David Mercer, Jens Winther above, came home 19th one spot behind and on the same lap as the #90 URD, both cars being 38 laps behind the winners Jaguar driven by Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever.

#120 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

Mazdaspeed took all three of it’s 757’s to Le Mans in 1986, but only used two of them in the race.

Both cars, #003 carrying the #120 race number driven by David Kennedy, Mark Galvin and Pierre Dieudonné and #002 carrying the #121 race number driven by Takashi Yorino, Youjirou Terada and Yoshimi Katayama were bought back to the pits at the end of the race after their gearboxes failed after completing 137 laps and 59 laps respectively.

#120 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

The 757’s continued to be campaigned in Japan through 1986 where Yoshimi Katayama and Youjirou Terada scored a season high 4th in the 500 km race at Fuji in November.

Following a 1987 season high 4th place finish at the May Fuji 1000 kms for Takashi Yorino and David Kennedy Mazdaspeed returned to Le Mans with three cars one of which, #002, was retained as a spare.

#120 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

#003 was renumbered possibly with a new chassis #103 and driven by the same David, Mark and Pierre trio as in 1986, but now carrying the #202 race number as seen below.

After starting 28th they finished the race in 7th place overall, first in IMSA, while the new sister chassis #104 carrying the #201 race number driven by the ’86 all Japanese trio of Yoshimi, Youjirou, and Takashi, retired with engine failure after completing just 34 laps.

#202 Mazda 757, David Kennedy, Mark Galvin, Pierre Dieudonné, 24 Heures du Mans, Le Mans,

On it’s return to Japan chassis #003/103 was acquired by Shizumatsu Racing who ran it in Japan during the 1988 and 1989 seasons for Syuuji Fujii, Terumitsu Fujieda, Tetsuji Shiratori, Kaoru Iida and Seisaku Suzuki whose best results were two sixth places during the 1989 season.

Pleasure Racing became the entrant of the car for it’s final season with the drivers Syuuji and Tetsuji being joined by Keiichi Mizutani for one event at Suzuka in September where they finished 14th from 18th on the grid.

Syuuji and Tetsuji rounded out today’s featured cars known career at Fuji in October 1990 with an 8th place finish from 18th on the grid, equaling the 1990 season high finish at the same track in July, from 16th on the grid, when Seisaku was also sharing the driving.

Thanks for joining me on this “Three Rotor Wankel” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looling at a short tailed Alpine. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Letzte Porsche Daimler – Mercedes Benz SSK

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Before leaving Mercedes Benz to set up his own design studio Ferdinand Porsche oversaw the development of a Super Sports Short (Kurz) SSK version of the Mercedes-Benz S Tourer and SS Super Sport models specifically for competition purposes.

Mercedes Benz SSK, Karl Wendlinger, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The SSK was 19 inches shorter than the S and SS models and fitted with the same 7068 cc / 431 cui super charged 6 cylinder overhead valve engine that produced up to 200hp, depending on the degree of tuning required, as found in the longer SS Super Sport.

Mercedes Benz SSK, Karl Wendlinger, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Only 35 SSK’s were built between 1928 and 1932 and they experienced a good degree of success between Rudolf Caracciola’s Irish GP Eireann Cup win aboard Capt Malcolm Campbell’s example in 1930 and Jose Fantó’s Argentinian 500 mile Rafaela race win in October 1950, nineteen fifty.

Mercedes Benz SSK, Karl Wendlinger, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Most significant of the SSK victories would have been on the 1931 Mille Miglia where Rudolf Caracciola and Wilhelm Sebastian won driving an SSKL (Leicht) and the 1931 Spa 24 Hour Race victory for Goffredo Zehender and Dimitri Djordjadze, Rudolf Carraciola’s third place finish in the 1929 Monaco Grand Prix, where more nimble Bugatti’s locked out all six of the remaining top seven places was equally remarkable.

Mercedes Benz SSK, Karl Wendlinger, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

It was left to exiled Russian Imperial Guard Boris Ivanowski to enter an SSK for the Le Mans 24 Hours, he shared his car with Frenchman Henri Stoffel and finished second to a much smaller capacity super charged Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM driven by Bentley exiles Earl Howe and Sir Henry Birkin in 1931.

Mercedes Benz SSK, Karl Wendlinger, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The following year Henri Stoffel entered an SSK for Marcel and Paul Foucret in the Le Mans 24 Hours, but it retired after just 22 laps with piston failure.

An SSK driven by Italian Goffredo Zehender and Russian Dimitri Djordjadze did however win the 24 Hour race at Spa in July 1931.

The exact history of the 1928 SSK driven by Karl Wendlinger and owned by Mercedes Benz Classic as seen in these photographs taken last year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, is not known at this time, if you can fill in any of the gaps don’t hesitate to chime in below.

Thanks for joining me on this “Letzte Porsche Daimler” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you’ll join me again for an ear splitting Mazda Monday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Irascible Swiss Perfectionism – Talbot AV 105 #31054

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At the 1926 London Motor Show Talbot presented it’s new 1665 cc / 101 cui six cylinder 4 seat sports touring car the 14-45 designed by it’s Swiss Automotive Engineer Georges Roesch.

Roesch who was described as an irascible perfectionist, over saw the development of the 20-70 variant of the 14-45 which used the same engine block given larger cylinder bores and strokes with a capacity 2,276 cc / 138 cui that was launched in 1930.

Talbot 105, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

The final iteration of Roesch’s six cylinder, for today’s featured 105 model launched in 1931, again using the same block yielded a displacement of 2969 cc / 181 cui and could be tuned to produce 119 hp for road racing and a reputed 125 hp for racing at Brooklands.

Talbot 105, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

With an eye on the up to 3 litre class spoils and encouraged by Colonel Warwick Wright, Arthur W. Fox and Charles Nicholl entered a team of three Talbot 2.3 litre AO90 cars for Le Mans in 1930 keeping one of them as a spare.

The car driven by Brian Lewis and Hugh Eaton duly finished 3rd overall behind two Bentley Speed Six’s and first in class, 17 laps down on winners Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston, and the second car driven by Johnny Hindmarsh
and Tim Rose-Richards finished 4th overall.

Talbot 105, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

In 1931 Arthur W. Fox and Charles Nicholl took a team of three 3 litre / 183 cui AV 105’s to Le Mans and today’s featured chassis #31054 was the spare.

Tim Rose-Richards and Owen Saunders-Davies completed 173 laps to finish third 11 laps behind the winning supercharged Alfa Romeo 8C 2300LM, also running in the 3 litre class driven by Lord Howe and Sir Henry Birkin and a supercharged 7.1 litre Mercedes Benz driven by Boris Ivanowski and Henri Stoffel (F)

Talbot 105, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

In 1932 AW Fox entered two AV 105 cars for the Le Mans 24 Hours, one as a spare and #31054 got it’s turn to shine as the nominated race car with Brian Lewis and Tim Rose-Richards at the wheel.

Completing 180 laps Brian and Tim finished 3rd a staggering 38 laps behind the winning super charged Alfa Romeo driven by Raymond Sommer and Luigi Chinetti which finished two laps ahead of it’s sister car driven by Franco Cortese and Giovanni Battista Guidotti.

Talbot 105, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

During the 1931 season Humfrey Symons and Norman Garrad, drove #31054 on the Alpine Rally winning the Glacier Cup, while John Cobb drove the car to a 6th place finish overall 2nd in class in the Brooklnds 500 with a speed of 104.60 mph.

After Le Mans in 1932 Johnny Hindmarsh drove #31054 in the Tourist Trophy but finished unclassified four laps down on the winning Riley 9 driven by Cyril Whitcroft, the sister 105 #31053 driven by Tim Rose-Richards did a little better finishing 6th two laps down.

Talbot 105, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

At the 1932 Brooklands Autumn Meeting Irish speedway rider Fay Taylour was entrusted with #31054 where she finished second in the Ladies Race.

The cars last known in period result for #31054 came on the first of September 1934 when it was entered by D. C. Sidebottom for Earl Howe in the Tourist Trophy where it was classified 13th.

Talbot 105, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

GO54 is currently owned by Nicholas Pellett who is seen driving the car at the recent Silverstone Classic Test Day.

During the course of the day Nicholas kindly took me for a thrilling ride around the circuit, the overwhelming memory of which was the comfortable ride afforded by the Luvax hydraulic dampers and the smooth pull of the straight six engine.

My thanks to Nicholas for his hospitality.

Thanks for joining me on this “Irascible Swiss Perfectionism” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a 1930 Mercedes Benz. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Belgian Pseudonym City – Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta #1321GT

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Welcome back to a short run of Ferrari Friday’s which will be running during the month of June.

Amazingly of the seven Belgian drivers known to have raced today’s featured 1959 Ferrari 250 LWB GT, only one raced the car under his own name.

Chassis #1321GT with a Single Louvre body by Scaglietti was supplied to Garage Francorshamps for “Jean Beurlys” aka Jean Blaton.

Ferrari 250 LWB GT, Sanoma Hisotrics,

“Beurlys” drove the car on five occasions between 1959 and 1960 starting with a 2nd place overall and first in GT Class on the Tour de Cote de La Roche-en-Ardenne on the 12th of April 1959 which was followed two weeks later by the Le Mans Test Weekend in which he recorded 4th fastest time with same car.

Armand Blaton who raced under the pseudonym “Blary” won the Course de Cote de Charleroi, Bomerée hillclimb out right with #1321GT on the 31st May 1959 before the car was taken to the Nurburging where brothers “Beurlys” and “Blary” shared the driving to a 9th place finish overall, first GT Class, in the 1000 kms race.

Before the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour race the car was taken back to the factory for servicing, repairs and for the original black stripe to be replaced with a yellow stripe.

Ferrari 250 LWB GT, Sanoma Hisotrics,

For the French endurance classic “Beurlys” teamed up with “Eldé” alias Léon Dernier who obviously had a sense of humour when choosing his pseudonym with LD being his initials.

All joking aside the Belgian pair driving the freshly restripped #1321GT finished 3rd and again took class honours after 24 hours of racing.

“Beurlys” was entered by Ecurie Francorchamps to drive #1321GT in the Monza Grand Prix for GT cars but appears for reasons unknown not to have started the race.

Ferrari 250 LWB GT, Sanoma Hisotrics,

Belgian Pierre Noblet became the first driver to compete in #1321GT under his own name when he shared the driving with “Beurlys” and “Eldé” at the 1960 Le Mans Test Weekend where the car was again credited with 4th quickest time overall, first in GT.

In May 1960 German architect Manfred Ramminger bought the car, but is only known to have entered it on one occasion for the 500 kms race at Spa in May 1963 where he is listed as having failed to arrive.

The original engine was reported as damaged and has been replaced twice since 1966, the car made it’s way to the USA in 1968 and has been with it’s present owner Charles T. Wegner since July 2011.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photo’s of #1321GT taken at the Sanoma Historics last year.

Thanks for joining me on this “Belgian Pseudonym City” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a a 1931 Talbot 105 Team Car “G054”

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Anny-Charlotte Ralph And Bob – Porsche 935 K3/80 #009 00030

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It is quite perverse to try and write a comprehensive story about today’s featured Porsche 935 chassis #009 00030 which took part in 6 Daytona and 4 Le Mans 24 hour races, winning the former with Bob Garretson, Bobby Rahal and Brian Redman at the wheel in 1981 and hitting headlines around the world when Rolf Stommelen, Dick Barbour and a certain Paul Newman drove the car to a second place finish at Le Mans in 1979 in a single blog, so I will focus on some of the cars highlights, owners and star drivers for now.

Porsche 935 K3/80, Verney, Kent-Cooke, Garretson, Le Mans

Rolf, Dick and Paul proved their result at Le Mans was no fluke when they finished second on the cars second appearance in the ’79 Watkins Glen 6 Hour race.

French driver Anny-Charlotte Verney shared #009 00030 for the first timeApple, on it’s final appearance carrying customer Porsche 935/77A bodywork, with Bob Garretson and Skeeter McKitterick for a 9th place finish in the 1980 Daytona 24 hour race.

At the Sebring 12 Hour race #009 00030 was fitted with Kremer Brothers K3 bodywork which carried sponsorship from Apple Computer and was driven to a 7th place finish by Bob, Bobby Rahal and Canadian Kees Nierop.

At Le Mans in 1980 Bob and Bobby were joined by Australian Alan Moffat to qualify 14th on the grid but piston failure led to the cars only Le Mans retirement after it had completed 134 laps.

After winning the Daytona 24 hours in 1981 the same winning Bob, Bobby and Brian trio finished 17th from 4th on the grid in the 1981 Sebring 12 Hours.

Part owner Bob Garrettson, with Ralph Kent-Wood, stepped back from the driving seat to allow Bobby and Brian to share the wheel to finish 3rd and 4th at Riverside and Laguna Seca.

The #009 00030 was then shipped to Le Mans where owners Bob and Ralph teamed up with British Petrolium (BP) sponsored Anny-Charlotte Verney to set a qualifying time of 3 min 55.150, good enough for 33rd spot on the grid.

Anny-Charlotte sharing the car for the second time with Bob and Ralph drove the car, seen above 23 hours into the race, to 6th place finish.

The car remained competitive for the remainder of the 1981 IMSA season which included a 3rd place finish with Bob, Rick Mears and Johnny Rutherford in the 1981 Watkins Glen 6 hour race.

In 1982 Bob was joined at the wheel of #009 00030 by Columbian Mauricio DeNarvaez and Jeff Wood at Daytona where they finished 3rd in the season opening 24 hours race.

Bob teamed up with Anny-Charlotte for a third time in #009 00030 for the 1982 Le Mans 24 Hours and they were joined by Ray Ratcliff for the cars final Le Mans start, from 43rd on the grid they salvaged an 11th place finish.

Wayne Baker bought #009 00030 for the 1983 season and converted it from twin turbo 935 spec to single turbo 934 spec and ran it with a loose interpretation of 934 bodywork at Daytona where he drove the car with Bob and Jim Mullen to a 9th place finish and in the 1983 Sebring 12 hours where Kees replace Bob and with Wayne and Jim scored the cars second and final outright victory.

At the end of 1983 #009 00030 was returned to full twin turbo 935 K3 spec and on it’s fifth appearance in the Daytona 24 hours was driven by Wayne, Jim and Tom Blackaller to a 5th place finish from 12th on the grid, from the same position on the grid at Sebring the same trio finished a season high 4th.

#009 00030’s final appearance in the Daytona 24 hours was in 1985 when Jack Newsum, Chip Mead and Ren Tilton joined Wayne for a 9th place finish from 28th on the grid.

Midway through 1985 Chester Vincentz bought the car and converted it back to single turbo 934 spec and ran it IMSA GTO events with a 934 type body in 1985 and a hybrid 935 body in 1986 and ’87 as a 930 S.

On the October 4th 1987Chester drove #009 00030 to a 12th place finish from 12th on the grid on the cars 72nd and final known in period appearance.

Thanks for joining me on this Anny-Charlotte, Bob and Ralph edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when Ferrari Friday will be making a month long return. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Securing The Boondocks – Hullavington Wessex Sprint

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On Bank Holiday Monday the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club ran it’s Wessex Sprint at the Hullavington airfield, normally a site open to the public, today’s random selection of photographs were taken in between keeping the perimeter road free of dangerous mowing tractors, cyclists, joggers and dog walkers.

Van Diemen DC 93 M, Hullavington Wessex Sprint

It was a thrill to finally catch sight of Dave Cutcliffe’s much modified Formula Ford Van Diemen DC 93 M which is powered by a turbocharged motor cycle engine, Dave was disappointed to be a second off fastest time of the day, but given he had an ECU fault in the morning had to settle for fastest in the top racing car class.

Peugeot 309 GTi, Ray Sissins, Hullavington Wessex Sprint

Ray Sissins from nearby Devizes is seen above negotiating the second chicane in his 1987 #21 Peugeot 309 GTi.

Audi Quattro, Andy Trayner, Hullavington Wessex Sprint

Andy Traynor celebrated what would turn out to be the fastest time in his class with 11 seconds of lawn mowing before the second chicane on his final run of the day in the Audi Quattro he shares with Tim Clarke.

Andrew James, Nissan GTR, Hullavington Wessex Sprint

Andrew and Robert James brought their Nissan GTR all the way over from Bridgend and secured the top two spots in the top Road Going Production Class with Robert pipping Andrew seen above running the #35.

Radical SR4, Stewart Lillington, Hullavington Wessex Sprint

2nd in the Sports Libre Class was Stewart Lillington seen above driving the #77 Radical SR4.

Hawke DL16, Jeremy Hawke, Hullavington Wessex Sprint

Regular readers might remember blogs about Jeremy Hawkes MG J2 and MG K3, he also runs this #91 Hawke DL16 thanks to his Dad who helped him out with the costs towards the engine and gearbox.

Jeremy is particularly keen to hear from any one who has a photo or photo’s of Jan Lammers driving a #36 Hawke to a 19th place finish in the B.R.D.C. Vandervell British F3 Championship at Donington Park on the 27th of August 1977, chime in below if you can help.

Thanks for joining me on this “Securing The Boondocks” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be returning to this month’s Le Mans series. Don’t forget to come back now !

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