Monthly Archives: November 2015

Tailor Made Motor House – Mercedes Benz 36/220 #35906

The original of today’s featured 1928 Mercedes Benz 36/220, Charles Gerald Brocklebank, is known to have competed with a Mathis in pre-World War 1 Oxford University Motor Club speed trials. After serving through out the 1914-18 war as a Captain with the Royal Engineers for which he was decorated with 1914 Star, Military Cross and Médaille militaire he forged a successful career as a broker in the City of London.

C.G., as he was often referred to in the contemporary press, also tuned a Schneider raising it’s top speed from 55 mph to 72 mph before buying a 1913 Grand Prix Peugeot which he named “Laura”.

He was to accompany Captain James Algernon Toop, formerly of Home Counties Divisional Supply, as passenger aboard the Peugeot for a race at Brooklands in 1924, but elected not to in order to save weight, Capt. Toop was killed while racing for lead when the Peugeot went over the Brooklands banking.

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C.G. Brocklebank also briefly owned the 1914 Mercedes Benz with which Christian Lautenschlager won the 1914 French Grand Prix.

On the 28th of February 1928 C.G. ordered today’s featured Mercedes Benz 36/220, it was delivered sans body on April 13th the same year for Cadogan Motors Ltd. to create and fit the lightweight fabric-skinned body.

#35906 was registered for the road in the UK on the 22nd of May 1928 and C.G. had a tailor made motor house erected to accommodate it at his property Giffords Hall, Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk.

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Upon his death in 1940 C.G Brocklebank’s son inherited the car and kept it in the same tailor made motor house where it remained until C.G Brocklebank’s grandson inherited it.

When the grandson disposed of #35906 in 2012, after 84 years ownership in a single family, it was still in running condition showing just 8,375 “probably genuine” miles on the clock, the car is seen in these photographs at the Brooklands Double 12 meeting prior to it’s sale at auction for £2,801,500 including buyers premium.

My thanks to Tim Murray and Richard “Vitesse 2” Armstrong at The Nostalgia Forum for helping me to identify C.G. Brocklebank as the original owner of today’s featured car.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tailor Made Motor House” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Matra Simca. Don’t forget to come back now !

Ken’s Samaritan Karma – Ford Escort RS1800

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When Ken Jones set off from Nottingham with his mates in his 1970 3 litre / 183 cui Ford Capri registration “EVO 281J” to spectate on the Lombard Esso Scottish Rally in June 1976 he could have had little idea how his Samaritan spirit would either enter rallying folklore or be rewarded.

Ford Escort RS1800, Vatanen, Rally Day, Castle Combe,

Today’s featured Allied Polymer Group sponsored works Ford Escort RS1800 first came to the public’s attention in November 1975 when Timo Mäkinen and Henry Lydden over came several punctures and drove the car to victory on the RAC Lombard Rally to become the first driver and co driver pairing to win the Rally three times in a row.

Ford Escort RS1800, Vatanen, Rally Day, Castle Combe,

The following season LAR 801P was assigned to Finish young gun Ari Vatanen, seen at the wheel in these photographs taken at Castle Combe’s recent Rally Day, who despite crashing out of the 1975 RAC Rally was offered a shot at the 1976 British Rally Championship.

Ford Escort RS1800, Vatanen, Rally Day, Castle Combe,

Ari and co driver Peter Bryant went into the 1976 Scottish rally on a high, having won the previous championship round the Western Mail International Welsh Rally a month earlier and were leading the Scottish at the start of stage 13, but only managed to roll out of the stage after the crown wheel and pinion in the differential broke, depriving the rear wheels of any drive from the engine.

Ford Escort RS1800, Vatanen, Rally Day, Castle Combe,

These parts were hitherto considered so reliable that no spares were carried by the Ford Team and rival manufacturer Opel’s service chief Robin Turvey recommended to Ford service chief Mick Jones that he look for a 3 litre Ford Capri which would have the necessary parts in the back axle to keep Ari in the Rally.

Ford Escort RS1800, Vatanen, Rally Day, Castle Combe,

With time ticking away innocent passer by Ken Brown was flagged down by Peter Bryant and kindly agreed to let Mick and and Ari along with Fords Competition manager Peter Ashcroft take the pieces they needed from his back axle of his 3 litre and fit them to the stricken Escort.

Ford Escort RS1800, Vatanen, Rally Day, Castle Combe,

Ari and Peter set off with just enough time to remain in the rally, but with the rear axle ratio’s no longer optimised for the high rpm four cylinder BDA motor, they completed just four more stages before retiring from the event that was won by the RS1800 driven by Russell Brooks who finished ahead of another RS1800 driven by Roger Clark.

Ari and Peter went on to win the 1976 Manx International Rally which was enough for them to secure the British Rally Championship, Ari won the title again in 1980 with Dave Richards a year before the same duo won the 1981 World Rally Championship.

A couple of weeks ago I was at an event where Ford’s Mick Jones was one of the guests of honour and he recounted how after Ken Browns back axle was repaired the dealer had a mishap when trying to deliver the Capri back to Ken and so the damaged car was sent to the works competition department at Boreham for further repairs, when Boreham tried to deliver the car they too had a mishap and eventually it was decided to rewards Ken’s loyalty to the brand with a spanking new car.

Footage of Ken Brown’s 1971 Capri’s encounter with works Ford Rally team described above can be seen on this youtube link.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ken’s Samaritan Karma” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Mercedes Monday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

1967 Clubmans Champion – Chevron B2 #Heerey

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One of the great joys of having a collection of photographs that rapidly became so vast there is no chance I will ever be able to write about them all, let alone remember them all, is stumbling across images of vehicles I know a lot more about since the last time I saw them, one such is today’s 1966 Chevron B2 seen in today’s photograph taken by Geoffrey Horton last year at the Sanoma Historics meeting.

Since I last saw this image I have written a little in recent weeks about the Chevron B1 and B2 models.

During the course of looking for information about those two models I found out, thanks to the efforts of Tony “Giraffe” Gallagher some years ago that, today’s featured car was originally owned by Howard Heerey who drove the car to 21 victories in 1967 which was enough to secure the National Clubmans Championship.

Chevron B2, Sonoma Historics

In the late 1960’s John Love of Barnsley and Barry Joel of Sheffield bought the car for £500 each, John eventually bought Barry’s share of the B2 modifying it and racing it to many successes particularly in the Northern Clubmans Championship.

John Love, a distant relative of the South African naturalised Rhodesian Formula One driver of the same name, found this car to be much better handling than his previous Lotus 7 but even with more horsepower was not as quick as the lighter 7.

He retired from racing in 1973 and sold the car to to Vin Malkie, “for peanuts” on the understanding that he would restore it as the historic racing car we see today.

In May 2009 new owner Edward Carden, brother of former Chevron B2 racer John Carden returned to the tracks with the refurbished car at Donington Park since when it has changed roll over bars several times.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing this photograph.

Thanks for joining me on this 1967 Clubmans Champion edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the story of a good samaritan from Nottingham in Scotland.

Formula One Power – Ferrari 342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet #0234AL

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In 1950 Ferrari began building a series of 23 340 America’s powered by his 4.1 litre / 250 cui long block V12’s designed by Aurelio Lampredi initially for Ferrari’s 375 Formula One programme.

342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

1952 the 342 America was introduced 5 of which were fitted with an improved version 4.1 litre / 250 cui V12 and one, today’s featured chassis #0234 AL, was fitted with 4.5 litre / 274 cui V12 which technically makes it a 375 but for some reason is known as a 342.

342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

#0234AL has an even chassis number, usually reserved for works team racing cars, as do all the other twenty three 340’s and five 342’s unlike the 11 375 America’s built from 1953 to 1954 which all have the usual odd chassis numbers used for Ferrari road cars.

342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

On the 6th of November 1952, coincidentally sixty three years ago to the day, chassis #0234AL was delivered to Carrozzeria Pininfarina where the Cabriolet body was fitted.

342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

In May 1953 King Leopold III. of Belgium took delivery of the car and is believed to have kept it for only two years before selling it to Garage Francorchamps in Brussels, Belgium.

342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

John Mastroianni of Armonk, NY founder of Auto Torismo Sport now in New Milford Conneticut owned #0234AL from somewhere in the 1960’s to 1998 alongside his 250 GTO and a 500 Superfast and numerous other desirable vehicles mostly of Italian origin.

342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

#0234AL has resided in California since October 1998 and has won numerous awards at Concours d’Elegance events ever since.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs of #0234AL taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance earlier this year.

Thanks for joining me on this “Formula One Power” edtion of “Getin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another Chevron. Don’t forget to come back now !

Hemispherical FirePower – Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe Newport

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The advantages of a hemispherical cylinder head are that it makes an efficient combustion chamber with minimal heat loss to the cylinder head, however there are numerous difficulties to be overcome to make such a head reliable and commercially viable due to the complexity of the cross flow valve gear, the need for domed piston crowns to attain the necessary compression ratio and the need for high octane fuel to prevent inefficient and destructive detonation in the combustion chamber.

Chrysler engineers began developing hemispherical combustion chambers in 1940 for an inverted V16 that powered a prototype for the P.47H Tunderbolt and was considered for the XP.60C, but the motor was so delayed it never went into production.

Later Chrysler also worked on a hemi head design with Continental for the 810hp Continental AV-1790-5B V12, air-cooled twin-turbo gasoline engine that powered the M47 Patton Tank which was manufactured from 1951 to 1953.

Chrysler New Yorker, Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance

In 1951 Chrysler introduced it’s first FirePower V8’s with hemispherical heads on the New Yorker and Imperial models and as an option for the Saratoga.

Bill Sterling and Robert H. Sandidge drove a Hemi powered Saratoga to a third place finish in the 1951 Carrera Panamericana finishing behind two Ferrari 212 Inters, less than 16 mins behind the winning car driven by Piero Taruffi and Luigi Chinetti.

Similarly Belgian Paul Frére drove Hemi powered Saratogas’s to class wins at the Mille Miglia and Spa 24 Hour races, Lee Petty won the first of his three NASCAR titles in 1954 scoring seven victories in Hemi powered Chryslers and Dodges.

Chrysler New Yorker, Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance

The grill on today’s featured car suggests that it is a Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe Newport built for the 1954 model year which was fitted with a 235 hp version of the Hemi that was good for a theoretical top speed of 97 mph.

New Yorkers appeared on the Carrera Panamericana in 1951,’52 and ’53 but were not as successful as the Saratoga, Reginald McFee scored the models best result a 12th place finish in 1952.

Today’s featured New Yorker was driven on the 2011 Carrera Panamericana by David Buchanan and New York auto engineer Raffi Najjarian dropping out on day 2, I believe they finished third in class with the same car in the 2015 edition of the event.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photographs taken at Palo Alto Concours d’Elegance in 2011.

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

Autumn BRMs – Castle Combe

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The recent Autumn Classic at Castle Combe saw a fabulous collection of vehicles being displayed and demonstrated alongside the racing action, today’s blog looks at the BRM’s present.

BRM Type 15, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Unfortunately neither the National Motor Museum’s BRM Type 15 in the background not the Donington Park Grand Prix Collections P18 Mk2 in the foreground were able to run during the event which marked the 60th Anniversary of the last works appearance of the P18 Mk2 and end of the BRM V16 project, at Castle Combe.

BRM P48, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

I believe Stuart Hall was demonstrating the 1960 BRM P48, which he restored in 2006, the first model BRM built with the motor behind the driver.

BRM P261, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

The BRM P261 was the first monocoque BRM, and unlike the Lotus 25 which had a bathtub shaped monocoque the P261 had a tube shaped monocoque, I believe Andrew Waring is seen at the wheel of chassis #2615 here.

BRM P167, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Stephen Hepworth really got the audiences attention with his Dad David’s Can Am BRM P167 by not holding back on the throttle of the unsilenced 8 litre / Chevrolet V8 motor.

BRM P160, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Music to the ears award however was shared by the likewise unsilenced pair of BRM P160’s, seen with circa 1972 B bodywork specification above, is 1973 chassis #P160/8 used by Niki Lauda until he crashed it at the Nurburgring, with John Burt at the wheel…

BRM P160, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

and 1973 E specifcation, driven by Simon Burt both members of the BRM Association.

My thanks to Castle Combe historian Pete Stowe for helping to identify the drivers of the P160’s.

Thanks for joining me on this “Autumn BRMs” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a vehicle that competed in the Carrera Panamerica. Don’t forget to come back now !

Swiss Hill Climb Champion – Abarth Simca 2Mila Corsa #0051

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Keen to promote a sporting image Simca turned to renowned Fiat tuner and racing car manufacturer Carlo Abarth to help them achieve their goal in the early 1960’s.