Tag Archives: 55

No Wings – DAF Oldsmobile 55

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In 1967 DAF made a bold move away from the aircooled powered roots for it’s motor cars and introduced it’s passenger car the “goat nimble” DAF 55 powered by a 50hp 1108cc 4 cylinder water cooled Renault engine.

DAF Oldsmobile 55, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

In one of the earliest copies of MotorSport I bought in 1973 this 5 litre / 302 cui 450 hp V8 Oldsmobile powered DAF 55 got a mention when driver Tony Hazelwood recorded a Super Saloon lap record of over 100mph at Thruxton, the year after the DAF 55 model went out of production.

DAF Oldsmobile 55, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Ray Kilminster the builder of this device took a Dutch DAF 55 Coupe shell hooked it up with suspension, brakes and transmission from a March Formula 2 single seat vehicle and then shoehorned the largest available engine into what ever space was remained, then fitted F1 spec wheels and tyres before letting it loose on the race tracks of Britain.

DAF Oldsmobile 55, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Weighing only 700 kgs the vehicle had good weight distribution, because it followed the original DAF 55 pattern of having an engine in the front and transmission in the back, the Super Saloon regulations to which this car was built mandated pretty much anything, except any variation of the original engine and transmission layout which the car was supposed to represent and aerodynamic wings.

Tony Hazelwood the original driver, seen in the top photograph about to enter the car at Goodwood Festival of Speed, restored it with some of it’s other previous owners, due to improvements in tyre technology he has had to fit stiffer springs so that the car is now faster than ever before.

More details about the car and how you could take a stake in it and or drive it are available from Tony’s website linked here.

Thanks for joining me on this “No Wings” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Tomorrow Another Life – GALPOT Automobilia

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I’ve been having a bit of a clear out whilst reorganising my library and the time has come to dispose of a number of items which may be of interest through my lightpress account on e-bay.

Chevrolet Corvair

From this weeks batch of French car advertisements taken form Connaissance des Arts magazine that I have posted comes this second generation Chevrolet Corvair ad which dates from 1965. Second generation Corvairs featured minor exterior restyling and independent rear suspension in place of the patented swing axle design of the earlier cars.

FIAT 850 Coupé

Also dating from around 1965 was this Fiat 850 Coupé ad with the wonderful strap line that translates “Tomorrow Another Life”. Regular readers may remember a FIAT 850 Automatic featured in an early GALPOT blog.

Mercedes Benz 230 SL

This ‘Pagoda’ Mercedes Benz 230 SL ad from 1966 asks “Do you want test the Mercedes Benz 230 SL?” with the reponse “Maybe, but then you will lose the peace you had before trying this car”. The 230 SL replaced the 300SL and was the first Mercedes Benz to be fitted with radial construction tyres as standard.

DAF 55 Automatique

Michelotti is probably best remembered for styling numerous Triumphs including Herald / Vitesse, Spitfire / GT6, TR7 / TR8 rare Italia 2000 and exotic SIATA 400F Coupé among many others, unknown to me until I posted this ad on e-bay was the he also styled the Dutch built DAF 55 Automatique powered by a French Renault watercooled motor driving the rear wheels through a continuously variable transmission.

Jaguar XJ6

Finally appealing “for some certain style of man” is this Jaguar XJ6 ad with a photo credited to JM Kollar dating from 1970, I have posted are two further XJ6 ads dating to 1971 and 1973 when production of the Series 1 XJ6 came to an end.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tomorrow Another Life” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a sample of the vehicles that were on display at the recent Hillsbrough Concours d’Elegance. Don’t forget to come back now !

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