Tag Archives: 80

Honest No Nonsense Teresa – Ford Cortina Mk V 1.6 L Estate

On the 24th August 1979 Ford launched the final iteration of it’s Cortina model that had dominated the British sales charts every year since 1972 except 1976, when the more economical Ford Escort Mk II took the top spot.

Ford Cortina Mk V 1.6L Estate, Summer Classics, Easter Compton,

Developed under the project name Teresa the Mk V Cortina featured new front wings, bonnet and grill, new bumpers with fashionable plastic end caps, side trim and the saloon / sedan had new larger fear light clusters.

Ford Cortina Mk V 1.6L Estate, Summer Classics, Easter Compton,

The rear of the Mk V Estate / Wagon, which accounted for 20% of Cortina sales, was identical to the Mk IV apart from the bumpers, stiffer suspension and lower gearing also differentiated the two variants.

Ford Cortina Mk V 1.6L Estate, Summer Classics, Easter Compton,

One contemporary report sumarised the 1’6 GL Estate as “an honest no nonsense workhorse” that was “also surprisingly refined and agile.”

Ford Cortina Mk V 1.6L Estate, Summer Classics, Easter Compton,

On the 22nd July 1982 the last Cortina rolled off the production line at Dagenham when the model was replaced by the Sierra, nearly two months later on the 17th of September 1982 today’s featured 1.6L estate / wagon was registered for it’s first owner, helping to make the Cortina the UK market’s second best selling car of 1982 when the sales charts were topped by the Ford Escort Mk III.

Thanks for joining me on this “Honest No Nonsense Teresa” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a limited edition hot rod. Don’t forget to come back now !

Guaranteed 80mph – Chrysler Imperial 80

A year after founding Chrysler in 1925 and launching the first Chrysler cars Walter P Chrysler moved into the prestige segment of the automobile market occupied by Cadillac and Lincoln.

02 Chrysler Imperial 80_0192sc

The Chrysler Imperial 80 was first shown at the 1926 New York Show, the 80 signifying that the car was guaranteed to reach 80 mph.

Chrysler Imperial 80, Classic Run, Chipping Sodbury

To meet the guaranteed top speed the Imperial was fitted with a 4.7 litre / 288 cui straight 6 which produced 92 horsepower, enough to propel the car from rest to 60 mph in less than 20 seconds with a gearbox that featured only 3 forward speeds.

Chrysler Imperial 80, Classic Run, Chipping Sodbury

The first generation Imperial was offered with a variety of bodies that included; roadster with rumble seat, four-seat coupé, five-passenger sedan or phaeton, and a seven-passenger limousine.

Chrysler Imperial 80, Classic Run, Chipping Sodbury

Motor cycle racer and later publisher Floyd Clymer drove a Chrysler Imperial 80 in 1926 from Denver to Kansas in just under 14 hours to average just over 51 mph over 700 miles, astonishing given that only 200 miles of the route was on paved roads.

Chrysler Imperial 80, Classic Run, Chipping Sodbury

The first generation Chrysler Imperial remained in production until 1930 by which time a four speed transmission was available.

Chrysler Imperial 80, Classic Run, Chipping Sodbury

The Imperial 80 Roadster seen in these photo’s taken at last years Classic Run in Chipping Sodbury was first registered in the UK on the 23rd of October 1926.

Thanks for joining me on this “Guaranteed 80mph” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Definetly Not The Right One – Lotus Ford 80 #R1

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Colin Chapman described the Lotus Ford 80 at it’s launch in the Kentagon at Brands Hatch in 1979 as the best looking Lotus he had ever built. Reigning World Champion Mario Andretti said it would make the Lotus Ford 79 with which he won the 1978 World Championship look like a London Bus.

Unfortunately the car with the revolutionary venturi under the nose and a second under the rest of the body and with out the usual wings front and rear proved to be a bit of a handful with unpredictable handling once it started running on the track and it was only a matter of time before Colin Chapman and his engineers were removing the skirts that sealed the airflow beneath the nose and fitting conventional front wings to aid the aerodynamic poise and balance of the car.

The whole point of the design was to make the Lotus 80 faster down the straights than the Lotus 79 by not having any wings fitted at all. However all was not lost at Brands Hatch, as seen in Sven Platts photo below, the car was only used as a spare, but in the next race the Spanish Grand Prix Mario Andretti qualified a respectable forth behind the two hitherto dominant Ligiers that were the most effective copies of the previous seasons Lotus 79 and the more powerful Ferrari 312 T4 of Gilles Villeneuve.

Patrick Depaillier won the Spanish Grand Prix in his Ligier from Carlos Reutemann, in the Lotus Teams older Lotus 79, who finished ahead of Mario in the Lotus 80. The Spanish Grand Prix turned out to be the highlight of the Lotus 80’s short life, at Monaco Mario could only qualify 13th and at the French GP where a heavily revised second Lotus 80 was tested Mario qualified 12th but he retired with suspension and brake issues from each of these races respectively.

The final appearance of the Lotus 80 was at the British Grand Prix at Silvestone where I took the photograph below. Mario practised in the car but decided he was better off with his year old Lotus 79 which by now was swamped by new designs which emulated it and the more powerful, ultimately 1979 championship winning, Ferrari T4s.

I believe these photographs all show the same chassis namely Lotus Ford 80 R1 which today appears to be owned by Manfredo Rossi a member of the Martini Rossi family that sponsored team Lotus in 1979.

Thanks for joining me on this “Definitely Not The Right One” edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Off The M4 – Atwell Wilson Motor Museum

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For several years now every month I have been making a trip up to London to go and see my folks, on the way back no matter what time of day I frequently find myself in a traffic jam some where around J18 on the M4 which could add anything up to an hour on my normal 2 hour journey time.

About 18 months ago forewarned, by a big new electric message board on the M4, of an impending jam between Junction 18 and 20 I took a detour and followed the A338 from Junction 14 down to Upper Eddington and then followed the A4 west to Bristol.

Going through Calne I passed a sign for a Motor Museum, 18 months later with a little time on my hands I managed to follow the sign about a mile down Stockley Lane and on the left I found the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum.

Entrance is an unbelievably low £5 and within were over 100 2, 3, 4 wheeled vehicles, and one soon to depart 6 wheel World War 2 AEC RAF Refuelling Tanker.

The collection can broadly be divided into vintage and classic mass production vehicles with a particularly interesting collection of Limousines both British and American which are available at very reasonable rates for wedding hire.

The Atwell Wilson Museum was founded by Richard and Hasel Atwell, who lived in Wiltshire all of their lives, in 1962 they started collecting vehicles with a local connection and maintaining them in a road worthy condition. Richard passed away last year, the Museum that has grown out of the collection is run by 15 volunteers.

On the weekend of July 9th and 10th the museum will be hosting a classic car weekend, if you have a classic car, or even if you don’t but would like to attend call 01249 813119 or e-mail enquiries@atwellwilson.org.uk for details. I shall look forward to attending on one of the two days.

Thanks for popping by today’s Atwell – Wilson edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a closer look at the Atwell – Wilsons 1962 Plymouth Fury. Don’t for get to come back now !