Tag Archives: Automotive

Beyond Injury Achieving The Extraordinary – Qt Wildcat 500 DKR

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The Wildcat is a space frame off road competition vehicle developed by Bowler in Derbyshire who sold the production rights to Qt Services based in Plymouth in December 2007. Qt Services appear to have rebranded themselves Wildcat Automotive who now offer a range of off road vehicles themselves, apparently in competition with Bowler.

Today’s featured 120 mph Qt Wildcat is powered by a Jaguar derived 280 4 litre / 244 cui V8 which drives the wheels on both the Land Rover Defender derived solid axles through a Sadev SCL90 6-speed transmission.

The 365 litre / 80 gal imp / 96 gal US fuel tank gives the Wildcat a range of between 400 to 600 miles and the engine can run on petrol between 88 – 98 octane

Qt Wildcat 500 DKR, Capt Tony Harris, Goodwood Festival of Speed

PUD 755, registered on 19th September 2005, is part of a fleet of Wildcats run by the Race2Recovery Offroad Rally Raid Team founded in 2011 by Capt Tony Harris, a former Infantry Officer for the Royal Fusiliers and Cpl Tom Neathway as a platform for ex military personnel with combat incurred life changing injuries to exercise their adventurous spirit in off road competition while raising funds and profile of the Help for Heroes Charity and Tedworth House Personnel Recovery Centre in Tidworth, Wiltshire, where many injured in combat recover from their injuries.

Race2Recovery, who’s strap line reads “Beyond Injury Achieving The Extraordinary”, achievement’s include first disabled team to; complete the Turaeg Rally in 2012, complete the Dakar Rally in a car, Qt Wildcat500 DKR, 2014, complete the Dakar Rally in a Truck 2014, complete a British Offroad Rally 2014, 2nd place overall in the Defender Challenge 2014 and last year to win a British Offroad Rally Championship Event.

Thanks for joining me on this “Beyond Injury Achieving The Extraordinary” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a chain drive Mercedes Monday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Faster Than Enzo – Maserati MC12 Stradale

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The Maserati MC12 Stradale is the road going variant of the Maserati MC12 Competizione which successfully took Maserati back to the race tracks on the FIA GT Circuit in 2005.

Maserati MC12 Stradale, Desert Classics Concours d'Elegance,

Sharing a chassis, modified motor, running gear and windscreen with the Enzo Ferrari the rest of the body was originally conceived by Giorgetto Giugiaro and stylised with the aid of a wind tunnel by Frank Stephenson.

Maserati MC12 Stradale, Desert Classics Concours d'Elegance,

The two batches of 25 MC12 Stradales built in 2004 and 2005 were only delivered in white and blue, sans radio or even anywhere to fit an after market one, a nod to the exploits of the American Lloyd Perry ‘Lucky’ Casner’s Camoradi team.

Maserati MC12 Stradale, Desert Classics Concours d'Elegance,

In two separate road tests at Dunsfold Aerodrome and on the Nurburgring MC12’s proved to be quicker than the Enzo Ferrari that spawned it. I believe the example seen here in Geoffrey Horton’s photograph’s, taken at last years Desert Classic’s Concours d’Elegance, is one of those built in the 2005 batch.

It appears to belong to the The Riverside International Automotive Museum a non profit corporation run by Ray and Doug Margon dedicated to “Preserving the memory of California’s rich motorsports heritage” which also houses a collection that includes one example of every road going Maserati sold in the US since 1951.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Faster Than Enzo” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an early Renault. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Coffee, Croissant & Cars 08/15 – Avenue Drivers Club

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On the second Sunday of the month I managed to briefly pop by Queen Square for the Avenue Drivers Club meeting and by 8am the Square was already quite busy.

Corvette, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Among the vehicles present this ’66 Chevrolet Corvette C2 which was imported into the UK earlier this year.

Ford Consul, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

It was great to see Mark Richards Ford Consul 375 back in one piece after an unscheduled ground up restoration has been completed. Mark is planning on offering his services with this car for weddings, ffi please contact Mark on FB or leave a message below.

Nissan Stagea, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

I’m not sure Nissan Stagea’s were ever imported by the manufacturer into the UK, this 1997 example with UV Cut Glass was first registered in the UK in March 2009.

Volkswagen Scirocco, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Another car first registered in this country in 2009 was this Volkswagen Scirocco which I have been watching becoming increasingly “modded” over the last few months as it lives not more than a mile from me, looks like the owner has it fully equipped to take everything including the kitchen sink on holiday with him to the Sweetshop Automotive Summer Showdown in Cheddar on Bank Holiday Monday.

Dodge Dart Swinger, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

From 1970 a Dodge Dart Swinger that is shown as officially being powered by a 5.4 litre / 329 cui V8 which I do not believe was a standard size for this model, 318’s and 340’s being the nearest manufacturer supplied size I could find.

Smart Crossblade, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Finally just before I left this cute li’l 2002 Smart Crossblade pulled in, a limited edition model which again I don’t believe was a manufacturer import into the UK even after pop star Robbie Williams bought one.

Thanks for joining me on this “Coffee, Croissant & Cars 08/15” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Cougar. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Hi-Tech Perana – AC 378 GT Zagato

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At the 2009 Geneva motor show a South African company Perana Performance Group showed it’s Zagato designed Z One on the Zagato stand and announced it’s intention to have the cars built by Hi-Tech Automotive in East London South Africa.

AC 378 Zagato, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

In 2012 AC announced that the former Perana Z One was to be built under license with the AC 378 GT Zagato name at the same Hi Tech facility in South Africa.

AC 378 Zagato, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

To date I appear to have seen this 2012 Geneva show car twice, once as seen in these images at last weekends Classics at the Castle and the first time at Auto Italia Brooklands a couple of years ago.

AC 378 Zagato, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

I’m not sure if any further of these Chevy V8 powered machines have been built, but if I had £100K burning a hole in my pocket I might be tempted to offer AC Cars a substantial sum as a deposit as encouragement for them to build me one, the only problem I might have is choosing a colour, perhaps a moody dark metallic British Racing Green, or metallic Red would do the trick, what do you think ?

Thanks for joining me on this “Hi-Tech Perana” 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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Raced, Crashed, Stolen & Returned – Ferrari 250 GTO #3387

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With the price of Ferrari 250 GTO’s in the 20 – 30 million US dollar range it occurred to me recently that to be a mere millionaire is probably no longer enough to purchase one of the 39 cars built.

Today’s featured Ferrari 250 GT0 #3387 was sold to Luigi Chinetti in March 1962 after the factory had done some testing with it at Monza earlier in the month.Chinetti entered the car for Phil Hill and Oliver Gendebien in the Sebring 12 hours under his NART banner and came home 2nd OA, 1st in class.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Bob Grossman bought the car and entered it for himself and George Roberts jr in the ’62 Le Mans 24 hours coming home 6th overall 3rd in class behind two more GTO’s. Grossman scored one more class win at Bridgehampton in ’62 before selling the car to the Gammino family.

Mike Gammino raced the car through ’63 and ’64 scoring 4 class wins and 2 outright victories, during practice for ’64 Daytona 2000kms Mike crashed the car and ended up replacing the body with a new body from Scaglietti

Ferrari 250 GTO, Petersen Automotive Museum

Gammino sold the car back to Grossman who drove #3387 to another class victory at Nassau in 1965 before the car retired from active competition and was sold to K F White.

In 1979 R Finger bought the car and eleven years later a Kawasaki motorcycle dealer masterminded a plan to relieve Dr Finger of #3387 after offering the car to interested parties from his fax machine.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Six men from the Savanah manged to steal #3387 and K F White showed up with a US$ 4.3 million cashiers cheque, but backed out of the deal when he suspected the car was a fake because the “real” #3387 was confirmed to be with Dr R Finger. The FBI picked up #3387 later that afternoon returning the car to it’s rightful owner and sending the perpetrators on their way to a Federal Penitentiary.

The car as seen today is seen wearing the colours the original body wore at the Sebring in 1962.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for his photo of #3387 seen at the Petersen Automotive Museum in 2011, the two other photo’s were taken at the 2012 Goodwood Revival.

Thanks for joining me on this “Raced, Crashed, Stolen & Returned” 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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Hill, Shelby & Hall – Ferrari 750 Monza #5010M

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Today’s featured Saglietti bodied 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza #5010, seen here in photographs taken by Geoffrey Horton at the Petersen Automotive Museum last year, appears to have had just two owners, Allen Guiberson and the Hall family both from Texas.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Peterson Museum, Los Angeles

When Allen Guiberson bought the car in 1955 he entered it into the Sebring 12 Hours for Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby and they repaid Allen with a 2nd place finish overall, behind the D-Type Jaguar driven by Mike Hawthorn and Phil Walters, and first in the 3 litre / 183 cui class.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Peterson Museum, Los Angeles

Phil Hill drove #5010M in between his commitments for the Ferrari works team, taking victories at Pebble Beach and two at Beverly on July 4th.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Peterson Museum, Los Angeles

Mid way through 1955 Guiberson withdrew from the sport and sold #5010 M to Condor Petroleum heir Dick Hall appears to have bought the car for his brother Jim Hall an engineering student at Caltech. Jim who was not yet 21 and so too young to race managed to race the car under age at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in October of 1955 where despite a few spins pulled off a win.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Peterson Museum, Los Angeles

During 1956 #5010M was entered for Carroll Shelby to race in at least 5 races. Shelby won 4 of those races and finished 2nd in the other, a preliminary at Ft Worth before winning the feature.

Ferrari 750 Monza, Peterson Museum, Los Angeles

Jim Hall, who can be seen on this link showing the car to some of his Caltech friends in 1957 returned to driving the car legally recording a 7th place finish at Santa Barbra in May 1957 and 2nd place finish at Mountain Eagle the following month.

Once Jim Hall had got Chaparral cars up and running with Hap Sharp Phil Hill joined Jim’s team taking wins in both the Can Am and World Sports Car series in Chaparral designed and run cars.

So far as I am aware the restored car still belongs to Jim Hall today.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Hill, Shelby & Hall” 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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Pneumatic Sunroof – Avions Voisin C-25 Aerodyne

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Successful pioneer aviator and aircraft manufacturer Gabriel Voisin turned his back on aviation after the Great War of 1914-1918 to focus on the manufacture of automobiles some of which, including his 1923 C6 Labortoire monocoque Grand Prix car count as some of the most innovative, exotic, distinctive if not plain idiosyncratic and outlandish ever seen.

Avions Voisin C-25 Aerodyne, Dana Point Cd'E

The prototype C-25 first seen in 1934 included a radial 7 cylinder motor that was dropped in favour of a 2994 cc / 182.7 cui straight 6 cylinder motor for the production models such as the one seen in Geoffrey Horton’s photographs taken at this years Dana Point Concours d’Elegance.

Avions Voisin C-25 Aerodyne, Dana Point Cd'E

The aluminium panels of the wings / fenders of the C-25 Aerodyne are not the only ones supported by struts in the Avions Voisin range.

Avions Voisin C-25 Aerodyne, Dana Point Cd'E

No expense was spared in the interior appointments, the bespoke cloth to a Voisin design is just as distinctive as the rest of the car as are the René Lalique designed ashtrays.

Avions Voisin C-25 Aerodyne, Dana Point Cd'E

The C-25 was also fitted with a pneumatically operated sunroof,

Avions Voisin C-25 Aerodyne, Dana Point Cd'E

the carrier rails for which can be clearly seen in this photograph.

This particular car is one of 3 or 4 known to exist from a total production believed to have been no more than seven. After a six year restoration by the Californian Mullin Automotive Museum the car won Best in show at the 2011 Pebble Beach and 2012 Dana Point Concours d’Elegance, events.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his fabulous photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Pneumatic Sunroof’ 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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