Tag Archives: Brian

Inspiring Engineers :- Renishaw Castle Combe Heat 2014

On Sunday I popped along to Castle Combe where my friends son Ben Goodman was taking part in the Renishaw Castle Combe Heat 2014 meeting for electric vehicles in the Greenpower series designed to inspire young engineers.

Team MPH, Renishaw Castle Combe Heat

Ben seen above in the #552 MPH+, Magnotsfield Petrol Heads, races in the F24+ class for 24 volt powered vehicles with drivers aged 16 to 25. Next to him is Magnotsfield Schools original #8 MPH which finished 8th in last seasons F24 class for drivers 11 to 16.

Renishaw Castle Combe Heat 1 F24

The Greenpower Series races last 90 mins for the younger F24 class requiring 2 driver changes while the races for the F24+ class are single driver one hour ‘sprints’. There were two races for the F24 class and only one for the F24+ class.

Dougal, Renishaw Castle Combe Heat

What really astounded me about these races was variety of approaches to making a vehicle with a stock battery and stock motor go the furthest distance, added to which Sandbach High School went the extra mile and added cool graphics to both of their vehicles the Martini striped Dougal above and …

Renishaw Castle Combe Heat

…Brian which alongside the circa 1973 Lotus inspired graphics above carries the strap line “Complete And Utter Chaos” with CAUC logo’s. Unfortunately while quick Dougal proved to be unreliable while Brian made it to two mid table finishes in the F24 races and 15th from 19 in the F24+ race.

FR-5M, Renishaw Castle Combe Heat

The FR-5M from Foremarke Hall school in Derbyshire showed some particularly elegant lines around the rear wheels. The FR-5M only took part in the F24 races finishing 10th in the first race and 13th in the second.

BY-Pod, Renishaw Castle Combe Heat

Twin boom cars are a rarity despite having appeared in Can Am in the 1980’s, the Indy 500 in the 1960’s and Le Mans 24 hours in the 1950’s, if with little success. The local Chipping Sodbury School have revisted the theme with their BY-Pod which finished 7th in the F24+ race covering 31.5 miles in an hour.

Rotary Racer +, Renishaw Castle Combe Heat

Chipping Sodbury’s lead entry Rotary Racer+ won both of the F24 races and finished second in the F24+ event covering 37 miles in an hour.

Jet, Renishaw Castle Combe Heat

Winning the F24+ event by a whole lap was Jet entered by Cullimore Racing for David Cullimore, National Champion since 2012, who covered 38.8 miles in the hour.

Ben finished a respectable 10th with 27.6 miles recorded and the #8 Magnotsfield School car finished 9th in the first F24 race with a team of rookie drivers, but could only manage 23rd in the second thanks to suspected tracking damage.

My thanks to Pete Goodman and Martin Baker for telling me about this event.

Thanks for joining me on this “Inspiring Engineers” edition of “Gettin’ a little psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Ultimate Cars Ultimate Race – Porsche 917K #053

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If there is one race I’d love to be able to turn the clock back for in order to attend it would be the 1971 Le Mans 24 hours which for my money was the ultimate road race with the ultimate cars.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Lined up on the grid were seven Porsche 917’s with a variety of body configurations against 9 Ferrari 512s in both closed M spec, earlier open S Spec and two unique 512’s one from the Penske team which had a large rear wing and the F spec car of Scuderia Filipinetti that had a narrow cockpit built around a Porsche 917 windscreen.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The race was an uneven contest between the Porsches as the Ferraris suffered from inferior reliability and top speeds were down on the Porsche’s 230 mph plus capabilities. However it was the fastest to be run at the circuit until 2010.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The winning car chassis #056 seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed featured a special lightweight magnesium chassis built only for the works supported Porsche Salzburg team much to the annoyance of Porsche’s other works supported team run by John Wyer who’s employees had developed the Porsche body work in short (K Kurz) and long (LH Lang heck) tail forms and shared them freely with all the other teams running 917’s.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Gils van Lennep and Helmut Marko shared the winning 600 hp 4.9 litre 299 cui aircooled flat 12 powered #22 car which traveled 3,107.7 miles in 24 hours covering 397 laps at an average speed of 138.6 mph the equivalent to five consecutive Coke 600’s !

They beat the next car driven by Richard Attwood, Herbert Muller and Brian Redman in a Gulf Porsche 917 by two laps, 16 miles, and the third finisher the Ferrari of Sam Posey and Tony Adamowicz by 31 laps.

After the race chassis #053 was immediately retired and so has a 100% winning record.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ultimate Cars Ultimate Race” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a 1925 3 litre / 183 cui Bentley. Don’t forget to come back now !

Battersea Dogs Car – Rover P6 3500 Series 1 Estoura

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Thanks to a timely reminder from David Rootes I made it to the Rare Breeds Car Show at the Haynes International Motor Museum on Sunday.

Amongst a variety of rare vehicles was this 1969 Series I Rover 3500 which preceded the Series II Rover 2200 SC I looked at last week. P6 models fitted with the aluminium 215 Buick derived V8 are easily distinguishable from their 4 cylinder siblings by the extra air intake below the bumper.

The engine compartment of the P6 was originally designed to accommodate a Rover gas turbine motor, but this option never came to fruition and instead the 158 hp twin carburettor V8 as had been fitted to the the Rover P5B was fitted to the top of the range P6 models.

According to the owner of this Estoura variant only 157 P6 saloons were converted to estate / station wagon models between 1969 and 1976. This is the oldest of 4 Series 1 Estoura’s known to have survived.

Conversion of the saloon P6 to Estoura spec included replacing the original roof and C pillars with a new pod, designed by Brian Roll, that was riveted and welded in by FLM Panelcraft of Battersea. Although the conversion was approved by Rover and did not affect warranties no rust protection was added to bare surfaces which were simply painted over with the out come that these cars are more prone to rot than standard P6’s.

Once FLM had converted the P6 shell the cars were sent to either Crayford, HR Owen or Hurst Park Motors where a variety of interior and exterior trims were fitted.

The load space while significantly improved is not particularly deep or easy to access even for a canine compared to a modern day Estate / Station Wagon or MPV.

Thanks for joining me on this Estoura edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Two Seat Grand Prix Car – Ferrari 312 P #0890

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Last week on Ferrari Friday we looked at the catastrophe that befell the Ferrari teams Grand Prix effort as a result of Enzo’s illness sabbatical in 1972.

The story of the Ferrari teams fortunes in sports car racing during this period were not quite so catastrophic but having red washed the World Sportscar Championship of 1972 winning all races except the Le Mans 24 hours, which the team did not enter allegedly because they did not believe their engine would prove sufficiently reliable, 1973 proved to be a disappointment.

Matra who had only entered, and won, the Le Mans 24 hours in 1972 made a successful bid for the World Sports Car Championship in 1973. While this was by no means as comprehensive a blue wash as Ferrari had achieved the year before.

The absence of ‘Fury’ Forghieri who had been exiled to the Fiorano test track by FIAT management during Enzo Ferrari’s sabatical was tangible in terms of Ferrari’s flagging sports car results.

This 1973 spec Ferrari 312 PB chassis #0890 was built for the 1972 season during which Art Mezario and Brian Redman drove the car to victory in the Spa 1000 kms.

Mezario also drove to a solo non championship victory at Imola in a 500 km race in this chassis, #0890 only disgraced it’s self once from six starts in 1972 with an engine failure at Kyalami.

During 1973 #0890 was raced a further five times with 2nd place finishes it’s best results at Dijon for Ickx / Redman and at the Nurburgring for Carlos Pace / Merzario a partnership which brought the car a 3rd place in it’s final front line race in the 6 hours at The Glen.

Chassis #0890 seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed is easily recognisable being the only one of the six 312 P chassis that had the air intake modification to the drivers side chassis skin which appeared at the ADAC 1000 kms at the Nurburgring in 1973.

In 1972 Ferrari built six 312 P chassis so that there could be a team of three freshly prepared cars at each of the World Championship races. The PB initials were used by the press to distinguish the car from the previous 312 P model of 1971.

The 1972 Ferrari sports car team managed by Peter Schetty with Ermanno Cuoghi looking after the preparation of the cars was without doubt the class of the field,

their cars powered by a water cooled 3 litre /183 cui 48 valve flat 12 motor that was in essence a Grand Prix engine detuned for reliability. Five of the six 312 P chassis originally built in 1972 are known to exist today.

Thanks for joining me on today’s PB edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and I hope that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Knobbly Cat – #61 Lister Jaguar

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Thanks again to Steve and Ed Arnaudin for today’s photos from Lime Rock in April / May 1959.

The story of the Jaguar powered Lister is that it only came about despite the initial reticence of builder Brian Lister and that it was only after a) the failure of the difficult to maintain Maserati engines which powered Listers in 1956 to improve on the the Lister Bristol of 1955, b) a diamond merchant Norman Hillwood had dropped a 300 hp Jaguar D type engine into his own second hand chassis after Brian had refused to do it for him and c) Jaguar supremo Sir William Lyons had shown his enthusiasm for supplying Lister with the D-type power train in order to back up the private D-types of Ecurie Ecosse to double the odds against the increasingly competitive Aston Martins that Brian Lister eventually saw sense and built 17 series 1 ‘Knobbly’ Jaguar powered Listers and between six and eight more with small block Chevrolet motors from 1957 – 1958.

The #61 Lister Jaguar seen here is one of the Cunningham team cars, Ed Arnaudin’s photo throws up a mystery since neither the Cunningham Website or Terry O’Neils Northeast American Sports car races 1950 – 1959 list the car as being present at Lime Rock for the April 24th meeting that got held over to May 9th after rain stopped play and the cops shut the show down on the original date.

The best fit theory thrown up on The Nostalgia Forum is the possibility that this car had different gearing to the #62 Lister Jaguar that was raced by Briggs Cunningham that day and may have been used for comparison by Briggs Cunningham.

With thanks to all those on The Nostalgia Forum Lister Register thread who contributed including David McKinney , raceanouncer 2003 Vince H, RA Historian Tom and Terry O’Neil.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Knobby Cat edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me for the concluding edition of this Jaguar week featuring a vehicle that out qualified Stirling Moss driving a Maserati 250 F in a historic race. Don’t forget to come back now !

You can’t go wrong with a Bristol under the bonnet – Lister Bristol

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It’s a great pleasure to present another couple of photo’s today by Ed Arnaudin courtesy of his son Steve.

In 1954 Brian Lister produced an MG powered sports car at his Cambridge iron works for Archie Scott Brown to drive. Disappointed with the results on it’s debut Brian had a 6 cylinder 2 litre Bristol engine installed and Archie won his class next time out at a meeting supporting the 1954 British Grand Prix beating half a dozen more powerful C-type Jaguars.

For 1955 a handful Lister Bristol’s were built for customers and the vehicle pictured at Thompson CT is one of those cars, driven to a class win on 20th July 1958 by Ray Cuomo who raced a huge variety of interesting vehicles from the mid 50’s to mid 70’s.

The #132 in the back ground top picture is the Lester MG driven by F Stone and the #32 is an Alfa Romeo Veloce driven by R Anderson in a different race.

My thanks to Vince H and Terry O’Neil at The Nostalgia Forum for helping me with some of the background information and as ever to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for taking and furnishing these photographs.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Bristol powered edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, tomorrow I hope you will join me tomorrow for a look at an unusual Bristol 401.

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Brian

Inspiring Engineers :- Renishaw Castle Combe Heat 2014

Ultimate Cars Ultimate Race – Porsche 917K #053

Battersea Dogs Car – Rover P6 3500 Series 1 Estoura

Two Seat Grand Prix Car – Ferrari 312 P #0890

Knobbly Cat – #61 Lister Jaguar

You can’t go wrong with a Bristol under the bonnet – Lister Bristol