Tag Archives: Coupé

Touring Torino Salon – Ferrari 195 Inter Touring Coupé #0081S

Unlike the 166 Inters I have looked at so far today’s featured 195 Inter sits on a chassis with 98″ wheel base as opposed to the 95″ wheel base of most of the 166 Inters.

The 195 is powered by a single carb 130hp 2.3 litre / 140 cui V12 up from the 110hp 2 litre / 122 cui V12 used to power the 37 166 Inters built between 1948 and 1950.

Ferrari 195 Inter Touring Coupé, Hillsborough, Concours d'Elegance

Today’s featured car, the very first 195 Inter ever to be built, chassis #0081S, was delivered to Agenzia Internazionale Commercio Auto Ricambi (AICAR) in Milan on the 31st of October 1950 and was displayed on the Carrozerria Touring stand at the Torino Salon in April 1951.

This car passed through two owners in Italy before US Serviceman Donald Maynard took it back home to Massachusetts in 1959 having acquired it in 1955.

Since then #0081S has been repainted at least three times having started out Oro Metallic, painted red somewhere in the 1960’s/70s and red again in 2013, it is not documented on the internet when it was painted it’s current dark blue.

After winning two awards at the 18th Cavallino Classic in 2009 it was auctioned for just under $1 million in August 2011 and in October 2013 was offered for sale at $1.95 million since when it has changed hands twice.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photograph of this fast appreciating asset, taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this “Touring Torino Salon” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” when I’ll be chillaxing with some ice cream vans. Don’t forget to come back now !

Best Closed Car – Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Berlinetta #043S

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Any one lucky enough to have attended the 1950 Torino Saloon might have stumbled, across todays featured Ferrari 166 Inter chassis #043S fitted with a Touring Berlinetta chassis body.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Berlinetta, The Quail

Like the sister 1948 right hand drive chassis #017S I looked at a couple of years ago chassis #043S also went to Milan where a Dr Moretti became the first owner.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Berlinetta, The Quail

At some point unknown #043S went to the United States an remained there until 1987 when it migrated to The Netherlands for a couple of years.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Berlinetta, The Quail

Brit Danny Donovan had #043S restored at the turn of the century, he changed the colour from red to dark blue and had the car registered HPP 5, a registration currently assigned in the UK to a 1969 Gold Mercedes 280 SL.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photographs at The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering a couple of years ago where the car was nominated the Best Closed Car.

Thanks for joining me on this “Best Closed Car” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”. I hope you will join me again when I’ll be looking at a 24 hour race winning Production Saloon car. Don’t forget to come back now.

Ferrari Concours Highlights – Goodwood Festival Of Speed

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There were enough Ferrari’s present on the lawn at Goodwood House during the Festival of House for another short run of Ferrari Friday blogs, here is a preview of what is to come in future weeks.

Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

From 1952 above is a Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale cabriolet that was erroneously labelled as having belonged to British Actor David Niven and incorrectly labelled as a short wheel base 1952 Ferrari 212 Export with a Cabriolet body by Vignale.

Ferrari 212 Vignale Coupé, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

One year later Vignale built this Coupé on the longer Inter chassis #0267EU and displayed it at the Turin Auto Show before selling is to Jean-Louis Lafourcade in France.

Ferrari 250 GT Zagato, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Surprisingly Zagato only built bodies for six Ferrari’s during the 1950’s, I believe the 1957 250GT seen above was originally fitted with a Ellena Coupé body until 1989 when Zagato were commissioned to fit a the Double Bubble body seen above.

Ferrari 500 Superfast, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The 1965 Ferrari 500 Superfast chassis s/n 6659SF above was purchased by property tycoon Sir Eric Merton Miller in 1966, 11 years later he committed suicide after being served with four writs seeking restitution of funds he had allegedly misappropriated.

Ferrari 330GT Vignale Shooting Brake, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

When Desy the original owner of the 1965 Ferrari 330GT seen above sold the car back to Chinetti Motors in New York in 1967 Luigi’s son Coco and commercial artist Bob Peak came up with the idea for Vignale to fit the car with this unique Shooting Brake body, subsequently it was taken to the 50th Annual Turin Motor Show and currently belongs to Singer Jay Kay.

Ferrari P4/5 By Pininfarina, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Finally James Glickenhaus’s unique Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina has already been featured on this blog, but seeing it in the flesh myself for the first time confirmed it was probably well worth every cent of the $4,000,000 (USD Four Million) it cost the lucky owner.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ferrari Concours Highlights” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another Formula Junior racer. Don’t forget to come back now !

Bigger Faster 124 – FIAT 125

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Like the FIAT 124 I looked at last week, the FIAT 125 launched in 1967 shared some parts with it’s predecessor notably in this instance the longer chassis from the FIAT 1500.

Fiat 125, BIAMF, Bristol,

The doors and passenger compartment of the FIAT 125 are identical except that the rear seat is mounted 3 inches further back thanks to the slightly longer wheel base.

Fiat 125, BIAMF, Bristol,

The 90hp twin overhead cam 1600 cc / 97 cui 4 cylinder motor was shared with some of the later FIAT 124 Sport Coupé and Sport Spider models as was the initial 4 speed gearbox.

Fiat 125, BIAMF, Bristol,

Like the FIAT 124 the 125 was a global car with examples built in Argentina, Columbia, Chile and Morroco while further 125P variants with less powerful motors were built in Poland, Yugoslavia and Egypt. FIAT stopped building the 125 in 1972 but production continued elsewhere until the early 1990’s.

This particular car seen at the Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival was built in 1969 and first registered in the UK on April Fools day of the same year.

Thanks for joining me on this “Bigger Faster 124” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking for answers to the story about a mysterious 500 Formula 3 car. Don’t forget to come back now !

100 Grannies Knitting – FIAT 2300S Coupé

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At the 1960 Turin Motor Show FIAT showed off a new Coupé based on the soon to be manufactured FIAT 2300 saloon chassis and running gear and with a body styled by Sergio Sartorelli at Ghia, who with hind site produced a 4 seat vehicle not unlike the contemporary Sergio Pininfarina styled Ferrari 250 GT/E.

FIAT 2300S Coupé, Simply Italian,

The 2300 Coupé was offered with either a 105hp twin carburetor straight six or the S version, as seen in these photo’s taken at Simply Italian, Beaulieu National Motor Museum a couple of years ago, with 136 hp.

FIAT 2300S Coupé, Simply Italian,

Since Ghia did not have the capacity to build the Coupé bodies the job was contracted out to Officine Stampaggi Industriali known as OSI which was founded in 1960 as a coachbuilding company based in Turin by former Ghia president Luigi Segre and Arrigo Olivetti.

FIAT 2300S Coupé, Simply Italian,

Luxury fittings including power windows pushed the price of a 2300S Coupé up to nearly double the cost of an E-Type Jaguar so it is hardly surprising that only 220 of the 7,194 2300S Coupés built between 1961 and 1967 were Right Hand Drive examples imported into the UK.

FIAT 2300S Coupé, Simply Italian,

This particular car was dry stored from 1971 to 2000 with just over 37,000 miles on the clock, it was subsequently recommissioned with a minimum of work required to pass it’s Ministry Of Transport (MOT) test, required to make it roadworthy.

FIAT 2300S Coupé, Simply Italian,

The owner of this 1964 car, which appears in these photographs with it’s original paint, chrome and interior, and his son own six 2300S Coupe’s in various states of repair between them.

FIAT 2300S Coupé, Simply Italian,

The motor on this vehicle has been Abarth tuned to produce 150 hp which is good for pushing this car up to a maximum 118 mph, a contemporary report in Autocar noted that the valve tappets “sound like 100 grannies knitting”.

Thanks for joining me on this “100 Grannies Knitting” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psychoontyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an open wheeler raced by an American called Irish. Don’t forget to come back now !

One Hundred And Sixty Three Feet – Maserati Coupé

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Today’s featured 2002 Tipo M138 Maserati Coupé is a descedant of the original Ghibli, Khamsin, Shamal, 3200 GT line of 2+ tourers.

Maserati Coupé, Bristol Italian Auto Moto Fest, Bristol

As with the Tipo AM115 Ghibli Giorgetto Giugiaro was responsible for styling the Maserati Coupé although he was no longer working for Ghia, a company which had long since been acquired by Ford, but instead ItalDesign.

Maserati Coupé, Bristol Italian Auto Moto Fest, Bristol

The Coupé is powered by a 385hp 4244 cc / 259 cui Ferrari / Maserati F136 R V8 that in this particular vehicle powers the rear wheels through a paddle shift ‘Cambiocorsa’ electrohydraulic manual transmission, instead of the regular 6 speed gear box.

Maserati Coupé, Bristol Italian Auto Moto Fest, Bristol

Reaching 110 mph in a 13.2 second sprint from rest over a 1/4 mile the Coupé, unofficially also known as the 4200 GT, is capable of coming to a complete stop from 70 mph in just 163 feet.

Maserati Coupé, Bristol Italian Auto Moto Fest, Bristol

The owner of this Coupé had a DMS ECU fitted which along with modified rear silencers / mufflers and a BMC Air Filter facilitate 380hp being delivered to the rear wheels.

Thanks for joining me on this “One Hundred And Sixty Three Feet” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking a Zepplin powered Maybach Special. Don’t forget to come back now !

Doorjamb Vented – Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Holiday Coupé

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The full size Oldsmobile 88 was launched in 1949 and by 1950 it had become the General Motors brands best seller a position it maintained until 1974.