Tag Archives: Farnham

Spellbinding Grigio Notte – Ferrari 330 GT

Financial Stabiliser – Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina Coupé #1083GT

In the late 1950’s in order to stabilise the company finances Enzo Ferrari commissioned Pinin Farina to design a coupé suitable for series production.

The 250 GT Pininfarina Coupé was launched at the 1958 Milan Motor Show with the last, featuring a superfast tail being shown at the 1961 London Motor Show.

Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina (PF) Coupé boasted 240 hp at 7000 rpm from it’s 3 litre / 183 cui V12 which was connected to a four speed gearbox and a live rear axle with semi elliptic leaf sprung suspension. The 250 GT Coupé was capable of 150 mph and rest to 60 mph in less than 7 seconds.

The independent front suspension comprised double wishbones and coil springs and telescopic shock absorbers. Until 1959 drum brakes were used on all four wheels.

This particular car was one of two delivered from the factory to Tourist Trophy Garages in Farnham Surrey who displayed it at the 1958 London Motor Show at Earls Court.

Tourist Trophy Garages belonged to the Hawthorn family who’s son Mike became the first British World Champion driver, driving for Ferrari, in 1958.

The car seen here was sold to an Irish land owner in 1958 and turned up in a sorry state of repair in the 1980’s at Maranello Concessionaires, which took over the UK Ferrari Franchise after Mike Hawthorn’s death in 1959, who had the car restored. The car has belonged to it’s current owner since 1993.

It is thought just over 350 of these cars were built, most of the steel bodies were fitted at a factory purpose built by Pinin Farina, in Ferrari’s terms going into series production for the first time proved a huge success.

Due to the phenomenal depreciation rates of these cars, many were subsequently cannibalised for parts and some even turned into replica’s of more sought after models, it is thought only half of the production run has survived.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Financial Stabiliser’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be featuring a Lotus 77 Grand Prix car. Don’t forget to come back now !

£24 Complete Including Packing – Mini Ridgeway Sports Conversion

1 Reply

Soon after starting Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the sleepy little town of Farnham in Surrey close to where I went to school once had a budding motor industry, first by finding out about the Abbots of Farnham Coachworks which amongst other things was responsible for a Fraser Nash BMW body, the bodies of several Bristol’s and several Ford’s, then I found out about the cute little 2 cylinder Carden.

Today’s story began a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at a facebook page called I Love Farnham Surrey where I stumbled across today’s photo’s of a 1979 gathering of Mini’s in Farnham’s central car park posted by Stephen White.

I did not notice anything particularly special about the car park behind the bank where I opened my first bank account until the Mini with the special nose caught my attention. It turns out to be a Ridgeway Sports Conversion a £24 fiber glass kit that was marketed by the Ridgeway Rd, Garage in Farnham.

The garage was owned by a Mr Lawrence who’s son Richard had such a nose on his own Mini as did his Uncle who raced his Ridgeway converted Mini at Eelmor Plain near the Army Training Grounds just outside Aldershot.

Stephen tells me the meeting was arranged so that he and his friends could go to Donington Park in convoy to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Mini.

I’d like to thank Stephen White for kindly allowing me to use his photo’s and Colin Cole for identifying the Ridgeway Conversion.

Thanks for joining me on this £24 Including Packing edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now.

3 Graces – Ford Zephyr MK2

2 Replies

In 1954 Colin Neale lead a team that styled the Ford Consul, Zephyr and Zodiac Mk2 that all shared the same body, by the end of the year prototype cars were being tested across Europe and in 1955 further prototypes were being tested against the back drop of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.

In February 1956 the ‘3 Graces’, as the models became unofficially known, were launched on the market the Consul with a 4 cylinder 1703 cc / 104 cui motor and the Zephyr and Zodiac with 6 cylinder 2553 cc / 156 cui motors.

Versions of the ‘3 Graces’ can be seen above, 410VRE is a 1958 Zephyr Farnham, a model which was selected by five police forces to became Britain’s first Motorway Patrol Cars in 1959. The Convertible 527FGY is a ’62 Consul, less than 30 ‘3 Grace’ Convertibles are thought to exist because the soft top conversion took so much strength out of the unitary chassis. 707JDV following the Consul is a 1961 top of the range Zodiac Farnham estate / station wagon.

The 1959 Zephyr Mk2 is seen above at Mallory Park being prepared by Ian Kellet Racing for Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams, seen standing to the right of the photo above, to drive in last year Goodwood Revival meeting.

Between 1956 and 1962 294,506 3 Grace models were built alongside 6,911 Convertibles. Some of all three variants were built in Fords Geelong factory south of Melbourne.

Thanks for joining me on this 3 Graces edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Abbotts Body – Ford Zephyr 6 Farnham

Royal Tragedy – Rover P6 Series II 2200 SC

1 Reply

Some of you may remember I found a cut’n’shut Rover Series I P6 Cabriolet behind a hedge last year, today I am looking at the Series II P6 introduced in October 1970.

Initially the P6 Series II comprised exterior changes to the grill, plastic replacing alloy, rear lights and the instrumentation and switches of the two more expensive Twin Carburettor and 3500 versions.

From 1973 the Series II P’6s came in three flavours the 98 hp 2200SC, Single Carburettor, 115hp 2200, Twin Carburettor and 3500.

Production of the P6 ceased in March 1977 with 32, 270 units produced over four years. Allegedly the last 2200 model was a Left Hand Drive export model that was converted to Right Hand Drive by the Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham.

British Leyland, the nationalised merger of large swathes of the British motor industry was entering it’s worst period of industrial relations during the production of the P6 and this was reflected in abominable reliability issues, one driving organisation reporting that their 3500 P6 had required three engines, two gearboxes, two clutch housings and a wiring loom in 6000 miles motoring over 6 months and was off the road for 114 days out of the 165 days that it was tested over !

An attempt was made to export a high spec P6 to the USA but with less than 1500 units sold many of the cars built for the USA were eventually sold in Left Hand Drive European markets instead.

While driving her daughter Stéphanie home on September 13th, 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco, nee Grace Kelly, suffered a stroke which caused her to drive her P6 off the road. She never regained consciousness and died from her injuries the next day, while Stéphanie who fractured her neck in the accident, made a full recovery.

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

Fit for a Sheikh – Bristol 405 Drophead

6 Replies

The Bristol 405 introduced in 1953 was the first Bristol to dispense with the BMW inspired grill and is unusual for having a single fog light placed in the middle.

There were two versions of the 405 this Drophead of which 43 were built and an imposing 4 door saloon of which 308 were built until production ended in 1958.

A 1971 cc / 120 cui straight six motor was exclusively tuned to produce 125 hp for the Drophead, the Saloon was given a 105 hp version of this engine. One blogger described the sound of this motor as being like ‘a squadron of Lancasters‘.

The first two 405 D’s were strictly two seaters with fully retracting roofs, however all bar one of the remaining Dropheads had roofs that rested on the rear body work making space for rear seats. A one off 405 D was produced for Sheikh Yusuf Mohammed Al Tawil and shipped to Jeddah in 1955 painted gold with silver wheels, white wall tyres and an electro-hydraulic operated roof.

The slick action four speed gearbox of all 405’s were fitted with a Laycock overdrive for high speed cruising operated by the large toggle switch to the right of the steering wheel.

The first 18 to 20 Bristol 405 Drophead chassis were sent to Abbots of Farnham where the bodywork was crafted. Abbots landed a large contract to build estate / station wagon version of the Ford Zephyr and Zodiac models and the remaining 405 D’s were sent to Tickford, in Newport Pagnell, for body work to be built according to the Abbots of Farnham drawings. I am not sufficiently drenched in Bristol Cars lore to tell you where this particular body was crafted… yet.

I suspect I could get used to fresh air motoring in a vehicle fit for a Sheik that sounds like a ‘squadron of Lancasters‘ how about you ?

Thanks to the owner of this fabulous vehicle for bringing it to the Sunday Service at the BMW Plant a couple of weeks ago.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s fit for a Sheikh edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you will join me again tomorrow for a Swedish tease. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring