Tag Archives: GM

Global Pony – Chevrolet Camaro RS

Leave a Reply

Four years after the last fourth Generation Camaro was built Chevrolet unveiled a new Camaro Concept designed by South Korean-born Sangyup Lee at the North American International Auto Show in January 2006.

Chevrolet Camaro RS, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

The car was built on a GM Zeta platform developed by Holden in Australia and when in August 2006 it was decided to put the fifth generation Camaro into production Holden were responsible for the final design, engineering, and development of the new model.

Chevrolet Camaro RS, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

Production of the fifth generation Camaro returned to Canada but now at the Oshawa Car Assembly plant in Ontario alongside the Chevrolet Impala and Impala Limited, Buick Regal, Cadillac XTS, and Chevrolet Equinox GM models.

Chevrolet Camaro RS, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

Fifth generation Camaro’s went back into production in 2009 with independent suspension and disc brakes all round, variable – rate power steering, StabiliTrak electronic stability/traction control system and six airbags on all models.

Chevrolet Camaro RS, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

The first fifth generation Camaro was sold, at Barratt and Jacksons Auction raising $350,000 for the American Heart Association, to Rick Hendrick CEO of Hendrick Motorsports.

Chevrolet Camaro RS, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

In 2012 updates included a power increase to 323hp up from 311hp in 2011 on the 3,564 cc / 217 cui V6 powered models such as the 2013 RS model featured today, other RS features include HID headlamps with integrated halo rings, spoiler, and RS-specific taillamps in 2012 the colour coded sharkfin aerial was included followed by 20 inch wheels in 2013.

Chevrolet Camaro RS, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

Today’s featured 2013 Camaro RS seen at an Avenue Drivers Club meeting in Bristol last year was registered in the UK on the 27th of March 2015.

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

Share

Forward Design – Plymouth Savoy

Leave a Reply

The arrival of of the 1957 Mopars saw a dramatic shift in styling from a conservative Plane Jane to Virgil Exner’s jet age inspired Forward Design featuring the outrageous tail fins that became synonymous with the late 1950’s and lead Plymouths advertising copy to read “Suddenly – It’s 1960!”

Plymouth Savoy, Summer Classics, Easter Compton,

The only car that dared to break the time barrier Plymouth, De Soto, Dodge and Chrysler full size models all featured variations of the same body design that were available to meet a variety of needs at an all important variety of prices.

Plymouth Savoy, Summer Classics, Easter Compton,

Two years after Chrysler replaced the ’55 body styles the Plymouth Savoy alone was offered with 2-door coupe, 2-door hardtop, 4-door sedan, 4-door hardtop and station wagon bodies which with 8 engine options and 3 transmission options allowed a diligent salesman to sell up or down according to the purse of just about anybody who walked through the dealers showroom door.

Plymouth Savoy, Summer Classics, Easter Compton,

Allegedly “The Forward Look of Motion” caused GM’s styling boss Harley Earl to ask Chevrolet exterior designer C.J. MacKichan “Why don’t you quit?” after seeing the 1957 Plymouth catalogue”.

Despite Torsion-Aire Ride using torsion bars but not airbags as the name might suggest, build quality problems with the Forward Designs meant many did not survive long before they started to rust away, the ’57 Savoy featured in these photographs is seen at last years Summer Classics meeting in Easter Compton.

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

Share

Factory Right Hooker – Pontiac Parisienne #1102452

Leave a Reply

The earliest Pontiac Parisienne was a sub-series within the 1958 Laurentian line, in 1959 the first Parisienne’s were sold as stand alone models in Canada.

Pontiac Parisienne, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

With higher taxes, fuel costs and a smaller market GM decided that selling US Spec Pontiacs was not viable in Canada and so they based the Parisienne on a 119″ Chevrolet B Platform and fitted it with a Chevy drive train and shortened Pontiac exterior panels, in this case ’67 Pontiac Catalina, and interior trim. Third generation Parisiennes like the one featured here were in production from 1965 to 1970 and were also built with 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan and 4-door station wagon bodies.

Pontiac Parisienne, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Built with right hand drive at GM’s Oshawa, Ontario production plant this 1967 Parisienne Convertible was destined for the the Australian market but for some reason it was landed at Southampton Docks in the UK from whence it’s original owner bought it.

Pontiac Parisienne, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

It is fitted with a 5032 cc / 307 cui which I believe would have produced around 115hp, I have not found any evidence that this engine size was either available in 1967 or fitted as standard to the Parisienne in period, however if you know better I certainly stand to be corrected.

Pontiac Parisienne, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

When I saw the car at the Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham a couple of years ago it was being offered for sale at auction and the sales description included advice that the car had undergone a restoration by “The Romance Of Rust” costing over £15,000.

Pontiac Parisienne, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

This Parisienne sold for £15,680 and is currently not on the road in the UK so far as I am aware.

Thanks for joining me on this “Factory Right Hooker” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Romano’s Granddaughter – Lotus Elise Series I

2 Replies

In 1993 Lotus was purchased from GM by Romano Artioli chairman of the revived Bugatti manufacturer, and the following year the Type 111 was conceived by Julian Thompson with Richard Rackman and given the Elise name after Romano’s Granddaughter Elisa.

Lotus Elise Series 1, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet

The Series 1 Elise was launched in 1996 powered by a mid mounted 4 cylinder Rover K Series motor that produced just 118 hp, however thanks to the fiberglass body and bonded aluminium chassis the Elise only weighed 725 kg / 1,600 lbs so the car could accelerate from rest to 60 mph in just 5.8 seconds with a top speed of 124 mph.

Lotus Elise Series 1, Bristol Pegasus Motor Club, BAWA

Getting in and out of a Lotus Elise are probably the most difficult features of the car, the ergonomics are secondary to track day performance, but apart from that the Elise is said to be great fun to drive and economical to run thanks to the light weight and virtually non existent load capacity beside the passengers.

Lotus Elise Series 1, Bristol

In 1996 Romano had sold Lotus on to current owners Proton in order to fund the losses that had accumulated due to the insolvency of Bugatti.

Thanks to changes in crash sustainability regulations the Series 1 Elise was replaced in 2000 after more than 8600 had been built by the more sustainable and consequently slightly heavier Elise Series 2.

The top and bottom cars featured today are standard ’98 and ’97 1.8i models while the middle one is a later ’99 111S which came with variable valve timing 143 hp and a 130 mph top speed.

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

Share

Imperial Green – Lotus T104 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton

2 Replies

In 1990 Britain and Germany’s GM divisions launched a new Q car that could blow the contemporary Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4×4 performance model into the weeds. The new vehicle was known as the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton in the UK and Lotus Omega in the rest of Europe.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

Lotus project Type 104 was responsible for turning the 3 litre / 183 cui executive saloon, into a barnstormer which included a body kit that fed more air into the engine and two small louvered out lets on the bonnet hood.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The six cylinder motor was comprehensively revised; the swept volume was increased to 3.6 litres / 219 cui and twin Garret T25 turbochargers with a Behr water to air inter cooler were fitted to take the power up to 377 hp at 5200 rpm. Transmission came courtesy of the contemporary Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and the limited slip differential from the Australian Holden Commodore.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The performance figures included rest to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds with 100 mph being reached in 11.1 seconds and a controversial top speed of 176 mph, which made the car the worlds fastest four door saloon. There had been, unheeded, calls for GM to follow the lead of BMW and others to restrict the top speed to 155 mph.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The suspension was also suitably modified for improved stability and handling to match the straight line performance of the car, standard Carlton / Omega Servotronic power assistance for the worm and roller steering was used as space and budgets precluded the development of rack and pinion steering.

Vauxhall Lotus Carlton, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

You could have your £48,000 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton or Lotus Omega any colour you liked so long as it was imperial green, which as can be seen looks black in any light other than direct sun light. Just 320 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton’s were built and 630 Lotus Omega’s.

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

Share

Energy Absorbing Bumpers – Cadillac Sedan de Ville

Leave a Reply

The fourth generation Cadillac Sedan de Ville which was launched in 1971 took the full size GM body to a new peak in width that would not be equalled until the 1990’s.

Cadillac Sedan de Ville, Castle Combe, C&SCAD

With 62.1 inches shoulder room at the front 64 inches at the rear at 6′ tall I could probably sleep quite comfortably on the back seat for a night if I had to.

Cadillac Sedan de Ville, Castle Combe, C&SCAD

In order to set this 5000lb leviathan in motion a 375hp 7.7 litre 427 cui single overhead cam motor was fitted to the 1973 model seen here, come 1975 this would be replaced by an 8.2 litre 500 cui motor.

Cadillac Sedan de Ville, Castle Combe, C&SCAD

1973 saw the introduction of energy absorbing bumpers as required by new federal laws, the gargantuan Sedan de Ville is one of the few designs which swallowed up these requirements without any adverse affects to it’s aesthetics.

Cadillac Sedan de Ville, Castle Combe, C&SCAD

Production of the 1973 Sedan de Ville set a new record at 216,243.

Cadillac Sedan de Ville, Castle Combe, C&SCAD

I hope you will join me in wishing former Sedan de Ville owner Marblehead Dale ‘Grilled Cheese Gator’ Glebe a Happy Birthday.

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

Share

Perfect car for a wedding #1 – Citroen Traction Avant

1 Reply

I don’t propose to post photos of cars used at Weddings every Saturday but I thought I’d give today’s blog a topical theme, though I suspect the summer wedding season is probably already over.

Most of the photo’s I have taken of cars used at weddings are not even taken on a Saturday, this is because just down the row of buildings from my city centre bank is an old court house that has been rebranded as a Registry Office. The City centre location is of course used for weddings 6 days a week though as can be seen from these photo’s the location is not without a few ‘parking issues’.

The Citroen Traction Avant is probably most famous as being the car that the cartoon detective Tintin used in the, now deemed less than politically correct, series of stories by Belgian artist Georges Rémi who published his work under the nom de plume Hergé.

The Citroen Traction Avant Garde was a revolutionary vehicle for it’s time, which spanned 1934 -1957, it was the worlds first front wheel drive steel monocoque production car, setting a trend that is almost ubiquitous for passenger vehicles 76 years later.

The construction without the hitherto universal separate chassis was available with a variety of 4 and 6 cylinder engines from 1.3 litres / 79.5 CUI up to 2.9 litres / 176 CUI which sit behind the gearbox driving the front wheels, optimising the weight distribution on the independently sprung wheels.

There were plans to build a 3.8 litre / 231 CUI V8 version of the Traction Avant featuring an automatic transmission with a torque converter, similar to that later employed in the GM Dynaflow transmission, however after 20 prototypes had been built Citroen had gone bankrupt and Michelin who bought the company to primarily test its tyre and other rubber products cancelled the project.

In 1954 a Traction Avant was used to test the self levelling hydropneumatic suspension of the later equally revolutionary Citroen DS which would eventually replace the Traction Avant series in 1955. 759,111 of these vehicles were built in Paris (France), Forest (Belgium), Cologne (Germany) and Slough (England)

Best wishes to anyone who is getting married to day, hope you have enjoyed my first week as a blogger as much as I have, I look forward to to hearing from you all, ‘y’all come back now ! Hear !.’

Share