Tag Archives: Hillsborough

Three Year Delivery – Packard 1107 Twelve Club Sedan

Today’s featured 1934 Packard 1107 Twelve Club Sedan is believed not to have been delivered to Earl C Anthonny’s dealership in San Fransisco until May 1937.

Packard 1107 12 Club Sedan, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

The Club Sedan was priced at $4060 new excluding the pair of side mounted spare tyres, heater and radio which cost $79.50.

Packard 1107 12 Club Sedan, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

The original owner of the car appears to be unknown but subsequent owners have included North California Packard owners club Projects Director John Kilkenny and been part of the Jack Passey collection of vintage vehicles.

Packard 1107 12 Club Sedan, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Current owners Allen and Ana Nelson acquired this vehicle in 2004.

Packard 1107 12 Club Sedan, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

They had the engine rebuilt and exterior restored while the interior remains largely original.

Packard 1107 12 Club Sedan, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

This Twelve is believed to be one of 51 Club Sedans built in 1934 and one of just 12 remaining.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photographs taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance in 2012.

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

Creating Agile Brands – Mercedes Benz W128 220SE

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Unlike last weeks featured 220SE today’s example, seen at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance by Geoffrey Horton, is one of the more numerous LHD examples.

Mercedes Benz 220SE, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

When new it’s Bosch fuel injected engine would have produced 134hp at 5000rpm, sufficient to give the 220SE a top speed of 100 mph.

Mercedes Benz 220SE, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

San Franciscan Walter Landor took delivery of this 220SE while in Italy and toured Europe in it commencing July 1960.

Mercedes Benz 220SE, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Walter Landor born in Germany became the youngest fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts at 23 after completing his studies at Goldsmiths College in London.

Mercedes Benz 220SE, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

He settled in San Francisco after traveling to the US as part of the design team for the British Pavillion at the New York Worlds Fair.

Mercedes Benz 220SE, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Walter launched Landor Associates with his wife from his living room table, the company with the strap line “Creating Agile Brands” now has offices in 33 cities around the world.

The current and only second owner of this 220SE Colour Consultant Bob Buckter bought it in 1980 15 years before Walters death, after a “mishap” in 1999 Bob had the car fully restored to it’s current Concours Class winning condition.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s photographs.

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

Tom Meade Special – Ferrari 250 GT SWB NeMBo Spyder #3771GT

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Today’s featured Ferrari started life as a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta with a steel Berlinetta body that was supplied to E Molozzi.

By this time a Californian Tom Meade had hitched from Norway to Rome in pursuit of a dream to own an Italian exotic car with his savings from a four year stint in the US Navy.

Tom eventually got to the Maserati factory at Modena where he managed to procure an old Maserati 350S sans engine and fit it with a Corvette motor that was surplus to Lloyd “Lucky” Crasners requirements.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Nembo Spyder, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

With input from Gentilini and Fantuzzi Tom’s first special was completed and sent to San Fransisco where Tom briefly settled until some friends landed the car in a Marin County tree top.

With the proceeds from the sale of the wreckage Tom returned to Italy in 1963 where he bought two less than perfect Maserati’s and made them roadworthy before acquiring chassis #3771GT.

It is not clear why #3771GT needed a rebody but it may have been due to flood damage from the 1966 disaster that struck Florence, it appears that a William Dixon was involved in commissioning Tom to rebody the car to his own specifications which included fitting a Ferrari 250 GTO/64 windscreen.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB Nembo Spyder, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

My understanding is that Neri & Bonaccini got the car mechanically back on it’s feet by 1968 two years after William Dixon from Seattle bought it.

The contraction of the Neri Mead and BOnaccini names that gives #3771GT it’s NeMBo sorbriquet which coincidentally is also the Italian name given to the Superman cartoon character and equally coincidentally means ‘coat’ in Swahili.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photographs of #3771GT taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance last year.

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

Ham Handed Texan – Ferrari 340 Vignale Berlinetta #0222AT

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Allen Guiberson struck it rich in his early ’20’s and became a Ferrari collecting Dallas oilman who was once described in Time Magazine as a ham handed Texan.

Ferrari 340 Vignale Berlinetta, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

In 1952 he bought today’s featured Ferrari 340 Vignale Berlinetta, the first of three built for the Carrera Panamericana road race, sometimes referred to as a 340 Mexico Berlinetta.

Ferrari 340 Vignale Berlinetta, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Sponsored by Industrias 1-2-3 #0222AT was driven by Luigi Villoresi and either Piero Cassani or Franco Cornacchia in the 1952 Carerra Panamerica, but failed to finish after a gearbox problem manifested it’s self.

Ferrari 340 Vignale Berlinetta, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

The following year Phil Hill and Richie Ginther drove the same car in the event and retired after an accident, the cars only other known appearance was in the 1954 1000 km race at Buenos Aires where Phil shared the car with Dave Sykes until they retired with a clutch problem.

Ferrari 340 Vignale Berlinetta, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

After 14 changes of ownership during which time #0222AT had it’s original engine swapped out for a Chevy V8 in the 1950’s and then replaced by a larger 342 Ferrari V12 in the 1980’s the current owner bought the car in 2000.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photograph’s taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance earlier this year.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ham Handed Texan” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another open wheel Chevron. Don’t forget to come back now !

Reflecting Good Taste – Lincoln Capri

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From 1952 to 1959 Lincoln manufactured the Capri with 4 door sedan, 2 door coupé and 2 door convertible bodies only the first generation was manufactured from 1952 to 1955 the second from 1956 to 1957 and the third and final generation from 1958 to 1959.

Lincoln Capri, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Powered by the all new 160hp 5.2 litre / 317 cui Lincoln Y-block that replaced the flat heads in all Lincoln’s in 1952 the Capri when tested by Popular Mechanics reached 60mph from rest in 14.8 seconds, covered the 1/4 mile in 21.3 seconds and recorded fuel consumption of 21 mpg at an average speed of 40mph.

Lincoln Capri, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

To mark the Capri out from it’s competitors like the Cadillac 62 series, Chrysler New Yorker and Packard 400 teams of Lincolns were entered in the last three Carrera Panamericana races that saw them win the Tourismo Internacional class on each occasion with Chuck Stevenson and Clay Smith finishing 7th overall in 1952 and 1953 while Ray Crawford and Enrique Iglesias finished 9th overall to claim class honours in 1954.

Lincoln Capri, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

With the strap line “Everything about Lincoln reflects good taste” the 1955 Capri was offered with a 225hp 5.6 litre / 341 cui Y-block atop which sat a 4 barrel carburetor.

Lincoln Capri, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

There was no Carrera Panamericana for the more powerful Lincoln Capri to prove itself as a result of the 1955 disaster at Le Mans and so far as I know the model was never seen in contemporary competition again.

Lincoln Capri, Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Today’s featured 1955 Lincoln Capri owned by Dick “El Flaco” de Luna was competition prepared by Dennis “El Gordo” Varni who fitted a modern 425hp 5 litre / 302 cui Ford V8 and all modern safety and handling equipment to the car which is now said to handle like a 4000 lb Porsche. The duo have competed on numerous resurrections of the Carrera Panamericana winning outright in 1999 alongside numerous class awards.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photograph’s taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance in 2011.

Thanks for joining me on this “Reflecting Good Taste” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Ferrari that competed on the Carerra Panamericana in 1952 and 1953. Don’t forget to come back now !

Giving Up Secrets – Ferrari 750 Monza #0462M

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On September 4th 1954 Joe Kelly to took delivery of today’s featured 3 litre / 183 cui 4 cylinder Ferrari 750 Monza chassis #0462M in Dublin, Ireland.

This car was the second of the total 31 750 Monza’s built by the factory and a week after delivery Joe entered the car for himself and Desmond Titterington in Tourist Trophy at Dundrod in Northern Ireland where they retired with gearbox issues.

Ferrari, 750, Monza, Hillsborough, Concours, d'Elegance,

Joe entered the car for Desmond to drive in the Leinster Trophy a week later celebrated his second week of ownership with a win, Mike Hawthorn drove the car for Joe in the Goodwood Trophy and retired with a broken rear axle.

The cars next owner was the Jaguar Car Company who disassembled the car and repaired the damaged rear axle and then put it back together after closely inspecting it to see why it was so much better than the Jaguar C and D types which had been comprehensively thrashed by Ferrari in the 1954 World Sports Car Championship.

Ferrari, 750, Monza, Hillsborough, Concours, d'Elegance,

After giving up it’s secrets to the engineers at Browns Lane in Coventry Peter Whitehead acquired the car and it then went via Jack Brabham to Australia where it was raced by Stan Coffey in 1956 without any success and Norm Crowfoot in April 1959 who recorded a third place finish in a race at Bathurst.

Oliver Steel also raced #0462M in 1959 but retired from his race, in 1963 Geoffrey Davis bought the car and kept it until 1980, by the mid 1980’s it had found it’s way to the USA where it remained until 1998 when it returned to Italy where it stayed until 2012.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photograph’s of #0462M taken at Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance earlier this year. Don’t forget to come back now !

Formula One Power – Ferrari 342 America Pininfarina Cabriolet #0234AL

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In 1950 Ferrari began building a series of 23 340 America’s powered by his 4.1 litre / 250 cui long block V12’s designed by Aurelio Lampredi initially for Ferrari’s 375 Formula One programme.