Tag Archives: Mans

Outlaw Racer – Ferrari 365 GTB/4

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Launched in 1968 the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 replaced the Ferrari 275 GTB/4 and to this writers mind represents the pinnacle of front engine rear wheel drive fastback GT cars. Until outlawed by US legislation in 1971 the 365 GTB/4 came with headlights mounted behind acrylic glass covers.

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This most stylish of vehicles is powered by a 347 hp Lamperdi inspired twin overhead cam 60º V12 stretched to 4390 cc / 268 cui motor, each cylinder with a volume of 365 cc from which the model gets its name.

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To optimise the weight balance and handling the gearbox is mounted as part of a transaxle just in front of the rear wheels.

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As one would of expect of a vehicle this cool to look at it has performance to match being capable of reaching 60 mph from rest in 5.4 seconds with a top speed of 174 mph.

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Competition versions of the 365 GTB/4 run by privateers with up to 450 hp counted amongst their successes a GT class winning 5th overall at Le Mans in 1971 along with GT Class wins in the same race in ’72, ’73, and ’74 scoring 1st to 5th in class in ’72, and five years after production of the model had ceased an amazing 2nd overall in the Daytona 24 hour race.

Dan Gurney and Brock Yates also drove a 365 GTB/4 2,876 miles from New York to Los Angeles averaging 80.1 mph to win the inaugural Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971.

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It is thought just 1,406 of these cars designed by Leonardo Fiorvanti of Pininfarina and built by Scaglietti including 122 Spiders and 15 lightweight competition vehicles. The high desirability of the rare Spiders has led to several Berlinetta models being converted and several companies have made Spider replicas with a variety of engines.

The 365GTB/4 was replaced by the rear engined 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Outlaw Racer edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Coming up Short – Triumph TR8 Twin Turbo

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All of motor sport is littered with heroic failure and there is possibly none less understandable than the Janspeed Engineering Triumph TR8 twin turbo, when one considers John Buffum’s success with the TR8 on the US Rally Stages in North America and Bob Tuliis equally outstanding success with his TR8 on the race tracks, so much in fact Bob was forced into a successful switch from SCCA to IMSA series.

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Like the Buffum and Tullis programmes Janspeed’s Le Mans programme had absolutely zero factory backing but unlike Buffum and Tullis, Janspeed did not even have a budget to run the car let alone test it.

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Legend has it that this vehicle started life as a left hand drive test hack used by Janspeed on behalf of British Leyand, when the tests had been completed Jan Odour acquired the vehicle with the intention of preparing it for a British modified series, however a change of rules in that series, around 1977, led Jan Odour to attempt something far more ambitious namely to take on the onslaught of Group 5 Porsche 935‘s in the World Sports Car series.

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The Janspeed TR8 ran with a dry sumped twin turbo version of the all alloy Olds/Buick V8 design purchased by Rover and was said to produce over 500 hp, but it failed to set a qualifying time on it’s debut at Silverstone in 1980, where the car was loaned out to ADA Engineering in a vane effort to get the car onto the track.

Later at Le Mans despite being recorded travelling in excess of 200 mph on the Mulsanne the car failed to qualify.

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I remember looking forward to seeing what the TR8 could do when I returned to Silverstone in 1981, despite arriving in time to catch qualifying I was already too late, the car had been crashed and withdrawn from the race much to my disappointment.

Later in 1981 the car ran again at Brands Hatch where it qualified but failed to finish after a spin and a stall, unfortunately I was in Germany at the time so I never did get to see possibly my all time favourite Triumph run.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s twin turbo edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at a truly unique vehicle that was perhaps just an on board sick bag short of reaching production. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Moby Dick – Porsche 935/78 #006

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The Porsche 935/78 was a one off vehicle built to win the 1978 Le Mans 24 hours and was the ultimate works development of the, then 15 year old, 911 which would not be topped until the advent of the 911 GT1 built in the late 1990’s. Notice that in preparation for Le Mans the drivers seat was placed on the right hand side optimising weight distribution for a race run on a clockwise track.

Thanks to a rule made at the request of arch enemy BMW the body was lowered 10cm 3.9 inches over the standard 911 by cutting out the standard floor plan with the engine like wise now lowered the gearbox was inverted to raise the drive shafts closer to their original height. Apart of from the front windscreen almost every body panel was optimised to maximise the top speed on the 4 mile Mulsanne straight where 235 mph was eventually achieved.

The 935/78 was equipped with a 750 hp 3.2 litre 195 cui flat 6 with 4 valves per cylinder in water cooled cylinder heads, a first for Porsche who had always raced air/oil cooled motors up until this time.

The car seen here driven Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass at the 1978 Silverstone 6 hour race, a warm up for the Le Mans 24 hours, romped away from the opposition, mostly private Porsche’s with a single works BMW driven by Ronnie Peterson and Hans Joachim Stuck, finished a ridiculous 7 laps ahead of the rest of the field.

Stommelen/Schurti qualified ‘Moby Dick’, as the 935/78 was known, third on the grid at Le Mans however a silly stunt in which the car was driven on the road from Porsches garage outside the circuit to the circuit on race day went horribly wrong when predictably the car got caught in race day traffic causing the engine to over heat which created an oil leak. The subsequent loss of performance meant the car could only finish 8th.

935/78 #006 appeared twice more in 1978 but disgraced itself with two retirements and has since been consigned to the Porsche Museum. Joest Racing built two further 935/78’s from factory drawings in 1981.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s 235 mph edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again for another turbo charged blog tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Carroll’s Cat faster than a 250 F – Lister Jaguar BHL 128

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Moving on 20 years from yesterdays blog but staying with the Lister Jaguar cars of the late 50’s, this one has a proud boast thanks Bobby Bell who is seen here standing in the fire suit, behind the car, at the British Grand Prix meeting where he was competing in the Lloyds & Scottish championship.

Bobby Bell, who kindly shared the details about today’s story is one half of Bell & Covill purveyors of fine, approximately 25,000 at last count, motor cars which have been sold to customers from Twickenham to Tobago.

One might imagine from the BRG and yellow paint job that this vehicle had been raced by Archie Scott Brown to some of the many Lister Jaguar victories, however it transpires that nothing could be further from the truth.

According to Doug Nye’s 2nd edition, reasonably priced, ‘Powered by Jaguar‘ the 1959 Lister Jaguar BHL 128 was originally supplied to Carroll Shelby Sports Cars Inc, Dallas Texas as a rolling chassis built to accept an American made body and Chevrolet V8 engine.

BHL 128 also known as ‘the Boeing Car’ is said to have been part of a Land Speed Record project with input from Boeing and master minded by John Fitch, Doug’s research categorically states John Fitch the former Mercedes Driver and Safety Engineer had absolutely no involvement in such a project.

What ever the outcome of the Boeing project the vehicle has no identifiable ‘in period’ racing history and was recovered to England around 1969 and acquired by Peter Sargent around 1970. Between 1970 and the mid 70’s BHL 128 was fitted with both a 3.8 / 231 cui XK Jaguar motor and a, retrospective, 1958 low frontal area ‘Knobbly’ body in preference to the historically more accurate, but less successful, 1959 Costin body.

Bobby tells me that he acquired BHL 128 in the mid 70’s and raced it to many historic race victories and a Lloyds & Scottish Championship.

However one of his favourite memories was the day he put BHL 128 on pole for the 1978 historic race at Le Mans, with a time that would easily have qualified for the 24 hours race proper, ahead of Stirling Moss and Willie Green one of the best if not the best historic racer of all time.

Bobby tells me that on that day BHL 128 was fitted with a 2.9 high ratio back axle which allowed him to hit approximately 175 mph on the 4 mile Mulsanne straight at 6000 rpm.

Both Willie Green in his D-type Jaguar and Moss driving a far superior handling open wheel Grand Prix Maserati 250 F made up ground on the Lister in the corners but could not keep pace with the Lister on La Sarthe’s long straights.

Unfortunately on the third lap of the race, the crankshaft broke and as Bobby says, ‘that was that’. Stirling might have added “Better to lose honorably in a British car than win in a foreign one”, though if he did, it was not recorded on this particular occasion.

Bobby sold the car in the mid ’80’s and it has since undergone restoration and now belongs to a lucky Steven Gibbs.

My thanks to Bobby Bell for sharing today’s story and to Doug Nye, David Mckinney, Belmondo, Dutchy, Julian Bronson, and Robert Barker at The Nostalgia Forum for additional comments going back to May last year.

Thanks for joining me for a week of Big Cat history, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for everyone’s favourite ‘Ferrari Friday’ when I’ll be looking at one of a series of 387 Ferrari’s none of which were sold as new in the United States. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Two Cats in Hollywood – D-type XKD 531 & C -type XKC 007

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Thanks again go to Steve & Ed Arnaudin for providing today’s unusual photograph which Ed purchased somewhere around 1958/59.

Jaguar D and C types

Photo by Carlyle Blackwell, Publised Courtesy Blackwell Archive, for sales enquiry’s please e-mail infoATpsychoontyres.co.uk and your contact details will be forwarded to the Blackwell Archive.

Extensive research on The Nostalgia Forum has revealed that not only the cars but also the lead driver AND the photograph itself all have stories to tell.

This photograph appears to have been taken in the studio by Carlyle Blackwell around 1956/57, when he was the owner of the red #18 C-Type XKC 007 which he raced between 1955 and 1957. The #54 D-type is thought to be XKD 531 owned and raced by J Douglas.

It should be noted that this blog is a research project in progress and the identification of the chassis numbers is still not definitive. I have tried to reach the copyright holders but so far in vain so it is possible I might have to withdraw this blog at some point.

The D-type Jaguar like the C-Type was a factory built racing car powered by a variation of the same XK engine design as the XK 120, XK 140 and C-type.

Like the late C-Type the D-Type was fitted with efficient disc brakes. It’s debut at Le Mans in 1954 was thwarted by sand in the fuel, once it was removed Duncan Hamilton & Tony Rolt took their D-type back up the field to second place 1 lap down on the winning Ferrari of Jóse Frolián González and Maurice ‘Racing Is Life’ Trintignant.

The following year Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Beub driving a D-Type won a hollow Le Mans Victory after the Mercedes Benz team withdrew following the horrendous crash in which an estimated 83 spectators lost their lives and a further 120 were injured.

D-types entered by the private Ecurie Ecosse team took two further victories in ’56 and ’57.

The #54 XKD 531, which I believe we are looking at here, is one of 53 customer D-types, this one was raced from 1956 to 1957 by J Douglas and then from 1958 to at least 1959 by Ray Seher.

The red #18 C-type XKC 007 was originally owned by Charles H Hornburg Jnr who had future US World Champion Grand Prix driver Phil Hill drive it to two victories in 1952, Phil said of XKC 007 ” It was the first car I ever drove that had a really precise feel about it – it really felt like a racing car.”

Carlyle Blackwell acquired the car in 1955 and raced it through to the end of 1957 before acquiring the D-type XKD 528.

Jaguar D Type

Photo by Carlyle Blackwell, Publised Courtesy Blackwell Archive, for sales enquiry’s please e-mail infoATpsychoontyres.co.uk and your contact details will be forwarded to the Blackwell Archive.

The story of this photo does not stop with the cars however, look closely at the driver of the #54 and some of you might recognise the face as none other than that of Emmy winning writer Jack Douglas.

A detail of this photograph appeared on the cover of Sports Car Graphic in March 1963 the masthead reads “If the face on this month’s cover looks familiar, it should be. It belongs to Jack Douglas, writer, author of among other things, “My brother was an only child”, and sometime race driver. The photo was shot by his friend, Hollywood photographer Carlyle Blackwell.”

Jaguar D Type

Photo by Carlyle Blackwell, Publised Courtesy Blackwell Archive, for sales enquiry’s please e-mail infoATpsychoontyres.co.uk and your contact details will be forwarded to the Blackwell Archive.

The whole photograph as seen at the top of the blog first appeared on the cover of Sports Car Illustrated in February 1957 with a masthead that reads “Carlyle Blackwell shot this Ektachrome of a pair of competition Jaguars booming through the night.”
As can be seen studio lights are used to illuminate both drivers and the front of the #18.

Note how the colour from Ed’s purchased slide has darkened around an apparently ivory car, while the colour of the car as it appears on the cover of Sports Car Illustrated appears yellowish, the colour of Jacks car at the time has been described as ‘mustard yellow’ which only goes to show how unreliable photographs can be when trying to identify vehicles back in the day.

To date this is without doubt one of the most fascinating photographs I have ever come across. My thanks to Steve and particularly Ed Arnaudin who first purchased the photograph. Thanks also to everyone on the Auto Slides by Blackwell thread on The Nostalgia Forum for their invaluable contributions including, RA Historian Tom, Frank Barrett, Jean L, Jerry Entin, Frank Sheffield, Frank Hill, JB Miltonian, and raceanouncer 2003 Vince H.

I hope anyone believing they can improve on the accuracy of my hypothesis about this photo or with contacts leading to the Blackwell estate will chime in below.

Hope you have enjoyed this ‘Carceology’ edition of “Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow to see a ‘mystery’ vehicle with a Cat under the hood. Don’t forget to come back now !

28 07 12 PS My thanks to Pamela Blackwell who has kindly retrospectively given me permission to post the photo’s her father took.

Pamela tells me that her brother is seen at the wheel of the #18 Jaguar C-type in the photograph and that the photo was taken in Carlyle Blackwell’s driveway.

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Gordon MacKenzie’s Cockpit – #52 C-type Jaguar XKC 030

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It’s a great pleasure to share another of Ed Arnaudin’s photographs on ‘Gettin’ a lil pyscho on tyres’ sticking with this weeks Jaguar theme today we have Gordon Mackenzie’s C-type Jaguar in the paddock at Lime Rock in April 1959.

The C-type is the competition version of the XK 120 with a lightweight aerodynamic aluminium body built around a tubular frame. 52 C-types were built powered by a 205 hp version of the XK engine one of which driven by Peters Whitehead & Walker won Le Mans in 1951.

In 1953 with an engine tuned to 220 hp, thanks to a switch from triple SU carburettors to Webbers and a chassis fitted with disc brakes Duncan Hamilton & Tony Rolt drove their C-type to Jaguars second Le Mans win.

XKC 030 had been raced by amongst others by David Hirsch and both Virginia and Loyal Katsee, when after rolling his XK 120 in 1957 Gordon McKenzie acquired it and subsequently used it with varying degrees of success all the way through to 1962.

Gordon MacKenzie came home 5th behind the #25 Ferrari TRC of G Andrey and 2 spots ahead of Bob Grossman’s 250 GT California on this particular day.

John Aibel informs me that Gordon McKenzie was a well known racing instructor in the North East States and is still active in Vintage SCCA events.

My thanks to Ed & Steve Arnaudin for the photograph, John Aibel and Terry O’Neil for background information.

Hope you have enjoyed to today’s lightweight edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for two cats in a Hollywood studio. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Honeymoon Racer – Crosley Hotshot Sport

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My heartfelt thanks once again go out to John Aibel for sharing with us some photo’s of his 1951 Crosley Hotshot Sport, a vehicle that in 1951 competed in my favourite race the Le Mans 24 hours.

Twelve months after Briggs Cunningham took a shot at top honours at Le Mans with his Cadillac Le Mans special ‘Le Monstre’ and more conventional 61 Series ‘Petit Pataud’ two Florida enthusiasts made a low budget attack on the Le Mans 24 hours ‘Index of Performance award’ which sought to calculate the best performance for vehicles completing the race based on engine size and distance covered with this cute little Crosley Hotshot Sport.

Crosley was an American manufacturer that went against the grain in the US automotive industry by building small and light vehicles from 1939 to 1952. Indiana industrialist Powel Crosley Jr came to prominence manufacturing auto accessories, cheap radio’s and other household electrical goods distributed by independent retailers and backed by a then pioneering ‘money back guarantee’ .

The legend behind the Crosley Le Mans entry is that Phil Stiles and George Schrafft inspired by the success of the stock Hotshot in the Sam Collier Memorial 6 Hours at Sebring in December 1950, were discussing the potential of the Hotshot over the odd libation when they decided to write to the FIA stating they had a Crosley to race in the Le Mans 24 hours, and to Powel Crosley saying they had an entry to Le Mans and were in need of a chassis ! The returning correspondence confirmed both an entry for Le Mans and the supply of a chassis !

The Hotshot / Super Sport VC chassis was prepared for the race by Pappy Dwyers race shop in Indianapolis with a one off aluminium body and sent back to Crosley where a specially developed 726 cc engine was installed.

The cast iron over head cam engine was probably the strongest part of the package having a 5 bearing crank so that it could run all day at full power in order to power military generators which was its original application, as a race engine it was frequently modified Bandini even had a twin over head cam version. The stock engine gave around 26.5 hp the development engine for Le Mans on the #59 seen here around 42hp.

Once ready at the Crosley factory Phil and George went to pick it up from Ohio in George’s Aston Martin DB2, they then borrowed Mr Crosley’s boat trailer and converted it to take the Le Mans challenger to the docks in New York for eventual shipping. On the way to NY Phil and George took the Crosley off the trailer fitted the trailer plates to the car and then ran the motor in on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

In practice at Le Mans it was discovered the lights were not up to racing at night and more powerful Marchal units were fitted along with a Marchal generator while a new Prestolite generator was ordered from the States.

During the race the car was an immediate success, despite using only top gear so as not to risk damage to the standard non synchromesh Hotshot / Super Sport three speed gearbox, George was able to turn in 73 mph average laps and easily lead his class however 2 hours into the race the roller bearings in the new Marchal generator proved unequal to its task, with Phil at the wheel the unit seized and tore off its mounts, damaging the ignition loom and the water pump mounted on the back of the generator.

After bye passing the water pump and relying on thermosiphon cooling, like an old Model T Ford, the car was prepared to run using only the battery, however once it became dark and the lights were required the battery was inevitably run flat and after 40 gallant laps the devastatingly quick in its class Crosley was out for good.

The next day the team pooled funds to release the Presolite generator from customs in Paris and fitted it to the Crosley so that Phil and his newly wed wife could tour Europe, in Switzerland the local authorities mistook them for and favourably treated them as entrants in the Monte Carlo Rally.

The Crosely was returned to George Schrafft who replaced the standard Hotshot gearbox designed for 26.5 hp motors with a more robust 4 speed FIAT gearbox. This change without any modifications to the rest of the drive train resulted in the rear axle being pushed back one inch, which does not appear to have adversely affected either the performance or reliability of Le Biplane Torpedo as John sometimes refers to his unique Crosley.

The story of how John came to own this splendid Honeymoon Racer is one of 15 years perseverance, in the late 60’s John read an article about the car written by Phil Stiles in a 1958 issue of Road & Track. John decided to trace the car with a letter published in R&T; and got so many responses he founded the Crosley Auto Club.

Becoming friends with the owner of Le Biplane Torpedo through the club John expressed his interest in purchasing it over many years at the AACA Hershey Annual Fall meeting. He was disappointed one year to find the owner had sold it on to buy a motorhome in the 1970’s, in the early 80’s Johns brother established the Crosley was for sale after the owner had decided to sell his entire collection of racers.

John reluctantly had the roll bar fitted after surviving a slow roll in another vehicle at Dellow without one, and has raced the Crosley and remembers having many entertaining races with Bob Duell in his Panhard Jr and with two other chaps one in a pre war Morgan and a Renault Special.

He says of his car “On my first track run with it, I was going as fast in the corners as the Lotus 7’s. They of course were much faster out of the turns! ” Look out for a book to be published on US Le Mans challengers by Tim Considine which will feature this Crosley in the near future.

I’d like to thank John once again for taking the time and trouble to share these photo’s of his wonderful Crosley and particularly for taking the time to tell me the romantic story behind it. I have always had a strong conviction that there is something quite noble abo
ut taking what is essentially a road vehicle racing it and then returning it to road use, highly impractical in this day and age with all the safety requirements for racing but as Johns “Le Petite Pataud” Replica and Le Biplane Torpedo show once upon a time this was not an unusual practice.

Special thanks to Chief 187 for putting me in touch with John and thanks to everyone for popping by this bumper edition of Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres, I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for a slightly shorter edition, don’t forget to come back now !

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