Tag Archives: Mark

Spoiler Homologation Special – AMC Javelin SST Mark Donohue Edition

Now It Get’s Confusing – Continental Mark V

To honour Independnce Day I have brought forward this weeks Americana blog featuring a 1978 Continental Mark V.

The Continental name has served as both a model name and separate brand division of Lincoln and Ford respectively. The first Continental branded car was the Continental Mark II produced from 1955 to 1957.

Note although the 1978 Continental Mark V carries Lincoln Cross emblems there is no other reference to Lincoln on the car and contemporary advertising referred to the car as a Continental Mark V omitting the Lincoln name which was used only in connection with the Versailles model.

Confusingly from 1968 to 1980 the Lincoln Mercury division manufactured both the Lincoln Continental and separate Continental marque Mark III, IV and V models alongside one another.

The Continental Mark V launched in 1977 was 250 lbs lighter than it’s predecessor with a 6.6 litre / 400 cui Cleveland motor as standard. The model seen here is powered by the optional 208 hp 7.5 litre / 460 cui ‘385’ big block motor manufactured in Lima Ohio, said to have recorded the worst ever fuel economy by the Environmental Protection agency, 7 mpg on the highway and 3-4 mpg in the city.

There were five special edition ’78 Continental Mark V’s the Bill Blass, Cartier, Givenchy, Pucci and Diamond Jubilee editions are all distinguishable by their cast alloy ‘turbine’ wheels and markings in the opera window’s which this model does not have. The Diamond Jubilee edition marked the 75th Anniversary of the Ford Motor Company.

An innovation for the Continental Mark V was the ‘miles to empty’ LED fuel gauge display option which calculated the number of miles to empty based on the fuel level speed and consumption rate.

The upright spare wheel in the tail of the car dates back to the 1939 Lincoln Zephyr V12 Convertible Coupé Edsel Ford has custom built for his vacations in Florida.

Depending on options and limited editions selected the Continental Mark V could cost anywhere between US $11,000 to $23,000. The ’78 Diamond Jubilee Edition was billed as the most expensive standard production American automobile available in the sales literature. For each of the three years of production an average of over 75,000 vehicles was manufactured making the Mark V the best selling cars of the Continental marque.

This particular vehicle was advertised for sale a couple of weeks ago when I took the photo’s at the recent Double Twelve meeting at Brooklands, if you are interested in purchasing it I’ll gladly pass on the telephone number that was on display, all disclaimers apply.

Thanks for joining me on this “Now It Get’s Confusing” edition of “Getting a li’l psycho on tyres” wishing all my readers across the pond a happy Independence Day. I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Thirty Year Restoration – Lotus Mark 6 #JZ 7890

Designed By An Accountant #2 – Lotus Elite

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After he had finished with his Lotus VI PGP182 complete with a body of his own design Peter Kirwan Taylor purchased one of the last Doretti sports cars and ‘took the back off’ and turned it into a Coupé too meet his needs.

A couple of years later he was talking to Peter Lumsden and Paul Fletcher who planned on compete at Le Mans in 1956 with a Lotus XI and he suggested that they might fair better with a Coupé body. Peter K-T put the idea to Colin Chapman who responded that they would be better starting with a fresh design from scratch with the idea of designing of designing a car that would be competitive on the race track and be a viable proposition for ‘driving to the office’.

As on his special bodied Lotus VI Peter again opted for designing a car with a high waist line but now with an integral roof influenced by the design of his Doretti Coupé, the design was finalised in collaboration with Frank Costin, who not only had developed a special bodied Lotus Mark VIII but was also an aerodynamicist at the aircraft manufacturer de Havilland where Peter coincidentally was also working in his day time capacity as an accountant.

The uncluttered design has a drag coefficient of just 0.29 that compares favourably with vehicles being designed and manufactured today. The Elite, as the new Mark 14 became known, features a glass fibre monocoque with a steel sub frame to carry the engine and front suspension. Power came from a 75 hp Coventry Climax four cylinder engine which was inclined to lower the bonnet / hood line.

On the track the Elite was a huge success with six class wins scored at Le Mans, two of them including winning the Index of Thermal Efficiency, former ESPN commentator David Hobbs fitted his with a special 4 speed automatic gearbox took 15 wins from 18 starts during 1961 and ’62 and in the Antipodes Leo Geoghegan won the 1960 Australian GT championship also driving an Elite.

This particular well known example, seen here at Castle Combe, was first registered in 1962 and now belongs to a fellow member of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club who restored it after it had been lying in bits for 20 years.

Thanks for joining me on this second accountants edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an award winning orange movie star. Don’t forget to come back now !

Awaiting TLC #3 – Lotus Mark 6

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Third in my occasional series of blogs about cars in need of tender loving care is this uniquely ungainly looking Lotus Mark 6 seen earlier this year at the Silverstone Classic.

The Lotus Mark 6 was the first Lotus design to go into to production and it was sold in kit form saving purchasers a small fortune in new car taxes. The reason this particular vehicle is both unique and ungainly is because it is the only Lotus Mark 6 built as a mud plugging trials car requiring more ground clearance than either the road going or track racing versions.

The chassis and Williams and Pritchard built body was originally supplied to Mr Horace Sinclair Sweeney in 1953 at a cost of £110. Once Mr Sweeney had finished installing the engine and running gear he entered and won the London Motor Club’s Annecy Spring Sporting Trial on the 7th of June 1953.

The motor is an Aquaplane tuned 1172 cc / 71.5 cui side valve E93A unit sourced originally from a Ford 10 built in the 1930’s.

In 1954 Mr Arthur Hay acquired this Mark 6 and over the next ten years won three Motor Cycling Club (MCC) Triple awards for completing the Exeter, Lands End and Edinburgh trials unpenalised in three separate calendar years. Since then car has remained in the Hay family, but unused since 1964.

The current owner hopes to restore the car to working order and use it for sporting trials as originally intended by Mr Sweeney.

Thanks for joining me on this mud plugging edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at a Jensen. Don’t forget to come back now !

Who Said A Spider Couldn’t Fly ? – Aston Martin DB2/4 Mark II Touring Spider AM/300/1161

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The Aston Martin DB2/4 launched in 1953 was a 2+2 hatchback based on the Aston Martin DB2 dating back to 1950.

In 1953 David Brown the owner of the marque sent several bare chassis to a variety of Italian styling houses and coach builders and presented the finished cars at the great motor shows of the day where orders were taken for limited production runs.

The Mark II DB4/2 was launched in 1956 with a 140 hp 3 litre / 183 cui straight six motor. Three of these new chassis were sent to Carrozzeria Touring to have flamboyant Spider bodies designed by Signor Formenti fitted.

Formenti’s design was a clean break from what had gone before with exceptionally clean lines for the period with unusual twin air scoops on the bonnet

and further air scoops ahead of the rear wheels.

Sales of the vehicle did not materialise as expected after the first car, seen here at the recent Silverstone Classic, was displayed at the 1956 Turin Motor Show and the second car had appeared at the Paris Motor Show.

After it’s launch in Italy this particular vehicle was acquired by Associated Newspapers in London who ran a competition in the Daily Express in which the winner who could best sum up the drophead would take it home.

Mr Alexander Smith, entry “Who Said A Spider Couldn’t Fly ?” was adjudged the winner, and took the, then left hand drive, car home.

AM/300/1161 remained in England and was converted to right hand drive while the two remaining examples were sold to customers in the United States where they remain to this day.

Although the first collaboration between Aston Martin and Carrozzeria Touring was not an immediate success the two companies worked together on a long line of vehicles that included the DB4/2’s successors the DB4, DB5 and DB6.

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

Stepping Stone – Dallara Renault F304

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The winner of the last two rounds of the Free Single Seater Series at Castle Combe was the aptly named Stuart Wiltshire in his Dallara Renault Xtec F304, though it turns out that Stuart is actually an Essex Boy born and bred.

Dallara was founded by Gian Paolo Dallara near Parma Italy in 1972 specialising in building sports racing and hillclimbing cars . After penning one of the wilder body work configurations for Walter Wolf‘s Can Am team in 1977, Dallara was commissioned by Wolf to build a third tier open wheel Formula 3 car. Built to similar regulations as the F304 seen here, the Wolf F3 car was driven by Bobby Rahal at Monaco.

During the 1980’s Dallara Formula 3 cars started winning championships in Italy then France and Germany before going on to dominate the most competitive series of all in Britain during the 1990’s.

Today Dallara is known world wide having briefly competed in Formula One and built a variety of sports cars for teams including Lancia, Ferrari, and Audi. More recently Dallara were one of the original suppliers of chassis to the Indy Racing League and now have an exclusive deal to supply IRL chassis and they have built a near monopoly in every series used as an entry by drivers trying to reach Formula One.

In 2004 the British Formula 3 Series was dominated Dallara F304 chassis like the one in these photo’s most were powered by Mugen Honda motors but Renault and Opel, the German GM division were represented with multiple entries.

Among those driving Dallara F304’s when they first appeared were British 2004 Champion Nelson Piquet Jr who after a brief tormenting career in Formula One today drives in the NASCAR Trucks division, Lucas di Grassi the Pirelli F1 tyre tester who last year drove for the Virgin Grand Prix Team and in 2004 drove a Renault powered F304 identical to the car featured today, Australian Supercar V8 contender Will Davison, fellow Aussie Will Power who today is part of the Penske IRL team, Venezuelan IRL driver EJ Viso and Karun Chandock who became the first driver to record a finish for the HRT Grand Prix team last year and is an occasional driver for the Team Lotus Grand Prix team this year.

Seven years on from it’s first appearance Stuart Wiltshire is competing in the MSV F3 Cup with his JSM Construction sponsored car being prepared by Mark Bailey Racing who started off in the Toyota Formula 3 Championship in 1989, with Mark Bailey taking the championship spoils and have participated in World Sports Car Championships with their own design the MBR 972.

Stuart a director of a construction company has competed in Formula 3 championships for older vehicles on and off since 2003 the highlight of his career was leading into the first bend at Donington Park earlier this year.

With a couple of wins behind him at Castle Combe, I wish Stuart all the best as he returns to the MSV F3 series and look forward to future appearances of Stuart and the immaculate Mark Bailey Racing Dallara Renault F304 at Castle Combe for the Free Single Seater Series.

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

10 11 11 Post Script – Since posting this blog it has been brought to my attention that Stuart Wiltshire has a Dallara F302 with 04 updates for sale. I can’t say for sure this is the same car as featured in this blog. The car in the blog was definitely described as an F304 in the MBR team blurb at Castle Combe when I saw it.

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring