Tag Archives: Mercury

Where Do We Go Now ? – Silverstone Classic

Last Saturday it was back to Silverstone for the third time in a month, but this time for the Silverstone Classic a three day event.

Silverstone Classic

Silverstone Classic is billed as the largest participant motorsports event in the United Kingdom.

Silverstone Classic

Sponsors of the event BMW brought a long a big wheel, unfortunately I get vertigo on a step ladder so I was not able to sample the, by all accounts, spectacular view from the top.

BMW 3.0 CSL, Silverstone Classic

I’m not too sure when the fad for lurid paint scheme’s started on road cars in Germany, but I do remember it quite vividly when I visited the country in 1974, above this particularly cool post July 1973 ‘Batmobile’ BMW 3.0 CSL was on display outside the BMW hospitality unit.

Wilson, Lotus 20/22, Hibberd, Lotus 22, Silverstone Classic

Racing got underway promptly at 9 am with the Formula Juniors who were racing for the Peter Arundell Trophy. The race was hotly contested between the #53 Lotus 20/22 of Sam Wilson and #79 of Andrew Hibberd, after trading places many times, Andy won the 9 lap race by just over half a second.

Formula Ford, Silverstone Classic

Callum Macleod won the Balvenie Trophy for Historic Formula Fords by nearly five seconds, above a gaggle of Formula Fords exits Maggotts Corner and heads for Beckett’s corner in a scrap more typical of the class.

Smith, Ward, Costin, Lister, Silverstone Classic

Gary Pearson led the opening laps of the Stirling Moss Trophy for Pre ’61 sports cars in his knobbly Lister Jaguar, but Oliver Bryant in a Lotus 15 soon chased him down for the lead and an eventual victory shared with Grahame Bryant. Meanwhile Chris Ward and Andrew Smith came through the field from 11th to finish second 2 seconds adrift in the lush Costin bodied Jaguar powered Lister seen above.

Ford Ranchero, Silverstone Classic

Out on the old Hanger Straight UK Street Machines were holding a shootout in which this ’64 Ford Ranchero was taking part.

Priaulx, Solomons, BMW1800Ti, Silverstone Classic

Former British Hillclimb Champion and three time World Touring Champion Andy Priaulx led the opening stages of the Sir John Whitmore Trophy for Under 2 Litre Touring Cars in this BMW 1800Ti, but it was Leo Voyazides aided by former Merzario engineer Simon Hadfield that came through to win in a Lotus Cortina. Priaulx sharing with Richard Solomons came home fifth.

Lyons, Surtees, TS9, Silverstone Classic

Judy Lyons in her Surtees TS9 gives us a wave as she prepares to take part in the FIA Masters Historic Formula One race for which she qualified 3rd from last and finished last three laps down. Judy’s husband Frank finished 16th driving a Hesketh 308E while her son Michael won the race driving a former Longhorn Indycar chassis now in Williams FW07 spec as raced by Rupert Keegan in 1980.

Wills, Panayiotou, Mercury, Comet, Cyclone, Silverstone Classic

Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield won the Trans-Atlantic Touring Car Trophy, by over 16 seconds, sharing a Ford Falcon. The Mercury Comet Cyclone above was shared by Roger Wills and Chris Panayiotou who finished 6th.

Wood, Tec Mec, Bronson, Scarab, Silverstone Classic

Tony Wood qualified the #27 Tec Mec Maserati on pole for the Froilan Gonzalez Trophy for HGPCA Pre’61 Grand Prix Cars, but Julian Bronson sitting alongside Wood on the grid in the #30 Offy powered Scarab made a great race of it and came through to score the open wheel Scarabs second ever victory, having won a similar race at Pau in France a couple of weeks ago.

Voyazides, Hadfield, Lola T70, Mk IIIb, Silverstone Classic

The #6 Lola T70 Mk IIIb chassis #SL76/153 won the FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars race giving Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield their third victory of the day. The car appears in the colours used by Carlos Avallone in South America.

Lola T400, Silverstone Classic

Michael Lyons second victory of the day came when he drove this ex Vels Parnelli Lola T400 chassis #HU7 a to dominant victory in the Peter Gethin Trophy for Formula 5000 and Formula 2 cars.

Wood, Cologne, Ford, Capri, Silverstone Classic

Neil Smith driving an ALFA Romeo 156 won the Super Touring Car Trophy by just over 2/10ths of a second from Frank Wrathall driving a Vauxhall Cavalier, above is the circa 1974 Ford RS3100 of Ric Wood which came in 13th overall winning class G and setting fastest lap in class.

Minshaw, Brabham, BT4, Hughes, Cooper, T53, Silverstone Classic

The skies turned dark as the pre 1966 1.5 litre / 91 cui Grand Prix cars came out to play for the Jim Clark Trophy. Jason Minshaw is seen above driving his Branham BT4 being chased by Jonathon Hughes in his Cooper T53. Jason crossed the line first on lap 4 after which the race had to be abandoned as a summer storm dropped huge quantities of water on the track.

Heidsieck, Trophy, Silverstone, Classic

After nearly an hour the storm had passed and the marshalls had swept most of the excess water away. However as the Piper Heidsieck International Trophy for pre’66 GT Cars came out rain started again, but we got a start after the grid had followed the pace car around for a couple of laps. The TVR’s of Mike Whittaker and Owen O’Neil lead the field through Farm, above as the race gets underway. Conditions got progressively worse and the race was called after 45 mins of the scheduled 60 mins had run. John and Gary Pearson were declared the winners in their E-type Jaguar from Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield who missed a fourth victory of the day by 13 seconds in their AC Cobra.

Unfortunately, but completely understandably, the one race for Group C Sportscars I had got up for at 5 am specifically to see scheduled to run at sundown, had to be scratched as the rain in Spain continued to teem down mainly on Northamptonshire, England.

Exhausted by a day full of close racing, as I headed back to the car, I heard the familiar Guns ‘n’ Roses lyric “Where do we go now” wafting across from the stage where The Guns and Roses Experience were playing, to which my answer was unequivocal, “A warm and safe place”.

Thanks for joining me on this “Where Do We Go Now ?” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Now It Get’s Confusing – Continental Mark V

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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 !

007 @ Beaulieu – Bond In Motion

Easy Handler – Ford Gran Torino

The Car You Always Promised Yourself – Ford Capri 1600 L

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The concept of the ‘pony car’ is generally agreed to have been formulated by Ford when it popped a sports car body onto saloon / sedan running gear of the Ford Falcon and called the result the Ford Mustang.

By 1969 Ford in Europe emulated their US cousins by plonking a cool coupé body on the running gear of the evergreen Ford Cortina Mk2 Saloon / Sedan and marketing it as the “Car You Always Promised Yourself“.

And for many people it really was over 1 million of the Mk1 versions were sold between 1969 and 1974 with a range of engines from 1.3 litres / 79 cui to eventually 3.1 litres 189 cui with an extremely limited edition homologation racing special having a 24 valve 3.4 litre / 207 cui motor fitted.

The Rostyle steel wheels on this example were identical to those found on the Cortina 1600E and usually fitted to the XL Capri variants, this 1969 1600 L fitted with 4 cylinder ‘Kent’ motor normally would have far more utilitarian steel wheels fitted with hub caps when it left the factory.

The intakes ahead of the rear wheels are dummies, just like those on the original 1964 Ford Mustang which inspired much of the design philosophy of the Capri.

The Capri Mk 1 was sold without the Ford Badges in the United States by Lincoln – Mercury Dealers and was marketed as the ‘Sexy European‘ perhaps reflecting the popularity of this model among the stereo typical hedonist ‘Medallian Men’ of Europe.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Sexy European’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I will be looking at a rare contemporary American GT racing car. Don’t forget to come back now

Killed By A Pony – Ford Falcon Sprint V8

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The stand out car in the Goodwood car park last week was this Ford Falcon Sprint V8, there is something about the unmolested patina of old racing cars I simply find irresistible, something all to easy to underestimate that speaks of both achievement and subsequent precarious survival.

There are four strands to Ford Falcon history, the US built cars such as the one seen here which were in production from 1960 until 1970, the Argentinian built Falcons in production from 1962 to 1991, the Australian built Falcons which have been in production since 1960 and the US built Falcon ‘E series’ 8 seat vans built from 1961 to 1967.

Allegedly Edsel Ford first came up with the Falcon name for the design of a luxury car in 1935, he felt the name did not quite fit and renamed the car Mercury which was launched as a luxury brand in 1938.

The Ford Falcon was launched in 1960, like the contemporary Chevrolet Corvair, Chrysler / Plymouth Valiant, Studebaker Lark and AMC Rambler, the design evolved from market research which identified that many US families were in the market for a smaller than full size second vehicle primarily to be driven by women. The first generation Falcons were in production from 1960 -1963.

The second generation Falcon was redesigned in 1964 and aimed at a more youthful market. Falcons were available in two door, 4 door, sedan, 2 door coupé like this 1964 model, 2 door convertible, 2 door coupé utility and 3 or 5 door station wagon forms.

Six engine options were available from 2.4 litre / 144 cui in line sixes through to 4.9 litre / 302 cui Windsor V8’s along with 4 transmission options 2 speed (ford o matic) auto, 3 speed auto and 3 or 4 speed manual.

Despite over a million sales in the first two years of the first generation Falcon, second series Falcon sales tanked thanks in no small part to another vehicle in the Ford range that was based on the second generation Falcon but aimed at an even more youthful market known as the Ford Mustang which was launched in April 1964.

To try and keep sales up the Sprint V8 with 4.7 litre / 289 cui, as seen here, and later even 4.9 litre / 302 cui variations were introduced but the slightly more expensive Mustang with the same power trains was the car everyone wanted.

The secrets of this particular cars past remain hidden to me for now, a signature above the lighter on the dash looks like that of two time British Saloon car champion Jack Sears. I have not been able to find any evidence Jack drove such a car after winning the 1963 British Saloon Car Championship driving a Ford Cortina GT, a Lotus Cortina and a Ford Galaxy 500.

Thanks for joining me on this Sprint V8 edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Powered Under Licence – Rover P5B 3.5 litre Coupe

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In September 1960 the author of a technical review on the then new all aluminium 185 hp Buick 215 V8 engine could have had little idea of how prophetic for the British automotive industry his following words would be, “We will wager that the most widely copied engine of the next 10 years will be the superb new aluminium V8 by Buick.”

Despite it’s glowing press the Buick V8 and various Oldsmobile and Pontiac variants these motors were only in production from 1961 to 1963, after 750,000 units had been produced the Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac switched back to cheaper to manufacture iron blocks which were cast with thinner walls than had hitherto been possible.

Rover managing director Bill Martin-Hurst was on a sales mission trying to get Mercury Marine in Wisconsin interested in Rover gas turbine engines for marine applications when he stumbled across a Buick V8 being prepared for power boat racing on the Mercury Marine shop floor.

Bill realised immediately that such a motor might have a future in several Rover car projects and had the motor on the shop floor shipped to England and made enquires at GM about making their recently discontinued aluminium motor under licence.

Somewhat disbelieving GM agreed a deal which eventually included the soon to retire designer of the aluminium Buick 215 Joe Turley who would help prepare the V8 for production in a market that put engines under more stress, no speed limit at the UK at the time, than encountered in its original US application.

The Buick V8 was first tested in a P6 prototype, but the final iteration of older P5 design seen here, with a B for Buick designation, was the first Rover to be offered to the public with an aluminium Buick 215 V8 derived motor in 1967.

Four successive British Prime Ministers and the Queen of England used P5B’s, so impressed was the British government with these vehicles that they bought the last batch of them for future government ministers to use in 1973. Indeed Prime Minister Margret Thatcher was often seen in one as late as 1979, before switching to a Jaguar.

A Rover P5B featured alongside a Lamborghini Islero in ‘The Man Who Haunted Himself‘ starring Roger Moore, Olga Geoges-Picot and Hildegard Neil.

Vehicles featured on GALPOT that are powered by variations of the aluminium Rover V8 include :-

CMT

Reliant Scimitar GTE V8

Triumph TR7 Rally Sprint Replica

Triumph TR8 Convertible Replica

Triumph TR8 Twin Turbo

Further examples of Rover V8 powered vehicles can be found in these less specific blogs :-

GMC Suburban

Darian Wildcat T89 GTR

MGB Kayne Special

Rover SD1

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

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring