Tag Archives: Michelotti

Tomorrow Another Life – GALPOT Automobilia

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I’ve been having a bit of a clear out whilst reorganising my library and the time has come to dispose of a number of items which may be of interest through my lightpress account on e-bay.

Chevrolet Corvair

From this weeks batch of French car advertisements taken form Connaissance des Arts magazine that I have posted comes this second generation Chevrolet Corvair ad which dates from 1965. Second generation Corvairs featured minor exterior restyling and independent rear suspension in place of the patented swing axle design of the earlier cars.

FIAT 850 Coupé

Also dating from around 1965 was this Fiat 850 Coupé ad with the wonderful strap line that translates “Tomorrow Another Life”. Regular readers may remember a FIAT 850 Automatic featured in an early GALPOT blog.

Mercedes Benz 230 SL

This ‘Pagoda’ Mercedes Benz 230 SL ad from 1966 asks “Do you want test the Mercedes Benz 230 SL?” with the reponse “Maybe, but then you will lose the peace you had before trying this car”. The 230 SL replaced the 300SL and was the first Mercedes Benz to be fitted with radial construction tyres as standard.

DAF 55 Automatique

Michelotti is probably best remembered for styling numerous Triumphs including Herald / Vitesse, Spitfire / GT6, TR7 / TR8 rare Italia 2000 and exotic SIATA 400F Coupé among many others, unknown to me until I posted this ad on e-bay was the he also styled the Dutch built DAF 55 Automatique powered by a French Renault watercooled motor driving the rear wheels through a continuously variable transmission.

Jaguar XJ6

Finally appealing “for some certain style of man” is this Jaguar XJ6 ad with a photo credited to JM Kollar dating from 1970, I have posted are two further XJ6 ads dating to 1971 and 1973 when production of the Series 1 XJ6 came to an end.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tomorrow Another Life” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a sample of the vehicles that were on display at the recent Hillsbrough Concours d’Elegance. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Torino Transformation – SIATA 400F

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It would appear that the SIATA 400F is a Coupé version of the SIATA 208S which Steve McQueen referred to as his ‘little Ferrari.

SIATA 400F, Goodwood F o S

SIATA, Societa Italiana Auto Trasformazioni Accessori, an automotive accessory company was founded in 1926 by Giorgio Ambrosini an amateur racing driver to make and sell performance parts for vehicles manufactured by FIAT.

SIATA 400F, Goodwood F o S

After the Second World War SIATA started manufacturing vehicles with first FIAT 500 cc / 30 cui and then with larger American Crosley Motors.

SIATA 400F, Goodwood F o S

From 1953 to 1955 SIATA manufactured around 35 208’s sports cars and no more than ten 400 F Coupés, of the type seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed, all powered by Dante Giacosa designed 2 litre / 122 cui FIAT ‘8V’ motors.

SIATA 400F, Goodwood F o S

The chassis design is credited to be the work of Austrian Rudolf Hruska who’s cv includes working on a huge variety of vehicles from the original Beetle, Tiger tank Simca 1000, FIAT 124/128 and a variety of ALFA Romeo’s including the ALFA Sud.

SIATA 400F, Goodwood F o S

The Berlinetta Bodywork of the 400 F is credited to Giovanni Michelotti who was working for Farina at the time, with the body panels manufactured by Carrozzeria Balbo in Turin.

Thanks for joining me on this Torino Transformation edition of ‘Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be announcing the winner of the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz and publishing the answers. Don’t forget to come back now !

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English Corvette – TR7 V8

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The prototype V8 powered Triumph TR7 variant was produced as early as 1972. The performance of the model led to these vehicles being dubbed English Corvettes in some circles.

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The Triumph TR8 Coupe was in production from 1978 to 1980 the TR8 Drophead was designed by Michelotti and introduced in 1980 continuing in production until 1982.

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As a result of poor labour relations and the inherent industrial action it is thought that only 400 TR8 Coupes were built along with an estimated 2400 Dropheads, the majority of which were sold in the United States and Canada.

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In other countries outside North America some TR7 owners upgraded their cars with variations of the all alloy Buick / Rover 3528cc / 215 cui V8. From the best records available to me this appears to be one such upgraded car.

My thanks to the Pistonhead who brought this TR7 V8 along to the Sunday Service at the BMW plant back in January.

Slightly off topic, why is it the only time ‘my’ driver ‘Happy’ Harvick wins a cup race I am too busy too catch it ?

Congratulations to Kevin, who is misquoted to give this blog it’s name, and the #29 Richard Childress Team 🙂

Hope you have enjoyed today’s English Corvette 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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All about the anodised alloy – Triumph Vitesse 6

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The Triumph Vitesse 6 was a four seat sports car available as a four seat convertible.

Styled like the Triumph Herald, with separate chassis and body panels, by Michelotti, the Vitesse 6 is distinguished by the twin head light bonnet, a 6 cylinder engine and up rated brakes and front suspension.

From the rear there is little to help distinguish a Vitesse from a Herald apart from the anodised alloy bumper bar in place of the white plastic covered item of the Herald and the chrome mid rift trim of the Vitesse goes all the way back to the tail lights.

The twin carb 6 cylinder engine of the Vitesse 6 can trace its origins back to the 4 cylinder Standard 8 of 1953, a weld seam on the block shows where the ‘extra cylinders’ were added.

This model registered in Guildford in 1966 with around 80 hp has a top speed of 91 mph. The Vitesse was superseded by the Vitesse Mk2 in 1968.

I’d like to round out today’s edition with congratulations to ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ contributors Ed and Steve Arnaudin, father and son who celebrate their wedding anniversaries today, not forgetting to congratulate their undoubtedly better halves 🙂

Hope you have enjoyed todays 6 cylinder edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me tomorrow for Ferrari Friday any one for seven Ferraris on 7th day of Christmas ? Don’t forget to come back now !

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Race Winning Myth – Triumph GT6

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Race Winning Myth – Triumph GT6

A couple of months ago I got up horrendously early to go filming with the only namesake I know, Opposite his house was this MK3 Triumph GT6.

The GT6 was originally concieved by Giovani Michelotti and Triumph in 1963 as a Coupe version of the 4 cylinder Triumph Spitfire and was to be known as the Spitfire GT4. Unfortunately while the styling won plenty of kudos the Spitfires 1147 cc / 70 cui engine struggled to cope with the extra body weight.

However the boffins in the Triumph racing department saw the advantage of using the sleek GT4 body for it’s upcoming 1965 Le Mans programme and made fibre glass copies of the fast back and grafted them on to the tuned racers they were building, thus the racers did not incur the same weight penalty as the one off GT4 built by Michelotti. The Spitfires of Jean – Jaques Thuner / Simo Lampinen and Claude Dubois / Jean-Francois Plot came in 13th and 14th winning their class against several Alpines non of which were classified as finishers.

Triumph decided to capitalise on the racing success by developing the GT6 fitted with the 6 cylinder 1998cc 121.9 cui engine from the Vitesse model. The handling of the Mark I GT6 launched in 1966 was so bad, it understeered/pushed terribly compared to the Spitfire because of the extra weight of the 6 cylinder engine, that huge improvements to the rear suspension were introduced for the 1968 MK2.

The MK3 GT6 introduced in 1970 features a completely different body to the earlier versions broadly in line with upgraded of the Spitfire MKIV. The GT6 MK3 comfortably out performed it closest competitor the MGB 0-60 mph by nearly 3 seconds and top speed by 12mph yet the MGB outsold the GT6 despite the marketing myth that the GT6 was developed from the “race wining Le Mans Spitfires”, when as we have seen the GT was a separate programme that predated the racing programme.

History class over, wishing you all a fine day, don’t forget to come back now.

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Killed by British Leyland – Italia 2000 GT

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The Italia 2000 GT was an attempt by Commendator Salvador Ruffino to fuse the proven ‘reliability’ of British engineering and the the artistry of Italian coach builders.

The Italia 2000 GT was built around knock down Triumph TR3A kits, featuring a 100 hp 1991cc 121 cui 4 cylinder engine, that has similarities to the engine Standard supplied to Ferguson for use in tractors in 1945.

The TR3 from which all the mechanical components are supplied was one of the earliest production vehicles to feature Disc brakes behind the Crosley Hotshot and Citroen DS.

As this, non original (?), plate show’s only 349 Italia 2000’s were built, the original agreement was for Carrozzeria Vignale to build 1500 of these sports cars however when British Leyland bought Triumph in 1960 the management decided to stop supplying the knock down kits and opted to build the TR4 instead.

The design of the Italia was by Giovanni Michelotti who designed the Triumph TR4 that superseded the Italia.

The production of the Italia 2000 GT in Turin ran from 1959 to 1962.

Thanks for popping by, don’t forget to come back now ! 🙂

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