Tag Archives: Oldsmobile

No Wings – DAF Oldsmobile 55

In 1967 DAF made a bold move away from the aircooled powered roots for it’s motor cars and introduced it’s passenger car the “goat nimble” DAF 55 powered by a 50hp 1108cc 4 cylinder water cooled Renault engine.

DAF Oldsmobile 55, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

In one of the earliest copies of MotorSport I bought in 1973 this 5 litre / 302 cui 450 hp V8 Oldsmobile powered DAF 55 got a mention when driver Tony Hazelwood recorded a Super Saloon lap record of over 100mph at Thruxton, the year after the DAF 55 model went out of production.

DAF Oldsmobile 55, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Ray Kilminster the builder of this device took a Dutch DAF 55 Coupe shell hooked it up with suspension, brakes and transmission from a March Formula 2 single seat vehicle and then shoehorned the largest available engine into what ever space was remained, then fitted F1 spec wheels and tyres before letting it loose on the race tracks of Britain.

DAF Oldsmobile 55, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Weighing only 700 kgs the vehicle had good weight distribution, because it followed the original DAF 55 pattern of having an engine in the front and transmission in the back, the Super Saloon regulations to which this car was built mandated pretty much anything, except any variation of the original engine and transmission layout which the car was supposed to represent and aerodynamic wings.

Tony Hazelwood the original driver, seen in the top photograph about to enter the car at Goodwood Festival of Speed, restored it with some of it’s other previous owners, due to improvements in tyre technology he has had to fit stiffer springs so that the car is now faster than ever before.

More details about the car and how you could take a stake in it and or drive it are available from Tony’s website linked here.

Thanks for joining me on this “No Wings” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Ak’s Iron Horse – Caballo de Hiero

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When Zeke and Larry Miller needed someone to keep the four-banger Chevy roadster they had just built from running into the back of their daily driver as they towed it on the end of a chain up to Muroc Dry Lake they nominated their younger kid brother Akton, born in 1920, to take the drivers seat and act as brake man for the 100 mile journey to the frozen lake.

When the three Danish born brothers got their Ak was surprised to be offered the drive and set a 94mph time as a career in speed got kicked started that would see Ak become a founding member of the Road Runners car club in 1937, from which he was later ejected for refusing to bow to the flathead Ford Hot Rodders dogma by building and running a straight eight Buick in his Chevy, President of the Southern California Timing Association, SCTA, and one of the founding officers of the National Hot Rod Association, NHRA, in 1951.

Caballo de Hiero, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca,

While transforming countless Southern California ragamuffins enthusiasm into a recognized sport of which he became the acceptable face in a blazer and tie, he built and ran a variety of vehicles to compete on the lakes, 1/4 mile, road racing and Pikes Peak.

Today’s featured Caballo de Hiero was built using an Oldsmobile V8 in a Ford frame to compete in the Carrera Panamericana in 1953, Ak drove the car with Doug Harrison in the passenger seat and came home a respectable 14th overall and 8th in class that included sophisticated Ferrari’s and Talbot Lago’s .

Caballo de Hiero, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca,

The following year the hot rodding duo came in an even better seventh overall and 5th in class, they had hoped to return in 1955 but the race was cancelled in the wake of the disaster at Le Mans.

Ak and Doug had a crack at the Mille Miglia in 1957 with an all new El Caballo II but retired and Ak then moved onto competing at Pikes Peak, with a Chevy powered chassis of his own design with a Devin body, where he won his class on his debut which would be the first of eight class victories over 20 years.

On his 71st birthday Ak joined the 200 mph club at Bonneville, a speed event he helped found in 1949, driving a 225mph Crosley coupé built by his long time business partner Jack Lufkin and Ron Benham that was owned by Earl Wooden.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton who kindly asked Karl Krause to take these photo’s at Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion held at Laguna Seca a couple of month’s ago.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ak’s Iron Horse” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Americana – Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

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Last month Geoffrey Horton kindly asked Karl Krause to take some photo’s of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion festivities at Laguna Seca, I’ll be running a couple of blogs featuring a selection of the vehicles that were present starting with five American vehicles and one from Canada today.

Ford Model T Speedster, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

First up is a the #81 1922 Ford Model T Speedster known as the Hudkins MoTor Special in deference to Bruce Hudkins who built the immaculate boat tail body.

Caballo de Hiero, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Fast forward 31 years to 1953 when a pioneering Hot Rodder Akton Miller took it upon himself to build the #11 “Caballo de Hiero”, Iron Horse, above using a Ford Chassis and an Oldsmobile motor to take on the might of Europe from Lancia, Ferrari, Talbot Lago and Jaguar in the 1953 Carrera Panamerica in which he and co driver Douglas Harrison finished a respectable 14th overall, the following year they returned and came home an even better 7th overall covering the 1921 mile route at an average speed of 94.1 miles per hour.

Bocar XP5, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,

In the late 1950’s BOb CARnes set out to design and build the fastest and safest sports car in the world that would be both fully operable on ordinary roads and track, at a price within the reach of ordinary people. By 1959 he was on his 5th design the XP5 like the example owned by Wesley Abendroth above which I believe is chassis XP5043, that when powered by a 290 hp Corvette V8 was easily capable of 160 mph.

Dailu Mk2, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca,

Even more obscure and rare than the Bocar XP5 is Greg Meyer’s Dailu Mk2 built by DAvId Greenblatt and LUigi Cassiani in Canada. After the pair turned constructors and successfully built the Chevrolet powered Dailu Mk1 to improve upon Davids 1960 Sadler Mk IV, they built the Dailu Mk2 with a coupé fiberglass body, Jaguar XKE rear suspension, and a 430hp Ford Traco engine. John Canon drove it to victory on it’s debut and owner Peter Lerch continued the cars winning ways even after electing to remove the roof.

Ford GT40 MkII, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca,

Probably best known of today’s featured cars is the Ford GT40 MkII chassis P/1015 which Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby drove to victory on it’s debut in the 1966 Daytona 24 Hours and was then driven by Ken and Denny Hulme to a second place finish in the Le Mans 24 Hours, subsequent starts in the same events in 1967 yielded no finishes.

Chevrolet Monza, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca,

Fourteen years further down the line and Chris Cord Racing were entering the second of their DeKon Engineering built Chevrolet Monza’s for Jim Adams in the IMSA GTX series. Other drivers of chassis #1012, seen above now owned by Ken Epsman, in the 1980 – 81 time frame included team owner Chris Cord, Rick Koop and a chap, or these days I believe more correctly a chapess, called Bruce Jenner who is apparently a darling of the moment in the media .

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for organising these photographs for me and to Karl Krause for their execution, more will follow next week.

Thanks for joining me on this “Americana” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a 1975 World Constructors Winning Ferrari. Don’t forget to come back now !

Doorjamb Vented – Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Holiday Coupé

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The full size Oldsmobile 88 was launched in 1949 and by 1950 it had become the General Motors brands best seller a position it maintained until 1974.