Today’s post features some of the Continental Curiosities that appeared at last weekends Goodwood Revival.

In the pits this 1959 GAZ Volga 21M was being readied for Roger Wills and Brendan Hartley to take part in the St Marys trophy races, the car ended the day with the bonnet hood wrapped round the windscreen after something came loose approaching Fordwater. Brendon finished 10th in race 1 and Roger 11th in race 2. The proogramme notes this 21M is powered by a 3 litre / 183 cui motor which is not a standard size for the model when it was built.

The Nash Metropolitan was a sub compact designed in the US but built in the UK by the Austin Motor Company in Birmingham, England with an Austin motor from 1953 to 1961, this left hand drive Series III car was driven in the St Mary’s Trophy races by Shaun Rainford and 1989/1995 British Touring Car Champion John Cleland. John was not classified in race 1 while Shaun finished 21st in race 2.

Back in the mid 1970’s Stuart Graham was a regular contender for saloon car race wins with first a Chevrolet Camaro and the Ford Capri III S. He is also a two time motorcycle Grand Prix winner. The now 70 year old Stuart can be seen preparing to climb aboard the 1951 Renault 4CV he was sharing with John Arnold. Stuart recorded a non finish in race 1 and John 25th in race 2 of the St Mary’s trophy.

Simply hanging in the paddock was this Goggomobil TS250 that has had the roof chopped off and a 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SLR Mille Miglia tribute paint job. #722 was the number of the Mercedes Benz 300 SLR driven to victory by Stirling Moss with Dennis Jenkinson reading the map in the 1955 Mille Miglia.

So far as I can tell the vehicle above is a 1926 Peugeot 172R also known as a 5CV named after the French Tax Bracket into which it fell. It is powered by an 11 horsepower 4 cylinder motor.

The first of two Frazer Nash’s I learnt about at the weekend was this 1950 “Foursome” Cabriolet described in the notes on a Frazer Nash website as Fritz Fiedler’s dream car, Fritz was employed by Fraser Nash and Bristol to help set up production of various vehicles based on prewar BMW designs on which he had worked. Fieidler later returned to BMW where he eventually served as chairman. This Cabriolet appears to have been the only one of it’s kind ever built and features a larger chassis than it’s contemporary Frazer Nash vehicles.

This Mercedes Benz 190 will have left the factory as a saloon / sedan and had a post production conversion into an estate / station wagon, given the paint scheme this one may have served as an ambulance / retungswagen. The wide radiator grill dates the car post 1960 confusingly the swish indicators on the wing / fender appear to have come from a more powerful Mercedes Benz 220.

Georg Gebhard gave his Jankowits Special it’s world competition debut in the Brooklands Trophy, and I have to admire him for his bravery, given that the steering wheel is in the middle of a three wide bench seat ! The beautiful but heavy steel body sapped the cars acceleration on the straights and the seating arrangements made cornering a precarious experience even at walking pace. Unsurprisingly the Jankowits qualified last for the Brooklands Trophy over 30 seconds slower than the last but one slowest competitor. The owner is still convinced that the Jankowits is an ALFA Romeo in the absence of a single shred of evidence.

The second Frazer Nash I learnt of for the first time over the weekend is this 1928 Saloon known as “The Owlet” driven by Patrick Blakeney-Edwards. Other than the car appears to be a recreation I know little else at the moment except that it is very fast qualifying over a minuet faster than the Jankowits for the Brooklands trophy race for 5th place on the grid and finishing 3rd behind a more powerful ALFA Romeo and Talbot.

Winner of the unofficial biggest exhaust pipes in the paddock award the Tatra T603 driven by John Haugland and Arne Berg proved to be more than “all show and no go” with 5th and 8th place finishes in their respective St Mary’s Trophy races.

BMW was in danger of a merger with Daimler Benz such was the poor state of it’s finances when the BMW 700 Coupé was launched in 1959, fortunately a substantial number of orders along with a substantial investment saved the day for the company to remain independent. Jackie Oliver driving the #2 qualified and finished 3rd in the 1st Mary’s Race while team mate Richard Shaw qualified 5th and finished 6th in the 2nd race.

Thanks for joining me on this “#3 Continental Curiosities” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again for a Presidential Americana edition tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !