Tag Archives: Revival

Single Year Production – MG PB

Introduced in 1935 the MG PB was an upgrade of the MG PA featuring a larger 939 cc / 57 cui over head cam motor that produced 43 hp and drove the wheels through a non synchromesh gearbox.

Externally the PA and PB are differentiated only by the radiator grill which features a honeycomb pattern on the PA and vertical slats on the PB, the latter pattern would remain an MG feature right the way through until the early 1960’s.

MG PB’s were entered in the Le Mans 24 hours in 1935, ’37 and ’38 scoring a best 12th place finish in 1938 with Claude Bonneau from Belgium and Mme Anne Itier from France at the wheel of the formers car. Ernest Harewood won handicap events at Goodwood with his PB chassis #PB0528 in 1952 and 1953.

526 MG PB’s were manufactured from 1935 to 1936 when the model was replaced by the easier to drive and maintain MG TA.

Thanks for joining me on this “Single Year Production” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Some Synchromesh – MG VA

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In 1937 the MG VA succeeded the MG N-type I looked at in last weeks MG Blog.

VA’s were fitted with a twin carburetor 54 hp 1548cc / 94 cui straight 4 motor that sans twin carburetors was shared with MG’s parent companies Morris 12 and Wolseley 12/48 models.

The motor was attached to a four speed gearbox some of which had synchromesh on the top two gears but most of which had synchromesh on the top three gears.

The VA was available with either four door saloon, 4 seat tourer, like the 1938 model seen here or drophead coupé bodies, further Tickford drophead Coupés and 4 seat tourers, distinguished by spare wheels mounted ahead of the passenger door were also offered.

With the windscreen folded down a tourer could accelerate to 50 mph in under 16 seconds and reach a top speed of over 80 mph.

MG ceased production of the VA in 1939 and it was replaced after the 1939/45 war by the Y-type in 1947.

Annual Face Lift – Vauxhall Velox Series E Pick Up

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The Velox Series E was launched in 1951 with 4 door saloon/sedan, 2 door tourer and Coupé pick up versions.

In 1955 Vauxhall owners General Motors mandated annual face lifts for it’s Vauxhall models and the car seen here is a 1955 model with a less clumsy front grill than it’s predecessors.

Power came from a six cylinder motor that produced 64 hp or 68 hp if specified in high compression spec. Note the faux sculpted chrome bonnet trim, a throw back to Vauxhalls built in 1911.

Velox’s were assembled in Vauxhall’s home town of Luton, Australia and New Zealand. Utility pick ups were and are particularly popular in the farming communities of Australia where they were sold with Vauxhall badges by Holden.

The Series E Velox was phased out in 1957 to make way Velox and Cresta PA models introduced for 1958.

Thanks for joining me on this “Annual Face Lift” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me for a look at an MG tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #6 Lotus

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Today’s post features some of the Lotus cars that were on track at Goodwood Revival last week.

The looks and early form of the Lotus 30 flattered to deceive even with Jim Clark at the wheel, this one driven by Paul Wright features the cool exhausts coming out of the top and is one of the few whose lines have not been spoiled with a rear spoiler.

Dan Gurney played an instrumental part in taking Lotus to Indy in 1963, this is the Lotus Ford 29 chassis #29/2 Dan used in practice for the 1963 Indy 500 until he put in the wall during morning practice on Pole Day. Dan qualified the spare chassis #29/1 running the #93 12th and finished the race in 7th place after a late pit stop dropped him from 3rd.

Lotus designed the space frame Lotus 24 for it’s customers in 1962, while keeping back the new monocoque Lotus 25 for the works team. The Climax powered #23 driven by Michel Wanty above is chassis #942 which was one of two supplied to the British Racing Partnership Team racing under the UDT Lystall banner for Innes Ireland and Marsten Gregory to drive. Gregory drove the car once to a 7th place finish in the ’62 British Grand Prix while Ireland retired the car in five from seven races started before finishing 5th in the South African Grand Prix.

British Racing Partnerships also used a BRM powered Lotus 24 in 1962 with which Gregory managed a best 6th place in the ’62 US Grand Prix, the following season BRP fielded two BRM powered Lotus 24 for Ireland and Jim Hall, Jim finished 6th in the British and 5th in the German Grand Prix. The Lotus BRM 24 driven above by Nigel Williams is chassis #P1 which was supplied to the Reg Parnell Racing team for 1963. Marsten Gregory, Roger Ward, Hap Sharp and Chris Amon all had a go in it with Sharp scoring a best 7th place in the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix. The following season Peter Revson drove the car now fitted with bodywork from a 1963 Lola Mk4A, as seen above, for Parnell on two occasions in Belgium and Britain without any worthwhile results.

Dan Collins was out in the Classic Team Lotus entered Lotus Climax 21 #933 which I looked at in December.

Rob Walkers famous Lotus Climax 18 chassis #912 used by Stirling Moss to win the 1960 and 1961 Monaco Grand Prix was being driven by Stephen Bond.

Entered by Real Auto Club Catalunya was the Lotus 16 driven by Joachim Foch-Rusinol seen here blasting past the 1959 Tec Mec Maserati 250F at St Mary’s corner. The 1959 Lotus 16 was Colin Chapman’s second seat design after the 1956 Lotus 12.

Finally the 1955 Lotus Bristol X driven by Malcolm Paul and Rick Bourne, who is seen at the wheel here, charges into the evening during the Freddie March Memorial Trophy race to a 6th place finish.

My thanks to Wouter Melisson from The Nostalgia Forum and http://www.ultimatecarpage.com for his help identifying Michel Wanty’s Lola Mk4A bodied Lotus 24.

Thanks for joining me on this “#6 Lotus Edition” of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me tomorrow for a look at what happens when a dictatorship put’s all the necessary resources into the hands of a couple of racing teams. Don’t forget to come back now !

Goodwood 2012 – #5 Ferrari Friday

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If I heard the commentary on Goodwood Radio correctly then there were over $300 million dollars worth of cars at Goodwood last Friday with 11 Ferrari 250 GTO’s present that would make up the first $120 million very quickly !

Among the 250 GTO’s I had not seen before was chassis #4219GT a car which Pedro Rodriguez drove to victory in the second Daytona 3 Hour race held in 1963. This car is reputed to have changed hands for just over $12,000 in 1964 and between $3 and 3.5 million in 1993 !

The role call of drivers of this Ferrari 250 TR #0774TR includes Jean Behra and Dan Gurney who did not finish the 1959 Le Mans 24 hours in it, Phil Hill and Cliff Allison who won the 1960 1000kms at Buenos Aires before it returned to Le Mans where it won the 1960 24 hours with Olivier Gendebien and Paul Frere at the wheel.

I am not sure of the chassis number of this 250 GT SWB Berlinetta so I’m not sure wether or not it’s a Competizione model or not, if you know your 250 GT SWB’s and no the identity of this one please chip in with a reference or two below.

A class win at Le Mans in 1967 for drivers Dietter Sporey and Rico Steinemann followed by another in the 1000 kms at Spa in 1969 with Jaques Rey and Edgar Berney at the wheel did not do much to help the value of this car in 1969 when it changed ownership for just $6,000. By 1983 the value had leapt to $150,000 two years later it was fire damaged and the wreck changed hands for $46,000.
The restored car then went to Japan for a reputed $800,000 in 1988, since then it has come to reside in the UK via the USA for undisclosed sums.

My personal pick for Ferrari of the day is this 250 MM Pinifarina Berlinetta with a longer than standard nose. The car has little racing history from it’s heyday and lost 1 million Italian Lira in value, just under 1/3rd, between 1953 and 1955. By all accounts it was used for to chauffeur movie stars in 1954.

If you can’t have the Ferrari 250 of your choice there are plenty of less valuable 250 GTE’s like the 1963 example above that can be acquired and transformed into the Ferrari of your dreams at a fraction of the price of the real thing.

For one reason or another this Ferrari 250 GTO #3757 has come up for discussion on GALPOT numerous times, I make no apology for showing yet another photo of it again because this time former Ferrari Grand Prix driver and would be Indy rookie Jean Alesi can be seen at the wheel.

Christian Horner is best known as team principle of the multiple championship winning Red Bull racing, he was also a dab hand behind the wheel making it all the way to the second tier Formula 3000 open wheel series before the money ran out and he opted for team management in 1998. Christian is seen here in the Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta chassis 1953GT another car that has been mentioned before in connection with the motor from 250 GT SWB Berlinetta #2025 that has been fitted to the #60 seen here.

The car above driven by Mike Malone looks like a 1958 Ferrari 250 TR however it actually started life as 1956 290 MM Scaglietti Spyder #0606 with Right Hand Drive. After Maurice Trintignant and Phil Hill won first time out in Sweden car was upgraded to 1959 250 TR specs at the factory and ended up in Brazil where Rio Negri was killed after probably mistaking the central pedal for the brakes when it was actually the accelerator. The remains of the fire damaged car were eventually fitted with a Ford V8. Much later it was discovered and mistaken and built up again as the Left Hand Drive ’59 250 TR 0726. Many years later it came to light that the car was actually #0606. Finding Ferrari’s can be difficult identifying them correctly even more so !

Last year I saw 1985 Indy winner Danny Sullivan at my local track Castle Combe, this year I have now seen him race a Ferrari at Goodwood, above he is driving a 1956 Ferrari 850 Monza chassis 0604M, as we saw in a previous post Danny is following in the footsteps of one five time Juan Manuel Fangio and America’s first world champion Phil Hill ! Danny qualified 15th but did not finish the Sussex Trophy Race.

Finally the Freddie March Memorial Trophy race included this 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Scaglietti Spider S1 chassis #0504M which appears to have been raced by Frenchman Michael Poberejsky under the pseudonym Mike Sparken. Michael won a race in Morocco before sharing the car with Marsten Gregory at Le Mans in 1955 where they failed to finish. R and A Frankel retired with less than half an hour to go in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy too !

Thanks for joining me on this ‘#5 Ferrari Friday’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the Lotus racing cars that were present at Goodwood. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS 12 09 21 Condolences to family and friends of Michael Poberejsky who died this morning at his home in Beaulieu sur Mer.

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #4 Vote Gurney !

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The Dan Gurney Presidential Campaign, which was started by Car & Driver Editor David E. Davis in May 1964 when Dan was still to young to run, was in full swing at the Goodwood revival last weekend.

Among many of the cars drove during his career was the Balchowsky Buick ‘Ol’ Yeller II which Dan Gurney drove twice against far more sophisticated machinery in 1960 setting a lap record and leading the race when he retired at Riverside.

B.S. Cunningham employed Dan to share the experimental Jaguar E2A at Le Mans in 1960 with Walt Hangsen. The, one of two, prototype E-Type retired with head gasket failure, Stefan Zeigler is seen at the wheel here during practice for the Sussex Trophy.

Dan drove three very different cars at Indy during the month of May in 1962, having invited Colin Chapman of Lotus over in the hope of convincing Colin to build cars and enter a Lotus team for the 500 in 1963. Dan took passed his Indy Rookie test in a Roadster, then has a go at qualifying for the 1962 500 driving the gas turbine powered John Zink Trackburner, before deciding the more conservative Thompson Buick, above, was the way to go. Dan finished 20th on his Indy debut.

A couple of months later Dan won his first Grand Prix in France driving the aircooled 1962 Porsche 804 seen being warmed up above.

By 1964 Dan was being employed to drive the Shelby American Cobra’s, Dan shared the Daytona Coupé version chassis CSX 2299 with Bob Bondurant to win the GT Class at Le Mans that year. Chassis CSX 2300 is seen above being driven by 1999 Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack on it’s way to pole for the Shelby Cup.

During 1966 Dan campaigned the Lola Ford T70 Spyder, above, during the opening unlimited Can Am season. At Bridgehampton in September 1966 Dan not only qualified on pole but also won, the only Can Am victory for a Ford powered vehicle.

Kenny Brack drove for AJ Foyt when he won Indy in 1999, above is the Ford Mk IV chassis #J5, AJ shared with Dan at Le Mans in 1967. Gurney and Le Mans rookie Foyt comfortably won the race to secure Ford’s second consecutive Le Mans win.

With Foyt having won the 1967 Indy 500 in the last week of May, Gurney and Foyt winning Le Mans in the first week of June, Dan went on to win the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in one week later in a car from his own fledgling Eagle team. The Len Terry designed Eagle T1G is powered by a 3 litre / 183 cui Gurney Westlake V12.

In 1968 Dan’s All American Racers team ran Shelby Ford Mustangs Boss 302’s in the Trans Am series.

Dan’s last Grand Prix three drives came when he substituted for Bruce McLaren, after the latters death at Goodwood driving a McLaren M8 Cam Am car. Dan drove the McLaren Ford M14A car to a sixth place finish in the 1970 French Grand Prix his last but one Grand Prix.

Earlier in the 1970 season Dan drove to a 3rd place finish in the Indy 500 on his last appearance in the cockpit at the Brickyard. Though he never won the 500 as a driver his Eagle Offenhauser cars won three Indy 500’s in 1968 with Bobby Unser, Gordon Johncock in ’73 and Bobby Unser again in 1975.

Sea Cadets at the Revival were handing out Gurney campaign stickers and badges in return for donations to the Royal Navy Heritage Trust, a charity which is dedicated to keeping historic Navy planes, like the Hawker Sea Fury above, in the air. In August 1952 Lieutenant Peter “Hoagy” Carmichael, of 802 Squadron based aboard HMS Ocean was credited with shooting down a Mig 15 jet in the Korean War. This was one of the few times a jet has been recorded as being shot down by a piston powered plane. Over the Radio Dan told Goodwood spectators that he applied to become a pilot with US forces, however when he was told that this would not be possible because he was married he told us that he moved on “and did some other stuff”.

Thanks for joining me on this “#4 Vote Gurney” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. For Ferrari Friday at Goodwood. Don’t forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #3 Continental Curiosities

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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 !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Revival

Single Year Production – MG PB

Some Synchromesh – MG VA

Annual Face Lift – Vauxhall Velox Series E Pick Up

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #6 Lotus

Goodwood 2012 – #5 Ferrari Friday

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #4 Vote Gurney !

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #3 Continental Curiosities