Tag Archives: TC

Dash For Lemon Cake – Frenchay Village Show

Last week I received an e-mail advising me that the Frenchay show would be taking place on Saturday but a prior engagement meant I’d struggle to make it. Remembering how good the Lemmon cake was last time I went, I thought I’d give it a go.

Riviera by Buick, Frenchay Village Show

As you can see I made it and enjoyed not only a quality slice of Lemon Cake, but also reacquainting my self with the Riviera by Buick which I first saw a couple of weeks ago at Yate Town Football Club.

ALFA Romeo 1750 Zagato, Frenchay Village Show

Cockpit ergonomics have advanced considerably since this 1930’s Zagato bodied ALFA Romeo 1750 was built, but one wonders if the fun factor has not been inversely proportional.

Hillman Huskey, Frenchay Village Show

While at boarding school I used to clean one of the teachers cars, a Hillman Husky like the 1959 example seen here, for something like a shilling / 12d / 5np a week. The parking light seen here is operated when parking on the side of a road or on a lay-by on a road with a speed limit of more than 30 mph, as mandated to this day by paragraph 249 of the highway code.

Triumph Herald, Frenchay Village Show

Back in the day before I went to boarding school I remember going on a tour of a Metropolitan Police station in London, the sweet essence of disinfectant in the cells left a lasting negative impression. I’m not sure on the date of this sticker seen on a 1963 Triumph Herald that has been turned into a period Panda Car.

MG TC, Frenchay Village Show

Looking back it is amazing how sports cars like this 1949 MG TC were built with exposed fuel tanks strapped to the back, MG carried on this practice until they replaced the MG TF 1500 in 1955.

Hillman Imp, Frenchay Village Show

Bristol’s Tim Fry and later Ferrari racer Mike Parkes lead the team that developed the Hillman Imp with it’s all aluminium overhead cam 4 cylinder motor developed from a Coventry Climax fire pump. The 998 cc / 61 cui version of the Imp was first seen in 1964 and was popular among side car racers in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Thanks for joining me on this “Dash For Lemon Cake” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psychoontyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Americana Thursday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Steel Wheels, 12 Volt Electrics and LHD – MG TD Midget

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For 1950 MG introduced it’s TD Mideget which inherited the drive train and body style from the MG TC Midget along with the chassis and independent coil spring suspension from the MG Y Type saloon along with 12 volt electrics and steel wheels.

Also introduced with the MG TD were bumpers, note the TD above is not fitted with the standard over riders. As a concession to the Midget’s largest market the USA the cars were also available with Left Hand Drive as was a MK II version of the TD with a higher compression engine and two fuel pumps which would have been wasted in the UK thanks to ongoing rationing of low 72 octane fuel. Of the 30,000 MG TD’s built up until 1953 over 23,000 went to the United States.

A small cross section of race winners driving MG TD’s in 1950 includes, John von Neumann (USA), Ken Shipside (GB) and Larry Whiting (USA). TD’s like that driven by Bill Watkins were raced until 1960’s, Buddy Orr was winning races in his TD as late as 1961.

Thanks for joining me on this “Steel Wheels, 12 Volt Electrics and LHD” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

10,000 RHD’s Only – MG TC Midget

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A development of the pre-war 1939 MG TB, of which only 379 were built, the MG TC was launched in 1945. and experienced comparatively huge popularity thanks to large numbers of US service men who served in the UK during the 1939 – ’45 war who fell for the cute li’l pre war MG’s that were still in evidence on the roads during the hostilities.

The MG TC experienced comparatively huge popularity thanks to large numbers of US service men who served in the UK during the 1939 – ’45 war who fell for the cute li’l pre war MG’s that were still in evidence on the roads during the hostilities.

Powered by a high compression version of the M TB 1250 cc / 76 cui 4 cylinder motor which produced 54 hp in standard trim, the motors could be supplied in different states of tune for specific, competition, purposes.

The TC’s cockpit was wider than that of the TB and featured a tachometer mounted directly in front of the driver, particularly useful for competition purposes.

TC’s were raced extensively in Europe, Australasia and North America recording many outright and class wins, both Carroll Shelby and Phil Hill raced and won driving MG TC’s, in their early careers, on their way to becoming stars on the world motorsports stage. Bill Bradley is known to have won his, HP, Class in an SCCA sanctioned event at Opelousas as late as July 1963.

All of 10,000 MG TC’s built between 1945 and 1949 were right hand drive, despite most of them being exported to Left Hand Drive countries particularly the United States.

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #2 MGs

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Given that I have been blogging about MG’s most Tuesdays since at least January I don’t suppose it is that surprising that I noticed so many MG’s at Goodwood at the weekend. Here is a cross section of what I saw in the classic car park and a couple from the race track.

Oldest of the MG’s I saw was probably this 1933 MG K3 driven by Howard Maguire, it was in fact one one of two that appeared during practice for the Brookland’s Trophy on Friday.

What looks like an MG J2, above, with its cycle type mudguards, turns out to be a 1934 MG PA which is still used in competition.

The easiest way to externally differentiate an MG PA from an MG PB are the vertical slats of the PB’s grill which can be clearly seen on the 1936 PB seen above. The PB also has a 950 cc motor against the 847cc of the PA.

Like the MG PB the MG VA has not appeared in a GALPOT blog before, but will appear in the coming weeks so I’ll spare any further details until then.

I don’t have a year for the MG TC above but it was built somewhere between 1945 and 1950 being the first MG model to go into production after World War II.

From 1950 to 1953 the MG TC was replaced by the MG TD, like the 1950 example above, which used much of the running gear of the TC but the chassis and suspension from the MG Y-Type Saloon / Sedan.

Rupert Keegan and Julian Thurgood shared this MG ZA Magnette for the St Mary’s trophy races. For some reason it is incorrectly described in the programme as a Mk 3 Magnette Farina with a 1840 cc motor.

Identifying the the vehicle above I have noticed a major error in my MG A 1600 Mk II blog, the photo’s I used were all of an MG A 1600 without the distinctive lower grill seen on the MG 1600 Mk II above. This error has now been corrected. The car seen above comes from The Netherlands and I have been unable to identify the year of manufacture which will have been between 1960 and 1962.

Surprisingly this is the first non fedral spec Midget I have come across since I started collecting photo’s for ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ the example above was built in 1965.

Rounding out this review of MG’s at Goodwood is this 1967 MG B Roadster which has been retrospectively fitted with a Rover V8 motor that was only made available from the factory with the MG B GT Coupé body between 1973 and 1976.

Thanks for joining me on this “Goodwood Revival 2012 – #2 MGs” 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 Continental Curiosities at Goodwood over the weekend. Don’t forget to come back now !

Stunning Seicento – Tornado FIAT 600D GT Lotus Twin Cam

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Anyone one heading east along the A412 Uxbridge Road in to Rickmansworth would be forgiven for missing Fairway Tyres located in a building set back from the road with a forecourt.

It turns out this building is called Tornado House recalling Tornado Cars Ltd which once employed up to sixty people to manufacture around 600 sports cars from 1957 to 1964 that were marked under the Typhoon, Tempest, Thunderbolt and Talisman names.

Tornado went into liquidation in 1964 it would appear just after the introduction of a hot GT version of the FIAT 600D known as the Tornado FIAT 600D GT.

Around two and a half million FIAT (Seicento) 600D’s were manufactured between 1955 and 1969, powered by a water cooled straight 4 cylinder motor giving either 21 hp or 29 hp according to size, which lent itself to easy tuning with upgrades available from the likes of Carl Abarth.

The FIAT 600D, which sold for 590,000 lire new was also manufactured in Barcelona, Spain where it was marketed as the SEAT ( pronounced c @ ) 600, Kragujevac, in what is now Serbia where it was marketed as the Zastava 750.

As of 2011 it was thought only 65 road legal Seicento’s remain in the UK.

One of the Tornado FIAT 600D GT’s was acquired by David Render in 1965, readers, of the Lotus 76 and Lotus 77 posts, may remember that David was friends with Colin Chapman of Lotus Cars who suggested and arranged for Davids Tornado FIAT 600D to be fitted ….

… with a full blown Lotus Twin Cam motor normally found in the Lotus Cortina and Lotus Elan.

With over 100 hp on tap David’s little Tornado FIAT 600D GT became a pocket rocket…

with which he estimates he won over 50 trophies in the period he owned it. David’s car is seen here at the recent Middle Barton Garages silver jubilee celebration.

Please note Tornado Cars Ltd of Rickmansworth is not to be confused with Tornado Sports Cars of Kidderminster.

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

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

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