Tag Archives: Wilson

2011 GALPOT Review #1 – Motor Museums

In the week leading up to the season of Goodwill I thought it might be interesting to review some of the places and events I have been privileged to visit in 2011.

In March I joined fellow members of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club for a visit to the Prodrive factory & Museum, the Museum is packed with a fabulous selection of vehicles from Prodrives successful history including Rally Cars, Racing Cars and this one off Prodrive P2.

Next I made the first of several visits to the Haynes International Motor Museum which probably houses one of the worlds largest collection of red cars, of many makes including the obvious ALFA Romeo, Ferrari, and Lambourghini, outside of Italy. The car that really struck a chord for me however was this GAZ M13 Chaika from the Soviet Union.

On my way back from London in June I found time to visit the wonderful Atwell Wilson Motor Museum which houses some real gems including a prototype CVT Mini, and many cars which can be hired for weddings including this Plymouth Fury. I particularly like the collection of every day cars from my youth including the much maligned Austin Maxi, Twin Cam Morris Marina and Opel Manta. The Atwell Wilson is running a raffle for a Triumph Dolomite in 2012 a ticket for which including entrance fee and a cup of excellent tea will probably leave you change from a tenner !

If Grand Prix Cars and open wheelers are your thing then you’ll feel like a kid in a toy shop when you visit Donington Park Museum which has an amazing collection of Grand Prix cars from 1950 to the present day, and a few more besides. One car I was particularly thrilled to see was the Hill GH2 built for 1976 which only completed a single test session before Team Founder Graham Hill, driver Tony Brise, designer Andy Smallman, team manager Ray Brimble along with mechanics Tony Alcock and Terry Richards perished in Graham’s aeroplane when it came down in heavy fog on the 29th November 1975.

One of the surprises of the year was finding a Formula One car at the Cotswold Motor Museum, which has a fine selection of vehicles including Veteran, Vintage and Classic. The exact identity of the Wolf / Fittipaldi, which could do with a bit of TLC, has yet to be positively established, but none the less a wonderful find amongst a quirky selection of vehicles.

Finally the smallest museum I visited this year was the Bugatti Trust situated right next to the Prescott Hillclimb course. Housing just three full size vehicles, they were of the highest quality and well worth the price of admission alone, what really struck me and my companion on the day Tim was how unbelievably knowledgeable and friendly the trusts Chairman Hugh Conway and his staff were about the cars and the many other exhibits of Bugattibilia including a cutaway vertical 16 aero engine, drawings of the Bugatti train, model LSR car and a giraffe by Rembrandt Bugatti. Be warned the enthusiasm at the Bugatti trust is infectious.

Thanks for joining me on this Museum edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ if you have a favorite Motor Museum you’d like to see a blog about in the new year why not drop me a line info(at)psychoontyres.co.uk. ?

I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I will be reviewing some of the Concours d’Elegance events covered on GALPOT during 2011. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !

Fahr’n Fahr’n Fahr’n – Opel Manta S

1 Reply

In 1982 I found myself studying at Paderborn University, Germany as part of an exchange programme from Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, England not far from where my cousins lived, one weekend I hitched over to visit them to find that one of them had bought a ten year old Opel Manta similar in colour to the ’73 model seen here at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, but with the bigger 90 hp motor and if I am not mistaken a vinyl roof.

On the Sunday my 19 year old cousin kindly offered to spare me the hitchhike back and gave me a lift in his car, not only that but he pulled in at a service station on the A44 Autobahn and let me drive the car the rest of the way back to college.

It was an unforgettable drive, the first time I had driven on the wrong side of the road, the first time I had driven a car with a gear stick on the wrong side and perhaps most importantly the first time I had legally driven at an indicated 165 kph ! Just over 100 mph.

The experience was terrifying, thrilling, liberating and mesmerising in equal measure, I did not want the journey to end, not unlike the early techno pop song Kraftwerk song Autobahn.

Opel’s fastback Manta was based on the more mundane saloon / sedan Opel Ascona though it was actually launched in 1970 some months before the bread and butter Ascona model.

Manta’s and their drivers are popular objects of fun in German culture with drivers being characterised as wearing shades, that why Manta’s need 8 head lights, gold chains the only thing that remains when a Manta burns and having red rally stripes on the walls of their garages because Manta drivers forget to pull their arms in when driving into said garages.

The first series Manta was in production up until 1975 with examples being sold in the United States through Buick Dealers. I don’t think you need to understand too much German to understand how the Manta was marketed in this link.

Thanks for joining me on this Manta edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !

Baby Continental – Vauxhall 101 Super

1 Reply

The Vauxhall 101 was the third generation Vauxhall Victor given the 101 badge because it had 101 improvements over it’s predecessor the Victor FB.

Like the contemporary fourth generation Lincoln Continental the 101 Super carried bright work on the leading edge of the front wings that ran from the top of the front bumper around the top edge of the front wings along the mid rift to the top of the rear wings and around to the top of the rear wings.

Imitating another feature that had been seen in the USA for some time the 101 was among the first British designs to incorporate the side light and indicator clusters into the front bumper.

The 101 was the last of the Victor models to feature an engine with rocker operated overhead valves. The 1595 cc / 97 cui 4 cylinder motor produced 66 hp.

There was a choice of transmissions standard column shifted 3 speed, 4 speed floor shifted or Powerglide Automatic.

Contemporary reports noted that the low gearing gave the car class leading acceleration, 0 to 60 in 20.4 seconds, but made the fuel consumption, 23.1 miles per gallon, worst in class by a full 10%.

Front servo assisted brake discs were options along with a radio that was integrated into the dash.

Between 1964 and 1967 219,814 101 Victor FC models were built along with an additional 13,499 VX 4/90 performance models using the same body. The 1966 model featured today was seen at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum.

Thanks for loining me on this 101 edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Hitchhikers Guide To Disambiguation – Ford Prefect

3 Replies

Many readers may think Ford Prefect is the character Ix from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who disguised himself as an out of work actor after getting stuck on planet Earth for 15 years while visiting the Earth to update the Guide in either the radio comedy, tv series, book, radio adaption of the books or film ‘The Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy.

In fact a Ford Prefect, note not “PERFECT” as many have incorrectly read and or heard the second word, is a motor car which Ix mistook for a superior form of life when visiting earth in the Sci Fi comedy.

The Ford Prefect was in production from 1938 to 1959 in four distinct evolutions.

With the front wings incorporated into the overall 3 box design of the body we can say for sure this is a series 3 or 4 car.

The absence of a rakish small chrome strip from the front of the existing chrome waste strip down to the wheel arch further suggests this is an earlier 100E Series 3 car which was in production from 1953 to 1959.

The tax disc in the front window of this car suggested that it had stopped being used as a daily driver in 1979 which seems strangely at odds with what looks like a vehicle that is more than capable of passing an MOT (a safety inspection required in the UK before a vehicle can be taxed) when I saw it at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum where many of the cars are regular runners.

Powered by a 1172 cc / 71.5 cui 4 cylinder side valve engine mated to a 3 speed manual gearbox the Series 3 Prefect was tested as being capable of accelerating from rest to 60 mph in 32.2 seconds and having a top speed of 71 mph.

The four door version of the otherwise visually similar Ford Popular and Anglia models was also built under license in Latvia where it was sold as the Ford-Vairogs Junior.

There was an estate / station wagon of the Ford Prefect known as the Squire while the estate / station wagon version of the similar Ford Anglia was know as the Ford Escort. For reasons long forgotten in the mists of time the French and Greek translations, among others, of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy incorrectly give the name chosen by Ix while staying on earth as Ford Escort, though Ix probably chose that name for the same reasons as he chose Ford Prefect in the English version, and most other translations of the book, namely to an alien it probably looks like cars are the most intelligent species on the planet.

Thanks for joining me on this Hitchhikers Guide edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be trading in Science Fiction for a big Voyager. Don’t forget to come back now !

Beware HMRC – Ford Model A

5 Replies

After 18 solid years of solid market dominance the Tin Lizzie Ford Model T with over 15 million units sold world wide was reaching the end of it’s marketable life as the worlds truly massed produced car, and despite some resistance from it’s creator, Henry Ford, a replacement was designed with the same attention to detail as to how it would be mass produced.

The Ford Model A was launched in 1927 with an improved 4 cylinder 201 cui / 3.3 litre engine, conventional clutch, brake, accelerator foot pedal arrangement, with a variety of colours for a variety of passenger and commercial body styles.

Despite being in production for a relatively, compared to the Tin Lizzie, short time of just 4 years from 1927 to 1931 over 4.5 million Model A’s were produced. With production being continued in Russia under Licence by GAZ from 1932 to 1936.

However not all was rosy for the Model A in Europe where cars were taxed on either engine size or horsepower or in the case of His Majesties Revenue & Customs a formula involving both.

As a result of the punitive taxation rules European manufacturers had specialised in building lighter cars with smaller engines and the Model A did not stack up well against the light weights, even less so when the Model a was offered with a smaller 122 CUI / 2 litre motor because the smaller motor had a much higher fuel consumption.

The Model A became the first Ford manufactured entirely in Britain when Ford’s new plant at Dagenham was opened in October 1931. However this 1929 model, seen here at the Atwell Wilson Museum will have been assembled from a kit in the same facility at Old Trafford in Manchester as the earlier ‘British Built’ Model T’s.

Thanks for joining me on this HMRC edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

1977 ECotY – Rover Vitesse

2 Replies

There were not many four door executive vehicles that would look comfortable parked along side a Ferrari or Maserati in the 1970’s but the Rover SD1 powered by the familiar alloy Buick derived V8 and designed by David Bache is certainly one that could keep such company in any car park and not look out of place.

Thanks in part to a painfully slow process of rationalisation that was occurring at British Leyland during the early 1970’s involving many duplicitous departments and management within the nationalised organisation it took 54 months for the SD1 to move from drawing board to production.

David Bache was not in the least shy about his design influences incorporated into the SD1 including these indicator lights which are almost identical to those found on a Ferrari Daytona.

Built in a new purpose built £31 million factory in Solihull the SD1 was marketed as the Rover 3500 and launched in July 1976 to an ecstatic reception regarding the styling and performance, though the quality of some of the materials used and build were short of the market leaders particularly the emerging BMW brand. The deep front spoiler and BBS pattern wheels on this model signifies a later model in this case built in 1986.

The Vitesse badge hitherto associated with Triumph models belies the fact that the SD1 had technical and marketing input from the still separate and competing Triumph design and management offices. In late 1980 the Rover Vitesse, seen here at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, was introduced as the performance version of the Rover 3500 and the Vanden Plas the Luxury version that included leather seats.

While the styling of the SD1 was ahead of it’s time the rear suspension was actually a technological step back from the de Dion suspension used on the previous Rover P6 to a live rear axle, though this made the cars easier and cheaper to build the move did not compromise the handling, much praised in the contemporary press, in anyway.

Since British Leyland had so many competing brands in its range the 1977 European Car of the Year award winner was not the money spinner that it should have been because it was priced so as not to compete directly with the Jaguar XJ6 against which it was seen in an extremely favourable light.

Thanks for joining me on the 1977 European Car of the Year edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a fully loaded turbocharged competitor of the Rover SD1. Don’t forget to come back now !

Awaiting TLC #2 – Rover 75 P4

2 Replies

The Rover P4 range of vehicles was introduced in 1949 to replace the interim out dated P3 vehicles which had been rushed into production in 1948 as the Rover company sort to rebuild itself as a vehicle manufacturer having spent the years during World War 2 manufacturing aircraft.

Drawing inspiration from the 3rd generation Raymond Loewy designed Studebaker Champion launched in 1946, at the request of the Wilkes brothers who owned Rover, Gordon Bashford was responsible for what was known in the factory as the P4. The original P4’s came fitted with a central spot lamp mounted in the grill, but this feature was dropped early in production which eased the difficulties keeping the engine cool.

The P4 was continually being upgraded and from 1954 a distinct MkII version was available that was then restyled again into the form shown in these photo’s in 1957, a Mk 2.2 if you will.

Because of material shortages immediately after WW2 these vehicles incorporated a high percentage of aluminium content and were to be seen in competitions of the day including the 1955 Mille Miglia in which Lando Barsotti brought his #347 Rover 75 P4 home in 271st place. The 75 seen here was powered by a 2.2 litre /136 cui 6 cylinder motor featuring the same overhead inlet valves and side exhaust valve design as had been a feature of the earlier P3.

The final MK II P4’s were produced in 1959 with 9,974 Mk II’s produced over it’s five year production run.

I spotted this particular vehicle at the back of the Atwell – Wilson Motor Museum. I am not sure what they planned to do with it, good working examples of the type tend not to fetch more than £ 2000 so the cost of restoration would appear to be a little prohibitive.

Thanks for joining me on this Awaiting TLC edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring