Monthly Archives: February 2012

Niki’s Ford – Ford Capri RS 3100

With apologies to my Rowdy friends who will have read much of this before, I hope you will agree that there is good reason for reposting this blog today. The Ford Capri RS 3100 was the final 1974 racing evolution of the Mk1 Ford Capri that was launched in 1969. It is thought that four RS3100’s were built by the Ford Competitions department in Cologne, Germany.

The racing debut of the RS3100 appears to have been by the Harry Theodoracopoulos team in the the 1974 Atlanta Six Hours where Harry and team mate Horst Kwech qualified 32nd but are not recorded as finishing the race.

A week later Ford’s Cologne factory team entered two RS3100’s at the Nurburgring Eifelrennen in Germany, where one time German NASCAR racer, ‘dega 1971, Rolf Stommelen & Toine Hezemans scored a one, two in the German Touring car championship.

Power comes from a 440 hp Cosworth developed GAA quad cam 24 valve V6 motor, a similar type was also used in European Formula 5000 races with some success. To improve engine bat aerodynamics and weight distribution the radiators were mounted ahead of the rear wheels.

Despite it’s high state of tune the RS3100 was generally outclassed by the BMW CSL ‘Batmobiles’ much as it’s predecessors the Capri RS 2600 and Capri RS had been in 1973.

This vehicle appear’s painted up at Goodwood as the #3 Niki Lauda used at the two Norisring races on the 15th of September 1974 where he finished 6th and 20th.

Toine Hezemans was Lauda’s team mate that day in the #4 entry who in a symmetrical reversal of fortunes came in 16th in the first race and 2nd in the second race.

Not sure how Niki Lauda who was in the first year of a Ferrari contract was allowed to race for the work’s Ford team given that just a decade earlier Enzo Ferrari and Ford had spectacularly fallen out over a deal in which Ferrari was supposed to sell out to Ford. These days it is extremely rare for a contracted Formula One driver to be allowed to race in any other category.

The RS 3100 differed visibly from it smaller engined Capri RS 2600 and Capri RS brethren with the addition of this large Gurney flap on the back.

I hope you will join me in wishing one of my all time hero’s Niki Lauda a very Happy Birthday.

Thanks for joining me on the Birthday Boy edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow don’t forget to come back now !

Almost Always True – MG MGA 1600

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The story of the MGA sarts with an MG TD special chassis #EX172 registration UMG400 which despite it’s works experimental chassis number was built for privateer George Philips to race at Le Mans in 1951, the car featured a low slung body desgined by Syd Evener, the body was so low that a special wide chassis had to be built to accommodate the driver between the chassis rails rather than above them as had been the case with all of the MG T series cars.

#EX172 was a public relations success, though it only lasted three hours of the 24 hour race for which it was designed. Due to the rationalisation going on in the British Motor Corporation, a conglomerate which MG became a part of in 1952, MGA production was stalled for two years while resources were put into launching the Austin Healey 100/4.

The MGA finally came to market in 1955 fitted with a 58 hp motor, in 1958 a 108 hp twin cam version became available which had to be detuned to 100hp after problems manifested themselves with the high compression motor.

The 1600 MGA was launched in 1959 with a 78 hp version of the BMC ‘B’ motor, disc brakes on the front. One of these £940 models was tested with a rest to 60 mph time of 13.3 seconds, top speed of 96 mph and 29.7 mpg (imperial).

This 1960 model is one of 31,501 manufactured between 1959 and 1960. Elvis Presley fans may recognise this car as similar to the one used in the film Blue Hawaii in which he sings the Weisman and Wise number ‘Almost Always True‘.

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

A Down Right Pleasure To Work With – Chevrolet El Camino

Targeting Ferrari – Honda NSX (Refresh)

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The Honda NSX was designed to show case Honda’s Formula One World Championship winning technology in a super car that was as practical a proposition on the road as a Honda Civic. In order to achieve that goal Honda aimed at making a game changing car that was both better than the Ferrari 328 and 348 models and significantly cheaper.

The design team for the New Sportscar – eXperimental (NSX) was led by Chief Designer Nicholas Zander and Executive Chief Engineer Shigeru Uehara who allegedly studied an F-16 Fighter for idea’s to incorporate into the new vehicle. Formula One drivers Saturo Nakajima and Ayrton Senna contributed to the design process along with Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal. It was at Senna’s insistance that the all aluminium chassis was made stiffer than was originally conceived.

The NSX, each one built by a hand picked team with a minimum of ten years experience, was launched in 1990 to much acclaim with a transversely mounted 2997 cc / 181 cui V6 motor that produced 270 hp good for propelling the NSX to 60 mph from rest in 5.02 seconds and a quarter mile time of 13.47 seconds.

Twelve years after it’s launch and upgraded version the NSX was launched in 2002 now powered by a 3197 cc / 194 cui V6 motor which produced 290 horsepower that lowered the quarter mile time to 13.3 seconds. The revised edition as seen here is externally easily differentiated by the absence of the pop-up lights which were mandatory at the time of the vehicles launch to gain access to the US Market.

Production of the NSX ceased in 2005. Gordon Murray who designed the 1992 McLaren F1 and owned an NSX for 7 years is quoted from a Japanese interview as saying of this game changing car “The moment I drove the NSX, all the benchmark cars—Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini—I had been using as references in the development of my car vanished from my mind. Of course the car we would create, the McLaren F1, needed to be faster than the NSX, but the NSX’s ride quality and handling would become our new design target.”

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

Quad Cam – Lotus Ford 34 #34/3

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In 1964 Team Lotus returned to Indianapolis for a second crack at the 500 with the new Lotus 34 and the same driving squad, Clark and Gurney, as 1963.

This time Jim Clark started from pole as seen above with Bobby Marshman driving Jim’s 1963 Lotus 29 and Rodger Ward in the fastest of the new rear engined space frame Watson Ford, the only Ford running methanol that day, on the outside of the front row. Following the tragic accident on the opening lap of the 1964 500 Jim completed only eight more laps than early front runner Bobby Marshman before a tyre issue damaged his suspension which caused his retirement on lap 47 after the race was restarted. Team mate Dan Gurney starting from the outside of row two completed 110 laps before Dunlop tire issues also caused his retirement.

The Lotus 34 featured a similar monocoque chassis to the Lotus 29 but the 4195 cc / 255cui stock block Ford motor was fitted with new twin overhead cam heads and Hilbron fuel injection which boosted the power up to 425 hp. This particular car is chassis 34/3 which ended up with Clark’s 1963 rival Parnelli Jones who drove it two a second place finish behind Jim Clarks Lotus 38 in 1965. Parnelli still owns the car today, which is kept at his Museum the Parnelli Racing Collection at Torrence, CA, restored to 1964 spec as seen in Ed Arnaudin’s photo’s

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin for kindly sending me his late Dad Ed’s photo’s and to B Squared for patiently answering my questions about this car and Sisyphus for helping to confirm the identification over at The Nostalgia Forum.

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

Driving For Italy – Ferrari 312 T4 #040 & #038

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The 1979 season was one of two halves in the first half the french Ligier team came out of nowhere with a fast car that took three wins from the first five races, Ferrari then muscled in with four race wins from five races and Renault scored what would turn out to be a one off win at the half way mark and the second half of the season was dominated by the Williams team who scored 5 wins in the last seven races with the Ferrari drivers Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve picking up the pieces and each scoring a win. Jody through his better consistency beat Gilles to the 1979 World Championship.

The car that Jody and Gilles used in 1979 was the Ferrari 312 T4 an improvised ground effect design by Mauro Forghieri that was compromised by the powerful 180 degree 3 litre / 183 cui V12 motor that got in the way of the under body aerodynamics that were an essential element for giving the car improved aerodynamic grip and cornering adhesion.

By their own admission early season runaway leaders Ligier had no idea why their car was working so well in Argentina and Brazil, and when a slight change was made to the material specifications of their ground effects design they had no idea why it continued to work so badly. Meantime Ferrari had just the right balance of mechanical power and reliability coupled with just enough aerodynamic grip to capitalize on Ligiers misfortune and first Gilles, in South Africa then Long Beach and then Jody, in Belgium then Monaco, took two wins a peace interrupted by third and final win for the Ligier driven by Patrick Depailler in Spain.

During the second half of the season Frank Williams team after many seasons operating out of a GPO telephone box on a shoe string budget finally juggled all the balls in the right order and came up trumps with a clean design that once it had become reliable was the class of the field for the second half of 1979 with five wins from seven races in Britain, Germany, Austria, Holland & Canada . Only Jody and Gilles spoiled the Williams party Scheckter securing the drivers championship with a win in Italy to become the first, and so far only South African Drivers World Champion. Jody, who once observed that when he was racing for Ferrari he was driving for Italy, took all three of his championship wins driving chassis #040 seen above at last years Race Retro.

Gilles Villeneuve came second in the 1979 championship his season being primarily remembered for one of the all time great dices in the history of Grand Prix when he pulled off an amazing second place finish racing wheel to wheel over several laps with third place Rene Arnoux in the French GP at Dijon.

Gilles chassis #038 seen above in the pits at Silverstone, where the Ferrari’s were uncharacteristically completely out classed, is known to have been driven to second place finishes by Scheckter in South Africa and Long Beach and a third second pace finish with Villeneuve at the wheel in the 1979 Italian GP.

It would be 21 long years before another Ferrari driver would win a World Championship though as we shall see in the coming weeks Ferrari did manage to win a couple of constructors championships in the 1980’s.

If your into organic food Jody Scheckter today runs an organic farm produce from which can be ordered from www.laverstokepark.co.uk

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Driving for Italy’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’

Exclusive Muscle – Chrysler 300L

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The Chrysler 300 ‘letter series’ was introduced in 1955 initially as an exclusive range for 300 hp 2 door coupés. Every year from 1955 to 1965 a new 300 model was introduced with a new suffix designtion.

With the introduction of the 300C in 1957 power was up to 375hp which could be ordered in hard top and soft top versions. The following year a 300D recorded a top speed of over 156 mph during the speed weeks at Bonneville Salt Flats.

Up to 1959 the 300 letter series vehicles had been powered by ‘Hemi’ motors that had grown to 6.4 litres / 392 cui. From 1959 onwards 6.8 litre 413 cui Golden Lion motors were used with wedge heads

For 1960 the 300’s ditched the separate chassis and body building technique in favour of unibody construction. 1963 was the last of the 300 letter series to be designed by Virgil Exner and his team, just 400 300J’s all hard tops were built.

For 1964 over a thousand dollars was trimmed from the base line price of the 300K by making leather seats extra cost optional and down rating the base engine to 360 hp with the 380 hp still available as an extra cost option and sales rocketed to 3022 coupés and 625 convertibles.

The 1965 300L featured today was designed under the leadership of Elwood Engel, it would be the last of the uninterrupted 300 letter series vehicles, powered only by the 360 hp version of the Golden Lion motor. 2405 coupés and 440 convertibles were sold.

The 300 letter series have become extremely sort after models, the high power motors mark them as forerunners of the 1960’s muscle cars and the low build numbers means that the rarest models can fetch prices in the range of US$500,000.

Thanks for joining me on this Exclusive Muscle edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l 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

Monthly Archives: February 2012

Niki’s Ford – Ford Capri RS 3100

Almost Always True – MG MGA 1600

A Down Right Pleasure To Work With – Chevrolet El Camino

Targeting Ferrari – Honda NSX (Refresh)

Quad Cam – Lotus Ford 34 #34/3

Driving For Italy – Ferrari 312 T4 #040 & #038

Exclusive Muscle – Chrysler 300L