Tag Archives: Cameron

No Cigars – Le Mans Ferrari 458 Italia GT2’s

As we saw on Wednesday four of the eight Ferrari 458 Italia GT2’s entered in this years 24 Hours of Le Mans raced finished on the GTE Pro and GTE Am podiums, for the last of this month’s Ferrari Friday’s I thought it might be interesting to look at the four remaining Italia’s, all GTE Am entries, that did not get a cigar at this years race.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, Duncan Cameron, Alex Mortimer, Matt Griffin, Le Mans

The only Italia to retire was the AF Corse #55 entry crewed by Duncan Cameron, Alex Mortimer and Matt Griffin which ran out of fuel out on the circuit in the early morning after completing 241 laps from 47th on the grid.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, Kuba Giermaziak, Michael Avenatti, Abdulaziz al Faisal, Le Mans

Last classified Italia was the JMW Motorsport #66 entry shared by Polands Kuba Giermaziak, American Michael Avenatti, and Saudi Abdulaziz al Faisal which completed 320 laps, 12 short of the GTE Am winner, and finished 36th overall from 51st on the grid.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, Peter Ashley Mann, Raffaele Giammaria, Matteo Cressoni, Le Mans

Starting from 48th on the grid was the AF Corse entered #61 driven by Peter Ashley Mann, Raffaele Giammaria and Matteo Cressoni which came home 31st overall after completing 326 laps.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, Rui Águas, Le Mans

AF Corse also entered the #83 driven by François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas that started 40th on the grid thanks to the efforts of Emmanuel Collard and was classified 26th overall with 330 laps completed.

Thanks for joining me on this “No Cigars” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an Aston Martin powered Le Mans challenger. Don’t forget to come back now !

A53 For Civilians – Dodge Challenger T/A

Back at the end of the 1960’s and early 1970’s in order to compete in the SCCA sanctioned Trans Am series of road races potential entrants had to show that they had manufactured, or in the case of the Challeger T/A Dodge had to show they intended to manufacture 2,400 similar units for ‘civilian’ use.

Dodge Challenger T/A, Goodwood Festival of Speed

In May 1969 a Chrysler product planner conceived the Dodge Challenger T/A as an option pack that could be fitted in the build of new cars or retro fitted by dealers to existing 1970 Challengers which had a new second generation body designed by Carl Cameron.

Dodge Challenger T/A, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The T/A spec, also known internally at Dodge as the A53, was first seen in February 1970 by which time Pontiac has launched the “Trans Am” forcing Dodge to opt for the T/A abbreviation. The T/A spec featured a pair of front spoilers which were optional unlike the rear fibreglass spoiler on the boot / trunk lid.

Dodge Challenger T/A, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The, matt black only, T/A bonnet / hood was also made from fibre glass and was fitted with lighter hinge springs and pins at the front to keep it shut at speed. The large airscoop only directed air into the engine bay unlike the shaker hood on the 395hp six pack 440 Magnum which was attached to the 3 twin barrel carburetors and fed air directly into the throttle bodies.

04 Dodge Challenger T/A_8008sc

Trans Am regulations mandated a maximum engine size of 5 litres / 305 cui and Dodge had Power Boat legend and Drag race engine Keith Black prepare small block 303 cui motors for the Classic Wax sponsored Challenger race cars, but the SCCA appear to have been happy to see the T/A spec civilian cars run with small block 340 cui / 5,571cc motors fitted with 3 Holley twin barrel carburetors which combined to produce between 290 and 320 hp depending on whom one was talking to and to what purpose.

Dodge Challenger T/A, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Challenger T/A had an unusual stance thanks to the 15 inch front wheels being fitted with F60 size tyres at the front and wider taller G60 tyres at the rear. This was the first US car for civilian use to be fitted with different size tyres front and rear and is said by some to have contributed to the cars tendency to understeer / push.

Dodge Challenger T/A, Goodwood Festival of Speed

A53 cars ran a normal exhaust to the silencer muffler but it then curved round to exit through “low restriction” megaphones ahead of the rear wheels instead of running to the rear as per all other 1970 Challengers.

Dodge Challenger T/A, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Civilian A53’s were also the only Challengers to have an aerial mounted on the rear passenger side, this was so as to minimise radio interference from the motor which was now running only beneath a fiber glass hood.

Dodge Challenger T/A, Goodwood Festival of Speed

With an other wise stock interior, one T/A also had a sunroof a T/A could cover a 1/4 mile in 14 secs having reached 60 mph in six seconds slower than the big block 440 Magnum and Hemi Challengers but, due to their lighter weight, a little more agile in the corners thanks to a fast ratio steering rack with optional power assistance designed for ‘sports car driving’, improved suspension and all wheel disc brakes, though this was all compromised by the smaller F60 front tyres.

The Challenger T/A was available only in 1970 because Dodge decided to withdraw from Trans Am after Sam Posey finished 4th in the Trans Am championship without scoring any wins.

Some sources say in all from late March 1970 to Mid April 1970 just 1,500 Challenger T/A’s were completed 989 with automatic transmission and the remainder with 4 speed manual while others say 2,399 units were built without splitting the auto and manual transmission numbers. If you know which is correct don’t be afraid to chip in below.

Thanks for joining me on this “A53 For Civilians” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Made In Zambia – Costa Borthers ALFA Romeo Special

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Season’s Greetings today’s post is only possible thanks to the wonders of the Internet being able to put people in touch who have never met, but have the briefest of shared experiences. Today’s featured car the Costa Brothers Alfa Romeo was built to compete in local races in Zambia at the end of the 1960’s.

Costa ALFA Romeo Special

Inspired by Carlo Abarth, who had designed several successful racing cars with the engine behind the rear axle, the Costa Special was conceived as a single seater with the driver offset to the right, and with enclosed wheel body work and built in their shop in Ndola on what is known as the Copperbelt.

Costa ALFA Romeo Special

The design was finalised by trial and error by brothers Remo and Alberto Costa, qualified structural and mechanical engineers from Borgo Val di Taro , Parma, Italy, Remo moved to Zambia as a technical supervisor for FIAT. By 1968 Remo and Alberto had settled into Ndola and having messed around with a FIAT 500 Abarth in Italy fell in with the Racing Club at Ndola Park.

Costa ALFA Romeo Special

In it’s first incarnation the special appears to have used a crashed Fiat 850 as a donor car and had a 1570cc ALFA Romeo motor, taken from Remo’s Giulia Spyder hanging out behind the rear axle driven through a Volkswagen Beetle gearbox with bodywork covering the motor.

Costa ALFA Romeo Special

The car was built in the brothers spare time, with the help from a considerable proprotion of the substantial expatriate Italian population in Ndola. They even had contacts that were able to secure some parts at short notice by Alitalia one of the few European Airlines operating scheduled flights out of Zambia. The all enclosing rear bodywork was replaced with a rear deck to improve engine cooling.

Costa ALFA Romeo Special

Remo and Alberto shared the driving. Ken Lancashire who wrote many reports on local racing for the Zambian Press seems to have made a habit of mistakenly refering to Alberto as Alfredo, that “might” have had something to do with the consumption of a local brew called Castle.

Costa ALFA Romeo Special

The car was classified as a Group 6 prototype sports car, although it was the only entry in the class, it was allowed to race against a potpourri of entries, above stalled Kevin Cameron raises his arm on the grid in his modified Elan, at Ndola Park as the Costa Special and an as yet unidentified driver in a modified Mk 1 Ford Cortina get away cleanly.

Costa ALFA Romeo Special

Remo tells me he has no idea how many races the special won up until the car was sold in 1973 when Remo moved to Nigeria and Alberto to Botswana. Remo says “Alberto (was) faster but also more impulsive , or won or broke , I calmer and slower. Above the Costa Special takes another victory at Ndola Park ahead of a modified Ford Anglia driven by an as yet unidentified driver, note the rudimentary safety features there is a rudimentary bank and a fence between the spectators and and the cars,

Costa Alfa Romeo Special

this was not always the case as seen in the photo above at a track I believe to be the Lawrence Allen Circuit outside Chingola. Race meetings were run with practice in the morning a mid day scratch race with all the cars starting together followed by an afternoon handicap race with the cars starting individually according to handicap with the slowest away first.

Costa Alfa Romeo Special

When the Costa Brothers left Zambia in 1973 they sold the car by now fitted with a 1750 cc twin spark Alfa Romeo motor and Colotti 5 speed gearbox to Sergio Pavan. They do not know the ultimate fate of the car but do know that Sergio turned the engine and gearbox round to make it a mid engined racer.

Multo grazie to Remo Costa for sharing today’s photographs from his collection and telling me the details, after seeing a post I left on The Nostalgia Forum three years ago.

During my parents time in Zambia there were 4 or 5 motor racing meetings a year of which my parents and I would go to one or two during school holidays from England. These would draw several thousand paying spectators to the two road courses, Ndola Park and Lawrence Allen Circuit.

If you have information about one other road course Bennett’s also in the Copperbelt, possibly near Kitwe, which I have not been able locate on Google Earth and at least one street circuit that ran through the streets of Garneton a suburb north of Kitwe please get in touch.

I believe Garneton was the scene of the countries first motor sport events held on tarmac, though I am not sure exactly when that was.

If you have any further information and or photographs about motor sport in Zambia or the former Northern Rhodesia on two wheels or four, on road or offroad, please do not hesitate to get in contact. In particular if you are, or know of, journalists by the name of Fidelis Munsongo, Dan Fisher (also a kart racer), or Ken Lancashire all of whom I believe might have reported stories to the Times Of Zambia.

Finally if anyone knows of the wearabouts of Sergio Pavan the second owner of the Casta Brothers Special please get in touch.

Thanks for joining me on this “Made In Zambia” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Ford GT40 MIII. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, don’t forget to come back now !

Brighton Speed Trials Under Threat of Permanent Cancellation !

In their infinite wisdom, Brighton & Hove City Council are seeking to ban the Brighton Speed Trials from 2014.

If you care about speed and or motorsport history, please sign this linked petition to save Brighton Speed Trials in 2014 and beyond.

It’s a faf to Register before signing, but relatively painless compared to loosing the event which has been run with few interruptions since 1905.

You do not need to be resident in Brighton or even the UK to sign.

Thanks and please spread the word through whatever social media you have at your disposal

Tomorrow Or The End Of Time – Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum

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The first piece of music to make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end was by James Marshall Hendrix, some time in 1967 I was home alone during the day time so it was probably during the Easter holidays, I was messing about with some extremely uncomfortable ex military bakerlite head phones when the announcer on the radio told us that coming next would be Jimi Hendrix latest hit “Purple Haze”. I unplugged and took off the headphones and turned up the volume control of the radiogram a little in anticipation of something interesting happening.

By the time the opening riff blurted out I reached out and did something I had never done before, I maxed out the volume ! By the end of the song I was certainly tuned in and turned on to the Jimi Hendrix Experience even though I had no idea what it was, except it felt really good and I had a new found love for the colour purple and a curiosity for the line “Is this tomorrow or just the end of time ?”

This Tomorrow Or The End Of Time theme is revisited in the 1971 flash back road movie “Vanishing Point” which begins with an all American anti hero Kowolski driving a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum pulling back from a 90 mph impact with a couple of Catepillar bulldozers, that serve as a makeshift police roadblock and vanishing into thin air, before retelling the story of how Kowolski got to the point of staring tomorrow or the end of time in the face.

While reading up on the history of the Challenger I was interested to learn that the very first Challenger was actually a limited edition two door body called the Dodge Silver Challenger that was only available in in silver and came fully loaded with premium white wall tyres, full wheel covers, electric windscreen wipers, luxury fabric interior and deep pile carpets through out.

For 1970 Carl Cameron came up with the exterior design for the second generation Challenger, like the Plum Crazy FC-7 1970 example seen here at Shakespeare County Raceway earlier this year. Chrysler had determined that the similar but shorter Plymouth Barracuda should belatedly compete with the Mustang and Camaro and the Dodge Challenger should compete with the Mercury Cougar and Pontiac Firebird in the pony car market.

Of the engine options available to Challenger customers there were two 440 cui / 7.2 litre Magnum options one 375 hp with a single four barrel carburetor and one 395 hp with three x two barrel carburetors known as the six pack. The car seen here appears to be the 375 hp option as distinguished by the air scoop which on the more powerful six pack models sits on top of the carburetor intakes in the center of the bonnet hood.

Because of low sales volumes of the larger engine Challengers they have become extremely collectable, especially if the engine and chassis numbers match the original factory records. Within the pony car segment this late arrival did well to sell 76,935 copies in 1970 after which sales plummeted to less than 30,000 a year until the model was discontinued in 1974.

Attractive though the Mustangs and Camaros are for my money the Challenger is the most desirable of all the muscle pony cars, there is something about it’s lines that are simply a little less fussy, a little smoother and more refined that look a bit further forward than all the others seen on pony cars in my humble opinion.

The Challenger R/T with the 440 Magnum as seen here and in the original 1971 version of Vanishing point was capable of covering a quarter mile in 13.8 seconds by which time it would be touching 102 mph, the 440 Magnum was only listed for the 1970 model year though it was available as a special order in 1971.

When Kowolski approached the point of no return at the end of Vanishing Point he had a choice to turn back and see what the tomorrow would bring or to keep going further and faster into oblivion, giving up the struggle of life, forgetting not to let a few bad moments spoil a bunch of good ones and disappear into the end of time. I guess if you don’t know what happened next you’ll just have to see the film for your self to find out.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tomorrow Or The End Of Time” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you’ll join me for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now.

Giant Killing Potential ? – Jedi Mk4

Today we are looking at a Jedi Mk4 run by 2 time 1000 cc Monoposto Champion Arty Cameron that appeared at Castle Combe for the Free Single Seater Series the week before last.

Arty is from a big racing family who’s father Tim started racing in 1958, 3 of Arty’s 7 siblings also compete.

The Jedi Mk4 was designed by racer John Corbyn and built in Wellingborough to accommodate a variety of motorcycle engines, Arty uses a 1000 cc / 61 cui Yamaha R1 motor which produces 183 hp

that is transmitted to the rear wheels by chain drive.

Thanks to a high power to weight ratio, car and driver 400 kgs a potential acceleration time of 0 – 60 in under 3 seconds is possible,

Arty beautifully translated this potential into this memorable start at Castle Combe two weeks ago in which starting from 5th he led the opening lap

against faster Formula 3 cars with larger tyres and more powerful motors with ease during an all comers race.

The Jedi flew around the corners, Arty displaying masterful car control as it did so.

Unfortunately the giant killing act was judged to have been the result of a jump start and Arty’s 10 second penalty became irrelevant after his engine grenaded, possibly the result of an oil leak during qualifying.

I look forward to seeing what Arty can do next time out which I hope will be next weekend at Castle Combe for the August Cup.

If you have an open wheel vehicle that can meet the 108db limit, and I have seen some 7 litre V8’s and an 8.3 litre V10 meet that requirement recently, why not come along to Castle Combe and join in the fun. Should you looking be looking for a driver, you could do worse than give double Monoposto Champion Arty a call, he is certain not to disappoint.

My thanks to Geoff E, Simon Lewis and JMH of The Nostalgia Forum for coming up with additional details for today’s post.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Monoposto edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. May the force be with you and don’t forget to come back now !