Tag Archives: Harry

Turbo Super Party 3 – SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI

Just over a month ago I got a call from SEAT telling me my company SEAT Toledo TDI was due for some warranty work and they kindly arranged for me to take it in to my local dealer Blades, on Feeder Road in Bristol, who were to provide a loan car for the couple of hours it would take for the work to be completed.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Harry Stoke, Bristol

Having a job where I am on call five days on and five days off I find it quite difficult to keep track of the day of the week so when I turned up at Blades I found I was in fact a day early, but that was no problem and the service receptionist kindly summoned today’s featured 4th generation face lifted SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI for me to drive from one of her colleagues.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Harry Stoke, Bristol

I planned to use my time off with the loan car to go and get some of my favorite Mendip creamed honey from Web Stile Farm a couple of miles off the A37 in Hinton Blewett and as often happens when swapping from diesel powered cars to petrol power I applied slightly too much pressure to the throttle as I left the premises and on this occasion was greeted by the delightful sound of the free revving 1 litre / 61 cui 3 cylinder turbo and supercharged engine which immediately brought a smile to my face.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Burrington Combe, Somerset,

By the time I had left the outskirts of Bristol I was thoroughly warming to the sound of little TSI engine which was much smoother than a 4 cylinder, but not quite as growly as a 5.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Hinton Blewett, Somerset,

Having picked up a couple of jars of honey I decided to pursue a route I discovered, with my friend Tim Murray, last year when planning a treasure hunt for the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club towards Burrington Coombe.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Harry Stoke, Bristol

Driving down the empty windy B3134 was so much fun that once I had stopped to take a photo or two at the bottom, I had no hesitation driving back up it and then round to Cheddar Gorge from whence I completed a loop back to Burrington Combe and back up the B3134.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Burrington Combe, Somerset,

Having enjoyed the handling and the sound of the harmonious little 95hp 3 cylinder with the six speed transmission I reluctantly headed back to Bristol, trying a 30 mph rolling brake check on a particularly muddy uneven empty road and it was no surprise that with the ABS kicking in the car stopped in a remarkably short distance straight as a die.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Harry Stoke, Bristol

With the car now covered in several buckets of Somersets finest red mud I drove the little loop up and down the M32 and stopped off to vac and jet wash the car at Sainsbury’s in Harry Stoke.

SEAT Ibiza SE Ecomotive TSI, Harry Stoke, Bristol

When checking the odometer I discovered 72 fun filled miles had been covered on the honey run in the stylish Ibiza which I filled up with 9.04 litres / 2 Imperial Gallons of unleaded which turned out to be comfortably more than had actually been used.

Just as I had finished cleaning the Ibiza I got a call telling me my Ambulatory Toledo TDI was good to go and so I headed back to Blades where with many new fond memories I exchanged the key’s with the Service receptionist.

In the 30 year history of German magazine Auto Bild’s 100,000 km / 60,000 mile road tests the 2011 Ibiza scored not only the best small car results for vehicles in the VW Group but also the best result for any small car ever tested over that distance by the magazine.

Thanks for joining me on this “Turbo Super Party 3” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Convertible Camaro. Don’t forget to come back now !

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AAA Champion – Stutz White Squadron Racer

Moving forward a year from yesterdays post today we are looking at this well known 1915 Stutz White Squadron Racer thanks to another photograph by Ed Arnaudin.

Indy64 8s

The Ideal Motor Company was founded in 1911 by Harry Stutz who entered a vehicle called a Stutz powered with a Wisconsin Motor in the very first Indianapolis 500 in 1911.

Despite having under gone no testing of any sort in preparation for the race Norwegian Gil Anderson started in tenth, qualifying was decided by the order in which the entries were received (!), and completed the full 200 laps in a creditable 11th, the first finisher not to receive any prize money. The entrepreneurial Stutz claimed the result a victory with the strap line ‘the car that made good in a day’.

In 1912 Charlie Merz brought his Wisconsin powered Stutz home in 4th and in 1913 went one better with a 3rd place finish. For 1914 Barney Oldfield brought his Stutz home 5th in the ‘500’ again using a Wisconsin engine.

Harry Stutz developed an engine based on the classic 115hp 1914 Mecedes Grand Prix car complete with single overhead cam and 4 valves per cylinder in 1915 and it is this type of vehicle we see in Ed’s photograph taken in 1964.

This car was driven and later owned by White Squadron driver Earl Cooper who’s story is no less fascinating than his cars. Nebrasken Earl got into racing by borrowing a customers Maxwell in 1904 after the proprietor of the Maxwell dealership Earl was working for refused to sponsor him.

Cooper won first time out beating his boss in the same race which earned him a victory garland and unemployment in the process. Earl decided to pursue racing and by 1912 formed a successful partnership with Stutz securing his first of three eventual AAA National Championships winning 5 out of 8 road races in 1913.

Sidelined for most of the 1914 season and a good part of the early 1915 season for some, as yet unknown to me, medical condition Earl came back strongly with a forth place at Indianapolis going on to win one of two events held at Elgin, IL and a 500 mile speedway race at Snelling MN to take his second championship aboard this particular Stutz.

After winning the war interrupted 1917 Championship Earl retired from full time racing in 1919 only to return in 1922 taking five wins in 1923. Cooper led much of the 1924 Indy 500 only for two separate punctures to force him to settle for a second place finish.

In May 1925 Cooper became the first man to lap Indianapolis at over 110 mph he started that race 4th but finished 17th after leading 4 laps and eventually crashing. Despite starting on pole for his final race at Indianapolis in 1926 Earl’s car suffered transmission failure and by 1928 he had retired for good aged 42.

Earl became a team manager building Cooper front wheel drive racing cars, one of which competed at Indianapolis into the the 1940’s. He also reacquired the car seen in this photograph in 1938, restored it and then donated it to the Collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles who appear to have loaned the car to the Petersen Museum in LA where it is mostly to be found on display.

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin for sending me the scan of his Dad’s slide and to E.B. of The Nostalgia Forum for identifying this vehicle.

Hope you have enjoyed this AAA Champions edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at the first of two very different Studebakers. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The end of the Edward Turners hemi head V8 – Daimler V8 250

The British Daimler Motor Company was the brainchild of Frederick Simms who bought the UK patent rights to Gottlieb Daimlers engines in 1891. Under the ownership of Harry Lawson the company produced the first Daimler with a Panhard engine and then went on to produce Daimler powered machines in 1897 becoming Britain’s second company to serially produce motorcars after Humber.

From 1898 Daimler supplied official transportation for the Royal Household until 1950 when an recalcitrant transmission led the Royal Family to chose Rolls Royce as it’s transport of choice. From 1910 to 1960 Daimler was owned by by the Birmingham Small Arms Company leading Daimler into various military markets alongside it’s treasured roll as preferred purveyor of motorised transport to the Royal Family.

In 1960 Daimler was sold to Jaguar who needed additional production facilities for it’s growing marque. The Daimler V8 250 was the second series based on the MK II Jaguar powered by Daimlers hemi head V8 engine it was 50 kg lighter and more compact than the competition bred six cylinder Jaguar XK engines. The V8 250 was in production from 1967 – 1969 the vehicle in the photo appears to be a 1969 model and as such represents the end of the line of hemi head Daimler V8 production. From that point on all Daimlers were badge engineered Jaguars.

Wishing Racer 187 a Happy Birthday and plenty of Chief 187’s toasted pumpkin seeds.

Slightly off topic congrats to Kyle Busch on his thrilling Talladega truck victory, glad Ron Hornaday was walked away from his wrecked KHI truck. Condolences to friends and family of Jim Hunter NASCAR’s snr vice president of corporate communications.

Here is hoping Kevin ‘Happy’ Harvick finally gets one over Dangerous Denny Hamlin and goody two shoes Jimmy Johnson in a good clean race at one of my all time favourite tracks.

Thanks for popping by, don’t forget to come back now !

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