Dust Thy Neighbour – Volkswagen Golf GTi 16V

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Ralph

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In 1983 while I was an intern at the Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg there was great excitement as the announcement of the revamped VW Golf Mk 2 was anticipated.

Volkswagen Golf GTi 16v, Oulton Park

As I arrived the first of the new cars were being assembled in Halle 54 a giant factory space in which the body panels were held together with over 400 spot welds made by an army of robots as was most of the assembly work.

Volkswagen Golf GTi 16v, Oulton Park

The 110hp GTi version of the Golf II was available powered by the same 110hp motor as the face lifted VW Golf GTi I. In 1986 in Europe and 1987 in the USA 16 valve versions of the motor giving 137 hp in Europe and 129 hp in the USA became available.

Volkswagen Golf GTi 16v, Oulton Park

UK advertising for the GTi 16v emphasised the quality of the body, while US advertising emphasised the performance of the car with the strap line “Dust Thy Neighbour“.

Volkswagen Golf GTi 16v, Oulton Park

Today’s featured vehicle is seen at an Oulton Park track day a couple of years ago with non standard rims. It has been estimated that around 6.3 million Golf II’s were manufactured at VW plants in Wolfsburg, Brussels, Sarajevo, New Stanton Pennsylvania, Puebla, Mexico and Uitenhage, South Africa.

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

More Power Bigger Drums – Morris Oxford II

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Ralph

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For 1948 Alex Issigonis designed the Morris Oxford to compliment the smaller Morris Minor is the Morris model mix, the Oxford MO boasted a 40.5 hp 4 cylinder side valve motor inherited from the prewar Morris 10 which it replaced, unitary body construction, torsion bar front suspension and hydraulically activated 8 inch drum brakes with which to bring the 72 mph vehicle to rest.

Morris Oxford II, Cotswold Classic Car Club, Frogsmill, Andoversford

In 1952 Morris merged with it’s great rival Austin with William Morris, now Lord Nuffield, becoming the British Motor Corporation’s first Chairman, thanks to the merger Morris was able to ditch it’s antiquated motors for those from the Austin range.

Morris Oxford II, Cotswold Classic Car Club, Frogsmill, Andoversford

As a consequence the Morris Oxford II first seen in 1954 was powered by a 50 hp Austin designed 4 cylinder over head valve B series motor which increased the top speed to 74 mph better acceleration and better fuel consumption 28 mpg up from 26 mpg of the Oxford MO.

Morris Oxford II, Cotswold Classic Car Club, Frogsmill, Andoversford

The column shift 1955 Oxford II, seen here earlier this year as the Cotswold Classic Car Club Meeting held at Frogsmill Andoversford, was equipped with 9 inch hydraulic brakes to cope with the increase in performance and came with a heater as standard.

Morris Oxford II, Cotswold Classic Car Club, Frogsmill, Andoversford

The Oxford II was available in 4 door saloon / sedan or 2 door Traveller Estate / Station wagon variants, the former of which would live on as the Hindustan Landmaster built under licence until 1958 in India.

Morris Oxford II, Cotswold Classic Car Club, Frogsmill, Andoversford

From 1954 87,342 Oxford II’s were built at plants in the UK and Australia until 1956 when the model was replaced by the Morris Oxford III.

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

Formula One Wheels – Shadow Mk II

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Ralph

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A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to receive today’s featured photo’s from Geoffrey Horton of a Shadow Mk II , which mistakenly thought was a vehicle that had been built for Jackie Oliver to drive in the 1971 Can Am Series. As we shall find out I did not delve deep enough into it’s history and I did not know what the Shadow know’s.

The story of the Shadow racing team begins with an orphan Don Nichols who as a child was influenced by The Shadow radio series, after service in the 39′ ’45 war and a career in military intellince Don appears to have gravitated to the world of Motor Racing supplying American tyres to the Japanese racing fraternity during the 1960′s.

In 1970 Don founded Advanced Vehicle Systems which built a red vehicle notorious for it’s tiny size and wheels designed by Trevor Harris called the Shadow Mk I. The car qualified well with first George Folmer and then Vic Elford at the wheel, but was hampered with a 100% unreliability record not finishing any races.

in 1969 Peter Bryant had designed and entered his titanium chassised Ti 22 Can Am car which Jackie Oliver had been qualifying even better, than the Shadow, since it was first seen and managed two 2nd place finishes in 1970.

Bryant ran out of funds for the Ti 22 and both he and Jackie Oliver joined Don Nichols for the 1971 season. Don was keen that Peter keep the frontal area of the Shadow Mark II to a minimum and so the Mk II was designed around Formula One size wheels and tyres which were smaller than those ordinarily found in Can Am.

Powered by a 8.1 litre / 494 cui Chaparral prepared Chevrolet V8 Jackie scored a best third place finish at Edmonton when the car appeared painted white with black lettering on all the upward facing surfaces except the rear wing. Jackie used chassis Mk II #1 through out the 1971 season.

As we shall see next week Peter Bryant was responsible for designing the 1972 Shadow MK III and Jackie for driving it, but what I did not know until recently was that Advanced Vehicle Systems built three Mk II monocoque tubs and that all three were used to build the Shadow Mk III which ran on full size Can Am tyres.

In 2009 Don Nichols sold off the chassis, seen here at Marin Sanoma Concours d’Elegance where it won it’s class, which is actually the third chassis that was only ever raced in Mk III specification. Mr Losher the owner decided, that as the first two chassis are still in 1972 Mk III spec, he would build his up to the older 1971 Mk II Formula One wheel spec.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sending me these photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Formula One Wheels” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho” on tyres”, next week I’ll be looking at the Shadow Mk III on Americana Thursday, meantime I hope you will join me for another edition of Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Development Hack – Ford GT Prototype #GT/105

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Ralph

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The Ford GT Le Mans programme, fueled by Enzo Ferrari’s last minuet snub and refusal to go through with a take over by Henry Ford II, began with a partnership between Ford and Lola. Eric Broadley disagreed with Ford over the use of steel in the construction of the chassis and so the partnership disolved leaving Ford to set up Ford Advanced Vehicles on the same Slough Trading Estate that Lola were operating from.

Chassis #GT/105, seen here at Goodwood, was one of the 12 Ford GT’s manufactured by Ford Advanced Vehicles in 1964, it differs form the earliest examples having built from lighter 22 gauge steel as opposed to the 24 gauge used in the earliest Ford GT’s.

This car was only entered for one race in 1964, the Rheims 12 Hours, where it ran, carrying the #6 on wire wheels, with Richard Attwood and Jo Schlesser qualifying 6th and retiring with transmission problems.

Primarily #GT105 was used for extensive testing as Ford sort to turn the comparatively lumpy beast, compared to the cars used by Ferrari at the time, into a Le Mans contender by spending millions of dollars on optimising every component for durability.

While weight was saved using thinner gauge steel this car was raced with the heavier more powerful 4.7 litre 289 cui iron block Fairlane derived Cobra motor in place of the 4.2 litre 218 cui alloy block Indy derived motor which was originally used on the Ford GT project.

For 1965 development of the Ford GT40 project was moved from Ford Advanced Vehicles to Dearborn where Roger Lunn and his team worked at Kar Kraft on the design of the Mk II version and to Shelby American for race development where the 4.7 litre Cobra motors were prepared and installed, the wire wheels swapped for cast alloys and eventually the Colotti 4 speed gearboxes swapped for ZF 5 speed units.

Team Manager John Wyer remained in Slough where he oversaw the production of the Ford GT based road car project the Ford GT Mk III.

In between private testing chassis #GT/105 was raced at the Le Mans Test weekend in 1965 during which Richard Attwood, John Whitmore amd Maurice Trintignant managed third best time overall behind two Ferrari’s.

In 1966 chassis #GT/105 driven by Peter Sutcliffe and Bob Grossman qualified 19th for the Daytona 24 hours coming home 14th and first in class. At Sebring the same year Innes Ireland and Peter Sutcliffe qualified #GT/105 20th but retired with a blown head gasket.

#GT/105 today belongs to irregular Britcar competitor Richard Meins who is seen at the wheel here. Note the car appears to be fitted with a Mk II nose that has had the bottom edge cut away beneath the radiator, presumably in order to maintain aerodynamic stability and aid cooling.

Thanks for joining me on this “Development Hack” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be featuring a little remembered racing Lotus Esprit. Don’t forget to come back now !

Diamond Jubilee – Austin A40 Somerset Coupé

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Ralph

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Welcome to the Diamond Jubilee edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”.

Today’s featured car is an Austin A40 Somerset was launched in 1952 built on a chassis with separate body.

The 42 hp motor was described as providing “a virile performance to excite the young enthusiast and a smooth flexibility that enables it to be handled with confidence” in the sales brochure.

Running on the low octane fuel of post war austerity Britain the claimed top speed for the A40 Somerset was 69 mph though a convertible was independently tested in 1953 with a top speed of 74 mph and rest to 60 mph time of 28.6 secs.

This particular vehicle, seen at the Malta Classic Car Collection, was delivered to a customer in Malta and legend has it that in 1952 Queen Elizabeth II drove it, though it is unclear if this was during a state tour or a private visit to Prince Phillip and or his friends who had been stationed on the British Protectorate.

Since finding out that this model was marketed as a ‘Coupé’ I have been unable to find out why. Somethings are obviously set to remain a mystery.

Thanks for joining me on this “Diamond Jubilee” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I will be looking at one of my favourate models a Citroen 2CV. Don’t forget to come back now !

The Adjustacar – Lotus Ford 77 #R2

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Ralph

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Like the photo’s featured in the Ferrari T2 post a couple of months ago today’s photo’s come courtesy of my school friend Sven Platt and were taken at the 1976 British Grand Prix.

The 1976 Lotus 77 was a second attempt at replacing the Lotus 72 after the underwhelming Lotus 76 was abandoned in 1974. Like the 76 the 77 featured an extremely narrow chassis, but with Lotus 72 style side pods which extended back to the leading edge of the rear wheels for the radiators.

Novel features for the Lotus 77 when it was first seen included air intakes that ran the length of the cockpit, in board brakes, that were mounted between a pencil thin chisel nose and the front wheels, and rocker arm suspension that was fully adjustable to meet the requirements of any track.

By the start of the European season non championship races the cockpit side air intakes for the motor were blanked off and replaced with a conventional airbox. The ‘adjustacar’ suspension proved difficult to set up but was retained, while by the Belgian GP the inboard front brakes were abandoned. At the Dutch Grand Prix an oil cooler was mounted in the nose to move some weight forward of the front axle line.

At the start of the 1976 season drivers came and went like a game of musical chairs, Ronnie Peterson was the incumbent #1 driver and Mario Andretti returned for a one off guest drive, after a six year break in the second car. After qualifying 16th and retiring with accident damage Ronnie swapped places with new boy & countryman Gunnar Nilsson who had been scheduled to drive for the March team. Andretti returned to Vels Parnelli team just in time for it to fold after the 1976 US Grand Prix West. British Formula 5000 champion Bob Evans was given two Grand Prix races at Team Lotus while Nilsson made his Grand Prix debut in South Africa. After failing to qualify for the US GP West Evans was dropped from the team and after trying out the Wolf Williams FWO5 in a non championship race freshly out of work Mario Andretti signed on as the Lotus #1 driver !

After Andretti rejoined the team Nilsson scored a couple of thirds during his rookie year while Andretti went a little better scoring two thirds and winning the thrilling final race of the season run in a monsoon that decided the championship between Niki Lauda and James Hunt that should make a thrilling climax to Ron Howard’s current film project ‘Rush‘.

The three Lotus 77′s, never known as John Player Special II’s as the sponsors might have hoped, were retired from top line competition at the end of 1977, however that was not quite the end of the story as once again David Render, swapping his Lotus 76, and getting hold of Andretti’s Japanese GP chassis, #R1, and using it as an effective hillclimb and sprint machine.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Adjustacar’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be reviewing last weekends Simply Italian event at the National Motor Museum in which a GALPOT regular won a prize ! Don’t forget to come back now !

Towing and Competing – Kayne Special III

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Ralph

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A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to meet MG Special Builder and Frogeye restorer Colin Cooper. Today I am looking at his third, and final, Kayne Special III.

Colin originally conceived the Kayne Special III as a towing car for his Kayne Special II as seen above at Oulton Park in 1983 and his Killeen K1 which I’ll be looking at next Tuesday.

Photo Copyright Frank Hall 1984.

However since he was taking part in events which allowed a driver multiple entries he decided to see what the Kayne Special III could do. Colin is seen above at Baitings Dam in 1984.

Kayne Special III was designed from scratch to Colin’s own design between 1981 and 1983.The green radiator cowl seen on the Kayne Special III above at Castle Combe like the more substantial safety cage was fitted after Colin sold the car.

Colin cut all of the square section tube chassis members with a hacksaw, no short cuts were taken with angle grinders, tacked all the members together and then had the chassis frame mig welded by a friend.

The 3.5 litre / 215 cui V8 motor came from a Rover SD1 complete with an automatic transmission which was attached to a rear axle sourced from an MG B. Note the steering column needs two universal joints to avoid fouling on the right hand bank of cylinders, this feature resulted in the Kayne Special III being unsuitable for anybody to drive with shoes size 7 1/2 or larger.

Running on 14″ MG B wire wheels at the front and 15″ MG C rear wheels at the rear and with a 0-100 mph capability in the region of 15 secs Colin could tease motorcyclists with his beautifully finished Kayne Special III.

With the automatic transmission Colin could drive the car to within 1 second of the times he achieved with the Kayne Special II. By 1984 Colin had fitted a manual transmission.

Colin sold the Kayne Special III when he retired from competition in 1985 for £2,700. The present owners and drivers of the car are John and Jonathon Biggs.

My thanks to Colin Cooper for sharing his memories and providing his photographs and to Chris Winstanley for allowing me to use Frank Halls photograph.

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