Tag Archives: Racer

Recreation Racer – Peterson Supercharged 6.5 litre Road Racer

Tucked away in deepest Devon Peterson Engineering is a globally respected purveyor of hand made components for vintage Bentley cars.

Bentley Mk VI, Peterson SC Special, Goodwood Revival

The rural business run by Bob Peterson also has a fine reputation for restoring, rebuilding and recreating vintage Bentley Motor Cars.

Bentley Mk VI, Peterson SC Special, Goodwood Revival

Today’s featured Peterson Supercharged 6.5 litre Road Racer is a recreation of the famous methanol burning red Bentley Blower Tim Birkin drove at Brooklands from 1929 to 1932.

Bentley Mk VI, Peterson SC Special, Goodwood Revival

This car like many Petersen Specials relies on a 400 hp 6.5 litre 406.5 cui supercharged 8 cylinder Rolls Royce motor for power in place of the donor cars original 6 cylinder normally aspirated Bentley motor.

Bentley Mk VI, Peterson SC Special, Goodwood Revival

Like last Sunday’s Blue Velvet Special the Peterson Special is built around a Bentley Mk VI chassis in this case one of the last delivered in 1953.

Bentley Mk VI, Peterson SC Special, Goodwood Revival

Along with, Limited Slip Differential (LSD), dual circuit hydraulic disc brakes and fully adjustable suspension the Petersen Supercharged 6.5 litre Road Racer is fitted with Dunlop Racing tyres.

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

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Perfect Daily Driver – Daimler Sovereign Coupé

Today’s post is dedicated to yet another GALPOT Birthday Boy Racer187 who some of you may know as the Rowdy Racer with a Daimler SP 250 I blogged about late last year.

Daimler Sovereign Coupé

Today’s vehicle in featured vehicle in honor of Ryan is a Daimler Sovereign Pillarless Coupé which of the badge engineered Daimlers is my personal favorite.

Daimler Sovereign Coupé, Goodwood Revival

This particular Right Hand Drive (RHD) 4.2 liter six cylinder model, described by the owner a a ‘Perfect Daily Driver’ appears to have been driven around 500 miles from Remscheid in Germany all the way to the Goodwood Revival.

Daimler Sovereign Coupé, Goodwood Revival

The Daimler Sovereign Pillarless Coupé was in production from 1974 to 1978 and apart from its fluted grill and badges was externally identical to the Jaguar XJ Coupé but less than a third of the Jaguar / Daimler Coupé’s were Daimler variations.

Daimler Sovereign Coupé, Goodwood Revival

Due to issues with the paint going brittle as it oxidized and flexing in the pillar less roof vinyl roofs were standard on both variants of the Coupé to hide the cracked paint where the roof flexed. The vinyl roofs then acted as moisture traps when the paint beneath did crack causing rusting issues. Modern paints do not become so brittle and some restorations of these models have the vinyl roof removed.

Daimler Sovereign Coupé, Goodwood Revival

This particular car has been subjected to a fully documented bare metal restoration which includes being repainted in Jaguar Squadron Blue.

Daimler Sovereign Coupé, Goodwood Revival

What I particularly like about this restoration is that it features the correct vinyl roof and XJ / Sovereign Series II bumpers, all of the XJ / Sovereign Coupés were built with Series II bodies and chassis.

Wishing Racer187 aka Ryan Smith a very Happy Birthday.

Thanks for joining me on this Sovereign Pillarless Coupé edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. 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 Rowdy Racer – #187 1960 Daimler SP250

Today it’s a great thrill to introduce the famous Rowdy Daimler and its pilot Ryan Smith known as Racer 187.

Ryan was wrenching for father in law John Aibel and his Le Mans Crosley Hotshot Sport at the Pittsburg Vintage Grand Prix in July 1995. In the paddock next to the Crosley was John Putnam who was having trouble with his red Dailmler SP250 a recently restored ‘barn find’.

Ryan spent much of the meeting helping out John’s son, John Jr., replacing parts and eventually finding and temporarily fixing a fuel tank sludge problem. At the end of the meeting Ryan asked John Putnam that if he ever wanted to dispose of the Daimler to call him first.

Six years later Ryan got the call and has been running the Daimler ever since. With his wife Chief 187 acting as crew chief Ryan recalls fabulous family days out and having great fun racing in the VSCCA ‘Preservation’ Class with Dick Rowley in a Porsche 356 for two seasons until they were both kicked out into separate faster race classes.

The Daimler SP250 is based on a heavily modified Triumph TR3 chassis with a fiberglass body and fitted with a 140 hp 2,547 cc / 153 cui hemi head V8 designed by Edward Turner. The vehicles were in production from 1959 – 1964.

The Daimler has touched the lives of many Rowdy acquaintances, from left to right, Racer187, Chief187, MIL187, Kerry, front row Christi, RockinRouschMan, in the Daimler, ScottinCT’s daughter and ML187, to the right of the Daimler, left to right, Sadie, Lauren and ScottinCT.

Ever the devoted faithful father and now with three children, left to right Rosie187, GS187 and ML187 to groom into the future generation of NASCAR winners, Ryan has taken some time out of his own racing activities while still maintaining a role within the VSCCA as Event Co-Chairman for VSCCA Vintage Races & Racing School at Pocono.

I look forward to taking up the invitation to joining the #187 crew as team windscreen washer upon Ryan’s return to the track.

I’d like to thank Ryan for kindly taking time out to sending me his photo’s and story and the many members of the Daimler and Lanchester Centre Forum who have visited in anticipation of this blog.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s #187 edition and will join me again tomorrow at ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’ for some seriously big stuff in honour of all those who work hard to keep us moving in all weathers when the unexpected happens while we are in transit.

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