Tag Archives: T3

34mm Turbo Restrictor – Mitsubishi Pajero T3 Prototype

The second generation Mitsubishi Pajero / Montero was built between 1991 and 1999, today’s featured 1996 T3 Prototype was built to compete in the Granada Dakar Desert Rally and aside from the name and a few components shares little in common with it’s commercial namesake.

Going into the 1996 Granada Dakar Rally Mitsubishi were looking to win their 4th Dakar Rally 4 wheel title outright, their first since 1993, as were ’91, ’94 and ’95 winners Citroen.

Mitsubishi Pajero T3 Prototype, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The T3 Prototype was built on a space frame competition chassis featuring double wishbone and coil spring suspension all round, the tad over 2m / 6’6″ wide, with a 3m wheel base chassis was covered with a 4m carbon fibre and Kevlar body.

Weighing only 1410 kgs / 3100 lbs the vehicle was powered by a 2.4 litre / 147 cui 4 cylinder 16 valve 4G64 motor fitted with an inter cooled Turbocharger and a new for ’96 mandated 34mm air restrictor that kept the power output down to a claimed 300hp.

Mitsubishi Pajero T3 Prototype, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Thee T3 Prototypes were entered for crews; Bruno Saby/Dominique Serieys who won in 1993, Kenjiro Shinozuka/Henri Magne and Jean-Pierre Fontenay/Bruno Musmarr.

A fourth T3 Prototype with RVR Space Runner bodywork was entered for Hiroshi Masuoka / Andreas Schulz and the whole team was backed up with 9 trucks and 76 personnel led by Ullrich Bremer who were also mandated by the regulations to compete.

Mitsubishi Pajero T3 Prototype, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Pierre Lartigue and Michel Perin completed a hat trick of wins in their Citroën ZX Rallye Raid Evo 5, a car which traces it’s origins back to the Peugeot 205 T16, while Jean-Pierre Fontenay and Bruno Musmarr came home in 3rd, driving today’s featured #206 seen at Goodwood Festival of Speed, ahead of the sister car of Bruno Saby and Dominique Serieys which finished 7th and 17th place Kenjiro Shinozuka and Henri Magne.

Kenjiro and Henri went on to win the event in 1997, Jean-Pierre with Giles Picard won in ’98, Hiroshi and Andreas won in 2003 the year after Hiroshi won the event for the first time with Pascal Maimon, all of these victories counting towards the 12 Dakar overall 4 wheel victories Mitsubishi have won to date.

Thanks for joining me on this “34mm Turbo Restrictor” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Mercedes Monday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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T4 Turbine – Rover T4

To their credit while Rover must have realised the cost of producing a gas turbine powered motor car for the masses was prohibitive because of the cost of the exotic materials required and because of the high fuel consumption they continued experimenting with the technology until 1966.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Today’s featured 1961 T4 prototype was their final attempt at making a gas turbine vehicle for production to replace the Rover P4 models that had been in production since 1949.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

For this application Rover engineers had their gas turbine producing 140hp enough to power the T4 from rest to 60 mph in 8 seconds, about the same as would be achieved 7 years later with the 155 hp aluminium Rover V8.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Designers Spencer King and Gordon Bashford carried a number of ideas over from the Rover T3 I looked at last week including all wheel disc brakes and de Dion rear suspension.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Even though the fuel consumption was improved from 13 mpg on the T3 to 20 mpg on the T4 the notion of a gas turbine powered car was eventually put to rest with the T4 and the nose was redesigned to accept a variety of petrol engines for the P6 series Rover 2000’s launched in 1963 and later Rover 3500’s launched in 1969.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Rover’s experiments continued with their Gas Turbine powered BRM Le Mans project which achieved 7th and 10th place finishes in 1963 and 1965 respectively.

Thanks for joining me on this “T4 Turbine” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another rallying Triumph. Don’t forget to come back now !

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13 mpg – Rover T3 Coupé

Today’s featured Rover T3 Coupé was Rovers third gas turbine powered car.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

Spencer ‘Spen’ King and Gordon Bashford are credited with the design of the Coupé which first saw the light of day in 1956.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

Among the designs novelties are all wheel drive, all wheel disc brakes and de Dion rear suspension which offers some of the advantages of independent sear suspension, but with additional complexity.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

The T3 was powered by a variant of Rovers 1S gas turbine which produces 60hp that was used for fire pump, auxiliary power for aircraft like the Vulcan B2 nuclear bomb delivery system, hovercraft and as the main engine for light aircraft.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

The motor, mounted behind the passenger cabin, has an operating speed of 46,000 rpm, unfortunately this gave a fuel consumption of 13 – 14 miles per gallon of paraffin.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

Some features of the T3 including the all wheel disc brakes, and de Dion rear suspension found their way into the Rover P6 production model but unfortunately the gas turbine did not.

06 Rover T3 Coupé_6737sc

The T3 is seen in these photographs at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon where it is usually to be found unless it is on loan.

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Can You Help Us Dad ? – Cooper 500 Prototype

In 1932 John Newton Cooper probably became the luckiest 9 year old in Surbiton when his Dad, Cooper Garage proprietor Charles Cooper, built him a car with a motor cycle engine and gearbox in the front and a chain drive to the rear axle.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Peter Harvey, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

By the time John turned 14 in 1936 his dad had built him another car using Austin Seven components which many years later would be retrospectively given the name T1.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Peter Harvey, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

At the same time as Charles was building cars for his son an informal group of motoring enthusiasts known as CAPA were formulating idea’s for an affordable motor sport category and Dick Caesar, the C in CAPA is credited with the idea of using 500 cc motorcycle engines to power specials that could be devised for the category.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Peter Harvey, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

A second group of enthusiasts competing at Shelsley Walsh were also turning to using motor cycle engines for their specials which included David Fry who built a vehicle known as the Freikaiserwagen.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

During the ’39 – ’45 war some members of CAPA and others found themselves working at the Bristol Aircraft Company where they formed a motor sports club to further think through their ideas, in 1946 this club was wound up in favour of a non works ‘500 Club’ aimed at organising events for their “500 Formula” which eventually became an internationally recognised category known as Formula 3.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

When 23 year old John Cooper and his friend Eric Brandon were looking for a way into motor sport they decided that the new 500 Formula was the way to go and turned to John’s Dad Charles for help.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

Charles helped John and Eric build two Cooper 500’s which featured FIAT Topolino 500 suspension front and rear connected by a simple frame and a JAP motor, prepared for speedway competition, behind the driver with a gearbox and chain drive to the rear wheels.

These two cars became the first two of an eventual 320 Formula 500 vehicles Cooper Cars are thought to have built between 1946 and 1959, by which time Jack Brabham was on his way to the first of two consecutive world championships driving Coopers latest mid engined Formula One cars.

Peter Harvey is seen at last years Cholmondeley Pageant of Power driving the second Cooper 500 Prototype built for Eric Brandon which was retrospectively given the T3 tag.

Thanks for joining me on this “Can You Help Us Dad ?” edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I be starting a short series of blogs on concept cars. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Last Rear Engined Dubs – Volkswagen Type 2 (T3)

The Type 2 (T3) was the last all new rear engined design from Volkswagen who’s reputation had been founded on the rear engined Beetle stretching back to 1945. By 1979 the water cooled Golf was already rewritting Volkswagen history when the Type 2 (T3) with it’s distinctive squared features appeared on the market.

Volkswagen Type 2 (T3), Classics at the Castle, Sherbourne

The Scooby Doo Mystery Machine above belongs to RRElite Ltd and has been kitted out with customised ‘Scooby Doo’ seats for six passengers, flat panel TV screens for the DVD player, state of the art sound system and LED ambient lighting. Of course ‘Scooby Snacks’ can be ordered when hiring this vehicle.

Volkswagen Type 2 (T3), Summer Classics, Easter Compton

German production of the Type 2 (T3) came to a halt in 1992, above is #2494 of the Last Limited Edition of which 2500 were produced in Hannover. This vehicle now boasts a handy 230 hp Subaru flat six motor coupled to a Porsche gearbox and fitted with Porsche brakes to keep it under control.

Volkswagen Type 2 (T3), Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Variations of the Type 2 (T3) include one fitted with a Porsche Carrera motor to support the Porsche 959 Paris Dakar entry, and a water cooled fuel injected alloy six cylinder version which started as a Volkswagen Project but was completed by the German Tuning Firm Oettinger known as the WBX6.

In 1990 production of Type 2 (T3)’s started in South Africa, these were powered by the famous Volkswagen Audi Group fuel injected 5 cylinder Audi motors. The last South African Type 2 (T3) rolled off the assembley line in 2002.

Back in 1992 my then girlfriend and I acquired a 1983 vintage Type 2 (T3) that had served as a builders van and had been fully insulated and paneled inside. We bought it for £950 with one years MOT and tax drove it over 12,000 miles in a year and had so much fun with it we never had time to take a photo and sold it one year later for £1200 with no MOT or Tax and an exhaust that needed repair !

Thanks for joining me on this “Last Rear Engined Dub” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when the blog will be going purple for Americana Thursday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Born In A Barn – Volvo 760 Turbo Intercooler

While I was a Salesman and later Quality Controller at a Volvo dealership in South London, I took these photographs of a fully loaded top of the range 1987 760 Turbo Intercooler, complete with colour coded body upgrades, parked on Downnton Avenue in Streatham which served as the dealership car park for the myriad of vehicles we were not able to keep on site for want of space.

Volvo 760 Turbo, Streatham

I was fascinated to learn that thanks to a bad case of lumbago Product Manager Hans Gustavsson arranged for the barn at his summer cottage to be converted to the 760 projects operational head quarters where Jans Wilsgaard drew many of the lines for the emergent new car while Hans directed the planning of the product from his stretcher.

Volvo 760 Turbo, Streatham

Development of the 760 started in 1975 when thanks to the oil crises demands on what the new car should look like were changing almost daily.

Volvo 760 Turbo, Streatham

Unlike the wind cheating designs of it’s many competitors including Rover 3500, Jans Wilsgaards design took it’s queues from various customer surgeries in the new cars intended market the USA. If the original 240 was brick like in it’s styling the 760’s styling is more like that of a breeze block rather like some of it’s contemporary down sized offerings from Cadillac and Chevrolet with a distinctive almost vertical rear window. The design caused outrage in some European automotive design circles because it flew in the face of received European wisdom of what designers were trying to achieve.

Volvo 760 Turbo, Streatham

When the car was launched three engine’s were available 182 hp turbocharged 4 cylinder as seen here, 170 hp PRV (Peugeot, Renault, Volvo) V6 or 115 hp turbo straight 6 cylinder diesel. The 182hp version seen here was capable of reaching 60 mph from rest in under 8 seconds, not something that I experienced often driving around in London traffic where the average speed is 8 mph, but when ever I had the opportunity on the motorway I used to delight in the kick as the hefty Garret T3 turbocharger boosted performance under full throttle.

Volvo 760 Turbo, Streatham

The range topping 760 models were in production at plants located in Kalmar Sweden, Halifax Canada and Ghent Belgium from 1982 to 1990 during which time 221,309 examples were built.

Thanks for joining me on this born in a barn edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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