Tag Archives: World

Windowless Aluminium Door Roadster – Mercedes Benz W121 B2 190 SL

In November 1955 Hong Kong Army Seargent Douglas Stearn drove a Mercedes 190 SL to second place in the Macau Grand Prix for the Zung Fu Company, finishing behind the Austin Healey 100 driven by Robert Ritchie.

Mercedes Benz W121 B2 190 SLR, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands,

For 1956 Mercedes Benz built two light weight competition 190 SLR’s, featuring window less aluminium doors.

Mercedes Benz W121 B2 190 SLR, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands,

Additional weight was saved by replacing the windscreens with perspex racing aero screens and deleting the soft top, front and rear bumpers.

Mercedes Benz W121 B2 190 SLR, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands,

Power was also increased from 104 hp to 115hp which gave the car a top speed of 121 mph, though these speeds are unlikely to have been reached around the tight Macau street circuit.

Mercedes Benz W121 B2 190 SLR, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands,

One of the 190 SLR’s was delivered to the Zung Fu Company, the offical Mercedes Benz dealers for Hong Kong and Macau to this day, for Douglas to drive in the 1956 Macua Grand Prix.

Mercedes Benz W121 B2 190 SLR, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands,

Douglas duly won the race at his second attempt beating the Ferrari 500 Monidal driven by Mário Lopez da Costa and the MG A driven by Fernando de Macedo Pinto.

The 190SL seen in these photographs taken at Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands, was imported to the UK and first registered for the on March 5th 1957, it appears to have been converted to an approximation of the SLR spec by Redcastle Classics in 2008.

The whereabouts of the two original 190 SLR’s are unknown to me at this time if you know please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for joining me on this “Windowless Aluminium Door Roadster” 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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Unchained – Mercedes Benz W114 / W115

In 1968 Mercedes Benz launched the midsize W114/W115 series which was to feature an all new chassis, distinguished by it’s semi-trailing rear arms and ball-joint front end suspension that would replaced the low-pivot swing axle and king pin/double wishbone front suspension dating back to 1945, on all new models until the introduction of multi point suspension in the 1980’s.

To keep things simple the W114 series were all powered by six cylinder motors and marketed as 230, 250, and 280 models according to engine size while the W115 series were all powered by four cylinder engines and marketed as 200, 220, 230, and 240 models, the exception being the five cylinder 3 liter / 183 cui OM617 Diesel 300 introduced in 1974 which counts among the W115 series vehicles.

Unchained, Mercedes Benz, W114/W115, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

The design was over seen by Chief Engineer Paul Bracq and was available as a 4 door saloon or attractive 2 door pillar less Coupe, a W115 220D pickup was also available in Argentina which had it’s own W114/W115 assembley line for a brief period in the 1970’s.

In 1974 the W114/W115 series received a face lift that included the ribbed tail lights to minimize occlusion of the tail lights with road dirt, US variants included unique sealed beam head lights and a variety of different bumper styles which thanks to the 1974 Department of Transport (DOT) 5mph impact edict grew significantly for the last two years of US spec production from 1974 to 1976.

Unchained, Mercedes Benz, W114/W115, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

Over 1.8 million W114/W115 series were manufactured in Germany, South Africa, Portugal, Venezuela and Argentina, the ultra reliable W114 / W115 saloons were and in some places still are, particularly popular among cab drivers.

In 2004 Greek Cabbie Gregorios Sachinidis donated his 1976 240D to the Mercedes-Benz Museum Collection after it had clocked up over 2.8 miles / 4.6 million kms, including 2000 trips from Greece to war torn former Yugoslavia where it served a medical support vehicle, to become the highest mileage Mercedes Benz known to date.

Unchained, Mercedes Benz, W114/W115, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

North Carolina born artist Geraldine O. Lloyd rescued the 1975 US spec W114/W115 4 door saloon, seen here at Mercedes World at Brooklands, from the scrap heap in 1994.

Over the next ten years her courage, strength and unbridled will to live helped her transform the car into the artwork “Unchained” as she battled cancer and transformed herself from empty-nester to world renowned artist.

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

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More Than A Bleu Rebellion – Oreca Nissan 05 #1

French Racing Team Organisation Exploitation Compétition Automobiles better known as ORECA was founded by Hugues de Chaunac in 1973 and running Martini open wheelers the teams drivers Jacques Laffite and Rene Arnoux won the European Formula 2 Championship in 1975 and ’77 respectively, from ’79 to ’89 the teams drivers also won 8 French Formula 3 championships with Alain Prost ’79 and Jean Alesi ’87 being two graduates who progressed to find success in Formula One.

Oreca 05, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Nick Tandy, 6 Hours Of Silverstone,

In the late 80’s ORECA turned it attention to developing, preparing and entering Touring, GT and Sports Cars which produced a win at Le Mans in 1991 when the team running the Mazda 787B’s under the works Mazdaspeed banner.

Oreca 05, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Nick Tandy, 6 Hours Of Silverstone,

After developing, building and running the Dodge Vipers and Saleen SR-7’s in the GT classes and in 2007 ORECA took over Courage Competiton a manufacturer building LMP1 and LMP2 cars, the first Oreca branded FLM 09 sports cars appeared in the Formula Le Mans Cup and later LMPC classes in 2009, with a Courage based LMP1 car appearing a few weeks later.

Oreca 05, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Nicolas Lapierre, Le Mans

By 2010 the team was running a works supported Peugeot 908 HDi LMP1 car as well as building the Oreca 03 for the LMP2 series, more recently ORECA have run the Toyota Hybrid LMP1 cars since 2012 and built the Rebellion R-One LMP1 car in 2014.

Oreca 05, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Nicolas Lapierre, Le Mans

The Oreca 05 is built to meet the 2017 LMP2 regulations and uses the same chassis design as that of the originally Toyota powered Rebellion R-One but the body features many detail differences in the dive plains, turning vains and louvres which have benefited from further development in CFD (Computer Fluid Dynamics) aided design of the body, the car also uses electric power steering.

Oreca 05, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Nicolas Lapierre, Le Mans

To date three 4.5 litre / 274 cui Nissan V8 powered ORECA 05’s have been built chassis #2 is entered by Thiriet By Tds Racing in the European Le Mans Series and the same team ran chassis #3 at Le Mans in the LMP2 class. While today’s featured #1 chassis is entered by the Hong Kong based KCMG team in the LMP2 class of the World Endurance Championship for Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley and Nick Tandy when the latter is not called on to join the works Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 team.

Oreca 05, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Nick Tandy, 6 Hours Of Silverstone,

Matthew, Richard and Nick seen in the first, second and sixth images finished 19th overall and 4th in class on the cars debut in the 6 Hours of Silverstone Race, Nicolas Lapierre took over Nick Tandy’s seat at Spa where the car finished 12th overall and 4th in class.

At Le Mans Matthew, Richard and Nicholas qualified 14th overall and 1st in class and led the LMP2 class for all but 9 laps of the race despite leaving the circuit twice in the closing hours of the race to finish 9th overall and first in LMP1 by just 48 seconds.

Thanks for joining me on this “More Than A Bleu Rebellion” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some recent Group C highlights from Silverstone Classic. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Visited Mother Invented Brake Pads – Benz Patent Motorwagen (Replica)

This months continental Tuesday blogs will feature 4 Veteran cars, defined by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain (VCC) as being built up to and including December 1904.

There is no doubt that the first self propelled vehicles to use public highways were powered by external combustion, steam, engines, the earliest such vehicle was built by Frenchman Nicolas Cugnot in 1770 to pull heavy artillery, unfortunately Cugnot had not got the weight distribution sufficiently sorted to steer the vehicle with any degree of accuracy so it never went into production.

There followed Scotsman William Murdoch, the pioneer of gas lighting, who built and demonstrated two fully working models of a three-wheeled locomotive with a single cylinder powered by a boiler fired by a spirit lamp around 1786. These models are thought to have influenced a design by his neighbour Richard Trevithick and partner Andrew Vivian who patented their own steam coach in 1802.

Walter Hancock is then said to have built 10 variously successful steam cars before 1810. A steam coach by Goldsworthy Gurney (later Sir) carried passengers on the London to Bath Road in 1827, later still Walter Hancock built an Omnibus named “Enterprise” in 1833 which ran between the Paddington and Bank railway stations in London.

It is believed that Karl Friedrich Benz started thinking about a self propelled vehicle with an internal combustion engine while studying engineering at the University of Karlsruhe which he attended in 1860 and from which he graduated 1864 aged just 19.

Benz Patent Motorwagen, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

His post graduate professional training included working as a mechanical engineer, a draftsman and designer in a scales factory, working for a bridge building company and cast iron construction company.

Benz Patent Motorwagen, Goodwood Festival of Speed

In 1871 Benz founded an iron foundry and mechanical workshop with August Ritter a year later Karl’s fiancée Bertha Ringer bought out Ritter, who proved to be unreliable, with her dowry.

Benz Patent Motorwagen, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

From 1878 Benz focused his attentions on new patents which included; a 2 stroke petrol motor, throttle, carburettor, ignition using spark plugs (separately patented) and battery, clutch, gearshift and water radiator. Benz was forced by his banking partners to turn his company into the joint stock Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim in 1882 which he left in 1883 due to the diminution of his standing as owner of just 5% of the new companies shares.

Benz Patent Motorwagen, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

The following year Benz went into partnership with Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Eßlinger the owners of a bicycle repair shop to form Benz & Company Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik which produced static petrol motors.

Benz Patent Motorwagen, Goodwood Festival of Speed

This successful venture gave Benz time to devise the Benz Patent Motorwagen, with tiller steering, a four stroke petrol motor, coil ignition and evaporative cooling and wooden blocks for brakes, acting on the rear axle, by the end of 1885, the following November it too was granted a patent making Karl Benz the inventor of the first internal combustion powered automobile.

Benz Patent Motorwagen, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

After tests in public, which included accidentally crashing into a wall thanks to the tricky steering, improved second and third versions were built in 1887 which featured various improvements including a carburetor on the second and wooden wheels on the third.

Benz Patent Motorwagen, Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

Bertha Benz took the third vehicle for a 110 mile spin with her sons to see her mother without her husband Karl, who invented and built the machine, even knowing about it in 1888. She stopped at a pharmacist to refuel with petrol which was sold primarily as cleaning fluid.

When the brakes began showing signs of wear Bertha asked a cobbler to nail some leather to the friction surface of the brake blocks and in so doing invented the first brake pads.

Bertha’s journey highlighted the need for a second gear to get up the hills unaided, but demonstrated the viability of Karls design of which 25 examples are thought to have been built between 1888 and 1893.

Today’s featured car is a replica of the original design owned by Mercedes Benz and is often to be found at Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands.

Thanks for joining me on this “Visited Mother Invented Brake Pads” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. 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.

More on Brighton Speed Trials on this link.

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

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$20m Winner – Aston Martin DBR 1/2

This month sees the 90th Anniversary of the first running of the 24 Heures du Mans or Le Mans 24 Hour race which is organised by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and run on the Circuit de la Sarthe much of which today follows the same course as in 1923.

In order to celebrate one of my favourate events in the international motorsports calender I will be posting 26 blogs that cover just a fraction of the Le Mans story, starting with the Aston Martin DBR 1 that coincidentally won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1959, the year I was born.

Verdon-Roe, Aston Martin DBR1/2, Goodwood Revival

Today’s featured Aston Martin was the second of a run of five racing cars that were built to more or less the same design between between 1956 and 1959. DBR1/2 was the first to be fitted with a 3 litre / 183 cui 6 cylinder motor from new in 1957. DBR 1/1 built in 1956 was orginally fitted with a 2.5 litre / 152 cui motor which was replaced in 1957.

Tony Brooks and Noël Cunningham-Reid drove DBR1/2 to victory at the World Sports Car Championship round held at the Nurburgring in 1957 two weeks after Tony Brooks had led an Aston Martin 1-2 result driving the same car in the non championship race at Spa. Brooks and Cunningham-Reid shared DBR1/2 again at the 1957 Le Mans 24 hours which they did not finish after being involved in an accident. The same pairing shared DBR 1/2 at a second non championship race at Spa which they won.

Verdon-Roe, Aston Martin DBR1/2, Goodwood Revival

In 1958 Stirling Moss shared this car with Brooks at Sebring where they retired from the 12 hour race with an axle problem. Two more retirements followed at the Nurburgring and Le Mans but at the end of the ’58 season Brooks and Moss won the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood, where the car is seen above with Bobby Verdon-Roe at the wheel.

Verdon-Roe, Aston Martin DBR1/2, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

In 1959 Stirling Moss won a minor race at Silverstone with the Aston before Roy Salvadori and Carrol Shelby took over the driving duties for the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours to score the Marques only out right Le Mans victory having covered 323 laps one more than the second placed sister car, DBR 1/4 driven by Maurice Trintignant and Paul Frère. At the end of the year DBR1/2 was driven to victory by Salvadori and Shelby in the TT at Goodwood again which secured the World Sports Car Championship for Aston Martin.

In 1960 Major I. B. Bailie acquired the car entering it for the 1000 km race at the Nurburgring where he came 22nd with Edward Greenhall and for the Le Mans 24 Hours with Jack Fairman sharing the driving the car finished it’s forth consecutive Le Mans 24 hour race in 9th place. Bailie scored further podium finishes with the car up to 1961. In 1963 David Ham acquired DBR1/2 and raced it on at least 2 occasions which netted podium results in class but no overall wins.

Last year DBR1/2 which played a leading role in Aston Martin’s 1959 World Sportscar Championship success was offered for sale with an asking price of US$20 million. If DBR1/2 ever does change hands at that price it will become the most expensive Aston Martin ever.

Thanks for joining me on this “$20m Winner” 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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Project Sport 500 – Lotus Esprit Sport 350 No.26

When the Lotus Type 82 Esprit Turbo was introduced in April 1981 it had a new chassis which was built to accommodate a V8 or the hitherto ubiquitous 4 cylinder type 907/910 motors. It was not until two complete body restyles later that the V8 type 918 would finally see the light of day in the back of a Julian Thompson styled Esprit in 1996.

Lotus Esprit, Sport 350, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The Julian Thompson styled Esprit replaced the Peter Stevenson styled Esprit in 1993 alongside the new body came a redesigned interior and for the first time on an Esprit power steering.

Lotus Esprit, Sport 350, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The twin turbocharged all aluminium 918 V8 Esprits were restricted to 350 hp which was deemed the most that the Renault derived transmission and drive train could handle. In 1998 V8 Esprits were built to either luxury SE or sporty GT specification.

Lotus Esprit, Sport 350, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

The ultimate incarnation of the Esprit was the Sport 350, such as the one seen here during last years Classic and Sports Car Action Day at Castle Combe. These models were built with AP racing brakes, stiffer suspension, revised electronic control unit (ECU) for the motor and a carbon fibre rear wing mounted on aluminium uprights. With 350 hp these cars can reach 100 mph from rest in just under 10 seconds.

Lotus Esprit, Sport 350, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

Only 55 of an intended production run of 50 Esprit Sport 350’s were built between 1999 and 2001, all bar 48 of them were painted silver, four were black, two white and one ice blue.
Lotus Esprit, Sport 350, Classic and Sports Car Action Day, Castle Combe

Rob the owner of Sport 350 No.26, also known as Project Sport 500, has upgraded this particular vehicle to produce 500 hp and “run right past 60 mph in (the) first of it’s six gears”. You can see some of the work Rob has undertaken to achieve this performance on this linked page.

Only 15 Sport 350’s remain in the UK according to Rob one of them is a right off in a salvage yard.

My thanks to Rob for his help with today’s post.

Thanks for joining me on this “Project Sport 500” 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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Field Filler – Ferrari 512 S #1006

17 Ferrari 512 S’s and parts for 8 others were built in late 1969 in response to the 25 917’s Porsche had built in early 1969 in order to be allowed to race in the World Sports Car Championship which allowed up to 5 litre / 305 cui engines. These rules were introduced so that a few old Ford GT 40’s could continue racing, it was never imagined that Porsche and then Ferrari would build 25 cars each to take part in the series which was intended to be for new 3 litre / 183 cui cars like the Ferrari 312P and Porsche 908.

Unlike Porsche who planned on using private works supported teams to run and develop the 917’s on it’s behalf, Ferrari planned on using a single works team to build and develop the 512 S, supplying the rest of the 512 S models to private entrants to whom Ferrari gave little by way of support effectively treating it’s privateer teams as little more than field fillers.

Ferrari 512 S, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Ferrari had to sell his road car operation to FIAT in order finance the production to the 512 S model, and as it turned out Porsche’s private partners had snapped up most of the best drivers.

Nonetheless Ferrari took the fight to Porsche with a single championship victory at the 1970 Sebring 12 hours courtesy of Mario Andretti, Nino Vaccarella and Ignazio Guinti driving a 512 S who beat Peter Revson and actor Steve McQueen in their Porsche 908 after Mario famously drove the last 90 mins of the race and chased down an exhausted Peter Revson in what Mario once described as the race of his life.

For most of the rest of the 1970 season the Ferrari 512 S was out classed every where, except at the non championship race run at Kyalami in South Africa, by the Porsche 917’s, particularly those of the JW Automotive team. Ferrari had difficulty selling all of it’s 512 S models, where as Porsche had to build a second run of 25 917’s to meet demand.

Ferrari 512 S, Goodwood Festival of Speed

This 512 S spyder, chassis #1006, was developed in order to save 25 kgs by the factory and sold to Luigi Chinetti’s N.A.R.T. team. Ronnie Buchnum and Tony Adamowicz drove it into second place at the 1971 24 hours of Daytona.

#1006 had to have both front and rear bodywork replaced during the course of the race, the body work is as it appeared on #1006 when it started the 1971 Daytona 24 hours with aerodynamic lips on the nose, which were not on the second nose fitted when it finished the race.

Thanks for joining me on this “Field Filler” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a one off Formula One Lotus that never raced. Don’t forget to come back now.

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