Author Archives: psychoontyres

When is a redhead not a redhead ? Ferrari 500 TRC #0690 MD TR

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The other day Rowdizen jr Cracker asked if I had ever seen a Ferrari Testa Rossa driving around town the answer to which is no, but a couple of months ago I did see this Ferrari 500 TRC chassis number #0690 MD TR which came from the second batch of Ferrari vehicles with the Testa Rossa name.

Having noticed that the Alta engines of the HWM Formula 2 team had noticeably superior fuel efficiency compared to his own Colombo designed V12’s which dominated the Formula 2 class Enzo instructed Aurelio Lamperdi to design a 4 cylinder 2 litre / 121 cui engine.

The Lamperdi alloy four pot featured double over head cams acting on 2 valves per cylinder. Installed in a Formula Two car this engine powered Alberto Ascari two world championshops in 1953 and 54. This 4 cylinder engine was also used in the successful 500 Mondial Sports Cars of 1954 – 56 which scored numerous class wins.

Towards the end of 1956 Vittorio Jano completed work on his update of the 500 Mondial which featured red cam covers on its Lamperdi 2 litre 4 cylinder engine and so the Testa Rossa legend was born, the TR scored a maiden win at Monza in the hands of Brits Collins and Hawthorn.

The first batch of 500 TR’s were rendered almost instantly obsolete by new sports car regulations, written and introduced after the disaster at Le Mans in 1955, known as Appendix C which required sports cars to race with full width screens, a passenger door, and fuel tanks mounted outside of the cockpit. The second batch of Testa Rossa’s became known as the 500 TRC of which #0690 MD TR is one of less than 20 examples.

This particular car has an unfortunate history, it was entered in the 1958 Cuban GP, an event during which pole sitter Juan Manuel Fangio was kidnapped by Castros forces and he ended up watching the race on television. Armando Garcia Cifuentes was at the wheel of #0690 when he lost control on a patch of oil, hit a curb and promptly ploughed into a spectator area. Seven spectators were killed in the accident over 40 were injured, miraculously Armando survived after being taken to hospital on the bonnet of a competitors TR.

It is not clear what happened to #0690 after that crash but the Indiana Jones of finding forgotten cars Colin Crabbe located it and it has now been restored with a non standard 12 cylinder engine allegedly sourced from a 250 GT Lusso, one of the more expensive 250 GT variants ! It is not known what happened to the original 4 cylinder Testa Rossa engine.

Note uniquely for a 500 TRC #0690 now has a large central perspex bonnet scoop for the V12 carburettors.

In order to not disappoint jr Cracker entirely here is a photo by Ed Arnaudin of a 500 TRC compete with a 4 cylinder red cam cover engine and without the large central bonnet scoop. The vehicle in this photo taken at Lime Rock possibly 24th April 1959 appears to be chassis number #0706 MD TR entered by the MJ Garber team and driven by Swiss driver Gaston Andrey.

Thanks once again to Steve Arnaudin for letting me share one of his father Ed’s photos. Hope you enjoyed todays edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ hope you’ll join me again tomorrow, don’t forget to come back now !

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What’s a missing 1/4 light between friends ? – 1957 Ferrari 250 GT Ellena

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It’s a great honour to share another couple of Steve Anaudins Dads photo’s to day this time from Lime Rock in 1959.

During the mid to late 50’s Ferrari like Maserati realised that a business model focused on the production of low volume racing cars was not sustainable and so both began producing larger volume road cars, we saw the Maserati 3500 GT yesterday, Ferrari’s transition was a little more chaotic with the introduction of 250 GT which was introduced in 1954 and in at least 12 different body variations.

The car was built around the staggering 280 hp 2,953cc / 180 cui Colombo Tipo 125 V12, which weighed nearly half the weight of the contemporary Jaguar XK 6 engine with a similar power output.

Amazingly the clue to the identity of this 250 GT is in the absence of the 1/4 light window in the door ! In 1956 Pinin Farina designed a prototype coupe which he did not have the capacity to build so responsibility for production was handed over to an ex Farina and Ghia coachworks employee Mario Felice Boano who produced 64 coupes all with a lower roof line than original prototype.

Not long into production Boano was employed by FIAT and so he handed production responsibilities over to his son in law Ezio Ellena who produced a couple of cars identical to the low roof line Boano, before raising the roof line and doing away with the quarter light to tidy up an already exceptionally clean and smooth design. It is thought that Ellena produced around 50 250 GT’s before production of the next 250 GT upgrade was taken in house by Ferrari in 1958.

Hope you have enjoyed popping by today, thanks again to Steve Arnaudin for sharing his Dad’s photographs with us and thanks to Steve’s Dad for taking them in the first place.

Looking forward to trawling through my archives for tomorrow’s edition of ‘Gettin a lil’ psycho on tyres !’ hope you’ll join me, don’t forget to come back now !

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Magnificent Gran Turismo – Maserati 3500 GT

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Todays photo’s come courtesy of my Rowdy buddy Steve Arnaudin of Brevard NC who recently kindly sent me some extraordinary photo’s his Dad took in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s.

The vehicle above is the first Maserati Grand Turismo model a 3500 GT which was in production from 1957 to 1964. The evidence is that this picture was taken at Thompson CT in 1958 making the car an early model almost certainly one of the 119 made in the first year of production with drum brakes all round.

The 3500 was developed as part of a survival strategy successfully transforming Maserati from a racing car manufacturer to a manufacturer of road cars. Like its 250 F racing stable mate, that had been competitive in Formula One against all but the Mercedes team, from 1954 to 1957 the 3500 had a six cylinder engine all though at 3485 cc / 212 cui considerably larger than the 2490 cc / 151 cui of the racer.

The superleggra aluminium bodywork is by Carrozzeria Touring and it sits on a chassis with independent front suspension and live rear axle. 1973 of these vehicles were manufactured with around 12 others featuring alternative bodywork, excluding the rare Vignale Spider which sat on a shortened 3500 GT chassis.

Thanks again to Steve Arnaudin and his Dad for giving us a fascinating insight into motoring in 1958, I look forward to bringing you more from the Arnaudin collection in the fullness of time.

Thanks for popping by, looking forward to seeing what delights tomorrow’s post will bring already, don’t forget to come back now !

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How many are there – Bristol 400 Cabriolet ?

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I have made a bit of a mess of my original idea of celebrating the Bristol Aeroplane Companies Centenary celebration by setting out to post a blog about each model in the order they were released with the most basic mistake of confusing a 401 with a 403, now that has been rectified I find there was a version of the Bristol 400 which I did not even know about until John Lomas kindly pointed out I had a photograph of it !

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This Bristol 400 cabriolet appears to be one of two built that never entered full production. If I had known just how rare it was when I took the photograph I would have waited for an opportunity to take a photograph of the front of the car, but that as they say will now have to wait for another day.

It would appear that Pinin Farina also built a Bristol 400 convertible but director Tony Crook cancelled any plans for it to go into production allegedly because of the inferior quality of the bodywork. According to the Bristol Owners Club, despite this decision there may be as many as 10 Pinin Farina Bristol 400’s. A quick search on Google images reveals one of the Pinin Farina 400 Cabrilolets to be a dark blue while another is eggshell blue.

Slightly off topic it was lovely to see Kevin Harvick keeping his composure after his pit crew dropped lug nut yesterday at Phoenix. Somehow Kevin managed to come back from 19th to 6th behind Jimmy Johnson and now sits 46 points behind Hamlin who after leading most of the race ran low on fuel at the end and wound up coming in just 12th.

Kevin is certainly the underdog going into Homestead Miami next weekend, but he certainly won’t be the first underdog going into the final race of the season to lift the Cup. Go Harvick ! Go #29 ! Go Happy !

Finally a word to some visitors from Germany, schoen Gruss an alle Morgan Freunde von http://www.morgan-club.de die dem letztens ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ besucht haben.

Thanks for popping by, looking forward to tomorrow’s blog already, don’t forget to come back now !

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The Mighty F-Series – Morgan F-4.

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This edition is dedicated to my number one fan Chief 187, with thanks for her help getting last weeks incredibly successful ‘Petit Pataud‘ blogs together.

Keeping it short and sweet today as I am sure you all have plenty of thing you would rather be doing than having another history lecture from yours truly. Today I am featuring this wonderful nugget the Morgan F-4.

Built from 1932 – 1952 the F4 featured a pressed steel chassis and used a Ford side valve engine sourced from the Model Y. The F4 could allegedly carry four people, unlike its smaller siblings the F-2 and F-Super.

With rumours of a three wheel Morgan making a return to the market place it is perhaps surprising this did not happen a long time ago such vehicles are amazingly cheap and efficient to run.

Morgan do have one three wheeler on the books of course the £5000 / $ 8000 pedal car !

Thanks to every one from the Talk Morgan Sports Cars Forum who popped over during the last couple of days, for those who are into Morgans and have not visited there are some fabulous pictures of these quintessentially British vehicles in the Morgan Photo Gallery.

Wishing everyone a relaxing Sunday, thanks for stopping by, don’t forget to come back now !

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Global Scoop – Morgan GC

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With recent Internet reports on the eminent return of a Harley Davidson powered three wheeler being according to a Morgan factory spokesman unsubstantiated and merely an internet rumour, I take great pleasure in revealing the new Morgan model the aforementioned spokesman suggested ‘we save or Christmas money for’ – the environmentally friendly Morgan GC.

With the market place for £100,000 / $ 160,000 vehicles shrinking Morgan is striking out into a new and untapped market of the performance electric cart, which will appeal not only to four time Sprint Cup Champions like Jimmy ‘I fell off a golf cart’ Johnson, but also to Britain’s booming ageing population as they downsize from sitting in 12 mph traffic jams to 12 mph shopping trolleys.

With styling cues taken from the Classic Roadster and 4/4 models, as one might expect from a Morgan ‘Perfection’ is key as can be seen by this magnificent steering wheel and sumptuous wood panelled dash.

Among the optional extras will be these £ 2,000 / $ 3,600 electric fold away electric mirrors which have a quick release facility perfect to give hideous hoodies and moody teenagers a good old fashioned ‘clip round the ear ‘ole’ at will.

With leaf springs all round, the standard Union Jack interior and room to carry shopping and a pair of green wellies on the back this should be an attractive package for it’s intended market.

How much will the Morgan GC cost you may well be asking ? Probably no more than the priceless look on your face when your local Morgan dealer tells you, ‘you’ve been had !’

Hope you enjoyed today’s comedy edition of ‘Gettin’ a little psycho on tyres’ , tomorrow back to a real Morgan the little 3 wheel nugget known as the F4.

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

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Made with a heart – Morgan 4/4 & Roadster.

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Today I’ll be going through the Morgan Factory again looking at the production of the classic 4/4 and Roadster models, which share the same galvanised steel ladder chassis as the old +8.

the Roadster and 4/4 still have a solid rear axle, but now sourced from Holden in Australia.

Framework for the body of a roadster.

Super formed aluminium panels are bonded with the ash frame.

First stage of a Roadsters body awaiting painting by hand.

After painting has been completed a 4/4 has its interior trim fitted.

Roadster nearing completion just over two weeks since it’s chassis was laid.

Roadster awaiting final signing off from the factory floor, powered by a 220 hp US version of the Ford V6 Mondeo engine the car gets to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and is capable of 134 mph.

A 4/4 powered by a Ford Duratec engine awaiting collection by it’s new owner. As it says on the employees sweat shirts ‘Morgan – Made with a heart’

Hope you enjoyed these factory tours, well worth a visit in person if you get the opportunity.

Tomorrow I’ll be revealing a Morgan scoop made very much with the discerning Jimmy ‘Golf Cart’ Johnson four time Sprint Cup Champion in mind, Don’t forget to come back now !

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