The Rowdy Racer – #187 1960 Daimler SP250

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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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Saturday Night Racer – #27 Ray Miles

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Late in 1960 Ray Miles had a date that would alter the course of his life, his date Linda lived near Pleasantville Speedway in New Jersey, as Ray heard the roar of the track his curiosity was aroused and they ended up going there on their first date. Ray was hooked immediately and never missed a race after that and Linda soon decided her future lie elsewhere.

Working for a Ford dealer, Ray found a ride in the 6 cylinder #52 Plymouth Coupe owned by Pete Hearon of Goshen NJ, running at Vineland on Friday nights. Ray finished the 1962 season which he describes as a ‘learning experience’.

Vineland closed down at the end of 1962 so Ray headed back to Pleasantville known locally as P’ville and bought a ’39 Chevy Coupe for $400 from Harry McConnell. The car had a 4,277 cc / 261 cui 6 cylinder Chevy motor hooked up to a 1 ton International rear axle from a postal truck, as Ray says “nuttin’ fancy” .

Ray painted the car school bus yellow and put the #27 on. In 1966 Ray Bartling from the Sears Automotive Centre In Cardiff NJ where both Rays were working got involved with the #27 and became crew chief. The two Rays stuck together from 1966 through to 1975 when Ray hung up his helmet.

In 1967 P’ville was a NASCAR sanctioned track where Ray finished 3rd in points, 11th in the State of New Jersey.

Running on a tight budget if the team did not win enough money they would either make or borrow the parts needed to get to the next race. Eventually the chassis was replaced with a used one purchased from the legendary and much missed Tom Skinner this chassis was eventually fitted with a stock 5,276 cc / 322 cui Buick wrapped up with Rays original #27 Chevy Coupe body.

Towards the end of his driving career Ray drove several other vehicles including the Ed Browns #14 which Ray describes as a “fast mammy jammy!”

Today Ray has retired with his wife Suzy, and 5 Cats to Palm Springs where he has learned to play boogie woogie piano.

Keeping in touch with his racing buddies and keeping the memory of many others alive he started running the excellent Limited Sportsman Racers website where there is a wealth of information on the whole P’ville scene including the drivers, crews cars and some rare video footage. Look out for Bobby Isaacs doing a demonstration at P’ville in his #71 K&K; Insurance Dodge Charger Daytona with the 23 inch wing on the back !

Ray goes to reunions with his friends from P’ville at Harry Flemmings Pumpkin Run in Egg Harbour Township which comes highly recommended during the first weekend of November.

Slightly Off Topic

I’d like to wish David Piper who played an important role in the making of the film Le Mans subject of Sundays blog and in the building of the Ferrari 330 P4 # 0900 subject of yesterdays blog a belated Happy Birthday he turned 80 yesterday.

Hope you have enjoyed todays Saturday Night Racer blog and that you’ll join me tomorrow with another racer of a very different kind of vehicle based in New Jersey. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Continuation Edition – Ferrari P4 #0900

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In keeping with a vaguely 60’s engine behind the driver theme week for Ferrari Friday I take great pleasure in showing you, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful vehicle on the planet bar none a Ferrari P4 which I snapped at the British GP meeting in 1981.

The P4 won the war but lost it’s most important battle against the monstrous onslaught of the Ford GT40 in the 1967 World Sports Car Championship it won the championship but only on a count back of second place finishes. Most importantly the Ferrari could only manage second to the Foyt / Gurney GT40 MK IV at the most prestigious race of the season the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The P4 was powered by a 450 hp fuel injected 4,000 cc 244 cui 60 degree V12 using 3 valve per cylinder heads operated by twin overhead cams.

Thanks to ‘Macca’ at The Nostalgia Forum I believe this is chassis #0900 one of up to four continuation P4s built by David Piper using original drawings for the chassis and a collection of spare parts. As such it has no world championship race history.

Anyone notice the similarity between the rear end of this P4 and and the Fiat 850 Idromatic I started the week off with ?

Thanks for joining me for another Ferrari Friday, hope you have enjoyed today’s continuity edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ tomorrow we will be headed to P’ville NJ for an insight into the heyday of short track racing with my Rowdy buddy Ray Miles. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Eins Zwei Polizei – Porsche 911

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The first time I saw a Porsche 911 was in 1966 when I was seven on an Autobahn, just inside Germany, on a trip from Athens to London. I was sitting in the back of my folks Austin A40 Countryman, it was white with green bonnet, door and boot panels.

It had huge blue lights on the roof and the legend POLIZEI in smart white letters on the green panels, what I remember about it above all else is the audible harsh rasping noise coming from the boot/trunk. That noise was the first engine sound I fell in love with.

The 1966 911 S featured iconic Fuchs five spoke alloy wheels which saved 5 lbs pounds per wheel, though in 1966 they still carried the same size tyres as a regular 911 so there was no great improvement in handling with break away oversteer / loose a problem at the limits of adhesion.

Despite the 1966 ‘D’ licence plate suffix, the Fuchs alloy wheels and the lovely extra set of lights on the front, the 911 badge on the engine cover indicates this might actually be a regular 1965 911 with a 130 hp 1991 cc / 121 cui 6 cylinder boxer engine probably identical to the one I fell in love with in the back of that police car when I was seven.

Hope you have enjoyed this aircooled edition, thanks for dropping by, hope you’ll join me for another exciting Ferrari Friday tomorrow, don’t forget to come back now !

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Type 3 – Volkswagen Variant

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Hard to believe that between 1938 and 1961 there were essentially only three VW models the Type 1 ‘Beetle’ that became the most popular car of it’s time, the Type 2 VW Bus / Van / Pickup and this fabulous Type 3 Volkswagen 1500 / 1600 joined in 1962 by an estate / station wagon known as the Variant / Square back.

My Uncle had a petrol blue one of these Variants that he used as a milk float in Germany, until he got a VW Bus. I remember him coming home from his milk round at lunch time with the roof rack full crates with empty bottles rattling merrily away as he eased down the severely rutted track back to the small holding farm where he lived.

The Type 3 vehicles were essentially bigger version of the Type 1 with exactly the same engineering principles, torsion bar suspension front and rear air cooled engine in the back. between 1961 and 1973 2,542,382 Type 3’s were built mostly in Wolfsburg with some produced in Emden and Sao Bernado do Campo, Brazil.

At the end of 1967 the Type 3 was fitted with electronic fuel injection as standard equipment to become the first German production vehicle so equipped . This ’72 / ’73 model if it is still on its original licence plates was first registered in Greater London.

Hope you have enjoyed this orange edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, tomorrow I’ll be upping the tempo to conclude my foray into vehicles with engines in the back, hope you’ll join me, don’t forget to come back now.

26/07/11 Post Script, My thanks to Ben the owner of Kubrik seen in these photo’s who has kindly e-mailed me to say that he rescued Kubrik from ‘rotting away in the big smoke (London)’ and that Kubrik is his daily driver with over 200,000 miles on the clock.

You can find out more about Kubrik from this 375 post thread on the Old Volks Club website.

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Brave Heart – Singer Chamois

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Comparing today’s Hillman Imp /Singer Chamois with yesterday’s FIAT 850 it is hard to believe that the Imp/Chamoise was in production one year ahead of the 850. Unencumbered by an existing design, like the FIAT 850, the clean lines of the Imp / Chamois were the work of Tim Fry and occasional Ferrari F1 driver Mike Parkes who were given carte blanche at the start of the ‘Apex’ project.

Incredibly, well incredible to my 2010 eyes with 2020 hind sight the FIAT 850 out sold the Imp / Chamois nearly 5:1 despite the Imp / Chamois being in production for 5 more years from 1963 – 1976. This particular vehicle apparently first registered in Bristol in 1966 is the badge engineered high end Singer Chamois Mark II with a conventional throttle cable and manual choke replacing the pneumatic throttle linkage and automatic choke of the MK I in 1965.

The Imp / Chamois vehicles were built in a brand new factory in Linwood near Glasgow by a workforce more experienced in building mighty ships than assembling little cars. Knockdown kit versions were also assembled in Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Venezuela, Uruguay, Costa Rica, South Africa and Australia.

Nearly 200,000 of these vehicles were built from 1963 – 1966 it then took another 10 years to build the same number again. The engine in the rear started life as an iron block FWMA Coventry Climax fire pump engine but was made, unusually for the time, entirely out of aluminium with a redesigned cylinder head in this application.

The 875 cc 53 cui engine delivered 39 hp enough to take the car to a respectable 80 mph. The car was perhaps hampered by having the engines cast in Glasgow and machined in Coventry before being shipped back to Glasgow for installation, a round trip of some 600 miles, but more than any thing the vehicle appears to have been a largely wasted marketing opportunity when compared against the similarly sized FIAT 850.

Thanks for joining me, I hope you have enjoyed today’s Scottish edition wishing everyone with a heritage north of Hadrian’s Wall a happy St Andrew’s day.

Hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for another exciting instalment of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’, don’t forget to come back now !

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Project 100 G – FIAT 850 Idromatic

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I found this curiously cute 1967/68 FIAT 850 a couple of weeks ago. The car appears to have emigrated west in the 40 years since it was first registered in Greater London.

Code named project 100 G the FIAT 850 was a large version of project 100 the FIAT 600. G for Grande in Italian. 2.3 million FIAT 850’s were made between 1964 and 1973.

Production of the SEAT 850 version continued in Spain until 1974. Complete Knock Down Kit 850’s were assembled by Pirin-FIAT in Bulgaria from 1967 to 1971. The extravagant decoration on the wheel trim and white striped tyre indicate this was the more powerful high end ‘super’ variant.

This 850 appears to be fitted with the Idromatic transmission, a fully synchronised 4 speed manual gearbox combined with a torque converter and electrically activated clutch operated by a switch on the top of the gear stick knob.

The high end FIAT 850 ‘super’ was powered by a 37 hp 4 cylinder 843 cc /51.4 cui engine mounted in the boot / trunk which when coupled with Idromatic transmission made it the slowest vehicle tested by Road & Track in 1968. The 60¢ May 1968 issue of R&T; noted that while The FIAT 850 Idromatic was not suited for use in ‘American’ conditions it deserved attention as a ‘strictly low speed 2nd car’.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s leisurely start to the week and hope you’ll join me again tomorrow, don’t forget to come back now !

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