Tag Archives: Buick

Two Timing – Shakespeare County Raceway

The day before Memorial day I attended the Yanks and Gary’s 34th Picnic at Shakespeare County Raceway for an afternoons two timing entertainment.

Situated just outside the Shakespeare central known in the tourists guides as Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare County Raceway is built on the site of Long Marston Airfield which served as a Wellington Bomber base during the 1939/45 war.

Looking like it had just come off the set of “Two Lane Blacktop” was this 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. The crew running it told me the 7.4 litre / 451 cui V8 was “misfiring all over the place”, a possible victim of cavitation in the fuel system thanks to the phenomenal weather we were experiencing.

A strong contingent of European based vehicles were present at the “Yanks and Gary’s 34th Picnic event including this first generation 103E Ford Popular Coupé rig powered by a 5.7 litre / 347 cui V8. The Popular was a post ’39/’45 war austerity vehicle that was only ever offered as a saloon / sedan.

There were not many cars present at Shakespeare County Raceway that could boast Farina styling, but this 1098 cc / 67 cui Austin A40 Countryman van was one of them.

Another novelty vehicle was the NC Engineering Ford V8 powered Trabant that was being given it’s first run after it’s former Cadillac motor had been replaced. interestingly everybody who was involved in the preparation of this vehicle has been invited to to drive it in competition.

Among the fabulous US vehicles running at the event was this 1932 High Boy “Roadster” which like the Popular Coupé is powered by a 5.7 litre / 347 cui V8. This car reminded me of Leonard Williams High Boy Roadster before it became the worlds first privately owned Gas Turbine Car.

From the plethora of vehicles bearing original patina was this 1948 Plymouth Special De Luxe Coupé complete with a 5.2 litre / 317 cui V8.

My undoubted “Star of the Car Park” was this 1958 Buick Special Convertible which looked, as did several other cars present, like it had just come off the golf course at a Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Sporting a top of the Le Mans range 5.7 litre / 350 cui motor was this Pontiac, like many competitors present the driver was wielding his own spanners to keep this fine looking car in a top state of tune.

I did not know it when I took this photo but going on the engine size of 7457 cc / 455 cui this is a rare, though I am not at all sure exactly how rare Hurst Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. In 1972 following a fatal accident with the Indy 500 no manufacturer was keen on providing a pace car so transmission specialists Hurst stepped in with a couple of hot 455 cui Cutlass Supremes in both Coupé and Convertible forms. The 1972 pace car became well remembered after Linda Vaughan was hired to appear on the back of one of the convertibles with an outsize Hurst Shifter on the boot / trunk.

One reason I was keen to attend this meeting was to get a photo of fellow Bristol Pegasus Motor Club member Crazy Chris Hartnell pulling a wheely in his slingshot Backdraft, his weather helmet was present, dry, casting a shadow, and not shaking but just like the last time he tried this the cameraman was too slow and will have to try again next time. Chris managed two 145+ mph practice runs on the day.

Since this was a practice day many interesting combinations of vehicles were being run, like the Caterham above which got well and truly dusted by the 425 cui Buick Nailhead powered slingshot ‘Soul Town Shaker’ driven by Keith Crampton.

After doing a lovely burn out while being watched by the driver of the, probably Rover V8 powered, Fiero Euro 427, the seen was set for a slightly more competitive run off than the previous Caterham Slingshot combination.

However all present were to be reminded of Shakespeare’s quote from King Lear “As Flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods, they kill us for their sport” as soon after leaving the Fiero Euro 427 standing on the line the Camaro made a dramatic exit stage left,

punched straight in to the guard railing …

and eventually came to rest at the quarter mile mark. Fortunately “th’ gods’ who would kill us for their sport’ were in benevolent mood and after he had been released from the Camaro the driver was seen walking unaided to the ambulance for a precautionary medical.

The camera gods were also smiling, after the accident I foolishly took my camera strap off to stretch out on my perch in the grandstands, waiting for confirmation that there would be no further activity on track before the curfew. When the announcement finally came I forgot that I’d taken my camera strap off got up and heard the sickening thud of my camera bouncing off the grandstand decking and into the 20 foot void beneath the grandstand and eventually hit the surface below.

I went to survey the damage and amazingly although the battery had dropped out the camera was fine as demonstrated by the fine shot of the 1938 Ford V8 Pickup above.

After all the excitement it was time to head home, but there was one final surprise as I left the gate …

… a Dodge Challenger STR8 bedecked in wedding bands, a perfect car for a wedding.

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

Fireball Dyna Flow – Buick Roadmaster Coupé

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From 1936 to 1996 Buick manufactured eight generations of Roadmaster, with an interruption from 1959 to 1990, Roadmasters were Buicks flagship model from 1946 to 1957 sharing underpinnings with contemporary entry level Cadillacs and senior Oldsmobiles.

The car seen in Geoffrey Horton’s photo’s seen here at the 2012 Ranchero Mirage Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance feature a 1949 Roadmaster from the first year of production of the fifth 1949 -1953 generation which were the first to feature a two part curved ‘observation car’ windscreen. Note the bombsite mascot is a feature of all post 1946 Roadmasters.

The three Ventiports on front wing / fender of this Roadmaster indicates that is probably powered by a 5.2 litre / 320 cui ‘Fireball’ straight eight motor originally good for 165 hp, which following a change in carburation dropped to 144 hp in 1946 but was raised again in 1949 to 150 hp by increasing the compression ratio.

New for 1948 was a two speed Dyna Flow transmission developed from Buicks tank manufacturing program during the Second World War, making this the first model ever to be sold with a torque converter. For 1949 Dyna Flow became the mandatory transmission on all Roadmasters.

When the Roadmaster was first launched in 1942 the Coupé featured the same fastback Sedanette styling that had been a sensational feature of the 1941 Buick Century and Special models.

During 1949 the Roadmaster accounted for 27% of Buicks production with around 88,130 units sold.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sending me his photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Fireball Dyna Flow’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Errata this vehicle was originally incorrectly identified as forth generation 1948 model, however since then it has become apparent that 1948 Roadmasters had a flat windscreen and did not feature the VentiPorts in the wings / fenders. This text has been updated to reflect details of the ’49 Roadmaster. Apologies for any confusion caused.

2012 Ranchero Mirage Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance – Palm Springs

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It is a huge pleasure to know that the 2012 Concours d’Elegance season got underway a couple of weeks ago in Palm Springs, not least because thanks to Geoffrey Horton I’ll be able to shore some photo’s of altogether sunnier climbs as Europe struggles to get spring underway.

Geoffrey sent me a stack of photo’s of which I have picked a few to give a flavour of the Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance today, starting with Barney Oldfield’s 1909 Benz about which at the moment I know very little, but which in the coming weeks I hope to find out more for a future post.

The only thing I know about this 1936 Delahaye 135 Competition is that the exquisite bodywork is by Figoni et Falaschi, likewise I hope to find out more for a future post.

It looks like the air display team was flying Harvard trainers but I can’t be absolutely sure about even that !

The 1946 Kurtis Millar was one of the few new cars built for the 1946 Indy 500, it was raced without success by Leon Duray in ’46, ’47, ’48, I look forward to sharing a few more of it’s secrets in the week leading up to the Indy 500 in May.

The forth generation Buick Roadmaster is probably best remembered for the introduction of the Dyna Flow automatic transmission that had previously fitted to WW2 ‘Hellcat’ Tanks also manufactured by Buick. Dyna Flow was the earliest automatic transmission on a passenger vehicle to make use of a torque converter for smooth, if inefficient automatic changes of gears.

Above is one of around 20 Kurtis Kraft 500M models built between 1954 and 1955 complete with fibre glass body and 135 mph capability.

On the 15th October 1957 film maker Peter H. Backhaus and his wife Marlotte set off on a round the world voyage in a two tone red and white Goggomobil Coupé TS 300 similar to the one above. They reached Japan where a technical defect requiring new parts that were refused entry by customs officials meant that Glass GmbH who manufactured the Gogomobil and sponsoring the adventure ended up having to supply Peter and Marlotte with a new car, a later Isar T700 model which meant once they had completed their circumnavigation Peter and Marlotte had to film the entire journey to Japan a second time so that only the second car appeared in the documentary Backhaus made of the journey.

The entire enterprise took some 5 years, but the film “Traumreise zu Dritt – Im Goggomobil um die Welt” “Dream trip threesome – In Goggomobil around the World” was a huge hit when it was released in Germany in 1964.

Among the many racers from the late 60’s early 1970’s was this 3 litre / 183 cui V8 ALFA Romeo T33 sports prototype which appears similar to the 1971 spec 33/3 driven by Henri Pescarolo and Andrea de Adamich which out lasted the Porsche 917’s at Brands Hatch to win the BOAC 1000kms. Similar T33/3’s of Vaccarella / Hezemans and de Adamich / van Lennep survived to take a one two on the Targa Florio in 1971 after all the Porsche 908’s crashed. Despite the best efforts of the Andretti family, where he had been staying, to wear him out, Ronnie Peterson with de Adamich also won the Watkins Glen endurance race in a T33/3.

Finally anyone with cash burning holes in their pockets might like to consider purchasing a 700 hp NuArt Can Am and taking part in the spec series Unlimited Racing Championship which is scheduled to run with 4 ALMS ‘Heritage’ Series race weekends and eight additional race weekends.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s fabulous photographs.

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

Fahr’n Fahr’n Fahr’n – Opel Manta S

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In 1982 I found myself studying at Paderborn University, Germany as part of an exchange programme from Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, England not far from where my cousins lived, one weekend I hitched over to visit them to find that one of them had bought a ten year old Opel Manta similar in colour to the ’73 model seen here at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, but with the bigger 90 hp motor and if I am not mistaken a vinyl roof.

On the Sunday my 19 year old cousin kindly offered to spare me the hitchhike back and gave me a lift in his car, not only that but he pulled in at a service station on the A44 Autobahn and let me drive the car the rest of the way back to college.

It was an unforgettable drive, the first time I had driven on the wrong side of the road, the first time I had driven a car with a gear stick on the wrong side and perhaps most importantly the first time I had legally driven at an indicated 165 kph ! Just over 100 mph.

The experience was terrifying, thrilling, liberating and mesmerising in equal measure, I did not want the journey to end, not unlike the early techno pop song Kraftwerk song Autobahn.

Opel’s fastback Manta was based on the more mundane saloon / sedan Opel Ascona though it was actually launched in 1970 some months before the bread and butter Ascona model.

Manta’s and their drivers are popular objects of fun in German culture with drivers being characterised as wearing shades, that why Manta’s need 8 head lights, gold chains the only thing that remains when a Manta burns and having red rally stripes on the walls of their garages because Manta drivers forget to pull their arms in when driving into said garages.

The first series Manta was in production up until 1975 with examples being sold in the United States through Buick Dealers. I don’t think you need to understand too much German to understand how the Manta was marketed in this link.

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

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !

US Convertibles – Niello Serrano Concours 2011

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Thanks to the generosity of Geoffrey Horton today’s images come from the 2011 Niello Serrano Concours held the weekend before last in the El Dorado hills of sunny California. Today I’ll be focusing on a fabulous array of American made convertibles seen at the show.

Vehicles manufactured by Cord Corporation were the feature Marque of the event so it was most fitting that grandson of the Cord Corporations founding father E.L. Cord should be seen here in one of the companies original models the 1929 Cord L29 Phaeton, which was the first US built front wheel drive car offered to the American public.

Of all the photo’s that Geoffrey sent to me this one of a 1930 Cord L29 Coupé with it’s bizarre, even by todays standards headlights and racy two tone paintwork, gets my nomination for car of the show. The front wheel drive L29 was the brainchild of Carl Van Ranst who had previously worked on the successful front wheel drive Miller open wheel racing cars that won that won the Indianapolis 500 on four occasions between 1926 and 1932.

Continuing on a vaguely Indianapolis related theme Geoffrey tells me this 1931 12 cylinder Cadillac 370A Roadster, was an Indy pace car in 1931. It was pulled out of a barn and restored by the owner 18 months ago.

One, of many, things I have learned thanks to these photo’s is that Cord was a brand name of cars manufactured by Auburn a company that ueber salesman E.L. Cord turned around during a leveraged buyout, above is a 1935 Auburn 851 Boat Tail Speedster manufactured just two years before both names went bust in the wake of the Great Depression.

The last model developed by Cord was the headlight popping 810 which had onlookers standing on the running boards of rival manufacturers cars when it was launched in New York in 1936. Rushed development and production schedules meant it gained a bad reliability reputation. For 1937 front wheel drive Cord 810’s were rebadged 812’s and although they had ironed out all of the reliability issues of the previous year the 812 series could not save Cord from financially tanking. This 1937 Cord 812 Convertible Coupe is particularly rare, if I have understood Card lore correctly, it is one of only six that were ordered without the exterior chrome exhausts sticking out of the sides of the bonnet.

Despite the now give away giant bonnet ornament it took me a good half hour to work out that the car above is a 1949 Packard Super 8 Convertible with a pre WW2 bathtub body style.

I’ll let you see if you can guess what this mystery car is before you reach the end of this blog, this car was highly rated by Time and Life magazines, Good Houskeeping described this model as a ‘social phenomenon’. Designed in Italy but not built by one of the ‘big three’ the car is said to have had 50/50 weight distribution about the axles and counted amongst it’s star owners Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin drove one in the film Kiss Me Stupid and Ronald Reagan allegedly lost his to President Lyndon Johnson in a poker game. This is one of the 99 cars built from 1956 to 1957 from a planned production run of 300.

I know the designer of my all time favourite Formula One car is a fan of the 1959 Buick Le Saber Convertible all though he would probably prefer the Invicta version in bright red.

Representing the swinging, in the UK anyway, sixties at Niello Serrano were the slab sided 1963 Lincoln Continental Convertible with it’s rear suicide doors, which are all the rage at Rolls Royce these days,

and the infinitely more modest 1964 Dodge Dart Convertible, which in optional automatic form had push buttons to select the gears.

The mystery car is the Dual Ghia, designed by Ghia in Italy and built by Dual motors in Detroit with Chrysler running gear.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for his excellent photographs without which todays post would not have been possible.

Thanks for joining me on this US convertible edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the Ferrari’s at Niello Serrano Concours. Don’t forget to come back now !

1977 ECotY – Rover Vitesse

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There were not many four door executive vehicles that would look comfortable parked along side a Ferrari or Maserati in the 1970’s but the Rover SD1 powered by the familiar alloy Buick derived V8 and designed by David Bache is certainly one that could keep such company in any car park and not look out of place.

Thanks in part to a painfully slow process of rationalisation that was occurring at British Leyland during the early 1970’s involving many duplicitous departments and management within the nationalised organisation it took 54 months for the SD1 to move from drawing board to production.

David Bache was not in the least shy about his design influences incorporated into the SD1 including these indicator lights which are almost identical to those found on a Ferrari Daytona.

Built in a new purpose built £31 million factory in Solihull the SD1 was marketed as the Rover 3500 and launched in July 1976 to an ecstatic reception regarding the styling and performance, though the quality of some of the materials used and build were short of the market leaders particularly the emerging BMW brand. The deep front spoiler and BBS pattern wheels on this model signifies a later model in this case built in 1986.

The Vitesse badge hitherto associated with Triumph models belies the fact that the SD1 had technical and marketing input from the still separate and competing Triumph design and management offices. In late 1980 the Rover Vitesse, seen here at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, was introduced as the performance version of the Rover 3500 and the Vanden Plas the Luxury version that included leather seats.

While the styling of the SD1 was ahead of it’s time the rear suspension was actually a technological step back from the de Dion suspension used on the previous Rover P6 to a live rear axle, though this made the cars easier and cheaper to build the move did not compromise the handling, much praised in the contemporary press, in anyway.

Since British Leyland had so many competing brands in its range the 1977 European Car of the Year award winner was not the money spinner that it should have been because it was priced so as not to compete directly with the Jaguar XJ6 against which it was seen in an extremely favourable light.

Thanks for joining me on the 1977 European Car of the Year edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a fully loaded turbocharged competitor of the Rover SD1. Don’t forget to come back now !

Powered Under Licence – Rover P5B 3.5 litre Coupe

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In September 1960 the author of a technical review on the then new all aluminium 185 hp Buick 215 V8 engine could have had little idea of how prophetic for the British automotive industry his following words would be, “We will wager that the most widely copied engine of the next 10 years will be the superb new aluminium V8 by Buick.”

Despite it’s glowing press the Buick V8 and various Oldsmobile and Pontiac variants these motors were only in production from 1961 to 1963, after 750,000 units had been produced the Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac switched back to cheaper to manufacture iron blocks which were cast with thinner walls than had hitherto been possible.

Rover managing director Bill Martin-Hurst was on a sales mission trying to get Mercury Marine in Wisconsin interested in Rover gas turbine engines for marine applications when he stumbled across a Buick V8 being prepared for power boat racing on the Mercury Marine shop floor.

Bill realised immediately that such a motor might have a future in several Rover car projects and had the motor on the shop floor shipped to England and made enquires at GM about making their recently discontinued aluminium motor under licence.

Somewhat disbelieving GM agreed a deal which eventually included the soon to retire designer of the aluminium Buick 215 Joe Turley who would help prepare the V8 for production in a market that put engines under more stress, no speed limit at the UK at the time, than encountered in its original US application.

The Buick V8 was first tested in a P6 prototype, but the final iteration of older P5 design seen here, with a B for Buick designation, was the first Rover to be offered to the public with an aluminium Buick 215 V8 derived motor in 1967.

Four successive British Prime Ministers and the Queen of England used P5B’s, so impressed was the British government with these vehicles that they bought the last batch of them for future government ministers to use in 1973. Indeed Prime Minister Margret Thatcher was often seen in one as late as 1979, before switching to a Jaguar.

A Rover P5B featured alongside a Lamborghini Islero in ‘The Man Who Haunted Himself‘ starring Roger Moore, Olga Geoges-Picot and Hildegard Neil.

Vehicles featured on GALPOT that are powered by variations of the aluminium Rover V8 include :-

CMT

Reliant Scimitar GTE V8

Triumph TR7 Rally Sprint Replica

Triumph TR8 Convertible Replica

Triumph TR8 Twin Turbo

Further examples of Rover V8 powered vehicles can be found in these less specific blogs :-

GMC Suburban

Darian Wildcat T89 GTR

MGB Kayne Special

Rover SD1

Thanks for joining me on this Powered Under License edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again for a Scandinavian Edition tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Buick

Two Timing – Shakespeare County Raceway

Fireball Dyna Flow – Buick Roadmaster Coupé

2012 Ranchero Mirage Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance – Palm Springs

Fahr’n Fahr’n Fahr’n – Opel Manta S

US Convertibles – Niello Serrano Concours 2011

1977 ECotY – Rover Vitesse

Powered Under Licence – Rover P5B 3.5 litre Coupe