Tag Archives: Chevrolet

Land Yachts – Danville Concours d’Elegance

Once again today’s photographs from the recent Danville Concours d’Elegance come courtesy of ‘California Streets‘ blogger Jay Wollenweber.

To get through the Great Depression Packard decided to produce a midsize vehicle known as the One Twenty, many think it was a mistake to use the Packard reputation for excellence for the venture instead of coming up with a new brand.

I mistakenly identified this pick up as a Terraplane, Jay pointed out that it is actually a rare REO Speedwagon. While it looks totally stock on the outside the motor axles and air conditioning are a mix of Chevrolet and Ford parts that allow this pick up to travel comfortably faster than the 35 mph it would have achieved when new in 1935.

First of today’s genuine land yachts is this low riding 1957 Buick Century Caballero Station Wagon. high production costs of this car featuring unusual, for an estate / station wagon, pillarless styling stymied production after just two years with the Caballero name remaining dormant since 1958.

Not quite in the land yacht category is this ’57 Ford Thunderbird, with the first series, last year of production, heavily restyled front bumpers.

If your in the market for a rare Cadillac then a 1957 Series 70 Eldorado Brougham might be a great place to start. Only 400 of these hand built cars were built in 1957, they cost more than a contemporary Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.

1958 saw the Pontiac Bonneville launched as a separate model, with a standard electric clock, priced at less than US$3,000. The 300 hp Bonneville Convertible was chosen as the 1958 Pace Car for the Indianapolis 500.

The ‘aerodynamically different’ Avanti by Studebaker also got an early airing at Indianapolis in 1962, as the “Honorary Pace Car alongside the Studebaker Skylark Convertible ‘Official Pace Car’. Production of the Avanti was shut down in December 1963 with 2,500 vehicles still in the dealer chain this particular model above appears to have been one of those 2,500.

Pontiac Sales Manager Frank Bridge insisted on limiting production of the GTO option package for the 1964 Pontiac Tempest to 5000, by the beginning of 1964 10,000 had already been sold and the vehicle above is one of the 32,450 total first year sales. Surprisingly despite all the performance upgrades the GTO option offered it retained the standard Tempest drum brakes.

Jay tells me this 1965 Chevrolet Corvette C2 was equipped as an SCCA racer in the 1970’s and is fitted with a 5358 cc / 327 cui small block V8.

Last of today’s featured vehicles from Danville Concours d’Elegance is this understated, sports stripe option deleted, 1970 Fathom Blue Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 which packed a 350 hp Turbo Jet big block V8 when it left the factory.

My thanks again to Jay Wollenweber for sharing his photographs with us.

Thanks for joining me on this “Land Yachts” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for a Danville Concours d’Elegance Ferrari Friday edition tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Parkinson’s Research And Care – 8th Danville Concours d’Elegance

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The weekend before last saw the 8th Danville Concour’s d’Elegance take place, organised to raise funds for research into Parkinson’s desease. Thanks to photographs by Geoffrey Horton here are a few of the cars that took part.

The USA’s first World Champion driver Phil Hill is said to have been the first owner of this Aston Martin DB2, in 1951 a decade before he won the World Championship driving for Ferrari.

One of the worlds rarer Aston Martins is the DB2/4 with Italian coachwork by Serafino Allemano. This 1953 chassis #LML/761 was ordered by a customer in Casablanca who used it in local races.

Another mouth watering example of the Aston Martin marque was this DB5 1023 of these classic ‘James Bond’ models were manufactured between 1963 and 1965, most of them with out the swiveling number plates, bullet proof rear screen, ejector seat, machine guns smoke screen and oil slick that the handsome man with the Edinburgh brogue found useful until he crashed avoiding a mirror in Gold Finger.

Both yesterday and the day before saw the first ever Trofeo Maserati races taking place at Sanoma using racing versions of the Gran Turismo MC as seen above. Venezuelan debutant Alex Popow won Saturdays race with Grey’s Anatomy guest star Patrick Dempsey claiming 6th. Sunday’s results were unknown at the time of writing.

Fisker Automotive was founded in 2007 in Anaheim California, but has the hybrid Fisker Karma vehicles it markets manufactured by Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Among the novel features are a solar panel roof which contributes to the climate control system.

The McLaren MP4-12 C is the racing car manufacturers third road car after the 1969 M6GT (3 possibly 4 built) and 1992/98 F1 (106 built), like all McLaren’s road car projects the MP4-12 C draws heavily on it’s racing technologies which in this case includes a second brake pedal which acts on the inside rear wheel to minimise understeer.

From 1957 to 1963 Mercedes Benz manufactured 1,858 300 SL Roadsters, this one comes complete with the optional factory luggage cases and is one of less than 20 1957 vehicles fitted with Rudge wheels.

Since the 1920’s ALFA Romeo had offered straight six powered vehicles to it’s customers the 2600 or 106 series manufactured from 1961 to 1968 was the last of this line. Above is 1964 2600, one of 2,255 Spyders built, powered by a 145 hp twim overhead cam version of the straight 6.

So far as I have been able to discern the Iso Grifo A3/L above ‘might be’ the 1963 prototype shown by Bertone at the 1963 Turin Auto Show. Clues are the given 1963 date of the car and it’s current location. Sales of the 395 hp Chevy V8 cars did not begin until 1965.

Getting seriously psycho on tyres is Dennis Varni who on the 14th of September recorded a two way speed of 334.360 mph in this Chevrolet Streamliner powered by a turbocharged straight 6 motor at Bonneville.

Geoffrey was fortunate to get to the Danville Gala Dinner where this 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato was on display, it is the only one of the 19 original cars that still exist that has non faired-in headlights. The UK plate ’29 ALY’ has been reasigned to a 2002 Ford Ka.

Finally this 1955 Pegaso Tipo Z with a Saoutchik Coupé body is one of only two identical cars for international car exhibitions, at a cost of between US$15 to 35,000 they were amongst the most wildly expensive vehicles of their time.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photograph’s, there will be further blogs from Danville in the week ahead.

Thanks for joining me on this “Parkinson’s Research and Care” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at an MG. Don’t forget to come back now !

5th Rare Breeds Show – Haynes International Motor Museum

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Last Sunday I managed to pop out for a couple of hours to catch the 5th Rare Breeds Show at the Haynes International Motor Museum.

Back in 1928 $2,450 could get you this Studebaker President 8 Limousine powered by a 100 hp 5121 cc / 313 cui straight 8 motor. This car which competed on price with Chrysler and Buick but in interior finish with Packard and Duesenburg, was built in Walkerville Canada and is believed to be the only one of 2450 built still on the road. It is operated as a wedding car by vintage-wheels.co.uk.

Rolls Royce New Phantoms, built from 1925 to 1929 replaced the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost series, with a new overhead valve six cylinder motor replacing the side valve motors of the earlier models. These cars were built in Derby England and Springfield Massachusetts. This 1929 model would be one of the last New Phantoms built, they were replaced in 1929 by the Phantom II at which point New Phantoms became retrospectively known as Phantom I’s. I hope you are paying attention in the back there, this car was one of several at the rare breeds show operated by rrelite.co.uk.

Weighing a ton but armed with a 87 hp motor a Lea Francis 14(taxable)hp Sports could reach 87 mph with steering and, rod operated, brakes to match. Unfortunately it’s price meant just 111 of these car were built between 1947 and 1949. This 1948 example is one of over 40 known survivor’s.

With a name that translates from German to Russian into Sputnik the East German Trabant P50 was launched in 1958 with two cylinder 18 hp 500 cc / 30.5 cui aircooled two stroke motor derived from a pre war DKW. The body made extensive use of Duroplast made from recycled cotton waste from the Soviet Union and local phenol resigns from the dye industry. This 1962 P60 is fitted with the more power powerful 23 hp 600cc / 36.6 cui motor that would remain in production, from 1964 in the ‘updated’ 601 series bodies, until the collapse of the Berlin wall 1989.

Despite having only 27,000 miles on the clock this 1966 Volkswagen Type 2 has many stories to tell, it started out like as a fire truck at Zurich Airport, it has rare for the period sliding doors on both sides to facilitate access to the fire pump that used to be inside. It then served as a fire truck in a Swiss Village, with 15,000 miles on the clock it came to the UK in 2003 and was bought and returned to it’s original factory supplied colours by Ross Gammie who discovered that it’s 53 hp was not really enough to pull his Porsche 908 race car. Since it’s redesignation as a race support vehicle the van with it’s period correct Porsche 356 wheels has since changed hands again.

Amazingly the FT Bonito Special above also started life as a Volkswagen, a 1967 Beetle, before a conversion was started in 1986 to turn the bug into an FT Bonito, a kit car from a company called Fibrefab. The current owner found it unfinished in a garden in 1999 and has since brought it too life with a VW Golf motor. This is thought to be the only competition version of an FT Bonito ever to have been built.

David Roots Lenham ALFA Romeo special was looking resplendent, even on a dull day, as usual.

The New York ‘cab’ above is a 1978 Checker Marathon with a 160 hp 5735 cc / 350 cui V8 motor. The car is also operated for weddings and filming by rrelite.co.uk . Among it’s credits is an appearance in the 2008 Boyzone number Love You Anyway.

I looked in detail at a Chevrolet Corvette C3 some weeks ago the 1978 model seen here has the $399 B2Z 25th Anniversary option two tone paintwork along with the 25th Anniversary mandatory $380 option aluminium wheels and sport door mirrors.

The Tickford Capri is a Ford sanctioned hand built Ford Capri with a 205 hp turbocharged motor that cost double the price of a standard 170 hp Ford Capri 2.8i. This 1984 example #002 was the first type approved version, ordered by someone desperately keen to have one built as close to the prototype show car before Tickfords had even moved into the planned production facility for the series.

The 1984 Pontiac Trans Am based Knight Industries Two Thousand (K.I.T.T) was developed for the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG) by Wilton Knight and was essentially an artificially intelligent electronic computer module installed in an advanced, mobile, robotic automobile.

The original 1982 K.I.T.T was a hard top, but no doubt in danger of getting a hot head due to his crime fighting success, it was deemed that Micheal Knight be given a Targa Top for the 1985 crime wave. This particular K.I.T.T thought to be one of thirty built is operated by rrelite.co.uk.

This 1991 Midas Cortez is the spiritual ancestor of the Mini Marcos with Rover Metro running gear.

Thanks for joining me on this “5th Rare Breeds Show” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Awesome Copper – Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance

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Geoffrey Horton attended the Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance two weeks ago and kindly sent me another excellent selection of photographs to share.

Chevrolet’s first V8 was built for the Series D from 1917/18, it produced a modest, even by contemporary standards, 36 hp from it’s 4.7 litre 288 cui motor. Poor sales discouraged Chevrolet from returning to the V8 concept until 1955.

The National Automobile Museum in Reno NV is home to this 1921 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with a unique copper sheet body by Brockman. Other features include wood trim from a single ebony tree trunk along with nickle and silver fittings.

The Marmon Sixteen was the first of the three automotive V16’s to be developed in 1927, unfortunately Marmon was in such desperate financial straights that two of it’s engineers went to Peerless and Cadillac to develop to more V16 designs and the Marmon was the last of the three to reach production in 1931. Only 400 of these 8 litre / 491 cui 45 degree V16 powered cars were built before the Great Depression brought an end to automobile production for the company.

This Concours winning 1934 Packard 12-1107 Club Sedan is even rarer than the Marmon 16 with just 51 built. Powered by a 160 hp side valve V12 the car is fitted with a radio that cost an additional $79.50 on top of the original $4,060 list price. In today’s money the radio would work out at around $800 !

Ford Phaeton’s powered by 85hp flathead V8’s were manufactured in 1935 and 1936 and featured hydraulically actuated brakes on all four wheels. The example seen here was built in 1936.

“First by far with a postwar car” was Studebaker with it’s Commander Starlight Coupé with aeroplane styling designed by Raymond Loewy. 4,383 of these cars were built in 1950 this one has a six tube radio.

ALFA Romeo did not start post war production until 1947, the 6C 2500 Super Sport Coupé was top of the range in 1950. Developed by Vittorio Jano and Wilfredo Ricart the 6C 2500 was the last Alfa Romeo to be built with a separate body and chassis. The bodywork on this model is by Touring of Turin. Note this particular car unusually features the driver sitting on the right.

Henry Kaiser used a fortune made producing ships for the Navy during the 1939/45 war to begin production of Kaiser cars. The chassis of the second Henry J model was used as the basis of this fibre glass bodied roadster by Howard ‘Dutch’ Darrin. 435 Kaiser Darrin’s, featuring doors that slide forward into the front wing / fender were manufactured in 1954.

I’m not sure of exactly which year this Talbot Lago was built, 54 T14 LS models were built with 4 cylinder Talbot motors in 1955 and subsequentley similar Talbot Laga America models were supplied with more reliable BMW V8 motors.

Priced to compete with the Caddilac Biaritz this 134 hp 1960 Mercedes Benz 220 SE Cabriolet has an interior covered almost entirely in leather. 1,112 of these Cabriolet’s were manufactured between 1958 and 1960.

Just six Shelby American Cobra Dragonsnakes were manufactured for drag racing. The second, chassis CSX 2357, seen here was driven by Jere Kirkpatrick to set NHRA A/Stock Sports records at Fremont, Riverside and Arlington. Jere also drove CSX 2357 to win the 1965 Winter Nationals in Phoenix.

Featuring a flat four boxer engine and front wheel drive the Lancia Flavia was maufactured from 1961 to 1970. The bodywork for the 1965 Coupé seen here was designed by Pininfarina.

Thanks for joining me on this “Awesome Copper” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be revisiting the Haynes International Motor Museum. Don’t forget to come back now !

Silent Running – Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

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Last Sunday I popped up to Silverstone for the 6 Hour race, the 4th round of the 8 race World Endurance Championship.

When I first visited Silverstone in 1978 the layout was still essentially an airfield perimeter track consisting of six straights joined by six fast corners with the main runway still in use on raceday’s. Since then the track configuration has changed several times, the runway is now long gone and there is a completely new infield section between the Club and Woodcote corners which was introduced last year.

When I arrived at the track I was heartend to find that endurance racing appeals to a younger audience who travelled from far and wide, though just as in 1978 in disappointingly small numbers.

Making it’s first appearance in the UK was the new for 2012 Toyota TS030 Hybrid which proved fast at the previous Le Mans 24 hours if ultimately unreliable, the car driven by Austrian Alexander Wurz, Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre and Japanese Kazuki Nakajima qualified 3rd behind the two Audi Sport Joest R18’s but after a dozen laps went into the lead, unfortunately it could not maintain it’s lead during the pit stops and so was always, entertainingly playing catch up to the Audi’s with their smaller, diesel filled, fuel tanks which proved ultimately more economical.

Further Japanese interest in the race was provided by Keiko Ihara who was sharing her second tier LMP2 #29 Gulf Racing Middle East entered Lola Nissan B12/80 Coupé with Fenchman Fabien Giroix and Swiss Jean-Denis Delatraz, they qualified a distant 22nd and finished an equally distant 18th overall and 11th in class.

Also running in the LMP2 class was former Grand Prix Driver, 1990 Le Mans winner and Sky Sports Formula One presenter Martin Brundle who joined his son Alex and Spaniard Lucas Ordonez in the #42 Zytek Nissan Z11SN. The #42 qualified a respectable 8th overall 1st in class but could only finish 12th overall 5th in class.

As well as the two LMP1 and LMP2 prototype classes additional classes catered for GT2 cars which are split into LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am divisions. Amateurs Christian Ried from Germany with Italians Gianluca Roda and Parato Ruberti from Italy qualified the #88 Porsche 911 RSR (997) 27th overall and 2nd in class and finished 25th overall 2nd in class, seeing the slower GT drivers getting swamped by the faster prototypes on the corners is always interesting but only rarely leads to the kind of damage seen above.

The #50 Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1, seen above, shared by Brazilian Fernando Rees and Frenchmen Patrick Bornhauser and Julien Canal actually crossed the line 25th and 2nd in the LMGTE Am class but was disqualified after a “non-conforming safety device, namely the validity date of the car’s fire extinguisher” was discovered in post race scrutineering. Labre Competition Team manager Jack Leconte was suitably contrite after the discovery.

From 35 starters there were only four retirements the second of which was the #23 Signatech Oreca Nissan O3 of French trio Jordan Tresson, Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard. Approaching 3/4 distance. Tesson is seen here after a rear tyre exploded at Becketts coming out of the next corner Chapel his car turned sharp left and hit the wall. The ensuing safety car period played into the hands of the overall victor of the race.

The #61 AF Course Waltrip, as in Micheal Waltrip Racing apparently, Ferrari 458 Italia of Italians Piergiuseppe Perazzzin, Marco Cioci and Irishman Matt Griffin qualified 30th overall / 3rd in LMGTE Am and came home winners in the class beating the #98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of German Roald Goethe and Briy Stuart Hall, seen above, that finished 4th in class by 3 whole laps. Griffin said of his win “I’m not British but it’s still my home race so I’m really happy.”

LMGTE Pro honours fell to the #51 AF Course Ferrari 458 Italia of Grand Prix Winner Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni who beat another 458 Italia by two clear laps.

The #25 ADR-Delta team Oreca Nissan O3 of John Martin, Jan Charouz and Tor Garves edged the second Signatech team Oreca Nissan by just six seconds at the finish line but this was not the closest class victory of the day.

By securing the win in their Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé 6th place starters and 4th place overall finishers Italian Andrea Belicchi and Swiss Harold Primat stretched the Rebellion Racing Teams lead in the Privateer LMP1 Championship. They finished 6 laps behind the third place #2 Audi and less than 1 second ahead of the 2nd place privateer LMP1 Honda powered HDP ARX 03a to take the closest class victory of the day.

With the best fuel economy and aided in a small way by several short safety car periods the Audi e-tron quattro Hybrid with a flywheel accumulator system developed by Williams Hybrid Power, to drive the front wheels only at mandated speeds in excess of 75 mph, silently, and I mean really quietly, out ran the Toyota TS030 Hybrid by less than a minute thanks to one less stop for diesel than it’s petrol powered competitor. By crossing the line first Audi secured this years World Endurance Constructors Championship at the half way point because it’s Le Mans win is the one race in the series that counts for double points.

Thanks for joining me on this “Silent Running” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Dunsfold Aerodrome. Don’t forget to come back now !

Trans Am Golden Era – Carmel by the Sea Concours d’Elegance

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Thanks once more to Geoffrey Horton today’s Americana Thursday blog features some of the highlights from the Trans Am cars on display at the recent Carmel by the Sea Concours d’Elegance. I can’t say for certain if all of these cars are the originals that raced in the series or faithful tribute cars built since, if you know for certain one way on the other about the details of any of these cars please do not hesitate to chime in below.

The Trans Am Series ran uninterrupted from 1966 to 2006 and was revived in 2009. The golden era of the series is generally considered to have been from 1968 to 1972 when the 302 cui / 5 litre muscle cars from AMC, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Plymouth a duked it out for overall wins. Above is a #15 Penske Chevrolet Camaro which appears to be the car that came 3rd overall and 1st in class at the 1968 Sebring 12 hours driven by Mark Donohue and Canadian Craig Fisher.

The drivers Trans Am championship was not instated until 1972, it was won by George Folmer driving an AMC Javelin, above is a Boss 302 Mustang of the type George used in 1970 when he was driving for the Bud Moore team.

Parnelli Jones also drove in Bud Moore’s Trans Am team in 1970, he drove a #15 similar to the one above, linked here is an excellent clip of Parnelli which show’s just why the Trans Am series was so popular.

Texan Jim Hall built three Chaparral Camaro’s in 1970 for the Trans Am Series, they were raced by Hall himself along with Vic Elford, Ed Leslie and Joe Leonard, this car may well be the one that Vic Elford drove to a win at Watkins Glen in 1970.

Finally I featured the Classic Wax Dodge Challenger driven by Sam Posey in the 1970 Trans Am series some time ago. Being my all time favourite car from the series I hope you’ll forgive my indulgence by showing it again.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photo’s from the Carmel by the Sea Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Trans Am Golden Era’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again when I’ll be featuring some of the Ferrari’s that were present at Carmel by The Sea on August 14th. Don’t forget to come back now !

Low Lead 454 – Chevrolet Stingray Corvette (C3)

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Longest running of the Chevrolet Corvette incarnations was the third generation C3 built between 1968 and 1982.

The C3 Corvette took it’s styling cues from the 1965 Mako Shark II Concept Car.

A new feature of the C3 Corvette’s was the T Top removable roof panels, an idea first patented Gordon Buehrig in 1951 for his, unsuccessful, TASCO Sports Car.

The T-Top proved so successful that production of convertible Stingray Corvettes ceased in 1975 and was not revised again until 1986.

For 1971 the engine options were base L48, performance LT1 and ZR1 using the 350 cui 5.7 litre small block and the 454cui / 7.4 litre LS5 and LS6 big block options. With the introduction of low lead fuel in 1971 the LS6 454’s power was detuned from 450 hp as used on the Chevelle SS to 425 hp. I have been unabke to determine if the car in these photo’s taken at last years Goodwood Revival is one of the 188 LS6 powered cars or one of the 5097 365 LS5 powered cars built in 1971.

The absence of “Sting Ray” name plates as used on the C2 Corvettes distinguish 1968 Corvette’s, the single word “Stingray” moniker was used from 1969 until 1976.

The futuristic door entry mechanism replaced with the hitherto ubiquitous release button and door handle combining them into a single recessed unit.

The C3 is said to be the first US car to do away with the side vent window in the door, power window’s were an option for the remaining pain of glass.

Among the 1971 options were white striped tyres at $28 or white lettered tyres at $42, 6,711 and 12,499 vehicles were delivered with these options respectively.

’71 Corvette advertising concluded that “it’s underneath what counts when it comes to performance”.

Despite strikes interrupting production 9,936 Stingray Corvette Coupé’s were manufactured in 1971.

Thanks for joining me on this “Low Lead 454” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Chevrolet

Land Yachts – Danville Concours d’Elegance

Parkinson’s Research And Care – 8th Danville Concours d’Elegance

5th Rare Breeds Show – Haynes International Motor Museum

Awesome Copper – Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance

Silent Running – Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Trans Am Golden Era – Carmel by the Sea Concours d’Elegance

Low Lead 454 – Chevrolet Stingray Corvette (C3)