Tag Archives: Club

Race Winning Body – MG K3 #K3001/K3003

In October 1932 MG launched the K-Type Magnette at the London Motor Show, featuring a 48″ track and either a 94″ or 108″ wheel base the chassis was powered by a 6 cylinder 39 hp 1087cc / 66 cui motor with a cross flow cylinder head that originated from the 1930 Wolseley Hornet.The K1 Magnet was fitted with a saloon body on the 109″ wheel base and in all 181 were manufactured up to 1934 in KA, KB and lastly KD specifications which reflected a series of motor upgrades during the production run.

In 1933 the K2 a two seater on the 94″ chassis was launched, 16 were built with KB spec motors and 4 more with KD motors and pre selector gear boxes.

The princely sum of £795 could secure a supercharged K3 racing variant, as seen driven above at Prescott by Brandon Smith – Hillard, at first, as above, fitted with Powerplus superchargers just below the radiator and later with Marshall units. Fitted with pre selector gearboxes three K3’s including #K3001 above were entered into the 1933 where George Eyston and Giovanni Lurani driving chassis #K3003 came in 21st behind Tazio Nuvolari in an ALFA Romeo but took a class victory with Earl Howe and Hugh Hamilton coming in 22nd overall and 2nd in class in #K3001.

Subsequently #K3001 was raced at Brooklands, shared for the Shelsley Walsh by Land Speed Record holder and Mille Miglia class winner George Eyston with MM team mate Giovanni Lurani, raced throughout Europe by Bobby Kolrusche in 1934.

The Mille Miglia chassis #K3003 meantime had been given to the great Tazio Nuvolari to drive in the 1933 Ulster TT which he promptly won outright beating two 8 cylinder ALFA Romeo’s running in the 3 liter 183 cui class.

At some point after 1934 and before the commencement of the 2nd World War the body from the Mille Miglia and Tourist Trophy winning #K3003 replaced that on #K3001 which is how #K3001 appears in the photo above one of just 33 K3’s to have been built from 1933 to 1934.

My thanks to Ed of the Wessex MG Club Newsletter for details about this chassis.

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

Comic Discovery – Hudson Suburban Sedan

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Back on Independence Day during the Rally organised by the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club I came across this delightful 1935 Hudson, unfortunately I did not get any details about the car from the owner at the time so I have had another carcaeology session to discover more.

This Hudson chassis #533370, with blue body work probably marketed as Surban Sedan model, was one of just four vehicles first registered in Dundee, where the strap line reads City of Discovery, on the 7th of May 1935.

The Hudson was registered to a Mr R D Low of Westleigh, Number 9 Nevill Street, Downfield, Dundee alongside a Morris Saloon, BSA Motorcycle and a 3 ton Commer Coal merchants truck.

Robert Duncan Low is known to have been a journalist to the Dundee City Archive, but as we know journalism can cover a multitude of sins and it would appear that Robert was no gum shoe rather he was employed by DC Thompson & Co in Dundee where he was responsible for launching a number of publications aimed at children including Adventure (1921) The Rover (1922) The Wizzard (1923) The Skipper (1930) and The Hotspur (1933).

In 1937 Robert became managing editor at DC Thompson and over saw the launch of The Dandy and the following year the Beano for which with artist Ken Reid he created Roger the Dodger in 1953, when he also oversaw the launch of The Topper. Earlier in his career Robert is also credited with co creating the Scottish vernacular comic strips Oor Wullie and The Broons with illustrator Dudley Dexter Watkins.

It is not at present known how long Robert Low kept this Hudson he died in 1980 aged 85. This car is reported to have been ‘knocking around the North West of England in the 1990’s’ before it was offered at auction in 2005 when the body was painted maroon and sold for £1,500. The history of the cars original ownership outlined above appears to have been unknown to the auctioneers at the time when the car was noted to have had 4 previous owners with 92,275 miles shown on the clock and the model name was given as Big Six Saloon, the chassis number indicated the car would have been known as a 53 model at the Hudson factory from whence it was probably sent as a knockdown kit for assembly in Brentford west of London.

According to the best source I have available 29,476 cars were shipped and it is thought that number included the knockdown kits.

My thanks to John MacDonald form ‘oldcarandtruckpictures.com‘, Jon B, Terraplane 33, Geoff C NZ, Alex ‘Hudsontech’ Burr, Old Fogey UK and Paul Butler over at Hudson Forum who helped me identify this car and finally to Richard Cullen at the Dundee City Archive who provided the final clue as to the original owners identity.

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

Spirit of the 60’s – Dyrham Park

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On Sunday I ambled through the back lanes of Gloucestershire with a couple of friends to visit Dyrham Park a Neo Classic country mansion, that was built for William III’s Secretary at War William Blathwayt, set in a 274 acre deer park.

The house was made over to the state in the late 1950’s and the National Trust subsequently took over the running of the estate in 1961. That same year the Bristol Motor Cycle & Light Car Club organised a hillclimb on an 800 yard course that started at the Mansion house and went up the winding front drive towards the main gates of the estate.

To celebrate the centenary of what is now known as the Bristol Motor Club a Spirit of the 60’s demonstration was organised at Dyrham Park to mark the six events that were organised from 1961 – 1966. Not all the vehicles present on Sunday, like Tony Wallens 1971 Lotus 69 were strictly of the correct period but they all added to flavour on another Indian Summers day.

Making his way through the hairpin to the start line is Chris Merrick in a Brabham BT18 / Buick V8 that once belonged to Bryan Eccles who set, probably for all time, the course record of 30.05 secs in 1966.

Some of you may remember I stumbled across a Berkeley B105 earlier this year at the Silverstone Classic, this 1959 example heading for the assembly area belongs to Neil Barber.

Steve Hillcox in the 302 cui Mustang Fastback can is seen above preparing to leave the assembly area for his run up the narrow 800 yard course.

Following the Suzuki Pace Car heading for the sweeps on one of the demonstration runs are Jeffrey Allen in his 1967 Mini Cooper, Steve Dowling in his 1959 Austin A35 and David Valsler in his Turner which he found in Ohio.

John Robbins above negotiates the hairpin in his 1967 VW Notchback ahead of Colin Gale in his 1966 Austin Healey Sprite.

I believe this is Ron Clements in his 1933 Morgan Super Sport which bears a quote from two time Le Mans winner Sir Tim Birkin on the side “Better to die at full throttle than to live behind a desk.” Sir Tim died from as a result of burns sustained while racing a Maserati in the 1933 Tripoli Grand Prix.

One of the slower passes up the hill had they been timed would possibly have gone to former British Saloon car stalwart Vince Woodman on this Honda monkey bike,

though without doubt had the event been timed he would have been in the running for top tin top with his 3.4 litre 1973 Cologne Capri seen here rounding Neptune before the finish straight.

Somewhere between 4-5000 spectators are thought to have been entertained by over one hundred cars that each made several runs up the hill, apparently at one point the gates had to be closed because the A46 Bath Road had become blocked. At 4 pm the course car passed for the last time bringing an entertaining day to an end.

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

‘It should be a convertible !’ – Bristol 407 Viotti Convertible

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Among the many tales in Bristol Cars folklore several are connected with the actor Peter Sellers who one day after filming at Shepperton Studio’s approached Tony Crook, Bristol Cars sole retailer, with a Buick asking if some improvements could be made to the handling, when Tony replied that he couldn’t do much with the Buick Peter said ‘Well I’m going to leave it here.’

Eventually Peter Sellers bought a Bristol 407 coupé but he soon returned to Tony with it saying ‘It should be a convertible !’. Tony went to some lengths to explain that Bristol Cars did not make any convertibles, though in fact he was preparing one with coach work by Viotti for his daughter Carol.

Legend has it that Carol Crook was part of the London ‘in’ crowd and counted among her friends Britt Ekland, who posed with the Viotti 407 at Earls Court. Peter some how found out about this car and persuaded Tony to let him become the Viotti 407’s first owner.

Tony Crook says that Peter, notorious for regularly acquiring new cars and leaving them with Tony who had two mechanics and a service bay dedicated to maintaining Sellers cars, ‘drove it a bit – not an awful lot – and then we sold him other cars and we took the Viotti back’. All of this appears to have occurred before Peter Sellers had met the model who posed with the Viotti 407 at Earls Court his future wife Britt Ekland.

The unique Viotti 407 was very much a prototype, the suspension had not been modified to cope with the extra weight of the all steel body, the 88 other 407’s had lighter aluminium bodies, when Peter Sellers had the car, however when Tony Crook got it back the suspension and brakes were upgraded to later Bristol 410 specification, and his daughter Carol owned it for many years when it was seen with the registration number ‘AC 1’.

From what I can work out Tony Vaughan, seen in the Viotti 407 here at last weeks Bristol Owners Club Concours held at Greenwich, is the fourth owner of this car.

The one off styling exercise Viotti 407 appears to have strongly influenced future Bristol designs from the 408, 409, 410 and the early series 411.

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

Follow That ‘Burb ! – Independence Day Touring Assembly

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Yesterday evening Martin and Nick of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club were responsible for organising an Independence Day Touring Assembly, in aid of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance and it was a good excuse to take some foreign guests staying with us out for an evening ride.

We assembled at The Parkway in Stoke Gifford where an eclectic collection of vehicles had gathered including

a 1935 Hudson Suburban Sedan,

and 1950 Ford V8 Pilot,

Ken kindly let our guests, Pablo from Barcelona seen here, jump into his Marlin 5exi.

Soon it was time to go to The Griffin in nearby Warmley to pick up some members of Bristol Hotrods who joined us on our cruise. Not knowing exactly where I was going I took the advice to ‘follow that ‘burb’ referring to a large gold Rover V8 powered 1964 GMC Suburban belonging to Chris, who some of you may remember got me interested in drag racing not so long ago.

After a 20 min drive round what counts as Bristol’s ring road

we arrived in the car park of The Griffin where I was surprised to find chain drive fan Duncan waiting for us in another of his amazing Edwardian vehicles a Monarch GP powered by an 8.4 litre / 512 cui Curtiss V8 aircraft engine.

No sooner had I taken a snap and we were on our way to our final destination in a convoy vaguely reminiscent of the Whacky Races, behind me here are a Parsons trials car, Duncan in his Monarch, what appears to be a genuine C type Jaguar and a Ford Hotrod.

Our final destination was the Book Barn in Hallatrow about 20 miles south of Bristol where coffee and a fine selection of used books was to be found including a Spanish English Dictionary for Pablo.

Outside I took the opportunity to get a closer look at some of the hotrods that had joined us from The Griffin, including this exquisitely painted Ford which was built from a kit,

this chopped Coupe which apparently started life as a humble 1949 Ford Anglia and is now fitted with a Supercharged Rover V8

and The Alchemist based on a 1933 Ford Coupe with tasty patina powered if I heard correctly by a 5300cc / 323 cui ‘Hemi’ V8.

Paulo from Milan took a real shine to the C – Type,

but after a 20 mile ride with Ken he was left most impressed by the Marlin 5exi.

My thanks to Martin and Nick who organised a splendid Assembly to everyone who came along and particularly to Ken and Rob, seen above in his TVR Griffin 500, for giving Paulo and Pablo rides in vehicles neither will forget in a hurry.

Hope you have enjoyed todays Independence Day Assembly edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a replica concept car. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Please spare a thought for Nick’s wife Cherry who had the misfortune to get clobbered by a 4ft iron bar in a freak accident while at Goodwood on Friday. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Cherry.

He who is first will later be last – Auto Gymkhana

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Flush with success after my first production car trial, last weekend I joined members of The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club and took part in an Auto Gymkhana for the first time at Sheepcot Farm not far from Chepstow.

(Ben in his Mitsubishi Colt finished 6th Overall)

There were 12 entries 11 of which stayed for the full 24 stages of the competition which centred on variations of 4 basic tests.

(Nick and Andy shared Andy’s Marlin, Andy finished 2nd and Nick 8th)

The first group of tests focused on parking skills in forward and reverse alongside a plank of wood. Not such a difficult task but when done competitively in one manoeuvre surprisingly difficult to get the wheels as close to the plank as possible without touching the plank. The competitor who parked with the front wheel closest to the plank won. There were further parking tests to see who could park closest to a cone.

(Kia Picante in which I came 10th)

Next came a timed slalom first time round I got the gates a bit mixed up at the end which meant I somehow contrived to travel a longer distance than necessary. Driving my landladies mothers Kia Picante I was woeful on this test deciding that discretion was the better part of valour I aimed to improve my times through each timed run and tried to avoid scratching the car by running too close to the markers.

(Daihatsu Curore shared by Chris and Coralie who finished 3rd and 4th.

I did much better when it came to driving round the slalom holding a pint of water in my own time spilling less water than most I finished in the top 3 each on each of the 3 occasions this test was run.

(Ken in the Mercedes C220 CDi with the amazing turning circle finished 11th)

The hillclimb proved relatively simple for everyone except for Ken in his Mercedes C220 CDi which could handle the turns but had no weight over the rear axle to afford the necessary traction over the final incline which got progressively more slippery.

(Nick soon came to the conclusion that his Mazda 626 did not have a good enough turning circle)

Finally there was an autotest which involved driving round a course of tight circles parking in garages and some reversing. Nick dropped his Mazda 626 out of the competition immediately when it became apparent his car simply did not have anything like enough steering lock to compete. He ended up sharing Andy’s Marlin instead.

(Alan brought his Hawk HF3000 in 9th.)

Alan driving a Hawk HF 3000 Lancia Stratos replica powered by a 3 litre ALFA Romeo V6 needed a co-driver on the autotest in order to open the passenger door and make calls on the positions of the cones when reversing ! I jumped in to help Alan on a couple of occasions and was struck by the heat coming off the radiator in front of the footwell and the engine mounted directly behind the seats. A fabulous car to sit in for the slalom though.

(Mal in his all conquering MG Midget Mk3 )

Clear winner of the event was Mal in his MG Midget Mk3 which he bought for just £250 many years ago.

My thanks to Martin and team of marshals who ran a wonderful days competition, to Tim who kept score of the days activities to Alan for the the ride in the HF 3000 and congratulations to Mal.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Auto Gymkhana edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Classic and Sports Car Action Day – Castle Combe

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On my way back from a couple of interviews at Sheffield Documentary Festival at the weekend I found time to accept a kind invitation from David Roots to pay a flying visit to Castle Combe for the Classic and Sports Car Action Day.

As I arrived out on the track caught a glimpse of a huge variety of vehicles ranging from a Wolsely Hornet to a gargantuan, by comparison, Ford Zodiac.

Since I was on a tight schedule I directed my attention to the even larger variety of vehicles in the car parks and paddock.

Many owners clubs were in attendance including the Ford Capri owners club who’s members brought a fine variety of examples of ‘The car you have always promised yourself‘, along to the show.

I do not remember the last time I saw a Hillman Avenger Tiger, let alone half a dozen of them !

In the running for most exotic cat at the track was this Jaguar XJ 220, first time I have seen one in the flesh.

Another model I do not recall seeing before is the Lanchester Ten.

Richard Edmonds were auctioning a selection of classic cars and commercial vehicles, including the Morris Van above, during the event, their tent was packed out with bargain hunters as I went past.

Unfortunately I did not get to hear or see this 350 CUI GTO in action complete with this cool bonnet mounted rev counter. 18 03 12, this car actually turned out to be a Pontiac LeMans Sport.

Among the interesting vehicles in the car park was this Rover V8 powered Reliant Scimitar, manufactured originally with a Ford V6.

This Alpine A110 1600 S built for competition was one of several vehicles present with an interesting history in rallying.

There was also an impressive collection of Triumphs on display almost every type of TR and a couple of Stags.

Looking forward to blogging about some of the 40 vehicles I saw in the coming weeks, my thanks to David Roots, who’s Alfa powered Lenham I blogged several months ago, of the Bath & West Car Club for the invitation to attend.

Thanks for dropping in on today’s Classic and Sports Car edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ 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