Tag Archives: Coupé

Cost No Object – Pegaso Z-102B

Former Alfa Romeo designer Wilfredo Ricart returned to his home town of Barcelona after the 1939 – 45 war and was offered a position as cheif technical manager with the Spanish automotive group ENASA which acquired the assets from the Spanish arm of Hispano-Suiza. ENASA sold trucks and buses under the Pegaso brand from 1946 and in 1951 entered the luxury sports car market.

Pegaso Z-102B, Danville Concours d' Elegance

The Tipo Z-102B was launched in Coupé and Convertible forms. They were powered by double over head cam motors that produced between 175 and 360 hp depending on size and state of tune, twin superchargers were available with the 360 hp variant. Unusually the transaxle had the 5 speed gearbox mounted behind the differential.

In September 1953 Celso Fernández was recorded driving a smaller engined Z-102B with single supercharger at 151 mph over a measured flying kilometer in Belgium to become the worlds fastest production car, a record it held for just over a month until Norman Dewis reclaimed the record for Jaguar in October 1953 with a speed of 172 mph.

Pegaso Z-102B, Danville Concours d' Elegance

The Coupé seen in these photographs by Geoffrey Horton taken at last years Danville Concours d’Elegance is powered by a 250 hp 2.8 litre 171 cui normally aspirated motor and was one of a pair of show cars with aluminium body work by Saoutchick built in 1955.

In all just 86 Z-102B’s were built unprofitably on a cost no object basis until 1958, it is thought just 56 Tipo Z-102B’s still remain.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs of today’s featured car.

Thanks for joining me on this “Cost No Object” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Closing In On Packard – Cadillac Series 62 Coupé

In 1940 the Cadillac Series 62 replaced the Series 61 as the entry level model in the Cadillac line up.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

Sales of 5903 torpedo bodied ’40 Series 62 models accounted for 45% of Cadillac sales.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

For 1941 the Series 62 received a dramatic face lift gone was the rounded vertical grill and in came the the horizontal rectangular grill into which parking lights were incorporated.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

The headights which were mounted on the wings / fenders of the ’40 Series 62 were integrated into the wings / fenders of the ’41 Series ’62.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

A single rectangular louvre on the side of the bonnet / hood replaced the twin louvre’s of the older model giving the vehicle a fresher and smarter appearance.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

The ’40/’41 Fisher body cars shared the same platform as the Buick Roadmaster/Super, Oldsmobile Series 90 an Pontiac Torpedo but had a 5 inch wider cabin space because the body was taken out to where the running boards were on the Buick, Olds and Pontiac models.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

The 5 inches of extra width meant that the Series 62 could seat three up front and three more in the back.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

All ’41 Cadillacs shared the same 5.7 litre / 346 cui L head V8 which produced 150 hp.

Buick Series 62 Coupé, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

Sales of the ’41 more than quadrupled the previous years numbers to 24,734 which accounted for 37% of Cadillacs 62,290 sales just 7,000 short of premium market leader Packard.

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

First Ferrari Road Car – Ferrari 166 Inter Coupé Touring Superleggera #017S

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At the Turin Motor Show in 1948 Ferrari presented two new models to the world, the 166 Barchetta sports racer and the 166 Inter Coupé which sits on a longer wheelbase. Both vehicles are powered by Gioacchino Colombo designed two litre / 122 cui all aluminium V12’s.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Coupé, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The car seen here carries the chassis number 017S, like all Ferrari’s at the time even numbers were saved for the works team racing cars while odd numbers were designated to cars intended for customers to buy.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Coupé, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

This Right Hand Drive car appears to have been sold new to the Cerana brothers of Milan in 1949 where it remained until 1958 before finding new owners in Switzerland where the car remained until the turn of the Millenium when the car moved to the Nehterlands before finding an owner in the UK in 2009.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Coupé, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The most popular coachwork supplier for the 166 Inter Coupé appears to have been Touring who built the aluminium body panels for the car seen here with their usual Superleggera structure of tubes in support.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Coupé, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

With 110 hp the 166 Inter Coupé could reach a top speed of 105 mph.

Ferrari 166 Inter Touring Coupé, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The 166 Inter Coupé represented Ferrari’s first series road cars and in all 37 were built between 1948 and 1951.

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

Convivial Motoring – Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé

With styling inherited from the 2006 9 litre / 549 cui V16 100EX concept car the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé was launched in 2007 at the North American International Auto Show held in Detroit.

Regrettably the V16 was not part of the production spec of the Phantom Drophead Coupé a ‘puny’ 6.75 litre / 412 cui V12 first seen on the 2003 Rolls Royce Phantom saloon / sedan.

With twin turbochargers the V12 produces an effortless 453 hp enough to give the 2,620 kg / 5800 lbs vehicle sports car performance on acceleration and top speed, the sligthly lighter saloon / sedan can be pushed from rest to 186 mph in 60 seconds.

Thanks to electronic sensors the Spirit of Ecstasy ornament retracts in an emergency and can be set to retract whenever the doors are locked or when ever the owner chooses by a control in the glove box.

Naples Children and Education Foundation became the beneficiaries to the tune of US $1.6 million when the first Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé destined for the USA was sold at auction for $ 2m. It is believed this is the highest price ever paid for a new car at the time.

The ‘techno modern’ combination of LED lights and “faux-foglamp” projector-style xenon arc lamps, which in my humble opinion are something of an acquired taste, have been replaced with a less jarring design on the latest 2012 models.

Very much a hand built car, though painted in one of 44,000 colour options by robot, the body of this 2010 Drophead Coupé is crafted from aluminium.

The rear hinged coach doors are designed to “allow elegant entry and exit to and from the rear lounge seat”.

A convivial atmosphere is maintained within the Drophead Coupé by translating an avant garde reinterpretation of an English Gentleman’s clubroom into the cockpit.

Allegedly sitting in a Phantom Drophead Coupé is evocative of sitting aboard a 1930’s J Class, America’s Cup, yacht,

aided in no small measure by the decking which acts as a cover for the Drophead which is made from 5 layers of material including cashmere.

Despite a list price of over US $400,000 253 Drophead Coupés found a new home worldwide in 2007.

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

Bangles Pick Up – FIAT Coupé (Type 175) 20v Turbo

After working on the Opel Junior Concept vehicle Chris Bangle moved to Centro Stile FIAT where he designed the body for, today’s featured, FIAT Coupé which was launched in 1993 after which Chris moved on to become one of the most talked about designers, in the last twenty years, at BMW.

The FIAT Coupé was originally powered by a turbo charged and normally aspirated variations of the 4 cylinder Twin Cam motor used in the Lancia Delta Integrale. By 1998 when todays featured car was built 5 cylinder turbocharged 20 valve engines had been introduced, the turbocharged variant on this car would have given over 200 hp a top speed of 155 mph and a rest to 62 mph time of 6.5 seconds.

Pininfarina was responsible for the design of the for the original Coupé interior which like the motors would receive numerous upgrades between 1993 and 2000 when production was terminated.

This appears to be an early 1998 car characterised by the non colour coordinated sill panels below the doors, the absence of red Brembo brake calipers indicates that it is unlikely to be one of the limited edition LE models.

While FCSS (Fiat Coupe Service Specialist) were responsible for converting this car which had a damaged roof, in the space of a week, this is by no means the only Chris Bangle design to become a pick up.

On April 1st last year BMW revealed a one off Bangle originated E93 BMW M3 Pick Up, complete with removable roof, towing hitch and a claimed 186 mph capability making it faster than even the legendary Australian HSV Maloo !

Thanks for joining me on this “Bangles Pick Up” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a MG badge engineered variation of what was Britain’s top selling car much of the 1960’s. Don’t forget to come back now !

Mille Miglia Tribute – Goggomobil TS Coupé

Over the last couple of years here at GALPOT Towers I have seen a few tribute cars from a modest #177 1967 Monte Carlo winning Mini to the enormous #3 1950 Le Mans Cunningham Cadillac Petite Pataud with the occasional odd ball like the #88 Mountain Dew MG B thrown in, but I’d hazard a guess that today’s cut down Goggomobile TS Coupe which stands as a tribute to the #722 1955 Mille Miglia winning Mercedes Benz 300 SLR of Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson is the strangest tribute car I have seen yet.

Goggomobil was a brand belonging to Glas that manufactured 4 different micro vehicles between 1955 and 1966 when Glas was taken over by BMW.

The car seen here would appear to be a TS Coupé that has had the roof and doors removed while the windscreen has been replaced by two ‘Brooklands’ aeroscreens.

Because the car is on foreign plates I have not been able to determine either it’s age or the engine size. What ever the exact details the engine will be an aircooled two stroke straight twin of between 250 cc / 15.3 cui and 400 cc 24.6 cui which would give somewhere between 13 hp and 20 hp depending on size.

The #722 Moss/Jenkinson 300 SLR, which won the 1000 mile street race at an all time record average speed of 97.96 mph, is widely regarded as being the worlds most desirable and expensive car, if Mercedes Benz were to ever make it available. One of the remaining Goggomobil TS Coupés, of the total 66,511 built, could be purchased for anything up to €7,000/£5,800,/USD 9000 depending on condition.

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

This Is Not A Volkswagen – Quantum Coupé

Not to be confused with the VW Passat Coupé which sold in the US as the Quantum, Quantum Sports Cars (QSC) Coupé was the brainchild of Mark and Harvey Wooldridge who founded QSC in 1987.

The Coupé was the brothers first model and featured an all glass reinforced plastic, grp, shell that benefited from computer analysis to ensure structural rigidity.

The mechanical running gear and many fittings of the Coupé were designed to be sourced from Ford Fiesta Mk 1 donor cars.

The very first Quantum Coupé was scrapped in the interests of safety after it had under gone many modifications during the prototype stage. The second Quantum suffered a similar fate after an accident wrote it off.

The car seen here uses parts from a 1985 donor car.

Only 17 Quantum Coupé’s were built in total, the model was replaced with a more successful saloon which required a Ford Fiesta Mk 2 donor car.

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