Tag Archives: Ford

Cobra Caravan Itinerant – Ford GT40 Mk 1 #GT40 P/1084

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So far as I have been able to discern the chassis numbers for the production Ford GT40 Mk1 ran from P/1000 to P/1086, suggesting at least 87 production GT40 Mk1’s were built at Ford Advanced Vehicle facility in Slough, though as we shall see things are not always quite so simple.

Colvill, Ford GT40, Brands Hatch

Today’s featured car is a case in point, known as #P/1084 it has the highest chassis number of those known to have raced in period, though chassis P/1071 did not make it’s race debut until 14 month’s after #P/1084 appeared at Spa in May 1968 with Paul Hawkins and David Hobbs at the wheel.

However it turns out that #P/1084 started life as #P/1004 in 1965, a car that was entered into the 1965 Le Mans 24 hours by RRC Walker Racing and Shelby American for Bob Bondurant and Umberto Maglioli, this car running the #7 qualified third but retired with a leaking head gasket on lap 29, coincidentally the same lap as it’s sister #P/1005 driven by Ronnie Buckum and Herbert Müller retired with the same problem. #GT40 P/1004 then appears to have gone on Carrol Shelby’s promotional tour of America known as the Cobra Caravan.

When the JW Automotive Gulf team, operating from the same factory as Ford Advanced Vehicles had in Slough, needed a car for the 1968 Spa 1000kms they found they were a car short and so they rebuilt #P/1004 to 1968 specification and gave it a ‘new’ GT40 P/1084 identification although the factory records refer to the chassis entered at Spa where Hawkins and Hobbs finished 4th by it’s old number.

Some sources believe that #P/1084 was then shipped, by JW Automotive, to Watkins Glen two month’s later where Hawkins and Hobbs finished 2nd however I believe this is a typo, GT40 über authority Ronnie Spain identifies the car that Hawkins and Hobbs drove at Watkins Glen as GT40 P/1074.

During the 1970’s P/1084 was raced by Paul Wheldon for owner Connaught Engineering founder Rodney Clarke. Martin Colville seen in the #P/1084 here at Brands Hatch in July 1982 where Martin was taking part in a support race on the British Grand Prix weekend bought the car in 1981 and had a bubble fitted to the upper part of the drivers door to accommodated his frame.

Subject to revisions in Ronnie Spain’s much anticipated second edition bible on the subject “GT40: An Individual History and Race Record” this is my best understanding of the car known as #GT40 P/1084. If you know different please do not hesitate to chip in below.

My thanks to David McKinney, Pete Taylor and Ron54 at The Nostalgia Forum for their help in yet another carceology adventure.

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

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Hold The Rocker Panel Stripes – Ford GT40 Mk 1 #GT40 P/1034

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In order for Ford to meet the mandatory minimum 50 production number for it to be able to race, Ford sold at least four of it’s Mk1 GT40’s for road use with a minimum of primarily luxury modifications which included, interior carpeting, non-perforated leather seats, and leather door pouches, additionally today’s featured car #GT40 P/1034 was also fitted with wing mirrors, a heated rear screen and reversing light’s. Beyond that the car was equipped with a race tuned 380 hp, 289 cu. in. V-8 engine with four Weber 48IDA carburetors, five-speed ZF manual transmission, four-wheel independent suspension, and four-wheel disc brakes just like the racers alongside which it was built at Ford Advanced Vehicles in Slough, England.

Ford GT40, Carmel by the Sea, Concours on the Avenue

This particular car, seen in these photographs by Geoffrey Horton at Carmel by the Sea Concours on the Avenue last year, was ordered by James Fielding, of Gloucester, England painted Pine Green with no stripes on the rocker panels. Fielding was Chairman of Heenan & Froude, the company that manufactured the dynamometers on which the GT40s were tested and P/1034 was the first GT40 to be delivered to a UK customer in March 1966. Fielding used it exclusively as a road car.

Ford GT40, Carmel by the Sea, Concours on the Avenue

Subsequent owners including Paul Weldon and Australian George Parlby raced the car in classic events, Parlby even had the car painted in the colours of the Gulf Oil Company during a rebuild.GT40 specialist and enthusiast Harley E. Cluxton III, of Scottsdale, Arizona acquired #P/1034 at one point and later it went to Germany where Peter Roessler drove it to victory in the Grand Prix of Stuttgart held at the Hockenheimring.

David Bowden, of Queensland, Australia acquired P/1034 in 1999 where it was again frequently successfully raced by the likes of Kevin Bartlett. In 2001 David had the car repainted it’s original Pine Green with a pair of non original silver stripes.

The current owner returned P/1034 to the USA and earlier this year turned down a high bid of $2,150,000 at RM Auctions for this sublime vehicle.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photograph’s of today’s featured Ford GT40.

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

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Test 7 Gordano – Le Jog

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On Saturday afternoon I gathered with a couple of friends from the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club and a few more from the Bristol Motor Club to marshal Test 7 of the 20th Le Jog classic car rally from Lands End to John O’Groats.

Ford Escort TC, Gordano Services, Le Jog

First competitor to arrive at the start area were David Bryan and Ian Humperson in this Escort Twin Cam built up as a replica of a car in which Roger Clark competed in the 1968 RAC Rally. Unfortunately David and Ian declined to take Test 7 as they had a problem with the rear suspension. However they completed the event and won blue ribands in the Touring Trial.

Hennipman/Hennipman, Peugeot 403, Test 7, Gordano, Le Jog

Yellow head lights were from 1939 to 1993 as much a part of French motoring life as Disque Bleu were to the French Café life, so when we saw the car coming above we could be pretty sure it was French and it turned out to be 1960 Peugeot 403 being crewed by Dutchman Pieter and Thijs Hennipman.

Botterill/Marshall, Rover P5B Coupé, Test 7, Gordano, Le Jog

Competitors chose some unlikely if comfortable steeds for this four day event, run in the spirit of pre special stage rallying with plenty of regularity runs, navigation exercises and auto tests as run in the car park at Gordano Services. Above Nigel Botterill and Julian Marshall had one of the more comfortable vehicles in the event in the form of a 1967 Rover P5B Coupé.

Helmbold/Helmbold, Mercedes Benz 280 TE, Test 7, Gordano, Le Jog

The Botterill / Marshall may have been equaled for comfort by the Mercedes Benz 280 T, but Helga and Selina Helmbold had far more space in the boot / trunk than the pair in the Rover. Seeing this vehicle compete complete with roof rails made me wonder if I might be able to use my own car in this event at some point in the not too distant future. Helga and Selina beat a Porsche 944 to finish fourth in class G2 for vehicles built post January 1975.

Baker/Baker, Porsche 911 SC, Test 7, Gordano, Le Jog

The 1978 Martini striped Porsche 911 SC crewed by Micheal and Simon Baker was probably the outright fastest vehicle in the event so it was no surprise to find them winning class G2.

Harris/Joseph, VW Golf GTi, Test 7, Gordano, Le Jog

Simon Harris and Russel Joseph won the G1 class for under 2 litre cars built post January 1975 in their 1983 Volkswagen Golf GTi Mk 1 seen above.

Buzzard/Lyne, ALFA Romeo GTV, Test 7, Gordano, Le Jog

Overall winners of the event were Andrew Buzzard and Rob Lyne seen above in their 1967 ALFA Romeo Giulia Sprint GTV.

Schulze/Krey, Talbot Tagora GLS, Gordano Services, Le Jog

Peter Schulze and Micheal Krey probably had the least likely car on the event, it turns out Talbot Togara’s were used in the French Super Tourisieme series back in the early 1980’s. Peter and Krey won an absolute beginners award for their efforts, if you speak German you can read about their adventure on their Alte Franzosen blog.

Botterill/Marshall, Gordano Services, Le Jog

Not only did Nigel Botterill, left and Julian Marshall, right drive an extremely comfortable car but they cut a fine dash by competing in the finest top and tails as if on their way to a wedding. Nigel and Julian kindly left me their unused meal vouchers which went along way to helping Tim and I thaw out from out marshaling duties.

Sandra Wukovich, Gordano Services, Le Jog

Above Sandra Wukovich catches up with some map reading for the camera’s,

Edelhoff/Wukovich, VW Iltis, Gordano Services, Le Jog

Sandra and Stefanie Edelhoff were competing in this 1979 Volkswagen Iltis a factory classic collection replica of a vehicle used in the Paris Dakar Rally the drive train of which formed the basis of for Audi’s adventure into four wheel drive competition in the early 1980’s.

12 Jaguar XK 120 IMG_5349sc

Once the crew’s had completed their navigation, for the next leg of the event in Wales, they headed off into the rain from whence they came. Above Philip Haslam and Peter Fletcher depart for Wales in their Jaguar XK 120.

Thanks for joining me on this “Test 7 Gordano” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a road going Ford GT40. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Three Wheels On My Wagon – Ford GT Prototype Roadster #GT/111

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In 1965 Ford’s open check book approach to winning the Le Mans 24 hours was in full swing when today’s car, first appeared in public at the Le Mans Test weekend where it was driven by John Whitmore and Richard Attwood to a 6th fastest time.

In all four steel chassis Ford GT Prototype Roadsters were built, #GT/108 and #GT/109 were sent straight from Ford Advanced Vehicles in Slough, England to Carrol Shelby for testing #GT/108 never raced and #GT/109 made a single race appearance, entered by Ford France at Le Mans in 1965 where Maurice Trintignant and Guy Ligier retired with gearbox problems. Additionally a fifth roadster was built with an aluminium chassis #GT110 this car was developed by Bruce McLaren and Howden Ganely and is known as the GT X1 which was further differentiated from it’s siblings by the use of a Ford Galaxie derived 7 litre / 427 cui motor and a Hewland gearbox all of which resulted in a car 1000 lbs lighter than the original Ford GT Prototypes.

#GT/111 and #GT112 were the last of 12 Ford GT prototypes to be built in Slough and the pair took part in just three races entered by Ford Advanced Vehicles run by John Wyer. Wyer had been team manager at Aston Martin when Roy Salvadori and Carrol Shelby drove the Aston Martin DBR1 to victory in Le Mans in 1959.

Carrol Shelby now running his own race shop and contracted to enter some of Ford’s GT cars persuaded Ford to run the heavier more powerful iron block 4.7 litre 289 cui V8 from the Cobra racing programme in place of the original GT Spec 4.2 litre / 256 cui Windsor derived motor, apart from X1 all the GT Roadsters appear to have been fitted with Shelby’s Cobra 289 cui V8’s.

Newall, Ford GT Roadster, Goodwood Revival

#GT/111 was painted white and fitted with wire wheels for it’s first public appearance was at Le Mans, a month later #GT/111 was painted a curious shade of Green, a gesture to the chassis and entrants British heritage, it was also fitted with Shelby magnesium wheels for the Targa Florio.

John, now Sir John, Whitmore and Bob Bondurant were chosen as Ford’s sole representatives in #GT111 which was to compete against three works Ferrari 275P/2’s fitted with the latest 3.3 litre / 201 cui 4 cam V12 motors.

A couple of months ago I went to a talk by Sir John organised by the Club Lotus Avon, in which he related how he was speeding along when the left front wheel came adrift forcing him to stop, Sir John replaced the wheel with the mandatory spare and secured it with the original hub nut which had been returned to him by a policeman and continued on his way, contemporary reports tell how the loose wheel took down some overhead railway power lines !

On lap 8 of the 10 lap race, each lap being run over a 44 mile 72 km closed (narrow) road circuit, Bob Bondurant crashed after sliding on gravel into a wall and then bouncing into a water trough which tore off a front wheel and it’s suspension. The 1965 Targa Florio was won in 7 hours and 1 min by local hero Nino Vacarrela and Lorenzo Bandini driving a Ferrari 275P/2.

The damage to #GT/111 was never repaired and a similarly painted #GT112 appeared in it’s only works entered appearance for the 1000 km race at the Nurburgring driven by Attwood and Whitmore who retired with an engine mounting failure having started from 6th on the grid.

Of all the GT Roadsters the aluminium light weight #GT110 X1 had the longest works supported career having been entered in 4 races by Bruce McLaren for Chris Amon in 1965 who scored a best 5th place finish in the 200 mile race at Riverside. The following season X1 appeared with original GT Roadster type bodywork in the Sebring 12 hours entered by Shelby American for Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby who won the race from 5th on the grid. X1 was subsequently ordered destroyed by customs officials.

At he end of 1965 Ford moved it’s entire GT racing developemnt programme out of Ford Advanced Vehicles in Slough to Shelby and Kar Kraft in the United States, #GT/112 was sold to Peter Sutcliffe who raced the car in 1966 and scored a couple of season high second place finishes one in South Africa and the other in France during the 1967 season. For 1968 Bob Vincent acquired the car and appears to have won second time out in an open class race run at Aintree.

The damaged #GT/111 was scheduled to be scrapped, however the scrap yard saved the chassis which was acquired by the present owner, in 2006, after Ford GT expert Ronnie Spain verified #GT/111’s identity. The car seen in this photo driven by Andrew Newall at the Goodwood revival a couple of years ago, has been restored by Glescoe Motorsport and is to appear at RM auctions in May 2014.

Thanks for joining me on this “Three Wheels On My Wagon” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Out Of Disagreement – Lamborghini 350GT

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With his back against the wall and desperate for cash to keep Ferrari afloat in 1962 Enzo Ferrari fell out with many who crossed his path including potential saviours Ford, which led directly to Ford initiating it’s GT40 competition program, Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata who promptly employed Ferrari’s recently departed designer Giotto Bizzarrini to develop and build the legendary Ferrari 250 Breadvan, and agricultural machinery magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini, the latter who allegedly fell out over the shade of red his car was to be painted.

Lamborghini 350GT, Carmel Concours By The Sea

Ferruccio Lamborghini, undertook to build a GT car to compete with the best Ferrari could build and employed Giotto Bizzarrini to design the motor and chassis.

Bizzarrini moved on to ISO Rivolta before the design was ready for production and Gian Paolo Dallara working with Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace were employed to complete the task.

The first Lamborghini, GTV, appeared at the Turin Motor show in October 1963 and went into production the following year by which time the substantially redesigned for the road model was known as the 350 GT powered by the Bizzarrini inspired 4 cam V12 which could easily be tuned to give 400hp.

Lamborghini 350GT, Carmel Concours By The Sea

With just 270hp the 350 GT was capable of nearly 160 mph. The bodies were built by Touring of Turin, the chassis by Marchesi and the motors in Lamborghini’s own factory in Sant’Agata, Bolognese.

It is thought 135 350 GT’s, like the one seen here at Carmel Conours by The Sea, were built of which 85 are believed to have survived.

This particular car was found in France by the current owner and is in preserved original condition having only been serviced and cleaned.

I believe the 350GT would originally have been fitted with oblong headlights which may have been changed to the current quad round set up to meet US regulations.

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

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Out Of Disagreement’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at an extraordinary special built by the equally extraordinary John Bolster. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Coffee, Croissant & Cars #11/13 – Avenue Drivers Club

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Earlier this month I managed to pop down to the Avenue Drivers Club where an ever unpredictable smorgasbord of vehicles turned up.

GN, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Well known chain drive enthusiast Duncan Pittaway brought his two cylinder 1921 GN along which I first saw a couple of years ago when I was competing in the Cross Trophy.

Cadillac Sedan de Ville, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Another familiar vehicle present, that is also familiar to these pages, was the magnificent 1973 Cadillac Sedan de Ville above.

BMW M5, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

I have only owned one BMW and it was a red M5 not too dissimilar to the one above, I gave mine up in favour of a much older and sedate Volvo 244DL, before I was tempted to loose my driving licence.

Chevrolet Corvette, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

The owner of this C4 Corvette is also our motor club social secretary at the time of writing he had already traded the Corvette in for a Ford Mustang fourth generation Mustang.

Ford SVT Lightening, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Fords second generation SVT Lightening Pick Up is based on the F-150 but with lowered suspension, a supercharged motor giving 380 hp when the model above was built and a 4 speed automatic transmission sourced from the V10/diesel Super Duty pick-up.

Porsche Boxter Speedster, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Finally my friend Ted who started the year with a Porsche GT2 swapped it for an Aston Martin has now bought this fabulous Porsche Boxster Speedster.

Thanks for joining me on this “Coffee, Croissant & Cars #11/13” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on cars, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I be looking at a Plymouth Fury Station Wagon. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Sweet Seventeen – Ford Thunderbird

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Last, but one, in this series of road vehicles painted in racing colours is today’s tenth generation Ford Thunderbird painted up to look like the #17 DeWalt Fords driven by Matt Kenseth from 2000 to 2011.

Ford Thunderbird, Talladega Superspeedway

Ironically the Thunderbird had been phased out of NASCAR competition by the time Matt joined NASCARS’s top tier circuit in favour of the Ford Taurus. This photo was taken in the car park at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2009.

This blog is dedicated to Sweet Seventeen, who kindly lent me her headphones so that I could follow the Aarrons 499, and her partner Chris who is currently recovering from major kidney surgery. Hang on in there and get well soon Chris.

Thanks for joining me on this “Sweet 17” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at one of my all time favourite Formula One cars. Don’t forget to come back now !

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