Tag Archives: Ford

Merry Christmas – Lola T70 #SL70/10

Today’s Americana Thursday blog remembers Jerry Grant the first man to be credited with a 200 mph closed circuit lap in an open wheel car at Ontario in September 1972.

Among the many cars Jerry drove was this 1965 Lola Ford T70 chassis #SL70/10 that was run by Dan Gurney’s All American Racers team in 1966.

Jerry qualified on pole first time out at the USRRC Stardust Grand Prix held in Las Vegas as he did on at least two other occasions for USRRC events at Riverside and Watkins Glen.

Known for always answering the phone “Merry Christmas this is Jerry Grant” what ever time of year, Jerry won the USRRC event at Bridgehampton with this car in May 1965.

After an accident during practice for the Can Am race at Mosport in September 1966 the car was given a new lighter Mark 2 T70 chassis which it carries to this day. Although the Ford V8 could pull higher revs than the Chevrolet motor used by everyone else in the 1966 Can Am season it lacked the torque of the Chevy and team owner Dan Gurney is the only man to have won a Can Am race with Ford Power in a similar Lola T70.

Allegedly on one occasion when his Ford failed Jerry pulled his car up to a stop along the pit wall jumped over the wall picked up a revolver and emptied it’s contents into the motor saying “Well you shoot injured horses, don’t you?”. Jerry conceded that leaving the AAR team at the end of the season was a mistake, AAR went on to become winners of the Indy 500 with Bobby Unser in 1968.

Despite many wins driving sports cars, a close call with Victory Lane at Indy in 1972 when a puncture forced him to pit from a comfortable lead in 1972 and another in the 1966 Sebring 12 Hours when the GT 40 he was sharing with Dan Gurney was pushed over the line for the for the win and subsequently disqualified, Jerry’s most notable achievement was his 200 mph lap at Ontario in 1972 driving an Eagle for Dan Gurney again. Jerry passed away on August 12th, 2012 aged 77.

RIP Mr Grant.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for today’s photographs taken at Carmel By The Sea Concours on the Avenue.

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

Land Yachts – Danville Concours d’Elegance

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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 !

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 !

Wedge Evolution – Lotus 61

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The 1969 Lotus 61 Formula Ford chassis origins can be traced back through the Lotus 51 Formula Ford, Lotus 31 Formula 3, and to the Lotus 22 Formula Junior designs.

The main external difference between the broadly cigar shaped Lotus 51 and the 61 is the introduction of the wedge shaped body which was first seen on the Pratt & Whitney turbine powered Lotus 56 Indy Car of 1968.

The last Lotus 51’s were in fact built concurrently with the first Lotus 61’s under the wedge body the 61’s have a slightly stiffer chassis thanks to additional chassis tubes that optimised the triangulation of the structure.

Further differences between the 51 and 61 models can be seen in the mounting of the steering rack, easier to adjust on the 61, and the brake master cylinder resevoirs, integral on the 51 and remote on the 61 which was not always considered an advantage when they needed topping up on the latter.

Above Les Buck is seen at Prescott Hillclimb competing in the Pre 1972 Classic Racing car class.

Australian Dave Walker and Brit Ian Ashley drove for the works Lotus Formula Ford team in 1969, Walker won the British Formula Ford Championship and came third in the European Formula Ford Championship.

There were three variants of the Lotus 61 with M and MX featuring aerodynamic updates to improve the efficiency of the cooling system, the MX nose finished up with a lower nose than the original and no engine cover was supplied as most customers had found their cars were quicker without them.

Despite Dave Walkers championship success and sales of 248 Lotus 61’s this would prove to be the last but one Lotus model built for Formula Ford a class that would be come dominated by a new breed specialist Formula Ford suppliers.

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

E Day – Ford Edsel

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With a surplus cash from the success of the Ford Thunderbird Ford executives decided to create a new intermediate line of vehicles to compete with Oldsmobile which included a network of over 1,000 dealers through which the new brand was to be distributed. Fifty five years ago today amidst much fan fare Ford launched it’s new baby to an unsuspecting American public with much fan fare which included labeling September 4th 1957 “E Day”.

Fifty years after the event Time said of the Edsel “Ford’s marketing mavens had led the public to expect some plutonium-powered, pancake-making wondercar; what they got was a Mercury.” More unkindly some described the Edsel as looking like an Olds sucking a lemon.

To get sales of the vehicle “unlike any other car you have ever seen” underway Ford on October 13th organised a television special live from Television City in Hollywood “The Edsel Show” which combined the talents of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Rosemary Clooney to “pump” it’s target market. Highlights included Frank Sinatra smoking a cigarette standing next to Louis Armstrong while performing a “number”.

For 1958 model year the Edsel was available in four flavours Citation and Corsair based on a Mercury platform, with the smaller Pacer and Ranger based on a Ford 118 inch platform. Today’s featured base model Ranger is powered by a 5.9 litre / 361 cui 303hp FE V8 which could be ordered with Teletouch automatic transmission operated by button’s on the hub of the steering wheel.

Ford needed to sell 200,000 Edsels to break even on it’s $400,000,000 dollar investment in the new range, despite the second largest brand launch, exceeded only by Plymouth in 1928, to date with over 60,000 sales in the 1958 model year it quickly became apparent that the Edsel concept was struggling to fly.

In November 1959 with just over 120,000 models built Ford pulled the plug on the Edsel. Among the many reasons for it’s failure was a pricing policy that did not clearly fill a gap between the Ford, Mercury and Lincoln Brands, in particular the most expensive Fords being too closely priced to the cheapest Edsels. It is estimated Ford lost of the order of $350,000,000 dollars on the project.

Thanks for joining me on this “E Day” edition of Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, Tuesdays regular MG blog will appear on Thursday, I hope you will join me again for a continental curiosity tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Seven 4 The 70’s – Lotus 60 Seven Series IV #S4/2668

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For 1970 Lotus introduced the Series IV version of it’s popular kit car the Lotus Seven with straight edge styled fiber glass body panels replacing the aluminium body work of the first three incarnations of the model which had evolved since 1957.

Three engine options were offered with the kits Ford 1300 GT, 1600 GT and Lotus big valve twin cam as used in the Lotus Europa Twin Cam, today’s featured car has the 1600cc / 97.6 cui motor which produces 85 hp more than double that of the 1957 Lotus Seven.

The Wolferace alloy wheels are not standard but were available in 1970 when this car was built.

Amazingly this 42 year old car has only 68,000 miles on the clock from new.

Around 1,000 Series IV Sevens were built the last kits being supplied to Caterham’s in Kent,UK and Steel Brothers in Christchurch, New Zealand where the last kit was built. After Caterham ran out of Series IV kit’s, with the agreement of Lotus, they started developing versions of the older Lotus Seven Series III design, something which they still do to this day manufacturing vehicles for both road and track.

Thanks for joining me on this “Seven 4 The 70’s” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Silverstone for a six hour endurance race. 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 !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Ford

Merry Christmas – Lola T70 #SL70/10

Land Yachts – Danville Concours d’Elegance

Awesome Copper – Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance

Wedge Evolution – Lotus 61

E Day – Ford Edsel

Seven 4 The 70’s – Lotus 60 Seven Series IV #S4/2668

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