Tag Archives: Ford

Developed by Lotus – Ford Consul Cortina Lotus

It never ceases to amaze me how little I know about motor vehicles despite a lifetimes interest, for example when I took the photo’s featured today, I was sure I was taking pictures of a Lotus Cortina, the clues being the Green Stripe and Lotus badges.

However when I got home I was surprised to find the name plate on the front of the car read ‘Consul’. Thanks to Brian C at the Official Lotus Cortina Register Forum I have found out that the original Lotus Cortinas were badged as Consuls and indeed the car was marketed as the Consul Cortina – Developed by Lotus.

The original Lotus 28, Consul Cortina package based on the 2 door Consul Cortina body launched in 1962, included a 105hp 1558cc / 95 cui twin cam version of the Ford Kent ohv engine as used in the Lotus 23 racing car and Elan production car with a close ratio gearbox also from the Elan.

A unique A frame rear suspension was developed for the Consul Cortina by Lotus that proved so fragile that it was dropped in favour of the Cortina GT semi eliptic rear suspension when the model was upgraded in 1964 and rebadged as the ‘Cortina’ by Lotus.

The boot, bonnet and doors were made in light weight alloy with additional dash gauges, tachometer, oil pressure and water temperature included with a wood-rimmed steering wheel to complete this highly desirable 100 mph saloon car.

The thinking behind this model was that it should be used for racing and works Lotus driver Jim Clark was one of many to drive a Consul Cortina Lotus to victory lane.

All bar one of the original Consul Cortinas designed by Lotus were painted white with a green stripe, one suspicious customer had a dark blue stripe and Ford built several cars for racing painted red. The Consul Cortina by Lotus was not the most reliable of vehicles, the perceived performance bonuses were credited in the publics mind to Lotus while the unreliability problems were credited to Ford much to the latters annoyance.

My thanks to David Roots for his invitation to attend the recent Classic and Sports Car Action Day at Castle Combe and to Brian C at the Lotus Cortina Register Forum for his help identifying today’s featured car.

Thanks for joining me on today’s Consul edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Ian vs Danny – Tour Britannia Castle Combe

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Back in 1973 a multidisciplinary event was organised that brought together the world of racing and rallying called the Avon (tyres not cosmetics) Tour of Britain in which competitors took part in a wide range of production (safety modified only) vehicles in a wide range of race, rally and even drag events across the length and breadth of Great Britain.

On Saturday Tour Britannia a similarly organised event for historic, classic & modern vehicles based this year in Wales and South West England visited Castle Combe on Saturday morning, when the race track was used as a rally stage thanks to the addition of three temporary chicanes and in the afternoon as a more conventional race track.

Headlining the racing fraternity on the inaugural event in 1973 were former two time Grand Prix World Champion Graham Hill in a Datsun Bluebird, regular Grand Prix participant Howden Ganley in a Citroen XM, similar to the #29 US spec vehicle of Andrew Brodie and Robert Lowdell above

and future world champion in his rookie year making a big name for himself James Hunt in a Chevrolet Camaro belonging to the injured Richard Lloyd, similar to the vehicle of Stuart Scott and Steven Wood above which Richard Lloyd recreated in 2005 shortly before his untimely death. James in the Camaro was the winner of the inaugural event in 1973. Scott and Wood were awarded the Competitors Choice Concours award.

The following year the publicity generated by the event in 1973 galvanised Ford into preparing two Escort RS2000’s for British UK Rally Champion Roger Clark and Saloon Car Racing Champion Gerry Marshall that were inseparable for most of the races with Roger pipping Gerry to the post in the final standings. Though in far higher states of tune than the original 1974 Escorts the vehicles of Phil & Mick Squires left and David Smithes & Eric Woolley right provided an evocative reminder of the epic battle in 1974. Phil & Mick won their class in this years event.

The highlight of the two races held on Saturday was the drive of former British Formula 5000 champion Ian Ashley in his Caterham R500 from the back of the grid to the lead in just two laps, above the ever on form Ashley is seen lining up the leading Porsche 911 RSR before the completion of the second lap.

the #42 Porsche was driven by another name driver,

no less a name than former New York City cab driver, 1985 Indy 500 winner and 1988 Indycar Champion Daniel John ‘Danny’ Sullivan III from Louisville Kentucky ! Danny won his class in this years Tour Britannia which finished at Silverstone, yesterday afternoon.

My thanks to Simon Lewis who’s heavily discounted ticket allowed me to visit this event.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Tour Britannia edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a classic Plymouth with a push button shift. Don’t forget to come back now !

The Alpine Job – Allard K1 #156

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One of the cool aspects of The Italian Job (1969) is that it features 3 Mini get away cars one Red, one White and Blue.

On my recent visit to the Haynes International Motor Museum I was surprised to learn that the idea of continental forays in three patriotically colour co-ordinated vehicles was not born in the ‘Swinging 60’s’ but rather dates back to at least 1947 when Allard entered three cars for the Alpine Rally one Red one White and one Blue.

David Hooper tells me that two of the cars used in this event chassis 156 seen here and 595 left the factory painted blue so presumably chassis 595 was repainted white especially for the Alpine event.

The model used by Allard on the Alpine adventure was the K1 fitted with a British built 3622 cc / 221 cui 85 bhp side valve Ford V8 with aluminium cylinder heads and twin carburetors, not to be confused with the externally visually similar 100 bhp 3917 cc / 239 cui Mercury V8 from the WW2 Universal Carrier known as the Bren Gun Carrier with which the Allard brothers had worked during the war and supplied as standard with the Allard J2 model.

The K1 chassis featured independent front suspension, Marles steering gear and hydraulic brakes.

Production of the Allard K1 ran from 1946 to 1948 with 151 examples built, though thanks to a rushed order an early K2 chassis, #1703, one K2 was delivered with a K1 body. Meaning there were actually 152 K1 bodied vehicles and only 118 K2 bodied vehicles built.

[Photo courtesy David Hooper]

Leonard Potter drove this particular vehicle, the only one of the 3 1947 Alpine team cars in original unrestored condition, to fifth place in class in the 1947 Alpine Rally despite a damaged front. There were no overall awards in this event until 1952 if there had been Potter would have been classified no better than 17th.

The remaining two cars did not fair so well Goff Imhoff in the white car (which according to some sources is described simply as pale) won a trophy on the manoeuvrability test at Aix but ultimately retired with a gearbox problem, while Maurice Wick retired with a big end failure.

My thanks to David Hooper for his photograph and recollections, to Colin Warnes of the Allard Registry along with David McKinney, Allan Lupton, Tim Murray, Peter Stowe, and Richard ‘Vitesse2’ Armstrong of The Nostalgia Forum, for rifling through a library of information that I can only dream of accessing.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Alpine edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow for a visit to an interesting collection of cars in Calne. Don’t forget to come back now !

22 06 11 mikeC has kindly confirmed that the Allard team cars were definitely red, white and blue on the 1947 Alpine Rally.

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 !

Tribute to Ronnie – March 71B – 08

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Resting in the entrance to Colin Bennett’s CGA Engineering in Warrington a couple of Saturdays ago was this March 71B belonging to Katsu Kubota a ‘gentleman driver’ who admires one of my heroes Ronnie Peterson.

The car is painted in the colours used by Ronnie Peterson when he drove a similar car in 1971 to win the European Formula 2 Championship, a second tier open wheel series for cars powered by engines up to 1600 cc / 109.9 cui.

Ronnie from Almby in the vicinity of Örebro, Sweden, secured the championship with four wins at Rouen, Mantrop Park, Flugplatz Tulln-Langenlebarn, Vallelunga and took five pole positions. Ronnie also secured second place in the World Drivers Championship in 1971.

The ambitious March team took it’s name from founders Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd, in 1969 they built a Formula 3 third tier open wheeler and the following year decided to take the racing world by storm by manufacturing vehicles to compete in Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula Ford and Can-Am for customers to race, while also running factory teams in the Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 open wheel series. Jochen Rindt originally agreed to race the works Formula 1 car but backed out when he realised the scale of the March undertaking outside Formula 1.

This 71B was originally built to take part in Formula Atlantic races in 1971, Formula Atlantic also known as Formula B in the USA was a halfway house between Formula 3 and Formula 2 powered by 1600 cc / 109.9 cui motors that were not in such a high state of tune as either Formula 3 or Formula 2 and therefore much cheaper to run. The 71B chassis has many components that are interchangeable with the March 713 and 712 chassis built for Formula 3 and Formula 2 respectively.

At present I know nothing about the history of chassis 71B – 08 prior to Mr Kubota’s ownership if you did please chime in below or send me an e-mail, my e-mail address can be found in my ‘Blogger’ profile.

I understand wooden gear stick knobs are popular in the racing community because they save weight, the Porsche 917 famously used a gear stick knob made of balsa wood.

The motor fitted to Mr Kubota’s March is an out of period 1,975 cubic centimetres /120.5 cui Ford Cosworth BDG 4 cylinder unit with an aluminium cylinder block of a type that was sanctioned in Formula 2 from 1972.

Last year Mr Kubota became the first driver from Japan to win an FIA sanctioned Formula One race in the Historic Formula One series, this year he will also race the genuine March 761/06 as raced by Ronnie Peterson to victory in the 1976 Italian GP, a car that will appear in a future blog once I have seen it run later in the summer.

My thanks to Colin Bennett for having me and several members of The Nostalgia Forum visit his fascinating workshop and to Tony Gallagher for organising the trip.

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

Monterey Classic Meets Woodstock – Silverstone Classic 2011

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A couple of weeks ago I was looking around Silverstone regarding a film project while several teams representing over 100 years of the automobile history were fettling their vehicles for the forth comingSilverstone Classic 2011 meeting which runs from July 22nd to 24th.

If your into powered transport be it steam, diesel, petrol, 2 wheeled, 3 wheeled, 4 wheeled or more you will probably find something of interest during the day and if your camping there will be 2 nights of music headlined by the likes of tribute bands Legend, Queen On Fire and The Rolling Stoned on the first night, followed by Suzy Quattro, 10cc, Wishbone Ash on the second night topped off with an afternoon of classical music from Tetra Electra, Tenors Unlimited and the 40 strong Amadeus Orchestra.

What has really helped this event grow in stature is the participation of numerous owners clubs, the Jaguar Owners clubs have chosen this event to officially celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the E-Type and hope to gather over 1,000 of the 70,000 plus E -types built together at the same time, a race for E-types will be held with 58 entries.

Other marques including Porsche who also intend to gather in similar numbers, with smaller marques like Bristol being represented by the Bristol Owners Club.

Silverstone Auctions the event sponsors will be holding an auction at the Silverstone Classic on July 23rd that will include the sale of the last truely privately built and entered Formula One Car to win a Grand Prix.

For those less inclined to the racing which will include classic saloons, sports cars and Grand Prix cars there will be a fun fair, arial displays and gathering of steam powered traction engines to keep you entertained during the daylight hours while you wait for the music to start.

My thanks to Jonathon Gill who facilitated this fascinating day at Silverstone, I look forward to visiting the event in July and sharing more details of some of the vehicles I saw during preparations for it in the weeks ahead.

Thanks for joining me on this Silverstone Classic edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be sharing some photos of a fascinating workshop in Warrington. Don’t forget to come back now !

Taxi Driver – Jim Robbins Eagle Ford T/C Mk 2

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Continuing GALPOTS potted history of the Indianapolis 500 Ed’s photos shown here today were taken in 1969, when Ed Arnaudin took the opportunity to get good and close to the Jim Robbins team again.

The driver of the #67 Eagle Ford is Lee Roy Yarbrough, not related to Cale Yarborough, from Jacksonville, Florida.

Lee Roy is said to have won his first race at 19 at a local dirt track and progressed through the NASCAR Sportsman Division with 11 wins and onto Modifieds where he won 83 features in 3 years.

On reaching the top Grand National Division, today called Sprint Cup he won 14 races from 198 starts over 12 years. His best season was 1969 7 wins, including Darlington, Charlotte and both races at Daytona, from 31 starts in the seasons 54 races. Many retirements due to engine failure kept him out of the title hunt won by David Pearson.

Lee Roy made just three starts in the ‘Indy 500’ in ’67 ’69 and ’70 his best finish was in 1970 when he completed 107 laps and retired with turbo failure and was classified in 19th place.

His career, as were several others,was adversely affected by the withdrawal of Ford from competition and Yabrough disappeared from NASCAR after failing to secure a ride for the Daytona 500 in 1973, he was eventually admitted to a mental hospital where a fall inflicted a fatal traumatic brain injury aged 46.

Jim Robbins turned up at the Brickyard in 1969 with three vehicles the #10 and #27 Vollstedts and the #67 Eagle Ford Mk 2, seen here, a design inspired by UK free lance design consultant Len Terry. This vehicle appears to be one of several built in 1968, though at this stage I do not know it’s exact history prior to the 1969 race.

After Denny Zimmerman failed to get the #67 up to speed in 1969 Lee Roy Yarbrough moved over from his ride in the #27 Vollstedt to qualify 8th for the Indy 500, during the race a turbo pipe broke sending him into retirement and a final classification of 23rd.

All of Jim Robbins 1969 entries were powered by turbocharged Ford engines, a turbocharger had first been used at Indy in 1952 on the Cummins Diesel.

With the arrival of the normally aspirated 4,195 cc / 255 cui Ford V8’s in 1963, several Offenhauser powered teams turned to supercharging smaller 2,752 cc / 168 cui motors to remain competitive in 1965, following the lead set by Novi some years earlier.

A couple of Offenhauser powered vehicles had mechanically more efficient turbochargers fitted to these smaller motors in place of the superchargers in 1966. Bobby Unser drove his Eagle Offy to the first turbocharged victory at Indianapolis in 1968.

In 1969 Ford also went the smaller capacity turbocharged route and only three cars in the 33 car field of ’69 did not have smaller 168 cui engines with turbochargers fitted.

Note how the large turbocharger air intake on the left rear of the #67 is rearward facing so as to avoid the problems experienced by the Cummins Diesel turbocharger in 1952 which sucked up so much debris from its front facing turbo air intake that the turbines terminally failed on lap 40.

I’d like to thank Steve Arnaudin for scanning today’s photographs and Amphicar at The Nostalgia Forum for his help in identifying the car.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Len Terry inspired edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll 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