Tag Archives: Ford

RIP Eddie Stobart – Ford Escort RS 1800 Replica

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Ford RS1800 Replica, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

No trip along a British or European motorway is complete without seeing one of an immaculate fleet of Eddie Stobart trucks.

Ford RS1800 Replica, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Eddie Stobart (Snr) founded an agricultural business in the 1950’s and his son Eddie Stobart (Jnr) built the company into one of the best known haulage companies in Europe over a period of 30 years.

Ford RS1800 Replica, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Eddie (Jnr) sold the company to his brother William and business partner Andrew Tinkler in 2004. It is sad to record that Eddie (Jnr) predeceased his father aged just 56 last week.

Ford RS1800 Replica, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

This Ford Escort MKII RS1800 Replica appears to have started life as a 1972 Ford Escort MK 1 1100L and been reshelled with a post 1975 style body.

Ford RS1800 Replica, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

This Eddie Stobart sponsored car was successfully campaigned in 2006 and 2007 in selected historic rallies by 5 time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae, father of World Rally Champion Colin McRae.

Ford RS1800 Replica, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Most recently this Escort has been run by Whelan Historic Motorsport in historic rally events for Jim Whelan and co driver John Atherton.

Slightly off topic congratulations to Kevin Harvick who made it two Sprint Cup wins in a row yesterday when he won the traditional Grandfather Clock at Martinsville last night. This was the first time I have ever seen my man win a Cup Race on TV.

I hope you’ll join me again for another edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’. Don’t forget to come back now !

Stop press ! It is with a heavy heart that I have to report Mr Ed Arnaudin contributor of many fabulous photo’s to ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ passed away during the red flag period of the Martinsville race.

A proper appreciation of Ed will follow in due course, in the meantime I hope you join me in honouring and celebrating his life by typing his name in the ‘Search psycho on tyres box’, in death as in life Ed has much to share.

Condolences to the best friend I have never met, Steve Arnaudin and his family.

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La motte de beurre – Renault 4CV

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Despite being ordered by the Germans to concentrate on the design and production of commercial vehicles for military use the design of the 4CV commenced under the instruction of Louis Renault while his factory was under occupation in 1940.

Renault called on his designers to ‘make him a car like the Germans’ – presumably Beetle – since the 4CV like the Beetle shares a rear engine layout.

In 1947 upon its launch the steering was direct the wheel requiring just 2 1/4 turns lock to lock however over the years this was criticised as being too difficult to handle in the wet, so by the end of production in 1961 a ridiculous 4 1/2 turns were required lock to lock.

The 4CV was the first French vehicle to break the million unit sales barrier, 4CV models were also produced in England, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, South Africa and in Japan where under the Hino brand these vehicles have a particularly good reputation for superior quality.

1950 the original water cooled in line four 747 cc / 45 cui engine was replaced by the 17 hp 760 cc / 60 cui ‘Ventoux’ engine which survived through various Renault guises until 1984 and then had its life extended through various Ford do Brazil incarnations until 1996 when the 4WD Ford do Brazil Pampla was phased out.

As fuel octane ratings rose and the compression ratio’s of the engine increased power was raised to 21hp by the time 4CV production came to an end, Renault tuners such as Alpine managed higher outputs for their successful competition units.

The ‘La motte de beurre’ – the lump of butter – nickname derives from a combination of the cars shape and the fact that early models were painted with war surplus yellow paint originally intended for vehicles to be used by the Afrika Korps.

Hope you have enjoyed todays French edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres and will join me tomorrow for some vintage fun in the final run up to Christmas. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Continuation Edition – Ferrari P4 #0900

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In keeping with a vaguely 60’s engine behind the driver theme week for Ferrari Friday I take great pleasure in showing you, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful vehicle on the planet bar none a Ferrari P4 which I snapped at the British GP meeting in 1981.

The P4 won the war but lost it’s most important battle against the monstrous onslaught of the Ford GT40 in the 1967 World Sports Car Championship it won the championship but only on a count back of second place finishes. Most importantly the Ferrari could only manage second to the Foyt / Gurney GT40 MK IV at the most prestigious race of the season the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The P4 was powered by a 450 hp fuel injected 4,000 cc 244 cui 60 degree V12 using 3 valve per cylinder heads operated by twin overhead cams.

Thanks to ‘Macca’ at The Nostalgia Forum I believe this is chassis #0900 one of up to four continuation P4s built by David Piper using original drawings for the chassis and a collection of spare parts. As such it has no world championship race history.

Anyone notice the similarity between the rear end of this P4 and and the Fiat 850 Idromatic I started the week off with ?

Thanks for joining me for another Ferrari Friday, hope you have enjoyed today’s continuity edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ tomorrow we will be headed to P’ville NJ for an insight into the heyday of short track racing with my Rowdy buddy Ray Miles. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The Mighty F-Series – Morgan F-4.

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This edition is dedicated to my number one fan Chief 187, with thanks for her help getting last weeks incredibly successful ‘Petit Pataud‘ blogs together.

Keeping it short and sweet today as I am sure you all have plenty of thing you would rather be doing than having another history lecture from yours truly. Today I am featuring this wonderful nugget the Morgan F-4.

Built from 1932 – 1952 the F4 featured a pressed steel chassis and used a Ford side valve engine sourced from the Model Y. The F4 could allegedly carry four people, unlike its smaller siblings the F-2 and F-Super.

With rumours of a three wheel Morgan making a return to the market place it is perhaps surprising this did not happen a long time ago such vehicles are amazingly cheap and efficient to run.

Morgan do have one three wheeler on the books of course the £5000 / $ 8000 pedal car !

Thanks to every one from the Talk Morgan Sports Cars Forum who popped over during the last couple of days, for those who are into Morgans and have not visited there are some fabulous pictures of these quintessentially British vehicles in the Morgan Photo Gallery.

Wishing everyone a relaxing Sunday, thanks for stopping by, don’t forget to come back now !

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Made with a heart – Morgan 4/4 & Roadster.

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Today I’ll be going through the Morgan Factory again looking at the production of the classic 4/4 and Roadster models, which share the same galvanised steel ladder chassis as the old +8.

the Roadster and 4/4 still have a solid rear axle, but now sourced from Holden in Australia.

Framework for the body of a roadster.

Super formed aluminium panels are bonded with the ash frame.

First stage of a Roadsters body awaiting painting by hand.

After painting has been completed a 4/4 has its interior trim fitted.

Roadster nearing completion just over two weeks since it’s chassis was laid.

Roadster awaiting final signing off from the factory floor, powered by a 220 hp US version of the Ford V6 Mondeo engine the car gets to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and is capable of 134 mph.

A 4/4 powered by a Ford Duratec engine awaiting collection by it’s new owner. As it says on the employees sweat shirts ‘Morgan – Made with a heart’

Hope you enjoyed these factory tours, well worth a visit in person if you get the opportunity.

Tomorrow I’ll be revealing a Morgan scoop made very much with the discerning Jimmy ‘Golf Cart’ Johnson four time Sprint Cup Champion in mind, Don’t forget to come back now !

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Standard of the World – 1978 Cadillac Coupe Deville

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Rounding out a couple of days looking at Cadillac Coupe de Villes is this 1978 model which appears with number plates suggesting that it was registered before August 1976. Cadillac was born out of the Henry Ford Company on August 22nd, 1902, when mechanic & entrepreneur Henry M. Leland put forward to the investors in the company that continued manufacture was a more profitable than factory liquidation.

In 1977 the Coupe de Ville was downsized 9.8 inches saving 750 lbs in weight over its immediate ancestor, the new package was powered by a 7 litre 425 cui V8.

Leland named the new company Cadillac after his ancestor Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac the founder of Detroit. General Motors acquired Cadillac in 1909. Cadillac appears to have been responsible for setting the V8 as the standard configuration in the US Motor Industry.

This particular model can be identified as a 1978 version by the small vertical tail light insets a feature that would remain with the de Ville until 1999.

Cadillac was twice awarded the Dewar Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in England for advancement of the automobile industry first in 1909 for developing models with full parts interchangeability in 1908, and again in 1913 for developing the electric starter (thank heavens, that saved an a lot of sweat and probably a few broken arms) and electric lights (hallelujhah, imagine if we were all still driving around by naked flame candle light or propane powered lights ?). These successes led to Cadillac adopting the strap line “Standard of the World”.

Slightly off topic, after an amazing Cup race in Texas, kudos to Dangerous Denny Hamlin, there are still three guys in with a chance to win it all, I am glad Happy Harvick managed to pull a 6th place out of the bag, before the last pit stops it looked like he would be lucky to finish in the top 20. It’s looking like the only way to keep his championship hopes alive will be two straight win’s. I hope Happy over turns the record books and pulls them off, should be a little easier after the #48 pit crew was benched mid race by the Evil Genius Knaus in favour of the #24 crew when they became available.

Hope you enjoyed your visit, thanks for dropping by, wishing every one a mellow Monday, don’t forget to come back now !

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Much in common with the NASCAR COT – AC Ace

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Much in common with the NASCAR COT – AC Ace

The AC Ace was originally designed by John Tojeiro who produced a Weller engined Toj and in 1953 sold the design to AC.

AC first put straight six Cylinder Bristol engines into their Ace and later Ford Zephyr Straight 6’s before Carroll Shelby introduced Ford 289 – 427 V8’s and branded them Cobra’s in 1962.

The car features a ladder chassis and space frame around which the body in manufactured, the body like the body on the NASCAR COT is shaped using an English wheeling machine.

As has been noted in an earlier post there is a remarkable resemblance between the AC Ace and the 1948 Williams and Pritchard Fraser Nash BMW 315/1.

Off topic Congrats to Kevin Harvick on finishing ahead of Jimmy Johnson at Martinsville yesterday, 62 points is a far from insurmountable advantage with four races to go 🙂

Wishing everyone a happy Monday, don’t forget to come back now !

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