Tag Archives: GALPOT

Same Body Bigger Motor – Ferrari 365 GTC

In 1966 Ferrari launched the 330 GTC of which some 600 hundred were built up until 1968.

The body of the 365 GTC which replaced the 330 GTC in 1968 was almost identical apart from the absence of the large cooling ducts in the front wings/fenders which vented air from the engine bay.

Ferrari’s 4 litre / 244 cui V12 from the 330 cars was upgraded to a 4.4 litre / 268 cui V12 for the 365 series cars which increased the horsepower from 300 to 320.

One other significant difference between the 330 GTC and 365 GTC was that the later car had the gearbox moved from behind the motor to in front of the rear axle to improve the weight distribution.

Alloy wheels came as standard Borrani wire wheels were an optional extra.

This 1969 car has covered over 80,000 miles and is one of 150 that were built up until 1970 when it was superseded by the elegantly understated Ferrari 365 GTC/4.

28 04 12, date for your diary, this car and several others featured on ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ over the past year was seen at the Bristol Italian Auto Moto Festival (BIAMF) last year. This years BIAMF event, the largest annual participatory automotive event in Bristol will be on Saturday April 28th. Event details can be found on the BAIMF website linked here. If your planing on going leave a message below or e-mail me see address at the very bottom of this page and we will see if we can’t organise a GALPOT meeting.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Same Body Bigger Motor’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Big Mean ‘n’ Green – Chrysler Newport Sedan

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Looking from the European side of the Atlantic it sometimes appears that Detroit was selling cars by the acre, I am sure I have seen folks maintaining allotments that are smaller than the footprint of the 1969 Chrysler Newport which was marketed with the strap line ‘The attainable dream‘.

The fifth generation Newport with ‘fuselage’ styling sits on a 124 inch wheel base with bodywork that is longer, lower wider and several hundred pounds heavier than it’s predecessors.

To set nearly 2 tons of sheet metal in motion five engine options were available from 255hp 5.9 litre 360 cui V8 through to 335 hp 7.2 litre 440 cui.

Body style options in included 2 door convertible, 2 or 4 door hardtop and 4 door sedan, the 5 door estate version was sold as a seperate Town & Country model.

The Newport shared almost identical bodies with the Chrylser 300, New Yorker and Imperial but differences in trim made the Newport a cheapest option at US$3,414.

The fifth generation Newport marked a zenith in the size of full size Chyslers the fuel crises of the early 70’s meant manufacturers would emphasise downsizing as a selling point from the mid seventies to the early 1980’s the Newport range was dropped completely in 1981.

The four door sedan like the 1969 model seen here, bearing the Big Mean ‘n’ Green legend on it’s registration plates was the most popular of Newport range with 55,000 units sold in 1969.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Big Green ‘n’ Mean’ 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 !

Turbo Erika – Ford Escort RS Turbo

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Launched with the strap line “Simple is Efficient” the third generation Ford Escort was code named “Erika” while in development taking the name from Fords Product Planning Dept leader Erick A. Reikert.

The Escort MKIII went head to head in the market place with the popular Volkswagen Golf which had turned VW fortunes around after the demise of the ‘Beetle’.

Like the Golf the 3rd iteration of the Escort employed front wheel drive, unlike the Golf the Escort was a conservative hatchback retaining some vestige of a three box shape bodywork at the rear, although the tailgate included the rear sloping window.

The 132hp RS Turbo version of the Escort was launched in 1984 with the 5 speed transmission driving the front wheels through a viscous coupling differential that was a world first for a front wheel drive car. The RS Turbo proved a strong competitor in production saloon racing where it rendered the hitherto dominant Ford Capri 2.8i obsolete in the space of 12 months.

In the top photo national radio DJ Mike Smith and Lionel Abbot shared the #25 to win the 1986 Willhire 24 hour race at Snetterton at their second attempt becoming the first two driver team to win the race since it’s inception in 1980. The #32 was driven by Karl Jones, Patrick Watts and Chris Creswell in the 1987 Willhire 24 hours qualifying 2nd, to a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, and finishing sixth, third in class after a late driveshaft failure. By 1989 the Escort RS Turbo’s driven by Vaughan Richmond, #44 seen at Brands Hatch and Jonathon Harrison, #60 seen at Silverstone, were overwhelmed in class B by half a dozen faster BMW M3’s.

My thanks to Tim Murray on The Nostalgia Forum for the race details on the #32 at Snetterton.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Turbo Erika’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Americana Thursday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Japanese Edition – MG RV8

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After the success of the Mazda MX5/Miata/Eunos launched in 1989 that all the models sited by Mazda as having been influential on it’s design instantly experienced an increase in demand on the classic market, those cited influences included the Triumph Spitfire, Austin Healey Sprite, MG MGB and Lotus Elan.

Such was the demand for all things British in Japan in the early 1990’s that several specialists including Central England Sports Cars and the Frogeye Company on the Isle of White ran thriving businesses exporting renovated Spridgets by the half dozen to Japan. MG also saw the interest in British sports cars created by the MX5 as a opportunity and built a limited edition of 2000 MG RV8’s loosely based around the MG B Roadster.

At the heart of the RV8 roadster was a 3,946 cc / 240 cui V8 based on the aluminium Buick Rover V8 that had become the motor of choice amongst British sports car builders, slightly ironically the original MG B Roadster had never been available the the V8 that was an option for the B GT Coupé bodyshell.

BBS wheels a good dose of Connolly leather and a splash of veneered Burr Elm completed the look of the reincarnation of the worlds most numerous sports car.The boot / trunk lid and doors are the only panels to carry over from the original MG B all though beneath the skin the rear drum brakes and some suspension components were also carried over from the MG B that was phased out in 1980.

The RV8 is built for those who travel light the floor of the boot trunk is so high that there is little space for anything beside the full size spare wheel. Between 1993 and 1995 1579 MG RV8’s were exported to Japan leaving just 421 to be distributed through the rest of the world.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Japanese Edition’ of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Pick Up With Pedigree – Reef Engineering Cub

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Some times I just cannot believe some of the stories behind some of the cars I feature, today’s nifty li’l Cub designed by Yorkshireman extraordinaire John Crosthwaite, is a case in point.

John’s CV included working at Lotus to refine and develop the Lotus XI and 14 Elite models, then spending some time in the States and designing the stock block Thompson Buick Indy 500 challenger Harvey Aluminium Special with which Dan Gurney made his Indy 500 debut.

Following spells at BRM and developing the chassis for the Intermeccanica Italia sports cars John found himself at Reliant where his design legacy included the chassis for the Reliant Scimitar GTE and Reliant Kitten economy car.

Like the Reliant Fox pick up I looked at back in November the Reef Cub is built around a Reliant Kitten chassis.

John’s interest in watersports, including diving, water skiing and wind surfing led him to manufacture the Cub for holiday resorts in the Seychelles and West Indies, though the Cub, with bodywork design accredited to Peter Bailey, appears never to have gone into production.

The car featured is thought to be one, the only one registered in the UK, of four prototypes all of which are / were allegedly different. This car was owned by John Crosthwaite’s daughter for ten years.

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

Here Comes The Sun (Slight Reprise) – Datsun 120A F-II

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It is hard to believe that it is 30 years since Datsun’s parent company Nissan started to phase out the use of the Datsun brand name from global markets at an estimated cost in the USA alone of some US$500.

So it was a surprise to learn that Nissan are to reactivate the brand for base models that will capture markets in India, Russia and Indonesia from 2014 in an effort to win an 8% global market share.

The Datsun name is a derivative of the Datson model that was marketed in 1931 by the DAT Jidosha & Co.,Ltd, a name born in 1925 out of three financial backers of the Kaishinsha Motorcar Co (1918) and it earlier incarnation Kaishinsha Motor Car Works (1911) founded by Masujiro Hashimoto called Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama and Meitaro Takeuchi .

At the time the company sold two models the larger DAT and smaller Datson, son translates as son in Japanese. Because son also means ‘disadvantage’ in Japanese the name was later changed to Datsun in 1932. Following a couple of mergers Datsun was taken over in by Nihon, Sangyo Co., Ltd 1934 who changed the corporate name of the manufacturer but continued to use the Datsun brand name particularly in export markets.

The second generation 120A F-II was known in Japan as the Cherry and marketed through ‘Nissan Cherry Shop’ Dealerships.

120A F-II refers to the A12 4 cylinder motor with a capacity of 1,171 cc 71 cui, a smaller version 100A was also produced, production of the 100A continued in New Zealand until 1980.

While the styling of the 120A F-II was a tad wayward by contemporary European standards the reliability of the 100A & 120A meant that by the time they hit the scrap yards they usually had much higher mileages than the better looking European models of the time. The 100A and 120A F-II models were in production from 1974 to 1977.

Under Australian Influence – Lotus 41

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The Lotus 41 was designed and built to meet the second and third tier European open wheel Formula’s 2 and 3 along with the US Formula B regulations for the 1966 to 1968 seasons.

Designed by Australian John Joyce assisted by Dave Baldwin the Type 41 featured a space frame constructed from welded steel tubes with stressed steel plates around the foot well, instrument panel and rear bulkhead. Steel was chosen in favour of lighter aluminium to ensure the car met the minimum weight limit requirements stipulated by the Formula regulations for which the car was built.

Brewery heir Piers Courage driving a works backed Lotus 41, for the same Lucas Engineering team that was involved with the Martin V8 powered Lotus 35 I looked at a couple of weeks ago, won the French Craven ‘A’ Formula 3 series.

Back in 1966 drivers names were mandated on the sides of open wheel Formula cars to help spectators identify the drivers, the name ‘Williams’ seen here refers not to the Piers Courages team mate and driver of the camera car in Steve McQueens film Le Mans Jonathon Williams, but to Dr Gareth Williams, owner of today’s featured car.

Dr Williams car chassis 41/F3/12b, seen here at Race Retro, is known to have been used competitively by Swiss driver Jean Blanc in 1966 and ’67 and passed through the hands of four further owners before being restored in 1993.

History records, Courages success in France not with standing, that the Lotus 41 was out classed by the more numerous Brabham 18A designed by another Australian Ron Tauranac. After returning to Australia in 1968 John Joyce founded Bowin Designs Pty where he built a string of successful cars that dominated the 1970’s Australian Formula Ford scene.

Sixty One Lotus 41’s are thought to have been built some were still running in much modified form in the early 1970’s Formula B regulations complete with additional bodywork and wings like the one seen in the thread on The Nostalgia Forum linked here.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Under Australian Influence’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will 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

Tag Archives: GALPOT

Same Body Bigger Motor – Ferrari 365 GTC

Big Mean ‘n’ Green – Chrysler Newport Sedan

Turbo Erika – Ford Escort RS Turbo

Japanese Edition – MG RV8

Pick Up With Pedigree – Reef Engineering Cub

Here Comes The Sun (Slight Reprise) – Datsun 120A F-II

Under Australian Influence – Lotus 41