Tag Archives: Ghia

Fastest Four Seats – ISO Rivolta Fidia

The ISO Rivolta Fidia was designed with a body by Giorgetto Giugiaro then still working for Ghia, to compete with the Maserati Quattroporte first seen in 1963, and was first shown to the public at in 1967 at the Frankfurt Motor Show where it carried the S4 name.

ISO Rivolta Fidia, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

By the time of the 1969 press launch in Athens the S4 had been renamed Fidia after the artist “Phidias” who was responsible for the friezes that decorated the Parthenon that Lord Elgin controversially sent to England in 1802.

ISO Rivolta Fidia, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The choice of Athens for the press launch was not the wisest as the local petrol was not of sufficiently high octane to prevent “pinking” which where the peak of the combustion process no longer occurs at the optimum moment for the four-stroke cycle.

ISO Rivolta Fidia, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

At the time of the press launch, with the strap line “The Fastest Four Seats In The World” today’s featured car the second built and first with right hand drive, had already been built and delivered to it’s owner John Lennon for a price in excess of a comparable Rolls Royce.

ISO Rivolta Fidia, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Until General Motors demanded payment in advance of shipping the Fidia was powered by the 5.4 litre / 327 cui small block Chevrolet motor which gave the car an impressive rest to 60 mph time of 7 seconds.

ISO Rivolta Fidia, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

From 1973 on the Fidia was powered by Fords 5.8 litre / 352 cui V8 with either a 5 speed manual ZF transmission or Fords Cruise-o-matic automatic transmission.

ISO Rivolta Fidia, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Despite John Lennon buying three Fidia’s, with 192 built between 1967 and 1975 the Fidia never reached the production levels of the Quattroporte of which 776 had been built when production came to a stop in 1969.

Thanks for joining me on this “Fastest Four Seats” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at an Australian built Land Crab. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Ferrari Road Treasures – Blackhawk Museum

A couple of weeks ago Geoffrey Horton kindly asked me what kind of cars I was looking for pictures of and I responded that I was desperately short of Ferrari’s, as you can see from today’s Ferrari blog, and will see in next weeks blog Geoffrey has come up trumps and saved Ferrari Friday single handedly probably up until Christmas. Here is a preview of some of the Ferrari road cars that will feature in the coming weeks.

Ferrari 342 America Vignale Cabriolet, Blackhawk Museum, CA

The Ferrari America series started in 1950 was designed to meet the requirements of Ferrari’s customers who wanted a little more than a racing car adapted for the road. The America cars featured more leg room and head room but were still powered by motors derived from Ferrari’s racing programmes. This 1952 Ferrari 342 America Cabriolet features a unique, as in one of, body by Vignale and is powered by a 230 hp Lamperedi designed V12.

Ferrari 375 America Coupé, Blackhawk Museum, CA

Following the 23 342’s came the Ferrari 375 America with a larger and more powerful Lampredi V12 which produced 300 hp. This 1953 Vignale bodied Coupé is one of two, regular readers may remember reading about the other one nearly a year ago.

Ferrari 375 MM Ghia Coupé Speciale, Blackhawk Museum, CA

Sporting it’s original salmon paintwork and with just over 8000 miles on the clock this unique, one of, 1954 Ghia bodied Coupé sits on a 375 MM chassis designed for racing. It was the last Ferrari chassis to be fitted with Ghia body.

Ferrari 400 Superamerica, Blackhawk Museum, CA

In 1961 the Ferrari 400 Superamerica made it’s debut at the Geneva Motorshow with a downsized 4 litre 244 cui V12 which produced 340 hp. The second series Superamerica’s like the 1964 example seen here was built on a slightly longer chassis. Only 47 Superamerica’s of all types, Coupé, Cabriolet and Spider were built up until 1964.

Ferrari 500 Superfast Coupé, Blackhawk Museum, CA

In 1964 the 500 Superfast Coupé was introduced to replace the America series cars, like the earlier models the Superfast was only built to order and now powered by a 5 litre / 302 cui motor giving 400 hp.
This 1966 example is a series 2 500 Superfast with Pinin Farina Coupé body, the 33rd of 37 Superfasts built up until 1967.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this Ferrari Road Treasures edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when GALPOT’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Porsche 911 resumes. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Safari, Trekker, Kurierwagen, Thing – Volkswagen Type181

The Volkswagen Type 181 was born out of the incompetence of the Governments of West Germany, France and Italy to bring the Europa Jeep project to fruition. While the German military were waiting for this all wheel drive wonder mobile in 1968 the German Government approached Volkswagen to come with an interim vehicle which became the Type 181 seen today.

Volkswagen Type 181, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

The Type 181 is based on a Karmann Ghia floor pan, a little wider than that used for the Beetle, and had running gear from the Volkswagen Type 2 which included reduction gears for the driven rear wheels that helped raise the ride height of the Type 181 to give it some off road capability.

Volkswagen Type 181, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Military Type 181’s were adopted my several NATO forces apart from Germany once the Europa Jeep project was abandoned in 1979.

Civilian versions of the Type 181 were first seen in Europe, Kurierwagen, and Mexico, Safari,in 1971 with US versions, Thing, appearing the following year. In 1975 Trekker versions of the Type 181 were sold in the UK but they were not popular and soon withdrawn from the UK market.

90,883 Type 181’s were built in Wolfsburg 1968–1974, Hannover,1974–1983, Puebla, Mexico 1970-1980, and Jakarta, Indonesia 1973 – 1980.

Note the Hannover built 1976 example seen in today’s photographs features a Porsche steering wheel and Porsche alloy wheels.

Thanks for joining me on this “Safari, Trekker, Kurierwagen, Thing” 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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Z Cars Edsels English Cousins – Ford Zephyr & Zodiac Mk3

After the humungous sales & marketing flop that was the Ford Edsel debacle Canadian Roy Brown moved on to designing smaller projects in the Ford empire namely the Ford Cortina along with the Zephyr and Zodiac Mk3’s featured today.

Ford Zephyr 6, Mk3, Goodwood Revival

The Consul name was dropped from the Zephyr and Zodiac range and moved to the smaller Cortina range in 1962 while the entry level Zephyr became the 4 cylinder powered Zephyr 4. Seen above at the Goodwood Revival is a 1963 6 cylinder Zephyr 6, a model that became indelibly implanted in my mind thanks to the kitchen sink Police drama known as ‘Z -Cars‘, please do not even think of pronouncing it “Zee”, one of the earliest adult orientated show’s I remember seeing on our very first black and white television in 1966.

Zodiac, Castle Combe

The Zodiac, as seen here at Castle Combe Classic and Sports Car Action Day, was the top of the range Mk3 ‘Z’ range featuring twined head lights to leave no doubt in the minds of purchasers that this car was the one with all the goodies.

Zodiac, Castle Combe

Both the Zephyr 6 and the Zodiac were built with straight 6 2,553 cc / 156 cui motors inherited from the Zephyr and Zodiac Mk 2 models.

Ford Zodiac, Mk3, Castle Combe

The Zodiac Mk3 can also be externally differentiated from the Zephyr Mk3 by the rear quarter light which has been moved from the rear door of the cheaper Zephyr 6 to the C-post of the more expensive Zodiac.

Ford Zodiac, Mk3, Castle Combe

From the rear both the Zephyr and Zodiac Mk3 models clearly owe, even if understated, lines of DNA heritage to the Ghia built Lincoln Futura of 1955.

Thanks for joining me on this Z Car 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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US Convertibles – Niello Serrano Concours 2011

Thanks to the generosity of Geoffrey Horton today’s images come from the 2011 Niello Serrano Concours held the weekend before last in the El Dorado hills of sunny California. Today I’ll be focusing on a fabulous array of American made convertibles seen at the show.

Cord L29 Phaeton, Niello Serrano Concours

Vehicles manufactured by Cord Corporation were the feature Marque of the event so it was most fitting that grandson of the Cord Corporations founding father E.L. Cord should be seen here in one of the companies original models the 1929 Cord L29 Phaeton, which was the first US built front wheel drive car offered to the American public.

Cord L29 Coupé, Niello Serrano Concours

Of all the photo’s that Geoffrey sent to me this one of a 1930 Cord L29 Coupé with it’s bizarre, even by todays standards headlights and racy two tone paintwork, gets my nomination for car of the show. The front wheel drive L29 was the brainchild of Carl Van Ranst who had previously worked on the successful front wheel drive Miller open wheel racing cars that won that won the Indianapolis 500 on four occasions between 1926 and 1932.

Cord L29 Coupé, Niello Serrano Concours

Continuing on a vaguely Indianapolis related theme Geoffrey tells me this 1931 12 cylinder Cadillac 370A Roadster, was an Indy pace car in 1931. It was pulled out of a barn and restored by the owner 18 months ago.

Auburn Boat Tail Speedster, Niello Serrano Concours

One, of many, things I have learned thanks to these photo’s is that Cord was a brand name of cars manufactured by Auburn a company that ueber salesman E.L. Cord turned around during a leveraged buyout, above is a 1935 Auburn 851 Boat Tail Speedster manufactured just two years before both names went bust in the wake of the Great Depression.

Cord 812 Convertible Coupé,  Niello Serrano

The last model developed by Cord was the headlight popping 810 which had onlookers standing on the running boards of rival manufacturers cars when it was launched in New York in 1936. Rushed development and production schedules meant it gained a bad reliability reputation. For 1937 front wheel drive Cord 810’s were rebadged 812’s and although they had ironed out all of the reliability issues of the previous year the 812 series could not save Cord from financially tanking. This 1937 Cord 812 Convertible Coupe is particularly rare, if I have understood Card lore correctly, it is one of only six that were ordered without the exterior chrome exhausts sticking out of the sides of the bonnet.

Packard Super 8 Convertible, Niello Serrano

Despite the now give away giant bonnet ornament it took me a good half hour to work out that the car above is a 1949 Packard Super 8 Convertible with a pre WW2 bathtub body style.

Dual Ghia, Niello Serrano

I’ll let you see if you can guess what this mystery car is before you reach the end of this blog, this car was highly rated by Time and Life magazines, Good Houskeeping described this model as a ‘social phenomenon’. Designed in Italy but not built by one of the ‘big three’ the car is said to have had 50/50 weight distribution about the axles and counted amongst it’s star owners Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin drove one in the film Kiss Me Stupid and Ronald Reagan allegedly lost his to President Lyndon Johnson in a poker game. This is one of the 99 cars built from 1956 to 1957 from a planned production run of 300.

Buick Le Sabre Convertible, Niello Serrano

I know the designer of my all time favourite Formula One car is a fan of the 1959 Buick Le Saber Convertible all though he would probably prefer the Invicta version in bright red.

Lincoln Continental Convertible, Niello Serrano

Representing the swinging, in the UK anyway, sixties at Niello Serrano were the slab sided 1963 Lincoln Continental Convertible with it’s rear suicide doors, which are all the rage at Rolls Royce these days,

Dodge Dart Convertible, Niello Serrano

and the infinitely more modest 1964 Dodge Dart Convertible, which in optional automatic form had push buttons to select the gears.

The mystery car is the Dual Ghia, designed by Ghia in Italy and built by Dual motors in Detroit with Chrysler running gear.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for his excellent photographs without which todays post would not have been possible.

Thanks for joining me on this US convertible edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the Ferrari’s at Niello Serrano Concours. Don’t forget to come back now !

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