Tag Archives: Horton

Racin’ ‘n’ Climbin’ – Ferrari 212 Export Touring Barchetta

In 1951 Ferrari produced two 212 models the Grand Touring Inter with either a 150 or a 165 hp and the competition orientated Export with 170 hp from it’s high compression V12 which was mounted on a shorter chassis than the Inter.

The 212 Export was quick right out of the box, Vittorio Marzotto and Paolo Fontana won the 1951 Giro di Sicilia in chassis #0086E while “Pagnibon” and Alfred Barraquet led home a 212 Export 1,2,3 finish in the 1951 Tour de France. Among 212 Export winners in the States were Phil Hill, who won at Torrey Pines in 1952 driving chassis #0078E and Ernie McAfee at Palm Springs in 1953, driving chassis #0092E with a coupé body by Vignale.

Kirk Douglas drove a specially rebodied 212 Export chassis #0102 to a fictitious victory in the the 1955 film “The Racers“.

Chassis #0158ED, seen here at the Danville Concours d’Elegance dinner, was supplied new to Luigi Bordonaro di Chiaramonte of Palermo, Italy for the 1952 season. He used it to good effect scoring at least 7 overall wins in both race and hillclimb competition between 1952 and 1955.

Swiss driver Edouard Margairaz continued to compete with the car until 1956 when he came 1st in class at the Verbois hillclimb.

In all 28 212 Export models were built and chassis #0158 is thought to be the last of the seven built with Barchetta bodywork by Carrozzeria Touring in Milan.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing todays photographs from Danville Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this “Racin”n’ Climbin'” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a multipurpose open wheel racer from Lotus. Don’t forget to come back now !

Worlds First 200 mph Race Lap – Dodge Charger Daytona

Leave a Reply

On Thursday I looked at a car driven by Jerry Grant the first man to lap an open wheeler at an average 200 mph during qualifying at Ontario Motor Speedway in 1972 and I was surprised to learn that Buddy Baker recorded the first 200 mph race lap, in today’s featured Grand National Dodge Charger Daytona two years earlier at Talladega.

After NASCAR leveled the playing field by allowing Ford to run four barrel carburetor’s against Dodges 2 barrel carburetor Hemi’s Chrysler hit back by introducing the limited edition Dodge Charger Daytona model in 1969 using a Charger body shell with an aerodynamic nose and high rear wing which aided traction to the rear driven wheels.

The 6980 cc / 426 cui Hemi V8 fitted a 2 barrel carburettor was good for over 475 hp. In 1969 Bobby Isaac won 20 poles and won 17 of 54 Grand National championship races in his Charger Daytona but poor reliability meant he only finished 6th in the championship won by David Pearson with ‘only’ 11 wins. The following year Isaac won the championship with only 11 wins with Richard Petty finishing the championship 4th driving a similar Plymouth Road Runner Superbird with 18 championship wins.

For the 1970 season Cotton Owens entered Buddy Baker in today’s featured Daytona, while leading 101 laps at Talladega Baker recorded the world first 200 mph average race lap speed before a spin forced retirement. Note that baker was not driving a #88 Daytona in the Alabama 500 when he achieved this feat as reported in some sources. Baker later drove this car to victory lane at Darlington where he beat the eventual 1970 Champion Bobby Isaac by an entire lap.

NASCAR took the decision to outlaw all of the “Winged Warriors” at the end of the 1970 which included the Charger Daytona, Plymouth Superbird, Fords Torino Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II.

This car has never been restored, simply kept in immaculate condition during long loan spells Cobo Hall in Detroit and the Darlington Museum.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton who shared today’s photographs which were taken earlier this year at the Marin Sanoma Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this “Worlds First 200 mph Race Lap” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Merry Christmas – Lola T70 #SL70/10

1 Reply

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 !

California Sun – Danville Concours d’Elegance

Leave a Reply

One of the things that has stuck me all week looking at the photo’s that Geoffrey Horton and Jay Wollenweber have kindly sent me from the Danville Concours d’Elegance is the sheer beauty of the California Sunshine, so at the risk of being accused of publishing car porn, to round out a long week of toil I thought to put all of the two photographers best Ferrari photo’s together for Ferrari Friday.

Photo Jay Wollenweber
Above is one of 20 1968 Ferrari 365 GTS spyders fitted with a 4.4 litre / 267 cui V12, that would soon be replaced in the Ferrari line up by the sharper 365 GTS/4 bodystyle.

Photo Jay Wollenweber

Like wise the Dino 246 GTB featured in one of my earliest blogs above is the Targa top GTS.

Photo Jay Wollenweber

One of my favorite’s is the Ferrari 365GTB/4 in one of which Dan Gurney once drove 2,876 miles from New York to LA at an average speed of 80.1 mph !

Photo Geoffrey Horton

Sharing a slightly detuned motor, inorder to accommodate a lower bonnet / hood line, with the GTB/4 is the Ferrari 365 GTC/4.

Photo Jay Wollenweber

For some reason among my memories of working in the motor trade are a couple that in which gold painted cars were rarely ordered new in that colour and always hard to shift in the second hand market, I don’t know if that rule applies to high performance vehicles like the Bertone designed Ferrari 308 GT4 seen above.

Photo Jay Wollenweber

While Bertone’s 308 GT4 is probably one of the cheapest Ferrari’s to purchase in the pre owned market place the Ferrari 328 GTS like the one above is one of the more reliable, 6068 of these targa tops of the 160 mph plus cars were made between 1986 and 1989.

Photo Geoffrey Horton

Ferrari lost ground to it’s competitors with the Ferrari 348 that succeeded the 328, particularly to the Honda NSX, but bounced back with Ferrari F355 Berlineta, Targa and

Photo Jay Wollenweber

and soft top spyder models.

Photo Geoffrey Horton

The Ferrari 360 Spider was the 12th road going convertible offered since Enzo Ferrari moved into road car production in 1949.

Photo Geoffrey Horton

Ferrari’s 360 Challenge Stradale like the one above was intended for those lucky enough to spend 20% of their time in the car at track day’s and only 80% of their time in the car in normal road conditions. The Challenge Stradale comes with an additional 20 hp, improved throttle response, steering feed back and chassis balance which made a significant difference in achievable lap times over the standard 360.

Photo Geoffrey Horton

For 2004 the the Ferrari 360 was replaced by the F430 in the model line up, and in 2007 the 508hp Ferrari F430 Scuderia filled the niché that had been left vacant since the demise of the 360 Challenge Stradale.

Photo Geoffrey Horton

Allegedly the Ferrari California started as a Maserati project but when it was realised how expensive the finished car was going to be it was decided to launch it as a Ferrari in 2008. Either way it is a stunningly attractive car to look at in the California sun.

Photo Geoffrey Horton

Of the current range the Ferrari 458 Italia launched in 2009 is without doubt the most attractive of the lot on the road or on the track, it is powered by the most powerful per liter/cui normally aspirated production motor in the world.

Photo Jay Wollenweber

I only know one person who has ever driven a Ferrari FF, unfortunatley Michele Rahal at The Drive Channel has removed the clip from youtube, needless to say he was grinning from ear to ear the whole time he was in the car.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton and Jay Wollenweber for sharing their photo’s form Concours d’Elegance.

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

Manifattura Tessile Cotoniera, Milano – Ferrari 166MM #0022M

Leave a Reply

A couple of weeks ago I looked at the Ferrari 166MM #0040M, thanks to Geoffrey Horton today’s featured car is the Ferrari 166MM #0022M which was seen at the recent Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance.

Using only the internet as a source the history of this car is a little more difficult to pin down, it is certain that this is the twelfth of the 25 166MMs built with a body by Touring.

One source gives the delivery date as 27th July 1949 to Manifattura Tessile Cotoniera, Milano which is thought to have belonged to Giannino Marzotto.

The same source indicates that Giannino won the Coppa Gallenga hillclimb in this car on 16th October 1949. While another source indicates that Franco Cornacchia drove #0022M in at least two events prior to this in August 1949 which included winning a race at Circuito de Senigallia on 21st August 1949.

Both sources agree that the long distance expert and multi time Mille Miglia and Targa Florio winner Clemente Biondetti drove this chassis to a sixth place finish in a sports car race in Monaco on June 1st 1952.

Since 1973 #0022M appears to have had just three owners, all in the United States.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for today’s photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Manifattura Tessile Cotoniera, Milano” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow, when I’ll be visiting the 1969 Bank Holiday Monday Guards International at Brands Hatch. Don’t forget to come back now !

The Worlds Most Advanced Car – Marmon Sixteen

Leave a Reply

The transformation of flour mill machinery manufacturers Nordyke and Marmon, est 1851, into the manufacturers of the Worlds most advanced car started with 23 year old University of California at Berkeley graduate Howard Marmon returned to Indianapolis and built his first car, powered by an aircooled V twin featuring a pressurised lubrication system and overhead valves in 1902.

Howard’s second design was powered by an aircooled V4 and a couple of years later Marmon sold it’s first six cars, allegedly mostly to friends. Nine years after designing his first car Howard’s Marmon Wasp won the very first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 with Ray Harroun averaging 75 mph for the 6 hours, 42 minutes it took to complete the distance. The Wasp is said to be the first car ever to feature a rear view mirror.

After full fulfilling a contract to build 5,000 Liberty motors for use in the 1914/18 war Marmon had the financial stability to continue innovating especially with the use of aluminium in automobile manufacture and with motor configurations until in 1927 Marmon began the design of the highly advanced V16.

The 8.1 litre / 491 cui V16 motor is a work of art featuring a ‘Y’ shaped block with a 45 degree V for the two banks of eight cylinders made from a single aluminium casting that includes the crank case. The excellent design of the engine was recognised by the Society of Automotive Engineers who’s annual design award was given to Howard Marmon.

With overhead valves operated by pushrods from a single cam shaft the motor produced 200 hp and weighed much less than the smaller V16 that Cadillac had pushed through to production in less time than Marmon with the help of an ex Marmon employee.

Most of the 390 Marmon Sixteens had bodywork by LeBaron with the design credited officially to Walter Dorwin Teague, Sr though much of the work was done by his son W.D. Teague, Jr an MIT student.

With a superior power to weight ratio, thanks to the extensive use of aluminium, to almost everything else on the road, all Marmon Sixteens were certified has having achieved 100 mph on the fabled Indianapolis Circuit. Unfortunately the The Worlds Most Advanced Car, as the Sixteen was marketed, came at absolutely the worst time when the market for $5,000 automobiles was at an all time low and so Marmon left the car manufacturing business when it went in to receivership in 1933.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for kindly sharing today’s photographs taken at the recent Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Worlds Most Advanced Car” 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 !

Awesome Copper – Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance

Leave a Reply

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 !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Horton

Racin’ ‘n’ Climbin’ – Ferrari 212 Export Touring Barchetta

Worlds First 200 mph Race Lap – Dodge Charger Daytona

Merry Christmas – Lola T70 #SL70/10

California Sun – Danville Concours d’Elegance

Manifattura Tessile Cotoniera, Milano – Ferrari 166MM #0022M

The Worlds Most Advanced Car – Marmon Sixteen

Awesome Copper – Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance