Tag Archives: Lotus

Coffee, Croissant & Cars – Avenue Drivers Club

Last Sunday I had a lie in thanks to the Avenue Drivers Club meeting taking place just a stones throw from GALPOT Towers. As I wended my way down to Queens Square a few throaty exhausts wafted across the relatively still morning air and cranked up my anticipation for what I might find.

Among the vintage vehicles that turned up was this 1927 Austin Seven complete with child seats for the two young ‘uns that came along.

Possibly the largest vehicle present was this Mopar Beast a 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 V8 Magnum, a badge on the side of the cab suggested that it had passed through Regency Conversions of Fort Worth, Texas, exactly what they might have done to it I cannot say.

Another of the larger vehicles present was this 1958 Alvis TC 108G one of just 37 with elegant Graber styled bodywork.

When I first saw the car above, I paid no attention to the number plate and thought it was a 3rd Generation Camaro or even a Firebird. A closer inspection revealed it to be a 1995 AC Ace built in the UK and powered by a 5 litre / 302 cui quad cam Ford V8.

Now in far better condition than it was when it left the factory is this 1962 Lotus Elite, resplendent with the yellow cam cover of it Coventry Climax motor peeking through the bonnet. With a little luck I may be able to get some photo’s of a couple of Lotus models missing from my Saturday Lotus blogs courtesy of the owner of this car.

Continuing the theme of contrast this mid sixties 4.7 lire / 289 cui Ford Mustang and 1988 Ferrari 328 GTS present alternative approaches to performance motoring.

Strangest vehicle of the day award goes to this 2003 Cadillac De Ville, looks like a soft top but is actually a simulated soft top, the logic of which somehow completely escapes me, if you know or can fathom the reasoning for this option please do not hesitate to chime in below.

This DAX and 1983 Ford Escort RS 1600i present further contrasting performance options, the DAX is probably the newer of the two vehicles. You could have used some of the chrome/polished steel features in the engine bay of the RS1600i to straighten your hair !

Perhaps the biggest contrast of the day was provided by this 2003 SMART and the Chevrolet aluminium block powered Ford hot rod which with the supercharger boost turned right down easily produces over 600 horsepower making the Chevy powered Ford easily the most powerful car present.

I don’t recall ever seeing a Crossley, not to be confused with Crosley, before nor a Mercedes Benz C63 AMG Edition 125 which is 80 years younger than the 1932 Crossley 10 standing next to it.

While the Crossley bore some impressive patina my Patina of the Day award went to this 1924 Lanchester 23 a two ton vehicle which was more powerful and cheaper than the equivalent Rolls Royce of it’s day, was and possibly still is capable of 70 mph and has a city friendly 44′ turning circle.

I saw only two two wheeled vehicles and again they could not have been more different a 1959 Vespa and a far more recent, I’ll stop short of saying modern, Harley Davidson with all the trimmings.

Should you find yourself in Bristol on the second Sunday of the month I really cannot recommend a visit to Queens Square around 9 am for Coffee, Croissant and Cars highly enough. As everyone was preparing to leave David Roots kindly offered me a lift home in his Alfa Romeo 4C Special which made the perfect end to a morning of strong contrasts.

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

007 @ Beaulieu – Bond In Motion

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To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Beaulieu opening as a visitor attraction, 50th anniversary of the Bond franchise and 40th anniversary of the National Motor Museum “Bond in Motion” is an exhibition of 50 vehicles from the James Bond franchise films at Beaulieu National Motor Museum which I visited last month. Here are seven of my favourites from the exhibition.

The first Bond car I can remember was the Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger which featured swivelling number plates for overseas duty, a passenger ejector seat for unwelcome guests, forward machine guns, rear bulletproof shield, smoke screen and oil slick dispensed from the rear light clusters, evil tyre scythe in the rear hubs for puncturing enemy tyres, radio telephone and a Sony route finder with which to track enemy movements. Despite the usefulness of all these gadgets the car came to a sad end crashing into a wall of a factory belonging to Bond’s foe Mr Goldfinger. The special effects won Goldfinger an Oscar in 1965.

George Lazenby replaced the quintessential Sean Connery in the role of Bond in “On Her Majesties Secret Service” after a ski chase Bond jumps into a car driven by his amour Contessa Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo played by Diana Rigg who drives the Mercury XR7 through the gates of an ice racing event in her attempt to get away from Blofeld and his henchmen. This is the film in which James Bond finally get’s hitched, though not without a tragic ending.

Roger Moore took over the role of Bond after a final reprise by Connery in “Moonraker”. The debonair Moore’s first appearance in the role of Bond was in “Live and Let Die” which featured numerous boat chases. Moore’s second Bond role was in “The Man With The Golden Gun” in which Bond commandeers an AMC Hornet from an AMC showroom in Bankok and with Sherrif J.W.Pepper in the passenger seat the car executes a 360 barrel role over a sunken bridge. This is said to be the first ever stunt to be calculated with the aid of computer modelling and was performed in a single eight camera take by the uncredited stunt man “Bumps” Willard.

Secret Service Quartermaster ‘Q’ issues Commander Bond, still played by Roger Moore, with a Lotus Esprit for the film “The Spy Who Loved Me“. The Esprit, known as ‘Wet Nellie’, is equipped with a surface to air missile, torpedoes, cement sprayer, rear mounted ink jet, mine launcher, periscope and is convertible for submersible amphibious operations.

Moving forward a decade to 1987 and the fifteenth Bond film saw Timothy Dalton take over the role of Bond in “The Living Daylights“. His Aston Martin V8 Volante is equipped with optional extra twin heat seeking missiles, jet booster engine, ice tyres and retractable ski’s which come in handy during a getaway sequence in Bratislava.

“Tomorrow Never Dies” released in 1997 saw Pierce Brosnan playing the role of Bond for the second time. By now Bond drives a somewhat unlikely bullet and fire proof BMW 750iL which is armed with high voltage security system, missiles mounted in the sunroof, grenades, wire cutting bonnet badge and conventional, for Bond, smoke and tear gas jets and can be controlled remotely from a cell phone. The car comes to a premature end in an Avis showroom.

Th final car in this brief overview of the Bond in Motion exhibition at Beaulieu National Motor Museum is the BMW Z8 which featured in the 1999 release “The World Is Not Enough“. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond features remote control pads in the ignition key, bullet proof windscreen and radar guided Stinger missiles “AND six beverage cup holders”. The car meets it’s match in the form of a helicopter rotor blade which slices the car in half.

Thanks for joining me on this “007 @ Beaulieu” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be revisiting Queens Square for Coffee & Croissant with the Avenue Drivers Club. Don’t forget to come back now !

Out Of The Ark – Lotus Elan (Ark Racing)

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In 1976 one year after production of the Lotus Elan had ceased the 4th generation Group 5 regulations came into effect for “Special Production Cars” for cars that met the criteria for groups 1 to 4 but were allowed almost unlimited bodywork modifications excluding the bonnet, roofline and railpanel combined with unlimited lightening of the chassis.

Porsche dominated the series overall from 1976 to the series demise in 1981 with numerous variations of the 935 model, though it’s ultimate development ‘Moby Dick’ 935/78 ironically only one one race. Lancia was most successful in the smaller under 2 litre / 122 cui division with it’s Lancia Beta Montecarlo winning two championships with BMW and Ford taking the smaller category once each.

Three different Lotus models were entered into selected Group 5 (Silhouette) races three Elan’s like the one featured today, a Europa and a couple of Lotus Esprit’s. Over the next couple of weeks I will be looking at how three of those teams faired.

In 1968 Derek Mathews built the first of several well known and successful racing cars a Sprite for John Banks, which by 1970 became the Ark Sprite powered by Ford Twin Cam engine. After building and running a Group 6 2 seat open sports car with F Lester Ray originally called the (Derek Matthews) DM6 (sixth car) which became the Vogue Derek built a Lotus Elan for John Evans to race in the 1974 in British Modsports races a combination which recorded many class wins in 1974 and 1975 being crowned BRSCC (British Racing Sports Car Club) Modsports Champions in 1975.

For 1979 Ark Racing built an Elan for Max Payne and John Evans to run in selected World Manufacturers Championship, German DRM, and Belgian events, becoming the third Elan to be used in Group 5. According to ‘The Oracle” and Richard Jenvey the Ark Racing Group 5 Elan, seen above making it’s debut at Silverstone, was built on a Lotus chassis.

At Silverstone the Elan qualified 23rd overall, 3rd last in class and retired with gearbox issues. The car was raced four times in 1979, Max Payne beating a de Tomaso Pantera to win a Benelux race at Zandvoort in The Netherlands.

The last time I saw the Ark Racing Elan was in 1982, again at Silverstone above, when Max Payne was sharing the car with Chris Ashmore they qualified 32nd and were disqualified for a push start. The Ark Racing Elan is thought to have been the last one to have raced taken part in an international ‘in period’ race qualifying 25th and finishing 18th at the 1982 Brands Hatch 1000 kms race with Payne and Ashmore at the wheel.

My thanks to The Oracle, his spokesman Pete Taylor and Edward Fitzgerald for their comments at The Nostalgia Forum and to Richard Jenvey for his private comments.
Thanks for joining me on this “Out Of The Ark” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Thirty Year Restoration – Lotus Mark 6 #JZ 7890

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The Lotus Mark 6 represented Colin Chapman’s first attempt at building a vehicle which customers could purchase in kit form.

Chassis #JZ 7890 was one of the first eight built, therefore one of the first 13 Lotus cars ever built. The car was originally assembled with a 4 cylinder Ford Consul motor and Austin Gearbox by Patrick Stevens for owner Denis Wilkins. Wilkins competed in the car at numerous events in England during 1953 and in 1954 took the car to Ireland where he shared it with Ian Titterington. It’s best result that I could find is a third place at Kirkistown in an Open Handicap Final in June 1954 with Wilkins at the wheel. In 1955 the car returned to England and competed in the hands of George Pitt, Rodney Bloor and Ken Coffey before being sold, in 1963, to an owner in Bristol who intended to fit a six cylinder motor from a Ford Zephyr.

Despite the original engine and gearbox being stripped out and sold on the conversion was never completed and the current owner bought the engineless remains in 1976 and then spent thirty years piecing it together with another Ford Consul engine and an MG TC gearbox. A couple of months after returning it to the road in 2006 he drove it to Le Mans in France.

110 Lotus Mark 6 kits were eventually sold, including a one off trials version, scoring many competition victories and establishing Lotus as a specialist vehicle manufacturer.

Thanks for joining me on this “Thirty Year Restoration” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me for a Drag edition tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Silver Jubilee – Middle Barton Garage

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The self styled “Italian Shrine” Middle Barton Garage celebrated its Silver Jubilee last weekend and I joined fellow members of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club at Delamare services on the M4 at 8:30 am last Saturday to join in the fun.

Arthur in his 2006 Mustang GT led a couple of MX5’s a Westfield and yours truly in his humble Golf Mk IV Estate along some beautiful country roads as we took an indirect route with some challenging curves towards the newly relocated Middle Barton Garage which now lies just outside Somerton in Oxfordshire.

We arrived early to find an eclectic assortment of vehicles accumulating including this 1924 Bentley fitted with a normally aspirated 4398 cc / 268 cui six cylinder motor. If I ever get to drive a vintage car of any sort this would be one I’d choose, it looked all set to go like a steam train with little in the way of refinement or creature comfort.

Among the Middle Barton Garage friends and customer cars to turn up was this FIAT 124 Spider, one of at least two I saw on the day, a Barchetta, 128 3P and 500. Being polished in the background is a turbocharged racing Abarth 500.

The Abarth Osella PA2 was built for the 1974 European 2 litre / 122 cui sports car championship, there does not seem to be much agreement on exactly how many PA2’s were built a chassis #013 was offered by Bonhams 5 years ago. The Osella PA2s running with four cylinder engines from Abarth, BMW or Ford were outclassed by the works V6 powered Alpine Renaults in 1974 the final year of the championship. This car chassis #011 is painted in the colours used by Georgian Prince in Spanish exile Jorge de Baragation who drove chassis #001 to a victory at Jarama in 1974.

Alongside the production of their Talisman sports cars Tornado Cars of Rickmansworth, not to be confused with Tornado Sports Cars of Kidderminster, offered a FIAT 600 D conversion to a more powerful spec. David Render bought the one of seen here and his friend Colin Chapman suggested and organised fitting an even more powerful Lotus Twin Cam motor to this car, with which David won more than 50 trophies in sprint and hill climb events.

The 1950 GMC 100 Pickup above is being finished off by one of Middle Barton Garages neighbours.

As I left the Silver Jubilee celebration the Ferrari California Convertible and Maserati Bora 4th from right pulled up to join in the fun.

My thanks to Tony Castle-Miller of Middle Barton Garage and Nick of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club for organising the event.

Thanks for joining me on this “Silver Jubilee” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be taking a close look at a car driven by Queen Elizabeth II during her coronation year. Don’t forget to come back now !

Original Wing Car – Lotus Ford 78 #78/R2

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After the mixed fortunes of the Lotus 76 with it’s twin wings and electric clutch and the Lotus 77 with it’s fully adjustable suspension Colin Chapman introduced an aerodynamic innovation for the Lotus 78 featured today.

Like the ’77 the Lotus 78 was built around a narrow monocoque with an oil radiator in the nose,

but with much larger sidepods than any Grand Prix car seen before.

The front wings were used, in conjunction with the rear wing, to trim the aerodynamic balance of the car.

Using an idea first modeled at BRM by Tony Rudd and Peter Wright the side pods closely resembled the upturned inner wing of a de Havilland Mosquito which Chapman had studied and written a detailed account of.

Tony Rudd and Peter Wright joined Ralph Bellamy and Martin Ogilvie at Lotus to design the car and its side pods which produced prodigious down force to increase the speed at which it could go around corners without loosing grip.

While conducting wind tunnel tests for the Lotus 78 design at Imperial College London Peter Wright found that as predicted by Bernoulli’s principle of fluid dynamics which states that the flow speed of an ideal fluid with no friction will increase simultaneously with a decrease in pressure. Meaning in the case of the Lotus 78 the faster it went the more down force was generated by the side pods and so the better the car stuck to the road.

The Lotus 78’s, known as John Player Special III’s by Lotus and their sponsors, were ready to race midway through 1976, but Chapman wisely vetoed their use until 1977 so as not to give rival teams the chance to figure out what Chapman and his team had come up with and copy during the off season.

Starting the 1977 season Lotus had a huge advantage with the 78’s affording Mario Andretti 5 victories and his team mate Gunnar Nilsson with one more. However the unreliability of the Nicholson McLaren built motors played into the hands of Niki Lauda who, having more or less fully recovered from his near fatal accident in 1976, took only three victories and a string of podium places to claim the championship.

The car seen here at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu is chassis #78/R2 which Mario Andretti used to start the 1977 season before it was entrusted to Gunnar Nilsson who won the Belgian Grand Prix driving it. In 1978 before the even more radical Lotus 79 was introduced, Lotus returnee, Ronnie Peterson drove the car and snatched a thrilling victory with one lap to go in South Africa.

Mexican Hector Rebaque acquired the car at the end of 1978 season and used it along Lotus 78/R1 which he had been using since the beginning of the 1978 season.

Sadly Ronnie Peterson lost his life after an accident at the start of the 1978 Italian GP where he was driving the back up Lotus #78/R3.

Thanks for joining me on this “Original Wing Car” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when, thanks to some photographs from Geoffrey Horton, I’ll be looking at some of the vehicles in attendance at the Marin Samoma Concour’s d’Elegance. Don’t forget to come back now !

Still Born Beauty – Lotus Cosworth 96T

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Trained as a criminologist Roy Winklemann found employment as an investigator for the US Airforce before being employed by ‘the company’, assummed to be the CIA. During this time Roy had occasional outings as a driver in sportscars before setting up a team to run Dan Collins in a Chevrolet Corvette in Europe.

While founding a number of security related businesses Roy went on to run a variety of vehicles in Europe’s lower open wheel formula which culminated in him entering Jochen Rindt in a Formula 2 Brabham a combination which over 20 races dominating the formula in 1967 and 1968.

After his success with Jochen Rindt Roy Winkelmann disappeared from the racing scene through the 1970’s while he built up his diverse security empire, only to reappear in the US with a proposed Indy Car programme in the mid 1980’s. The plan was to compete with the unfair advantages of a works car and works motor rather than the customer route taken by almost all the teams except Penske, who made their cars available to customers.

Roy chose to hook up with his erstwhile partner Lotus and received assurances from Cosworth for a supply of works backed motors. The new car the 96T was built using current Formula One technology in the form of a carbon fiber monocoque, something that had yet to make an appearance at Indy, and rising star Al Unser Jr was signed up to drive the car for the 1985 season.

Under the direction of Gérard Ducarouge, Gene Varnier and Martin Ogilvy designed the Lotus 96T along similar lines to the Formula One Lotus Renault 97 T with which Ayrton Senna would win his first two Grand Prix in 1985.

However that is pretty much where the story ends because following the announcement, fearful of how a carbon fiber chassis would react to a secondary impact, USAC, organisers of Indy 500 moved to have carbon fiber banned from competition.

With rumours of the possible ban sponsors became impossible to sign up and the project came to a standstill without so much as the motor being fired up in the workshop.

Al Unser Jnr signed up late to join Doug Shierson for the 1985 and no more was heard from Winkelmann or the Lotus Cosworth 96T. The car, along with the Ferrari 637 among the most beautiful cars never to have been raced is seen here at last years Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Thanks for joining me on this “Still Born Beauty” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a feature on the 1962 Indianapolis 500. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Lotus

Coffee, Croissant & Cars – Avenue Drivers Club

007 @ Beaulieu – Bond In Motion

Out Of The Ark – Lotus Elan (Ark Racing)

Thirty Year Restoration – Lotus Mark 6 #JZ 7890

Silver Jubilee – Middle Barton Garage

Original Wing Car – Lotus Ford 78 #78/R2

Still Born Beauty – Lotus Cosworth 96T