Tag Archives: maserati

Autumn Classic – Castle Combe

Last Saturday morning I made my way to Castle Combe for the Autumn Classic meeting, regrettably the last but one racing meeting of the season, as you shall see I couldn’t make Sunday’s final Castle Combe meeting due to a commitment elsewhere.

This event marked the first visit by the Vintage Sports Car Club for thirty years. I followed the 1929 Dodge Brothers Senior above in through the gate.

In the paddock Sue Darbyshire was warming up her Morgan Super Sports for morning practice which qualified 6th for the VSCC Pre War Sports Cars race and in which she crossed the finish line of the race in 4th.

Out on the track practice for the Bernie’s V8 Historic V8 Racers Association race was well underway, the series caters for V8 powered cars racing on road legal treaded tyres. I was most pleasantly surprised to find one of less than 600 Maserati Bora’s built among the entries, Graham Burgess is seen above qualifying for 15th on the grid, he finished the race in 11th.

During the lunch break Julian Bronson demonstrated his 1960 Scarab Grand Prix car that was built, maintained and on occasion driven by Chuck Daigh for Woolworth heir Lance Reventlow. This is the third of the three open wheelers built and was raced by Chuck with a regular Offenhauser during 1961 in a couple of non championship Formula One races, with out the ill feted Desmodromic cylinder heads fitted to the first two cars.

After the success of the Spirit of the Sixties event held at Dyrham Park last year the Bristol Motor Club were invited to organise an Essence of Dyrham demonstration at Castle Combe last weekend, Martin Sheppard’s 1958 Stanguellini Formula Junior, was the only open wheeler to take part.

After the lunch break racing got under way in earnest with Chris Woodgate making the most of his pole position in his Aston Martin DB 3 to come home over thirty seconds to the good from Nicholas Ruddell in his #25 Aston Martin DB2/4, Nigel Batchellor seen in second place in the #36 DB 2/4 above dropped out, while Timothy Stamper lost 3rd place for several laps to Anne Reed before claiming back third spot on the podium in his #39 Aston Martin 2/4.

Anthony Reid stamped his authority on the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club Pre 1966 Jaguars race right from the word go, but there was plenty of action going on behind. Above John Burton in the #15 XK 120 carries evidence of cutting a chicane, John managed to hang on to 5th place eventually finishing 10 seconds ahead of Peter Dorlin’s #48 Mark 1 Saloon, after an entertaining battle Peter finished 1 place ahead of his brother Richard, in a Mk 2 Saloon.

The Big Healey Challenge race was interrupted by a pace car incident which virtually handed a one lap lead to forth place starter Anders Schildt from Sweden, but these classics still proved highly entertaining to watch as they grappled with Castle Combes notoriously undulating surface. Above Anders leads eventual third place finisher David Smithie who appeared to be closing Anders down for the lead until the pace car intervened effectively handing Schildt the John Gott Trophy on a plate.

If the Healey’s were struggling with Castle Combes undulations the Bernie’s V8’s fared little better as evidenced when a rear shock absorber failed on the #78 Dodge Challenger of Belgian Bert Smeets. The rare South African #6 Ford Capri Piranha of Andrew Haddon managed to lap the entire field in less than 40 minuets on his way to victory in a race which was also interrupted by a Safety Car period after an incident involving the series organisers Bernie Choodosh’s Chevrolet Corvette.

After lengthy repairs to the Castle Combe crash barrier the 50’s Inter Marque race provided plenty of thrills and spills. Nigel Webb just managed to keep his C-type Jaguar ahead of Nigel Bancrofts indecently quick Lotus Elite which was giving away over two litres / 122 cui in swept volume to the Jaguar. Webb came into hand over to Anthony Reid who regained the lead after the Elite’s mandatory pit stop and headed for his second trip to victory lane of the day. Bancroft who elected to drive solo finished second.

Tom McWhirter driving the unusual 6 wheel #23 Jaguar SS 100 is seen leading the opening lap of the the VSCC Pre War Sports Car race from the #21 HRG Andrew Mitchell and #29 Patrick Blakeney-Edwards Frazer Nash Owlette. Tom won the race by nearly 3 seconds from Andrew who in turn finished just over 16 and a half seconds ahead of Patrick.

The Twilight Challenge featured just seven starters but there were still battles aplenty thanks to the mandatory pit stop requirement. Tim Pearce claimed the victory in his Morgan Plus 8, the #73 Ford Falcon of Chris Clarkson above is hounded by the Jaguar E-Type of Alan Bull. Alan retired the Jaguar, while Chris and co driver Williams came home second 26 seconds adrift of the Morgan.

I hope it is not another 30 years before the VSCC returns to Castle Combe and that Bernies V8’s and twilight racing return early in the new year with bigger grids.

Full results for all last weekends races at Castle Combe can be found on this link.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Autumn Classic’ edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a 1954 Blue Flame powered sports car. Don’t forget to come back now !

Parkinson’s Research And Care – 8th Danville Concours d’Elegance

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The weekend before last saw the 8th Danville Concour’s d’Elegance take place, organised to raise funds for research into Parkinson’s desease. Thanks to photographs by Geoffrey Horton here are a few of the cars that took part.

The USA’s first World Champion driver Phil Hill is said to have been the first owner of this Aston Martin DB2, in 1951 a decade before he won the World Championship driving for Ferrari.

One of the worlds rarer Aston Martins is the DB2/4 with Italian coachwork by Serafino Allemano. This 1953 chassis #LML/761 was ordered by a customer in Casablanca who used it in local races.

Another mouth watering example of the Aston Martin marque was this DB5 1023 of these classic ‘James Bond’ models were manufactured between 1963 and 1965, most of them with out the swiveling number plates, bullet proof rear screen, ejector seat, machine guns smoke screen and oil slick that the handsome man with the Edinburgh brogue found useful until he crashed avoiding a mirror in Gold Finger.

Both yesterday and the day before saw the first ever Trofeo Maserati races taking place at Sanoma using racing versions of the Gran Turismo MC as seen above. Venezuelan debutant Alex Popow won Saturdays race with Grey’s Anatomy guest star Patrick Dempsey claiming 6th. Sunday’s results were unknown at the time of writing.

Fisker Automotive was founded in 2007 in Anaheim California, but has the hybrid Fisker Karma vehicles it markets manufactured by Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Among the novel features are a solar panel roof which contributes to the climate control system.

The McLaren MP4-12 C is the racing car manufacturers third road car after the 1969 M6GT (3 possibly 4 built) and 1992/98 F1 (106 built), like all McLaren’s road car projects the MP4-12 C draws heavily on it’s racing technologies which in this case includes a second brake pedal which acts on the inside rear wheel to minimise understeer.

From 1957 to 1963 Mercedes Benz manufactured 1,858 300 SL Roadsters, this one comes complete with the optional factory luggage cases and is one of less than 20 1957 vehicles fitted with Rudge wheels.

Since the 1920’s ALFA Romeo had offered straight six powered vehicles to it’s customers the 2600 or 106 series manufactured from 1961 to 1968 was the last of this line. Above is 1964 2600, one of 2,255 Spyders built, powered by a 145 hp twim overhead cam version of the straight 6.

So far as I have been able to discern the Iso Grifo A3/L above ‘might be’ the 1963 prototype shown by Bertone at the 1963 Turin Auto Show. Clues are the given 1963 date of the car and it’s current location. Sales of the 395 hp Chevy V8 cars did not begin until 1965.

Getting seriously psycho on tyres is Dennis Varni who on the 14th of September recorded a two way speed of 334.360 mph in this Chevrolet Streamliner powered by a turbocharged straight 6 motor at Bonneville.

Geoffrey was fortunate to get to the Danville Gala Dinner where this 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato was on display, it is the only one of the 19 original cars that still exist that has non faired-in headlights. The UK plate ’29 ALY’ has been reasigned to a 2002 Ford Ka.

Finally this 1955 Pegaso Tipo Z with a Saoutchik Coupé body is one of only two identical cars for international car exhibitions, at a cost of between US$15 to 35,000 they were amongst the most wildly expensive vehicles of their time.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photograph’s, there will be further blogs from Danville in the week ahead.

Thanks for joining me on this “Parkinson’s Research and Care” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at an MG. Don’t forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #1 Track Action

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I planned to get up at 4am on Friday and head to Goodwood at 5 prompt, the first part of the plan worked well but by the time I’d corrected a false start and gone back home to collect my ticket it was 5:30 am before I hit the road in earnest.

As I arrived at Goodwood the 8 O’clock news headline on the radio was about a controversy surrounding pictures of naked Royalty that had been published in France. I switched the radio off before the whole story had been told and headed off into a car park full of classic and cars where I found this mascot on a Daimler LQ20.

As I approached the bridge that acted as an entrance into the circuit I observed a tent full of people being transformed from 21st Century to mid 20th Century citizens for what is one of the worlds biggest, if not the biggest, three day Fancy Dress Nostalgia events.

Once inside evidence of the Dan Gurney for President campaign was hard to ignore, I bet the guy I would vote for is faster than any other presidential candidate that ever lived.

On my way to the pits I popped by to say hi to Paul Chenard from Nova Scotia in Canada, Paul is seen above with one of the ten limited edition laser cut in steel Ferrari GTO’s he has recently been working on. Given that there were 15 250 GTO’s present to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the model which these day’s are conservatively valued at $20 million dependent on provenance I imagine Paul did not have to take too many of these cool pieces home with him.

Thanks to an armband kindly lent to me by the owner of the Porsche in this linked photo, I was able to get into the pits to see and hear some of the cars as they were being fettled ready for qualifying for the Goodwood Revival invitation races. Above the Walker Climax Tec Mec Tipo 10 apparently was commissioned by Rob Walker for Stirling Moss in 1960 but was never raced in period.

The Tartra T603 from the former Czechoslovakia easily won the unofficial biggest exhaust pipes in the pits competition, they are attached to an air cooled V8. The car qualified a respectable 8th for both rounds of the St Mary’s Trophy with John Haugland and Arne Berg driving in the first and second races respectively.

After a short break for lunch, during which I caught up with acquaintances from The Nostalgia Forum, I started an anticlockwise walk of the circuit as Kenny Brack was securing pole for the Shelby Cup in a Shelby Daytona Coupé. I got to the Lavant Corners in time to see a demonstration of pre 1939 Grand Prix Cars which included V12 and V16 Auto Unions, Mercedes Benz silver arrows models running together for what is thought to be the first time since 1939. Unfortunately the poor commentators had no idea who was driving what and the programme notes are no help either. Above two V16 Auto Unions lead a Mercedes Benz, the V12 Auto Union an ERA and a pair of 8 cylinder Maserati’s.

As the autumnal afternoon unfolded a seemingly endless stream of storied automobiles passed by including this recreation of a 39 inch tall prototype Maserati 151/3 driven by Jochen Mass and owner Barrie Baxter, which was invited to join the GT cars in the TT Celebration race.

After the many trials and all to few tribulations of BRM with it’s V16 P15 built in 1950 the team eventually evolved into Grand Prix and World Championship contenders winning the 1962 World Manufacturers and Drivers Championships with Graham Hill at the wheel of a V8 powered BRM P57, with 8 neat exhaust stacks, similar to the one above driven by David Clark in the Glover Trophy.

The last time I remember seeing Brian Redman at the wheel of an Aston Martin was at Donington Park in 1989 when he was driving the brutal Aston Martin AMR 1 Group C car. Here Brian is driving a 1957 DBR 1 of the type which, unlike the AMR 1, won at Le Mans in 1959 with Carol Shelby and Roy Salvadori at the wheel. Brian is seen above on his way to 18th on the grid for the Sussex Trophy race.

Having started the morning in the fog bound Channel Islands one of only two remaining Avro Lancaster PA474 bombers, powered by four Rolls Royce Merlin V12’s made a flyover of the track just before the day’s only scheduled race started.

Anthony Reid stormed off into what looked like an invincible lead for the 90 minuet Freddie March Memorial Trophy race as the evening drew to dusk. However a gear box fault meant that when owner Nigel Webb took over there was only one gear available, 4th and so the #24 C-type fell back to an eventual twelfth place. This meant that all Alex Buncombe had to do was keep his #12 Jaguar Heritage Racing C-Type,which had started with John Young at the wheel, on the road to keep the lead. Alex did take the win but only after a lawn mowing incident at St Mary’s corner which resulted in Alex loosing his head lights for a good half an our before remembering where the switch was.

Thanks for joining me on this Goodwood Revival 2012 – #1 Track Action edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be taking a look at some of the MG’s at Goodwood. Don’t forget to come back now !

Theme Lotus – Goodwood Festival Of Speed

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On Friday I headed off under grey skies with friends, Tim, Pete and Dave to Goodwood House just outside Chichester for the Festival Of Speed.

The featured manufacturer this year was Lotus which was founded 60 years ago by Colin Chapman who’s cars not entirely uncoincidentally are currently also featured every Saturday here at GALPOT. Welcoming us on the way into Goodwood House was this 1967 AEC Swift based transporter used by Gold Leaf Team Lotus from 1967 to 1970 during which period team won two world drivers championships with Graham Hill(’68) and Jochen Rindt (’70) and two world constructors in the same years.

Gerry Judah’s art work on the lawn in front of Goodwood House featured no less than six cars five of them winners and a contemporary F1 car built in Enstone which I find as difficult to call a Lotus in the same way as I had trouble calling the Lotus 76 a John Player Special back in 1974.

In the paddock there were several cars I had heard of but never seen in the flesh including the six wheel, 4WD, 1982 Williams FW08B which was never raced thanks to a late call to ban more than four wheels from Formula Once cars with only two to be driven from the start of the 1983 season.

Of all the many stories of British grit in Grand Prix Racing perhaps none exemplifies how not to organise a team better than BRM which managed to organise the support in cash, kind and facilities from the British Motor Industry to make two of the most complex racing motors ever built. The first was a 1.5 litre / 91 cui supercharged V16 which comprised to 750 cc / 45.5 cui V8’s mounted back to back. The 500 hp motor, which could be taken up to 12,000 rpm, was more powerful than any of it’s contemporaries but the combination of organisational and design complexity did not result in a particularly reliable motor car. It did not win any championship Grand Prix, it was only entered in two but it did score championship points, and won a non championship 12 lap race at Goodwood. The most memorable thing about this vehicle is the sound it makes, utterly unmusical in comparison to a V8, and as harsh as granite, note two people in this photo are wearing ear defenders ! The smell of oil coming off it’s engine after the warming up session seen here was quite unforgetable too !

Amongst the sports cars this Maserati Tipo 151/3 is a 1980’s replica of one of three 151’s that were prepared for Le Mans in 1962 and then continually modified. The 151/3 seen here made of from orginal parts and fitted with the low Pierre Drogo body made from the same buck as the body made specially for the 1964 24 Hours at Le Mans where 151/3 was timed at 196 mph on the Mulsanne Straight, like the BRM P15 it suffered poor reliability and retired as it has had in ’62 and ’63.

Racing successfully against the original 151/3 were the Shelby American Cobra Coupé’s also known as the ‘Daytona’ Coupé. So far as I can tell this #12 car is chassis CSX2300 which scored a best 6th place finish at Daytona in 1965 with Ed Leslie and Allen Grant at the wheel, the cars next appearance was at Sebring where it carried the #12 with Leslie and Grant again driving finishing 13th.

Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt won the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours driving this Ford Mk IV, beating two Ferrari P4’s in the process thus avenging Enzo Ferrari’s last minuet refusal to sell out to Ford earlier in the decade.

The Matra 670 B with a long tail, by Matra standards, won Le Mans in 1973 with Henri Pescarolo and Gerrard Larrousse at the wheel, also beating a Ferrari this time a 312PB driven by Art Mezario and Carlos Pacé.

Above regular GALPOT contributor, through The Nostalgia Forum, Tony ‘Giraffe’ Gallagher happily accepts an invitation to sign 1980 IMSA Champion John Fitzpatrick’s programe.

Continuing the Diamond Jubilee celebrations this years Concours d’Elegance centered on numerous vehicles the Queen and other state dignitary’s have used, this De Haviland of Canada DHG – 1 Chipmunk was used by both HRH Prince Phillip and HRH Prince Charles for training purposes in the 1950’s and 60’s. Back in the day when I was a schoolboy and an RAF Cadet I went up in one of these on a couple of occasions, being handed the controls mid flight on one of them !

The De Macross GT1 appears to be constructed from a mix of Korean Finance, Canadian Manufacturing and US Roush Yates power and any number of styling queues taken from an equally diverse range of vehicles. The drivers name on the side of the car was none other than that of motorsports TV presenter Justin Bell.

Keeping folks entertained on two wheels were a number of youngsters who were doing things on motor bikes that I have only been able to aspire to dreaming of.

Sir Stirling Moss shares a little joke with former Jaguar works test driver and team mate Norman Dewis as they prepare for a quick blast up Goodwood’s hill climb.

Jackie Oliver drove a Gold Leaf Team Lotus 49B in 1968 here he is seen driving the 1967 Lotus 49 chassis R2, later renamed R11, that Jim Clark used to win the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix the first of 155 Grand Prix victories for the Ford Corworth DFV engine that powered it and the first of 12 for the Lotus 49 type.

Delivered nearly five years late and horrendously over budget the Eurofighter Typhoon made up for it with a simply stunning display of power, speed and maneuverability. With 40,000 lbs of thrust this plane can be flown like one of the better short nosed paper aeroplanes I used to make when I was a kid with the added bonus it does not crash when landing.

Paul Knapfield’s Ferrari 712 chassis #1010 haa a long story to tell suffice to say here that in period it has underwent two body upgrades from it’s original 512S spec and an engine upgrade to make it the Ferrari with the largest Ferrari motor ever raced. This car will be the subject of a blog in the fulness of time.

Le Mans 24 hours will be remembered this year as the first ever to be won by a hybrid diesel, the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässer and Benoit Tréluyer beat the the sister car of Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen, with a regular diesel coming in third. McNish is seen driving the e-tron quattro above which despite the stickers is not necessarily the car that crossed the line first at Le Mans.

The ‘Droop Snoot’ Vauxhall Firenza “Old Nail” belonging to Paul Chase-Gardener scored over 60 victories with Gerry Marshall at the wheel back in the 1970’s Gerry’s son Gregor, another contributor to GALPOT through The Nostalgia Forum, was scheduled to drive this car later in the weekend.

There were several Citroen DS3’s entered on the Goodwood Rally stage I believe this may have been the DS3 WRC example of Thierry Neuville, but I’ll happily take a second better informed opinion if you have one to add below.

One of the pleasant rewards for taking the time to walk to the top of the hill was finding this Skoda Octavia vRS, a car that might not ordinarily bring the phrase ‘psycho on tyres’ to mind however this one had it’s turbo 2 litre / 122cui engine uprated from 200 hp to 500 hp and along with a few other safety mods achieved 227.080 mph at Bonneville to claim the 2 litre production car class record with Richard Meaden at the wheel last year.

Four time World Drivers Champion Alain Prost was the honoured driver at Goodwood this year, though there were probably more vehicles present that were associated with Dan Gurney including the McLaren M6B, driven on this occasion by owner Andy Boone, which Dan modified so much it gained the ‘McLeagle’ sobriquet. Dan’s efforts were not enough to beat the Bruce and Denny show, Denny won the championship. Gurney’s best result with the car was a 4th place in the 1968 Can Am race at Riverside.

It’s always great to see and hear a little NASCAR action, Goodwood marked the first occasion on which I have seen a Camping World Truck Series (CWTS) truck in action, the #3 Chevrolet Silverado was driven by Austin Dillon to the Championship last season his brother Ty was scheduled to drive over weekend.

Largest vehicle on the track was the Race 2 Recovery MAN 8×8 Dakar support truck driven by Ben Gott. Race 2 Recovery plans to enter a team of Land Rovers in next years Dakar Rally all driven by injured soldiers. If you would like to help their cause you can find details on this Race2Recovery link.

All too soon after a pleasurably exhausting day wondering around the grounds of Goodwood House without having seen everything it was time to say a quick hello to a couple of friends and then rejoin my passengers for the two hour back to the future drive home, my nomination for top car in the car park award went to the DeLorean DMC-12 which was substantially re-engineered by Lotus founder Colin Chapman, prior to the commencement of production in 1981.

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

Silver Jubilee – Middle Barton Garage

Choices Choices – Simply Italian National Motor Museum Beaulieu

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In the interests of keeping my regular Friday readers happy I needed little convincing by GALPOT regular David Roots to forgoe the delights of the Avenue Drivers Club monthly meeting at Queens Square, in order to take a trip to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu for the third Simply Italian parade on Sunday.

On the way down I passed at several cars making their way to Queens Square, a magnificent Alvis and several other vintage cars taking part in a Vintage Rally, and a number of classic sports cars taking part in a Classic Rally before stumbling accross this F40 as it slowly made it’s way through the achingly picturesque village of Beaulieu, pronounced ‘Bewley’.

In the never seen one before category was the Vignale Gamine, one of just 300 vehicles, based on a FIAT 500 platform with a 21 hp 2 cylinder motor. This slow selling Alfredo Vignale pet project led to Carrozeria Vignale going out of business and the production facility being acquired by de Tomaso for their Pantera models.

One of my favourite toys when I was not yet six was a Lancia Flamina similar to the 1962 Coupé seen here which had yellow jeweled headlights.

Appropriately on the other side of the car park to the Vignale Gamine was this de Tomaso Pantera which with it’s Ford motor and running gear has to be one of the most practical and affordable ways of running a genuine Italian super car.

Speaking of practical this 2010 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Baldoni, one of just 250 550 hp 200 mph 2 wheel drive super cars with a distinctive white and gold stripe was carrying a child seat on the passenger side. The owner told me he has had the car just nine weeks and in that time has driven it 5000 miles at 25 mpg on the road and as little as 5 mpg on track days. He has also had to replace a set of tyres !

Around lunch time the grounds of the National Motor Museum echoed to the sound of LEFT ! RIGHT ! LEFT ! RIGHT ! LEFT ! RIGHT ! LEFT ! as a squad of 13 field gunners from HMS Sultan ended a 56 mile weekend yomp with a limber and 12 pounder field gun, of the type used during the Boer War, in tow. The gun and breach alone weighs some 400 kgs, nearly 900 lbs ! All of this was to honour the men of 40 Commando in the Falklands Conflict who covered the same distance in 1982 to retake Port Stanley and to raise funds the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity, follow this link to find out more and make a donation.

After lunch the results of a public vote for the most popular vehicle present was announced, the 1988 FIAT Panda 4×4 above, which came complete with a fitted tent was awarded a bottle of Beaulieu Bubbly, a local sparkling wine.

A well deserved second went to GALPOT regular David Roots and his Lenham based ALFA Romeo 4C Special,

while most visitors votes went to this Maserati Merak.

My thanks and congratulations to David for telling me about this fabulous event which was interspersed with visits into the National Motor Museum which I shall cover in greater detail on Sunday.

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