Tag Archives: MG

The Saturday Club – Jaguar XJ220

What better way to show your passion for your work than by attending informal after hours meetings with like minded fellow employees to work on unofficial pet projects ? Such was the enthusiasm of Cheif Engineer Jim Randle and select fellow employees at Jaguar in the 1980’s that their ‘Saturday Club’ generated Jaguars XJ220 super car designed to take on Ferrari, Lambourghini and Porsche in the super car market head on.

The XJ220 as originally proposed and shown to the public featured a mid mounted quad cam 6.2 litre / 378 cui V12 all wheel drive scissor doors and a projected top speed of 220 mph.

The XJ220 was further developed into a production model by Jaguar Sport and Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) who ran factory backed racing programmes for Jaguar with the XJS and later XJR models.

In production guise the XJ220 appeared rear wheel drive and with a smaller but more powerful 3.5 litre / 213 cui twin turbo V6 taken from the MG Metro 6R4 rally programme.

Many customers and above all speculators were not best pleased with the change in specs of the production model and tried unsuccessfully to sue Jaguar for the return of thier deposits. The last XJ220’s were sold for a third of their asking price in 1997, and still fetch a similar price today.

In 1992 works Jaguar racer Martin Brundle recorded a top speed of 212 mph road spec XJ220 which with the catalytic converters removed managed 217 mph at the Nardó Ring in Italy.

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

A Passage From India – Rover CityRover

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In 2000 BMW gave up on it’s attempt to revive the Rover Group after six years and sold most of the assets packaged as the MG Rover Group to the Phoenix consortium. At this point all models, bar one the ’75’, in the MG Rover groups portfolio were around five years old and Phoenix determined that their first new car would be aimed at the city car market segment that had once been an almost exclusive preserve of the Mini, a product of earlier incarnations of the MG Rover Group.

MG Rover Group did not have any research and development assets so they looked for a partner that would be offered a stake in the group in return for a new car. A deal was done with Indian manufacturers TATA who would build a version of the first ever completely indigenous Indian passenger car the Indica.

The design criteria for the Indica were that it would be the size of a Maruti Zen, similar to the Suzuki Cervo Mode, the internal dimensions of the Hindustan Ambasador, a cast off from a previous in carnation of the MG Rover Group that is still in production who’s design heritage can be traced back to the Morris Oxford of 1948, the price of a Maruti 800, another Suzuki related product, and the running cost of a diesel.

The design work was carried out by I.D.E.A. in Italy and after a false start with some quality issues the TATA Indicia, launched in 1998, with a Peugeot derived motor proved to be a big hit on the Indian sub continent. Despite the absence of a development budget, apart from the badging, alterations made to the Indicia to suit the needs of European motoring included an upgraded engine to produce 84 hp and exceed more stringent emissions regulations, increase in road wheel size from 13 to 14 inches and corresponding alteration of gear ratio’s, stiffer front and rear spring rates, lowered suspension and increased gearing for the steering.

Production of the Rover CityRover began in Pune India in 2003 but the cars launch was marred by questions over the MG Rover Groups finances and by the newly crowned 2004 European Car of the year the FIAT Panda which was a game changing generation ahead of the CityRover and cheaper too.

While the CityRover was praised for it’s performance and handling it was let down by interior quality, lack of equipment and above all headlining city car market segment price. In July 2005 MG Rover was liquidated with the loss of 6,000 jobs in the company and a further 25,000 jobs in related suppliers companies. Nanjing acquired the assets of the MG Rover Group.

Around 6000 CityRovers, such as the base Solo model seen here, were sold in it’s first year and a further 1200 Mk2 versions were sold through non franchised dealers after the MG Rover Groups liquidation.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘CityRover’ edition of getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’. I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Coupé built in The Netherlands. Don’t forget to come back now !

Wessex Sprint – Castle Combe

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This week I will be catching up with a couple of days activity at Castle Combe, a morning at Mallory Park and a visit to the Bugatti Trust at Prescott.

A couple of weeks ago I took some advice from our Prime Minister, David Cameron, and had great fun doing my bit for the motor racing community by marshaling at the Wessex Sprint, organised by the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club, of which I am a new member and the MG Car Club (SW).

A sprint is an event in which competitors race against the clock on this occasion around a single lap of the Castle Combe Circuit. Here are a few snaps taken during the lunch break and suspension of the competition.

Jeremy Hawk told me his MG J2 above has been in his family since 1953 when it was acquired for the princely sum of £85 some years later it made STD at a sprint at Castle Combe just like it did last week.

This #73 Peugeot 309 GTi was shared by Tom Siebert and Henry Siebert Saunders was completely stripped out and running with plastic side window’s to reduce weight.

Car of the day IMHO, if only because of the sound of it’s 5 cylinder turbocharged motor, was the #75 Audi Quattro shared by Tim Clark and Andy Tanner, wondering if anyone knows if this a genuine works car ? It certainly looked and sounded the part. Andy just beat Tim to win the Modified Limited Production Class.

The Rover V8 powered MGB Kayne Special shared by John and Jonathan Biggs ran in the Sports Libre Class.

Tim Moreton and Dean Robertson shared the ‘Dick’ Terrapin a Kawasaki powered vehicle with a Wharholian paint job.

I do not remember the last time I saw a Royale RP 30 in action, but the first time was around 31 short years ago ! This example driven by Bob and Anne Adams is powered by a Vauxhall 16v motor in place of the Ford Pinto with which it was originally supplied to race in Formula Ford 2000 events. Bob took the Racing Cars over 1600 cc class honours.

Proudly displaying it’s V8 kills from a couple of years ago was the similarly Vauxhall, 4 cylinder, powered but methanol fuelled Pilbeam MP62 chassis #14, built in the late 1980’s, of Kevin Lealan who won the Fastest Time of the Day award.

Running cars one at a time in batches of four meant my fellow start line marshals and I only got a break from the action for lunch, very nice sweet and sour chicken with rice & chips, then again later when the weather turned sunny, the sunlight interfered with the timing beam until the beam receiver was fitted with a shroud and on a couple of occasions when the Castle Combe farmer wanted to cross the track in order to bring in his hay bales.

I would recommend volunteering to be marshal to anyone who is interested in getting involved in motor sport, you will probably have a fun day and get to make a few good friends in the local motor sport community.

Thanks for joining me on this Wessex Sprint edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at this weekends racing at Castle Combe. Don’t forget to come back now !

He who is first will later be last – Auto Gymkhana

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Flush with success after my first production car trial, last weekend I joined members of The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club and took part in an Auto Gymkhana for the first time at Sheepcot Farm not far from Chepstow.

(Ben in his Mitsubishi Colt finished 6th Overall)

There were 12 entries 11 of which stayed for the full 24 stages of the competition which centred on variations of 4 basic tests.

(Nick and Andy shared Andy’s Marlin, Andy finished 2nd and Nick 8th)

The first group of tests focused on parking skills in forward and reverse alongside a plank of wood. Not such a difficult task but when done competitively in one manoeuvre surprisingly difficult to get the wheels as close to the plank as possible without touching the plank. The competitor who parked with the front wheel closest to the plank won. There were further parking tests to see who could park closest to a cone.

(Kia Picante in which I came 10th)

Next came a timed slalom first time round I got the gates a bit mixed up at the end which meant I somehow contrived to travel a longer distance than necessary. Driving my landladies mothers Kia Picante I was woeful on this test deciding that discretion was the better part of valour I aimed to improve my times through each timed run and tried to avoid scratching the car by running too close to the markers.

(Daihatsu Curore shared by Chris and Coralie who finished 3rd and 4th.

I did much better when it came to driving round the slalom holding a pint of water in my own time spilling less water than most I finished in the top 3 each on each of the 3 occasions this test was run.

(Ken in the Mercedes C220 CDi with the amazing turning circle finished 11th)

The hillclimb proved relatively simple for everyone except for Ken in his Mercedes C220 CDi which could handle the turns but had no weight over the rear axle to afford the necessary traction over the final incline which got progressively more slippery.

(Nick soon came to the conclusion that his Mazda 626 did not have a good enough turning circle)

Finally there was an autotest which involved driving round a course of tight circles parking in garages and some reversing. Nick dropped his Mazda 626 out of the competition immediately when it became apparent his car simply did not have anything like enough steering lock to compete. He ended up sharing Andy’s Marlin instead.

(Alan brought his Hawk HF3000 in 9th.)

Alan driving a Hawk HF 3000 Lancia Stratos replica powered by a 3 litre ALFA Romeo V6 needed a co-driver on the autotest in order to open the passenger door and make calls on the positions of the cones when reversing ! I jumped in to help Alan on a couple of occasions and was struck by the heat coming off the radiator in front of the footwell and the engine mounted directly behind the seats. A fabulous car to sit in for the slalom though.

(Mal in his all conquering MG Midget Mk3 )

Clear winner of the event was Mal in his MG Midget Mk3 which he bought for just £250 many years ago.

My thanks to Martin and team of marshals who ran a wonderful days competition, to Tim who kept score of the days activities to Alan for the the ride in the HF 3000 and congratulations to Mal.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Auto Gymkhana edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Wuzzum – WSM Sprite #202

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Douglas Wilson-Spratt the designer of the WSM Sprite had an engineering background with the car division of the Bristol Aircraft Company which included experience as a production test driver. Douglas worked with Jim McManus, founder member of the Healey Drivers Club and former salesman at the Donald Healey Motor company to set up the Healey Centre in London to cater for the performance Healey Market in 1962.

793 XPP is a 1962 MG Midget fitted with a Douglas designed aluminium body beaten by Peels Coachworks featuring a glass fibre bonnet for Douglas’s son in law Mike Lewis .

This second Douglas Sprite conversion known as WSM 202 was driven to numerous victories in racing and hill climb events by Mike in 1963.

The WSM initials of Wilson-Spratt and McManus, only became a marque name after a couple of American owners needed a name for their import documents, WSM’s are occasionally referred to as Wuzzum’s.

Production was suspended after the ninth WSM was completed in 1965 and restarted with Sanction 2 WSM Sprite’s in 2008 which are still available from WSM Cars.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Wuzzum edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Sunday Service – MINI Plant Car Park

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I took the 191,000 mile Passat out for a 180 mile spin yesterday to the MINI plant in Cowley just outside Oxford where the PistonHeads had organised a Sunday Service, a free gathering of 800 folks who like to worship their cars.

When I read through the list of vehicles that were booked to attend including a Ferrari California at the top of the list, my sceptical, if it’s too good to be true on the internet it is, side imagined some of those hoping to attend might be having a laugh.

However as evidenced by this very expensive tax disc, many people did in fact turn up in the vehicles promised, of the 50 plus vehicles from 28 manufacturers I photographed there were two current different model Rolling Royces, five Ferraris, helping to secure Ferrari Fridays for a while yet (!), 5 Bristols in 4 flavours a couple of Chevrolets and a 1938 Ford Deluxe Hotrod.

On an absolutely freezing morning the MINI visitor provided a welcome shelter with a completely eclectic collection of Mini’s both originals and Retro models photo’s of which I look forward to sharing in the fullness of time.

The meeting started at 9 am prompt and we were asked to clear the area by 1 pm. Ironically the afternoon drive home was in brilliant sunshine which would have been very welcome while I was taking these pix, but I guess we can’t have everything, certainly not in January.

With over 400 photographs to sort out I thought I’d share a handful of details to give you a flavour of what is to come here at Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres !’

I’d like to thank everyone at Pistonheads and the MINI visitor centre who made my first Sunday Service so much fun and finally I’d like to thank all the PistonHeads who brought such a fascinating collection of vehicles.

Hope you enjoyed some of the details in today’s edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a trip inside the MINI Visitor centre. Don’t forget to come back now !

Federal Spec – MG Midget 1500

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Today’s blog is a little thank you to peteran51 whom I know as Piet who a couple of weeks posted a link to one of his favourite cars the #238 Frank Hernandez Austin Streamliner on the Spridget Register website www.spridgets.net in Germany.

The British Motor Corporation MG Midget started out life as a badge engineered Austin Healey Sprite MK II in 1961 reviving the successful Midget name which MG had used in the 1930’s.

By 1972 the Midget had completely replaced the Sprite in the now British Leyland Motor Corporation model line.

This 1979 version is powered by a 1493cc / 91 CUI motor taken from the Triumph Spitfire with a modified 4 speed all synchromesh gearbox from the Morris Marina.

Production ceased on 7th December 1979 making this particular vehicle registered in 1979/80 in Reading one of the last of the 73,899 Midget 1500’s that had been produced since 1974.

Midgets today are still raced regularly with dedicated Midget series in the UK which has been running since 1977. Parts are still available thanks to British Motor Heritage which owns original press tools sufficient to supply complete Midget body shells.

My thanks again to Piet for the heads up, I hope you have enjoyed today’s US Federal bumper spec edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you will join me again tomorrow for something that I will photograph at a Piston Heads Sunday Service later this morning. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS It’s sad to report that Psycho on Tyres contributor Ed Arnaudin, who took all of the late 50’s sports car photographs it has been my humble privilege to share this past couple of months is not very well, I hope you will join me wishing him a full and speedy recovery.

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring