Tag Archives: MG

Two Beat Half Note – Bath MINIM

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Until 2013 16 year olds were permitted to drive three wheel vehicles with learner plates and a provisional driving licence, when Gerry Bath in `north Somerset reached that age in 1946 short of the funds to buy a Morgan he decided to build a three wheeler using a Raleigh chassis, with a single steering wheel at the front, and engine to which he fitted an open 3 seat abreast body with enclosed wheels and fold down windscreen.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

A Mr. Walker of Walker and Ward of Cheltenham was keen to put the body into production but a shortage of preferred proprietary Reliant chassis scuppered the plan, before selling the Raleigh Special in 1952 Gerry fitted the Raleigh Special with a Ford 8 engine and gearbox which improved the performance but adversely effected the life span of the front fork spindles.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

By this time Gerry started building and running his first competition special, the Pegasus, which was built while he was working for a Ford agent in Bath from the discarded parts of two Triumph Super 7’s and an ex Ministry of Defence Ford 10 engine.

Gerry drove the Pegasus competitively from 1951 in races, driving tests, sprints and hillclimbs winning his class at Naish Hillclimb outside Bristol after three run off’s against a Morris Special driven by Ashley Cleave in June 1953 by which time Gerry was an employee at the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

The Pegasus was sold to a competitor in Cheshire who competed with it at Oulton Park and Gerry’s next project transforming his 1939 Ford Thames van into a special, was facilitated by the acquisition of a brand new van in late 1954 which Gerry chose in favour of a couple of Bugatti’s he had been offered around the same time.

The open two seater Ford Special carried Gerry to a class victory in a sprint at Long Marston before he decided to sell it and continue his competitive driving with his by now much modified 1954 Ford Thames van in club rallies.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Gerry built one more open special for the 750 to run in the 750 Formula however after first designing the car around a 1931 Austin chassis in 1957 it took until 1964 to complete and so was considerably out of date thought Gerry did win his class in sprint at Castle Combe in August 1964.

Further modifications were carried out to the 750 Formula Special for the 1965 season and after competing with it a couple of times Gerry retired from racing open cars for good saying “I am convinced that the time and money spent on a car for racing is out of all proportion to the amount of enjoyment derived from it “.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Instead Gerry continued competing with a Mini van and later his last special today’s featured MINIM which started out powered by a MG 1100 engine and gearbox transversely fitted to a chassis which was fashioned with a pair of Mini front subframes… at both ends !

Gerry also an accomplished jazz pianist no doubt had much fun fashioning the name plate as the rest of the car with it’s perspex sunroof and cut down Mini doors and Mk1 Mini exterior hinges.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

The Bath MINIM was registered for the road on the 11th of September 1972 and used in competition for “many years”.

After retiring from the British Aircraft Corporation into which the Bristol Aircraft Company had been absorbed in 1960 Gerry continued his interest in motoring helping others prepare and run competition vehicles in French hillclimbs and making 45 improvements to his Lotus Elite which was featured on Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres many moons ago.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Gerry died in 2014 aged 83, more details on his specials can be found on Pete Stowe’s linked page here, and an appreciation of his life on James Page’s linked page here.

The man responsible for giving the Bath MINIM, seen at Castle Combe Autumn Classic in these photograph’s, it’s most recent MOT, roadworthiness certificate in September 2015 confessed to the current owner that he was surprised the car passed at the first time of asking without so much as an advisory, a testament to Gerry’s thoroughness if ever there was one.

MINIM, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Thanks for joining me on this “Two Beat Half Note” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Dakar Defender. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Le Jog – Aust Services

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At the beginning of December Le Jog passed through Aust Services for an Autotest in the Car Park, below are some of the runners and riders.

MG A, Volker Haltenhof, Horst Pokroppa, Le Jog, Aust Services,

Volker Haltenhof and Horst Pokroppa collected a nice round 100 min time penalty and were classed 30th in their 1957 MG A.

Rover P4, Robert McClean, Susan McClean, Le Jog, Aust Services,

Spirit of the Rally Trophy winners were Robert and Susan McClean who were classified 19th in their 1962 Rover P4.

Porsche 356, Jonathan Miles, Andy Elcomb, Le Jog, Aust Services,

The #10 Porsche 356, also built in 1962, was driven by Jonathan Miles and Andy Elcomb who were classified 11th overall first in class and won a Bronze Medal Status.

Volvo 123GT, Roger Osborne, Barbara Osborne, Le Jog, Aust Services,

Roger and Barbara Osborne appear to have retired their #4 Volvo 123 GT early in the event, which was won by a similar car driven by Andy Lane and Iain Tullie who clocked up just 8 mins 1 sec in penalties over the three day drive from Lands End to John O’Groats.

Austin Mini, Rachel Vestey, Owen Turner, Le Jog, Aust Services,

Classified 14th in their 1972 Austin Mini 1275 GT were Rachel Vestey and Owen Turner, Australian Rachel won the Ladies prize too.

MG B, David Maryon, Andy Ballantyne, Le Jog, Aust Services,

The 1966 MG B driven by David Maryon and Andy Ballantyne also retired from the event.

Thanks for joining me on this “Le Jog” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Daytona 24 Hour competitor. Don’t forget to come back now !

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A Section Lady Traffic Patrol _ MG A 1600 Roadster #GHN 70453

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MG launched it’s MG A 1600 in May 1959 which was powered by a 78hp 1558 cc / 95 cui four cylinder engine sufficient for a 98 mph top speed.

MG A 1600 Roadster, Goodwood, Revival

From this distance I can’t help but feel that someone at Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters, in Preston, would have had to have had the best interests of road safety at heart, and also a great sense of humour, if he had decided the best way to keep the rule of law on Lancashire’s busy highways and byeways was to procure a fleet of 50 MG A 1600s, split them in to A Section, differentiated with white cars and B Section differentiated with black cars and deployed them on Traffic Patrol’s with only lady police officers at the wheel.

MG A 1600 Roadster, Goodwood, Revival

In this day an age such a scheme would surely be met with howls of derision and a fair amount of protest and in fact looking at the photo linked here it would appear that Bonhams were misinformed about the female officers only policy when today’s featured car came up for auction a few years ago.

Chassis #GHN 70453 is one of the cars from the mythical ‘A Section’ that was delivered on the 8th of July 1959 it was restored by Brown & Cook, of Hoddesdon, Herts back to it’s police specification although the public address megaphone regrettably no longer works.

Thanks for joining me on this “A Section Lady Traffic Patrol” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Mercedes Monday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Classic Competition Cars – Classic Motor Show NEC Birmingham

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Today’s blog is all about some of the classic competition vehicles at last weekends Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

Rosemary Smith, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

A couple of weeks ago I went to a talk at which Rosemary Smith, winner of the 1965 Tulip Rally driving the Hillamn Imp above, was to be the guest of honour, unfortunatley she had a fall and so could not make it so it was great to see her on her feet again at the Classic Motor Show despite the fact that some of her bones were still on the mend.

MG B Roadster, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Rosemary drove a Ford Cortina Lotus on the 1968 London to Sydney Rally and finished 48th six places behind Jean Denton who drove the MGB GT Roadster seen above in need of some tlc, who finished 42nd.

Discovery Beetle, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Among the taller vehicles at the show was the road legal Gulf liveried Discovery Beetle, above, built on a shortened 1996 Land Rover Discovery chassis and fitted with a 300 TDi which being lighter and more aerodynamic than a standard Discovey goes well on the road and is perfect for off road trials.

Cooper Daimler T87, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Having acquired a 1966 Cooper T81 formula one car and fitted it with a 7.2 litre / 440 cui wedge engine for hill climbing Martin Brain acquired a 1967 Cooper T87 Formula 2 chassis and had it fitted with a 2.5 litre / 152 cui Daimler hemi V8, more commonly found in the SP250 and V8 250 Daimler models, for hill climbing on tracks with tighter corners. The car was rescued from a Swedish Museum in 2011 by Gillian Goldsmith better known as a successful equestrian and car racer Gillian Fortescue-Thomas who has since competed with the Cooper Daimler as has her daughter Samantha.

Gould NME GR61X, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Powered by a 650 hp Nicholson McLaren Engines (NME) 3.5 litre / 213 cui development of the Cosworth HB Indy car engine the Gould NME GR61X is the most successful car ever to compete in British Hill Climbing with Scott Moran claiming 133 wins and Roger Moran claiming a further 16 and Alex Summers 8 since the cars first appearance in April 2005.

Empire Wraith, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Successful Trike hill climber and Empire Racing Cars founder Bill Chaplin called Dutch born Formula One aerodynamicist Willem Toet, most recently at Sauber, to work on the Empire Wraith hill climb challenger which is powered by a 180hp Suzuki GSR K8 motor. This example built at the Empire factory in Stathe Somerset in 2013 is the first of three built to date and is driven by Clive Austin and Chris Aspinall.

Healey Westland, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

In 1948 Donald Healey and Geoffrey Healey drove the Healey Westland above to a ninth place finish on the Mille Miglia, the following year Tommy Wisdom and Geoffrey finished 10th in the same event in the same car.

Marcos Prototype, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

By 1959 former de Haviland aircraft engineer Frank Costin had a CV that included designing the Vanwall Grand Prix challenger that won the inaugural World Constructors Championship in 1958 and subsequent demand for his attention included that of Jem Marsh with whom he founded Marcos Engineering in Dolgellau, North Wales. The prototype Marcos, using the same plywood construction techniques de Haviland used to build the Mosquito fighter bomber the Vampire jet fighter, built in 1959 powered by a Ford 100E engine is seen above awaiting some well earned tlc having disappeared in Lincoln for many years.

Italia 2000GT, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Only 329 Italia 2000 GT’s were built by Vignale and in 1996 Jorg Von Appen had #210, one of five Italia’s he owned converted to race spec to take part in the TR Race series, it survived four races and was recently purchased by the proprietor of Patterson’s Original Pickles.

Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

After withdrawing from Formula One at the end of 1962 Porsche built their first tube framed fiberglass bodied sports car which would culminate in the development of the 917 and later 936 models, originally known as the 904 Porsche badged the car Carrera GTS in deference to Peugeot’s ‘digit “0” digit’ numbering system. The GTS seen here was I believe used in competition by Claude Barbier and possibly later by Cyr Febbrairo.

BMW GTP, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

No doubt much to the annoyance of Formula Ring Meister Bernie Ecclestone the manufacturer who supplied the engines for his Formula One Brabham team split it’s efforts in 1986 between Formula One and the IMSA GTP series and invested in four March 86G chassis and fitted them with a 2 litre / 122 cui version of the BMW engine that had powered Nelson Piquet to the World Championship in 1983. A BMW GTP was driven to it’s only victory by Davy Jones and John Andretti in the Watkins Glen 500, while the Brabham BMW team scored on 2 championship points in the worst season for the team up to that time.

Eagle HF89, Classic Motorshow, NEC, Birmingham

Dan Gurney’s All American Racers graduated to the IMSA GTP class in 1989, after claiming the driver’s and constructors’ championships in the GTO division Chris Cord in 1987, the teams all new HF89 was designed by Ron Hopkins and Hiro Fujimori and the following year Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio II drove HF89’s to three victories in the Topeka 300, Sears Point 300 with Rocky Moran and Del Mar Fairgrounds Road Circuit in November 1990.

Thanks for joining me on this “Classic Competition Cars” edition of Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Carrera Panamericana challenger. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Five Cylinder Tim – MANBAT Pegasus Sprint Castle Combe

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Last month saw the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club organise it’s final sprint of the year the MANBAT Pegasus Sprint at Castle Combe, as ever with an event involving over 100 competitors many members of the BPMC the Bristol Motor Club and a few others besides along with the team at Castle Combe all mucked in to make it happen.

GTM K3, Graham Matthews, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

Here are a few random snaps of the day taken from my vantage point on the start line that I hope give a flavour of the day that was probably better suited to ducks than Motor Sport, above Graham Matthews only made one successful practice run in his GTM K3 before withdrawing from the event.

Marcos Mantis, Philip Jones, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

Before the weather was forecast Philip Jones must have fancied his chances of Marcos Mantis competing for the fastest time of the day in his 4.6 litre V8 powered machine but he had to settle for 1st in the Road going Specialist Production Cars class and consul himself that the conditions kept him 14 secs off the fastest time of the day.

MG PA, Howard Harman, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

If there had been a prize for being quickest of the two pre war MG’s present it would have gone to Howard Harman seen above in his 1 litre MG PA who was one and a half seconds quicker than Martin Price in his 1 1/4 litre MG TA.

TVR Vixen, Ian Stallard, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

Given the power of some of the more recent TVR’s present it is perhaps surprising that the fast TVR time was set by Iain Stallard, above, in his four cylinder Ford powered TVR Vixen which had less than half the cubic inch capacity of all the other TVR’s present.

Triumph TR3A, Tom Purves, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

Tom Purves Triumph TR3A was the oldest and slowest representative of the marque present of those who set a time.

JCB LOADALL, Les Rawlins, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

Les Rawlins, Castle Combes Mr Fixit, might have struggled to set a competitive time in his JCB LOADALL, fortunately his skills fixing the barriers were only called on the once.

Mitsubishi EVO6 GSR, Mike McBraida,MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

Mike McBraida set fastest time at the wheel of his turbocharged Mitsubishi EVO6 GSR in the Road going Series Production Cars over 2600cc class.

Reliant Scimitar GT, Nick Hall, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

The Reliant Scimitar GT driven by Nick Hall was third in the Road going Specialist Production Cars, Car engines over 1800cc and Motor Cycle engines class.

Audi Quattro, Tim Clarke, MANBAT Pegasus Sprint, Castle Combe

Winner of the MANBAT Pegasus Sprint was Tim Clarke who set the fastest time of the day in his five cylinder turbocharged Audi Quattro, a car last seen on these pages indulging in a spot of lawn mowing at Hullavigton.

My thanks to all those who contributed to such a splendid day in the rain, and thanks for joining me on this “Five Cylinder Tim” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a cool one off contender for the Carrera Panamericana. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Bird’s Wyedean Win – Wyedean Forest Rally

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On Saturday I popped over to the Forest of Dean to see the 40th Weir Engineering Wyedean Forest Rally for which 175 entries had been received.

The Wyedean started and finished at Chepstow Race Course and was run over 8 stages making a total of 43.42 stage miles that were linked by 98.37 road miles.

MG ZR, Gemmell, Beebe, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally,

This was the first Rally I had been to since the 1985 Lombard Race Rally, during the course of the day I visited two stages the 3.26 mile Blaze Bailey on the eastern edge of the Forest of Dean near Soudley and 6.02 mile Mailscot near Staunton on the western edge.

Above co driver Matt Beebe directs enthusiastic spectators in their efforts to get driver Richard Gemmell and his MG ZR out of a mud trap that saved the car from a couple of hundred foot drop into an abyss on the last corner of the Blaze Bailey stage, the #243 crew recovered to eventually record a 100th place finish from the 120 crew’s who made it back to Chepstow.

Mini Cooper S, Lewis, Fife, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

Unfortunately I was not party to any radio communications during the event which made it impossible to follow what was going on in terms of positions and stage times so today’s blog will be limited to photographs of the winners of the 5 classes which split into a total of 16 sub classes each with a winner along with an overall winner.

The historic class was divided into four, winners of the H1a Class were Peter Lewis and Paul Fife in the 1963 #255 Mini Cooper S, seen above in the Mailcot Stage.

Datsun 240Z, Easson, Reynolds, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally

Back in 1971 and 1973 Datsun 240 Z’s driven by Edgar Hermann and Shekhar Mehta respectively won the gruelling East African Safari Rally proving the model was no flimsy boulevard cruiser.

It was therefore perhaps no great surprise that Jeremy Easson and Mike Reynolds won class H2b on Saturday with their #53 240Z built in 1974.

Mazda RX7, Scannell, Stevens, Blaze Bailey, Whedean Rally,

Nowhere near as noisy as it’s circuit racing siblings was the 1979 #48 Mazda RX7 crewed by class H3b winners Jake Scannell and Adrian Stevens which like the #53 Datsun is seen on the Blaze Bailey stage above.

Ford Escort RS1800, Elliot, Price, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally,

The Ford Escort in MkI and MkII guises was a rallying staple through out the 1970s, winning the 1970 World Cup Rally in MkI form and the 1979 World Rally Championship in MkII form.

The #24 Escort RS1800 Replica above crewed by Nick Elliot and Dave Price won the H4 category and as we shall see was one of three MKII shelled Escorts to win awards on Saturday, the #24 started life as a far more mundane 2 door Ford Escort Popular.

Nissan Micra, Quinn, Carmen, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

Three classes were run for the Rally First starter series for novice crews running production cars with a few basic competition safety features.

The RF 1.0 class for cars running motors of no more than 1 litre / 61.5 cui was won by the 2001 #260 Nissan Micra S crewed by Nick Quinn and Neill Carmen seen above on the Mailscot Stage.

Volkswagen Polo, Handford, Davies, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally,

Morgan Handford and Richard Davies took top honors in RF1.4 despite taking the longest route around the final corner of the opening Blaze Bailey stage in their 1999 #236 Volkswagen Polo 1.4 16V.

Volswagen Polo GTi, Smith, Houldsworth, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

Top starter class RF1.6 honours were taken by Mick Smith and Calvin Houldsworth driving their 2001 #220 Volkswagen Polo GTi seem above on the Mailscot Stage.

MG ZR, Riddick, Riddick, Mailscot Wyedean Rally,

The BTRDA kick Start 1400 series is run in two classes for slightly more sophisticated cars than the Rally First vehicles, but with tightly controlled stock restricted specifications on motors and suspensions.

Winners of Class 1400 C were the Scotish pair Keith and Mairi Riddick in their 2001 #227 MG ZX.

Vauxhall Corsa, Bennett, McNeil, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally,

The slightly more liberal 1400 S class was won by #201 Vauxhall Corsa crewed by David Bennett and Alistair McNeil seen above on the Blaze Bailey stage following a much better line through the final corner than the #236 RF1.4 class winning VW Polo.

Ford Fiesta ST, Cook, Jones, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

Group N is an internationally recognised production based category that allows only safety modifications and a free choice of electronic control unit (ECU) for the motor, the success of the category can be judged by the fact it has remained largely unchanged since it’s inception in 1982.

Winners of the Group N3 class for vehicles with motors up to 2 litres / 122 cui on Saturday were Geno Cook and Ryan Jones who drove the #66 Ford Fiesta ST seen above in the closing gloom towards the end of the final Mailscot Stage.

Mitsubishi EVO IX, Thompson, Murphy, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally,

Russ Thompson and Andy Murphy won the over 2 litre / 122 cui Group N4 class driving the #10 Mitsubishi Evo IX seen on the Blaze Bailey Stage above.

Peugeot 205 GTi, Lloyd, Roberts, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

The top five classes, B10, B11, B12, B13 and B14 cater for a range of specialised vehicles which must retain FIA crash tested type body shells, which precludes the use of space / tube frame specials.

Winners of the up to 1600 cc / 97.6 cui B10 class were Thomas Lloyd and Sherrin Roberts in their formerly Grey 1987 #60 Peugeot 205 Gti running with non period LED fog lights.

Ford Escort Mk II, Elsmore, Harrold, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

Graham Elsmore and Stuart Harrold won the first three Wyedean Rallies from 1975 to 1977, the pair were also British Group One, similar to Group N, champions in 1977 and competed for works Ford, Triumph and Vauxhall teams in to the 1980’s.

They were loaned the #32 Ford Escort Mk2, seen hanging it’s tail out on the Mailscot stage above, by event sponsor Rob Weir, Graham and Stuart repaid Rob’s kindness with an up 2 litre / 122 cui class B11 victory.

Ford Escort Mk II, Phelps, Manuel, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally,

Over 2 litre / 122 cui B12 class honours were won by the #61 Ford Escort Mk2 crewed by Tim Phelps and Elwyn Manuel, their car is powered by a 2.4 litre / 146 cui motor who’s origin I was not able to determine during the course of the event.

Mitsubishi EVO IX, Elsmore, Edwards, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

Graham Elsmore’s son Nik is a proper chip off the old block, he was 1999 BRTDA Gold Star champion and shared the #21 Mitsubishi Evo IX above with Matt Edwards to finish 5th overall and win the B13 class for vehicles over 2 litres / 122 cui with four wheel drive.

Ford Fiesta ST, Payne and Williamson, Mailscot, Wyedean Rally,

The events Press officer Andrew Haill kindly explained that despite finishing behind 2 other B14 competitors James Payne and Carl Williamson driving the #3 Ford Fiesta ST above on the Mailscot stage were awarded the top honours in class B14 because the top three overall finishers are excluded from class awards.

Ford Focus WRC 07, Bird, Davies, Blaze Bailey, Wyedean Rally,

Clear overall winner of the 40th Weir Engineering Wyedean Forest Rally with five stage wins and 3 second fastest times was 2005 ANCRO National champion Cumbrian Paul Bird and his Welsh co driver Aled Davies driving his 2007 #1 Ford Focus WRC.

Paul, the head of Paul Bird Motorsports who run PBM Moto GP and British Superbike teams, has finished 2nd twice on this rally before was thrilled to win the event at the third time of asking.

Paul finished last season with two straight rally victories, which has now become three and he will be looking to make it four on the Malcom Wilson Stages Rally on March the 7th.

If you have never seen a forest rally in person I can heartily recommend it, your fellow spectators are unfailingly friendly, kids seem to love the sport, one six year old on Saturday managed to detain his Dad on the stages for many hours beyond the original two Dad had planned for the visit and most National Forests in the UK can be visited for free, though there maybe charges for car parking, as for example the reasonable £6 being charged for Forestry parking on the Mailscot Stage.

Thanks for joining me on this “Bird’s Wyedean Win” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at King Richards ’67 Plymouth Belvedere. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Best Of British – Heritage Motor Center

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On my way home the other day I took a wrong turning off the M42 and decided to continue along the M40 to the Heritage Motor Center at Gaydon.

MG ADO 70, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.

I arrived just in time for a tour with a guide being a mid week afternoon it was a one to one tour. Among the exhibits are many prototypes from the British Motor Corporation / British Leyland / Austin Rover / MG Rover conglomoration prior to it’s collapse in 2005, above is a Prototype MG built on the 1970 Mini 1275 platform by Michelloti.

March 701, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.

There are a smattering of cool racing cars going right back to Austin’s earliest day’s, above the 1970 March 701 chassis #701/4 which Jackie Stewart drove to 2nd place finishes in the Dutch and Italian Grand Prix.

Austin Seven Swallow, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.

In 1922 Austin launched the Seven as an economy working mans model, in 1927 William Lyons founder of the Swallow Side Car company decided to build an upmarket convertible version and the following year followed that with a saloon, the one above was built in 1933, Swallow Side Car eventually became Jagaur, some other brands that the Austin Seven unwittingly helped to establish are BMW, Bristol and Lotus.

Austin A90, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.

Among my favorite categories of vehicles at the Heritage Motor Centre are the adventurers the 1955 Austin A90 above was driven 17,500 miles by Richard Pape from North Cape in Norway to Cape Town in South Africa between July and October 1955. The White 1922 Austin twenty in the background was bought by a Mr Filby for £33 in 1932 and then driven 37,000 miles to Cape Town and back.

Land Rover City Cab, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.

There are several vehicles which have appeared in films in the Heritage Motor Centre collection, above a Land Rover City Cab that appeared in the 1995 movie Judge Dredd.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.

Rover was thrust into the white heat of technology in during 1939 – 45 was when it was asked to turn Sir Frank Whittle’s prototype gas turbine jet engine into a production unit, a project Rolls Royce had to turn down because it was too busy building the Merlin V12’s. After hostilities Rover built 5 road vehicles powered by gas turbines including the 1961 T4 above. The car eventually went into production in 1963 as the P6 marketed as the Rover 2000 regrettably with a 2 litre / 122 cui 4 cylinder motor replacing the gas turbine.

My thanks to Dave my tour guide for a highly entertaining 45 min tour.

Thanks for joining me on this “Best of British 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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