Tag Archives: Moss

Mille Miglia Tribute – Goggomobil TS Coupé

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Over the last couple of years here at GALPOT Towers I have seen a few tribute cars from a modest #177 1967 Monte Carlo winning Mini to the enormous #3 1950 Le Mans Cunningham Cadillac Petite Pataud with the occasional odd ball like the #88 Mountain Dew MG B thrown in, but I’d hazard a guess that today’s cut down Goggomobile TS Coupe which stands as a tribute to the #722 1955 Mille Miglia winning Mercedes Benz 300 SLR of Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson is the strangest tribute car I have seen yet.

Goggomobil TS Coupe MM Tribute, Goodwood Revival

Goggomobil was a brand belonging to Glas that manufactured 4 different micro vehicles between 1955 and 1966 when Glas was taken over by BMW.

Goggomobil TS Coupe MM Tribute, Goodwood Revival

The car seen here would appear to be a TS Coupé that has had the roof and doors removed while the windscreen has been replaced by two ‘Brooklands’ aeroscreens.

Goggomobil TS Coupe MM Tribute, Goodwood Revival

Because the car is on foreign plates I have not been able to determine either it’s age or the engine size. What ever the exact details the engine will be an aircooled two stroke straight twin of between 250 cc / 15.3 cui and 400 cc 24.6 cui which would give somewhere between 13 hp and 20 hp depending on size.

Goggomobil TS Coupe MM Tribute, Goodwood Revival

The #722 Moss/Jenkinson 300 SLR, which won the 1000 mile street race at an all time record average speed of 97.96 mph, is widely regarded as being the worlds most desirable and expensive car, if Mercedes Benz were to ever make it available. One of the remaining Goggomobil TS Coupés, of the total 66,511 built, could be purchased for anything up to €7,000/£5,800,/USD 9000 depending on condition.

Thanks for joining me on this “Mille Miglia Tribute” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a li’l red Corvette. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Goodwood Revival 2012 – #6 Lotus

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Today’s post features some of the Lotus cars that were on track at Goodwood Revival last week.

Lotus Ford 30, Goodwood Revival

The looks and early form of the Lotus 30 flattered to deceive even with Jim Clark at the wheel, this one driven by Paul Wright features the cool exhausts coming out of the top and is one of the few whose lines have not been spoiled with a rear spoiler.

Lotus Ford 29, Goodwood Revival

Dan Gurney played an instrumental part in taking Lotus to Indy in 1963, this is the Lotus Ford 29 chassis #29/2 Dan used in practice for the 1963 Indy 500 until he put in the wall during morning practice on Pole Day. Dan qualified the spare chassis #29/1 running the #93 12th and finished the race in 7th place after a late pit stop dropped him from 3rd.

Lotus Climax 24, Goodwood Revival

Lotus designed the space frame Lotus 24 for it’s customers in 1962, while keeping back the new monocoque Lotus 25 for the works team. The Climax powered #23 driven by Michel Wanty above is chassis #942 which was one of two supplied to the British Racing Partnership Team racing under the UDT Lystall banner for Innes Ireland and Marsten Gregory to drive. Gregory drove the car once to a 7th place finish in the ’62 British Grand Prix while Ireland retired the car in five from seven races started before finishing 5th in the South African Grand Prix.

Lotus BRM 24, Goodwood Revival

British Racing Partnerships also used a BRM powered Lotus 24 in 1962 with which Gregory managed a best 6th place in the ’62 US Grand Prix, the following season BRP fielded two BRM powered Lotus 24 for Ireland and Jim Hall, Jim finished 6th in the British and 5th in the German Grand Prix. The Lotus BRM 24 driven above by Nigel Williams is chassis #P1 which was supplied to the Reg Parnell Racing team for 1963. Marsten Gregory, Roger Ward, Hap Sharp and Chris Amon all had a go in it with Sharp scoring a best 7th place in the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix. The following season Peter Revson drove the car now fitted with bodywork from a 1963 Lola Mk4A, as seen above, for Parnell on two occasions in Belgium and Britain without any worthwhile results.

Lotus Climax 21, Goodwood Revival

Dan Collins was out in the Classic Team Lotus entered Lotus Climax 21 #933 which I looked at in December.

Lotus 18, Goodwood Revival

Rob Walkers famous Lotus Climax 18 chassis #912 used by Stirling Moss to win the 1960 and 1961 Monaco Grand Prix was being driven by Stephen Bond.

Lotus 16, Goodwood Revival

Entered by Real Auto Club Catalunya was the Lotus 16 driven by Joachim Foch-Rusinol seen here blasting past the 1959 Tec Mec Maserati 250F at St Mary’s corner. The 1959 Lotus 16 was Colin Chapman’s second seat design after the 1956 Lotus 12.

Lotus Bristol X, Goodwood Revival

Finally the 1955 Lotus Bristol X driven by Malcolm Paul and Rick Bourne, who is seen at the wheel here, charges into the evening during the Freddie March Memorial Trophy race to a 6th place finish.

My thanks to Wouter Melisson from The Nostalgia Forum and http://www.ultimatecarpage.com for his help identifying Michel Wanty’s Lola Mk4A bodied Lotus 24.

Thanks for joining me on this “#6 Lotus Edition” of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me tomorrow for a look at what happens when a dictatorship put’s all the necessary resources into the hands of a couple of racing teams. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Leased Winner – Lotus 18

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Following the lead set by Cooper Cars winners of the 1959 World Manufacturers Championship for Formula One cars Colin Chapman took the rear engine plunge and built the Lotus 18 open wheeler that could be entered with the correct engine spec in to either Formula Junior, Two or One races.

Lotus 18, Donington Museum

Rob Walker, heir to the whiskey family of the same name, leased a Lotus 18 with a Coventry Climax motor for Stirling Moss to drive in the 1960 Grand Prix season. On the cars debut, in Monaco, Stirling qualified on pole and eventually won the race, giving Lotus their first Formula One victory after both Jo Bonnier in a BRM and Jack Brabham driving a Cooper Cliax had spent time leading the intermittently wet race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yH9fiJX1_s

An accident at Spa interrupted Stirling’s 1960 season but he bounced back with a win at the season ending US Grand Prix again driving this Lotus 18 for entrant Rob Walker. The following season a smaller Coventry Climax motor was fitted to this chassis, seen here at Donington Park Museum, as required by the new regulations for the 1961 season.

Stirling Moss, Lotus 18, Monaco 1961

(Copyright holder unknown image will be removed or credited upon request)

Amazingly Stirling Moss managed to not only win pole at Monaco in 1961 ahead of three more powerful shark nose Ferrari’s but then, after dicing with Richie Ginther in his Ferrari, proceeded to win the race, a then record setting third Monaco Grand Prix victory.

Lotus 18, Donington Museum

Later in the season Stirling Moss would take his final Formula One victory driving the Lotus 18, fitted with newer Lotus 21 bodywork, at the German GP at the Nurburgring. At the start of the 1962 season Moss was lucky to escape with his life from a career ending accident at Goodwood before the Grand Prix season got under way.

Thanks for joining me on this Stirling Moss 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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Stovebolt Special – HWM Chevrolet #49 ?

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HWM Stovebolt Special, Pebble Beach, Carlyle Blackwell

Photo Carlyle Blackwell, Publised Courtesy Blackwell Archive, for sales enquiry’s please e-mail infoATpsychoontyres.co.uk and your contact details will be forwarded to the Blackwell Archive.

On Wednesday when I started today’s blog I thought lovely black car rare make, probably not too much history. As you’ll see below I could not have been more wrong in my assessment of the task ahead.

Hersham and Walton Motors (HWM) acquired an Aston Martin Dealership in 1951 reputedly making it the oldest such franchise.

Racing drivers & HWM owners George Abecassis and John Heath first built a streamlined body on an Alta sports car chassis in 1948.

The first proper HWM’s were also 4 cylinder Alta powered and built for the second tier European open wheel series called Formula 2 in 1950.

This is one of those 1950 open wheel cars allegedly driven by none other than Sir Stirling Moss at the start of his career.

Thanks to information passed on by David McKinney, it appears that this vehicle still fitted with an Alta engine was purchased in 1953 by 20th Century Fox and used in the film ‘The Racers‘ staring Kirk Douglas and Bella Darvi, this film was also known as ‘Such Men Are Dangerous’ in some countries.

During filming the car was heavily damaged, later Tom Carsten purchased all the vehicles from the film, selling most of them on, but keeping the HWM because it had independent suspension and fitting it with a 302cui /4900 cc Chevrolet V8 which was then bored out to 4994 cc / 305 cui by Edelbrock.

The car was also fitted with a quick change rear axle and experimental disc brakes by Hallibrand.

Bill Pollack, seen in this photograph by Carlyle Blackwell, confirmed as having to be at Pebble Beach by Bill himself, is known to have driven the at least twice in 1956 during which time chassis acquired the nome de course ‘Stovebolt Special’.

Bill was a regular winner at events such as Pebble Beach (two times), Golden Gate Park, Reno, Torrey Pines, Stockton, Madera, Willow Springs, Palm Springs, and the Santa Barbara road races, the most famous of which was in an Allard J2 at Pebble Beach from which his book ‘Red Wheels and White Sidewalls‘ takes it’s title.

JB Miltonian informs me that a version of this photo with the driver in an obviously retouched red shirt appeared on the cover of Sports Car Illustrated in September 1956 with the caption “Rounding the last turn at Pebble Beach is Bill Pollack in the latest Carstens bomb, the HWM-Chev V8. A complete breakdown of the car starts on p12. Ektachrome is by Carlyle Blackwell.”

The Stovebolt Special is known to have been raced until at least 1963.

In 1980 John Matherson restored the car which appeared in the Pebble Beach Concours in 2003.

HWM Stovebolt Special, Alan Raine

As seen in this photo by Alan Raine most recently the Stovebolt Special has reappeared in the UK driven by Simon Taylor.

According to one source Simon’s car is now listed as having a 5737 cc / 347 cui motor.

There is some disagreement as to the chassis number of the Stovebolt Special with options including #49 – 001 ,49/02 and even FB 102, should Simon Taylor get in touch I’ll ask him and add a post script.

My thanks to Carlyle Blackwell for the photo, Ed and Steve Arnaudin who kindly sent it on to me and TNFers David McKinney, Alan Raine, fnqvmuch, Tim Murray, Roger Lund, Mark Godfrey, JB Miltonian, and Vince H, who helped reveal the story behind the ‘Stovebolt Special’.

Please keep the Arnaudin family in your thoughts and prayers at this time.

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

28 07 12 PS My thanks to Pamela Blackwell who has kindly retrospectively given me permission to post the photo’s her father took.

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Austin Healey Sebring Sprite

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The Austin Healey ‘Sebring’ Sprite name refers to any Austin Healey Sprite with front disc brakes and more recently to any Sprite with Coupé or Fastback bodywork.

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Following a change in the sports car regulations in 1960 which allowed special bodies, rally and racing driver John Sprinzel commissioned Williams & Pritchard to build 6 aluminium bodied Sprites with coupé bodywork between Dec 1960 and May 1961.

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This 1960 vehicle purchased new by Cyril Simson started life as a standard Austin Healey Sprite registered YLN13, Cyril changed the registration to S221 and raced it as part of Team 221 with two other sprites H221 and X221.

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Paul Hawkins drove it to victory at Aintree and S221 was part of the Sprinzel Sprite Team that took team honours at the Nurburgring.

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Originally powered by a 43 hp 948 cc / 57 cui motor this particular unit, prepared by Janspeed, was shown to be delivering over 85 hp at the recent Race Retro exhibition.

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For 1961 the car was prepared by John Sprizel and it was one of the six Sprinzel cars sent to Williams & Pritchard to be fitted with a aluminium coupé body.

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The car was then driven in practice by Stirling Moss for the Sebring 4 hours who promptly stripped the clutch and transferred to another team car after repairs were made Pat Moss & Paul Hawkins drove S221 in the four hour race. S221 was then prepared again overnight for Cyril and Paul Hawkins to drive in the Sebring 12 Hours where they came in 37th.

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In August 1961 S221 was sold to Peter Clark and it was reregistered and rolled at the Karrussel on the Nurburgring. The car was repaired and an extended fast back body was fitted by Peel Coach works.

The longest term owner of this vehicle Colin Pearcy had Len Pritchard make a new alloy rear end and coupé top and most recent owner Chris Clegg reunited the car with its S221 registration and has driven it competitively for several years with Archers Motors taking care of the race preparation.

My thanks to Janspeed who facilitated the photo’s of the engine and interior.

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

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Private Investigations – Maserati 300S #3053

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Thanks to Ed Arnaudin’s superb photography we can have a look at the Maserati 300S at Lime Rock on May 9th 1959 that was raced by Joe Guibardo in Northeastern America during the 1959 season.

Just 28 Maserati 300S models were built from 1955 to 1958 to compete in the World Sportscar Championship. Thanks to contributions from Sir Stirling Moss the 300S is credited with three World Sports Car Championship victories two of them on the 14 mile Nurburgring in ’56 and ’57 along with many other wins in national races in Europe and the United States. In fact as with the the Ferrari 860 Monza we looked at yesterday Juan Manuel Fangio also drove a Maserati 300S to victory this time on two occasions in Brazil in 1957.

The 300S was powered by a 3 litre / 183 cui variation, with a lengthened stroke, of the 6 cylinder motor that was used simultaneously in the Maserati 250 F with a lower compression ratio to cope with the most commonly available fuel as stipulated in Sports Car regulations of the time. The drum brakes and stiffened suspension also show strong signs of 250 F heritage.

A trellis structured chassis was covered in an aluminium body penned by Madardo Fantuzzi who was also responsible for the second version of the Maserati 150S.

Perhaps the most incredible of Maserati 300S stories is that a 300S was raced against both a Porsche 908 and 910 in Brazil as late as 1971 ! Unfortunately we do not know the end result for the Maserati in that race but even so I hope you’ll agree a quite remarkable achievement just to enter a 15 year old design into a contemporary sports car race.

Slightly of topic regular GALPOT readers who really pay attention may recognise the name of the 5th place driver at Interlagos Antônio Carlos Avallone.

Allegedly Mark Knopfler is a long term Maserati 300S Owner.

Joseph Giubardo appears to have raced in Austin Healeys and MGs from 1954 to 1962 and used this 300S chassis #3053 from at least 1957 to 1959 scoring at least one class win at Thompson CT in 1957.

My thanks as ever to the Arnaudins for taking and sending the photograph and to Walter Baemer of International Maserati Research for identifying who this vehicle belonged to.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Dire Straights edition of “Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres” and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a gargantuan Edwardian from the USA that recorded the first international race victory for an American driver. Don’t for get to come back now !

PS Slightly off topic but continuing the private investigation in to this photo graph wonderng if anybody recognises either the kid in front of, or the owner and hound in the, 1950 Cadillac Series 61 Sedan ? Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.

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Colin’s Eleven – Lotus XI

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Today’s photographs by Ed Arnaudin conclude our coverage of Race 1 at Thompson, CT on July 20th 1958 with a look at the winning Lotus XI of Floyd Aaskov.

Approximately 270 Lotus XI’s were produced from 1956 to 1958 including the Series 2, often unofficially referred to as the XIII. the Lotus Eleven Register believes around 200 have survived.

The XI could be built to accept a variety of engines most like Floyd Aaskov’s seen here were fitted with a 4 cylinder 1098 cc /67 cui Coventry Climax engine. Like the Lotus IX we looked at yesterday the bodywork was penned by Frank Costain and crafted by Lotus neighbours in Hornsey, Williams & Pritchard.

It is believed the Lotus XI model was driven to over 148 victories in 1956, additionally Stirling Moss set a class G closed circuit lap record at Monza of over 143 mph in a 67 cui XI with a special cockpit fairing and Peter Jopp and Reg Bicknell took class G honours and 7th overall at Le Mans although the boss, Colin Chapman, driving the larger engine Class E XI having survived a miserably wet night was disappointed to retire while running second in the 1500 cc 91.5 cui class to a Porsche with engine failure.

Legend has it that the XI was so close to Colin Chapman’s affections that early Lotus road models were given names evocative of the number Eleven,hence the Elite, Elise, Elan.

Floyd Aaskov, in the #12 Lotus XI seen taking the starting flag in second place here is known to have raced from at least 1957 to 1968, records indicate he may have started racing in a ’57 Mercedes 300 SL which seems a tad fanciful though no doubt stranger things have happened. Running competitively in the GM class Lotus XI until 1962 he then moved on to the pre Can Am USRRC series with larger sports cars. Records indicate Floyds last season was 1968 when he drove a Camaro in the Trans Am series, this may not be the complete picture on his career, if you know different please chime in below !

The cars I and others have been able to discern on the grid thus far are :-

Row 1 #15 R Nerney, Abarth 207A Spider, #12 Floyd Aaskov, Lotus X1
Row 2 #92 Nick Fallone Jomar MK 2 #28 Ray Saidel, Jomar
Row 3 #113 Paul Bleustein, Cooper, #26 Len Bastrup, Lotus IX
Row 4 # ????? #27 P Sagan, Fiat Abarth 750 GT Zagato
Row 5 #95 J Iglehart, Nardi MD4 Spyder #46 J Mull D B Panhard # ?????? #?????

Interestingly one source has a #150 Lotus XI anchoring the entry list for this meeting scheduled to be driven by one and only ‘Walter Cronkite‘.

Thanks as always to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for the fascinating photographs, to Terry O’Neil for the results to everyone on the Fuzzy Longshot Identity thread at TNF including Vitesse2 and raceanouncer2003 for their contributions. I believe that is the way it was.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s eleventh hour edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at a seriously old timer at Bridgehampton in 1957. Don’t forget to come back now !

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