Tag Archives: Psycho

Born out of an Austin Maxi – AC 3000 ME

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Born out of an Austin Maxi – AC 3000 ME

Stumbled across this lovely little AC 3000 ME at Silverstone many, many moons ago.

Auto Carriers (AC) can trace it’s roots back 1903, but is probably best known to my generation for two cars that it did not design, namely the AC Ace a design which started life as a Weller engined Tojero and was purchased by AC before eventually morphing into the brutal AC Cobra.

Similarly the AC 3000 ME started out as an Austin Maxi, I’ll repeat that for the more incredulous reader Austin Maxi (!) powered special built by Peter Bohanna and Robin Stables which after AC took it over became a Ford, top of the UK range, 3 litre / 183cui Essex V6 powered vehicle.

AC made just 71 of these vehicles starting in 1979 until production was halted at the Thames Ditton works in 1984. A further 30 3000 ME’s were produced under license by AC (Scotland) including a unique Alfa Romeo V6 prototype. One for collectors to look out for one would imagine.

No AC’s of any kind were built between 1985 and 1996.

Wishing you all a relaxing Sunday and hoping Kevin Harvick can put one over the #48 and #11 at Matinsville tonight. Hope springs eternal for this ‘Happy’ fan 🙂

Don’t forget to come back now !

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A Spider for the sqeamish ! – FIAT 124 Spider

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Way back in the Dark Ages I learned to drive in a FIAT 124 Special T, the car I’d rather have been driving is the shorter wheelbase 124 Spider.

With body work designed by Pininfarina the Spider was introduced in 1966 and production continued until 1985.

This particular model was sold as the 2000 Spider between 1979 and 1982 before production moved from FIAT to Pininfarina for three final years.

Thanks to everyone who has joined me this week, wishing you all a fabulous weekend, don’t Forget to come back now !

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The #3 From 1/32nd scale to 1:1 – Scalectrix Mini 1275GT

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There used to be a joke that the first thing a man would do on the announcement that his partner had given birth to a boy he would go out and buy a Scalectrix set. And indeed I remember buying one for a friend as his wedding gift, prophetically his wife gave birth to three sons, triplets !

Photo Neil Munn – http://www.munz.co.uk/scalextric/

Scalectrix is Britain’s premier entry brand into the world of 1:32 scale slot car racing. Launched in 1957 Scalectrix has produced many sets based on various layout’s with two little Mini’s to race.

The 1970’s #3 1275 GT Mini shown here, picture courtesy of Nei Munn, is a fictionalised racer based loosely on the 1960’s Britax Mini Cooper .

It was perhaps no surprise to see a full size replica of the #3 Scalectrix Mini at the Mini Festival recently. The 1275 GT replaced the Mini Cooper completely in in 1971. The hideously restyled, by Roy Haynes, boxy front end was based on the Austin Maxi and was safer but comically less efficient aerodynamically than it’s predecessor. For all it’s faults the restyled Mini did achieve success in racing Richard Longman becoming two time British Touring Car Campion in 1978/79 in his 1275 GT and still has its fans today.

Thanks for coming by, don’t forget to come back now !

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Take a bow Dave Randall – Ginetta G4

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A couple of months ago I was visiting my folks up near London, went for a walk and and stumbled into this wonderful 1966 Ginetta G4 belonging to Dave Randall.

He told me his car is fitted with a Ford 1500 cc 91 cui engine and that he races it in the HSCC Historic Road Sports Series. It turns out the next day Dave went to Mallory and scored a perfect Q1, F1, C1 and fastest lap !

Not bad racing against more powerful Morgan’s and Triumphs.

Research has revealed that Dave won the 2010 HSCC Historic Road Sports Series Championship with one round to go. Congratulations Dave !

Wishing everyone a sunny day, don’t forget to come back now !

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Perfect car for a wedding #2 Humber Super Snipe MK IV

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This is a magnificent Humber Super Snipe MK IV from my collection of Wedding vehicles.

Powered by a 113 hp 4138cc / 252 cui overhead valve straight 6 this vehicle is capable of 91 mph with an average fuel consuption of a wallet burning 15.5 miles per (imperial) gallon.

Production of 17,993 examples of this model commenced in 1952 and ceased in 1958. The car is by UK standards an enormous measuring 197″ by 71″.

Wishing all the best to every one getting married today, don’t forget to come back now !

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Everything stops for the – Bentley T

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Today I am looking at this Bentley T twin to the most successfull Rolls Royce in history the Silver Shadow.

The only discernible difference between the Shadow and the T was the grill which was, simpler to manufacturer, lighter, smoother and largely responsible for the Bentley at £ 5375 being £50 cheaper than the Shadow when introduced in 1965.

The T was the first Bentley to feature a monocoque construction. The car was ‘adequately’ powered by a 6230 cc / 380 cui Rolls Royce V8, power output was never mentioned in connection with Rolls or Bentley at this time, presumably because ‘adequate’ in connection with a vehicle weighing 2 tons avoided any embarrassing direct power to weight ratio comparisons.

Where the T really scored over the Shadow other than marginally more discrete badging was exclusivity, between 1965 and 1977 16,717 Series 1 Shadows were built against just 1,703 Series 1 T’s

Thanks for joining me, don’t forget to come back now !

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Race Winning Myth – Triumph GT6

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Race Winning Myth – Triumph GT6

A couple of months ago I got up horrendously early to go filming with the only namesake I know, Opposite his house was this MK3 Triumph GT6.

The GT6 was originally concieved by Giovani Michelotti and Triumph in 1963 as a Coupe version of the 4 cylinder Triumph Spitfire and was to be known as the Spitfire GT4. Unfortunately while the styling won plenty of kudos the Spitfires 1147 cc / 70 cui engine struggled to cope with the extra body weight.

However the boffins in the Triumph racing department saw the advantage of using the sleek GT4 body for it’s upcoming 1965 Le Mans programme and made fibre glass copies of the fast back and grafted them on to the tuned racers they were building, thus the racers did not incur the same weight penalty as the one off GT4 built by Michelotti. The Spitfires of Jean – Jaques Thuner / Simo Lampinen and Claude Dubois / Jean-Francois Plot came in 13th and 14th winning their class against several Alpines non of which were classified as finishers.

Triumph decided to capitalise on the racing success by developing the GT6 fitted with the 6 cylinder 1998cc 121.9 cui engine from the Vitesse model. The handling of the Mark I GT6 launched in 1966 was so bad, it understeered/pushed terribly compared to the Spitfire because of the extra weight of the 6 cylinder engine, that huge improvements to the rear suspension were introduced for the 1968 MK2.

The MK3 GT6 introduced in 1970 features a completely different body to the earlier versions broadly in line with upgraded of the Spitfire MKIV. The GT6 MK3 comfortably out performed it closest competitor the MGB 0-60 mph by nearly 3 seconds and top speed by 12mph yet the MGB outsold the GT6 despite the marketing myth that the GT6 was developed from the “race wining Le Mans Spitfires”, when as we have seen the GT was a separate programme that predated the racing programme.

History class over, wishing you all a fine day, don’t forget to come back now.

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