Tag Archives: Ralph

Weekend Racer – Maserati A6G/54 GT Zagato Coupé

From 1947 to 1956 Maserati built several series of 2 litre / 122 cui sports cars with 6 cylinder motors for racing and road use.

By 1954 the twin cam six cylinder motor was producing 150 hp and the first of a total of 60 A6GCS/54 models were made available.

The A6GCS/54 models were built with Belinetta, Barchetta and Spyder bodies supplied by either Frua, Ghia, Allemano or Zagato.

There are two variations of the Zagato coupé body on the A6G/54 GT chassis, two vehicles were built with double bubble roofs and 20 were built without.

The 1956 vehicle seen in today’s photographs at Silverstone Classic is thought to be the 7th from the non double bubble production run of 20, it is said to have been delivered to Maserati’s concessionaire in Rome, Gugliemo (Mimmo) Dei.

It is also said that this car was raced by gentleman racer Guiseppe Musso brother of Grand Prix driver Luigi Musso, though I have not been able to establish exactly in which, of the many events Guiseppe competed in, he drove this particular car.

Their was an earlier series of the Maserati A6G/54GT Zagato Coupé, known as the Maserati A6G 2000 Zagato Coupé, though so far as I have been able to ascertain the two models are otherwise as idententical as one might expect from a production run of hand built motor cars except the A6G 2000 is said to have been fitted with a less powerful motor.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Zagato edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !

Pop Up Swansong – Ferrari 456M

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The Ferrari 456 launched in 1995 was the long awaited V12 powered 2+2 replacement for the Ferrari 412 GT which had been out of production since 1989.

During the intervening 6 years if you wanted a 2+2 Ferrari you had to make do with the mid engine 8 cylinder Mondial 2+2.

Ferrari reentered the front engine rear wheel drive GT market with a V12 that owed nothing to the Ferrari 412 but was derived from the 65 degree Ferrari Dino V6 motor which in V12 form with 4 valves per cylinder and two overhead camshafts could produce an unstressed 436hp.

In 1998 the 456 was upgraded to 456M (Modificata) spec, externally distinguishable by the fog lights mounted in the grill, like the 1999 example seen here earlier this year at the Siverstone Classic.

456M spec motors were said to be good for an even smother 442hp thanks in part to a change in the firing order of the 12 cylinders and in part to the improved Bosch electronic engine management system.

There are a number of extremely rare variations on the 456 platform, these include two four door saloon / sedans built for the mysterious Nafsas Al Khaddaja allegedly resident in Belgium.

Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei is said to have ordered 7 456 GT Venice 4 door shooting brakes, but found he only had $9 million dollars in spare change when it was time to pay for them so only took six of them home without any change.

The Sultan of Brunei had two 456 Spyders built while Mike Tyson had an aftermarket Spyder conversion on his.

Finally there is Shaquille O’Neal’s example which features a number of aftermarket modifications to accommodate his 7′ 1″ frame including much longer seat rails and a unique, for a 456, targa top.

The 456M was the last Ferrari to feature pop up headlights which were no longer necessary at the time the car was launched in 1995, but remained since they had been a requirement at the time the design of the model commenced. In all 3,289 456 variants had been produced when production switched to the 612 Scaglietti in 2003.

Fellow blogger Jay Wollenweber spotted the older 458 model on the sunny streets of San Ramon recently.

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

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !

Automobiliart – Paul Chenard

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One of the amazing things about the internet is the way it brings people together regardless of physical or geographic location, a case in point cropped up last year when I was looking for a photograph of McLaren drivers Denny Hulme and Peter Revson for an ongoing documentary project and found exactly what I was looking for on the Automobiliart blog run by Paul Chenard.

I e-mailed Paul and he kindly put me in touch with the owner of said photograph and thanks to our shared interest in motor racing and Gilles Villeneuve in particular Paul and I have remained in touch ever since.

Paul, who hails from Nova Scotia, trained as a graphic designer and in the 1980’s he engaged his passion for the history of Grand Prix and Sports/GT racing by collecting vintage toy racing cars, books and reference material on racing history.

In 2007 Paul decided to combine his professional work with his interest in motor racing and set up Automobiliart.com to market his works which are made using a variety of media.

Unusually, and this is why I like Paul’s work, he captures the “feeling” I get when spectating at races and looking at racing cars so well I can almost smell them.

In September I had the opportunity to meet Paul at Goodwood, above he can be seen promoting his entertaining “Silver Clouds: 1934 Grand Prix Season” limited edition 40 page hand assembled book, designed written & illustrated by Paul, a book Mercedes Benz thought so good they ordered two, of the only 50 copies to be printed, for their museum.

You can find a fine selection of more of Pauls work, which make excellent seasonal gifts, on this link to the Automobiliart.com website.

Last week I mentioned to Paul that I was compiling questions for a seasonal quiz and he has kindly agreed to donate one of these sets of blank greetings cards to the winner of the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz which will be running from December 26th to January 2nd.

The cards, which measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

The winner of the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will get to choose one set of cards from either the SportsGT, Phil Hill Ferrari 156 F1 “Sharknose”, 1934 Grand Prix Season

Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s or

Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars sets.

Full details of the Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will be announced with the first questions on December 26th.

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

Z Cars Edsels English Cousins – Ford Zephyr & Zodiac Mk3

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After the humungous sales & marketing flop that was the Ford Edsel debacle Canadian Roy Brown moved on to designing smaller projects in the Ford empire namely the Ford Cortina along with the Zephyr and Zodiac Mk3’s featured today.

The Consul name was dropped from the Zephyr and Zodiac range and moved to the smaller Cortina range in 1962 while the entry level Zephyr became the 4 cylinder powered Zephyr 4. Seen above at the Goodwood Revival is a 1963 6 cylinder Zephyr 6, a model that became indelibly implanted in my mind thanks to the kitchen sink Police drama known as ‘Z -Cars‘, please do not even think of pronouncing it “Zee”, one of the earliest adult orientated show’s I remember seeing on our very first black and white television in 1966.

The Zodiac, as seen here at Castle Combe Classic and Sports Car Action Day, was the top of the range Mk3 ‘Z’ range featuring twined head lights to leave no doubt in the minds of purchasers that this car was the one with all the goodies.

Both the Zephyr 6 and the Zodiac were built with straight 6 2,553 cc / 156 cui motors inherited from the Zephyr and Zodiac Mk 2 models.

The Zodiac Mk3 can also be externally differentiated from the Zephyr Mk3 by the rear quarter light which has been moved from the rear door of the cheaper Zephyr 6 to the C-post of the more expensive Zodiac.

From the rear both the Zephyr and Zodiac Mk3 models clearly owe, even if understated, lines of DNA heritage to the Ghia built Lincoln Futura of 1955.

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

Cherry & Jones – Vauxhall XVR

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The Vauxhall XVR, seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed, was the first Concept Car ever exhibited by Vauxhall Motors, it appeared in public at the Geneva motor show in 1966.

Wayne Cherry who had been involved in the design of the Chevrolet Camaro / Pontiac Firebird and Oldsmobile Tornado was transferred from GM central in Detroit to GMs English manufacturer Vauxhall Motors in 1965 and with is credited with the Stingrayesque styling of the XVR alongside the Director of Styling David Jones.

3 XVR models were built powered by 71 hp twin carburetor 1594 cc / 97 cui 4 cylinder motors as used in the performance VX 4/90 variation on the Vauxhall 101.

The XVR was built on a custom built chassis with independent suspension and disc brakes all round.

Gull wing doors were part of the futuristic XVR package, even though they had already been seen on the production Mercedes 300 SL dating back to 1954, though unlike the Mercedes the doors on the XVR also form the unusual for the period split windscreen.

It is not known why Vauxhall halted production of the XVR concept which is known to have been put through trials at Vauxhall’s Research and Test center after it’s public debut in Geneva.

Elements of the concept are said to have found their way into the design of the Vauxhall Firenza including the styling of the dashboard and tail lights.

Although as we shall see next week the German chapter of GM, Opel, would build a car that took it’s styling from it’s own Opel Experimental GT concept dating from 1965 it would take another 34 years before the Vauxhall brand name would appear on a two seat sports car namely the Vauxhall VX220.

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

Phil Hill Tribute – Peterson Museum

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It’s a great pleasure to blog about the recent tribute to Phil Hill, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his World Championship win, at the Peterson Automotive Museum thanks to GALPOT’s roving correspondent Geoffrey Horton.

Ueber car enthusiast Jay Leno was amongst the guests to lend humour to the occasion.

Amongst the exhibits was this 1931 Pierce Arrow convertible sedan by Lebaron that was ordered new by Phil’s Aunt and in which Phil leaned to drive. He also used the car to attend USC and in 1955 he restored the car with his brother Jerry and promptly unexpectedly won the Best in Show award at Pebble Beach.

Some of Phil’s competitors from his early days at this event shared with the appreciative audience stories of Phil’s early exploits with an MG TC in Cal Club events which were not always entirely legal events held on circuits.

Of the delectable Ferrari’s present that Phil has driven was this unique 1953 375MM with Vignale bodywork and non stock tailfin that was added after the car was built in 1954. Phil drove this car to a second place finish in the 1954 Carrera Panamericana. It was also later driven by Carol Shelby.

Nothing remains of the original Shark Nose Ferrari 156 which he used to win the 1961 World Drivers Championship, they were all destroyed on the instruction of Enzo Ferrari, but the helmet seen here was used by Phil in his Championship winning season.

This 1912 Packard Model 30 with a gearbox mounted ahead of the rear axle and rear cable operated brakes only was purchased by Phil in 1966 and won it’s class at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in the 1970’s

Guests who discussed the life and times of Phil were left to right, John Lamm, Editor at Large “Road and Track, Denise McLuggage racing driver and journalist, Parnelli Jones, Jesse Alexander photographer, Dan Gurney, Jim Hall and Phil’s wife Alma.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sending me the photo’s and the details of the Phil Hill Tribute evening at Peterson Automotive Museum.

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

French Revolutionary – Matra Bonnet Djet VS

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After building over 1000 vehicles including the successful DB Panhard HBR Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet parted company over a disagreement about the supplier of engines for future models.

René was keen to switch to Renault motors while Charles wanted to stick with Panhards with which they had found much success.

In 1962 Automobiles René Bonnet launched the Djet, with the D allegedly added to help french owners pronounce the name correctly. Fiberglass bodies for the Djet were manufactured by Matra, a company at the time more commonly associated with missile production, which were then glued to a steel chassis.

The car is revolutionary because this is was the first sports car to go into mass production with a engine mounted behind the driver and ahead of the rear wheels the so called mid rear position.

The VS, yes that is a ‘V’ as in roman numeral and not a ‘Z’, denotes that this car is powered by a 90 hp Gordini spec 1108 cc / 67.6 cui 5 bearing 4 cylinder Renault ‘Cléon’ motor which gave the model a top speed of 118 mph.

The model was launched as the René Bonnet Djet in 1962 of which less than 200 were built by 1964 when as a consequence of focusing on racing activities Bonnet got into financial difficulties and was subsequently bought out by Matra.

Matra launched improved versions of the Djet in 1965, like the 1966 example seen here and sold them successively under the Matra Bonnet Djet, Matra Sports Djet and Matra Sports Jet up until 1967 when production ceased with over 1,490 further vehicles completed.

Thanks for joining me on the revolutionary mid engined edition of ‘Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Ralph

Weekend Racer – Maserati A6G/54 GT Zagato Coupé

Pop Up Swansong – Ferrari 456M

Automobiliart – Paul Chenard

Z Cars Edsels English Cousins – Ford Zephyr & Zodiac Mk3

Cherry & Jones – Vauxhall XVR

Phil Hill Tribute – Peterson Museum

French Revolutionary – Matra Bonnet Djet VS