Tag Archives: Riley

Widengren’s Double Twelve – Maserati 26M

While looking for information about last weeks featured Maserati 8C 3000 I stumbled across some information about the Maserati 26M I featured early on in this run of Maserati Monday posts.

This cars known history starts with an almost unknown Swedish department store heir Henken Widengren, who bought the two seat bodied car with a 100hp Tipo 26C spec supercharged 1078 cc / 65.7 cui 8 cylinder motor.

Maserati 26M, Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Henkens best result from three races was a 19th place finish with Richard Oats in the 1931 Double Twelve at Brooklands. After a brief spell during which this car was raced by Lindsey Eccles in 1932 the car found it’s way into the hands of RJW ‘John’ Appleton who embarked on a programme of development that would last until nearly the turn of the millennium.

Appelton almost immediately disposed of the motor and gearbox replacing them with a Riley Nine 4 cylinder motor and ENV pre selector gearbox taken from an MG Magnette.

Maserati 26M, Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The shorter motor allowed Appleton to reduce the wheel base and chassis length by a foot which was also reflected in the shortened Maserati bonnet. After fitting a super charger the Maserati Riley with Applton at the wheel immediately won it’s class in the Shelsley Walsh hillclimb and shortly after it’s 2 bearing crankshaft broke.

During the winter of 1935 the Maserati Riley morphed into the Appleton Riley as RJW set about dismantling the frame lightening it and fitting new narrower cross members and a completely new single seat body.

Maserati 26M, Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Engine modifications including fitting a 3 bearing crankshaft to the Riley Nine motor brought the power up to 120hp which facilitated two successful seasons competition that included further class victories at Shelsley Walsh, a victory in a short handicap race at Brooklands, new class lap record of the Brooklands ‘Mountain’ circuit and standing start class records over 1 km and 1 mile.

In 1937 a bronze head with special valve gear was fitted and fetlled by AF Ashby while the Zoller supercharger was replaced with an Arnott item running at 27 psi taking the power output up to 160 hp. To help the car stop more effectively larger steel lined Elektron drum were fitted and to improve the handling a new rear suspension with transverse friction dampers was devised.

Maserati 26M, Goodwood Festival of Speed.

With a lighter and slimmer body, increasingly resembling the Mercedes 125 Grand Prix cars, the 130 mph Appleton Special was driven to further success at Brooklands, Chrystal Palace and the Poole Speed Trials up until 1939.

After 1945 Appleton detuned his special, using a Roots supercharger and reduced boost pressure the power output fell to a modest 135hp, enough to win it’s class at Shelsley in 1946.
In 1948 the supercharger drive split and plans were made for the 1931 Maserati beam axles to be replaced with fully independent suspension but the car was sold before the drive was repaired or the suspension fabricated in the early 1950’s.

Maserati 26M, Goodwood Festival of Speed.

From 1963 to 1964 F Baker with help from RJW drove the Appleton Special now fitted with a normally aspirated 1500 cc / 91.5 cui Riley 12/4 motor that had 4 Amal carburetors to facilitate fuel flow.

Ownership then passed to Alan Wragg in the early 1970’s and thence by 1974 to Colin Warrington who fitted a supercharger to the 12/4 motor.

Maserati 26M, Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Since 1978 the Appleton Special has belonged to the Majzub family and up until the turn of the millennium Julian Majzub competed with it in VSCC events.

Sometime after the millennium the Appleton Special was taken apart and the shortened 1931 Maserati chassis rails and 1931 axles were combined with other Maserati parts to build the 26M featured today seen at Goodwood Festival Of Speed.

Maserati 26M, Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Widengren’s original Maserati body was of course chopped about by Appleton and is thought to have long since ceased to exist. However the discarded modified Maserati 2 seat body, which T.A.S.O. Mathieson and Mike Oliver had converted for road use by 1947, from the Louwman Museum’s ex Birkin 8C 3000 chassis was acquired from Cameron Miller and is believed to have been fitted to this car.

It should be noted that the Tipo 26C, 26M and 8C 3000 all shared the same basic chassis design with the major differences being the size of the 8 cylinders motors fitted.

Today’s featured car is fitted with a just under 2.8 litre / 170 cui 8 cylinder Maserati motor, over twice the size of the Tipo 26C 1078 cc / 65.7 cui 8 cylinder motor that Henken Widengren was supplied with.

My thanks to all those on various The Nostalgia Forum threads mentioning the Appleton Special who have unwittingly contributed to my understanding of the story behind today’s featured car.

Thanks for joining me on this “Widengren & Appleton” edition of “Gettin’ A Li’l Psycho On Tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some French cars that took part in the recent Chipping Sodbury Classic Run. Don’t forget to come back now !

Coffee Croissant & Cars #06/14 – Avenue Drivers Club

VSCC Spring Start – Silverstone

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I awoke at 3:40am on Sunday full of anticipation, the weather forecast was good, the dawn chorus was getting underway as I prepared my sandwiches and daylight was lighting up the day as I headed towards Silverstone with my friend and regular GALPOT contributor Tim.

M4, Eastbound

We took the fast route in order to get to the circuit early, meeting up with friends for breakfast in the canteen we were saddened to learn of the death of Lotus Elan driver Alan Fleming in Hockenheim the day before and that Garry White had been seriously injured driving a GN Gnome the same day at Silverstone.

Lotus 49 R8, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

Tim and I took a wonder round the paddock in the morning where we were astonished to find the late 1968 Lotus 49 R8 as raced by Graham Hill, Richard Atwood, Jo Bonnier and most successfully by Dave Carlton in South Africa to two local F1 championships, form the center of a Bonhams display. The car is expected to fetch between £700,000 and a million at Goodwood in June.

Standard, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

While we were working our way through the paddock the vehicle above wafted through the crowd, I was surprised to learn it appears to be powered by a Standard Vanguard motor, if you know anything else about the car please chime in below.

ERA 80th Anniversary Trophy, Gillies, Morris, Topliss, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

The racing got underway with the ERA 80th Anniversary Trophy which was one by Mark Gilles aboard the green wheel lifting 1934 ERA seen leading the ERA 11B of David Morris which retired leaving Nicholas Topliss in the #5 blue ERA R4A to finish second.

FJHRA , Goodliff Woodhouse, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

The battle for honours in the front engined Formula Junior race lasted the whole race with Simon Goodliff in his red 1960 Lola Mk2 managing to hold off the green 1959 Elva 100 driven by Mark Woodhouse.

Riley, Super Rat, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

Pete Candy driving the 1936 Riley Super Rat seen in the paddock above won the 8 minute Short Scratch Race for pre war cars.

HGPCA Pre 66, Griffin, Moreton, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

The action continued with the second race for pre ’66 Grand Prix Cars which was won by John Romano who clocked up his second win of the weekend in his 1964 Brabham BT11. Above Alex Moreton in his 1961 Lotus 21 is about to lap Paul Griffin in his 1959 Cooper T51 on his way to a seventh place finish.

Maserati 6CM, Lockie, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

It’s always great to see one of my former race instructors, from 1989/90, take part in an event above one such was Calum Lockie who is seen driving a 1938 Maserati 6CM to victory in the pre 1941 Continental Trophy race.

50's Sports Racing, Horsman, Wood, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

Regular readers will have heard me make many references to The Nostalgia Forum who’s knowledgeable members include Peter Horsman seen above driving the #248 Lotus 15 above to victory over the #256 Lister Jaguar of Dr Barry Wood in the 1950’s sports racing cars event.

Tec Mec, Wood, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

Tony Wood lifts a wheel at Becketts above on his way to his second win of the weekend in the Pre ’61 Racing Car event driving the 1959 Tec Mec F415 which readers may remember I looked at in some detail recently.

Pre War Handicap, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

By comparison the 5 lap pre war Handicap race felt like a race in slow motion, above a couple of Rileys lead a gaggle of cars in the event which was won by Richard Hudson driving a Bentley.

F3 500, Bishop Miller, Kingsland, Turner VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

The penultimate event of the day was for the 500 cc / 30.5 cui Formula 3 cars this was declared, with Ian Philips the winner, after the; #57 Revis driven by Richard Bishop Miller, #59 Staride Mk 3 of Xavier Kingsland and #86 Cooper Mk 9 of John Turner came to grief at Becketts one lap after the photo above was taken. I am not entirely sure what happened but the out come was that John Turner was thrown out of his Cooper and Richard Bishop Miller had to be cut out of the Revis and both were taken to hospital.

Andrew Mitchel won the final Pre War race of the day driving an HRG but by then Tim and I were negotiating a few diversions on the way home, seeing John Turner falling out of his Cooper having left me feeling considerably the worst for wear.

My thanks to Alan Cox at the Nostalgia Forum for pointing me in the direction of the results pdf.

I hope you will join me in offering sincerest condolences to the the family and friends of Alan Fleming and best wishes for speedy recoveries to Garry White, Richard Bishop Miller and John Turner.

Thanks for joining me on this”VSCC Spring Start” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” and that you will join me again for Americana Thursday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

VSCC University – VSCC Prescott Speed Hillclimb

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Apologies to all for the absence of any blogs over the last week, unfortunately this was unavoidable after a moment of absent mindedness. Over the weekend I popped over to Prescott with regular GALPOT contributer Tim for the VSCC Speed Hillclimb.

Ceirano S, VSCC Prescott

As ever the days education started in the car park where among several manufacturers, brands and models I’d not heard of before was this 1925 Ceirano built in Turin by SCAT (Societa Ceirano Automobili Torino) some years after founder Giovanni Ceirano, a prime mover behind the formation of FIAT in 1903, had died. Ceirano cars are best known for winning back to back victories in the Mille Miglia in 1911 and 1912.

Vauxhall Prince Henry, VSCC Prescott

The paddock was of course equally full of unusual delights above the nose of a Roland Duce’s 1913 Vauxhall Prince Henry.

Lees, Vauxhall Viper Special, VSCC Prescott

Another 1913 Vauxhall was Tony Lees Vauxhall Viper Special powered by a 200hp, 12 litre/732 cui Wolseley Viper aircraft motor of the type more usually found in late versions of the Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a and Avro 522.

Scaldwell, GN/JAP Grand Prix, VSCC Prescott

Among the fastest ladies present was Anne Scaldwell driving the GN JAP Grand Prix which was featured on this blog a couple of years ago.

Collings, Mercedes Simplex 60 HP, VSCC Prescott

Another familiar car was Ben Collings 1903 Mercedes Simplex 60hp.

Martin, Morgan Special, VSCC Prescott

Displaying maximum attack skills on the hill, what ever the conditions, was Charlie Martin in the fabric bodied Morgan Special entered by CJ Maeers.

Cobden, Riley Falcon Special, VSCC Prescott

Robert Cobden seen above driving the Riley Falcon Special did well to keep his car on the road after executing an unintentional 180° spin coming out of the Pardon hairpin.

Hulbert, ERA 4D, VSCC Prescott

Fastest time of the day was keenly contested with Mac Hulbert taking the honours and The Mays-Berthon Trophy 0.36 seconds from James Baxter, both driving ERA’s. Mac is seen in the 1938 ERA R4D which appropriately enough way not only conceived by Raymond Mays and Peter Peter Berthon but also driven to many post war hill climb victories by Mays.

Grafton, VSCC Prescott

On the way back through the car park we stumbled across the JAP powered Grafton cycle car, the vehicle was built by Tim Gunn, seen on the left, of the Gunn Cyclecar Co in 2001 using a timber frame and an assortment of vintage parts.

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

Palmers Parts Bin – Wolseley 4/44

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After designing the MG Y Type the 1939 – 1945 hostilities saw Gerald Palmer engaged in war work that included designing medical equipment for the front line the development of a two stroke motor and the production of de Havilland Tiger Moth flying training aircraft.

Wolseley 4/44, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet,

After the war Palmer was employed by Jowett to design what became the Jowett Javelin and in 1949 Palmer rejoined the Nuffield Organisation to design the Wolseley 4/44, MG ZA, the replacement for the MG Y type, and the Riley Pathfinder all three of which shared unique combinations of parts from the Nuffield Organisations parts bins.

Wolseley 4/44, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet,

Of the three new models launched in 1953, now under the merged with Austin British Motor Corporation (BMC) banner the Wolseley 4/44 was the least powerful being fitted with a detuned 46 hp single carburettor 4 cylinder XPAG motor first seen seen on the MG TB Type Midget dating back to 1939 and on the TC, TD, and least powerful of the TF models.

Wolseley 4/44, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet,

Fitted with modern rack and pinion steering, snuggle friendly 4 speed column change gearboxes the up market pretensions of the car were reaffirmed by leather seats and walnut veneer trim.

Wolseley 4/44, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet,

With the absence of a motorway network the 4/44’s top speed of 73 mph was matched by a rest to 60 mph time of 29.9 seconds which might be described as adequate.

Wolseley 4/44, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet,

Note that indicators were by door post mounted semaphore with only left hand drive models having indicators built into the rear light clusters.

29,845 Wolseley 4/44’s were built between 1953 and 1956 when the model was replaced by the similar 15/50.

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

Coffee, Croissant & Cars #7 – Avenue Drivers Club

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The festive spirit was gathering pace, at Queen Square, Bristol yesterday, no sooner had I arrived and I was being proffered charity mince pies ! Extremely delicious they were too !

MG NA Magnette, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol

Among the many visitors to the Avenue Drivers Club meeting was what appears to be a 1934 MG K1 one of it’s club badges indicates that it may have spent some time in South Africa. 14 01 13 Further investigation has revealed this car is actually an NA Magnette.

The difference between a 1952 Riley RMA and 1952 Riley RME is indicated externally by the larger rear window of the later model which leads me to conclude the model seen here is the RMA.

Appearing to have come past just for a cruise around the block was this 1958 Ford Thunderbird.

These two Austin Healey Sprites were built in 1960 on the left and 1958 on the right.

The owner of this Ford Consul has only had the car for a couple of weeks, he told me he had owned many Mini’s before buying the four cylinder Ford.

This 1966 Morris 1800 has attended many of the same show’s I have this year, it was bought and prepared for a local classic Rally on a very small budget, running to hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.

One of the first cars to offer seeing round corner capability was the 1968 version of the Citroen DS that was first seen in 1955. This DS19 was built in 1972.

Another classic from 1972 was this Hillman Avenger fitted with what appear to be period correct aftermarket Cosmic alloy wheels.

Car of the day was this 1972 Crayford Ford Capri GT 3000, built in a period when Ford did not have time to satisfy a demand for convertible versions of it’s cars. Crayford took on the job fitting it with a white interior and walnut veneer.

When production of the Ford Capri ended in 1986 Ford left the massed produced Coupé market to the likes of Toyota and their Supra models the vehicles above were manufactured in 1989 on the left and 1992 on the right.

In 1990 I went to Connecticut for a week to attend a friends wedding, while I was there I hired a Ford Thunderbird similar to this 1992 example, I could not believe how big it was for a two door, at one point I found the car could carry 4 adults and two small children with a modicum of comfort from one side of town to the other !

Above another reminder that the season of Goodwill is upon us took the form of this Morris Marina Estate which dates from circa 1973.

Finding out about the Avenue Drivers Club has been one of this years simple joys for me, what could be easier or more fun than rolling 5 mins down a steep hill and finding yourself having a couple of hours of fun looking at some of the huge variety of veteran, vintage and classic cars that come from your environs and enjoying a Coffee & Croissant with some of the owners ? My thanks and seasons greetings to everyone who has brought their cars along. Next meeting January 13th 2013 !

Thanks for joining me on this “Coffee, Croissant & Cars #7″ of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Above another reminder the