Tag Archives: Rover

Going Places In Style – Marcos Mantis

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The first Marcos Mantis better known as the Mantis XP was a radical marine ply racer that raced once in 1968 before being sold to an American client, the second Mantis iteration today’s featured 2+2 Mantis M70 was launched in 1970 and remained in production until 1972 when the company was liquidated, in 1997 a third iteration 2 seat Mantis was launched as a road car and later spec racer.

Marcos Mantis M70, Silverstone Classic,

Styling of the Mantis was by Denis Adams and Jem Marsh while ex Lotus engineer Brian Cunnington was responsible for the chassis, made from square section tubular steel, and production engineering.

Marcos Mantis M70, Silverstone Classic,

The Mantis was initially offered as a complete vehicle with a Triumph 2.5 PI straight six motor and 4 speed Triumph gearbox driving an axle from the Ford Capri parts bin.

Marcos Mantis M70, Silverstone Classic,

The promotional brochure for the Mantis highlighted the models all round visibility, handling and “the boot, with a capacity of 10 cubic feet, makes the Mantis ideal for the man who is going places and wants to travel in style.”

Marcos Mantis M70, Silverstone Classic,

In all 32 Mantis models were built before Marcos was liquidated in 1972, some of the later examples were supplied in kit form at 5/6ths of the price of the complete car.

In the mid 80’s Autotune who had acquired the moulds and manufacturing rights to the Mantis recommenced production of the model, as a kit car requiring a Ford Cortina Mk II or Mk III donor car, which was renamed as the Autotune Mirage.

Today’s featured 1971 Mantis seen at Silverstone Classic several years ago is described by one of it’s owners as “The one Jem Marsh had with the Rover 3500 V8 EFI lump.”

Thanks for joining me on this “Going Places In Style” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psychoontyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another “Goddess”. Don’t forget to come back now !

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DIY Bakkie – Ford P100

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In 1971 Ford in South Africa built a version of the 2 door Ford Cortina Mk III with a pick up body on the back marketed as the Ford Cortina Pickup and known locally as the “Bakkie”.

The Bakkie utilised a modified Cortina floor pan with a ladder frame to carry the rear load carrying body and initially used Rover 5 stud hubs, post 1988 examples were fitted with Ford Granada front axles with 5 stud adaptors and 5 stud Ford Transit rear axles.

Ford P100, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

In 1977 the Bakkie was up graded with an adapted Cortina Mk IV body which used the shorter doors from the 4 door body and from 1980 adapted Cortina Mk V bodies were used.

Ford P100, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

From 1982 the Bakkie was rebranded as the P100 model and exported from South Africa to Europe and remained in production with the Cortina Mk V body until 1988.

In 1988 the P100 received a final upgrade utilising the Sierra body and production of the P100 for the European market switched to Portugal until 1993.

Ford P100, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

This particular 1987 Ford P100, seen at the Classic Motor Show a couple of years ago, originally carried a Ford Cortina Mk V front end, but it has been modified to carry older Cortina Mark III wings, bonnet and nose.

A newer Sierra P100 pick up body has been added to the back and it is powered by a Ford Cologne 2.9 litre / 176 cui V6 as used to power the later Ford Granada/Scopio models, the interior includes Porsche 944 seats.

Thanks for joining me on this “DIY Bakkie” 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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T4 Turbine – Rover T4

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To their credit while Rover must have realised the cost of producing a gas turbine powered motor car for the masses was prohibitive because of the cost of the exotic materials required and because of the high fuel consumption they continued experimenting with the technology until 1966.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Today’s featured 1961 T4 prototype was their final attempt at making a gas turbine vehicle for production to replace the Rover P4 models that had been in production since 1949.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

For this application Rover engineers had their gas turbine producing 140hp enough to power the T4 from rest to 60 mph in 8 seconds, about the same as would be achieved 7 years later with the 155 hp aluminium Rover V8.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Designers Spencer King and Gordon Bashford carried a number of ideas over from the Rover T3 I looked at last week including all wheel disc brakes and de Dion rear suspension.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Even though the fuel consumption was improved from 13 mpg on the T3 to 20 mpg on the T4 the notion of a gas turbine powered car was eventually put to rest with the T4 and the nose was redesigned to accept a variety of petrol engines for the P6 series Rover 2000’s launched in 1963 and later Rover 3500’s launched in 1969.

Rover T4, Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon,

Rover’s experiments continued with their Gas Turbine powered BRM Le Mans project which achieved 7th and 10th place finishes in 1963 and 1965 respectively.

Thanks for joining me on this “T4 Turbine” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another rallying Triumph. Don’t forget to come back now !

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13 mpg – Rover T3 Coupé

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Today’s featured Rover T3 Coupé was Rovers third gas turbine powered car.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

Spencer ‘Spen’ King and Gordon Bashford are credited with the design of the Coupé which first saw the light of day in 1956.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

Among the designs novelties are all wheel drive, all wheel disc brakes and de Dion rear suspension which offers some of the advantages of independent sear suspension, but with additional complexity.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

The T3 was powered by a variant of Rovers 1S gas turbine which produces 60hp that was used for fire pump, auxiliary power for aircraft like the Vulcan B2 nuclear bomb delivery system, hovercraft and as the main engine for light aircraft.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

The motor, mounted behind the passenger cabin, has an operating speed of 46,000 rpm, unfortunately this gave a fuel consumption of 13 – 14 miles per gallon of paraffin.

Rover T3 Coupé, Heritage Motor Center, Gaydon,

Some features of the T3 including the all wheel disc brakes, and de Dion rear suspension found their way into the Rover P6 production model but unfortunately the gas turbine did not.

06 Rover T3 Coupé_6737sc

The T3 is seen in these photographs at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon where it is usually to be found unless it is on loan.

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Senior Compact – Oldsmobile F-85 Coupé

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The Cutlass name was first used by Oldsmobile on a prototype sports coupé designed in 1954.

Oldsmobile F85 Coupé, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square Bristol

With the introduction of the F-85 series senior compacts in 1961 the Cutlass name appeared as the top trim level for the pillared two door sedan in 1961.

Oldsmobile F85 Coupé, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square Bristol

Credit for the design of the F-85 was given to Irvin Rybicki who started work on the 215 cui 3.5 litre aluminium V8 powered F-85 model in 1957.

Oldsmobile F85 Coupé, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square Bristol

The car appeared as a ’61 model year and received facelifts in ’62 and ’63 before the introduction of the second generation F-85 in 1964.

Oldsmobile F85 Coupé, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square Bristol

The 1963 F-85 seen here features a body that is more squared off and four inches longer than the ’61 and ’62 F-85’s

Oldsmobile F85 Coupé, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square Bristol

The F-85 jet plane was a still born fighter project, designed to be carried aboard the B-36 heavy bomber, that never got beyond the experimental stage.

Oldsmobile F85 Coupé, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square Bristol

The all aluminium 215 cui V8 which would become the top line mainstay of Rover, Range Rover, Land Rover and British Kit Car producers until the turn of the millennium was available in two options 155 hp or turbocharged 215 hp Jetfire forms, less than 4,000 of the expensive turbocharged options were built.

Oldsmobile F85 Coupé, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square Bristolt=”444″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-22850″ />

This F-85, seen at an Avenue Drivers Club meeting in Bristol earlier this year, was first registered in the UK in February 2008.

Thanks for joining me on this “Senior Compact” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a jet powered Rover. Don’t for get 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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Star Cars – Classic Motor Show NEC Birmingham

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Last weekend I popped up to Birmingham for the Classic Motor Show at the National Exhibition Centre NEC, where some 1,700 classic vehicles were on display with another 300 classic motor cycles.

Dodge Charger R/T, Ford Mustang GT, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

Many of the exhibitors went with a film & tv star theme, of the Highland Green Ford Mustang GT’s and Black Dodge Chargers these two above endeavoured to recreate the scene from Bullitt where Steve McQueen sends the baddies into a gas station to meet their maker.

Ford Cortina 1600E, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

When I bought my first car, a FIAT, it had no external mirrors so the first thing I added to it was a pair of these. These mirrors were not originally supplied with the Ford Cortina 1600E either but the casting crew for the film “Made in Dagenham” over looked this detail.

Ford Escort 1850 GT, Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham

Polish European Rally Champion Sobiesław Zasada and Marek Wachowski shared this #14 Ford Escort 1850 GT on the London to Mexico World Cup Rally in 1970 in which they finished 8th. It featured in the Ford documentary of the event “Five for the Fiesta“. This is one of two survivors from the six car Ford Escort team the other being the winning #18 car driven by Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm.

Rover 827, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

This Rover 827Si entered service with the Metropolitan Police in 1990 and remained in service with them until after a 151,000 miles it was sold to a TV company. It has subsequently appeared in the TV crime series The Bill and Inspector Wexford. In 2001 it was sold to it’s current owner a serving Police Officer who took her advanced pursuit driving test in one of these and drove many just like it in the early years of her career. It is thought to be the last fully equipped Police Rover 827Si a model which was to become the last British built police car to serve in the UK, excluding Land Rover and Range Rover models.

Sunbeam Alpine Mk III, Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham,

The side pipe on this Hillman Alpine Mk III caught my eye, the owner fitted it because the original pipes that wound their way around the back axle caused condensation to form under the body panels and when the condensation got warm it accelerated the rate of rusting. This car appeared in the films “Trial By Combat” with Sir John Mills, “After The War” TV mini series with Adrian Lukis and “The Moving Finger” Episode of Miss Marple with Emelia Fox.

Rolls Royce Silver Cloud 1, Classic Motor Show, NEC Birmingham

Finally the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud above appeared in the films The Fast Lady and Carry On Doctor, driven in both films by James Robertson Justice,when it was painted black and in the current two tone livery in the TV Series Heartbeat and The Royal.

Thanks for joining me on this “Star Cars” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me tomorrow when I’ll be looking at Junior Johnson’s ’63 Chevrolet Impala SS. Don’t forget to come back now !

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