Tag Archives: Series

Shopping Around #1 – Cadillac Series 62 4 Window Hard Top Sedan

Shopping Around for ideas to mark the 35th Anniversary of Elvis Presley’s passing I thought it would be interesting to look at one of the few Cadillac models that evaded the King on his notorious Cadillac buying sprees.

Bill Mitchel was responsible for the design of the 1959 13 model Cadillac range, 11 of which shared the same chassis with a 130″ wheelbase, the Fleetwood 75 Limousine and Sedan shared a chassis with a 149.5″ wheelbase.

A 6.4 liter / 390 cui V8 was used to power all of the ’59 Cadillacs, which weighed between 4690 and 5570 lbs, all tuned to produce 325 hp with the exception of the Eldorado which had 345 hp.

Differentiating the ’59 models from the exterior can be quite easy, if all of the exterior trim is attached.

We can tell this is a base 6239 model by the small badge below the arrow behind the front wheel on the front wing / fender.

Popular options for the ’59 Cadillacs included radio with rear speaker for $165, or radio with rear speaker AND remote control $247, a six way power seat came in at $89.

The 4 window sedans with their distinctive wrap around rear screens are also known as ‘flat tops’.

It may seem strange that Elvis, a well documented Cadillac enthusiast, never bought or owned a ’59 model, which is so clearly identified with the rock’n’roll era. Until one realises that he was doing his duty for his country at the time, serving with the 3rd Armoured Division in Friedburg Germany where he enjoyed the delights of his VW Beetle and BMW 507 convertible while keeping a lowish, by his standards, profile.

Thanks for joining me on this “Shopping Around #1” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Battersea Dogs Car – Rover P6 3500 Series 1 Estoura

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Thanks to a timely reminder from David Rootes I made it to the Rare Breeds Car Show at the Haynes International Motor Museum on Sunday.

Amongst a variety of rare vehicles was this 1969 Series I Rover 3500 which preceded the Series II Rover 2200 SC I looked at last week. P6 models fitted with the aluminium 215 Buick derived V8 are easily distinguishable from their 4 cylinder siblings by the extra air intake below the bumper.

The engine compartment of the P6 was originally designed to accommodate a Rover gas turbine motor, but this option never came to fruition and instead the 158 hp twin carburettor V8 as had been fitted to the the Rover P5B was fitted to the top of the range P6 models.

According to the owner of this Estoura variant only 157 P6 saloons were converted to estate / station wagon models between 1969 and 1976. This is the oldest of 4 Series 1 Estoura’s known to have survived.

Conversion of the saloon P6 to Estoura spec included replacing the original roof and C pillars with a new pod, designed by Brian Roll, that was riveted and welded in by FLM Panelcraft of Battersea. Although the conversion was approved by Rover and did not affect warranties no rust protection was added to bare surfaces which were simply painted over with the out come that these cars are more prone to rot than standard P6’s.

Once FLM had converted the P6 shell the cars were sent to either Crayford, HR Owen or Hurst Park Motors where a variety of interior and exterior trims were fitted.

The load space while significantly improved is not particularly deep or easy to access even for a canine compared to a modern day Estate / Station Wagon or MPV.

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

Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 #IS 2857

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In the summer of 1980 I passed my college entrance exams, at my third attempt and before finally fleeing the family nest in Wembley to attend Trent Polytechnic, I got a summer job at a local Honda dealership to tide me over.

One of the dealership owners many cars, and even more motorcycles, was a black Jaguar E – Type Convertible like the one in these photographs one of the last fifty made, all available only in black, a fact that is noted on a brass plate mounted on the glove box cover.

In 1971 the Series 3 E-Types ushured Jaguars second ever completely new motor into production, an all aluminium 5.3 litre / 326 cui V12 with 2 valves per cylinder design that had it’s origins in a design intended for racing dating back to 1954. This motor would eventually be developed into a 7 litre / 427 quad cam that would be used to win at Le Mans twice, 1988 and 1990.

All Series 3 E-types were built around the longer 2+2 chassis pan, most with the V12 engine but a few Series 3 models were built with the older 4.2 litre / 256 cui 6 cylinder motor.

The brass plaque on the right of this photo gives the chassis number as IS 2857 which according to the only list of XKE chassis numbers I have seen suggests this car was originally supplied in Right Hand Drive form.

This particularly splendid example, seen here at the recent Silverstone Classic, has been restored and ‘sympathetically’ upgraded winning the Speis Hecker World Masterpiece competition for outstanding coachwork re-finishing.

My own 30 year old memories of the V12 E – Type were that it was certainly a buzz taking the car to the petrol pump down the road, it turned heads, the engine was silky smooth, the steering was light but it inspired little or no confidence, even on a roundabout at perfectly legal speeds, in it’s handling capabilities, it seemed to lean in the corners rather that hug the road as even my pedestrian FIAT 128 did, and parking a car with such a long nose was an absolute nightmare on a crowded parking lot.

Overall I was disappointed with how the car drove a bit like meeting a rock star whom one has held in high esteem only to find that he / she has all the usual human traits some of which are not so pleasant or different from our selves, or driving an air cooled Porsche for the first time to find that interior has the same smell of fumes as an air cooled VW Beetle, more boulevard cruiser than the track racer which I was expecting.

Thanks for joining me on this E-type edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Giant Killing Potential ? – Jedi Mk4

Driver to Sponsor – Simon Lewis

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During the early 1980’s Simon Lewis was a regular spectator at Castle Combe where the biggest attraction used to be Formula Libre events run for any car built to known regulations.

At the top end of the entry would be vehicles that had run in Grand Prix like Alo Lawlers McLaren Cosworth DFV M30 resplendent in it’s original colours and bearing the name of it’s original driver Alain Prost,

or Formula 5000 vehicles like Tony Trimmers Lola Chevrolet T330,

and once in a while something extremely exotic like a Can Am 2 Lola Chevrolet T530 would appear.

A car with a large engine was not a pre requisite to be a contender to win as Eddie McLurg found out when he beat the big boys driving a 2 litre Formula 2 March BMW 822 Formula 2 car to victory in May 1989.

When he turned 18 Simon started on the long path to becoming a book mogul, surprisingly he specialised in automotive books with a business called Simon Lewis Transport Book Shop.

As and when resources allowed Simon turned to competing in rally events running against £50,000 Subaru’s in an comparatively archaic gargantuan Rover SDI after three seasons the enlarged to 4.5 litre / 274 cui Rover V8 was put into a Ford Escort shell for a season.

When that project proved fruitless Simon moved to circuit racing at Castle Combe with a Rover Montego Turbo and then with some success he ran the Rover 220 Turbo seen above.

Simon has also tried his hand at Grass Track racing with an MG Maestro, that vibrated so bad in top gear that the bits of roll cage in Simon’s eye line ‘became almost invisible’,

and at hill climbing with a Kawasaki powered Morrish built in Cornwall.

(# 6 Roger Orgee Van Diemen RF00 & #17 Alex Drabble Swift SC92)

Inspired by the reaction to a thread on The Nostalgia Forum Simon has taken a leap of faith and decided to sponsor a new Mono Libre series at Castle Combe in 2011.

(Winner of the first race #85 Peter Bragg Nemesis Mygale)

With a snappy title THE SIMON LEWIS TRANSPORT BOOKS FREE SINGLE-SEATER SERIES is open to any open wheeler that can pass the 108 db noise test.

(# 3 David Cox Ralt RT3)

An interesting array of single seaters took part in the first race was on July the 18th, I caught practice the day before and look forward to seeing the next races on July 24th.

If you have a single seater that can pass the 108 db noise test and is in need of exercise you could do worse than make enquiries at the Castle Combe website.

Hope you will join me in wishing Simon and his series all the best.

Thanks for joining me on this Simon Lewis Transports Books Free Single Seater edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, join me again tomorrow for a Grand Prix edition of Ferrari Friday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Towards Standardisation – Ferrari 250 GT PF Cabriolet Series I #9811GT

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A couple of weeks ago I looked at a Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Cabriolet Series 2 which is on view at the Haynes International Motor Museum.

Today’s featured car, seen competing in the regularity competition on the recent Tour Britannia, is the earlier Series I model which is immediately distinguishable by it’s recessed headlights and headlight covers. Notice the chromed edge on the bonnet / hood air intake belies the fact that this in essence a production road car.

This particular Right Hand Drive (RHD), car was delivered painted Yellow to a customer in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1957.

Only 40 examples of this model were built including 4 prototypes of which only two or three appear to have been built to RHD specification. This particular chassis appears to be the 15th in the production run. These models were far from standardised in the traditional sense.

There were for example two distinct variations of the stylised tail lights fitted to the Series I 250 GT PF Cabriolets.

Early examples of this model were supplied with 2 rear quarter bumpers to match the pair of front nudge bars however later examples such as the one seen above were supplied with full width items.

Hong Kong businessman Sir Michael Kadoorie became the owner of this vehicle in 1998, he and co pilot Brian Lewis were not classified in the overall Tour Britannica results. Sir Michael counts among his collection of vehicles a Type 57 Bugatti, a 1932 Rolls Royce Phantom II Thrupp & Maberly and a 1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 Van Vooren Cabriolet.

Thanks for joining me on today’s Ferrari Friday edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Nikita’s Gull – GAZ M13 Chaika

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It’s always a great pleasure to blog about little known vehicles that were produced behind the Iron Curtain like today’s car the GAZ M13 Chaika was seen at Haynes International Motor Museum a few weeks ago.

Since I first blogged about the GAZ M21 I have learned a little more about the company which was founded in 1929 in a cooperation between Ford and the Soviet Union as the Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod, NAZ, Nizhegorodsky Automobile Plant, at Nizhny Novgorod in the Volga Region approximately 500 miles east of Moscow.

The factory started out making Ford Model A cars and Model AA light trucks known as NAZ-A and NAZ-AA respectively. In 1933 Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky, after Maxim Gorky a writer who was born in the city and Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod was renamed Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod shortened to GAZ.

Gorky, the city, was renamed Nizhny Novgorod in 1990 but the vehicle manufacturer retained the GAZ name.

The luxury M13 Chaika seen here was produced from 1959 to 1981, though the mechanical underpinnings remained in production until 1988 fitted with a marginally more modern body until 1988.

Styling of the Chaika drew heavily on the 1956 Mercury Montclair Phaeton with a potpourri of 1956 Cadillac Series 62 inspired features thrown in. With a 195 hp being transmitted from it’s V8 engine via a copy of the push button operated Chrysler TorqueFlite transmission the Chaika, translates into ‘gull’, was capable of 99 mph.

Seems incredible in this day and age to even conceive the idea that such a luxury vehicle was not made for sale. All 3,100 examples of the Chaika made over a period of 22 years were added to motor pools and issued to top professionals, Communist Party officials, scientists, academics and VIP’s. The KGB also ordered these vehicles in large numbers.

Despite being entitled to larger ZIL limousines the Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev is known to have expressed a preference for the GAZ M13 even having one kept at his dacha.

Three versions of the Chaika were manufactured most were M13 saloons, but for ceremonial purposes open a 4 dr M13b convertible was produced from 1961 to 1962. The estate / station wagon M13A Universal is the rarest Chaika produced in the 1960’s primarily for use as ambulances and funeral cars.

At the time the Chaika was first in production the Soviet Union was leading the space race, a fact possibly not lost on the stylist responsible for the M13’s tail light assembly….

though he may also have admired ’56 Cadillac Series 62 for its attention to detail and copied the idea of routing the exhaust pipes through the rear bumper !

Thanks for joining me for today’s motor pool edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at a handcrafted Lanchester. As they might say in Russia, Не забудьте вернуться сейчас!

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Series

Shopping Around #1 – Cadillac Series 62 4 Window Hard Top Sedan

Battersea Dogs Car – Rover P6 3500 Series 1 Estoura

Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 #IS 2857

Giant Killing Potential ? – Jedi Mk4

Driver to Sponsor – Simon Lewis

Towards Standardisation – Ferrari 250 GT PF Cabriolet Series I #9811GT

Nikita’s Gull – GAZ M13 Chaika