Tag Archives: Silverstone

Replica Prototipo – Bertone X1/9

After acquiring Lancia in 1969 the FIAT group found it’s self with two marques competing for honours in the Rally competition, Lancia with the Fulvia that was to be replaced by the Ferrari powered Bertone designed Lancia Stratos HF in 1973 and Fiat with the Pininfarina styled 124 Spider that would be replaced in 1975 by the Abarth 131.

Just as those competition models were being changed Abarth also built the Abarth X1/9 Prototipo for evaluation in competition.

Bertone X1/9, Silverstone, Classic,

The X1/9 was designed to exceed the latest US crash test standards so the chassis was immensely strong however it was also a little too heavy for the initial standard FIAT 128 based single overhead cam 1300 cc / 79 cui engine that produced 75hp.

Abarth elected to replace it initially with a 200hp 1,834 cc / 111 cui twin over head cam engine 16 valve lifted from the competition 124 spider and later examples with a 1,756 cc / 107 cui version of the same engine.

Bertone X1/9, Silverstone, Classic,

So far as I have been able to discern the Abarth X1/9 Prototipo’s only offically appeared on two events in 1974 the first was the Tour d’France where three cars were entered of which the #122 shared by Fulvio Bacchelli, Piero Sodano and Sergio Barbasio was the only finisher in 8th place.

A month later Fulvio partnered by Piero Scabini was teamed up with Ferrari Formula One driver Clay Regazzoni and Gino Macaluso for an attack on the Giro Automobilistico d’Italia from which both cars retired with engine failure.

Bertone X1/9, Silverstone, Classic,

In all it is believed that alongside the original 1973 Prototipo four further examples were built 3 of which were used in competition in 1974 and the fourth is believed to have been built as a Stradale road car.

The Abarth X1/9 programme gave way to the Abarth 131 programme which secured FIAT three World Rally Championship titles in 1977, ’78 and ’80.

Bertone X1/9, Silverstone, Classic,

The Replica Prototipo seen in these photographs at Silverstone Classic, was built on a 1988 FIAT X1/9 manufactured by and marketed as a Bertone X1/9, but imported as a FIAT, with a 1500 cc / 91.5 cui single overhead cam 8 valve engine.

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

Share

As Seen On TV – ERA R7B

Austin and Arthur Dobson were to wealthy brothers who raced between the great wars of the twentieth century.

Arthur the younger, considered the more talented and more successful made his racing debut at the wheel of a FIAT 508S in the 1935 RAC Tourist Trophy from which he retired out of petrol.

ERA R7B, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone,

By 1936 when he bought today’s featured ERA R7B Arthur was a busy racing driver also running a Riley TT Sprite.

Arthur was so busy he let Cyril Paul drive R7B in it’s first three events before taking the wheel himself.

ERA R7B, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone,

In August 1937 Arthur won the Junior Car Club 200 at Donington running a works entered ERA C with a 1.1 / 67 cui motor while Charles Brackenbury raced the 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui R7B and Carlo Pintacuda finished the same race in 7th place.

Later in October Arthur drove ERA R7B to a second place finish half a car length behind B.Bira driving another ERA known as R2B or Romulus at Crystal Palace, the event was notable for being the first to be screened on British Television by the steam powered British Broadcasting Corporation.

ERA R7B, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone,

Arthur continued racing R7B through 1938 scoring a third place behind the Maserati 6CM of Franco Cortese and 4CM of Armand Hug at Modena.

Arthur followed this with a 6th place in the 1938 Donington Grand Prix, R7B was the first non Auto Union and non Mercedes Benz to cross the finish line only 6 laps down on Tazio Nuvolari who drove the winning D-Type Auto Union.

ERA R7B, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone,

1939 would prove to be Arthur’s final season as a racing driver in which he continued to race R7B and at the 1939 Albi Grand Prix in France he crashed the first ERA E-type.

During the 1939/45 war Arthur was briefly a Pilot officer, the termination of his commission might have been related to the brothers love of the occasional tipple of the falling down waters though the reason has not been identified.

ERA R7B, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone,

After 1945 Arthur Dobson found himself in “straitened circumstances” having spent his fortune and only attended three more race meetings before his death in Battersea aged just 65.

His great ERA rival B.Bira died similarly anonymously after suffering a heart attack at Barons Court tube station five years later.

ERA R7B, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone,

While in the care of H L Brooke between 1945 and 1948 R7B lost it’s unique chrome radiator, an item that was not restored until after P Mullins bought her in 2002.

Ken Hutchison had the 2 litre / 122 cui motor fitted in 1948/49 by Robin Jackson who was also responsible for upgrading the brakes to hydraulic operation.

ERA R7B, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone,

R7B was bought by current owners Ms S & Ms F Wilton in 2014 and is seen in these photographs at the start of ERA’s 80th Anniversary Celebrations at the VSCC’s Spring Start meeting the same year.

Thanks for joining me on this “As Seen On TV” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres I hope you will join me again for Mercedes Monday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Rebel With Out A Clue – FIAT 128 1100 2 Door Saloon

Today’s featured FIAT 128 1100 2 Door Saloon was first registered in the UK between 1st of August 1970 and the 31st of July 1971 we know this because of the ‘J’ suffix in the registration number, the 2nd and third letters CJ tell us that the car was first registered in the Norwich area about 100 miles North East of London.

In the Spring of 1978 my Grandmother came over to London from Germany and kindly gave me a small sum of cash to buy my first car.

My idea was to spend it on a cheap to run and insure Citroën 2CV which I knew from a friends experience had no go, but was great fun getting there all the same.

My civil engineer Dad had other idea’s, he did not want his one and only to be at risk driving a French tin can on wheels and promised to pay the insurance if I bought something a little more substantial.

I suggested a FIAT 124 like the one I had learned to drive in Zambia, but eventually settled for the front wheel drive 128 seen below which had made it’s way down from Norwich to Uxbridge.

FIAT 128, Haselmere,

The car was originally maroon, a scrape against a fence post was all the excuse I needed to invest heavily in body filler and spray paint to end up with the refrigerator white and bright red paint job seen above.

With hindsight it is amazing my lungs survived two days locked up in a tiny garage with 10 tins of spray paint and little if anything in the way of fume protection.

In case you are wondering I was trying to make the car look something like Niki Lauda’s 1976 Ferrari 312T2, with more time and perhaps a spot of green paint I am sure I would have got there… eventually !

All though the car had half an areal it did not come with a radio or speakers, so an old radio compact cassette combination system served as my ICE, in car entertainment.

Among the many excursions I made in the car I visited Silverstone for the 1978 USAC race won by AJ Foyt, 1979 Six Hour Race won by John Fitzpatrick, Hans Heyer and Brilliant Bob Wollek driving a Gelo Porsche 935 and the 1979 British Grand Prix won by Clay Regazzoni driving a Williams FW07.

Then there was Reading Rock ’79 where Mike and the mechanics with both Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel on stage, The Cure, Molly Hatchet, Motörhead, Scorpions, Eurythmics, the Police and DJ John Peel kept us entertained for my first weekend of unadulterated debauchery, it was so bad I could not remember my own phone number on the way home and finally Knebworth Park for the second of the two Led Zepplin gigs.

The following spring I was hoping to do more of the same, but although the car passed it’s MOT it started falling to bit’s after I gently parked it up a kerb outside a friends flat in Earls Court.

Later that evening I was visiting another friend down in Haselmere when strange noises started coming out of the front of the car, the suspension was collapsing.

I took it to a garage and they showed me that the frame to which the suspension arms were mounted was completely rotten and they advised me this was true on the other side and rather than bodge a repair I’d be better off spending the money on another car, reluctantly I agreed.

Thanks for joining me on this “Rebel Without A Clue” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the last of the current Saturday series of GN Specials. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

’69 Spoiler – Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

No sooner had Chevrolet announced the arrival of it’s Camaro model in 1967 to compete against Ford’s Mustang than racers in the USA were lining up to challenge the Mustang’s hegemony in the Trans Am series with the 302 cui / 5 litre Z/28 variant like the example seen here at a Silverstone Classic Press Day a couple of years ago.

Among those racing Z/28’s in 1967 way Bobby Brown whom records show raced a Penske Z/28 with George Wintersteen and Joe Welch in the 1967 Daytona 24 hours where they qualified 22nd but retired.

Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

Bobby also raced a Robert Chevrolet entered Z/28 in the 1967 Sebring 4 Hour race in which he finished 6th from 9th on the grid.

Records show Bobby racing a Z/28 on two further occasions at Lime Rock in 1967 winning his class in a SCCA event in mid May.

Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

Today’s featured car is believed to have been raced by Bobby in 1967 before being shipped to the UK in 1968 where Malcolm Wayne drove it in the British Saloon Car Championship the following season Mike Kearon did likewise.

In 1970 the car went to Bill Davis Racing where it was part of a two car stable that included a Z/28 built from scratch that was driven by Roy Pierrepont.

Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

Adrian Chambers acquired the car in 1971 for his SCA Freight team that was joined midway through the season by Australian Frank Gardner who won two British Saloon Car Championship races with it.

Frank also raced the car in a couple of rounds of the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft 1972 finishing a best 2nd at Diepholz.

Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Silverstone Classic Test Day,

After it was replaced in the SCA team by a second generation Camaro Frank had today’s featured car sent first to New Zealand and then to Australia where he raced it into 1973.

John Pollard appears to have been responsible for fitting the larger ’69 spec rear spoiler in preparation for his entry into Australian Super Sedan races somewhere around 1976.

Thanks for joining me on this “’69 Spoiler” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Go Turbo Or Not – Lola T711 Chevrolet #HU2

For the 1985 season General Motors ordered two new Lola chassis to compete in the IMSA GTP series against Porsche, Nissan, Mazda and the Jaguar endorsed Group44 XJR5 GTP entries.

The first chassis T710 HU1, better known as the Corvette GTP, was powered by a turbocharged 3.4 litre / 207 cui V6 and was run by Hendricks Motorsports in 1985 and 1986 winning the 1986 Road Atlanta 500 Kilometres with Sarel van der Merve and Doc Bundy at the wheel.

The second car the T711 #HU2 was powered by a normally aspirated 366cui / 6 litre V8 said to produce 800hp, which was considered insufficient to compete against the Porsches Nissans and Jaguars.

Lola T711, Paul Stubber, Silverstone Classic,

After GM decided to go the turbocharged route Lew Price’s Lee Racing acquired the car direct from Lola in time to enter it for the 1985 Daytona 24 Race.

Lew was joined by Carson Baird, Billy Hagan, Terry Labonte in the cockpit, but despite qualifying 13th #HU2 retired with a broken gearbox.

During the remainder of 1985 the cars best result was a 7th place finish for Carson and Chip Mead from 20th on the grid in the Miami 3 Hour race.

Lola T711, Paul Stubber, Silverstone Classic,

Lew took #HU2 back to Daytona in 1986 and with Jim Mullen and Matt Whetstine on the driving strength qualified 19th only to retire from the 24 hour race with suspension failure.

The car made two more appearances in 1986 retiring after an accident with Lew at the wheel from the Miami Grand Prix and retiring from the Sebring 12 Hours, where Lew, Jim and Carson qualified 10th, when the car caught fire.

Australian Paul Stubber seen at the wheel of the car, restored by Damax Engineering, in these photographs taken at Silverstone Classic is the cars fourth owner.

Thanks for joining me on this “Go Turbo Or Not” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

2016 Bucket List – Autosport International

Every year for the past couple of seasons I have come away from the Autosport International with a few new additions to my bucket list of new things to try before the season is out, if I make it to one or two I am usually happy here are six things I’ll be looking out for in the season ahead.

Ford Fusion, Autosport International, Birmingham NEC,

In 2003/4 my passion for motorsport was reignited after a decades abstinence when I started reading articles by veteran NASCAR writer Jerry Bonkowski.

By 2009 when I visited Talladega Superspeedway I was as hooked as I had been back in the 1970’s when I first discovered it.

I’m under no illusions that having the privilege to drive a non emergency ambulance up to 450 miles in a ten hour day is any kind of training to drive a 500 hp Cup car but top of my bucket list for 2016 is to shell out £150 for a couple of laps in the Ford Fusion above at a Rockingham Performance Driving Day.

Chevrolet Camaro, Autosport International, Birmingham NEC,

Sadly to date the only drag track I have visited is Shakespeare County Raceway which is due to close this year, so as well as making a final visit to Shakey I also hope to make it to Santa Pod where I have been informed the big boys like Andy Robinson go to play.

Andy drives the Pro Mod Chevrolet Camaro above which will reach 239.05 mph from rest in less than six seconds !

Winnebago Tour, Autosport International, Birmingham NEC,

I do not have a licence to drive anything as big as the £249,999 Winnebago Tour® nor the financial credentials to drive one to the end of my street, but I am planing on visiting the 2017 Rolex 24 Hours with a school friend and I have been informed the best way to spectate is to park an RV in the infield.

So if anyone reading this has room for two well bred and groomed Europeans in their RV at the 2017 Rolex 24 Hours please chime in below ?

March Chevrolet 717, Autosport International, Birmingham NEC,

One of the new features of this years Silverstone Classic will be a race for Can Am cars like the March Chevrolet 717 seen above, at the end of the 1980’s these cars were a regular site in historic events and it will be great to see a full field of them for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Sin R1 GT Cup, Autosport International, Birmingham NEC,

A couple of years ago Sin launched their R1 model at the Autosport International this year I hope to so one racing in either the British GT Championship, GT Cup, or if it is legible in the Britcar series.

Ford Focus WRC, Autosport International, Birmingham NEC,

Finally I have been wanting to go and see a rally cross event ever since Ford took a four wheel drive Ford Capri to Croft for Roger Clark to drive in 1969, it has always looked like great sport on TV so maybe this year I’ll finally get to a Rally Cross event, one I will be looking out for is Guy Martin’s debut in the Ford Focus WRC owned by Ollie O’Donovan and prepared by Tony Brady Motorsport seen above which will be at a date towards the end of the British Rally Cross Championship.

Watch this space to see if I achieve any of the above and chime in with your bucket list for 2016 below.

Thanks for joining me on this “2016 Bucket List” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another Daytona 24 Hour challenger. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Keeping Tabs On 954 2+2s – Ferrari 250 GT/E 2+2 #3601GT

Looking for information about today’s featured Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 I checked out all the usual suspects the DVLA Vehicle Check site suggests this car was built in 1961 and registered in the UK on the 20th of November 2012.

Barchetta has not got a note on this registration and so was unable to help, though the photograph’s did make me wonder if this car is actually a Series III car built between 1962 and 1963 because the fog lights are recessed into the front wing fender panel.

Ferrari 250 GT/E, Silverstone Classic,

Next I had a look at a thread devoted to 250 GT/Es on the Ferrari Chat site, all 30 pages of it, but could not find anything conclusive and so I left a post asking if anyone had the chassis number for the car.

While I was going through the 30 pages I found out that a chap called Tom Wilson tries to keep tabs on all 954 250 GT/E 2+2’s that were built and runs a website dedicated to the model, he likens the self imposed task to a “full time job”.

Ferrari 250 GT/E, Silverstone Classic,

Some interesting stats Tom came up with include; that 221 GT/Es were confirmed alive and well between 2009 and 2011, 2 had been rebuilt as convertibles.

337 GT/Es were confirmed alive and well up to 2009 and there were 129 GT/E’s about which there was no information beyond the factory assigned chassis numbers and build dates.

Ferrari 250 GT/E, Silverstone Classic,

Of the rest 45 had been converted into SWB Berlinetta’s, 36 into GTO’s, 34 into Testa Rossas, 19 into California Spyders, 4 into 250 GT TdFs, and 2 into 225 Vignales.

Tom described the remaining 15 GT/Es as having been converted into cars that “defy categorization“.

Ferrari 250 GT/E, Silverstone Classic,

During the hour or so it took me to write this blog there have been two responses to my request for help identifying today’s featured car at Ferrari Chat, Global Moderator El Wayne speculated that the car might have been built in ’63 or actually be a 330 America, same GT/E body but with a bigger engine.

Kare, not or the first time, saved the day by confirming the car is chassis #3601GT a Series II 1962 car, one of at least to originally supplied to an entity known only as “Sonas”, that has been cosmetically altered front and rear to resemble a later Series 3 GT/E.

Primarily for Tom and Kare’s benefit and any other 250 GT/E aficionado’s, here is a list of the six 250 GT/E blog’s I have published so far, with links, that includes one unknown 250 GTO replica which has not so far been confirmed as having 250 GTE underpinnings.

250 GT/E Blogs :-

#2245

#2259

#2835 Wisconsin SWB

#4019 uncredited double bubble Zagato replica

#4049

#4089

#4873 looks like an approximation of a TRC

Unknown Replica

Possible Roelufs 250 GTO Replica does this have 250 GT/E underpinnings ?

My thanks to Kare at Ferrari chat for once again for identifying today’s featured car.

Thanks for joining me on this “Keeping Tabs On 954 2+2s” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another unique special. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share