Tag Archives: Special

Major Reliability Leap – Hispano Amilcar Special

The motor powering Robin Baker’s 2 speed, chain drive 1930 Hispano Amilcar Special is a 1916 Hispano Suiza V8 aircraft engine.

Hispano Amilcar Special, Robin Baker, VSCC Prescott

Marc Birkigt’s HS8 design with a swept volume of 11,760 cc / 717 cui originally produced 140hp and was only accepted for use by the French Military after it had passed a 50 hour full speed test, more than three times longer than any comparable test held hitherto.

Hispano Amilcar Special, Robin Baker, VSCC Loton Park,

After demonstrating it’s major leap in reliability a new SPAD S.VII fighter was quickly designed around the new motor which helped the Entente, British, French and Russian, air forces regain air superiority during the 1914-18 war.

Hispano Amilcar Special, Robin Baker, VSCC Prescott

By the time production of HS8 motors ceased in the mid 1920’s they were producing 300hp and they had been built under licence in 21 different factories under licence in Spain, France, Britain, Italy, and in the United States where they were recognised as superior to the Curtiss OX5 V8.

Hispano Amilcar Special, Robin Baker, VSCC Loton Park

By 1930 I believe the only Amilcar chassis being built large and substantial enough to carry a 185 kg / 407 lbs HS8 would probably have been a C8 which would have originally been fitted with a 2 liter / 122 cui or 2.3 litre / 140 cui straight 8.

Thanks for joining me on this “Major Reliability Leap” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting the Avenue Drivers Club. Don’t forget to come back now !

Shafer 8 – Rigling Buick

Leave a Reply

Like the Wonder Bread Special I looked at last year today’s featured chassis is credited as being the handy work of Herman Rigling who is said to have built no fewer than 8 of the 40 chassis that started the 1931 Indy 500.

Rigling Buick, Silverstone Classic,

Foremost of the 8 entries that Herman had a hand in building was the Buick powered #12 example driven Phil Schafer known as the Schafer 8 which started 23rd and finished 12th.

Rigling Buick, Heinz Bachmann, Silverstone Classic,

The following season Phil returned to Indy to drive the #33 Shafer 8 Rigling Buick from 26th on the grid through to an 11th place finish.

Rigling Buick, Silverstone Classic,

In 1933 Phil was absent from the Indy 500 grid having failed to qualify the #7 Abels Fink Auto Special in an officially sanctioned qualifying session, he did qualify on the morning of the race, but officials realised they had overstepped their jurisdiction by allowing the running of a qualifying session on race day morning !

However the #8 Abels Fink Auto Special, Phil’s Shafer 8 dating back to 1931 , was driven by H W Stubblefield from 10th on the grid to a fifth place finish.

Rigling Buick, Silverstone Classic,

Phil entered two Shafer 8’s for the 1934 Indy 500, it would appear his original Rigling Buick was entered as the #36 for Al Miller and his mechanician Pinky Donaldson while Phil and mechanician Earle Frost drove the #26 Shafer 8.

Rigling Buick, Silverstone Classic,

Al drove to a 6th place finish from 8th on the grid while Phil starting from an Indy 500 career high 6th on the grid recorded his only Indy 500 retirement with a broken cam shaft drive after completing 130 laps to be classified 16th in his last drive at the Brickyard.

Rigling Buick, Silverstone Classic,

Phil continued competing in the AAA championship until 1936 and continued to participate in the Pikes Peak Hillclimb until 1952.

Heinz Bachmann is seen at the wheel of a Rigling Buick above that is believed to be the Shafer 8 that Phil Shafer failed to qualify at Indy in 1933 but with which Paul won the AAA non Championship race at Elgin Illinois, as described at the end of the post by John Glenn Printz, and raced in his final Indy start in 1934.

My thanks to Vitesse2 and Michael Ferner at the Nostalgia Forum for their help with some of the details in today’s story, I highly recommend reading Michael’s retelling of the 1933 Indy 500 qualification saga part 1 of which appears linked here and part 2 linked here with the race report linked here.

Thanks for joining me on this “Shafer 8” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a DIY Backie. Don’t forget to come back now !

LWB Aero Engine Special – Peugeot Type 148 Hall Scott Special

Leave a Reply

In 1913 Peugeot introduced the Types 145, 146 and 148 passenger cars which all shared the same 4,536 cc / 276 cui 35 hp 4 cylinder motors but had chassis with 3.3m / 10.8 ft, 3.48m / 11.4 ft and 3.61m / 11.8 ft wheelbases respectively.

Peugeot 148 , Clive Press, VSCC Loton Park

Today’s featured car is built on one the longer 1913 Type 148 chassis, one of just 83 built, but somewhere around 2001 appears to have been fitted with a 100hp 10 litre / 610 cui 4 cylinder Hall Scott A7 Aero engine, of the same type as fitted to William Hildyardís 1910 Th Schneider I looked at last week and Stewart Wilkies Fafnir I looked at some years ago.

Peugeot 148 , Clive Press, VSCC Prescott

The bodywork on Clive Press’s Peugeot seen in these photographs at Loton Park and Prescott respectively is styled on the 1913/14 era Peugeot EX3 racers that won the French Grand Prix and 1913 Indy 500.

Thanks for joining me on this “LWB Aero Engine Special” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Llandow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Swiss American Special – Piccard Pictet Sturtevant Special

Leave a Reply

Piccard-Pictet et Cie, based in Charmilles, near Geneva Switzerland a hydraulic engineering company,, specialising in turbines, when they were commissioned to build a vehicle for the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup by Frederic and Charles Dufaux.

Piccard Pictet Sturtevant Spl, VSCC Prescott,

The car never appeared in the Gordon Bennett Cup, but that did not stop Societe des Automobiles a Geneve approchiing Piccard-Pictet the following year with a view to building Hispano Suiza’s under licence.

Piccard Pictet Sturtevant Spl, VSCC Prescott,

Soon SAG as the cars were known in Switzerland or Pic Pic as the cars became known in the UK were being built to their own design, the 1913 example seen in these photographs is fitted with a plate on the dash which suggests the car was supplied to “Agence Des Grandes Marques C Mathaud” in Paris.

Piccard Pictet Sturtevant Spl, VSCC Prescott,

This particular vehicle is fitted with a 1918 9 litre / 552 cui Sturtevant V8 aero engine built by the B.F. Sturtevant Company of Hyde Park, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Piccard Pictet Sturtevant Spl, Geoff Smith, VSCC Prescott,

It would appear Sturtevant built V8’s with L heads or open valves, like the one seen here, simultaneously and both produced around 140hp.

Piccard Pictet Sturtevant Spl, Geoff Smith, VSCC Prescott,

Owner Geoff Smith is seen driving the car in a VSCC meeting held at Prescott.

Thanks for joining me for this Aero Engined Pic Pic edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me for a Classic Silver Jubilee Preview edition tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

The Cropduster – Stanton Special

Leave a Reply

In 1953 New Zealand’s Stanton Brothers built today’s featured Stanton Special for hill climbing and circuit racing competitions.

Stanton Special, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Well before it became a convention for open wheel cars the Stanton Brothers mounted the supercharged 197hp 4 cylinder 6.1 litre / 372 cui de Havilland Gypsy Major engine, taken and inverted from a de Havilland Gypsy Moth crop dusting aeroplane, longitudinally behind the driver.

Stanton Special, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

MF Stanton drove the Stanton Special to the Outright New Zealand Standing Start Quarter Mile Sprint record of 12.42 secs, 72.4637 mph on October 4th 1958, a record that might possibly stand for all time since New Zealand completed it’s metrication programme on 14th December 1976.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Cropduster” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting the first World Endurance Championship race of the season which proved to be a cracker from start to finish.. Don’t forget to come back now !

Methanol Motion – Delage SS Special

Leave a Reply

Rod King’s potent Delage SS Special featured in today’s blog is built on a 1938 Delage chassis.

Delage Special, Rod King, VSCC, Loton Park,

The 2664 cc / 162 cui straight 6 motor appears to have been donated from a contemporaneous Jaguar SS100.

Delage Special, Rod King, VSCC, Prescott,

Unlike most Jaguar SS100 motors, which produced 100 hp when new, the one in the SS Delage Special has been supercharged.

Delage Special, Rod King, VSCC, Prescott,

The orange dot on the side of the car indicates to safety marshals in the event of an emergency that the motor runs on performance enhancing methanol which burns without visible flames.

Delage Special, Rod King, VSCC, Prescott,

Almost exactly a year ago Rod King’s Delage SS Special had a minor part in the second series finale episode of Father Brown called The Laws of Motion.

Thanks for joining me for this “Methanol Motion” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be reviewing my Christmas reading. Don’t forget to come back now !

CAD/CAM Body – Mitchell Special MkII

Leave a Reply

The last in the current series of Bristol Special blogs features the Mitchell Special Mk II concieved by Andy Mitchell of Mitchell Motors in Wiltshire as the ultimate Bristol.