Tag Archives: The

Dream Car – Vauxhall Cresta PA

I don’t believe it is any exaggeration to say that no other British mass production vehicle quite captured the spirit of the US Dream Car concepts of the 1950’s quite like the second iteration of the Vauxhall Cresta known as the PA.

With unadulterated optimistic styling that mimics both the Packard Caribbean production car and Lincoln Futurama Concept car of 1955 the Cresta PA personifies the Rock’n’Roll era of the 1950’s in much the same way as the 1957 Cadillac Series 62.

The Cresta PA could seat six with a three abreast bench seat up front, which thanks to a column shift for its three speed gearbox and dashboard mounted handbrake facilitated easy smooching twixt driver and companion.

Both of the cars featured in today’s post were powered by a 2262 cc / 138 cui straight 6 cylinder motor that delivered 70 hp enough for the Cresta to reach 60 mph from rest in 16.8 seconds and a top speed of 89 mph.

This two tone blue example appears to be a 1958 model, it was used by John Walker and Frank Dimblebee in the 1960 Monte Carlo Rally.

Seats covered in leather and nylon, fitted woven carpets and a heater came fitted as standard for the 1960 model above.

Options included radio, fog lights, reversing lights, locking filler cap and external mirrors.

The asking price for one of these classics in good condition today is around £10,000 which reflects the fact that few of the 81,841 PA’s built between 1957 and 1962 have survived.

Fans of British ska band The Specials may remember a Cresta PA featured in the video for their seminal hit ‘Ghost Town‘, that was a 1962 model fitted with a larger 104 hp 2651 cc / 162 cui straight six.

Hope you have enjoyed this British Dream Car edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Hitchhikers Guide To Disambiguation – Ford Prefect

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Many readers may think Ford Prefect is the character Ix from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who disguised himself as an out of work actor after getting stuck on planet Earth for 15 years while visiting the Earth to update the Guide in either the radio comedy, tv series, book, radio adaption of the books or film ‘The Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy.

In fact a Ford Prefect, note not “PERFECT” as many have incorrectly read and or heard the second word, is a motor car which Ix mistook for a superior form of life when visiting earth in the Sci Fi comedy.

The Ford Prefect was in production from 1938 to 1959 in four distinct evolutions.

With the front wings incorporated into the overall 3 box design of the body we can say for sure this is a series 3 or 4 car.

The absence of a rakish small chrome strip from the front of the existing chrome waste strip down to the wheel arch further suggests this is an earlier 100E Series 3 car which was in production from 1953 to 1959.

The tax disc in the front window of this car suggested that it had stopped being used as a daily driver in 1979 which seems strangely at odds with what looks like a vehicle that is more than capable of passing an MOT (a safety inspection required in the UK before a vehicle can be taxed) when I saw it at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum where many of the cars are regular runners.

Powered by a 1172 cc / 71.5 cui 4 cylinder side valve engine mated to a 3 speed manual gearbox the Series 3 Prefect was tested as being capable of accelerating from rest to 60 mph in 32.2 seconds and having a top speed of 71 mph.

The four door version of the otherwise visually similar Ford Popular and Anglia models was also built under license in Latvia where it was sold as the Ford-Vairogs Junior.

There was an estate / station wagon of the Ford Prefect known as the Squire while the estate / station wagon version of the similar Ford Anglia was know as the Ford Escort. For reasons long forgotten in the mists of time the French and Greek translations, among others, of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy incorrectly give the name chosen by Ix while staying on earth as Ford Escort, though Ix probably chose that name for the same reasons as he chose Ford Prefect in the English version, and most other translations of the book, namely to an alien it probably looks like cars are the most intelligent species on the planet.

Thanks for joining me on this Hitchhikers Guide edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be trading in Science Fiction for a big Voyager. Don’t forget to come back now !

The Regency Laundry Pegasus Sprint

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A week last Saturday I got up at 6 am and headed down the hill to meet Mark a fellow member of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club at 7:15 am to catch a lift out to Castle Combe where we were both volunteer marshalls for a day at The Regency Laundry Pegasus Sprint.

Unlike the Wessex Sprint held at Castle Combe which started from the pit lane earlier this year the start of the Pegasus Sprint was at the entry to Camp Corner with the usual finish line on the straight following Camp meaning the sprint course was just over a lap and measured 2.05 miles.

Participants from an additional twenty clubs, including the Morgan CC were invited to take part around 120 entries were expected to make two practice runs in the morning and two competitive runs in the afternoon.

For the morning sessions I was assigned to the inside of Quarry Corner with fellow members Andy and Lewis. We all agreed that the TVR would probably provide the most entertainment during the day and we were not dissapointed. Matthew Oakley’s #100 6158 cc / 376 cui TVR Griffith sounded like it was running a super charger though this was not marked on the entry list.

At Quarry the morning passed relatively uneventfully no spiners, cars with all four wheels off the track or anything of significance to report from a marshaling perspective. Things were a good deal more exciting at The Esses just down the track from us where several competitors spun, dropped oil and in a couple of cases completely failed to take the Esses and headed safely down the escape road.

After a fabulous courtesy chicken curry at The Tavern I had about ten minuets to take some more snaps in the paddock before joining Andy and Lewis at Avon Rise for the afternoon sessions. Above John Dando driving his magnificent Volvo 144 was the sole representative of the Volvo Owners Club present.

Toby Harris sharing the turbocharged #31 Ford Puma, fitted with what appeared to be carbon fibre bonnet and boot panels, above with Lisa Selby was particularly impressive for it’s neutral handling in the corners making it look smooth and fast.

Tim Painter driving his heart warming Ferrari 360 around Castle Combe for the first time did not have such an easy run of it managing just one clean run.

Appearing with rally spec ground clearance was this 2 litre / 122 cui mid engined Darian T9 shared by Colin Early, seen above and Carole Torkington.

Among the fastest cars of the day was the #79 SBD Westfield S2000 of Matt Hillman seen driving above and Steve Broughton, this car has all the go faster bits including Kevlar steering wheel and sequential gearbox.

Finally as the days track activities drew to a close this Convertible Jenson Interceptor pulled up behind our marshalling post in the hands of a new owner who had just purchased it for a very reasonable £24,000. More on this car on Sunday.

I’d like to thank Mark for saving me a long uphill walk by dropping me off right outside my house.

Thanks for joining me on this Regency Laundry edition of ‘Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Vintage Vauxhall. Don’t forget to come back now !

Worth Getting Up At Dawn For – Volvo 480ES

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One day in April 1987 I spent the day at Donington Park where Volvo Concessionaires officially introduced the ’87 model range to members of it’s dealer network. This was the first opportunity many of us would have to drive the much anticipated Volvo 480ES.

Unlike Volvo’s previous coupé the P1800 which was based on an existing Amazon platform, the 480 was a completely fresh front wheel drive design by Robert Koch, John de Vries and interior by Corien Pompe. The 480 platform would then later be used for the 440 hatchback and 460 saloon variants.

The car bristled with idea’s new to Volvo including a Porsche tuned transverse 90 hp engine and front wheel drive, engine management by Electronic Control Unit, digital dash instrumentation, and a Lotus tuned suspension that gave the car staggering road holding.

By the time the car was launched the pop up head lights were not strictly necessary as the European Laws that had required them to meet a minimum head light height had been repealed, however this change in the law came so late the design remained unchanged.

During the course of the day I had the opportunity of driving the car around the Donington Park Circuit with a racing instructor at my side and I simply could not drive the car anything like fast enough to explore it’s road holding potential, it went every where I wanted it to go safely regardless of the speed I was doing.

Some weeks later I was given the 480 ES, seen here, for a week in exchange for getting up at some improbably early hour to go and drum up some business at New Covent Garden Fruit Vegetable Market in Central London.

From 1986 to 1995 80,463 Volvo 480 ES, Turbo and 2 litre / 122 cui variants were manufactured at the former DAF works at Born in the Netherlands.

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

Goodwood Revival #3 – Volvo P1800S

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The Volvo P1800 designed by Pelle Peterson, is celebrating it’s 50th Anniversary along with the E-Type Jaguar this year, surprisingly in the UK the Volvo was the more expensive of the two models.

Like the E-Type the P1800 was launched at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, with a 4 cylinder 115hp B18 motor this 1967 model is capable of 109 mph.

The producers of the thriller TV series The Saint initially approached Jaguar to see if they would supply a couple of, the much in demand, E-Types for the show, after they were turned down they asked Volvo for a couple of P1800’s who obliged by supplying two British bodied, built by Jensen, P1800’s for the first series and a Swedish built P1800S for a later series.

The actor Roger Moore star of The Saint, which immortalised the P1800, liked the P1800 so much he bought one.

In the late 80’s I came very close to taking on a P1800S as an investment, a second look at the car in daylight revealed I’d need to double my investment just to stay ahead of the rust, the following year the economy tanked. Wonderful cars full of character that the P1800’s are, I’m glad I played it safe on that particular occasion.

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

16 Blocks of Classics ! – Carmel by the sea Concours d’Elegnce 2011

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Here in the UK the Autumn is already closing in with days of rain. To cheer myself up with a hint of California sunshine I thought to share with you these fabulous photo’s from last month’s Carmel by the sea Concours d’Elegance kindly sent to me by Geoffrey Horton.

I understand for the day of the event sixteen blocks in central Carmel are closed down and given over to that part of the motoring fraternity that is fanatical about presenting their cars built between 1945 and 1989 in better than new condition. First up a Cadillac powered 1955 Allard J2R.

When I first started reading ‘Motor Sport‘ in 1973 the car to have in touring car racing was the 3.0 litre / 183 cui BMW CSL which in full works Group 2 specification with ‘batmobile’ rear wing fairly wiped the hitherto dominant Ford Capri off the top place on the winners rostrum of the European Touring Car Championship. A #55 Jaegermeister sponsored 3.0 CSL looking very much like the car in Geoffrey’s photo, but without the 1974 IMSA GTO spec vented flared wheel arches, driven by Derek Bell and Harald Ertl, won the RAC Tourist Trophy on the 23rd Sept 1973.

I have already posted a blog about the unique 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Boano Convertible, that was declared the winner of this years Carmel Concours, so with best wishes for the Birthday boy most of you know from his posts on this blog as Jr Cracker here is a Ferrari 250 GT Boano chassis 0553 GT which has gone through several colour changes and engine changes but after a twenty plus year gap now has it’s original motor safely re-installed. Last sold in January 2008 for US$ 975.000.

The 1957 Indy 500 was won by Sam Hanks in the Epperly Belond Exhaust Special, Jack Turner driving the #19 Bardahl Special a Kurtis 500G started 19th and came in 11th last man to complete the full 200 laps.

I believe this wonderful Lola T70 Mk 2 is the only car to have ever to have won a Can Am race powered by a Ford V8, a 302 cui motor fitted with Westlake heads, which Dan Gurney used to take honours in the second ever Can Am race at Bridgehampton in 1966. John Surtees won the 1966 Can Am series in a similar, but Chevrolet powered, Lola T70 Mk 2.

The vintage and history of this Morgan 4-4 is still a mystery to me but nice to see someone flying the motherlands flag in a swinging sixties style.

My thanks to Geoffrey for his wonderful photos, I hope you will join me in wishing the man behind GALPOT’s Ferrari Friday’s, Jr Cracker, a very Happy Birthday !

Thanks for joining me on this Jr Cracker birthday edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be taking a close look at a rare Aston Martin by Touring. Don’t forget to come back now !