Tag Archives: Wilson

Interim Model – Rover 75 P3

In 1878 the Rover Company was founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry which by 1885 had developed the template for the modern bicycle in the form of the Rover Safety Bicycle.

From 1904 still using the Rover Marque brand the company started building motor cars and motorcycles.

After World War 2 Rover moved to it’s Solihull factory where it had engaged in building aircraft for the war effort, since it’s car plant in Coventry had been wiped out by bombing during the hostilities. The interim P3, launched in 1948, was Rovers first post war model.

The Rover 75 version of the P3 was powered by a novel new six cylinder motor that featured overhead inlet valves and side exhaust valves that had been developed prior to the commencement of hostilities in 1939.

The styling combined elements of the pre war Rover 12 and 16 but only the Rover 12 wings and bonnet were carried over from the narrower earlier designs.

The unitary monocoque design, requiring no independent chassis, featured independent front suspension and hybrid hydraulic / mechanical brakes.

This the 75 body style seen here was known as a light six saloon and cost a relatively expensive £1106, £ 26 more than the similar 4 cylinder ‘Sports Saloon’ known as the Rover 60.

From 1948 – 1949 7,837 Rover 75’s were produced before the all new P4 vehicle was introduced.

The engine and gearbox of the P3 formed the basis of the very first agricultural all terrain ‘Land Rover’ conceived in 1947. Note the vehicle above built in times of material austerity features a cyclops third head light but only one wing mirror.

This particular P3 can be seen at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum in Calne.

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

Perfect Car For A Wedding #5 – Vauxhall 14/6

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Todays perfect car for a wedding is a 1934 Vauxhall 14/6 seen here at the Atwell Willson Motor Museum in Calne.

Vauxhall Motors Ltd was founded in 1857 to manufacture pump and marine engines, in 1903 Vauxhall also began manufacturing motor cars.

In 1925 the brand was taken over by General Motors who still own it today. Since the late 1970’s all new Vauxhalls have in essence been badge engineered Opel’s designed in Germany.

The name of the 14/6 derives from the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) taxable horsepower rating which gave HMRC (Her Majesties Revenue and Customs) in the UK a method of collecting road taxes.

RAC h.p. = D²*n/2.5 where D is the diameter of the cylinder bore in inches and n is the number of cylinders.

Like all tax laws this one ended up distorting the market place, in this instance by halting the development of efficient over spare cylinders because the tax laws favoured inefficient narrow bore cylinders with long strokes until the UK taxation structure was rethought in the 1940’s.

Up until WW2 most signals from one driver to another were given by hand, trafficators to indicate when a turning maneuver was about to commence, such as these were optional extra’s and were found on new cars until the early 1960’s.

Distinctive sculpted chrome bonnet details like these were in evidence on some Vauxhall models like the Velox until 1957.

This particular car is available for hire from the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum Trust.

The museum is holding a classic festival this weekend, I hope to pop by on Sunday.

Wishing all those tying the knot today best wishes.

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

Off The M4 – Atwell Wilson Motor Museum

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For several years now every month I have been making a trip up to London to go and see my folks, on the way back no matter what time of day I frequently find myself in a traffic jam some where around J18 on the M4 which could add anything up to an hour on my normal 2 hour journey time.

About 18 months ago forewarned, by a big new electric message board on the M4, of an impending jam between Junction 18 and 20 I took a detour and followed the A338 from Junction 14 down to Upper Eddington and then followed the A4 west to Bristol.

Going through Calne I passed a sign for a Motor Museum, 18 months later with a little time on my hands I managed to follow the sign about a mile down Stockley Lane and on the left I found the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum.

Entrance is an unbelievably low £5 and within were over 100 2, 3, 4 wheeled vehicles, and one soon to depart 6 wheel World War 2 AEC RAF Refuelling Tanker.

The collection can broadly be divided into vintage and classic mass production vehicles with a particularly interesting collection of Limousines both British and American which are available at very reasonable rates for wedding hire.

The Atwell Wilson Museum was founded by Richard and Hasel Atwell, who lived in Wiltshire all of their lives, in 1962 they started collecting vehicles with a local connection and maintaining them in a road worthy condition. Richard passed away last year, the Museum that has grown out of the collection is run by 15 volunteers.

On the weekend of July 9th and 10th the museum will be hosting a classic car weekend, if you have a classic car, or even if you don’t but would like to attend call 01249 813119 or e-mail enquiries@atwellwilson.org.uk for details. I shall look forward to attending on one of the two days.

Thanks for popping by today’s Atwell – Wilson edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a closer look at the Atwell – Wilsons 1962 Plymouth Fury. Don’t for get to come back now !

Wuzzum – WSM Sprite #202

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Douglas Wilson-Spratt the designer of the WSM Sprite had an engineering background with the car division of the Bristol Aircraft Company which included experience as a production test driver. Douglas worked with Jim McManus, founder member of the Healey Drivers Club and former salesman at the Donald Healey Motor company to set up the Healey Centre in London to cater for the performance Healey Market in 1962.

793 XPP is a 1962 MG Midget fitted with a Douglas designed aluminium body beaten by Peels Coachworks featuring a glass fibre bonnet for Douglas’s son in law Mike Lewis .

This second Douglas Sprite conversion known as WSM 202 was driven to numerous victories in racing and hill climb events by Mike in 1963.

The WSM initials of Wilson-Spratt and McManus, only became a marque name after a couple of American owners needed a name for their import documents, WSM’s are occasionally referred to as Wuzzum’s.

Production was suspended after the ninth WSM was completed in 1965 and restarted with Sanction 2 WSM Sprite’s in 2008 which are still available from WSM Cars.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Wuzzum edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

It’s The Real Thing – Ferrari 512BB

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In 1974 Niki Lauda tested a prototype Ferrari 312 PB in preparation for the 1974 World Sports Car Championship and when Enzo asked him what he thought Niki is alleged to have said something to the effect that if Mr Ferrari wanted to win the Grand Prix World Championship he ought to forget about the prototype 312PB. Enzo seems to have concurred with his new drivers opinion and his cars were never to contest the World Sports Car Championship during his lifetime again.

However many privateers never tired of entering Ferrari’s in the World Sports Car Championships lesser IMSA classes and today we will be looking at the fortunes of 3 privateer Ferrari 512 BBs that I was lucky enough to see in the early 80’s.

The Ferrari 512 BB was an update of the 365 GT4 BB we looked at last week. Introduced in 1976 the 512 featured an enlarged 360 hp 4942 cc / 301 cui 180 degree 12 cylinder engine with a 9.2:1 compression ratio and dry sump engine lubrication which is ideal for the higher cornering forces experienced in racing cars. 929 examples of the 512 BB were made before the 512i BB was introduced in 1981.

512 BB / LM #27577 1980 Silverstone 6 Hours, O’Rourke/Craft/Norman Q18 F 7th o/a 2nd IMSA, those with an interest in all things musical might recognise EMKA and Steve O’Rourke in connection with Pink Floyd whom Steve is credited as managing post Syd Barrat, Nick Mason was listed to drive the #11 but didn’t, after Steve died in 1994 Nick acquired this car to join his 250 GTO.

On the inside you can just make out the winning #8 De Cadenet – Ford driven by Alain De Cadenet (seen here) and Desiré Wilson who I believe a couple of weeks earlier became the first female to win a World Championship race of any kind in the same De Cadenet – Ford with the same co-driver at Monza.

512 BB / LM #35523 1981 Silverstone 6 Hours, Phillips/Salmaon/Earle Q25 DNF (Flat battery) A not untypical horribly wet and cold day at Silverstone the race was won by a Porsche 935 which will be the subject of a future blog.

512 BB / LM #31589 Andruet/Ballot-Léna 1981 Le Mans 24 hours, Q 37th, F 5th o/a 1st in IMSA GTX, my first holiday abroad alone was always going to be to go see the Le Mans 24 hours and I was not disappointed. Bell & Ickx won and there was an entertaining battle between 5 of these 512 BB’s for much of the race, though all but one other did not finish.

512 BB / LM #35523 1982 Silverstone 6 Hours, Phillips/Earle/Jones Q34, F 17th, regrettably this was the last time I saw the 512’s on the track, these fabulous sounding machines continued to be raced until 1985.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s ‘It’s The Real Thing’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at some Porsches from Thompson CT in the first day of my first Porsche week. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring