Category Archives: From A Special Correspondent

Upstairs, Downstairs

The 2016 Rétromobile expanded to an additional upstairs hall, mainly occupied by the Artcurial Auction lots. The quality was outstanding, like a museum display and The Special Correspondent had a field day.

The Graham brothers built up their business by producing large numbers of trucks using Dodge mechanicals and then bought the Paige-Detroit Motor Company. In January 1928 the Graham-Paige range of cars was announced.
It was ambitious and in 1929 the firm made 77,000 cars – they even won the Monte Carlo Rally that year! The Paige name was dropped in the early Thirties and the company attracted plenty of customers with its new ”Blue Streak” styling in 1932, the cars having sloping grilles. In 1934 Graham offered a supercharger on the Custom Eight and, apart from the Auburn 851 Speedster, it was the only American company to feature a supercharger (until 1939). For 1938 a new styling innovation was introduced with sloping-back grille, square headlamps set in the front wings and spats on the rear wheels, this aggressive design earning the nickname “shark nose”. The public did not take to it and only 8,800 were made up to 1940.
The above car is a 1939 Type 97 supercharged cabriolet, a rare example having bodywork by the French coachbuilder Pourtout. It has a straight six 3.5-litre engine developing 115 b.h.p. and a 3-speed gearbox with overdrive.
A final thought: a Graham-Paige of uncertain vintage was bought in 1935 by a Mr Baker for less than £50 and ,with the 8-cylinder engine rebuilt and a two-seater long-tailed body made specially by Harrington of Hove, it went on to win in August 1939 the last ever race at Brooklands!

1922 was the year that Georges Irat was making at Chatou an excellent 2-litre sports tourer with a 4-cylinder o.h.v.engine, the work of the former Delage engineer Maurice Gaultier. These cars performed well in the long-distance races of the era. In 1935 the company switched to making attractive 2-seater sports cars, first with Ruby engines and then with Citroën units.

After the war a completely new prototype was shown at the 1946 Paris Salon with a lightweight magnesium alloy frame, a flat-four engine and all-enveloping bodywork. There was no positive response to this and a second attempt was made for the 1949 Paris Salon. This is the car shown here with its Lambourdette body found in the factory at Bègles (near Bordeaux) but it has since been underpinned with a Simca Huit chassis. Again it aroused no commercial interest and thus sadly represents the end of Georges Irat motor cars.

Designed by Marcello Gandini, the Bugatti EB110 had a mid-mounted 3.5-litre V12 60 valve 4 turbo engine driving through all four wheels and a carbon fibre chassis made by Aérospatiale. It came about when Romano Artioli, a big Ferrari dealer in German-speaking northern Italy and the first to import Suzuki cars into the region, set up Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. in a brand new factory at Campogalliano near Modena.. The cars were produced between 1991 and 1995 after which the firm went bankrupt.
The appearance of the EB110S at Le Mans in 1994 has been well documented but less well-known is the racing history of this EB110SS of Gildo Pallanca-Pastor, a Monégasque entrepreneur who entered the car during 1995 and 1996 under the banner of his Monaco Racing Team.
The car’s first race was at the Watkins Glen 3 Hours in June 1995 where Patrick Tambay co-drove it into 19th place. Three weeks later Pallanca-Pastor came 16th on his own at Sears Point. A switch to the BPR Championship race at Suzuka in August brought retirement when a broken front drive-shaft sent Eric Hélary into the sand. The 1996 Daytona 24 Hours saw the car running in the GTS-1 class but there was no luck for Derek Hill (son of World Champion Phil Hill), Olivier Grouillard and Pallanca-Pastor, the gearbox failing after 154 laps. Even more disastrous was Tambay’s accident at the start of the Le Mans Test Day, effectively ending Pallanca’s hopes of running in the 24 Hour race.
The car’s last race came at the non-championship GT event at Dijon in June. Pallanca-Pastor finished 3rd in Heat 1 but Bertrand Balas, having initially led in Heat 2, was cruelly pushed off by Wolfgang Kaufmann’s bi-turbo Porsche 911.
To date this was the last racing appearance of a Bugatti in period.

This is the Citroën 15-Six H (Hydropneumatique), a limited series available to selected clients only in 1954, which had the hydropneumatic rear suspension destined for the forthcoming DS19 which appeared at the 1955 Paris Salon. It served as something of a test-bed for the complicated new system and trials revealed that the front suspension needed adjustment to compensate – hence the front torsion bars were lengthened, being extended out at the front.
All this rather mirrors what Citroën did in 1934. Having launched a completely new range of 8, 10 and 15CV at the 1932 Paris Salon, they became known as the Rosalie series after Citroën had gone record-breaking at Montlhéry with Yacco-sponsored special versions, labelled “Rosalies”. In 1933 an 8CV collected many long-distance records, this car known as the “Petite Rosalie”. In May 1934 Citroën equipped the Rosalie cars with the independent torsion bar front suspension that was just appearing on the recently unveiled Traction Avant, Citroën feeling that it was wise to continue offering the Rosalie range while the completely new car was getting established.

The Simca 8 Sport started life as an elegant cabriolet prototype with a Pinin Farina body at the 1948 Paris Salon in the Grand-Palais. The Head of Simca, Henri-Théodore Pigozzi, liked it so much that he decided to market it and production was entrusted to Facel-Métallon; the process was unusually complicated with the pressings made at Amboise, the assembly at Colombes and the final touches put on at Dreux! A fixed–head coupé accompanied the open version and the car was given an upgraded 1200 c.c. engine.
The coupé gained glory in the 1950 Monte Carlo Rally where the cars finished 4th and 5th overall, Scaron/Pascal winning the 1.5-litre class. A year later the cars were outclassed by the Jowett Jupiters, the Scaron/Pascal Simca Sport finishing 16th and even Trintignant managing only 48th.

One of nine Frazer-Nash Le Mans Fixed-Head Coupés. It has the usual adjustable slats in front of the radiator, centre-lock wire wheels, an Austin rear axle, iron brake drums and adjustable torsion bars. It was ordered by Mrs Kitty Maurice of Castle Combe and completed in April 1955. It travelled to Le Mans in June 1955 as a support vehicle for AFN’s entries. Mrs Maurice did not keep it for long and AFN eventually bought it back in November 1957.
XMC 1 was sold to John Dashwood in March 1959 and he had AFN prepare the car for that year’s Le Mans race . The rear axle location was modified with a Panhard rod and rose joints in place of the original A-bracket. Driven by Dashwood and Bill Wilks, this was the last Frazer-Nash to race at Le Mans. After three hours Dashwood slid into the sandbank at Arnage when the brakes faded. The gearbox split as he tried to slow down and the steering was damaged.

When launched at the 1934 Paris Salon the Renault Vivastella Grand Sport had a 3.6-litre 6-cylinder engine. But shortly after the Show the Vivastella Grand Sport became the Viva Grand Sport (Type ACX 1) and this had a 4.1-litre motor and more aerodynamic lines inspired by the famous Caudron-Renault Rafale aircraft, holder of the World Hour Record. The first Viva Grand Sport for 1936 (Type ACX 2) appeared in the summer of 1935 at the Concours d’Elégance du Bois de Boulogne. Refinements included a single-piece windscreen and a re-designed rear profile.

This 1936 example is one of only three drivable surviving cabriolets. Notice how the gear lever, although operating a central change, is deployed through the dashboard! I note that the prominent French racing driver of the Thirties, René Le Bègue (winner of the 1937 Monte Carlo Rally and the 1939 Comminges Grand Prix) began his career using a Renault Viva Grand Sport.

This is a Bugatti Type 40. Jean Bugatti took it off the production line in 1928 and designed a “fiacre” type body for it especially for his younger sister Lydia. The car was often “borrowed” by Bugatti racing drivers!
Bugatti launched the 4-cylinder racing Type 37 at the end of 1925. In mid-1926 he introduced the Type 40 to replace the Brescia as the 1.5-litre touring car. He took the engine of the Type 37 and fitted it to a new touring frame, stronger than that in the Brescia. He gave the car a narrower track and a new radiator.
Two French ladies, Marguerite Mareuse and Odette Siko, drove a Type 40 in the 1930 Le Mans race, finishing in 7th place.
Approximately 830 of the Type 40 and 40A were made.
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Back in 1908 you could buy a Detroit Electric car which would do 45 m.p.h. and have a range of 70—80 miles; not much progress since then evidently! There is currently a new vogue for electric cars in the name of zero emissions but, the moment the car is plugged in to recharge its batteries, the pollution is, of course, merely transferred to the power stations!
Under German Occupation during the Second World War, the French had little alternative to resorting to electrical power with a serious shortage of petrol and raw materials. All sorts of crude cars came on the market, this 4-wheeled Pierre Faure being one of the better ones. Constructed from October 1940 onwards at Vitry-sur-Seine, this 2-seater had a backbone chassis with a narrow track at the rear to avoid the use of a differential and front suspension by a transverse leaf spring. Six batteries were located in the nose and these gave a speed of approximately 25 m.p.h. with a range of some 50 miles.
The car was shown at the 1946 Paris Salon but could not compete with the new petrol cars and production ceased in 1947. It is thought that about 20 were made.

David Blumlein March 2016

Rétromobile 2016-style

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The Special Correspondent made his annual pilgrimage to Paris and the Porte de Versailles for the Rétromobile. As might be expected there was plenty to see that was ‘Rare and Interesting’…………..

The Renault 40CV was for 20 years the top of their range. A large luxurious model, it originally came as the 50CV with a 9.5-litre engine in 1908, the company’s first six-cylinder. By 1911 it had been re-named the 40CV with 7.54 litres. The model evolved to become by 1925 the Type NM, having in the meantime acquired 9.12 litres and cantilever rear suspension.

By no stretch of the imagination could the big 40CV be considered sporting but in 1925 two successes gave it something of a competition reputation. First, a private 40CV NM Weymann saloon won the Monte Carlo Rally, and then Renault decided to go for the 24 hour record, an activity that was all the rage in the inter-war years. An open 4-seater with special bodywork by Lavocat et Marsaud went to Montlhéry and on the 4/5th June duly pushed the 24 hour record up to 87.63 m.p.h. Alas for Renault, Bentley arrived in September when Duff and Barnato stole their honour by averaging 95.2 m.p.h. for the 24 hours. Not to be outdone, Renault returned in 1926 with a single-seater streamlined 40CV, a re-creation (acceptable because the original no longer exists) of which is shown here. The car boasted three carburettors for the 9.1-litre side valve six, a 55 gallon tank in the rear, a radiator behind the engine as Louis Renault insisted (and as was normal for production Renaults at the time) and provision to carry nearly 8 gallons of oil! Plessier and Garfield dutifully won back honours for Renault in the July, leaving the 24 hour record at 107.9 m.p.h

Production of the Renault 40CV was phased out during 1928 and the car was replaced at that year’s Salon de Paris by the new Reinastella, a 7.1-litre with Renault’s first Billancourt-built 8-cylinder engine and the first production Renault with a front-mounted radiator, the rest of the range soon falling into line. In 1930 a smaller Reina, the Nervastella, was introduced with a 4.2-litre 8-cylinder motor. This model soon won the Rallye du Maroc (taking the first three places) and it was followed in March 1932 by the Nervasport, a shorter, lighter version. In 1934 the engine size went up to 4.82-litres and then at the end of the year to 5.4-litres. This Nervasport dates from 1935 and commemorates the model’s outright win in the 1935 Monte Carlo Rally.

Jean-Pierre Wimille was one of France’s greatest racing drivers. During the war (while working for the Resistance as a member of the Special Operations Executive) he planned a car (La Wimille) that would set modern trends for the post-war era: tubular chassis, mid-mounted engine, central driving position with three seats (recalling the 1936 Panhard Dynamic), aerodynamic bodywork and panoramic vision.

The first prototype, with 11CV Citroën four cylinder engine, was built in 1945 and made its first public appearance at the occasion of the Grand Prix de l’Autoroute de l’Ouest on 9 June 1946 at St Cloud where Wimille first drove the Alfa Romeo 158. Other prototypes followed with bodywork designed by Philippe Charbonneaux and powered by a Ford Vedette V8 engine.

Shown is the third prototype but the whole project came to nought, alas, when Wimille was killed in practice for the 1949 Buenos Aires Grand Prix in a Simca-Gordini.

Pictures DSCN 3510, 3504, 3505
In 1961 Deutsch and Bonnet (DB) followed the then current trend towards mounting the engine behind the driver – all the result of Cooper’s Formula One World Championship successes in 1959 and 1960.

A DB was run in that year’s Le Mans with the Panhard engine so positioned (finishing 19th).

DB also made a Formula Junior racer with the Panhard engine ( modified to 954 c.c.) duly mid-mounted. It was entrusted to Gérard Laureau for a race at Rouen where it was outpaced and never raced again. The pictures show the one such car that was ever made.

It is always a pleasure to see a Panhard CT 24. This was the last model of this famous firm which was one of the very first to produce motor cars. Still powered by Louis Delagarde’s amazing flat- twin, its aerodynamics gave it a respectable performance but Citroën had taken over at the Avenue d’Ivry and killed off car production in 1967.

BMW broke into car production when it bought the Dixi car company in 1928. This Eisenach firm had been making Austin Sevens under licence and BMW initially took on this rôle, steadily developing the cars according to their thinking. Here is a 1931 BMW 3/15 DA4 model still with the 743 c.c. engine but the bodywork is by Ambi-Budd of Berlin and , although it still looks like Sir Herbert’s baby. But notice…it has independent front suspension, something no “real” Austin Seven ever had!

This is the beautiful Bugatti T55, the body design the work of the talented Jean Bugatti. The model, which appeared for 1932, was the true successor to the T43 and , just as that car had used the T35B Grand Prix engine , so the T55 was powered by the T51’s 2.3-litre twin overhead camshaft unit.

Surprisingly, neither of these cars achieved real success in the international sports car racing; Bugatti had to wait for the T57’s variants to stamp Molsheim’s name on Le Mans etc.
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Ets Ballot made engines (it was one of several French companies to produce the Hispano Suiza V8 aero engine) and after the Great War it built some racing machines with Henry-designed twin o.h.c. motors, competing at Indianapolis in 1919 and the French Grand Prix in 1921 and 1922. This design was used in the exciting sports 2LS and this van, based on the 2LT with single o.h.c., has been restored to represent a “works” version.

David Blumlein March 2016

New Year, Old Cars

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The Brooklands Museum celebrates the arrival of a New Year with an open house to all manner of interesting cars. Where else would our Special Correspondent be on January 1st? He found lots to see and enjoy.

One of the very first Jensens. It is based on a Ford V8 chassis and mechanicals but has a Jensen body. It dates from 1935.

A completely unrestored B.S.A. Ten from 1933. It has a 4-cylinder side-valve engine of 1172 c.c. and a 4-speed pre-selector gearbox in the then current Daimler tradition.

B.S.A. was at the time also making front-drive three-wheelers and they used the same engine but this had to be turned round to drive the rear wheels conventionally on this car.

One rarely has the pleasure of seeing Armstrong-Siddeley cars on the roads these days – they were fine, well-built, dignified cars which appealed to the well-to-do customers. This 1960 Star Sapphire is one of the last to be made before car production ceased. It used a 4-litre 6-cylinder engine with hemispherical combustion chambers, a design which was cloned by Humber for their final run of big saloons.

It’s often forgotten that the Dennis Brothers made cars before switching entirely to commercial vehicles and buses – many of London’s buses today are of Dennis manufacture.

This 1904 Dennis was, like so many cars of the time, powered by a single-cylinder De Dion engine.

How to improve an Austin Seven! This 1929 Swallow version is an example of the work of William Lyons (later Sir William) which led him on to make the first SS cars which in turn became the SS Jaguars.

A lovely Sunbeam Alpine with its body modified by Harringtons. Thomas Harrington was an old-established coachbuilder of Brighton, later Hove, whose main business after the Great War was building coach bodies but they also bodied a wide variety of cars.

One of these Alpine Harringtons won the Index of Thermal Efficiency at Le Mans in 1961.

You are not going to see another one of these!

It is a one-off Alvis prototype dating from 1932 and consists of a Firefly running gear, a 6-cylinder three SU carburettored Eagle engine mounted on a narrowed Speed 20 chassis with a Charlesworth body!

Surely the most desirable of all the Bristols?

The 404 was nicknamed the ”Businessman’s Express” but this writer remembers spying prototypes running around near Filton as a teenager and feeling that I had seen the best looking car ever!

Renault’s first post-war car, the 4 CV or the 750 when its capacity was reduced for competition purposes.

This example was made at the Billancourt factory in Paris but these successful little cars were assembled at Renault’s factory on the Western Avenue at Acton until 1956.

There were three completely different versions of the Hillman Husky.

A sports tourer on the Hillman 14 chassis in the 1930’s, a little utility on a shortened Minx chassis in the mid-Fifties and this smart version based on the Imp 5cwt van

A wonderful example of a 1950 Allard P1 saloon, complete with a steering column gear change and of course a big V8 engine from Ford. In 1952 Sydney Allard won the Monte Carlo Rally outright in one of these, the only occasion when a driver won in a car of his own construction.

A bit grubby but the Bentley 3-litre looks lovely in blue.

The Fiat 508 Balilla, named after a Fascist youth organisation, was a small car equipped with a 995 c.c. side-valve engine, 3-speed gearbox and either a 2-door closed or open body. It was introduced on 12th April 1932 at the Milan Motor Show although Mussolini had been given a preview in Rome on the 8th April. Inevitably sporting versions soon evolved and an open 2-seater with lowered body, sweeping front wings and a tail fin became the 508S. These cars were quickly plunged into competitions, an ohv engine and a close-ratio 4-speed gearbox being available from March 1934. Just two examples of their many successes were class wins in the 1933 Mille Miglia and in the 1936 Tourist Trophy at the Ards.

Interestingly, the Scuderia Ferrari entered one for the 1934 24 Hour Targa Abruzzo at Pescara, to be driven by one Zoboli, the Fascist Party official from Modena. Proudly wearing the emblems of the Prancing Horse on the sides of the scuttle, the car finished in 7th place. Another such entry was in the 1937 Mille Miglia for Piero Gobbato, the son of Ugo Gobbato, the head of Alfa Romeo who was assassinated as he walked from the factory to his nearby home on 28th April 1945.
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Daimler did not just produce staid motor cars but got heavily involved in developing fighting vehicles for the armed forces. Their Scout and Armoured Car Mark 1 were produced in quantity during the Second World War and this Ferret was in production into the 1970’s when it gave service to the NATO forces.

David Blumlein, February 2016

Another Classic NEC Classic Show

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One of the highlights of the UK Classic scene is the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, despite its NEC venue. It is heavily rooted in the fine work of the enthusiasts’ car clubs and not some dealer driven event. There is so much to admire it is almost an overload but fortunately our Special Correspondent was on hand to bring to our attention some of the rare and interesting…………..

The post-war Healeys, powered by the 2.5-litre Riley engine and manufactured by the Donald Healey Motor Company at the Cape, Warwick, were formidable sporting cars.

This example was one of two works Westland –bodied cars which ran in the 1949 Mille Miglia. Driven by Geoffrey Healey and Tommy Wisdom, it won the over 2,500 c.c. Touring class, beating a works Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Freccia d’Oro (Venturi/Sanesi) and a works Bristol 400 ( H.J.Aldington/Count Lurani).

The other Healey came 4th in class driven by Donald Healey and Geoffrey Price, who was the Service Manager at the factory.

Healeys grew into Austin-Healeys and the big 6-cylinder car became a tough competitor in the international rallies. This was Pat Moss’s pet car and she used it in 1960 to win with Ann Wisdom the notorious Liège-Rome-Liège rally, a 96-hour non-stop marathon.

This is one of two prototypes, the other a convertible, the last Jensens to be designed by Eric Neale. They were both powered by the Chrysler 383 V8 engine and this car was built in the winter of 1965/66. The design never reached production because, at the time, Jensen was in the process of being taken over by the “Norcross Group” and their own designer, Kevin Beattie, chose to have Jensen’s next car designed in Italy…..the well-known Interceptor.

Sunbeam Rapiers were very active in competitions and Rootes had agencies all over the globe. The Rodriguez brothers, Ricardo and Pedro, drove two of these cars to a dominant 1-2 in the 1600 class in the 1961 Carrera Cuidad de Mexico.

By 1932 sales of the hitherto successful Singer Junior (introduced in 1926) were dwindling and the company needed a new model. An excellent engineer, Leo Shorter, joined in 1932 and soon increased the capacity of the Junior’s overhead camshaft engine from 848 c.c. to 972 c.c. giving it an RAC rating of 9h.p. This car was the Junior Special and it heralded the famous Singer Nine series.

This 1934 Rover Twelve Sports Saloon with a 4-cylinder 1496 c.c. ohv engine was supplied by the Leicester Rover agents to Sydney Clutterbuck.

Being a keen rally driver, he entered the car for the RAC Rally in March and it was specially prepared with non-standard items such as knock-off wheels, larger headlamps etc. Despite wintry conditions, it successfully completed the rally at Bournemouth.

Originally a 4-cylinder P6 Engineering Development car, it was heavily modified for racing and was fitted with a 4.3 Traco-Oldsmobile V8. From April 1970 it competed in eight races driven by Roy Pierpoint, winning at Castle Combe and at the Silverstone 100-mile Saloon race.
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The first car from Dagenham, the Ford Y-type which sold as the £100 Popular.

David Blumlein, January 2016

Traditional Values

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The Special Correspondent has been a bit quiet of late but, fear not, he has been beavering away in the background. Visits to diverse events such as Kop Hill and the Manchester Classic threw up a number of ‘Rare and Interesting’ cars for our enjoyment.

Behold a superb Aster, a very rare beauty. It is a 1924 18/50 Fixed Head Coupé.

Aster was a French maker of proprietary engines at St Denis in northern Paris at the start of the 20th century, supplying many makes of early cars such as Gladiator and Argyll. They opened a British branch in Wembley, Middlesex, and from 1922 entered the private car market.
This beautifully preserved car has cantilever rear springs and a 6-cylinder o.h.v. Wembley-built engine:

Note how the spark plugs are set in the block rather than the head.
In 1927 Aster merged with the Arrol-Johnston of Dumfries and the cars became Arrol-Asters, made in the Scottish factory.

Then we find a 1948 Healey Elliott saloon. Donald Healey, having before the war been involved with Triumph, set up his own company in Warwick in 1946, making initially successful sporting cars using the 2.5-litre Riley engine.
The saloons were bodied by Samuel Elliott & Sons of Reading, a company that was more used to joinery and making shop fronts! These cars were the fastest production saloon cars at the time, recording 103.76 m.p.h. at Montlhéry in the hands of Tommy Wisdom. Also in 1948 examples came 13th overall in the Targa Florio, winning its class, 13th and 1st in the Touring class in the Mille Miglia, and 8th overall (second in class to a 3-litre Delage) in the Spa 24-Hour race. In 1949 a Healey saloon finished 13th in the first post-war Le Mans 24-Hour race.

This is a 1932 Riley Gamecock. The model was introduced in 1931 to offer a sports 2-seater to fill the gap between the famous Brooklands racing model and the remainder of the company’s saloon car range. Only about 750 were made, mostly in 1932 and it was superseded by the popular Lynx 4-seater.

Built in July 1934, this Frazer-Nash has a twin-cam 6-cylinder Blackburne engine and took part in various competitions including the 1937 Brooklands Relay race, at Shelsley Walsh, the Brighton Speed Trials, the Lewes trials and the long distance Land’s End and London- Edinburgh events.

A Jensen FF, the first production car with 4-wheel drive and anti-lock brakes. Jensen was an interesting company, the brothers Alan and Richard starting as coachbuilders before making their own cars. They diversified a lot and made some commercial vehicles – the little Jen-Tug mechanical horse being a favourite of this scribe; it first used a Ford Ten engine! The West Bromwich plant also assembled Austin A40 Sports, Volvo P1800s, Sunbeam Tigers and the big Austin–Healeys among others.
Jensen made only 110 of the FF model with its Vignale-styled body and potent Chrysler 6.3-litre V8 producing 330bhp.

This Unipower GT is chassis number 9 of 75 Unipower GTs made at Perivale in Middlesex between 1966 and 1969 using Mini Cooper engines, modified suspension and brakes. It had a square tubular space frame built by Arch Motors and a body by Specialised Mouldings.
It is the first lightweight competition model made by the factory and after being displayed at the 1967 Racing Car Show it was purchased by the Salisbury tuning company Janspeed who prepared it for works driver Geoff Mabbs to race in 1967. It was then sold to Brian Harvey, who eventually founded Grand Prix Models.

A 1937 Riley 1.5-litre Touring Saloon, a beautifully preserved example. The car has a Briggs steel body which is characterised by the boot extension. Rileys made good cars but like some other manufacturers made too many different models which caused serious problems by the end of the Thirties.

This was Chevrolet’s answer to the Chrysler PT Cruiser. It is the HHR which stands for Heritage High Roof. General Motors made some 60,000 of them in Mexico.

The Rochdale Olympic has an important place in motoring history – it is one of the first cars to have a fibreglass monocoque chassis/body. After a disastrous factory fire in 1961, the company concentrated on these Olympic models.
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Finally it is surely appropriate that a Manchester exhibition has a local product on display – a fine 1927 Crossley 20.9 hp 6-cylinder o.h.v. 3-litre model from the factory in Gorton.

David Blumlein, January 2016

Brooklands Reunion 2015

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The Special Correspondent attended the recent Brooklands Reunion meeting, he brings us some of what he saw.

1935 Hillman Aero Minx
Hillman made a few hundred of these more sporting versions of their successful Minx model between 1935 and 1936. They had 1185 c.c. side-valve 4-cylinder engines and eventually full synchromesh for the 4-speed gearbox, mounted in an underslung chassis.
The cars were not intended as sports cars but rather touring cars; however, some private owners used them in competitions, especially in the major trials that were so popular at the time – for example, three Golds and the Team Award were won in the 1934 MCC Welsh Rally and four Golds were scored in the 1935 London-Land’s End Trial.

Delage Type X
Louis Delage put his cars into competitions almost as soon as his factory was manufacturing them. A second place was gained in 1906 in the Coupe des Voiturettes (a Trophy put up by the French journal L’Auto) and Delage cars with single-cylinder engines won the race outright in 1908. That year saw the last Grand Prix (until 1912) and the interlude created encouraged races for the lighter voiturette class.
In the meantime the Coupe des Voiturettes was joined by the Coupe des Voitures Légères which limited capacity to 3-litres. This came to supercede the Coupe des Voiturettes and the Coupe des Voitures Légères became the Coupe de L’Auto.

Delage returned for the 1911 Coupe de L’Auto at Boulogne with four specially constructed Type X cars.

These had 4-cylinder engines with horizontal valves and 5-speed gearboxes, the first to exploit the higher fifth gear.

The cars were very successful, Bablot winning with Thomas and Guyot third and fourth (Rigal’s car seizing its transmission brake, locking his rear wheels); Delage also won the Team Prize. This car is one of the four team cars.

Phoenix 11.9 hp
The town of Letchworth in Hertfordshire is not one that is normally associated with motoring heritage but it can boast having the very first roundabout in England’s road system (in 1909), and in Pixmore Avenue was a factory making the Phoenix cars from 1911. This building certainly did not look like a typical car plant and its outward appearance was in a Lutyens style and in keeping with the general architectural character of the world’s first Garden City.
The Phoenix company started in London and had been producing 2-cylinder cars characterised by their bonnets being in the shape of an inverted V. Being still chain-driven, they were considered out-moded by the second decade and they were replaced by this 11.9 hp model with a 1496 c.c. 4-cylinder engine mounted under a “coal-scuttle” bonnet and with a scuttle-mounted radiator à la Renault.
With the demise of the Phoenix car in 1926, the Letchworth factory became the temporary home of Reid Railton’s advanced Arab sports car.

1926 Frazer-Nash Boulogne Vitesse
This car was sold in 1929 to Adrian Conan Doyle, son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and he raced it with a supercharged Anzani engine in that year’s BARC Six Hour race at Brooklands with Dick Nash as co-driver. After over five hours racing it retired with ignition problems but then went to the Lewes Speed Trials where it won the Crayshaw Cup.

Squire 2-seater
One of the seven cars constructed by Adrian Squire. They had twin overhead camshaft supercharged 4-cylinder 1496 c.c. Anzani R1 engines and pre-selector 4-speed gearboxes. This car has a body by the Reading firm of Markham.
Adrian Squire was tragically killed in a day-time bombing raid on the Bristol Aeroplane factory at Filton.
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Bean 1.8-litre
A rather unconvincing attempt to take on William Morris with his Bullnose Oxfords and Cowleys. Morris undercut his rival’s prices with disastrous results for the Tipton and Dudley company!

David Blumlein, October 2015

Action in the Ardennes

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We can now all relax, the Spa 24 Hours is done and dusted. A famous victory was the result for the BMW of Marc VDS that lays to rest that team’s hoodoo in their local endurance classic. The Special Correspondent was something of a ‘crash magnet’ during the early hours of the race, it all kicked off where the Kemmel Straight turns into Les Combes. Remind me not to stand near him in future.

The Duqueine Engineering Ferrari with team owner Gilles Duqueine at the wheel clattered the barriers, apparently losing control on the unforgiving tarmac.

Sorting out the mess was complicated by the fact that the French businessman is a paraplegic, having been the victim of a serious road accident 30 years back. Since then he has become a respected racing driver, winning titles along the way. He will be back as he was unhurt in the incident, though the Ferrari was too damaged to continue.

The Special Correspondent had just got his breath back when there was a copycat incident. Karim Ojjeh’s BMW getting airborne after hitting the same steel barrier.

Karim was shaken by the accident, caused by a lockup on the downshift according to the telemetry. Otherwise he was OK.

There will be a ‘Reflections on Spa 24 Hours’ along later this week.

Meanwhile here is a gallery to enjoy.

Rare and Interesting at the Techno Classica

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The Special Correspondent casts his eye around the halls of this year’s Techno Classica, as is his wont he uncovers some gems for our appreciation.

1937 Mercedes-Benz 230N
A rare Mercedes model. This beautifully preserved car has a 2.2-litre 6-cylinder side-valve engine and transverse leaf independent front suspension.

Here is its cockpit. Only 38 of these cars were made.

1925 Renault 40CV
This was Louis Renault’s attempt to compete in the luxury market with the likes of Hispano-Suiza, Maybach, Rolls-Royce and Isotta Fraschini. The basic model was introduced in 1921 and they were only made in limited numbers. This monumental car, the MN model, has the “new” losange Renault badge introduced in 1925. It was in this year that Renault took one of these cars fitted with a L’Avocat & Marsaud 4-seater open body to Montlhéry where it captured a host of records including the world’s 24 hour record at 87.65 m.p.h.

This is what it’s like to sit in, still with the fashionable right-hand drive for luxury cars.

Tatra 80
Still with luxury cars, this is the largest car made by this fascinating Czechoslovakian company, the work of the gifted Hans Ledwinka.

It is powered by this impressive 5.99-litre V-12 uncharacteristically equipped with side valves – note the unusual dynamo drive on top of the engine at the back – and the rear suspension has a massive transverse leaf spring controlling the swing-axles. Again like the Renault it was aimed at the top luxury market and a mere 25 were built from 1930-35. The President of the Czech Republic, T.G. Masaryk, used one as did the Minister for Foreign Affairs, E. Beneš.

Skoda Superb 640

We are used to regarding Skodas as excellent cars these days but before the Second World War and the subsequent onslaught of the Communist regime they made very fine cars.

This is a typical example with a type name familiar today. This version has a 2.5-litre 6-cylinder side-valve engine giving 68 m.p.h. Only 201 of them were constructed between 1934-36.

1931 DKW F1

There’s nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1 v9)! No, McLaren was not the first to name their road-car an F1 and Mini was not the first to use a transverse engine to drive the front wheels! This little DKW did both.

It had a 2-cylinder 2-stroke unit mounted across the frame driving the front wheels although it did not take advantage of the space this layout afforded. It was Europe’s first high volume series production car with fwd and it offered the first competition to the motorcycle in Germany.

1937 Lincoln Zephyr
The Zephyr was designed to fit into Ford’s model range between the Ford V8 and the up- market Lincolns. It was introduced in November 1935 for the 1936 year and was one of the first successful streamlined cars after the market failure of Chrysler’s Airflow. It had a V12 version of Ford’s flathead V8 and the car still used Ford’s transverse leaf suspension with rigid axles dating from the Model T! 15,000 were sold up to 1940.

Just what is this, I hear you say? Well, it’s a Zaporoshets, a Russian small car, built in the Ukraine, and very popular in the Soviet Union for many years.

As shown, it has a rear-mounted V4 engine of various small capacities.

Bentley used the Essen Show to launch their new Mulsanne Blue Train model to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Woolf Barnato’s race with the Blue Train from the south of France to Calais.

For much of the time since it was believed that Barnato used this elegant Gurney Nutting-bodied Speed Six but this was not the case – this car was not built until after the famous run! In fact Barnato used a Speed Six with a four-door saloon body by Mulliner.

TAILPIECE

An 1897 Malicet & Blin single-cylinder car. This company did not really make cars but they were one of France’s main suppliers of components, especially chassis and steering gear, to the fledgling industry at the dawn of motoring.

David Blumlein August 2015

Britcar 24 Hours – Reflections from the Special Correspondent

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Our Special Correspondent trekked up to Northampton a while back for the Britcar 24…………….he shares some thoughts and a short history lesson………….

Revival of Silverstone 24
Although 24 hour races have been run since 1905, most of the established examples date from the 1920’s: the Bol d’Or in and around Paris was first run in 1922, Le Mans arrived on the calendar a year later, Spa copied this in 1924 and even Monza tried a race that year as well. Britain wanted to join in also but the only possible location at that time was Brooklands. Unfortunately, noise restrictions imposed by the neighbours’ complaints meant no night racing was allowed at the Surrey track; they resorted to splitting their race, the Double Twelve, into two parts run on consecutive days.
It is not generally realised that the first 24 hour race to be run in the UK was as recent as 1980 when the Willhire event took place at Snetterton. This was a race for production cars and fifteen such events were held at the Norfolk circuit including a 25 hour race in 1989 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the sponsor, the Willhire Vehicles Rental Company, a local car rental firm. The race’s demise was accelerated by the low level of attraction on the Group N saloons and 1994 witnessed the last of these once popular events. In 2003 a 2CV 24 Hour race was the last long–distance at Snetterton to date but the challenge of staging a full 24 hour race in Britain was taken up James Tucker’s Britcar series at Silverstone in 2005. Since then there have been seven further 24 hour races at the Northampton venue including the 2015 event. This latter was officially titled the Dunlop 24 in deference to its generous sponsor.
Here are some of the more interesting cars to tackle the round-the-clock event:

Ginetta chose to gain more experience with their new LMP3 car which had made its début at Silverstone at the recent ELMS round. It streaked away in the early laps but later suffered various problems which dropped it right down the leader board.

Martin Short’s RollCentre Team entered a potent BMW saloon with a 4-litre V8 engine but the car did not last long, alas!

The winning BEECHDEAN GT4 Aston Martin Vantage; 16 year-old Jamie Chadwick was among the successful drivers.

Good to see any Jaguar involved – this XKR Coupé failed to finish.

This works-entered Aston Martin Vantage finished 5th, driven by CEO Andy Palmer, Design Director Marek Reichmann, journalist Andrew Frankel and GP3 driver Alice Powell.

The Chevron GR8 made a welcome appearance in the race.

This Radical RXC is the original chassis. It has an RPE 3-litre V8 and uses a bespoke Quaife 7-speed gearbox. Despite some problems the car won its class.

Cor Euser’s team has achieved many successes with his Lotus Evora and this time it reached the podium for its third place.

This Diesel Jaguar once won its class in the Nϋrburgring but lacked success in this race.

Notice the Ginetta’s number 12 coming off to reveal its ELMS number.

It becomes number 2!

The car at Village Corner proving it is really number 12!
TAILPIECE

This little Ford Fiesta was the smallest car in the 24 hour field.

Taking a look at the Tourist Trophy

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The Tourist Trophy is the oldest motor race still being contested, having first been run in 1905 on the Isle of Man. In recent years the Trophy has been awarded to the winners of the Silverstone 6 Hours race, a round of the World Endurance Championship of which this race was the first for 2015. There are four classes, LM P1, LM P2, GTE Pro and GTE Am and the teams look upon the Silverstone 6 Hours and the forthcoming Spa 6 Hours in Belgium as workouts for the all-important Le Mans 24 Hour race in June, just as in bygone years the Six Hour and Double Twelve races at Brooklands were viewed in the same way.

The Porsche 919 Hybrids took command from the start. Here Mark Webber sets the pace down the Hangar Straight into the fast Stowe Corner – it was not to last!

The GTE Am-winning Aston Martin Vantage V8 leads its team-mate and the LM P2 Alpine through Stowe.

The LM P2 Oreca 05 Coupé was new and offered strong competition in this class in the early stages.

The CLM P1 was an old friend in new clothing but with an AER motor.

One of the joys of long –distance sports car racing is the “mixture” that often occurs in the corners, compelling the drivers of the faster cars to negotiate the “traffic” carefully – all part of the job of winning a race. Here is a tight group of GTs and prototypes at Becketts.

Here the Toyota which finished 4th swallows up the GT Aston Martin which came 4th in the GTE Pro class on the entrance to Chapel Curve.

Always a threat are the Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSRs. This one is coming out of the fast curves at Becketts on its way to a disappointing 7th in class.

The LM P2 Ligiers, introduced only last year at Le Mans, have become very potent contenders – this one was the well merited class winner which finished 6th overall.

Here is the winning Audi R18 e-tron Quattro fighting to protect its slender lead after a late “stop-go” penalty for exceeding the track limits coming out of Club – it just held off the Porsche no.18 of the hard-charging Jani!

One loses count of the number of times the excellent pairing of Bruni and Vilander have already won GT honours for the AF Corse team. Here they are doing it again in the Ferrari F458 Italia; the desperate Jani pursues the Italian GTE Pro car into Club Corner.

The victors of the Silverstone 6 Hours, Fässler, Tréluyer and Lotterer can add their names to the prestigious Tourist Trophy.