The Numbers Game

[moffspeed]

2/1/67 - South African privateer John Love so nearly wins his home GP in a 4 cylinder Cooper Climax. After a late stop for fuel he finished 2nd behind Rindt in the Cooper Maserati truck.

[moffspeed]

I was a serial Saaber but steered clear of their diesels, particularly the 2171cc’s of the unlovely 2.2 oil burner :

[moffspeed]

We got there. Lotus Sunbeam 2172cc. Back in the days it felt like a rocket ship to me - 150 BHP to tame. Nowadays my wife’s 1.5 Litre VW Golf shopping car has the same output….

A definite love-hate relationship. On the open road or charging down some Welsh lane I was Frequelin or Toivonen. In service reception at Warwick Wright I transformed into Victor Meldrew, quibbling over the latest monumental service/repair bill.

[moffspeed]

Tough times. Subsequent to the Suez crisis in ‘56 fuel rationing was introduced in December ‘56 and continued for 5 months.

This is the book you would have been issued with if your chosen weapon exceeded 20HP or 2201cc.

[moffspeed]

pubrunner said:

WPA said:

Not being certain of the model of this car, I entered the numberplate to check the tax/MOT status (and find what it is) and it comes up as a Volvo, but surely, it's an Aston Martin DB4 ?

Edited by pubrunner on Friday 26th April 13:54

DB5 as sold by Bonhams in 2017. Number plate must have migrated to Sweden since.

The plate feels familiar. Richard Davies who was the commentator at Llandow & Castle Combe circuits for many years ran a DB5 with a personalised plate. My memory doesn’t stretch quite far enough to remember whether this was his plate.

[moffspeed]

2nd February 2003. Daytona 24 hours. All of the new Daytona Prototypes proved to be not terribly fast and shook themselves to pieces (maybe a good thing).

So a car from the lower classes took overall honours. Namely the #66 TRG Porsche 911 GT3.

[moffspeed]

Surely one of the most beautiful but flawed racing cars of all time, the Ford F3L (P68/69). The wheelbase of 2210 cms only just exceeded the rear track width - so almost a “square” racing car.

Errant handling and downforce issues meant that the car had a nasty habit of trying to kill its drivers. Elongating the wheelbase in the P69 design did not cure the malevolence.

[moffspeed]

To add a bit of context here. I always considered the Rondeau M378 to be one of the tiniest and stubbiest of the then Gp C cars.

However, compared to the F3L, a bit of a London bus with a wheelbase of 2480cms…

Edited by moffspeed on Monday 13th May 14:45

[moffspeed]

The RAC Tourist Trophy, Silverstone 1987. A good race by all accounts, won by an M3.

Jacques Laffitte at 44 years was the oldest competitor, Nicola Larini at 23 years was the youngest (that would be considered positively geriatric these days).

Allowing for turbo equivalency the average engine size that day was 2224cc.

Desperate, I know.

[moffspeed]

Yes Jim, it’s a SWB 250GT but not as we know it. Chassis no. 2231.

Owned in period by Adrian (son of Arthur) Conan Doyle. Adrian front-ended it near his Villa in Cannes in 1964. During the rebuild he decided to a dramatic nasal transformation on the 250. So,inspired by the early 60’s Ferrari F1 & Le Mans cars, it gained a pair of nostrils.

Some 30 years later a subsequent owner decided to return the car to original spec. On the balance I think that’s a shame….

[moffspeed]

Turbobanana said:

Dapster said:

As an aside, the Conan Doyle brothers were keen racers, their father's cash hose probably having something to do with it. They campaigned 4 Mercedes S Types in the day, here are 2 of them,



Adrian was also the first owner of this fabulous "silver violet" color code DB377, 300SL Gullwing - which I believe is a one off colour.

As beautiful as the Benz is, my eye is drawn to a rare sighting of the 1969 Fascination Prototype in the background.



Read all about it

Quite why SL’s look so good with those simple 2-eared knock-off Rudge wheels is beyond me - allegedly they add approx $10,000 per corner to the value of an SL…..

Every day is a school day so, after 69 years restlessly kicking around this planet, I asked myself why a classic German supercar should have wheels with such an Anglo Saxon name. Fuchs OK - but Rudge ?

Rudge Whitworth bicycles was founded in Coventry in the 1860’s. By the early 20th Century they enthusiastically headed into the car wheel market with great success. Things went belly-up after the Depression and by the mid 30’s it was all over - Raleigh absorbed the name & various patents. Borrani in Italy established “Rudge Whitworth Milano” in 1922 building Rudge wheels under licence. A decade later Mussolini banned the use of English names in Italian manufacture and Borrani wheels became,well, Borranis.

Post war sporty Mercs & BMW’s persevered with the Rudge design and, although manufactured in Germany, were rightly referred to as Rudges.

So now you know (you probably did anyway).

[moffspeed]

Isuzu Piazza, AKA as Holden Piazza down-under and Isuzu Impulse across the pond.

Styled in Italy, handling courtesy of a shed in Hethel, Norfolk.

Could have been a very good car but the stars never aligned. American spec cars packed a 2254 cc four pot.