GOODWOOD & THE JOY OF HILLS

We love hill climbing. Simple format; there’s a track up a hill – you have to be quickest. Unlike gridded wheel-to-wheel racing, there are no tactics, no strategies available and no one to show you the way. It’s just a pure test of car and driver.

If Colorado’s Pikes Peak is the ultimate Hillclimb, then Goodwood’s Festival of Speed (coming up this weekend) is a delicious tongue tip taster of the form. Every year a huge variety of vehicles — from priceless vintage cars and the latest in cutting edge Hypercar exotica to Rod Millen’s Pike Peak slaying Celica (above & Below) — gather on the lawn of Lord March’s elegant Sussex Estate.

I was lucky enough to witness this monstrous missile setting its record time a few years ago. Sometimes a vehicle can be so powerful it’s a little frightening to be near it.

This was such a car.

Not sure if Rod Millen will be at Goodwood this weekend – but rest assured it’s the highlight of the petrolhead year. And you should be there.
http://youtu.be/81DeYYK8Dtc

September 24, 2014 0

MANX TT: TEN THINGS YOU (MIGHT NOT) KNOW

1. The Isle of Man TT began in 1907, after a law was cleared in 1904 that allowed roads to be closed for the Gordon Bennett car trials.

2. When the race first started practice sessions used to take place in the early morning with regular traffic. Charlie Collier and Rem Fowler were the two winners of the then two-class race (single and double).

3. The BBC started broadcasting the race live after the second world war.

Eric P Glasper ’72

4. The current course is 37.73 miles (six laps) which was adopted in 1920, though the original course (known as St. John’s course) was under half this at 15.6 miles. There was also a course called the Clypse Course for Sidecar, Ultra Lightweight and Lightweight race. It was first used in 1954 and was 10.79 miles long.

5. The TT route is scattered with memorials to the various riders who have been killed or injured during the gruelling race. In 1970 alone 6 riders were killed and in its history it has taken 223 lives.

6) In 1977 the race lost its world championship title, due to safety reasons, though continued as an opportunity for any road race enthusiasts to make their mark, including John Mc Guinness who took 15 wins, Phil “Hizzy” Hislop who took 11 and Phillip McCallen who took 11

Dunlop 1982

7 The ‘King of the Road’, Joey Dunlop OBE MBE is undoubtedly the most decorated rider that the TT has seen, with a total of 26 wins. His first win was in 1977 and he has gained titles such as: “7 Formula 1, 4 Senior, 3 Junior, 5 Lightweight and 5 UltraLightweight Races, plus the 1977 Jubilee Race and the 1980 Classic 1000”. He is also the only rider in history to have 3 hat-tricks to his name- “1985 F1, Senior and Junior, 1988 F1, Senior and Junior and in 2000 the Formula One, Lightweight and Ultra Lightweight.” In 2002 the 26th Milestone was renamed “Joey’s” in his memory.

8 The race was cancelled in 2001 due to a Britain-wide outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease.

9 The fastest ever lap was set by John McGuinness riding a 1000 HM Plant Honda in 2007 in the Senior TT, clocking 17m 21.99s at a speed of 130.354mph. This lap time also lead him to take the fastest race time of 1hr 11m 56.29s. In 2007, the centenary of the event all but 1 category for both lap and race records were shattered.

10 The 2009 race saw John McGuinness destroy his previous lap record in the Senior TT category riding a Honda CBR1000R with a time of 17’12.30 and an average speed of 131.578 mph.
2009 also saw the first zero-emissions race with 15 all-electric bikes.

Ducati 1977

September 24, 2014 0

PIKES PEAK 1958

With the motorsport season finally upon us we can’t help but share with you this amazing little race car.

Apparently, this open wheeled beast was the vehicle in which legendary US racer Bobby Unser won the 1958 Pikes Peak ‘race to the clouds’.

We’re not sure of much more spec or details on the vehicle itself – only that the thing looks like more fun than a barrel of drunken monkeys. At Christmas.

Questons, for example include: is that a flathead V8? What kind of carbs are they? And what sorts of times would this machine have made up the hill?

Any info that you, dear readers, can afford, would be much appreciated.

September 23, 2014 0

INDIAN WALL OF DEATH

“Wall of Death?” I hear you say. “Meh!”
But this is no health-and-safety logged, Ofsted approved circus act. This is something really special. This is the Indian Wall of Death.

And man alive, look at the way this video is put together!

It’s a lot stronger than the structure of which the wall is composed.

Seeing is believing.

September 23, 2014 0

MERCEDES 190 VS BMW M3

Classic this one. Sometimes the slickness of contemporary TV car shows forget the gonzo-like beauty of a good old fashioned burn up. And this is a classic old fashioned burn up.

Mercedes-Benz 190E

We’re not sure where or when this was shot, but there’s something pure and honest about the ragged tearup between this Mercedes 190 (don’t think it’s a Cosworth, version) and a BMW M3 E30. We reckon it dates from some time in the early to mid nineties and yes, it’s definitely in France.

BMW E30 M3

Any other infos greatly appreciated. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy.

http://youtu.be/ANv83OJk–4

September 22, 2014 0

FORD GT40: THE BEAUTY

Words: Neil Siner

I didn’t have the Scalextric Le Mans 24 hour set, but my mate did. It was on that plastic blacktop in the early 80s that I first fell in love with the Ford GT40.

I guess it would have been a scaled down version of the Mark II that we fought over on those wet Saturday afternoons, the car’s strange mix of macho bulk and curvaceous lines already appealing to our burgeoning maleness.

It can be difficult to pin down the quality that draws us to an object but it’s fair to say that often that quality is a fleeting thing. Not so with the Ford GT40. It is a car that stands outside of time. From the 60’s racetrack to the contemporary road it has an enduring beauty the essence of which, I think, lies in its inception. Being the offspring of transatlantic progenitors the GT40 has that special beauty that is a by product of what geneticists refer to as ‘hybrid vigour’. American power and technology combined with British mechanical design has produced here something truly outstanding.
I’m still in love!

40 inches from tarmac to roof. Nothing looks anything like the Ford GT40
40 inches from tarmac to roof. Nothing looks anything like the Ford GT40

This was after all a car built from scratch, with the specific job of seeing off Ferraris. It is in its perfect utility and the fulfilment of its function that it finds such an iconic and timeless appeal. So what are these qualities teased out of its hybrid functionality that endow this machine with such beauty? To me they are manifested in the car’s visual contrasts. It is chunky, with super wide sills and deep wheel arches over 15 inch wheels. Yet it is also sleek and low slung, petite almost in its minimal height (the famous 40 inches of its nomenclature).

15 Inch wheels – small by today’s standards.
15 Inch wheels – small by today’s standards.

To my mind, it is in this incongruity of manly power and bulk combined with sensual curves, that the GT40 finds its true and lasting appeal. Like some beautiful automotive dominatrix, it looks like it wants to rough you up and seduce you at the same time.

So maybe it’s just the submissive in me but thirty years or so after we first met on those adolescent afternoons,

September 22, 2014 0

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