The Golden Age of British Stock Cars
Now for something different:
Some different auto-related items that
I
like:
Have you ever seen such BIG turbos? On a Ford big-block motor, and believe it or not, this "Mustang" is technically street-legal in every way, except that the owner cannot insure it and hasn't licensed it. It has run 202 mph in the quarter mile, and generates a wonderful "whistle" under full power.
"Stagger" is the difference in diameter between rear tyres, and this one is pushing it to the limit. Imagine gassing it with these on the ends of your locked axle. Extreme "Stagger" at Skagit Speedway, Washington State, USA
Who is the mystery MotoGP star sneaking into the children's playground for some practice?
The Modern British Stock Car: The rest of my website is "nostalgia", so this fabulous car, photographed in April 2008 by top stocks photographer Colin Herridge, has to go in this section. I cannot find the website it was on. now, but Colin's credits are on the photo.
An old "star" gunning it on the 1/2 mile Terre Haute dirt, Indiana, 196---? A.J.Foyt learned racing the hard way.
Would you like to take a racer on the road? This American fan did just that, with some "legal-izing" accessories: Sprint on Highway. [Photo from a Sprint Car calendar by Paul Oxman publishing in California.]
Oddments: In about 1962 I photographed this daring experiment: someone took a harmless KIEFT "Formula Junior" (I think, though they also built F3's) car and installed a 4.7 litre (283 cu.in) Chevrolet V-8 in the back. It was running at a hill-climb at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. Kieft cars were built in Wolverhampton. Photo 1. Photo 2.
Two more Oddments: First, the golden days of "Formula Libre" in England, when you could bring almost ANY darned thing to the track and flog it round, with "Libre" usually meaning "monster/big/outrageous". In this case Chris Summers took a tube-framed Lotus 24 and dropped in a fuel-injected Chevy V-8 that he'd got from BP Research branch. This snapshot was taken in (approx.) 1962-64 at Silverstone. The "ack-ack gun"-like exhausts sounded wonderful. I saw this car launch from the front row down the straight to Cope Corner, and his tires were "hazing" all the way -- something that was actually very rare in those days. Second one, which I don't know anything about, is a prototype Diva Valkyr sports car, rear-engined, and some memory tells me it may have had the popular alloy Hillman Imp motor. Photo taken same time as the Summers one. Additional facts / corrections are welcome.
Holy!! In 1988 the then Pope visited Ferrari's workshops and blessed one or more of their current Formula 1 Grand Prix cars. I don't know whether some supernatural agency helped with subsequent races. First, Second, Third.
Glory days: when Grand Prix drivers could switch from and F1 car to a saloon. Here is a gaggle of three saloons in 1966 at Snetterton, three drifting through a fast bend: a Mustang, a Galaxie, and hard on their tails the tiny Lotus Cortina of world champion Jim Clark.
Three more GT's photographed at the same meet: for circuit-racing enthusiasts I will leave them anonymous for a week or so until someone identifies them correctly. Guess 1. Guess 2. Guess 3.
Is this the biggest engine ever installed in a competition vehicle? This German tractor-pull special uses a gigantic 42-cylinder Russian engine (seven banks of 6 cylinders each) totalling 8,665 cubic inches, or 144 litres. When the transmission locks up, Europe shifts slightly East---.
Here's a tractor with three V-12 Allison aero engines (1,710 cu.in. each.) And one with FOUR military helicopter gas-turbine engines. And one with an old air-cooled radial engine, probably from a WW2 bomber?
Big Engine: I took this photograph about 1983 at Seattle International Raceway. The engine is in Gene Snow's nitro Funny Car, and it was the only turbocharged fuel car I knew of. The motor was built by Nick Arias, and although the valve covers are from their 8.3 litre automotive design, this engine is actually a custom built Arias powerboat V-8 of a huge 10 litres capacity. Gene Snow was a very typical drag-racer: although this motor ran fine, because of the exhaust turbos' effect he felt it simply DID NOT SOUND AS TOUGH AS A FUEL CAR SHOULD, so he abandoned the idea! [Arias still builds top quality race engines today.]
REALLY BIG TURBOS: I have never seen turbos this big on a car. Compare the size of the two turbos with the size of the actual engine block. This is a Ford motor in a "Ford Mustang" drag racer. The car is from BC, Canada, and is actually STREET LEGAL, ie equipped with everything necessary for it to be licensed for road use. However, on methanol this car has run 202 mph in the quarter mile, and on my local 1/8 mile dragstrip it was still struggling to find grip as it went through the 1/8 miles lights.
LEFT HAND BIAS: In the American "Supermodified" formula, builders hang the big V-8 motors off the left hand side of the chassis, and the driveline runs down the side to a diff that has the left rear wheel bolted directly to it --- no visible half shaft at all! Supermod 1, Supermod 2, Supermod 3. These cars have lapped one-mile aspalt ovals at speeds approaching 160mph average!
The "Michigan Madman", E.J.Potter had among his many weird and scary machines, a "Double-V-12" Allison aero engine, which naturally he had to stick in a tractor. Allison built only 150 of these prototype bomber engines, but ol' E.J. got himself one. 56 litres --- 24 cylinders --- Turbo-and-supercharged --- two crankshafts in one crankcase --- Over one ton in weight. E.J. reckoned it was one of the most beautiful engines ever made. Sure is.
How would you like to take off the valve-train cover of your engine and see this? It's what drives the sleeve-valves on a 12-cylinder Bristol Hercules engine. Just don't drop that spring-clip in there ----.
High-class French car in a stock-car race about 1958: what is it? either a Talbot Lago T150, or a Delahaye 135?
