More on XKD.517 at Coventry Racers.
Category: Classic Sportscar
Price as advertised (1955): £750
Adjusted for inflation (2008): £15,120 (US $24,169.32)
What that buys today: Mini Cooper S, Volkswagen GTI, well equipped Mazda Miata
I always assumed that the D-Type was never a full production model. I know they made a few dozen of them, but assumed they were fairly coachbuilt one-offs. This picture sure seems to indicate otherwise.
The panels were supplied by Abbey Panels of Coventry and shipped over to the factory itself to be assembled in the factory alongside XK140s and MK VIII sedans. These shots are from late ’55/early ’56 shortly before the factory was nearly flattened by fire in 1957, so this is indeed a rare view of the Coventry facility.
Just look at them all. This could easily be described as a D-Type assembly line; albeit a non-mechanized one. Fantastic.
This absolute stunner of a Machine participated in the Mille Miglia from 1951-1955. Without the race numbers or chassis number I’m at a loss as to her results, but at least she looked damned good getting there.
via.
Bonus: build your own Gilco chassis for this car — if you happen to be a skilled welder.
We’ve had quite a bit of focus lately on the factories and workshops that turned out our dream machines. Winter has hit the upper Midwest and the garage must be calling.
These scenes were photographed in preparation for the 1953 Mille Miglia and the wrenches were spinning furiously amongst the Italian makers. The home race is always reason enough to turn up the heat a bit.
OSCA
Maserati
And of course, the rather more commanding Ferrari floor.
Here’s Mike Hawthorn checking in on the 250MM Spyder he’d be piloting for the race. He DNFed that year, but his car is still looking amazing 56 years later. The race would be won by the 250’s larger brother, Giannino Marzotto’s 340MM Spyder.
Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari 250MM Spyder 
Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari 250MM Spyder Today
RM Auctions‘ Automobiles of London Auction last month turned up more than a few interesting cars across the block. This one, however, really grabbed my attention.
Automobili Turismo e Sport SpA (or ATA), was a short-lived Italian sportscar and racing organization that grew out of the “Palace Revolt” exodus of top designers and engineers from the Ferrari factory in 1961. Headed up by Ferrari GTO masterminds, Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini, the ATS brand was built with one goal at the front of their minds, beat Ferrari at their own game. History seems to indicate that they failed in that goal. Looking at this 3 liter GT car though, they put up one Hell of a fight. They gathered up other rebels for their venture, Phil Hill drove for the ATX GP team after a defection from Ferrari. Former Bertone designer Franco Scaglione, meanwhile, penned this lovely road car.
The road car was at the very cutting edge of technology, and perhaps ahead of its time. With fully independent suspension and discs all around, the ATS 2500 was much more a racing car in sheep’s clothing than a grand tourer for the road. With a mid-mounted V8, she was capable of 160 mph and these remarkable lines and silhouette would virtually guarantee that you’d arrive in style. This example sold WELL below the estimated £600,000-£1,000,000 price. Such are the dangers of a No Reserve auction that allowed one very lucky buyer to take her home for £308,000. Well bought!
Complete information and more photos of this car with a very storied history can be seen on the auction’s lot detail page.
Here you are, perched on the dash of Cameron Healy’s Porsche 908 for a few laps around Daytona at the 2007 Rennsport Reunion. This example, 908-010, has a short, but storied history with the factory. It competed in only one race; but it was a very wet Spa 1000km. It finished only 34 laps in that race; but Vic Elford drove 32 of them. After handing off the car to co-driver Jochen Neerpasch, the car quickly met with a telephone pole.
Here’s what Quick Vic tells us about the ’68 Spa race:
“The weather invariably plays a part at Spa; it is almost guaranteed to rain at some time during a race weekend. And this weekend was no exception.
After mixed weather for two days of practice and qualifying, Sunday dawned with rain. It would last all day. I drove the first stint and then handed over to Jochen as the rain continued bucketing down. After just a couple of laps he didn’t pass the pits. Since communications in those days were minimal, it was a while before we learned what had happened. On the very fast, sweeping downhill esses at Malmedy, Jachen had slid off the road and knocked down a telegraph pole, part of which then came in through the passenger side window and hit his crash helmet, knocking him out. Fortunately, the car stopped safely at the edge of the road. Jochen was removed and spent the night in the hospital with a slight concussion but no other injuries”
From that afternoon in 1968 until the late 1990’s, the car was stored in Porsche’s warehouse until sold to a US buyer and restored in time for the 2004 Rennsport. It’s now made its way out to Portland and competes along the West Coast.
More info and photos of 908-010 here and here.
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Ludvigsen on Birdcage
“When you click home the ignition key on the sketchy dash of a Birdcage, a strong red light burns deep within the broad, thumb-sized starter button. To me that light became a symbol of the vast power lurking with this apparently ramshackle piece of machinery, like glowing coals in the crater of a slumbering volcano.”
So begins Karl Ludvigsen’s review of the motoring experience of the Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage for the April 1961 issue of Car and Driver. I wonder why mass market car magazines don’t review racing cars today. Maybe they do and they’ve just fallen so far off my radar that I haven’t noticed.
Veloce Today has the complete text of Ludvigsen’s review on their site: well worth a read.
Also note: the track test car is the very example we saw in last week’s Art Appreciation post.
I would like one very much, thank you.
There are, after all, problems with buying an authentic 1967 GP car. Firstly, they’re mighty expensive. Let’s face it, every Formula 1 car driven in any year is a collectible piece of kit. But 1967 is widely considered to be the absolute high-point of Formula 1. Well, by me anyway. Every driver that scored points in ’67 is an absolute legend: Hulme, Clark, Brabham, Rodriguez, Surtees, Stewart, Hill…. Need I go on? So any of these cars that would come up for auction will certainly command top dollar.
Secondly, They’re tiny. Of course Formula 1 cars are smaller than your family truckster. But 1967 was still the era when racing drivers were almost universally slight fellows. I’m over 6 feet tall, I’m never going to fit into Jim Clark’s Lotus 48B – maybe Dan Gurney’s Eagle (at 6’3″, maybe F1’s tallest driver).
What’s more, even if you could afford one of these marvelous machines, you’d have to have much more money than that to drive it the way it should be driven. These are, after all, delicate machines that have difficult to find replacement parts should you meet the armco. Although if you do have one, I encourage you to drive the hell out of it.
A small workshop in the UK, however, have solved all of these problems. Stuart Taylor Ltd. is manufacturing a small block Chevy powered formula car under the name F1-67 that wonderfully captures the essence of the 1967 Formula 1 season. They’ve wisely chosen not to replicate any particular Formula car, rather their design is evocative of the era without looking to terribly much like any particular car. And it is lovely. The attention to period-appropriate visuals in the bodywork is particularly fun. Although the body is fiberglass, there are rivets located along seams to imitate the look of aluminum construction. I can’t imagine those rivets are functional, are they?
The small block Chevy is certainly an easier and more affordable engine to maintain than any Formula 1 engine, and it still looks the part from a distance (up close, you can see an anachronistic amount of electronic bits surrounding the velocity stacks). The power is transferred through a reconditioned Porsche 911 4-speed. I bet it’s a damn fun drive. In addition to some modern visible electrics, there are a few other bits of modernity that look out of place. I don’t know when the brightly colored red and blue anodized plumbing fittings were introduced — for all I know they were in use in the late ’60s — but they always look too modern to my eyes.
But I’m not here to nitpick. I think this is a fantastic project and I hope they sell a ton of them. I’d love to see a spec series start of these cars, each painted in tribute to a particular ’67 race livery. Who’s in?
More pics at the F1-67 Gallery.
(via LoudPopVoyager)