FINE Dragon Pass

We interrupt pix posts of the British Car Show to bring you this Dragon pass.  Like the Mysterious Stranger in an old Western, he rode into town, made a pass, and left.  Who are you, "Stig-like Adonis?"  ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMzodo-nsGc&feature=youtu.be

The most intelligent Facebook comment I saw on this pass was "If someone is on your ass, then it's obvious that your ass is slow.  Please get over and out of the way."  And I say this as a maker of slow-assed passes, who has done exactly that.

British Car Show (2014): Just Purdy And "Special Relationship"

Above and below: if there is a prettier modern GT than the Aston Martin, in A M green, I don't know what it is.

The "special relationship"--that is, sticking American V-8's into British sports cars--goes back almost as far as Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt.  Right after World War Two, Sidney Allard put a flathead Ford into his own chassis.  Other Brits did the same for another 20+ years.  Of course the most legendary transplant was done on this side of the pond: Carroll Shelby's Cobra.  Then Walter Hayes of Ford of Britain funded the development of the Costworth DFV Formula 1 engine for Colin Chapman's Lotus 49, and put cam covers on it that said FORD.

Above and below: a TVR with a small-block V-8 in it.  This one looks to be an aluminum Rover (formerly Buick), but
the Ford 289 was more common.

Above and below: a SuperFormance Ford GT 40.  On first, second, and even third glance, I
mistook this for an original GT 40, even after noting the Roush engine.  The interior looks
authentic, the badging is correct, and the build quality is outstanding.  It looks like a
restored GT 40 with a Roush replacing a blown racing engine.  Gorgeous car.

Above and below: of course we stopped in at our pal John Saccameno's S&S Specialties (restoration and racing prep
shop) on vendor row.  The big Healey was completed last spring and has been vintage racing this summer.  The Jag
XK-E in the foreground has "been in the shop forever, but the owner and I have agreed that it will be finished,
delivered, and final-billed by year-end."  The car is 85% finished.  The power train, paint, and most of the
interior are done.  But it still needs brakes, some glass, and a completed dash.

British Car Show (2014): The Miscellaneous & Oddities Post

The British Car Show has become a regular event for me and Hotshoe.  It is like a cruise night, in that we see many of the same cars year after year.   But we almost always see something rare too.  The car count was very good this year, doubtless in part because of the superb weather.  There were about 20 "big" Healeys, 30 MGA's and MGB's, 40 Triumphs and Lotuses.

Even the parking lot is fun.  Besides this very nice Giulietta (vanity plate ALFA 61), we saw some interesting 'Vettes
and a Ferrari 430 in Fly Yellow.

Above and below: speaking of the parking lot, this was in it (not in the show)!  The engine is an S&S ("improved
Harley").  To my eye, it is the prettiest modern Morgan 3-wheeler I've seen: no silly graphics--nothin' but the car.
That is, if a Morgan three-wheeler is a car...

A row of Rolls.

At the other end of the spectrum, a Mini panel truck.  Not imported to the U.S. (as far as I know), and even more rare
than a Mini "woody".

A rare-ish Jag XK-140 MC.  The MC model featured the C-Type high-performance cylinder head, which raised the
horsepower from 190 to 210.  Either was a big number from a 3.4 liter six in the mid-1950's.

The first one I've seen with my own eyes: an MGA Twin Cam head.  Originally developed
for the 1.5 liter class at LeMans, it was later offered for sale in the MGA at a hefty price
premium.  It had a reputation for burning valves, leaking oil, and warping--which blew
head gaskets.  Other than that, it was fine.  ;-)  But based on my visual inspection of
this one, it also weighed 3X as much as the pushrod head.  In the 1950's, British
manufacturers persisted in the use of cast iron even for DOHC heads, after the
continental carmakers had graduated to aluminum.

True That!

A lol picture, pulled from my club's corner workers' Facebook page.

James May's "Cars Of The People"

James doing what he does best: arched-eyebrow satire.  In this case the happy, pre-war Nazi family vacation in a
Strength-through-Joy (KdF)-wagen.  As May explains in detail, World War Two intervened and no KdF-wagens
were delivered to the volk who had saved up for them on the lay-away plan.

I've swooned before over the linguistic stylings of James May: All Hail James, Master Presenter!  (He has the assistance of some excellent co-writers and production teams.)

May's Cars of the People seems to be a 3-episode mini-series filling in for the suspended Top Gear.  I like to be educated, and even moved to thought, while being entertained.  If the show includes British satire and irony, so much the better.  My sister often holds up the BBC as an example of what television could be.  Cars of the People is the automotive example of her point.

The for-UK-consumption programs, available on the internet, are both better and longer that the editied-down ones now running on BBC America.  Here are the links to each hour-long episode (British version).

Episode 1: totalitarian cars of the people.  I should mention here that I owned a 1968 Fiat 124 sedan, and it was fun.  Way more fun than a Beetle (which I also owned), but not as much fun as a Mini (ditto). That's what state-of-the-art suspension and an Italian power train will do for you.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23b4ha_james-may-s-cars-of-the-people-episode-1_shortfilms

Episode 2 is brilliant about my special weakness: the French generally, and the Citroen 2CV in particular.  Viewer Advisory: brief scenes of the customary Top Gear mayhem appear.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23yrmp_james-may-s-cars-of-the-people-episode-2_shortfilms

Episode 3 is about "aspirational" cars, like the Lamborghini Countach and the Porsche 911 Turbo.  My teenaged son had a Countach poster on his bedroom wall, along with one of Farrah Fawcett.  May demonstrates the lethality of the 911 Turbo in the hands of amateurs.  The Traveling Salesman Race is one of the funniest Top Gear-style bits I've seen.  Probably because I used to work with traveling salesmen and have an appreciation for the indignities they suffer.  This episode is marred only by a lame ending.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24hbi6_james-may-s-cars-of-the-people-s1-ep3_auto

Let's have more automotive history from James May!

Wanted: Semi-Stickies

Above: Michelin Pilot Super Sports off the truck; below: on the Bullitt.  Watchtower likes the "less mud-grippy" look
of the shoulders.  So do I.  The contact patch looks good too.

A recent post mentioned that some of the Killboy crew run fairly exotic tires and suspensions.  Kamal says the suspension on his Civic Si is so stiff that he doesn't enjoy it much except on the Dragon.  Some run near-slick stickies just this side of DOT-legal.  My crew isn't that hard-core.  But Dragon passes have left us somewhat dissatisfied with our all-season tires.

Hotshoe's new Focus ST came with summer-only Goodyear Eagle F1's as o.e. tires.  In northern climes, if the car is your daily driver, that means buying an extra set of rims with winter tires, which he did.  He also raved about the grip of his F1's.  "Whatever," thought I, until last spring when I got into a Dragon bend a bit too hot in his car.  I cranked in some more lock, and the ST took a tighter line.  My Civic Si, with all-season tires, would have washed out into terminal understeer.  "I gotta get me a set of these," I thought.

Watchtower beat me to it.  His Bullitt was factory-equipped with the same, sad, Goodrich all-seasons that are on my Mustang.  (Why would Ford do that?)  But now it wears Michelin Pilot Super Sports.    He drives this car very little in the winter, so an extra set of rims and tires are not necessary.  Here's his report on his new shoes:

     "I got down the road maybe a mile or two and the heavens opened up.  I managed a 'skidpad'
     test in a deserted parking lot, in a deluge of now-Biblical proportions.  When the front end
     started plowing, I stepped on it and got the rear end to swing out.  Seemed manageable at the
     limit.  After that I tried some tight curves in a deserted Interstate rest area.  The traction is mind-
     blowing.  It feels like the PSS's grip better in the wet than the old Goodriches did in the dry.
 
     "These tires seem just as quiet as the old ones and might even ride a little softer.  I can live with
     them from an every-day practical point of view.  As for steering feel, they give more feedback,
     especially when you get up around 8/10's."


Well... that settles it: lots of upside and no downside.  I'll get a set of summer-only tires, so I won't be outgunned on the Dragon by Hotshoe and Watchtower.  You could make an argument (and I do) that semi-stickies also provide an extra margin of active safety in evasive maneuvers.  The o.e.m. wheels and tires for my Civic Si are still in the garage for winter use.  When my current tires are worn, the OZ wheels will wear semi-stickies.

Purdy Car, Historical Reference

I don't need much of an excuse to post pictures of the lovely Aston Martin DB3S with recognition blazes (that is, differently colored stripes around the radiator intake and on the front fender flares).  The point of the blazes was to make the individual identity of team cars more clear to people scoring laps from the pits in those pre-transponder days.  In this case, my excuse is a current racing Aston with a referential paint scheme.

Aston Martin Vantage, run by TRG in the Tudor Sports Car Series, 2014.  Let us overlook the flat black paint and the
competition number.  James Bond drove a DB 5 because it made him cool, not the other way 'round.  Mr. Bond
would look just as cool in just about any Aston Martin made in the past 60+ years.

A DB3S with its original, traditional, grille shape and the older Aston shade of British Racing Green; this one with red
"recognition blazes."

DB3S 009 and 010 with the later (ugly) front end: faired-in headlights and a flat, lower, radiator intake.  These cars are
also in the later, lighter, shade of British Racing Green made famous by the much more successful DBR1 race car.

Stirling Moss in the DB3S at Sliverstone.  Pictures like this were the iconic representations of speed, sophistication,
and fun to me in my youth.