Valve Bounce

Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 Coupe & Cabriolet Production Numbers

I mentioned some production numbers for the 3.5 cabriolet from memory a few weeks ago and managed to get the number wrong. Robert Schmitt kindly provided these numbers for me recently straight from Mercedes so they should be correct. The original 1971 price list is here.

	YEAR
CAR	1969	1970	1971	TOTAL
Coupe LHD	160	2237	628	3025
Coupe RHD	1	193	51	245
Cabrio LHD	15	824	325	1164
Cabrio RHD	0	46	22	68
TOTAL	176	3300	1026	4502

So the correct number of RHD cabriolets is 68 and RHD Coupe is 245, a select few.

Top Gear - Jaguar E-Type Aston Martin DB5

An untaxing confection to celebrate my 100th posting.

Clarkson gives his rare consideration to a couple of old cars with some modern upgrades.

Why not start with something German in the first place?

The Maharajas' Motor Car: The Story of Rolls Royce in India (BBC4)

This programme was a gem in BBC4s motoring season (which, I’ve felt, has been slightly lacklustre up until now) and a real feast for the eye. It took you back to a time of incredible decadence and wealth. A time where the Indian Maharajas' would buy their Rolls Royce Twenties six at a time and get their coachbuilders to add every possible extra including tea sets, drinks bars, bull bars, silk interiors and even a shooting platform for Tiger hunting.

It followed the rise and fall of the great Indian Maharajas from the time where their wealth was such that the Maharajas bought the Rolls-Royces while India's "colonial masters" could not afford to. To a time after the war and independence where these great displays of wealth became embarrassing and another use had to be found for them. Where else would you cut down your Rolls Royce Phantom to the equivalent of an open top minibus to provide transport for your local cricket team?

Many of these "mechanical elephants" are no longer on the road but some found their way back to the UK (before a restriction on the movement of vintage motors was introduced in the 1970s) and there were tales of cars being given away, or being purchased for the equivalent of £25, and driven from India through the Khaiber Pass and on back home to the shires. Naturally being the best car money could buy they never ‘failed to proceed’.

All these cars seem to have a facinating story attached just as we found when we saw an old coachbuilt v8 Lancia at the Thatcham Classic meeting last year. It had been owned by Maharaja of Mysore and had found its way to England after the war - it was wearing it’s patina well.

Available on iplayer this week, and a little taster here...

Sports Cars in Hi-Fi

Sounds from yesteryear. Here are a selection of recordings from an old Riverside Recordings LP called "Sports Cars in Hi-Fi". It's not the sort of thing that is going to get into the top 20 but it is an interesting listen non-the-less to a few strange people... I'm not sure when it was released but it must have been in the late fifties or early sixties with recordings of many of the top race cars of the era.

Here they all are "at rest"..."at speed" will have to wait for another day.

Click on the image to get a closer look at the sleeve notes.

 

 

 

Two Cylinders

D-B- a wonderful little french car that consistently mopped up in their class (.840 liters).

Three Cylinders

DKW- an amazing little two stroke engine that seems to wind very high indeed (.9 liters).

Four Cylinders

A good selection here from MG-TF to Maserati Grand Prix car.

Ferrari "Testa-Rossa" - (2 liters)

Lancia Special- A nice Lancia Aprilla, worked into a competition roadster (V4 1.35 liters)

Austin Healey Special - (2.6 liters)

Porsche 550- Spyder (4 cylinder Boxer, 1.5 liters)

PBX Special- featuring a Crosley engine (.749 liters)

Lotus Mark 11 - Climax engine (1.1 liters)

Porsche 1600 - A bit rough sounding! (4 cylinder boxer, 1.6 liters)

MG TF - (1.25 liters)

Maserati Grand Prix- A true thoroughbred. Piercing exhaust and whining valves (2 superchargers 1.5 liters)

Six Cylinders

Jaguar, Fraser-Nash and Mercedes-Benz.

Jaguar D Type - (3.5 liters)

Fraser Nash- One of the most famous af all engines running unchanged from the 1930s to 1970s (2 liters).

Jaguar XK 140 - with an MC head claimed to be the noisiest 140 in the Northeastern United States.

Mercedes 300 SL - Fuel injected (6 cylinders inclined, 3 liters)

V8

Big lumps here from two 5.4 liter cars.

Cadillac-Allard - The most successful competition car in America in it's day (5.4 liter).

Kurtis - Great exhaust note (5.4 liters)

V12

Ferrari 166 Inter - one of the early Ferrari engines. Businesslike and just about unbeatable (2 liters).

London daily drives

Back in London but the French theme won't go away. I spotted this rather fine DS in London this weekend to maintain the Parisian theme...

But luckily being in London I'm pleased to say that the traditional British car is not completely dead. This Bristol 409, also spotted this weekend in Primrose Hill, had a real presence despite being a little down at heel...

Steve McQueen ISDT photographs

Steve

Francois Gragnon

La Galerie De L'Instant 2008

During our stay in Paris recently we were wondering around the Marais area when we came across a photography gallery with an  exhibition of excellent Steve McQueen photos. They were all taken in 1964 during McQueen's ride in the 39th International Six Days Trial (ISDT) held in Erfurt, East Germany.

They feature McQueen riding in the trials and relaxing between rides. Most of the pictures are available as prints alongside Francois' other work which mostly features French film-stars. The book is of 28 A4 size prints on very high quality paper in a cloth binding, it's a limited edition of 1000 with an additional signed colour print and is numbered and signed by the photographer.

Francois Gragnon was a photographer for Paris Match in the 1960s and covered the ISDT for the magazine. The gallery is run by his daughter who has produced these book herself. I hadn't seen this available anywhere else and couldn't resist. 

This is a great supplement to the superb book 40 Summers Ago...  by Rin Tamaka and Sean Kelly which tells the story of McQueens ISDT in great detail. I don't think any of Gragnon's photos feature in this book so it's nice to get another perspective and the quality of the photographs is outstanding.