Collector Car Auction 2006
Classic car catalogue.
Thanks
to my old friend Jerry, I am in possession of the catalogue
for the 36th Annual Collector Car Auction held in Auburn
Indiana in September this year. It would make you weep!
What about a supercharged Cord 812 of 1937? E.L. Cord
produced 200 812’s in 1937 and 64 had a supercharger. How
much is that worth? Muscle cars? How many do you want?
Camaros, a couple of Mustang GT 500 fast back “Eleanor”
look-alikes (from the movie Gone in 60 seconds), Plymouth
Barracudas, and even a 1970 Plymouth Superbird, the one with
the giant wing on the back. Then there’s Dodge Vipers,
Ferrari Testarossas, Porsches and even an Amphicar with a
photo of it in aquatic mode. And if that’s not enough, there
is a Captain America replica chopper from the movie Easy
Rider.
How I miss some exotica. I spend my time in the country
looking over fences for something collectable, lying in a
tapioca field somewhere, but an old Isuzu pick-up just
doesn’t cut the mustard, I’m afraid!
Natter Nosh and Noggin
The monthly car enthusiasts meeting will
be at Jameson’s Irish Pub on Soi AR next to the Nova Park
development. The car (and bike) enthusiasts meet on the
second Monday of the month, so this time it is Monday
(December 11) at Jameson’s at 7 p.m. This is a totally
informal meeting of like minded souls to discuss their pet
motoring (and motorcycling) loves and hates. Bring along any
magazines, photos of old vehicles, old girlfriends or the
latest Spyker for us all to drive.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week was an easy one. I asked what movie car was called
Eleanor? And what was the movie? The first correct answer
was from Ray Speed who correctly identified it as a 1967
Shelby Mustang GT 500 and the film was “Gone in sixty
seconds”. Well done, Ray.
So to this week. The Swedish Volvo P1800 is one of those
iconic cars, but it was not made in Sweden. Where was it
made?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
F1 gets its first black driver – so who cares?
According to the McLaren PR handout, young UK driver Lewis
Hamilton is set to become the first black driver in Formula
One after McLaren announced that he would be partnering
double World Champion Fernando Alonso during the 2007 F1
season.
For my money, I really don’t give a tinker’s cuss about the
ethnic background of any driver in F1. All I want to know,
is can he drive? The simple answer is a most definite yes.
Lewis
Hamilton.
The young chap is 21 years old, so he’s not the youngest to
ever get an F1 contract, but here are his racing
credentials:
1995: British cadet class and STP karting champion.
1996: Wins the Champions of the Future, Sky TV KartMasters
and Five Nations karting series.
1997: Moves up to junior Yamaha and wins Champions of the
Future series and Super One series.
1998: Competing in Junior Intercontinental A is second in
McLaren Mercedes Champions of the Future and fourth at the
Italian Open. Confirmed he will be supported by McLaren and
Mercedes-Benz.
1999: Italian ‘Industrials’ champion at Intercontinental A
level, Vice European champion, Trophy de Pomposa winner and
fourth at Italian Open Championship at
junior-Intercontinental level.
2000: In Formula A, wins all four rounds to become European
champion, also wins World Cup and the Masters at Bercy.
Named as British Racing Drivers’ Club ‘Rising Star’ member.
2001: Finishes fifth in the British Formula Renault winter
series.
2002: Finishes third, with three race wins, in British
Formula Renault championship.
2003: Wins British Formula Renault championship.
2005: Formula 3 Euroseries champion.
2006: Wins the GP2 Series. September 13 is given first test
in a McLaren Formula One car, and on November 24 is
confirmed as race driver for 2007 season for McLaren.
That is the pedigree of a winner at all levels, and as I
predicted some months ago, would be picked to partner Alonso
at McLaren Mercedes. In private testing he is already
setting competitive times and will be a driver of the
future. However, can McLaren deliver a decent car to their
drivers in 2007? They certainly did not in 2006.
For the lovers of trivia, Lewis Hamilton is not the first
man of color driver by any stretch of imagination. In 1963,
Wendell Scott, who was involved since the early days of
NASCAR, became the first and so far only man of color driver
to win a major league race.
And yet another German
up and coming
Our roving correspondent at large, John Weinthal,
attended the A1GP meeting in Malaysia, and came away very
impressed with another young German, Nico Hulkenberg.
Nico
Hulkenberg.
John Weinthal writes, “Nico Hulkenberg - remember this name.
You are going to hear much more of its 19 year old.
“A1GP, the so-called World Cup of Motorsport, has by my
reckoning at least five drivers who could right now work
themselves at worst into the middle third of any F1 field.
But the young German Hulkenberg is set to be among the top
five within two years, at worst.
“He won the series’ first feature race of the current season
at Holland’s Zandvoort circuit. It was his first weekend in
a 500bhp A1GP car. But in Malaysia last weekend he stamped
his mark on motor racing’s future beyond any doubt. On his
first ever timed lap of the Sepang F1 circuit in the
Friday’s first practice he broke the previous A1 lap record,
by three seconds!
“Third after Saturday’s qualifying in the dank heat which is
Sepang’s specialty when it is not actually raining, he moved
to second on Lap 4 of Sunday morning’s 10 lap sprint race.
And he had the brains to hold back in second. This ensured
he would have the better side of the track for the start of
the later 35 lap (or one hour) feature race. First would
have disadvantaged the multilingual, smiling, mild-mannered
yet confident young man who is tall for a top racing driver.
“With 30 minutes to the scheduled start a monsoon struck.
The race start was delayed. Then it began with three laps of
single-file ‘racing’ behind the Audi Safety Car. The rain
was torrential. Water cascaded across sections of the track.
“End of second place grid advantage? Don’t believe it.
“Swiss 23 year old Neel Jani, the talented pole-sitter - as
at Sepang last season - was driving into Hulkenberg’s
blinding spray from the fourth corner of the first flying
lap.
“The German consistently extended his lead before stalling
and requiring a push start after his compulsory tyre-change
pit stop.
“At the end of a miraculously incident free race, Hulkenberg
was ONLY 42.8 seconds in front of Great Britain’s Robbie
Kerr with defending champions France third. (Lapierre shared
the driving for France in the first season but points go to
the team in A1GP, not the driver). Pole man Neel Jani was
fourth.
“Hulkenberg’s manager is (wily) Willi Weber who happens to
have also managed the career of a recently retired F1
master, and is the ‘owner’ of the German A1GP team. This lad
has both talent and contacts!”
Another German at the
top
The Formula BMW world final was held in Valencia
(Spain), and Christian Vietoris of Josef Kaufmann Racing was
the winner. The 17 year old beat 35 competitors chosen from
all the winners of the regional F BMW divisions, including
FBMW Asia. Vietoris, who was also the winner of the FBMW
Germany, had a pole to flag win in the final. As part of the
spoils of victory, he will also get a Formula One test drive
with the BMW Sauber F1 Team in 2007.
Zanardi back in F1?
Zanardi
Prior to the final race for the world
series of Formula BMW, Alessandro Zanardi made motor racing
history once again in the support program of the DELL
Formula BMW World Final. He became the first double-leg
amputee driver to take to the track at the wheel of a BMW
Sauber F1 Team Formula One car. Zanardi thrilled the fans
with several spectacular show drives - and set some
impressively quick lap times. Zanardi has been competing for
the past couple of years in the World Touring Car
Championship and is a front runner in that category. He was
at Macau this year (last month) but joined the list of those
who won a wall, rather than a trophy.
The lions that ate cars
For those who have never seen a Mini Californian,
it began as your everyday Mini Moke, the flat Mini platform
with a faintly raffish ‘jeep’ look to it. It had canvas
seats across metal frames to add to the military look. A
flat windscreen up front and a fairly useless vinyl top that
could be erected. It was ineffective as a roof, and when it
rained, it was even worse.
However, the Californian variant had little Perspex wind
‘wings’ either side of the windscreen, designed to stop
buffeting of driver and passenger (which they didn’t), some
stuffing in the seats, some new choices of bright colours
for the platform and a bright floral patterned vinyl roof,
which was still ineffective when it rained, and if you drove
at any speeds over 80 kph, the side flaps went up and down
like a spaniel dog’s ears at full canter. Yes, this was
British Leyland’s concept of the Californian psychedelic
era.
BL’s publicity man was called Ian Millbank and his concept
to promote this variant was more towards the ‘great white
hunter’ idea. He envisaged hunters and models, trees and the
veldt and the piece de resistance was to be lions! In
Sydney, Australia, in those days there was just the location
– the Warragamba Lion Park! The release was already in
Millbank’s mind. The lion park was contacted, and two new
Moke Californians were taken in secret one night to
Warragamba. Remember that all ‘new’ models are driven round
incognito before the release date, and in fact there is an
army of press photographers on the lookout for pre-release
vehicles.
But back to the lion park. The photographer and models had
been contacted and the shoot scheduled for the following
day. The sight that confronted them the next morning was
certainly theatrical. There were two half-eaten Moke
Californians, being devoured by all these lion cubs. They
had systematically eaten the seats, the floral roof, the
wind wings and anything else that a pride of hungry lion
cubs felt was suitable for breakfast, including the spare
tyres!
Even for Ian Millbank, this was a situation that could not
be recovered from. The models were discharged, as well as
the photographer, the Mokes brought back to the factory on a
truck under tarpaulins in disgrace!
Yes, that was the psychedelic seventies! I am lucky that I
not only experienced them with BL - I survived them!
