A-Z, Car Designers, Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing

A-Z Of Car Stuff: H is for Hybrids (the Euro/US Variety)!

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A-Z of Car Stuff

This is one in a series of posts on cars, drivers, designers etc. that have interested me over the years. I’ve bored my family and friends with this stuff for years – now it’s your turn!

See A-Z of Car Stuff page for more posts in this series.

So, what’s so special about Hybrids?

To my mind – there are hybrids and hybrids!

On the one hand – there are the modern internal combustion engine/battery powered vehicles built to save the planet and/or salve the collective consciences of automotive eco-warriors (isn’t that an oxymoron?).

On the other hand there are Euro/US Hybrids – sleek and elegant European styled cars with stonking great American V8s shoe-horned into their delicate chassis. These cars have a simple purpose in life – to tear-up roads and circuits at the fastest possible speed but in the best possible style and taste!

1) The special thing about petrol/electric hybrids is they’re NOT new. They were designed and driven donkey’s years ago thanks to Ferdinand Porsche.

2) The special thing about Euro/American hybrids is that they combine the best of European styling with the rugged power of American V8 engines. A number of specialist manufacturers have created beautiful and innovative sports cars, GTs and saloons that have graced the roads and race circuits of the world for years. Long may this Euro/US Hybrid cross-breeding programme continue.

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Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing

Silverstone Classic – Sat 25th & Sun 26th Jul 2015

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Fried On Saturday, Frozen On Sunday

Craig David lyric? Noooo – just a meteorological description of my two days at Silverstone Classic.

High Summer weather in the frozen tundra of rural Northamptonshire ebbed & flowed from cold & extremely wet on Friday, warm and sunny on Saturday and back again to cold and wet on Sunday.

It was a real shame for the competitors who struggled to have any meaningful practice/qualifying runs on Friday, then had to switch to dry set-up on Saturday and back to decidedly-soggy set-up on Sunday. Less than ideal conditions but not bad enough to deter stoic participants and spectators!

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Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Vintage Cars

Prescott “La Vie En Bleu” – Sun 24th May 2015

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The particular theme for the Prescott Hill Climb event on Sun 24th May 2015 was “La vie en bleu” – a celebration of all things French.

This provided a welcome focus on French car marques with representatives from Alpine Renault, Amilcar, Berliet, Citroen, Darracq, De Dion Bouton, Delage, Delahaye, Hotchkiss, Lorraine Dietrich, Matra, Renault and a whole range of other famous and some less famous French marques. The turn out of vintage French cars was particularly spectacular with some that I’d never heard of before.

Mixing the French contingent of cars amongst other cars competing on the day – made for a great spectacle.

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Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Veteran Cars

Prescott Hill Climb – Sun 24th May 2015

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Disaster! I started the late May Bank Holiday weekend with no plans, a 911 needing exercise and a burning urge to scratch my “interesting-car-itch”!

Solution! Enter “May Classic Car Events” into Safari and “Hey-Presto” – up pops Prescott.

This venerable hill climb venue had been on my list of must-visit-events for donkey’s years but for some perverse reason I’d never got around to going so I thought why not? Armed with my usual UK Summer car event kit of thermals and waterproofs – I set off from London at the crack of dawn not knowing quite what to expect.

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Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche, Uncategorized

Donington Historic Festival – Sat 2nd & Sun 3rd May 2015

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The Donington Historic Festival goes from strength to strength and for 2015 – races were spread over no less than 3 days spanning the early May Bank Holiday weekend. Fortunately for many of the attendees – cold weather made “anoraks” a thermal necessity rather than just a disparaging character assessment!

Donington embraces Classic Car clubs by offering cheap ticket deals to members with the added benefit of parking in marque specific areas of the infield plus the chance to participate in a lunch time parade lap around the circuit. What more can you ask? OK – warmer weather would be nice – sort it out Mr Wheatcroft!

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Endurance Racing

World Endurance Championship – 6 Hours of Silverstone 2015

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Despite somewhat chilly April weather – the opening round of the 2015 WEC at Silverstone was an event not to be missed.

The field of cars seemed smaller than last year but it offered (and delivered) the opportunity to see some great racing.

Audi were the ultimate victors this year with their No. 7 R18 E-tron Quattro driven by Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler but Porsche came a very close 2nd with their No. 18 919 Hybrid driven by Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas. Toyota completed the LPM1 podium with their No. 1 car driven by Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima.

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my car, Porsche

911 2.2S Engine Rebuild – Part 14: Dizzy, Aerated & Exhausted!

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Plumbing almost complete
Plumbing almost complete

This could be the range of emotions that you’d expect to go through as an integral part of classic car ownership but in the context of this post they refer to remaining problems that had to be sorted out on my engine following its complete rebuild.

With the benefit of hindsight – driving the car to Le Mans in June 2014 before the engine was fully sorted and properly set-up  wasn’t one of my better ideas!

Connecting up reinstalled engine
Connecting up reinstalled engine

Steve did his best to sort things out but both he and I were unaware of some underlying issues which impacted performance and smooth running during the trip.

Thanks to Steve’s perseverance in analysing the multiple, linked issues and sorting them out I now have a car which is running so much better than on the Le Mans trip that I barely recognise it. I just can’t stop grinning whilst driving it!

Continue reading 911 2.2S Engine Rebuild – Part 14: Dizzy, Aerated & Exhausted! →

Classic Cars, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche

Jaz Porsche Open Day – Sat 31st Jan 2015

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Busy Jaz Workshop
Busy Jaz Workshop

Jaz Porsche provided a great uplift from the January gloom by holding an open day to show off their new St. Albans premises and to display some of their projects and handy work.

Sleet and snow meant that driving conditions were not ideal but the prospect of quick blast up the M1 in my old 911 to Steve and Claire Winter’s new premises and meet up with fellow Porsche enthusiasts  over a drink and bite to eat was too good to miss.

DSC_0025

The new workshop is much more spacious than the one that Jaz left in Wembley and with fresh paint and great Porsche posters adorning the walls it looks like a clinically clean environment in which to service and restore treasured Porsches of all ages.

A quick chat with Steve resulted in me adding to his order for US-sourced Salt & Pepper 911 carpet sets. Then a chat with Bruce Cooper from Sportwagen got me booked in for a paint check and trimming work to fit the new carpet set. Job done!

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Car Designers, Classic Cars, Endurance Racing, historic cars, Historic Racing, Porsche

London Classic Car Show – Sat 10th Jan 2015

The lack of sunshine during the dark Winter months gives rise to a particular form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which can result in susceptible people suffering from mild depression. This condition is treated by exposing sufferers to bright light.

I suffer from a very specific form of Seasonal Affective Disorder called ICDD or Interesting Car Deficiency Disorder!  The only viable treatment for this terrible affliction is to expose sufferers to interesting cars at any and every opportunity.

The London Classic Car Show at London’s Excel Centre provided just such an opportunity! Judging by the turnout – lots of other people had also opted to for a serious course of ICDD treatment!!!

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Veteran Cars

London to Brighton Veteran Car Run – Sun 2nd Nov 2014

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London To Brighton Run – Sun 2nd Nov

I did question the wisdom of dragging myself out of bed at 5:30AM to get down to the start of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run bit once I wandered into Hyde Park to see the gathered ancient machinery it all seemed perfectly sensible.

Official start time was just before 7:00AM to coincide with dawn to reduce participant’s reliance on their beautiful but not terribly illuminating acetylene lamps.

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