169 replies to this topic

[ensign14]

A near-hour long documentary about the Cheek C2 has been up for a few years now.  I assume nobody has noticed it because it's in Norwegian.

 

 

Some interesting period footage, including of testing. 

[davidbuckden]

Much as I love the 50s/60s Corso Marche GTs for their lightness and optimised small engines, the Abarth that's currently fascinating me is the '67 T140. It's got everything if you like something enigmatic - the biggest Abarth engine, the 'look' of the prototype car, the near catastrophic effect on the financial well-being of the other Abarth commercial activities, and the sudden, unexpected change in the FIA Group 6 capacity 'rules' that caused the abrupt canning of the project.  Add to these aspects the fact that a single example (non-functional) of the engine exists in a private collection and that a replica of the car has been built in recent times - and can been seen running, albeit with a 'lesser' power unit, here.

[9203RW]

 A couple that never raced and appear not to have been mentioned so far: the Mercedes C292 built for the 1992 Group C season, but never raced following the factory's withdrawal at the end of 1991 after the rather unsuccessful campaign with the flat-12 C291.  I see to recall that a (the only?) C292 was on display in the paddock at the Silverstone Classic a few years ago.  Another was the Lindsay LMP675, built for Le Mans in 2001.  The car failed to obtain an entry and rule changes that came into force in 2002 meant that it was no longer eligible.  The car was on display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few years ago.

 

There was passing reference earlier on to the Alfa Romeo SE048SP, built in 1990 but never raced.  It would have been an attractive addition to the early '90s Group C grid, though I suspect it would have needed quite a lot of development from its original form to have cut the mustard against the Peugeot, Jaguar and Toyota opposition.  Again, not seen in period but a later visitor to Goodwood.

[doc knutsen]

A near-hour long documentary about the Cheek C2 has been up for a few years now.  I assume nobody has noticed it because it's in Norwegian.

 

 

Some interesting period footage, including of testing. 

Woo-hoo, many thanks for finding my documentary and glueing it in here. The film was put together in 2014 from about 6 hours of VHS videotape, filmed by my friend Terje Nilssen who had acquired  VHS video recording gear in the mid-Eighties. My cousin Sverre Ferd, who runs an advertising agency, filmed the interview and edited the original video material .We would love to have added subtitles in English but the cost proved prohibitive.

 

For those who might be interested, the car was designed and built in my garage, using 1/2" aluminium honeycomb sheet acquired from Ciba Geigy. I used March F3000 uprights and Capri 2.8 drive shafts, and drew out the suspension geometry using Carroll Smith's "String computer". The geometry was later revised by Geoscan (Chris Groves) in the UK, and found to be reasonably close to what I had been aiming for, but we ended up with more than twice the spring rates compared to what we started with.

The bodywork was inspired by the Jaguar XJR series and by the Ecosse, and it proved to be very slippery. Wheels were 15" Revolution split rims, and I found that Avon did low-profile (21,5") 15 inch tyres which fitted comfortably under the Ecosse-size front wheel arches, allowing us to use brakes of sufficient size to avoid the brake troubles that always were a worry with with other C2 cars that used 13" rims.

The engine was a 1700 BDT unit out of rallycross ace Thor Holm's Ford RS200, and the tranmission was an FBG unit purchased from ADA in London.

 

The car ended its career prematurely against the Donington pit wall, but it did prove quick, beating cars from Argo, Spice and Tiga in the one Interserie race it completed before the Donington debacle.

 

The car has been sitting restored but dismantled in my workshop since 1996, missing a suitable engine. I now have a Buick V6 in suitable specs, but I am still looking - unsuccessfully so far - for a bellhousing to fit a Buick V6/Hewland FGA assembly. With so many Indy Lights cars using this combination it seems strange that nobody seems to have one for sale.

Edited by doc knutsen, 30 December 2021 - 13:50.

[small block]

Callaway C7R

MIG M100

WR SSangyong

Scodec Diva

Matra 640

[Joe Bosworth]

For Doc K,  you are quoted in #154 as saying, "The car has been sitting restored but dismantled in my workshop since 1996, missing a suitable engine. I now have a Buick V6 in suitable specs, but I am still looking - unsuccessfully so far - for a bellhousing to fit a Buick V6/Hewland FGA assembly. With so many Indy Lights cars using this combination it seems strange that nobody seems to have one for sale."

 

Good grief man, once upon a time we were swapping all kinds of engines against an equal number of gearboxes.  Think Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Chrysler, Flat head Ford, V8 60 Ford against, Ford, Jaguar, MG, Moss,Chevrolet, etc etc.  We did not wait more than about two days of thinking and measuring before sourcing the correct thickness of steel or aluminium, greasing up the faces of choice of engine and gearbox, pressing said faces against cardboard, pulling out a cutting device, shaping inside and outside outlines and voila, you were on the way to cutting your own bellhousing conversion.  Never took much more than the total parts of a couple of days to having and engine and gearbox on the floor and coupled.

 

Pay my way to your location and I will do it for you!!! 

 

Regards

Edited by Joe Bosworth, 01 January 2022 - 18:42.

[doc knutsen]

For Doc K,  you are quoted in #154 as saying, "The car has been sitting restored but dismantled in my workshop since 1996, missing a suitable engine. I now have a Buick V6 in suitable specs, but I am still looking - unsuccessfully so far - for a bellhousing to fit a Buick V6/Hewland FGA assembly. With so many Indy Lights cars using this combination it seems strange that nobody seems to have one for sale."

 

Good grief man, once upon a time we were swapping all kinds of engines against an equal number of gearboxes.  Think Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Chrysler, Flat head Ford, V8 60 Ford against, Ford, Jaguar, MG, Moss,Chevrolet, etc etc.  We did not wait more than about two days of thinking and measuring before sourcing the correct thickness of steel or aluminium, greasing up the faces of choice of engine and gearbox, pressing said faces against cardboard, pulling out a cutting device, shaping inside and outside outlines and voila, you were on the way to cutting your own bellhousing conversion.  Never took much more than the total parts of a couple of days to having and engine and gearbox on the floor and coupled.

 

Pay my way to your location and I will do it for you!!! 

 

Regards

Lovely comment, thanks very much!  Reviving the Gr C car has not been a priority, what with inserting the engine into a Reynard F3000 and doing the BOSS series in the UK, subsequenly getting into Historic racing and building three Imps, a few Cooper S machines, and now an Alfa 1300GTA Junior and a Jaguar 3.8 Mk 2, all to FIA specs...never mind working a 60 hour week...life has been busy! But I do get your point, getting a bellhousing done ain't that much of a problem - certainly not compared to designing and building the car in the first place!

[ensign14]

I for one would love to see the Cheek in action, or at least as a Goodwood static.  I love these one-offs.  A shame the Ceekar seems to have been scrapped, I've no idea if any of the Lyncars are still around, and whither the Nykjaer?

[MCS]

The unique Swiss-built Cheetah G501 made by Chuck Graemiger in Lausanne was used in hillclimbs, but never actually raced as far as I know.  Lovely looking car which (somewhat bizarrely) appeared on Linked In of all places about 9 months ago.

 

Subsequent G601was raced at Le Mans as far as I know.

 

Edit: couldn't spell subsequent . . .

Edited by MCS, 02 January 2022 - 14:17.

[TennisUK]

Did the Pilbeam MP100 or Bailey LMP2 cars ever actually run in a race? I think they both ended up in South Africa.

[9203RW]

Did the Pilbeam MP100 or Bailey LMP2 cars ever actually run in a race? I think they both ended up in South Africa.

I don't believe either ever actually raced, although there are photos of the Pilbeam practicing for the Phakisa 6 hours in South Africa in 2014.  The car didn't actually start though.  Rather than ending up in South Africa, the Bailey was built there and was exhibited in an incomplete state at Le Mans in, I believe, 2011.  The constructor specialises in restorations and replicas (GT40s and 917s in particular), but a full-blown LMP2 was perhaps a step too far and it never raced.

[WonderWoman61]

Wasn't there a Koenigsegg GT1 car that never raced?

[TennisUK]

Wasn't there a Koenigsegg GT1 car that never raced?

yup

[Roryswood]

Swiss Classic Revue , latest issue has a feature on the cars built by Chuck Graeminger

[WonderWoman61]

Audi's LMDH project intended for the WEC and IMSA if their F1 plans come to fruition.

[BRG]

Audi's LMDH project intended for the WEC and IMSA if their F1 plans come to fruition.

So it should have a long and respectable race career in WEC and IMSA then.

[WonderWoman61]

So it should have a long and respectable race career in WEC and IMSA then.

I thought the Audi LMDh project was on hold?

[WonderWoman61]

There was a closed cockpit variant of the Mercedes 300 SLR intended for 1956 - https://www.google.c...s/10307118/amp/

[SamoanAttorney]

Earlier this month in the Endurance Legends Racing paddock there was the Lamborghini Diablo Jota GT1 LM that arrived at the Preliminary Test at La Sarthe in '95 but never ran. I think that qualifies....

 

[WonderWoman61]

The Toyota 578A "Turbo 7".