New Police Scam

You couldn’t make it up. Hitzler is back. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) sent its technology guru to a German firm that measures treads on passing tyres. It makes a clever device that costs €50,000, looks like a manhole cover and ACPO obviously sees it as a revenue earner, like speed cameras. Trevor Hall, its consultant on enforcement technology has been to ProContour, which makes the thing and according to its marketing director was quite excited by what he saw. Marketing director of ProContour? Florian Hitzler.
Just imagine ACPO’s excitement. Hall ran the Essex Speed Camera Partnership and also advises the Home Office, according to Auto Express. ACPO told it the scanner would not be used to put points on driving licences. “It would be used as a screening tool, with a checkpoint beyond.”

ProContour describes its apparatus:ProContour H3-D measures tyre condition – for greater tyre safety in road traffic.
Even in times of chip tuning and electronic brake management, technological progress in tyre monitoring seems to have completely bypassed the vehicle or, in other words, it has not progressed beyond calliper gauges and stationary, optical measuring procedures on tyre test rigs.
ProContour H3-D now offers public authorities, industry, car dealerships a multi-functional and automated measuring system with various system types that measures tyre tread depth, tyre type and, in future, also wear patterns in flowing traffic.
The monitoring and traffic safety system designed for flexible use is based on the principle of laser triangulation. High-speed cameras use tread sensors embedded in the road to record and measure 3-D tyre tread depths in a matter of milliseconds.
To be able to measure tyres at high speeds (up to 120 km/h), the system can also process large data volumes: up to 35,000 images per second or six terabytes per minute...
Schematic passover situation of a 5 axle articulated lorry on company premises: the ProContour H3-D facto even measures of the tyre conditions of several heavy goods vehicles passing over one after the other.
The measurement data is transferred via a data link to the PC station located in an office building on the same premises.
Nothing sinister there. A thoroughly useful piece of equipment. Just don’t let the plods get their hands on it. Still, it’s a pity about the marketing manager.

Daimler SP250

They must have sold SP 250s at knock-down prices. I can’t think of any other reason for the Metropolitan Police buying 26 of them. The best you could say of the gawky plastic-bodied Daimler sports car was that it had a decent V8 designed by Edward Turner. He was such a good engineer he nearly joined William Lyons at Jaguar back in 1942.
Turner’s engine was a 2½litre with a short stroke, a stiff, 5-bearing crankshaft and a single camshaft operating inclined valves in hemispherical combustion chambers. It was compact, light, made of aluminium with a cylinder head that owed something to Turner's splendid Triumph motorcycle engines.
The car, alas, was unworthy. The chassis was a lash-up, with cross-bracing and underslung half-elliptics at the back. It drooped to a crinkle-cut Daimler grille in front and swooped to tail fins at the back. Daimler was strapped for cash and while a new model was desperately needed, had no money to make a decent job of it. The SP250 was swift enough in 1959 but the body was poorly finished, the plastic creaked and rattled, doors tended to fly open as it flexed, and although later versions were better buyers did not much like acting as development engineers for what was quite an expensive car.
Jaguar bought Daimler in 1960 for £3.24million and even though the SP250 was no competitor for the E-type, it was not the sort of car Lyons wanted to make. The engine survived in a saloon, based on a Mark 2 Jaguar, continuing until October 1969.
An SP250 is coming up for sale by Historics at Brooklands on Saturday October 22nd. Call 0800 988 3838, e-mail: auctions@historics.co.uk, or see the website, www.historics.co.uk. Historics promotes it as a, “police chase car with all the bells and whistles,” bought to curb the enthusiasm of what the Daily Mirror (who else?) called, ‘road hogs and ton-up hooligans’.
This one was delivered on 1st November 1962. “Recognising that its normal patrol cars were no match for speeders and getaway cars of the day, police drivers relished the performance of their new, foot-down acquisition.” Well, one wonders. Why did the Met not buy Austin-Healey 3000s at £1326. The Daimler was £1423. An E-type was only just over £2,000. An MGA Twin Cam was £1283; not much slower than the Daimler and much nimbler.
Scotland Yard took delivery of what Historics calls, “a powerful law enforcement weapon of its own, 670 ELL, a sleek, jet black, right-hand drive, 130mph soft-top Daimler SP250.” A bit optimistic there, The Motor could only get it to do 123.7 with the hardtop on to improve the aerodynamics.
After retiring from the police in 1967, 670 ELL was an official course car for 13 years at the Goodwood Revival in the hands of the present owner, who had it for 32 years. It has had a continuous programme of restoration, maintenance and improvement and is still remarkably original, says Historics, with a re-trim and excellent paintwork. Police equipment includes the chromed Winkworth police bell.
They expect lively bidding up to £30,000 - £35,000.
But not from me. Had I been a police driver this is the view I would have preferred.


When Jaguar acquired Daimler in June 1960 it made cars, military vehicles and buses. There was a a 23-acre factory and 1700 employees at Radford Coventry, which was given over to the group’s other manufacturing while Browns Lane assembled Jaguars. The firm also acquired Lanchester and Daimler’s coach building affiliates Barker and Hooper, so in 1961 what came to be called the Jaguar Group included Guy Motors of Wolverhampton with 20 acres of production and 825 employees. Makers of trucks, tractor units and buses, Guy was bought from liquidators for £800,000. Daimler’s truck business was transferred and on 7 March 1963 Jaguar took over Coventry-Climax Engines with 428,572 new voting shares, reducing Lyons’ personal shareholding. In 1962 Jaguar received the Royal Warrant of Appointment as Motor Car Manufacturer. More expansion followed in 1965 with the purchase of Henry Meadows, engine maker since 1919, from Quinton Hazell. The £212,500 deal included 90 acres of adjacent factory space. In April 1964 Jaguar embarked on a 50/50 joint venture with Cummins, the American engine manufacturer, but due to insoluble technical problems sold its share back in 1967. Co-operation with BMW was rejected once Lyons realised that the Quandt family held 14 per cent of rival Mercedes-Benz. A takeover of Italian sports car maker Maserati was declined.

Historics at Brooklands Press Office
Contact: Chris Hodges
Tel: 01491 411777
Mobile: 07812 051886
E-mail: chris.hodges@mph.co.uk
For the full consigned list of vehicles, visit
http://www.historics.co.uk/buying/online-catalogue.aspx.

Jaguar E-type FSN1

You can’t go to the Goodwood Revival without meeting cars you knew. Last year it was the Cooper-MG, this year it was FSN1, Jackie Stewart’s first E-type. I drove it a lot in 1961-1962 when it was Stewart’s of Dumbuck demonstrator. It was also the car that convinced the world Jackie had an extraordinary talent.
The white sidewalls were put on for a concours d'elegance at Turnberry. In a book we co-wrote following his first world championship: “Early in 1962 came the decision that was to settle the 1969 world drivers’ championship. He took the Jaguar (FSN1) the Aston Martin (DB4GT) and the Marcos (the Mark 1) to Oulton Park for a private test day. It was all a little bit of a lark, although the undertones were serious. Jackie drove from Scotland with three friends, a local golf champion Jimmy Pirie, Glasgow motor trade executive and raconteur Gordon Hunter and Scotland’s newest motoring journalist.” This was me. The car was a large Mark IX the Stewarts had for sale at the time.

FSN 1 became SSN 300 when it was bought by the late Eric Liddell. Jackie had decided that if he could reach competitive lap times he would take racing seriously. He had been strictly amateur, unlike his brother Jim already with a proven track record and works drives with Jaguar and Aston Martin. Jim drove the cars first to establish lap times. “Jackie lapped the track, which was still dirty from winter, at an impressive speed. With the E-type, which had been only modestly tuned, he put up times as fast as a world class driver had done the previous autumn in a full race tuned lightweight E-type.” Gordon, Jimmy and I held the stop-watches.

Can it be 50 years? Well, with hindsight, the E-type might have been more than modestly tuned. Lofty England had a policy of ensuring any Jaguars raced competitively were well prepared. “His rationale was that cars with works backing were expected to do well, so he carefully maintained a sub rosa affiliation with private teams and drivers. Goldie Gardner’s 1948 record car with its experimental 4-cylinder engine, Tommy Wisdom’s XK120 and William Lyons’s son-in-law Ian Appleyard’s XK 120 were prepared either by the factory or under its tutelage. While the practice was not wholly secret, it was not made public either. Recipients of advice or practical assistance understood the system. They could acknowledge Jaguar’s polite interest, but they had better not brag about how substantial it was or it would be quickly and quietly withdrawn.”* Still, Jackie matched Graham Hill’s times round Oulton in 1961, although Hill’s “full race tuned lightweight” was nothing like as fast as the later series of lightweight E-types.

Sir Jackie, Goodwood 2011, getting ready to drive Fangio's Maserati 250F The family photographed number one grandson – going to Goodwood was his Third Birthday treat - beside the 50 year old E-type. What a great day. Best test of the ambience was the family verdict. They want to come again next year. With half of them girls less than passionate about old racing cars it was proof of how they enjoyed old cars, people dressing up, turning the clock back and a dozen Spitfires flying past. Come 2012 they’ll be back.

* from: JAGUAR, latest ebook from Dove Publishing, now on itunes, Amazon, Waterstones and many others.

Pelle Petterson and Volvo P1800

At last - recognition for Pelle Petterson. Designer of the Volvo P1800, immortalised by Simon Templar, played by Roger Moore in “The Saint”, Petterson was expunged from Volvo history by president Gunnar Engellau in the 1950s. Now Petterson is exposed as author of the sleek coupe at the Footman James Classic Motor Show at the NEC on November 11-13.
Volvo tried to make a sports car in the 1950s, an open 2-seater built from 1955 to 1957 but only 67 were made. "Not a bad car, but a bad Volvo" according to Engellau. However, he acknowledged the importance of a prestige model to boost sales of saloons and set about a replacement. He didn’t believe Swedish designers could match the flair and style of Italian Carrozzeria. It was trendy to hire Michelotti or Pininfarina or Vignale and Engellau was determined to be up to the minute.
Volvo consultant Helmer Petterson had meanwhile installed his son Pelle at Pietro Frua’s celebrated coachbuilding firm in Italy. Pelle had gained a degree in industrial design from the Pratt Institute in New York, so when four specially commissioned Frua proposals went to Volvo’s board in 1957, Petterson secretly added a fifth, by young Pelle.
Everybody agreed it a winner.
Engellau specially liked it. He had wanted an Italian design, but when he discovered it was really the creation of a 25 year old from Göteborg he was furious. He felt cheated and determined that Pelle would never be recognised as the designer. His name was erased and only readmitted by Volvo in 2009. Engallau died in 1988. Pelle Petterson should have received credit at the time for the distinctive rather high-waisted 2-door coupe sports coupe with the engine, transmission and suspension of the 122 saloon. It could have been the making of a career in car design but instead Petterson made his mark as a boat designer and won Olympic medals in yacht racing.

Three prototypes were built by Frua in Turin in 1957-1958, on the underpinnings of the Amazon saloon, and were used as templates for producing press tools, in a range of tests, at shows, for press work and advertising photo-shoots. All three survive.
Volvo did not have the capacity to make the P1800, even on a small scale. Helmer Petterson tried to get Karmann in Germany to make it but VW forbade it. Two British companies built the car: Pressed Steel made the bodies and Jensen Motors of West Bromwich painted and assembled them. Production got under way in 1960 but there were difficulties with personnel, working methods, quality, suppliers and logistics
In spring 1963 – after 6000 Jensen-built cars – Volvo transferred production to its Lundby factory but it was not until 1969 that body pressings were transferred from Pressed Steel in Scotland to Volvo’s press shop in Olofström. The move coincided with a change of name. First it was badged P1800E, later in 1963 it was known simply as the 1800S, for Sweden. The engine was fuel injected to give it a little more life and it was subsequently restyled to a configuration successfully copied by Lancia and Reliant, a sporting estate car known as the P1800ES. This did over 110mph (177kph) (a little noisily - body drumming was a problem) until withdrawn in 1974.
The production company making “The Saint” searched for an attractive sports car that would suit a gentleman of independent means and after being turned down by Jaguar approached Volvo for a P1800. Volvo obliged. And unlike now, when companies pay richly for product placements, the cars were all paid for by the TV side.
Footman Footnote: This will be the last of the Volvo P1800 50th anniversary activities and marks the end of the 2011 Volvo Cars Heritage event season. The collection of P1800s was at the TechnoClassica show in Essen in April, and in Birmingham a top attraction will be a P1800 from 1961 with an original 2.5 litre DOHC 4-cylinder Aston Martin prototype engine, fitted to the car experimentally by Aston Martin. Although the project never materialised the car survived and is owned and run by Beat Roos of Roos Engineering in Switzerland.

The Driving Test

You have to assume both drivers of this 1940s Ford Prefect agreed, in general, which way they wanted to go. Experimental, but ultimately unsuccessful driving school car.
Even veterans could learn from The Driving Test, a 100 minute DVD by Brian M Stratton. This is more than a primer to get L drivers through their test. It is that too, with advice on everything from pre-test nerves to what you should do if you encounter a bin lorry during it. It is also a revision course for experienced drivers and I strongly recommend it. Brian Stratton is an instructor who trained with the Driving Standards Agency, which sets the driving test, giving him a special insight into what examiners expect.

The driving test has certainly developed over the years, with up to a quarter of the 40 minutes or so it takes, given to “independent driving”. This furnishes candidates with a proper driving task, going from here to there by following a route. It can mean simply navigating by road signs or by a diagram on a card. Wasn’t like that in my day. You went where the officer said. It’s much more grown-up nowadays.

Yet how often one hears drivers cheerfully admit they wouldn’t pass their driving test now. Exasperating. They should get this DVD and go through the dummy specimen test with a “candidate” providing a commentary about what he is doing. Invaluable. And if anyone claims to have learnt nothing from watching, they are either being untruthful or they are dangerous. It is scarcely surprising young people fail the test more often than they did when I was 17. The standard is much higher.

Stratton’s DVD is entertaining. There is great footage of a 1935 driving test, with a 10HP Model C Ford and a V8 carefully avoiding one another. Certainly the best £10 any L-driver will spend. Go to instructor-training.co.uk or amazon.co.uk. The Driving Test, Essential Information, Brian M Stratton.

Fedden's Mistake

Roy Fedden is remembered unkindly for his disastrous foray into making cars in the 1940s. Yet the more you look into the career and inventions of Professor Dr.Ing. (honoris causa) Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) the more you see what Fedden was driving at.

It was far sighted in 1942 to begin work on a British Volkswagen. In Germany the factory was doing war work but the VW’s merits were acknowledged by a handful of individuals in Bristol, among them motoring journalist Gordon Wilkins, who had gone to the Volkswagen factory inauguration in 1938. Alec Moulton, who won fame as inventor of a key component of the Mini also worked with Fedden, chief engineer of the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

Bristol had been making four out of every ten RAF aero engines and Fedden knew this would be much reduced after the war. He had been promoted as special adviser to the Minister for Aircraft Production, the ascetic vegetarian socialist MP for Bristol Sir Stafford Cripps. With the connivance of the Ministry of Production and the Industrial Supply Division of the Board of Trade, he put a team together in 1944, working at Benton House, Cheltenham. Other motor industry firms were refused similar facilities, raising questions in the House of Commons.

Fedden faced down the critics, Rolls-Royce and Jowett among them, and carried on. Materials were sanctioned for six prototypes, although only one was built, and once Germany was defeated Fedden went on a commission inspecting what was left. The Allies confiscated patents and intellectual property, so he came back from Wolfsburg with a Type 60 rolling chassis. Established UK manufacturers rejected it but the war-time team had already been at work on a rear-engined Beetle-shaped six-seater, and wanted to know how its creation compared with Dr Porsche’s.

They knew that in 1930 the twelfth assignment of the newly created Porsche design office at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen was a people's car. The specification of the Porsche Type 12, dated September 1931, called for a car with a backbone frame, all independent suspension and a three cylinder radial engine at the rear. Gordon Wilkins drew up the prototype’s shape, produced glossy brochures of the F-car, as it came to be known, with a flat floor, all independent suspension and a three cylinder radial engine at the rear.

Bristol specialised in radial engines with sleeve valves, so hanging over the back of the F-car was an aluminium 1495cc air-cooled 1100cc, each cylinder at120 deg to one another. All had three exhaust and two inlet ports, with sleeves operated by half-speed cranks off the vertical crankshaft. It produced 72bhp (53.7kW) at 5000rpm and a respectable 85lbft (114Nm) at 2500rpm.

The appointment of Cripps as President of the Board of Trade in the Attlee government might have helped Fedden make progress, although the Patents Office’s FC Whitteridge thought the design “undeveloped”. Another of the Ministry of Production’s scientific advisers, Sir William Stanier, thought Witteridge’s objections could be met, although as the designer of LMS Coronation, or Duchess class locomotives Stanier’s engineering was in an altogether different league. The Ministry avoided showing it to anybody in the motor industry on the grounds that they might not prove objective, and might even make trouble. It never seems to have occurred to official minds that they might also have pointed out difficulties.

By 1945 these were apparent. Whitteridge had been right. The handling was problematical, stability even in a straight line uncertain, there was bad vibration from the tall 3-cylinder engine, which was noisy and overheated. The swing axles tucked up in a way which later became familiar with turning-over cars like the Renault Dauphine.

VW spent six years developing the Volkswagen Beetle. The handling was never quite right and nobody seriously developed another rear-engined mass-market car in the second half of the 20th century. The radial engine was soon discarded. The VW had an air-cooled flat-4 that at least kept the weight low down. The F-car was heavy and sluggish but it was the handling that did for it in the end. Test driver Alec Caine was badly injured when, inevitably, the prototype overturned and by 1947 the project was dead and the company went into liquidation. Yet given six years’ gestation a British VW might have made it. Bristol pirated a BMW design and went into luxury car making instead.

Sir Albert Hubert Roy Fedden MBE, HonDSc, MIMechE, MIAE, MSAE, HonFRAeS, born 1885, died in 1973.

Acknowledgment: Fedden – the life of Sir Roy Fedden, by Bill Gunston OBE FRAeS; Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust 1998

VW shook off its handling troubles. Scirocco at St Andrews Bay last year.