For Sale: A Road-Legal Alvis Stormer High Velocity Missile Tank

This is an Alvis Stormer HVM (High Velocity Missile), it was developed as a short-range surface-to-air missile system to neutralize the threat of attack helicopters and low-flying enemy aircraft.

The example you see here is road-legal in the UK and it’s currently being offered for public sale, however as you can probably understand the Starstreak missile system has been decommissioned for everyone’s safety.

Fast Facts – The Alvis Stormer HVM

• The Alvis Stormer HVM was developed on the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance platform to provide a mobile Starstreak and Lightweight Multirole Missile system battery to the British armed forces.
• Each HVM is equipped with 8 ready-to-fire Starstreak missiles and up to 12 reload missiles inside the hull.
• The Starstreak missile have a two-stage solid propellant rocket engine and they’re capable of speeds up to Mach 4.0. Each Starstreak contains three high-density darts with impact fuses and explosive warheads.
• The British Ministry of Defense has dozens of HVMs still in service, and rumors abound that they’re also being supplied to Ukraine.

Starstreak MANPADS

The Starstreak, or Starstreak HVM (High Velocity Missile), is a man-portable air-defence system (MANPADS) manufactured by Thales Air Defence in Northern Ireland.

The HVM can carry up to eight Starstreak missiles in ready-to-fire configuration, and an additional 12 in the hull.

The missiles can be carried by troops and shoulder launched, once airborne the missiles can accelerate to Mach 4, making them the fastest short-range surface-to-air missile in the world.

Once closer to its target the Starstreak launches three laser beam-riding warheads, tripling the chance of a successful impact.

Although the shoulder-fired  Starstreak is most common there are other variants, including ATASK (Air To Air Starstreak), they can be fired from a vehicle-mounted Lightweight Multiple Launcher (LML), the boat-mounted Seastreak, and the self-propelled Alvis Stormer HVM.

The Alvis Stormer HVM

The Alvis Stormer HVM is essentially a specialized version of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), CVR(T), which was designed in the late 1960s, and entered service in 1970.

The top speed of 50 mph may not seem impressive, but as a tracked vehicle weighing over eight tons, it’s probably better to keep things a little slower.

The vehicle platform has been significantly updated over that timeframe of course, and a vast array of variants have been developed.

One of the more modern variants is the Alvis Stormer HVM, a mobile missile battery designed to carry up to 20 Starstreak missiles, with 8 ready-to-fire and up to 12 more stored in the hull.

The HVM is manned by three crew, the operational range is 400 miles, the maximum speed is 50 mph, and power is provided by a turbocharged Perkins 6.0 liter 6 cylinder diesel engine producing 250 hp.

The British Ministry of Defense is said to be currently reducing the number of HVMs in service, which means some are being offered for sale into civilian hands.

The missile systems on this Alvis Stormer HVM have been deactivated for obvious reasons, it remains fully functional otherwise, and it’s road-legal.

The 1993 Alvis Stormer HVM Shown Here

The vehicle you see here is an ex-British Army Alvis Stormer HVM that was first road registered in 2012, and it’s now in private ownership in the UK.

Understandably the Starstreak and Lightweight Multirole Missile systems have been deactivated, however the rest of the vehicle remains in working condition, and it’s road-legal.

It’s now being offered for public sale on Collecting Cars, bidding is open and it’s currently located in Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual vehicle or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post For Sale: A Road-Legal Alvis Stormer High Velocity Missile Tank appeared first on Silodrome.

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There’s A Rover Vitesse SD1 TWR Group A Spec Touring Car For Sale

This 1984 Rover Vitesse SD1 TWR Group A specification touring car was painstakingly rebuilt, at a six figure cost, to resurrect the mighty TWR/010 SD1 which was destroyed in an accident at a famously wet Silverstone Tourist Trophy race in 1984.

So exacting was the build that this car is now FIA certified to compete in vintage competition, including prestigious events like the Goodwood Revival, the Motor Racing Legends’ Historic Touring Car Challenge Series, the Peter Auto Heritage Touring Cup, and numerous other races.

Fast Facts – Rover Vitesse SD1 TWR Group A

• The Rover SD1 was one of the most important cars released by the British Leyland family of companies in the 1970s. It was intended to be a mass-produced sedan targeting the middle class in Britain, Europe, and in the United States.
• The styling clearly took some influence from the Ferrari Daytona, however it possibly took even more from the Pininfarina designed BMC 1800 concept car.
• A number of engine options were made available over the production run, the most desirable being the Rover V8 which offered proper performance ability by the standards of the era, with up to 190 bhp in the high-end “Vitesse” variant.
• The car you see here was rebuilt from a bare shell using many original TWR parts to resurrect the TWR/010 SD1 that was crashed beyond repair at the 1984 Silverstone Tourist Trophy race.

The Rover SD1

Development of the Rover SD1 began in 1971, it was a brand new, blank slate design to replace both the Rover P6 and the Triumph 2000 series sedans.

The car is powered by a period-correct TWR-prepared 3.5 liter single-plenum Rover V8 producing approximately 300 bhp.

The 1970s were a dark time for the formerly dominant British automotive industry, many of the storied old marques had disappeared into insolvency and many of those that remained had been bailed out and rolled into British Leyland.

Two such marques were Rover and Triumph, at this time Triumph were producing both cars and motorcycles, and the decision was made to consolidate their sedan offerings to save costs. Rover and Triumph were paired up within the new Specialist Division at British Leyland, and as a result the new sedan project would be named “SD1” – for Specialist Division #1.

Both Rover and Triumph engineers submitted their own design proposals, Rover won and their design would become the SD1. It’s been widely noted that the vehicle bares more than a passing resemblance to the Ferrari Daytona, though it was also heavily influenced by the BMC 1800 concept car that had been designed by the team at Pininfarina.

Spen King oversaw the project, with David Bache in charge of styling and Gordon Bashford in charge of engineering.

The design was done specifically to keep costs down, so the SD1 was given a straightforward steel unibody, a live axle rear end, MacPherson struts up front, and a range of pre-existing engines and transmissions were used.

Above Video: This film features racing driver Sam Hancock driving an SD1 touring car at speed, and discussing the history of the model.

Rover updated the SD1 continuously over its 10+ year production run, the cars were built from 1976 to 1986, with the largest revision coming as the Series 2 update in 1982.

Today the surviving Rover SD1s are seen as modern classics by many, particularly the high-end Vitesse and Vanden Plas variants with the Rover V8.

Touring Car Success – Racing The SD1

One area where the SD1 enjoyed significant success was in the world of motorsport. Thanks to the highly-tunable Rover V8 and the solid fundamentals of the car, it proved well-suited to touring car racing.

Perhaps the most significant success for the SD1 was when Kurt Thiim drove one to win the 1986 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft against the best touring cars Germany had to offer. It occurred in the final year of production for the SD1, too late to help sales in any significant way, but it’s a feather in the cap for the car nonetheless.

This car is FIA-certified and it carries current FIA HTP papers, meaning it can be raced in a wide variety of European series.

Elsewhere in Europe various racing variants of the SD1 won the 1983 RAC Tourist Trophy, the 1984 British Saloon Car Championship, six rounds of the 1985 European Touring Car Championship, and five rounds of the 1986 FIA Touring Car Championship.

In Australia the SD1 had proven popular with consumers, it was also raced in the country with great success including a class win in the 1984 Bathurst 1000.

The Rover SD1 is now a popular car for use in vintage touring car competition, and they’re a reasonably common sight at events across Britain and further afield.

The Rover Vitesse SD1 TWR Group A Shown Here

The car you see here was carefully built from a bare Rover SD1 shell using many original, and difficult to source parts from TWR. It’s estimated that a similar project now would cost at least £200,000, though many parts are now unavailable.

Though many have compared the styling to the Ferrari Daytona, the SD1 is most certainly its own unique creation, particularly when powered by the Rover V8.

Careful attention was paid to details, to ensure that this car would be the true spiritual successor of the original, which (as mentioned above) was wrecked due to heavy rain at the 1984 Silverstone Tourist Trophy race.

The car is powered by a TWR-prepared 3.5 liter single-plenum Rover V8 producing approximately 300 bhp, with power sent to the rear wheels via a five-speed Getrag manual transmission.

It is FIA-certified and it carries current FIA HTP papers, meaning it can be used to race in any number of well-known vintage racing series.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post There’s A Rover Vitesse SD1 TWR Group A Spec Touring Car For Sale appeared first on Silodrome.

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Adventure Bike Perfection: A BMW R100GS By Blunk’s Garage

This BMW R100GS benefits from a slew of major upgrades including all new front and rear suspension and brakes, but it keeps the mechanical and electrical simplicity of the original – making it ideal for use in countries were they fix engines with hammers rather than laptops.

The R100GS was released in 1987 as the replacement for the iconic Paris Dakar Rally winning BMW R80G/S, the motorcycle that founded the adventure bike genre – now the fastest growing market segment in the motorcycle world.

Fast Facts – The BMW R100GS

• When it was released in 1987 the BMW R100GS had big shoes to fill, it was the replacement for the wildly popular R80G/S – arguably the most important motorcycle ever made by BMW.
• Whereas the R80G/S was designed as a 50/50 dual sport motorcycle the R100GS was designed as an off-road capable tourer that would likely spend most of its life on the asphalt.
• BMW kept the R100GS in production from 1987 to 1996, in many respects it would be the origin of all the GS bikes that would follow, and today they’re popular adventure bikes with people who don’t want complex modern engines and electrical systems.
• The R100GS you see here has been modified by Judd Blunk of Blunk’s Garage. He’s added more modern front and rear suspension, improved front and rear brakes, and he’s made a slew of changes to further improve the bike’s off-road ability.

The BMW R80G/S – The Primordial Adventure Bike

BMW started racing modified versions of their boxer twins off-road since at least 1970 when Helmut Scheer entered the grueling International Six Days Trial in Scotland on his modified BMW R75/5.

This is the third such build completed by Judd Blunk, it turns the R100GS into a more capable off-road tourer with improved suspension and braking.

Scheer surprised many by winning silver medal in the event, no mean feat, and just a year later Herbert Schek won a gold in the same event – repeating his success with another gold medal in 1973.

Though no one knew it at the time, these successes had set the stage for a new kind of motorcycle that would revolutionize the world of dual sport motorcycles forever – the adventure bike.

The first running of the Paris Dakar Rally took place in 1979, it was a brutal international event that departed from Paris and traversed Southern Europe before crossing the Mediterranean and entering the wilds of North Africa.

Once in Africa the race crossed the Sahara, finally terminating thousands of miles later in Dakar on the west coast of the continent, the capital city of Senegal.

The 1979 and 1980 runnings of the Paris Dakar Rally were won by the Yamaha XT500. A motorcycle that was essentially a big single-cylinder trail bike. In 1981 things changed with the arrival of a new motorcycle called the BMW R80G/S, it was a larger 800cc boxer twin and it surprised many by winning the rally.

The R100GS is powered by the famously reliable BMW boxer twin, sometimes called the “Airhead” as both the cylinders and heads are out in the clear airflow.

the BMW R80G/S would win again in 1983, 1984, and 1985. By this time other manufacturers had developed their own large-capacity adventure bikes, future Paris Dakar Rallies would be won by the likes of the Honda Africa Twin, Cagiva Elefant, and Yamaha Téneré – the age of the adventure bike had begun.

The BMW R100GS – Big Shoes To Fill

As the 1980s had progressed BMW market research was showing that people were using their adventure bikes approximately 98% on road, and 2% off-road. With this in mind they developed their new model to more road-oriented while still being more than capable off the asphalt.

The BMW R100GS was slightly larger than the R80G/S, with a larger 980cc boxer twin, and a new Paralever rear end to replace the earlier Monolever design that had been criticized for jacking up under heavy acceleration.

The R100GS was essentially more inline with what we consider to be a modern adventure bike and it proved to be a huge success for BMW – they sold over 34,000 of them between 1987 and 1996.

For off-road riding the bike is now fitted with Acerbis brush guards and an Acerbis front mud guard, and it has a much brighter Cyclops rally headlight.

With the prices of good examples of the R80G/S now reaching stratospheric heights, the R100GS is becoming more popular with modern adventure bike riders who are seeking some old school charm and a little more simplicity – the model has no traction control, no ride modes, no ABS, and most certainly no ride-by-wire throttle.

What the R100GS does have is 8 inches of ground clearance, 8.8 inches of front suspension travel, 7.1 inches of rear suspension travel, and an unstoppable air-cooled boxer twin engine mated to a highway-friendly 5-speed transmission.

The BMW R100GS By Blunk’s Garage

The BMW R100GS you see here benefits from a comprehensive rebuild by Judd Blunk of Blunk’s Garage, based in Marin County just north of San Francisco in California.

Judd retired a few years ago after spending almost 30 years working for Porsche Cars North America. He’s now become a highly-respected custom motorcycle builder, and a specialist when it comes to making older BMW adventure bikes even better than they were originally.

Motorcycle suspension technology has come a long way in the almost 40 years that have passed since the R100GS was introduced. As a result one of the first changes Judd makes to the bikes he’s rebuilding is to change the front and rear suspension out completely.

The rear end was sourced from a 1995 BMW R1100GS and it’s been paired with a fully adjustable monoshock. This gives the bike more modern suspension geometry and a rear disc brake in place of the original drum.

The bike you see here is now fitted with a leading-axle open-chamber inverted WP 48/60 fork with approximately 9″ of travel, it’s fitted courtesy of a pair of custom CNC triple clamps.

The rear end has been completely transplanted with the Paralever from a 1995 BMW R1100GS with a fully adjustable monoshock – this has the added benefit of switching the original rear drum for a rear hydraulic disc.

Judd made a new aluminum rear subframe from 6061 schedule 40 pipe, and added extra attachment points to reinforce the tension members so you can carry plenty of gear when needed. He then modified an old original GS adventure fuel tank to fit, added a set of ProTaper adventure high bars, and a Cyclops rally headlight.

The engine now benefits from a top end rebuild with headwork by Engine Dynamics in Petaluma, and the electrics have been further simplified with the help of a Moto Gadget M unit.

This is the third R100GS in this style that Judd has built, the completed machine weighs in at less than 400 lbs, making it at least 56 lbs lighter than the bike it started out as.

If you like the look of it then I have good news, at the time of writing it’s being auctioned live on Bring A Trailer, and it has just 433 miles on the odometer since it was completed. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

If you’d like to stay up to date with Judd’s new builds you can follow him on Instagram here.

Images courtesy of Judd Blunk

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