Archive for March, 2024

Australian Racing Random 14…

Posted: March 30, 2024 in Features
Tags: , , , , ,
6
(unattributed)

Bruce McLaren tips his Cooper T70 Climax into Shell corner at Sandown during the 1964 Tasman Cup round – the Australian Grand Prix – DNF engine in the race won by Jack Brabham. See here: https://primotipo.com/2020/04/20/mclaren-cooper-t70-sandown/

The ‘first McLarens’ – two Cooper T70s – built by Bruce McLaren and Wally Willmott at Coopers in late 1963 have been very much in the news, and star of the historic show at the 2024 Australian Grand Prix carnival given it’s 60 years since Bruce McLaren won the very first Tasman Cup driving the two T70s that summer. Bruce won three of the eight rounds – NZ GP at Pukekohe, Lady Wigram Trophy and Teretonga International – in this car #T70 FL-2-64, so too did Jack Brabham (Brabham BT7A Climax), but Bruce had the better haul of points.

Sadly, Tim Mayer crashed the car Bruce is driving above, to his death at Longford three weeks after Sandown. The surviving car (#FL-1-64) is owned by Adam Berryman, proudly showing off a car which has been in the family since 1974 at Government House, Melbourne on March 21. See here for more about the T70: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/18/tim-mayer-what-might-have-been/

(M Bisset)
(M Bisset)
(Eisert Family)

Aussie Ace, Bob Muir alongside the ex-Gary Campbell/Jones-Eisert Lola T330 Chev HU14 during the 1973 US L&M F5000 Championship round at Laguna Seca. Jerry Eisert is alongside Muir, John Wright is attending to the right-front, with Peter Molloy in the white top to the left.

(Eisert Family)

Early days below in a Rennmax Mk1 Formula Vee at Warwick Farm in 1966, see more about Bob here: https://primotipo.com/2023/02/13/bob-muir-r-i-p/

(B Williamson Collection)
(unattributed)

Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 during the 1955 Moomba TT meeting held at Albert Park on March 26-27. I’m not so sure its the prosperous motor dealer owner at the wheel.

Hunt had a great weekend with his new car – a 2.5-litre Maserati 250F engined A6GCM – winning the Argus Cup 50-miler and one heat of the Argus Trophy 50-mile feature. He led the final until the red car’s crown wheel and pinion failed, giving Doug Whiteford’s well driven old Talbot-Lago T26C a lucky win.

Hunt turned the local scene on its head with this car, it was the most recent Grand Prix car imported to Australia for many a long year. All of his motor dealer rivals had to reach way-deep into their pockets to keep up with the Brighton Road dealer. See here for more on this car: https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/

Holden 48-215 at Albert Park was about the extent of the State Library of Victoria caption, before 1970 Australian Rally Champion, Bob Watson came to the rescue.

“It’s a BP Rally of the 1950s, possibly Lex Davison driving. A sub-event in Albert Park at the end of the rally, later events finished at Chadstone Shopping Centre on Mother’s day in front of huge crowds.” See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/12/06/general-motors-holden-formative/

(SLNSW-R Donaldson)

Ross Jensen on the way to victory of the 1959 Bathurst 100 held over the Easter long-weekend, Maserati 250F, #2509/2504. He is negotiating Hell Corner before heading up Mountain Straight.

It was a terrific win by the visiting Kiwi, all of our Top-Guns were there but Ross beat the lot: Stan Jones, Arnold Glass, Len Lukey, Alec Mildren, Doug Whiteford and others. He was as sharp-as-a-tack having raced for the works-Lister Jaguar team in Europe in 1958 upon the recommendation of Archie Scott Brown who had raced his works-lister in New Zealand in the Summer of ’58 and was impressed by what he saw.

That’s Len Lukey congratulating him below, #5 is Len’s Cooper T45 Climax 2-litre, the 250F on the far side is Glass’s. Love the proboscis…

(SLNSW-R Donaldson)
(Auto Action)

Colin Bond, Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 during the 1975 Phillip Island 500k enduro, a round of the Australian Manufacturers Championship.

It’s hard to believe its nearly a half-century since this crowd pleasing 5-litre/308 V8 engined beastie wrought havoc in Australian Touring Car racing, see here: https://primotipo.com/2024/03/05/holden-torana-sl-r-5000-l34/

(CD Pratt-SLV)

1948 Australian Grand Prix winner, Frank Pratt, and passenger Alick Smith at Phillip Island, date unknown. Pratt, a Geelong motor cycle dealer and racer, had famously barely done any car racing when he won that Point Cook, RAAF Airbase, AGP (photo below). See here: https://primotipo.com/2021/09/27/werrangourt-archive-10-george-martins-bmw-328/

Held in searing summer heat, his BMW 328 hung on while the more fancied runners, both drivers and cars, wilted in the heat, see here: https://primotipo.com/2016/09/18/who-what-where-and-when-3/

(SLV)

Missed by that much…

Alain Prost during the West End Jubilee South Australian Open Pro-am golf tournament held at Kooyonga during the 1986 Australian Grand Prix week in Adelaide.

He looks pretty relaxed, and the weekend worked out mighty fine too.

Poor old Nigel had his 180mph Williams FW11 Honda 1.5 V6 tyre blowout, so his teammate Piquet was brought in for a precautionary tyre change and Alain’s McLaren MP4/2C TAG-Porsche 1.5 V6 won the race…and the title(s) in a thriller-diller of a race: Drivers and Constructors.

Glen Dix flags an ecstatic Alain Prost home in the 1986 AGP. His McLaren wasn’t as fast as the FW11 Williams that year but he chipped away with a mix of speed and consistency: the Fab-Four in ‘86 were Mansell, Piquet, Senna…and Prost
(SLV)

Jack Brabham contests a race at the short lived Altona circuit, to Melbourne’s west in March 1954, Cooper T23 Bristol. See here for details on the circuit and Jack’s visit there: https://primotipo.com/2016/06/24/jacks-altona-grand-prix-and-cooper-t23-bristol/

(Bob Atkin)

Sportscar grid at Warwick Farm circa 1967. Frank Matich, Matich SR3 Oldsmobile, Bob Jane, Elfin 400 Repco, Glyn Scott’s Lotus 23B Ford and Bill Brown – perhaps – in the Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM. More on Matich’s Ferrari muncher here: https://primotipo.com/2023/04/02/matich-sr3/

Nigel Mansell blasts away from a pitstop on the Surfers Paradise road circuit during the March 21, 1993 Australian Indycar Grand Prix, Lola T93/00 Ford Cosworth XB V8.

In a portent of things to come that year, series debutant Mansell won the opening round of the ’93 CART Championship. He won five of the 16 rounds, and the championship with 191 points, fellow ex-F1 World Champ, Emerson Fittipaldi was second on 183, Penske PC22 Chev.

(C Denby)

Not so much thought of as a racing car in Australia, Leyland’s P76 4.4-litre V8 got a run in New Zealand’s annual B &H 1000 enduro, in this case the 1975 event at Pukekohe.

This one was raced by the very experienced and successful David Oxton and Garry Pederson who finished fourth, the winning car was another Australian car, a Valiant Charger – usually dominant in this race – driven by Wayne Wilkinson and Bryan Innes.

Chris Denby, in an amusing Facebook post relates the story of the exhaust problem which befell the similar car raced by Dauntsey Teagle and Jim Murdoch. “Over a few laps its impressive engine became ‘uncorked’, which injected some great V8 sound into its otherwise fairly subdued race noise.”

“Suddenly it sounded more lie a stock-car than a production saloon – very impressive in the stand. The stewards were quick to act, within minutes a message came over the Tannoy asking if any spectator had a P76 V8 in the carpark would he allow his car to be relieved of its exhaust system to help a race team on the track (they faced exclusion otherwise).”

“That approach didn’t work. A later Tannoy message said, ‘If a spectator with a Leyland P76 notices a much louder than normal exhaust note upon leaving the track, don’t worry, the race mechanics will fix it before you depart…”

(MotorSport)

Vern Schuppan contesting the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in March 1973, BRM P160D.

The Victorian Governor’s Australian GP party is a wonderful event on the Thursday before the race, here is Jenny and Vern Schuppan on March 21, 2024.

Vern has just turned 81 and is a sharp as a tack. The couple live in a penthouse apartment in the Adelaide Markets – on the AGP course – and split their time between there, visiting their son and family in Melbourne, their daughter in Cambridge, and another home in Portugal.

(M Bisset)
(SLNSW)

Fred Withers at Penrith aboard the Marcus Clark & Company owned Cleveland Six racer, circa 1925.

It’s hard to believe that department stores once sold cars, but there-ya-go! This company was founded by Marcus Clark in Newtown, Sydney in 1883 and by the early 1900s was a colossus operating from buildings like this on the corner of Pitt and George Streets, Railway Square, Sydney.

(Hall & Co)
(Nambour Chronicle January 22, 1926)

Withers raced the Cleveland Six at Penrith and Maroubra Speedways in New South Wales/Sydney and at Aspendale, outside Melbourne in the 1920s. He was also a record-breaker of some repute using Cleveland and Essex products.

He was famous at the time for some crazy jumps performed with his Essex to gain column-inches in the dailies, this shot was taken in 1927.

(J Sherwood Collection)
(P Jones)

Frank Matich contesting the 1970 New Zealand Grand Prix in his much-modified McLaren M10A Chev at Pukekohe. FM had a pretty good Tasman Series, winning here at Pukekohe and at Wigram a week later. While he had the pace, he didn’t have Graeme Lawrence’s Ferrari Dino 246T reliability. Graeme prevailed by five points, 30 to 25.

(T Glenn)

A little later, from 1971-74, Frank Matich and his small team designed and built six F5000 cars: three A50s, two A51s – one A51 evolved into the short-lived A52 – and this A53, the very last of the breed.

It was a tool intended to take on the best of the F5000 world, the US L&M Championship in 1974. That plan all turned to custard when Frank was injured in a boating accident early in ’74, then Joan Matich became ill. What might have been…see here for the story: https://primotipo.com/2015/09/11/frank-matich-matich-f5000-cars-etcetera/ and here: https://primotipo.com/2019/05/06/matich-a53-repco/

Matich A53/007 in build in FM’s ‘shop in Military Road, Cremorne in late 1973 (D Kneller)

Credits…

Getty Images, State Library of Victoria, Charles Pratt-State Library of Victoria, Rennie Ellis, MotorSport Images, Chris Denby, Peter Jones, John Sherwood Collection in ‘Half a Century of Speed’ by Tony & Pedr Davis and Barry Lake, Bob Williamson Collection, Eisert Family Collection, Derek Kneller, State Library of NSW-Lynch, Tony Glenn, oldracingcars.com

Tailpiece…

(SLNSW-Lynch)

A Warwick Farm flaggie dealing with the excruciating summer heat during the 1961 Warwick Farm 100 international meeting, see here: https://primotipo.com/2018/11/16/1961-warwick-farm-100/

Finito…

Fugly Car Cup : Brabham BT34 ‘Aero’…

Posted: March 26, 2024 in F1, Fotos
Tags: , , , , , ,
7
(MotorSport)

I’m a big fan of Ron Tauranac’s Brabham BT34 Ford ‘Lobster Claw’. The one and only BT34/1 raced throughout 1971 by Graham Hill isn’t at her Elle MacPherson best sans clothes, wings front and rear specifically. Italian Grand Prix practice, Monza, September 5 weekend in 1971.

I’ve almost finished a feature on BT34, but this shot got me thinking about which car(s) were the last to test or race at Monza without wings. It was the practice in the early-winged-era – 1968-71 at least – for much of the grid to test with and without wings to assess drag/grip/top speed tradeoffs in the quest for the optimum race setup. Does anybody know who was the last to do so, small things amuse small minds I know. More on the BT34/BT37 here: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/15/carlos-bt37-butt/

Graham raced winged, Q14 and DNF gearbox in one of the best ever F1 races won magnificently by Peter Gethin’s BRM P160 by a bees-dick from Ronnie Peterson’s March 711 Ford. Their official times were 1hr 18m 12.600sec and 1:18:12.610 respectively.

(MotorSport)

Graham early in the race – his BT34 aero-kit now fitted – with John Surtees, Surtees TS9B Ford (DNF engine) and Nanni Galli’s #22 March 711 Ford (DNF electrics).

BT34’s best results were in non-championship F1 races: Hill won the May 1971 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone and Carlos Reutemann the March 1972 Brazilian GP.

By 1971 Graham was arguably past his F1-best. While Hill got the better of his team-mate, Tim Schenken – 1970 BT33 mounted – in the first half of ’71, the reverse was the case in the ‘back-nine’. It would have been interesting to see what Tim could have done with the car. Reutemann certainly showed its pace, not only did he win in Brazil but sensationally put the BT34 on pole on his championship GP debut in Argentina in late January.

Not that Graham was a spent force. He won the Thruxton Euro F2 round in a Rondel Racing Brabham BT36 Ford FVA from Ronnie Peterson’s March 712 in March 1971, and another, the GP della Lotteria di Monza on June 29, 1972 aboard a Brabham BT38 Ford BDA. Not to forget Le Mans that year of course, where Graham shared the winning Matra MS670 with Henri Pescarolo over the June 10-11 weekend. See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/09/19/matra-random/

Credits…

MotorSport Images, LAT, F2 Register

Tailpiece…

(LAT)

Hill (above) on the way to winning the 1972 Monza Lottery GP F2 race, still in search of the optimum low drag Monza setup on his Brabham BT38 Ford BDA: no front wings and a very shallow angle of incidence at the rear.

May as well finish with another question, this time for the Graham Hill experts. Was that Monza Lottery win – not a Euro F2 Championship round that year – on June 29, 1972 Graham’s final race win?

More BT34 soon. Oh yes, the Fugly Car Cup will be an occasional article.

Finito…

Maybachs 2-4 Technical Specifications by John Goode…

Posted: March 22, 2024 in F1, Features
Tags: , , , , , , ,
8
Maybach 2 on display at the Melbourne International Motor Show, Exhibition Buildings, April 1-10 1954 (D Zeunert Collection)

A while back I published an article about Maybach 1, the first in a series of three chassis – four cars – built by Charlie Dean/Repco Research and Ernie Seeliger between 1947 and 1958. Click on this link to that piece: https://primotipo.com/2024/01/15/maybach-1-technical-specifications/

As with that article, this one is also a copy of the technical specifications and evolution of these machines published in the Australian Motor Sports Annual 1958-59. The author’s name isn’t cited, so I’ve credited it to John Goode, the book’s editor.

The photo choices are mine, so too the are the Notes sections. I’m taking as-read a general knowledge of Maybach, but if you need a refresher, click on the links at the end of this piece.

(L Sims)

Introduction…

Here are three photographs to illustrate the journey from Maybach 1 in 1947 to Maybach 1 Series 3 – the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix winner in Stan Jones’ hands – to get us to the start of this article, Maybach 2, which commenced its life in April 1954.

The shot above shows Charlie Dean and the brave Jack Joyce aboard Maybach 1 at Rob Roy during the Melbourne Cup long-weekend in November 1947. What a wild road car the beast would have made, the car received its body immediately prior to the 1948 Australian Grand Prix held at Point Cook, in Melbourne’s inner-west.

(G Thomas)

The shot above shows Dean on-the-hop at Rob Roy in 1948 – Maybach 1 painted in its original white – and below coloured blue, on test at Willsmere, near Dean’s Kew home circa 1951. And then below that, the Repco advertisement shows Maybach 1 Series 3 winning the 1954 NZ GP at Ardmore.

(D Stubbs)
Compare and contrast: Maybach 1 Series 3 above, with Maybach 2 below (B Caldersmith)

MAYBACH II (April 1954-November 29, 1954)…

ENGINE: 6 cyl. in-line single oh. camshaft. Bore and stroke: 91 × 110mm. Capacity: 4,250 c.c. Output: 257 b.h.p. at 5,000 .p.m. (bench tested). Carburettors: Three 2 3/16″ S.U. Compression Ratio: 11 to 1. Fuel used: 60% Methanol, 20% Benzol, 20% Aviation Petrol Octane rating: 110. Cast iron cylinder block with wet liners.

Single casting cast iron cylinder block and crankcase, with sump joint well below the crankshaft centre line. Crankshaft machined all over and fully counter balanced, running in eight white metal lined bearings, one between each crank throw and an extra one behind the camshaft drive pinion situated at rear end of crankshaft. Wet liners fitted to cylinder bores with lightweight balanced connecting rods and other reciprocating parts.

Single camshaft running in seven white metal bearings, opening valves by means of rocker arms fitted with eccentric bushes which could be rotated and locked to adjust valve clearances. Rockers had roller cam followers. Valves inclined at 65 degrees in hemispherical head and located on opposite sides. Helical timing gears with idler (originally compounded fabric, but replaced by steel).

Wet sump lubrication through filter with pressure fed oil supplied to centre main bearings, then to other caps, and through the crankshaft to big end bearings. Also fed to valve rocker shafts and camshaft bearings.

Complete body and chassis redesign converting it into a single seater. Mk. I Series 3 Maybach motor used.

NOTES:

The wording in relation to the chassis is misleading. Maybach 1’s chassis was set aside – tired and much modified as it was – and a new single-seater chassis was designed and fabricated for Maybach 2.

The engine came from a German half-track vehicle captured during the Middle East campaign and shipped to Australia for technical study by the military.

Maybach 2 in the Southport paddock during the November 1954 Australian Grand Prix meeting, racer, Owen Bailey at far left (VSCC Collection)
Stan being pushed onto the grid. He led the race before a chassis weld broke on lap 14 of 27, pitching him down the road at high speed. Jones was miraculously ok but Maybach 2 was very dead (J Psaros)

TRANSMISSION: Gearbox: four speed using Fiat 525 case with Repco manufactured gears. Ratios: First- 7.08:1 Second-4.94:1 , Third-3.78:1, Top-3.14:1.

DRIVESHAFT: Dropped to pass beneath back axle and driving a short forward shaft into differential through two helical gears, easily accessible from rear, permitting alteration to overall ratios up or down by 3%. Differential: Resembled American Four Lock locking type constructed by Repco workshops from their own and American components. Rear Axle: Vibrac type high tensile steel.

CHASSIS: Frame: Based on two 4″ dia. 16 gauge steel tubes.

Suspension: Front – Independent with wishbones and Delco shock absorbers with low placed 3 leaf traverse spring. Rear Panhard type with reversed quarter elliptic springs and torque arms anchored to heavy cross member linking two main longitudinal tubes of the chassis. Tubular Monroe Wylie shock absorbers.

Steering: Peugeot rack and pinion.

Brakes: Paton’s Hydraulic using twin parallel master cylinders, one operating front and one the rear. Action on both integral but operation separate permitting one set in action if others fail. Front shoes, twin leading design with I6in. special helically finned drums, cooled by air scoops to forward sides. Rear shoes of leading and trailing type in 14 in. drums.

Wheels: Locally constructed wire type with Rudge Whitworth hubs. Front 18″ dia. Tyres: 5.25 × 18. Rear 16″ dia. Tyres: 7.00 x 16.

Body: Single light aluminium shell easily removable in three seclions. Fuel Capacity: 25 gallons in tail mounted aluminium tank.

Dimensions: Wheelbase 94″ • Track: Front 4 ft. 3 ins. Rear 4 ft. I ins. Weight: 16 cwt. Power/weight ratio: 7 Ibs. per b.h.p.

“Rare photograph showing the front crossmember of Maybach 2 where the chassis tube broke” (S Scholes Collection-Wheels May 1955)

NOTES:

In many ways Maybach 2 was the one that got away…

It went like a jet from the start, Jones won the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend in March 1954 on its race debut, then won again at the Easter Bathurst meeting where he took the two preliminaries before gearbox failure scuttled his run in the feature. He was victorious again at Altona in May and was second to Jack Brabham’s Cooper T23 Bristol there in June. At Fishermans Bend in October he had gearbox failure again.

Then it was off to Southport for the AGP in November where Stan simply drove away from the field until the chassis weld failure caused the massive accident that destroyed the car, and from which Jones very fortunately walked away…

This 4.2-litre 257bhp @ 5000 rpm, 725kg monoposto was one helluva fast racing car.

In the woulda-coulda-shoulda stakes were the battles we never got to see with Stan aboard Maybach 2 and Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM/250 in 1955. Hunt upped the local ante big-time when he imported a current GP car, and was immediately quick in it, his talent refined with some 500cc F3 racing aboard a Cooper MkVIII in Europe in 1954.

Reg’s Maserati gave about 240bhp @ 7200rpm and weighed between 500-580kg. Both the Maserati and Maybach 2 had four-speed ‘boxes, IFS and live-rear axles. Maybach’s weakness was its ginormous, all cast iron engine which weighed circa 320kg; let’s not forget it was designed for the German military not competition use. The 250F engine’s quoted weight is 197kg, much of the weight differences between the two cars is in engine weight.

While torque figures for Maybach 2 weren’t quoted, the long stroke 4.2-litre six would have produced more torque than its twin-cam Italian competitor but not, one suspects, enough to offset the considerable weight disadvantage.

Whatever the case, when Maybach 2 was destroyed at Southport, all of the momentum gained by building, racing, and refining the car was lost. Maybach 3 (below) didn’t appear until the April 1955 Bathurst 100 weekend when the team started the process again, by which time Reg was used to and exploiting his car successfully.

What is my point? The Repco-Maybach program effectively ended post-Southport, with only one remaining engine to instal in Maybach 3, a 3.8-litre unit at that. Stan confronting Reg in 1955 aboard Maybach 2 really would have been something to see…woulda-coulda-shoulda.

AMS Annual 1958-59
Jones in Maybach 3 during the 1956 South Pacific Championship (R Donaldson)

MAYBACH III (1955 – Jan 1956)…

ENGINE: 6 cyl. in-line inclined 60 degrees to left. Shortened stroke crankshaft (approx. 10% ). Bore and stroke: 90 × 100 mm. Capacity: 3,800 c.c. Compression Ratio: 11 to 1. Power Output: 260 b.h.p. at 5,000 r.p.m. Direct fuel injection by Dean and Irving.

TRANSMISSION: Clutch: Repco single plate. Gearbox: Four speed with top overall ratio 3.2 to 1. Drive: Open propeller shaft passing on right of driver to offset differential. Differential: limited slip (as previous model).

Charlie Dean at Rob Roy, date unknown. The competition debut of Maybach 3, was at Templestowe Hillclimb on May 8, 1955. 68.56sec where Dean was third in the over 3-litre racing car class (SLV)
(SLV)
(Davey-Milne)
Rob Roy again. Despite the fuzziness, note the the considerable reduction in engine height achieved by the 60-degree laydown of the Maybach six (Davey-Milne)

CHASSIS: Frame: Built up from two 4″ dia. steel tubes, linked by transverse tubing. Redesigned body of flatter appearance due to inclined engine.

Suspension: Front – Independent with transverse leaf spring set low. Rear Quarter elliptics with radius rods.

Dimensions: Wheelbase 95″. Track Front 4 ft. 3 ins. Rear 4 ft. 1 in. Steering: Marles box and divided track rod.

Maybach 3 in the Gnoo Blas paddock in 1956. Trumpets of Repco built fuel injection clear (B Caldersmith)
(B Caldersmith)

NOTES:

The beginning of the end. Jones (above) is an absolute bolter at the start of the January 1956 South Pacific Championship at Gnoo Blas, New South Wales.

Reg Hunt’s new Maserati 250F is way back here but will reel Stan in. Being pushed hard to hang onto the very best European F1 car of the day, the Maybach engine let go in a big way.

Jones had a 250F several months later. Stan let his good friend, ace engineer/mechanic/racer Ern Seeliger loose on Maybach, its evolution to Chev Corvette 283 V8 power and other modifications – Maybach 4 – was soon underway.

(B Caldersmith)
(AMS Annual 1959-60)
Stan Jones, Maybach 4 Chev, Australian Grand Prix, Lowood, June 1960 DNF engine (B Thomas)

MAYBACH IV March- 1958…

ENGINE: Chevrolet Corvette 8 cyl. Vee motor. 4.6 litre. Compression ratio: 9.2:1. Bore and stroke: 98.501 × 76 mm stroke. 2 four-barrel Carter Carbs. 274 b..p. at 6,000 r.p.m. 300 Ibs. torque at 3,500 r.p.m. All oilways completely modified. Bearings altered in regard to oil ways. Engine dry sumped. Modified cooling system.

GEARBOX: As previous Maybach. Drive: As previous Maybach. Differential: As previous Maybach modified with shortened axles incorporating constant velocity joints. Clutch: Seeliger designed and built multi-plate clutch.

CHASSIS: As previous Maybach but chassis lengthened lo take Di Dion rear end. New 30 gallon fuel tank fitted.

Suspension: As previous Maybach with mods. to front end by fitting an anti-roll bar incorporating brake forque rods and transverse leaf in place of quarter eliptics at rear.

Dimensions: Same as previous Maybach, but rear track widened to 4 ft. 2 ins. All up weight reduced to 14} cwt. with 4 gals. of petrol. Full oil and water.

NOTES: Ern Seeliger first ran Maybach 4 at Fishermans Bend in March 1958.

Ern Seeliger, Maybach 4 Chev, Bathurst 1958 AGP (AMHF)
(R Edgerton)

In one of The Great Australian Grands Prix, Stan Jones, Maserati 250F, Lex Davison, Ferrari 500/625 and Ted Gray, Tornado 2 Chev battled up front for most of the ‘58 race on Mount Panorama until Lex was the last-man-standing. Ern Seeliger drove a great race into second, with Tom Hawkes third in his much modified ex-Brabham Cooper T23 Repco-Holden.

Jones proved further the pace of Seeliger’s final Maybach evolution by winning a Gold Star round in it at Port Wakefield in 1959. It would have been very interesting to see what times Stan could have done in Ern’s car in practice at Bathurst over that ’58 AGP weekend!

(AMS Annual 1958-59)

Etcetera…

(VHRR Archive)

Prettiest of the lot in my opinion…Stan the Man on the way to winning the Victorian Trophy at Fishermans Bend in 1954, Maybach 2.

(B Caldersmith)
Maybach 2 in the Southport paddock over the 1954 AGP weekend (J Psaros)

Starting grid of the 1955 Australian GP (or is a heat, whatever) at Port Wakefield, South Australia. #5 Reg Hunt, Maserati A6GCM/250, Jones, Maybach 3, #8 Tom Hawkes, Cooper T23 Bristol, #6 Jack Brabham in the winning Cooper T40 Bristol and #10 Kevin Neal, Cooper T23 Bristol.

This is a good contextual shot showing Jones in Maybach 3 – Mercedes W196 styling influence clear – among current’ish European cars: Reg Hunt’s Maserati A6GCM 2.5 – the so-called interim 250F – two Cooper T23s of Tom Hawkes #8 and Kevin Neal. Plus the nose of the winner and newest car here, Jack Brabham in the mid-engined Cooper T40 Bristol he built in time for the British Grand Prix at Aintree that July.

(G McKaige)

The final evolution of the Dean/Repco Research Maybach engine development programme. ‘Short-stroke’ 3.8-litre and fuel injected delivering circa 260bhp @ 5000rpm. George McKaige took this shot of Maybach 3 at Fishermans Bend in October 1955. I wonder what that plate in the engine bay says?

(Q Miles)

Great colour photograph of Maybach 4 Chev in the Lowood paddock inJune 1959. Note how the twin-Carter-carbed Corvette 283 V8 is offset to the right allowing the driver to sit low to the left rather than high atop the driveshaft.

Credits…

Australian Motor Sports Review 1958-59, Brian Caldersmith, Brier Thomas, Jock Tsaros, Davey-Milne Family Collection, George McKaige and Chester McKaige via their superb two ‘Beyond The Lens’ books, Stan Griffiths, Dacre Stubbs, VSCC Vic Collection, J Montasell, Clem Smith, Quentin Miles, Ron Edgerton Collection

Tailpiece…

(K Drage)

Towards the end of a very long competitive Maybach road.

Stan Jones lines Maybach 4 Chev up alongside Alec Mildren’s tiny, mid-engined 2-litre Cooper T45 Climax before the start of the South Australian Trophy, Port Wakefield Gold Star round in March 1959.

Jones won the race from Len Lukey and Keith Rilstone – it was the last championship level win for Maybach in-period.

Finito…

OMG! Dan Gurney, Ferrari, Monsanto 1959…

Posted: March 20, 2024 in F1, Fotos
Tags: , , ,
2
(LAT)

The days of sublime, simply beautiful Grand Prix photographs are long gone, sadly. I friggin’ hate modern abbreviations like OMG but it does make a point, very economically.

Dan the Man is blasting his Ferrari Dino 246 around the Circuito de Monsanto, a port city in Lisbon, Portugal, during the August 23, 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix. He was third behind the Cooper T51 Climaxes raced by Stirling Moss and Masten Gregory.

(LAT)

Back then, photographs weren’t usually attributed to the artist, so sadly we cannot give the talented ‘snapper the accolade he/she/uncertain deserves: try this https://primotipo.com/2017/07/14/composition/

Of course, rather than completely wallowing in the past, the challenge is to find some modern settings which match the OMG-WOW Factor of photographs like these. This is the first in what will be an ongoing series…

Credits…

LAT Photographic

Finito…

BRM P153…

Posted: March 16, 2024 in F1
Tags: , , , , ,
4
(MotorSport Images)

Oh yeah baby!

The 1970-71 BRM P153/P160 are two of my favourite Grand Prix cars, designer Tony Southgate at his best. Jackie Oliver is using every inch of Snetterton in this first test (?) of Bourne’s new P153.

It’s chassis P153/01 on January 1, 1970. This car had rather a short life sadly, it was burned to a crisp after Oliver had front stub-axle failure on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix on April 19. Ollie ploughed into the innocent Jacky Ickx’ Ferrari 312B – 312B/01 in fact – the ensuing massive conflagration and incompetence of the marshalls ensured both cars were destroyed.

The P153/P160 were race winning cars too. Pedro Rodriguez was victorious in a P153 in the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix after an epic dice with Chris Amon’s March 701 Ford. He also won the Oulton Park Spring Cup in 1971 aboard a P160. P160 championship victories went to Jo Siffert and Peter Gethin at the Osterreichring and Monza in 1971, while Gethin also won the non-championship Brands Hatch Victory Race that October. In 1972 Jean-Pierre Beltoise took his only GP win at Monaco in soggy conditions in a P160B.

The P153 in its early traditional, pre-Yardley, BRM green with orangey-red trim looked superb! We have Southgate to thank for the new colour too. “The F1 BRMs had been painted a dark, dull, metallic green I thought looked terrible. I called it British Racing Mud…I persuaded the team to change to a more lively green and I ended up with a colour used by Vauxhall Motors, which looked great.

“Cor, this BRM really does look the goods boys!” Snetterton, January 1, 1970 (MotorSport)
(MotorSport)

After the phenomenal speed and results of the simple, light 1.5-litre P261 V8 Grand Prix car from 1963-65, BRM had been in the doldrums since 1966-67 with the phenomenal lack of speed of its complex, heavy P83 H-16.

While the 1968-69 P101 and P142 V12 powered P126/133/138/139 had shown occasional flashes of speed, to an extent Bourne had lost its way in both chassis and engine competitiveness. See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/01/25/richard-attwood-brm-p126-longford-1968/

Much respected, long-time engineering chief Tony Rudd – the architect of BRM’s late 1950s-early 1960s rise and rise – left Bourne for Hethel where he became Group Lotus’ Director of Engineering in mid-1969 and was replaced by Tony Southgate who had been drawing and building winning Eagles for Dan Gurney in California.

Tony Rudd fettles his nemesis at Monaco in May 1966, the gloriously-nuts P75 H-16 engined BRM P83.
Oliver gives his early impressions of the new car to a Dunlop technician at left, and who else? Snetterton (MotorSport)
BRM Brains Trust during the 1971 British GP weekend: Tony Southgate, technician Gerry van der Weyden and Tim Parnell with the Bastard! look on his face

When 29 year old Tony Southgate arrived at BRM in June 1969 his boss was the self-styled, polarising, ‘Lord’ Louis Stanley. The leadership team comprised Southgate, in charge of chassis design and development, Aubrey Woods of engine development with Alex Stokes as the gearbox specialist.

“My brief was to improve the existing P139 for the remainder of the 1969 season, if possible, and then to deliver an all-new car for 1970,” he wrote in his great ‘Tony Southgate : From Drawing Board to Chequered Flag’.

Southgate decided Alec Osborn’s (who departed BRM along with Peter Wright when Southgate arrived) P139 wasn’t worth spending time on as “Some of the suspension systems and mountings deflected, which produced very spooky handling…Surtees withdrew from the German Grand Prix on the Nurburgring after two of the three practice periods; he was convinced that something was going to break on the car…”

As many of you will recall, John Surtees was having something of an annus horribilis that year, driving shit-heaps on ‘both sides of the Atlantic’: the BRMs and Jim Hall’s Chaparral 2H Chev in North America.

Jack Oliver giving his P153 plenty during the 1970 South African GP weekend (MotorSport)
Kyalami pits 1970 (MotorSport)

Design and construction…

Tony Southgate wrote that “The philosophy behind the P153 design was maintaining my obsession with low CG, with the fuel concentrated in the centre of the car to achieve minimal interference with the weight distribution as the fuel level changed. Coupled with this was very good torsional stiffness between the wheel centres, and great rigidity of the suspension and its mountings.”

“Aerodynamic testing in 1969 was still basic by modern standards…The full-size race car ran in the MIRA wind tunnel, and the scale model work was done in the Campbell tunnel at Imperial College, London.”

“One of the cars interesting points of note was that it ran on 13-inch diameter wheels both front and rear, when the opposition were using 15-inch at the rear. The car ran on very fat Dunlop tyres (their last year in F1), giving it a very low, squat appearance.”

“The monocoque was unusual in that it had a very pronounced double-curvature shape, being 4 feet wide at the centre. The panels were hand rolled in-house and have a very ‘pregnant’ look to the car.”

(MotorSport)

Front suspension was period typical: magnesium uprights, upper and lower wishbones with Koni shocks and coil springs and an adjustable roll-bar.

Engine change of Rodriguez’ P153 on Sunday June 7, 1970 during the victorious Belgian Grand Prix weekend (MotorSport)

“The V12 engine, as originally designed by Geoff Johnson, was unstressed, but we modified it to make it semi-stressed. A small, neat triangular framework was added to the rear of the monocoque to take part of the load. The engine was very light for a V12. It weighed the same as a Cosworth DFV and had more or less the same maximum horsepower, approximately 427bhp, but less torque. We used 11,200rpm whereas at that time the DFV was limited to around 9300rpm.”

Doug Nye adds further detail about the 1970 engine developments of the 48-valve BRM P142 engine in his ‘History of the Grand Prix Car 1966-85’.

“In 1970, the P142s powered more adequate Southgate designed chassis and began winning races, but power was not destined to improve dramatically in the years left to BRM and its V12 engines. After Rudd had gone to Lotus, Aubrey Woods took over engine development.”

“Woods considered the chain-driven four-cam centre exhaust P142 overheated both its water and oil too easily, and suffered badly from detonation. Its relatively long stroke was a limiting factor, new pistons were required and they took along time to make. He designed new cylinder heads lowering engine CoG with outside exhausts and in’ve inlets with improved ports and enlarged cooling waterways. The crankcase was now cross-bolted and stiffened to allow use as a semi-stressed chassis member.”

“The BRMs would always retain their camshaft chain-drive as the systems last refuge in Formula 1.”

Southgate, “The (Project 131) gearbox for the P153 was the existing one carried over, but with a new outer casing and rear cover castings carrying the complete rear suspension, the rear wing and oil tank assembly. The P153 had np problem getting down to the minimum weight requirement…”

Oliver, Kyalami 1970 (MotorSport)

Racing the P153 in 1970…

“The car was immediately quick, but somewhat fragile. Our new number-one driver, Pedro Rodriguez, did a great job and became an instant star within the team. He was amazingly easy to work with, simply a natural, but not a technical driver like John Surtees.”

Frustrated with the lack of progress, and already building Surtees F5000 cars, Big John left to build and race his own F1 cars and to expand his range of customer cars. Jackie Oliver replaced him.

“I had some problems with the P153 in the beginning. A rear axle broke during Kyalami testing…then a similar problem at the front caused a famous fiery accident…” that destroyed both Oliver’s P153 and Jacky Ickx’ Ferrari 312B at Jarama, Spain.

At Monaco the ‘commercial rot had set in’, or less emotionally, commercial reality, the pristine P153 pledged allegiance to Yardley. Not entirely though, George Eaton’s was in each-way bet livery as below: green car and Yardley-gold wings (MotorSport)
Pedro leads Chris at La Source during their titanic dice at Spa in 1970. That day the mighty BRM stayed together, Rodriguez sizeable wedding-tackle did the rest (MotorSport)

“Reliability was the main problem of 1970. The engine oil system was being particularly difficult. I tried ‘trick’ oil tanks, and by the time we got to the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, the oil-tank had grown to 4.5 gallons in capacity and was fed by 1.25 inch bore Aeroquip pipes (these were hardly hoses)! Miraculously, this did the job for a while. Pedro won the race after leading most of the way, closely caused by Chris Amon’s March 701 Ford. BRM was back…”

“But engine problems still dogged BRM throughput the year, although Pedro gained a second place in the US GP at Watkins Glen and a couple of fourths in other races, and he also won the non-championship Gold Cup at Oulton Park.”

Pedro was leading at Watkins Glen until a splash-and-dash pitstop for fuel, Doug Nye wrote. Fuel consumption had slipped from about 4.8mpg to 6mpg at St Jovite, the BRMs were forced to make pitstops in both Canada and the US as a consequence.

Southgate, “My thoughts on the engine problem were simple: the main bearings were all too small, too narrow. However, this was one of the main reasons the engine was so short. There was no chance of any major design changes in this area, so we had to do with lots of detail design improvements including even better oil tank systems.”

To Southgate’s point, look at the truly massive oil tanks under the BRM’s rear wing in the Mont Tremblant, Canada pitlane below; a few RPM were lost in aero-drag in that lot! Some of the fuel consumption problem is right there…

Pedro readies himself in the Mont Tremblant-St Jovite pitlane, fourth that weekend. #15 is Oliver’s P153 (LAT)
Pedro, Mont Tremblant 1970 (MotorSport)

In 1970 BRM finished 16 times from a total of 37 starts and placed sixth in the World Constructors Championship with Rodriguez seventh in the driver’s and Oliver a disappointing twentieth after retirements in 10 of the 13 rounds!

Nye, “Southgate produced the finest 3-litre BRM in 1971: the definitive chisel-nosed P160, a cleaner, lower, lighter development of the P153, though actually incorporating few interchangeable parts.” A story for another time folks…

Big Lou extolls the virtues of the new BRM P160 and Cougar aftershave – ‘it’ll drive your mistress wild I tell you’ – place unknown, February 17, 1971

Etcetera…

(MotorSport)

A pair of compare and contrast shots: George Eaton, 1970 BRM P153 at Monaco in May 1970 above, and John Surtees, 1969 BRM P139 during the British GP meeting at Silverstone that July.

The photographer in the Surtees shot looks suspiciously like Rob Walker, he has wandered away from his car, Jo Siffert’s Lotus 49B Ford.

Note the flatter, wider aerodynamic form of the P153, partially informed by the wind tunnel, and earlier P138.

The front suspension of Southgate’s car comprises simpler outboard wishbones, the earlier car uses more complex to make, and more aerodynamic, top rocker and lower wishbone layout. Rear suspension is the same albeit the more advanced two-lower links on the P138 were replaced by Southgate with lower inverted wishbones.

The engine fitted to the P153 is 1970 spec P142 inlet between the vee and side exhaust, that to the P139 is a 1969 spec P142 centre-exhaust V12.

Louis Stanley, Jean Stanley nee-Owen, Raymond Mays, Sir Alfred Owen and Tony Rudd with a BRM P83 at Bourne, allegedly in 1969.

I say allegedly as by 1969 the H16 hadn’t been raced since late 1967, and it makes sense for the PR shot to be with the latest model, not the problem-child. The H-16’s solitary GP win was powering Jim Clark’s Lotus 43 at Watkins Glen in 1966.

In the best tradition of nepotism, Stanley’s power and position arises from his marriage to Jean Stanley, Alfred Owen’s sister.

John Surtees tells it like it is to his boss, Sir Alfred Owen at Silverstone during the July 19, 1969 British GP meeting. Owen was a great industrialist and corporate leader, respected by all who came within his orbit. The AP-Lockheed lady is all over what’s going on, the rest are doing their best to look the other way…

Surtees qualified his BRM P139 sixth, and Oliver his P133 13th, Surtees was out with a suspension problem after completing one lap and Oliver on lap 20 when his transmission failed.

By that weekend Southgate was already onboard. He discloses in his autobiography that the approach for him to join BRM was made by Surtees in the US, John being delegated the task given his regular travel between the UK and US.

Lovely portrait of Tony Southgate (born May 25, 1940) at Silverstone during the July 1971 British GP weekend.

The funniest part of Southgate’s BRM chapters involves his first month at Bourne and running-the-gauntlet from the ageing (August 1, 1899-January 6, 1980) but still very frisky ‘Gay Ray’ Mays!

By that stage – the English Racing Automobiles and British Racing Motors founder – “RM had no particular job at BRM but he was still very much on the scene as a sort of ambassador.” As a handsome young bloke, Southgate was potential Mays’ fresh-meat despite the fact he was married.

Suffice it to say – and do re-read the chapter, in fact the whole fantastic book – after Tony declined to return RM’s car-keys to him to his bedroom, having borrowed said vehicle to visit the team mechanics across town earlier in the evening. Mays then refocussed his energies back on the hotel bell-boys for which he was somewhat infamous…

This fantastic shot of the BRM design team is diminished only because the caption cites four names rather than the requisite five!

Alec Stokes, Aubrey Woods, Alec Osborn and Geoff Johnson in 1959, who is missing folks? The drawing office was then located in the old maltings building behind Raymond Mays’ house.

(BRM Association Archive)

P153 launch at Silverstone, the car has grown a Dunlop decal since Snetterton in early January. Date folks?

From the left, back row – Dunlop employee Ken Spencer, Alec Stokes, Dave Mason, Len Reedman, Alan Challis, Tim Parnell, Gerry Van-Der-Weyden, Aubrey Woods, then two Shell employees, Willie Southcott, Dunlop employee. Centre Jackie Oliver and Pedro Rodriguez. Front, Jean and Louis Stanley.

Tony Rudd with BRM P83 at Bourne on May 17, 1966.

I suspect there are a couple of generations of BRM fans like me who feel we almost know Tony Rudd thanks to the all-embracing manner in which he worked with Doug Nye to produce the magnificent ‘Saga of British Racing Motors’ Volumes 1-3, with Vol 4 in-the-pot at present.

There are so many documents and corporate reports contained within written by him that you can form an impression of the way he thought, operated and communicated as part of the team. There nothing to suggest he was anything other than someone to know, like, trust and respect…

He was clearly determined, and stubborn too…Doug Nye wrote that “the ultimate, much modified, magnesium block four-valve-per-cylinder H16 engine (yes 64 valves, 128 valve springs – imagine assembling it all) was completed and tested for 1968 but the policy decision was taken to set it aside and concentrate on the simpler, lighter V12.”

Despite that, “The engine continued in test as late as from 13 December 1968 to 25 January 1969. It was number ‘7541’ and the best of its eight runs peaked at only 378bhp at 10,300rpm; that was nothing like enough to compete with Cosworth’s DFV, which was already beyond 430bhp.”

It seems the catalyst, or straw that broke the camels back in terms of Rudd’s departure from BRM was pursuing the H16 for too long, contravening the policy direction of a year or so before. Southgate wrote that “Tony Rudd…hadn’t done what had been ordered, which was to drop the team’s H16 engine programme and proceed with the V12 only.”

Clearly pink was in! Southgate, Alec Stokes, Stanley and Aubrey Woods perhaps at the time the Yardley deal was done. Bourne.

George Eaton, BRM P153, Monaco 1970 (MotorSport)

Every man and his poodle raced a BRM P153…

The long-lived machines, in P153, P153/P160B spec, were raced by a swag of drivers, many of them F1 virgins. The roll-call includes Rodriguez, Siffert, Oliver, George Eaton, Howden Ganley, Reine Wisell, Helmut Marko, Alex Soler-Roig, Vern Schuppan, Peter Westbury (DNQ US GP 1970) John Miles and John Cannon. Quite a list, in part due to Stanley’s crazy Marlboro-multiple-entry 1972 season and renta-ride availability.

Allen Brown’s chassis by chassis record of the seven P153s built from late 1969 to early 1971 is here: https://www.oldracingcars.com/brm/p153/ The shot below shows three BRM P153 pilots at Brands Hatch in early 1971: John Miles, Howden Ganley, and Jo Siffert in the car.

Jack Oliver, South African GP, Kyalami 1970 (MotorSport)

Credits…

‘Tony Southgate : From Drawing Board to Chequered Flag’ Tony Southgate, ‘History of The Grand Prix Car 1966-85’ Doug Nye, MotorSport Images, Rainer Schlegelmilch, Getty Images, GP Library, BRM Association Archive

Tailpiece…

(MotorSport)

Superb MotorSport Images shot of Pedro Rodriguez blasting through Eau Rouge on his way to that hard-fought Belgian Grand Prix, P153 3-litre V12 win.

Any win at daunting Spa was pretty special, and Pedro had a few there, but that one must have been the sweetest of all given fabulous Chris Amon pushed him very hard all the way. It was the last Grand Prix held on the old circuit too…

(LAT)

Finito…

Tec-Mec F415 Maserati…

Posted: March 11, 2024 in F1, Obscurities
Tags: , , , , , , ,
4
Fritz d’Orey in the Sebring pits, US GP December 1959 (MotorSport)

The ultra-light, disc-braked Maserati 250F-engined TecMec F415 was the ultimate development of the long line of 2.5-litre front-engined Maserati 250F Grand Prix cars which commenced in 1954; the preceding 2-litre Maserati A6GCM F2/Grand Prix machines of 1952-53 are duly noted.

In 1957 the works team’s Piccolo 250Fs took Juan Manuel Fangio to his record-setting fifth and final world title. Soon after, with the company on its financial knees, Maserati withdrew from racing. In the best of Italian traditions it wasn’t quite a final withdrawal. In the 1958 French Grand Prix, a special lightweight 250F appeared for Fangio in what became his his final race appearance. He was fourth, and with that the Maserati works-team was no more.

The team’s chassis and transmission engineer during the latter 250F years was ex-Ferrari man Valerio Colotti (1925-January 19, 2008). As the Cooper mid-engined ascendancy began he had a new super-lightweight 250F on his drawing board. Colotti left Maserati to form his own Studio Tecnica Meccanica in Modena.

Georgio Scarlatti, Maserati 250F during the 1959 French GP at Reims, Q21 and eighth (MotorSport)

Racer, Giorgio Scarlatti approached Colotti with a view to building the ultimate 250F. Valerio set to work, fabricating a light, multi-tubular spaceframe chassis made of small diameter steel tube. He scrapped the De Dion rear rear suspension, replacing it with an independent transverse top leaf-spring and lower wishbone set up. At the front was a very un-Italian pair of Alford & Alder uprights, supported by upper and lower wishbones and coil/spring damper units, an adjustable roll-bar was incorporated. Girling discs replaced the 250F’s finned drums but the wheels remained passé Borrani wires. Scarlatti provided an ex-works 2.5-litre six-cylinder engine.

Giuseppe Consoli, an ex-works mechanic, built the car for Colotti, working in the living room of his house near Modena’s aerautodromo. When workshop space was later made available the embryo Tec-Mec F415 was wheeled out through Giuseppe’s French windows!

The car was clad in a functionally attractive, tight fitting aluminium body, the height of which was constrained a bit by the relatively tall Maserati 270bhp, DOHC, two-valve, triple-Weberised six-cylinder engine.

(Colotti)
The Tec-Mec F415 shortly after completion, date and workshop unknown (Colotti)
Testing times, the boredom is palpable! (Colotti)

Bonhams wrote that, “In the meantime Hans Tanner, Swiss motoring journalist and entrepreneur, became involved with the project. He had been on the Modenese scene for years and was close to Maserati. He enlisted backing from Floridan racing enthusiast Gordon Pennington who lived then in Modena’s famous Hotel Reale.” Pennington intended to race an Italian car so Scarlatti sold him his interest in the Tec-Mec project.

Colotti, meanwhile, had gone into partnership with former Stirling Moss mechanic Alf Francis as ‘Gear Speed Development SpA’, with plans to build Colotti transaxles as the mid-engined revolution popped, and so too the demand for quality, reliable gearboxes.

While all of this played out, Consoli completed Tec-Mec in 1959, complete with engine #2523 purloined from a 250F Jo Bonnier had for sale.

“Under the Pennington-Tanner aegis, Studio Tecnica Meccanica changed its name to Tec-Mec Automobili. The car was tested at Modena by American driver Bob Said, Piero Drogo, Jo Bonnier and Scarlatti.”

Just like the front-engined Scarab and Aston Martin DBR4 programmes, this one was too late. The basically 1957-designed Tec-Mec became raceworthy in late 1959 just as Jack Brabham clinched the first World Championships for a mid-engined car aboard the Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF.

Fritz d’Orey during the 1959 British GP at Aintree. Maserati 250F, Q20 and DNF accident (MotorSport)

The 1959 World Championship closed with the United States Grand Prix at Sebring, Florida in December. Given it was in Gordon Pennington’s ‘back yard’ the Tec-Mec F415 was entered for Brazilian amateur – and former 250F racer – Fritz d’Orey. He qualified the Camoradi team run car 17th of 19 starters but retired after seven laps with an oil leak/engine failure.

Jesse Alexander wrote this comment about Fritz d’Oley’s performance in the car in his Sports Cars Illustrated race report. “The Tec-Mec was never driven quickly enough to show up any defects. The only time we know of it being driven fast was when Jo Bonnier took it around the Modena Autodromo last summer. His comments were not all that favourable. He complained of, among other things, a flexing chassis.”

More about D’Orey here: https://www.f1forgottendrivers.com/drivers/fritz-dorey/

One race in-period only, D’Orey and the Tec-Mec at Sebring (MotorSport)

After repair, the car was taken Daytona Speedway for a record attempt but D’Orey was injured in another car. Then Pennington lost interest and the project was abandoned. The car lay on a trailer in a Miami garden until early 1967 when it was acquired complete with spares – including unopened boxes of new parts – by Tom Wheatcroft for what became The Donington Collection.

After restoration he drove the car regularly in open test days at Silverstone and Oulton Park before crashing it heavily into a parked ambulance after spinning-off at Silverstone. After the car was rebuilt it was driven by engineer/restorer Tony Merrick in VSCC events while residing in the Donington Collection. After sale by Wheatcroft in the 1990s the car has been a formidable historic racer.

Etcetera…

(Colotti)

Tec-Mec F415 – Tec-Mec Project 11 – on its first appearance, perhaps, after its restoration.

(Colotti)
(Colotti)

Credits…

Bonhams, MotorSport Images, Colotti Transmissioni, Sports Cars Illustrated March 1960 via Stephen Dalton, colotti.com

Tailpieces…

Valerio Colotti (Colotti)

Finito…

Holden Torana SL/R 5000 L34…

Posted: March 5, 2024 in Touring Cars
Tags: , , , , ,
8
(Auto Action)

How time flies! Its nearly 50 years since Holden’s LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 (L34) took to the tracks and thrilled Australian racegoers with the raucous-barking-howl of its Repco-Holden F5000 influenced 308 V8.

Allan Grice teased race fans with the L34’s potential when he ran a 310bhp SL/R 5000 in some high-speed demonstration laps at Amaroo Park on Sunday April 19, 1974; the Amaroo shot of the same car above was taken during the June 2 meeting, with Fred Gibson’s XB GT Falcon Coupe behind.

Peter Brock reinforced the SL/R 5000’s pace by winning the final two Australian Touring Car Champiosnship rounds in May/June at Surfers Paradise and Adelaide International in his Holden Dealer Team car, thereby securing the title, the bulk of his points being accumulated in the good ‘ole six-cylinder XU-1.

Allan Grice and Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000, demo laps at Amaroo Park on April 19, 1974
(Auto Action)
Colin Bond on the way to winning the 1974 Phillip Island 500K in his Holden Dealer Team L34 (Auto Action)

By mid-1974 enough L34s were built (total build numbers 263) to allow CAMS homologation and therefore competition in the Adelaide and Sandown Manufacturers Championship rounds in advance of the Bathurst 1000.

On August 25 Colin Bond famously won at Adelaide International on an L34 wing-and-a-gearbox-prayer debut. 

Bondy then won the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship with Peter Brock and Brian Sampson delivering the Mount Panorama goods. The ’75 rout was complete when The General took the Australian Manufacturers Championship with the L34 winning four of the five rounds.

Things were a lot tougher in 1976 when the Allan Moffat/Colin Bond Ford Falcon XB GT351 ruled the roost, except at Bathurst where Bob Morris and John Fitzpatrick won a close finishing tear-jerker of a race in their L34.

It’s fitting that the Life and Times of the L34 are being celebrated en-masse at the Phillip Island Classic this weekend as the fast but fragile – axles, gearbox and differential – cars won there a few times: Bond in a Holden Dealer Team car in 1974, Brock in 1975 in the Norm Gown-Bruce Hindhaugh prepared car, and Bond again for the HDT in 1976. In 1977 it was the turn of the L34’s younger sibling, Allan Grice won in a new Torana A9X (Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback).

In a wonderful half-centenary 1974-2024 Phillip Island book-end, Rod Hadfield’s ex-Rod and Russ McRae Dustings of Burwood L34 – third placegetter in the 1974 500K – will be on-circuit throughout the Phillip Island Classic including morning parades on Saturday/Sunday along with 40 other race/road L34s organised by the L34 Fiftieth Anniversary Committee.

This is a not to be missed meeting for Holden, Torana and Group C fans! 

Etcetera L34…

Believe it or not, I loved Touring Cars once upon a time when there was variety from one end of the capacity spectrum to the other…it all turned to shit for me when the ruling CAMS-Maxi Taxi Junta gave us the infinite boredom of same, same, and a bit more same, 30 or so years ago. Fuggem I thought, and still do. Those hopelessly-conflicted pricks are the tall-tree-in-the-Australian-racing-paddock that grab all the nutrient (money) for themselves leaving fuck-all for everybody else.

While I was in Oakleigh last week I had a snoop through some of Big Bad Brucie’s (Bruce Williams, Auto Action’s publisher/owner) archives and will gradually work my way through the more technical material about the way these cars evolved through 1974-75 with a view to expanding this piece.

Etcetera Falcon GT 351 Coupe…

Interestingly, Auto Action published the ‘Super Bits’ FoMoCo homologated on August 14, before Bathurst that year, in its September 20, 1974 issue.

“The parts homologated include four-bolt main bearing blocks, forged aluminium pistons, a new slightly modified inlet manifold, modified cylinder heads, modified water pump, and an, as yet unused (by Allan Moffat) sump.”

“Moffat’s Falcon (at the Sandown 250) was modified at the rear suspension with the trailing arms being turned into leading links. Apart from all this, it was lowered more at the front, while still retaining enough ground clearance to pass over the ride height measure.”

“All this adds up to around two seconds a lap at Sandown using what amounted to a development car.”

Allan Moffat, Ford XB Falcon GT351 Coupe at Bathurst in October 1974. DNF, the race was won by the John Goss/Kevin Bartlett XA Ford Coupe (R Davies)

Credits…

Auto Action, Neil Stratton, Robert Davies,

Finito…

Show us ‘yer Secrets : Ferrari 312B…

Posted: March 2, 2024 in F1, Features
Tags: , , ,
1
(LAT)

One of my true racing loves is the 1970 F1 Ferrari 312B and its successors.

I’ve done it to death of course, this article tells its story in detail: https://primotipo.com/2016/02/26/life-is-all-about-timing-chris-amon-and-the-ferrari-312b/ But this series of shots of an engine change during practice in Clay Regazzoni’s 312B/001 during the 1970 German GP weekend at the Hockenheim Motordrom are too good to ignore. We’ll make this the first of a similar series of a largely pictorial nature.

Doug Nye characterises this Mauro Forghieri – and team – designed machine as one the best integrated F1 Ferraris. The photographs here convey clearly why this is so.

Clay Regazzoni and Jacky Ickx, Ferrari 312Bs sandwich the winning Lotus 72C Ford of Jochen Rindt during the early laps at Hockenheim (LAT)
(LAT)

The four main-bearing twelve cylinder engine – a Flat-12 or 180-degree V12 – depending upon your engineering religion of choice – was a paragon of reliable power after the early challenges experienced largely by Chris Amon circa-September 1969 were overcome.

These shots show how low, wide and compact it was. All that weight sat low in the chassis with the wild monocoque carrying the engine ‘underslung’. At that early stage of its development, Ferrari quote an output of 450bhp @ 12000rpm, a capacity of 2991.01cc and bore/stroke of 78.5×51.5mm.

(LAT)

Devoid of tyres, Regga’s #312B/001 sits on its tummy.

Note the inboard rocker front suspension – Ferrari had used this set up continually since the 1963 156 Aero – and clever way in which the aero-element rollbar stay ‘triangulates’ the monocoque boom. Oh to have been there to watch the engine replacement!

Ferrari still used their ‘Aero semi-monocoque’ at this stage, in that the tubular steel chassis had aluminium panels riveted to it with the engine used as a semi-stressed member.

Five of these chassis were built: 312B/001 – #312B/004 albeit #312B/002 was re-tubbed after Jacky Ickx’ collision with Jack Oliver’s BRM P153 during the 1970 Spanish GP. All four cars exist, what lucky owners they are! See oldracingcars.com for chassis by chassis details: https://www.oldracingcars.com/ferrari/312b/

#312B/001 was Ickx’ usual chassis throughout that season: the Austrian, Canadian and Mexican GP winner. As the chassis number suggests, this machine was the first built. It was entered for Chris Amon in the 1969 Italian Grand Prix but failed to take to the track after engine failure in three test sessions at Modena in the lead up to Monza.

(LAT)

Jochen Rindt won the Hockenheim race that weekend during the mid-season run of victories – the Dutch, French, British and German GPs – that gave the fearless Austrian enough points to win the World Drivers Championship posthumously. With a little more luck it could have been Jacky Ickx, but karma, thankfully prevailed.

In Germany the top-three qualifiers were Ickx, Rindt and Regazzoni. While the Ferrari challenge was strong, newcomer Regga – who won the Italian GP in September – led laps 22 and 23 of the race and was then slowed and retired with gearbox trouble in the 50 laps race.

Rindt’s win from Ickx was a good one, Denis Jenkinson noted in MotorSport that “As was very evident in Zandvoort it was the Lotus 72 showing superiority over the other competitors, rather than the driver…he (Rindt) won by only 0.7 sec from Ickx but the win was convincing as he was able to pass the Ferrari whenever he wished…”

(LAT)

More often than not the floor is a key contributor to the structural rigidity of both spaceframe and monocoque chassis – glued and riveted as they often are – but apparently not so much with this Ferrari, the floor of which was seemingly located by removable bolts. There are rubber fuel-bags within the monocoque on each side, mandated by the FIA from 1970.

(LAT)
(MotorSport)

Front suspension long top rocker and wide based lower wishbone, steering rack and steering arm mounting ‘ear’ on the upright on one of the 312Bs at Kyalami during the 1970 South African GP weekend.

Credits…

LAT Images, oldracingcars.com, Ferrari.com

Tailpiece…

(LAT)

Is Borsari the mechanic? I know the face of the longtime Scuderia man, I’m just not so sure of the name. Look how Forghieri is shifting weight to the very rear of the car: the Varley battery and neatly faired oil radiators. Outboard rear suspension is period-typical: cast magnesium uprights, single top links, inverted lower wishbones and twin radius rods, plus coil-spring/Koni dampers.

Finito…