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My First Race Meeting, Sandown Tasman F5000 1972, Bartlett, Lola and Raquel…

Posted: November 18, 2014 in Features, Obscurities
Tags: 1972 Tasman Series, Bob Muir, Elfin MR5, F5000, Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300, McLaren M10B, McLaren M22, Raquel Welch, Sandown Tasman 1972

My First Race Meeting…Sandown Tasman F5000 Meeting February 20 1972…

We can all recall the meeting or event which hooked us on the sport, right?

For me it was the 1972 Sandown Tasman Meeting, the Australian Grand Prix no less, contested by Formula 5000 cars.

I was up for it mind you, one of my friends, Simon Roberts’ father Ron worked for Castrol and amongst his responsibilities was the racing budget in some shape or form.

Critically, he went to race meetings and gave me Castrols’ copy of ‘Racing Car News’ each month after it had done the rounds of their execs. It was always a month or so outta date and well thumbed by the time I got it, but I lapped up every word.

Finally i was invited to my first meeting.

We cruised out to Sandown from North Balwyn in Rons’ metallic brown Valiant with the big ‘265 Hemi’…not a bad ‘Dad Car’ at the time. The Val joined the endless stream of weekend traffic on Warrigal and Dandenong Roads, my excitement building seeing lots of performance cars of the day; GTR’s, XU1’s, GT’s, GTV’s, Monaro’s and plenty of souped up EH’s and HR’s ‘chromies’ gleaming in the sun amongst the other weekend warriors heading to a Mornington Peninsula beach on that hot summers day.

Reading RCN didn’t prepare me for the sheer visceral thrill, excitement, speed and ground shaking, gutterall thunder of the 5 Litre 500 BHP V8’s.

In those days the paddock was in the infield, inside Shell Corner, or turn 1 and extended across the track to the inside of Peters or Torana Corner, now turn 3, or the Corner onto the back straight. It was lower than the surrounding infield and was like a private little Mecca for racers and enthusiasts alike.

I recall 2 things vividly from that weekend all these years later.

The first was walking from the carpark behind the grandstand, the excitement building hearing cars being warmed up in the distance and crossing the track into the dusty, gravel paddock area and seeing Bob Muirs beautiful, exotic, automotively erotic, concours, gleaming blue Lola T300 just about to enter the scrutineering bay.

I was stunned, gob-smacked. I couldn’t move I was so awed by its amazing combination of wedge shape, curves, fibre-glass, chrome tipped exhausts, scoops, ducts, wings and oh-so-wide tyres! It was immaculate, yellow pinstriping contrasting the blue bodywork, the finish of the racer a ‘Von Dutch’ work of art.

Lola was as curvaceous as Raquel Welch who adorned my bedroom wall. Her appeal was far more carnal, but the compound curvature of both car and screen siren was undeniable.

Fairly soon a poster of Lola was alongside Raquel. Dad related to Raquels’ charms, more than once we compared and contrasted her ‘on screen’ attributes with Sophia Loren but to me she was too old, I took his point all the same. He did find the car thing more of a challenge than babes.

Eventually I regained my senses and did a slow lap of Lola taking in every bit of it. ‘Drinking’ visually every feature. The T300 was a new design, none of my old RCN’s had pictured it. Most racing cars then were still cigar shaped, Lola took her cues from the radical 1970 F1 Lotus 72, not the cars of the 60’s.

We wandered off to the Castrol tent meeting Peter Brock and Colin Bond and whilst the Touring Cars were of interest they didn’t really float my boat. Moffat’s Mustang raced that weekend, it was and still is impressive. Surely the best looking ‘taxi’ of all time?. With an honorable mention to Brian Foley’s Alfa GTAm.

The beauty of the old Sandown setup was that you could see most of what you wanted within a 500 metre walk. Watch the cars coming down the main straight and into Shell Corner on either the inside or outside of the track. This was a great spot to watch braking manoeuvres and hear and work out the best practitioners of the ‘heel’n toe art’.

My other favourite spot was coming into or exiting Torana/Peters from the inside of the circuit. This was the place to watch and hear the cars accelerate away from you, always impressive to watch an F5000 doing that on its own bellowing up through the gears on it’s way up towards ‘Marlboro Country’, the fast combination of corners into ‘Dandy Road’, it was and still is a great part of the track to drive.

Access and egress from the Paddock was via a pit pass or jumping the fence for the impecunious. The Light Car Club guys always turned a blind eye to this teenage activity, proper chaps those blokes.

My preferred locale though, was in the paddock. You could wander around seeing as much as you liked, talk to the drivers and get an autograph if you picked your moment, watch the cars form up on the dummy grid, see them take off, and watch them from the pit counter, on circuit until told to ‘piss-orf matey’ by the ever polite LCCA officials.

It was from that pit counter that the second indelible memory of the weekend took place.

We watched the cars grumble, crackle, spit back through their intake trumpets and ‘pig-root’ their way past us… down the pitlane, the exotic sound of Hewland gear whine audible and onto the circuit, the pack disappearing in one massive rumble of fuel injected thunder as they accelerated up to The Rise and down into Dandenong Road.

The first car to approach us exiting Shell was yellow.

It was Kevin Bartlett in his McLaren M10B, he kicked the car sideways…teasing the thing on the throttle, the engine note changing minutely but perceptibly as he balanced the beasts sticky, wide Goodyears with throttle and steering. I was stunned, it looked and sounded so fast and spectacular and easy. It wasn’t of course, but he did it lap after lap in this third gear corner. To see the thing accelerating hard past us and then almost as quickly the wonderful sound of the big Chev on the down-change into ‘Torana’ all too much.

I was in sensory overload, Raquel did that to me as well mind you, but in a different kinda way.

But I was hooked as a Bartlett, F5000 and race fan for life.

I don’t remember too much of the race itself but Graham McRae in his own car (Leda aka McRae GM1 designed by the recently deceased Len Terry) won the AGP from Frank Gardner’s Lola T300 and David Hobbs in a McLaren M22. KB and Bob Muir were both retirements with gearbox and engine maladies respectively.

But the race didn’t matter to me, i lived that wonderful weekend for months, I had found my lifelong interest and passion, it’s been my sport as a competitor and fan ever since.

Etcetera…From my scrapbook all those years ago

Photo Credits…

Thanks to Chris Parker and his archive for some of the shots, Stupix

Finito…

Jim Clark: Lotus Cortina, Sebring 1964…

Posted: November 16, 2014 in Features, Touring Cars
Tags: Jim Clark, Lotus Cortina, Lotus Cortina Road Test, Sebring 3 Hour 1964

Jim Clark explores the limits of adhesion of his Cortina during the Sebring 3 Hour Enduro in March 1964, he finished first in class…

MotorSport magazine road test of the car from January 1964, this Bill Boddy road test of the car ‘in period’ well worth the read.

‘A £1,100 competition saloon which is also a very practical road car, possessing extremely usable acceleration, very powerful Girling brakes, a top speed of over 100 m.p.h. and good handling qualities.

Soon after that man Chapman had been signed on by British Ford, Dagenham announced the Lotus-Cortina, which was to have a 1 1/2-litre twin-cam 105 b.h.p. engine in a Consul Cortina 2-door saloon body-shell using light-alloy doors, bonnet top and boot-lid, a close-ratio gearbox, modified suspension with a properly-located back axle with aluminium differential housing sprung on Chapman coil-spring struts, Corsair-size servo-assisted front disc brakes, larger tyres and other modifications to improve performance and handling. This Lotus-Cortina was announced enthusiastically in Motor Sport last February, when I remarked that it sounded like the most exciting British car since the Jaguar E-type.

Team Lotus were to run a trio of these Fords in saloon-car races, but the project was a long time coming to fruition, probably because the twin-cam engines were needed for Lotus Elans before they found a place in Cortina body-shells. And competition work with these exciting new cars, for which a top speed of 115 m.p.h. and 0-100 m.p.h. in around 30 sec. is still hinted at in Ford publicity material, was not possible until they had been homologated, which meant that at least 1,000 had to be built. Ford Dealers, promised these fast Cortinas, grew restive, the Ford Board wrathful, but gradually these outwardly normal-looking Cortinas with the colour-flash along the bodyside began to appear on the roads and, occasionally, by the date of Oulton Park’s Gold Cup meeting, on the circuits, while Henry Taylor drove one in the recent R.A.C. Rally.

(James Allington)

At last, late in November, a test car was placed at our disposal for a brief period, and let me say right away that we were not disappointed! The Lotus-Cortina is a very commendable all-round car of truly excellent performance, the acceleration being an outstanding feature, very usable from the low speeds at which the average motorist drives, and going on and on most impressively as upward gear changes are made, so that overtaking is rendered not only safe but a positive pleasure!

This Ford is not a 100 m.p.h. car in the sense that the “ton” can be attained almost anywhere, but it achieves an easy 85-90 m.p.h. on give-and-take roads and certainly has a three-figure top speed. Such performance will leave behind, say, a Porsche 1600 Super or Mini-Cooper S or Alfa Romeo Giulia T1, and it is accomplished without sense of fuss or stress, merely that nice “hard” sound of busy but efficient machinery associated with a twin o.h.e. engine. However, although the r.p.m. limit is set between 6,500 and 8,000 r.p.m., the engine in the test car would not go beyond the first of these figures.

Road-holding is another strong feature of Colin Chapman’s modified Cortina, the standard being extremely satisfactory, remembering that the basis of the exercise is a low-priced family saloon. The back suspension creaks a bit but the combination of coil springs, tying up the axle and reducing its weight has transformed the mediocre handling of the bread and margarine Cortina.

Cornering is mainly neutral, with a tendency to understeer. probably accentuated by the small-diameter wood-rimmed steering wheel, which makes the steering ratio seem rather low geared on acute corners; in fact, the wheel calls for 3 1/2 turns, lock-to-lock, including some sponge not noticeable when on the move. On normal bends the gearing feels just right and the steering very accurate and positive. Roll on fast corners is very moderate. The front-end feels softly sprung if sudden changes of direction or a heavy application of the brakes are made, when the weight of the twin-cam engine tends to be noticeable, but even over bad surfaces the front wheels retain firm adhesion with the road and the ride is comfortable. Even at 80 m.p.h. over a bad road the ride is very reasonable and the car in full control. At high speed there is a slight weaving action, accentuated by rough going, as if the back axle resents the restraint Colin Chapman has wisely put on it, but this does not develop into anything serious. Round fast, wide-radius bends the Lotus-Cortina holds the desired line most commendably, even with the inner wheels running along a rough verge, while the car goes exactly where it is directed when tucking in quickly after overtaking. There is some lost movement in the transmission, probably another product of restricting rear axle movement, just as the absence of a propeller shaft accentuates harshness of take-up in rear-engined cars. Had Chapman been allowed to instal i.r.s. this tendency to weave, and transmission of noise from the road wheels, might have been eliminated. As it is, there is very little judder through the rigid Cortina body shell but the axle does build up some shudder or mild vibration, which releases a number of body rattles. Reverberations from the engine can be cured by using the two lower gears when pulling away from low speeds.

The clutch of the Lotus-Cortina is extremely heavy, but engages progressively. The short remote gear lever is splendidly placed, and has a neat wooden knob. It controls a gearbox with the most commendably closely spaced and high ratios I have used for a long time, bottom gear being as high as 9.75 to 1. Chapman has clearly designed this gearbox for enthusiasts and doesn’t intend you to use a Lotus-Cortina for towing a caravan up Porlock.

The gear change is very quick and positive but the action is notchy and the synchromesh can be beaten if very rapid changes are attempted or the clutch not fully depressed. I rate this a good but not a superlative gear change. Reverse is easily engaged by lifting the lever beyond the 2nd gear position and the gears are quiet, but at certain speeds the lever rattles. The synchromesh bottom gear is as easy to engage as the rest of those in the box, which enables quick use to be made of the lowest ratio to keep the revs. up on sharp corners and steep hills.

The Girling brakes, 9 1/2 in. disc at the front, 9 in. drums at the back, with a suction servo on the n/s of the engine, are just the job for a car with Lotus-Cortina urge. They are light to apply, yet not too light and never sudden, and stop the car very powerfully and progressively with no vices, except for a tendency to pull to the right under heavy applications, on the test car. The hand brake is a normal Ford pull-out and twist affair. The combination of speed, acceleration particularly, road-clinging and powerful retardation possessed by this remarkable Ford enables 60 m.p.h. averages to be achieved on British roads effortlessly and safely, the Lotus-Cortina being easy to drive, no special techniques being called for, while its only notable disadvantages are some rather tiring engine noise and an uncomfortable back seat.

However, the outstanding impression imparted by this excellent saloon car is of willing, purposeful acceleration, which goes on and on with no trace of hesitation or flat-spot. For this I feel quite certain the two twin-choke, side draught Weber 40DCOE18 Carburetters deserve most of the credit. The performance does not come up to the publicity estimates, as our figures show, but even so the Lotus-Cortina is a very rapid vehicle by 1.6-litre standards, quite apart from the fact that it is a 4-seater saloon! Because bottom gear can be held to nearly 50 m.p.h. and because acceleration commences to be really effective from around 3,000 r.p.m., a snick into 2nd gear produces extremely useful acceleration that leaves loiterers far and cleanly behind! Especially when it is realised that the rev.-counter needle only just touches the red mark at 70 m.p.h. in this gear, or at over 90 in 3rd gear!

The ‘light hands’ of Jim Clark at the wheel of a Lotus Cortina (unattributed)

In spite of its racing-type engine this Ford is perfectly docile in traffic, although if you motor through the thick of the rush-hour it is seemly to use 1st and 2nd more frequently than the 3rd and top gears, the water temperature will rise to 90˚ C but will stay at that, and your clutch leg may get rather tired. Starting from cold presents no problems.

I have dealt with the performance and controllability aspects of the Lotus-Cortina first, instead of commencing, as I do usually, with details of controls, instruments and decor. This is because anyone contemplating this particular and so very acceptable version of the popular Ford Consul Cortina sill regard these aspects as of major importance, and also because in general layout the car is like the normal, staid Cortina.

The separate front seats are comfortable and offer good support; they adjust in two planes, forward and upwards, in one movement. Upholstery is in matt black p.v.c., with a light roof lining. The dials are on a neat hooded panel before the driver, as on the latest Cortina GT models, but the instruments are better contrived, and in this case the background simulates metal instead of grained wood. The 110 m.p.h. speedometer has trip with decimal and total milometers, the tachometer is marked in red between 6,500 and 8,000 r.p.m., although the engine peaks at 5,500 r.p.m. The small fuel gauge is properly calibrated but shows a very definite zero some 30 miles or more before the 8-gallon tank empties. There is a combined oil-pressure gauge and water thermometer matching the fuel gauge in size; the oil pressure reading shows barely 40 lb./sq. in. at normal engine speeds, and falls to a depressing 5 lb./sq. in. at idling revs., although the green warning light does not show. In view of the fact that the twin-cans Harry Mundy-designed head has been grafted onto a standard Ford engine-base, this low pressure may prove disturbing to sensitive-minded engineers. No doubt proprietory oil-coolers will soon be offered to owners of these cars! Normal water temperature is 80˚ C. The two main dials are notable for steady-reading needles, white against a black background and moving in the same plane, which, with the steady-reading small dials and black interior trim, imparts an air of luxury, not found in lesser Fords. The usual Ford fixed r.h. stalk carries lamps and winker switches, the lamps control faired off, unlike that on other Cortina models. This makes it even less easy to use. That no lamps flasher is fitted is a serious omission; the horn push on the wheel, which is inoperative, might well be employed as such, enabling the push on the stalk-extremity to be used as a lamps-flasher.

On this Ford the screen-washers knob is adjacent to the starter-key, and the wipers knob, on the other side of the dash, pulls out to start the single-speed wipers. There is the usual choke knob. The bonnet is opened from outside the car and has to be propped up, although the self-locking boot-lid is self-supporting. The bonnet opens to reveal the neat twin-cam engine, with those big Webers on the o/s and a 4-branch exhaust system dropping away efficiently on the n/s. The ignition distributor is inaccessible beneath the carburetters. The latter have a cold air box led through a flexible pipe from a filter in the grille. The dip-stick is close to the dynamo bracket, but accessible. Blue cam-box covers signify the 105 b.h.p. version of this 1,558 c.c. Ford engine, but for competition purposes the “red” 140 b.h.p. engine is available.

This “blue” engine has a 9.5-to-1 c.r., so 100 octane petrol is called for. On a last run from Hampshire to Somerset and back this was consumed at the rate of exactly 25 m.p.g. The absolute range on a tankful, which holds within 1/20th of a gallon what the makers specify, was 200 miles. The horizontal filler pipe is unsuited to refuelling from a can.

The Lucas 60/45 watt sealed-beam headlamps enable most of the Lotus-Cortina’s performance to be used after dark and the illumination provided in the dipped position is to be highly commended. There is nothing else to mention that distinguishes the car from its less powerful brethren, except that the spare wheel lies on the boot floor, the battery and two strengthening struts are found in the boot, the boss or the 15 in. racing-type steering wheel and the gear-lever knob are endowed with Lotus badges, which are repeated on the radiator grille and on each rear quarter of the body, and that the 6 in.-section Dunlop tyres look imposing.

We obtained the following performance figures, two-up, using an electric speedometer on the test track (average of several runs, best time in parenthesis, best Cortina GT acceleration times within square brackets):—

If these figures disappoint anyone, there is the Cheshunt-built 140 h.h.p. race-tuned 1,594 c.c. Lotus-Cortina to bring smiles of satisfaction – if you can afford £1,725 or get your hands on one of the 30 to be constructed! But for all practical purposes the ordinary Ford Lotus-Cortina (or the 125 b.h.p. Special Equipment version) should provide amply sufficient speed and acceleration and, with its good road manners, will soon be giving joy and rapid travel to many discerning sportsmen. It is a much better car than I had dared to hope and there is something very pleasing in the knowledge that Lotus racing “know-how” has been handed on to this outwardly sober Ford saloon, which goes so well, is such great fun and so safe to drive, and which enjoys the widespread Ford spares and servicing facilities. Under the circumstances this Ford Lotus-Cortina is a good car to buy for £1,100 3s. 1d., or £9 10s. extra if front-seat safety belts are specified. (Other extras are a 4.1 to 1 back axle and a reversing light).

Time will show just how reliable this combination of Ford and Lotus components proves but in 600 hard-driven miles the only failures were the Smiths tachometer, which just couldn’t believe the engines high rev.-limit, and a loose bolt holding the carburetters intake box in place. The rubber fell off the clutch pedal. Twin-cam engines are sometimes thought to consume oil but none was used by the Lotus power unit in 600 miles.

In conclusion, I approve very strongly of Colin Chapman’s idea of a British Giulietta, which Ford sells at a price poor men can afford! As for the race-tuned version…!! – W. B.’

Melburnian Peter Coffey brought the first Lotus Cortina to Australia, after a secondment at Ford, Dagenham, in July 1963. The car was soon sold to Victorian Jim McKeown who turned it, over the following years into one of the worlds fastest Lotus Cortina racers

Credits…

James Allington, MotorSport January 1964

Finito…

Francois Cevert: Formative years…

Posted: November 7, 2014 in F1, Features
Tags: 1966 Volant Shell Competition, 1968 French F3 Championship, 1968 Monaco F3 Race, 1969 European F2 Championship, 1971 US Grand Prix, Alpine A280 Renault, Francois Cevert, Jackie Stewart, Ken Tyrrell, March 701 Ford, Matra MS660, Tecno 69 Ford F2

(Automobile Year)

Francois Cevert applies some gentle correction to his Tecno 68 Ford F3 car, Rouen, France 1968…

I was researching another article and tripped over some photos of a very young Francois Cevert in an Alpine in his F3 days…

It reminded me of how many talented young drivers were killed before their prime well into the 1970’s- Francois, Tom Pryce, Gerry Birrell, Roger Williamson, Piers Courage and Tony Brise all spring readily to mind.

The monocoque chassis of the 1970’s were far stronger than the spaceframes of ten years before but as the width and grip of tyres and the aerodynamic downforce the cars produced improved, it meant that accidents, when they occurred at the higher cornering speeds could be particularly horrific. It was a collision with an armco fence, in an accident of this type when his Tyrrell got away from him which killed Francois at Watkins Glen in 1973.

John Barnards’ pioneering use of a carbon fibre chassis in the first McLaren MP4 in 1981 was a driver safety ‘game-changer’.

Cevert in his ‘Bell Magnum’ 1968 (unattributed)

As a young teenager just getting interested in racing Cevert ‘had it all’- dazzling film star looks, talent aplenty and racing for a team which was carefully nurturing his talent.

Ken Tyrrell recruited Francois into his Elf sponsored team after the retirement of Johnny Servoz-Gavin due to an eye injury. Jackie Stewart spotted Cevert in 1969 when contesting F2 races and suggested to Tyrrell he keep an eye on him.

Stewart immediately clicked with the young Frenchman, they had a remarkably mature relationship as teammates by the standards of today (Piquet/Mansell, Prost/Senna, Rosberg/Hamilton for example!) with Stewart mentoring the younger man, exactly as Graham Hill had done with the young Scot in 1965. Francois fitted into the ‘family team’ that Tyrrell was. Norah and Ken, Jackie and Helen Stewart, Derek Gardner and the mechanics was a famously friendly place to be- albeit a very competitive one.

Cevert made his Grand Prix debut in the team’s March 701 Ford at the 1970 Dutch GP, by the end of 1971 he won his one and only GP victory at Watkins Glen, ironically the circuit at which he would lose his life.

Stewart freely admitted Ceverts’ equal or superior speed in 1973, the team leading role Cevert was to play in 1974, when JYS retirement was planned was cruelly stolen from him.

Francois Cevert, Alpine A280 Renault, Brands Hatch F3 October 1967

(unattributed)

Francois in the Brands Hatch paddock (above) for the ‘ER Hall Trophy’ Meeting October 29 1967.

Alpine A280 Renault, DNF in a race flagged off after 10 laps due to the conditions, the top 10 finishers included future F1 drivers Henri Pescarolo, John Miles, Peter Gethin, Reine Wisell, and Derek Bell- the field also included future F1 drivers Ian Ashley, Gijs Van Lennep, Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Dave Walker, Clay Regazzoni, Piers Courage, Howden Ganley…a field of some depth!

This article and photographs celebrate Francois’ time in his formative F3 and F2 years.

Cevert, born in 1944, originally became interested in racing via Jean Pierre Beltoise, his sister was dating the future French champion at the time.

After two years doing National Service he enlisted in a racing school at Magny Cours, winning the ‘Volant Shell’ competition, the prize was an Alpine A280 Renault F3 car.

Francois’ Magny Cours drive was funded by a married woman ‘Nanou’, he met her aged 19 and she fell for him during a holiday in which she too was completing the race course- the shot below is of his wet, winning drive in a Merlyn Mk 7.

(unattributed)

Francois and Patrick, Volant Shell 1966 (unattributed)

Patrick Depailler also contested the final, finishing second, here the pair of them are looking very sodden after the race.

The Winfield Racing entered car was underfunded and relatively uncompetitive in 1967 but Francois did enough to be offered a works Alpine drive for 1968 but he turned this down and talked his way into the Tecno team, who had a much more competitive machine.

Francois Cevert , Pau F3 1967, Alpine A280 Renault

Early in the 1967 season, April 2 with the Alpine A280 Renault, at Pau. DNF in the race won by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud’s Matra MS6 Ford (unattributed)

He missed five rounds of the French Championship but won the first he entered at Monthlery on May 12, he was immediately competitive in his Tecno. A strong fourth place followed in the Monaco F3 GP and put his name into prominence, Ronnie Peterson placed third, he too would make his F1 debut in a March 701 in 1970.

Francois then took further wins at La Chatre, Nogaro and Albi winning the French F3 championship that year.

Francois Cevert, Albi 1968, Tecno 68 Ford F3

1st place in the 1968 French F3 Championships’ final 1968 round at Albi. Tecno 68 Ford (unattributed)

Francois progressed to a factory F2 Tecno in 1969…

The Ford FVA powered Tecno 69 was a very competitive car also driven by fellow 1970 F1 ‘newbee’ Clay Regazzoni. The class was hotly contested by drivers including Jochen Rindt, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Piers Courage, the class contained both pretenders to the thrones of current champions and the champions themselves.

Johnny Servoz-Gavin won the European F2 Championship that year in a Matra MS7 Ford from Hubert Hahne in a Lola T102 BMW/ BMW 269 from Francois in third, it had been a strong debutant F2 season in a field of great depth.

Francois Cevert, Tecno 68 Ford FVA, Pau 1969

Francois Ceverts Pau 1969 was more successful then his 1967 visit- fourth in the F2 race in the Tecno 68 Ford FVA won by ‘F2 king’ Jochen Rindt Lotus 59B Ford FVA. High wings banned shortly thereafter by the FIA during the 1969 Monaco GP weekend (unattributed)

Francois Cevert, Tecno 69 FVA, German GP 1969

Francois in the Tecno 69 Ford FVA F2 car during the 1969 German GP. He qualified sixteeth, and second quickest of the F2 cars in a field of 26 cars. DNF after 9 laps with gearbox failure (unattributed)

Into 1970 Francois continued in F2 and was also picked up by Matra for their endurance program, the 3 litre V12 sportscars provided his first taste of real power.

Cevert drove for the team for the rest of his life, Servoz retired and the rest, as they say, is history and one of Grand Prix Racings’ great ‘mighta-beens’…

Other Cevert Reading…

Francois and Jack Brabham at Matra in 1970; https://primotipo.com/2016/09/09/jack-and-francois-matra-ms660/

Tyrrell Aerodynamic Evolution; https://primotipo.com/2016/05/31/tyrrell-002-monza-1972/

Etcetera…

Francois Cevert , Matra MS660, Monthlery 1970

(unattributed)

Jack Brabham and Francois Cevert teammates at Matra in 1970.

Jack was in his last year of F1 and Francois his first- winners of the Paris 1000Km at Monthlery in 1970, Matra MS660

Francois Cevert, March 701 Ford, Dutch GP 1970

(unattributed)

First Grand Prix, the Dutch in 1970, Team Tyrrell March 701 Ford.

Q 15 of 24 cars and DNF with an engine failure on lap 31 of the race won by Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 72 Ford. This was the tragic race in which Piers Courage lost his life in a high speed crash in his De Tomaso 505 Ford.

Francois Cevert, TecnoTF71Ford FVA , Imola 1971

(unattributed)

Cevert continued to do the occasional F2 race after he had broken into GP racing.

Here he is aboard a Tecno TF/71 Ford FVA, in the ‘City of Imola GP’ in July 1971. He was non-classified tenth in the race won by Carlos Pace’ March 712M Ford FVA. ‘Tyrrell nose’ quickly adopted by others after appearing at the French Grand Prix earlier in July, but pioneered by Chevron in F2.

(unattributed)

Francois and Brigitte Bardot at the Paris Racing Car Show in 1971.

By this time Cevert is a GP star if not an ‘ace’- the car is Graham Hills F1 mount of 1970, the Rob Walker owned Lotus 72 Ford- they make an attractive couple!

Cevert F3 victory celebration with parents, Tecno 68 Ford , 1968

(unattributed)

Francois celebrates a 1968 F3 victory with his parents, circuit not disclosed. Tecno 68 Ford F3.

Below, Ceverts #44 Tecno in the Monaco F3 paddock 1968- #39 Francois Mazet also Tecno 68 Ford mounted and #40 Etienne Vigoureux Martini MW3 Ford.

(unattributed)

Francois Cevert, Tyrrell 002 Ford, USGP 1971

(unattributed)

Francois, Monza 1971, Tyrrell 002 Ford.

He was third in that blink of an eye finish between Peter Gethin, Ronnie Peterson, March 711 Ford, Francois and Mike Hailwood, Surtees TS9 Ford- Gethin’s BRM P160 V12 was the victor by a tenth of a second from Peterson and Cevert.

Credits…

Automobile Year 16, DPPI, The Nostalgia Forum’, F2 Index, oldracingcars.com

Finito…

Lellas’ Lola Lives!…Peter Brennans’ Restoration of Lola T330 Chev ‘HU18’ Episode # 4

Posted: October 27, 2014 in Features, Restoration
Tags: F5000, John Turner, Lella Lombardi, Lola T330 Chev, Lola T330 Chev 'HU18', Peter Brennan

Peter Brennan blasts his Lola down Phillip Islands straight on Saturday 27 September 2014, the car last ran in John Turners’ hands at Brands Hatch on 19 October 1975, only 39 years ago!…

Over the last three episodes of ‘Racers Retreat’ we have covered Peters’ purchase of the car in the US, and its rapid restoration commencing in August 2013, the car finally made its debut at a Phillip Island test day a month ago.

Australian readers should get to Sandown on 7-9 th November to see the car make its first race appearance in a huge field of F5000 cars in the Victorian Historic Racing Registers’ annual historic race meeting at the great Melbourne suburban venue.

John Turner at Thruxton in ‘HU18’ earlier in 1975 (tinkerwinkerTNF)

John Turner bought the car from Jackie Epstein at the end of 1974, after Lombardis’ year in it. He raced the car in many rounds of the 1975 Shellsport UK Series, finishing fifth in that final race at Brands, Peter Gethins Team VDS Lola T400 Chev won the race and the sister T400 of Teddy Pilette won the championship.

Turner sold the car to Jim Burnett for use as a central seat CanAm car, and as covered earlier in the series of articles the car was damaged in a factory fire until rescued by Peter many years later…here in his workshop just prior to the massive job of restoration.

Phillip Island Test…

Peter Brennan all loaded up…livery all 100% period correct 1973 ‘shellSport 208’ team. Front brake ducts taped over in this shot

It was a beautiful September day, fortunately the ‘Islands weather gods were smiling…’I had been looking forward to the first run of the car, checking and re-checking the thing over the prior weeks, and firing it up a million times, then the bloody thing wouldn’t start for the first session!’

‘I had plenty of advice of course, but the bloody magneto had cacked itself, they are like a flighty girlfriend , here one minute and gone the next! I didn’t take a lot of spares with me, but i did have a spare mag, so we fitted that and were ready to rock and roll’.

‘Off we go ot onto the circuit in session two, i went about eighty metres and it died, i slowed down and it cut out. I checked the fuel pressure and volumes, the engine is on Webers. After a lot of thought i took the air-boxes off the carbs and that did the trick. I hadn’t created vents in the airboxes to allow excessive pressure to escape, the set-up cannot be fully sealed, i got advice from Peter Molloy and others after the weekend’.

Look closely at this shot, on the RHS of the carb base plate near the rollbar and you can see the breather holes cut to relieve surplus pressure in the airbox…4 thirsty 48 IDA Webers…’nasty’ magneto cap just visible to the left between the oil tank and carb base plates

‘After that change the car was sensational, even using the basic initial settings. Later in the day i did 6 1:36 laps without pushing hard at all. The thing is a jet, really quick. Most of the fiddling around on the day was just getting comfy in the car, the gearchange is a little close to me and the cockpit is as tight as…i’m not a svelte 18 year old anymore!’

‘Before Sandown we need to just check the thing over, the airbox bleed is done, re-align it and so on. Its amazing how much fuel the thing uses 3.7 litres per lap. I can afford the car but not the fuel to put in it, i used 90 litres on the day at $3.75 per litre! Time to drill an oil-well at home in the eastern suburbs’.

See the rear wing compared with episode # 3. Far-back original wing supports banned by FIA at the end of 1973..attention to detail in the restoration superb, our mature age driver doing his best to find some space…

‘HU18’ to early, original T330 spec. Carbs common in the UK then, early airbox setup, far rear mounted wing, and none of the T332 mods to the tub, bodywork and suspension that most 330’s modifed to T332 spec received in period to keep them competitive

Front suspension typical of period. Upper and lower unequal length wisbbones, coil spring damper units (Koni double adjustable alloy shocks), adjustable roll bar

Roll on Sandown for Episode 5 in November, be there if you can!…

Photo Credits…

Peter Brennan, Jay Bondini

Finito…

The Most Versatile Ever? Magic Mario Andretti…

Posted: October 24, 2014 in F1, Features, Icons & Iconoclasts
Tags: 1969 'Motor Trend 500' Riverside, 1969 Indianapolis 500, 1969 USAC Championship, Brawner Hawk Ford, Ferrari 312P, Kuzma D/Offy, Lotus 63 Ford, Mario Andretti, Pikes Peak 1969, Sacramento 100 1969

Mario Andretti ‘using the cushion’ during qualifying for the ‘Sacramento 100’ Champ Car event, California, Fall 1969…

The Sacramento 100 was contested at the California Sate Fairgrounds in Sacramento, 100 laps of a one mile oval on 28 September. The event was won by Al Unser from Gary Bettenhausen and brother Bobby Unser. Mario had a loss of oil pressure, retiring his 1960 Kuzma D/Offy on lap 83, winning $853 for his efforts…

andretti 66 — Bernard Cahiers’ portrait of Mario Andretti circa 1966

Magic Mario…

One of my mates contends that the title of ‘most versatile racer ever’ goes to John Surtees hands down, it’s hard to argue with the ‘World Championships on two wheels and four’ line of logic. The only other contenders are Mike Hailwood and, perhaps Johnny Cecotto, with Hailwood the far better credentialled of the two on four wheels.

But what about most versatile on four wheels?

Right up until the 1970s the nature of drivers contracts allowed them to race in other classes. In fact the pro’s needed to race lots of cars to earn the start and prize-money to eke out a living. The likes of Jim Clark could and would jump from Lotus Cortina, to Lotus 30 sportscar, to Lotus 25 GP car, and then some, in British national meetings.

It isn’t necessarily the case that drivers will be equivalently quick in single seaters, sports cars, touring cars, on bitumen and dirt, and road and speedway courses, but that is the criteria to apply in working out our ‘most versatile’.

If we limit ourselves to the absolute elite, Grand Prix winners, there are a few names which usually come up in these conversations: Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, John Surtees, Dan Gurney and Mario Andretti to name a few. I’m not discounting the Pre-War aces who raced GP and Sports cars on varying surfaces, but suggest the greater variety of cars was available to post-war rather than pre-war drivers.

hill and mario — Lotus GP teammates that year, Mario Andretti and Graham Hill, Indy 1969. Hill is an absolute candidate for most versatile as the only winner of motor racings Triple Crown: World F1 title, Le Mans and Indy 500 victories (unattributed)

Moss apart from his obvious success in GP and sportscars, also rallied successfully.

Brabham’s career started on Sydney speedways, and then encompassed single seaters of all types, front and mid-engined like most of his peers, some sportscars, and some touring cars. He also raced Champcars and Can-Am. So Jack has to be up-there in consideration.

John Surtees is very similarly credentialled to Brabham without the speedway or equivalent dirt experience.

Dan Gurney is similar to Jack, but without the dirt background. He came from the West Coast sportscar scene, not through the rough and tumble of dirt speedways, and then into road racing in the way AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones and Mario Andretti did.

Mario is hard to toss as our most versatile ever. He started in speedway racing sedans and midgets, then into faster cars, dirt champcars, paved speedway champcars, into Nascar whilst still racing on dirt speedways and then as he built his name and reputation, he moved into road racing as well.

He was scooped up for the factory Ford GT40 program, to Lotus in grands prix, and all the rest, but still, well into the 1970s racing speedway – he walked away from GP racing for a while in the 1970s as he could not get the driving variety he sought by signing a restrictive F1 contract – Vels Parnelli, the American team with whom he made his F1 comeback allowing that freedom.

Lotus 64 Indy 1969 — Andretti testing the Lotus 64 Ford, 4WD and turbo-charged at Indy. The car was fast in testing, but a hub failed causing Andretti to hit the wall hard, with no time to rectify the problem, the cars were withdrawn and Andretti drove his regular USAC mount, a Hawk Ford to victory (unattributed)

Its interesting to look at just one season, 1969 to see the breadth of cars, classes, surfaces, and circuit types on which he raced, just to test my contention…

Early in the year he raced at Sebring, co-driving a factory Ferrari 312P with Chris Amon. In March he did the first of three 1969 Grands’ Prix for Lotus – the South African GP, he also contested the German GP at the Nurburgring and US GP at Watkins Glen later in the year.

His maiden GP was at Watkins Glen, in upstate New York, the year before, 1968, he put his Lotus 49 on pole, really shaking the established order. In 1969 he drove both the conventional Lotus 49 and experimental, four-wheel drive Lotus 63, quite different challenges, the latter a very unsuccessful car.

LOTUS 63 — Another challenge…driving the Lotus 63 Ford 4 wheel drive car on the Nurburgring, one of the toughest driving challenges in one of 1969’s worst cars. The 4WD experiments that year of Matra, McLaren and Lotus were all unsuccessful, tyre technology and wings providing the grip the teams sought with 4WD (unattributed)

brawner — Andy Granatelli of STP, crew and Andretti in the 1969 Indy winning Brawner Hawk Ford, a turbo-charged 2.65-litre V8 (unattributed)

His primary program for 1969 was the USAC Championship. Most of May was spent at Indy, very successfully, winning the 500 in his turbo-charged Brawner Hawk III Ford V8 on the famous Super Speedway. He won the 1969 USAC Championship which was contested on five dirt speedways, ten races on paved tracks, eight on road courses, and a hillclimb, this series alone a true test of a driver’s versatility and adaptability.

In late June he contested the Pikes Peak Hillclimb, winning it in a mid-engined Chevy V8 powered open-wheeler on the famous dirt course 12.4 mile ‘climb to the clouds’.

hawk ford — Andretti in his Hawk Ford, Pikes Peak 1968, he was 4th in ’68, won in ’69, the majestric but challenging nature of the course readily apparent (unattributed)

The Can-Am was run annually in the Summer. Holman & Moody entered a Ford 429 powered McLaren M6B in several of the events, not a particulary competitive car, but another quite different driving and engineering challenge. Andretti in a factory McLaren M8B would have been quite someting to watch!

Mario Andretti Riverside 1969, Ford — Mario in his Ford, ‘Motor Trend 500’ Nascar race on the Riverside road circuit February 1969. He qualified seventh and was classified 18th after engine failure on lap 132 (spokeo)

Mario only did one Nascar event in 1969…at Riverside in February, one of the road racing circuits on the tour, it was never a big part of his career but still demonstrates his versatility.

Andretti raced on 34 weekends in 1969. His season commenced with a front-engined, rear drive Ford Nascar and then a Ferrari mid-engined 3-litre V12 sports prototype…the Lotus GP cars he raced were the 3-litre Ford Cosworth normally aspirated V8 powered 2WD 49, and the 4WD 63.

His Hawk ‘Indycar’, for paved road-courses and speedways was a mid-engined single-seater, 2WD car powered by a turbo-charged Ford V8, but he also practiced the Lotus 64 mid-engined 4WD Turbo Ford at Indy.

His dirt-track ‘Kuzma’ was a front engined, rear drive four cylinder Offy powered single seater His McLaren Can-Am car a mid-engined sports car powered by a normally aspirated 429CID Ford, finally his Pikes Peak car was a Chev engined ‘Grant King’.

The variety of cars and different driving challenges is enormous, the differences in cars and venues in one year of his career qualifies him as our most versatile ever! Let alone the other four decades in which he competed.

Andretti won the World Drivers Championship in a Lotus 79 Ford in 1978 and he returned to Indycars after leaving F1, his last Indycar was win in 1993. Perhaps the only big win which eluded him is at Le Mans, but he was successful elsewhere in sportscars of course.

He is synonymous with speed, and revered globally as a champion driver, sportsman and ambassador for our sport…he is also, surely, the most versatile driver ever?

Andretti Ford Mercury 1969 — The gift of communication…Andretti with the press, Riverside 1969. Ford Mercury Cougar (unattributed)

Photo Credits…

Pinterest unattributed, Spokeo, The Cahier Archive, Getty images-Paul Rondeau

Tailpiece…

Mario makes a pitstop at Phoenix Speedway to take his final open-wheeler win, Lola T93 Cosworth XB, April 4, 1993.

It was Andretti’s fourth career win at Phoenix, and at 53 years, seven months and seven days old he became the oldest recorded Indycar winner on a traditional road course, as well as the first driver to win car races in five consecutive decades. Andretti still holds Indycar records for most starts (407), most poles (67) most laps led (7595) and most career top-three finishes (144).

Finito…

James Hunt: ‘Rose City 10000’, Winton Raceway, Australia,1978: Elfin MR8 Chev…

Posted: October 15, 2014 in F1, Features
Tags: Bruce Allison, Elfin MR8 Chev, F5000, Garrie Cooper, James Hunt, McLaren M26 Ford, Vern Schuppan, Winton Raceway, Wolf WR9 Ford

Ian Smiths’ wonderful shot shows James Hunt balancing his Elfin MR8B Chev on the turn into the Winton Esses, 29 October 1978, his final race win. Winton ‘Rose City 10000’. (Ian Smith/ autopics.com.au)

James Hunt wins the ‘Rose City 1000’ at Winton Raceway, Benalla, Victoria, Australia in October 1978…

James Hunt was a hit with the spectators, media, and the Elfin Team, a professional in every respect. ‘Kojak’, McLaren mechanic Ray Grant to Hunts’ right. Winton paddock. (oldracephotos.com)

Racing in Australia…

Hunt enjoyed his interlude in Australia, he was frustrated with his McLaren M26 in F1, McLaren having lost their ‘design mojo’, the Colin Chapman/Peter Wright ground effects Lotus 78 and 79 dominating the 1977 and 1978 seasons. Mario Andretti easily won the World Drivers Championship in 1978, Hunt finished thirteenth, and failed to complete races on nine occasions.

In search of grip, downforce…the ground effect Lotus 79 got something for nothing whilst everybody else played catch-up in 1977-8. Hunt in his bi-winged McLaren M26 Ford, Spanish GP 1978. Andrettis’ Lotus 79 won from pole, James a lap down in 6th place (pinterest)

James joined Wolf for 1979, optimistic that his old mate and designer from the Hesketh days, Harvey Postlethwaite could ‘produce the good’s, but frustrated with the nature of ground effect cars generally, and the lack of competitiveness of the Wolf WR9 specifically, retired from racing at Monaco.

So, we were lucky to see the first recent World Champion in Australia at all, his late 1978 Winton victory, in fact his last race win of any kind!

The whole exercise was bizarre really, the Winton event an annual stand alone race outside the ‘Gold Star’ the then prestigious series to decide Australia’s Champion Driver, the Australian National Championship Formula at the time was Formula 5000, for single seaters powered by 500BHP production based V8’s.

‘Kenlaw Promotions’ Ken Campbell, together with the Benalla Auto Club, the Winton promoter, secured Hunt for $30000, half paid up front and half after he raced plus expenses, a lot of money at the time. Elfin were to be paid $10000 for supply of the car ‘end to end’, that is prepared and maintained at the circuit.

A huge amount of publicity was generated by Hunts presence in Australia, attendances at the circuit on the weekend, of around 15000 people on raceday reflective of interest in both his driving talent and flamboyant tabloid lifestyle. He arrived ‘pissed’ but still handled the media upon arrival with aplomb! Hunts’ entourage included his brother Peter, his McLaren mechanic Ray Grant, and a friend.

The car was entirely prepared by the Elfin crew, lead by Peter Fowler, based at racer Bryan Thomsons’ workshop in nearby Shepparton…Hunt arrived in Australia after the season ending Canadian GP, no doubt the experience in country Victoria was a reminder of his English Club Racing roots!

John Lanyon in the ‘Elfin Bible’ (‘Australia’s Elfin Sports And Racing Cars’ by John Blanden & Barry Catford) outlines in detail how professional and easy Hunt was to deal with, treating the car, team and Garrie Cooper with a great deal of respect..

Elfin MR8 Chev…

Garrie Cooper debuting the brand new Elfin MR8 Chev # ‘8761’ at the Sandown round of the ‘Rothmans Series’, February 1976. Chisel nose and relative size of the car a contrast to the smaller MR5/6. No airbox at this stage, side deformable structure nicely integrated into side, rearward mounted radiators. Car beautifully finished and detailed, suspension all nickel plated and gleaming in the Summer sun…

Elfin were Australia’s foremost manufacturer of racing cars, Garrie Coopers small concern in Edwardstown, South Australia producing well over 250 cars and over 20 different models from the late 1950’s, until the late 1980’s after his death. The company still produces road sports cars.

The MR8 incorporated all of the knowledge Cooper accumulated in building ‘big bangers’ ; the 400, ME5, and MS7 V8 Sports Racers and particularly the MR5 and MR6 F5000 cars.

Elfin built 4 MR5 Repco Holden engined cars; ‘works cars’ for Cooper and John McCormack and customer cars for Max Stewart and John Walker. The MR6 was bespoke for McCormack, and designed around the light, aluminium Repco Leyland ‘P76′ V8.

Consistent and dogged development of McCormacks MR5 and MR6, by both Elfin and McCormacks’ own team based ‘around the corner’ from the Elfin factory, the MR6 once fitted with a Repco Holden engine, produced race and championship winning cars.

But the bar was raised with the Lola T330/332, so Cooper needed to produce something special for 1976.

Garrie considered using Repco Holdens again but Repco had long withdrawn from racing so the cost and ongoing development of the small block Chev made that the sensible choice, his first car powered by an ex-Bob Muir Peter Molloy ‘prepped Chev.

The chassis was a conventional aluminium monocoque made of 16 and 18 gauge aluminium, with tubular steel sub frames used front and rear and a roll bar braced fore and aft.

Familiar Elfin rear suspension practice was followed with twin radius rods, twin parallel lower links, single top link, and coil spring dampers. Front suspension was by wishbones top and bottom, again using coil spring damper units, alloy Konis front and rear, and adjustable roll bars front and rear.

MR8 # ‘8761’ rear suspension. Complex fabrications supports conventional set up of single top link, twin parallel lower links, twin radius rods , and combined coil spring damper (Koni) units, stood up vertically as was the trend of the day. Battery mounted at rear in ‘single post’ rear wing support (Peter Brennan Collection)

Front and rear track was 1625mm, similar to the T330/2, and the wheelbase 2640mm, 30mm longer than the MR5.

A special Elfin casting replaced the standard Hewland DG300 gearbox item and incorporated mounts for both the rear wing and attachment points for the rear suspension subframe.

Brakes were Lockheed and steering Elfins own rack & pinion.

The aerodynamics of the great looking car were a departure from the full-width ‘Tyrrell Nose’ of the MR5/6 to the chisel nose setup Cooper had experimented with on his MR5B.

Three MR8’s were built, one each in 1976, 77′ and ’78 the cars raced by champion drivers including Vern Schuppan, John Bowe, Larry Perkins, Bruce Allison, Didier Pironi, and of course Hunt…

Garrie Cooper also raced the cars, his unique contribution as designer/builder/driver critical in keeping the cars competitive throughout this long period.

Hunts car was the Reg Orr owned MR8B Chev, chassis # 8783, the last of the MR8’s built.

The very last Elfin F5000, the only bespoke ground effect Fornula 5000 car built in the world, perhaps the very last F5000 car built in the world, the MR9 Chev is a story for another time…

Front suspension conventional unequal length upper and lower wishbones, coil spring/ damper unit and adjustable roll bar. Cast magnesium Elfin uprights front and rear. Car built by the same team but to my mind the MR8 was built to a higher standard of finish than MR5/6 (Peter Brennan Collection)

The 1978 ‘Rose City 10000’…

On the Wednesday and Thursday prior to the meeting the car was adjusted to suit Hunt; seat, pedals, steering, gear shift and a small lever added to the belts to aid exit.

He covered six laps on Thursday but the circuit was dirty and wet Friday, so Hunts first serious drive of the car was on Saturday.

Garrie Coopers diary records as follows ‘ James was very impressive right from the start being very smooth and precise and getting the power on noticeably earlier than the others. Right throughout practice fine adjustments were made to the car to balance it as required. He was always adamant when he pulled into the pits that he see the times he recorded and those of his nearest rivals . After making an adjustment he would go out and improve on his time. This continued through the practice sessions until he finished up putting a string of low 55 second laps…however he seemed to pace himself to the opposition and could have gone quicker again. At no time did he appear ragged or put a wheel off the bitumen…’

Hunt told the local media the Elfin was ‘ A lot better than the Eagle I drove. (He raced an eagle for Dan Gurney in 1974) It seems a good car, it is very forgiving and drives a lot easier. It’s good to have a competitive car for a change. It’s a nice feeling!’ referring to his hapless 1978 season.

Hunt was on pole with a 55 second lap, John McCormack next on 55.7, the race was easily won by Hunt with Alfie Costanzo second around 40 seconds behind in his Lola T332. Mac was credited with the fastest lap, Hunt pacing himself and taking it easy on the car. John Lanyon recalls ‘There was no wear and tear on the car at all. Nothing at all. You would think he hadn’t taken it off the truck. That’s both after practice and the race. he brought the car back in beautiful condition.’

Whilst Hunt was paid, the race was a financial disaster for the Benalla Auto Club and Elfin who were only paid $1000 of the $10000 contracted…still, Barry Catford observed in his book that the win was the fillip the team needed for 1979 after a tough season including Garrie Coopers horrible, but lucky escape from the accident caused by his wing mount failure at Sandown shortly before Hunts’ visit.

How Good Was the Elfin MR8 ?…

Its interesting to speculate about how good the MR8 was in relation to its ‘competitor set’ ; the Lola T332 (first model 1974), Lola T400 (1975), Chevron B37 (1976) , Lola T430(1976), Matich A53 (1974) etc.

Two drivers raced the Elfin and other F5000’s, Vern Schuppan and Bruce Allison.

There are various quotes in the ‘Elfin Bible’ of Schuppan comparing the MR8 favourably with the Lola T332 but later in life he seems to have changed his view.

Despite buying an MR8 to use as a Single-Seater Can Am car, having raced both the Lola T332 and MR8, Schuppan rated the Lola T332 the better car, which begs the question, why buy the Elfin if you thought the Lola the better car?

In any event Vern observes’…The Lola T332 was certainly significantly better than the Elfin MR8, Gurneys Eagle, the Trojan T101 0r the Chevron B28’s. The Chevron I raced was quite tired and also a bit flexible but not in a good way’ Schuppan wrote in Wolfgang Klopfers book, ‘Formula 5000 in NZ & Australia Race by Race’.

He continued, ‘The Lola T332 was a wonderful car, it was quick everywhere, I believe it handled well because it was rather flexible…It was a bit like a big go-kart, and although the flex wasn’t designed into it, it, coupled with quite long rear suspension travel , helped to soak up the weight of the Chevrolet engine. This seemed to give the car an advantage in both slow and fast corners. It didn’t always look quick in slow corners…it just put the power down so well without a lot of sliding around or oversteer. It was excellent too, in the wet.’

Vern Schuppan in his MR8, chassis # ‘8772’ in Single-Seat Can Am configuration, Road America, Wisconsin 1979. Vern was 5th in the race won by Jacky Ickx Lola T333CS (Glenn Snyder)

Bruce Allison’s F5000 CV started with his ex-Bartlett T332 straight out of an ANF2 Birrana 274, he took to the 5 litre cars like a ‘duck to water’ and instantly became the ‘enfant terrible’ of the F5000 grid in Australia in 1975, guided, prepared and advised by the great Peter Molloy, as Warwick Brown and Niel Allen had been before him.

Bruce raced the ex-VDS Chevron B37 in both the UK, winning the prestigious Grovewood Award in 1977, and in Australia. He raced an F5000 March for Theodore Racing as teammate to Alan Jones, and also the MR8, once, after he had retired for the first time!

‘I hadn’t raced since my last race in the UK, I got a call from John Lanyon, of Elfins’ to bolster the numbers at Calder in early 1982. I duly practiced on the Friday and raced the car on the weekend finishing in the top 5, I don’t remember exactly where. (Looking at the Elfin book, Bruce finished second to John Wrights’ LolaT400, just in front of Garrie Cooper in the Elfin MR9 and took the fastest race lap) It was such a long time, five years, since I had raced a 5 litre car, I raced a March 781 F1 car in the Shellsport Championship in the UK, that I can’t really make comparisons of the MR8 to the other cars.’

‘I had a lot of success with the Lola, but in the UK the B37 was the quickest of the F5000 and F1 cars running the Shellsport Series that year, and I didn’t finish the season. The Chevron was quicker I believe, through the faster corners, the T332 quicker both through the slower stuff and in a straight line. Overall the Lola had the edge.’

‘In the Theodore Team in the US in 1976 i was number two to AJ (Alan Jones), so AJ got the T332, the March 76A allocated to me, it was a shocker of a car, although it was good in the wet, AJ won a race in it late in the season in wet conditions, when he raced it having boofed the Lola. With the benefit of hindsight I would have been better taking my T332 to the US, it was such a well-sorted car, Molloy Chev and all, I would have been far more competitive…’

Bruce was generous with his time and anecdotes but I’ll save those for an article on the one off, gorgeous Chevron B37 itself.

Peter Brennan has raced and restored an Elfin MR5, MR8, Matich A50, and recently the Lola T330 we have covered in ‘Racers Retreat’. I asked him about the construction of the MR8 relative to the other cars…’The tub on the MR8 is much stronger than the T330/332. It has a good forward roll-hoop, the Lola got that only when it was mandated. The Lola is weak from the drivers knees forward’.

‘The T330 was light, mine is 620Kg, my MR8 was 684 Kg, the T332 will be closer to the MR8 in weight with its deformable side structures, oil lines forward, bigger radiators and heavier bodywork, which in some cars is all-enveloping’.

‘The Lola was much better built than the Elfin in the driveline, spindles, uprights, radius rods etc’.

Race-winner though the MR8 was, their is little doubt, no revelation here!, that the Lola T330/332 was the F5000 of the era, the greatest F5000 car ever, as well as one of the most successful single-seaters of any class in any era of racing history.

Bruce Allison in the Reg Orr owned Elfin MR8, chassis # ‘8783’ at Calder , February 1982, nose of the Cooper ground effect Elfin MR9 Chev alongside…This is the same car James Hunt drove to victory at Winton in 1976 and in which John Bowe had much success. (Velocity Retro)

Wolf WR9 and Hunts short 1979 Season…

Hunt started 1979 with plenty of optimism and hope but ground effects was a ‘black-art’, designers and engineers learning what aerodynamic shapes of sidepod worked and coping with the sorts of loads the aluminium monocoques of the day struggled with.

Narrow chassis’ to accomodate ground effect tunnels created torsional rigidity problems not encountered by designers to that point. Even Colin Chapman lost his way…the wingless Lotus 80 was a flop, the class of the 1979 field the Williams FW07, the best ‘refined Lotus 79 copy’ of the year, albeit Ferrari won the title as a consequence of the FW07’s late arrival…

Postlethwaites Wolf WR9 was unsuccessful. James ‘pulled the pin’ on a short but stellar GP career in Monaco, opening the door to Keke Rosbergs’ first ‘good drive’, one door closes and another opens…In Hunts case his wonderful partnership with Murray Walker as broadcasters of the BBC GP coverage commenced.

Few of us will forget the Hunt magic and charisma on display at Wonderful Winton all those years ago, and yes, by all accounts the Hunt Touring Group partied hard at the end of the meeting!

James Hunts’ Wolf WR9 Ford in his last Grand Prix, Monaco 1979. DNF with transmission failure on lap 4, the car was not Harvey Postlethwaites’ most successful design. (pinterest)

Etcetera…

MR8 ‘8761’ : cars used chisel nose unlike the earlier MR5/6. Roll hoop provides driver protection and chassis bracing, mandated from 1975 season. Car alongside is the ex Brown/ Costanzo Lola T430 then owned by Bob Minogue (Peter Brennan Collection)

MR8 pictured is the Ex-Cooper chassis # ‘8761’ then owned by Peter Brennan. Nice profile shot shows beautifully integrated body, deformable structure, the MR8 equal if not faster than any of its imported contemporaries from 1976 to the classes end in Australia in 1982…(Peter Brennan Collection)

‘Motor’ Magazine Australia track test of the MR8 in early 1979. Racer Sue Ransom tested the car with Vern Schuppan doing the timed runs; 0-100kmh 2.9 sec, 0-160 4.9 sec, 0-240 10 sec. Standing 400 metres 9.75 sec. Top speed geared for Adelaide International Raceway 275kmh. (Peter Brennan Collection)

Credits…

Ian Smith, autopics.com.au, oldracephotos.com, Glenn Snyder RJS Collection, Pinterest, Peter Brennan Collection

‘Australias Elfin Sports and Racing Cars’ John Blanden & Barry Catford

‘Formula 5000 in NZ and Australia Race by Race’ Wolfgang Klopfer

Many thanks to both Peter Brennan and Bruce Allison for their contributions to this article

Other F5000 Articles…

Frank Matich and his cars.

Frank Matich: Matich F5000 Cars etcetera…

Shadow DN6B Dodge.

Shadow DN6B Dodge: Road America F5000 1976…

Finito…

1956 ‘Argus Trophy’ Albert Park: Reg Hunt and Lex Davison: Maserati 250F and A6GCM: Ferrari Tipo 500…

Posted: October 1, 2014 in Features, Who,What,Where & When...?
Tags: Albert Park Circuit, Ferrari Tipo 500, Kevin Neal, Lex Davison, Maserati 250F, Maserati A6GCM, Reg Hunt

Reg Hunt, Kevin Neal and Lex Davison launch their ‘Italian Stallions’ off the line at the start of Albert Parks’ 150 mile ‘Argus Trophy’…

Hunts’ #2 Maserati 250F won the race from Davisons’ #4 Tipo 500 Ferrari with Neal #3 third in Hunts’ old Maser A6GCM. Thats Tom Hawkes in the ex-Brabham ‘Redex Special’ #7 Cooper Holden Repco making its debut with that engine at this meeting. Arthur Griffiths in the ex-Davison 1954 AGP winning #5 HWM Jaguar is on row two. Further back is Bill Wilcox in the ex-Jeff Scorer, ex-works/Gaze #9 Alta and Bill Craigs’ ex-Whitehead, Holden engined and rebodied # 11 Alta.

There were two racing carnivals at Albert Park in 1956. This ‘Moomba’ Meeting (Moomba is still a marvellous annual Melbourne late Summer festival) in March and the Australian Grand Prix meetings after the Melbourne Olympic Games in the last weekend of November and the first in December. Similarly, the ‘Moomba’ meeting was held over two weekends, race days were Sunday 11 and 18 March 1956.

In many ways the image symbolises an era of single seater racing just underway in Australia, the dominance of the current ‘Red Cars’ from Italy ending a period when the Australian Special, and older ex-works European cars held sway.

Racing at Albert Park…

Barry Green in his wonderful book ‘Glory Days’, writes that their was a strong push to race at Albert Park in 1934. The Light Car Club of Australia, (LCCA) the promoter of race meetings at Phillip Island were aware of the ‘Islands growing unsuitability with its loose gravel surface as speeds increased. Extensive negotiations secured Albert Park as the venue for a race meeting to celebrate the Centenary of Victoria in 1935.

The ‘Sun News Pictorial’ one of the Melbourne daily tabloids, and then as now a good thing in which to wrap ones fish n’ chips, announced the event on June 4 1934.

In doing so the ‘paper lit the fuse of naysayers who brought about the events cancellation, but not before racers Arthur Terdich, Bill Lowe, Barney Dentry, and Cyril Dickason in Bugatti, Lombard, and Austins respectively, lapped the track with mufflers fitted to prove noise wasn’t the issue…

Post war things were a little different and a partnership between the LCCA, the Army who had a facility at Albert Park, and Victorian Labor Senator Pat Kennelly were more successful.

The three provided the combination of race organisation and promotional ability, logistical capability, the Army being able to ‘man’ Albert Park, a site of some 570 acres, and political power and influence.

For all three groups the ability to raise funds in the aftermath of World War 2 was important. For the army funding for war widows and orphans, for Kennelly the ability to finance much needed improvements to the park to improve the local amenity for the working class community, and for the LCCA, the improvement of motor racing.

And so, the 1953 Australian Grand Prix held at Albert Park over 64 laps, 200 miles in total was won by Doug Whiteford in a Lago-Talbot, the last AGP win for French Racing Blue…

1953 was the commencement of Albert Parks ‘first phase’ as a race track lasting five short years until November 1958 when the naysayers again held sway…until 1996 when again the political pendulum swung in the sports and business’ favour, Victorian Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett ‘snatching’ the race from Adelaide…

Lex Davison #3 HWM Jag, Stan Jones #2 Maybach, and Doug Whiteford in the winning Lago-Talbot at the start of the 1953 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, the venues first race meeting on November 21. Cec Warren #6 Maserati 4CLT, Frank Kleinig #7 Kleinig Hudson 8, W Hayes #10 Ford V8 Spl, and a badly smoking Ted Gray #11 Alta Ford V8 (AGP website)

The Big Red Italian Cars…

I wrote about Reg Hunt a while back, https://primotipo.com/2014/07/19/reg-hunt-australian-ace-of-the-1950s/ .He was an Englishman with a family background in the motor-trade, who came to Australia in 1949. By 1953 his ealerships were doing well enough to return to the UK for a season of F3, in a 500cc Cooper Norton Mk8 in 1954. He did well against the best and arrived back in Oz, razor sharp and with a big, red, modern, ex-works Italian car…

His ex-Gonzalez Maserati A6GCM started life as 1953 2 litre chassis # 2041 but was renumbered # 2503 after a 250F engine was fitted for the new 2.5 litre F1 which commenced in 1954. Sold to Harry Schell for that season it arrived in Australia late in the year and was first tested by Hunt at Fishermans Bend before being raced at Ardmore for the 1955 NZGP where he popped it on the front row along with Prince Biras’ 250F. Bira lead the race from start to finish, Hunt fifth in a field which included the Whitehead and Gaze Ferrari 500/625’s.

Hunt was stiff not to win the 1955 Australian Grand Prix in the A6GCM at Port Wakefield, a broken cam-follower slowing him and handing victory to Jack Brabhams Cooper Bobtail.

Not to be outdone, and needing to remain competitive, Lex Davison, the 1954 AGP winner acquired his good friend Tony Gazes’ Ferrari 500/625, the car fitted with a 625 engine enlarged to 3 litres. These Lampredi designed, big-bore 4 cylinder DOHC engines a mainstay of Ferrari single-seaters and sports cars throughout the 50’s.

In recent years, having passed into the ownership of the ‘Wheatcroft Collection’ in the early 60’s, the car has been identified as Tipo 500#5, Alberto Ascaris’ 1952 and 1953 World Championship winning chassis, the ‘winningest’ chassis of all time with at least ten Grands’ Prix victories…but at the time Davo had just acquired a competitive car which would be very kind to him in years to come.

It was Lexs’ first meeting in the car, a change in gearing a mistake in set-up which blunted the cars performance, but the promise of the combination was undeniable.

Having made such an impression with the A6GCM Hunt had no trouble convincing Maserati to part with a more recent mount, securing Jean Behra’s 1955 factory 250F, chassis #2516, the car winning non-championship Grands’ Prix in Pau and Bordeaux in that year.

Hunt won both the feature racing car events of the Moomba meeting. Davison second in both and Neal third in one, DNF in another, in the car the Melbourne transport business man was to buy from Hunt.

Before long Stan Jones also acquired a 250F, a more recent spec car than Hunts’.

The mid-engined F1 Coopers were not far away, but for the moment, a wonderful era of modern ‘Big Front Engined Red Racing Cars’ had arrived in Australia…ending with the 1959 Australian Grand Prix, but we will come to that !

Reg Hunt leads Lex Davison , Maserati 250F and Ferrari Tipo 500, Albert Park ‘Moomba Races’ March 1956. Check out the trees, kerbs, and very thick chain wire fence on these everyday suburban roads within the park! Crowd of over 70,000 in attendance (museumvictoria.com.au)

Albert Park Road Circuit 1950’s. Length 3.13 miles, direction of travel the opposite to the modern circuit which is true to, if not identical to the spirit of this fabulous, historic venue. Barry Green ‘Glory Days’

Alberto Ascari #5 in the Gaze/Davison Ferrari Tipo 500/5, alongside Froilan Gonzalez #24 in the Hunt/Neal Maserati A6GCM/2041/2503 at the start of the 1953 British GP at Silverstone which Ascari won. #8 is Mike Hawthorn, behind him #7 Luigi Villoresi both in Ferrari Tipo 500’s. The wheel on the far right is Fangio in a Maser A6GCM. The blue car beside Hawthorn is Onofre Marimon also in a Maser A6GCM. The green car behind Villoresi is Tony Rolts Connaught Lea Francis , and beside him the green car with white noseband is Ken Whartons’ Cooper Bristol. (Mirror Archive)

Credits…

‘Glory Days’ by Barry Green; oldracephotos.com, museumvictoria.com.au, AGP Website, Mirror Archive

Finito…

Enzo Ferrari framed by his 312P: Ferrari 312P 1969…

Posted: September 21, 2014 in Features, Sports Racers
Tags: 1970 Le Mans 24 Hour, Chris Amon, Enzo Ferrari, Ferrari 312P, Mike Parkes, NART, Peter Schetty, Tony Adamowicz

Enzo Ferrari at the launch of his 1969 endurance contender the 312P…

Motorsports governing body introduced new sports car rules for 1968; Group 4 Sports Cars with a capacity limit of 5 litres and a minimum production of 50 cars, and Group 6 Prototypes with a maximum of 3 litres. In effect the CSI were making obsolete the ‘unlimited cars’ being built by Ford and Ferrari, ( the 7 litre ‘pushrod’ Ford MkIV, 4 litre ‘racing engine’ Ferrari P4) which they considered were getting too fast for the circuits of the time.

Ferrari, in time honored fashion didn’t race in 1968 in protest at this sudden rule change but returned in 1969 with the Group 6 312P, again in time honored fashion using many parts he had ‘on the shelf ‘ from other cars.

The chassis used was a downsized version of their 1968 Can Am challenger the 612P…It was a semi-monocoque, a spacefarme reinforced by aluminium sheet. The first cars were built with high downforce Spyder bodywork, but later cars were built or re-bodied for Le Mans as stunning low drag Coupes.

Aluminium semi-monocoque chassis. Double wisbones, coil springs, Koni shocks at front. Single top link, lower inverted wishbone, twin radius rods, coil springs and Koni shocks at rear. Adjustable sway bars front and rear. Rack & pinion steering. Ventilated discs all round. 680 Kg.

The 3 litre V12 was based on the highly successful old sports car engine albeit with 4 valve heads and Lucas fuel injection…Ferrari claimed 420 BHP, all of which hit the road through a 5 speed transaxle.

312P engine, 5 speed gearbox and rear suspension. 60 degree V12, 2.99 litres. 77X53.5mm bore/stroke. 11:1 compression ratio. 4 valves per cylinder , DOHC, Lucas fuel injection and circa 420BHP @ 9800RPM. (Tony Adamowicz)

Chassis ‘0868’ was shown to the public at the Hotel Fini in Modena in December 1968, which is probably where this unattributed shot of Enzo Ferrari with the car was taken.

From the outset Ferraris’ sports car plans in 1969 were limited as the development of the 3 litre ‘Flat 12′ engine for F1 in 1970 was Technical Director, Mauro Forghieris’ main project.

The first car was damaged in testing, but repaired and put on pole at Sebring by Mario Andretti, the car finishing second co-driven by Chris Amon despite overheating after a collision with a slower car.

Chris Amon leaps aboard the 312P he shared with Mario Andretti at Sebring 1969.

Smoky Amon. Ferrari 312P, Sebring 1969. Second outright and first in class with Mario Andretti (Nigel Smuckatelli)

The car was very fast at Brands Hatch, but the Le Mans testing weekend revealed the need for slippery coupe bodies on the Mulsanne. The bigger issue was the appearance of the Porsche 917, 25 examples of which had been built by the Germans to comply with the CSI’s new Group 4 rules, not what the rule makers intended at all…

The 312P’s were fast at Monza filling the first 2 grid positions but failed to finish with tyre problems, the Firestones not coping with the rigours of the Monza banking.

Pedro Rodriguez, Nurburgring 1000Km 1969.

The 917 was on pole at Spa, but Amon proved the 312P’s competitiveness again, he broke the lap record at The Nurburgring. At Le Mans the two cars entered were fitted with gorgeous Coupe bodies formed around shortened 206SP Dino windscreens.

The 917 was on the Le Mans pole… but few believed they would last the distance, Amons 312P was damaged by debris from the fatal accident which befell the John Woolfe 917 on lap 1, the other car suffering gearbox failure after a retaining nut vibrated loose several times. Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver won the race in Ford GT40 ‘1075’ the same chassis victorious the year before.

Chris Amon behind the 312P, now with Coupe body, at Le Mans 1969 with Peter Schetty. The car was out on lap 1, running over debris from the John Woolfe 917 accident (Pinterest)

The arrival of the 917 was a game changer, Ferrari responded with some of the Lire invested in his business by Fiat, in building 25 512S 5 litre cars to go head to head with Porsche in what many say was the greatest 2 years of sports car racing ever, 1970 and 1971.

The two remaining 312P’s were sold to Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team at the end of 1969, the cars scoring class victories in major races such as Daytona, and Sebring and also racing at Le Mans in 1970 where Tony Adamowicz, and Chuck Parsons were non-classified but tenth. The other car was taken as a spare and unraced.

Wet weather 1970 Le Mans shot of the NART 312P. (Bruce Thomas)

NART Adamowicz/ Parsons 312P Le Mans 1970 , tenth in the race won by the Herrman/ Attwood Porsche 917K (Pinterest)

The 312P has only a small part in Ferrari racing history but the factory learned valuable lessons from the program when it next raced a prototype, the 3 litre 312PB in 1971, this car using a variant of the F1 ‘boxer’ engine, the 312PB the dominant and championship winning sports car of 1972.

Etcetera…

Amon/Schetty Ferrari 312P Le Mans pits 1969.(Pinterest)

Pedro relaxes before the off, Bridghampton CanAm 1969. (Dogfight.com)

‘0870’ in the 1969 Bridghampton CanAm pitlane. Rodriguez was 5th in the heavy relatively low powered 3 litre car, Hulme and McLaren 1st and 2nd in McLaren M8B Chevs. (Dogfight.com)

Mike Parkes in the NART 312P , Daytona 1970. Tall man, and bubble as a consequence (Pinterest)

Another shot of the Adamowicz/ Parsons 312P during Le Mans 1970 (Yves Debraine)

Interesting drawing showing the differences in dimensions of the Spyder and Coupe versions of the 312P (Pinterest)

Photo Credits…

Pinterest, Tony Adamowicz, Nigel Smuckatelli, Yves Debraine, Bruce Thomas

Finito…

Tyrrell 019 Ford 1990 and Tyrrell Innovation…

Posted: September 16, 2014 in F1, Features, Icons & Iconoclasts
Tags: Derek Gardner, Formula 1 innovation, Harvey Postlethwaite, Maurice Phillippe, Tyrrell 003, Tyrrell 019, Tyrrell P34

Jean Alesi, Tyrrell 019 Ford DFR , French GP 1990 (Pinterest)

Tyrrell were an amazingly innovative small team.

Jean Alesi here in the 1990 French Grand Prix driving Designer Harvey Postlethwaite’s ground breaking and trend-setting ‘highnose’ Tyrrell 019 Ford DFR…

There were three distinct design regimes at Tyrrell. The first was from 1970-1977- the Derek Gardner era, then from 1978-1988 when Maurice Phillippe was at the helm and finally, from 1989-1998 when Harvey Postlethwaite led the design team until Tyrrells’ sale, the long established, family owned outfit morphing into ‘British American Racing’.

The Gardner and Postlethwaite periods were particularly aerodynamically innovative.

In 1971 Gardner introduced two important innovations to his Tyrrell 003.

The first was the high airbox, which debuted at the Dutch Grand Prix, Matra similarly equipped. Chris Amon’s MS120 V12 also having a ‘snorkel’.

Francois Cevert in Tyrrell 002 Ford showing the original aero treatment of that series of cars…Stewart ‘debut’ the Tyrrell Sports Car nose in this race the French GP 1971…Stewart first, Cevert second. ‘Pregnant-belly’ aero/fuel tank treatment apparent (L Harmegnies/motorsport.com)

The primary effect was mild ‘supercharging’ of the incoming fuel/air mix, the secondary one was aerodynamic- the simple snorkel quickly evolving into carefully sculptured rear bodywork which included the snorkel and smoothed airflow to the rear wing, aiding downforce and allowing a marginally flatter wing setting to be used. In essence, less drag for the same downforce.

In the French Grand Prix, Stewarts’ 003′ raced with a sports-car type nose, Gardner’s idea was to partially mask and aid airflow around and over the front of the car, the wheels/tyres being aerodynamically the least efficient part of an open-wheeler.

Derek Gardners Tyrrell 003 Ford , Jackie Stewarts primary, championship winning mount of 1971. Engine ‘Snorkel and bluff ‘Tyrrell nose’ innovations of that year are clearly shown

The Lotus 56 and 72 set a trend with their wedge shaped, side radiator design- the 72 appearing in 1970. The other alternative aero approach at the time, ‘Pre-Tyrrell Nose’ was the ‘pregnant-belly front radiator approach’ of the BRM P153/160, McLaren M14, Tyrrells 001-003 and others.

Gardner set the alternative aero trend of the 1970’s, until the advent of the Ground Effect Era, with his bluff sportscar type nose.

Look at the results of the two alternatives over that period from 1971 to 1979 when the needs of ground effect tunnels favoured the ‘chisel front wing and side radiator approach’ as against the ‘Tyrrell nose, front radiator approach’. Cars of both designs were successful, perhaps the former ‘wedge/side rads’ were the more successful.

Examples of winning ‘chisel/side radiator’ cars are the Lotus 72, McLaren M23, Ferrari 312T’s and of the ‘Tyrrell nose/front rad’ cars the Tyrrell 003-006 and Brabham BT42/44.

Colin Chapmans’ Lotus 72 Ford, 1970-1975

Gardner himself went to ‘chisel/side radiators’ with the 1974/5 Tyrrell 007 driven by Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler- and then back to the ‘Tyrrell nose’ for his stunning, outrageous P34 six-wheeler…

Both models were Grand Prix winners, the P34 once only, in Scheckter’s hands in Sweden in 1976.

Gardner was recruited by Tyrrell from Ferguson Research where he worked on advanced four wheel-drive systems used on the Matra MS84 Ford four wheel drive F1 car of 1969- that car used Ferguson componentry. The Matra, as were the other 4WD cars developed by Cosworth, McLaren and Lotus were unsuccessful as wings and tyre polymer chemistry provided grip more simply than 4WD technology of the day could.

But Ken Tyrrell was impressed and recruited Gardner to build the first Tyrrell 001, secretly in 1970.

Jody Scheckter and Derek Gardner with P34 in 1976…Jody was not a fan despite his Swedish GP win and left the team for Wolf Racing for 1977, and a conventional, successful car, the Wolf WR1 Ford designed by Harvey Postlethwaite (Pinterest)

By the mid-seventies the challenge of the aluminium monocoque/Ford Cosworth DFV/Hewland FG400 gearbox brigade, ‘The Garagistes’, in Enzo Ferraris’ words, was how to beat the similarly equipped opposition?

Gardners audacious approach was aerodynamic in having four small front wheels which could be faired behind his Tyrrell nose, creating greater straight line speed whilst losing no mechanical grip from the tiny, Goodyear shod wheels.

The increased braking area provided by the four small discs was a further advantage.

There were mechanical challenges making the package work but the cars were competitive in both Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler’s hands in 1976, but less so in 1977 when Goodyear were not so interested in developing special tyres for just one team.

Derek Gardners outrageous, successful Tyrrell Ford P34 six-wheeler of 1976/7

Then the FIA banned 6 wheelers and that was that, March and Williams had been toying with four rear wheels…

Scheckter jumped ship to Walter Wolf’s new team in 1977 and was a race-winner in the Harvey Postlethwaite designed cars.

Harvey, a Doctor of Engineering, had his motor racing start with March, modifying Lord Hesketh’s, James Hunt driven customer March 731. He then designed the Hesketh 308 in which James Hunt won his first GP and came to Tyrrell in 1988 after two stints at Ferrari including design of the 1982 and 1983 Constructors Championship winning 126C2.

Postlethwaite was joined at Tyrrell by aerodynamicist Jean Claude Migeot, together they evolved their competitive 1989 018 into the ground-breaking 019, the car which set the aerodynamic trend until the present.

The car was conventional in using a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis, wishbone and pushrod suspension front and rear, and Ford Cosworth 3.5 litre DFR V8 / Hewland six-speed transmission but utterly radical in its aero approach.

Dr Harvey Postlethwaite during his very successful Ferrari period (L’Unita)

Contemporaray practice was to use a flat, steppped chassis undertray with a large diffuser producing downforce through the generation of low pressure under the car.

‘P and M’ realised this approach was compromised by the low nose at the front of the car, the wings diverted air sideways and upwards reducing the amount of air passing under the car. The generation of low pressure relies on increasing the speed of the air passing under the car in relation to the air passing over and around it.

In simple terms , the more air that can be drawn under the car, the faster the air will have to be moving, and the faster the air is moving the lower the pressure and greater the downforce.

By raising the nose-cone Postlethwaite increased the volume of air that was able to pass under the car…whilst keeping the wings themselves close to the ground where they work best with the distinctive, inverted V, anhedral front profile.

The car was not that successful in terms of 1990 results, Alesi achieved sixth at San Marino and second in Monaco but a trend was set which most teams followed quickly- and principles which prevail today.

Tyrrell innovation continued with aerodynamically shaped wishbones in 1996, and the ugly but effective ‘X-Wings’ in 1997- on fast circuits two additional wings were installed either side of the cockpit.

Postlethwaite stayed with the team until it was sold by Ken Tyrrell to British American Tobacco at the end of 1997 and died suddenly of a heart attack whilst testing the Postlethwaite designed, Dallara built, in house Honda at Catalunya in April 1999- he was aged 55.

Ken Tyrrell died in August 2001, and Derek Gardner in January 2011, his post Tyrrell career was as Director of Engineering and Research at the Borg Warner clutch company.

Etcetera…Tyrrell 003 1971/2

(Tyrrell)

Jackie Stewart, German GP, Nurburgring 1972. Tyrrell 003 Ford. Stewart collided with Clay Regazzoni in this race won by the Ickx Ferrari 312B2, so DNF (Pinterest)

Etcetera…Tyrrell P34 1976/7

Derek Gardners original schematic of the essential elements of the Project 34 dated August 1974. Dimensions of the car as raced very close to this drawing

Patrick Depailler (2nd) in the P34 ahead of Chris Amon (DNF) and Gunnar Nilsson (DNF), Ensign N176 Ford and Lotus 77 Ford respectively. Scheckter won this race, the 1976 Swedish GP in the sister P34. The shot is a ‘compare and contrast’ with conventional (aluminium monocoque/Ford DFV/Hewland gearbox) cars of the day. Note how well faired the small 10 inch wheels are by the ‘Tyrrell Nose’ (Sutton)

(B Betti)

Scheckter second around the twists and turns of Monaco in 1976, the Lauda Ferrari 312T victorious. Depailler third in the sister car…plenty of ‘turn in’ and strong brakes on this demanding course (Pinterest)

Etcetera…Tyrrell 019 1990

Wonderful 1990 Adelaide East Terrace shot of Jean Alesis’ Tyrrell 019 shows off its aerodynamic secrets…eighth in the AGP race won by Nelson Piquets Benetton Ford (Stupix)

(unattributed)

Jean Alesi (3rd) and Gerhard Berger (5th)Monaco 1990, the high-nose Tyrrell 019 a contrast with the orthodoxy of the day, McLaren MP4/5B Honda. Ayrton Senna won the race in the other McLaren (Pinterest)

Etcetera…Tyrrell Ford 025 1997

Jos Verstappen in Postlethwaites 1997 ‘X-Wing’ Tyrrell Ford ED4 3.5 V8 025. San Marino GP 1997…evolution of Harveys ‘high-nose’ over 7 years clear…Jos was tenth in the race won by Heinz-Harald Frentzens’ Williams Renault (Pinterest)

Photo Credits…

Pinterest, Sutton Archive, Bruno Betti P34 cutaway, Stupix, L ‘Unita, Lucien Harmegnies, motorsport.com

Finito…

Lella Lombardi’s Lola…Peter Brennan’s Restoration of Lola T330 Chev ‘HU18’ Episode # 3…

Posted: September 10, 2014 in Features, Restoration

The first two instalments of Peters’ restoration of the Lola were about its history, acquisition and journey from the US to Australia, and last month the commencement of the restoration of the tub, suspension, gearbox, suspension etcetera…

As you can see from the shot of the car at ‘Racers Retreat’, HU18 is now complete and ready for its first track test, very fast progress given the starting point of the project in August 2013!

How great does it look!

Monocoque…

You may recall that Borland Engineering in Mordialloc, Victoria were commissioned to rebuild the tub with assistance from Peter.

‘The tub is all solid riveted as aircraft were made during World War 2. You need a driver of the gun and someone to back the rivet. Putting the tub together involved three solid weeks of riveting, your head and shoulders aching every night, exactly as the crews putting the ‘planes together did’.

‘Each morning we had to plan out the assembly procedure, one mistake, drill out the rivets and start again…’

The chassis is superb, the workmanship and commitment to the task fantastic. Mike Borland on the left and fabricator Dean on right.

Bodywork…

‘I didn’t get any panels with the bits from the US so bought the lot, new off ‘Motorsport Solutions’ in New Zealand, there was little effort to adjust for fit, the quality of the workmanship was very good. I had the body painted by ‘ReFace Autos’ in Melbourne’.

Instruments…

Chassis re-assembly now underway at Peters’ home workshop. ‘Smiths’ chronometric tach and guages all exactly as they were ex-Huntingdon. Front suspension fitted, brakes, steering column, pedals, plumbing for the engine…Nickel plating throughout as Lola utilised.

Engine, ‘Old Midnight’…

Nice black and white PB shot of ‘Old Midnight’ from above…4 X 48 IDA Webers, Vertex magneto, lovely linkages…

‘Some years ago i was looking for a Chev to finish the restoration of my Elfin 400 (the ex-Matich ‘Traco Olds’), Mary and Peter Middleton owned the ex-Cooper/Perkins Elfin MR8 and offered me this engine which was originally built by Max Stewart as his spare. Its nickname was ‘Old Midnight’ as the motor was usually slipped into his Lola after midnight when the race engine was cactus for the weekend!

Anyway, there was something great about reuniting Max’ old engine with a Lola T33o chassis. I bought it as a ‘long motor’ less injection. The block was shaved, of all uneccesary production lugs and lightened as much as possible.

It has Bow-Tie heads, TRW pistons, Carillo rods, a Crane ‘574’ roller cam, Z28 crank, Vertex magneto, and like most of Max’ engines is on Weber 48IDA carbs

In the early 70’s a good race Chev had 535BHP, this engine has 505BHP @ 7500RPM, which should be enough to keep me busy’

‘Old Midnight’ doing its thing on Peters dyno recently…Ex Max Stewart ‘spare’ good for 505 BHP on Webers

Re-Assembly…

After the tub was completed Peter took it back to ‘Racers Retreat’, his home workshop where the various componentry covered in Episode # 2 was fitted to the car…suspension, wheels, gearbox, fuel-cell etc.

Still fettling the bodywork, mirrors period correct

Fabrication a work of art…note brake ducts

That long bellhousing so Broadley got the weight where he wanted it and the longer wheelbase which made such a difference in 1973. Rear suspension and driveshafts to come..look at the rear bias of the wing, eventually FIA rule changes addressed this trend in all single-seater formulae. This shot shows the sheer ‘bulk’ of a Chev relative to a DFV, all that weight, 250Kg of Chev sits high!

New wheels made in Melbourne by ‘Whithorse Industries’, ‘Old Midnight’ to the right awaiting installation. Thats a Lola S2000 to the left

‘My good mate and fellow T332 racer , Jay Bondini made the rear wing, he did a beautiful job, and it was a much bigger project than he thought! The ‘spiders-web’ far aft wing support bracket is period correct for 1973. We are re-profiling the wing endplates to reflect the car in that year as well, i can’t thank him enough, he did a great job’.

Smile Jay Bondini, beautiful fabrication of rear wing

T330 1973 spec attention to detail superb, very few 330’s were not converted to T332 spec in period, as such the car a welcome and different addition to Historic F5000 grids. Snorkels hide 4 48IDA Weber carbs, still common in Europe at that time and ‘standard spec’ on Swiss ‘Morand’ and Pommie ‘Alan Smith’ prepped Chevs

From this to this…August 2013 to July 2014.

The transformation of the ‘car’ in such a short period of time is great testimony to the skill of all involved especially Peter himself. All being well the car will make its debut at Historic Sandown in November, it last raced in 1975…I think Jackie Epstein and Lella Lombardi would be mighty impressed with their old car?

Next Episode…

Will cover Peters’ test of his new car…

Photo Credits…

Peter Brennan

	Laurie Shine on Mount Martha Hillclimb…
	Rod Callaghan on Mount Martha Hillclimb…
	markbisset on Photography : Stephen Fry…
	markbisset on Photography : Stephen Fry…
	prn31 on Photography : Stephen Fry…

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Archive for the ‘Features’ Category

My First Race Meeting, Sandown Tasman F5000 1972, Bartlett, Lola and Raquel…

Jim Clark: Lotus Cortina, Sebring 1964…

Francois Cevert: Formative years…

Lellas’ Lola Lives!…Peter Brennans’ Restoration of Lola T330 Chev ‘HU18’ Episode # 4

The Most Versatile Ever? Magic Mario Andretti…

James Hunt: ‘Rose City 10000’, Winton Raceway, Australia,1978: Elfin MR8 Chev…

1956 ‘Argus Trophy’ Albert Park: Reg Hunt and Lex Davison: Maserati 250F and A6GCM: Ferrari Tipo 500…

Enzo Ferrari framed by his 312P: Ferrari 312P 1969…

Tyrrell 019 Ford 1990 and Tyrrell Innovation…

Lella Lombardi’s Lola…Peter Brennan’s Restoration of Lola T330 Chev ‘HU18’ Episode # 3…