Archive for the ‘Fotos’ Category

1914 French Grand Prix…

Posted: May 1, 2017 in F1, Fotos, Who,What,Where & When...?
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Engine 4 cylinder monobloc, 1 inlet and 2 exhaust valves, SOHC, 4493cc-100X143mm bore/stroke, 4 speed box, 4 disc clutch, brakes on transmission, front and rear wheels, 1025Kg

Antonio Fagnano blasts his Fiat through a village during the 14 July 1914 event, Lyon…

Fagnano was a Fiat all-rounder and institution, he was a mechanic, foreman, member of the test department and graduated from riding mechanic to race driver of the works team!

For 1914 the GP ‘Formula’ provided for an 1100Kg maxiumum weight and engines of no more than 4.5 litres in capacity. The race was a contest between Peugeot and Mercedes in the context of imminent war; Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated less than a week before the GP at Lyon which drew a crowd of over 300,000 filling hotels within a 50Km radius of the course.

Christian Lautenschlager and riding mechanic on the way to winning the 1914 French GP, Mercedes GP 35HP. Engine 4 separate cylinders, 4 valves per cylinder, SOHC, 3 plugs per cylinder, 4456cc-93X164mm bore/stroke, claimed power 115bhp@2800rpm. 4 speed box, leather cone clutch, brakes on transmission and rear wheels, 1080Kg, top speed circa 110mph (unattributed)

Christian Lautenschlager won from teammates Louis Wagner and Otto Salzer in 7 hours 8 minutes 18.4 seconds at an average speed of 65.665mph.

Sailer led by 18 seconds at the end of the first lap, by lap five he had built a lead of almost 3 minutes and then retired with a blown engine on lap 6.  Boillot’s Peugeot took over the lead for 12 laps, at one point he led by over 4 minutes.

The Mercedes drivers made one stop during the race for new Continentals. This contrasted with the poor wear of the Dunlops of Peugeot, Boillot made eight stops for tyres, the Frenchman’s many tyre changes allowed Lautenschlager to pass on lap 18. By the end of that lap, Christian had opened up a lead of over 30 seconds.

Fagnano’s Fiat was the best placed of the Italian cars, the talented driver died of an illness, aged 35, on 8 July 1918.

France, 1914 and the Art Historians…

If you have a hankering for this era of racing here is a very interesting article with a completely different angle.

http://www.king-of-the-boards.com/articles/france1914.pdf

Credit…

Roger Viollet, Alinari Archive, T Mathieson ‘Grand Prix Racing 1906-1914’, Patrick Ryan Collection

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Tailpiece: Dealership ‘in period’, the first Fiat dealership in Geneva with two 501’s out front, circa 1921…

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(Alinari Archive)

 

 

 

 

 

Ecurie Richmond…

Posted: April 25, 2017 in Fotos, Who,What,Where & When...?
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Eric Brandon and Alan Brown, ‘Ecurie Richmond’ drivers with capped patron Jimmy Richmond, a haulage contractor from Nottinghamshire and mechanic Ginger Devlin at Silverstone 14 July 1951…

It’s the British Grand Prix meeting, the cars the latest Norton engined Cooper MkV 500cc F3. The motors were tuned by the highly rated Steve Lancefield and Francis Beart. The very competitive drivers were first (Brandon) and second in that years Autosport F3 Championship from the JBS’ of Peter Collins and Don Parker. They didn’t win at Silverstone though, Stirling Moss won in the new Kieft CK51 from Ken Wharton and Jack Moor.

The Ecurie Richmond pair netted 16 major victories and 41 heat wins in a marvellous 1951 season. The Brands Hatch Junior Championship in ’51 was taken by Cooper mounted BC Ecclestone.

Ecurie Richmond progressed to F2 in 1952 with Brown’s Cooper T20 Bristol achieving the great marques first championship GP points with his 5th place at Bremgarten in the Swiss Grand Prix, F2 adopted as F1 in 1952-3 of course. Heady days indeed…

Credit…

GP Library, 500 Owners Association

Hawthorn, Aintree 1957…

Posted: April 20, 2017 in F1, Fotos
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(Klemantaski)

 A study in concentration, Mike Hawthorn at work and on the way to fourth place at Aintree, Lancia Ferrari 801, British Grand Prix 1957…

But Mike was hardly ‘the main game’ in this race, a pivotal one in GP history.

Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss shared a Vanwall to win at home, thereby scoring the first world championship victory for a British car, the beginning of a period of dominance by British teams, largely undiminished for the last 50 years. Also noteworthy and equally epochal was the appearance of two Cooper T43 Climaxes driven by Roy Salvadori and Jack Brabham.

Behra led from the start but Moss passed him before the end of the first lap, then came Brooks, Hawthorn, Collins, four Brits in the first five.

Moss’s Vanwall started to run roughly so he pitted, taking the wheel of Brooks sister car, who was summoned to the pits, Moss rejoined 9th and started carving his way through the field. By this stage Jean led from Hawthorn, who was unable to challenge the Frenchie, then came Lewis-Evans, Vanwall, and Collins. Moss was soon up to 5th aided by mechanical failures which befell Fangio and Collins.

Poor, Jean, his clutch exploded whilst in the lead, Hawthorn ran over some of the schrapnel the Frenchman dropped, puncturing a Continental. Stuart Lewis-Evans then momentarily lead but was quickly swallowed by Moss, Stuart’s throttle linkage broke but it mattered not, Moss won the race from Musso, Hawthorn, Trintignant/Collins all in Lancia Ferrari’s with Roy Salvadori in the little 2 litre Cooper T43 5th…

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Credit…

Louis Klementaski, GP Encyclopaedia

Long Beach Grand Prix 1976…

Posted: April 17, 2017 in F1, Fotos
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(Klemantaski)

Clay Regazzoni oblivious to the ‘Queen Mary’s existence as he races to victory from pole in his Ferrari 312T, US Grand Prix West in March 1976…

I’ve never been to the place but Chris Pook’s idea was a great piece of entrepreneurship.

His first 1975 event, a marvellous demonstration of what is great about F5000 was followed by a championship GeePee in ’76. The other thing that captured my imagination about the place was the Depailler in-car Tyrrell footage. If you weren’t a PD fan, I always was, you had to be so after seeing him flick the 500bhp beastie through the Long Beach boulevards as though it were a 100bhp Lola T342 Formula Ford. The ability that separates the greats from the rest of us. Check it out if you’ve not seen it, look again if you have!;

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Nice portrait of Regga in 1978, Shadow Ford. Looks like a a Bell photo shoot ! (Getty)

Regga, a GP driver with a personality, they seem to breed it out of ‘em these days, anodyne boring liddl’ fuggers they all seem to be. The Swiss Italian had a great weekend in California winning from teammate Niki Lauda’s 312T and Depailler’s Tyrrell 007 DFV, the sound of which (Tyrrell 008 anyway) screaming in protest you can see, hear and feel in the footage above.

Tailpiece: Niki Lauda prepares for the off in the other Fazz 312T, 2nd place for the plucky Austrian reigning champion…

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Niki Lauda contemplates changes to his Ferrari 312T during Long Beach practice. Mauro Forghieri’s 312T-T4, jewels of cars, circa 525bhp @ 11000 rpm at this stage of the 3 litre flat-12;s long front-running life (Schlegelmilch)

Credits…

Klemantaski Collection, Rainer Schlegelmilch

Brian Redman, ’72 Monza 1000Km…

Posted: April 13, 2017 in Fotos, Sports Racers
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Brian Redman looking pretty relaxed  prior to the start of the Monza 1000 Km on 25 April 1972…

It was a happy weekend (and year) for Ferrari, the Ickx/ Regazzoni 312PB won from the Jost/Schuler Porsche 908/3 with the sister SEFAC Fazz of the two great mates Petersen/Schenken third. Brian’s car was out on lap 32, the car was co-driven by Arturo Merzario.

Redman had a good year though, he won at Spa, a supreme test of high speed finesse, with ‘Little Art’ and at the Zeltweg 1000 Km paired with Ickx. Merzario took another win as well, Targa a big challenge, this time of speed and accuracy on the unforgiving, difficult to learn ‘Little Madonie’, in the singleton Ferrari entry he shared with rally ace Sandro Munari.

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Ickx, Peterson and Redman lead away, Ferrari 312PB’s, gloomy Monza 1000Km 1972 (unattributed)

The only race of significance they didn’t win, didn’t enter for that matter was the one which mattered most, Le Mans. Ferrari chose not to enter due to the difficulty the team had in making its 3 litre F1 adapted flat-12 last 24 hours, a problem Matra didn’t have with its far less successful in F1, V12! Graham Hill and Henri Pescarolo won Le Mans in a Matra MS670, Matra breaking through for a long awaited French win at Le Mans. The fact that arch rivals Ferrari were absent made the win no less satisfying…

Credits…

Rainer Schlegelmilch

Tailpiece…

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Gimme a fag…

Posted: April 11, 2017 in F1, Fotos
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Achille Varzi in need of a ciggie after a great win in his Bugatti T51, 1933 Monaco Grand Prix…

Varzi started racing on motorcycles, in 1928 he established a partnership racing a stable of Bug T35’s with Tazio Nuvolari, his career, which flourished with Alfa Romeo is a story for another time.

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The race was held on 23rd April 1933 and is significant as the first GP in which practice times determined grid positions rather than a ballot.

In one of the greatest grands prix ever, Tazio Nuvolari’s Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Monza and Varzi’s works Bugatti duelled throughout the race swapping the lead many times. The result was determined on the last lap when the great Mantuan was disqualified for a push start after his car caught fire, an oil line split and ignited! Baconin Borzacchini was 2nd and Rene Dreyfus 3rd in Monza and T51 respectively.

Credits…

Hulton Archive

Tailpiece: Varzi and Bugatti T51…

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Ferrari Dino 246 GTS and Friend…

Posted: April 9, 2017 in Compound curvature, Fotos
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I always figured this is what Ferrari ownership is all about. Having rather attractive young ladies throwing themselves at you?!…

Clearly this little minx is keen on Pininfarina’s stunning coachwork if not the size of the drivers wallet. What is it my ‘little sabre-toothed tigress’ tells me, ‘even you ugly blokes look good standing on your wallets’.

Australian social documentary photographer Rennie Ellis captured a 1974 Toorak Road, South Yarra, Melbourne ritual that is still played out pretty much the same way 40 years on…

Credits…

Rennie Ellis, Vic Berris

Finito…

Collins Street Chaos…

Posted: March 29, 2017 in Fotos, Obscurities, Rodways Repco Recollections
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Melbourne’s finest trying to keep enthusiastic shoppers under control out front of ‘Georges’, Collins Street in 1965…

The car is, I think, Bib Stillwell’s Brabham BT11A Climax. The occasion some type of promotion between Georges luxury department store and Repco or Bib Stillwell Holden. Stillwells switched from Holden to Ford in 1966 before all you Melburnians correct me, clearly the crowds are fascinated by the presence of a ‘Grand Prix’ car in Melbourne’s busiest and most up-market shopping strip.

For over a century Georges was the place the ‘great and the good shopped’, an incredibly conservative joint, its intriguing to speculate just what the promotion may have been, automotive products are not at all what Georges stocked! String-backed gloves maybe and flat-caps but nothing grubby or grimy at all.

I think its Bibs car. The color scheme is right, his dealership/workshop was in Kew, not far away. He usually raced wearing #6, this car carries #3 but that’s neither here nor there. For Repco, Brabhams were badged ‘Repco Brabham’ at the time and the Coventry Climax FPF engines by that stage were largely built in Richmond under licence from CC so there were good associations to Repco’s brand.

When is it?, not sure exactly. Bib raced his BT11A from the Tasman Series 1965, he took the last of his four Gold Stars in it that year and then retired, so I guess it’s 1965…

Georges, for the curious…

http://www.georgesoncollins.com.au/

Credit…

Nigel Tait, many thanks for another tid-bit from your Repco archives

 

S.E.V Marchal…

Posted: March 22, 2017 in Fotos, Obscurities
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S.E.V Marchal Ad circa mid-sixties…

The famous French manufacturer of automotive electrical componentry started plying its trade in 1923. The rights to the name, depending upon country, passed to the Valeo Group in 2009. I gather looking at a few online forums the product ‘ain’t what it useter be’.

I just always liked the graphics!…

Paris Grand Prix 1959…

Posted: March 20, 2017 in Fotos, Obscurities
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(Jean Tesseyre)

Competitors in the Formula Junior ‘IV Prix de Paris’ at Montlhery on May 3 1959…

I tripped over these shots researching another topic in the Getty Archive, which is generally superb visually but equally poor in terms of caption accuracy or usefulness. The cars were described as F2 rather than the Formula Junior cars they are, mainly DB Junior Panhard or DB Monomill Panhard, not monopostos familiar to me.

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My usual FJ results resource, ‘The F2 Index’ lists first to fourth as Alain Dagan, Dominique Franck, Pierre Mulsant and Philippe Martel, the first three in DB Junior Panhards, the latter in a DB Monomill Panhard. This fantastic resource doesn’t provide race numbers on this occasion though, making the detective work difficult, so all help as to identifying the drivers and cars amongst you French FJ enthusiasts in this race welcome!

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The meeting also featured an F2 race, Jack Lewis won it from only three other competitors in a Cooper T45 Climax.

The sports and GT race was better supported with Ferrari 250GT’s dominant; Olivier Gendebien won from Claude Bourillot and Wolfgang Seidel’s similar cars.

The FJ race was 20 laps of the 3.36 Km course, the DB’s achieving some success in 1959 in French races but the front engined chassis, French engined cars were well and truly swamped by Ford engined Coopers and Lotus 18’s in 1960, not to say other quicker front-engined Lolas and Stanguellini’s.

(unattributed)

 

After publication of this article, in July 2018, Alain Dagan’s nephew, Claude-Florence Dagan made contact to confirm Alain’s victory, he was a French motor-cycle racer of some note. Claude-Florence also pointed out that in 1959 Alain was a member of the Murit Team which set a 24 Hour Record at Montlhery on a BMW 500- his co-riders Vanessa, Maucherat and Lariviere.

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Credits…

Jean Tesseyre

Tailpiece: FJ placegetters  Dagan, Franck and Mulsant collect their trophies…

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 Finito…

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