The front suspension of one of the McLaren MP4/7A Honda V12’s is fettled during Hungarian GP practice, Budapest on 16 August 1992…
The front suspension comprises upper and lower wishbones and pushrods, one of which is being adjusted, actuating coil springs and Showa dampers. Carbon fibre chassis of course. The 3.5 litre V12 car was designed by a team led by Neil Oatley. Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger raced the cars to 5 wins, including Senna’s race victory in Hungary (below), but struggled to match the pace of Nigel Mansell’s Williams FW14B Renault that year.
(Honda)
Credit…
Rainer Schlegelmilch, Honda
Tailpiece: Senna and team during German GP practice, Hockenheim, 25 July 1992…
Interesting drawing of one of the dominant Mercedes W125 during the 1937 Monaco Grand Prix held on 8 August…
Manfred von Brauchitsch won from Rudy Carraciola and Christian Kautz, Goffredo Zehender was fifth, the only interloper to the Mercedes party was Hans Stuck’ Auto Union Type C which was fourth.
von Brauchitsch #10 and Caracciola below in their epic race for the GP lead, these 560bhp 5.66 litre cars GRAND in every sense of the word…
Christian Fittipaldi’s Newman-Haas Lola Toyota during the Marconi Cleveland Grand Prix at Burke Lakefront Airport on 30 June 2001…
This popular race was held 26 times in Cleveland, Ohio from 1982 to 2007, the operational airport was closed for racing one week a year and converted to a course which was tough for drivers and superb for spectators. Its wide, flat expanses meant punters could see most of the track from the grandstands, the races noted for lots of wheel to wheel dicing and many passing zones.
Dario Franchitti passes a ship on Lake Erie, Cleveland 2001 (David Maxwell)
The 2001 race was won by Dario Franchitti from Memo Gidley and Bryan Herta the variety in this wonderful class demonstrated by the cars used; Reynard 01i Honda, Lola B1/00 Toyota and Reynard 01i Ford respectively! I loathe the plethora of controlled formulae globally today. Christian Fittipaldi qualified his Lola B1/00 Toyota 15th and finished 11th. Gil de Ferran won the CART title that year in a Team Penske run Reynard 01i Honda.
The E Type not ‘Pete’ the painter. Never owned or driven one but always loved the things…
The shot is dated 25 May 1961, ‘pete’ is completing the ‘computer aided finish’ of the cars luscious body, looks like a house-brush to me! I’ve got a nice E Type article ready to go, must get reader Rob Bailey, an old Alfisti, racer mate and E Type owner to pen me two paragraphs about ‘the owners experience’ then its done!
The ‘E’ was released, export only at first from March ’61, so this is an early-build 3.8 drop-head in the Browns Lane, Coventry paint shop.
The picture below is at the Geneva Show in November 1961.
Credits…Getty Images
The shot below is again Browns Lane, the production lines idle on 14 February 1972, during the UK Miners Strike. On the line are V12 E’s and XJ6′, has their ever been a more curvy, muscular but handsome sedan? ‘Grace, Space, Pace’ was Jags sedan advertising tagline of the sixties, says it all really!
James Hunt dives for the inside line in his March 713S Ford, AJ and his Brabham BT28 Ford has left a gap way bigger than he ever did when they slugged it out in GP racing…
It’s 1971, the BRSCC MCD Shell Super Oil British F3 Championship at Brands Hatch on 1 March 1971 and both drivers are trying hard to jump up to the next level, the road for Hunt would be easier than Jones, James a coming star with the Hesketh March 731 in 1973 and Jones an F1 ‘occasional’ from 1974.
The ‘facts’ are from the photo caption, the cars and drivers are correct but the date/Brands event don’t accord with the ‘F2 Register’ record of that event, my F3 race resource. It appears AJ didn’t race with #69, a number with obvious appeal to him at all during ’71.
One for the British F3 historians amongst you!
(DLuff-MBisset-Copilot)
The 1969 spec Brabham BT28 Ford breaks cover near MRD’s Weylock factory on a date unknown, complete with wing kit, which was fitted, or not! depending upon the circuit and driver preference.
Sebastien Loeb takes his Peugeot 208 T16 over the Pikes Peak finishing line on 30 June 2013. He set the current climb record at Pikes Peak in his 208 T16 that weekend…
His time of 8:13.878 was 50 seconds quicker than second placegetter Rhys Millen’s time which was 44 seconds quicker than his previous best! It was an all-out ‘big budget’ attack on the event which was repaid in spades by the 9 times World Rally Champion.
Loeb spoke of the particular challenges of preparing for the event on the Red Bull website;
‘It was quite short on time for Peugeot to build a car and for me to test it. I had the first test near Paris, just for an hour. Then I wanted to go on a track because I needed some space to understand how the car behaves, it’s so impressive, with so much acceleration, braking and downforce, that I needed to drive on a big track. So we went to Circuit Paul Ricard and then to Mont Ventoux in France. It’s a place that looks a little bit like Pikes Peak, so it was good to practice there.’
‘You need to be 100 percent sure of every corner of the track. Before I went to America, I started to watch some videos to start to learn it. Then I went there with my rally co-driver, Daniel Elena and I took some notes like I take in a rally, describing all the road, all the corners, all the angles, everything. Then I started to learn these notes by heart and before every corner I knew, OK, that’s the 130 right, that’s the 140 left and so I could remember all the track like that.’
‘This car is closer to a racing car than a rally car because you have big slicks, you have a lot of downforce, a big engine. You also have 4WD and that’s a bit closer to rally, but it’s so powerful compared to a rally car that you cannot really compare. The driving is very different, you have to drive more like on a track with a racing car, using the downforce, keeping the speed in the high speed corners and braking very late because of the downforce. It’s a car you cannot slide. When you start to slide it starts to bump, so it’s not made for that! You drive it like an F1 car, just using the right line and not sliding.
‘When I was on the start line I was really ready and 100 percent confident with the car. I was sure of my preparation and feeling good. There was no point where I really had a moment. I was pushing, but I was feeling safe, so no big moments and I was able to put all my best sectors together for race day’.
Technical Specifications…
Peugeot described the car as ‘practically an out-and-out endurance racing prototype’. Half of the downforce generated by the 208 comes from the specially designed undertray which sits beneath the car.
The 3.2-litre, twin-turbo V6 engine develops 875bhp, a 6 speed sequential gearbox, 4 wheel drive, carbon brakes and double wishbone suspension all round with pushrods actuating torsion bars all part of a highly sophisticated package.
The 208 chassis was of ‘old school’ multi-tubular spaceframe construction the car weighing 875Kg.
Peugeot Sport engineer Jean-Christophe Pallier said: ‘Your imagination is the only limit when you set out to design a car for Pikes Peak. We’ve shaved the car down to 875 kilogrammes and as a result we’ve achieved the magic and symbolic power to weight ratio of 1:1, one bhp for every one kg of weight.’
The six-speed transmission, carbon brakes, air intake and aero-including the two-metre wide rear wing, are all from the 908 Le Mans car. The mid-engined 208, as geared, did 0-62mph in 1.8 seconds and zero to its top speed of 150mph in 7 seconds.
Results…
Click on this link for a good article on the 2013 event
Helmut Polensky and Walter Schluter on the way to outright victory in the event also known as the Marathon de la Route in their 1.5 litre Porsche 356…
An early important win for the marque in this Gmund built Coupe, a bit lighter than the Stuttgart cars. Porsche were 1st, 3rd, 4th, 9th and 10th taking the Team Prize as a result.
Shit!Whereizzit?, the engine in the TZ2 was in the front!…
Gustave Gosselin tries hard to get his Team VDS Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/2 going by the Little Madonie roadside during the 1969 running of the Targa Florio. The joy of the punters in getting a close look at a racer and souvenir or two was not shared by the driver focussed on his fussy, recalcitrant car.
The race was won by Vic Elford and Umberto Maglioli (below in a works Porsche 907, the best placed T33 was the Autodelta entry of future GP drivers Ignazio Giunti and Nanni Galli. Gosselin’s car, shared with Serge Trosch is by the roadside on the lap one, where it stayed.
Prince Bira grabs a nip of ‘Red Bull’ between practice sessions in his Maserati before the Crystal Palace Cup on 14 August 1937…
Bira is standing beside his Fiat Topolino, these cars in some ways the ‘Cooper S’ of their day. The Franco Fessia designed car was noted for its safe road-holding, good ride and willing performance. The ‘mouse’ had hydraulic brakes, independent front suspension and a synchro 4 speed ‘box.
In an article about the cars in MotorSport’s November 1995 issue Bill Boddy noted that they were the ‘in-thing’, the cars competition history included entries and finishers at Le Mans in 1937-9 and a class win in the 980 Mile Tobruk-Tripoli race which replaced the Mille Miglia in 1939.
Post-War the cars components were a feature of the Cooper 500 and thirteen other Italian racing cars.
Bira in his ex- Whitney Straight, Reid Railton modified Maserati 8CM at Crystal Palace in 1937 . The car was fitted with a Wilson pre-selector box and other tweaks, the ‘heart shaped’ radiator giving the car, very successful in both drivers hands, a distinctive look (Dennis Oulds)
Bira raced his Maserati 8CM in the Cup Race, having rebuilt it after its International Trophyrace blow up, Lord Austins cars were driven by Hadley and Kaye Petre. Hanson and Aitken raced 1.5 litre Masers and Connell a 1.5 litre ERA. ‘Crack-runners’ (rather a different meaning that phrase these days!) were non starters included the brothers Dobson ERA and Maserati, Tony Rolt’s Triumph and Peter Whitehaeds ERA.
The race was a handicap Bira giving away 75 seconds to the 1.1 litre cars, and 25 seconds to the 1101-2500cc cars.
Hadleys Austin lead away with Bira eventually away with lots of wheelspin and by lap 15 all cars were on the same lap. Bira was up to 2nd and within striking distance by the last lap but he ‘got into a slide at Ramp Bend’ but despite restarting finished 44 seconds behind Hadleys Austin 744cc, Reg Parnell was 3rd in an MG Magnette 1087cc and P Maclure 4th in a Riley C 1486cc.
Bira in the Maser again, this time practicing at Brooklands in March 1938 (David Savill)
Credits…
Imagno, David Savill, John Stephenson, MotorSport September 1937
John Surtees ‘P3’ at this point but his Ferrari gearbox failed in the race won by Stewart’s BRM P261…
(David Phipps)
Surtees in his big Ferrari 312, a new F1 car built to the 3 litre formula introduced that year leads Jackie Stewart in his light, nimble BRM P261, a 1.5 litre F1 car bored to around 2.1 litres and shortly to be victorious over ‘Big Johns’ heavy and not so powerful Ferrari.
It may have been different if he had driven the light, nimble Ferrari Dino 246 allocated to teammate Bandini, but that was not to be and so the pressures mounted which lead to Surtees departure from the Scuderia shortly thereafter. And with it any chance Ferrari had of winning the title that year. Brabhams year of course.
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