Emilio Materassi and mechanic (above and below) on the way to winning the 3.5-4.5-litre class of the 1920 Coppa della Consuma aboard a Fiat 20-30 HP. Up front it was Fiat as well, Paolo Niccolini won the event in a Fiat 120 HP.
This amazing hillclimb event centred on the village of Consuma, 35km east of Florence, was first held in 1902 and has existed with a few hiccoughs along the way to the present, as an historic meeting since 1990.
(coppadellaconsuma.com)(coppdellaconsuma.com)
It’s said that the alpine pass was created by the Consumi family who were forced into political exile in Florence in 1482 and ten years later founded the town around an ancient spring and a church dedicated to San Domenico di Guzman.
In more modern times, the opening of the Baccelli road transformed the area into a popular holiday resort for poets, writers, journalists, entertainers and racing motorists, via the good graces of the Automobile Club of Florence.
Tazio Nuvolari, Alfa Romeo 6C1750 GS in 1930 (coppadellaconsuma.com)1952 winner Piero Palmer, crosses the line in his Ferrari 225 Vignale (coppadellaconsuma.com)
Over many years the hillclimb race hairpins have witnessed heroic deeds and victories by some of the greats including Vincenzo Lancia, Fiat in 1904, Antonio Ascari, Fiat in 1919, Tazio Nuvolari, Alfa Romeo in 1931 and Ludovico Scarfiotti, OSCA S1550 in 1959.
Into the 1960s the event became a round of the European Hillclimb Championship with up to 80,000 spectators lining the roads, but the Automobile Club of Florence shifted its energy to growing Mugello as the closure of the road between Florence and Casentino became increasingly untenable. The last in-period Coppa della Consuma was held in 1964 and was won by Edward Govoni’s Maserati Type 60, he completed the 12.5km course in 6 min 54.170 sec.
Credits…
Pirelli Archive, coppadellaconsuma.com
Tailpiece…
(The Cary Collection)
Prince Domenico Cerami Rosso focuses on the job at hand – winning the 2-litre class of the Coppa della Consume in 1930 – while his mechanic is very much enjoying the ride, Maserati 26B MM 2-litre supercharged straight-eight.
Jo Siffert’s night-time Porsche 917 pitstop at Daytona made more dramatic by the exposure used by photographer Dave Friedman…
You can see Seppi’s distinctive helmet in the murk to the left of the car as Brian Redman gets ready to rejoin the race.
It was not to be Siffert’s race, the first in which the dominance of the 917 generally and John Wyer entered cars specifically was displayed in the Sports Car Championship that year. The Ferrari 512S (Ignazio Giunti/Nino Vaccarella/Mario Andretti) took a Sebring victory in March but otherwise it was a Porsche year, what the 4.5-5 litre flat-12 917 didn’t win, the 3 litre flat-8 908 did on courses for which it was designed.
Siffert/Redman led the race until after the three-hour mark. Not long after a driver change to Redman, Brian came into the pits with a punctured tyre, worse was the brake-pipe broken by the rotating tyre tread. It took a critical 17 minutes to make the car good. The pair’s day of drama wasn’t over yet though. They lost an hour to replace the clutch, and later still had another stop to ‘straighten the Porsche after a wall-scraping episode.’
Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen won the race in the sister John Wyer entry, 45 laps ahead of Siffert/Redman with the Andretti/Merzario/Ickx Ferrari 512S three more laps in arrears, third.
Seppi in the 917 cockpit with old school Bell Magnum helmet and chinstrap (D Friedman)(MotorSport)
I love the variety of cars in these events putting aside the performance differential arguments and issues. The Siffert/Redman cat-amongst-the-pigeons 917 amidst the Fleming/Johnson/Fleming Fiat 124 Coupe and Wonder/Cuomo Ford GT40.
And below in the midst of the Waldron/Lanier/Barros MGB and Clutton/Tatum Ferrari 275 GTB/C. Eyes on your mirrors folks…
(MotorSport)(MotorSport)
Seppi again, this time in front of the Patterson/Sanford Porsche 911T.
Bibliography…
Automobile Year 18, Team Dan, MotorSport, Dave Friedman Archive
Tailpiece…
(MotorSport)
‘I’m leavin’ on a jet plane…that’s Daytona Beach International Airport behind. DC9.
I imagine the colour of the underwear of the photographer was changing at this moment, protected only by a layer of Armco as he was. Still, if the worst happened he could decamp into the dam behind…Shots from this spot at Sandown, outside Peters/Torana Corner are rare after about this time as the spot was made Verboten!
Norm Beechey, Holden Monaro HT GTS 350 from the Pete Geoghegan (left) and Bob Jane Mustang 302s, with a smidge of Jim McKeown’s Porsche 911S behind Pete, and then most of Brian Foley’s, and the rest. 1970 Australian Touring Car Championship, round three, April 19.
While Allan Moffat started from pole (where is he in this shot!?), Stormin’ Norm had a great day at the office, leading from start to finish and setting a lap record. He took his second 1970 ATCC round win of the season, victorious from Geoghegan and Moffat (Mustang Trans-Am 302) on the way to an immensely popular series win in his big, booming, Shell-yellow Monaro GTS 350; the first time an Oz built car had won the title.
(G Feltham)
These two shots are of man and machine at Symmons Plains circa-1970, not sure of the meeting date, the number doesn’t work for the ATCC round.
(G Feltham)
Ray Barfield races his ex-works/David McKay Aston Martin DB3S, chassis 9, at Caversham in 1959, meeting date folks?
The second placed car at Le Mans in 1956 (Stirling Moss/Peter Collins) was initially raced in Australia by McKay with success, before passing briefly through Stan Jones’ hands and into Barfield’s, where, I believe, it remains. More about the car in this article: https://primotipo.com/2017/09/28/david-mckays-aston-martin-db3ss/
(G Russell-Brown)
Gary Russell-Brown very kindly sent in these shots of the Barfield/DB3S combination at Caversham during the June 6, 1960 Six Hour Le Mans. Ray was a DNF after completing 60 laps, the winner, Jack Ayres/Lionel Beattie did 178.
(G Russell-Brown)(unattributed)
John Harvey under brakes on the entry to Creek Corner, Warwick Farm 1972. His mount is the brilliant – small, variable rate suspension, side-radiator, edgy-wedge – work of John Joyce, the Bob Jane owned Bowin P8 Repco-Holden F5000
P8-118-72 was completed at Bowin’s, Brookvale, Sydney factory in August 1972 to Bob Jane’s order, fitted with a Repco Holden V8 for John Harvey.
It practiced at the Surfers Aug 27 Gold Star round but didn’t start with fuel problems. Harvey then raced in a non-championship event at Warwick Farm a week later (above), where he was fifth in the first heat but collided with Kevin Bartlett at the start of second.
At that point, major team sponsor, Castrol, directed Jane to put most of the team’s energies into racing their touring cars: the Camaro, Monaro and Torana’s, while the Bowin and McLaren M6B Repco V8 sportscar were largely set aside.
In mid-1974 the car, less engine and gearbox, was sold to John Leffler to replace his damaged ANF2 Bowin P8 Hart-Ford #P8-136-74. Leffler pranged his new Bowin on its debut at Amaroo Park.
Converted to ANF2 specification – fitted with a Hart-Ford 416B 1.6-litre engine, Hewland FT200 gearbox etc – he raced P8-118-72 in the Australian F2 Championship and in Gold Star events. Once sorted, the car was a jet, winning the Phillip Island F2 round late in the year.
Sue Ransom leased and raced it at Calder and Wanneroo Park in 1975. The car remained in Western Australia, perhaps owned by Rod Housego and Ian Wookey, before reappearing at Wanneroo in Rob Richards hands between 1980-82 in Formula Pacific – Ford BDA engined – specification.
Perth Bowin fan Matthew Lloyd did a superb job restoring the car to ANF2 spec, but he died in 2008 just as it was being finished. Bought by Dean Saunders in 2009, I believe it is being slowly re-restored to Repco-Holden F5000 spec, do get in touch if you have more recent information. .
I just like this pair of posters to promote brand new Surfers Paradise International Raceway in 1966.
While it was a fabulous circuit, and at the time built in the-sticks, the incredible growth of the Gold Coast made it irresistible to developers, which was its fate circa August 1987.
John Harvey’s Brabham BT23E Repco 740 in the foreground, while Niel Allen jumps aboard his McLaren M10B Chev at Bathurst during the Easter 1970 weekend.
In the shot below Niel jumps off the line, it’s Leo Geoghegan’s Lotus 39 Repco on the far side.
Ain’t she sweet…John Harvey’s Bob Jane Racing Jane Repco 830 2.5 V8 at rest in the Warwick Farm paddock during the Gold Star round on September 6.
Harves was out with fuel pump failure, Leo Geoghegan won the race, and ultimately the title aboard his Lotus 59B Waggott TC-4V 2-litre.
This car was built on Bob Britton’s (Rennmax Engineering) Brabham BT23 jig to replace Jane’s ageing BT23E with many mods but notably changes in suspension geometry to suit the latest generation of ever-widening tyres. It exists in a West Australian museum.
I love Graham Ruckert’s superb shot of John French on the limit in Pete Geoghegan’s recalcitrant but very powerful Ford Super Falcon in front of Brian Foley’s superb in every respect Alfa Romeo GTAm at Lakeside on July 25, 1971.
It was Lakeside’s Australian Touring Car Championship round that weekend. Pete gave the car a gallop in a support race but elected to race his trusty Mustang in the championship event, having French – a Ford factory racer – drive the Big Henry.
It seems right to show you furriners what a standard Ford Falcon GTHO looks like…here it’s Allan Moffat easing his beast – an XW Phase 1 GTHO – out of Peters Corner at Sandown during his victorious Sandown 3-Hour win on September 14, 1969.
Moffat/John French won from two other similar cars crewed by Tom Roddy/Murray Carter and Fred Gibson/Barry Seton.
Jim Clark, Lotus 49 Ford DFW ahead of Chris Amon, Ferrari Dino 246T at Dandenong Road, Sandown during their epic dice for the lead of the 1968 Australian Grand Prix in February 1968.
Geoff Brabham – 1975 Australian F2 Champion – raced his Birrana 274 Hart-Ford 416-B 1.6 ANF2 car twice at Calder in May and August 1975.
While Brian Sampson’s Cheetah Mk5 Toyota ANF3 car behind makes sense the Alan Gissing Holden sporty does not, so I guess it’s a practice session. Geoff won three of the seven rounds, and the ’75 title, with Alf Costanzo second and Andrew Miedecke third. See here: https://primotipo.com/2018/09/20/brabs-gets-the-jump/
Garrie Cooper won that day at Mallala – GC’s only Gold Star victory – in his superb Elfin 600C Repco 830 V8 from Geoghegan and Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott TC-4V 1.6.
Kevin Bartlett won the Gold Star that year aboard the Mildren Yellow Submarine which was powered by Alfa Romeo T33 2.5 V8s until the final round when he won the Hordern Trophy at Warwick Farm armed with the first of Merv Waggott’s 2-litre TC-4Vs.
(MotorSport)
Paul Radisich (above and below) tips his Holden Special Vehicles Commodore VE into Shell Corner during the Sandown 500, the ninth round of the 2007 Australian V8 Supercar Championship on September 14-16.
He shared the car with Rick Kelly to second place, the following machine is the Will Davison/Steve Johnson Ford Falcon BF. The race was won by Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes’ Triple Eight Falcon BF.
Garth Tander (HSV Commodore VE) won the 2007 drivers title – by two points from Whincup – and HSV the team championship.
(MotorSport)(E Solomon)
All antipodean front row at the start of the 1969 Selangor Grand Prix. Roly Levis’ Brabham BT23C Ford on pole, then Graeme Lawrence’s McLaren M4A Ford FVA in the middle, and Garrie Cooper’s Elfin 600C Repco 830 V8 2.5 on the right.
Lawrence, surely with John McDonald the ‘winningest’ of drivers in South East Asia in the period, won the race from Levis and Australian, Tony Maw, Elfin 600 Ford.
Ron Marks and Graham Gillies aboard Marks’ Lancia Stratos HF in the Samford Forest on the press day before the start of the 1976 Lutwyche Village Warana Rally, the final round of six in the Australian Rally Championship that year.
The pair finished fourth, first was Murray Coote and Brian Marsden in a Datsun 1600. The ARC was won by Ross Dunkerton and Jeff Beaumont aboard a Datsun 240Z; four wins and one second placing.
Ex-water-skiing champion, Marks’ other rally credits included starts in the 1976 Holden Dealers, SEV Marchal and Southern Cross, and 1978 Southern Cross and the Castrol International rallies.
(G Ruckert)
The shot above shows the car out front of the Annand & Thompson Lancia and Fiat dealership in Newstead, Brisbane, before the ’76 Warana Rally.
Graham Ruckert, “I was selling Fiat/Lancia cars for the dealership at the time, they provided some sponsorship for the event and we got to display the car during the week before the event…I had a short run in the passenger seat with Ron Marks on the Press Day at Samford which was pretty memorable!”
(B Keys)
And above demonstrating the style for which the Stratos was famous during the October 1976 Holden Dealers International Rally held in the forests around Moe and Traralgon. Those large chimneys in the background belong to one of the coal fired power stations in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
(T Parkinson Collection)
MG TC Specials to the fore at the start of the Lobethal 50, a support race for the 1948 South Australian 100, held at Lobethal on New Years Day, January 1. #32 is Ron Edgerton, #29 is Harold Clisby, #31 is WJ Mentz, while car #34 further back is raced by AK Eadie.
The 100 mile, 12 lap, handicap feature race was run in front of 10,000 spectators in cool conditions and was won by Jim Gullan’s Ballot Oldsmobile from Granton Harrison in the Phillips Ford V8 Special, then Edgerton’s TC.
(K Drage)
Speaking of the great Harold Clisby, here he is a few years later at left with the equally talented Phil Irving at Sandown on March 2, 1962.
Harold would have been up to his armpits designing his F1 Clisby 1.5-litre engine, while Phil’s Repco Brabham RB620 2.5/3-litre is still a couple of years away…Mind you, Jack Brabham took more than a passing glance of the aluminium 3.9-litre Buick V8 fitted in the back of Chuck Daigh’s Scarab RE only yards away.
The F85 Oldsmobile V8 that Jack pitched successfully to the Repco Board as the basis of his new Tasman 2.5 litre engine was the Buick’s brother, different only in the number of head retention studs. See here: https://primotipo.com/2016/01/27/chucks-t-bird/
Derek Kneller has just finished assembling Bob Muir’s – Bob and Marj Brown owned – Chevron B35 Ford BDX 2-litre F2 car in Chevron’s Bolton factory in early 1977.
Barry Randall’s Ex-Doug MacArthur Rennmax Repco 2.5 V8 blasting out of MG Corner at Phillip Island as a car in the background makes the downhill plunge into it.
Car then raced for many years in Victoria by the Gibson family out of Benalla, and for many years owned by Jay Bondini.
Battle of the ‘1.6-litre Four Valvers’ during the May 3, 1969 J.A.F. Grand Prix aka the Japanese GP.
Sohei Kato’s third-placed Mitsubishi Colt F2C R39B ahead of Glyn Scott’s fourth placed Bowin P3 Waggott TC-4V at Fuji International. Up the front, Leo Geoghegan won in his venerable ex-Jim Clark Lotus 39 Repco 830 2.5 V8 from Roly Levis’ Brabham BT23C Ford FVA. More here: https://primotipo.com/2015/03/02/leo-geoghegan-australian-driving-champion-rip/
(B Dickson)
A random internet find, a decent drawing of the Alec Mildren Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo T33 2.5 V8 raced throughout 1968-69 by Frank Gardner and Kevin Bartlett.
KB is shown below in grand style by Dick Simpson at Bathurst during Easter 1968. Kevin was the quickest man on the mountain that weekend but was ousted with a broken rear upright, Phil West won his only Gold Star round aboard the Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT23A Repco V8. See here for more: https://primotipo.com/2021/07/06/mellow-yellow/
(Dick Simpson-oldracephotos.com)
Credits…
Peter D’Abbs, Greg Feltham, Gary Russell-Brown, Jock Alexander, Lance Ruting, Graham Ruckert, David Blanch-autopics.com.au, Repco, MotorSport Images, Eli Solomon Archive, Bruce Keys, Tony Parkinson Collection, Derek Kneller, Kevin Drage, Graham Ruckert, Bob Dickson, Dick Simpson-oldracephotos.com
Tailpiece…
(G Ruckert)
Marks and Gillies again in the Warana Rally.
Does anyone know the history of this car before it came to Australia? My Stratos owning friend, Phil Allen tells me he thinks there are only two Stratos resident in Australia at present and this isn’t the other one…
Smokey Yunick looks on as famed GM Engineer and ‘Father of the Corvette’, Zora Arkus Duntov awaits the Daytona Beach start on 1956…
Zora was always seeking to build the Corvette brand. Ford and GM were in a performance battle at the time, his GM paymasters were keen to support his attempt to top 150mph in an ‘essentially stock’ Corvette having just attracted considerable press with a class record run at Pikes Peak.
In the photo above Zora is in #A81, the car with the head fairing, and John Fitch in A82 behind.
Zora Arkus-Duntov chatting to officials after one of his runs. Chev Corvette, Daytona Beach February 1956 (Racing One)
Three cars were prepared for the attempts at Daytona Beach in early 1956, they were driven by Arkus-Duntov, racer John Fitch, and aviatrix Betty Skelton.
It’s Easter Monday 1959. March 30, the Bathurst 100 grid. Alec Mildren on the wheel of his Cooper T45 Climax, Ross Jensen behind and to the left of his Maserati 250F and Stan Jones perched on the back wheel of his 250F…
Top contenders for the 100 mile classic were the three Maserati 250Fs driven by Stan Jones – winner of the AGP at Longford on March 2 and the South Australian Trophy at Port Wakefield only two days before on March 28 – Arnold Glass, and Kiwi 1957 Gold Star winner, the very experienced and accomplished Ross Jensen. His 250F Maserati is ‘in the blue and white colours of the Automobile Club of El Salvador – an NZGP publicity gimmick,’ wrote John Medley.
Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S, the 1958 Bathurst 100 winner was a contender as were the 2-litre Coventry Climax FPF powered Cooper T45s of Alec Mildren, Len Lukey and Bill Patterson.
Raceday, bright and sunny, attracted 25,000 spectators.
(unattributed)
The first three lap qualifying heat was won by Glynn Scott’s Repco Holden from Bill Reynold’s Orlando MG and Alwyn Rose’s big, booming Dalro Jaguar. The second three-lapper was won by Jones’ Maserati 250F from Mildren’s Cooper T45 Climax and Jensen’s 250F.
The photo above shows the grid prior to the start of the second heat, with Jack Myers beside his WM Holden and then the Maserati 250Fs of Jones and Jensen. Myers’ special was a very clever concoction of Cooper T20 chassis – although by then the frame was of Jack’s construction – and six-cylinder Holden Grey block atop which sat a Merv Waggott designed and built aluminium DOHC, twin-cam, two-valve cylinder head. This car in Jack’s capable hands always punched above its weight, read about it here; https://primotipo.com/2015/02/10/stirling-moss-cumberland-park-speedway-sydney-cooper-t20-wm-holden-1956/
Parade lap, logically before the Bathurst 100…(unattributed)(unattributed)
After the parade lap the Bathurst 100 grid of 27 starters was ‘away in indescribable noise, dust and confusion’, Jones was first to Hell Corner from Mildren Lukey and Whiteford – then Jensen, Glass, Scott, Jack Myers WM Cooper – with Ray Walmsley in the Alfa P3 GMC rolling to a halt out of Hell.
Mildren led at the end of lap one from Jones, Lukey, Jensen who was closing and Doug Whiteford who was falling back. Jensen passed Lukey on lap four and then challenged Jones, roaring past before The Cutting with the three leaders nose to tail through Reid Park.
Jones, 250F (unattributed)
Lukey’s Cooper was close, Whiteford a bit further back and Glass much further back, and then the Myers WM. Into lap five Medley records that the Kiwi started his run by putting in two laps of 2:51, taking the lead and extending it whilst Stan Jones pitted, restarted and retired after six laps.
Then Mildren was black flagged due to a loose bonnet catch, he pitted and rejoined after the drama was rectified, but he was now behind Jensen, Lukey and Whiteford.
Mildren got the bit back between his teeth and passed Whiteford up Mountain Straight at half distance and Lukey under brakes at Murray’s – Doug took Len two laps later as well. By then up to second, Mildren retired at Quarry having done a 2:55 lap and 147.73 mph on Conrod. Whiteford too retired from transmission failure.
Jensen passes Whiteford and his stranded Maserati 300S as he goes over the finishing line, out with transmission woes (PIX-SLNSW)
After Mildren’s pitstop Jensen wasn’t threatened and ‘motored the next 80 miles to win easily’ with a best lap of 2:50.6 and a speed through the Conrod traps at 139.53 mph.
Jensen won a race of incredible attrition – only 11 of the 27 starters finished – from Len Lukey, Cooper T45 Climax, and Glass in the ex-Hunt/Stillwell Maserati 250F, then Jack Myers WM Cooper Holden, Walmsley’s Alfa P3 GMC and Werner Greve in the ex-Moss/Davison 1954 AGP winning HWM Jaguar.
Walmsley’s fifth place in a Gold Star round in his pre-war Alfa Romeo P3 was surely the highest placing for such an old car in any Gold Star round?
(PIX-SLNSW)
Ross Jensen…
While Aucklander, Ross Jensen’s performance may have astonished fringe-race-fans in Australia in fact he had been a front runner in New Zealand amongst the visiting internationals for years.
He purchased the ex-Moss Maserati 250F #2508 1956 NZ GP winner finishing second to Jack Brabham’s Cooper in the 1958 NZ GP. Later that year he raced works-Lister Jaguars in the UK, placing second at Snetterton and Brands in July-August and winning Scott-Brown Memorial – a man he got to know on Archie’s early ’58 NZ Tour – at Snetterton in September. He then returned home having taken delivery of the long shark-nosed 250F #2509 in time for the 1959 NZ internationals.
Ross Jensen shared this Lister Jag with Ivor Bueb and Bruce Halford during the September 1958 Tourist Trophy at Goodwood, DNF (LAT)Soggy Ross – Jensen and 250F during the early stages of the 1959 Waimate 50. “famously there was a cloud burst just after the start…once the rain stopped, it dried up quickly and we had some really great racing,” Allan Dick wrote (Classic Auto News)
Bruce Sergent wrote that “the car was built around the frame of the Bira race winner (NZ GP) of 1955, but with the latest motor and transmission, giving the low, offset driving position.”
He was fifth in the NZ GP, qualified on the front row at Wigram but DNF with transmission problems, was second behind Bruce McLaren’s Cooper at Waimate, and was fourth behind McLaren, Flockhart’s BRM P25 and Brabham, Cooper T45 at Teretonga. He was no slouch…
Jensen established a race preparation shop, retired from racing in 1961 but was always part of the scene – foundation member and on the board of the NZ Grand Prix Association, founding trustee of the Bruce McLaren Trust – and later imported Renault, Jaguar and BMW amongst others. He died, aged 78 in October 2003.
Etcetera…
(PIX-SLNSW)
Stan Jones (right) dispenses some words of wisdom to a gent in the exclusive confines of the Mobilgas hospitality suite. BYO chair clearly.
(SLNSW)
Great Pit Straight panorama with the #33 Bruce Leer MG TC Spl, Jesse Griffiths Maserati 4CL #36 and John Schroeder, covered Nota Consul. All of them contested the Bathurst 100 and all were DNFs.
(unattributed)
Porsche 356 Coupe leads Stan Jones and Ross Jensen on the parade lap.
(PIX-SLNSW)
Mildren, Cooper T45 and the Jensen and Jones 250F’s on the front row at the start of the 100, feel the vibe…Len Lukey’s #5 Cooper Climax on the outside of row two
(unattributed)
Arnold Glass’ Maserati 250F goes inside Bill Clarke’s 492cc two-stroke, three-cylinder, air-cooled Berkeley SE492 Excelsior, the speed differential between some of the cars that weekend was mega.
Credits…
Russell Beckman, Bill Miles Collection, ‘Bathurst: Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley, sergeant.com, Allan Dick-Classic Auto News, LAT, Maserati 250F chassis number source: http://8w.forix.com/250f-redux.html
Tailpiece…
Ross Jensen’s Maserati 250F in 1959, on the cover of the 1960 meeting programme.
I’m a big fan of Ron Tauranac’s Brabham BT34 Ford ‘Lobster Claw’. The one and only BT34/1 raced throughout 1971 by Graham Hill isn’t at her Elle MacPherson best sans clothes, wings front and rear specifically. Italian Grand Prix practice, Monza, September 5 weekend in 1971.
I’ve almost finished a feature on BT34, but this shot got me thinking about which car(s) were the last to test or race at Monza without wings. It was the practice in the early-winged-era – 1968-71 at least – for much of the grid to test with and without wings to assess drag/grip/top speed tradeoffs in the quest for the optimum race setup. Does anybody know who was the last to do so, small things amuse small minds I know. More on the BT34/BT37 here: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/15/carlos-bt37-butt/
Graham raced winged, Q14 and DNF gearbox in one of the best ever F1 races won magnificently by Peter Gethin’s BRM P160 by a bees-dick from Ronnie Peterson’s March 711 Ford. Their official times were 1hr 18m 12.600sec and 1:18:12.610 respectively.
(MotorSport)
Graham early in the race – his BT34 aero-kit now fitted – with John Surtees, Surtees TS9B Ford (DNF engine) and Nanni Galli’s #22 March 711 Ford (DNF electrics).
BT34’s best results were in non-championship F1 races: Hill won the May 1971 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone and Carlos Reutemann the March 1972 Brazilian GP.
By 1971 Graham was arguably past his F1-best. While Hill got the better of his team-mate, Tim Schenken – 1970 BT33 mounted – in the first half of ’71, the reverse was the case in the ‘back-nine’. It would have been interesting to see what Tim could have done with the car. Reutemann certainly showed its pace, not only did he win in Brazil but sensationally put the BT34 on pole on his championship GP debut in Argentina in late January.
Not that Graham was a spent force. He won the Thruxton Euro F2 round in a Rondel Racing Brabham BT36 Ford FVA from Ronnie Peterson’s March 712 in March 1971, and another, the GP della Lotteria di Monza on June 29, 1972 aboard a Brabham BT38 Ford BDA. Not to forget Le Mans that year of course, where Graham shared the winning Matra MS670 with Henri Pescarolo over the June 10-11 weekend. See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/09/19/matra-random/
Credits…
MotorSport Images, LAT, F2 Register
Tailpiece…
(LAT)
Hill (above) on the way to winning the 1972 Monza Lottery GP F2 race, still in search of the optimum low drag Monza setup on his Brabham BT38 Ford BDA: no front wings and a very shallow angle of incidence at the rear.
May as well finish with another question, this time for the Graham Hill experts. Was that Monza Lottery win – not a Euro F2 Championship round that year – on June 29, 1972 Graham’s final race win?
More BT34 soon. Oh yes, the Fugly Car Cup will be an occasional article.
The days of sublime, simply beautiful Grand Prix photographs are long gone, sadly. I friggin’ hate modern abbreviations like OMG but it does make a point, very economically.
Dan the Man is blasting his Ferrari Dino 246 around the Circuito de Monsanto, a port city in Lisbon, Portugal, during the August 23, 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix. He was third behind the Cooper T51 Climaxes raced by Stirling Moss and Masten Gregory.
(LAT)
Back then, photographs weren’t usually attributed to the artist, so sadly we cannot give the talented ‘snapper the accolade he/she/uncertain deserves: try this https://primotipo.com/2017/07/14/composition/
Of course, rather than completely wallowing in the past, the challenge is to find some modern settings which match the OMG-WOW Factor of photographs like these. This is the first in what will be an ongoing series…
Frank Gardner’s Alec Mildren Racing Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo 2.5 V8 passes the disinterested family of a flaggie – I’m thinking – during the February 1968 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round…
There is a lot to be said for being an all British Motor Corporation family, I learned to drive in Mumbo’s Morris 1100 and have always had a soft spot for the Land Crab! (Austin 1800). I’m sure the kids are busy with their Social Studies homework.
(R Donaldson-SLNSW)
We’ve done this meeting to death before, the shot above shows Gardner in front of Jack Brabham’s BT23E Repco, Denny Hulme’s Brabham BT23A Ford FVA and AN Other.
(R Donaldson-SLNSW)
The race was won by Jim Clark from Graham Hill in the other works-Lotus 49 Ford DFW, then Piers Courage, McLaren M4A Ford FVA. The gaggle above, early in the race, shows Clark, Hill, Chris Amon, Ferrari 246T, Courage, largely obscured, then a gap to Gardner and Brabham.
Here is a clearer shot of FG and the BT23D at Warwick Farm. It was a unique one-off BT23 variant ordered from Ron Tauranac by Sydney racer/Alfa dealer/team owner Alec Mildren to carry 2.5-litre variants of the engines fitted Alfa Romeo’s contemporary Tipo 33 V8 sports-racer.
I’m cheating though, this shot was taken on the car’s successful race debut in the Hordern Trophy, the final ’67 Gold Star round that December. See here for more on this car: https://primotipo.com/2021/07/06/mellow-yellow/
Credits…
Bob Donaldson-State Library of New South Wales, oldracephotos.com/Dick Simpson
AC Ace Bristol, Arthurs Seat – Port Phillip Bay to the right and Bass Straight, next stop King Island on the way to Tasmania at the top – Victoria (N French)
Seasonal salutations to those of you of a religious bent, and all the best for a well earned break for the rest of you. As father-time meanders on I do find my staunch atheism evolving towards an each-way-bet form of neo-agnosticism on the basis that one needs all the help ‘yer can find towards the end of one’s innings. “You fucking hypocrit!” my eldest son observed, fair comment too.
One of my mates asked me about my automotive highlights of the year the other day, I thought the contents of that discussion might be a good end of year topic.
Lots of luvverly Smiths instruments in the Ace cockpit (N French)Savouring the Stanley Sunbeam 20/60 on the Redesdale Bridge (D Hewison)
When I think about it, all are related to my mate Bob King: medico retired, racer retired, restorer retired and author current with four Bugatti book tomes so far. My racing interests had been largely post-war until we had a series of illicit, coffee-infused research and talking-shit sessions during Covid. The Peoples Republik of Victoria was locked down tighter than a nuns chastity belt in 2020-21.
As a consequence, much of my research these days relates to earlier times, it’s fun as the learning journey is steep and rich. I worked out in 2022 that I could have my cake and eat it too if I mixed a car’s road impressions with the usual dose of history.
This combo has yielded 2023 articles on King’s AC Ace Bristol (published in Benzinamagazine), the Murdoch Family’s two supercharged, twin-cam Altas: 1.1-litre #21S and 2-litre #55S (Benzina and The Automobile) and Richard Stanley’s 3.2-litre, six-cylinder, OHV Sunbeam 20/60 (The Automobile).
Ace at Albert Park in works-corto-spec (sic). This involved removal of the road screen and replacing it with this competition number and fitment of the neato radiator blind. Amazingly, these two items were delivered with the new car to its German domiciled Australian Army officer first owner, and are still with it seven’ish decades later. The Alfa GTA behind is kosher, it’s the ex-MW Motors car (CCCollection)
Driving these cars were the highlights of the year.
On top of that I get to drive Bob’s Ace very regularly, the best of those steers was participating in the Historic Demos (on all four days) of the AGP carnival at Albert Park. The pace is very-fast-road not full-race, its such a sweetie, a mix of just enough power (circa 135bhp), superb spaceframe chassis and predictable handling via independent suspension at both ends, rare in the day. See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/02/21/benzina-magazine/
David Hewison snaps 21S in the background while 55S awaits its turn. Bob and the Murdochs – Geoff, Fiona and Neill and partially obscured young-un – await the road leg. Citroen SM flank at right. The coolant seemed ominous but wasn’t required (Bisset)
The logistics of these road impression exercises are not to be sneezed at. The rendezvous point for the Alta day (the week before the AGP in March) was in the Upper Yarra with one of the cars being trailered from Melbourne. There was a five-person-Murdoch Posse in attendance, David Hewison and his son manning the lenses, plus Bob and the two British stars of the show, who behaved well despite an exceptionally hot day.
21S on the hop near Gladysdale, the pre-selector gearbox wasn’t the mental challenge – with limited capability in relation thereto on my part – that I had expected. Superb to drive in every respect (D Hewison)
Mrs ‘Racing Ron’ Edgerton with an Edgerton junior-burger and 21S circa 1942. The Ford V8 was fitted several years before, Edgerton has just completed a major body-off rebuild (Ron Edgerton Collection)
Nico French did the AC Ace shoot on Mornington Peninsula roads very familiar to me: a loop comprising Arthurs Seat, Main Ridge, Red Hill, Flinders and Shoreham and then a blast to Mornington for lunch en route home.
Kingy really doesn’t like the verbal foreplay between his car – mainly directed towards it’s perky little rump – and I in his garage before we set off on these occasions. There are only six-hundred-thousand-reasons she isn’t mine!
21S owner Fiona Murdoch and Bob King roadside at Launching Place (Bisset)No it isn’t a perfect four-wheel-drift! Sunbeam 20/60 and Messrs Stanley and King near Kevington, Autumn is pretty up that way (Bisset)
I froze my nuts off in the back of Richard’s Sunbeam way back in late April when I was the third-wheel on the annual Ye Olde Codgers Stanley-King Alpine Tour into Victoria’s high country.
Clad in my favourite Thredbo ski-gear, with rear windscreen erect and struggle-rug over my legs it was fantastic fun but, far-canal, it was a true British winter touring experience in The Great Brown Land.
I pitched the Sunbeam piece to The Automobile and it got up against two other ideas I rated more but were knocked back. The drive day was a warm one in mid-October, David Hewison did the static shots in Lancefield and the drive was via the Burke and Wills Track to Redesdale.
The 3.2-litre tourer was surprisingly spritely, the right hand change crash-box novice friendly. No pressure here in the driving, Stanley is a renowned Kiwi/Oz historic racer and has owned the car since restoring it in the early 1970s. He drives it with supreme finesse. Victorian country C-roads are bad at present given the lack of funds deployed to maintaining them, what surprised me was just how the twenties Sunbeam ate the B&W Track in a way my Alfa 147 GTA didn’t: low profile tyres and the rest.
Hewison produced his party trick this time, working with a drone for the first time was interesting, and adds another dimension to considering the terrain in which you shoot. More on the Sunbeam here: https://primotipo.com/2023/05/20/sunbeam-20-60/
Photos continue to be the inspiration for the primotipo articles but it’s yer mates and confidants, mentors, supporters and sub-editors (the latter are readers who pick up and point out the f-ups) that sustain you. So, many thanks to Bob King, Tony Johns, Stephen Dalton and Alistair MacArthur, Bruce Williams, Tony Davis and Doug Nye, and Geoff Harris and Rob Bartholomaeus.
(N French)
Etcetera…
This shot of Bob King was the ‘money shot’ of the AC shoot, a ripper. Three-quarter front floats the editor’s boat. The owner is having a ball, there a couple of places on the steep climb where the chairlift goes over the road.
Bob competed here in his Bugatti Type 35 Anzani – the ‘Anzani Bugatti’ in Australia – in the early 1990s. There were two climbs (I think) in the modern era which aped the use of the venue pre-war, then officialdom got in the way, as it usually does.
These days the best approach to enjoy this magic stretch of road is an illicit dawn blast having first done a recce to ensure moisture levels of the surface, with many overhanging trees, won’t cause grief…
BMW-Bristol 2-litre, triple-Stromberg fed, two-OHV six gives about 135bhp in current spec. Fitted with overdrive, this baby happily tours at 110kph all day (N French)
Rest assured it was as cold as it looks, what superb drivers roads they are. The two old-fellas were cocooned in the front while I was ‘punished’ in that airy rear seat. Kevington countryside, the local pub is great, albeit with a dang-diddl-lang-dang-dang factor about it.
Sunbeam’s 3181cc, seven main-bearing, twin-SU fed long-stroke six powered tourer lopes along. Richard and Judy Stanley toured from Lancefield to Rockhampton, Queensland last year – 1900km each way – the car is loved and used a lot (Bisset) (Bisset)
Easily the best of this years piss-up type events, it’s on again in 2024, with me as a judge. It’s a very dangerous choice as someone who regards these things as wank-fests, and will fulfil his duties with that degree of conviction….
(Bisset)
Neill Murdoch me showed just how quick this supercharged 2-little mid-1930s Alta accelerates, “think of it as a two-seater ERA” was meant indicatively rather than definitively but sums the thing up in a nutshell. Geoffrey Taylor’s marque is so underestimated.
Credits…
David Hewison, Nico French, Mark Bisset, CC Collection
Tailpiece…
(Bisset)
What it’s all about, a long and winding road that leads to a hotel door…with apologies to Paul and John.
Richard Stanley and Bob King with Sunbeam 20/60 burbling it’s beautiful six-cylinder song on the Maroondah Highway, Molesworth, Victoria on April 25, 2023.
Merry Christmas, may you all have a peaceful and restful break with lots of good health and luck in 2024.
Atmospheric shot of Harry Schell’s BRM Type 25 during the August 23, 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix at Monsanto, Lisbon…
It was the breakthrough car for BRM, Jo Bonnier’s Type 25 won at Zandvoort in 1959 thereby breaking the F1 World Championship GP winning duck for the Boys from Bourne after nearly a decade of competition.
Immaculately credentialled engineer Stewart Tresilian “was largely responsible not only for the original conception and design of the BRM Project 25 2.5-litre four cylinder engine, but also of the compact P27 – or Type 25 – car (chassis) intended to carry it into battle.” Doug Nye wrote in ‘BRM Vol 1.’
“He had produced a homogeneous concept of car and engine combined, its essence being the complete antithesis of the original V16 in that it was all as small and compact and simple as possible, with the arguable exception of his projected 16-valve cylinder head for the four cylinder engine.”
BRM P15s, JM Fangio on the front row, and Ken Wharton behind him, Albi GP May 1953. Fangio won the heat and dominated the final before tyre troubles intervened, Louis Rosier won in a Ferrari 375 with Froilan Gonzalez second in another BRM P15. Car #3 is Nino Farina in the Vandervell Thin Wall Ferrari 375 (B Cahier)
The four-valve head design was subsequently over-ruled by Peter Berthon and after Tresilian left the Owen Racing Organisation to go to Bristol-Siddeley Engines in January 1953, Berthon, Tony Rudd and others brought the Type 25 to reality.
The result was a car that became increasingly fast, it not particularly reliable with each passing year from its race debut in 1955 until early in 1960. It allowed the team to develop the capabilities to win; car development, preparation and driver, they couldn’t do that with a car that never lasted too many laps. Mind you, the simplicity of Tresilian’s concept was complex in its execution…
Peter Collins crashed his Type 25 #252 during practice of the Daily Telegraph Trophy meeting at Aintree on September 3 1955, so took his bow here at Oulton Park during the September 24, 1955 International Gold Cup meeting in the same car. Q13 and DNF after loss of oil pressure after 13 laps. Stirling Moss won in a Maserati 250F from Mike Hawthorn’s Lancia D50. Oh to have been there that day! Many thanks to Stephen Dalton for these two programme pages – studiously marked up by a knowledgeable spectator – from that BRM Type 25 failed race debut September 1955 meeting at Aintree
The P27 semi-monocoque – in the centre section – chassis was strongly influenced by Tom Killeen’s Killeen K1 sportscar which was tested extensively at Folkingham by Rudd. He was impressed and the performance of the car “confirmed PB’s interest in stiffening his basic new P27 frame with a stressed-skin monocoque centre section.
The five-speed rear-mounted gearbox was drawn by Alec Stokes, “who was destined to become BRM’s dedicated transmission specialist and one of the country’s leading gear-men.” The back of the gearbox carried the controversial single, longitudinal-axis rear disc universally known as the ‘bacon-slicer’.
With 50/50 weight distribution and 70% of the braking load at the front, the thinking was that outboard front disc brakes would carry 35% each, leaving 30% for a single rear disc. It took a long time to sort, but when that was achieved “this arrangenent worked quite well on the front engined cars.”
Rear suspension was by way of a De Dion tube with Lockheed air struts inherited from the V16 program, front suspension comprised upper and lower wishbones and coil air strut units again, with the rack and pinion steering Morris Minor based.
BRM P25 2.5-litre, (2491cc 102.8mmx74.93mm bore/stroke) four main bearing, DOHC, two-valve, Weber fed, twin Lucas magneto and twin-plug sparked four-cylinder engine shown in one of the cars at Monaco in 1956. That hole in the bonnet is the extent of the access my friendsBRM Type 25 1958 specification spaceframe chassis (C La Tourette)BRM Type 25 during the 1959 Dutch GP weekend at Zandvoort. Cars then spaceframe chassis with vastly superior mechanical access, note the single rear disc brake under the fuel tank at right. All that fuel sitting very high, the trade-off decisions are made clear in this shot (BRM 1)
While work progressed on the chassis there was a long test program with a single-cylinder model of the new engine. ORO were racing the V16 Mk2 and Maserati 250F during this period, with some success. By Easter 1955 the car was complete but for the engine. Finally, on June 5, 1955 the car ran for 19 laps at Folkingham with Rudd at the wheel, having given 260bhp @ 8000rpm on the test bed.
The major problem on test was the SU fuel injection system which was subseuently ditched in favour of a pair of 58DCOE Webers. After further tests by Ron Flockhart and Peter Collins, the car was entered for the September 3 Aintree meeting.
Peter Collins was chosen to race the machine but lubrication problems caused the engine to blow oil over the rear tyres causing a spin and chassis damage that prevented further running. A further run at Oulton Park on September 24 was impressive with Collins running third in front of Ferraris, Maseratis and Vanwalls etc ended when Peter noticed failing oil pressure and pitted. Thus turned out to be a dud gauge which had been shaken to death by the vibrations of the big-bore-four!
Post-meeting work involved rubber mounting the instruments, improving gearbox lubrication and gear teeth form. As Nye observed, “The new BRM was the tiniest car of its time. It was really minute, and very light, and very powerful…and very troublesome.” The eternal process of development was only just underway.
Willie Southcott tending Tony Brooks’ car, #252, at Goodwood during the Glover Trophy meeting in April 1956. DNF oil pressure in the race won by Stirling Moss’ Maserati 250FBritish GP scene July 14, 1956. The Type 25 cars of Tony Brooks, Mike Hawthorn about to receive a fresh engine, and Ron Flockhart at right; DNF accident, uni-joint and engine respectively. Fangio won in a Lancia Ferrari D50 (MotorSport)Tony Brooks’ Type 25 #252 enroute to Q6 and second in the Aintree 200 in April 1956, Moss won in a 250F (MotorSport)
Stirling Moss tested the cars in the lead up to the 1956 season but went to Maserati instead, so Mike Hawthorn and Tony Brooks stepped into the breech. Those poor unfortunates enjoyed a season of great speed laced with equal amounts of unreliability and poor preparation.
The team addressed many problems that year. They slowed the rotating speed of the bacon-slicer by use of a reduction gear, experienced ‘stiction’ in the air struts, the big valves stretched and broke, they had pot-joint seizure and so on. Then Brooks experienced a jammed throttle rod at Silverstone at Abbey corner triggering a somersault which destroyed chassis #252 by fire. To compound a diabolical British GP weekend in front of the home crowd, Ron Flockhart’s car broke its timing gears. Despite all of that Hawthorn and Brooks had qualified in the Top 10, Mike in Q3. The team withdrew from the final two championship races of the year in Germany and Italy.
The Brooks Silverstone conflagration, thank goodness the Gods of Goodnesss were smiling on Tony that day, but chassis 252 was very dead (TC March – T Johns Collection)
Alfred Owen then decreed there would be no more racing until the car had completed 300 miles of continuous running competitively. Flockhart achieved this late in the year at Monza. Three laps later, with Berthon waving him on, the car dropped a valve and ruined another engine. Nye observed, “From their debut in 1955 to the end of 1956 the BRM Type 25s had made only eight starts in just five races, and finished only once, Brook’s second in the Aintree 200.”
Over the winter Colin Chapman test drove the car twice and provided a comprehensive set of recommendations in a formal letter of advice including rear suspension changes. Fitment of tall coil spring/dampers and incorporating a Watts linkage to help locate the De Dion tube were among changes which help transform the cars.
Les Leston at Aintree during the 1957 British GP weekend, Q12 and DNF engine after 12 laps in chassis #253. Brooks/Moss won in Vanwall VW4 (MotorSport)Herbert Mackay-Fraser’s BRM T25 #253 ahead of Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari Lancia D50 at Rouen during the 1957 French GP
In 1957 Brazilian born American Herbert Mackay-Fraser charged at Rouen, while poor Flockhart spun on oil , rolled into a ditch and wrote 254 off. Fraser died a week later aboard a Lotus 11 Climax FPF at Reims and Flockhart was still in hospital so Jack Fairman and Les Leston raced the cars at Aintree.
Jean Behra was so impressed by the corner-speed of the Type 25 at Aintree he cadged one for the 302km Caen GP which he won! Harry Schell drove a sister car in the event at the last moment, and soon became the most consistently successful Type 25 driver.
“At the end of the season, against meagre opposition, the three surviving cars, 251, 253, and 254 finished 1-2-3 in the Silverstone International Trophy, driven by Behra, Schell and Flockhart.”
During the 1957-58 break, a fifth main bearing was incorporated into the engine to solve ongoing timing gear problems, the cost was high, additional friction losses impacted horsepower. The chassis came in for attention too, the semi-monocoque centre section was ditched in favour of a full spaceframe with fully detachable bodywork.
Schell and Behra finished two-three in the Dutch GP, the team’s best result yet. The methanol burning four-bearing engine gave over 280bhp in 1957, whereas the five-bearing on Avgas gave only 240bhp, Behra left for Ferrari at the end of the year.
Schell at Eau Rouge, Spa, Belgian GP 1958. Harry was fifth in #257, with four of the first five cars British, the only interloper was Mike Hawthorn’s second placed Ferrari 246. Brooks and Lewis-Evans were first and third on Vanwalls, while Cliff Allison’s tiny Lotus 12 Climax was fourth (MotorSport)Onya Harry! Third (right) on the grid at oh-so-fast Reims, 1958 French GP aboard #258. The Ferrari Dinos of Mike Hawthorn #4 and Luigi Musso share the front row with him. Hawthorn won while Harry retired with overheating after 41 lapsBehra, Oporto, Portugal in 1958, fourth from Q4 in #256 with Moss the winner in Vanwall VW10 (Getty)
Fiery Harry Schell was one of the surprises of the 1958 with a series of qualifying performances and points finishes which proved just how much their ever evolving Type 25 – despite the power loss – had come. Second at Zandvoort was fantastic, so too a swag of fifth places at Monaco, Spa, Silverstone (from Q2) and Oporto. Behra’s best was third and Holland and fourth in Portugal, while Jo Bonnier’s was fourth place in the season-ending Moroccan round.
In the first season the manufacturers championship was run, BRM were fourth in the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers behind Vanwall, Ferrari and Cooper Climax. Vanwall had peaked as they led the pre-eminence of British Racing Green, while Coopers were on the rise…
Moss on the way to second place in the BRP entered BRM Type 25, Aintree, British GP July 1959. Brabham won on a Cooper T51 Climax. Bourne standards of preparation encouraged Moss to have his Type 25 #2510 fettled by his (Alfred Moss and Ken Gregory) British Racing Partnership. This chassis met a violent death at Avus the following month when Hans Hermann had brake failure on the approach to the southern hairpin during the German GP, the lucky pilot survived the monumental accident unscathed. The BRM Gods of Goodness again smiled on Hans, but former BRM racer Jean Behra was not so fortunate that same weekendRon Flockhart’s #2511 during Aintree Friday practice, British GP weekend in July 1959. DNF spin after 53 laps (D Williams)Jo Bonnier in #258, in front of Masten Gregory at Zandvoort during Jo Bo’s famous May 31, 1959 BRM Type 25 victory, Masten was third and Brabham second on works-T51s (MotorSport)
While Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss rewrote the record books with their factory and Rob Walker Cooper T51 Climaxes in 1959 BRM put themselves in the annals of Grand Prix history when Jo Bonnier won at Zandvoort in May. Schell had a season of greater reliability than Bonnier but didn’t do as well as the year before.
That winter Harry Weslake had advised Bourne on improved cylinder head design, and the fifth main-bearing was machined out! BRM adopted new timing gears “with large, coarse teeth not critical to fine backlash tuning for reliability.” Further brake modifications and simpler, lighter chassis – numbers 2510 and 2511 – “made the BRM Type 25s simply the fastest front engine cars of 1959, with fantastic braking ability.” Doug Nye wrote.
Graham Hill, Dan Gurney and Bonnier drove the cars on into 1960 at which point all of the remaining Type 25s, except #258, the Zandvoort winner, were torn to bits to provide components for the new mid-engined P48 2.5-litre cars “being hastily built to follow Cooper’s rear-engined lead.”
(unattributed)
Jo Bonnier “drifting into history”, as Doug Nye beautifully put it. By April 18, 1960 JoBo could have raced a new mid-engined P48 in the Goodwood Easter Monday Glover Trophy but chose to race Type 25 #258, his Zandvoort machine instead. Graham Hill and Dan Gurney gave the P48s their race debut that weekend, Hill was fifth, Bonnier sixth and Gurney had an accident on lap 3. In a sign of the times, Innes Ireland’s works Lotus 18 Climax won, it was the fastest, if not the most reliable GP car of 1960.
The old and new, BRMs Type 25 and P48, both 2.5-litres in September 1959. That’s #481 in shot with its unique nose on the Folkingham floor between the two cars, Type 25 chassis number unknown (BRM 2)Graham Hill tips his BRM P48 into one of the oil-drum marked corners on the Ardmore Airfield circuit during the January 1961 New Zealand Grand Prix weekend. He was third behind the Cooper T53 Climaxes of Brabham and McLaren (M Fistonic)
Eleven BRM Type 25 chassis were built – #251-259, 2510 and 2511 – during the long 1953-1960 BRM Type 25 programme, starting in 21 championship and 26 non-championship and Formula Libre events. These 47 meetings yielded the Dutch GP win for Bonnier and seven minor event victories including the two preliminary heats of the 1957 International Trophy at Silverstone and the 1959 New Zealand Grand Prix heat at Ardmore for the ever patient Ron Flockhart.
Etcetera…
(TC March – T Johns Collection)
The boys; standing are Basil Putt, Team Manager, Mike Hawthorn, Tony Brooks, Peter Berthon, Tony Rudd, Raymond Mays, AF Rivers Fletcher. Who are the mechanics in front? Folkingham, Lincolnshire August 28 1956 ‘Test and view day’.
The cover and editorial of Autosport after Peter Collins made the race debut of the Type 25 at Oulton Park on September 24, 1955 says everything about Britain’s goodwill towards BRM in its fight to take on the best in the Grand Prix world.
Great shot of Les Leston with team chief Raymond Mays at Aintree during the 1957 British GP weekend. Q12 and DNF engine after 12 laps, Jack Fairman lasted two laps more before he too suffered engine dramas. Up front, Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss shared the win in a Vanwall.
Rouen pits in July 1957, the incredibly quick BRM Type 25 #253 of the oh-so-promising American driver Herbert Mackay-Fraser awaits its wheels. Q12 and DNF transmission failure after 24 laps, Fangio won in a Maserati 250F. And below with the Mike MacDowel Cooper T43 Climax shared with Jack Brabham to seventh in the race. The contrast in size between the smallest front-engined car of the era and the grids most compact is quite marked.
(LAT)
Peter Berthon and 37 years old Harry O’Reilly Schell at Monaco in 1958. Despite a wild-man reputation Harry put together plenty of fast drives and high placings just as the team needed them. He was equal fifth (with the dead Peter Collins) in the drivers championship with 14 points, a personal best. 1959 was tougher, Stirling Moss bagged his car and Harry didn’t finish a race until Reims in July, but managed fourth at Silverstone and fifth in Portugal. Schell died at Silverstone in damp practice for the 1960 International Trophy, he clipped a low retaining wall at Abbey, was half flipped out of his Cooper T51 Climax and broke his neck.
Behra at Oporto 1958. Doesn’t that BRM #256 look magnificent beside those small, very fast Cooper T45s. #12 is Maurice Trintignant, #16 Roy Salvadori with the obscured Jack Brabham copping a push start at right.
(CAN)
Ron Flockhart during the Lady Wigram Trophy, New Zealand in January 1959. If a bloke deserved a win in these cars it was Ron given the number of test and race miles he did in them. He won aboard #259 from pole in front of Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T45 Climax’.
‘Where is the starter again?’ Tony Rudd and mechanic in Harry Schell’s #257 at Monaco in 1959. Q9 and DNF accident after completing 48 laps of the race won by Jack Brabham’s Cooper T51 Climax. Bonnier’s car retired with failing brakes from Q7.
(unattributed)
Yay team, again at Zandvoort in 1959, and one more time, there is no such thing as too much BRM…
BRM Type 25 model from Stephen Dalton, “it’s a Merit with the Alastair Brookman touch, he built it.”
Credits…
Clarence La Tourette, Getty Images, John Ross Motor Racing Archive, Bernard Cahier, John Ferguson, Classic Auto News, LAT, MotorSport Images, ‘BRM 1’ Doug Nye, History of the Grand Prix Car 1945-65 Doug Nye, Dave Williams, Stephen Dalton Collection, TC March, Tony Johns Collection
Tailpiece…
(B Cahier)
Phil Hill catches Jean Behra on the way to a DNF brakes at Monaco in 1958 from a splendid Q2 in chassis #256. Tony Brooks was on pole and Jack Brabham Q3 is the upstart 2-litre Cooper T45 – with two more of the pipsqueaks behind Jack – driven by Roy Salvadori and race winner Maurice Trintignant.
While the mid-engined writing wasn’t perhaps on the wall, the sign-writers were readying the paint…
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