Posts Tagged ‘Teddy Mayer’

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Look at the detail; magneto, injection trumpets, rocker cover, throttle linkage, Moto-Lita steering wheel, Smiths chronometric tach, just so period. Top shot, the open garage door gives the photo another dimension to it (Denniston)

Peter Revson and McLaren’s Teddy Mayer looking frustrated and wistfull, respectively, at Peter’s Lola T220 Chev during the ‘Klondike 200’ Can Am round at Edmonton, Canada on 25 July 1970…

Revvie drove Carl Haas’ factory Lola T220 Chev with great speed if little reliability in 1970, switching to McLaren for 1971 and mopping up the championship in the M8F.

He then vaulted back into F1 to complete the ‘unfinished business’ he had first started in Europe a decade or so before. Peter’s platform to do so were his performances in McLaren Indy and Can Am cars in 1971/2.

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Revson during the ‘Klondike 200’, Edmonton, Canada 1970, Lola T220 Chev (Denniston)

McLaren had a good weekend in Edmonton, a one/two for Denny and Peter Gethin. Revson qualified his twitchy, challenging Lola 9th and retired from the race on lap 31 with an oil leak. His best results for the year were Q2’s at Mid Ohio and Road America, he finished 2nd at Mid Ohio. He achieved two Q3’s at Riverside and Laguna Seca, finishing 3rd at the latter.

Revvie may have only finished eighth in the 1970 Can Am Drivers Pointscore but his speed and potential was blindingly obvious to Teddy Mayer…

Credits…John Denniston

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(Denniston)

 

 

Doncha lerv Can Am cars in the nuddy?!…

Eric Broadley’s Lola T220 Chev laid bare for the world to see in the Edmonton paddock. Aluminium monocoque, ally ZL1 Chev, the sheer scale of these engines somewhat camouflaged with bodywork in situ. Just how high they sit in the chassis, and the consequent driving challenges which flow from the physics in relation thereto very clear!

Click on the links attached for more of my Can Am articles, the Lola T260 one has more technical details about the T220.

Tailpiece: Revson aboard his McLaren M8F Chev during the Molson 200 weekend, 26 September 1971…

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Twelve months later in the middle of a great season for Revson. Works M8F, Denny won with Peter 12th after problems from pole (Denniston)

 

 

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9200 rpm and breathing very heavily thru it’s oversized for GP racing ports…

Bruce McLaren at rest and considering setup changes to his first GP car, Robin Herd’s Ford Indy V8 powered, ‘Mallite’ chassis, M2B at Watkins Glen in 1966.

These shots are from the Dave Friedman Archive; the tachometer snaps are at the US GP, the balance of photos from the following, final 1966 Championship round in Mexico City.

This article is another of my ‘nutso’ ones in terms of its order…

I found a swag of photos in Friedman’s archive a while back and planned a pictorial of Bruce and his first McLaren GP car at the 1966 US and Mexican Grands’ Prix, the events where Friedman snapped away prodigiously. I put it to one side and largely forgot about it. Subsequently I decided on something more substantive; so the first bit is the original pictorial, the second is about Bruce’ progress in his first two years as an F1 marque jumping from engine to engine until the DFV provided the definitive McLaren F1 moteur from 1968-1983.

And boy, wasn’t there a lot of water that passed under the bridge between 1968 when the design for the Cosworth powered McLaren M7 was laid down to John Barnard providing both the dimensions of the DFV and its means of attachment to the chassis amongst his ‘mandatories’ of design specifications to Hans Metzger at Porsche in 1983. The TAG/Porsche 1.5 litre twin-turbo V6 was the result, the McLaren MP4/1E TAG-Porsche first raced at the 28 August 1983 Dutch Grand Prix. Back to 1965/6 though!

Remember, the tachometer snaps are at the US GP, the balance of photos from the following round in Mexico City, there are no captions in the first part of the article.

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As a GP engine the Ford Quad-Cam Indy V8 engine was a huge, beefy, heavy and notoriously raucous unit. Visually it was a ‘big busty blonde’ as well with its whopping Hilborn injection trumpets and huge ‘between the vee exhausts’, it looked ‘the goods’…

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The Ford Indy quad cam V8 in its earliest form fitted to a Lotus 34 at Indy in 1964. Jim Clark and Dan Gurney contested the race, this is Clark’s chassis. Engine 4195cc DOHC, 4 valve, Hilborn injected, methanol fuelled giving circa 425bhp @ 8000rpm and useful power from 6000-9000rpm. ZF 2DS 20 ‘box (TEN)

McLaren developed and tested the engine during the winter of 1965/6, notably at Riverside, California but missed the European non-championship F1 events with which the season commenced. In a portent of the season to come John Surtees won the 1 April Syracuse GP in his Ferrari 312 whilst ‘Black-Jack’ won the BRDC International Trophy in his Brabham BT19 Repco at Silverstone on May 14.

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McLaren looking pretty chilled at this stage of the ’66 Monaco weekend upon his teams GP debut, color of the car a function of doing a deal with John Frankenheimer’s crew as part of  filming of ‘Grand Prix’ . Inboard rocker front suspension and outboard loacation of spring/shock at the rear. Checkout the prostrate ‘snapper behind the car (unattributed)

McLaren made its debut as an F1 marque in the May 22, 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, the first championship round that year. Bruce raced the car he concepted together with Robin Herd, the brilliant young designer specified ‘Mallite’ as the primary material for M2B’s monocoque chassis. (noting the M1 series of car are CanAm machines)

Mallite is a composite sheet aerospace sandwich material comprising end grain balsa material filling between thin sheets of aluminium. The resultant chassis was incredibly stiff for its day at around 11000 lb/ft per degree of deflection compared with a good conventional ‘ally tub which came in the range of 4000-5000 lb/ft per degree.

The Indy Ford 4-cam V8 was reduced from its USAC mandated 4.2 litres to the 3 litre F1 limit (95.3mmX52.4mm bore/stroke-2999cc) which prevailed from 1 January 1966. For F1 use the engine was first modified by Klaus von Rucker in England, then later Bruce involved Traco Engineering in Los Angeles.

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All hands to the pump! Bruce, Tyler Alexander and Wally Willmott hard at it, Monaco 1966. The Indy Ford V8’s Hilborn fuel injection, between the Vee exhausts, full monocoque chassis, ZF 5 DS25 gearbox and conventional rear suspension; inverted lower wishbones, single top link, coil spring/dampers, twin radius rods and adjustable sway bar all clear in this shot (unattributed)

Click on this article for a brief history of the Ford Indy V8 amongst the Lola T90 stuff which is the main substance of this piece; https://primotipo.com/2015/06/12/graham-hills-american-red-ball-spl-lola-t90-ford-indy-winner-1966-2/

At Monaco the new McLaren qualified 12th, Bruce withdrew with mechanical ailments on lap 9, the race was won by Jackie Stewart’s 2.1 litre ‘Tasman’ P56 V8 engined BRM P261. This car was his 1965 1.5 litre F1 mount with a bigger version of the P56 V8 with which he won the 1965 Tasman Series.

Bruce and his small Colnbrook team, (near Heathrow an area in the midst of the motor racing industry of subcontractors 3 miles from Slough and 18 miles West of London) crew quickly realised the engines massive ports and valves didn’t give the sort of gas flow speed needed to produce competitive power at 3 litres. Mind you, its 300 horsepower was the sort of output the World Championship winning ‘RB620’ Repco V8 developed in 1966. It was enough to win Jack’s ’66 title albeit the Repco engine was light, very torquey and reliable. By contrast, Bruce’s Ford was heavy and gave its punch over a narrow rev band, the deficiencies of which were exacerbated by the 4 speed ZF ‘box they used which ‘left lots of gaps’ in the power band.

The team had much work to do on the Ford, in the meantime Count Volpi’s new Serenissima V8, designed by Ing. Alberto Massimino, who was part of the Lancia-Ferrari and Maserati 250F 1950’s design teams provided another ‘ready made’ alternative engine to try.

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Serenissima ATS Spider, Sauer/de Mortemart. Le Mans 1966. DNF with gearbox failure on lap 43. It raced in the prototype class, the race won by the McLaren/Amon Ford GT Mk2 (Smuckatelli)

This project is a story in itself but suffice to say Bruce tried the engine whilst simultaneously developing the Indy Ford V8 in an attempt to get it to where it needed to be. Most of you will be aware that Bruce’ Ford connections were immaculate at the time as both a development and race driver of the GT40 program, those cars developed by teams on both sides of the Atlantic. It was Bruce’ hope that he may have been able to get FoMoCo’s backing for his F1 variant of their Indy V8. In the end, via Ford UK’s Walter Hayes, Ford supported the Cosworth developed DFV of course.

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Weber 48IDA fed Serenissima all alloy V8 in the back of Bruce’ M2B during the Belgian GP weekend, 1966 (unattributed)

The Serenissima engine was designed as a sports car unit and gave little power. The ‘M166’ engine was an aluminium, chain driven, quad cam, 2 valve V8 displacing 2996cc (91.5X57.0 mm bore/stroke) 350 bhp was claimed for it but most of the horses seemed to have jumped ship between Italy and the UK, the actual output was more like 260bhp.

M2B was modified to take the side exhaust Italian V8 in time for the Belgian GP, at Spa. The team had great trouble just getting the thing to start, then run and to add insult to injury it ran its bearings after its first exploratory laps having qualified 16th. With no spare engine Bruce was a non-starter.

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Bruce in the winning Ford Mk2 he shared with Chris Amon at Le Mans 1966. The Ferrari is the Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 365 P2 driven by Richard Attwood and David Piper (GP Library)

Bruce and his young intended McLaren F1 team-mate Chris Amon (who raced M1B Chev CanAm cars for Bruce in 1966) then departed England for France and returned as Le Mans winners in a factory Ford GT Mk2. That contentious win or perhaps ‘first over the line’ is still the subject of discussion and debate amongst enthusiasts and historians alike even all these decades later.

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1966 British GP, Brands Hatch, M2B Serenissima V8. Bruce was 6th, scoring a championship point, the teams first. Jack Brabham won in BT19 Repco from pole, he was 2 laps up the road to give the gap some perspective. Bruce in his ‘Pete Aron’ Grand Prix filming helmet (unattributed)

Jack Brabham won both the French Grand Prix at Reims and the British at Brands Hatch in BT19 Repco. The M2B-Serenissima contested the Brands race with more success, the engine was reliable. Bruce started superbly on a damp track on wets running in the top six. As the road dried he dropped back but inherited 6th scoring McLaren’s first World Championship point. A significant day in Grand Prix history indeed.

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Bruce, Serenissima engined M2B in practice ahead of Jo Siffert Cooper T81 Maser DNF and Dan Gurney Eagle T1G Weslake DNF, Zandvoort 1966. He didn’t start the race (unattributed)

At the Dutch GP the Serenissima engine again failed, the McLaren F1 program was set aside pending development of the Indy Ford V8. Amongst other changes the engine was fitted with Chrysler Hemi inspired induction tracts which lifted its output to around 312bhp at 9500rpm.

The beast re-appeared in the United States GP at Watkins Glen, Bruce finished 5th by surviving a race of mechanical mayhem but in the final race of ’66, won by John Surtees’ Cooper T81 Maserati, the Mexican GP, the engine blew after 70 laps having qualified 14th.

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McLarens interim 1967 contender, the 2.1 litre P56 BRM V8 engined M4B makes it’s debut during the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch on 12 March 1967 (Getty)

Bruce cast around for a better alternative engine for 1967 and was a happy customer of BRM’s prospective 4 cam, 2 valve V12 which was designed as both an F1 and sportscar unit. The prototype (Group 6) capacity limit at the time was 3 litres so it made good commercial sense for BRM to build customer engines to replace the P56 V8’s which raced in endurance events as well as Grands Prix. BRM’s complex H16 was their factory F1 unit at the time but it was problematic to say the least…not available to customers (post Lotus) and probably not wanted by Bruce in any event!

A new one-off M5A monocoque chassis was designed for this engine designated ‘P101’, but the BRM V12 was running late, the M5A didn’t appear until the Canadian GP at Mosport in August.

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Bruce testing M4B BRM in the UK before the ’67 season started, circuit and date uncertain. The exposed monocoque chassis is that of an M4A Ford FVA F2 car upon which M4B was based (unattributed)

So a gorgeous little car was used in the interim; the McLaren M4B BRM V8 was based on Bruce’ M4A F2 car but instead of Ford’s little 1.6 litre FVA the engine bay carried a 2.1 litre version of BRM’s venerable, powerful, small and reliable P56 V8 which had won Graham Hill’s 1962 World Championship, countless GP’s and Tasman Series events. This Tasman BRM V8 engine gave circa 280bhp. ‘Belly’ fuel tanks gave the F2 derived F1 car sufficient fuel for 200 miles.

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The business end of M4B BRM at Monaco 1967. P56/60 V8 one of the great GP engines, 2.1 litres, 2 valve, Lucas injected, circa 245 bhp. ‘box is a Hewland DG300, beefy and under-stressed for this application, rear suspension period typical (unattributed)

M4B BRM made its debut in Bruce’ hands in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch on 13 March. It finished 4/6th in heats one/two but then its engine blew after 1 lap of the final after Bruce muffed a change in heat two. 5th places followed in the two heats and final of the Daily Express Spring Cup at Oulton Park and in the International Trophy at Silverstone on 15 April where Bruce was again, you guessed it, 5th!

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Bruce contesting the Oulton Park Spring Cup, 15 April ’67 M4B BRM, 5th. Brabham won the final in a BT20 Repco (Watson)

So, the little car had plenty of race miles on it as the team transporter headed to Monaco, the little M4B was tailor-made for the tight street circuit, but Jim Clark and Graham Hill were in similar hybrids; 1.5 F1 Lotus 33’s with stretched Tasman V8 Coventry Climax and BRM engines respectively.

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Bruce rests on his M4B armchair before the off, Monaco 1967. Its ‘done the rounds’ this shot but its such an atmospheric beauty i popped it in, this cars best view is its arse! where everything is very pert, taut and tightly packaged (unattributed)

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Bruce in M4B with truncated ‘Monaco’ nose ’67 (unattributed)

‘But Bruces’ battery was running flat – forcing a dramatic pit stop – Bruce could well have finished second behind fellow Kiwi Denny Hulme’s victorious Repco Brabham. Some of the spirit of Formula One in those days is typified by the pit stop as Bruce believed his misfire was fuel pressure and bawled as much at his crew. But Jack Brabham, friend and rival had come into the pits and was shouting ‘it’s your battery – it’s your battery!’ As Bruce wrote: Good old Jack. It was the battery and we quickly whipped another one on. He rejoined and finished fourth – three further championship points … thanks in part to a rival team chief!’ records the Bruce McLaren Trust.

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Dutch GP, Zandvoort 1967. Bruce in M4B BRM ahead of Pedro Rodriguez’ Cooper T81 Maserati, it was the debut of the Lotus 49 Ford, Clark won the race in Chapman’s jewel. Note the different nose compared with the earlier shots especially the ducts to ease the flow of air after its passed thru the radiator, reducing front lift in the process (Watson)

The M4B was then badly damaged on lap two of the Dutch GP at Zandvoort as Bruce went off on spilled oil in the fast Huzaren Viak corner. After repair he was testing it at Goodwood when it caught fire out on the circuit, he then watched it burn to death! The ’67 Dutch is also remembered of course for the debut of the Lotus 49 and more importantly the Ford Cosworth DFV V8 which powered it.

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McLaren assists with a plug change on his Eagle’s Weslake V12. French GP, Circuit Bugatti, LeMans 1967 (Getty)

Without a car, Bruce did a deal with Dan Gurney to drive the lanky Californian’s V12 Eagle T1G Weslake, Dan was in sparkling form in an All-American dream week having won two significant races in the Le Mans 24 Hour classic (Ford Mk4 with AJ Foyt co-driving) and at the Belgian GP in the Eagle thereby following the footsteps of Brabham as a GP winning driver of a car he built. It was a path Bruce would also traverse in the 1968 Belgian GP in his Cosworth powered M7A. Bruce was quick in Dan’s car, at the Circuit Bugatti Le Mans he qualified the big car 5th to Dans 3rd but they were both outed in the race, Bruce with ignition problems and Dan with a fuel line issue.

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The unfamiliar sight of GP cars at Le Mans, fortunately the Circuit Bugatti was only used once, the French having a wonderful selection of road circuits at the time to choose from. Eagle T1G surely the best looking F1 car of the sixties!? Bruce sets off for some laps in his unfamiliar mount (Cahier)

Two weeks later at Silverstone Jim Clark was in sparkling form and convincingly won the British GP. Bruce and Dan qualified 10th and 5th with Bruce this time outed with engine problems and Dan a failing clutch. Consistency in build and preparation of the Weslake V12 were amongst its issues, its fair to say the demands of two ‘Number Ones’ perhaps placed much more pressure on the resources of Gurney’s small team, than getting one machine ready to a high standard. I’ve never read anything about what Bruce, like Dan, one of the supreme engineer/tester/drivers thought of the T1G or its engine. I’m intrigued to know if any of you have something of that nature published ‘in period’ in your collections.

The supreme test of the Nurburgring followed on August 6 where again both drivers qualified well, 5th and 4th for Bruce and Dan respectively but again both failed to finish; Bruce with unspecified mechanical mayhem and Gurney’s superb bolide with driveshaft failure.

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Bruce and M6A Chev, Mosport CanAm 23 September 1967, Denny won with Bruce 35 seconds behind (Friedman)

Later in 1967 was a busy time for McLaren. Whilst the F1 program was still formative its CanAm challenge was very mature. Bruce and Robins Chev V8 engined M6A was the result of learnings of the previous years, in both Bruce’ M1’s and other cars he raced. The ’67 Can Am commenced on September 3 at Road America and finished in Las Vegas two months later, the ‘papaya cars’ took 5 of the 6 rounds and Bruce the title, a remarkably well deserved one at that.

The Colnbrook build team had the Can Am cars well clear of the workshop by the time they mated the late arriving BRM V12 to the M5A chassis. Bruce was ‘razor sharp’, his driving buoyed by both the competitiveness of the team ‘Stateside and his individual performances in these oh-so-beautifully designed, engineered and executed sports-racers.

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Bruce at Monza in M5A BRM V12 1967. Q3 and DNF with an engine failure, Surtees the Italian GP winner in a Honda RA300 V12 (unattributed)

The M5A monocoque chassis abandoned Mallite which was considered too complex to shape and heavy in favour of aluminium sheet, the car having a fully stressed section enclosing the drivers legs, the area above his kness left open for maintenance access. The gearbox was the DG300 Hewland also used in the smaller BRM V8 engined car.

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The BRM P101 V12 in the back of M5A at Monza in 1966. Lots of ‘Aeroquip’ lines, Lucas injection, Hewland DG300 transaxle, ‘Fram’ oil filter below the oil rad popped up in the breeze. Engine, non-stress bearing,  is 4 chain driven cams but 2 valves. Engine evolved over time into the 4 valve engine which gave competitive service especially in 1970/71 in the back of BRM’s P153 and P160 (Schlegelmilch)

BRM’s 24 valve P101 V12 was originally designed for sports-prototype use by Geoff Johnson. The engines bore/stroke were 73.8X57.2mm for a capacity of 2998cc with a compression ratio of 12:1. The Lucas injected, chain driven 4 cam, 2 valve engine produced 369bhp at 9750rpm on 14 August, engine ‘P101-003’ put to good use by Bruce during the Canadian Grand Prix.

During the race the hot oil tank cooked the battery, Bruce gained on the leaders till spinning in the greasy conditions.

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Bruce in M5A BRM fighting Jack Brabham for 3rd, before retirement. Brabham won the Canadian GP, in his Brabham BT24 Repco (Laymon)

At Monza the combination showed just how competitive they were; Bruce popped the thing on the front row, with 20 laps to go he and Surtees were racing wheel to wheel for a dash to the flag when a BRM cylinder liner dropped, the car withdrew on lap 4 with Surtees and Braham running to the line, Jack was outfoxed by John on the last corner of the race.

The M5A retired in both the US and Mexico and was used by the reigning World Champion, Denny Hulme in the first race of 1968, the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami.

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Bruce in M5A BRM at Mexico City 1967. Q8 and DNF lap 45 with engine failure. Clark won in a Lotus 49 Ford from Brabham and Hulme, the latter took the ’67 drivers title Brabham Repco mounted (Cahier)

But the F1 world had changed late in 1967, by Walter Hayes decision to make the Ford DFV available to customers; he convinced Colin Chapaman to waive the exclusivity agreement Lotus had to use the engine which allowed Bruce and Robin Herd (and Ken Tyrrell in 1968 as well as Lotus) to design a bespoke chassis to suit the 408bhp DFV.

The bathtub aluminium monocoque M7A made a splendid debut winning the ’69 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch with the boss taking the win from pole and jagging the fastest lap to boot!

A new chapter in McLaren history was underway, DFV powered McLarens won World Titles for Emerson Fittipaldi in 1974 and James Hunt in 1976, stories for another time…

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Bruce in the papaya M7A Ford DFV winning the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch upon the models race debut (Ed Lacey)

Bibliography…

The Bruce McLaren Trust, ‘History of The GP Car’ Doug Nye, The GP Encyclopaedia

Credits…

Dave Friedman Archive, Cahier Archive, Ron Laymon, Ed Lacey, Rainer Schlegelmilch, Ron Laymon, Getty Images, Brian Watson, GP Library, Nigel Smuckatelli, The Enthusiast Network

Etcetera-Engines…

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Bruce, Teddy Mayer, Monaco, 1966 McLaren M2B Ford Indy V8, both above and below shots (Schlegelmilch)

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M2B Serenissima at Spa 12 June 1966. Compare and contrast the Ford Indy V8 installation in the shots above, the car designed for that engine and then adapted to suit the Italian V8, ZF 5 DS25 box used in both cases (Schlegelmilch)

Tailpiece: ‘BRDC Intl Trophy’, Silverstone, 29 April 1967. From small acorns do big things grow. Bruce, Teddy and the boys, a few passers by. Perhaps it’s Friday, and M4B/1 BRM P56/60 V8…

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Watson McLaren MP4 Ford Silverstone 1981

John Watson wins the 1981 British Grand Prix at Silverstone…a confluence of events lead to the first carbon-composite chassis Grand Prix car, the McLaren MP4 Ford…

Ron Dennis commenced his Grand Prix career at 18 as a mechanic with Cooper…he was immediately recognised as a man with talent, star driver Jochen Rindt taking him from Cooper to Brabham in 1968. When Jochen decamped to Lotus at the end of the year Ron remained and was Chief Mechanic for Jack in his final year, 1970, Brabham a competitive race winner in the BT33 that season.

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Brabham Racing Organisation council of war around the BT33 in 1970, Jack and Ron Dennis to the fore.(unattributed)

Dennis and Neil Trundle formed ‘Rondel Racing’ to run customer Brabham F2 cars in 1971, Ron Tauranac cutting a deal which provided for payment of the teams BT36’s at the end of the season, after they had been sold. Projects 3 and 4 were also racing teams running customer cars in F3 and F2 throughout the 1970’s, including drivers sponsored by Marlboro, one of his customers in 1980 was Marlboro sponsored Andrea de Cesaris, for whom they ran a March BMW.

Over at McLaren things were not going so well, they won world titles with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt in 1974 and 1976 with the long-lived M23 but had achieved minimal success with their M26 and even less with the cars which followed.

Colin Chapman made life complex for all other designers circa 1978 with his ground-effect concepts and his Lotus 78/79 race-winners. In those days understanding aerodynamic concepts and successfully applying them was part science and part ‘black-art’ and experience, McLaren were not alone in struggling…

The team had been sponsored by Marlboro since 1974. By 1979, John Hogan, the enthusiast and executive responsible for the sponsorship program was getting decidedly ‘toey’ at the lack of success despite McLarens’ generous budget.

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John Watson leads teammate Patrick Tambay, Dutch GP , Zandvoort 1979. The Mclaren M29 Ford ‘ looked the goods’ but was far from the best Lotus 79 ‘copy’ that year. The Williams FW07 was, albeit the Ferrari 312T4 won the title in Scheckters’ hands. (unattributed)

Dennis’ own programs had been successful commercially, he had built all but one of the M1 ‘Procars’ for BMW in a very short period, he was keen to take the next step to F1 and fulfil a dream which commenced with his Motul F1 car in 1973, a project sold to others and raced as the Token in 1974 when the fuel crisis hit and Motul withdrew their sponsorship.

Dennis asked Patrick Head, Frank Williams design partner in Williams Grand Prix Engineering, for suggestions of a potential designer for his proposed car and F1 program. Head suggested John Barnard whom he had met at Lola and had most recently designed the ground-effect 1980 Indy 500 winning Chaparral 2K Cosworth DFX for Jim Hall.

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‘Lone Star JR’ Johnny Rutherford during his victorious run during the 1980 Indy 500. The ever innovative Jim Hall/ Chaparral team built John Barnards’ ground effect design. 2K had teething problems in ’79 but came good in 1980, by ’81 the bigger teams jumped onto the ground effect bandwagon and the little team was over-run. Beautiful looking car, the looks did not deceive. Rutherford also won the USAC Championship that year, winning at Ontario and Indianapolis. (unattributed)

When Dennis met Barnard he was staggered to learn that Barnard wanted to build the first carbon-fibre F1 car.

At the time the biggest F1 design challenge was to build an aluminium monocoque chassis, which was light but also torsionally stiff enough to withstand the considerable forces generated by the new generation of ground effect cars. Ground effect tunnels were all important to the success of these cars but as the tunnels grew wider, the chassis became narrower and sufficient torsional rigidity, using the aluminium alloy construction material and techniques of the day, was a big challenge.

Barnard saw a chassis of carbon-composite as the solution.

It was a big risk for Dennis as it hadn’t been done before, carbon was being used for wing-endplates and the like but not a chassis…and their were many including Colin Chapman, himself building a car, the twin-chassis Lotus 88 partially of carbon-composite but not wholly of the material as he was convinced that it would not be strong enough in a major accident.

Dennis and Barnard pitched the MP4 ‘Marlboro Project 4’ design to Hogan, initially on the basis that Marlboro dump McLaren and provide the funds to them to build the MP4. Hogan, impressed, to his credit chose not to ‘shoot McLaren’ in whom they had much invested, but with little to lose, engineered a ‘shot gun wedding’ of Dennis/Barnard with McLaren in September 1980.

Teddy Mayers shareholding in McLaren was watered down to 50/50 with he and Dennis appointed Joint Managing Directors. Barnard received some of the equity from Dennis who didn’t have the cash to pay him….Within a year Dennis took control of the team when Mayer said ‘this isn’t working’, Ron paid him out with an advance on his fees from Marlboro.

But that was all in the future, they needed to build the car, and the carbon-composite capability did not exist in the UK.

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Marlboro PR shot at the launch of ‘McLaren International’, Barnard, Mayer and Dennis pose with the scale model of the ‘Marlboro Project 4’…they may be ‘McLaren Project 4’ now but thats not the way it started! (unattributed)

Hercules Aerospace, Utah…

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Mclaren MP4 Ford…Hercules chassis in all its naked glory…its 1981 and not so different from what we see now, all current GP tubs were born here…with apologies to the Lotus 25. (unattributed)

Whilst carbon-composites were in use in the aero industry in the UK, their was no company with the capability to build a car. A contact of Barnards’ from his Indycar days pointed him in the direction of the Hercules Corporation in Utah. The company had an R&D facility, Barnard jumped on a plane with the quarter scale model of MP4 shown above, and together they worked out how to build it.

Hercules were contracted to design and build the cars chassis with input from Barnard.

They lacked the technology to create curved pieces so the first monocoque was formed with five major components, each with flat surfaces. The internal front suspension bulkhead was aluminium but otherwise the chassis was carbon-composite, McLaren themselves describe it as a bit ‘rough and wrinkled’, but by any standards it was a stunning bit of kit.

The rest of the car was the ‘ground-effect’ Cosworth paradigm of the day; Ford Cosworth 3 litre DFV V8 engine, Hewland FGA five-speed gearbox and inboard suspension front and rear to maximise the flow of air into and out of the cars GE tunnels.

MP4 monocoque launch

Its all about the chassis…MP4 Ford laid bare for the media. The flat surfaces referred to in the text clear. Front suspension comprised wide based lower wishbone and top rocker actuating coil spring/ damper units inside the carbon tub. (unattributed)

Racing the McLaren MP4…

In the last race of 1980, the US GP, McLarens star recruit, 1980 F1 ‘newbee’ Alain Prost had a massive accident blaming it on suspension failure, Mayer cited driver error and Alain left for Renault…he would be back mind you, but for the moment an important element of Dennis’ immediate plans had been lost by Mayers’ inept management. The error didn’t help Teddys’ failing stocks with Marlboro either.

McLaren signed Andrea de Cesaris, whom Ron had run in F2 the year before, and who had the support of Marlboro Italy, and John Watson entering his fourth season with the team and in need of a win, he had been pretty much ‘blown off’ by Prost in 1980.

Dennis, Barnard and Watson

Dennis, John Barnard and John Watson wrestling with a knotty problem by the look . Watsons faith in Dennis and Barnard not to be understated, it was a brave new world, had MP4 not withstood the impact of Watties’ Monza 1981 shunt the outcome may have been different…as it was he proved the ‘shuntability’ of the material by having one big prang bigger than de Cesaris’ many smaller ones that season. (unattributed)

The team started the season with the M29, now in C spec, but no quicker than the year before…

In the first two races, the sole MP4 was raced by Watson qualifying 11th and 7th and finishing 10th in the San Marino GP.

At Zolder he qualified 5th and ran 4th until gearbox  dramas dropped him back to 7th. He qualifed 10th at Monaco and was up to 4th when the DFV went ‘bang’.

Then things started to improve. 4th on the Spanish grid and a 3rd place finish. From the front row in France he finished a strong second behind Prosts’ Renault, his first GP win, and then Wattie won the British GP …

British GP Arnoux and Watson 1981

Arnoux lead Watson for 30 laps, and the Regies’ engine lost its edge…letting John thru for the first carbon-composite chassis victory, Silverstone 1981 (unattributed)

The Renaults’ of Prost and Arnoux lead, Wattie held up by a prang involving de Cesaris, Jones and Villeneuve. Then Watson ‘tigered’, Prost dropped out with a burnt valve, Watson was second to Arnoux, things stayed that way for 30 laps, Arnoux’ engine note changed, the car slowed and Watson took the lead on lap 61 and the win.

The first for carbon-fibre and McLarens first since Fuji in 1977.

The competitiveness of the car was now not in doubt but there were still concerns about the materials abilty to absorb major impacts, although de Cesaris was doing his best to dispel these.

The car had a tendency to ‘porpoise’, as airflow through the GE tunnels ‘stalled’, the aero far from resolved and whilst quick, MP4 was a reasonably unforgiving chassis, which was ok for a relative veteran such as Watson but much more of a challenge for Andrea, who proceeded to have a lot of accidents.

‘de Crasheris’ a nickname which stuck. In 1981 he had 5 accidents in races, 2 spins into retirement and in Holland the team withdrew his entry from the race after an almighty prang in practice.

Having said that, the ‘big one of the year’ was Watsons Italian GP shunt at Monza when he went off at high speed in the Lesmos’ corners, running wide on a kerb at the corners exit at over 140mph, backing the car into the armco and carving it in half, the engine, ‘box and rear suspension, torn from the car but leaving the tub itself intact, with John in it.

Much to Murray and James delight he jumped out unharmed…Barnards’ faith in the material, and his engineering of it was vindiacted, the doubters were silenced as they realised a new paradigm was upon them.

Nelson Piquet won the World Championship for Brabham in his BT49 Cosworth from the Williams duo of Carlos Reutemann and Alan Jones, scrapping with each other and denying them both, and the team the titles which were theirs to take with more aggressive team management.

‘Wattie’ finished sixth in the MP4s’ debut year, the cars success forcing all to build their own cars of the new material.

MP4 was, in the modern idiom, a ‘game changer’.

Into 1982 Niki Lauda, bored with retirement and needing money,  joined the team, replacing de Cesaris and bringing his strong testing abilities to extract the best from the chassis, but that is another story…

Watson Monza 1981

Watsons MP4 Monza 1981…destroyed in a big accident the following day…the chassis forward finished beside the armco where Watson jumped out of it, the engine, box and rear suspension being partially collected by Alboretos’ Tyrrell on circuit…(John Shingleton)

McLaren MP4/1 Ford Legacy…

When you look back on it, the idea of the ‘carbon car’ was audacious, Dennis had not run an F1 Team before nor had Barnard designed a GP car. But they had nothing to lose, nor did Marlboro who needed wins quickly.

Whilst the plan was audacious the execution of it was outstanding in a way the GP world was to come to expect from Ron Dennis.

From a drivers safety perspective the development of carbon-composites as THE chassis material for all but the junior classes means fewer lives have been lost than in any previous era, since 1981.

The advent of the modern aluminium monocoque in 1962 by Lotus, the mandated use of safety belts, on-board extinguishers and ‘bag’ fuel tanks were all postive safety steps but surely no single change in any era of motor racing has made as big a safety impact as Barnards’ pioneering use of the material in MP4?

For that we should all be thankful.

McLaren MP4 cutaway

Cutaway drawing of McLaren MP4/1B, the 1982 car driven by Watson/Lauda. Essential elements the same as MP4/1 as the first car was called retrospectively. Carbon fibre honeycomb chassis, Ford Cosworth 3 litre DFV V8, circa 490bhp@10750rpm in 1981. Hewland FGA400 gearbox. Front suspension inboard, top rocker actuating coil spring damper units and wide based lower wishbone. Rear wishbones actuating inboard mounted coil spring/damper units. Steel discs (they experimented with carbon in 1982), rack and pinion steering, circa 585kg in weight. (Bruno Baratto)

McLaren MP4 Ford profile

Credits…

McLaren International, John Shingleton, Bruno Baratto

Finito…