“Och aye! That really is more like it” or thoughts to that general effect. Jackie Stewart in his brand new Tyrrell 001 Ford Cosworth DFV at Oulton Park during the August 22, 1970 Gold Cup weekend.
Derek Gardner’s first F1 design was only days old and already it felt better than the customer March 701 Ford – victories in the Race of Champions and Spanish GP (Stewart) and International Trophy (Chris Amon) notwithstanding – that he had been racing that season.
Press release of the Tyrrell 001 at Ford’s London premises, August 18, 1970
Stewart and Tyrrell’s Matra International team had won the 1969 World Drivers and Manufacturers Championships with the superb Matra MS80 Ford. For 1970 the French aerospace giant wanted to race only Matra V12 engined cars. After Tyrrell and Stewart travelled to France and Stewart tested the new Matra MS120 the pair decided they preferred to stick with the Ford engine; hence the acquisition of March 701s. See here for a short piece on the 701: https://primotipo.com/2014/05/15/blue-cars-rock/
Tyrrell quickly realised he needed to build his own car to control his destiny, rather than be at the mercy of a chassis manufacturer, so Gardner was engaged and secretly set to work in a design studio he established at his Leamington home.
Ken got to know and respect Derek during the occasions on which Matra International raced the Matra MS84 Ford 4WD drive car in 1969, Gardner was then employed by Ferguson Research and was responsible for the transmission in that car.
The guidelines were, amongst others, that the design needed to be simple and competitive with minimal development, with a deadline of the August 22, Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting.
Gardner decided upon a light, aerodynamic car with very lower polar moment of inertia and optimum front-rear weight distribution. He had a wooden buck of the chassis made by a local joinery firm for Stewart to try. At that point the Tyrrell mechanics were let in on the secret with comments invited about what went where and maintenance – important design considerations for someone who hadn’t designed a racing car before
Given Tyrrell’s famous Ockham timber yard operation was equipped to prepare racing cars, not build them – something that would change quickly enough – a swag of well known industry suppliers and ‘subbies were soon busily making components to the account of this fella named Gardner D.
A Ford DFV engine and Hewland FG 5-speed gearbox were sent over to Derek, while Maurice Gomm’s Gomm Metal Developments fabricated Gardner’s open, bath-tub, pregnant-belly, monocoque chassis out of 18-gauge NS4 aluminium alloy. Derek had modelled a tenth-scale model of the car in the University of Surrey’s wind-tunnel. The front of the chassis covered Wee-Jackie’s feet, while a subframe extended forwards to carry the radiator and front lower wishbone pick-up points.
Doug Nye wrote that “A massive front bulkhead structure extended into Matra-like wings on each side, supporting tiny, split upper wishbones and top mounts for the outboard coil spring/damper units. Very wide-based fabricated lower wishbones were used.”
The Ford DFV engine was mounted, as the design intended, to the bulkhead aft of the driver, while the rear suspension was attached to the DFV and Hewland transaxle via tubular subframes. Len Terry’s ‘industry standard’ parallel power links were used with a single top link, twin radius rods and again outboard coil springs/Koni shocks.
Brakes were outboard at the front, and inboard at the rear: rotors were ventilated and 10.5 inches in diameter front and rear. Aeroplane and Motor provided many of the castings: uprights, wheels and other items, Laystall made the stub axles and Jack Knight Engineering did most of the machining.
The unusual nose and cowling shape were informed by the ‘tunnel-work, the central spine designed to divert relatively clean air around the side of the cockpit back onto the two-tier rear wing mounted atop a gearbox strut.
“When the prototype car (#001) was first assembled and weighed it scaled some 100 lb less than the team’s proprietary March 701s, and was only 32 lb above the minimum weight limit. It had cost Ken Tyrrell £22,500 less engine and gearbox, compared to the purchase price of £9000 for his March 701s.” Nye wrote.
After completion and dealing with all of the press-release niceties the car was despatched to Oulton Park where 18 cars faced the starters flag: five GP and thirteen F5000 cars.
Niggles that weekend included metering unit failure and a blocked fuel injection unit, so JYS also practiced and qualified his March fifth, but elected to start from the rear of the grid in 001 having not set a time.
On lap two of the first heat he pitted after the throttle jammed, to have the linkage eased a bit, and to have loose bodywork made good. He returned to set the lap record (twice) before an oil pick-up problem caused the engine to fail. John Surtees’ TS7 Ford won that heat, and Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 72C Ford the second, with John victorious overall.
Given a choice of cars Stewart did the logical thing and plumped for the new Tyrrell 001 for the final four championship round of the season at Monza, Mosport, Watkins Glen and Mexico City.
At Monza the car’s main fuel tanks weren’t picking up enough fuel to the collector to run at sustained maximum rpm so he raced his 701 – despite being distraught after the death of his close friend Jochen Rindt in practice – to second place behind Clay Regazzoni’s Ferrari 312B, Regga’s first GP win.
Things improved big time in North America. Jackie started from pole in Canada and was on the front row in the US and at Mexico City. At Mosport the wheels kept coming loose in practice, and then a left-hand-front stub-axle failed while Jackie led the race. Gardner designed stronger parts which were machined from solid magnesium by the Jack Knight crew and used on the car at the Glen and in Mexico.
Jackie lost in upstate New York when an oil-line retaining clip parted, “causing the plastic line to fall against a hot exhaust manifold and burn through, which allowed the lubricant to haemorrhage away.” Emerson Fittipaldi took his first GP win that weekend in a Lotus 72C Ford.
The Mexican GP was an entirely forgettable weekend all round, not least for Jackie Stewart, who hit a stray dog at 160mph. “It disintegrated and the car veered violently to the left towards a bank where spectators were sitting cross-legged a few metres from the tarmac. I only just managed to regain control and prevent my car from ploughing into that area and scything through the crowd.”
Importantly, despite the somewhat predictable niggles, the car was fast: Team Tyrrell, Stewart, Ford, Elf and the other sponsors looked forward to 1971 with plenty of optimism.
Over that 1970-71 winter the team built up another car, chassis #002 for Francois Cevert. A taller chap than his team-leader, the chassis was four inches longer than #001, the wheelbase 1.5 inches longer, and the side-skins of the tub were thicker 16-gauge NS4 aluminium. In addition, Derek simplified the front bulkhead structure and braced the roll-bar forward, rather than aft. “This latter change was to allow the engine to break away from the chassis in an accident without compromising the drivers protection, and would become standard practice in all categories over the next four to five years,” wrote Allen Brown.
Longtime tyre provider, Dunlop withdrew from F1 at the ned of 1970 so Tyrrell did over 1400 trouble-free miles (two engines) with Goodyear in warm Kyalami over the annual break. Trouble-free but not incident free: a pebble jammed between the throttle pedal and bracket causing a crash which crushed the tub’s left-front corner and jarred Stewart’s wrist. The car was sent home, the monocoque unstitched, the skins repaired then the chassis was reassembled and returned to South Africa.
Not much was wrong with 001, Stewart started his first three races in 1971 from pole…and finished second in all them: the South African GP, Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and the Questor GP at Ontario Motor Speedway in California.
From then JYS moved to Tyrrell 003 – identical in spec to 002 – and immediately won in Spain (Montjuich Park) and Monaco with it. He had brake dramas in the Zandvoort dunes but bounced back at Paul Ricard, Silverstone and the Nurburgring putting the World Championship in-the-bag. Later in the season Jackie won at Mosport and Francois took his first – and sadly his only – GP victory at Watkins Glen. Tyrrell won the Constructors Championship in its first full year of competition as a manufacturer.
Great cars! Doug Nye named his chapter in ‘The History of The Grand Prix Car 1966-1985’ about the 1970-73 championship Tyrrells ‘Uncomplicated Craftsmanship’, which about says it all…
Etcetera…
This overhead shot of Tyrrell 001 at Mosport in 1970 – sans rear wing – is a great one to show the overall packaging of the car – body features as per earlier text – and the period typical Ford Cosworth DFV, Hewland transaxle and outboard suspension. Quality of design, execution and preparation outstanding.
Contemporary photograph of 001’s cockpit.
Mechanics work on Francois Cevert new #002 at Kyalami in 1971. Note the forward facing roll bar bracing
Race of Champions March 21, 1971. Stewart in 001, Denny Hulme, McLaren M19A Ford and Clay Regazzoni, Ferrari 312B2. Regazzoni won from Stewart and Surtees in his TS9 Ford.
Tyrrell experimented with Girling twin-disc front brakes fitted to 001 at Silverstone during the May 1971 International Trophy weekend. After Monaco both regular cars: 002 and 003 were fitted with the double-disc brakes as here, to Jackie Stewart’s 003 at Paul Ricard.
Doug Nye explains the set-up, “There were twofold discs on each hub, spaced by a double thickness of pad material, and with pistons on only one side of the caliper. The discs were given a degree of side-float which allowed them to move sideways, cramped by the pads, when the brakes were applied. The idea was to double pad and disc area and provide better heat dissipation plus the opportunity to reduce line pressures which permitted the use of smaller pistons and less deflection on pad wear. The problem had been that conventional discs were wearing the brake pads into a taper form. This in turn promoted knock-off when the drivers braked hard, giving a spongy pedal feel and slashing driver confidence.”
The twin-discs were removed from both cars at Ricard, “after Stewart had a harmless spin into the catch-fencing, for Girling seemed happy with the lessons learned thus far.” Nye wrote.
Two of Derek Gardner’s innovations are shown in the shot above, Stewart’s 003 at Paul Ricard, and Peter Revlon having this final in-period race of 001 at Watkins Glen in 1971 below.
The ‘Tyrrell nose’ first appeared in scutineering over the Dutch GP weekend and made its race debut at Ricard. The bluff nose extended to the maximum allowable width ahead of the front wheels, reducing the lift they caused and reducing drag.
With that, Gardner introduced the second alternative nose treatment until the ground effect era, the other was the wedge nose inspired by the Lotus 56/72.
Doug Nye notes that Stewart was “simply uncatchable on the long (Ricard) Mistral straight”. After the Tyrrell 1-2 in France and Stewart’s strong win at Silverstone a fortnight later, his engine was sealed and checked, and a fuel sample was taken in France with no irregularities found. Tyrrell simply had two very quick cars and drivers…
Note also the engine snorkels on the two cars. Lotus fitted ducts to the 72 from the 1970 British GP, and Matras snorkels, but Gardner’s design was sealed allowing clean air and a mild ‘supercharging’ effect.
It was far from the end of Derek Gardner’s innovations of course!
Peter Revson had a long international apprenticeship. Six years after winning the Monaco F3 GP and some promising top-five F2 performances in Ron Harris-Team Lotus 35s in 1965, at the ripe old age of 32 he returned to F1.
In 1971 he won the Can-Am Cup aboard a works McLaren M8F Chev and popped the team’s McLaren M16 Offy on pole at Indianapolis, then finished second behind Al Unser’s Colt Ford.
Tyrrell engaged Revson to race 001 at Watkins Glen. He qualified 19th but only did a lap after clutch failure. It was the last in-period ‘race’ for Tyrrell 001, Peter raced for McLaren in Grand Prix racing in 1972-73. See here: https://primotipo.com/2014/07/24/macs-mclaren-peter-revson-dave-charlton-and-john-mccormacks-mclaren-m232/
Happily, #001 is owned by the Tyrrell Family.
Credits…
MotorSport Images, Rainer Schlegelmilch, ‘History of The Grand Prix Car 1966-85’ Doug Nye, ‘Winning Is Not Enough’ Jackie Stewart, Automobile Year 19
Tailpiece…
February 2010 in the Ockham woodyard.
Finito…
primotipo... 