Monthly Archives: September 2015

Monterey Brits – Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Today’s post features a selection of the British built cars seen at this years Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca by Karl Krause.

Morgan Super Aero, Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca

Instantly recognisable by it’s V twin engine, sliding pillar front suspension and three wheels is this JAP powered 1930 Morgan belonging to and driven by Larry Ayres.

ERA R2A, Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca

It was a great pleasure to find that the second ever ERA to be built, R2A built for the companies financer Humphrey Cook in 1934, was flying the flag in California driven by Paddins Dowling who only bought the car last year.

Lagonda V12, Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca

I don’t believe Richard Morrison’s short wheel base 1939 Lagonda V12 is one of the Le Mans Team cars but that does not make it any less desirable in the authors eye’s.

Turner Mk III, Karl Krause, Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca

I understand Karl Krause recently qualified for his racing licence and during the run up to the Reunion he got a run in Steve Lilves #48 1965 Turner Mk III. Karl is seen above coming down the Corkscrew one of the most famous corners in motor racing.

Triumph TR6, Bill Warner, Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca

Above Bill Warner drives the 1971 Group 44 Triumph TR6 of the type the US champion of the British sports car Bob Tullis drove between 1969 and 1973 before switching to a V12 E-type Jaguar.

Lola T332, Rolex Motorsports Reunion, Laguna Seca

Finally I understand the 1974 #5 Viceroy Lola T332 above was driven to victory twice over the Reunion week, once by owner Zak Brown and secondly by Richard Dean who in a tenuous link was the first driver to show me the ropes around Brands Hatch at the wheel of a Brands Hatch Racing School Ford Escort XR3i in 1989 when he was an emerging talent in Formula Three !

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton and Karl Krause for arranging to take and taking today’s photographs respectively.

Thanks for joining me on this “Monterey Brits” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the Porsche’s at the Reunion. Don’t forget to come back now !

Presidential Speed King – Renault 40CV NM Montlhéry Coupé

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The Renault 40CV was launched in 1911 powered by a 7.6 litre / 460 cui straight six and could be ordered with either an 3.6m / 11′ 9″ or 3.9m / 12′ 9″ chassis.

Renault 40CV Montlhéry Coupé, Jean-Louis Pichafroy, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

With the introduction of the 40CV Type HF in August 1920 the engine was upgraded to a 9.1-litre 9,120 cc / 557 cui straight six.

Renault 40CV Montlhéry Coupé, Jean-Louis Pichafroy, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

From 1920 to 1928 the Renault 40CV replaced the Panhard 20CV as the French Presidential vehicle of choice.

Renault 40CV Montlhéry Coupé, Jean-Louis Pichafroy, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

François Repusseau drove a 40CV to victory in the 1925 Monte Carlo Rally and the following year a vehicle similar to today’s featured 40CV MN was modified and fitted with a single seat Coupé body and taken to the Montlhéry Oval outside Paris for a record braking 24 hour run.

Renault 40CV Montlhéry Coupé, Jean-Louis Pichafroy, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Facilitated by a pit crew of 14 who could complete a pit stop including changing all four tyres in 50 seconds every hour and a team of unnamed drivers the 40CV set a new 50 mile average speed record of 190.013 kmh / 118 mph and a 24 hour record of 173.649 kmh / 107.9 mph, by comparison the fastest average speed on the road course at Le Mans for the 24 hours race in 1926 was just 106.35 kph / 66 mph set by Robert Bloch and André Rossignol in their 3.4 litre / 207 cui Lorraine-Dietrich B3-6.

Jean-Louis Pichafroy is seen at the wheel of an exact replica of the 40CV MN Montlhéry Coupé, built in the 1970’s by Renault, at last years Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Thanks for joining me on this Presidential Speed King edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be revisiting the Monterey Rolex Reunion. Don’t forget to come back now !

Heck Motor – Mercedes Benz 130 H Cabriolet

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After designing the first Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau, later Tata, Präesident in 1897, patenting the first rear swing axles in in 1903 while working for Adler and designing the first motor with a built in gearbox Austrian Edmund Rumpler founded the first German aircraft manufacturer Rumpler Flugzeugwerke GmbH with August Euler in 1908 which in 1909 gave birth to the Rumpler Luft Verkehr department.

Following the 1914-18 war Rumpler Luft Verkehr was reconfigured as an airline that in 1926 became part of Deutsche Luft Hansa AG.

Mercedes Benz 130 H Cabriolet, Dana Point Concours d'Elegance

Meanwhile Edmund turned his attention to the design and manufacture of automobiles again and well over a decade before the streamlined Tata T77 and Chrylser Airflow went into production in 1934 and designed the sensation of the 1921 Berlin Auto Show known as the Rumpler Tropfen, droplet, Wagen.

It is believed that around 100 of these 5 seat vehicles; with a 36 hp W6 motor mounted ahead of the rear axle, capable of 70 mph, who’s body design was inspired by aerodynamic principles of the day were built. Many served as taxi’s and were immortalised as such in Fritz Lang’s 1927 epic expressionist master peace Metropolis.

Mercedes Benz 130 H Cabriolet, Dana Point Concours d'Elegance

Chief Benz engineer Hans Nibel was so impressed with the chassis design of the Rumpler he convinced Benz to use a virtually unchanged Rumpler chassis to construct their own single seat Grand Prix racing car which was powered by an 80hp 2 litre 122 cui double overhead cam straight six in 1923.

The Benz Tropfenwagen was not a great success and was abandoned after the merger of Daimler with Benz in 1926, Auto Union under the direction of Dr Ferdinand Porsche would be the next team to progress the concept of the mid engined racing car.

Mercedes Benz 130 H Cabriolet, Dana Point Concours d'Elegance

In 1931 Hans Nibel set to work designing a small 4 seat two door car which again was inspired by the Rumpler, but this time he put the 25 hp 1.3 litre / 79 cui 4 cylinder side valve motor behind the rear axle in the heck, hither to boot / trunk with the 4 speed synchromesh transmission in front of both the engine and rear axle.

From 1934 to 1936 130 H (Heck) was sold as a two door hard top saloon/sedan, soft top as seen here or convertible with out the side windows, while the ride was considered good for the passengers the handling was only adequate for contemporary conditions and described as awkward for the driver.

Mercedes Benz 130 H Cabriolet, Dana Point Concours d'Elegance

Nibel had Daimler’s Max Wagner design a new chassis for the more powerful 55hp, but similarly laid out, 150 H 2 seat roadster which had the petrol tank moved from the back as in the 130 H to the front meaning the new model had virtually no storage space, this second model was only offered and sold in limited numbers in 1936.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing these photographs of the Mercedes Benz 130 H taken at Dana Point Concours d’Elegance a few years ago.

Thanks for joining me on this “Heck Motor” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be revisiting this years Monterey Rolex Reunion. Don’t forget to come back now !

Tyre Contract For Sale – Spirit Cosworth 101D

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There is no room for sentimentality in sport even if one has designed a triple Indy 500 winning Indy Car and a car that has secured one constructors World Championship and two world drivers championships after 4 year of steady decline to the bottom of the top ten one must expect ones sponsors to either walk or agree a merger with an up and coming team.

Such was the situation Gordon Coppuck found himself in at McLaren at the end of the 1980 season when sponsors Phillip Morris agreed to fund a merger between the upstart Project Four hither to Formula Two team headed by former Brabham mechanic Ron Dennis and McLaren who had not won a race since the Japanese Grand Prix in 1977.

Part of the deal would include Ron hiring John Barnard to design a new car with a fully composite chassis leaving Gordon little alternative to seek employment else where. Gordon joined his former colleague and McLaren employee Robin Herd at March for 1982 and after a year there became a founding member of a new Formula 2 team with March Formula 2 team manager John Wickham which was funded by Philip Morris and was to be powered by potent 2 litre Honda V6 engines with Belgian Thierry Boutsen and Swede Stefan Johansson as drivers.

Thierry won three races and finished third in the 1982 F2 championship behind March BMW drivers Corrado Fabi and Johnny Cecotto but more importantly for the Spirit team they had outscored the similarly powered Ralts of Kenny Acheson and Dr Jonathon Palmer so that when Honda was deciding on which team to partner in their planned for 1983 entry into Formula One it was easy to go with Spirit.

Withdrawing completely from Formula 2, having won the championship with Geoff Lees in 1981, Honda developed it’s turbocharged 1.5 litre V6 engine while Spirit adapted one of it’s Formula 2 chassis to take the engine while simultaneously working on today’s featured design the 101 from scratch.

Spirit Cosworth 101D, Mark Williams, Silverstone Classic,

Spirit entered a limited programme of six races mid way through the 1983 season and Stefan Johansson managed to qualify the adapted Formula 2 201 and later 201C for all the races entered retiring from three of them and finishing a season best 7th in Holland. The 101 was ready for the last two of this programme but was left unraced.

For 1984 the team had hoped to retain the Honda Engines and attract 1972 and 1974 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi out of retirement, but Honda decided to go with the more established Williams team who had the slightly younger 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg already on their books.

Wickham and Coppuck wasted little time and did a deal to run the 4 cylinder turbocharged Hart 415T engines, that had hitherto been developed exclusively with Toleman since 1980 and Spirit adapted the unraced 101 in time for Emerson to test before the season got underway.

Emerson decided that this was not what he really wanted and so Mauro Baldi was entered for the first six races of the season scoring 8th places finishes in South Africa and San Marino before Huub Rothengatter was entered for the next eight races. With Hart motors in short supply Huub failed to qualify with a Cosworth DFV installed in Detroit but finished a best 8th in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on his final start in the car.

Mauro returned to the seat for the final two races of the 1984 season finishing 8th in the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch.

For 1985 Mauro was retained to drive the 101, now in D spec with longer side pods, as was a supply of Hart engines and Pirelli tyres, which would become significant because fellow Hart powered team Toleman had switched from Pirelli to Michelin part way through the 1984 season and when Michelin withdrew from Formula One at the end of 1981 neither Goodyear or Pirelli were prepared to step in and supply tyres to the team.

Without tyres Toleman had to withdraw from the first three races of the 1985 season while Mauro could do no better than qualify 24th for the first two races of the season, after qualifying last at San Marino nearly 10 seconds off the pace and posting it’s third consecutive retirement Spirit decided to call it a day and sold their contract for a supply of Pirelli Tyres to Toleman who could do no better than post one 12th and one 14th place finish all season though Teo Fabi did qualify on pole in Germany which helped secure the teams take over by sponsor Benetton at the end of the season.

Mark Williams is seen at the wheel of the 101D powered by a Cosworth DFV motor at Silverstone Classic a couple of years ago.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tyre Contract For Sale” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gold Cup Stars – Oulton Park

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For today’s post I thought it would be fun to revisit the Gold Cup meeting and see some of the stars who were not first to the checkered flag but nonetheless contributed significantly to the weekends entertainment.

AEC Reliance, Oulton Park, Gold Cup,

As Tim and I arrived at the circuit two AEC buses were being driven around the circuit with gusto, one even had Autosport club editor Marcus Pye entertaining passengers with a commentary, above a Devon General liveried 1963 AEC Reliance exits the Britten’s Chicane.

AC Greyhound, Oulton Park, Gold Cup,

Car of the day in the car park was this 1963 Ford Zephyr straight six powered AC Greyhound one of just 83 built.

Jaguar XJR9, Andy Wallace, Gold Cup, Oulton Park,

The day after our visit 1988 Le Mans winner Andy Wallace, on the right in the photo, gave a demonstration of the 1988 Le Mans winning #2 Jaguar XJR9 in front of him, this time completing his lap of honour unlike a previous visit in 2010.

de Tomaso Mangusta, Michael Eagles, Gold Cup, Oulton, Park

One of the cars that tempted me to visit on the Sunday rather than the usual Monday was Michael Eagles de Tomaso Mangusta, Michael started the Oni Plc Historic Road Sports race from 8th on the grid and got as high as 7th in the race before dropping back to finish 16th.

Sunbeam Alpine, Mike Foley, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

In the same race back marker Mike Foley produced the save of the day, after going into Old Lodge too fast and running wide his Sunbeam Alpine went into a nasty tank slapper upon regaining the track, just after this photo was taken, but some how Mike kept the car from spinning or hitting the barriers and continued to finish the race.

Mallock Mk 20/21, Mark Charteris, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

The Giant Killer of the weekend award goes to Mark Charteris who qualified his Mallock U2 Mk20/21 Clubmans car for the first Derek Bell Trophy race fourth ahead an impressive collection of four more powerful Formula 5000 cars and was in third when the race was red flagged after Ian Ashley’s accident, the following day in damp conditions Mark beat both Neil Glover and Mark Dwyer aboard a Formula 5000 Chevron and Formula 2 March respectively that had finished ahead of him the day before.

Jaguar C-type, Ben Cussons, Gold Cup, Oulton Park,

Just finishing the Jaguar Challenge race proved a challenge too far for five of the 20 starters, smoke was seen issuing from beneath several cars including the #18 C-type driven by Ben Cussons who was classified 9th a lap down and the #15 E-type in the back ground driven by Paul Castaldini who managed to hang on to finish 2nd over 90 seconds down on the winning E-Type driven by Michael Wilkinson and John Bussel.

Ginetta G12, Chris Blewett, Gold Cup, Oulton Park,

Wheel lifter of the day went to back marker Chris Blewett driving the #44 Ginetta G12 in the Guards Trophy supported by Dunlop Tyres race whose car struggled to keep four wheels on the ground in the corners.

MG Arkley, Chris Fisher, Gold Cup, Oulton Park,

By 1970 there were loads of Austin Sprites and MG Midgets knocking about with seriously rusted bodies when John Britten in Barnet North London came up with the idea of recycling them with the aid of a retro look fibre glass front and rear ends that could easily be fitted to donor cars, thus the Arkley S with standard wheels and Arkley SS with wide wheels were born. Lawn Mower of the day award went to #27 Arkley SS driver Chris Fisher who during the 70’s Road Sports Bob Trotter Celebration race came out of the appropriately named Britten’s Chicane a tad wide and opted for the shortest route, with the least grip, before rejoining the track on the ascent to Hill Top.

Thanks for joining me on this “Gold Cup Stars” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Fury, Gravity And Inertia – Ferrari 312T #024

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When the new 3 litre / 183 cui Formula One regulations for 1966 were announced most teams were caught on the hop not least because when Colin Chapman went to meetings to negotiate new post 1.5 litre regulations with the sports authorities he expected that if he asked for 3 litre engines he and the authorities might reasonably settle on a maximum 2 litre / 122 cui size, instead the authorities simply rubber stamped the 3 litre suggestion.