Tag Archives: 18

Autumn BRMs – Castle Combe

The recent Autumn Classic at Castle Combe saw a fabulous collection of vehicles being displayed and demonstrated alongside the racing action, today’s blog looks at the BRM’s present.

BRM Type 15, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Unfortunately neither the National Motor Museum’s BRM Type 15 in the background not the Donington Park Grand Prix Collections P18 Mk2 in the foreground were able to run during the event which marked the 60th Anniversary of the last works appearance of the P18 Mk2 and end of the BRM V16 project, at Castle Combe.

BRM P48, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

I believe Stuart Hall was demonstrating the 1960 BRM P48, which he restored in 2006, the first model BRM built with the motor behind the driver.

BRM P261, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

The BRM P261 was the first monocoque BRM, and unlike the Lotus 25 which had a bathtub shaped monocoque the P261 had a tube shaped monocoque, I believe Andrew Waring is seen at the wheel of chassis #2615 here.

BRM P167, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Stephen Hepworth really got the audiences attention with his Dad David’s Can Am BRM P167 by not holding back on the throttle of the unsilenced 8 litre / Chevrolet V8 motor.

BRM P160, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Music to the ears award however was shared by the likewise unsilenced pair of BRM P160’s, seen with circa 1972 B bodywork specification above, is 1973 chassis #P160/8 used by Niki Lauda until he crashed it at the Nurburgring, with John Burt at the wheel…

BRM P160, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

and 1973 E specifcation, driven by Simon Burt both members of the BRM Association.

My thanks to Castle Combe historian Pete Stowe for helping to identify the drivers of the P160’s.

Thanks for joining me on this “Autumn BRMs” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a vehicle that competed in the Carrera Panamerica. Don’t forget to come back now !

Mistaken Identity – Ferrari 290MM #0606

In April 1956 Luigi Musso was given a brand new Right Hand Drive Ferrari 290 MM chassis #0606 by the factory team to drive in the Giro di Sicilia he did not finish but the next occupants Phil Hill and Maurice Trintignant did win the Swedish Grand Prix, for sports cars, on the cars second appearance in August 1956.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

In 1957 the car was variously entered under the Ecurie Francochamps and Equipe Nationale Belge banners with Willy Mairesse winning pole for a 2 hour race held at St Etienne in France and Alain de Changy finishing 4th in Monsanto, Portugal being the cars most notable race performances.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

After the car was returned to the factory it was driven by Austrian Gotfried Koechert in August 1958. His best result being 3rd overall and 1st in class in the Großer Bergpreis von Oesterreich, hillclimb at the Gaisbergrennen in Austria.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

In September 1959 the car was converted to 250 TR specs with a TR motor and sold to Brazilian Jean Luis Lacerda who appears to have won at least two races at Interlagos and Brasilia with #0606 during 1960.

Late in 1960 ownership of #0606 was transferred to Aguinaldo Goes who scored a second place finish in a 500 km race at Intelagos in Spetember of that year.

In 1962 Fernando Mafra Moriera borrowed the car to make up the numbers for a race at Interlagos with strict instructions to park it at the end of lap 1, unfortunately Fernando who raced under the name Rio Negro did not do as he was asked with fatal consequences as he ended up hitting a eucalyptus tree with the unfamiliar right hand drive and equally unfamiliar central throttle pedal thought to have played a role in the tragedy.

The engine and front of the car was separated from the gear box and the back of the car which remained embedded in the tree.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

What remained of the car was given by goes to Camilo Christofaro who used the fuel tank and de Dion rear suspension in a fearsome Corvette engined special called Carrettera 18 in March 1965 Christofaro and Goes drove the car to a 3rd place finish, 1st in class, in a 1600 km race at Interlagos.

The TR motor that had been installed in #0606 when it went to Brazil went into another Brazilian racing car the Furia Ferrari owned by Toni Bianco and later still it replaced a blown up motor in a street Ferrari.

Ferrari, 290 MM, Goodwood Revival

In 1986 Paolo Sebastiani bought some Ferrari parts including part of a type 520 Ferrari 290MM chassis frame from Camilo Christofaro and allegedly mistook them for parts from a type 525 Ferrari 250 TR chassis frame which he thought came from chassis #0726TR which had also been involved in a fatal crash and abandoned in Cuba in 1960.

Sebastiani had Ferrari chassis builder Viccari “guide” him in the construction of a Left Hand Drive type 525 250TR chassis using the salvaged parts he had acquired from Brazil. The car was given a new body by Len Pritchard and sold to John Godfrey who upon further inspection realised that the parts Sebastiani had found in Brazil were actually from the Right Hand Drive #0606 290MM.

The car is seen here at last years Goodwood Revival by Mike Malone.

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

Goodwood Revival 2012 – #6 Lotus

Today’s post features some of the Lotus cars that were on track at Goodwood Revival last week.

The looks and early form of the Lotus 30 flattered to deceive even with Jim Clark at the wheel, this one driven by Paul Wright features the cool exhausts coming out of the top and is one of the few whose lines have not been spoiled with a rear spoiler.

Dan Gurney played an instrumental part in taking Lotus to Indy in 1963, this is the Lotus Ford 29 chassis #29/2 Dan used in practice for the 1963 Indy 500 until he put in the wall during morning practice on Pole Day. Dan qualified the spare chassis #29/1 running the #93 12th and finished the race in 7th place after a late pit stop dropped him from 3rd.

Lotus designed the space frame Lotus 24 for it’s customers in 1962, while keeping back the new monocoque Lotus 25 for the works team. The Climax powered #23 driven by Michel Wanty above is chassis #942 which was one of two supplied to the British Racing Partnership Team racing under the UDT Lystall banner for Innes Ireland and Marsten Gregory to drive. Gregory drove the car once to a 7th place finish in the ’62 British Grand Prix while Ireland retired the car in five from seven races started before finishing 5th in the South African Grand Prix.

British Racing Partnerships also used a BRM powered Lotus 24 in 1962 with which Gregory managed a best 6th place in the ’62 US Grand Prix, the following season BRP fielded two BRM powered Lotus 24 for Ireland and Jim Hall, Jim finished 6th in the British and 5th in the German Grand Prix. The Lotus BRM 24 driven above by Nigel Williams is chassis #P1 which was supplied to the Reg Parnell Racing team for 1963. Marsten Gregory, Roger Ward, Hap Sharp and Chris Amon all had a go in it with Sharp scoring a best 7th place in the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix. The following season Peter Revson drove the car now fitted with bodywork from a 1963 Lola Mk4A, as seen above, for Parnell on two occasions in Belgium and Britain without any worthwhile results.

Dan Collins was out in the Classic Team Lotus entered Lotus Climax 21 #933 which I looked at in December.

Rob Walkers famous Lotus Climax 18 chassis #912 used by Stirling Moss to win the 1960 and 1961 Monaco Grand Prix was being driven by Stephen Bond.

Entered by Real Auto Club Catalunya was the Lotus 16 driven by Joachim Foch-Rusinol seen here blasting past the 1959 Tec Mec Maserati 250F at St Mary’s corner. The 1959 Lotus 16 was Colin Chapman’s second seat design after the 1956 Lotus 12.

Finally the 1955 Lotus Bristol X driven by Malcolm Paul and Rick Bourne, who is seen at the wheel here, charges into the evening during the Freddie March Memorial Trophy race to a 6th place finish.

My thanks to Wouter Melisson from The Nostalgia Forum and http://www.ultimatecarpage.com for his help identifying Michel Wanty’s Lola Mk4A bodied Lotus 24.

Thanks for joining me on this “#6 Lotus Edition” of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me tomorrow for a look at what happens when a dictatorship put’s all the necessary resources into the hands of a couple of racing teams. Don’t forget to come back now !

Leased Winner – Lotus 18

6 Replies

Following the lead set by Cooper Cars winners of the 1959 World Manufacturers Championship for Formula One cars Colin Chapman took the rear engine plunge and built the Lotus 18 open wheeler that could be entered with the correct engine spec in to either Formula Junior, Two or One races.

Rob Walker, heir to the whiskey family of the same name, leased a Lotus 18 with a Coventry Climax motor for Stirling Moss to drive in the 1960 Grand Prix season. On the cars debut, in Monaco, Stirling qualified on pole and eventually won the race, giving Lotus their first Formula One victory after both Jo Bonnier in a BRM and Jack Brabham driving a Cooper Cliax had spent time leading the intermittently wet race.

An accident at Spa interrupted Stirling’s 1960 season but he bounced back with a win at the season ending US Grand Prix again driving this Lotus 18 for entrant Rob Walker. The following season a smaller Coventry Climax motor was fitted to this chassis, seen here at Donington Park Museum, as required by the new regulations for the 1961 season.

(Copyright holder unknown image will be removed or credited upon request)

Amazingly Stirling Moss managed to not only win pole at Monaco in 1961 ahead of three more powerful shark nose Ferrari’s but then, after dicing with Richie Ginther in his Ferrari, proceeded to win the race, a then record setting third Monaco Grand Prix victory.

Later in the season Stirling Moss would take his final Formula One victory driving the Lotus 18, fitted with newer Lotus 21 bodywork, at the German GP at the Nurburgring. At the start of the 1962 season Moss was lucky to escape with his life from a career ending accident at Goodwood before the Grand Prix season got under way.

Thanks for joining me on this Stirling Moss edition, of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !