Tag Archives: Cook

The Seriously Flared One – Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0

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Having won the 1970 and 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours and sports car championships with the short lived Porsche 917, Porsche had no suitable motor with which to compete in the top tear of sports car racing which mandated maximum displacement 3 litre / 183 cui motors, of which those designed for and adapted from Formula One dominated the overall honours from 1972 until 1975.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

To meet the demand from customers running in the GT class Porsche embarked upon a programme of building RSR race cars based on the 911 shell for GT competition in 1973. Initially these cars came with a ‘duck tail’ and motors up to 2.8 litres to 178 cui. Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood scored back to back overall victories at the Daytona 24 hours with this type of car in 1973 and 1975, and were joined by Dave Helmick in 1973 to win the Sebring 12 hours. Perhaps the single most famous victory for any RSR came on the epic Targa Florio where Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep won beating the 3 litre / 183 cui protoypes in the process.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

By the end of 1973 the first RSR’s with 330hp 3 litre / 183 cui motors, coil springs replacing torsion bars, flared wheel arches housing wheels with centre locking nuts and ‘whale tales’ came onto the scene most notably in the first International Race of Champions (IROC) series. The first IROC series ran in the winter of ’73 and ’74 at Riverside and Daytona for which 12 identical Carrera 911 RSR 3.0’s, like the one seen in today’s photographs, were prepared for the likes of, Formula One champions; Emerson Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme, Indy 500 winners; Bobby Unser, AJ Foyt, Gordon Johncock and Mark Donohue, Can Am Champions; Peter Revson and George Follmer, NASCAR Champions; David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty with USAC Champ Roger McKlusky. Mark Donohue won three of the series four races to become the first IROC Champion.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

The RSR remained competitive in the Daytona and Sebring endurance classics until 1977. Haywood, John Graves and Helmick drove an RSR to victory at Daytona in ’77, with Al Holbert and Mike Keyser winning the ’76 race at Sebring then George Dyer and Brad Frissell repeating the feat in another RSR in ’77. In Europe Clemens Schickentanz is thought to have made over 75 starts with at least seven outright victories in RSR’s primarily for the Kremer Brothers.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

In all 60 RSR 3.0’s were built by Porsche and many more 911’s have been upgraded to RSR spec since the models inception. RSR’s were still being raced regularly in front line competition into 1993 when an all new Carrera RSR was introduced with a 3.8 litre / 231 cui motor.

Porsche 911 RSR, Silverstone Classic

I do not have a history for the 1974 Martini liveried car featured today which, in the 2011 dated pictures, are seen at Castle Combe with Jeremy Cook and Mike Dowd who were taking part in the Tour Britannia, the 2012 and 2015 photo’s were taken at Silverstone Classic where Jeremy and Mike competed in the FIA Masters Historic Sports Car races, if you know anything more about this car please do not hesitate to chime in below.

Porsche 911 RSR, Cooke, Dowd, Silverstone Classic

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

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NASCAR Contender ? – MG MGA 1600 Mk II

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Launched in 1960 the MGA 1600 MK II was the last of the MG A series cars to enter production. From the front the 1600 MkII wasdistinguishable from the original MGA 1600 by the bottom of the radiator grill with the bars either side of the central grill bar dropping away more radically on the later model.

MG A 1600 MK II, Goodwood Revival

There were many changes under the bonnet / hood that included a larger 1622 cc / 98.9 cui 90 hp 4 cylinder motor up from 1588cc / 96.9 cui which combined with larger valves and reworked combustion chambers in the cylinder brought the power up from 78 hp to 90 hp.

The new motor combined with new rear axle ratio’s improved the cars top speed to 102 mph, thought the acceleration from rest to 60 mph was slightly slower than than the model it replaced at 13.7 secs, as was the fuel consumption which dropped to 22.3 mpg imperial.

The is no truth in the internet rumour that Spencer Tracey backed his Dodge into an MGA at the Drive In in the film ‘Guess who is coming to dinner’, it was a hopped up hi boy. Among the films the MGA did have bit parts in was “Fast Lady”, blink and you might miss it in the linked trailer.

There is also speculation on the internet that Smokey Cook may have driven an MGA at Bowman-Gray Stadium in 1963 to record the last start by a foreign manufacturer in a NASCAR race until the arrival of Toyota in the 21st Century. No pictorial evidence has been found of what type of MG Smokey drove that day, though at least one photo has been found of Fred Harb driving a TD at Bowman fitted with a small block Chevy V8 allegedly picked up with a transmission for just $150 from a junk yard. It seems most likely that this is the type of “hobby stock class” grid filler from the tracks regular series rather than a specially prepared for NASCAR MGA. If you know different and have either documents or photographs to prove what kind of MG Smokey Cook drove at Bowman in 1963 please chime in below.

Like the MGA Twin Cam and 1600 De Luxe the 1600 MkII and MkII De Luxe had disc brakes all round with competition center lock wheels an optional extra. Between 1960 and 1962 MGA production tailed off with just 8,719 of these Mk II vehicles being built. Total MGA production between 1955 and 1962 reached 101,081 making it the all time best selling sports car of the day. Amazingly all but 5000 of the total MGA production run remained in the country of origin.

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

16 09 12 Errata :- it has come to my attention that the original set of photo’s posted with this blog were of the earlier MG 1600 not the MkII with the distinctive grill now seen above at the 2012 Goodwood Revival. Apologies for any confusion.

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Last of the line – ERA R14B

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English Racing Automobiles was founded by driver Raymond Mays, designer Peter Berthon and financier Humphrey Cook in 1933 to manufacture racing cars capable of upholding British prestige in Continental European races.

Without the financial or engineering resources made available to Mercedes Benz and Auto Union in top flight Grand Prix races, ERA focused their efforts one step down, in the GP2 or Indy Lights of its day known as voiturette racing for vehicles with supercharged motors from 1.1 litres / 67 cui to 2 litres / 122 cui.

The ERA engines came in three sizes and were based on a 6 cylinder Riley production block with a stronger crankshaft and entirely new aluminium cylinder head.

Chassis design was by Reid Railton and the body work was by George and Jack Cray to a design by a Mr Piercy who like Railton had been responsible for the design of Malcom Campbells land speed record breaking vehicle ‘Bluebird‘.

ERA R14B seen here is the 14th and final original ‘sit up and beg’ originally a pale blue vehicle built in 1938 with a 1.5 litre /91 cui Zoller supercharged engine for Johnnie Wakefield who won the 200 mile race at Brooklands and finished third in the 1938 Bern GP.

Bob Gerard acquired the car after WW2 and scored third and second place finishes at the British Grand Prix of 1948 and 1949, he continued to race the car successfully until 1956.

Current owner Donald Day purchased ERA R14B in 1958 and has raced it with a 2 litre / 122 cui motor in place of it’s original 1.5 litre 91 cui unit. In 1990 14B appeared for the first time in British Racing Green.

This same vehicle was driven to victory in the pre 1959 Historic Grand Prix at Monaco by Julian Bronson in 2002.

All photo’s bar the penultimate one from the September VSCC meet at Loton Park, the penultimate one was taken at the August VSCC meet at Prescott.

Thanks to David Hodgkinson for back ground information on ERA 14B.

Hope you have enjoyed todays British Racing Green edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, and will join me tomorrow for a look at a high flying special. Don’t forget to come back now !

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