Tag Archives: F1

Not A Mopar – Renault Magnum

Since 1956 the commercial and military vehicle of arm has undergone many transformations from nationalised industry to stand alone privatised business in 1996 to most recently in 2001 an arm of the Volvo Group.

Renault Magnum, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Renault launched it’s stylish Magnum range of rigid and semi rigid trucks in 1990, they were availble with either 6 x 4, 6 x 2 or 4 x 2 axle / drive configurations.

Renault Magnum, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Power for the European version of the Magnum was derived from a 12 litre / 732 cui straight 6 cylinder Volvo motor fitted with fuel injection and engine management system co developed with Delphi, note Australian versions of the Magnum used the European Magnum cab and chassis equipped with a Mack Trucks motor, Roadranger 18 speed transmission and Rockwell or Dana drive axles.

Renault Magnum, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The European Magnum could be ordered with either 440hp, 480hp or 500hp and either a ZF servoshift air-assisted 16-speed manual, or Optidrive II 12 speed automated, with 4 reverse gears, transmissions.

Renault Magnum, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The keys to the last Magnum were presented to hauliers Robert Chabbert on Wednesday 26 June 2013.

Renault Magnum, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Renault Sport F1 4 x 2 Magnum in these photographs was seen at Goodwood Festival of Speed a couple of years ago.

It’s Not A Pick Up Truck – Ferrari 150° Italia

Having snatched World Drivers Championship defeat from the jaws of Victory at the Abu Dahbi Grand Prix in 2010, where Fernando Alonso went into the last race of the season with a 15 point lead over third placed Sebastian Vettel but left 4 points in arrears to the German in the final Championship standings, Ferrari regrouped for 2011 building a new vehicle with the design credited to Aldo Costa and Nicholas Tombazis which was known at its launch as the F150 in celebration of Italy’s 150th unification anniversary.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Formula One attracts controversy like flies to jam and a large number of jokes by even the most technical minded Formula One anoraks aside it was not long before Ford objected to Ferrari’s use of the trade marked F150 name and eventually Ferrari settled on the 150° Italia in which the ‘°’ stands for the ordinal cento cinquantesimo or one hundred and fiftieth in English.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Technically Ferrari’s 2011 2.4 litre/146 cui V8 powered challenger was caught on the hop having failed to spot the potential handling benefits of off throttle blown diffusers, a failure which echoed Enzo Ferrari’s assertion that aerodynamics are for teams that cannot build engines.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

As a consequence Alonso was rarely in contention for podium finishes as Red Bull and McLaren who had refined their off throttle blown diffusers, won the opening 8 races of the 2011 season with Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull winning 6 and Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button driving McLarens winning the remaining two.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

For the ninth race of the season the British Grand Prix Ferrari had managed to persuade all the teams that they should run without off throttle blown diffusers, which basically hooked up an electronic engine programme to wind up the engine speed when the driver was off throttle to force hot air through the exhaust into the diffusers which produced additional downforce when running off throttle through the corners.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

In the prevalent wet conditions which dried through the race Alonso, starting third, managed to beat the Lewis Hamilton driving a McLaren and Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull to score the Ferrari teams only victory in 2011.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

By the next race the teams despite objections from Ferrari and the Ferrari powered Sauber team reverted to running off throttle blown diffusers in anticipation of a ban on these devices for 2012.

Ferrari 150° Italia, Autosport International, NEC, Birmingham

Ferrari ended up a distant third in the manufactures championship behind Red Bull who scored six further victories to take their 2011 total to 12 and McLaren who scored four further victories in the 19 race season.

Fernando finished the 2011 championship 4th behind Vettel, Jenson Button and Mark Webber who scored just one point ahead of the Spaniard. De facto Ferrari number 2 driver Felipe Massa was lucky to keep his Ferrari seat for 2012 after he finished 6th in the championship 99 points behind Lewis Hamilton having failed finish any higher the 5th all season.

Thanks for joining me on this “It’s Not A Pick Up Truck” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Bonus Built Facelift – Ford F1 Pickup

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Last week week I looked at a 1949 Bonus Built Ford F1 this weeks pick up is the face lifted version first seen in 1951.

Ford F1 Pickup, Yanks Picnic Shakespeare County Raceway

So far as I have been able to discern the grill would originally have only been fitted with three teeth, customisers seem to like adding additional teeth on the grill to fill in the gaps.

Ford F1 Pickup, Yanks Picnic Shakespeare County Raceway

All first Generation F1′s were powered either by a 95 hp flathead straight 6 or 100 hp flathead V8, the 4.8 litre / 292 cui quoted for today’s featured pickup suggests something more contemporary than a regular flathead is installed under the bonnet / hood.

Ford F1 Pickup, Yanks Picnic Shakespeare County Raceway

The new dashboard of the face lifted 1951 F1 featured an ashtray and glovebox. Twin windscreen wipers and the foot operated windscreen washer were still optional.

Ford F1 Pickup, Yanks Picnic Shakespeare County Raceway

The rear cab window was enlarged in 1951 for better reward visibility.

Ford F1 Pickup, Yanks Picnic Shakespeare County Raceway

Finally the steel panels on the 6 1/2 foot cargo bed were replaced with hard wood items which are much easier to repair and replace.

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

Bonus Built – Ford F1 1/2 Ton Pickup

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In 1948 Ford introduced the new F Series pickups that were built on dedicated, Bonus Built, pickup chassis rather than the hitherto strengthend car chassis.

Ford F1 Pickup, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

The F1 seen here is a 1949 F1 half ton pickup with a single piece windscreen / windshield and integrated in to the wings / fenders headlights.

Ford F1 Pickup, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

This one is fitted with the optional passenger side windscreen wiper, other options included foot plunger operated windscreen washer, passenger side sun visor and passenger side tail light !

Ford F1 Pickup, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

First Generation F1’s were powered either by a 95 hp flathead straight 6 or 100 hp flathead V8, the 4.2 litre / 256 cui quoted for today’s featured pick up suggests something more contemporary than a regular flathead might be lurking under the hood.

Ford F1 Pickup, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Three different transmissions were available for the First Generation F1, 3 speed light duty, 3 speed heavy duty or 4 speed.

Ford F1 Pickup, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

The F1 came with a 6 1/2 foot bed or 4 door panel body.

Ford F1 Pickup, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

First Generation F1’s were assembled at Dearborn and Highland Park MI, Edison NJ, Long Beach CA, Norfolk Assembley VI, St Paul MN, St Louis MO, and Hapeville GA. First Generation F1’s were face lifted in 1950 and remained in production until 1952.

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

60 Years In Formula One – Ferrari F60

2009 marked the 60th season of Ferrari’s participation in Formula One and to mark the fact they gave there 55th Formula challenger the F60 name. After winning the Championship in 2007 with Kimi Räikkönen in and Massa and Räikkönen finishing 2nd and 3rd in the championship in 2008 hopes were high the the F60 would return Ferrari back to the top of the pecking order in 2009 but they were to be disappointed.

The F60 was simply not reliable enough or fast enough to compete with the wonder car from the fledgling Brawn GP team that was being run on the money that would have made most of it’s employees redundant from former owners Honda had the brave Mr Brawn not stepped in to try and save the team and workforce. Red Bull were also proving a difficult combination to beat with Adrain Newey in the design office and Sebastian Vettel learning his trade behind the wheel at a scintilating pace.

Even with the supposed advantage of a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) which only Ferrari and McLaren pursued with any commitment while other teams carried ballast in the absence of such systems Ferrari only managed one win all year when Kimi Räikkönen won the Belgian Grand Prix after a certain newcomer called Romain Grosjean knocked championship leader Jenson Button out an accident which also stopped the progress of Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap.

The win would be Räikkönens last for Ferrari as the team elected to buy Kimi out of his contract for a staggering US$15 million over two years so that they could get Fernando Alonso out of the blemished Renault Team for 2010.

Kimi went rallying in 2010 and 2011 without much success and put in a couple of appearances in the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series and Nationwide Series driving Perky Jerky Toyota’s prepared by Kyle Busch Motorsport last year.

This season Kimi returned to Formula One full time with the Genii team, the remains of the disgraced Renault team that Alonso left in 2009 which now operates under license as the Lotus F1 team. Last time out in Abu Dhabi Kimi won a thrilling race and so should be in good form for the return of the US Grand Prix to the World Championship Calender in Austin Texas this weekend.

Note that in 2009 all the Formula One teams were running Bridgestone Tyres not with the Pirelli’s seen here and that Santander did not become a Ferrari sponsor until 2010 when Fernando Alonso arrived to drive for the team.

Thanks for joining me on this “60 Years In Formula One” edition of “Getting a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the 1979 Formula One challenger from Team Lotus. Don’t forget to come back now !

Ferrari’s First F1 Design – Ferrari 125 F2 Spec #0114

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In 1948 Ferrari built his first dedicated 125 F1 Grand Prix cars known to conform with the set of rules known as formula one and entered three of them into the 1948 Italian Grand Prix, held at Valentino Park on the 5th of September. Frenchman Raymond Sommer brought his 125 F1 home in third place. The Ferrari 125 WAS NOT however the first Ferrari ever to be entered in a race run to formula one regulations.

The 125 F1 shared it’s 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui super charged V12 engine design, by Giocchino Colombo, with earlier successful Ferrari sports cars including the 166 series and the 125S series.

This particular chassis thought to have been built in 1949 for the factory racing team, appears to have been successfully raced with a normally aspirated 2 litre / 122 cui Colombo V12 to conform to the second tier Formula Two regulations in 1951 by Englishman Peter Whitehead in Europe and Australasia.

During the late 1950’s this chassis had a Chevy V8 installed which was replaced by a remanufactured 2 litre V12 when Tom Wheatcroft had it restored in the 1970’s for his Donington Collection where these photographs were taken.

The 125 F1 was not a great success against the older Alfa Romeo’s, which led Ferrari to build his next formula one cars with larger unsupercharged engines with which one of his cars would win Ferrari’s first championship formula one race in 1951.

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