Tag Archives: Honda

Coffee, Croissant & Cars 05/16 – Avenue Drivers Club

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Last Sunday I popped along to the Avenue Drivers Club meeting just long enough to get today’s snaps before being called out for work before I had a chance to enjoy either a Coffee or Croissant.

Austin 12/4, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

Despite arriving shortly after 8 am the 1928 Austin 12/4 above was already leaving indicating the Square was already full.

Kenworth, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

Among the larger vehicles packing the Square was this 1999 Kenworth semi.

Honda Civic Type R, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

One of several Honda Civic Type Rs circulating was Spoonz, so new the registration is not yet on the DVLA data base.

Toyota Altezza, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

A personal import from Japan is the 1998 Toyota Altezza above, known in markets outside Japan as the entry level Lexus IS or GS.

Citroën Visa, Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

It is amusing to think a couple of French chaps might have piled into the Citroën Visa above and driven all the way to Queen Square for an Avenue Drivers Club meeting, if highly unlikely.

Swallow Doretti , Avenue Drivers Club, Queen Square, Bristol,

Finally even rarer than the Italia 2000 GT which appeared at last month’s Avenue Drivers Club meeting is the Triumph powered Swallow Doretti seen above of which only 280 were built.

Thanks for joining me on this “Coffee, Croissant & Cars 05/16” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I will be looking at another Packard. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Emergent Red Five – Williams Honda FW10

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1984 saw Williams struggle with the new Honda V6 turbo engine that had plenty of power but a very short power band meaning that it delivered all of it’s power in a sudden burst at the top end of the revolutions per minute (rpm) range rather than a preferable smooth increase in power delivery from the top half of the rpm range, all the same Keke Rosberg managed to win the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix.

Allied to this the old fashioned aluminium honeycomb construction method was no longer the stiffest solution to chassis construction, which McLaren had advanced with it’s Hercules built carbon fiber chassis in 1981.

Williams Honda FW10, Donington Park Museum

For 1985 the Didcot based Williams team built the Patrick Head and Enrique Scalabroni designed FW10 with a Carbon Fiber monocoque, Nigel Mansell was signed up to drive the “Red 5” and join 1983 champion Keke Rosberg and seven years of Saudi Airlines and TAG sponsorship came to an end with Mobil and Cannon joining Denim and ICI as the teams primary sponsors.

For the first third of the 1985 season the team had to make do with the same Honda RA163E engines as in 1984 and their best result was a 4th place for Keke Rosberg in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Williams Honda FW10, Donington Park Museum

For the following Detroit Grand Prix Honda supplied Williams with a completely new RA165E V6 that was not only more powerful, 900hp in race trim, but more importantly delivered it’s power in a more tractable way.

After Nigel used the engine to qualify second to Ayrton Senna, Keke celebrated the new power unit’s arrival with a debut win at Detroit from 5th on the grid and finished second in France where Nigel did not start after a 200 mph crash.

Williams Honda FW10, Donington Park Museum

Reliability was not great over the next few races, but then Honda hit the sweet spot with it’s tuning and Nigel finished 2nd from 7th on the grid in Belgium where Keke finished 4th from 10th.

At Brands Hatch for the European Grand Prix Nigel and Keke were 3rd and 4th on the grid before Nigel, driving a “Red 5” FW10 like the one seen above at Donington Park Museum, went on to score a popular maiden win two spots ahead of Keke, at the next race Keke finished second to Nigel in the South African Grand Prix where the cars started line astern from pole and third place respectively. Nigel and Keke started 2nd and 3rd at the season ending Australian Grand Prix, but only Keke crossed the finish line albeit in first place, on his final start for the Williams team.

Thanks for joining me on this “Emergent Red Five” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyrs” I hope you will join me again for Mercedes Monday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The Crumpled Cup Auto Solo – Rolls Royce Car Park Filton

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On Sunday I headed down to Queen Square for the regular second Sunday of the month Avenue Drivers Club meeting only to find all access roads blocked by Bristol Half Marathon stewards one of whom apparently had no idea where Queen Square was, which made for an interesting point of departure for a conspiracy theory which I shall refrain from repeating here.

MCW Metrobus MkII, Rolls Royce Car Park, Filton

Later at mid day I made my way over to the Rolls Royce Car Park at Filton for the Bristol Pegasus Motor Clubs first Crumpled Cup Autosolo. Upon reflection I wish I had stopped off longer at The Ark Bus, 1982 MCW Metrobus, a faith in motion project, to ask for some much needed devine intervention to help me to remember the three different routes through the 31 cones that were to make up the three timed tests of the event.

01 Crumpled Cup_5894sc

The Volkswagen Golf Mk IV Estate is not an obvious choice of vehicle for this type of event and certainly not when carrying more than half a tank of fuel, but I determined that I would have fun and that I did in spades despite the fact that of my nine runs, three times through each of the three routes I actually only managed to complete the course correctly on five occasions ! Fortunately this was still better than some so I did not come last in the front wheel drive class.

Honda Civic, Rolls Royce Car Park, Filton,

Martyn Mitchell warned me that his Honda Civic would only be in contention for the slowest time of the day and perhaps next time he will join me by the bus in some requests for devine intervention on the memory front.

Citroen Saxo, George/Ashley Pope, Rolls Royce Car Park, Filton

Father and son George and Ashley Pope shared their Citroën Saxo to take front wheel drive honours with Ashley only scoring two clean runs on the final test which ironically was the only test on which George scored only one clean run, George was the comfortable winner of the front wheel drive class and would have finished 3rd overall had the event been run as an open competition between all eight competitors.

Westfield SEiW, Andy Moss, Rolls Royce Car Park, Filton

Struggling with the turning circle of his self built Westfield SEiW was club chairman Andy Moss.

Vauxhall VX220, Martyn Lidbury, Rolls Royce Car Park, Filton

Despite having the smaller Lotus Elise size front tyres on his Vauxhall VX220 Martyn Lidbury also struggled with the turning circle of his car which otherwise made all the right noises as he drove it to third in class on his first event with the club.

Westfield SEiW, Ben Bishop, Rolls Royce Car Park, Filton

Second in the rear wheel drive class was Ben Bishop in his Westfield SEiW with the second best score overall too.

Mazda MX5, Chris Buckley, Rolls Royce Car Park, Filton

Lowest scores of the day were recorded by Chris Buckley in his supercharged Mazda MX5 who only scored maximum points on his very first run of the afternoon.

Everybody seemed to enjoy the event which I hope shall be the first of many to come, my thanks to Pete Goodman for getting permission from Rolls Royce to use the venue, to Alan Spencer for organising the event, to Tim Murray the events secretary and score keeper, marshals Ann Mitchell and Nick Woods and not least my fellow competitors who made the 4 hours of the competition fly by.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Crumpled Cup Auto Solo” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Mercury Monterey. Don’t forget to come back now !

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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 !

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Super Saturday Winners – Silver Jubilee Silverstone Classic

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Today’s post features all the winners on Super Saturday of the Silver Jubilee Silverstone Classic Meeting, after an aqueous qualification day Saturday emerged as a beautiful sunny.

Lotus, Sam Wilson, Lotus Andrew Hibberd, Silverstone Classic

The action kicked of with the Historic Formula Junior race which was won by the blue #53 Lotus 20/22 driven by Sam Wilson, from 2nd on the grid, seen above being challenged by 4th place starter and 8th place finisher Andrew Hibberd’s red #79 Lotus 22 going into Copse on the opening lap.

Stirling Moss Trophy, Silverstone Classic

Gregor Fisker did a great job driving, the GALPOT Banner car, #46 Ferrari 246S from fifth on the grid to the win he is seen above chasing 3 Knobbly Listers and a white stripped Costin Lister while being pursued by the #25 Lotus by A. Wolfe and I. Vercoutere on lap 5 of the 21 lap / 50 minute race.

Warwick Banks Trophy, Silverstone Classic,

Three Mini’s secured the top three spots for the Warwick Banks Trophy race in the wet conditions, however they were soon swamped by more powerful Lotus Cortinas, BMWs and Alfa Romeos after the start. Richard Meaden in the #63 Lotus Cortina leads coming out of Village above on the opening lap while eventual winner triple British Touring car champion Matt Neal driving the #152 Lotus Cortina, he shared with 2012 British Touring Car Champion Gordon Shedden, has made up 7 places from 14th on the grid going into the third corner of the 50 minute / 18 lap race !

Kidston Trophy, Silverstone Classic

Andrew Hall driving the #69 Frazer Nash Supersports made a super start from 5th in The Kidston Trophy race for pre war sports cars to lead for a couple of corners before Gareth Burnett in the big green #52 Talbot 105 took command for the opening 7 laps of the race. A slick driver change helped Fredric Wakeman and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards take the lead and win the race in the #11 Frazer Nash Super Sports, seen on the extreme left of the photo above in third place.

Tyrrell 012, Martin Stretton, Silverstone Classic

Despite qualifying his #44 Tyrrell 012 nearly 5 seconds faster than Sam Hancock’s yellow #55 Fittipaldi F5A, Martin Stretton, seen above, had to eat Sam’s dust for three laps before pulling away to win the FIA Masters Historic Formula one race by just under 2 seconds.

Honda Dodd, Audi, Wrathall, Silverstone Classic,

12th place starter Frank Wrathall in the 1989 #39 Audi 80 Quattro is seen above lining up to overtake James Dodd driving the 1999 #1 Honda Accord for the lead which Frank would not relinquish on lap 4 of the Super Touring Car race.

Cooper T51, Harvey, Cooper T53, Nuthall, Silverstone Classic,

Racing an open wheeler for the first time since breaking his legs in a Formula Ford car early in his career was 1992 British Touring Car Champion Tim Harvey, who is seen above passing Will Nuttall in the #10 Cooper T53, for the lead on his way to winning the Maserati Trophy race driving Roger Wills #1 Cooper T51.

Jaguar, Nicholl-Jones, TVR, Whitaker, Silverstone Classic,

Mark Whitaker driving the #46 TVR Griffith starting 4th on the grid for the JET Trophy race had left the two Minis that qualified ahead of him way behind and as seen above already had pole sitter Matt Nicholl Jones #85 Jaguar E-type well in his sites as he exited Woodcote for the first time, Mark won the 9 lap race by nearly 18 seconds.

FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars, Silverstone Classic

Martin O’Connell driving the #4 Chevron B19 seen in second above never dropped out of the top 4 on his way to winning the FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars race from the #60 Lola T70 driven by Marino Franchitti and Richard Meaden seen above in 4th place.

Jaguar E-Type, Martin O'Connell, Silverstone Classic

There was little time for Martin to savour his victory as he had a pressing appointment on the 13th row of the grid to start the International Trophy race in his E-Type Jaguar, on lap 11 of the one hour 25 lap race he took the lead and stayed there to claim a second consecutive victory.

11 Nissan / Jaguar_9462sc

Steve Tandy starting from pole in his IMSA Spice, seen in a distant third above, held the lead on the opening lap of the evening Group C race but relinquished it to the #27 Nissan R91CK of Bob Berridge and #17 Jaguar XJR14 of Christophe D’Ansembourg, Bob held the lead for three laps before Christophe, seen in second place above, took the lead on the 4th lap and held on to it for the remainder of the race.

Thanks for joining me on this “Super Saturday Winners” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at another Mercury. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Transverse Success – Honda RA 272

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13 years after it’s foundation in 1949 Honda Motor Company moved into the production of it’s first S360 micro sports cars in June 1963.

A month earlier Soichiro Honda set his Research and Development engineers to work on a 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui 60 ° V12 motor for use in a Formula One application.

Honda RA272, Goodwood Festival of Speed

It would appear that after a deal fell through to work with Lotus the engineers, who had become world champions in Motorcycle Racing, used a 1961 Cooper in their possession as the starting point for an all new RA270 chassis.

This gold prototype tested, but never raced, by Jack Brabham in 1964 was notable for a transverse mounted engine and for having 12 exhausts coming straight out of the back.

Honda RA272, Goodwood Festival of Speed

At the 1964 German Grand Prix Honda made their Formula One debut with the RA271 driven by American Ronnie Bucknum, which still had a transverse mounted V12, but conventional exhaust manifolds with two tail pipes.

Ronnie qualified 22nd and was classified 13th despite having an accident after completing 11 laps of the scheduled 15 lap race, Ronnie retired from both the Italian and US Grand Prix later in the season.

Honda RA272, Goodwood Festival of Speed

For 1965 the Honda engineers Yoshio Nakamura and Shoichi Sano kept the transverse mounted V12 which was said to produce 230 hp at 13,000 rpm.

American BRM refugee Richie Ginther joined Ronnie Bucknum in the team.

Honda RA272, Gabriele Tarquini, Goodwood Festival of Speed

After the team missed the season opening South African Grand Prix and recording two retirements at Monaco, Richie scored the team’s first World Championship point with a sixth place finish at Belgian Grand Prix after starting 4th on the grid.

At the French and British Grand Prix Richie two more retirement and with the team now running just the one car he finished 6th in the Dutch Grand Prix from third on the grid.

Honda RA272, Gabriele Tarquini, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Honda missed the German Grand Prix but came back with cars for Richie and Ronnie for the remaining three races of the season.

Richie finished 14th and 7th in Italian and the United States Grand Prix where Ronnie retired and was classified 13 respectively with both drivers suffering from ignition issues.

Honda RA272, Goodwood Festival of Speed

However at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix, the last of the 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui era it all came good for Honda when Richie qualified 3rd and Ronnie 10th.

Against the form of British drivers and British built cars from Lotus and BRM winning the previous nine races of the season Richie came through for the win and Ronnie came home in fifth place.

This race would remain Richie’s only victory in Formula One and remarkably the Honda team have added only two more Formula One victories as constructors to that total, at the Italian Grand Prix with John Surtees in 1967 and with Jenson Button in 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Former Italian Formula One Driver and Honda works world touring car driver Gabriel Tarquini is seen at the the wheel of Richie Ginther’s #11 Mexican Grand Prix winning car at Goodwood Festival of Speed last year.

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

19/04/15 Thanks to Tim Murray for pointing out that the RA 272’s kept the transverse mounted engine layout for 1965.

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Two Time – Lewis Hamilton

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Today’s blog will attempt to put Lewis Hamilton’s 2014 World Championship win into perspective.

The 2014 season was of course dominated by the Mercedes AMG F1 team for which Lewis drives with team mate Nico Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton, MercedesAMGF1

Photo courtesy Mercedes AMG F1.

During the season the Mercedes AMG F1 team qualified on pole 18 out of 19 times; Nico started from pole 11 times compared to Lewis’s 6, with Felipe Massa in the Mercedes powered Martini Williams being the only man to break the Mercedes Benz AMG F1 pole monopoly when he qualified on pole for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Mercedes Benz AMG F1 drivers also recorded 13 fastest race laps 7 of which were recorded by Lewis and 6 by Nico. The remaining fastest laps were recorded by Kimi Räikkönen driving a Ferrari, Felipe and team mate Vallteri Bottas driving for Martini Williams, Sergio Perez driving a
for Force India and Daniel Riccardo driving for Red Bull.

Lewis and Nico also won 16 of the 19 2014 Formula One season races; 11 to Lewis, 5 to Nico and 3 to Daniel Riccardo.

Lewis became the 16th multiple Formula One World Champion and the fourth Britain to do so after Graham Hill ’62/’68, Jim Clark ’63/’65 and Jackie Stewart ’69/’71/’73.

The 2014 constructors championship was won by Mercedes Benz for the first time, there were no championships for constructors in 1954 and 1955 when Juan Manuel Fangio won two drivers championships driving for the Mercedes Benz team.

Mika Häkkinen drove Mercedes powered McLaren’s to consecutive drivers championships in 1998/’99 as did Lewis his to his first championship in 2008. McLaren won the constructors championship in 1998, so Mercedes motors have now powered three world drivers champions to six drivers championships, but just two constructors championships.

An interesting aside is that Mercedes Benz bought out the 2009 Constructors champions Brawn GP at the end of 2009 and there is a paper trail at Companies House which links Brawn GP through the Honda Racing F1 Team and British American Racing to the Tyrrell Racing Organisation founded on the 9th of January 1964 with the company number 00787446.

Therefore over the last fifty years the legal entities registered under Company Number 00787446 lay claim to; the 1969 World Drivers and Constructors championships won by Jackie Stewart run by Tyrrell Racing Organisation under the Matra International banner, the ’71 Driver and Constructors Championships won by Jackie running under the Tyrrell Racing Organisation name as was Jackie’s final Drivers title in ’73, the 2009 World Drivers and Constructors titles won by Jenson Button and Brawn GP and now Lewis Hamilton’s and Mercedes Benz AMG F1’s drivers and constructors championships making five drivers championships and four constructors championships in all.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Two Time’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a life times love affair with racing from New Jersey. Don’t forget to come back now !

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