Tag Archives: Magee

IR, FW or Apollon Fly – Williams Cosworth IR/03 / FW/03

Leave a Reply

Ever asked a question of fact and got a different answer dependent upon whom is answering ? Ask any number of people what today’s car is and they will agree it is a 1973/4 Williams but after that it gets complicated.

The Williams IR series cars first appeared at the 1973 Spanish Grand Prix replacing the FX3B Williams design, known in 1972 as Politoys, that did not have deformable structures protecting the fuel tanks. The IR initials were a nod to one of the teams sponsors namely ISO Rivolta.

01 Williams Cosworth IR/04_0130sc

A new car, IR/03 featured today, to the same design as the 1973 cars, appeared at the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix for Arturo Mezario. Denis Jenkinson (DSJ) correctly reported after the Spanish Grand Prix that Frank Williams had renamed the cars with FW initials, but either idiosyncratically or incorrectly that the latest chassis IR/04 was hence forth to be known as FW/04.

DSJ continued referring to IR/04 until the 1975 non championship Race of Champions. However DSJ was possibly confused by the fact that the original IR/02 was damaged and the chassis tub replaced during repairs. While the new car seen at the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix was built around the 4th IR tub it was given the IR/03 chassis number and post the Spanish Grand Prix this fourth chassis seems to have been referred to by everybody apart from DSJ as FW/03.

02 Williams Cosworth IR/04_0129sc

DSJ correctly referred to this car as FW/03 at the non championship 1975 International Trophy and correctly mentions that the new car driven by Art Mezario at the following 1975 Spanish GP as FW/04 !

As if to confirm the respected DSJ’s error no mention is made of chassis IR/04 / FW04 in a MotorSport article about cars entered by Frank Williams from 1969 upto April 1975.

03 Williams Cosworth IR/04_0128sc

Today’s featured car’s best result came in the 1974 Italian Grand Prix where Art Mezario managed to coax IR/03 / FW03 to a fourth place finish at Monza.

This result plus Art’s sixth place finish in South Africa were enough to secure Williams a second consecutive 10th place in the 1974 World Constructors Championship.

04 Williams Cosworth IR/04_0127sc

During 1975 Tony Brise, Damien Magee, Ian Scheckter, Francois Migault, Ian Ashley, the seriously obscure Jo Vonlanthen and Renzo Zorzi all drove IR/03 / FW/03 without much success, Brise recording a best 7th place finish in the 1975 Spanish GP on his Formula One debut.

In 1977 IR/03 / FW/03 now belonging to Swiss Loris Kessel turned up at the Italian GP with a raft of safety upgrades and some cool new body work by ex Ferrari designer Giacomo Caliri from his FLY-studio. Renamed the Apollon Fly Loris failed to qualify for the race, IR/03 / FW03 was restored to the 1974 spec seen here in 2010.

My thanks to Michael Ferner at The Nostalgia Forum for confirming DSJ’s idiosyncratic refferences to IR/03 / FW/03 as IR/04 / FW/04.

Thanks for joining me on this “IR, FW or Apollon Fly” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Maserati 250F. Don’t forget to come back now

Share

Lower Cleaner – Lola Chevrolet T330 #HU4

2 Replies

The 1973 Formula 5000 season which played out in three championships across three continents saw winning cars produced by four different manufacturers namely Chevron, McRae, Trojan and Lola. It was the last named that won most of the races in all three series with their T330 model, a lower and cleaner version of the 1972 T300, like chassis #HU4 featured today which took part in all three series.

Lola T330, Michigan International Speedway

(Photo Copyright Mark Windecker 1973)

According to Old Racing Cars.com chassis #HU4 was first raced at Surfers Paradise in the fourth round of the Tasman Series by Gary Campbell where he retired with an overheating motor. Gary crashed during practice for the next race at Warwick Farm and the car was then bought by Australian Bobby Muir who repaired it and took it to Riverside, where Chuck Jones and Jerry Eisert became co entrants with Bobby for the first round of the US L&M Formula 5000 championship.

Bobby’s best result was a 10th at Riverside after which followed a string of five retirements until Road Atlanta where Bobby crashed in practice and failed to take the start. The photo’s by Mark Windecker show #HU4 and Bobby sitting in it at Michigan International Speedway.

Bob Muir, Lola T330, Michigan International Speedway

(Photo Copyright Mark Windecker 1973)

After missing Pocono #HU4 was entered into the final US race of the season at Seattle by Chuck and Jerry for Clay Regazzoni who was about to transition from BRM to back to the Ferrari formula one Team. As this linked picture show’s the #74 had a new nose with a single full width wing mounted above it, an idea Ferrari had first used at the 1973 Italian Grand Prix three weeks earlier. #HU4 was also fitted with larger radiators requiring deeper ducts at the request of engine builder Ron Armstrong.

Clay Regazzoni, Lola T330, Brands Hatch

(Photo Chuck Jones Collection)

Clay retired in Seattle, but that did not prevent the Jones Eisert team from sending the #HU4 to Brands Hatch for the final race of the Rothmans European Formula 5000 championship where these two photograph’s from Chuck Jones Collection show Clay, who finished 12th, at the wheel.

Clay Regazzoni, Lola T330, Brands Hatch

(Photo Chuck Jones Collection)

In December 1973 AW Brown acquired #HU4 and ran if four Damien Magee in the 1974 European Formula 5000 Championship until the engine blew at Zandvoort and the team was disbanded. Damien scored #HU4’s all time best result a 4th place finish in the series second visit to Brands Hatch. Damien finished the season driving a 1973 Trojan #T101 chassis #T101-105.

#HU4 does not appear to have raced again until it started appearing in Historic Events in 2001. When I finally get around to looking for cars for the GALPOT Museum high on my list of cars to purchase will be #HU4 in it’s funky #74 orange Jones, Eisert and Regazzoni livery which hit the spot when this 14 year old first laid eyes on it in a magazine.

Chuck Jones and Clay Regazzoni would team up again in 1977 when Chuck was involved with the Ensign Formula One team and Clay was chosen as the driver.

My thanks to Jerry Entin for kindly securing permission for me to use Mark Windecker’s photos from Michigan International Speedway and the photo’s from Chuck Jones Collection taken at Brands Hatch.

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

Share

Going It Alone Again – Trojan Chevrolet T101 #T101-102

2 Replies

This month’s Saturday posts will feature 4 Formula 5000 cars built for the 1973 season. Formula 5000 was an open wheel Formula for vehicles fitted with stock block motor up to 5 litres / 302 cui which ran from 1967 in the USA 1969 in Europe and 1970 in the Antipodes coming to a stop in 1975 in the Antipodes and 1976 in the US and Europe.

With the fall in competitiveness of the McLaren Can Am and Formula 5000 programmes, in 1972, McLaren Cars focused it’s attention on it’s Formula One and USAC Champ car programmes with the McLaren M23 and McLaren M16 respectively.

Trojan Chevrolet T101, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

This left Trojan in a difficult spot since their business had been increasingly built on manufacturing McLaren Can Am and Formula 5000 open wheel cars under licence since the demise of their own Elva branded operations in 1964.

Trojan Chevrolet T101, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

A compromise to keep Trojan going was reached which saw Trojan fuse an open wheel Formula 2 McLaren M21 chassis with a strengthened rear bulkhead to the rear end from the 1972 McLaren M18/M22 Formula 5000 car with a ubiquitous Chevrolet small block for power. McLaren Cars would not countenance the use of their name with the new car so it was called the Trojan T101. Former Brabham designer Ron Tauranac was brought in to help develop the model once it was built.

Trojan Chevrolet T101, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

In all six T101’s were built and of the first five built for the 1973 season, the first four were driven to race victories in the UK and USA by the likes of Keith Holland, Brett Lunger, Jody Scheckter and Bob Evans. Scheckter won four races in the USA on his way to becoming L&M Champion in the SCCA Series.

Trojan Chevrolet T101, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Today’s featured car #T101-102 was sold new to Sid Taylor, for Brett Lunger, Brett won on his debut in the car at Snetterton and set an all time 124 mph outright lap record, on the old long circuit in the 4th round of the Rothmans European Formula 5000 championship. Brett also won the 10th round at Mallory Park. Vern Schuppan raced #T101-102 in the opening four races of 1974 and thereafter it was driven by a variety of drivers of increasing obscurity in events of equally increasing obscurity in to the 1980’s which included, Leen Verhoeven, Damien Magee, Jim Kelly, Robin Hamilton, Jon Bradburn and Anthony Taylor in 1982.

Trojan Chevrolet T101, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Simon Hadfield acquired the remains of #T101-102 in 2006 and has restored it, as seen here at last years Race Retro, with the livery and #11 originally seen on Alan McKechnie’s T101-104 raced by Bob Evans to victory at the second Snetterton round of the 1973 Rothmans European Formula 5000 championship.

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

18/12/13 My original post inadvertently incorrectly implied that Trojan #T101-102 was jointly entered by Sid Taylor and Jerry Entin for Brett Lunger, in fact Brett’s car was solely entered by Sid Taylor, however Sid and Jerry did jointly enter the Trojan #T101-103 driven by Jody Scheckter in the 1973 L&M Series. Apologies for any confusion.

Share