Tag Archives: Maydon

Backyard Hi Tec – Amon Cosworth AF101

This month’s Sunday posts will feature 5 Formula One cars that ran in the 1974 season for which the then 31 year old Le Mans winner Chris Amon decided to follow in the foot steps of Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren by building a car bearing his own name.

Amon Ford F101, Maydon, Siverstone Classic

It would appear Chris had plans to build both Formula 1 and Formula 5000 cars the latter to race in the lucrative US series with up and coming Australian Larry Perkins; a driver, engineer and sofa surfer who was making his way through the junior ranks in the UK. However despite financial backing from amateur racer John Dalton only the Formula One spec AF101 featured here ever saw the light of day.

Chris commissioned Gordon Fowell to provide him “with a sophisticated chassis” powered by a Ford Corsworth DFV motor driving the rear wheels through a Hewland gearbox. Gordon had designed the attractive, if underpowered, Martini sponsored 1973 Tecno E731 that Chris drove in practice at three meetings in 1973 but had never raced.

Amon Ford F101, Maydon, Siverstone Classic

The AF101 chassis, fabricated by Thompson who were also responsible for fabricating the Tecno E731 and Ferrari 312 B3, was certainly sophisticated with unique, for the time, central fuel cell that would become deriguer once ground effects were better understood with the introduction of the Lotus 79 in 1978. The car also had titanium torsion bar suspension and inboard front brakes, as did the well proven Lotus 72.

Responsibility for the aerodynamics was handed over to Professor Tom Boyce, and almost every time the car appeared it had a different nose including a high wing when it was first tested, a chisel nose in Spain where it first raced, a shovel at Monaco where the car qualified but did not race and then a lower full width wing was tried when the car failed to qualify in Germany and Italy.

Amon Ford F101, Maydon, Siverstone Classic

Unfortunately the AF101 proved a little to sophisticated for Chris’s budget, despite Larry Perkins saving a fortune in hotel bills with his sofa surfing skills, the little team folded having clocked just 22 laps in the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix before a brake shaft broke. Looking back on the project Chris conceded that he had attempted to build, what turned out to be a fragile hi tec vehicle on a backyard budget when he might have achieved more with a vehicle that was a little less ambitious and a little more reliable.

Larry Perkins loyalty was rewarded with an attempt at qualifying the Amon in the German Grand Prix after Chris was taken ill, unfortunately the combination of the Nurburgring, a rookie driver and a fragile car proved too much of a challenge for the team.

Amon Ford F101, Maydon, Siverstone Classic

After out qualifying Ricky von Opel and his works Brabham BT44 in the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix Chris was offered the second works Brabham drive for the rest of 1974, but turned it down out of loyalty to his own employees. Just as in 1973 when Tyrrell stepped in to offer Chris a couple of end of season drives after the demise of the Tecno team, at the end of 1974 BRM stepped in to offer Chris a couple of drives in the wonderful BRM P201, a model I’ll be looking at in a couple of weeks.

Post Italy 1974 the Amon was abandoned, restored and languished in a German Museum before it was restored to running condition in 2005. It is currently owned and raced by Ron Maydon in the Grand Prix Masters Series, Ron is seen driving the AF101 at Silverstone a few years ago.

Amon Ford F101, Maydon, Siverstone Classic

Thanks for joining me on this Backyard Hi Tec edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be starting a new GALPOT feature “Maserati Monday”. Don’t forget to come back now !

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French Built Championship Winner – MATRA Ford MS80 #MS80/3

For 1969 MATRA CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère took a gamble to try and win the 1969 Drivers and Manufacturers Championships by suspending the entry of MATRA V12 powered cars by the works MATRA team and putting all of the teams efforts behind Ken Tyrrells Ford DFV powered MATRA International team cars.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

Even with all the focus being on the MATRA International Team cars the 1969 MS80 was not ready for the start of the season, fortunately the old Ford Powered MATRA MS10 was still good enough for Jackie Stewart to win the championship opening South African Grand Prix.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

The MS80 made it’s public debut at the non Championship Race of Champions from the Lotus 49 of Graham Hill. At the Spanish Grand prix run around the streets of Barcelona at Montjuich Park Stewart won again starting from starting from forth on the grid after the faster Lotus 49’s of Rindt and Hill retired at the same spot a few laps apart as a result of crashes caused by wing failures, and Chris Amon who lead Stewart by over 30 seconds retired with a seized motor after half distance.

Maydon, MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

At Monaco Stewart retired but then went on to win in Holland, France, backed up by team mate Jean Pierre Beltoise who finished second and Great Britain. In the German Grand Prix Stewart finished second to Jacky Ickx driving a Brabham before winning the Itallian Grand Prix at Monza.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

Stewart retired from both the Canadian and US Grand Prix by which time Ickx who won in Canada was too far back in the points standings to catch the Scot. Stewart finished 4th in Mexico to round out the season in which he won his first drivers Championship and MATRA International their only World Manufacturers title.

Maydon, MATRA MS80, Test Day, Mallory Park

Only two MS80’s were completed for the 1969 season, a Ford Cosworth all wheel drive MS84 was also built but this featured MS80 suspension and a unique space frame chassis and was used originally as a spare car to replace the older MATRA MS10’s.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

It is a credit to the determination of MATRA CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère to win both drivers and manufacturers championships that he sanctioned the building of the MS80 which featured fuel tanks that were integral to the monocoque that was reinforced inside by a number of transverse bulkheads, effectively splitting the fuel tank in many small interconnected cells.

Maydon, MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

It had been announced well before 1969 that for 1970 rubber bag fuel tanks would be mandated that precluded the use of many interconnected fuel cells, so effectively the MS80 was restricted to being a one season challenger at the end of which it was outlawed.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

At the end of 1969 Stewart and Tyrrell decided that they wanted to use the Ford Cosworth DFV in 1970 and MATRA who had been taken over by French manufacturer Simca, a French Chrysler subsidiary, were adamant they wanted to return to V12 power for 1970. To date the MATRA MS80 remains the only car built in France to win the World manufacturers championship. Note: the Renault’s driven by Fernando Aonso to Drivers and Manufacturers Championship success in 2005 and 2006 were built in Enstone, UK in the same premises that are now home to the Lotus F1 Team.

Chassis #MS80/3 seen in today’s photographs was built up from an unused spare tub for owner/driver Ray Maydon, who is seen driving the car at a Silverstone Classic test day top and bottom and at a Mallory Park test day in the middle.

My thanks to Walter Melissen of the The Nostalgia Forum and Ultimatecarpage.com for his assistance in identifying the chassis number and owner driver of today’s featured model.

Thanks for joining me on this “French Built Championship Winner” 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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