Tag Archives: Muller

Brazil’s Man In Switzerland – Maserati 6CM #1558

In 1937 Milanese Lancia dealer “Libeccio” Eugenio Minetti with fellow racing drivers Giovanni Lurani, Luigi Villoresi and Franco Cortese founded Scuderia Ambrosiana and remained the teams president until 1949.

Maserati 6CM, Silverstone Classic

The following year Baron Manuel de Teffé von Hoonholtz followed his father into the Brazilian diplomatic corps and was posted to the Brazilian consulate in Switzerland.

Maserati 6CM, Silverstone Classic

The Baron better known as Manuel de Teffé was invited to drive a 1938 Maserati 6CM in it’s Brazilian national colours alongside the two other Scuderia Ambrosina 6CM’s by Count Giovanni Lurani.

Maserati 6CM, Urs Muller, Silverstone Classic

Manuel is recorded as having made 6 European starts in the 6CM during 1938 finishing four of the events with a best 5th place in the Voiturette Prix de Bern run on the Bremgarten circuit.

Maserati 6CM, Silverstone Classic

From 1939 to ’41 Manuel raced his Maserati 6CM in South America, with five starts recorded in Brazil and one in Argentina, of those he won at; II Circuito da Gávea Nacional and Subida da Tijuca both of which ran in Brazil.

Maserati 6CM, Silverstone Classic

Subsequently his car was sold to British expatriate in Argentina Eric Forest-Greene who recorded a sixth place finish in the 1941 Buenos Aires Grand Prix with the car.

Maserati 6CM, Silverstone Classic

Switzerlands Urs Muller is seen at the wheel of chassis #1558 in Brazilian colours during practice for the recent Maserati Centenary race at Silverstone Classic, voiturette expert Adam Ferrington assures me that #1558 is not the car driven in period by Manuel de Teffé.

Thanks for joining me on this “Brazil’s Man In Switzerland” 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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The Seriously Flared One – Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0

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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Endurance Survivor – Porsche 911 GT1-98 #003

The Porsche 911 GT1-98 was the second evolution GT1 racer that Porsche contested the 1998 FIA GT1 championship with.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

While the front of the new car bears a passing resemblance to the Generation 2 996 version of the Porsche 911 the rest of the car was essentially a prototype fitted with a 600hp twin turbo Group C type 24 valve twin cam water cooled flat 6 of the same type as used by the Porsche 962C with the addition of a sequential gearbox.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 911 GT-98 was built around a tube frame and with carbon fibre bodywork. One road going example of the GT1-98 was built to meet the GT1 regulations.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Going into the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours race two normally aspirated 6 litre / 370 cui V8 Mercedes Benz CLK LM’s prepared especially for the endurance classic qualified 1st and 3rd. The fastest of three turbocharged Toyota GT-One qualified second with the Porsche 911 GT1’s 4th and 5th, the later car being chassis #003 driven by Allan McNish, Stéphane Ortelli and Laurent Aiello.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

During the race the specially prepared Mercedes Benz CLK LM’s both retired by lap 31 with engine failures while the fastest of the Toyota GT-One’s retired after half distance after an accident which left the two works Porsches at the head of the field.

Porsche 911 GT1-98, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The #26 shared by NcNish, Ortelli and Aiello crossed the line a lap ahead of the sister car driven by Jörg Müller, Uwe Alzen and Brilliant Bob Wollek.

As had occured many times in the past the Le Mans winners did not win the championship which was dominated by Mercedes Benz who clocked up six 1-2 finishes, but it is Porsche who is best remembered from the GT1 championship for surviving to win an unlikely 1-2 at Le Mans.

Thanks for joining me on this “Endurance Survivor” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a car that is ‘not a green Audi’. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Ultimate Cars Ultimate Race – Porsche 917K #053

If there is one race I’d love to be able to turn the clock back for in order to attend it would be the 1971 Le Mans 24 hours which for my money was the ultimate road race with the ultimate cars.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Lined up on the grid were seven Porsche 917’s with a variety of body configurations against 9 Ferrari 512s in both closed M spec, earlier open S Spec and two unique 512’s one from the Penske team which had a large rear wing and the F spec car of Scuderia Filipinetti that had a narrow cockpit built around a Porsche 917 windscreen.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The race was an uneven contest between the Porsches as the Ferraris suffered from inferior reliability and top speeds were down on the Porsche’s 230 mph plus capabilities. However it was the fastest to be run at the circuit until 2010.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The winning car chassis #056 seen here at Goodwood Festival of Speed featured a special lightweight magnesium chassis built only for the works supported Porsche Salzburg team much to the annoyance of Porsche’s other works supported team run by John Wyer who’s employees had developed the Porsche body work in short (K Kurz) and long (LH Lang heck) tail forms and shared them freely with all the other teams running 917’s.

Porsche 917K, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Gils van Lennep and Helmut Marko shared the winning 600 hp 4.9 litre 299 cui aircooled flat 12 powered #22 car which traveled 3,107.7 miles in 24 hours covering 397 laps at an average speed of 138.6 mph the equivalent to five consecutive Coke 600’s !

They beat the next car driven by Richard Attwood, Herbert Muller and Brian Redman in a Gulf Porsche 917 by two laps, 16 miles, and the third finisher the Ferrari of Sam Posey and Tony Adamowicz by 31 laps.

After the race chassis #053 was immediately retired and so has a 100% winning record.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ultimate Cars Ultimate Race” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a 1925 3 litre / 183 cui Bentley. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Awaiting TLC #4 – Elva Porsche Mk VII

A couple of years ago I came across this old Elva Porsche Mk VII in need of TLC at Race Retro.

Elva Porsche Mk VII, Race Retro

Despite being a British company Elva had a much better reputation in the United States than in the UK because their cars was raced by privateers against privateers while in the UK Elva cars tended to be raced by privateers against works supported teams particularly from Lotus.

Elva Porsche Mk VII, Race Retro

Elva’s founder Frank Nichols is said to have favoured selling his creations over racing them, letting his customers do the talking for his products on the track.

Elva Porsche Mk VII, Race Retro

Unusually in the absence of having a suitable model for sports car racing of their own Porsche supplied Elva with engines which were particularly favoured by Elva’s US customers, Porsche were even involoved in setting up the design of the Porsche powered Mk VII’s sending Porsche employee Herbert Linge to help with the motor installation.

Elva Porsche Mk VII, Race Retro

Porsche even bought two of the 19 Elva Porsche Mk VII’s for their own use and Herbert Müller used one fitted with a 2 litre / 122 cui flat 8 to secure second place in the 1963 European Hillclimb Championship.

Elva Porsche Mk VII, Race Retro

The vendor of this particular car claimed that it was originally sent to the United States with a quad cam 4 cylinder Porsche motor which was latter replaced by a 6 cylinder Porsche motor that drove the rear wheels through a 5 speed gearbox.

It is two years since this car appeared in urgent need of TLC at Race Retro and I shall look forward to seeing if this car reappears in restored form again in the near future.

Thanks for joining me on this “Awaiting TLC #4” 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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Goodwood Revival – #7 Silberpfile

At the Berlin Motor Show in 1933 Adolf Hitler announced two new projects the (Kraft durch Freude – strength through joy) KdF- Wagen that would eventually become the Volkswagen Beetle and a state sponsored racing programme for Mercedes Benz. Below is a recreation of a 1936 Mercedes Benz racing department transporter based on a 70 hp petrol engine Mercedes Benz Lo 2570 truck complete with a Mercedes Benz W125 racing car on the back.

Mercedes-Benz LO 2750, Goodwood Revival

Once it became clear that Hans Stuck would not be joining Mercedes Benz he got together with Chairman of the newly amalgamated Auto Union Baron Klaus von Oertzen and free lance designer Ferdinand Porsche to make a bid to fund a rival for the Mercedes Benz team. Hitler agreed that two rivals would be better than one and so split the funding he had announced in Berlin for Mercedes Benz with Auto Union much to the disgust of the former. Below is a Büssing Typ 300 of the type used by Auto Union to carry their team.

Bussing Typ 300, Goodwood Revival

There are numerous stories about how the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union team cars came to be called collectively the Silver Arrows. Apparently the earliest use to the term was in a 1932 radio broadcast in connection with a streamlined Mercedes Benz SSKL driven by Manfred von Brauchitsch was called a Silver Arrow. When the Auto Unions were prepared in 1934 they were all painted silver and bitter rivals Mercedes Benz, who would probably be loath to admit it, appear to have followed suit.

Auto Union A-Type, Goodwood Revival

For 1934 Auto Union built the A-Type with, for the period, a wholly unconventional mid engine layout which featured a 291 hp super charged V16 motor there was no championship that year, Alfa Romeo won the first two of the seven major races before Hans Stuck won the German Grand Prix for Auto Union, René Dreyfus managed an unlikely win at the Belgian Grand Prix aboard his Bugatti and Mercedes swept the last two races of the season in Italy and Spain. Above is an A-Type of the type Stuck used to win the 1934 German Grand Prix.

Mercedes Benz W154 and W25, Goodwood Revival

From 1934 to 1937 Mercedes Benz used the W25 powered by a supercharged straight 8 motor that rose from 300 hp in 1934 to 490 hp by the time the W25 was replaced by the W125. In 1935 Rudolf Caracciola won the European Grand Prix Championship with three wins, Stuck one once for Auto Union and Tazio Nuvolari famously upset the Fuhrer by winning for ALFA Romeo in the 1935 German Grand Prix.

Karl Wendlinger had some problems selecting gears with the W25 seen on the left above and when he got a gear on this occasion the car snaked wildly as the narrow power band of his screaming engine kicked in forcing the 1938 W154 onto the grass.

Auto Union C-Type, Goodwood Revival

For 1936 Auto Union introduced the C-Type which produced over 500 hp from it’s supercharged V16. This tipped the scales in favour of Bernd Rosemeyer who won three of the four European Championship rounds to become European Champion in 1936. This left the previous years champion Caracciola with a consolation victory at the start of the 1936 season before the Mercedes Benz team withdrew mid season, after the Auto Unions superiority became obvious, to regroup for 1937.

Five time Le Mans winner Frank Biela is seen at the wheel of the C-type above.

Mercedes Benz W125, Goodwood Revival

For 1937 Mercedes Benz came back with a vengeance upgrading their supercharged straight eight motor with a swept volume 5,662.85 cc / 345.56 CUI which produced 595 hp and a new W125 chassis as seen being handled by Grand Prix and Le Mans winner Jochen Mass above. After a consolation win at the start of the 1937 season for Rudolf Hasse, Caracciola took three wins from the remaining four rounds of the championship to win the 1937 European Championship title for the second time. Only Manfred von Brauchitsch also aboard a W125 interrupted Caracciola’s progress at Monaco. It was not until the late sixties that circuit racers so powerful would hit the tracks again with the emergence of the unlimited Can Am Series in North America.

Auto Union D-Type, Goodwood Revival

For 1938 the organisers changed the rules to bring the speeds down by announcing a maximum swept volume of three litres / 183 cui. Auto Union developed the new D-type with “only” 12 cylinders in a Vee configuartaion that with 24 psi boost from the supercharger developed 478 hp and was still capable of over 200 mph ! The Nuvolari drove the D-Type, like the one seen here, to a single championship victory at the season finale at Monza.

Mercedes Benz W154, Goodwood Revival

Mercedes Benz built the W154 for the smaller capacity formula using an essentially unchanged chassis from the W125 but with a supercharged V12 giving up to 475 hp. von Brauchitsch and Great Britain’s Richard Seaman won the opening 2 races of the four race series. Caracciola won the third round which was enough to secure him a third European Championship title.

For 1939 there were only four rounds of the European Championship Mercedes again winning three of them Hermann Lang winning the first and last and Caracciola winning the 1939 German Grand Prix all for Mercedes. Herman Paul Müller interrupted the Mercedes domination with a win at the French Grand Prix. Two weeks after the final championship round in Switzerland von Brauchitsch drove the #6 seen here driven by Rob Hall to second place in the non championship Belgrade Grand Prix. That same day the Second World War got underway and the European Championship organisers who apparently had never agreed on the points system to be used for the 1939 championship failed to announce a championship winner. Lang or Mülller would have won depending on the scoring system to be used.

Mercedes Benz W165, Goodwood Revival

Finally Mercedes Benz built the 1.5 litre 91.5 cui supercharged V8 powered W165, as driven by Paul Stewart above, to compete in the more competitive, or at least varied since nearly everyone had abandoned hope of competing against Mercedes Benz and Auto Union, voiturette (small) class. Two cars were entered for Lang and Caracciola in the Tripoli Grand Prix and they finished first and second in that order. The cars were never to be raced again despite Caracciola being invited to compete at Indianapolis in 1946, he could not get the car out of Europe through Swiss customs.

Without doubt these are some of the most fascinating cars ever seen in motor racing, they dominated races that were often 10 hours long, but in the early years they were not invincible. However great the achievements of the teams and drivers these cars were built in an industrial context with the conscripted help of men and women who were not free to do as they liked, and I would venture to suggest these vehicles should be remembered as a testimony to those who endured unimaginable hardships and in the greater scheme of things some of the greatest inhumanities known to man.

Thanks for joining me on this “#7 Siberpfile” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again for some California Sunshine tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Woodland For The Tenacious – Spyker Silvestris V8 Prototype

If innovation were enough to guarantee success everybody would know the name Spyker and quite a few of us would probably be driving one, given that in 1903 Spyker launched a 60 hp racer that was the first motor car with a six cylinder engine, four wheel drive AND four wheel brakes.

Spyker, Goodwood FoS

The company motto “Nulla tenaci invia est via” translates as “For the tenacious, no road is impassable”, to which might be added “even if the way is blocked for 70 years”, for despite building the royal horse drawn ‘Golden’ carriage for the Dutch royal family in 1898, which is still in use today and introducing 6 cylinder powered vehicles, four wheel drive and four wheel braking systems, Spyker went under in 1929.

Spyker Silvestris, Goodwood FoS

Between 1990 and 1996 Maarten de Bruijn hand built the Silvestris (translation ‘Woodland’) V8, seen here at Goodwood, Festival of Speed, with which he and Victor Muller would revive the Spyker brand.

Spyker Silvestris, Goodwood FoS

Many of the design features of the Spyker C8 model which went into production in 2000 can be seen in the Silvestre which has smaller overall dimensions than the production C8.

Spyker Silvestris, Goodwood FoS

Power for the prototype Spyker came from a 265 hp quad cam (dohc) Audi V8 attached to a similarly sourced gearbox.

Spyker Silvestris, Goodwood FoS

The Silvestris weighing just 960 kgs 2,116 lbs is thought to be capable of 0 – 62 mph in 4.5 secs.

Spyker Silvestris, Goodwood FoS

Builder Maarten de Bruijn still owns the Silvestris which won it’s class in the Cartier Concours at Goodwood this year.

Spyker Silvestris, Goodwood FoS

In 2005 Maarten left Spyker to start a new venture Silvestris Aquamotive which builds aluminium space frame speed boats.

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

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