Tag Archives: Murray

Monte Hat-trick – Porsche 911S

From 1968 to 1970 Porsche scored three 1-2 victories on the fabled Monte Carlo Rally. In 1968 Vic Elford and David Stone driving a Porsche 911T won the event ahead of the 911S driven by Pauli Toivonen and M Tiukkanen, the following year Bjorn Waldegård and Lars Helmer driving a 911S finished ahead of the similar car driven by Gerárd Larrousse and JC Perramond. In 1970 the Porsche hat-trick of wins came when Waaldegård and Helmer drove today’s featured car to victory over Larrousse and M Gélin in another 911S.

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The 1970 Monte Carlo had featured a concentration run to the Principality starting from eight European cities and was run in mild conditions. Porsche, Ford Alpine Renault and Lancia all entered significant works teams expected to challenge for top honours. British press interest in the, once, prestigious event was so low that Motor Sport correspondent GP, Geraint “Gerry” Phillips, opined, in March 1970, that what the Monte Carlo Rally needed to reengage Fleet Street was “… a bunch of hippies to entrench themselves on the Turini (rally stage) and spray the spectators with LSD.” !

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

Having won on the dry Monte Carlo Waldegård and Lars Helmer proved the versatility of the 911 by winning the Swedish Rally run on snow by 23 mins, after having a clutch replaced that required the engine to be removed in a freezing lay-by.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

The second 911S model introduced in 1969 features a 2 1/4″ longer wheel base than the original, to improve the handling, though there was no increase in the overall length of the car.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

The motor for the 911S was increased in size from 2 litres / 122 cui to 2.3 litres / 134 cui and with fuel injection this competition car produced 230hp, 50 more than the fuel injected road going version of the 911S.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

Swede Bjorn Waldergård was a front line rally driver from 1962 to 1992, the World Rally Championship (WRC) started in 1973 and he won 16 of the 95 WRC events in which he started. His wins included the three toughest events on the WRC Circuit, the Safari, Acroplolis and RAC rallies in 1977 when he was driving for Ford. In 1979 Bjorn won the World Rally Drivers Championship driving for the works Ford and Mercedes Benz rally teams. Winning the Safari Rally for the third time in 1990, with Fred Gallagher, driving a Toyota Bjorn became the oldest person to ever win a World Championship Rally a record he holds to this day.

Porsche 911S, Goodwood, Festival of Speed

In his report on the road going Porsche 911S for Motor Sport in February 1970 Dennis ‘DSJ’ Jenkinson observed that a 911 cost twice as much as the 4.2 E-Type Jaguar he bought in 1966, to replace his Porsche 356, and that by 1970 the 911S had risen in price to become half the cost of a Lamborghini Miura, he concluded “It is all a question of keeping a sense of proportion.”

Thanks for joining me on this “Monte Hat-trick” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a slightly more outrageously flared Porsche 911. Don’t forget to come back now !

Baroque Tooth Racer – Chevrolet Corvette C1 #008

Balena Close, Poole, Dorset – Penske PC1 #001

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After he had finished fabricating the Len Terry designed Eagle monocoques for All American Racers (AAR) in California, John Lambert returned to the Untied Kingdom and started a new business which was located on a small industrial estate outside Poole in Dorset where the rent was cheap. When Len Terry fell out with Frank Nichols they wound up Transatlantic Automotive Consultants based in Hastings where they had designed the AAR Eagle and Terry went to join Lambert, with whom he had worked at Lotus and AAR, in Poole starting a new business together called Design Auto.

In 1969 Len Terry started to design a series of stock block Formula 5000 open wheel cars called Leda’s, John Lambert looked after the construction of them in a facility off Balena Close on the Creekmore Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Poole, Dorset. When Leda Cars ran into financial difficulty they merged into the Malaya Garage Group in 1970. Three years later Malaya Garage Group did a deal with New Zealand racer Graham McRae selling the Leda Cars premises “lock, stock and barrel” with the cars manufactured now rebranded as McRae’s.

At around this time Roger “The Captain” Penske and Mark “Captain Nice” Donohue were experiencing many successes on the US racing scene which included three Trans Am championships, then only for manufacturers, driving the Captains Chevrolet Camaro in 1969 and AMC Javelins in 1970 and ’71.

In 1972 Mark won the Indy 500 in Roger Penske’s McLaren M16 and at the end of the year drove Penske’s McLaren M19 in the Canadian and US Grand Prix finishing a more than credible 3rd in his debut Grand Prix. The following year Mark and Roger won the Can Am championship with the “Turbo Panzer” Porsche 917/30. Having achieved pretty much everything in the US, including a NASCAR Winston Cup win at Riverside driving a Penske AMC Matador to become the last ‘road ringer’ to win a non oval race in that series back in 1973 Mark announced he would hang up his helmet at the end of the season.

Roger Penske made plans for a Formula One team in 1974 and sent Heinz Hofer to look at Graham McRae’s ‘low profile’ premises on the Creekmore Industrial Estate in Poole, Dorset UK as a possible base and concluded a deal for the premises. The Ford Cosworth DFV powered Penske PC1 was built to a design by Geoff Ferris and Mark Donohue was persuaded to come out of retirement to drive the car on it’s debut in the 1974 Canadian Grand Prix where he qualified 24th and finished 12th 2 laps down.

At the US Grand Prix, where Mark Donohue and Roger Penske fan, Brian Brown took today’s photograph of Mark in the PC1 at Watkins Glen the car started 14th on the grid, but retired after 27 laps with rear suspension problems. Brian recalls his first visit to a Grand Prix thus :-

“I was of course very excited to be seeing Mark race again, but being that it was my first live Formula One event, I was equally excited to be seeing Mario’s effort with Vel’s Parnelli Jones and the rest of the grid in person. We owned a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona and a 246 GT Dino at the time, so were very supportive of the Ferrari effort too.

My brother, friends and I spent a great deal of down time in the Kendall Garage watching the teams go about their business of working on the cars. One thing that was apparent was the absolutely professional presentation of the Penske team. Everything was spotless, just like their successful Indy Car counterpart that I’d observed in person since 1969 at Indianapolis. I was then, as now, a huge fan of Mark Donohue and Team Penske, but that aside, I always felt that they had too many positive resources not to be successful in Formula One.

I knew racing well enough to understand how tall the task Mark and the Penske team had ahead of them, but I also had the highest faith in their collective talents that I felt, given time, they would come right. I look back now and remember how I’d call in to our local ABC news tv affiliate to get the results of the races in 1975, always asking about the top six finishers along with Mark and Mario’s results.

Then came Austria and it was over for Mark and eventually Penske stopped the project – I was always appreciative that they carried on to get the victory with John Watson in Austria a year after Mark’s accident, something of a vindication for the mighty challenges that Team Penske faced in their Formula One foray. Watkins Glen 1974 was the last I ever saw Mark in person and despite the nearly 40 years that have passed, it seems like yesterday.”

Penske ended up building 3 chassis to the PC1 design chassis #001 seen here achieved a best 5th place finish, from 16th on the grid in the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix. Three races later Penske ditched the PC1 in favour of a March 751 which was raced until a new challenger until the new Penske PC3 was ready. As Brian alluded to above Mark Donohue was killed during practice for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix after a tyre deflated pitching him off the track in to an accident which killed a marshal. Although Mark initially survived the incident he died the next day from a cerebral hemorrhage.

The debut of the Penske PC3 was delayed until the 1975 US Grand Prix where John Watson drove it in practice. Due to a misfire with the motor in the new car the team elected to wheel out today’s featured chassis one more time, John qualified 12th, finishing the race in 9th.

The following season Penske entered John in the PC3 and later PC4 models. With the latter the team won the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix, despite this success The Captain closed the Formula One program down at the end of 1976, deciding his future lay in the US racing seen where he would become the dominant force in Indy Car racing, with many of his winning cars being built in Poole, Dorset. Penske maintained facilities in Poole Dorset up until 2006. When the factory was closed one employee, Ivor, remained who had been part of the story going back to the Leda days, through the McRae years and into the Penske era.

In 2012 Brad Keslowski won his first NASCAR Championship driving a Penske entered Dodge a hitherto elusive goal on ‘The Captains’ to do list.

My thanks to Brian ‘ B² ‘ Brown for kindly agreeing to share his photograph; to kayemod, Nigel Beresford, Tim Murray, Tony Matthews, Dogearred and Doug Nye at The Nostalgia Forum for their help in piecing together the story behind Roger Penske’s presence in Poole, Dorset and a tenuous connection in the form of Lambert & Terry and their Leda Cars premises between the AAR Eagle and Penske Formula One efforts.

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

PS Shortly before this blog was posted some confusion has come to light about which buildings in Poole Penske and McRae occupied and when, local resident kayemod and Nigel Beresford who worked for Penske have confirmed that Penske took over the Balena premises from McRae, while artist Tony Matthews is sure he visited a second facility a couple of miles away on Factory Road to do cutaway drawings for McRae and Penske is not so sure the Balena Close address is correct. If any further developments come forth I shall post them below, and if you know the answer to the riddle please do not hesitate to chime in.

PPS Nigel Beresford has kindly confirmed with another former Penske employee Nick Goozée that the Balena Close facility is the only one Penske purchased from Graham McRae. My thanks to Nigel and Nick for settling the matter so promptly.

PPPS

Kayemod Rob from the Nostalgia Forum has kindly sent me this photo showing “how that corner of Balena Close looks today, the small unit to the right is the original Penske UK base, formerly McRae Cars. The three parked cars more or less cover the width of the premises. The ‘Elegance’ unit to the left of Penske was once FKS Fibreglass, later Griffin Design. My ex-Specialised Mouldings chum stylist Jim Clark worked at FKS, and as well as Penske’s stuff, they also did almost everything for the Gulf GT40s and Mirages among others, their unit extended leftwards to fill the corner of the block. Penske later rented an identical unit to the right of the pic, which doubled their floor area, after some of the dividing wall was removed, they used to run their F1 operation out of that.”

Thanks Rob.

Baby Hemi – Peugeot EX4/L3

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May used to be the month where US open wheel racing was centered entirely on the story coming out of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this month the iZod Indy Car Series breaks with tradition and will also be visiting Sao Paolo on May 6th, however GALPOT will be dedicating the next 5 Americana Thursday Posts to The Greatest Spectacle in Racing in years long gone by thanks to Geoffrey Horton who over the last two years has sent me numerous photo’s of Indy Cars from the Concours d’Elegance scene in California.

Peugeot EX4/L3, Palo Alto, 2011

This months five part potted history of the Indy 500 returns to 1914 when, as I found out two years ago, rookie René Thomas went to victory lane driving Delage Y, I forgot to mention René was accompanied by riding mechanic Robert Laly.

Today’s featured car the #14 Peugeot EX4/L3 was also entered in the 4th running of the Indy 500 for another rookie called Arthur Duray and US riding mechanician Henry Mattheys by Jacques Menier a member of the French Menier Chocolatier dynasty.

Peugeot EX4/L3, Palo Alto, 2011

In 1914 qualification for the 500 was slightly different procedure from what we are familiar with today, in the first two editions of the Indy 500 qualification was by date the entries were received providing a minimum speed had been achieved over a measure mile of the circuit in 1911 and a full flying lap in 1912. For 1913 and 14 with the arrival of foreign competitors a qualifying lap with a minimum speed was compulsory but the grid positions were determined by blind draw.

Peugeot EX/4 L3, Palo Alto, 2011

The Peugeot EX4/L3 that Jaques Menier bought featured an ‘L3’ 4 cylinder 3 litre / 183 cui version of the giant killing 7.6 litre / 463.78 L76 Motor that had successfully seen off the 15 litre / 915 cui FIAT’s in the 1912 French Grand Prix. Having proved with success the benefits of technical innovations that included twin gear driven overhead cams operating 4 valves per cylinder, which also featured the original hemi heads, designer Ernst Henry, aided by his driver engineers collectively known as “Les Charlatans”, proceeded to produce three further evolutions of of the motor with sizes of 5.6 litre / 341 cui, as used by Georges Boillot and riding mechanic Prévost to win their second consecutive French Grand Prix in 1913, 4.5 litre / 274 cui and the smallest of the family 3 litre / 183 cui L3 seen here.

For those interested in the minutiae of veteran era production methods there is a fascinating story regarding this particular motor whose block was found to have inconsistent longitudinal bore center lines on this thread on The Nostalgia Forum led by distinguished historian Doug Nye linked here.

Peugeot EX4/L3, Palo Alto, 2011

Alongside the winning two car Delage team Arthur Duray faced two EX3/L56 powered Peugeots of Georges Boillot with a riding mechaninc M. Brevot who ‘might’ have been Boillot’s regular mechanic Prévost with 1913 rookie winners Jules Goux partnered by Emil Begin. Boillot set the fastest time in practice of 99.860 mph but the draw by ballot for grid slots saw Jean Chassagne’s Sunbeam start from pole.

Peugeot EX4/L3, Palo Alto, 2011

Boillot was in a comfortable position to win the 1914 Indy 500 until repeated tyre failures led to a 14th place finish while Goux in the second large Peugeot finished 4th with Duray coming home second to the Delage of René Thomas.

Peugeot EX4/L3, Palo Alto, 2011

Arthur Duray who set three land speed records between 1903 and 1904 carried on racing until the 1930’s for manufacturers that included Hispano-Suiza, Ariès, B.N.C and Amilcar. At the 1921 French Grand Prix he was a spectator when running in second place Albert Guyot’s riding mechanic got hit on the head by a rock, Guyot pulled his Duesenberg up in the pits and it became apparent that his mechanic was too dazed to continue. On seeing this Arthur Duray is said to have vaulted the spectator fence pushed the mechanic aside cranked the Dusenbergs motor to life and jumped into the mechanics seat alongside Guyot who went on to record a sixth place finish.

The aforementioned Mr Nye has kindly informed me courtesy of Scott George at the Collier Collection, current owners of the vehicle, that “After its Indy days there is some suggestion it (today’s featured car) returned to France, plus a parallel suggestion that it stayed in the US. Sold to Harry Harkness who ran it a little in the north-eastern area, then sold to Kaufman, himself a New York Peugeot agent and team owner. The engine might have been “swapped out” of the chassis at some stage. Car then found at Benny Brandfon’s yard for old race cars and exotics in NY…”

Esteemed Indy historian Michael Ferner has expanded on what may have become of the car while in the care of Peugeot Dealer Alphonse Kaufman “The (#14) Meunier/Duray car, on the other hand, is a possible candidate for having served as the basis for the 1916 “Peusun Special”, apparently a Peugeot chassis with a Sunbeam engine and a Delage radiator!” If today’s featured EX4/L3 did form part of the Peusun Special this may tie up with Doug’s suggestion that the engine “might have been ‘swapped out’.”

Michael suggests James O’Keefes forthcoming book ‘Peugeot Racing In America (pre-WW II)’ should be a worthwhile read on the subject.

Harry Miller who had maintained and rebuilt a Peugeot L series motor copied the basic twin over head cam 4 valves per cylinder hemi head architecture for his own Miller motors that would come to dominate the Indy 500 in the 1920’s and 1930’s which would in turn be succeeded by “Offy” engines that former Miller employee Fred Offenhauser developed having bought the rights to the Miller motors when Miller went bust. The Offenhausers would remain competitive in ultimate turbocharged form at Indy until the mid 1970’s.

Of the 900 odd blogs I have posted to date this has without question proved one of the more challenging and I hope I have given an accurate summary of our knowledge of the car to date, my thanks to Doug Nye, Michael Ferner and Tim Murray, at The Nostalgia Forum and Scott George at the Collier Collection for their contributions to my understanding of the fascinating history of today’s featured Peugeot EX4/L3. Finally thanks to Geoffrey Horton without whose photographs their would have been no Peugeot EX4/L3 to blog about.

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

03/05/13 PS Geoffrey has informed me the electrical equipment attached to the front axle was a sensor connected to a computer seen in the cockpit by students of the Revs Programme at Stanford University to examine the Peugeot’s dynamics in motion.

Testing The Beat – McLaren F1 GTR #10R

Murray’s Triangular Monocoque – Brabham Cosworth BT42 #BT42/6

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After winning three World Drivers Championships two with Cooper in 1959 and 1960 and one with his own Brabham Team in 1966 Jack Brabham decided he was going to sell up and retire at the end of 1969. He got as far as selling the team to his partner the Australian designer/engineer Ron Tauranac in 1969 but after Jochen Rindt elected to stay with the Lotus team for 1970 Jack Brabham drove for the team in 1970 before hanging up his helmet with his team placed 4th in the constructors championship.