Tag Archives: Paul

Direct Injection Of Kudos – Mercedes Benz 300 SL

In 1952 the underpowered 115 hp carburettor 3 litre / 183cui Sport Leicht Mercedes Benz W194 demonstrated remarkable versatility by winning the Le Mans 24 hours, the Eifelrennen sports car race at the Nurburgring and the Carrera Panamerica in Mexico racing against more powerful opposition from Ferrari and Jaguar.

These successes lay in the lightweight tubular steel chassis and a low drag body which was facilitated by canting the straight six cylinder motor at a 50 degree angle.

New York Mercedes distributor Max Hoffman suggested a road going version of the W194 would make a viable commercial impact in the United States and so the 300 SL was launched in 1954 with a the worlds first mechanical direct injection petrol engine which produced 175 hp.

In order to accommodate the high sided tubular steel chassis, designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut, distinctive aluminium gull wings were used in conjunction with a tilt away steering column to facilitate access.

The spare tyre fills the boot / trunk space entirely meaning one had to travel light in the 300SL as demonstrated by the suitcase on the parcel shelf.

The 300SL was not without problems derived from it’s racing heritage the large volume oil system rarely got up to proper operating temperature on shorter journeys and in turn the oil would get diluted by the mechanical fuel injection by unburned petrol that remained in the cylinders when the engine was switched off. This meant that the 300 SL needed an oil change every 1000 miles.

But for all of it’s problems the aerodynamic shape of the 300 SL meant that with a 160 mph capability it was easily the fastest road car of it’s day when it was launched. 80% of the nearly 1400 units built went to the USA changing the image of Mercedes Benz from staid to sporty overnight forever.

For a look at a contemporary interpretation of the 300 SL checkout Dave Wolin’s wild Chevrolet powered 300 SL I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.

If your interested in the pre war silver arrows racing vehicles I strongly recommend a visit to Paul Chenard’s Automobiliart website and check out his ‘Silver Clouds‘ illustrated book of the 1934 Grand Prix season.

Thanks for joining me on this Direct Injection edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Trading Places – 1960 Watson Roadsters

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Thanks to Ed Arnadin‘s photos today we will be continuing our 100th anniversary of the first running of the Indianapolis 500 by having a behind the scenes look at Indianapolis in 1960.

Watson, Indy 1960

Our story begins with an invitation from a mutual friend of Ed Arnaudin and the Indy car owner Jim Robbins to visit the garage of the #97 Jim Robbins Special, where a Watson Roadster powered by an upright 4178 cc / 255 cui twin overhead cam Offenhauser is being prepared.

AJ Watson shares the record for building the most cars that won the ‘Indy 500’s’, seven, with Roger S Penske. Watson built his first car ‘City of Glendale’ in 1950, Dick Rathmann qualified 18th on the grid driving the ‘City of Glendale and retired from the race with a stalled motor after 25 laps. After working on aircraft assembly lines for Lockheed Watson was hired as Chief Mechanic by John Zink in 1954.

Watson modified Zinks Kurtis KK500C roadster and Bob Swiekert duly won the 1955 Indy 500 with it, in 1956 AJ built the first of 23 Watson Roadsters for John Zink, these iconic vehicles were to win a further six Indy 500’s in 9 years.

The Watson chassis was narrower than the Kurtis, featured extensive use of 4130 chromoly tubing in place of the steel used by Kurtis, innovative use of magnesium in the drive line and body panels saved further weight. The Offenhauser engine was mounted upright on the left side of the chassis to increase weight bias on the corners of the car closest to the inside of the track rather than tilting the engine at 36 degrees as Kurtis had done and later Eperly / Salih would do with engines 18 degrees off horizontal.

With a 220 lb weight saving the 1,640 lb Watson Roadster design remained fundamentally unchanged from 1956 until 1963, AJ Foyt drove a Watson into Victory Lane at Indianapolis for the last time in 1964.

The car, seen being worked on above was one of three entered in the race owned by Safety Belt manufacturer Jim Robbin’s, the #97 was driven by the man who first put a Watson on the grid of the Indy 500 in ’53, Dick Rathmann. In 1960 Dick qualified for fourth spot on the grid and retired from the race in 31st place after 42 laps with defective brakes.

Dick Rathmann had a varied career spanning 1949 – 1964 encompassing the AAA Championship, NASCAR (13 wins, all in Hudsons, from 128 starts) and latterly the USAC Championship. He started from the Indy pole in 1958 but was collected in an accident on the opening lap by fellow front row starter Ed Elisan, the ensuing 15 car pile up cost Pat O’Conner his life.

As a result of that fatal accident Dick Rathmann became the first man to start from pole not to complete a lap of the race, a stat that has since been emulated by Roberto Guerrero and Scott Sharp. Rathmann’s best Indy 500 finish was 4th in 1956.

Now this story enters the racing twighlight zone, ever since races were organised teams and drivers have made it there business to pull the wool over organisers eye’s. ‘Dick’ Rathmann was actually born James. James had a brother, younger by four years, called Richard and when underage Richard wanted to go racing in 1946 James and Richard simply swapped names, James became ‘Dick’ and Richard became ‘Jim’ a change that ended up sticking for life.

Indy 500, 1960

In 1960 Jim Rathmann was the driver of the #4 Ken Paul Special a Watson Offenhauser Roadster MK2, Jim qualified 2nd and can be seen in the blue car in the middle of the front row as the cars cross the 100 yards of bricks at the start of the 1960 Indy 500 above, his brother ‘Dick’ in the #97 is on the inside of the second row.

Rathman and Sachs, Indy 500, 1960

Jim seen here battling with Eddie Sachs went on to win the 1960 Indy 500, a race memorable because the lead changed a record 29 times. Last year (2010) Jim became the sixth Indy 500 winner to celebrate their 50th Anniversary of the Indy 500 win, Ray Harroun, Jules Goux, Rene Thomas, Peter DePaolo and Louis Meyer were the others.

Three time Indy winner Johnny Rutherford presented Jim with a trophy to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his win, Rutherford who was present at Indy as a spectator for the first time in 1960 remembered the race thus ” We had seats in the North grandstands of the infield on the backstretch. The duel between Jim and Rodger [Ward winner of the 1959 Indy 500] was one for the record books. Little did we know that some 50 years later [the 29 lead changes] would still be an Indy 500 record.”

Jim said of the 1960 Indy 500 “That was a great duel with Rodger. Ward was one of the toughest drivers out there and beating him meant a lot to me, and winning the Indy 500 changed my entire life. Winning the ‘500’ was and still is the all-time highlight of my racing career. To win that day, in that race against Ward means so much to me.”

Slightly off topic after retirement Jim became a Cadillac dealer in Melbourne, Florida and is credited with convincing GM president Ed Cole that GM should set up a deal to supply his friends the astronauts on the NASA space programmes with a pair of new cars each year.

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin for the scans of his Dad’s slides, to B² and Indycar Nation for additional information.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s 1960 edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first running of the Indianapolis 500. Don’t forget to come back now !

Austin Healey Sebring Sprite

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The Austin Healey ‘Sebring’ Sprite name refers to any Austin Healey Sprite with front disc brakes and more recently to any Sprite with Coupé or Fastback bodywork.

Following a change in the sports car regulations in 1960 which allowed special bodies, rally and racing driver John Sprinzel commissioned Williams & Pritchard to build 6 aluminium bodied Sprites with coupé bodywork between Dec 1960 and May 1961.

This 1960 vehicle purchased new by Cyril Simson started life as a standard Austin Healey Sprite registered YLN13, Cyril changed the registration to S221 and raced it as part of Team 221 with two other sprites H221 and X221.

Paul Hawkins drove it to victory at Aintree and S221 was part of the Sprinzel Sprite Team that took team honours at the Nurburgring.

Originally powered by a 43 hp 948 cc / 57 cui motor this particular unit, prepared by Janspeed, was shown to be delivering over 85 hp at the recent Race Retro exhibition.

For 1961 the car was prepared by John Sprizel and it was one of the six Sprinzel cars sent to Williams & Pritchard to be fitted with a aluminium coupé body.

The car was then driven in practice by Stirling Moss for the Sebring 4 hours who promptly stripped the clutch and transferred to another team car after repairs were made Pat Moss & Paul Hawkins drove S221 in the four hour race. S221 was then prepared again overnight for Cyril and Paul Hawkins to drive in the Sebring 12 Hours where they came in 37th.

In August 1961 S221 was sold to Peter Clark and it was reregistered and rolled at the Karrussel on the Nurburgring. The car was repaired and an extended fast back body was fitted by Peel Coach works.

The longest term owner of this vehicle Colin Pearcy had Len Pritchard make a new alloy rear end and coupé top and most recent owner Chris Clegg reunited the car with its S221 registration and has driven it competitively for several years with Archers Motors taking care of the race preparation.

My thanks to Janspeed who facilitated the photo’s of the engine and interior.

Hope you have enjoyed to days Sebring edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Double Bubble – FIAT Abarth 750 GT Zagato Coupé

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Continuing the series of posts relating to Race 1 at Thompson CT on the 20th July 1958 captured on camera by Ed Arnaudin, today we are looking at the fascinating FIAT Abarth 750 Zagato driven by Paul Sagan to 6th place overall the only class H finisher.

After the 22 hp FIAT 600 was launched in 1955 Carlo Abarth set about maximising the potential of tuning the engine by increasing the size from 633 / 38.6 cui to 747 / 45.6 cui fitting a Nardi inlet manifold and increasing the compression ratio to produce 47 hp.

Meanwhile while Zagato set about building a Coupé based on the same car the 30 hp 600 TS, when Abarth saw the coupe he suggested to Zagato they work together to produce a vehicle for racing in the popular 750 cc 45.6 cui sports car class prevalent in national and international racing at the time.

Over 600 of these successful racing vehicles which won the SCCA class H in ’59 ’60 and ’61, are thought to have been built between 1956 and 1960 when the maximum permitted engine sizes for the various national racing classes were changed. The ‘double bubble’ name which is derived from the two humps in the roof stuck in America where a chewing gum brand bearing the same name was popular.

Paul Sagan is known to have been successful driving Porsche 550’s in 1956 and 1957 before he moved over to running the #27 FIAT Abarth 750 during and after which his record is sketchy though he seems to have returned to racing Porsches by 1961.

My thanks to Terry O’Neil for the race results and Steve Arnaudin for his Dad Ed’s pictures, wishing Ed all the best on his return home from hospital.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s double bubble edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at the cool 2nd place Lotus IX of Race 1 at Thompson CT on the 20 July 1958. Don’t forget to come back know !

Under Austrian Influence – Aston Martin DB3S

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Under Austrian Influence – Aston Martin DB3S #118

Its a great thrill to return to Ed Arnaudin’s photo’s from 20th July 1958 at Thompson CT thanks to his son Steve.

Today’s vehicle is a thoroughly British Aston Martin DB3S, a lightweight version of the DB3 originally designed by Austrian Robert Eberan von Eberhorst, a pioneer in vehicle dynamics who’s CV includes the design of the Auto Union D-type Silver Arrow, the Porsche project 356, which later became the Porsche 356 like the cabriolet in the background above, and the Jowett Jupiter while working for English Racing Automobiles. The DB3S was powered by a 163 horse power 2922 cc / 182 cui twin over head cam straight 6 fitted with three twin choke carburettors.

The vehicle seen here was driven into 7th place in the 7th race of the day at Thompson CT by Paul Hyatt who was doing double duty having finished last in race 6 driving his DB2-4.

I’d like to thank Ed Arnaudin for his wonderful photographs, Steve Arnaudin for sharing them with us and Terry O’Neil’s Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950-1959 for the stats.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Aston Martin edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho’ on tyres’ and that you’ll join me tomorrow for a closer look at a vehicle of the same type as the black one seen in the back ground of the photo above. Don’t forget to come back now !

Edit

Thanks to Vince H the DB3S photographed by Ed has been identified as chassis #118 which can be seen being driven here by Chris Salyer at Laguna Seca in 2007.

Keep turning right – 2010 Somerset Grand Prix

Maserati 250 F

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I apologise to all my Rowdy friends who will have seen this car before on rowdy.com but I have expanded on that original post in this blog in honour of Canadian artist Paul Chenard who very kindly helped me out with another project I am working on. If you like drawings and paintings of old racing cars you’ll love his gallery linked here.

The 250 F was first raced in 1954 by 1951 world drivers champion Juan Manuel Fangio who took a maiden outing win in Argentina and then won again, having missed the 1954 Indy 500, at the following race in Belgium.

Juan then went on to become Champion in 1954 driving for Mercedes Benz for the rest of the season. With Mercedes at the height of their power in 1955, Maserati were locked out of the top spot in Formula One but in 1956 the 250 F was again driven to two victories by Fangio’s former Mercedes team mate Stirling Moss.

Having been crowned world champion from 1955 – 56 the now four time world champion Fangio returned to Maserati for 1957 and promptly won four of the eight championship races to set a four peat world championship record that stood until 2003.

In that 1957 season Fangio drove one of the races of all time during the German GP, having failed to out fox the Ferrari team after a disastrous pit stop, Juan Manuel set 7 consecutive lap records on the 14 mile Nurburgring Nordschleife making up over 48 seconds before taking the lead from the Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari with a lap to spare and record the 250 F’s 8th and final Formula One Championship victory.

Fittingly JMF drove his last ever race in a 250F at the 1958 French GP coming 4th, winner Mike Hawthorn sportingly refraining from lapping him on the final lap.

The 250 F continued to appear ever more uncompetitively until 1960.

This 1957 250F is the last of the 26 built. Complete with a six cylinder 240 hp engine.
This car is differentiated from most by a short wheelbase Piccolo chassis.
The 250 F is recorded as being the most forgiving of the 2.5 litre (152.5 CUI) F1 cars by Willy Green who has driven every type of 2.5 litre F1 car competitively in historic races.

Hope you enjoyed today’s post and will join me again tomorrow.

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring