Tag Archives: Pike

Friday At Goodwood – Ferrari

Leave a Reply

Welcome to another Ferrari Friday coming to you from last weeks Goodwood Festival of Speed where the Ferrari highlights included …

Ferrari 156R, Merzario, Goodwood Festival of Speed

… a Ferrari 156 replica driven by Art Merzario, which when it last appeared on these pages was painted yellow.

Ferrari 250LM, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Unlike the 250 LM, #6045, sold originally as a daily driver, which I looked at recently, this 250 LM, chassis # 5995, was raced first by a private entrant and then converted for road use later by the Ferrari factory who fitted the perspex engine cover seen above.

Ferrari 158, Surtees, Goodwood Festival of Speed

John Surtees had two 1964 Ferrari 158’s to play with at Goodwood to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of his World Championship victory. This car was built out of period from remaining parts and is painted in the colours of the North American Racing Team that John’s car wore at the 1964 US and Mexican Grand Prix, he finished both races in 2nd place.

Ferrari 275 GTB/C, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 275 GTB/C above was first entered into the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours by British importer Maranello Concessionaires and driven to an 8th place overall finish, first in class by Piers Courage and Roy Pike. It was subsequently bought and raced by Paul Vesty who is still the cars owner and drove it at Goodwood last Friday.

Ferrari 512S Coda Lunga, Meiners, Goodwood Festival of Speed

For the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours Ferrari had long (coda lunga) tails fitted to it’s 5 litre / 302 cui V12 512 S models. Franco Meiners is seen at the wheel of the 512S above, as also made familiar in the Le Mans film directed by Steve McQueen.

Ferrari 333SP, Pescatori, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Finally the Ferrari 333SP was launched for the 1994 season at the behest of privateer Giampiero Moretti. Of the 144 races in which at least one of these cars contested the model won 56. I believe this particular second generation chassis, driven above by Christian Pescatori, is the one used by Vincenzo Sospiri and Emmanuel Collard to secure the 1998 International Sports Racing Series.

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

Share

Do Not Lean On This Car – Ferrari 275 GTB/C #9079

Leave a Reply

In 1965 and 1966 Ferrari built a number of competition versions of the highly praised 275 GTB road car all using motors of the same type as found in the Ferrari 250 LM sports racer.

The last run of twelve competition 275’s known at the 275 GTB/C was built in 1966 and featuring aluminium bodies made of such a thin gauge it was reinforced with glass fiber, if you lean on this car you will almost certainly put a permanent dent in the body work.

Due to what appears to be a clerical error by someone at Ferrari the 275 GTB/C was mandated to run with only three carburetors, because someone at Maranello forgot to tell the FIA that a six carburetor option of the standard 275 GTB was available. This happened before the introduction of the 275 GTB/4 which featured six carburetors as standard.

Ferrari 275 GTB/C, Goodwood Revival

Even with this oversight a 275 GTB/C entered by Maranello Concessionaires and driven by Piers Courage and Roy Pike won its class at Le Mans in 1966 covering 310 laps and coming home 8th overall behind the three all conquering Ford GT40 Mk II’s and a fleet of four Porsche 906’s.

Today’s featured car chassis #9079 was the penultimate of the 12 GTB/C’s built in 1966 and it made it’s public debut at Le Mans in 1967 where it was entered for Swiss drivers Dieter Spoerry and Rico Steinemann by Scuderia Filipinetti. Dieter and Rico came in 11th and first in class covering 317 laps, 71 less than the overall winning Ford Mark IV.

Scuderia Filipinetti entered #9079 for Jaques Rey and Claude Haldi to drive at Le Mans in 1968 but the car retired after completing 78 laps as the consequence of an accident.

Ferrari 275 GTB/C, Goodwood Revival

The following year Jacques shared the car twice with Edgar Berney they came home 14th overall in the Spa 1000kms, 1st class. At Le Mans, where #9079 became the only 275GTB/C to start the race three times, the engine needed an oil top up after 39 laps which was against the regulations and so the car was disqualified.

By the end of 1969 #9079 went to the USA where it remained up until the 1980’s. In 1985 the fragile body, but not the tyres, melted in a workshop fire while in Los Angeles. By 1988 the car had been restored in Italy and sold on to Japan. Current owner Ross Warburton has owned this chassis since 2000.

Thanks for joining me on today’s “Do Not Lean On This Car” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at an brutally noisy Aston Martin. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Loud Engine Test Bed – Lotus 62

1 Reply

Today’s post comes courtesy of Jon Bawden and his Dad RJ Bawden who took this photograph of the Lotus 62 at the Bank Holiday Monday Guards International run at Brands Hatch in September 1969 when Jon was only 3 !

Lotus 62, BOAC 500, Brands Hatch

For 1969 Lotus produced two prototype racing cars, designed by Martin Waide, that were to replace the Lotus 47 and act as test beds for the 4 cylinder Vauxhall LV220 motors Lotus would develop into the Type 904 motors that would be used in the Lotus Elite, Eclat and Esprit road cars that Lotus introduced between 1974 and 1976.

While the outside shape of the 62 bears a passing resemblance to the Lotus 47 racing cars underneath the fiber glass body a space frame chassis replaced the back bone chassis of the Type 47.

The 220 hp 1992 cc / 121.5 cui Vauxhall LV 220 based motor was modified by Lotus and featured an alloy cylinder block and cylinder head, twin overhead camshafts and Tecalemit – Jackson fuel injection. By all accounts the Lotus 62 was amongst the noisiest motors in prototype racing despite it’s modest size.

John Miles and Brian Muir were the drivers of the car at the BOAC 500, during practice the handling problems became apparent but the car qualified 16th and came in 13th overall, 1st in class. The car was run with a an additional aerodynamic aid above the nose as a temporary remedy to the handling issues as can be seen in this linked photograph.

During the remainder of the season John Miles managed another class win with a fourth place finish in the Trophy of the Dunes held at Zandvoort in The Netherlands and an overall win in the Guards International for cars up to 2 litres / 122 cui.

American Roy Pyke deputising for an other wise indisposed Brian Muir drove the #105, as seen above, to third place behind his team mate in the Guards Trophy. Peter Darley at The Nostalgia Forum has identified those standing behind the Lotus 62 as, left to right, Nigel Bennett (Firestone), Gordon Huckle (Lotus), Mike Brett (Firestone), Bruce Hare (Firestone).

Roy deputising for John Miles won a minor Motoring News GT Championship race at Thruxton in October 1969.

The second of the Lotus 62’s ended up in Portugal where Enesto Neves drove it to at least three victories between 1971 and 1973, while the first one ended up with jazz trombonist Chris Barber’s team who had David Brodie drive it.

My thanks again to RJ and Jon Bawden for their kind permission to use their photograph.

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

Share

Hot V8 – Lotus 35 Martin #35/F/21

1 Reply

The Lotus 35 was built for the 1965 season to compete in the second and third tier Formula 2, Formula 3 and Antipodean Tasman series fitted with motors 1 litre / 61 cui to 2.5 litre / 152 cui. 22 of these cars were built and fitted with a variety of 4 cylinder motors, chassis #18 apparently was even fitted with a 4.7 litre / 289 cui V8 and driven to a Formula A class victory at Willow Springs by Vernon Shields in 1968.

Lotus 35 Martin, Oulton Park

In 1966 new Formula One regulations came into effect allowing engine sizes up to 3 litres / 183 cui doubling the capacity of the previous regulations which had been in effect since 1961. Few teams were prepared for the new reglulations many teams resorted to using interim 2 litre / 122 cui motors until larger units like the Ford Cosworth DFV became more widely available in 1968. Former MG engineer turned engine tuner Ted Martin who had built heads for Ford based Formula Junior motors and a series of three valve heads for Ford motors used in Saloon car racing designed an unusually compact lightweight all aluminium V8 dry sump competition motor for the new Formula One regulations while working for GM in Canada in the early 1960’s.

Lotus 35 Martin, Oulton Park

Upon returning to the UK, having built his engine, Ted Martin asked his customer racing car entrant Charles Lucas if he could fit his new 3 litre V8 motor into a slightly damaged Lotus 35, chassis number 35/F/19, similar to the one seen here at Oulton Park which belongs to Allan Rennie, that the Lucas team had been running in South America for Piers Courage.

Lotus 35 Martin, Oulton Park

Roy Pike first drove the Lotus Martin, also known as the Lucas Martin at the time, prepared by Roy Thomas in a Formula Libre race at Mallory Park on Boxing Day 1966 and recorded a 3rd place in what proved to be the cars only competitive event. After the 295 hp car had impressed Dan Gurney, by matching his Eagle for top speed at Goodwood, Piers Courage qualified the Lotus Martin 14th for the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in 1967 but a rocker bent while the engine was being warmed up before the race forcing a DNS.

Lotus 35 Martin, Oulton Park

A further test at Snetterton would be the cars last outing, after dusting Jackie Stewart driving an H16 powered BRM, Piers missed his breaking point and sent the car into the wall with the subsequent fire writing off the car. Piers Courage appears to have been unhurt in the incident but Charles Lucas called it a day and concentrated on building Titan racing cars from then on. Three more Martin V8 powered Formula Once cars were built by motor factor dealer AJ Pearce, during the week before their first event the unattended Pearce transporter burnt to the ground destroying two Pearce Martins, along with a Cooper Ferrari, before they ever turned a wheel in competition.

Lotus 35 Martin, Oulton Park

Allan Rennie started his recreation of the Lotus Martin after finding one of the V8’s under a dust sheet in a workshop in Horsham in 2003. The process of turning the motor into a runner involved spending a year getting a pair of cylinder heads up to scratch, preparing a new pair of cylinder blocks acquired from Ted Martins workshop, selecting the best four pairs of forked and blade rods from over 40 used ones, machining big end shells to match the rods, manufacturing a new set of pistons, the cylinder head volumes turned out to vary and to over come this each has a different thickness head gasket to balance the compression ratio, and machining new rocker shafts. Note the holes in the double skin chassis required for the removal of the spark plugs.

Lotus 35 Martin, Oulton Park

Two years after finding the motor Allan acquired the Lotus 35 chassis #35/F/21 and since 2003 Allan reckons he has spent over 5000 hours and enough money to buy a ready to go Ford Cosworth DFV powered Formula One racing car stripping everything down to the last rivet making all the necessary repairs using all of the usable original materials to put the engine and chassis back to together.

Allan’s five years of hard graft was rewarded with a debut win on 31st May 2009 in the Snetterton Guards Trophy meeting, despite ‘dire’ handling, possibly a result of a motor with 3 times the cui than originally intended, Allan found himself in the right place at the right time when the two leaders retired.

My thanks to Allan who’s Lotus 35 Martin website gives further first hand details and to Macca and everyone who posted information on The Nostalgia Forum Martin Engines thread.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Hot V8’ edition of ‘Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share