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Championship Dinger UnStuck – Brands Hatch 1000 Kilometers

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Thirty years ago this weekend give or take a day or two I found myself at Brands Hatch for the 1000 kms race, only the second Group C race I had seen, thanks mostly to the fact that my mate Sven was racing his Ford Capri in the supporting Uniroyal Production Saloon car race.

Jaguar XJ6, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

My pit pass from the support race got me into the pits prior to the start of the main event and I wasted no time taking pics of the leading runners from Lancia, Porsche and Jaguar who had locked out the first three rows of the grid in Noah’s Ark fashion during qualifying, above is the Tony Southgate designed Jaguar XJ6 driven by recent Formula One returnee Alan Jones who joined TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) regular Jean-Louis Schlesser in the leading TWR entry that qualified 5th, but retired from the event early with engine damage after the throttle jammed open.

Porsche 962C, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass qualified 4th on the grid in the #1 Porsche 962C seen above and finished second in the race experiencing only one problem, a faster than mandated refueling stop, which the team corrected by holding the car in the pits for an additional 10 seconds on the cars final fuel stop.

Lancia LC2 85, Wollek, de Cesaris, Baldi, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

The Lancia LC2’s with 800 hp qualifying motors, against Porsches 720 hp qualifying spec, locked out the front row with the #4 driven by Ricardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini on pole, but in the final hour when the Lancia’s were running 3rd and 4th team mate Andrea de Cesaris ran into the pack of Patrese’s car damaging the exhaust on the #4 forcing a quick stop for repairs to secure it again which left the #5 Lancia Andrea shared with Brilliant Bob Wollek and Mauro Baldi to claim 3rd one lap down on the leading Porsches.

Gebhardt JC843, Adams, Taylor, Harrower, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

One car I had been particularly looking forward to seeing in the flesh was the super slippery Group C2 #75 Gebhardt JC843 seen above driven by Nick Adams, Ian Taylor and Ian Harrower, on this occasion the 3.3 litre / 201 cui Cosworth DFL car finished tenth, 46 laps behind the winning Porsche, from 15th on the grid.

Ecosse C285, Wilds, Mallock, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

Winners of the Group C2 class were Ray Mallock and Mike Wilds in the Ecurie Ecosse #79 Ecosse C285 which was similarly Cosworth DFL powered, starting from 14 on the grid Ray and Mike came home 6th, 19 laps behind the winning C1 car, but crucially 11 laps ahead of the C2 turbocharged Carma powered Alba AR6 driven by Martino Finotto, Almo Coppelli and Carlo Facetti.

Porsche 962C, Derek Bell, Brands Hatch 1000 kms

Starting from third on the grid thanks to the efforts of Hans Stuck was the #2 Porsche 962C he shared with local boy “Dinger” Derek Bell who crossed the line less the 12 seconds ahead of the #1 Porsche and in the process Hans and Derek more or less secured their first World Endurance Drivers Championship, this would become Derek’s first drivers championship ever in over 18 years as a professional.

My belated thanks to Sven who got me into see the show.

Thanks for joining me on this “Championship Dinger Unstuck” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be locking at a Formula One Toleman that nearly never ran for the want of a tyre contract. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Musical Spares – Porsche 962C #006

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The Porsche 962 was built in two specs, the original was the 1984 IMSA GTP spec which was a variation of the dominant Group C Porsche 956 sports car first seen in 1982. The 962 differed in two important aspects from it’s Group C cousin. First the 962 had a longer wheel base so that the drivers feet were behind the center line of the front axle and second IMSA mandated a single turbo while the Group C 956 ran more powerful twin turbo’s.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

For 1986 the FIA mandated that Group C cars should follow the lead set by IMSA and have the drivers feet behind the the center line of the front axle line while making no changes to the engine regulations so the more powerful Porsche 962C came into being sweeping all before it much as the 956 and 956B had done. Derek Bell became the first driver to successfully defend his World Sports Car Drivers Championship won driving a 956B in ’85 and 962C in ’86. In 1986 Derek also won the Le Mans 24 hours for the forth time sharing his 962C with Hans Joachim Stuck and Al Holbert, Derek was also awarded the MBE for services to motorsport, a Royal honour which even Porsche AG noted on the door of Dereks #17 car as seen above at Le Mans in 1987.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

Going into Le Mans 1987 Derek Bell and Al Holbert were on a roll of three consecutive 24 hour race wins going back to Daytona ’86 where they shared an IMSA GTP 962 with Al Unser Jr. As mentioned above Bell and Holbert followed that up at Le Mans winning with Hans Stuck and made it a three peat of 24 hour victories at Daytona sharing Holberts Löwenbrau Porsche 962 with Unser Jr and Chip Robinson. Only a complete idiot would have bet against Bell, Stuck and Holbert claiming victory at Le Mans in 1987. The #17 chassis #006 seen in the rain above qualified 2nd on the grid by Hans Stuck next to the #18 chassis #008 which Bob Wollek qualified on pole.

Derek Bell, Hans Joachim Stuck, Le Mans, France

But the fourpeat of consecutive 24 hour victories very nearly did not happen, things started to go wrong for the works Porsche team a week before the race when Hans Stuck tested all the Le Mans cars at Porsche’s Weisach test facility. Stuck experienced a puncture while driving the car designated for his team mates Jochen Mass and Brilliant Bob Wollek. As a consequence Mass and Wollek were given the car designated as the race car for Stuck, Bell and Holbert chassis #008 while the ’86 winning trio took over the car designated for Vern Schuppan, Kees Nierop and Price Cobb chassis #006, today’s featured car, and the Schuppan, Nierop, Cobb combination were given the older chassis #002 which had been designated as a spare. Bell and Stuck are seen above returning from the new chicane an hour before the start of the race.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

The next problem for the Porsche team occurred in practice when Price Cobb had an accident which wrote chassis #002 off during the first day of practice so that there were now only two works entered cars to challenge for the win, but as designer Norbert Singer observed ‘only one of them can win’. Schuppan, Nierop and Cobb all found rides in other cars.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

An hour into the 1987 race it looked as if Jaguar who were at least 3 seconds slower than the lead Porsche in practice might pull off a remarkable win as they held first third and fifth. The Porsche cars were falling like a chain of domino’s with engine failures, something in the fuel was causing the latest in Bosch (ECU) electronic management systems to run the Porsche engines much too lean which resulted in engine failures for the pole sitting works car; 2 Joest Porsche 962C’s and a Kremer 962C.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

Fortunately the #17 had managed to get into the pits to change to an older ECU before any permanent damage was done and 2nd placed Bell, Stuck and Holbert proceeded to pursue the lead Jaguar at break neck speed until midnight when it took the lead for the final time as the four 7 litre / 427 cui V12 Jaguar XJR 8LM’s started to fall by the wayside with a puncture, an accident, a cracked cylinder head and a missed gear change respectively.

Porsche 962C, Le Mans, France

The punctured #5 Jaguar driven by Win Percy had required an 80 minuet safety car period to clear up the debris in the dead of night as the Jaguar had been pitched at 200 mph into the barriers of the Mulasanne straight ripping off the gearbox and engine, Win Percy unlike his helmet was completely unscratched. The relentless pace at which the #17 Porsche had been chasing the Jaguars meant that Bell, Stuck and Holbert were way over their fuel allowance as the safety car period started but right back on schedule once the mess created by the Jaguar had been cleaned up.

By the end of the race Bell, Stuck and Holbert were 20 laps to the good; from the private Primagaz Competition 962C of Juergen Lässig, Pierre Yver and Bernard de Dryver; as they recorded their fifth, second and third Le Mans wins respectively, their second consecutively as a winning Le Mans trio and Bell and Holberts 4th consecutive 24 Hour race win. Porsche also recorded their seventh consecutive Le Mans win in 1987.

The following year things would not be so easy as Jaguar, who won the 1987 World Sports Car Championship and who’s driver Raul Bosel won the 1987 World Sports Car Drivers Championship took the fight even more convincingly to Porsche at Le Mans.

Chassis #006 was driven at Spa in 1986 by Jochen Mass and Bob Wollek on it’s debut where it was qualified third and finished 7th it’s only other race start was at Fuji where Holbert and Pescarolo started from 12th and retired with transmission problems. Prior to the Le Mans 24 hours #006 had primarily been used as a spare car at Jarama, Jerez, Monza and Silverstone in 1987. #006 was driven by Bob Wollek and Canadian Kees Nierop for the ’87 Le Mans test weekend where carrying the #17 it recorded the 2nd fastest time. After the 24 hour win in ’87 #006 returned to Le Mans in 1988 as a spare that was briefly used by Micheal Andretti in practice before it was retired for good.

Thanks for joining me on this “Musical Spares” 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

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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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Bavarian Coupé – BMW 3.0 CS Automatic

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Soon after we got our first black and white TV in 1967 I remember seeing a Karmann built BMW 2000 CS on a report from a motor show, possibly Geneva, thinking that was one cool futuristic car, I must have been 8 at the time.

The next time I remember seeing a BMW Coupe was on the cover of one of the earliest copies of Motor Sport I bought in the summer of 1973, it was a white works CSL being yomped through the Eifel Forest on the Nurburgring by Hans Joachim Stuck Jr, the magazine must have been a sell out because the following year a near identical picture appeared on the cover Motor Sport from the 1974 6 hour race at the Nurburgring this time with Hans driving a black works CSL.

In 1968 the 2 litre Karmann built BMW Coupé’s evolved into the BMW 2800 CS based on the E9 platform, unfortunately ditching the very cool faired in headlights lights for the familiar US spec twin round headlights.

BMW was thought stand for British Motor Works in the USA around the time this car was built, BMW engaged in a works backed US Motorsports programme using the ‘Batmobile CSLs’ to correct that perception, to Bavarian Motor Works, in 1975.

In 1971 the E9 platform was fitted with a 3 litre / 183 cui 6 cylinder motor which when equipped with twin carburettors produced 180 hp.

This vehicle, according to the registration plates, was first registered in London around 1973/4.

I never did get what performance cars and automatics were all about, which is probably why I never became a auto marketing executive, but 30 plus years on an ‘automatic’ badge shows us the relative aspirations of the original owner and utilitarianism of the time when the car was manufactured.

There is something about vehicles designed around a simple horizontal midriff I find extremely alluring.

IMHO one of the few cars that looks as good in standard street form as in fully equipped racing form.

Like to thank every one who pops into ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’ at some point during the night this blog had it’s 10,000th page hit not exactly close to the 10 billion hits achieved by Apple Store but if you’d asked me if this was possible a year ago I would have wondered what on earth you were talking about, thanks again.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Bayerische Motoren Werke edition of ‘Gettin a lil psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday in the Bonham’s auction house for a look at a vehicle once owned by a dreamer who imagined all the people living in the world as one. Don’t forget to come back now !

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