Tag Archives: World

Silent Running – Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Last Sunday I popped up to Silverstone for the 6 Hour race, the 4th round of the 8 race World Endurance Championship.

When I first visited Silverstone in 1978 the layout was still essentially an airfield perimeter track consisting of six straights joined by six fast corners with the main runway still in use on raceday’s. Since then the track configuration has changed several times, the runway is now long gone and there is a completely new infield section between the Club and Woodcote corners which was introduced last year.

When I arrived at the track I was heartend to find that endurance racing appeals to a younger audience who travelled from far and wide, though just as in 1978 in disappointingly small numbers.

Making it’s first appearance in the UK was the new for 2012 Toyota TS030 Hybrid which proved fast at the previous Le Mans 24 hours if ultimately unreliable, the car driven by Austrian Alexander Wurz, Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre and Japanese Kazuki Nakajima qualified 3rd behind the two Audi Sport Joest R18’s but after a dozen laps went into the lead, unfortunately it could not maintain it’s lead during the pit stops and so was always, entertainingly playing catch up to the Audi’s with their smaller, diesel filled, fuel tanks which proved ultimately more economical.

Further Japanese interest in the race was provided by Keiko Ihara who was sharing her second tier LMP2 #29 Gulf Racing Middle East entered Lola Nissan B12/80 Coupé with Fenchman Fabien Giroix and Swiss Jean-Denis Delatraz, they qualified a distant 22nd and finished an equally distant 18th overall and 11th in class.

Also running in the LMP2 class was former Grand Prix Driver, 1990 Le Mans winner and Sky Sports Formula One presenter Martin Brundle who joined his son Alex and Spaniard Lucas Ordonez in the #42 Zytek Nissan Z11SN. The #42 qualified a respectable 8th overall 1st in class but could only finish 12th overall 5th in class.

As well as the two LMP1 and LMP2 prototype classes additional classes catered for GT2 cars which are split into LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am divisions. Amateurs Christian Ried from Germany with Italians Gianluca Roda and Parato Ruberti from Italy qualified the #88 Porsche 911 RSR (997) 27th overall and 2nd in class and finished 25th overall 2nd in class, seeing the slower GT drivers getting swamped by the faster prototypes on the corners is always interesting but only rarely leads to the kind of damage seen above.

The #50 Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1, seen above, shared by Brazilian Fernando Rees and Frenchmen Patrick Bornhauser and Julien Canal actually crossed the line 25th and 2nd in the LMGTE Am class but was disqualified after a “non-conforming safety device, namely the validity date of the car’s fire extinguisher” was discovered in post race scrutineering. Labre Competition Team manager Jack Leconte was suitably contrite after the discovery.

From 35 starters there were only four retirements the second of which was the #23 Signatech Oreca Nissan O3 of French trio Jordan Tresson, Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard. Approaching 3/4 distance. Tesson is seen here after a rear tyre exploded at Becketts coming out of the next corner Chapel his car turned sharp left and hit the wall. The ensuing safety car period played into the hands of the overall victor of the race.

The #61 AF Course Waltrip, as in Micheal Waltrip Racing apparently, Ferrari 458 Italia of Italians Piergiuseppe Perazzzin, Marco Cioci and Irishman Matt Griffin qualified 30th overall / 3rd in LMGTE Am and came home winners in the class beating the #98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of German Roald Goethe and Briy Stuart Hall, seen above, that finished 4th in class by 3 whole laps. Griffin said of his win “I’m not British but it’s still my home race so I’m really happy.”

LMGTE Pro honours fell to the #51 AF Course Ferrari 458 Italia of Grand Prix Winner Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni who beat another 458 Italia by two clear laps.

The #25 ADR-Delta team Oreca Nissan O3 of John Martin, Jan Charouz and Tor Garves edged the second Signatech team Oreca Nissan by just six seconds at the finish line but this was not the closest class victory of the day.

By securing the win in their Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé 6th place starters and 4th place overall finishers Italian Andrea Belicchi and Swiss Harold Primat stretched the Rebellion Racing Teams lead in the Privateer LMP1 Championship. They finished 6 laps behind the third place #2 Audi and less than 1 second ahead of the 2nd place privateer LMP1 Honda powered HDP ARX 03a to take the closest class victory of the day.

With the best fuel economy and aided in a small way by several short safety car periods the Audi e-tron quattro Hybrid with a flywheel accumulator system developed by Williams Hybrid Power, to drive the front wheels only at mandated speeds in excess of 75 mph, silently, and I mean really quietly, out ran the Toyota TS030 Hybrid by less than a minute thanks to one less stop for diesel than it’s petrol powered competitor. By crossing the line first Audi secured this years World Endurance Constructors Championship at the half way point because it’s Le Mans win is the one race in the series that counts for double points.

Thanks for joining me on this “Silent Running” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Dunsfold Aerodrome. Don’t forget to come back now !

Big Mean ‘n’ Green – Chrysler Newport Sedan

Oh Lord ! – Mercedes Benz World

Bombproof Escort – Ford Escort 1850GT FEV 1H

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Motorsport owe’s much of it’s history to the publishers of Newspapers keen create events which would resonate and engage their readers, indeed the very first recorded motorsport events emanated from the minds of the editors of ‘Le Vélocipède’, who in 1887 attracted a single car entry for a 1.2 mile race across Paris and ‘Le Petit Journal’, who in 1897 69 entries for a 79 mile ‘race’ from Paris to Rouen. By 1908 individual events took on global challenges such as the 12,000 mile 169 day New York west to Paris race which was co sponsored by The New York Times and Le Martin.

Possibly inspired by another 10,000 mile ten day event the London to Sydney Rally of 1968, Australian advertising sage Wylton Dickson came up with the idea of organizing a 1970 World Cup Rally to link London which had played host to the 1966 World (Soccer) Cup to Mexico which was to play host to the 1970 World (Soccer) Cup at a party in London over a glass of wine while chatting to Irish Rally Champion Paddy Hopkirk.

Wylton, who had never so much as seen a rally before approached Stuart Turner Ford competitions manager who gave him the thumbs up and the Daily Mirror who provided the sponsorship for the event. British Rally Champion John Sprinzel was allowed to set up an HQ at the Royal Automobile Clubs Belgrave offices from which to run the whole 16,000 mile event which crossed 26 countries on three continents in 25 days.

Good to his word when the 1970 World Cup Rally was announced Stuart Turner entered 6 Ford Escorts into the event for Poles Sobieslaw Zasada / Marek Wachowsk, Finns Hannu Mikkola / Gunnar Palm, England soccer star Jimmy Greaves with pro co driver Tony Fall, Monte Carlo Rally winners Raunno Aaltonen / Henry Liddon, British rally stars Roger Clark / Alec Poole and Finish rally legend Timo Makinen co driven by Frenchman Gilbert Staepelaere. Other entries in the 96 car field included a VW Beach Buggy a five car factory Moskivitch team from the USSR and two privately entered Rolls Royce’s a Silver Cloud and a Silver Shadow !

Ford’s official reason for fitting these bars in front of the windscreen was that they were to protect the drivers from Condors in the Andes mountains of South America, but it has been noted that these bars connect the top of the front suspension towers to the top of the A pillars which coincidentally helps transfer suspension shock to the roof diverting them away from some of the weaker welds in the bodywork.

It is thought enough parts were produced for just 8 of the 1970 World Cup spec 1850 GT Escorts, which after the disappointment of easily leading the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon only for the Lotus Twin Cam engine in Roger Clark’s Cortina Lotus to fail, meaning these cars were built to be bomb proof against all foreseeable eventualities. Instead of using Lotus Twin Cam motors Ford Kent 1600cc / 97 cui pushrod motors were bored out to 1850cc / 112 cui fitted with a single Weber carburetor and dry sump lubrication which aids ground clearance. These motors were simple, durable and above all easily repairable, they were tuned to run on the low octane fuel that was to be found in the high altitude andean mountains on the South American legs of the route where stages of 500 plus miles were not uncommon and average speeds in excess of 90 mph were expected in order not to attract penalty points.

Hannu Mikkola had a relatively trouble free run dropping just 9 hours in penalty points over the course of the 25 day marathon, 4 of the other Escorts in the top 6 of the 23 finishers. During the course of the event FEV 1H became one of the most famous of Rally Vehicles of all time and is still among the most loved. As a result of the 1970 World Cup Rally win Ford launched a new sporty version of the Escort called the Ford Mexico with the 1600 / 97 cui Kent pushrod motor fitted to an Advanced Vehicle Operations strengthened “Type 49” body shell.

In 1995 there was a 25th Anniversary re run of the 1970 World Cup Rally, miraculously Ford ‘found’ a new unused Escort shell and built a new car to the same specifications as FEV 1H. Hannu Mikkola came out of retirement with Gunnar Palm to win the rerun as well, the new cars registration is H1 FEV.

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

Street ‘n’ Comp #1 – Lancia Beta Montecarlo

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The Lancia Beta Montecarlo was based on the prototype Abarth 030 which was intended to be a big brother to the little Bertone designed X 1/9 sports car and carry a similar FIAT badge.

For reasons that are not at all clear the project was passed over to Lancia and the cars were constructed by Pininfarina who had designed the body work.

3,853 first series ‘Beta Montecarlos’ were built and 1,940 second series vehicles were built and marketed under the simplified Montecarlo, one word, name. In the US 1,801 Montecarlos known as Scorpions were sold, these are distinguishable by a pair of semi pop up round headlights.

Montecarlos of both series left the factory with 2 litre / 122 cui 120 hp motors mounted transversely behind the driver, while the Scorpions had smaller 80 hp 1756 cc / 107 cui motors which met US emissions regulations.

Fellow #53 Beetle fan and GALPOT Birthday boy Jeff Fuller may remember that Herbie fell in love with a powder blue Montecarlo / Scorpion called Giselle in the 1977 film Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.

After both BMW and Porsche had withdrawn factory support for the silhouette Group 5 sports car formula in 1978 Lancia stepped up to the plate and joined the fray with a Group 5 Lancia Montecarlo Turbo for the 1979 season. Above the wild styling of the racer was matched by an equally wild paint job courtesy of the Pubbli Auto Torino graphics agency. On its debut at Silverstone the car qualified 7th in the hands of Riccardo Patrese and World Rally Champion Walter Rorhl and retired with head gasket failure. The cars eventually proved sufficiently reliable to win the under 2 litre division of the World Championship for Makes.

By 1980 the Dallara built Montecarlo Turbo’s had became reliable and fast enough to beat large numbers of privately entered Porsche 935’s and sundry others outright at Brands Hatch, Mugello and Watkins Glen. Above the #54 driven by Rorhl and Michele Alboreto scored a class victory at Silverstone which helped Lancia win the class and overall 1980 World Championship for Makes. At the end of the year two of these cars also scored a 1-2 victory on the mixed race rally Giro d’Italia having been disqualified from a similar result the year before.

In 1980 two privately entered Montecarlo Turbo’s were used by Jolly Club and Team GS-Sport the former with drivers Martino Finotto and Carlo Facetti mostly entered in the World Championship races as at Silverstone above and the latter entered a car for Hans Heyer in the German DRM Championship which he won outright.

For 1981 with Martini sponsorship, as seen above with Patrese and Eddie Cheever driving at a soaking Silverstone, Lancia entered a car with a larger turbocharged motor in the over 2 liter category at selected events in order to steal points from Porsche in the over 2 liter class of the World Championship for Makes. The ploy did not really work but a victory by a BMW M1 in the over 2 litre class did ensure Porsche did not have maximum points at the seasons end and so handed Lancia with a clean sweep in the smaller class the overall World Championship title.

The #65 Montecarlo Turbo above was driven by Alboreto, Cheever and Facetti from 31st on grid to an 8th place overall and 2nd in class finish at Le Mans in 1981.

Using the same #0009 chassis as Alboreto, Cheever and Faceti had used at Le Mans in 1981, but now entered by the private Vesuvio Racing, Prime Minister Margret Thatchers son Mark is seen here at the wheel he shared with Jim Crawford and Joe Castellano on the way to a 10th place finish in the 1982 Silverstone 6 Hour race. With no factory backing Group 5 had been dropped from World Championship status and the cars were make weights during 1982 in a series dominated by the Porsche 956 Group C cars and Lancia LC1 prototypes.

I was surprised to learn that the last ‘in period’ victory for the Monte Carlo Turbo in 1983 was credited to a then reigning World Drivers Champion Keke Rosberg driving in a national race at Ahveniston Syyskilpailu in Finland. Even more surprisingly here is a link to a youtube clip of Keke’s achievement.

I hope you will join me in wishing Jeff Fuller a Happy Birthday.

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

Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 #IS 2857

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In the summer of 1980 I passed my college entrance exams, at my third attempt and before finally fleeing the family nest in Wembley to attend Trent Polytechnic, I got a summer job at a local Honda dealership to tide me over.

One of the dealership owners many cars, and even more motorcycles, was a black Jaguar E – Type Convertible like the one in these photographs one of the last fifty made, all available only in black, a fact that is noted on a brass plate mounted on the glove box cover.

In 1971 the Series 3 E-Types ushured Jaguars second ever completely new motor into production, an all aluminium 5.3 litre / 326 cui V12 with 2 valves per cylinder design that had it’s origins in a design intended for racing dating back to 1954. This motor would eventually be developed into a 7 litre / 427 quad cam that would be used to win at Le Mans twice, 1988 and 1990.

All Series 3 E-types were built around the longer 2+2 chassis pan, most with the V12 engine but a few Series 3 models were built with the older 4.2 litre / 256 cui 6 cylinder motor.

The brass plaque on the right of this photo gives the chassis number as IS 2857 which according to the only list of XKE chassis numbers I have seen suggests this car was originally supplied in Right Hand Drive form.

This particularly splendid example, seen here at the recent Silverstone Classic, has been restored and ‘sympathetically’ upgraded winning the Speis Hecker World Masterpiece competition for outstanding coachwork re-finishing.

My own 30 year old memories of the V12 E – Type were that it was certainly a buzz taking the car to the petrol pump down the road, it turned heads, the engine was silky smooth, the steering was light but it inspired little or no confidence, even on a roundabout at perfectly legal speeds, in it’s handling capabilities, it seemed to lean in the corners rather that hug the road as even my pedestrian FIAT 128 did, and parking a car with such a long nose was an absolute nightmare on a crowded parking lot.

Overall I was disappointed with how the car drove a bit like meeting a rock star whom one has held in high esteem only to find that he / she has all the usual human traits some of which are not so pleasant or different from our selves, or driving an air cooled Porsche for the first time to find that interior has the same smell of fumes as an air cooled VW Beetle, more boulevard cruiser than the track racer which I was expecting.

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

Sundance Winner – Senna

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Last night I was taken to the cinema at Watershed in Bristol by a non racing fan Fiona with a professional interest in documentary films to go and see ‘Senna’ a 90 min documentary about three time Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna.

Directed by Asif Kapadia the film is apparently unusual in being the first such documentary which is made entirely of archive footage for its visuals, with a handful of contemporary voiceovers by persons who knew and were involved with Ayrton during his 34 year life.

The film focuses on Senna’s Formula One career from 1984 to 1994 using some excellent TV highlights of his driving prowess mixed with interviews, many of the best conducted in his native Portuguese language, along with drivers meetings which took place before crucial races in Ayrton’s career.

I have to confess, perhaps as a result of having become aware of Grand Prix racing at a time when racing drivers were killed at an alarming rate, I was never the biggest of Senna fans. I always respected his achievements but found the aggression, which I saw him display racing wheel to wheel first hand, in the lower formula before he reached Formula One just a little too foolhardy for my tastes.

However this documentary did leave me with a useful reminder and insight into just how exciting Brazilian Ayrton Senna was to watch at the wheel and just how focused he was with the job at hand.

I loved the relatively low fi 80’s TV picture quality on the giant cinema screen, and could have easily enjoyed this film if it had been an hour longer in the same vane. Much to my surprise Fiona and her partner Caroline both announced they had also enjoyed it !

This cross gender appeal of the drama of Senna’s life no doubt contributed to ‘Senna’ wining the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

No matter how little you know or even like Formula One racing this is a seriously engaging documentary, definitely one not to miss.

My thanks to Fiona for taking me out last night.

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

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: World

Silent Running – Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Big Mean ‘n’ Green – Chrysler Newport Sedan

Oh Lord ! – Mercedes Benz World

Bombproof Escort – Ford Escort 1850GT FEV 1H

Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 #IS 2857

Sundance Winner – Senna