Tag Archives: Brundle

“4535” – Tec Mec F415

After Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1957 World Drivers Championship driving for Maserati the company turned it’s attention to recouping it’s investment in racing through the sale of road cars and the works racing team turned it’s attention to sports models.

Tec-Mec F415, Goodwood Revival

The remaining 250F racing cars that had been accumulated were dispersed amongst privateer teams, however there was one unnumbered chassis that had been started and 250F designer Valerio Colotti had plans for a revised version of the 250F to be built around the chassis for the 1958 season.

Tec-Mec F415, Goodwood Revival

Colotti managed to secure the unfinished chassis and take it with him along with his drawings and set up his own design business called Studio Tecnica Meccanica where the new car, known officially as the Studio Tec-Mec F415 and unofficially as “4535” was completed with a Maserati 250F motor to power it.

Tec-Mec F415, Barrie Baxter, Goodwood Revival

Funding for the car appears to have come from Gordon Pennington jr and Lloyd Perry Casner who’s Camoraldi team entered the car in the 1959 season ending US Grand Prix run at Sebring for Brazilian Fritz d’Orey to drive in what turned out to be his third and final championship Grand Prix race.

Tec-Mec F415, Tony Wood, Goodwood Revival

The new front engined Tec-Mec had long since been outdated by the rear engined Coopers and Fritz qualified 17th out of 19, possibly the only person more disappointed was Roger Ward who qualified last in his Offy powered Kurtis Kraft midget. Fritz was spared too much humiliation retiring with an oil leak after completing just 6 of the 42 laps in the race which was won by Bruce McLaren driving a Cooper.

Tec-Mec F415, Tony Wood, Silverstone Classics

Today the Tec-Mec makes a fine racer against other front engined race cars from the same era, above owner Tony Wood leads the, equally uncompetitive in period, Offy powered Scarab of Julian Bailey for honors in a race for front engined Formula One cars run at Silverstone Classic last year. The Tec Mec is also seen sans roll over hoop driven by previous owner Barrie Baxter at Goodwood in 2011.

In 2008 Former Grand Prix driver turned Grand Prix pundit Martin Brundle took the Tec-Mec for spin round Silverstone, he perpetuates the myth that the Tec-Mec is a proper Maserati 250 F which it never was but the wheel cocking footage is worth a watch despite this factual error.

Thanks for joining me on this “4535” 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

Criptic Details – GALPOT Quiz

I thought it would be fun to look at some details I caught on camera in recent weeks and set a a cryptic details quiz. There are no prizes answers will be given next in next Wednesdays blog.

Quiz

It’s a ’58, but which letter ?

Quiz

Another slippery MOPAR, but which model ?

Quiz

What was the code name that Product Planning Dept leader Erick A. Reikert lent to the base model of this RS Turbo ?

Quiz

Surnames names of two US presidents who might be associated with this door handle.

Quiz

What was the most popular block used in the Formula A / Formula 5000 open wheel series ?

Quiz

Which Brazilian went on to become a three time world champion after running into the rear end of Martin Brundle’s Formula Three Ralt RT3 ?

Quiz

Enzo Ferrari described this as “The most beautiful car ever made” what is it ?

There are no prizes but if you would like to e-mail your answers to me at info@www.psychoontyres.co.uk before mid night Monday where ever you are I’ll publish a list of anyone who gets all the answers right or failing that the person or persons who get the highest scores on Wednesdays, please do not give away answers on fb links. Wishing you all good luck.

Thanks for joining me on this “Criptic Details” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”,
I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the last in the present series of racing Corvette’s. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

It Is Not A Green Audi – Bentley Speed 8 #004/1

Just over a week ago I visited Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power where I manged to catch up with today’s featured Bentley Speed 8 of the type which ten years ago were entered in the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

The origins of the Speed 8 lay in two Audi projects that raced at Le Mans in 1999 one of which was designed by Peter Elleray who would go on to design the Bentley’s which competed at Le Mans from 2001 and 2003.

Audi R8R, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Audi entered four cars in the 1999 endurance classic two open cockpit LMP class Audi R8R’s like the one above that was built by Dallara and entered by Audi Sport Team Joest which Frank Biela, Didier Theys and Emanuele Pirro drove third place one spot ahead of the sister R8R driven by Michele Alboreto, Rinaldo Capello and Laurant Laurent Aïello.

Audi R8C, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The two remaining Audi’s were closed cockpit LMGTP Audi R8C’s designed by Peter Elleray and built by Racing Technology Norfolk (RTN) using the same twin turbo V8 motors and gearboxes as the R8R. Veteran Porsche Group C entrant Richard Lloyd ran the R8C’s in the ’99 Le Mans Race under the Audi Sport UK banner with James Weaver, Andy Wallace and Perry McCarthy in the #10, seen above which retired after 198 laps. The #9 R9C was driven by Stefan Johansson, Stéphane Ortelli and Christian Abt retired after 55 laps both cars experiencing gearbox issues that were shared with the R8R’s but which the Joest mechanics were better able to cope with.

Audi R8, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The R8R’s were quicker than the R8C’s which suffered from being the second project to get the go ahead and Audi decided to go with the open cockpit concept and developed the R8 of the type seen above which won five Le Mans 24 hour races in ’00, ’01, ’02, ’04 and ’05.

Bentley EXP Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

In 1998 the Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi, acquired Bentley and Rolls Royce, for reasons that are not clear they did not acquire the rights to use the Rolls Royce name which went to BMW and an agreement was reached that saw Rolls Royce production separate from Bentley at Crewe, where the two marques had been manufactured alongside each other since 1946, with Rolls Royce becoming a BMW owned company located in a new production facility at Goodwood.

Following the acquisition of Bentley in 1999 a 220 mph concept car was announced. The Bentley Hunaudieres powered by a normally aspirated W16, a version of the motor that would be used to power another super car from the Volkswagen Group namely the Bugatti Veyron.

In 2000 Bentley announced that it was to return to Le Mans, for the first time in 71 years, in 2001 with two closed cockpit LMPGTP entires and that a prototype was being worked on by Peter Elleray at Racing Technology Norfolk.

By the time the design for the EXP Speed 8 was finalised it had been decided to use the same twin turbo V8 as was being used in the Audi R8 programme but fitted with an X-trac transmission. During the 2001 Le Mans race chassis #002/4 seen above was driven by Martin Brundle, Guy Smith and Ortelli, qualifying 7th but retiring with transmission failure. Chassis #002/3 driven by Andy Wallace, Eric van de Poele and Butch Leitzinger qualified 9th and finished 3rd overall behind two Audi R8’s 15 laps adrift of the overall winner, but winning the GTP class.

Bentley EXP Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

For 2002 only one Bentley entry was prepared for the Le Mans 24 Hours, it’s upgrades included a new 4 litre / 244 cui version of the Audi based twin turbo V8 up from 3.6 litres / 219 cui, the 4 litre motors were unique to Bentley.

Driving a new chassis, #002/6 seen above, Wallace, van de Poele and Leitzinger qualified over two seconds faster than they had in 2001 but wound up only 11th on the grid. In the race they covered 62 laps more than in 2001 but finished 4th behind three Audi R8’s now only 13 laps behind the overall winner and again winning the LMGTP class.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

For the third and final planned onslaught at Le Mans Peter Elleray designed a completely new car based on a completely new safer carbon fiber tub.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

After Johnny Herbert crashed one of the new #004 cars, chassis #004/2, at 100 mph into a concrete wall without injury during testing, Peter persuaded the management that two even stronger tubs should be built. However one of these #004/4 “blew up” while being cured in the autoclave and the other #004/5 was prepared for the 2003 Le Mans 24 hours.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

Today’s featured chassis #004/1 along with #004/3 was sent to Sebring to compete in the Sebring 12 Hours as a warm up preparation for Le Mans. However two privately entered Audi’s did not read the script and ended up beating the Bentley’s by 4 laps. #004/1 driven by Capello, Tom Kristensen and Smith qualified and finished 4th 5 laps down on the overall winner and behind the Johnny Herbert, David Brabham and Mark Blundell entry.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

Both of the Sebring cars were then sent to Le Mans in May 2003 for the Le Mans test weekend where Capello, Kristensen and Smith driving #004/1 set the fastest time ahead of the Audi Sport Japan Team Goh R8 driven by Seiji Ara, Marco Werner and Jan Magnussen. Third fastest time went to Herbert, Brabham and Blundell in chassis #004/3.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

Like the 2002 EXP Speed 8 the 2003 Speed 8 retained exclusive use of the 4 litre twin turbo V8 which produces around 600 hp. When designing the prototype Bentley Le Mans challenger, 001 in 2000, Peter Elleray was expecting to use an unspecified normally aspirated motor apparently several options were discussed including the W16 and the prototype was tested with a Cosworth DFR Formula One motor before the twin turbo Audi V8 and later larger Bentley V8 derivative were selected.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

The Speed 8 Bentley’s were perfectly prepared for the 2003 Le Mans 24 hours and in the absence of works Audi R8 entries they called on Joest Racing to support their efforts in the pit lane. Capello, Kristensen and Smith were entered in the new chassis #004/5 which qualified on pole 2 seconds faster than older sister car #004/3 driven by Herbert, Brabham and Blundell that completed a Bentley sweep of the front row.

Bentley Speed 8, Cholmondeley Pageant Of Power

The Bentley’s then ran a text book race finishing in the order they qualified with the lead car two laps ahead completing 377 laps in total seven more that the third placed Champion Racing Audi R8 driven by JJ Lehto, Emanuele Pirro and Johansson. The last time a Bentley had won the Le Mans 24 hour race was when Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston led the similar Bentley Speed Six of Frank Clement and Richard Watney in 1930 having completed ‘just’ 179 laps.

Bentley Speed 8, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Designer Peter Elleray believes that Bentley possibly choose to enter the LMGTP class because of the ‘visual presence’ of the closed cockpit cars and it must have been satisfying to him that his final Speed 8 design was the first non Formula One car in 14 years to win be awarded the 2003 Autosport Racing Car Of The Year Award.

There have been many uniformed opinions that the Bentley Le Mans project that ran from 2001 to 2003 was simply a badge engineered Audi R8 with a roof, however this was most certainly not the case.

The Bentley Speed 8 had more British content than the successful Italian Dallara Audi R8’s had German content even though the British car was powered by a unique to Bentley version of the Audi V8.

Peter patiently answered some of the misinformed opinion about the cars he designed at The Nostalgia Forum recently.

I’ll leave the final word on this project to Peter “i(t) will be on my tombstone – “it wasn’t a green audi…”

My thanks to Peter Elleray for an engaging discussion on his involvement with today’s featured car at The Nostalgia Forum.

Thanks for joining me on this “It Is Not A Green Audi” edition of “Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a car that was developed with a very different approach to winning the Le Mans 24 hours. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

The Saturday Club – Jaguar XJ220

What better way to show your passion for your work than by attending informal after hours meetings with like minded fellow employees to work on unofficial pet projects ? Such was the enthusiasm of Cheif Engineer Jim Randle and select fellow employees at Jaguar in the 1980’s that their ‘Saturday Club’ generated Jaguars XJ220 super car designed to take on Ferrari, Lambourghini and Porsche in the super car market head on.

Jaguar XJ220

The XJ220 as originally proposed and shown to the public featured a mid mounted quad cam 6.2 litre / 378 cui V12 all wheel drive scissor doors and a projected top speed of 220 mph.

Jaguar XJ220

The XJ220 was further developed into a production model by Jaguar Sport and Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) who ran factory backed racing programmes for Jaguar with the XJS and later XJR models.

Jaguar XJ220

In production guise the XJ220 appeared rear wheel drive and with a smaller but more powerful 3.5 litre / 213 cui twin turbo V6 taken from the MG Metro 6R4 rally programme.

Many customers and above all speculators were not best pleased with the change in specs of the production model and tried unsuccessfully to sue Jaguar for the return of thier deposits. The last XJ220’s were sold for a third of their asking price in 1997, and still fetch a similar price today.

In 1992 works Jaguar racer Martin Brundle recorded a top speed of 212 mph road spec XJ220 which with the catalytic converters removed managed 217 mph at the Nardó Ring in Italy.

Thanks for joining me on this Saturday Club 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