Tag Archives: Haywood

Baby Bertha – Vauxhall Holden Repco Firenza

After disposing of “Old Nail” at the end of 1974 Bill Blydenstein received funding from Dealer Team Vauxhall to create a new Super Saloon based on a 4 door Vauxhall Ventora saloon shell and fitted with a 476 hp 5 litre / 302 cui Repco tuned Holden V8, Borg Warner T10 gearbox, Salisbury Power Lock differential, AP racing disc drakes, double wishbone suspension on the front with 12″ x 15″ slicks and de Dion rear suspension with 15″ x 15″ slicks.

Vauxhall Holden Repco Firenza, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Driver Gerry Marshall soon dubbed the car Big Bertha and won three of the six races he started in the beast before it shed some brake pads and ended up in the Silverstone crash barriers, it’s meticulously built shell beyond repair.

Vauxhall Holden Repco Firenza, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Vauxhall had second thoughts about offering a V8 Ventora to the public in light of the fuel crises, so Bill and DTV decided to build today’s featured Droop Snoot Firenza out of all the bits salvaged from the wrecked shell of Big Bertha.

Vauxhall Holden Repco Firenza, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

It was not long before the car became known as Baby Bertha and over the next three years Gerry raced the car in 40 events and won 37 of them, retired from 2 and was beaten only once by a cheeky little 270 hp Hillman Imp driven by Jonathon Buncombe that was built on a 1971 Chevron B19 sports car chassis and known as The Chimp, soon after it’s win The Chimp was effectively banned from Super Saloon events because of protests regarding it’s wheel base which was longer than the mandated standard Imp length.

Vauxhall Holden Repco Firenza, Piers Ward, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Paul Haywood-Halfpenny bought Baby Bertha in 1978 and had a disastrous season with it that he reckoned cost him £1,000 per lap, at a time when the average wage was only £5000.

Vauxhall Holden Repco Firenza, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

In the 1980’s current owner Joe Ward bought Baby Bertha after Gerry Marshall, among others, had owned it and raced it one more time to a second place finish at Thruxton. Joe’s son Piers is seen at the wheel in the photo above at Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Thanks for joining me on this “Baby Bertha” 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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Monterey Porsches – Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

On our fourth visit to this years Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion I’ll be looking at some of the Porsches and Porsche powered cars present.

Porsche 1500 Super Continental, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,

First up the 1955 Porsche 1500 Super Continental owned and driven by Clinton deWitt, US Porsche importer Max Hoffman had the 1500 Continental supersede the 1500 America in 1955 with the less powerful ‘normal’ motors because he thought they would give his customers better low engine speed performance than the more powerful “Super” motors, the inverse of what a race car needs. The Continental name did not last long because objections from Ford who used the Continental name at that time for a stand alone brand.

Porsche 550A, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,

Porsche 550’s have a long tradition of being raced on the East and West coast of North America the 1955 34 F Modified 550 A belongs to Tom Tarbue a regular visitor to the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

Denzel Roadster, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,

Strictly speaking the 1958 Denzel 1300 Roadster owned and driven to Terry Sullivan does not belong in this blog since Wolfgang Denzel came up with his Roadster completely independently of Porsche and like Porsche developed his own range of performance parts for use in motors sourced from contemporary Volkswagen Beetles, but I included it just for the benefit of disambiguation.

PAM Platypus Porsche, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,

Scooter Patrick, Hans Adam, and Don Mitchell are credited with building the Porsche powered 1964 PAM Platypus out of P.A.M. Foreign Cars of Hermosa Beach, California for NO FEAR pilot Miles Gupton who raced the car with a number of different Porsche motors finishing 1964 as runner-up West Coast Champion, second only to Frank Monise’s Lotus 23B. The car was latter fitted an Oldsmobile V8 but as since been restored with a 2 litre Porsche 901 motor and is currently run by owner driver Arthur Conner.

Porsche 935J, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,

From 1977 the story of the Porsche 935 became increasingly confusing with the works offering 10 ’76 935 spec customer cars known as 935/77A’s while proceeding with their own development plan on the works 935/77 that featured improved aerodynamics that necessitated a more inclined second rear screen which covered the mandated original. The works 935/77 also adopted a twin turbo motor to stay ahead of the expected competition from a turbocharged BMW CSL. Meanwhile the Kremer brothers had been developing it’s own K series of 935’s which were the class of the field at Le Mans in 1979 when a K3 took overall honours, to keep up Joest Racing, better known these days for their exploits at Le Mans with Audi, developed there own version of the 935 known as the 935J above is the 935 J 000 00012 one of two cars that appeared in 1980 for the Momo sponsored Electrodyne racing. This car, now owned by William Chip E Connor, only recorded the one race win at Daytona in July 1981 when Mauricio de Narvaez and Hurley Haywood drove the now DeNarvaez entered car to victory lane in the Paul Revere 250 at Daytona.

Porsche 962C, Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,

Finally we have the 962C chassis #962-170 being offered for sale by Canepa said to be an unraced spare, one of the last four 962’s built in 1991. While I do not doubt it was never raced I wonder if as well as being sent to Team Trust in Japan sans engine it was also sent sans factory body work since to the best of my knowledge no factory supplied 962 was ever supplied with a central pillar mounted rear wing or a nose with single head lamps on either side, where as the likes of Britten Lloyd Racing, from whom Trust also bought a 962 chassis, Kremer and Joest all built a variety of body variants for the 962 with unusual headlight arrangements and centrally mounted rear wings.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton and Karl Krause for organising and taking today’s photographs respectively.

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

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Hot In Miami – Jaguar XJR5 #006

If one foreigner deserves a knighthood for trying to keep the British Motor industry alive while it was in self destruct mode twixt the early 1960’s and late 1980’s my nomination without question would go to Bob Tullis who prepared and raced a succession of British sports cars from Triumph and Jaguar to numerous victories over the 30 years in question.

Perhaps most remarkably of all having been a successful driver for 20 years, which included driving a few non British vehicles like the Dodge Dart, AMC Javelin,Bruce Jennings Porsche 911 and a one off drive in a works Oldsmobile Cutlass, Bob and Group 44 Inc business partner Brian Feurstenau managed to persuade Mike Dale of Jaguar Cars Inc, New Jersey, to fund an IMSA GT Prototype project which would see Jaguar return to Le Mans nearly 30 years after their last official appearance at the circuit in 1955.

Tullis who’s diverse endurance experience included driving the Triumph Spitfire Coupé and Howmett gas turbine car at Le Mans employed Lee Dykstra to design the new Jaguar XJR5 IMSA GTP challenger.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

The XJR5 was to be powered by a variant of the 2 valve per cylinder 5.34 litre / 326 cui Jaguar V12 which Bob had successfully campaigned in his Trans Am Quaker State Group 44 Inc Jaguar E-Type and later XJS models since the mid 1970’s.

In August 1982 Bob and long time co driver Canadian Bill Adam drove the XJR5 to a debut 3rd place finish behind two of the outgoing Porsche 935’s at Road America to score a debut class victory.

Bob and Bill scored the teams first overall victory at Road Atlanta in April 1983, two more followed at Lime Rock and Mosport, Doc Bundy then shared the final XJR5 victory in 1983 at Pocono with Bob.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

Today’s featured chassis #006 first appeared at the 1984 Daytona 24 Hours where Bill Adam, Pat Bedard and Brian Redman qualified 6th and were classified a disappointing 24th, the sister car driven by Doc Bundy, David Hobbs and Bob Tullius qualified and finished 3rd.

Next time out at Miami with Brian and Doc at the wheel chassis #006 qualified 4th but more importantly crossed the line first when the chequered flag fell. Despite the team increasing the capacity of it’s V12 motors to a full 6 litres / 366 cui a couple of months later this would prove be their only overall victory in 1984.

After Porsche’s top driver Derek Bell had been suitably impressed with the XJR5 after testing it in 1983 Jaguar gave the green light to Bob and Group 44 to take the cars, one of which would be #006 driven by Tony Adamowicz, John Watson and Claude Ballot-Léna to Le Mans in 1984.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

Tony, John and Claude qualified 19th and retired after an accident on lap 212 while the sister car driven by Brian, Doc and Bob qualified 14th and made it to lap 291 before the gearbox gave up.

Chassis #006 returned to the States and finished the season with a 2nd place finish in the Daytona 3 Hours with Brian and Hurley Haywood at the wheel.

For 1985, by which time Lee Dykstra reckoned he had redesigned 99% of the XJR5, #006 was prepared for the Le Mans 24 hours.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

Jim Adams joined Brian and Hurley in chassis #006 where the car was qualified 17th and retired after only 151 laps with a constant velocity joint failure.

The sister car driven by Bob, Chip Robinson and Claude qualified 16th and finished 13th overall and first in the GTP class.

The cars final two races were back in the States where Chip Robinson joined Hurley to score a best 2nd place finish at Pocono in September 1985 on it’s final in period race appearance.

At Daytona in December 1985 the XJR5 model appeared for the last time, before it was replaced by the all new XJR7 in 1986, Brian and Hurley sent the model into retirement with a fine second place less than 8.5 seconds behind the winning Hobert Racing Porsche 962 driven by Al’s Holbert and Unser.

Today #006 is owned by Don Miles who can be seen driving the car at Silverstone Classic events in these photographs.

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

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The Seriously Flared One – Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0

Having won the 1970 and 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours and sports car championships with the short lived Porsche 917, Porsche had no suitable motor with which to compete in the top tear of sports car racing which mandated maximum displacement 3 litre / 183 cui motors, of which those designed for and adapted from Formula One dominated the overall honours from 1972 until 1975.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

To meet the demand from customers running in the GT class Porsche embarked upon a programme of building RSR race cars based on the 911 shell for GT competition in 1973. Initially these cars came with a ‘duck tail’ and motors up to 2.8 litres to 178 cui. Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood scored back to back overall victories at the Daytona 24 hours with this type of car in 1973 and 1975, and were joined by Dave Helmick in 1973 to win the Sebring 12 hours. Perhaps the single most famous victory for any RSR came on the epic Targa Florio where Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep won beating the 3 litre / 183 cui protoypes in the process.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

By the end of 1973 the first RSR’s with 330hp 3 litre / 183 cui motors, coil springs replacing torsion bars, flared wheel arches housing wheels with centre locking nuts and ‘whale tales’ came onto the scene most notably in the first International Race of Champions (IROC) series. The first IROC series ran in the winter of ’73 and ’74 at Riverside and Daytona for which 12 identical Carrera 911 RSR 3.0’s, like the one seen in today’s photographs, were prepared for the likes of, Formula One champions; Emerson Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme, Indy 500 winners; Bobby Unser, AJ Foyt, Gordon Johncock and Mark Donohue, Can Am Champions; Peter Revson and George Follmer, NASCAR Champions; David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty with USAC Champ Roger McKlusky. Mark Donohue won three of the series four races to become the first IROC Champion.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

The RSR remained competitive in the Daytona and Sebring endurance classics until 1977. Haywood, John Graves and Helmick drove an RSR to victory at Daytona in ’77, with Al Holbert and Mike Keyser winning the ’76 race at Sebring then George Dyer and Brad Frissell repeating the feat in another RSR in ’77. In Europe Clemens Schickentanz is thought to have made over 75 starts with at least seven outright victories in RSR’s primarily for the Kremer Brothers.

Porsche 911 RSR, Tour Britannia, Castle Combe

In all 60 RSR 3.0’s were built by Porsche and many more 911’s have been upgraded to RSR spec since the models inception. RSR’s were still being raced regularly in front line competition into 1993 when an all new Carrera RSR was introduced with a 3.8 litre / 231 cui motor.

Porsche 911 RSR, Silverstone Classic

I do not have a history for the 1974 Martini liveried car featured today which, in the 2011 dated pictures, are seen at Castle Combe with Jeremy Cook and Mike Dowd who were taking part in the Tour Britannia, the 2012 and 2015 photo’s were taken at Silverstone Classic where Jeremy and Mike competed in the FIA Masters Historic Sports Car races, if you know anything more about this car please do not hesitate to chime in below.

Porsche 911 RSR, Cooke, Dowd, Silverstone Classic

Thanks for joining me on this “The Seriously Flared One” 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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Comeback Kid – Porsche 936 #001

The Porsche 936 was the successor to the 908 and 917 models, it was used to win the World Sports Car Championsip in 1976. Three chassis based on many parts from the Porsche 917 parts bin were made.

All three chassis won the Le Mans 24 hour race; chassis #002 in 1976, #001 in 1977, both with a 540 hp 2140 cc / 130 cui turbocharged flat 6 motors and #003 in 1981 with a 600 hp 2649 cc / 161 cui turbocharged flat 6, a design that had started out as the alcohol burning engine used by Danny Ongias in the unraced Interscope Parnelli Indy Car. Remarkably Jacky Ickx co drove each of these 936’s to Victory Lane at Le Mans.

Porsche 936, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

This car represents chassis #001 which was slated to be driven by Juergen Barth and Le Mans rookie Hurley Haywood in the 1977 Le Mans 24 hours, a fuel pump replacement in the 3rd hour dropped #001 down to 42nd place. Around this time Henri Pescarolo’s engine had expired in the sister #002 chassis and Pescarolo’s team mate, Jacky Ickx, was drafted in to join Barth and Haywood.

By his own admission Jacky drove the race of his life through the night and after 19 hours the #001 was in the lead of the race, the three works Renault Alpines dropped out while dominating the race in the Porsche’s absence with engine failures. With 45 mins to go the engine in #001 developed a second misfire, the mechanics shut down the problematic cylinder by taking out the spark plug and blanking the fuel injector.

Porsche 936, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

Ten mins before the end of the race Juergen Barth was then sent out with a stop watch taped to the steering wheel and instructed to complete the last two laps, within the necessary percentage of each other, to seal an unlikely victory by 11 laps over the Renault powered Mirage GR8 of Vern Schuppan and Jean Pierre Jarrier.

During the race a wheel balance weight tore off the right front wheel ripped through the wheel arch, and both stalk mounted mirrors were lost. The large air box was primarily used to cool the turbocharged air running through the intercoolers.

Porsche 936, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

The following year Bob Wollek joined Juergen Barth in #001 and when the sister #003 car retired after an accident Jacky Ickx joined Bob and Juergen too however this time they could only finish 2nd to the Alpine Renault of Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud.

#001’s next two appearances were at the Silverstone 6 hours and Le Mans 24 hours in 1979 it qualified on pole for both of these events, but was classified 10th at Silverstone after an accident which caused Jochen Mass and Brian Redmans retirement from the lead at Silverstone. Bob Wollek and Hurley Haywood retired with engine failure at Le Mans in 1981 as has Jurgen Barth and Reinhold Joest driving #001 at Le Mans in 1976. The cars final appearance as a works car was at the 1981 Le Mans 24 hours where despite starting from 2nd on the grid Jochen Mass, Vern Schuppan and Hurley Haywood could only finish 12th.

Porsche 936, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

The following linked films document the 1977 Le Mans race; the first shows fabulous in car footage of a lap of Le Mans the second show’s the start and continues into the evening and the third the finish, I afraid most of the commentary is in German except a couple of interviews with Jacky Ickx and Hurley Haywood.

Thanks for joining me on this “Comeback Kid” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for the 1000th edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”. Don’t forget to come back now !

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F.A.Turbo Express – Joest Porsche 962 C #962-011

Following on from yesterdays Lancia LC2 blog today I am looking at a FATurbo Express sponsored Porsche 962 C that used to be run in Group C races by the Joest Team in the second of a series of three blogs on Group C cars.

Joest Porsche 962 C - Goodwood FoS

The Porsche 962 was born out of the Porsche 956 programme in 1985, the principle difference between the two models is that the drivers feet are behind the front axle line in the 962 which affords the driver better protection in the event of a frontal accident.

Joest Porsche 962 C - Goodwood FoS

The 962 was built to compete with twin turbo motors in the World Prototype Sportscar Championship and with single turbo motors in the IMSA GTP series. 962’s are known to have won 82 races of at least 250 races that they competed in. Although the Porsche factory raced the 962 it increasingly left it’s customers to represent the marque from 1987 on, apart from the riveting 1988 Le Mans 24 hour race.

Joest Porsche 962 C - Goodwood FoS

Former Porsche driver Reinhold Joest’s team continued to receive support from the Porsche factory at Le Mans in 1989 and 1990. Indeed to emphasise the level of backing Joest received from Porsche the last 6, of 16, works built Porsche 962 chassis all went to the Joest Team.

Joest Porsche 962 C - Goodwood FoS

This chassis is thought to be #962-011 the last of the 956/962 series to win a World Prototype Sports Car championship event at Dijon, France driven by Bob Wollek and Frank Jelinski in May 1989. Chassis #962-011 is thought to have won at least 8 other races the last of which was an open formula Interserie event at Zeltweg, Austria in the hands of Manuel Reuter in October 1993.

Joest Porsche 962 C - Goodwood FoS

The #962-011 chassis raced with FAT International colours, thought to be a european logisitics company, in the 1993 Daytona 24 hours with Chip Robinson (USA)/Hurley Haywood (USA)/Henri Pescarolo (F)/Danny Sullivan (USA) listed as drivers but running with the #6. At it’s next race the Sebring 12 Hours the car appeared as a back up car for ‘John Winter’ and Manuel Reuter carrying the #7 T.

Joest Porsche 962 C - Goodwood FoS

This car is not carrying standard Porsche 962 bodywork, as Jaguar and later Mercedes became increasingly competitive in Group C events Porsche customers undertook their own aerodynamic development programme’s to stay competitive.

Joest Porsche 962 C - Goodwood FoS

Joest Racing won the Le Mans 24 hours twice with private Porsche 956 entries in 1984 and 1985 and then twice again with Porsche powered TWR chassis in 1996 and 1997. Today Joest is known as a crack Audi team having clocked up 5 wins at Le Mans running the Audi R8 (3 wins), R10TDI, and this year the R18TDI.

This car has taken part in the Group C race at the Silverstone Classic before, I have not seen an entry list for this years event, but I am hoping Paragon who run the car will be able to bring it along again this year.

My thanks to Thundersport and Porsche expert Mike at The Nostalgia Forum who confirmed the chassis number.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s FAT Turbo Express edition of ‘Gettin’ a little psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look under the skin of a Japanese Group C car built in England. Don’t forget to come back now !

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