Tag Archives: Sauber

Lowering The Centre Of Gravity – Mercedes Benz C291

When the rules of the Group C Sports cars were ruined for the 1991 season, to the advantage of Formula One, at the behest of Messrs Ecclestone and Moseley to mandate 750kg vehicles to be powered by 3.5 litre / 213 cui motors of the same size as had been introduced to Formula One in 1989 Dr Hermann Hiereth sat down at Mercedes Benz offices in Stuttgart-Ünterturckheim and devised a flat 12 engine with transverse gearbox that lowered the center of gravity compared to the twin turbo V8 design that was being used to power the Group C Sauber C9 and C11 designs for the 1989 and 1990 seasons.

Mercedes Benz C291, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Unfortunately Leo Ress responsible for chassis design at Sauber based in Hinwill, Switzerland was not present at the meeting in Stuttgart when the new engine layout was approved and so he had to make do with a low wide power unit that limited his options for the ground effect venturi that helped to suck the car to the ground as had become de riguer in racing cars since the advent of the Lotus 79 Formula One car.

Mercedes Benz C291, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Perhaps as a consequence of these restrictions Leo was left with no choice but to design a car that optimised top speed at the cost of handling, the exact opposite of what his rivals at Jaguar and Peugeot were doing with their V8 and V10 powered challengers.

Mercedes Benz C291, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

The overweight C291 driven by 22 year old rising stars Karl Wendlinger and Michael Schumacher retired from it’s first race at Suzuka after starting from 3rd on the grid and catching fire during the race after the fuel filler jammed partially open during a pit stop, at Monza the engine failed on the grid from which it was to have started 6th and again during the race which it started one lap down.

Mercedes Benz C291, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The youngsters recorded an excellent 2nd place finish 1 lap down on the winning Jaguar XJR14 driven by Teo Fabi and Derek Warwick at Silverstone, before a disgraceful lap of 6m 55.969s convinced the team to stick with the heavily ballasted, to the mandated 900kg, but reliable C11 model for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Mercedes Benz C291, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

At the Nurburgring two C291’s were entered with Jean Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass qualifying 6th right behind the sister car driven by Wendlinger and Schumacher, both cars retired gearbox and engine failure respectively.

Mercedes Benz C291, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

The two C291 cars qualified in the same order at Magny Cours as in Germany 6th and 3rd respectively, but retired with a broken throttle linkage and water leak respectively.

Mercedes Benz C291, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Little changed in the C291’s fortunes in Mexico where Wendlinger and Schumacher qualified 2nd but failed to finish due to oil pump problems and where Schlesser and Mass retired from 6th on the grid with electrical issues.

Mercedes Benz C291, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

The C291’s final appearance was at Autopolis in Japan where against form Jean Louis and Jochen translated a 7th place start to a fifth place finish and even more remarkably Karl and Michael translated a sixth place start in to a win.

Much as Ecclestone and Moseley had hoped Mercedes Benz abandoned Group C at the end of the season and entered the Formula One fray as an engine supplier initially to Sauber for whom Karl continued to drive.

Micheal of course after a one off appearance in a Jordan moved to the Benetton Formula One team with whom he won the first two of his eventual seven world championships.

Le Mans was as usual left to pick up the pieces wrought by the wreckless legislation promoted by Moseley and Ecclestone.

At the time of writing it is not exactly clear which C291 belongs to Andrew Haddon who is believed to be the owner of the car shown in these photo’s taken at Race Retro and Goodwood Festival of Speed some years ago.

Thanks for joining me on this “Lowering The Centre Of Gravity” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for another raucous Mazda Monday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The Steady Swiss – Sauber Ferrari C32

With nothing much but a top end niche motor industry as exemplified by the likes of the enigmatic Monteverdi, and no circuit motor racing since the fatal accident at Le Mans since 1955 Peter Sauber would have been hard pressed to find a less conducive environment in which to found a motor racing team that would build a succession of sportscars that competed first in the Swiss Hill Climb Championships and later with the backing of Mercedes win at Le Mans in 1989 and then the World Sports Car Championship in 1990 beating works teams from Jaguar, Nissan and Toyota.

Gutiérrez, Sauber Ferrari C32, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

In 1993, with a little back door funding from Mercedes Benz, Sauber entered Formula One with a V10 Ilmor motor branded as a Mercedes Benz. This arrangement lasted for two years until Mercedes Benz decided to increase their involvement with McLaren as their partner. Sauber continued with Ford Motors in 1995 and 1996 and after four years has a reputation for being regular points finishers.

Gutiérrez, Sauber Ferrari C32, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

Form 1997 to 2005 a Sauber subsidiary built Ferrari motors and gearboxes under licence for his Formula one team, under this arrangement the team finished a best 4th in the championship with Nick Heidfeld and rookie Kimi Räikkönen sharing the driving duties.

Hülkenberg, Sauber Ferrari C32, British Grand Prix P1, Silverstone

In 2006 BMW bought the Sauber team and called the shots until they sold it back to Peter Sauber in 2009 when the economic crisis precipitated by the credit crunch hit Formula One. Under BMW’s stewardship Sauber finished 2nd in the constructors championship in 2007 following McLarens exclusion. The following year they finished 3rd and Robert Kubica scored the team’s only win in Canada, ahead of team mate Nick Heidfeld.

Hülkenberg, Sauber Ferrari C32, British Grand Prix P2, Silverstone

Since 2010 Sauber has returned to running with Ferrari motors, now built in Maranello. Last year Nico Hülkenberg, red helmet, joined the team from Force India and was joined by Mexican rookie Esteban Gutiérrez, yellow helmet, who had been the teams driver since 2011, to drive the Sauber C 32 designed under the direction of Matt Norris.

Hülkenberg, Sauber Ferrari C32, British Grand Prix P2, Silverstone

The highly rated Nico recorded ten points scoring finishes from 18 starts including the teams season high 4th place finish at the Korean Grand Prix. At the following Japanese Grand Prix Esteban came home 7th behind team mate Nico to record his only points finish. Sauber finished the year 7th in the championship.

Gutiérrez, Sauber Ferrari C32, Young Driver Test, Silverstone

For much of 2013 Nico was touted as a possible replacement for Felipe Massa at Ferrari, however as things began to unravel for Kimi Räikkönen at Lotus and Fernando Alonso committed the ultimate crime for any Ferrari driver, to suggest he wanted “another car”, i.e. built by another manufacturer, for his birthday, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo took exception to the comments and took the opportunity to wake Alonso up by signing up the man whom Alonso had replaced at Ferrari !

A disgruntled Hülkenberg took the only route available to him offering any hope of career advancement and rejoined the Mercedes Benz powered Force India Team. Esteban will be joined in 2014 by Force India refugee Adrian Sutil with a well financed young Russian prodigy Sergey Sirotkin doing the testing duties. The Ferrari powered C33 was launched a couple of days ago on the Sauber teams website and it’s progress can be followed on the team’s Facebook page.

Thanks for joining me on this “Steady Swiss” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a US built Edwardian vehicle. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Number 2 Drivers – British Grand Prix

Last Friday I popped along to Silverstone last Friday to see the first two practice sessions for the British Grand Prix. This was my first visit to Silverstone for Formula One action since 1981 when John Watson won the race for McLaren.

Rosberg, Mercedes Benz, F1 W04, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Today’s blog focuses on how the 11 teams number 2 drivers got on, above Nico Rosberg driving his Mercedes F1 W04 finished the opening day of practice at the top of the time sheets. Nico qualified second for the race and won after team mate Lewis Hamilton blew a tyre and then Sebastian Vettel retired with transmission problems. Despite having visiting pit row for the second time this season, twice more than his team mate Nico is still three seven points behind his team mate Lewis Hamilton, who has yet to win and fifty points behind Championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

Webber , Red Bull Renault, RB9, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Last years British Grand Prix winner Mark Webber, seen driving his Red Bull Renault RB9 above, similarly set a faster time than his team mate Sebastian Vettel on the opening day of practice. Mark qualified 4th behind his team mate for the race and dropped to 15th after making contact with Romain Grosjean on the opening lap and recovered to finish in second place on his final British Grand Prix appearance. Mark announced at the British Grand Prix that he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season and joining Porsche’s Le Mans program for 2014.

Massa , Ferrari, F138, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa is seen driving his F138 in the first practice session he was slowest of the the eleven drivers to set a time in the morning and in the afternoon knocked a wheel of the front when he came off the drying track in the afternoon and again set the slowest time of the 22 drivers in the afternoon. Felipe could only qualify 12th for the race, but despite a high speed blow out did well to recover a sixth place finish by the end of the race.

Sutil , Force India Mercedes, VJM06, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Adrian Sutil driving a Mercedes powered Force India VJM06 set 8th fastest time on day one, qualified 7th for the race and spent a long period running in third place behind Vettel and Rosberg but then got swamped at the end to finish 7th.

Ricciardo, Torro Rosso Ferrari, STR8, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Daniel Ricciardo one of several drivers in the frame to replace the retiring Mark Webber at Red Bull, finished the opening practice session at the top of the time sheets, he qualified his Ferrari powered Torro Rosso STR8 an impressive 6th, seven places ahead of his team mate Jean Eric Vergne. After running in 4th place for much of the race he too was swamped at the end to finish 8th.

Bottas, Williams Renault, FW35, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Williams were celebrating the 600th Grand Pix at Silverstone unfortunately Valtteri Bottas driving his Renault powered FW35 could not repeat his fine Canadian 7th fastest qualifying performance. Starting 16th Valttteri came home 12th in the race.

Gutiérrez, Sauber Ferrari, C32, British Grand Prix, P1, Silverstone

Mexico’s Esteban Gutiérrez started the British Grand Prix from 17th place on the grid in his Ferrari powered Sauber C32 and climbed to 14th by the end of the race.

Chilton, Marussia Cosworth, MR02, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Max Chilton in the Cosworth powered Marrusia MR02 was the slowest qualifier but thanks to penalties for Paul di Resta and Giedo van der Garde he started his home Grand Prix from 20th and finished 17th.

van der Garde, Caterham Renault, CT03, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

van der Garde started the British Grand Prix from last place after ignoring blue flags, shown to signal that he was about to be lapped, in Canada and finished the race 18th and last unlapped runner.

Grosjean, Lotus Renault, E21, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Driving his Renault powered Lotus E21 Romain Grosjean started the British Grand Prix from 7th on the grid but was involved in a collision with Mark Webber on the opening lap he finished the race 19th 1 lap down last car still running.

Perez, McLaren Mercedes, MP4-28, British Grand Prix, P2, Silverstone

Finally Sergio Pérez suffered a tyre failure during practice on the opening day that would be a portent for 4 similar failures on race day. Starting from 13th on the grid Sergio suffered a second puncture on race day that forced his retirement due to the damage to his Mercedes powered McLaren MP4-28 caused by the flailing remains of the tyre on lap on lap 46.

More on the British Grand Prix at Motorsports Unplugged.

Thanks for joining me on this “Number 2 Drivers” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for an Independence Day edition tomorrow. Don’t for get to come back now !

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Thirty Years Ago #2 – Group C

On May the 16th 1982 I awoke excitied to catch my first glimpse of a new endurance sports car series at Silverstone. The Group C series was born out of the GT Prototype class which had hitherto run only at Le Mans for closed cockpit 2 seat cars with just safety features, some overall limits on dimensions and a limited amount of fuel for rules. Here is a summary of a few Group C cars I saw that day.

Porsche 956, Silverstone

It took three years for the series to really take off with support from three manufacturers but for that first year in 1982 Porsche were prepared in particularly overkill fashion with the Porsche 956 which used a 650 hp twin turbo charged 2.65 litre / 156 cui flat 6 motor that had originally been conceived for the banned 1980 Interscope Porsche Indy Car.

The motor was successfully tested in preparation for Group C in the back of two Porsche 936’s at Le Mans in 1981, Ickx and Bell scoring an emphatic win by 14 laps. Featuring an aluminium monocoque the 956 was designed to take full advantage of ‘ground effect’ aerodynamic technology that had been developing in Formula One since 1976.

Uniquely among the first generation of Group C cars the 956 had been tested in exactly the same way as all Porsche road car designs meaning it alone among it’s competitors could negotiate potted and cobbled streets with out any noticeable detriment to the integrity of the chassis or performance of the motor. Like the Porsche 935 and 936 models it replaced the 956 was utterly dominant in the first 3 years of Group C, sweeping aside a puny effort from Lancia who competed with the Ferrari powered Lancia LC 2 from 1983 to 1985, not having any real competition until the arrival of Jaguar in 1985. Quite simply the 956 nearly killed the series as in 1983 the first of 28 customer 956’s started to fill out the grid.

However Porsche did not have it quite their own way, in 1982, as Lancia sort to wrest the World Sports Car Drivers Championship from Porsche drivers by entering a couple of cars built to the old open top regulations, which had one year left to run, these open Group 6 cars did not need to adhere to the fuel consumption regulations of Group C. Lancia won three races outright including the Porsche 956’s debut race at Silverstone. However Lancia driver Ricardo Patrese was eight points short of winning the title which went to Jacky Ickx who shared the #1 956 seen at Silverstone above with Derek Bell. At Le Mans in 1982 the works Porsche team led by Ickx and Bell took 1,2,3 victory.

Chassis #001 driven here by Icks and Bell easily qualified on pole but constrained by the fuel allowance in the race meant they finished 3 laps behind the race winning Group 6 Lancia LC1. #001 was used on two further occasions, as a test car at Le Mans and in the 200 mile Norisring German Racing Championship (DRM) race which it won with Jochen Mass at the wheel, before it was retired.

In 1983 Ickx retained his World Endurance Drivers title, before handing it over to team mate Stefan Bellof in in 1984. Ickx retired from racing in 1986 after a fatal accident involving Bellof now driving for the private Brun Team at Spa in 1986.

Derek Bell shared the World Endurance Drivers title in 1986 and 1987 driving Porsche 962’s with team mate Hans-Joachim Stuck on both occasions.

Porsche 936C, Silverstone

While Porsche customer teams like Joest and Kremer had to wait until 1983 before being able to purchase customer Porsche 956’s with which to compete in the new series, neither sat idle in 1982 both teams building Group C cars of their own devising using Porsche engines.

Of the two the Joest team car was the first to compete, built around a Joest built Porsche 936 chassis #JR005 with a smaller 2.1 litre / 128 cui twin turbo flat 6 motor. The 936C driven by Frenchman Bob Wollek, and the Belgian Martin brothers, Jean-Michell and Philippe, finished third on it’s debut at Silverstone and continued to be a top ten finisher in Group C events until the end of 1986 when it was effectively outlawed by new footwell regulations.

Joest would become the Porsche factories team of choice whenever the works team was not present at the track. Joest cars won Le Mans in the absence of the factory team in 1984 and 1985 with the same 956B chassis #117, one of the few chassis to win the 24 hour marathon twice. Joest repeated the feat in 1996/1997 winning with Le Mans with the same TWR/Porsche. Joest Racing then became with the über successful Audi and Bentley campaigns that have dominated Le Mans since the turn of the century.

Bob Wollek never won the Le Mans 24 hour race but he did win the Daytona 24 hour race four times. Three of them driving the 956 successor Porsche 962’s.

Ford C100, Silverstone

Fords involvement in the series proved a little half hearted despite the involvement of Len Terry in the design and a Cosworth V8 DFL motor based on the 3 litre / 183 cui DFV but now stretched to 4 litres / 244 cui. The larger motors sounded frankly awful and suffered from excessive vibrations that hindered reliability.

Manfred Winklehock and Klaus Ludwig, who is seen at the wheel here, qualified 4th but could only finish eighth in the race. The C100’s only wins were recorded by Klaus Ludwig in the German DRM championship and by the end of 1982 Ford called a halt to it’s Group C programme.

Peer Motorsport acquired the two time DRM winning C100 chassis #04 for 1983, it was mostly raced in the British Thundersport Series where it recorded one further victory in the hands of Irishman David Kennedy and Scotsman Jim Crawford at Donington Park.

Klaus Ludwig would go on to join the Joest Team and won the 1984 and 1985 Le Mans driving the 956B chassis 117 sharing the driving with Henri Pescarolo in 1984 and Paolo Barilla and ‘John Winter’ in 1985.

WM P82, Silverstone

WM was founded by two Peugeot design studio employees in 1969 Gerard Welter and Michel Meunier in 1969 who in their spare time built two cool coupe’s the first WM P69 was based on a Peugeot 204 Cabriolet platform and the second WM P70 was a mid engined design.

Their next effort the WM P76 was built to the Le Mans GTP regulations first announced in 1976 was powered by a Peugeot/Renault/Volvo (PRV) V6 stock block. Over the next 13 years they built 7 distinct models adding twin turbo’s the PRV motors in 1977. In 1980 they scored a best 4th place and first in GTP at Le Mans.

The WM P82 took part in 5 Group C races, Roger Dorchy, Jean Daniel Raulet and Michel Pignard driven car is seen above on the WM teams second ever outing abroad, it qualified 39th and finished 11th. The WM teams best 1982 result was on it’s first trip abroad to Monza where it qualified 11th and came in 6th. The teams natural reliance on the PRV block was probably it’s down fall for all though eventually tuned to give over 900 hp in 1988 it was actually designed to initially produce 150 to 200 hp.

Sensing that a win at Le Mans was not in their grasp by 1987 WM focused on becoming the first team to reach 400 km/h on the legendary 3.1 mile Mulsanne straight during the 24 hour race. With the engine producing 950 hp and all the cooling blanked off and special Michelin tyres the WM P88 of Roger Dorchy was timed at 405 km/h / 253 mph at 9pm in the evening of the 1988 race. This record will probably stand for all time given that in 1990 2 chicanes were added to the straight to slow the cars down. Rogers car unsurprisingly retired from the race with overheating issues.

WM made way for for an official Peugeot Works team in 1990, in 199O Gerard Welter took over the team completelu renaming it WR (Welter Racing), which scored a class win at Le Mans in 1993 and sensationally locked out the front row of the grid at Le Mans in 1995.

Lola T610, Silverstone

Lola’s involvement with Le Mans dates back to a contract with Ford to develop the fabled GT40, racing under it’s own name it has never won Le Mans. The T610 was powered by the same 4 litre / 244 cui Ford Cosworth DFL as the Ford C100, but proved even more unreliable, despite qualifying 8th at Silverstone, Guy Edwards and Rupert Keegan who is seen in the car here could manage only a 16th place finish.

The T610’s best result of the season was a 7th place finish at Brands Hatch. Lola would hook up with Nissan to produce several Group C Le Mans challengers at the end of the 1980’s including the outright qualifying lap record holding Nissan R90CK which held the record at 3m 27 secs from 1990 until 2008.

Guy Edwards would become a mover and shaker in Group C when he lent his considerable sponsorship finding talents towards the Jaguar Group C project run by Tom Walkinshaw Racing.

Sauber SHS C6, Silverstone

The Sauber SHS C6 was another Ford powered Group C contender and predictably unreliable Walter Brun and Seigfried Muller Jr qualified 12th and finished 13th after loosing the rear wing. The teams best result, a 4th place finish came during a DRM race at Hockenheim. The an SHS6 running in the privateer C2 class appeared in the Group series until 1986.

Peter Sauber hooked up with Mercedes Benz unofficially in 1986 and by 1987 started getting works support leading to a victory at Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship in 1989. Sauber went on to become a Mercedes Powered Formula One constructor returning the famous manufacturer to the top tier of the sport in 1993 after a 38 year break.

In 1983 Walter Brun ended up taking over the GS Sport Company that had been operating in partnership with Sauber in 1982. His operation eventually became a Porsche customer team running 956’s and then the replacement 962’s with which Brun Motorsport won the 1986 World Sports Prototype Championship. By 1992 the team folded after a dabbling in the disastrous EuroBrun Formula One project and attempting to build his own Judd powered Le Mans challenger.

Rondeau M382, Silverstone

Le Mans based Group C team Rondeau like WM started out competing at the 24 hour classic in the GTP class in 1976 winning the GTP class in both 1976 and 1977 under the Inaltera name.

In 1978 the team which always used 3 litre 183 cui Ford Cosworth V8 motors now raced under the founder, Jean, Rondeau’s own name. Jean Rondeau with Bernard Darniche and Jacky Haran scored his second Le Mans GTP class victory with an M378 and in 1979 the team won the unlimited sports prototype class at Le Mans going one better in 1980 with and overall Le Mans victory for Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud.

Another Le Mans GTP class victory, 2nd overall, followed in 1981 for Haran, Phillipe Streif and Jean Louis Schlesser

Like Ford, Lola and Sauber, Rondeau plumped for the Cosworth DFL but somehow found some reliability where others had failed Pescarolo and Gorgio Francia indeed won the first ever Group C race, at Monza, with a Rondeau M382. Pescarolo and Gordon Spice seen above at Silverstone qualified 9th and finished 5th.

This same car won it’s class, 2nd overall, at the Nurburgring with Pescarolo and Rolf Stommelen at the wheel.

Rondeau M482, Silverstone

While the #23 M382 Rondeau was based on a design that could trace it’s origins back to the 1976 Inaltera the Rondeau team fielded a second design which should have taken advantage of the prevailing ground effect technology of the period unfortunately on it’s debut at Silverstone Jean Rondeau and Francois Migault could only qualify 27th and failded to finish after bodywork and suspension breakages. The car failed to appear at Le Mans and when it appeared in 1983 it was with heavily revised bodywork.

The Rondeau scored more points in Group C than any other team in 1982 but Porsche were allowed to have points accumulated by a car running in a lower GT class added to their points tally and were declared 1982 World Endurance Champions, Rondeau’s sponsor OTIS announced it’s immediate withdrawal from the team in disgust.

With no significant sponsorship Rondeau concentrated all of it’s efforts on Le Mans for 1983 all three DFL powered revised M482’s retired with motor related issues an only the Christian Bussi teams car recorded a finish, a lack luster 19th.

Rondeau’s team folded at the end of 1983 and Jean was killed by a train in a bizarre accident while following police car over a level crossing in 1985. Rondeau cars continued to appear in Group C races at Le Mans and elsewhere until 1987.

Nimrod NRA/C2, Silverstone

Finally while certainly not the last of the Group C cars that appeared at Silverstone in May 1982 the Nimrod NRA/C2 is notable because it featured an Aston Martin Tickford V8 motor, from the Vantage V8 model, which sounded fantastic in comparison with the Cosworth DFL V8 and the flat 6 Porsche. The private #32 Viscount Downe entry seen here driven by Ray Mallock and Mike Salamon qualified three places better than the works entry in 11th and finished 6th while the works car retired.

Through out 1982 the Viscount Downe entry out qualified the works entry usually by three places and manged a finish which the works entry never did. The Aston Martin Owners Club president Viscount Downe Team finishes secured a third place finish for Nimrod Aston Martin in the 1982 World Endurance Championship behind Porsche and Rondeau, with the more successful Lancia running in the old Group 6 class it was ineligible to score points in the manufacturers championship.

Both Nimrod teams continued into 1984 with the works team running AJ Foyt, Darrel Waltrip and Guillermo Maldonado in a Pepsi Challenger liveried example in the Daytona 24 Hours. However with ever more Porsche 956’s filling the grid and a distinct lack of reliability the works team folded in 1983 and the Viscount Downe team in 1984.

Ray Mallock would eventually run the Ecurie Ecosse team in the lower Group C2 class taking the class title in 1986 before overseeing the return, to Group C, of a fully works backed Aston Martin project in 1989. For 1990 Ray was involved with the Nissan R90CK project. His team has won numerous touring car titles with Vauxhall, Nissan and Chevrolet for whom he currently runs the successful works World Touring Car Championships cars.

Due to a concerted attempt to become an adult and various unavoidable associated commitments, weddings, graduation and such like it would be three years before I attended another Group C race, when I came back Group C was really taking off with Jaguar entering the fray and efforts from other teams like Toyota and Mercedes (Sauber) beginning to gather momentum. By the end of 1992 I had attended more than a dozen Group C races and seen some fantastic battles all of which will have to wait for future editions of GALPOT.

Thanks for joining me on this “Thirty Years Ago #2” edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the Simply Italian parade at the National Museum as originally promised yesterday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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To Roll And Not to Rock – Silverstone Classic

Thanks to my friend Caroline lending me her Audi Convertible for one last time I managed to cram a substantial part of what was happening at the Silverstone Classic this weekend into just one 10 hour visit.

Allgaier Porsche, Silverstone Classic

If you like discovering vehicles you never new existed the Silverstone Classic is just the place for you, amongst many vehicles I have never seen before are this streamlined Porsche ‘Diesel’ powered Allgaier agricultural vehicle.

Roger Willis, Mercury Cyclone, Silverstone Classic

Unfortunately my visit coincided with qualification sessions only, Roger Willis, seen here, shared this Mercury Cyclone with 1966 British Saloon Car Champion John Fitzpatrick making a welcome change to a field dominated by Mustangs, Galaxies and a couple of Jags all of varying 1960’s vintages.

Vauxhall Ventora, Silverstone Classic

The Vauxhall Ventora on which this cut down funny car is loosely based was a 4 door saloon / sedan by a General Motors owned marque.

JAH 1L, Silverstone Classic

This well known transporter reg JAH 1L was in use by Team Lotus from 1973 until the 1980’s is painted here in it’s original 1973 John Player Special colour scheme.

March 2 4 0, Silverstone Classic

I was disappointed not to see the CGA Engineering March 761 out but this 1977 spec Formula 1 March 2 4 0 more than made up for it. Allegedly the car was built as a publicity stunt, it never raced but was used to good effect on hill climbing events.

Nippy, Sentinel, Silverstone Classic

Six wheel vehicles, and steam powered vehicles were very much in evidence at Silverstone, found the idea of having this Sentinel steam powered truck delivering tea quite amusing.

Foden 6x6 DROPS, Silverstone Classic

I believe the brave lads from the British Army had the tallest vehicle present, I believe this is a Foden 6×6 DROPS vehicle, the Foden marque has disappeared as has a significant contingent of the British Forces.

Berkley, Silverstone Classic

At the other end of the scale one of the smaller, electric kiddy Land Rover was the smallest , 4 wheel vehicles I saw was this 1959 Berkley.

Bob Berridge, Sauber C11, Silverstone Classic

Rain added a little authenticity to the late Group C practice session which was only about 20mins long, I could have stayed out all night listening to the mighty roar that eminates from the Sauber C11 of Bob Berridge by far the best sounding and looking Group C ever IMHO.

Aston DB2/4, Touring, Silverstone Classic

Car of the day for me was this 1953 Touring Aston DB2/4 I believe the RHD is a giveaway that this car was won by a Mr Smith who responded to a newspaper competition to sum up the cars design with a catch phrase.

Even if I had been camping I probably would have been too exhausted to catch the line up of tribute bands on the first night of the Silverstone Classic festival I guess all of my passion is focused on cars and very little of it on music.

PS It would appear NASCAR contractors who prefer to settle their differences in pit row rather than on track might want to take a leaf out of events that unfolded at the Silverstone Classic in the pit lane. See linked story by Tony ‘Giraffe’ Gallagher.

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

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Classic Expo – Race Retro, Stoneleigh, Coventry 2/2.

Today I am concluding my overview of the Race Retro exhibition I started yesterday.

One of the things I loved about this exhibition was exhibitors enthusiasm to show visitors

what was under the bonnet of their exhibits.

Several exhibitors displayed their handy work and craftsmanship in the form of finished motors for display.

There was far more to see than my six hour visit would allow, I did not get a chance to look in any detail at the many motor cycles on display.

The event is best described as a mini Goodwood Festival of Speed,

slightly more intimate because of the smaller crowds but still like being a kid in a toy shop.

With thanks to Tim Murray and the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club without home this blog would not have been possible.

Hope you have enjoyed my overview of the Race Retro Exhibition and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for for a look at the first of a couple of vehicle manufacturers I do not recall hearing of before visiting Race Retro. Don’t forget to come back now !

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