Tag Archives: Terry

Like No Lighter You’ve Known Before – Eagle Mk 1 #AAR104

The story of the Eagle Formula One car began when the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company asked Carol Shelby and Dan Gurney founders of All American Racers Inc to build an Indy 500 challenger with which to compete against Firestone shod Indy cars. Part of the deal included the go ahead to build a Formula One car “to represent the U.S.A.”

Eagle Westlake Mk 1, Donington Museum

Shelby and Gurney turned to Len Terry to produce a design for a chassis that met both tasks. Terry had been responsible for the design of the Lotus 38 which Clark and Gurney drove in the 1965 Indy 500 which had been convincingly won by Clark who led 190 laps from pole. The Mk 2 was a Ford V8 powered Indy car, while Mk 1 was the Formula One variation featured today which was to be powered by an Aubery Woods designed V12 that was to be built at Harry Westlake’s premisses in Rye, Kent, England.

Eagle Westlake Mk 1, Goodwood Revival

The chassis for both program’s were manufactured at All American Racers premises in Santa Ana, California with the complete Formula One chassis being sent on to a new shop Gurney had set up close to Harry Westlake’s premisses in ‘the ancient pirate town’ of Rye and operated by Anglo American Racers. The Westlake V12’s were only ready midway through the season and to get there project underway Gurney drove his Eagle with a slightly undersized Coventry Climax four cylinder motor.

Eagle Westlake Mk 1, Donington Museum

The origins of the 3 litres / 183 cui Westlake V12 lay in a 500cc /46.25 cui 2 cylinder motor that Aubery Woods had built for Shell Oils funded research project. Gurney heard about the motor from his former BRM colleague Woods and had the motor built with a budget of US$600,000 by Westlake. Westlake’s facilities were a little on the primitive side using military surplus tooling that dated back to the 1914/18 Great War. However despite poor interchangeability of parts from one motor to the other they were more reliable than some of the ancillaries including the electrics and fuel pumps. There was a design flaw in the oil scavenging system which was discovered too late in the development of process that sees the sump fill up with oil during the course of a race which causes a steady loss of horsepower.

Eagle Westlake Mk 1, Goodwood Revival

The first three Mk 1 chassis built from aluminium, but the forth car seen here was built with the extensive use of titanium and magnesium alloy in an effort to reduce weight. Gurney commented that driving the 104 was like “driving a Ronson cigarette lighter” as magnesium alloy is exceptionally flamable.

Eagle Westlake Mk 1, Goodwood Revival

Just one week after his victory in the Le Mans 24 hours with AJ Foyt with whom he shared a Ford Mk IV, at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix Gurney qualified AAR104 on the front row next to Jim Clark in his Lotus 49. Clark led the race until he needed an unscheduled stop to change his spark plugs. Jackie Stewart starting from sixth took over the lead while Gurney also had an unscheduled stop to cure a fuel pressure problem. Gurney resumed in second place when Stewart’s car developed a gear box problem. With 8 laps to go and breaking the 8 year old Spa Francochamps lap record Gurney swept into the lead and the first Grand Prix victory by an American driving and American car since Jimmy Murphy won the French Grand Prix driving a Dusenberg in 1921. He also started the habit of spraying champagne during Grand Prix victory race celebrations, having done so for the first time at Le Mans a week earlier.

Eagle Westlake Mk 1, Goodwood, Festival of Spee

At the German Grand Prix Gurney led and set the fastest lap again when his car retired with half shaft failure with 3 laps to go. That fastest lap on Europe’s most challenging circuit was particularly satisfying. Dan’s only other finish in ’67 was 3rd in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Running out of money the AAR team continued into 1968 at the Nurburgring again, but this time in the fog and rain Gurney had another satisfying if unrewarding drive having recovered from last place after a puncture to a season best, indded only, ninth finish for the Eagle. During that race Gurney became the first man to wear a, Bell, full face helmet in a championship Formula One race.

The Eagle Mk 1 appeared for the last time at the Italian Grand Prix where Dan qualified 12th, but retired with an overheating motor. AAR acquired a Ford Cosworth powered McLaren M7A with which to compete in the last three races of the 1968 season, scoring a best 4th place finish in the US Grand Prix.

Note: The Eagle Mk 1 is often referred to as the Eagle T 1 G which was Len Terry’s designation for the design.

Thanks for joining me on this “Like No Lighter You’ve Known Before” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday. Don’t for get to come back now !

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Indy 500 Winner & Swiss Hillclimber – Lotus Ford 38/1

Apologies again to GALPOT readers who read my posts at rowdy.com who may have seen these photo’s before, but once again I have found some more interesting information about the Lotus 38 model since my original post nearly 3 years ago.

Lotus 38, Goodwood Revival

The Lotus 38 was devised by Colin Chapman and designed by Len Terry to win the 1965 Indy 500 on his third attempt with star driver Jim Clark behind the wheel.

Lotus 38, Goodwood Revival

With the aid of the legendary Wood Brothers NASCAR pit crew Clark driving 38/1, seen here at Goodwood a couple of years ago, beat Parnelli Jones, driving Clarks 1964 Lotus 34/3, to win the race. In a reversal of fortunes from their first encounter in 1963, Jim Clark became the first foreign driver to win the Indy 500 since 1916 !

Lotus 38, Goodwood Revival

It turns out that there were eight Lotus 38 eight chassis built all powered by the 500 hp quad cam version of the Ford Fairlane motor, a potted history of each of the 8 cars can be seen on this Nostalgia Forum link.

Lotus 38, Goodwood Revival

News to me since my original post is that after the 1965 Indy 500 Victory a fourth Lotus 38 was built and this car with symmetrical suspension was tested by well known British racer Jack Sears and was then taken on a publicity tour to Switzerland apparently at the behest of Ford’s Swiss agent Mr. Georges Filipinetti, himself a well known racing entrant of a mouthwatering variety of cars.

Lotus 38, Goodwood Revival

While in Switzerland Jim Clark demonstrated the Lotus 38 on at least two hillclimb tracks including Ollon – Villars Hillclimb and Ste Ursanne-Les Rangiers. If you speak French, which I like Jim Clark don’t, you may find this interview with Jo Bonnier Jim Clark and Jo Siffert quite amusing.

The Lotus 38/1 seen in these photo’s has recently been completely restored by Classic Team Lotus and was driven for some demonstration laps last year by Dario Franchitti which can be seen here.

My thanks to Doug Nye and Andrew Kitson at the Nostalgia Forum for their help with uncovering more facts about the Lotus 38 cars.

Thanks for joining me on this Indy 500 winner & Swiss Hillclimber edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow, when I’ll be looking at a large Mercedes. Don’t forget to come back now !

Late PS just noticed Paul Chenard has an evocative illustration of the #82 Lotus 38 on his facebook page linked here.

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Taxi Driver – Jim Robbins Eagle Ford T/C Mk 2

Continuing GALPOTS potted history of the Indianapolis 500 Ed’s photos shown here today were taken in 1969, when Ed Arnaudin took the opportunity to get good and close to the Jim Robbins team again.

Indy69 001s

The driver of the #67 Eagle Ford is Lee Roy Yarbrough, not related to Cale Yarborough, from Jacksonville, Florida.

Lee Roy is said to have won his first race at 19 at a local dirt track and progressed through the NASCAR Sportsman Division with 11 wins and onto Modifieds where he won 83 features in 3 years.

On reaching the top Grand National Division, today called Sprint Cup he won 14 races from 198 starts over 12 years. His best season was 1969 7 wins, including Darlington, Charlotte and both races at Daytona, from 31 starts in the seasons 54 races. Many retirements due to engine failure kept him out of the title hunt won by David Pearson.

Lee Roy made just three starts in the ‘Indy 500’ in ’67 ’69 and ’70 his best finish was in 1970 when he completed 107 laps and retired with turbo failure and was classified in 19th place.

His career, as were several others,was adversely affected by the withdrawal of Ford from competition and Yabrough disappeared from NASCAR after failing to secure a ride for the Daytona 500 in 1973, he was eventually admitted to a mental hospital where a fall inflicted a fatal traumatic brain injury aged 46.

#67 Lee Roy Yarbrough 1969s

Jim Robbins turned up at the Brickyard in 1969 with three vehicles the #10 and #27 Vollstedts and the #67 Eagle Ford Mk 2, seen here, a design inspired by UK free lance design consultant Len Terry. This vehicle appears to be one of several built in 1968, though at this stage I do not know it’s exact history prior to the 1969 race.

After Denny Zimmerman failed to get the #67 up to speed in 1969 Lee Roy Yarbrough moved over from his ride in the #27 Vollstedt to qualify 8th for the Indy 500, during the race a turbo pipe broke sending him into retirement and a final classification of 23rd.

Indy69 008s

All of Jim Robbins 1969 entries were powered by turbocharged Ford engines, a turbocharger had first been used at Indy in 1952 on the Cummins Diesel.

With the arrival of the normally aspirated 4,195 cc / 255 cui Ford V8’s in 1963, several Offenhauser powered teams turned to supercharging smaller 2,752 cc / 168 cui motors to remain competitive in 1965, following the lead set by Novi some years earlier.

A couple of Offenhauser powered vehicles had mechanically more efficient turbochargers fitted to these smaller motors in place of the superchargers in 1966. Bobby Unser drove his Eagle Offy to the first turbocharged victory at Indianapolis in 1968.

In 1969 Ford also went the smaller capacity turbocharged route and only three cars in the 33 car field of ’69 did not have smaller 168 cui engines with turbochargers fitted.

Note how the large turbocharger air intake on the left rear of the #67 is rearward facing so as to avoid the problems experienced by the Cummins Diesel turbocharger in 1952 which sucked up so much debris from its front facing turbo air intake that the turbines terminally failed on lap 40.

I’d like to thank Steve Arnaudin for scanning today’s photographs and Amphicar at The Nostalgia Forum for his help in identifying the car.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Len Terry inspired edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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RR two is company – Rhodes Ridley Road Train Tractor.

Todays blog comes courtesy of Ken Devine a Nostalgia Forum acquaintance from in Australia who posted this fabulous photo of the truly ‘unique’ Rhodes Ridley truck built in Western Australia in 1955.

The story goes that Don Rhodes was a mining, haulage and road building pioneer around the Pilbara, in Western Australia and that his fleet of British 40 ton trucks were not up to the rough dirt roads which Don’s men were constantly regrading just to keep them open.

Don & Harold Ridley a workshop manager for DFD Rhodes Pty Ltd conceived a fleet of road train vehicles that could carry between 4 – 6 times the iron and manganese ore loads their existing trucks could carry, there were no drawings as such anything that needed to be built for the Rhodes Ridley was drawn in chalk by Harold on his work shop floor.

Construction started in 1955, using custom made axles, a chassis fabricated from 5/8″ steel plate 16″ deep and 4″ wide. Two army surplus 200 hp 6/71 GM diesel motors designed for the M3 General Lee medium tank which had in this instance been originally fitted into a tank landing craft, as had the five speed gearbox and twin differentials fitted to give the vehicle a 32 mph capability.

The truck measuring 33 ft long and 11 ft wide weighed 21.5 tons with a 230 ton carrying capacity was the largest road vehicle in the southern hemisphere when it was completed in 1958.

During the period of construction the laws governing most of the roads intended for use by the Rhodes Ridley had changed, with a restricted area in which to operate plans to build further examples were scrapped and the Rhodes Ridley was reassigned, fitted with a powerhouse on it’s back, an ore screening trailer and a jaw crushing trailer to process freshly recovered ore for further transportation.

It’s not clear exactly when the Rhodes Ridley was abandoned but it’s resurrection came about thanks to former Rhodes employee Terry Joyce who formed a club for people to help him with his enormous task of putting the abandoned vehicle back on it’s wheels at the turn of the millennium.

The vehicle still needs a ‘wide vehicle’ permit to go to shows, more photo’s and the rest of the story can be seen at the Rhodes Ridley website linked here.

My thanks to Ken Devine for bringing this fascinating twin engined vehicle to my attention and for letting me share his photograph of it with you.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s two is company edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me tomorrow for the first in a short series of home built vehicles. Wishing all the romantics out there a happy Valentines Day, don’t forget to come back now !

PS slightly off topic Pocono Raceways Solar Photovoltaic System has turned the motor sports facility into the largest Solar Powered sport facility in the world, Pocono has been nominated to receive the 2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Readers’ Choice Award at the 2011 Renewable Energy World North America Conference & Expo on March 8th. Voting for this event closes today February 14th if you have not voted do so now at http://awards.renewableenergyworld.com/readerschoice/ select ‘Vote’ button and then go down the list and click ‘Pocono Raceway Solar Photovoltaic System’, no registration required no unpleasant advertising either. Thanking you in anticipation of your response. Go Pocono !

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Knobbly Cat – #61 Lister Jaguar

Thanks again to Steve and Ed Arnaudin for today’s photos from Lime Rock in April / May 1959.

The story of the Jaguar powered Lister is that it only came about despite the initial reticence of builder Brian Lister and that it was only after a) the failure of the difficult to maintain Maserati engines which powered Listers in 1956 to improve on the the Lister Bristol of 1955, b) a diamond merchant Norman Hillwood had dropped a 300 hp Jaguar D type engine into his own second hand chassis after Brian had refused to do it for him and c) Jaguar supremo Sir William Lyons had shown his enthusiasm for supplying Lister with the D-type power train in order to back up the private D-types of Ecurie Ecosse to double the odds against the increasingly competitive Aston Martins that Brian Lister eventually saw sense and built 17 series 1 ‘Knobbly’ Jaguar powered Listers and between six and eight more with small block Chevrolet motors from 1957 – 1958.

The #61 Lister Jaguar seen here is one of the Cunningham team cars, Ed Arnaudin’s photo throws up a mystery since neither the Cunningham Website or Terry O’Neils Northeast American Sports car races 1950 – 1959 list the car as being present at Lime Rock for the April 24th meeting that got held over to May 9th after rain stopped play and the cops shut the show down on the original date.

The best fit theory thrown up on The Nostalgia Forum is the possibility that this car had different gearing to the #62 Lister Jaguar that was raced by Briggs Cunningham that day and may have been used for comparison by Briggs Cunningham.

With thanks to all those on The Nostalgia Forum Lister Register thread who contributed including David McKinney , raceanouncer 2003 Vince H, RA Historian Tom and Terry O’Neil.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Knobby Cat edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me for the concluding edition of this Jaguar week featuring a vehicle that out qualified Stirling Moss driving a Maserati 250 F in a historic race. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Brave Heart – Singer Chamois

Comparing today’s Hillman Imp /Singer Chamois with yesterday’s FIAT 850 it is hard to believe that the Imp/Chamoise was in production one year ahead of the 850. Unencumbered by an existing design, like the FIAT 850, the clean lines of the Imp / Chamois were the work of Tim Fry and occasional Ferrari F1 driver Mike Parkes who were given carte blanche at the start of the ‘Apex’ project.

Incredibly, well incredible to my 2010 eyes with 2020 hind sight the FIAT 850 out sold the Imp / Chamois nearly 5:1 despite the Imp / Chamois being in production for 5 more years from 1963 – 1976. This particular vehicle apparently first registered in Bristol in 1966 is the badge engineered high end Singer Chamois Mark II with a conventional throttle cable and manual choke replacing the pneumatic throttle linkage and automatic choke of the MK I in 1965.

The Imp / Chamois vehicles were built in a brand new factory in Linwood near Glasgow by a workforce more experienced in building mighty ships than assembling little cars. Knockdown kit versions were also assembled in Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Venezuela, Uruguay, Costa Rica, South Africa and Australia.

Nearly 200,000 of these vehicles were built from 1963 – 1966 it then took another 10 years to build the same number again. The engine in the rear started life as an iron block FWMA Coventry Climax fire pump engine but was made, unusually for the time, entirely out of aluminium with a redesigned cylinder head in this application.

The 875 cc 53 cui engine delivered 39 hp enough to take the car to a respectable 80 mph. The car was perhaps hampered by having the engines cast in Glasgow and machined in Coventry before being shipped back to Glasgow for installation, a round trip of some 600 miles, but more than any thing the vehicle appears to have been a largely wasted marketing opportunity when compared against the similarly sized FIAT 850.

Thanks for joining me, I hope you have enjoyed today’s Scottish edition wishing everyone with a heritage north of Hadrian’s Wall a happy St Andrew’s day.

Hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for another exciting instalment of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’, don’t forget to come back now !

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A day at Thompson CT – Austin Healey 100-Six

On the 20th of July 1958 Norris Crosby Chief Engineer at Orangeburg Plastics loaded up the trunk of his Austin Healey 100-Six and headed for the ‘Old’ Thompson Raceway in the North East corner of Connecticut, on the way he picked up Ed Arnaudin who took these wonderful photographs kindly provided by his son Steve for us to enjoy.

The Austin Healey 100 was designed as a private enterprise by Donald Healey to run on the historically disastrous Austin A90 Atlantic running gear including a 2660 cc /162 cui motor with a three speed gearbox fitted with overdrive on 2nd and 3rd gear the 100 name was chosen because the vehicle was capable of over 100 mph.

When Austin MD Leonard Lord saw the Healey Hundred prototype a deal was struck for the bodywork to be manufactured by Jenson and then shipped to Longbridge where assembly was completed alongside the Austin A90 Atlantic.

The #65 seen here is listed twice as being the 4 cylinder ‘100’ model however the horizontal crinkled grill bars and air scoop tell us that this vehicle is actually a BN6 ‘100 – Six’ manufactured between 1956 and 1959, fitted with a 117 hp 2639 cc / 161 cui in line 6 cylinder BMC C Series motor from the Austin Westminster and a four speed gearbox, overdrive if fitted was optional.

The car on the outside row of the grid from the #65 and the #114 are both earlier 4 cylinder ‘100’ models with distinctive vertical radiator grill bars and no air scoops .

Norris blew his exhaust muffler during the race and came in 5th overall 3rd in Class D in Race 5 behind the race winning smaller Class E AC Bristol of E Hamburger.

(Note results corrected 03/04/11)

In this shot Norris leads F Twaits in his rare Fraser Nash 100/163 down the yet to be finished Thompson CT pit road.

Ed Arnaudin describes riding in the car with Norris on the way home on a dark, cold evening as being “loud as hell” thanks to the muffler blown during the race.

A lovely fuss free way to go racing no trailers just get in your race car pick up your buddy on the way, race and go home.

With thanks to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for taking and providing these photographs, additional material from Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950-1959 * by Terry O’Neil.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s edition from the race in 1958, looking forward what tomorrow brings, don’t forget to come back now !

* Please note :- I do not in anyway endorse, or have any commercial interest in the products or distributors highlighted in today’s feature, I am merely passing information on as an enthusiast of all things motoring, I have no experience of handling these products nor have I used these vendors. I recommend anyone interested in these items or distributors do their own thorough investigation into suitability, reliability and particularly prices of both products and vendors before making any purchasing decisions.

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