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Zwei Eins – 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Thanks to catching a break with my car insurance last week I found I had just enough petrol in the tank and cash in my pocket to take a 2 hour drive to go and see the 6 Hours of Silverstone World Endurance Championship Sports Car race.

6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the possibility of a female ever winning the World Championship, 33 years ago I remember seeing Desiré Wilson co drive her de Cadenet Ford to victory in the Silverstone 6 hour race with Alain de Cadenet and the top line cars have not become anymore physically demanding since. So it was a tad disappointing to see the sports governing body the FIA setting a bad example of equality by sanctioning the use of so many females as eye candy with out giving the ladies in the audience something corresponding to look at, such a move might just make the sport a little more appealing across the board.

ROSENQVIST, MARCIELLO, Dallara, FIA Formula 3, Silverstone, UK

First race of the day was the third and final Formula 3 race of the weekend, that forms part of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. Starting on a slippery track it was not long before six competitors fell off requiring the use of the pace car to clear up some of the mess. Felix Rosenqvist was leading from a third place on the grid, in the #6 Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes, when the action resumed but Raffaele Marciello driving the #1 Prema Powerteam Dallara-Merc who was the man on the move having out braked his team mate and pole sitter Alex Lynn going into Club after the Safety Car was withdrawn and then chased down Rosenqvist and over taking him on the outside of Stowe. Full results for all three FIA Formula 3 races can be found on this link. Ferrari protege Marciello leads the new championship from Rosenqvist, Harry Tincknell, and third place finisher Lynn, the next round is at Hockenheim on May 4th.

Howson, Ka To, Impertori, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

After the Formula 3 race it was time to go on the pits walk about where many of the drivers were busy signing autographs that is all except KCMG Motorsports trio (left to right) Matthew Howson, Jim Ka To and Alexander Imperrori who had no giveaways to sign, they were however armed with their own pens and they kindly signed my programme before going on to finish the race 12th overall, 6th in class from a 25th place start in their #47 Morgan Nissan.

Lotus Praga T128, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Not for the first time two Lotus share the same Type Number, the original Lotus T128 was a Renault powered 2011 Formula One car built by what is now called the Caterham Formula One team while seen in the pits above is the new Type 128 a LMP 2 Endurance racer running with a Judd V8 motor that carries the name plate of the Czechoslovakian kart manufacturer Praga. The #31 Lotus Praga T128 scheduled to be driven by Kevin Weeda, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Christophe Bouchut completed the least number of laps, 44, and was classified 31st and last, while the sister #32 driven by Thomas Holzer, Dominik Kraihamer and Jan Charouz completed 113 laps and was classified 29th on the teams debut outing.

Aston Martin, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

A timely reminder of Aston Martin‘s centenary year appeared just before the start of the race, expect to see some more Aston Martin blogs in the months ahead.

Start, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

31, of an expected entry of 33, cars took the start of the 6 Hours of Silverstone race the front row was locked out by Toyota TS030 Hybrids with Alexander Wurz starting on pole in the #7 car. The Audi R18 e-Tron quattro‘s of Tom Kristensen and André Lotterer started line astern in 3rd and 5th places flanked by the Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé’s of Nicolas Prost and Matthias Beche.

Kristensen.Audi, Wurz, Toyota, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Toyota’s moment of glory proved to be short lived as Kristensen relieved Wurz of the lead going into Vale after only a hand full of laps, the sister Audi also made short work of both Toyota’s and soon settled into second place.

Toyota TS030 Hybrid, Maggotts, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

While the Audi’s sailed into the distance the Toyota’s which looked great in the corners like Maggotts above were visibly unstable on the straights when compared to the overall leaders.

Pla, Morgan Nissan, Pit Straight, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

While I was spectating at the end of, the original now ‘National’ pits straight, I remembered that it was 35 years since I had first attended the Silverstone 6 hours and seen the awesome Porsche 935/78 “Moby Dick” win by a comfortable 7 laps. Above Oliver Pla guides the #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan he shared with David Heinemeier Hanson and Alex Brundle to an eight place overall finish, 2nd in class.

Aston Martin, Lola, Toyota, Luffield, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

Aston Martin fielded four Vantage V8’s two in the LMGTE Pro class and two in the LMGTE Am class all four cars finished with the #97 of Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Bruno Senna winning the Pro class and #95 of Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen winning the Am class. Above the Am class #96 of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall and Jamie Campbell-Walter leads the Rebellion Racing #13 Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé of Andrea Belicchi, Mathias Beche and Cong Fu Cheng, which finished 6th overall and the 4th place finishing #7 Toyota of Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre through a slippery Luffield as light rain that caught out a couple of competitors was falling.

Loic Duval, Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

Loic Duval, seen above at Club, drove the winning Audi through the middle of the race swapping the lead with the sister Audi as the pit stops cycled through.

Bruni, Ferrari F458 Italia, Club, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

The LMGTE class Ferrari 348 Italia’s all appeared to get involved in incidents of one kind or another the AF Corse #51 Pro entry for former Formula One Drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella carries war wounds on it’s way to an 18th place finish overall, 5th in class.

Ferrari, Chevrolet, Porsche, Hangar Straight, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

The appeal of Endurance racing is that somewhere there is always a battle over tarmac above the 6th in class #57 LMGTE Am Krohn Racing Ferrari of Tracey Krohn, Nicoläs Johnson and Maurizio Mediani dukes it out going on to the hangar straight with the 2nd in class LMGTE AM class Labre Compétition Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 of Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal and Fernando Rees with the 3rd in class LMGTE Pro works Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR of Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Domain Dumas in hot pursuit.

SARRAZIN, Toyota TS030 Hybrid, The Loop, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Like the works Porsche AG Manthey team cars the works Toyota and Audi entries finished in reverse order the #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastian Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin leading the #7 Toyota home to 3rd and 4th place finishes respectively. Sarrazin is seen above negotiating the Loop.

Ferrari, Chevrolet, Toyota, Porsche, Club, 6 Hours of Silverstone

There was drama right through the field right up until the end with only 5 mins to go a tyre on the 8 Stars Motorsports LMGTE Am #81 Ferrari 458 Italia of Vicente Potolicchio, Rui Aguas and Philip Peter let go demoting it to a 3rd in class finish on it’s WEC debut, behind the following #50 Corvette above, despite having earlier had to stop to replace a door.

Alan McNish, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The #1 Audi of reigning world endurance champions Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fässler was leading with 5 mins to go when a front drive shaft broke which allowed team mate Allan McNish to nip through and take a three second victory over the now two wheel drive #1 both Audi’s finishing a lap ahead of the #8 and #7 Toyota’s. McNish is seen above taking a bow after finishing the race. Full results for the 6 Hours of Silverstone can be found on this link.

All in all £40 including official programme well spent on 6 hours of nonstop action with an 8 mile walk in and around the track thrown in. Next time I must remember to take more batteries for my trusty AM/FM Sony Walkman Compact Cassette player with which to stay in touch with the on track action via Radio Silverstone.

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

More Power Bigger Drums – Morris Oxford II

Short Step Side – Chevrolet Apache 31

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In 1955 Chevrolet replaced it’s Advanced Design pickups with the Task Force range which along with squared front styling offered options that included 12 volt electrics, V8 motors and 6′, 7′ or 8′ bed lengths.

Chevrolet Apache 31, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

The Task Force or early era V8 Chevy pickups were built with three different cab styles from ’55 to ’59. In ’55 the first series Task Force pickups featured a cab with distinctively separate wings/fenders and bonnet/hood similar to the Advanced Design series which the Task Force replaced. Mid way through ’55 a new Task Force hood was introduced with integrated wings/fenders and bonnet/hood with a pair of head lights and in 1958 the Task Force Series cabs received a face lift distinguished by two pairs of head lights as seen here.

Chevrolet Apache 31, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Power options for 1958 Apaches were either 145 hp 3.8 litre 235 cui Thriftmaster in line six or 160 hp 4.6 litre 283 cui small block Trademaster V8, today’s featured vehicle is officially recorded as having a 4 litre / 244 cui motor of yet to be determined origin.

Chevrolet Apache 31, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

The trim details on this workhorse were totally in keeping with the wonders of the late 50’s jet age, Apache 31 denotes that this is the 1/2 ton in the Task Force series.

Chevrolet Apache 31, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

After the introduction of the optional full width Fleetline bodies in 1959, an example of which I’ll be looking at next week, pick ups with non integrated rear wheel arches became known as step sides.

Chevrolet Apache 31, Summer Classics, Easter Compton

Apache 31’s were built on the shortest 114 inch wheel base option with a 6 and a half foot bed. With the introduction of the small block V8 to the Task Force Chevrolet maintained a dominant position in the Pickup market over Ford.

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

Pete Aron’s Yamura – McLaren Ford M2B

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With the decline in fortunes of the Cooper Car Companies Grand Prix program, for which he had been driving since his arrival in Formula One in 1958, Bruce McLaren decided that with the success of his McLaren M1 sports cars he could follow his former mentor Jack Brabham, who left Cooper to build his own Formula One cars in 1962, and start his own Grand Prix team in time for the new 3 litre / 183 cui regulations which came into effect in 1966.

Through 1965 McLaren built and extensively tested the M2A which was designed by Robin Herd and fitted with a 4.5 litre / 274.5 Oldsmobile V8 from the McLaren M1 program.

McLaren Ford M2B, Donington Park Museum

The monococoque of the McLaren M2A made extensive use of compressed balsa wood sandwiched between thin sheets of aluminium called Malite which made the monocoque much stiffer than a conventional monocoque as had been successfully used in the Lotus 25 and it’s successor the Lotus 33.

However Malite proved to be difficult to work with and repair and so for the McLaren M2B the use of Malite was restricted to the inner skins and upper surfaces of the monocoque which still offered significant advantages to the stiffness of the structure.

McLaren Ford M2B, Donington Park Museum

Originally the M2B was powered by a V8 motor derived from Ford’s Indy programme, but this proved way to heavy allegedly when connected to the gearbox the whole power train weighed as much as some rivals entire cars, while later on a much lighter and less powerful Serenissima motor was also tried.

The two engines are easily distinguished the Indy derived Ford has exhausts between the Vee formed by the eight cylinders as seen here and the Serenissima had more conventional side exhausts.

McLaren Ford M2B, Donington Park Museum

Bruce McLaren made 4 starts in the M2B, after retiring at Monaco he realised the Ford based motor needed less weight and more power so he secured the use of the Serenissima’s as an interim measure. At the British Grand Prix Bruce scored his first World Championship point in a car bearing his own name. By the US Grand Prix improved Ford based motors were back from Traco and Bruce came in 5th, before retiring at the Mexican Grand Prix which closed the season.

Although the season was a failure the team learned from their mistakes and made do with BRM 2 litre / 122 cui V8 motors for 1967 before becoming one of the three teams using the Ford Cosworth DFV, alongside Lotus and Tyrrell in 1968.

The white and green colour scheme of the M2B is said to have been mandated by a deal between Bruce and the producers of the John Frankenheimer’s film “Grand Prix” which required the McLaren M2B to look like the fictional Japanese “Yamura” which James Garners character Pete Aron drove to a championship win in the film.

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

Project Sport 500 – Lotus Esprit Sport 350 No.26

Four Pot Revisited – Ferrari 860 Monza #0604M

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A couple of years ago Steve Arnaudin sent me a photo of todays featured 1956 Ferrari 860 Monza, chassis #0604, purchased by his father from the Californian photographer and racing driver Carlyle Blackwell. I wrote a blog which summarised the 1956 World Sports Car Championship which is linked here.