Tag Archives: Baldwin

American Highlights – Goodwood Festival Of Speed

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Today I am looking at some of the American highlights at this years Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Chevrolet SS, Bobby Labonte, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

2000 NASCAR Cup champion Bobby Labonte was demonstrating Austin Dillons 2015 # Dow Chevrolet SS that is run by Austin’s Grandfather’s Richard Childress Racing team.

Chevrolet Custom, BJ Baldwin, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Twice Baja 1000 Winner and seven time US National Off Road Champ “Balistic” BJ Baldwin appeared to be having a lot of fun demonstrating the capabilities of his 850hp 2012 Chevrolet Custom.

Shadow Matra DN7, Grant Beath, Goodwood Festival Of Speed,

The Matra V12 powered 1975 Shadow DN7 was only raced twice by Jean Pierre Jarrier before Matra decided to supply Ligier for the 1976 season and it retired on both occasions in Austria and Italy qualifying a best 13th at Monza, this great sounding one off is seen above being demonstrated by Grant Beath.

Plymouth Superbird, Kenny Brack, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Unfirtunately I missed Richard Petty’s morning demonstration of the 1970 #43 Plymouth Superbird, but I did catch Kenny Brack driving the iconic car in the afternoon.

Lola Ford T153, Richard Hamlin, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

The unique two wheel drive turbocharged Ford powered Sunoco Special Lola T153 was driven to a second place finish in the 1970 Indy 500 by Mark Donohue, it is seen above with Richard Hamlin at the wheel.

Swamp Rat 1, Don Garlits, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Finally drag legend Don Garlits demonstrated his 1957 Swamp Rat 1 with which he reached a world record 180mph over the 1/4 mile in 1958 and which badly burned the driver the following year when the supercharger exploded.

Thanks for joining me on this “Americana Highlights” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the Ferrari’s taking part in the Goodwood Concours d’Elegance. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Multi Formula Open Wheeler – Lotus 69

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For the 1970 season Lotus used the catch all Lotus 69 type number for cars designed, by Dave Baldwin, to compete in four different open wheel Formula.

Namely Formula Ford which used prescribed narrow tyres and 95 hp single carburetor Ford Kent 4 cylinder engines, Formula 3 which used heavily modified 1 litre / 61 cui production block 4 cylinder motors in 1970 and modified 1600 cc / 97.6 cui production block motors in 1971, Formula B with 1600cc / 97.6 cui motors tuned somewhere between Formula Ford and Formula 3, and finally Formula 2 which ran with the most powerful 200 plus hp 1600 cc / 97.6 cui motors with production blocks of which at least 5000 copies had been made.

Lotus 69, Spirit of the 60′s, Dyrham Park

Today’s featured car, seen at Dyrham Park and belonging to Tony Wallens, is a 1971 Formula 3 spec Lotus 69 with a modified 1600 cc / 97.6 cui production block motor, the space frame chassis is derived from the Lotus 59 open wheelers and it shares many components with it’s Lotus 69 siblings, although the Formula 2 Lotus 69 was built around a monocoque to meet the requirements for a bag fuel tank.

In 1971 Dave Walker flew and swept the board in his Gold Leaf Team Lotus 69 winning 25 races Formula 3 races from 32 starts.

Despite these successes, Emerson Fittipaldi also won three races in his Formula 2 Lotus 69, while in Formula Ford Stan Matthews placed forth in the 1971 British Oxygen Formula Ford championship with his 69, Lotus took the decision to withdraw from the customer racing car market and focus on works Formula 3, and Formula 1 efforts in 1972, Formula 2 and Formula 1 campaigns in 1973 and solely Formula One campaigns from 1974 on.

Thanks for joining me on this “Multi Formula Open Wheeler” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a day at the races. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Under Australian Influence – Lotus 41

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The Lotus 41 was designed and built to meet the second and third tier European open wheel Formula’s 2 and 3 along with the US Formula B regulations for the 1966 to 1968 seasons.

Lotus 41, Race Retro

Designed by Australian John Joyce assisted by Dave Baldwin the Type 41 featured a space frame constructed from welded steel tubes with stressed steel plates around the foot well, instrument panel and rear bulkhead. Steel was chosen in favour of lighter aluminium to ensure the car met the minimum weight limit requirements stipulated by the Formula regulations for which the car was built.

Lotus 41, Race Retro

Brewery heir Piers Courage driving a works backed Lotus 41, for the same Lucas Engineering team that was involved with the Martin V8 powered Lotus 35 I looked at a couple of weeks ago, won the French Craven ‘A’ Formula 3 series.

Lotus 41, Race Retro

Back in 1966 drivers names were mandated on the sides of open wheel Formula cars to help spectators identify the drivers, the name ‘Williams’ seen here refers not to the Piers Courages team mate and driver of the camera car in Steve McQueens film Le Mans Jonathon Williams, but to Dr Gareth Williams, owner of today’s featured car.

Lotus 41, Race Retro

Dr Williams car chassis 41/F3/12b, seen here at Race Retro, is known to have been used competitively by Swiss driver Jean Blanc in 1966 and ’67 and passed through the hands of four further owners before being restored in 1993.

Lotus 41, Race Retro

History records, Courages success in France not with standing, that the Lotus 41 was out classed by the more numerous Brabham 18A designed by another Australian Ron Tauranac. After returning to Australia in 1968 John Joyce founded Bowin Designs Pty where he built a string of successful cars that dominated the 1970’s Australian Formula Ford scene.

Lotus 41, Race Retro

Sixty One Lotus 41’s are thought to have been built some were still running in much modified form in the early 1970’s Formula B regulations complete with additional bodywork and wings like the one seen in the thread on The Nostalgia Forum linked here.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Under Australian Influence’ 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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