Tag Archives: Bell

Bookended With Class Wins – Dodge Viper GTS-R #C7

Like the Forent Moulin’s Dodge Viper GTS-R #C30 I looked at last year today’s featured Chrysler example chassis #C7 was originally built for the French Oreca entrant.

Chrysler Viper GTS-R, Oliver Bouquet, Silverstone Classic,

In 1997 the Viper Oreca team entered the car in 10 events with Philippe Gache and Olivier Beretta as #C7’s principle drivers who achieved a season high 10th place overall, 1st In GT2, on the cars debut at the Hockenheimring in April.

Chrysler Viper GTS-R, Oliver Bouquet, Silverstone Classic,

For the 1997 Le Mans Prequalifying weekend the following month later Phillipe and Oliver were joined in the #61 Oreca entry by Soheil Ayari and between them they were classified 44th.

Chrysler Viper GTS-R, Oliver Bouquet, Silverstone Classic,

For the 24 Hour race at Le Mans in June 1997 Soheil was moved over to the #62 Oreca entry replaced in the #61 Oreca entry by Dominique Dupuy. #C7 started from 34th on the grid with a 37th fastest qualifying time of 4m 4.654s, but retired after an accident on it’s 264th lap.

Chrysler Viper GTS-R, Oliver Bouquet, Silverstone Classic,

#C7’s final two appearances were at Le Mans in 1998, Dominique Dupuy was joined in the car now renumbered #53 by Justin Bell for the Prequalifying Weekend during which they were classified 36th.

For the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hour race a month later Dominique was taken out of the car after the preliminary qualifying session and replaced by Luca Drudi and David Donohue who with Justin started 33rd on the grid with a time of 4m 05.648s.

They finished the race 11th overall and bookended the cars career with another GT2 class win.

The car is seen in these photographs taken at last years Silverstone Classic with Oliver Bouquet at the wheel.

Thanks for joining me on this “Bookended With Class Wins” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psychoontyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Chevrola – Race Retro 2015

A couple of weeks ago I found myself at the wheel of a seventeen seat minibus full with friends and acquaintances from the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club headed for Race Retro at Stoneleigh Park.

Cooper Mk V, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

One of the racing highlights of my 2014 season was the 500cc Formula 3 race at the Autumn Classic meeting at Castle Combe the series with cars like the 1951 Cooper Mk V above, will be returning to Castle Combe on Saturday October 3rd, more dates can be found under “Circuits” on this link.

Lola T332, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

Like 500cc Formula 3 the sound of old skool Formula 5000 cars is not to be missed the ex Chuck Jones 1974 Lola T332 belonging to Steve Farthing should be out at some of the HSCC events on this link follow the column DBT, for details on the seven Derek Bell Trophy events.

Chevron B1, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

Chevron is celebrating it’s 50th Anniversary this year above the 1965 Chevron B1 was designed to beat the ubiquitous Lotus Seven in ‘Clubmans’ events. Current custodians of the Chevron marque Helen Bashford-Malkie & Vin Malkie announced at Race Retro that they will be working with Lola Heritage to supply parts for the rival brand which dates back to 1958.

Steady Special, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

MotorSport Magazine unveiled the recently restored Steady Special based on a 1934 V8 powered Lancia Astura modified by Ronald “Steady” Barker for VSCC competition after the ’39/’45 war.

Datsun 240Z, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

As ever there was a selection of rally cars in the shed next to the exhibition halls, while I was admiring this 1972 Datsun 240Z a chap in a wheel chair came flying over asking if it was one of the 77 “real” Samuri 240Z’s prepared by Spike Anderson of Samuri Conversions at Silvestone. I never did find out if the the car above was “real”, but it turned out that the enthusiastic chap in the wheel chair was the “real” Win Percy who drove Samuri 240Z’s and later Samuri Celica’s to many race victories back the mid 1970’s.

Leyton House CG901, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

Vintage Racecar Magazine always seems to pull a cool Formula One Car out of the hat for this event and this year they brought along the 1990 Leyton House CG901 chassis #003 which Ivan Capelli drove to a season best 2nd place finish in the 1990 French Grand Prix. The car was designed by Adrian Newey who the following year helped design the 1992 World Championship winning FW14 model and most recently designed the Red Bulls with which Sebastian Vettel has won four consecutive World Championships.

Thanks for joining me on this “Chevrola” 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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Almost Superflous – Lola Chevrolet T332/T330 #HU23

Towards the end of 1973 although the Lola T330 had not won any Formula 5000 (F5000) championships outright, though one had been used to assist Jody Scheckter win his US F5000 title alongside his Trojan, the Lola T330 was rapidly becoming the fastest car on the US and British circuits when the company sold it first improved T332 models with fashionable tall airbox and a rudimentary body extension over the motor to the rear axle.

Lola T332, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

Today’s featured car has a history complicated by the fact that the T330 #HU23 chassis plate was actually fitted to a T330 bought in July 1973 by Australian Johnnie Walker and fitted with a Repco Holden V8.

Lola T332, Neil Glover, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

After Johnnie severely damaged his T330 at Surfers Paradise in September 1974 he replaced the chassis with a new T332 type, but stuck the T330 HU23 chassis plate on it. Possibly to save himself some import taxes. The de-plated T330 chassis was subsequently repaired and is now referred to by experts as T330 HU23(A) while today’s feature chassis is referred to by experts as T330 HU23(B), for the purpose of this blog I shall continue to refer to today’s featured chassis as T330 HU23 as there will be no further reference to the de-plated chassis crashed at Surfers Paradise.

Lola T332, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

Still using the salvaged Repco Holden V8, Johnnie was a regular top four finisher in the 1975 Tasman series winning at Surfers Paradise which made him a title contender, in today’s featured car, two races before the series finale at Sandown Park.

Lola T332, Neil Glover, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

At the finale, with the title all but wrapped up, Johnnie started from pole before crashing when his car inexplicably turned left on the back straight on the opening lap. Johnnie rebuilt the HU23 and continued to race the car until February 1976.

Lola T332, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

Peter Edwards bought HU23 in 1977 and continued to race it with a Chevrolet motor, similar to the Small Block Chevrolet seen above, until 1982. Peter sold HU23 on to Bernie Van Elsen who had HU23 stripped and the parts, including the motor but excluding the chassis, fitted to the Veskanda Group C sports car being built in Adelaide by Dale Koennecke and Harry Aust of K&A Engineering with help from former ex VDS Can Am engineers John and Bob Murphy.

Lola T332, Neil Glover, Gold Cup, Oulton Park

After selling his car Jonnie drove a Lola T330 belonging to fellow competitor Max Stewart in 1977 but that only lasted until Max was killed driving his Lola T400 during a practice session at Calder Park in October 1977.

In the aftermath of the tragedy Johnnie entered into an agreement to race the Lola T332, actually plated T330 22 by former owner Kevin Bartlett, in the Magnum Wheels livery of owner Martin Sampson until they won the Australian Gold Star series, after which both agreed they would retire from the sport.

Jonnie won the Australian Grand Prix at Waneroo and the Gold Star series in 1979. At the end of the final race of the series at Sandown Park Jonnie pulled into his pit to pick up Martin so that they could both complete a lap of honour in a final farewell to the sport an event which can be seen in the second photo of this Nostalgia Forum post by Ray Bell

Note the 1979 Sandown Park race was also the same one in which Kevin ‘KB’ Bartlet crashed the Brabham BT43 I featured last week and that Jonnie Walker is seen driving Martin Sampson’s Magnum Wheels Lola T332, T330 HU22, in the background of the photo of Kevin before his crash. That Lola T332, T330 HU22, is obviously not the same one as T330 HU23 featured in today’s post, as I incorrectly believed it to be last week.

Chassis T330 #HU23 appears to have been restored by Hall & Hall in 2001 and has been raced in the white and orange Magnum Wheels livery of Martin Sampson by Neil Glover who is seen at the wheel in these photographs, all taken at Oulton Park, since 2007. Last year, 2013, Neil won the Derek Bell Trophy with the car.

My thanks to Ray Bell, author with Tony Loxley of F5000 Thunder, for his infinite patience with my infinite dumb questions, to both Ray and Lee Nicole at the Nostalgia Forum for giving me a run down of some of the differences between a Repco Holden and Small Block V8 and to facebook acquaintances,Tom Rosenthal, Peter Brennan, Phil Straver, Stephen Morici, Dave Hudson, Sam Henderson, Dave Wolin, John S Buckley, Peter Phillips, Rob McDonald, Graham Wadsworth, Tim Meehan, Derek Kneller, Steve Price, Cliff Bennett, Darren Ciantar, Rory McDonald, Danny Fondren and Bill Sherwood.

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Firey Derek Reed – Brabham Chevrolet BT43 #BT43/1

“In a Sandown Gold Star race I had the right rear wheel collapse while entering the bridge turn, in a high third gear, throwing me into the catch fencing at a great rate of knots. No doubt the fencing arrested my speed, but not sufficiently to prevent the abrupt stop against the abutment scuttling the poor BT43 and bending my body in a few places.”

Those are Kevin ‘KB’ Bartlett’s words describing the last moments of the unique Brabham BT43’s racing career at Sandown Park, Australia on the 9th of September 1979 as found in the book “F5000 Thunder – The Titans of Road Racing 1970 to 1981” by Ray Bell and Tony Loxley.

Brabham Chevrolet BT43, Brabham Chevrolet BT43, New Haw, Weybridge, Surrey, UK

The photo above is of the Chevrolet powered Brabham BT43 Formula 5000 car taken outside the Brabham factory in New Haw near Weybridge, Surrey, UK on the day it was completed by Bob Paton, one of the team who helped build it almost exactly six years earlier.

The car was the brain child of temporary Brabham owner Ron Tauranac before he sold Motor Racing Developments, the trading name of the Brabham Team, on to Bernie Ecclestone in 1972. The job of designing the BT43 was left to Geoff Ferris, best known for designing a successful line of Penske’s that won one Formula One race and dominated the the Indy 500 and CART Indycar championships of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

Brabham BT43, Tommy Lee Jones, The Betsy

Photo Copyright Allied Artists Picture Corp

The BT43 was based around a Geoff Ferris designed 1973 Formula 2 BT40 chassis , with foam filled triangular deformable sides as first seen on the Gordon Murray designed 1973 BT42 Formula One car, with a sub frame at the back of the monocoque to carry the unstressed 5 litre / 302 cui Chevrolet V8.

The car was first tested by John Watson “on a wet and misty day at Silverstone”, after John had given the car a ‘significant hammering’ it was determined that the nose did not live up to it’s purposeful looks when it came to generating down force.

Brabham Chevrolet BT43, Kevin Bartlett, Sandown Park,

Photo Copyright Greg Falconer use arranged courtesy Ray Bell.

Martin Birrane was the first man to race the BT43 in 1974, but he only recorded two retirements and one failure to qualify (DNQ). Brett Lunger crashed the car at Brands Hatch in his first drive in it a Brands Hatch and Chris Craft followed that up with a 7th place finish at Brands two months later in October 1974.

Brett was back in the car twice at the beginning of 1975 failing to start at Brands and retiring at Silverstone. The cars next appearance was in an obscure 1978 film called The Betsy staring Tommy Lee Jones who’s character Angelo Perino drove the car in a sequence I have yet to see.

Brabham BT43 Radiator

By now the car was owned by Chuck Jones who sent it to Australia for Kevin Bartlett to use in the 1978 season, Kevin finished 3rd in the 1978 Australian Drivers’ Championship with the BT43 finishing a season best 2nd at Oran Park.

Colin Bond took over the driving duties for the four consecutive February meetings of the Australian 1979 season with his only result being a 4th place at Oran Park. Kevin then took a deposit on the car and raced it at the fateful meeting at Sandown Park described in the opening paragraph.

Brabham BT43 Radiator

In “F5000 Thunder – The Titans of Road Racing 1970 to 1981” Kevin went on to say “…. those cars carried enough fuel for a 165KM race, the broken tub was like a bomb ready to go off. One “firey” in particular, planted himself above me where the air box had been minutes ago, feet each side of the smoking engine and whilst the crash crew were cutting the car apart to extract me,(he) lent down and said to me “Don’t worry Kev, I’m staying, and if she goes I’ll drag you out no matter what” as he grabbed my fire suit lift tabs. Thanks once again, Derek Reed.”

While Kevin was recuperating the Australian authorities wanted either the duty due on the now wrecked car or for it to exported, the new owner who had only paid the deposit sent it on to a ‘friend’ in the UK before disappearing. The ‘friend’ in the UK refused to pay the shipping cost and until September last year it was believed the unique albeit damaged car had been dumped in the Thames after the storage costs had far exceeded it’s worth.

However in September last year almost 40 years after Bob Paton took the photo at the top of this post the 34 year mystery of the whereabouts of the BT43/1 were conclusively resolved when Sandy400e came forward and revealed that the BT43/1 had not been dumped in the Thames at all on The Nostalgia Forum.

Sandy revealed that he had been working at Overseas Containers Ltd in 1980 when he got wind of a car waiting to be scrapped on their dock. After inspecting the car, essentially a wreck with some bits missing already he bought it for £30.

Not knowing exactly what he was dealing with he disposed of the damaged engine and various bit’s and pieces to friends and enthusiasts over several years and believing chassis tub to be beyond repair and of no intrinsic value sent it to a scrap metal merchant.

After finding the only remaining items, two Australian made Newcell radiators, in his loft one afternoon last September Sandy did a bit of research on the internet and soon realised the wrecked car he had bought for £30 in 1980 was in fact the long lost Brabham BT43.

Kevin Bartlett confirmed that the radiators Sandy had found in his loft were those he had fixed to the back of the monocoque, when he fitted the chisel nose to the front of the BT43 in an effort to generate more front end down force, prior to the cars last race as seen in the third photo above.

Note the Brabham BT43 was never conceived or converted to Formula One specification, there is a myth that it was which appears to have roots in an erroneous article that appeared in Racing Car News in February 1978 on page 44.

My thanks to Bob Paton, Ray Bell, Allied Artists Picture Corp, Sandy400e for the use of their images and text from “F5000 Thunder – The Titans of Road Racing 1970 to 1981” by Ray Bell and Tony Loxley and to every one else who contributed to the “The strange tale of the F5000 Brabham BT43” thread at The Nostalgia Forum.

Next Sunday I’ll be looking at the Lola that can be seen following Kevin in the Brabham in the third photo above.

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

8/12/14 Post script I would like to thank everyone for the overwhelming response to this blog on some social media and I would particularly like to thank Geoff ‘Toughy’ Toughill …

Victoria Fire & Rescue Squad

seen above in this photo of the Victoria Fire & Rescue Squad on the far right in the second row for sending me this photo from his dad Keith’s Collection, seen with the moustache at the front. Keith and Geoff worked with the hero of today’s blog …

Derek Reed, Victoria Fire & Rescue Squad

… firey Derek Reed who stood above a very hot motor and the stricken Kevin Bartlett in order to drag Kevin out, in the event that a fire should break out while Kevin was being cut out of the wreckage of the BT43.

Thanks Geoff 😉

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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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Identity Crisis What Identity Crisis ? – Maserati 250F #2522/16/23/26

Welcome to the second edition of Maserati Monday, today’s featured Maserati 250F chassis #2522 was built as a works car for the 1956 season. So far so good, it was raced twice in Argentina at the beginning of the season by Stirling Moss carrying the older #2516 identity finishing a best 2nd in the second non championship race.

Back in Europe the #2522 appears to have been raced with it’s correct #2522 identity until August 1956. During this period Stirling won the Glover Trophy at Goodwood and followed that up with a win in the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix.

Cesare Perdisa was given #2522 to drive in Belgian Grand Prix, while Stirling Moss driving another 250F took an early lead in the race only to lose it to a slow starting Fangio driving a Ferrari on lap 5. On lap ten Moss lost a rear wheel and ended up running back to the pits where he took over #2522 from Cesare and went on to finish 3rd behind the two Ferrari of Collins and Paul Frère.

In the French Grand Prix Cesare and Stirling ended up sharing #2522 again finishing 5th. In the British Grand Prix Stirling drove #2522 to a solo 8th place finish and in Germany #2522 now driven by Umberto Maglioli retired with steering problems which reoccurred in the Italian Grand Prix after Maglioli had handed over #2522, now running with the #2523 identity, to Jean Behra.

Maserati 250F, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

Over the winter #2522 with the #2523 identity was fitted with a V12 motor in place of the original straight six, the car was run in practice in the non championship race at Siracusa and again by non other than El Maestro Fangio in the practice for the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix, but the V12 was never raced.

Argentinian all round sportsman Carlos Menditeguy drove #2522/16/23 refitted with a six cylinder motor in the non championship 1957 Grand Prix de Reims where he qualified 9th and retired with a gearbox issue. For the non championship GP di Pescara and championship 1957 Italian GP Fangio was assigned #2522/16/23 but he only drove it in practice.

On the 13th April 1958 Maria-Teresa de Filippis made her Formula one debut driving #2522/16/23 in the non championship GP di Siracusa and finished 5th, a month later she was not so lucky failing to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix driving the same car. Carrol Shelby was the last person recorded as having driven #2522/16/23 in period he qualified 17th and retired after just 1 lap with handling issues and ended up taking over Masten Gregory’s 250F and recording a shared 4th place finish one lap down, a performance for which he was not awarded any world championship points. #2522/16/23 then passed into the hands of Scuderia Centro Sud.

Towards the end of 1958 chassis #2522/16/23 was given the identity it carries to this day namely #2526 and passed through the hands of Keith Campbell, Richard Bergel, Lord Angus Clydesdale, Earl of Strathmore, Bobby Bell and it’s current owner Peter Heuberger for whom the car is seen prepared in the pits at last years HGPCA Test day at Silverstone last year.

To keep you on your toes David McKinney records that the identity #2522 was also used for the original chassis #2507 now owned by Jose Albuquerque which as you know I looked at last week !

With thanks to David McKinney and his book Maserati 250F which was kindly lent to me by Tim Murray.

Thanks for joining me on this “Identity Crisis What Identity Crisis ?” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you’ll join me tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a vintage Bugatti. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS It is with great sadness that I have learned that David McKinney passed away a couple of weeks ago. It was my privilege to meet David on a couple of occasions and for GALPOT to have benefited from his knowledge which he never hesitated to share on many more going back to the blogs earliest days.

I am sure you will join me in sending sincerest condolences to Davids family and many friends. RIP David the man who knew “lots of things“.

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Dinger’s All Wheel Drive – McLaren Ford M9A

After the limited success of the Ferguson P99 in circuit racing from 1961 to 1963 Peter Westbury drove the P99 in 1964 and won the British Hillclimb Championship.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

Meanwhile Andy Granatelli working with Ferguson had entered Bobby Unser in the Studebaker STP Special for the 1964 Indy 500 where he qualified 22nd but retired after an accident on the opening lap. BRM also became interested in all wheel drive in 1964 building the BRM P67 to test the system in anticipation of the forthcoming 3 litre / 183 cui motors that were to be mandated for Formula One in 1966. The P67 was driven in practice for the 1964 British Grand Prix by Grand Prix debutant Richard Attwood where the car was the slowest to take part. BRM concluded remarkably quickly that all wheel drive held no benefits for them and with drew the car from the race.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

In 1968 Peter Westbury resurrected the P67 to win the British Hill Climb Championship again. By this time the Granatelli entered ’67 Paxton Special and ’68 Lotus 56 had both come with in 25 miles of winning the Indy 500 in successive years with gas turbine cars both featuring all wheel drive.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

By 1969 four teams were ready to try all wheel drive again despite BRM’s Tony Rudd telling anyone who would listen that the system would not work in Formula One. One of those teams was led by Bruce McLaren who helped Swiss designer Jo Marquart with the Ford Cosworth powered M9A.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

The car was tested and entered into the 1969 British Grand Prix for Derek ‘Dinger’ Bell to drive. Derek qualified 15th, of seventeen, and retired having completed just 5 laps when the rear suspension failed.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

For McLaren this was enough to confirm what BRM had realised, that all wheel drive was not for Formula One, by 1969 improvements in aerodynamics and tyres which by now were much wider than when the Ferguson P99 first appeared had reduced the necessity for drive to the front wheels.

Thanks for joining me on this “Dinger’s All Wheel Drive” 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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