Tag Archives: Colmar

166 mph From 79 cui – Alpine M65 #1719

In 1963 Alpine started building a series of Renault powered and sponsored prototype race cars that included the M63, M64 and two 1965 M65 prototype racers.

One Len Terry designed M65 chassis, #1718 was powered by a 1149 cc / 70 cui Renault engine and the other today’s featured chassis #1719 was by a 1296 cc / 79 cui engine from the same source.

Alpine M65, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

#1719’s known history covers just eight events in 1965 and 1966 starting with the Le Mans Test weekend in April 1965 when Mauro Bianchi, Roger Delageneste, Jean Vinatier, Roger Masson and Jean-Pierre Hanrioud all took turns at the wheel and recorded 15th best time overall, fastest in the 79 cui class.

#1718 was taken to the 1965 Targa Florio for Mauro Bianchi and Henri Grandsire to drive but they failed to finish after the car was fire damaged as the result of an accident.

Alpine M65, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Mauro and Henri were entrusted with #1719 for the 1965 Le Mans 24 hours where they qualified 33rd with a time of 4m 20 seconds but retired with gearbox failure after completing just 32 laps.

Mauro was then joined by brother Lucien Bianchi for the 500kms race at the Nurburgring which was restricted to vehicles with engines no larger than 1.3 litres / 79 cui and they won the event.

Alpine M65, Portron/Frankowski, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

At the 1965 Albi GP Mauro drove to a 3rd place finish solo before the car was renamed an Alpine A210 for the 1966 season.

Mauro and Henri Grandsire retired from the 1000km race at Monza with a recalcitrant 1.3 litre / 79 cui engine.

Alpine M65, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

At Le Mans the car was fitted with a 1 litre / 61 cui motor and was driven by André de Cortanze and Jean-Pierre Hanrioud who completed 118 laps before the water pump failed.

#1719’s final appearance was at the 1967 Nurburgring 500kms where Roger Delageneste won the prototype class, but finished second to the similar capacity Abarth 1300 OT of Ernst Furtmayr which was running in the Sports Car class.

At Le Mans in 1965 #1719, seen in these photo’s at Goodwood Festival of Speed last year where Hughes Portron and Piotr Frankowski shared the driving, with just 130 hp recorded a top speed of 268 kph / 166 mph.

Thanks for joining me on this “166 mph From 79 cui” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I will be returning to Hullavington. Don’t forget to come back now !

Jun Jeans – Mazda RX7 253i

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Welcome to the first of 26 vehicles that will be featured this month that have either run at, or are of a type that have run in the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race, I will be featuring these cars every day this month except Wednesday, there will be no prizes for guessing what the featured marque will be on Mazda Monday’s.

In 1979 Mazda ran a single Mazda RX7, also known as a 252i, at the fastest round about in the world for Tetsu Ikuzawa, Youjirou Terada and Claude Buchet but it failed to qualify with a best qualifying time of 4m 18.880 s.

The 252i is thought to have raced at Fuji on at least 3 occasions, but a class win in November ’79, for Youjirou Terada and Nico Nicole, is the only known result.

Mazda RX7, Silverstone 6 Hours,

Three years later today’s featured car the RX7 253i made it’s debut sans 252i type rear wing at the 1981 Silverstone 6 Hours, as seen in these photographs, where it was driven to a IMSA GTU class win and 8th place overall finish from 23rd on the grid by Youjirou Terada and Win Percy.

Youjirou and Win were joined by Hiroshi Fushida at Le Mans in 1981 where they out qualified a Domon sponsored sister car driven by Tom Walkinshaw, Pete Lovett and Tetsu Ikuzawa with a 49th best time of 4:04.790 against the 51st best time of 4:07.180 achieved by the Domon sponsored drivers.

Neither 253i finished the race the Jun (Jeans not Speed Shop) sponsored car retired after completing 25 laps with a rear axle problem while the Donon sponsored car retired with a rotary engine problem.

Mazda RX7, Youjirou Terada / Win Percy, Silverstone 6 Hours,

253i’s were raced in Japan until 1986 by teams that included Kinomi Racing, Team Speed Shop Seven, Yours Sport, Alpha Cubic Racing Team, Mishima Auto Hanbai, Capris Enterprise,TRS Itabashi, Koyata Engei Racing and AMRC teams.

The best known results for the model are three second place overall finishes for Tony Trimmer and Nico Nicole at Suzuka in August 1981, at Fuji 1000kms in July 1982 for the Alpha Cubic Racing Team trio Chiyomi Totani, Kaoru Iida and Keiichi Suzuki and finally for the Aqua Motors Club No.3 drivers Chikage Oguchi and Takashi Yorino in the November 1982 Fuji 500 kms.

In 1982 Mazda built an even more radical body for a pair RX7 254i’s for Le Mans and got one of two cars entered to a 14th place finish at Le Mans with Youjirou, Takashi Yorino and Australian Allan Moffat sharing the driving.

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

Soft Alloy Special – Lotus Ford 38/7

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On the back of their success with Jim Clark in 1965 Lotus took orders for two new Ford powered Lotus 38’s for the 1966 season, while the now STP Oil Treatment sponsored works Lotus team intended to use a new car powered by a 4.2 litre / 256 cui version of the fearsome BRM H16.

Lotus were busy preparing new cars for the new 3 litre era Formula One season and so they subcontracted the building of the chassis for these cars, ordered by Dean Van Lines and Sheraton Thompson to be driven by Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt respectively, out to Abbey Panels of Coventry, when it became apparent the BRM H16 would not be available a third Lotus 38 chassis was ordered from Abbey Panels for works driver Al Unser to drive.