Tag Archives: Denny

Caution Wide Vehicle – McLaren M23 M23/6

McLaren M23, Donington

The Ford Cosworth DFV powered McLaren M23 was designed by Gordon Cuppock, based on the lessons learned from the successful McLaren M16 Indy car. The M23 driven by Denny Hulme burst onto the Grand Prix scene in 1973 with a pole position on its debut in South Africa. Denny scored the first win for the model in Sweden and Peter Revson followed that with wins in Great Britain and Canada in 1973.

For 1974 Denny who won his last race in an M23 in the season opening Argentinian GP was joined in the McLaren team by 1972 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi who won in Brazil, Belgium, and Canada on his way to becoming the 1974 World Champion. McLaren also won the World Constructors title in 1974.

Jochen Mass joined Emerson in the McLaren team in 1975 winning the shortened Spanish GP while Emerson won in Argentina and Great Britain to finish 2nd in the World Drivers Championship.

1976 would prove to be the chassis most successful year in terms of wins with James Hunt, who replaced Emerson in the team crossing the line first in Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada and the United States.

However 1976 was a year of high drama and comedy in Formula One first James was disqualified from the Spanish Grand Prix because his car was 1.8cm less than an inch too wide. In 1975 the McLaren had been used as a base model too set the dimensions for the 1976 Formula regulations.

McLaren successfully argued that when the tyres on the car were moving they were taller as a result of the centrifugal force taking up the slack on the side walls of the tyres and that this accounted for the discrepancy. The governing F.I.A. accepted this argument and the win was reinstated with a $3,000 fine, when the M23’s next appeared they had a slightly narrower rear track.

On the first corner, Paddock Bend, of the opening lap of the British Grand Prix James Hunt was the innocent victim in a crash with Ferrari’s Clay Reggazoni. The race was stopped and James who’s car was severely damaged took a short cut to get back to the pits when the race was stopped.

Come the restart the organisers initially refused to allow James to line up on the grid because the team had worked to repair his car while the mess was being cleared up. However people power intervened and fearing a riot from the partisan crowd the organisers relented, James took the win, he and the partisan crowd partied long and hard into the night and later the F.I.A. disqualified both Hunt and Clay Regazzoni from the event for having failed to complete the opening lap.

Up until this point reigning Champion Niki Lauda had dominated the 1976 Championship with four wins three seconds, the last of which became 1st after Hunt’s disqualification from the British GP and a third. The next race was the ill feted German Grand Prix in which Niki was eliminated in an accident that triggered an inferno from which he was lucky to escape with his life.

James won the German Grand Prix and the Dutch GP while Niki recuperated and 39 days after the inferno at the Nurburgring Niki and James met again at the Italian GP. At the end of practice for the Italian GP James and Mclaren team mate Jochen Mass and John Watson at Penske were found to be running with a fuel octane rating that was too high and had their Saturday times disallowed.

Since it had been raining during the first practice sessions on the Friday Hunt, Mass and Watson had effectively failed to qualify, however the 13 second plus off pace Otto Stuppacher was already on his way home to Austria when the announcement and the Marlboro sponsored Art Mezario withdrew as did Englishman Guy Edwards allowing Hunt, Mass and Watson to start.

Hunt crashed trying to make time and was applauded for doing so by the Tifosi and Lauda came home a remarkable 4th in his first race back.

James won both the Canadian and US Grand Prix while the brave Niki could only amass a further three championship points. Going into he last race of the season the Japanese GP Niki had a 3 point lead over James.

For the race James qualified 2nd behind Andretti with Niki just one place further back. I remember getting up at some unholy hour to watch this race live on TV in the UK and remember the disappointment when I saw the monsoon that unfolded on the track.

After much debate amongst the driver the race started and Niki who had lost his eyelids in the German inferno and yet to have them replaced through plastic surgery had little choice but to retire in the near zero visibility conditions. James took an early lead in the race but as the rain stopped and the track started to dry Hunt started losing ground dropping to 5th after a pit stop to replace a punctured tyre with just a few laps to go.

James charged back into the race managing to regain two positions which left him in third position when the flag came out for Mario Andretti to win by just over a lap from Patrick Depailler, with James Hunt, who had no idea what his position was in the race, right on his tail.

Hunt only learned that he had become champion after he got out of the car and stopped shouting at team manager Teddy Meyer for a less than perfect pit stop.

Hunt won the 1976 World Drivers title by just one point and Great Britain had it’s first World Champion since Jackie Stewart had won his last crown in 1973.

The McLaren M23 was pressed into service again in 1977 but its competitiveness was on the wane James winning a non championship race before committing fully to the M26 successor which had gone through a troublesome one year gestation period before coming on song.

The works M23 had a final swan song when it introduced Gilles Villeneuve to the world of Grand Prix racing in Great Britain and Bruno Jack’O’Malley in Italy towards the end of the 1977.

I have done my best to find out exactly which of the 13 M23 chassis this is, The Donington Museum blurb identified this car as McLaren M23/8 and said it was used to win the ’76 Spanish and US GP’s however M23/8 was destroyed in 1975. The car was then given a new tub with the chassis number M23/8-2 and the old tub was apparently eventually repaired to 1975 tall airbox spec and now resides in the United States.

M23/8-2 went on to become one of the stars of the 1976 season being used to win the controversial Spanish GP along with those in Canada and the US GP. M23/8-2 is said to belong to BCE the man responsible for running the the whole Formula Show since 1981.

It is said that the vehicle in my photograph appeared at the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the World Grand Prix Drivers Championship in Bahrain last year, it is also suggested that the M23 which appeared at Bahrain belongs to the brave octogenarian who started a modelling career with Hublot earlier this year however I have no firm evidence of the ownership of the vehicle in the photograph at the top of this post
at this time.

Most likely the vehicle above seen at the Donington Park Museum is M23/6 which seems to meet many of the criteria hinted at on various threads of The Nostalgia Forum and who’s whereabouts is listed as unknown by the respected Old Racing Car site.

M23/6 was used by Denny Hulme to win the Agentine Grand Prix in 1974 then in 1976 James Hunt drove it to win the French Grand Prix, cross the line first in Great Britain only to be disqualified .

At the next race the German Grand Prix I saw James win in this chassis which became one of a rare set of vehicles that crossed the line first in three consecutive races, though it was disqualified from one of them.

In 1977 Emilio de Villota drove M23/6 with little success in Grand Prix events, 2 starts three DNQ’s, but did win two rounds of a British series open to all single seat racing cars.

My thanks to Michael Ferner, Wouter Melissen, Steve Holter, Simon Hadfield, Slurp1955, at The Nostalgia Forum for their valuable contributions to todays blog.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s 1976 edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

The Kiwi Bear – McLaren Offy M15

This is the only photo to have so far surfaced by Ed Arnaudin at Indianapolis from 1970.

Indy70 001s

The car is a McLaren M15, based loosely on the Can Am dominating M8 chassis, Gordon Coppuck incorporated numerous parts from the M8 Can Am car into the design of the M15. The stressed aluminium monocoque chassis was held together with 3 steel bulkheads with the 4 cylinder Offy turbocharged engine bolted directly to the rear most and supported by two a frame running form the bulkhead to the bell housing.

The drivers of the cars were originally scheduled to be 1967 world champion Denny Hulme known as ‘The Bear’ in the #73 and Chris Amon in the #75, though team founder, Bruce McLaren also turned a few laps in the #79 spare car on the first day of practice running in a three car line astern McLaren train with fellow New Zealanders Denny and Chris. Bruce however never had any intention of taking the start.

The #73 of Denny caught fire during practice as a result of a fuel leak from a quick release breather cap that had not been properly secured. As Denny slowed the car down the intensity of the largely unseen methanol flames increased forcing him to jump from his car while it was still moving at an estimated 70 mph !

Denny was to miss the 500 due to the burns his hands received, meanwhile Chris Amon was not happy about the Indianapolis track set up, his speed was 3 mph slower than Bobby Unser who tested the #75 and the extent of the injuries received by Denny convinced him to withdraw from the race.

Teddy Meyer team manager drafted Carl Williams into the #75, he qualified 19th and finished 8th, while Peter Revson was drafted into the #73 qualifying 16th he retired from the race with a broken magneto classified 22nd.

2 days after the 1970 Indy 500 McLaren founder Bruce McLaren was killed testing the latest incarnation of the McLaren M8 Can Am car leaving Denny Hulme and Peter Revson to become the back bone of the McLaren team in Formula One, USAC and Can Am series until 1974.

Thank you for joining me on this Team Kiwi edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

07 12 12 PS Jerry Entin has kindly informed me that the original plan was for Denny Hulme to drive the #73 but that he burned his hands shaking down the #79 McLaren. As a consequence Peter Revson was drafted in to drive the #73. I’ll be writing a full follow up blog with some interesting new photographs during the month of May.

Share

1962 DNQ – John Zink Trackburner

The other day I caught a bit of a radio programme about interview questions asked of potential Oxbridge (Oxford & Cambridge) university students, one of which was “If you are not in California how do you know it exists ?”

This got me thinking about if one was not at a particular race how could one know what happened ?

Looking into the story behind today’s photograph by Ed Arnaudin several ‘beliefs’ I have long held were ‘corrected’, namely that after the appearance of Jack Brabham’s Cooper Coventry Climax T54 the next car with an engine in the back to appear at Indianapolis was Jim Clark’s #92 Lotus Ford 29 in 1963.

Much to my surprise I found out that there were two rear engine vehicle types at Indianapolis in 1962 !

John Zink Trackburner, Indianapolis

The John Zink Trackburner, above, and Mickey Thompson’s Harvey Aluminium Special, remarkably they were both driven by Dan Gurney who invited Colin Chapman of Lotus over, all expenses paid, for the 1962 Indy 500 in an attempt to secure a deal with Lotus & Ford to have a winning shot at the race in 1963 !

The history of running turbines in Indy cars goes back to 1955 when a Kurtis Kraft 3000 chassis was fitted with a 175 hp Gas Turbine with the support of USAF General Curtis Le May. This vehicle known as the SAC Fireboid, see images at the bottom of this link, was used for testing by Firestone and for a demonstration at Indy in 1955.

In 1958 a Mr Williams of the Boeing Aircraft Company approached Frank Kurtis in 1958 to design a purpose made turbine powered vehicle, allegedly Frank drew up plans for a vehicle with the engine at the rear, primarily do deal with the 1000º F plus exhaust gas temperatures. However the powers that be at USAC were not sufficiently timely or co-operative to get the project up and running.

For 1962 the 1955 and ’56 winning owner John Zink had his Chief Mechanic Denny Moore build a rear engine chassis to take a Boeing Turbine.

Prior to the Indy 500 the car was tested and crashed by John ‘Jack’ Zink at his own private 5/8ths mile circuit which included 11º banking ! After repairs the car was taken to Indianapolis where the rookie road racer Dan Gurney tried it after passing his Rookie test in a front engine Roadster.

Gurney managed to run at 143 mph not fast enough to qualify in the gas turbine Trackburner and felt that though more speed was achievable throttle lag in traffic would present insurmountable problems during the race. Dan ended up qualifying and racing Thompson’s Buick stock block, under, powered Harvey Aluminium Special instead.

Indy veteran Duane Carter was next to run in the Gas Turbine Trackburner, Carter ran slower in the corners but faster on the straights than Gurney recording a best time of 142 mph.

John Zink Trackburner, Indianapolis

Duane qualified for the ’62 Indy 500 in a conventional roadster belonging to Zink and Bill Cheesebourg, most likely the driver seen in the car here, had a shot at running in the turbine Trackburner he managed a best time of 145 mph but like Gurney fancied his chances in a Buick stock block powered Thompson, unlike Gurney he could not get up to qualifying speed before crashing.

Finally Duane Carter in danger of being bumped off the grid had one more shot at qualifying in the turbine Trackburner but he could not record a time faster than 143 mph. It was concluded that despite running nearly a full race distance during qualification for the 500 the combination of throttle lag, high track side temperatures, and inconsistencies born out of the three different drivers who spent time in the cockpit led to the cars failure to qualify.

My thanks to Steve Arnadin for scanning his Dad’s photograph, to Tom, E.B, Michael, Tim, at The Nostalgia Forum, for filling a large gap in my knowledge.

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

Share

May the best man win – Homestead Miami

When the intelnet first entered my life around 2003/4 thanks to some excellent writing by Jerry Bonkowski I found myself developing an interest in all things NASCAR.

That interest turned to fandom when I won a Happy Harvick hat thanks to a competition run by Jay Busbee’s From The Marbles Blog.

Last year I was fortunate for a third time when I won tickets to go to the Aarons 499 at Talladega, where these photos were taken, thanks to Buck Fever over at rowdy.com.

Today is the final round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup and ‘my driver’ Kevin Harvick stands an outside chance of winning it all.

May the best man win, Go Harvick ! Go #29 ! Go Happy !

More fun at ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ tomorrow don’t forget to come back now !

Share