Tag Archives: Dunsfold Aerodrome

Flint Stones – Surtees Ford TS14A #03 & #04

In 1972 new regulations were rushed through for Formula One cars mandating deformable structures be fitted to the sides of the vehicles in an attempt to reduce the risk of cars bursting into flames in the event of a side impact. Two sets of regulations were written one for more or less immediate effect in 1972 and a seperate more robust set of deformable structures regulations for 1973.

Surtees Ford TS14A, Wings & Wheels, Dunsfold Aerodrome

Towards the end of the 1972 season John Surtees 1973 challenger was the first to appear at the 1972 Italian Grand Prix built to the latest safety regulations. John qualified 19th and retired from what turned out to be his final Grand Prix race after 113 starts over 13 seasons which included six wins and one World Drivers Championship. Tim Schenken qualified 31st in the final race of the 1972 season at Watkins Glen but also retired.

Surtees Ford TS14A, Wings & Wheels, Dunsfold Aerodrome

During the off season John Surtees was caught on the hop with the wrong tyre contract after Firestone which had been used by the 1972 Champions Emerson Fittipaldi and Lotus were to quit the sport at the end of 1973 and would not be developing their tyres any further through the 1973 season while their supply contracts to the likes of BRM, Surtees and Williams ran out.

Surtees Ford TS14A, Silverstone Classic

So with little hope of achieving any worth results Surtees ploughed on through the 1973 season. Nominal team leader Mike Hailwood managed a season best qualification of 6th in the 1973 US Grand Prix, using the #04 chassis seen carrying the #23 race number here at Wings and Wheels at Dunsfold Aerodrome, and a best season race finish non points 7th in the 1973 Italian Grand Prix.

Surtees Ford TS14A, Wings & Wheels, Dunsfold Aerodrome

Team mate Carlos Pace meanwhile scored a season high 5th in the 1973 Italian Grand Prix and finished 4th in the German Grand Prix and 3rd in the following Austrian Grand Prix as well as taking fastest lap on the way to both points scoring finishes. Carlos finished 11th in the Drivers Championship and Surtees 9th in the 1973 Constructors championship. For 1974 Surtees built two new TS16 cars to be driven by Carlos Pace and Jochen Mass. When sponsorship for the season failed to materialise Carlos found his way into a drive at Brabham.

Surtees Ford TS14A, Wings & Wheels, Dunsfold Aerodrome

Mike Hailwood drove a third works car for McLaren in 1974 until an accident at the Nurburgring prematurely ended his career. Jochen Mass would end up taking over the drive at the end of 1974.

The low point for the Surtees team in 1973 came at the British Grand Prix where they had three cars of Hailwood, Pace and Mass all wiped out in the first lap collision at Woodcote Corner that eliminated a six additional vehicles see this linked clip, note that thanks to the new deformable structures no fire’s were started in the accident.

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International Gold Cup Winner – Surtees Ford TS7 #01

After quitting Ferrari midway through 1966 John Surtees joined the Cooper Maserati team and finished the season second to Champion Jack Brabham who became the, first and so far only driver to win the Formula Championship in a car of his own design. At the end of the 1966 season John drove a Lola T70 in the inaugural Can Am championship run by his own team winning three races and beating Mark Donohue to the Championship.

Surtees TS7, Wings & Wheels, Dunsfold

For 1967 ‘Big John’ joined the Honda Grand Prix team which netted a win in the Italian Grand Prix while he returned to defend his Can Am championship but with only a single win he could not keep up with the Bruce and Denny show which was gathering steam taking 5 victories between them in their orange McLaren Chevrolet M6A’s.

Surtees TS7, British Grand Prix, Silverstone

Two unreliable seasons in formula one followed first with Honda in 1968 and then BRM in 1969, but in 1969 John started building his first cars, designed by Len Terry the TS5’s were designed for the stock block Formula 5000 series, Team Elite ran one of these cars and with Trevor Taylor at the wheel it scored four straight victories.

Surtees TS7, British Grand Prix, Silverstone

After his poor run of results with the BRM P138 and P139 which netted a season best 3rd place finish John determined he would enter the 1970 season as a constructor designing the TS7 seen here with help from Sahab Ahmed and a plucky draughtsmen with not much Formula One experience but plenty designing consumer electrical goods namely Peter Connew.

Surtees TS7, British Grand Prix, Silverstone

Seen here earlier this year in the Wings and Wheels paddock at Dunsfold Aerodrome, with an 8′ wheel base the Surtees TS7 was a typical period garagistes car with a monocoque held together by three bulkheads, a Ford Cosworth DFV motor acting as stressed member of the chassis with a Hewland DG300 five speed gearbox at the back.

Surtees TS7, British Grand Prix, Silverstone

John made his debut with his new car at the 1970 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch where Peter Connew’s cousin took the photo below. Peter can be seen at the extreme top right of the photo standing next to him is Sahab Ahmed.

Surtees TS7, British Grand Prix, Silverstone

John scored a season high 5th place finish with the TS7 at the Canadian Grand Prix and won the non championship Oulton Park Gold Cup with the same chassis which was restored to it’s present condition in 2010. In 1971 Brian Redman drove this chassis to a seventh place finish in South Africa, Allan Rollinson then drove it to a 9th place finish in the International Trophy at Silverstone and finally a week after wining the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours with Helmut Marko, Gijs van Lennep drove the car to an 8th place finish in his home Dutch Grand Prix run at Zandvoort.

My thanks to Barry Boor for sharing his photograph.

Thanks for joining me on this “International Gold Cup Winner” 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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