Tag Archives: Finotto

Murray’s Triangular Monocoque – Brabham Cosworth BT42 #BT42/6

After winning three World Drivers Championships two with Cooper in 1959 and 1960 and one with his own Brabham Team in 1966 Jack Brabham decided he was going to sell up and retire at the end of 1969. He got as far as selling the team to his partner the Australian designer/engineer Ron Tauranac in 1969 but after Jochen Rindt elected to stay with the Lotus team for 1970 Jack Brabham drove for the team in 1970 before hanging up his helmet with his team placed 4th in the constructors championship.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The following season Ron ran the Brabham team with Graham Hill and Tim Schenken scoring a non championship race win with Graham Hill and a few points in the championship. Ron decided that he needed a business partner to continue and ended up selling the team to a former racer sometime team owner and driver manager called Bernie Ecclestone. It soon become clear that both Ecclestone and Tauranac liked things done their was and so Ron left early in 1972.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

For the 1972 season Graham Hill was still the number one driver with Argentinian Carlos Reutemann and Wilson Fittipaldi, brother of 1972 World Champion Emerson, driving second and third string entries.For the second year running Brabham finished 9th in the constructors championship last of the point’s scorers.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

For 1973 South African Gordon Murray was given the responsibility of coming up with the Brabham team’s new challenger and he came up with the Brabham BT42 built around a monocoque that unusually, for the time, featured a triangular cross section as seen seen in these photographs.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Carlos Reutemann and and Wilson Fittipaldi were the teams front line drivers being joined on occasion by Andrea de Adamich until he broke his legs in an accident on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, Andrea was replaced by Rolf Stommelen and then John Watson in the final Grand Prix of the season at Watkins Glen.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Reutemann managed six points paying finishes with the best being two thirds in the 1973 French and US Grand Prix while Andrea, in an older 1972 Brabham BT37, and Wilson added another 6 points between them all of which moved Brabham back up to 4th in the World Constructors championship.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

This particular chassis is the sixth and final Brabham BT42 built it first appeared in the 1973 Austrian Grand Prix as a replacement for the chassis damaged in the accident at the 1973 British GP. Rolf Stommelen drove the car three times qualifying a best 12th in Italy and finishing a best 12th in Italy and Canada. John Watson qualified the car 24th for the US Grand Prix but the engine did not go the race distance.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Bernie Ecclestone sold chassis #BT42/6 and BT42/5 to Martino Finotto for the 1974 season, Finotto a seasoned sports car racer realised he was out of his depth in Formula One and so arranged for fellow sportscar racers Swiss Silvio Moser, 1973 and ’74 Le Mans winner Gérard Larrousse, Austrian Helmut Koenigg and Italian Carlo Facetti to drive the cars in several European Grand Prix.

Brabham BT42, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

In the end only Gérard Larrousse made a start in the car, having qualified 28th for the 1974 Belgian Grand Prix he retired with tyre issues. When Gérard unsuccessfully tried to qualify the car at the 1974 French Grand Prix it carried a particularly hideous airbox as can be seen in this linked image.

Thanks for joining me on this “Murray’s Triangular Monocoque” 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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Street ‘n’ Comp #1 – Lancia Beta Montecarlo

The Lancia Beta Montecarlo was based on the prototype Abarth 030 which was intended to be a big brother to the little Bertone designed X 1/9 sports car and carry a similar FIAT badge.

Lancia Montecarlo, Bristol IAMF

For reasons that are not at all clear the project was passed over to Lancia and the cars were constructed by Pininfarina who had designed the body work.

Lancia Montecarlo, Bristol IAMF

3,853 first series ‘Beta Montecarlos’ were built and 1,940 second series vehicles were built and marketed under the simplified Montecarlo, one word, name. In the US 1,801 Montecarlos known as Scorpions were sold, these are distinguishable by a pair of semi pop up round headlights.

Lancia Montecarlo, Bristol IAMF

Montecarlos of both series left the factory with 2 litre / 122 cui 120 hp motors mounted transversely behind the driver, while the Scorpions had smaller 80 hp 1756 cc / 107 cui motors which met US emissions regulations.

Lancia Montecarlo, Bristol IAMF

Fellow #53 Beetle fan and GALPOT Birthday boy Jeff Fuller may remember that Herbie fell in love with a powder blue Montecarlo / Scorpion called Giselle in the 1977 film Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.

After both BMW and Porsche had withdrawn factory support for the silhouette Group 5 sports car formula in 1978 Lancia stepped up to the plate and joined the fray with a Group 5 Lancia Montecarlo Turbo for the 1979 season. Above the wild styling of the racer was matched by an equally wild paint job courtesy of the Pubbli Auto Torino graphics agency. On its debut at Silverstone the car qualified 7th in the hands of Riccardo Patrese and World Rally Champion Walter Rorhl and retired with head gasket failure. The cars eventually proved sufficiently reliable to win the under 2 litre division of the World Championship for Makes.

Lancia Montecarlo Turbo, Silverstone

By 1980 the Dallara built Montecarlo Turbo’s had became reliable and fast enough to beat large numbers of privately entered Porsche 935’s and sundry others outright at Brands Hatch, Mugello and Watkins Glen. Above the #54 driven by Rorhl and Michele Alboreto scored a class victory at Silverstone which helped Lancia win the class and overall 1980 World Championship for Makes. At the end of the year two of these cars also scored a 1-2 victory on the mixed race rally Giro d’Italia having been disqualified from a similar result the year before.

Lancia Montecarlo Turbo, Silverstone

In 1980 two privately entered Montecarlo Turbo’s were used by Jolly Club and Team GS-Sport the former with drivers Martino Finotto and Carlo Facetti mostly entered in the World Championship races as at Silverstone above and the latter entered a car for Hans Heyer in the German DRM Championship which he won outright.

Lancia Montecarlo Turbo, BMW M1, Silvestone

For 1981 with Martini sponsorship, as seen above with Patrese and Eddie Cheever driving at a soaking Silverstone, Lancia entered a car with a larger turbocharged motor in the over 2 liter category at selected events in order to steal points from Porsche in the over 2 liter class of the World Championship for Makes. The ploy did not really work but a victory by a BMW M1 in the over 2 litre class did ensure Porsche did not have maximum points at the seasons end and so handed Lancia with a clean sweep in the smaller class the overall World Championship title.

Lancia Montecarlo Turbo, Le Mans

The #65 Montecarlo Turbo above was driven by Alboreto, Cheever and Facetti from 31st on grid to an 8th place overall and 2nd in class finish at Le Mans in 1981.

Lancia Montecarlo Turbo, Silverstone

Using the same #0009 chassis as Alboreto, Cheever and Faceti had used at Le Mans in 1981, but now entered by the private Vesuvio Racing, Prime Minister Margret Thatchers son Mark is seen here at the wheel he shared with Jim Crawford and Joe Castellano on the way to a 10th place finish in the 1982 Silverstone 6 Hour race. With no factory backing Group 5 had been dropped from World Championship status and the cars were make weights during 1982 in a series dominated by the Porsche 956 Group C cars and Lancia LC1 prototypes.

I was surprised to learn that the last ‘in period’ victory for the Monte Carlo Turbo in 1983 was credited to a then reigning World Drivers Champion Keke Rosberg driving in a national race at Ahveniston Syyskilpailu in Finland. Even more surprisingly here is a link to a youtube clip of Keke’s achievement.

I hope you will join me in wishing Jeff Fuller a Happy Birthday.

Thanks for joining me on this Street’n’Comp 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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