Tag Archives: Herrmann

Swiss Hill Climb Champion – Abarth Simca 2Mila Corsa #0051

Keen to promote a sporting image Simca turned to renowned Fiat tuner and racing car manufacturer Carlo Abarth to help them achieve their goal in the early 1960’s.

Abarth Simca 2Mila, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Alongside his work producing performance tuning parts for Simca Abarth developed the 140mph Abarth Simca 1300GT based on Simca 1000 running gear in 1962 which won it’s class in the 1964 World Manufacturers’ Championship for sports cars with drivers Tom Fleming, Otto Linton, James Diaz, Pietro Laureati, Secondo Ridolfi, Hans Herrmann, Fritz Jüttner, Hans-Dieter Dechent, Denis Borel, Ernst Furtmayr, Klaus Steinmetz, Herbert Demetz and Anton Fischhaber all contributing to the manufacturers win.

Abarth Simca 2Mila, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

1964 Abarth also started racing the 2 litre / 122 cui 2Mila that was powered by a motor producing around 200hp, unfortunately the transmission could not cope with the power in the longer races and only Hans Herman recorded a class win in the 1964 World Manufacturers’ Championship for sports cars in the IV. Coppa di Citta Enna while leaving Porsche to win the 2 litre class from Alfa Romeo.

Abarth Simca 2Mila, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

In shorter non championship events and hillclimbs the 2Mila recorded at least 9 further victories and 3 additional class wins up until 1966 by which time the project had been abandoned by Abarth after Simca was merged into Chrysler Europe.

Abarth Simca 2Mila, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

The remaining known overall and class spoils for the model were divided between Eberhard Mahle, Franco Patria 6, Kurt Ahrens Jr, Jochen Rindt 2, Jody Porter and Herbert Demetz.

Abarth Simca 2Mila, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Today’s featured chassis #0051 was bought new by Dr Hans Kuhnis who won the 1965 Swiss GT Championship with it, allegedly Dr Kuhnis had his wife harrang Abarth on the Monday after every event to ensure he had the latest parts in time for the following event.

Abarth Simca 2Mila, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Middle Barton Garage undertook a restoration of #0051 in 2006, fitting gear ratio’s that give the car a top speed of 155mph for it’s owner.

Thanks for joining me on this “Swiss Hill Climb Champion” 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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Maserati Monday – Maserati 250F 2507/23/22

I thought it would be fun to give the pick ups, commercial and agricultural vehicles that have been a feature of Monday’s posts and restyle the day Maserati Monday, bookend the working week with two Italian marques can’t be bad, can it ?

Of the seven World Drivers Championship era’s perhaps the most romanticised is the 3rd from 1954 to 1960 when the rules mandated 2.5 litre / 152.5 cui motors to replace the 2 litre / 122 cui Formula 2 motors that had been used to determine the 1952 and 1953 World Drivers Championships.

Maserati 250F, Test Day, Mallory Park

If one car epitomises the era more than other then it is the Maserati 205F versions which took part in the very first and very last championship race of the era winning the first the 1954 Argentinian Grand Prix in the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio and being long since surpassed by the rear engined cars from Cooper and Lotus when Robert Drake soldiered away to a 13th place finish in his Joe Lubin entered 250F, 7 laps down on the winning Lotus Climax driven by Stirling Moss in the last race of the 2.5 litre era the 1960 US Grand Prix.

Maserati 250F, Test Day, Mallory Park

Apart from the 8 World Championship Grand Prix won by 250F variants, bettered only by Mercedes Benz with nine victories, while the 250F clocked up an unequaled 23 non championship Formula One race victories in the same era.

Maserati 250F, Test Day, Mallory Park

Most of the twenty six 250F’s built led hard racing lives and consequently have complicated histories today’s featured car #2507 is no exception having originally been bought by Gilbey Engineering for Roy Salvadori to drive in 1954. Roy one a non championship race at Snetterton with the car and scored many other podium placings before he crashed at Oulton Park which led to the car being returned to the Maserati factory for repairs.

Maserati 250F, Albuquerque, Test Day, Mallory Park

Maserati replaced the chassis of 2507 and sent it back to Gilbey Engineering an now it get’s complicated, the Gilbey car was eventually retired after Ivor Beub had raced it, but the damaged Gilbey chassis was repaired and given a new identity #2523 for the 1956 season in which Bristol’s Horace Gould drove the car in the Belgian Grand Prix and Piero Taruffi in the French, on each occasion it retired.

Maserati 250F, Test Day, Mallory Park

In 1957 #2523 was rebodied and given a the identity #2522 and from then until 1959 it was driven by a dozen different drivers, including Taruffi, Gould, Harry Schell, Masten Gregory, Ivor Bueb, Hans Herrmann, Joakim Bonnier, Wolfgang Seidel, Carroll Shelby, Cliff Allison, Hernando da Silva Ramos and Fritz d’Orey of which Harry Schell scored the best result a second place in the non championship 1957 Grand Prix de Pau.

By 1960 #2507/23/22 had been shipped to Brazil Gino Munaron raced it at least once before selling it on, eventually the car was fitted with a Chevrolet V8 before being brought back to Europe by Colin Crabbe in 1972. The current owner, Jose Albuquerque seen enjoying the car at a Mallory Park test day a couple of years ago, acquired #2507/23/22 in 1999.

My thanks to David McKinney, Michael ‘Tuboscocca’ Catsch, John Winfield, Allan Luton and Alan Cox at the Nostalgia Forum for their patience and understanding answering my questions and not least to Tim Murray who kindly lent me a copy of David McKinney’s excellent book ‘Maserati 250F‘ which is as good as it get’s in print on the subject of these wonderful cars. New evidence is always being shed on the stories of these cars so if you know different to what is written above, please do not hesitate to chime in below.

Thanks for joining me on this “Maserati Monday” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be starting the first in a series of Bugatti blogs. Don’t forget to come back now !

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