Tag Archives: Nichols

Dodge Powered Guest Car – Shadow Dodge DN6 #3A

For the 1975 US Formula 5000 season Don Nichols had Tony Southgate design a F5000 version of Shadow’s primary Formula one contender the DN5, known as the DN6 the main differences were that it required a sub frame to carry the 5 litre / 302 cui Chevrolet engines the team ran up until Atlanta, in place of the load bearing Ford Cosworth DFV used to power the DN5.

Shadow Dodge DN6, Ironstone, Concours d'Elegance

1974 Can Am Champion Jackie Oliver was retained to drive the UOP Lead Free Oil Products F5000 Shadow DN6 and his results, 3rd at Pocono, 6th at Mosport, 11th with a blown engine at Watkins Glen, 2nd At Road America and 4th at Mid Ohio showed the Chevrolet powered car was not lacking too much in competitiveness.

Shadow Dodge DN6, Ironstone, Concours d'Elegance

At Road Atlanta the team switched to Dodge Motors, coincidentally or otherwise just as the Shadow Formula One team was seeking an edge with the Chrysler Europe Matra V12 powered Shadow DN7 in Austria and Italy.

Shadow Dodge DN6, Ironstone, Concours d'Elegance

Just as with the Matra V12 in Europe the Dodge motor did not significantly improve Jackie’s fortunes he finished 4th in Atlanta, crashed at Long Beach, came home fifth at Laguna Seca and retired with low oil pressure at Riverside.

Shadow Dodge DN6, Ironstone, Concours d'Elegance

For the Long Beach Grand Prix the team entered their rising Formula One star Tom Pryce in a Dodge powered DN6 which is believed to be the one seen in these photographs taken by Geoffrey Horton at Ironside Concours d’Elegance a few years ago.

Shadow Dodge DN6, Ironstone, Concours d'Elegance

Tom retired from the race after completing just 14 laps of the final with a broken gearbox after qualifying 5th one spot behind Jackie and finishing third in his heat. At Riverside the team invited rising Tyrrell star Jody Scheckter to try the guest DN6.

The South African qualified 3rd, 5 spots ahead of Jackie, finished his heat with a blown head gasket after 5 laps and retired from the race after 33 laps with an engine problem, Jackie carried on racing the Dodge powered DN6 in 1976 with considerably more success when the car remained reliable.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs of the DN6, which has been restored by his neighbor Dennis Loscher, taken at Ironside Concours d’Elegance in 2013.

Thanks for joining me on this “Dodge Powered Guest Car” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again fr a look at the last of the nine Mercedes Benz 300 SLR’s to be built. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Out Of Obscurity – Elva FJ 100

In 1959 Frank Nichols hitherto sports racing car manufacturer Elva turned it’s attention to building single seaters for the emerging Formula Junior Championship.

Elva 100, Mark Woodhouse, Chateau Impney Hill Climb,

Their first single seater model was the Elva FJ 100, like the one seen driven by Mark Woodhouse at the recent Chateau Impney Hill Climb in these photographs.

Elva 100, Mark Woodhouse, Chateau Impney Hill Climb,

Victories for Bill de Selincourt in his British Motor Corporation ‘A-Series’ example and Peter Arundell in his DKW, supplied by Gerhard Mitter, powered example saw a flood of orders for the 1960 season.

Elva 100, Mark Woodhouse, Chateau Impney Hill Climb,

However by then the rear engined Lotus 18 and Cooper T52 were emerging as the superior machines leaving Jim Hall at Sebring and Roger Loyer at Montlhéry as the only winners for the marque in their DKW powered examples.

Elva 100, Mark Woodhouse, Chateau Impney Hill Climb,

Mark Woodhouse’s Elva was built in 1960 and spent it’s early life in relative obscurity in the United States. Since returning to the UK in the 1970’s Mark Woodhouse has driven the car to four championship successes in the front engined class and winning the outright Historic Formula Junior Championship with this car in 1999 as did his son Jack in 2009.

Thanks for joining me on this “Out Of Obscurity” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Stanley-BRM. Don’t forget to come back now !

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À Vendre – Shadow Matra DN7 #DN7/1A

Like the story À Vendre by French author Guy de Maupassant, published in 1885 the story of the Shadow DN7 is short.

Shadow DN7, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

While looking for an advantage over his fellow Cosworth DFV powered Formula One powered competitors Shadow owner Don Nichols came to an agreement with Matra to run a new 500hp development of their V12 which had won Le Mans three years running from 1972 – ’74.

Shadow DN7, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Matra had unsuccessfully run variants of the same V12 in 1968 and from 1970 to ’71 scoring a best 2nd place finish in the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix when Jean Pierre Beltoise finished second behind the Ford DFV powered Matra chassis driven by Jackie Stewart.

Shadow DN7, Grant Beath, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The Shadow DN7 is similar to the 1975 Cosworth DFV powered Shadow DN5 designed by Tony Southgate, but has a larger fuel capacity and a different arrangement for the larger side mounted radiators.

Shadow DN7, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The Shadow DN7 was entered for former Matra sports car driver Jean Pierre Jarier alongside the regular marginally less powerful but lighter DFV powered Shadow DN5 driven by Tom Pryce in the 1975 Austrian and Italian Grand Prix, both circuits for which put a premium on out right power over handling.

Shadow DN7, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

On both occasions “Jumper” Jarier out qualified Tom, but on both occasions he also retired with fuel system issues, while Tom went on to finish a team season high third in Austria and 6th in Italy.

Shadow DN7, Grant Beath, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Having proved the potential of the V12, but also failing to really impress, the DN7 was never to race again, Matra deciding to supply the fledgling Ligier team with it’s V12 for the 1976 season.

Don was sent one of the three Matra MS 73 engines built for the 1975 season so that he could display the car as complete, but it had a whole in it so that it could not run.

Current owner Grant Beath bought the DN7 from Don at the beginning of the decade and after failing to find one of the two complete MS 73 motors had his damaged one returned to running order in France.

Like the house that is the subject of the short story by Guy de Maupassant it turns out that the subject of this story is for sale, if you are in the market for a one off formula one car that makes the sweetest of V12 sounds then you can leave a message below or you can get in touch with Bill Harding or Rick Hall at Hall & Hall whose contact details can be found on this link.

Usual disclaimers apply.

Thanks for joining me on this “À Vendre” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a 2+2 Marcos. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The Ambassador’s Embassy – Shadow Cosworth DN1 #DN1-3A

Ten years after winning his first World Championship driving for BRM, in 1963, and five years after winning his second World Championship driving for Lotus, in 1968 (Norman) Graham Hill had become the senior citizen of the sport with wins at Indianapolis in 1966 and at Le Mans in 1972 to make a unique triple crown of victories which only he has achieved, making him arguably the most versatile driver in the history of the sport. Graham was also the first man to win the Monaco Grand Prix five times a record that was not equaled until 1992 and beaten until 1993 when Ayrton Senna won his fifth and sixth Monaco Grand Prix victories.

Shadow Cosworth DN1, Silverstone Classic

As the wise cracking head of Embassy, UK brand cigarettes, quipped in 1973 at the launch of Graham Hills Embassy sponsored Formula One Team every ambassador needs an Embassy. Graham’s was built by, the then relatively unknown in Europe, Shadow a team that had cut it’s teeth in Can Am primarily with Graham Hill’s former Lotus Team mate Jackie Oliver.

Shadow Cosworth DN1, Silverstone Classic

The Shadow DN1 was designed by Tony Southgate who’s CV includes designing the last two BRM’s to win major races the P160, an example of which Jackie Oliver had driven in 1972, and P180 which bears a familial resemblance to today’s featured DN1 apart from the fact that the latter is powered by a by 1973 ubiquitous Ford sponsored Cosworth V8 which Graham Hill had been instrumental in testing back in 1967.

Shadow Cosworth DN1, Silverstone Classic

Under the umbrella of Mr Shadow, Don Nichols, sponsored by UOP Lead Free fuel the Shadow team ran two black works cars for Jackie Oliver and 1972 Can Am Champion George Follmer and sold a third car #DN1-3A to Graham Hill for him to run as a privateer. Not for the first, or the last, time none of the Shadow cars were ready for the start of the season the works team missed two races before making their debut in South Africa where George starting 21st came through to finish 6th and score a single world championship point on his Grand Prix debut.

Shadow Cosworth DN1, Silverstone Classic

Graham’s car was ready at the next race the Spanish Grand Prix where Graham qualified 22nd but failed to finish after experiencing problems with his brakes, while George Follmer came through to a seasons equal best 3rd place finish in his second championship Grand Prix. At the Belgian Grand Prix Graham qualified 23rd and came through to finish ninth which would prove to be his best result in an otherwise totally frustrating year for his fledgling Embassy Racing Team.

Shadow Cosworth DN1, Silverstone Classic

The works UOP Shadow teams debut season was similarly also fraught with disappointment until the Canadian Grand Prix where Jackie Oliver scored his a career equaling best third place finish, five years after he had finished 3rd in the 1968 Mexican Grand Prix. For the 1974 season Graham Hill took his Embassy sponsorship to Lola while Jackie Oliver and George Follmer returned to the Can Am series where they finished 1st and 2nd respectively when the series finally stopped one race short of the scheduled season.

Shadow Cosworth DN1, Silverstone Classic

Jackie Oliver became increasingly involved in the management of the Shadow team while keeping his hand in driving the mighty Dodge powered Shadow DN6 Formula 5000 cars and put in a one off final Formula One appearance at the 1977 Swedish GP where he finished 9th.

Daryl Taylor is seen at the wheel of #DN1-3A at recent Silverstone Classic events.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Ambassador’s Embassy” 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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Twelve Hundred Horsepower – Shadow Chevrolet DN2 #DN2-2A

Despite the loss of it’s sponsor Johnson’s Wax, the number of events being cut back to eight, down from eleven in 1970 and the number of entrants falling to an all time low, just 15 at Edmonton, the 1973 Can Am Challenge was still a huge draw for spectators who wanted to see the worlds hitherto most powerful racing cars competing on road courses. According to contemporary reports attendances at all of the races in the 1973 Can Am Challenge were up.

Shadow Chevrolet DN2,  Rosso Bianco Collection,

Only two teams prepared new cars for the 1973 one of them was Shadow who built two DN2’s designed by Tony Southgate, one of those cars ran a regular 730 hp 8.1 litre / 494 cui Chevrolet V8, while the second car, featured today ran with a turbocharged version of the motor.

Shadow Chevrolet DN2,  Rosso Bianco Collection,

Both DN2’s were completed too late to undergo any testing prior to the start of the season and so presented little challenge to the teutonically prepared Porsche 917/30 driven by Mark Donohue for the Penske team. Jackie Oliver retired the normally aspirated DN2-1A from the opening two rounds of the 1973 Can Am Challenge run at Mosport and Road Atlanta with gearbox and suspension failures respectively.

Shadow Chevrolet DN2,  Rosso Bianco Collection,

Shadow team owner Don Nichols was entered to debut today’s featured car, seen at the Rosso Bianco Collection by Frank ‘Duc-man’ Christmann in Germany several years ago, at Watkins Glen in July 1973 but the car did not show. When #DN2-2A did show up at the next round at Mid-Ohio it was kept as a spare. Jackie Oliver scored a 3rd in the final at Mid Ohio which translated to a final 8th place overall having finished 12th in the heat.

Shadow Chevrolet DN2,  Rosso Bianco Collection,

James Hunt took over the normally aspirated DN2 at Road America while Jackie Oliver tried the turbocharged DN2-2A, they qualified 14th and 21st respectively. James did not start thanks to recalcitrant fuel metering unit while Jackie who had not set a time in qualifying lasted just 3 laps before the 1200 hp motor failed.

Shadow Chevrolet DN2,  Rosso Bianco Collection,

At Edmonton the Shadow team ran just DN2-1A and Jackie recorded a third place finish from seventh on the grid, driving the same car at Laguna Seca Jackie went one better finishing second from 5th on the grid, while Vic Elford tried the turbo charged DN2-2A which he qualified 18th but retired with brake failure after completing 22 of the 66 scheduled laps.

Shadow Chevrolet DN2,  Rosso Bianco Collection,

At the season ending race run at Riverside Jackie qualified 9th in DN2-1A, while Vic was 14th on the grid, however neither car lasted more than a handful of laps, Jackie retired with bodywork damage on lap three while Vic retired with a broken throttle linkage after the opening lap.

Shadow Chevrolet DN2,  Rosso Bianco Collection,

The Shadow DN2’s, which bear a passing resemblance to the 1972 Lola T310, were not seen again in period. It should be noted George Follmer never raced a Shadow DN2 although he did join the Shadow team for the Can Am Challenge in 1974, it remains a mystery as to why George’s name should appear on the side of the car.

I hope you will join me in thanking Frank “Duc-man” Christmann for sharing today’s photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Twelve Hundred Horsepower” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be visiting Quail Councours d’Elegance for Ferrari Friday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Balena Close, Poole, Dorset – Penske PC1 #001

After he had finished fabricating the Len Terry designed Eagle monocoques for All American Racers (AAR) in California, John Lambert returned to the Untied Kingdom and started a new business which was located on a small industrial estate outside Poole in Dorset where the rent was cheap. When Len Terry fell out with Frank Nichols they wound up Transatlantic Automotive Consultants based in Hastings where they had designed the AAR Eagle and Terry went to join Lambert, with whom he had worked at Lotus and AAR, in Poole starting a new business together called Design Auto.

In 1969 Len Terry started to design a series of stock block Formula 5000 open wheel cars called Leda’s, John Lambert looked after the construction of them in a facility off Balena Close on the Creekmore Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Poole, Dorset. When Leda Cars ran into financial difficulty they merged into the Malaya Garage Group in 1970. Three years later Malaya Garage Group did a deal with New Zealand racer Graham McRae selling the Leda Cars premises “lock, stock and barrel” with the cars manufactured now rebranded as McRae’s.

At around this time Roger “The Captain” Penske and Mark “Captain Nice” Donohue were experiencing many successes on the US racing scene which included three Trans Am championships, then only for manufacturers, driving the Captains Chevrolet Camaro in 1969 and AMC Javelins in 1970 and ’71.

In 1972 Mark won the Indy 500 in Roger Penske’s McLaren M16 and at the end of the year drove Penske’s McLaren M19 in the Canadian and US Grand Prix finishing a more than credible 3rd in his debut Grand Prix. The following year Mark and Roger won the Can Am championship with the “Turbo Panzer” Porsche 917/30. Having achieved pretty much everything in the US, including a NASCAR Winston Cup win at Riverside driving a Penske AMC Matador to become the last ‘road ringer’ to win a non oval race in that series back in 1973 Mark announced he would hang up his helmet at the end of the season.

Roger Penske made plans for a Formula One team in 1974 and sent Heinz Hofer to look at Graham McRae’s ‘low profile’ premises on the Creekmore Industrial Estate in Poole, Dorset UK as a possible base and concluded a deal for the premises. The Ford Cosworth DFV powered Penske PC1 was built to a design by Geoff Ferris and Mark Donohue was persuaded to come out of retirement to drive the car on it’s debut in the 1974 Canadian Grand Prix where he qualified 24th and finished 12th 2 laps down.

Penske Ford PC1, US Grand Prix, Watkins Glen

At the US Grand Prix, where Mark Donohue and Roger Penske fan, Brian Brown took today’s photograph of Mark in the PC1 at Watkins Glen the car started 14th on the grid, but retired after 27 laps with rear suspension problems. Brian recalls his first visit to a Grand Prix thus :-

“I was of course very excited to be seeing Mark race again, but being that it was my first live Formula One event, I was equally excited to be seeing Mario’s effort with Vel’s Parnelli Jones and the rest of the grid in person. We owned a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona and a 246 GT Dino at the time, so were very supportive of the Ferrari effort too.

My brother, friends and I spent a great deal of down time in the Kendall Garage watching the teams go about their business of working on the cars. One thing that was apparent was the absolutely professional presentation of the Penske team. Everything was spotless, just like their successful Indy Car counterpart that I’d observed in person since 1969 at Indianapolis. I was then, as now, a huge fan of Mark Donohue and Team Penske, but that aside, I always felt that they had too many positive resources not to be successful in Formula One.

I knew racing well enough to understand how tall the task Mark and the Penske team had ahead of them, but I also had the highest faith in their collective talents that I felt, given time, they would come right. I look back now and remember how I’d call in to our local ABC news tv affiliate to get the results of the races in 1975, always asking about the top six finishers along with Mark and Mario’s results.

Then came Austria and it was over for Mark and eventually Penske stopped the project – I was always appreciative that they carried on to get the victory with John Watson in Austria a year after Mark’s accident, something of a vindication for the mighty challenges that Team Penske faced in their Formula One foray. Watkins Glen 1974 was the last I ever saw Mark in person and despite the nearly 40 years that have passed, it seems like yesterday.”

Penske ended up building 3 chassis to the PC1 design chassis #001 seen here achieved a best 5th place finish, from 16th on the grid in the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix. Three races later Penske ditched the PC1 in favour of a March 751 which was raced until a new challenger until the new Penske PC3 was ready. As Brian alluded to above Mark Donohue was killed during practice for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix after a tyre deflated pitching him off the track in to an accident which killed a marshal. Although Mark initially survived the incident he died the next day from a cerebral hemorrhage.

The debut of the Penske PC3 was delayed until the 1975 US Grand Prix where John Watson drove it in practice. Due to a misfire with the motor in the new car the team elected to wheel out today’s featured chassis one more time, John qualified 12th, finishing the race in 9th.

The following season Penske entered John in the PC3 and later PC4 models. With the latter the team won the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix, despite this success The Captain closed the Formula One program down at the end of 1976, deciding his future lay in the US racing seen where he would become the dominant force in Indy Car racing, with many of his winning cars being built in Poole, Dorset. Penske maintained facilities in Poole Dorset up until 2006. When the factory was closed one employee, Ivor, remained who had been part of the story going back to the Leda days, through the McRae years and into the Penske era.

In 2012 Brad Keslowski won his first NASCAR Championship driving a Penske entered Dodge a hitherto elusive goal on ‘The Captains’ to do list.

My thanks to Brian ‘ B² ‘ Brown for kindly agreeing to share his photograph; to kayemod, Nigel Beresford, Tim Murray, Tony Matthews, Dogearred and Doug Nye at The Nostalgia Forum for their help in piecing together the story behind Roger Penske’s presence in Poole, Dorset and a tenuous connection in the form of Lambert & Terry and their Leda Cars premises between the AAR Eagle and Penske Formula One efforts.

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

PS Shortly before this blog was posted some confusion has come to light about which buildings in Poole Penske and McRae occupied and when, local resident kayemod and Nigel Beresford who worked for Penske have confirmed that Penske took over the Balena premises from McRae, while artist Tony Matthews is sure he visited a second facility a couple of miles away on Factory Road to do cutaway drawings for McRae and Penske is not so sure the Balena Close address is correct. If any further developments come forth I shall post them below, and if you know the answer to the riddle please do not hesitate to chime in.

PPS Nigel Beresford has kindly confirmed with another former Penske employee Nick Goozée that the Balena Close facility is the only one Penske purchased from Graham McRae. My thanks to Nigel and Nick for settling the matter so promptly.

PPPS

Balena Close, Poole, Dorset

Kayemod Rob from the Nostalgia Forum has kindly sent me this photo showing “how that corner of Balena Close looks today, the small unit to the right is the original Penske UK base, formerly McRae Cars. The three parked cars more or less cover the width of the premises. The ‘Elegance’ unit to the left of Penske was once FKS Fibreglass, later Griffin Design. My ex-Specialised Mouldings chum stylist Jim Clark worked at FKS, and as well as Penske’s stuff, they also did almost everything for the Gulf GT40s and Mirages among others, their unit extended leftwards to fill the corner of the block. Penske later rented an identical unit to the right of the pic, which doubled their floor area, after some of the dividing wall was removed, they used to run their F1 operation out of that.”

Thanks Rob.

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Elle va à Bexhill On Sea – Elva Climax Mk III

Bexhill on Sea second hand car dealer and engine tuning specialist Frank G Nichols decided to enter the racing car manufacturing business as a response to enquiries arising from a CSM Frank bought from Mike Chapman, no relation to Colin and raced successfully in 1954.

Elva Mk III, The Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The Elva name is a mash up of the French “Ella va” which means ‘she goes’. By the time production ceased the Elva name had appeared on over 1000 vehicles.

Elva Mk III, The Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

By 1958 Elva was manufacturing the Coventry Climax powered Mk III, known drivers of the cars back then included Charlie Kolb, Burdette Martin and William Jordan in the USA with Eugine Hall and Ian Raby representing the Marque in the United Kingdom.

Elva Mk III, The Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

Of the 92 starts known for the model at Racing Sports Cars.com three were outright victories Kolb at Miami, William Bradley at Green Acres both in 1958 and the last recorded by George Ranney at Grayling in 1960, many additional class wins were also recorded.

Elva Mk III, The Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The history of the car seen here at last years Classic Motor Show is unknown, it is owned by Bexhill Museum who had the original aluminium body that had at various times been painted red, blue and white, replaced by a new one manufactured by the original suppliers Hastings Motor Sheet Metal now known as Moore & Tye in 2009.

Elva Mk III, The Classic Motor Show, NEC, Birmingham

The Nostalgia Forum member Bloggsworth has kindly informed that the team that made the new body included Alan Jenner who worked on the original car. A small reunion of ex Elva employees took place when the restoration was complete. The Mk III can now usually be seen in the Technology Collection at Bexhill Museum.

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

PS Congratulations to Johnny Martinez who was awarded a trophy for his ’29 Ford Model A at the Grand National Roadster Show yesterday, John would also like to thank every one who has voted for him in the Cool Rides Online ® pole at goldeagle.com. The vote is still incredibly close, YOU CAN VOTE “John’s 1929 Ford Model A” ONCE A DAY ON THIS LINK until poling closes 31st January, please keep your daily votes coming in, thank you.

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