Tag Archives: One

Formula One Cabriolet – Ferrari 342 America, Vignale Cabriolet, #0232AL

Between late 1952 and early 1953 Ferrari built six 342 America chassis powered by a 200hp 4.1 litre / 341 cui version of Ferrari’s latest atmospheric induction V12 designed by Aurelio Lampredi and raced with success in the Ferrari 375 Formula One cars.

Ferrari 342 America Vignale, Blackhawk Museum

Five of the 342 chassis went to Pininfarina where 3 were fitted with coupé bodies and two with cabriolet bodies, the first chassis #0232AL, featured in today’s photographs by Geoffrey Horton taken at the Blackhawk Museum, was sent to Vignale where it was fitted with a cabriolet body.

Ferrari 342 America Vignale, Blackhawk Museum

Upon completion Herr Otto Wild of Muri in Switzerland. Before the end of the 1950’s were out the car is thought to have made it’s way to the USA, from 1971 until at least 2000 the car was kept in single ownership.

Ferrari 342 America Vignale, Blackhawk Museum

The 342 America was said to be capable of 115 mph, not quite on a par with the contemporary Jaguar XK120 in it’s original aluminium bodied form.

Ferrari 342 America Vignale, Blackhawk Museum

The Lampredi V12 motor would continue in production until the 1960’s powering Ferrari’s large engine America series cars up to and including the 500 Superfast of which the last was built in 1966.

Thanks for joining me on this “Formula One Cabriolet” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be loocking at the first of this months big banger Formula 5000/A open wheel racing cars.. Don’t forget to come back now.

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More Fuel – McLaren Ford M14A #M14/2

Going into 1970 things were looking up as McLaren Cars entered their seventh year. The team had won three consecutive Can Am Championships, 2 for Bruce McLaren and one for Denny Hulme, the inaugural European Formula F5000 championship with Peter Gethin and four championship Formula One races one for Bruce McLaren and three, including the last race of 1969, for Denny Hulme.

In addition to these racing programs for 1970 McLaren were to embark on an Indy program with the new turbocharged McLaren Offy M15 and were contracted to run an Alfa Romeo V8 powered car alongside their new Ford powered M14A Formula One car.

McLaren Ford M14A, Goodwood Revival

The new M14A was an improvement of the 1969 McLaren M7C, itself based on a Formula F5000 M10A chassis with McLaren M7A Grand Prix winning suspension.

The main feature of the new car was the narrower internal dimensions of the monocoque which were necessary to accommodate larger fuel tanks required by the ever more powerful and thirsty Ford Cosworth DFV V8’s.

McLaren Ford M14A, McLaren Manchester, Knutsford

The McLaren M14A was used in all but one race in the 1970 Formula One championship season. It’s best result was on it’s debut in South Africa where Denny Hulme finished second, driving I believe today’s featured car. Bruce McLaren matched that in Spain where he also finished second. After the Monaco Grand Prix where Denny finished forth disaster struck as first Denny was badly burned after his car caught fire in testing at Indianapolis and then a couple of weeks later Bruce was killed while testing the M8D Can Am car at Goodwood.

The team consequently missed the Belgian GP and reappeared at the Dutch Grand Prix with Dan Gurney driving the lead car #M14/1 and 1969 European Formula 5000 champion Peter Gethin making his Formula One championship debut driving today’s featured chassis, both cars retired. Denny Hulme still suffering from burned hands was back in time for the French Grand Prix alongside Dan Gurney and the pair came in 4th and 6th respectively.

#M14/2 is seen at the McLaren Manchester show room in Knutsford above.

McLaren Ford M14A, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Dan Gurney retired from Formula One after retiring from the British Grand Prix where Hulme finished a remarkable 3rd. Peter Gethin was back in the team for the German Grand Prix where Denny again finished 3rd. Denny retired from the Austrian GP but at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix he came home 4th. Peter Gethin scored his first World Championship point at the Canadian Grand Prix where he finished 6th and Denny rounded out a painful year with a third in the Mexican Grand Prix finishing 4th in the Formula One Championship points table.

Incredibly despite his injuries Denny had also won 6 of the 10 Can Am Championship rounds enough to win the 1970 Chamionship his second Can Am Crown and McLaren Cars 4th consecutive championship aided by a further win from Peter Gethin who also won a second consecutive European Formula 5000 title driving a McLaren. The US, New Zealand and South African Formula 5000 thousand championships were won by John Cannon, Graham McRae and Bob Olthof respectively all also driving McLarens.

McLaren Ford M14A, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

For 1971 #M14/2 was driven by Peter Gethin to two second place finishes in non championship races at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch, the best championship result Peter had from 3 championship start in the car was 8th in the 1971 Spanish Grand Prix.

Jackie Oliver joined McLaren for the British Grand Prix where he qualified #M14/2 22nd but a bungled flag drop saw Jackie crash into Graham Hill at the start causing instant retirement for both and a £50 fine for Jackie. The cars final works appearance was at the 1971 Italian Grand Prix where Jackie qualified 13th and finished 7th in a close fought race won by Peter Gethin now driving a BRM.

McLaren Ford M14A, Goodwood Festival Of Speed

#M14/2 next appeared with a Formula 5000 Chevy stock block V8 motor in the hands of Tony Dean who’s best result was a 10th place finish in his first start in the car at Mondello Park. On his seventh and final attempt, which included retirements from races at Elkhart Lake and Brainerd, to race the car Tony failed to qualify for the non championship 1972 John Player Challenge Trophy at Brands Hatch.

In 1973 at the same venue Willie Wood failed to qualify #M14/2 for the Formula F5000 race or non championship Race of Champions and was not classified in a further appearance at Oulton Park. Allan Kayes then bought #M14/2 was also unclassified at Brands Hatch, finished 11th at Oulton Park and then retired, failed to qualify or failed to start in 12 further races most of which were rounds of the 1974 European Formula 5000 championship.

Thanks for joining me on this “More Fuel” 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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Just Waiting – Ferrari 500/625A/750 #3/2/0482

Wondering around the pits at Silverstone during an HGPCA test day a couple of months ago I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of cars just waiting for their stories to be told, one such was today’s featured Ferrari which was built in 1952 as a 4 cylinder 2 litre / 122 cui Ferrari 500 chassis #3 for the Formula 2 season which was also designated as the World Drivers Championship Formula.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

This car is said to have raced alongside the sister chassis #005 raced by Alberto Ascari to two consecutive World Drivers Championships, though I have yet to discover who drove it or the results it achieved.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

In 1954 new Formula One regulations were adopted for the World Drivers Championship mandating 2.5 litre / 152 cui motors and when Ferrari ran into problems with it’s intended ‘Squalo’ 553 challenger they converted some of the old Formula 2 cars to “625” specification with larger 2.5 litre / 152 cui 4 cylinder motor. This particular car then became a 625 with the chassis number 2.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

With no progress on the Squalo and later 555 Super Squalo designs Ferrari updated this car further to 625A spec for the start of the 1955 season with a more aerodynamic tail, the chassis was lengthened by just under two inches, the additional length being inserted by cutting the chassis just ahead of the cockpit and the suspension was revised with coil springs replacing the transverse leaf spring at the front.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The cars first race of the 1955 World Drivers Championship season was in Argentina, which lent it’s initial to the 625 designation. Two 625A’s were entered and they finished second and third behind reigning champion Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes Benz. Unusually the two 625A’s were each driven by three drivers coming in second were Gonzalez, Farina and Trintignant and third were Maglioli who shared with Trintignant and Farina !

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The next race was at Monaco where Maurice Trintignant qualified today’s featured car 9th behind a pair of Mercedes Benz cars, three Lancia D50’s and three Maserati’s. During the race Trintignant, for whom everything outside racing was ‘just waiting’, guided his car to an unlikely victory as those ahead retired with mechanical issues while the Lancia driven by Ascari famously fell into the water which he survived only to be killed four days later testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

The 1955 Monaco victory was the first World Drivers Championship event to be won by a Frenchman since it’s inception in 1950, the first to be one on Englebert Tyres and Ferrari’s only victory in the 1955 Championship season. At the end of the year the car was fitted with a 4 cylinder 3 litre / 183 cui Ferrari 750 sportscar motor and sold to British wool merchant and amateur racer Peter Whitehead, with Peters old customer chassis number #0482 to compete in the unrestricted Formula Libre races being held in New Zealand in 1956. Peter won both the Lady Wigram Trophy and the Southland Road Race, note some sources incorrectly point to this car being driven by Peter Whitehead to two victories in New Zealand in 1957, by then he was actually drove and won both races with in a Ferrari Super Squallo 555 fitted with an 3.4 litre 860 Monza sports car motor.

Ferrari 500/625 A/750, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

Late in 1956 Froilan Gonzales bought the car and took it to Argentina where it appears to have remained until it resurfaced in the United States in the 1990’s. Current owner Alexander Boswell bought the car in 1999 and found the three chassis numbers which confirmed the cars identity and history welded one atop the other.

Mr Boswell had the car restored to the same 3 litre / 183 cui 625A/750 #0482 specification as it was when supplied to Peter Whitehead by Ferrari for his New Zealand adventure.

Thanks for joining me for this “Just Waiting” 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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Satoru’s Fastest Lap – Lotus Judd 101

1989 saw the phenomenally expensive 1200 – 1500 hp 1.5 litres / 91.5 cui turbo charged engines that had first been seen in Formula One racing in 1977 and that had come to dominate the sport by 1983 finally outlawed in 1989. New regulations mandating 3.5 litre / 213 cui motors were introduced for the 1989 season but Honda who had come to dominate the last years of the turbo era were about to dominate the opening years of the new normally aspirated era with a V10 motor that was simply more reliable and more powerful than the opposition.

Lotus Judd 101, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

Team Lotus were on the upper slopes of steep decline in 1989 neither Nelson Piquet or Satoru Nakajima had offered the dominant McLaren’s with whom they shared an engine supplier in 1988 much by way of competition, and Lotus finished a poor 4th behind Ferrari and Benetton when their motors should have been good enough to finish second behind McLaren.

Lotus Judd 101, Race Retro, Stonleigh

For 1989 Lotus lost their Honda deal and ended up with Judd V8 CV spec motors while Judd’s preferred customer March was on EV spec motors.

Lotus Judd 101, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet

The 1989 Lotus 101 cars were designed by Frank Dernie a former Williams aerodynamicist Frank Dernie whom Nelson Piquet had persuaded to defect, though by the time Frank arrived much of the design had been completed by future short lived MWR, Micheal Waltrip Racing, design consultant Mike Coughlan.

Lotus Judd 101, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

In order to save weight and seek aerodynamic advantage on their competitors the Lotus 101 cockpit was so narrow that Momo were commissioned to build ultra narrow steering wheels so that Nelson and Satoru did not scrape their knuckles on the cockpit sides.

Lotus Judd 101, Race Retro, Stonleigh

Lotus entered an agreement with Tickford to develop 5 valve per cylinder heads for their 2nd string Judd V8’s to make up some of the 125 hp the CV motors had on the most powerful Honda V10’s but the idea was eventually scrapped mid season.

Lotus Judd 101, Classics at the Castle, Sherborne

Team Lotus scored four seasons high 4th places 3 for Nelson and one for Satoru enough with two more points finishes for Nelson to secure 6th place for Team Lotus in the 1989 Championship.

Lotus Judd 101, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet

Possibly the most remarkable result for the team came at the season ends Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide where the race was run in monsoon conditions, only 8 of the 26 qualifiers were running at the races end and of them Satoru Nakajima came through from 23rd of the grid to finish 4th and final runner on the lead lap. In the process Satoru recorded the races fastest lap a feat he would never repeat.

Lotus Judd 101, Bristol Classic Car Show, Shepton Mallet

Although Lotus were running second string Judd CV engines they finished ahead, in championship points, of the other Judd users Brabham; March, and Euro Brun the latter who like Yamaha powered Zakspeed failed to even pre qualify for a single on of the seasons 16 races.

Thanks for joining me on this “Saturo’s Fastest Lap” 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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Limited Fuel Unlimited Boost – Lotus Renault 98T #004

The Lotus Renault 98T was a development of the 1985 Lotus Renault 97T Grand Prix Car designed by Gerard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie for Ayrton Senna and Johnny Dumfries to drive in the 1986 Grand Prix season.

Lotus Renault 98T, Autsport International, NEC, Birmingham

Note the small vertical “barge boards” mounted on the front suspension, a feature carried over from the Lotus Renault 97T that are still in evidence on today’s contemporary Grand Prix cars albeit mounted much closer to the side pod intakes.

Lotus Renault 98T, Autsport International, NEC, Birmingham

The main difference between the 1984 and 1985 Lotus Formula One challengers was that the FIA had mandated a 195 litre maximum fuel capacity which meant the new car could be built with a smaller and lower fuel tank.

Lotus Renault 98T, Autsport International, NEC, Birmingham

Elio de Angelis who had won one race in 1985 for Lotus and had been eclipsed by new team mate Ayrton Senna who won two races, moved to the Brabham team for 1986. Elio was replaced at Senna’s discretion by Johnny Dumfries a rookie who had dominated the British Formula Three Championship a Grand Prix feeder series in 1985.

Lotus Renault 98T, Autsport International, NEC, Birmingham

Despite running with a limited fuel allowance there were no limit’s on the amount of boost the turbo’s could run and after the introduction of pneumatic valve springs in the cylinder heads and a common rail injection system with water cooled intercoolers it was estimated that the Renault EF15 motors could produce upto 1300 hp at 5.5 bar boost for a qualifying run, though it transpires these figures could never be verified because there were no testing rigs that were calibrated for that kind of output.

Lotus Renault 98T, Autsport International, NEC, Birmingham

Other novel features of the Lotus 98T included two stage ride height adjustment and a six speed gearbox which was used exclusively by Dumfries.

Ayton Senna scored two more victories in Spain and Detroit along with 4 seconds and 2 thirds but although he scored 55 points 17 more than in 1985 he still finished 4th in the final championship as he had done the previous year. Johnny Dumfries meanwhile scored only 3 points and that heralded the end of his career as a Grand Prix Driver. He was replaced in by Satoru Nakajima backed by Honda who were to supply motor’s to Lotus for 1987. Despite scoring 13 points less in 1986 than they had in 1985 Lotus also finished 4th in the Constructors championship just as they had in 1985.

Thanks for joining me for this “Limited Fuel Unlimited” boost 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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Chassis or Aerodynamic Aid – Lotus Ford 88

The Lotus 88 was a development from the ideas tested with the twin chassis Lotus 86. It differed, and was developed, in two crucial respects from the Lotus 86 it was designed to run with out skirts to seal the flow of air and would meet the 6 cm minimum ride height mandated by rules around late in 1980 for the 1981 season.

By having a secondary independently sprung chassis Lotus hoped to avoid the need to run their car with solid suspension which aided the road holding of ground effects pioneered by the Lotus Ford 79 which were sucked to the road surface as they moved through the air.

Lotus Ford 88B, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Gordon Murray designer at Brabham also came up with a solution to the 6 cm ride height rule which involved using hydraulic rams to raise the car above the minimum ride height in the pits, the only place the measurement could be checked, and lowering the ride height out once out on the track. This left the Brabham running effectively solid suspension once out of pit road.

All of the teams protested that the second Lotus chassis was in fact an independently aerodynamic aid and eventually the ruling body changed it’s mind having accepted the idea of a twin chassis car before the season started.

Lotus Ford 88B, Goodwood Festival of Speed

As a consequence after being protested during practice for the the United States West, Brazilian and British Grand Prix Lotus withdrew the 88 bodies with out ever having raced and used the more conventional Lotus 87 which used inner Lotus 88 chassis but with conventional side pods to generate ground effect and a similar hydraulic ram system for the suspension as used by Brabham.

Colin Chapman is said to have been disappointed that the twin chassis Formula One cars developed with Peter Wright, Tony Rudd and Martin Ogilvie were never allowed to compete believing that Formula One was supposed to be a proving ground for new innovation.

Thanks for joining me on this “Chassis or Aerodynamic Aid” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t for get to come back now !

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Improvement Is Not Enough – Lotus Ford 81 #R2

Through out the 1970s Colin Chapman had come up with a string of innovative if not always successful designs and concepts for his Formula One team on the successful side there was the wedge shaped Lotus 72 which remained competitive from 1970 to 1974, the Lotus 78 wing car which won more races than any other design in 1977 but did not win the championship and the Lotus 79 ground effects car which clinched the 1978 World Championships for Mario Andretti and Lotus.

On the less successful side Colin had developed the Lotus 76 with it’s novel twin wing and push button clutch which was abandoned in 1974, Lotus 77 with it’s infinitely variable suspension geometry which caused team leader Ronnie Peterson to quit the team, before it was turned into a one time race winner with Mario Andretti at the wheel in 1976 and the Lotus 80 which took the ground effects concept a little too far and was abandoned after just three starts in 1979.

This left Lotus and Ferrari tied on championships for the 1970’s with three drivers titles each and four constructors titles each with Lotus winning 35 races between 1970 and 1979 to Ferrari’s 39.

Lotus 81, 1980 British Grand Prix, Brands Hatch

1980 proved to be a bad year for both Ferrari and Lotus, Ferrari were busy building a new turbo charged motor and the Ferrari T5 used in the interim was an improvement on the previous years championship winning Ferrari T4, but was way behind the development curve of its competitors, Colin Champman’s Lotus 1981 mean while did not appear to feature any innovations and is probably best described as an improvement on the 1978 championship winning Lotus 79, but was also way behind the development curve of it’s competitors.

Mario Andretti and Elio de Angelis were employed to drive the new cars and it was de Angelis in his second season in the sports top tier that scored the teams best result a second place in the Brazilian Grand Prix along with three further top six, points paying finish. Mario meanwhile had a miserable last season at Lotus with nine retirements and just a single sixth place finish in his last race for the team in the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

The Lotus 81 introduced future world champion Nigel Mansell to Formula One when he became a third member of the team for three races towards the end of the year starting at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix. Nigel recorded two retirements and a DNQ but had done enough to secure a seat with the team for the following season.

Lotus finished the season in a poor and distant, by their standards 5th place in the constructors championship while Ferrari finished an even more disappointing 10th.

Elio de Angelis is seen above in chassis 81 #R2 on the opening lap of the 1980 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch from which he retired. 81/R2 was used by all three Lotus drivers in 1980, Mario scored a best 7th place finish at Monaco, Elio a best 4th place finish at the 1980 US GP at Watkins Glen while Nigel failed to qualify R2 at the 1980 Italian GP at Monza.

For 1981 chassis 81/R2 was updated to B spec which included a tea tray front wing, as a has been in use by Ferrari since 1974. Nigel Mansell raced the car four times in 1981 scoring a best 10th place finish in the 1981 South African Grand Prix, the cars last race was the 1981 Argentinian Grand Prix from which Nigel retired. The car was subsequently taken to races as a spare car up until the French Grand Prix after which it was replaced by the new Lotus 87/88 design.

Thanks for joining me on this “Improvement Is Not Enough” 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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