Tag Archives: Race Retro

Not A de Havilland – Comet JAP

In 1950 Brian Heyward bought the Rudge powered Aikens 500 Formula 3 car from Wing Commander Frank Aikens, Brian only had the opportunity to drive it twice before he was called up to serve His Majesty King George V in the Royal Air Force for two years in Germany.

During his national service Brian’s father Charles bought a Cooper Mark IV which he already found was far too overweight to be competitive.

Comet, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Upon completion of his National Service Brian and Charles used parts of the Cooper Mk 4 and some, lighter, cast magnesium components off a Cooper Mk VI to build the Cooper Heyward Special more commonly known as the C.H.S..

Brian raced the C.H.S. from 1953 to 1957 and is known to have finished 5th at the wheel of the car in a final at Brands Hatch in December 1954.

Comet, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Brian found employment at de Havilland alongside future Lotus designer Maurice Philipe, future Lotus driver Alan Stacey, the Costin brothers Frank and future Cosworth partner Mike, and Brian Hart who would also make an enviable name for himself in the field of race engine production.

Soon after in 1953 Brian and Charles began construction of their second car, today’s featured Comet, named after the the jet powered de Havilland airliner.

Comet, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

With machining help from fellow 500 F3 racer Don Parker in it’s original form the Comet featured Kieft castings and wishbone suspension at the front, with swing axles and bungee cord springs on the rear.

The Comet was developed up until 1958; receiving a Norton engine in 1955, glass fiber body in 1956 and at some point a rear transverse spring, as had been employed by Cooper since 1946, replaced the bungee cords at the back.

Comet, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Construction of a Comet II was started, but never completed, both Comet’s were sold on in 1964 to Brixham Lifeboat Coxwain Arthur Curnow who entered the Comet for Ivor Churchill to race.

Since then the Comet, seen in these photographs at Race Retro, has been restored twice; by Sandy Skinner who fitted the JAP engine along with a new aluminium body in the early 1980’s and by Neil Hodges for Peter Becker in 2003, today the Comet belongs to and is run by James Gray.

Thanks for joining me on this “Not A de Havilland” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the first of this month’s series of cars that ran in the Indianapolis 500. Don’t forget to come back now !

Twin Rocker Shaft – FIAT Abarth 1000TCR

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Between 1955 and 1969 FIAT built 2,695,197 Dante Giacosa designed FIAT 600 models at there Miafiori plant near Turin, further examples were built with a variety of bodies and names at factories in Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Serbia, Spain and Australia.

Supplied initially with a water cooled 4 cylinder inline 633 cc / 38.6 cui motor capable of 59 mph, empty, it was not long before Carlo Abarth set to work building performance parts for the popular Seicento, one thread of Abarths 600 evolutions culminated with the ‘Double Bubble’ FIAT Abarth 750 GT Zagato Coupé complete with 747cc / 45.6 stretched motor that produced 47hp.

FIAT Abarth 1000 TCR, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

By the end of Sceicento production FIAT had offered the model with 767 cc / 46.8 cui and 843 cc / 51.4 cui motors, while Abarth’s final Seicento iteration using the original FIAT 600 shells was the 1000TCR as featured in today’s blog.

1000TCR’s with a 982 cc / 59.9 cui motor that required a front mounted radiator and oil cooler first appeared in 1969, Rob Dijkstra raced his example to victory in August of that year at Zandvoort and continued to be raced until 1976 particularly in the The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

FIAT Abarth 1000 TCR, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

Producing 112hp the 1000TCR motor features an Abarth reinforced cast iron block based on the original 600 block rather than the larger factory blocks because the later factory engine blocks made use of a centrifugal oil on the front of the crank which was deemed unsuitable for competition requirements.

Unusually the Abarth’s Radiale 1000TCR cylinder head features separate rocker shafts for the inlet and exhaust valves in the hemispherical combustion chambers, to save weight a magnesium oil sump is used with the exact same oil capacity of the original.

FIAT Abarth 1000 TCR, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

The operating range of the TCR’s motor is between 6000 and 8000, said to be ear piercing when sat with in a stripped for racing cockpit, rpm.

Note how the engine cover will never close as it was effectively not only aiding cooling by being propped open, but also acting as an aerodynamic aid.

FIAT Abarth 1000 TCR, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

Today’s featured 1000TCR, seen at Race Retro, belongs to long time Seicento fan and Middle Barton Garage proprietor Tony Castle Miller.

It was built originally as a 1000TC race car 1966 and has been continually updated to include the 1000TCR full glassfibre rear wheel arch extensions and the twin rocker shaft Radiale cylinder head first seen in 1969.

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

Safety Campaigner – BRM P261 #P2617-R

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At the end of 1964 Ritchie Ginther left BRM to join Honda and was replaced by a rookie Scotsman, a protege of Timber Merchant and emergent entrant Ken Tyrrell, by the name of Jackie Stewart who would go on to make an impact on the sport way beyond that of quite possibly any other Formula One driver in history.

During his first season Jackie drove a BRM P261 to victory after just 8 starts in the Italian Grand Prix, cementing a reputation as a rapidly maturing driver on the back of 6 other finishes that included three 2nds, one 3rd and a 6th.

BRM P261, Goodwood Festival of Speed

In the off season BRM headed to the warmer climbs of the antipodes for the Tasman series which Jackie won at his first attempt taking four victories from 8 starts with a 2 litre / 122 cui V8 BRM P261 against a field that was allowed to run engines up to 2.5 litres /.

After winning the 1966 Formula One season opening Monaco Grand Prix, still in a 2 litre V8 BRM P261 but now running in a championship for cars with 3 litre / 183 cui motors, Jackie was caught out by a flash flood and had an accident at Spa during the Belgium Grand Prix which would and continues to change the sport for ever.

BRM P261, Sir Jackie Stewart, BRM Day, Bourne

Jackies injuries were minor compared to the fact that he found himself trapped and soaking in a banana shaped tub of fuel with no safety switch to turn off the vehicles electrics, no tools with which to undo his steering wheel, and no marshals to help him either.

BRM P261, Sir Jackie Stewart, BRM Day, Bourne

Eventually his team mate Graham Hill and Bob Bondurant who was driving a privately entered BRM P261 came to Jackies rescue after they were also caught out by the same flash flood.

Using a tool kit from a spectators car Jackie was released from #P2617 after a 25 minuet soak in petrol, his ambulance and police escort managed to get lost on the way to the hospital and during the incident Jackie bravely decided that what ever the cost motor racing was about showing off his skill and not his bravery.

BRM P261, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

As a result of Sir Jackies tireless campaigning on safety during which he lost far too many friends to accidents and many hundreds if not thousands more due to their refusal to see that by the mid 1960’s many tracks were no longer suitable for the machinery running on them.

Tracks today are far better suited to the equipment that runs on them and the equipment is infinitely better equipped to cope when things go wrong, but as Jules Bianchi found out late last year safety is an issue which can never be taken seriously enough, and lessons must be learned from every incident lest they be repeated.

BRM P261, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Jackie left BRM at the end of 1967 to join Ken Tyrrell who had guided Jackie from the junior ranks to the steps of BRM, while Jackie was loosing his rookie stripes Ken made plans to buy the latest Ford Cosworth DFV for the 1968 season and did a deal to use them in Matra chassis.

BRM P261, Sir Jackie Stewart, BRM Day, Bourne

Jackie retired from the sport with the 1969, ’71 and ’73 titles in his pocket, it was the death of his team mate Francois Cevert during practice for the 1973 US Grand Prix that prevented him from making 100 career Grand Prix starts.

In retirement now Sir Jackie went on to found the Stewart Grand Prix team with his son Paul which they sold on to Ford after winning the 1999 European Grand Prix in Germany. Ford rebranded Stewart Grand Prix as Jaguar and after a couple of seasons sold the team onto Dietrich Mateschitz of Red Bull who rebranded the team into Red Bull Racing now quadruple world champions.

Sir Jackie is seen driving the BRM P261 chassis #2617-R, run by Classic World Racing, that has been recreated by Mike Ostroumoff and former works BRM P261 driver Richard Attwood who won the 1970 Le Mans 24 hours with Hans Hermann driving a Porsche 917.

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

King Of Africa – Toyota Celica Twin Cam Turbo TA64

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In 1983 1982 World Rally Champions Audi were still the only team entering 4 wheel drive rally cars for the World Rally Championship, most teams like Lancia and Toyota still had faith that their 2 wheel drive Group B contenders were still the way forward.

Toyota Celica Twin Cam Turbo TA64, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Towards the end of 1983 Toyota entered it’s 380hp Toyota Celica Twin Cam Turbo TA64 for the first time for the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland where locals Juha Kankkunen and Staffan Pettersson finished sixth and Swedes Bjorn Waldegård and Hans Thorszelius came home 10th.

Toyota Celica Twin Cam Turbo TA64, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

A couple of month’s later Bjorn and Hans won the Rallye Côte d’Ivoire on the west coast of Africa which began to cement the Celica TCT as the model was also known as the King Of Africa.

Toyota Celica Twin Cam Turbo TA64, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Bjorn and Juha would clock up five more African wins up until 1987 2 more on the Rallye Côte d’Ivoire in 1985 and 1986 and trifecta of Safari Rally victories in Kenya from 1984 to 1986, with Bjorn winning in both countries twice.

Special mention should be made of co driver Fred Gallagher who partnered Juha in 1985 and Bjorn in 1986 to win events twice !

Today’s featured TCT is painted up like Bjorn’s 1984 Safari winner registered in Cologne “K UM 210”, but is carrying different number plates.

Thanks for joining me on this “King Of Africa” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the first Japanese Car to win a Formula One Championship Grand Prix. Don’t forget to come back now !

Kenyan National Champion – Lancia Rally 037

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In 1982 the FIA mandated new rules for sports car racing and rallying called Group B which allowed manufacturers to compete with any vehicle they had built 200 examples of, further more evolutions of these models were permitted each year so long as 20 examples had been built.