Tag Archives: Rudd

Tube Monocoque – BRM P261 #2615

In 1963 Tony Rudd followed the lead set by Colin Chapman’s 1962 Lotus 25 and designed BRM’s first P61 monocoque chassis, unlike the Lotus bathtub monocoque Tony’s chassis was a tube monocoque which dispensed with the need for a fibre glass cockpit surround.

Despite Graham Hill’s 3rd place finish on it’s debut in the 1963 French Grand Prix the P61 raced only twice in the 1963 season as it became apparent that the chassis flexed.

For 1964 a Mk2 P61 evolved that replaced the separate subrame that carried the motor with pontoons made from stressed sheet metal that extended from the back of the monocoque, the P 61 Mk2 became known as the P261.

BRM P2615, Damon Hill, BRM Day, Bourne,

In all 6 P261’s were built in 1.5 litre V8 spec for the 1964 and ’65 Formula One seasons, in 1.9 litre and 2.0 litre V8 spec for the 1966 Formula One season which now permitted 3.0 litre engines and 2.1 litre V8 spec for part of 1967 Formula season.

BRM also opted to compete with 1.9 litre V8 spec P261’s in the 1966 Tasman series of races, which permitted motors of up to 2.5 litres, run during the winter months in Australia and New Zealand, and ran 2.1 litre V8 P261’s in the following year when Jackie Stewart and BRM failed to repeat the title winning successes, 4 wins from 8 races, of 1966.

These cars served the works BRM team up until 1967 and today’s featured chassis #2615 carried on racing in privateers hands until 1969 by which time it had been fitted with a 3 litre BRM V12 motor.

BRM P2615, Damon Hill, BRM Day, Bourne,

#2615 first appeared at the the 1964 Belgian Grand Prix where Graham Hill drove it qualifying 2nd and finishing in 5th place. At the following race Graham finished 2nd in the French Grand Prix his best result in 1964 driving this chassis. Two wins and two further 2nd places helped Graham secure second place to John Surtees in the 1964 Championship season.

Richie Ginther drove the car at the 1964 US and Mexican Grand Prix’s recording a best 4th at Watkins Glen, Graham returned to drive #2615 a couple of times in early 1965 recording a best 2nd place in the Goodwood non championship race.

Jackie Stewart was the last works driver to drive #2615 in a Championship Formula One race in Mexico where he retired but still finished 3rd in the championship behind Jim Clark and team mate Graham.

BRM P2615, Damon Hill, BRM Day, Bourne,

Bernard White Racing bought the car for 1966 and entered it at various non championship and championship events for Vic Wilson, Bob Bondurant and Innes Ireland who all managed best 4th place finishes, at Syracuse, Monaco and Oulton Park respectively, on their first acquaintance with the car.

BRM borrowed #2615 from Bernard White Racing for the 1967 Tasman Series intending it to be a spare car for the works drivers. However it ended up being driven by Richard Attwood who finished 3rd in his first two starts with the car and won the minor Vic Hudson Memorial non championship race at Levin.

Piers Courage then drove #2615 in three events finishing a best 4th in the Teratonga International at Invergill. Chris Irwin was put in the car for the last three meetings of the Sandown meetings of the ’67 Tasman season finishing a best 3rd at Longford where Jackie Stewart borrowed the car for the 2nd preliminary to finish 2nd before returning to his own car which needed gearbox repairs for the final.

BRM P2615, Damon Hill, BRM Day, Bourne,

After #2615 was returned to the UK Bernard White Racing nominated David Hobbs to drive it in the 1967 British and Canadian Grand Prix but he could do no more than finish 8th and 9th even with a 2.1 litre motor.

For 1968 Bernard White Racing fitted the latest 3 litre BRM V12 but David finished only 9th and 6th in the non championship Race of Champions and International Trophy events run at Brands Hatch and Silverstone respectively.

It fell upon Frank Gardener to attempt to drive a P261 in a Championship Formula One event for the last time at the 1968 Italian Grand Prix however incorrect gearing meant he had no hope of even qualifying.

In 1969 #2615 still fitted with the V12 changed hands twice, Tony Dean bought the car and raced it in the Gran Premio de Madrid de F1 at Jarama, which was run for F5000 and F1 cars with a separate Formula 2 division, where he finished third behind the Formula 5000 Lola Chevrolet T142 driven by Keith Holland and F5000 McLaren Chevrolet M10A driven by Peter Gethin.

Later in the year Ben Moore bought #2615 and entered Charles Lucas to race, still with a V12 fitted, in the Gold Cup at Oulton Park where he retired with ignition box failure on the cars and models final “in period” appearance.

Graham Hill’s son Damon is seen demonstrating #2615 in these photograph’s at the BRM Day in Bourne a couple of years ago.

My thanks to Tim Murray or lending me a copy of Doug Nye’s invaluable BRM Volume 3 which proved to be an invaluable reference resource, incidentally there is a photo of in the aforementioned book showing Graham Hill testing #2615 at Snetterton with an “onboard data recorder, wrapped in aluminised cloth, braced on a tall gearbox bracket and steadied by bungee cords.”

The recorder is described as being attached to sensors taped to every suspension link and the data, which revealed for example that Graham Hill’s height accounted for a loss in performance equivalent to 100 rpm on the straights against his more diminutive team mate Jackie Stewart, appears to have been recorded on light sensitive paper tape.

Thanks for joining me on this “Tube 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 !

Share

Another Fine Mess – BRM P139 #P139/2

With the benefit of hindsight it could be said that the introduction of the 3 litre era Formula One regulations was the perfect excuse for unprecedented levels of chaos to reign at BRM. When the new regulations were announced BRM forgot its past troublesome experience with the supercharged BRM V16 and elected to built an even more complicated motor a 3 litre / 183 cui H16, effectively two flat 8 motors on top of one another sharing a common crankshaft. This heavy motor required four men to lift it and although powerful was also predictably unreliable though it did power Jim Clark to victory in the 1966 US Grand Prix, sitting in the back of a Lotus 43.

Alongside the H16 program BRM also developed a 24 valve V12 which Bruce McLaren used to power his one off McLaren M5A. When it lasted the V12 was capable of finishing in the points as Denny Hulme’s 5th in the 1968 South African Grand Prix had proved, however by then Bruce had already decided that the future of his Grand Prix team lay with the Ford Cosworth DFV which was used to power the 1968 McLaren M7A.

BRM P139, BRM Day, Bourne, Lincs

For 1968 BRM decided that the simpler and lighter V12 might be the better bet and abandoned it’s H16 and free lance designer Len Terry was drafted in to design a new V12 powered BRM P126 of which second evolution P133 and third evolution P138 variants were built in the same season. The teams best results were a second place in Monaco for Attwood in the P126 and 2nd place in the following Belgian Grand Prix for Pedro Rodriguez driving the P133.

1965 World Champion John Surtees was teamed up with Jackie Oliver in the BRM team for 1969 by which time BRM had developed a 48 valve version of the V12. The first half of the 1969 season went so badly with a best 5th place finish for John Surtees in Spain and 6 retirements from the opening 8 starts in 4 races that the team missed the 1969 French Grand Prix to regroup. During the break Tony Rudd, who had been working on a ground effect design with Peter Wright, was forced to resign and the team prepared a new challenger, the P139, for John Surtees to drive at the British Grand Prix.

 BRM P139, BRM Day, Bourne, Lincs

John retired on the second lap of the 1969 British Grand Prix when the suspension of the new P139 collapsed in the remaining five races of the 1969 season John managed two finishes the best of which was third in the Italian Grand Prix. At the end of the season John left BRM to start his own Formula One team.

Today’s featured car is #P139/2 which was ready for Jackie Oliver to drive in the 1969 Italian Grand Prix. Jackie Oliver ended his rookie season with Team Lotus in 1968, in which he replaced the much missed Jim Clark, with a season high third place finish in the season finale Mexican Grand Prix where team mate Graham Hill over came the odds to win the race and his second world drivers championship.

BRM P139, BRM Day, Bourne, Lincs

After the 1968 Mexican Grand Prix Jackie was replaced at Team Lotus by Jochen Rindt and Jackie found himself with the second seat at BRM for the 1969 season which started with a seventh place finish driving the BRM P133 at the South African Grand Prix. Jackie then had a run of four retirements in the P133 up to the British Grand Prix a fifth straight retirement driving the P138 at the German Grand Prix followed by three more in Italy Canada and the USA driving #P139/2. In Mexico Jackie’s fortunes changed and he finished 6th two laps down on Denny Hulme who drove his McLaren M7A to the models final final victory.

Jackie remained with BRM in 1970, but again he retired from all but two races with the P139’s replacement the Tony Southgate designed P153 scoring a best fifth in Austria. In 1973 Jackie teamed up with Don Nichols and designer Tony Southgate, who was part of the team that replaced Tony Rudd and Peter Wright at John Surtees insistence, to form the Shadow and later Arrows teams.

BRM P139, BRM Day, Bourne, Lincs

Tony Rudd joined Lotus production car operation when he left BRM and was still there when Peter Wright joined Lotus some years later. After joining Lotus Wright became involved in the development of the Lotus 78 ground effect and Lotus 79 moving on the work Wright and Rudd had started on the never completed BRM P142 in 1969.

Last time I looked today’s featured car seen in these photographs at last years BRM Day in it’s home town of Bourne was being offered for sale by Hall & Hall.

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

Share

Magnesium DFV – Cosworth

Looking like a cross between a 1923 Grand Prix Voisin Labatoire and a 1954 Lancia D50 the Cosworth Formula Car designed by Robin Herd.

Cosworth, Donington, Park Museum

Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, the geniuses behind the Ford Cosworth DFV Formula One engine that dominated Formula One from 1968 to 1982, decided to engage former McLaren designer Robin Herd build a car which would maximise the advantages of their powerful DFV V8 in 1968.

Cosworth, Donington, Park Museum

Herd took a more radical approach to the application of all wheel drive to Formula One than either Colin Chapman’s Lotus 63 or Jo Marquart’s McLaren M9A, although no where near as radical as the V12 powered MATRA MS 11 all wheel drive with hydraulic drive to all four wheels.

Cosworth, Donington, Park Museum

In order to keep the driver’s seat low and accommodate the drive shaft running from the motor and gearbox in the rear to the wheels at the front the driver was slightly offset from a central seating position.

Cosworth, Donington, Park Museum

The Cosworth was tested by Mike Costin, the ‘Cos’ in ‘Cosworth’, Brian Redman, Trevor Taylor and Jackie Stewart.

Cosworth, Donington, Park Museum

Trevor Taylor was penciled in to debut the Cosworth at the 1969 British Grand Prix, however as the testing had shown the car worked best with little or no drive to the front wheels the entry was withdrawn.

Cosworth, Donington, Park Museum

While the Cosworth shared the same 3 lite / 183 cui DFV motor design there was one essential difference between the Cosworth works unit and those supplied to Lotus and McLaren, the block was cast in magnesium to save weight over the aluminium cast DFVs supplied to Cosworth’s customers.

Cosworth, Donington, Park Museum

The Cosworth never did race, as BRM’s Tony Rudd had predicted after BRM’s experience with the all wheel drive BRM P67 all wheel drive would never work in Formula One, and after being demonstrated at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 1970 it found it’s way to the Donington Park Museum where it is seen in these photographs.

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

Share

Dinger’s All Wheel Drive – McLaren Ford M9A

After the limited success of the Ferguson P99 in circuit racing from 1961 to 1963 Peter Westbury drove the P99 in 1964 and won the British Hillclimb Championship.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

Meanwhile Andy Granatelli working with Ferguson had entered Bobby Unser in the Studebaker STP Special for the 1964 Indy 500 where he qualified 22nd but retired after an accident on the opening lap. BRM also became interested in all wheel drive in 1964 building the BRM P67 to test the system in anticipation of the forthcoming 3 litre / 183 cui motors that were to be mandated for Formula One in 1966. The P67 was driven in practice for the 1964 British Grand Prix by Grand Prix debutant Richard Attwood where the car was the slowest to take part. BRM concluded remarkably quickly that all wheel drive held no benefits for them and with drew the car from the race.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

In 1968 Peter Westbury resurrected the P67 to win the British Hill Climb Championship again. By this time the Granatelli entered ’67 Paxton Special and ’68 Lotus 56 had both come with in 25 miles of winning the Indy 500 in successive years with gas turbine cars both featuring all wheel drive.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

By 1969 four teams were ready to try all wheel drive again despite BRM’s Tony Rudd telling anyone who would listen that the system would not work in Formula One. One of those teams was led by Bruce McLaren who helped Swiss designer Jo Marquart with the Ford Cosworth powered M9A.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

The car was tested and entered into the 1969 British Grand Prix for Derek ‘Dinger’ Bell to drive. Derek qualified 15th, of seventeen, and retired having completed just 5 laps when the rear suspension failed.

McLaren Ford M9A, Donington Park Museum

For McLaren this was enough to confirm what BRM had realised, that all wheel drive was not for Formula One, by 1969 improvements in aerodynamics and tyres which by now were much wider than when the Ferguson P99 first appeared had reduced the necessity for drive to the front wheels.

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

Share

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 !

Share

Torrey Canyon – Lotus Ford T86

On March 18th 1967 Shipmaster Pastrengo Rugiati elected to take his charge the 974 ft Torrey Canyon carrying 120,000 tons of crude oil on a disastrous short cut between the Scilly Isles and the Cornish mainland on his way to Milford Haven and ended up causing the worlds largest ship wreck when the boat grounded on the Seven Stones Reef. As the consequent environmental disaster unfolded the ship was bombed sending it 98ft below and the oil spill was repeatedly bombed in a vain effort to keep the oil off the beached of England, France and surrounding islands.

In 1969 Peter Wright was working on the ground breaking BRM P142 which would have introduced aerodynamically induced ground effects to racing car design when John Surtees joined BRM and insisted on opting for a conservative approach and developing the existing BRM P138 and P139 chassis with which Big John scored a season best 3rd place driving the P 139 at the 1969 US Grand Prix before quitting BRM to start his own team.

Peter left BRM and some years later started work for Technocraft to develop a vacuum assisted resin injection composite process which was to be used for the manufacture of body shells for the Lotus Elite, Eclat and Esprit road cars and Colin Chapman’s boat companies.

After the failure of the Lotus 76 in 1975 Colin Chapman asked another ex BRM employee Tony Rudd, now group engineering director at Lotus, to re-think how a Formula One car might be made to make proper use of the front tyres.

Rudd drafted his former colleague Peter Wright in to run the wind tunnel “in his spare time” after his commitments at Technocraft. The fruit of this collaboration was the successful Lotus 78 and world championship winning Lotus 79.

Lotus Ford 86, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The team were not so lucky with the Lotus 80, from which they took a step back with the Lotus 81 before regrouping with their next innovation the twin chassis Lotus 86 seen here.

What Peter had found out was that the Lotus 80 and to a lesser extent the Lotus 81 were suffering from aero flutter causing the cars to porpoise as a result of having springs that were too soft for the aerodynamic loads being put through the wheels and suspension.

By having a twin chassis Peter hoped to use a conventional monocoque chassis in which the driver sat and a separate independently sprung ground effect chassis attached to the first at the outboard ends of the lower suspension. The suspension for the outer ground effect chassis was much stiffer than for the inner monocoque chassis and as a result in theory should not be quite so sensitive to flutter or likely to porpoise.

In order for the car to work not only would the science have to be proven but the rule book scrutinised to ensure the car remained legal. By having the outer ground effect chassis suspended from the bottom suspension links using very stiff rubber bump stops the criteria for having all parts of the car with an aerodynamic influence entirely sprung, was met.

To check the science the team took a 1980 Lotus 81 added a spacer between the engine and the fuel tank through which the central cross member of the outer chassis would pass, made provision for the front cross member of the outer chassis to pass under the driver legs and had had the third rear cross member of the outer chassis pass over the gearbox.

The weight of the outer chassis was kept low using the in house developed carbon fibre process that Peter had been developing for the Lotus road cars and Champman’s boats.

Lotus Ford 86, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Amid much secrecy the Lotus 86 was built and then taken to Jarama for a private test, thanks to the motors heavily revised oil pumps, that were required by the second chassis, a lot of oil was spilled, hence the Torrey Canyon nick name for the car.

Once the leaks had been fixed the Lotus 86 proved that the aerodynamic outer chassis worked providing plenty of down force while the inner monocoque chassis, in which the driver sat, remained free of the porpoising effect that made the car difficult to control.

Upon completion of the test the Lotus 86 which was never subsequently raced was put aside and work started on the Lotus 88 using the same principles.

Thanks for joining me on this “Torry Canyon” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at an old Rolls Royce. Don’t forget to come back now !

Share

Definetly Not The Right One – Lotus Ford 80 #R1

Colin Chapman described the Lotus Ford 80 at it’s launch in the Kentagon at Brands Hatch in 1979 as the best looking Lotus he had ever built. Reigning World Champion Mario Andretti said it would make the Lotus Ford 79 with which he won the 1978 World Championship look like a London Bus.

Lotus Ford 80, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Unfortunately the car with the revolutionary venturi under the nose and a second under the rest of the body and with out the usual wings front and rear proved to be a bit of a handful with unpredictable handling once it started running on the track and it was only a matter of time before Colin Chapman and his engineers were removing the skirts that sealed the airflow beneath the nose and fitting conventional front wings to aid the aerodynamic poise and balance of the car.

Lotus Ford 80, Silverstone Classic

The whole point of the design was to make the Lotus 80 faster down the straights than the Lotus 79 by not having any wings fitted at all. However all was not lost at Brands Hatch, as seen in Sven Platts photo below, the car was only used as a spare, but in the next race the Spanish Grand Prix Mario Andretti qualified a respectable forth behind the two hitherto dominant Ligiers that were the most effective copies of the previous seasons Lotus 79 and the more powerful Ferrari 312 T4 of Gilles Villeneuve.

Lotus Ford 80, Race of Chapions, Brands Hatch

Patrick Depaillier won the Spanish Grand Prix in his Ligier from Carlos Reutemann, in the Lotus Teams older Lotus 79, who finished ahead of Mario in the Lotus 80. The Spanish Grand Prix turned out to be the highlight of the Lotus 80’s short life, at Monaco Mario could only qualify 13th and at the French GP where a heavily revised second Lotus 80 was tested Mario qualified 12th but he retired with suspension and brake issues from each of these races respectively.

Lotus Ford 80, Silverstone Classic

The final appearance of the Lotus 80 was at the British Grand Prix at Silvestone where I took the photograph below. Mario practised in the car but decided he was better off with his year old Lotus 79 which by now was swamped by new designs which emulated it and the more powerful, ultimately 1979 championship winning, Ferrari T4s.

Lotus Ford 80, British Grand Prix, Silverstone

I believe these photographs all show the same chassis namely Lotus Ford 80 R1 which today appears to be owned by Manfredo Rossi a member of the Martini Rossi family that sponsored team Lotus in 1979.

Lotus Ford 80, Silverstone Classic

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

Share