January 1980 Motor Sport Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four a good thing, which is why they now play cricket with MATTERS OF MOMENT black pads and a white ball under floodlights, tennis is no longer confined to summer afternoons on grass ■ THE FUTURE OF THE SPORT courts, and kick-ball happens almost every evening to amuse crowds, some of whose other interests are “God is generally for the big battalions violence, hooliganism, and the smashing up of trains ... against the little ones” So let’s be watchful of our own Sport, with the thought that there may even now be too much racing going on, — Bussy Rabutin, 1677. little of it, away from Fl, of the status of great contests from the past, such as Le Mans in its heyday, the TT IT SEEMS prudent, at the beginning of the New Year, when it was a great sports-car road-race, and those to pontificate, as Willie Green thinks we motoring Silverstone saloon-car races when Jaguar, Daimler writers do, about the state of the Sport. D.S.J, had (yes!) Mini-Minor and the rest competed and the made it clear to anyone in any doubt that Fl racing is spectators, watched cars battling it out which were not in a highly interesting stage, and his arguments are as too dissimilar to those they had arrived in, and which convincing as his enthusiasm is infectious. So the 1980 many of them could afford to purchase . . . Grand Prix season that starts in nine days’ time should On the sordid subject of greed, did you know that, be a magnificent one, with the excitement of seeing according to a Rally Promotional Executive, the Forestry whether the Saudis will see their support of the Williams Commission received a minimum of £42,000 from the team fulfilled, the computerised-might of again RAC in respect of last year’s RAC Rally? Yet when prevail, Lotus, linked to Ford and now to Rolls-Royce, we drove into to the Radnor Forest Castrol Enthusiast retrieve lost status, achieve a Turbo charged Rally Stage in the Editorial Rover, with a huge Official Championship, or whatever. Press sticker on its windscreen, we were told to pay £1 National racing, reviewed in MOTOR SPORT last admission fee for the privilege of reporting the event month, more or less thrives, in many different categories, (“You can claim it back from your paper”) or else go and there is absolutely no denying the popular appeal back, which was clearly impossible with a great queue of of, and interest in, International . On a rather spectators’ cars behind us. We did not grudge the quid, more amateur footing, the racing of vintage and historic but we were disappointed to find that there was no car- cars is on the increase. Nevertheless, we must guard park, no indications of where to watch, and nothing to against anything that might be detrimental to these and stop visitors from driving on along what should have any other facets of the Sport. For the time being there been a one-way traffic system, only to come to a dead-end. seems absolutely no foundation for rumours to the effect The spectators’ cars were packed bumber-to-bumper on that the Sport may have-to be curtailed on account of both sides of the forest roads and they stretched literally the need to conserve fuel. Petrol, at a price, is now freely for miles. How they all got out again is a modern miracle. available again (at least when Shell’s tanker-drivers do Such enthusiasm for rallying is highly satisfactory. not go on strike) and while package-tourists fly about the But, remembering that the Forestry Commission took World in Jumbo Jets and horse-race and kick-ball crowds £1 for each spectator’s car at the many Stages, as well travel in a multitude of cars and motor-coaches, there can as receiving the aforementioned fee for the use of the be no call to reduce motoring sport under a fuel-saving course, it might have laid on a better service for those heading. So, at lop level, all seems set-fair for another who came to watch and who may have thought Castrol magnificent motor-racing season, with flourishing events to blame. Accidents under such conditions, with adults in the other sections of the Sport. However, greed and and children not used to the speed of rally cars let loose other factors have intruded into non-motorised sports, so in the dark forests, could easily happen and could be very let us be watchful and jealously guard ours. detrimental to this now healthy branch of the Sport. Yet The smaller Clubs will be hit, for instance, by with marshals having to rely only on ropes and whistles new financial and organisational penalties imposed on to keep the course clear, it can only be the good discipline them by the RAC Motor Sports Council, unless enough of British crowds that has prevented a disaster from resistance is brought to bear for Belgrave Square to occurring. God may be on the side of the Big Battalions, retract. In fact, this month’s VSCC Measham Rally be these wealthy Fl contenders or happy crowds wanting is the first casualty. A friend of ours who lives in the to see International rally drivers at work. But let us not motoring past, but who claims to be closely in touch push our luck too far . . . with the younger members of many of the smaller motoring Clubs, considers that the time has come for ■ OH. AUNTIE! the RAC to operate two-tier control of the Sport. He thinks that at present Clubs running amateur events, There will be many who are absolutely delighted amateur drivers, and newcomers to the Sport, are all that The Times newspaper has been able, at the cost carrying a disproportionate load, not only financially, of £30-million, to weather an industrial storm and but in respect of rules and regulations. With this view recommence publication. For “Auntie” is essentially we agree, and while realising that in Inflationary times a very British institution. And has been for nearly 200 the RAC is no more immune than other organisations to years. But we hope that the long break in its daily doses increased running-costs, it is surely to the big battalions will not be responsible for reduced standards of accuracy, that it should look for a bigger income. Greed has in a paper whose once-proud boast was that you could affected other sports, if only by demanding too much of trust its every word. The reason we say this is because in a long obituary Bentley employee Walter Hawgood was unknown to the about Signor Amedee that appeared in The BDC, whereas he appears as “believed deceased” in the Times last year it was stated that this engineer who was Club’s list. responsible for the Gordini-Simca and other racing cars, But with standards falling everywhere, it will and who worked for Renault (not mentioned), designed be a great pity if we can no longer rely on The Times a round an old Hispano Suiza engine in 1921, and newspaper for almost l00% accuracy. It is possible that that after Tazio Nuvolari had tested this car at Monza he their Amedee Gordini obituary was not written by a “took it over to Brooklands, where it was timed at nearly staff-man and that they used a commercial hand-out. 150 m.p.h.”. It has been our belief that Nuvolari, one of the which they singularly failed to check? — W.B. greatest of racing drivers, only drove once at Brooklands, in Earl Howe’s Bugatti, and that in 1933 in practice for The Things They Say . . . the BARC Mountain Championship, in which he failed STUART TURNER, Ford’s Director of Public Relations, to start. If Nuvolari came to the Weybridge Track 12 in a hilarious, but pertinent speech at the BRDC dinner years earlier and drove so quickly there, this would be dance in the London Hilton las month: “I don’t hold with of the greatest interest, to a great many people. But we all this British Mafia nonsense in . The way think we can safely say this never happened. the Fl constructors trade makes the bloody Mafia look In the first place, although The Times says Gordini effeminate!” met “the great Nuvolari” in 1921, at that time Tazio was only just commencing his motorcycle racing, and had scarcely earned such acclaim. Secondly, in Stars 1921 the Track lap-record stood at under 122 m.p.h , IN THE article elsewhere in this issue the design of the the Land Speed Record at 124.1 m.p.h., and there was 1914 TT Star is attributed to Cecil Cathie. In fact these meat excitement when K. Lee Guinness’ big Sunbeam cars were designed by Tom Mathie, who had previously was unofficially timed at 135 m . p . h . o v e r the been with Sunbeam’s. We expect to have a long Star Brooklands half-mile that year. It was another 14 years postscript in a future MOTOR SPORT. before Cobb’s big Napier-Railton was timed at over 150 m.p.h. at Brooklands. When America claimed a record A Cheap Lift of more than 156 m.p.h. from Milton’s twin-engined LOADS of up to a quarter of a ton can be lifted by a very Duesenberg in 1920, no-one in Europe would accept it. compact, light and cheap (£10.37) Mini-Hoist made by If a then little-known Italian driver, using a car with an Hi-Way (Automotive) Ltd; We have found it to be a old Hispano Suiza engine, had been timed at nearly 150 much more convenient device for modest lifting jobs m.p.h. on Brooklands, surely the feat would have aroused than a conventional block and tackle. It should cope with considerable comment ? Of course, Nuvolari’s 1921 visit most smaller engines and from memory even a Jaguar might have happened on a non-race-day, when few were engine without gearbox should just about be in its scope present. If The Times can convince us that it definitely — at least, we intend to try it for that purpose over the happened, the Editor of MOTOR SPORT will have to winter, but readers planning a similar exercise should eat a Times’ Leader, however indigestible. A number check their engine weight first of racing cars was built with V8 Hispano Suiza aero- The seven-part hoist has non-rusting alloy pulley engines around this period, apart from Miller’s well- wheels and 60 ft. of nylon rope, giving an eight-fool lift. known Brooklands Wolseley Viper which delighted and Double hooks arc fitted top and bottom for security, and alarmed Track visitors for several years. These engines a jamming cleat allows the load to be held firmly at any seem often to have been of smaller capacity than the well- height. known war-time Hispano Suiza aero-engines, and they The Mini-Hoist is available from most accessory were used in the D’Aoust, the EG. the Becquet Special, shops, or in case of difficulty write to Hi-Way Automotive the Bor-genschutz, and in an Isotta-Fraschini Special. It Ltd.. 33, South St., Corsham, Wilts. seems probable that it was the last-named, which Alfieri raced successfully, that Nuvolari also drove, but not at Brooklands, surely? It may seem harsh to harp Hung-over Rover on this presumable mistake, except for the impeccable FOR the benefit of those readers who wondered what on reputation The Times should have. We remember when earth last month’s Tailpiece photograph of a muddy pit someone who was reporting a Goodwood motor race was ail about, before the gremlins attacked it the word meeting for that great newspaper wrote ERA when he HANGOVER was obvious in place of RANGE-ROVER meant HRG, from a lapse of concentration. He told us that on the Solihull workhorse’s tailgate Humorist or cynic? the fuss was immediate and at top-level; he was made to understand that errors might creep into mere motor journals but must never appear in The Times! Which is why we would like confirmation of whether Nuvolari did or did not come to Brooklands in 1921. We notice other errors in the Obituary, such as naming Cattaneo as “an Hispano Suiza expert” when he was the Isotta- Fraschini designer and ascribing a fictitious win in the 1934 Bol d’Or to Gordini. Now we all make mistakes — only last month MOTOR SPORT said that cx-W. O. large bags of gold from it are far more interested in their THE 1980 SEASON own welfare than that of the paying spectator who lines the circuit. If you listen to the ideas of the television IT SEEMS incredible that it was ten years ago that we fanatics you gel the impression that it won’t be long said goodbye to the swinging sixties and stepped into before the paying spectator is done away with and the the seventies with hope for more rational and balanced whole business of a Grand Prix will be staged for the living. Here we are stepping into the eighties with a benefit of the viewers and the vested interests of those slightly apprehensive look The seventies were not all who are manipulating the money bags (Mr. Ecclestone bad, though there was much that was sordid, but never in Formula One). Eventually the viewer will be shown squalid thank goodness. The keynote as far as Formula only what Ecclestone and his backers want you to see; One was concerned seemed to be rules and regulations, at the moment the paying spectator often sees more than squabbles and controls, hut it all levelled out by the end he is supposed to, and quite often not sufficient of what of 1979. Through all the red tape and wrangles those the moguls want him to see. To listen to some people people that really matter in Formula One. the designers the Grand Prix cars and the racing are of secondary and engineers came out with a flourish, producing really importance. smooth looking cars (). fascinating and intriguing The long-distance scene is far from healthy, for cars (-Alfa Romeos), startlingly efficient and such racing should be the province of manufacturers,­ but effective cars (Williams FW07) and as always Ferrari when withdrew last year it became glorified club 12-cylinder cars, while a whole new world began to racing, on an international level. The Le Mans organisers evolve with the Renault turbo. In American track racing did not see eye-to-eye with the new-look rules and European long­distance racing the exhaust-driven so they opted out of the so-called World Championship turbo-charger really took over, thanks to the of Makes and ran their 24 hour race as an individual DFX and the . event standing on its own merit, without the prop of a If the sixties were “swinging” and the seventies Championship. And they succeeded. They formulated were “sordid” then I feel the eighties are going to be their own rules and never looked back, but meanwhile “efficient”, I cannot see much room for razz-ma-tazz in the Championship events dwindled to the farcical. Now the 1980s and bull-shit will be a thing of the past. Those the FIA has taken the Le Mans 24-Hour race back into who are not efficient and effective will fail by the wayside its Championship for what it is worth, but the Le Mans and there will be no helping hands, for the hands of organisers are still running their race to their own rules the successful will be very full trying to maintain their regardless of any Championship. efficiency and to stay effective. In the sixties everyone was seems to be determined to struggle on the bandwagon and all were enjoying the merry-go- and remain self-sufficient, though it does not seem to be round, but in the severities the merry-go-round began to heading anywhere in particular, whereas slow down and many of those who did not have a firm has a rosy future and the World of Formula One seems grip slipped away into oblivion. Now the merry-go- to think that the logical progression of Formula Three, round has slopped, the bandwagon has gone and only Formula Two and Formula One is unnecessary and a those who are truly dedicated and prepared to work and jump from F3 to Fl is quite all right. Certainly Formula sacrifice some things will survive. I think it will beall Three has the support of manufacturers, for both Renault right for those of us who are left; I hope so. and Alfa Romeo are marketing engines that challenge The accompanying list of events lor 1980 for all the the near monopoly of Extra to our lists of lesser various racing categories is as big as ever, though do not Formulae this year is the Aurora AFX series for Fl and F2 be surprised if some of them do not happen. At its Paris cars and non-championship drivers. It was hoped that Press Conference on December 13th, FISA threatened this category would be a stepping-stone up into Formula more changes to the GP calendar in the next few weeks, One. but at the moment it has proved to he more of a and the list below should be considered provisional. stepping-stone in reverse, for failed Formula One drivers. The Argentine and Brazilian races will take place as It was also hoped thai events could be run on Grand scheduled, though. Already the Swedish and Mexican Prix circuits, to give drivers an opportunity to find their GPS have been cancelled. Some people would like to get way around, but the 1980 list seems restricted to British rid of the Spanish GP and quite a few are trying hard to curcuits with a preponderance of events at Mallorv Park. get rid of the USA GP a! Watkins Glen, especially those — D.S.J. who are forcing the issue for a Grand Prix at Las Vegas. Many of those who campaigned against Monza are now having second thoughts, especially after the face-lift the whole place was given last year. The Belgian GP is still at the little Zolder circuit, though it might return to the new shortened circuit at Francorchamps in 1981. The French GP takes its turn on the flat arid wastes of the Paul Ricard circuit and the British GP takes its turn at the cramped circuit. Monaco is still Monaco, and the other events are stabilised, though there is some lobbying going on to revise the dates of those events due in August, to avoid clashing on Television with the Olympic Games. 1 he TV moguls and those who make assistant chief engineer. Gerard Larrouse is still head of THE FORMULA ONE the Renault competition department, aided by , and the two drivers are still Jean-Pierre Jabouille and SCENE Rene Arnoux. The RE20 was out on test last November and before the end of the year had done considerable IN LESS than two weeks the 1980 Formula One season testing in Brazil and , supported to the full by will be under way and there should be a report of the ELF and . Argentine GP in the February issue of MOTOR SPORT, Alfa Romeo: The new V12 Alfa Romeo only for it is due to take place at the Autodromo in Buenos appeared at the end of last season so no major redesigns Aires on January 13th. While some teams are in a state were to be expected, though the rear brakes have been of flux and indecision, others are well advanced with moved “outboard” onto the hubs. The major change the first part of their 1980 programme. Quite often these within the team is sponsorship by Marlboro and a early races in South America have been little more than change of colour from Alfa red to the garish white and extensions of the previous season and if that proves to be day-glo red/orange of Marlboro. Patrick Depailler is the the ease this year we can expect to see the Ferrari team number one driver, though his fitness is in some doubt vying with the Williams team for pride of place, with still, and he is backed up by . A test and Renault very close behind and Ligier waiting for any of development programme is being carried out on Alfa the top three to falter so that it might jump in. Romeo’s private track at Balocco and Vittorio Brambilla is Ferrari: The 1979 cars, designated T4, were doing all the experimental driving. Carlo Chili is at work pensioned off and the T5 replacement was announced on two variations on the 1.5-litre turbo-charged theme, in December. The basic concept of the car has been one a V6 and the other a V8, the former being literally unchanged but a lot of re-designing has taken place, half the existing V12. The new car is being designed to particularly in the engine, where a revised cylinder head take cither a turbo-charged 1.5-litre or the existing V12, and valve gear design has permitted the 1980 flat-12- and Alfa Romeo say it is their intention to run three cars cylinder engine to be narrower in overall width, to help in some of the European events. towards better air-flow under the car and to improve Williams: As mentioned elsewhere in this issue the the weight transfer on cornering. The top part of the Williams team are starting 1980 with B-versions of the bodywork has been reshaped to improve the air-flow and successful FW07 cars and at the time of writing it seems the resultant down-force generated by the body, while pretty certain that will be Alan Jones’ the rear brakes are hub-mounted as on the T4B which partner on the driving side, otherwise there are no major was tried at Monza. There have been no changes within changes. the team, Mauro Forghieri is still chief engineer. Piccinini Ensign: Morris Nunn and his one-car team look to is still team-manager and Scheckter and Villeneuve are be starting 1980 in better condition than ever before. The still the two happy drivers. team now has the financial backing of Unipart. This is Renault: The 1979 cars RS10, RS12 and RS14 the highly successful branch of British Leyland that deals have been taken completely apart and redesigned in replacement and service components for nearly all the and rebuilt to the same general format, with the twin cars in the world, not only BL cars, with the exception of turbo-charger layout on the . About all that those from East . Unipart has been supporting remained of the 1979 cars was the rear bulkhead of the the sport for a few years now, first with a rally car and monocoque and the floor pan. everything else has been then with a Formula Three team. Now they are stepping revised mainly with the aim of saving weight, but also up into Formula One by backing the Ensign team and to to provide an easier car to work on at races, The 1979 justify the support Morris Nunn has assembled a strong layout was a bit complicated and routine work on the team with “Clay” Regazzoni to do the driving. Ralph engine and took too long; this facet of the Bellamy on design, Nigel Bennett (from Lotus’) as chief design has been greatly improved. The oil tank is now engineer and Rod Campbell as team-manager. All the between the engine and gearbox, the-rear anti-roll bar is old Ensign cars have been thrown out and a brand new a simpler layout, the exhaust tail pipes are shorter, the car has been built around the inevitable Cosworth DFV- side-pods are an improved shape, the side-skirts are of Hewland gearbox package, with the accent on simplicity a better design and the nosepiece and fins are improved. and lightness, taking a leaf from ’s book. This Development work in the engine department has been new cur is Type N180 and follows on in the MN series. aimed at improved reliability, especially in the valve The first new one is due to appear in Argentina, where gear, while power output is considered to be sufficient it will carry the red, white and blue colours of Unipart. for the time being. The totally rebuilt cars are some 30 kg. By the time the European season begins Regazzoni will lighter than last year, and they have been renumbered have three cars available, one to race, a spare car and one RE20, RE21 and RE22 The previous designation of at the factory being prepared for the next race. The work- RS stood for Renault-Sport, the official name of the force at Ensign has almost trebled and plans are going competition department of the Regie-Renault. They were ahead to move into a new and larger factory unit. always backed by the ELF fuel company, but this year Most of the other teams have been out testing the ties are even stronger and the cars are designated revised versions of their 1979 cars or new drivers, or Renault-ELF, hence the RE numbering. trying experimental innovations and it all suggests that As mentioned last month Francois Castang, the 1980 will be at least as busy as 1979. The permanent racing chief engineer, has moved on to other things and his place numbers have been altered slightly. Ferrari moving up has been taken by , who was previously to 1 and 2, while Lotus become 11 and 12. Some of the driver line-up is still unsettled at the time of writing but it looks like this: PORSCHE’S

Ferrari — , Gilles Villeneuve INDIANAPOLIS PLANS Tyrrell — Jean-Pierre Jarier, Derek Daly Brabham — , Ricardo Zunnino PORSCHE are to return to single-seater racing this season McLaren — John Watson, tor the first time since 1964, with a programme aimed Lotus — , Elio de Angelis specifically at the , but taking in too the Renault — Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Rene Arnoux entire USAC calendar of at least 10 races. They will field Ligier — Jacques Laffile, Didier Pironi one car and one driver, the Hawaian Danny Ongais. Alfa Romeo — Patrick Depailler, Bruno Giacomelli The historic revelation came as the Indy car was Fittipaldi — Emerson Fittipaldi, Keijo Rosberg wheeled on to the stage at the Stuttgart Hilton last month, Williams — Alan Jones, Carlos Reutemann prior to the presentation of the 1979 Porsche Cup. It is not Ensign — Gianclaudio Regazzoni an entirely new car, it is not an entirely Porsche car, but it marks the start of a long-term project which Porsche On January I3th everything should be settled so hope will reach a successful peak in 1982. next month we can tell you in more detail who drives The project is being run in conjunction with Ted what, paid for by whom and what colour everything is. Field’s Interscope team, from Santa Anna, and the The scene is a little late this year. first Interscope Porsche as shown to us in Stuttgart was built around a 1979 Parnelli P6B, a five-year-old design which stemmed from the Lotus 72. It is powered Correction by a development of the turbocharged, flat-six, four- (from the Oh Dear! department) overhead-camshaft. Porsche 935 engine reduced in size to 2,649.5 c.c. (92.3 mm. x 66 mm.) to comply with the 2.650 I WAS so busy making sure that the Saudi Arabian c.c. limit on the USAC engine alternative chosen. Only names in the article on Frank Williams sponsors were one turbocharger is permitted instead of the two run on spelt correctly last month that I had a mental block on 935s, this KKK unit with Garrett Air-Research wastegate the simple matter of the Williams car type numbers. I boosting at the regulation maximum of 60” of mercury wrote in glowing terms about the first Saudia-backed car (14.5 p.s.i.). The compression ratio is 9:1 and the power being the FW07, when it should have been the FW06, and output is quoted as 630 b.h.p. at 9.000 r.p.m. and 412 lb. then went on to talk about the very successful FW08 in ft. of torque at 6,400 r.p.m. It drives through a Porsche 1979. This no doubt made Patrick scratch his head, for four-speed gearbox with dog engagement. As this flat-six he has not completed the design of FW08 yet, let alone cannot be used as a stressed member, a tubular subframe built one. I should, of course, have been referring to the has been built on to the Parnelli monocoque to carry the FW07. What I did get right was the fact that the team engine and suspension. Suspension is conventional, with is starting 1980 with B-versions of the FW07, improved front and rear anti-roll bars adjustable from the cockpit. as regards suspension, monocoque construction and Porsche’s Manfred Jantke revealed that the Parnelli general efficiency of detail design. The 1979 cars have is very much an interim, development chassis and been taken apart, the monocoques unriveted and new that a brand-new chassis, designed jointly by Porsche cars built up around the bare bones of the FW07 series. and Interscope and built in Santa Anna, will hopefully An all-new FW08 should appear later in the season. make us debut in time for the Indianapolis 500 in May. To re-cap, the first Saudia-backed Patrick Head It all goes well, two cars will be run in the 1981 season. design was the FW06 which raced throughout 1978 and Helmut Flegl. designer of the 928 chassis, is in charge the early part of 1979 and this was followed by the FW07 of the project for Porsche, working in conjunction With which notched-up five Grand Prix wins and these cars Interscope’s Chapman, while engine development at have now become FW07B. Apologies all round. — D.S.J. Weissach is the responsibility of Valentin Schaffer. the engineer who developed the 935 engine. The lnterscope-Porsche appeared at Stuttgart with no sign of sponsorship and Jantke claimed that there was no truth at the moment in the rumour that Martini or Essex would enter USAC with Porsche: “Sponsorship is still open. We could go it alone but would like some financial balance.” Two initial shakedown tests of the lndy car have been made by Ongais at the Ontario circuit in California one at the end of October, the other just four days before the Press Conference. Porsche had planned to enter the American series before the split between the USAC and CART factions. “We had completed development for the then current high-boost pressure regulations — the engine was giving about 900 b.h.p — before the split, but because of the split we decided to hold fire and have lost two years,” said Jantke. The two organising clubs are still at daggers Barbour to contest the IMSA series in a 935. But he may drawn, but Porsehe chose the USAC route to guarantee an have to commute regularly to Europe to drive a Kremer entry at Indianapolis Jantke said it would not be feasible 935 in the World Championship of Makes, it current to contest both the USAC and CART series because discussions reach a successful conclusion. — C.R. differences in the boost pressures (CART’S is higher) and the use of movable skirts by CART would call for two distinct engine and chassis development exercises The Interscope Porsche uses fixed skirts in a broad vee below the monocoque, but it is not a full car. Improved ground effect with the fixed skirts will be gamed in the new chassis by moving the engine higher and further forward in the chassis and moving the driver further towards the nose. Air flow over the engine is adequate enough to make intercoolers and the familiar Porsche fan unnecessary, but the Indy engine follows the 935 design of water-cooled cylinder heads, with radiators mounted in the sidepods Power outputs are much of a muchness in USAC, where the Cosworth DFX is prolific, but Porsche are hoping tor an advantage in reliability and fuel consumption USAC rules enforce a maximum fuel tank size of 40 US gallons (151.2 litres) and include a consumption formula of a maximum of 1.8 US gallons per mile. The fuel is pure methanol. Porsche will eschew their long-running Dunlop connection for the USAC series to make use of Goodyear’s ready-developed tyres and experience.

Le Mans with 924s AFTER dominating with the 935 and Porsche 936 Porsche will restrict their European racing activities in this first year in the decade to engineering development ready for the new Appendix J regulations forecast for 1982. To this end, the factory will enter a three-car team of 2-litre, turbocharged 924 Carrera GTs in the GT prototype class in the Le Mans 24 hour race These will be based on the prototype racing car shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show A production road car version is planned for release next August. Porsche hope for a class win with the cars, Porsche’s first, front-engined works racing cars, which will run on Dunlop tyres, with drivers still undecided. The fight for fifth Porsehe outright win at Le Mans will be left to the host of privately-entered 935s. Sponsorship for the factory cars at Le Mans is undecided. “We are moving into a new generation of in racing and would like more Porsche identity for marketing purposes.” Jantke told us over dinner. “So although we are still very friendly with Martini we might not tie up with Martini for Le Mans.” he said, adding. “Martini were very upset by the Lotus business and by their Formula One experience in general.” No more 935s will be built by the factory which has put a premium on the existing cars, still the most competitive weapon tor the World Championship of Makes and the American IMSA series. “I thought about buying the Georg Loos 935 I had my three wins in this year.” John Fitzpatrick told us on the flight back from Stuttgart, “but when Porsche announced they weren’t going to make any more, the price went up another 100,000 DM!” The popular “Fitz” is moving house from Solihull to San Diego in the New Year and has signed with Dick in 1953 by Elie Bayol and then put away when the Grand HISTORIC RACING CARS Prix Formula changed in 1954. It remained unused and untouched until it was discovered in about 1972 and all LAST MONTH in our article on historic racing we it needed was a complete strip and clean up. It has barely suggested that some of the cars taking part had rather run since then and really is the genuine Osca No 2001. dubious ancestry or little of the original car now left. In complete contrast are some of the Cooper-Bristols The ravages of continual racing arc such that many of that were contemporary with this Osca. One particular the cars built in the nineteen fifties have become used one was converted into a 2-seater sports car, when its up. The quality of the metals used and the standards useful Formula Two life was finished and it was raced of workmanship were often far removed from the tool- quite successfully in club-racing until it was more or less room with the result that they have not withstood the “used-up”. Another Cooper-Bristol owner bought it as a test of time. Some cars are entirely as they were made useful source of spare parts and eventually all that was by the parent factory, but others have gone through the left of the original car were a few bits and pieces in a box. “famous axe” syndrome, of “six new heads and six new Recently these bits and pieces were retrieved from the handles ... but it is still the original axe.” As Michael box and formed the nucleus for a total resurrection and Bowler says in his letter on page 70 “. . . cars should have the Cooper-Bristol that now stands on modern wheels a continuous line of history. . .” It is when cars disappear and tyres is not even a good replica of the original car. or are broken up and then resurrected that ancestry Another one ended its useful life having the back of the becomes dubious. The two P23 BRM single-seaters that chassis cut off and the front part welded into a hill-climb are racing are examples of total resurrection from the special. When this was resurrected into a Cooper-Bristol dead. When BRM went over to rear-engined cars they a new rear end was made, another engine and gearbox chopped up all the front-engined cars, except one, which acquired, sundry bits were made and the end result is a is still retained by the Owen Organisation, and used the passable reconstruction of the original car. engines and sundry parts to build the rear-engined P48 Roderick Macpherson has been in touch with us cars. When Tom Wheatcroft decided to resurrect the to point out that his number one Cooper-Bristol, which front-engined BRMs he acquired the rear-engined cars, he unfortunately crashed rather badly last August, has or their remains, salvaged the engines and odd bits and a very continuous history which stamps it as the Mark pieces and reconstructed three of the front-engined P25 2 car that Ken Wharton drove in 1953, or at least many models. The first was 2510 which had destroyed itself in parts of that car. After being raced by Wharton it passed the monumental crash at Avus in 1959. A new chassis to Anthony Crook Motors, where it lay with a blown-up frame and body were made and as many original parts engine. In 1955 it went to Australia and led an active life were used as possible; the resultant car on show in the fitted with first a Holden engine and then a V8 Chevrolet Donington Collection is a total resurrection of a car that engine. In 1966 it came back to , less its engine was crashed and never rebuilt by the factory. While and a Bristol engine was installed by the new owner making one-new frame and body Wheatcroft decided to Stephen Curtis. It was all rebuilt back to 1953 standard make-two more and from the rear-engined cars’ remains as far as possible, though it used a Bristol gearbox and he salvaged enough to resurrect two more cars, though not an ENV preselector gearbox as it had in Wharton’s nobody at BRM could say exactly how the original day. The original Cooper cast-alloy wheels were no cars had been used up in the development of the rear- longer safe (old age and metal fatigue) so were replaced engined cars. One of this pair is raced by Neil Corner lor by modern alloy wheels as the original patterns for the the Donington Collection and it has been kept going by Cooper wheels had been destroyed. It was raced in cannibalising the other two cars for spare parts. historic events by Curtis and in 1973 passed to Robert Some of the people at BRM scathingly referred to Cooper (no relation to the car builders) who raced it in the Wheatcroft chassis (tames as “electric-light conduit VSCC events. In 1976 Macpherson bought it and raced specials” mainly because they were not made at the BRM it continuously until his accident at last factory. A fourth chassis was made for a man with a 4 year, but it is now being rebuilt. cylinder BRM engine and some bits and pieces. These This would appear to be a good example of a car were built up into the car that Lamplough races. The that has had many parts changed throughout its life, but only truly original P25 BRM is the one which is kept by the continuous thread has not. been broken. It is not the the Owen Organisation, assumed to be the car that won actual car that Ken Wharton raced but is ostensibly the the Dutch GP in 1959. same one; the “six new heads and six new handles on the The story of these BRM cars is typical of many axe” syndrome, unlike the Osca mentioned earlier which cars built in the period 1950-1960 and many Cooper- really is “the original axe”. Another car that has gone Bristols, B-type Connaughts, and through the “new heads and handles” syndrome, due to went through this form of metamorphosis. Sometimes being raced regularly and thus worn-out and used-up. is a car’s history can be traced almost day by day, even the DBR4 Aston Martin that Richard Bond drives so well though it may-have undergone changes to all the major for Geoffrey Marsh. Fundamentally this is one of the 1959 components, others disappear and are never changed, works Grand Prix Aston Marlins, but all that is left of while many pass into oblivion to reappear many years the original car is the gearbox/final drive unit, the lower later apparently totally resurrected. For sale in the Trade part of the chassis, the rev-counter, the radiator and the at the moment is a 1952 Osca 2-litre Formula Two car odd bracket or clip. The ravages of time and wear-and- which has led such a sheltered life that it could almost tear have caused everything else to be renewed and it has claim to still have the original air in the tyres. It was raced been using a 3-litre Aston Martin engine from one of the works DBR1 sports cars, and at other times a production 3-litre engine. A car with a history, but hardly an historic DRIVING DOWN-UNDER car in the true sense of the term. The problems and controversies within the historic In which J.W. concludes his experiences car scene are many and fascinating and very interesting, as long as we do not take it all too seriously. A couple of motor racing and motoring of years ago there was an historic car race following in Australia the British GP and in the paddock the atmosphere was very serious and tense, there being quite a needle- THE motorway has not come into wide use yet. They match between the front-runners, while competition in drive with right-hand steering and kilometres. The the various classes was very strong. Everyone thrashed overall limit is likely to be no higher than 62 m.p.h., or round and drove their hearts out, using their historic just over 75 on the motorway, but each state makes its machinery to the full and the atmosphere and excitement own laws. The road signs are green and white, just the in the pits was as tense as during the Grand Prix. Later same as America on main trunk roads. The police use I met a friend who had been spectating on the outside either radar or other speed entrapment devices widely. at Copse Corner, in the public enclosure and he said The police cars have Highway Patrol badging and arc “I enjoyed the Grand Prix, and stayed on afterwards usually large American style barges from Ford. for that old car parade; that was good too.” I made no Those are just some of the impressions that I comment! — D.S.J. brought back with me, but the overwhelming one was of the number of dirt roads. The day after the Bathurst New Exhibits for the race I went up to the home of Gabriel Szatmary, publisher of weekly newspaper called Motoring Donington Collection Reporter, which was up in the old gold mining town of Hill End. A mischievous lady guide decided that if the TWO more interesting Grand Prix cars have found their men were so keen to drive on dirt roads she would lay way into the Donington Collection of Single-Seater on the real thing . . . The result was hours of travel along Racing Cars. Motor Racing Developments Ltd. have roads equivalent to dry Welsh and Scottish stages on loaned the controversial Brabham “fan-car”, BT46/6B, in home international rallies. Quite the best hours of my which Niki Lauda won the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, the trip, though I did feel for the slightly modified Holden cars’ (there were two of them — Watson drove BT46/4B) Isuzu Gemini coupe that I pounded along at speeds only race before the suction fan was banned. The flat- up to 80 m.p.h. Especially when we encountered a twelve Alfa Romeo-engined Lauda car is the only one of drainage ditch and flew for several hundred feet. It was the pair to survive in “fan-car” form. the only time my co-host lor the trip, and Gemini owner has loaned Wolf WR1, in which Mark Fogarty, looked even slightly apprehensive. Then Scheckter scored a first time out victory in the 1977 it was because his flat-mate was pounding along in a Brazilian Grand Prix, gave the Cosworth DFV its century Commodore, somewhere within the choking clouds with a win in the and later in the of sandy dust swirling behind us. On the way back I same year won the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport. further brushed up my technique cruising at 60-70 m.p.h. along broader dirt roads in the comfortable Commodore, a machine developed by German Opel engineers in association with the Australians around a Record passenger cockpit and Senator front end. I was astonished at the damping refinement they have managed to build in, my passenger smoking a cigarette and stubbing it out accurately while we wrestled through a series of ess-bends using all the steering lock provided. That Commodore was a 3.3-litre straight six automatic, but I also drove a version powered by the 4.2-litre V8 and a 5.7 version. These are Australian engineered developments of the Chevrolet ilk and few. if any, parts are interchangeable. The six was the type of tough engine you can imagine farmers using, the 4.2 was a nicely balanced pleasure to drive and the 5.7 quire a tyre smoking character, though very nose-heavy when pointed at wet corners in a hurry. It would “nod its nose” in worried manner until a firm foot on the throttle solved the understeer and supplied as much tail-happy motoring as a budding Makinen could require. I drove the bigger engined, manual four-speed example, well over 1,000 miles and enjoyed them all at a steady 15.5 m.p.g. with speeds indicated up to 124 m.p.h. Some estate car! I also covered 300 miles or so in a Ford Fairlane 5.8, this 14.4 m.p.g. machine also equipped with four-wheel VETERAN EDWARDIAN disc brakes and power steering. However this Ford really represents an amazingly successful combination VINTAGE of American comforts associated with sheer size and handling braking abilities that can easily be judged by A SECTION DEVOTED TO European standards on first acquaintance. Neither of these big V8 cars was that fast in outright OLD-CAR MATTERS terms, the 5.8-litre Ford covering the standing quarter- mile in 17 seconds with a three-speed automatic, a little Star Story slower than a 2-litre RS Escort. However their big engines do confer instant passing ability on the often miserably crowded two-lane roads that are normal tare. AT THE suggestion of Jeremy Collins, whose 1921 11.9 So far as sales go in Australia at the moment, h.p. Star Scorpio two-seater is a well-known performer GM lead Ford (both American owned companies in VSCC Light Car Section and other events (it now have made losses in the past couple of years: strikes belongs to his wife), 1 went with him to “talk-Star” with and new model investment are blamed) with Toyota Mr. Wallace Marsh, who was a premium apprentice at third. To avoid swingeing import duties (57%) every the Star Motor Company in Wolverhampton from 1910 leading manufacturer has local assembly plants, odd to 1914, and who keeps another well-known Star, his bedmates appearing in the cause of scale economies 1908 12 h.p. two-seater single-phaeton, at his house in in a market capable of absorbing around half a million Chipping Campden. vehicles a year. Collins became interested in Star affairs when I am deeply sorry to say that the least impressive he was serving with the RAF in Cyprus, where Staff- vehicle I drove in respect of bangs and breaks over transport was provided by an old Star Fourteen. After Australian roads was the Rover 3500, which is currently the war he kept an eye open for such a car and in 1958 very popular in the executive class — a category led by found the Scorpio in Darlington and purchased it for Ford with the Falcon/Fairlane, while GM tend to lead a pound (yes, £1). He began using this little car. after in the expanding smaller categories. Another threat he had resuscitated it, in VSCC events and in 1965 he that has materialised to Rover is the Japanese off road acquired the ex-Michael McEvoy Zoller-supercharged competition from Toyota for the Land Rover. I was Star, which he is still in process of rebuilding. Then, in bluntly told by one country man that the Toyota was not 1974. On a used-car lot, he came upon the 1931 18 h.p. only cheaper, but also now improved to the point where Star Comet Sports saloon which he has used since as it was better for the job. I was not able to judge the truth practical transport, to supplement his big-mileage of this, but there are certainly a lot more Toyota off road Fulvia S2 which he purchased as a new car direct from vehicles around than Land Rovers and Range Rovers put the Turin factory in 1972 — but that is another story. together. The 18/50 Star Comet was in original condition Prices? The Fairlane cost about £6,000 complete and paintwork, with all its correct equipment, and after with air conditioning, electric windows and all the other acquiring it Collins found a spare engine and gearbox for things, except an i.r.s. rear end (it is creakily leaf-sprung) it in Colchester, from a similar car in which the owner that a European Granada buyer would expect for £8,000 had installed a diesel engine. He has since found yet plus. Other prices 1 checked at random were the Alfetta another spare engine. 2000L. at approximately £6,000 too, while a Volvo 244GL Appropriately, it was in this Star Comet that I set starts at £5,250 for a four-speed manual. out from Abingdon to meet Mr. Marsh, accompanied by Lots of vehicles are missing from the World’s Mrs. Pat Lacy, who married one of the many sons of Mr. offerings of course, principally the front drive machines. Edward Lisle, founder of the Star Company. The history There is a prejudice against the layout, coupled to the of this particular Comet is rather interesting. The Star fact that it would cost so much to import the transaxles Motor Company had been taken over by Sydney Guy — and it is not really worth tooling up for the needs of in 1928 and by March 1932 it was in financial trouble, f.w.d. for Australian sales. GM are currently arguing with a Receiver appointed. It was then that this Comet with the government over this, trying to trade off exports was supplied to Mr. Broadhurst, an Aldershot coal- (which are almost non-existent at the moment because of merchant. He had originally ordered a Little Comet, Australian labour rates) against imports at a reduced duty. which order had been taken by Sydney Guy himself, Leyland used to be represented by a large-scale early in September 1931. This was changed to the 18 h.p. manufacturing plant producing specialist six, eight, and Comet in November 1931, offered to Mr. Broadhurst four cylinder cars for the market, but that is now history, for £310 nett, whereas a new Comet was priced at £495 along with the Mini. — perhaps one of the reasons why Star folded was the From a strictly motorist’s viewpoint I enjoyed the modest prices asked for their high-quality cars. The order price of petrol, the chance to drive some interesting number rallied with the car number — D970 — and the bigger engined cars and the dirt roads. I didn’t much like Comet did not reach its purchaser until March 18th, 1932, the worry of police action (Super Snooper radar detection after the Receiver had been appointed. Which suggests is vital and effective) or the normal main road driving. A that it “came out of the factory by way of the back door”. fine country for the enthusiast of saloon car racing, but The Broadhurst family used the car continuously even better rallying country. — J.W. for some 149,000 miles but after the war it went into a breaker’s yard, but was given a reprieve and was then postmen for as little as 35/-, when normal velocipedes discovered in a barn with a seized engine by Melvin cost from about £8 to £20 and more. Jones of Wallingford, who got it going and used it for Apparently no-one at the Star car factory had much appearances in Television advertisements, etc. Collins knowledge of engineering, apart from the designers, but saw it at a local garage and a second rescue operation high standards were set and maintained under Edward was put in hand. . . . When new the Comet would do Lisle. These designers included Cecil Cathie - he was some 70 m.p.h., and 57 m.p.h. in third gear. Today, in also a Director who looked after the sales-side of the deference to its age, one changes quickly from 2nd into Company, and who taught Joe Lisle to hunt. Another 3rd. and on into top, to cruise at about 40 m.p.h. — I was F. A. S. Acres, and J. A. Irving came in to develop the was somewhat surprised the car wasn’t faster — when Comet engine. Star cars were sold under various other Collins gets about 18 m.p.g. The Star-built four-door names along the years. For instance, Charles Friswell saloon body offers great comfort, with a useful boot used to take delivery of them before the 1914/18 war sans behind. All the doors arc front-hinged and the driver’s the famous star badge and sell them as the Knight of the possesses an ingenious window, the lower pane of which Road, and there were the Thistle? Starling and Stewart, can be pushed up easily if a hand-signal has to be given. and Edward Lisle, junr. was allowed to make the Little The leather upholstery and wood fillets look almost new Briton, which was really a simplified Star, and might and provide a vintage aura, although the dashboard have beaten William Morris to light car sales-successes. has a later connotation, with all the instruments in one In pre-WWl days the Company turned out perhaps 14 or central panel, with the speedometer in the middle and 15 cars in a good week, laying off workers when times a vertical tube-type petrol-gauge below the detachable were bad. It had its own foundry, but the larger alloy ignition-key. Small, oblong-dial gauges for dynamo- castings were supplied by outside firms, down to the charge (5 amps.), and oil-pressure (20 lb./sq. in.) flanking end of car-production. It was left to the Chargehands to the big dial. The car’s equipment is generous indeed — run the different departments of the works, as distinct built-in hydraulic jacks, automatic chassis lubrication, a from appointing Foremen for this purpose. The engine- sun-roof, picnic-tables in the backs of the separate front building shop had long rows of individual bays, where seats, smokers’ companions in the parlour, stowage for four or five men would assemble the engines. There was six spare sparking-plugs beneath the bonnet, together a well-equipped machine-shop, with Tommy Haines in with an inspection-lead-light, a tinted sun-vizor over the charge. A Mr. Graham looked after the body-shop, Mrs. openable windscreen, a reserve fuel-tap by the driver’s Richards was the Company Secretary, and F. R. Goodwin right leg, a cigar-lighter, a starting handle under the managed the London depot in St. Martin’s Lane. In this dumb-iron apron — all original and working. The six- not over-large, scattered factory two operatives, Billy cylinder 69 x 110 mm., 2,470 c.c. push-rod o.h.v. engine Down and his mate Charlie, would be seen walking idles very slowly and quietly, like that of a 1930 Sunbeam slowly one behind the other, carrying a ladder; their task Sixteen I used to drive. It has a big SU carburetter on the was to lubricate the overhead-shafting that carried the n/s. A weakness lies in the water-pump, from which pulleys for the belt-driven machine-tools. There is the the tandem dynamo and magneto are driven; it tends, delightful story of how, one day, Edward Lisle was in apparently, to dribble into the sump. The gearbox on this the factory, checking up on things, in his gruff voice that Comet does not have a “silent-third”, you change gears made even the most conscientious employee jump to with a long r.h. lever working in an open gate arranged attention when addressed. Seeing the two men walking as on a vintage Vauxhall with the lower gears outboard slowing past, one behind the other, Lisle said to Billy of 3rd and top. There is a r.h. brake lever, quite short and “What are you doing?” “Taking a ladder to oil the shafts, very well placed, so that it is easily located yet does not sir”, came the timid reply, to be followed by the voice rush up one’s trousers-leg when entering the car. The of Billy’s mate, standing some few feet behind, saying: brakes are the notorious Bendix-Perrot type, but with “We’ve forgotten the b***** ladder!” One can imagine the a fair prod they are quite powerful, without pulling to scene; yet old Edward Lisle, the perfectionist, treated his one side. The moulded centre of the large wheel which workers to free coal and free turkeys every Christmas. controls light steering carries the hand-throttle and Incidentally, when he was told that the belfry of St. Luke’s ignition advance-and-retard stubs. church in Wolverhampton lacked a clock he supplied It was in this interesting car, sighting over the both clock and bells — which continue to function to this long, shouldered bonnet, past a big mascot and a six- day, I believe. pointed star on the scuttle, that I drove off to meet Mr. The Star made a name for sound design and good Wallace Marsh. The history of the Star Motor Company workmanship. When the RAC opened a driving school is fairly well documented, so what follows is more in the before WW1 it ordered Stars for the pupils to do their nature of items extracted from our conversation than a worst on. In places such as Australia, New Zealand condensed history’ of this British motor manufacturer, and South Africa, where the going was hard, Stars sold who started to make autocars in 1898, the first Star well, and after the war authoress, Mrs. Diana Strickland, looking somewhat like a Benz of the period, as did other drove her 14 30 Star tourer “Star of the Desert” the 6,000 pioneer makes. Actually, it had all started much earlier miles from Dakar to Khartoum with a notable absence of than that, when Edward Lisle, aided by a mechanic trouble. Star entered cars for the 1903 and 1905 Gordon called Sharratt, made velocipedes. These bicycles were Bennett races, one of the latter racing cars having recendy based on the French machines of the time and a book been restored to running order for Nick Ridley of the published in 1869 spoke very well of them. At that VCC. Stars were also raced at Brooklands and elsewhere period Mr. Lisle was offering a tricycle intended for rural with considerable success. Mr. Marsh recalled Cathie dressing his hair with a horrid mixture of starch, water Marsh to try to pull on the cables. To no avail — the Star and perfume so as to drive at Brooklands bare-headed. went backwards into the bridge, its back axle being Members of the Lisle family also competed, Joe Lisle, the rammed under the gearbox. Both men went to a near-by General Manager of the Company, crashing one of the doctor’s house, where they were well looked after. But two huge 1905 GB cars when testing it at Wergs Road, in by then Marsh had lost interest in the race, which was Wolverhampton, and later driving a special 20.1 h.p. Star won by K. Lee Guinness in the Peugeot-type twin-cam at Brooklands, and Dick Lisle, whose normal duties were Sunbeam. However, the Dunlop and Rudge-Whitworth covering sales in the North of England and in Scotland, people were able to advertise the accident, as tyres and ran a 1912 4.3-litre Star called “The Comet” at the Track. wheels on the crashed Star were still intact. Apparently Mr. Marsh recalls it as unsuccessful; its best lap seems these TT Stars were tested on Brooklands and driven to to have been at 65.61 m.p.h. It had a streamlined body competition venues. Lisle did well with his at the 1914 with slab-tail and two external exhaust pipes merging Caerphilly speed hill-climb and also ran it at Porthcawl, into a cylindrical silencer. However, that year Dick Lisle in Wales, etc. Crossman, a Major in the Royal Marines, put the class 12-hour record to 66.82 m.p.h. and in 1913 died at Antwerp during the war. . . . the same driver again successfully took long-distance Although Mr. Marsh left Star to serve in the Army records, with a bigger Star. Stars had also run in the 1906 during the war, and later went out to India, he maintained and 1907 TT races, without distinction. his links with the Company and his faith in Star cars. In The Company nevertheless entered two cars for 1922 he was told that there was a car at the works that he the 1914 TT race in the IoM. Although, in Mr. Marsh’s could have cheaply. It turned out to be an odd animal! opinion, Star cars had suffered all along the years from It was a disc-wheeled 11.9 h.p. chassis with a two-seater restricted breathing, due to poorly-designed induction body, which retained the normal chassis frame, but with manifolds, in the TT cars an effort was made to improve nothing connected to the dumb-irons. This was because, matters. The cars were bright red four-cylinder side- instead of half-elliptic springs, very long cantilevers valve two-seaters of 90 x 129.5 mm. (3,308 c.c.), which were used, rather as on the then-new Trojan, but in their designer, C. Cathie from Sunbeam’s (he was killed conjunction with Gabriel snubbers. The car — NT 2484 in the war), had endowed with large tulip-shaped — was very comfortable but lacked lateral stability, and valves and curious hoop-shaped inlet-piping. It was Star never put the idea into production. deemed desirable to cool these big valves by fitting Another special Star offered to Mr. Marsh at a low water-cooled valve-caps above them, rubber rings price was one of two built when Malcolm Campbell, sealing these at the base. Star I was driven in the two- who had a Star agency, wanted to race a car of this make day contest by Dick Lisle, with Wally Marsh riding at Brooklands. Outwardly a standard o.h.v. 12/40, the with him, and Star II was driven by R. F. L. (“Tiny”) engine had ball bearings instead of plain bearings. This Crossman. A Heenan & Froude fan brake was installed was obviously a worthwhile move, as Campbell won the in the test-shop specially to test these racing engines, as 1925 Autumn 75 m.p.h. Short Handicap at 79.5 m.p.h., up to then the Star Company had no such equipment, lapping at 87.84 m.p.h. Sir Malcolm Campbell by the although they retained it afterwards. On one occasion way, was driving a Bluebird-blue Star Comet sports the arms and fan of this brake carried away and went saloon in 1932, at which period I believe Norman Creed through the test-shop roof, narrowly missing one of the was Star’s Public Relations man. On this special 12/40 Lisles and flying across Frederick Street, a bolt falling Mr. Marsh built a body based on that of the 1914 TT car, through the roof of the body-shop and damaging as it was simple to make. the bonnet of a brand-new car, to the disgust of Mr. Mr. Marsh taught Mrs. Alex Lisle, wife of Edward Graham! The missing arms, etc. mysteriously vanished, Lisle, to drive, on a box-bodied Star test chassis. She later being found years later in one of the test-shop overhead had five Scott motorcycles in succession, and used to water-supply tanks. . . . take her husband about in the sidecar of one of them! In the race Star II suffered from leaks at the valve- He also remembers being with Cathie in a 1926 20/60 cap joints and soon retired. Dick Lisle was going well Star, brand-new from the body-shop, on a steep hill near in Star I on the first day. However he had been delayed Llangollen which was so slippery that nothing would by a slipping cone clutch, cured by jamming bits of twig arrest the downward path of the Star except rubbing between the cones and by throwing in handfuls of earth, it along the banks beside the road — and as they thus after which the clutch wouldn’t withdraw, making gear- progressed more and more bits of the car were torn off changing difficult. Then there was difficulty in passing and left strewn in the road! Another recollection is that Burgess in the Humber on the narrow course, Lisle when HRH The Prince of Wales wanted a chauffeur one having to wait until the tarmac section down from Bray was sent to him from the Star Company, which may have hill. In making up time he approached a corner by the been why he later used a Star tourer. golf-course too fast, and skidded into a wall, bursting Mr. Marsh had just put an Hispano Suiza V8 aero- a tyre. A garage-type jack was carried, clipped to the engine into an ex-RFC Crossley tender at Farnborough side of the car, so the tyre was quickly changed, timed after the war when he was posted to India and never saw by Julian Orde of the RAC. However, unknown to Lisle it again. But in Kaula Lumpa he had a sports-car made or Marsh, the brake gear had been damaged and when from Overland Whippet parts and a Type 37 Bugatti, etc. they came fast into the then-blind S-bend through Ballig — but that is another story. Back in England, at Hook Bridge, still trying to wash out the time-loss caused by on the A30 in about 1960, he found his now beautifully- the slipping clutch and the skid, the car touched the kerb. restored Edwardian Star in an antique emporium and At that moment Lisle yelled that he had no brakes, telling acquired it for sentimental reasons. We talked also of Star aeroplanes. The Company a Citroen 2cv adapted to take a wheel-chair, which he made two monoplanes as early as 1907, which Granville would run down a slope from his house and into the Bradshaw and Joe Lisle flew, from the race-course near car unaided. We understand that his 1929 Model-90 Wolverhampton. The engine used was a 40 hp water- Sunbeam with rotary-valve engine is to be presented to cooled four-cylinder with a carburetter at the back, feeding the National Motor Museum. through a very long induction-pipe. This was acquired by Apart from requiring a quote for panel-bashing a F. Ludwick Bartlett, JP, in 1910, when he was interested new body for “Babs”, Wynn-Owen would also like to in a very odd four-wheeled 12 cwt. flying-machine with hear from anyone who could spin him wheel-discs for the flapping wings of over 32 ft. span. These wings were car, these needing to be of 16-gauge aluminium, 24” in driven by chains from the engine, whose propeller boss diameter. Cancelled last year due to the petrol shortage, had been converted into a flywheel, to provide a drive. the VSCC has cancelled this strenuous night trial again This machine was built by the Polysulphin Co. Ltd. of this year — it was scheduled for January 12th/13th. Brislington near Bristol and was apparently exhibited at Old-time road scenes seem popular — the cover of the the 1911 Olympia Aero Show, but I doubt whether it ever Vintage Austin Magazine, official organ of the Vintage flew. Years later the Star aero-engine was discovered by Austin Register, recently depicted an Austin 16/6 Mr. Marsh during a car-rally at Henlow and it is now in negotiating Piccadilly Circus in about 1932 (with several the RAF Museum at Hendon. — W.B. Morris cars in close company!), this being a picture from the archives of the London Transport Executive — see V-E-V Miscellany.— Chris Booth, who runs that last month’s Book Reviews — and in the Austin Seven primarily-Morgan-three-wheeler-orientated Motor Clubs’ Association Magazine No. 1979D there was Museum at Rolvenden in Kent, has acquired a mysterious a double-page spread of an early Austin 7 saloon in Morgan about which he seeks information. It was used Smethwick High Street, Birmingham, in June 1930, when by the late Geoff. Harris, well-known Morgan trials that thoroughfare still had its tram-lines. Incidentally, exponent, but appears to have been built specially for this Club journal has been looking at Austin 7 dynamos, track racing, and is believed to have run in an MCC High cut-outs and switch-panels, with useful illustrations Speed Trial at Brooklands, circa 1930. It has a basically and wiring diagrams. The respective secretaries of these 1928/29 Super Sports chassis specially adapted to a rare two Austin organisations are: Frank Smith Marshbrook, Blackburne KMB engine dating from about 1925 (No. Butts Road, Ashover, Derbyshire and Phil Basildon, 167, KMB 333) of which only three are reputed to have been Groby Road, Leicester. modified to accept high-level exhaust pipes, as on some The Vintage Motor Cycle Club can now claim post-1930 Morgans, and the track is 2” wider than on more than 6,000 members. The Alvis Register Bulletin a standard Super Sports. Track rod and drag-link are has come out in a new format and the October 1979 much heavier than normal, are stamped “Brico” and issue contained an illustrated piece about a 12/50 Alvis have ball joints. Newton dampers are fitted at the front, beetleback that competed at the Craigantlet hill-climb in with a Hartford shock-absorber over the back wheel, the mid-1930s before its engine and radiator were used the B-type bevel-box has extra strengthing webs cast for the Sullivan Special “Himmelwagen”. The last issue in, the rear wheel is an M-type with internal-expanding of Sphinx, the magazine of the Armstrong Siddeley OC, brake, and the front brakes are larger than usual, having to reach us contained a fine picture of a 1926 Armstrong 8” ribbed drums. There is an outside hand-brake sans Siddeley Twenty saloon at a wedding, its Sphinx mascot ratchet, operating the front-wheel brakes, the fuel tank serving to anchor the festive ribbons. Some unusual cars is air-pressure fed, the steering wheel is large and there appeared on last year’s Bean CC Harvest Tour, such as is a hump over the rear wheel. It sounds something like the Hampton coupe, a Sizaire Berwick coupe”, a 1915 a copy of the famous Harold Beart record-breaker, but Overland and a bull-nose Morris-Cowley on beaded- no Reg. No. or chassis number has been found. It was edge tyres. From that Club’s magazine we learn that in poor condition when rescued but is to be rebuilt. several ABC motorcycles have been changing hands Information about this Morgan or any racing done by recently, with two more coming to light in Norway and Geoff. Harris would be welcomed by Mr. Booth. Letters another in Denmark, that a rare 1930s Vulcan military can be forwarded. chassis is being restored in Berkshire and that an OK- It is sad to learn that Bob Peacey, who was Bradshaw with the 1920s oil-cooled 350 c.c. engine has contributing to our correspondence quite recently, died been found in London and is being restored. A very last year. He was a Bugatti enthusiast and had also worked original 20/60 Vauxhall saloon has also been discovered, with his father, the Rev. W. H. Peacey, on rotary-valve sheeted up in a garage. — W.B. engines, which he patented. In addition, he prepared a number of motorcycles and cars for Brooklands races, such as Cottins and the HP three-wheeler which was described in MOTOR SPORT’s “Fragments on Forgotten Makes” series. Peacey worked at Bristol’s during the war, afterwards becoming a REME Captain, serving in Normandy. From the 1930s he had had a Riley agency, which was continued in Cheltenham until increasing paralysis forced him to discontinue this activity in the 1950s. To the end Peacey lived in that town, never far from his beloved engines, and he contrived to drive Prince’s, before driving down to “Lennoxwood”. All X’s The Wartime Diaries family were there and after dinner he started back with Trevors, staying with Col. Trevors until 12.30, “awaiting of an RFC Officer the Zepps”. (Whether this was out of excitement, or refers perhaps to a plotting task X did at the War Office, Continued from the Dec. 1979 issue I do not know.) There was apparently much to occupy X at his office BEFORE I commence another instalment of these old at this time (April, 1916). Pat Pigott “reported himself”, diaries I must refer to a letter received from a Mr. J. Ross and, the diary says, X, “got office in order and Jenkins of Brigg, in which he makes it clear that I have done our moved out”. He was again on guard duty at St. James’s RFC pilot out of one type which he had flown by 1915. In Palace. He had now got the Adler back and it would be his Log Book entries there is no distinction made between sent to fetch him on mornings when he had to go to the AW (Armstrong Whitworth)-built BE2c aeroplanes and War Office. On one such afternoon X drove, after lunch FK3s built by that Company, the latter being entered with some lady-friends at Prince’s, to Lennoxwood, simply as AWs, followed by the reference numbers. This and then on to Farnborough “in Doris Reynolds’ little is perhaps understandable, because the FK3 was merely Merk 2-seater”. Leaving after tea there, they got back to a simplified version of the BE2c designed by Frederick London at about 8.30 p.m. in lime for a stint at the WO Koolhoven. The fact remains that aeroplanes referred to and dinner at Pratts Club. In mid-week X might send his by the numbers 5330 and 5331 in the earlier diary extracts assistant up to Nottingham, send his girl-friends back to were FK3 biplanes. Thus, by the end of 1915, after his Richmond in the Mercedes, dropping off “at the garage return from brief Active Service in France, “X”, as I shall to see Lt. Cleghorn about cars”, before returning to his call this RFC pilot, had been aloft in Maurice Farman office, and then, after dining at Prince’s, driving out in Shorthorn and Longhorn, BE2a, BE2e, RE8, and FK3 the evening to Richmond and back in a little Berliet, to aeroplanes, as well as in the Depperdusin monoplanes see the Trevors. which he either owned, or had borrowed, before joining Early in April X went before another Medical the RFC. I am indebted to Mr. Ross for pointing this out. Board and was given a month’s light duty, followed by sick leave, and they refused indefinitely to pass him for * * * General Services. So all that was left was to return to the WO, lunch with friends at the Berkeley, and motor On sick-leave from flying, in March 1916, X was still down to Brooklands, with Pigott and his brother-in- working at the War Office, enjoying the social round, and law, where “old Martin” gave the latter a joy-ride in a playing about with cars. He was anxious to resume use of Maurice Farman Shorthorn. There was a Saturday when his Adler but after paying a bill of £14.15/- for repairs, to Wilson Thomas lunched with X at Prince’s and they went a person named Lagden, and sending his man Tollerton in his Rolls-Royce to the Ritz, after which X went home for it, the car wasn’t ready. So, after lunching a number to change and with a party motored out to Hendon in the of friends at Prince’s, X had to use Talbot’s Mercedes Itala, before going to the King’s Theatre, Hammersmith, for getting about in London, which meant going to the to see “Raffles”, and finally driving Trevors home and Shaftesbury Theatre and then taking some “flappers” out leaving the Itala at the RFC garage. to supper at the Piccadilly Hotel. The next day X went Petrol still flowed freely, because one April Sunday, out to Cricklewood in person to get his Adler but it still although the Adler was again “in dry-dock”, the Mercedes wasn’t ready, and the Itala had gone round to Paddon was used for a happy jaunt, to lunch at Slough and go on Bros. However, this lack of motor cars was not allowed to Maidenhead, Bourne End and Swinley Woods, before to intrude on X’s participation in the gaiety of war-time taking tea at Ascot. Almost every week-day X lunched at London. Leaving the War Office that day, X had tea at his one of his favourite haunts, such as “the Berkeley with flat, dined with his father at the Marlborough Club, and Col. Proby, the Baron, and another old buffer”, or the then fetched his mother and took her to a play, “which Carlton with “Stewie, Pussy, Major and Mrs. Evans, Pike was rotten”, so they went on to see “My Lady Frayl” of the Grenadier Guards, and Geoff Hart”. One day he again, obtaining a box for half-price. Zeppelins came motored down to Weybridge with Capt. Dugdale in the over from the East Coast (it was March 31st 1916) and Itala and saw Gordon Watney’s works and “had tea with one of them was shot down at the mouth of the Thames Gordon Watney himself”. (It does seem as if the Itala was by an RFC pilot. an official RFC vehicle and no doubt the Gordon Watney After a busy morning at the “War House,” X might factory, where old Mercedes were formerly rebodied, lunch at the Cavalry Club. But one Saturday he got out was engaged on war work, but all these contacts no the big Itala, on its fresh set of tyres, and after a visit to his doubt were useful to X in his post-war racing activities). doctor, lunch at the Batchelors Club, and a run home via To celebrate that meeting with Watney X fetched Mrs. the Thaxted House Club, where his friend Vernon failed Pigott from the Cadogan Hotel, for dinner at Prince’s, to show up, X started down in the Itala for Lennoxwood, before seeing “Mrs. Manhatten” at the Prince-of-Wales with his mother, Lady X. They returned after dinner, Theatre, after which Lady X took Mrs. Pigott home, having spent a day there with friends, after which there allowing her son to dash off to the Shaftesbury Theatre. was time to do some more work at the War Office. Then, It is still April 1916 when we find X taking five on the Sunday, Tollerton first brought round the Itala and Grenadier Officers by train to Brighton. They lunched then went and fetched Trevors in the Mercedes and, after at the Metropole, where they were met by the Itala, and Archie de Pass had been picked up, the party lunched at it then took them out to Shoreham aerodrome, where Major Read showed them round. Tea was taken at the run and got there at 7.30 a.m.” Yet after breakfast, Mass, aerodrome and they returned to London on the 5.45 train. and lunch. X drove back to London the same day — “Had (Could this have been a move to persuade Grenadier lovely run. Glorious day, had tea at flat”. Guards’ Officers to volunteer for the RFC?) It made X On May 1st X went again before the medicos and “very tired”. was still passed unfit, although he would be flying X maintained his connection with the Mercedes again before the month was out. Meanwhile, I intend to Company, drawing £20 from them on one occasion and spare you some of the repetitive social whirl in which he paying a £2 fee to Chamberlain (who figured in the post- existed. One Wednesday he had gone to Newmarket by war Brooklands scene, I think), when the Adler was the 12 o’clock train, having the Berliet brought up for the being seen about, and a Rolls-Royce looked at. The mid- return journey. They started this after dinner but “had April Saturday saw X as best-man at Jack Mansfield’s poisonous run, and lost our way twice, and eventually wedding, after he had lunched with the bridegroom and broke down in Ware and had to leave the Berliet, and his father, who was a Major in the RFC. The WO was hired a car and got back at 4.30 in the morning.” Later used as a meeting place that afternoon and a party later there was a trip in the Itala to Hounslow to persuade saw “Joyland”, X then going on to Ronnie Wilson’s dance Major Bradley to lend X a BE2c so that he could fly to at the Grafton Galleries — “It was a great show. Met lots Newmarket at the week-end! Capt. Anstey was seen and of old pals there. Got back about 3.30”. that evening X’s doctor, Dr. Swann, was dined at X’s The bad weather in the spring of 1916 made X feel ill home, with his mother — “Very nice little evening, and but he contrived to motor in the Itala to Newmarket, to stay think Dr. Swann enjoyed himself.” Most of one day was at his fiancee’s house, where her father had a Studebaker, spent in the garage getting the Adler fixed up but X also which X and she used for local runs. The Adler was now “saw O’Mally (in Col. Holt’s office) about the BE2c”. having alterations made to its radiator and the Itala began (To be continued) to give “several small troubles”, so that the run back to London took from 11 a.m. to about 4 p.m. (This might not V-E-V Odds & Ends.—According to Lanciana, journal seem too bad, over the roads of 1916 in war-time, but it of the American Lancia Club, Vobril, a Czechoslovakian did not satisfy X, although I expect it included time-out for who left his native country in a 1923 Fiat some ten lunch on the way.) He had been accompanied by “Olga years ago to settle in California and make a living out and Gerald”, and after tea in London Gerald went off to of his skills in woodworking, has rebuilt the Vanderbilt Oxford to join the RFC and X got the Mercedes out and set Lancia Kappa, literally from baskets full of dismantled off with Olga for Crawley, getting there at about 7.30 p.m. parts. Owen Wyn-Owen has acquired an early two- although the “car was running badly”. They put up at the cylinder engine with automatic inlet valves, that had George Hotel “which was beautifully comfortable”, and been in a boat for many years, and wonders if anyone “messed about all the evening and Olga played the piano”. can identify it? — sec accompanying photograph. Our The Mercedes survived to run them on to Brighton on the apologies to Miss Leslie Sayers who helped to repaint Sunday for lunch at the Metropole with Pat Pigott and his the BL Heritage Daimler featured in the November wife (probably the former had been posted to Shoreham) MOTOR SPORT but whose name, and sex, were and back to London, calling at Crawley on the way for incorrectly quoted in the story. Foden’s are again to their luggage. sponsor the HCVC’s Commercial Vehicle Brighton Run Although X had a “very dud cold” and was “still this year. Entries apparently close on January 5th and feeling very ill”, this did not prevent him from driving a three-day rally is planned to coincide with the finish to Newmarket again in the Itala, after a Corporal had of the Run in Brighton. The Railton OC is continuing its brought it round. They “had a glorious run there, lunching campaign against ridiculous prices being asked for this at the Rutland Arms Hotel”. They looked at horses, had make of car; its current Bulletin contains a picture of a tea with X’s fiancee’s parents, and left at 7 p.m. but dined Carbodies Railton tourer owned by a Swiss enthusiast. at Saffron Walden, where they left the car and came on From Flutenews, issued monthly by the Vauxhall OC, we by train. (Was the Itala giving more trouble?) The theatre learn that a 1929 Vauxhall R20/60 tourer has come to this wasn’t neglected but “The Show Shop” at the Globe is country in roadworthy order, after having spent most of described by X as “the rottenest show I have seen”. Work its life in Ceylon. involved him in going down to Weybridge on duty, with A reader has sent us an interesting invoice relating Gordon Watney, Pat Pigott and his wife ‘after lunch, of to a 15 h.p. Napier, No. 484, ordered in 1904 by a Miss course, at the Berkeley Grill-Room), in the Berliet, having Talbot of Margam Park, Port Talbot, from S. F. Edge Ltd. tea in Weybridge, and then returning to the WO to see This “Napier Motor Carriage complete with four-cylinder Col. Warner, to whom X was reporting about his WO job engine, electrical ignition apparatus, accumulators, petrol and promotion. tank, Napier Hydraulic Air Regulator, Inducted draught At about this time he sold the Adler to Lt. Frenchville, system of water cooling, four speeds and reverse, brakes, RN, for £125, lunching with Frenchville at Prince’s and sprag, etc.”, and with a wood-and-aluminium Roi-de- afterwards seeing about bodies for the car, and also going Belge body, cost her £900, “the whole to be finished in to the RFC garage to see that the Itaia’s axle had been taken the best possible manner, painted in standard Napier down. There was a Saturday when X changed for dinner green, black mouldings and fine white lines, upholstered after seeing a matinee performance of “The Bing Boys Arc in scarlet leather, and complete with five lamps”. S. F. Here”, dined at Prince’s, went to a supper-dance at the Edge offered to license the car with the London County Savoy, then “changed back into ordinary clothes and left Council. Incidentally, speed-trials were held at Margam for Oxford at 4.30 to 5.30, in the Berliet. Had a topping Park after the war, I believe. — W.B. BOOKS FOR THE IN THE November MOTOR SPORT there was an NEW YEAR advertisement which read as follows:— “250F Maserati. Built up from original parts using engine number 2522 “BMW — A History” by Halwart Schrader. Translated and a new chassis frame. Car is in perfect condition and by Ron Wakefield. 392 pp. 11” X 9.75”. (Osprey Publishing duty free in UK £57,000.” Ltd., 12-14 Long Acre, London WC2E 9LP. £24.95.) This naturally aroused interest as Maserati 2522 was built by the factory in Modena in March 1956 and This is a complete BMW history, from the origins of was one of the works team cars. won the the famous Bavarian Company and its entry into the Richmond Trophy at Goodwood in it. and then won car market following aero-engine construction, with the 1956 Monaco GP with it. In the Belgian GP it was copies of the British Austin Seven, to the present-day driven by Moss and Perdisa and finished 3rd. In 1957 it models, right up to the BMW 635 CSi and M1. The story was sold to the Scuderia Centro-Sud run by Signor Dei is supported by much illustrative material; indeed, this and finished 2nd in the Pau GP with it. In large-format book contains over 1,000 illus¬trations, 1960 Gino Munaron drove it in the Buenos Aires City including 49 full-colour pictures. GP and finished 3rd and after that it disappeared amidst BMW has risen from the days of the little Dixies to the vast collection of old Maserati cars and parts that be one of the World’s greatest makes, so it is fitting that a gathered dust in the Centro-Sud workshops in Modena. full-length history of the Company should be published. Eventually Cameron Millar acquired most of this stuff This one comes from the Automobile Quarterly Library, and when he sorted it all out he re-assembled 2522 as best with an Introduction by L. Scott-Bailey of that publishing he could from what he had. It was rebuilt and sold and house, in which he refers to the Deutsches Museum in now resides in Holland, so the car in the advertisement Munich which holds 570.000 volumes, 15,000 manuscripts could hardly be called 2522. and over 2,000 technical publications in its library, and to It later transpired that the writer of the the Automobil Basar library of automobile literature in advertisement had put the wrong engine number, and the same city, from which sources much help has been what he meant was 2520, but this would not have helped obtained. This contact with German automotive records much for Maserati 2520 still exists and is owned by David led to Automobile Quarterly publishing motoring books Llewellyn, though it no longer has engine number 2520 by German authors and this BMW history is one of in it. The car that is advertised is one that Cameron Millar them, translated into English by Ron Wakefield and co- built up published here by Osprey. from spare parts, using as a basis a chassis and body The book includes every facet of BMW, from the he had made in England. Engine, gearbox, suspensions, start in Bavaria with aeroplane engines in 1916 to the full brakes etc. are all genuine Maserati 250F components motor-car story, embracing BMW’s highly-successful and the cylinder head is stamped 2520, but that is all. It competition activities, and including the BMW was sold to America on the understanding that it had motorcycles, the Wartburg story of 1899-1903, the Dixi no identity in the history of the 250F Maserati model, era spanning the period 1903-1928, and the start of the and indeed it does not and never will. The nearest it can BMW cars proper in 1928. In addition, derivatives of the be is a replica of a 1956 Maserati 250F and if it needs an make are dealt with, such as Bristol, -BMW, identity it should be stamped CM REP 1, indicating that EMW, Glas, and even some home-constructed cars using it is a Cameron Millar Replica Number 1. BMW components, which bring in a lew fascinating This suggests that more replica 250F Maseratis are cyclecars. Nor is this all, because there is a section being built, and indeed this is true, for at least covering Dixi and BMW commercial vehicles, including three more are known to be well under way. Millar the three-wheeler transports. And, of course, the Isetta is building a replica of a “Piccolo” 250F, the last model bubble-cars are included in the appropriate place. to be made, and to avoid any confusion in the future the In setting the early scene there are some pages chassis carries the number CM REP 2. Lots of bits and devoted to “Europe in the Twenties”, from which we pieces for Maseratis are being made, to replace worn learn that there were 25 different makes of German and broken parts, such as engine internals, brake parts, passenger-cars on the market in 1928, including Ford, drive-shafts, gears and so on, which is all legitimate to comprising a total of 80 different models, and that in that keep the existing cars in action, but if these spares are year the German Reich manufactured 117,117 passenger going to form the nucleus for “new” cars then it makes a vehicles, of which about 15,000 had custom bodywork, mockery of Maserati history, denigrates the interest and and 22.900 trucks. The least-expensive car when Dixi enthusiasm for old Grand Prix cars and borders on the was entering the private-car market was the Hanomag fraudulent. — D.S.J. Kommissbrot, known unkindly as Army Bread”. A rather incongruous full-page picture has crept into the English edition of this BMW history, showing some spectators’ cars lined up against the rails at a horse-race meeting in this country in 1928. Almost ail of them are open tourers and almost all of them have the lop-panels of their windscreens open, to afford a better view. The makes recognisable are P-12/15. Fiat with two-panes to the top panel of its windscreen), sort of standard introduction to the marque Ferrari and to Lea-Francis. Singer 14/40. MG, Austin Twelve, and in the many one-model and other specialised Ferrari books the back rows, an Armstrong Siddeley saloon, a pre-war already published. — W.B. Rover Twelve, a bull-nose Morris, a Calcott and what looks like another Fiat — unless anyone can do better! “The Coachwork of Erdmann & Rossi, Berlin” Reverting to BMW, which is what the book by Rupert Stuhlemmer. 244 pp. 10” x 7.25”. is all about, this is a truly detailed history of the (Dalton Watson Ltd., 78, Wardour Street, London, W1V Company, although some of the cars are dealt with in 4AN. £14.50.) a rather “catalogue” format, but with pleasingly large illustrations and diagrams. Some rare photographs are In this latest picture-book in the Dalton Watson format included, one reminding us that when General Charles the coachwork of the German company is depicted de Gaulle made his dramatic return to France in 1945 on many different makes of chassis. These run from he did so in a BMW 332 prototype saloon, and there is Maybach to Horch, from Rolls-Royce and Bentley to a splendid picture of Sammy Davis in the Paddock at Mercedes and Mercedes-Benz, and there are, in addition, Brooklands in the doorless, lightweight Frazer Nash- pictures of this bodywork on a variety of other chassis — BMW 328 with which he covered over 100 miles in the Adler, Cadillac, Minerva, DKW, Bugatti, BMW. and on hour on the Track, For this reviewer the book is redolent other chassis, many of them American. Military vehicles of happy times in BMW cars, with reminders of the Type and commercial vehicles for which Erdmann & Rossi 45 and Type 55 Frazer Nash- he drove before the were responsible find a place in this book and there is war. one of the latter in a memorable BOG Night Trial, a Register of their bodywork covering fifteen pages. and of the BMWs used after the war, from trying the new Short “biographies” of the different makes so bodied 1.5-litre round the Nurburgring and realising that BMW are included. The Berlin works of the Company were had something rather special, to the BMW 2500 and 520i damaged by aerial bombardment in 1943 and destroyed used as Editorial cars in later times. by this means in the summer of 1944, incidentally. The Appendices in this big book cover all models Although a specialised publication, this book will from the Wartburg 3.4 of 1899 to the present BMWs, with be essential reading for students of the old coachbuilding engine sizes and power outputs, they give the structure methods, explaining as it does, and so admirably of the Directorate of the Baverische Motoren Werke AG illustrating, the aims (which included streamlined from 1928 onwards, and there is even a picture-page bodies) and achievements of this German bodybuilder, of BMW-powered boats, and colour reproductions of who can still be found today at the office premises the different marque badges, etc. Essential study for all at Karlsruherstr. It is interesting that the great racing BMW converts! — W.B. drivers, Caracciola and Rosemeyer. ordered cars from Erdmann & Rossi and that before an Avus race the Alfa “Ferrari” by Hans Tanner with Doug Nye. 542 pp. 11” x Romeos and Bugattis due to compete were garaged at 8”. (Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset, their office premises. Those who can read both English BA22 7JJ. £24.) and German should know that this book is “bi-lingual”, so that they are really getting only half the text — but a This book is already well known as the standard reference great many fine photographs. — W.B. work to the complex story of the great make of Ferrari, by the late Hans Tanner. The book first appeared in 1959 and “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles” went into three more editions. It has now been updated by David Burgess Wise. 352 pp. 12” x 8.5”. by Doug Nye into this fifth edition, which unfolds the full (The Hamlyn Group, Astronaut House, Feltham, Ferrari history in thirteen chapters and 17 Appendices. Middlesex. TW14 9AR. £7.95.) The clear text on glossy art-paper is embellished by a wealth of pictures, both colour and black-and-white, and In 1968 G. N. Georgano, who is now in charge of the there are also numerous diagrams, plans and cut-away National Motor Museum Photographic archives, had drawings of racing Ferraris, etc. The account runs from the brilliant idea of compiling a complete encyclopedia Enzo Ferrari’s first contact with cars and his racing with of motor-cars, from 1885 onwards. It duly came out, a Alfa Romeos, to the Commendatore’s 1979 activities. The stupendous tome, bulging with information, in the racing career of the make is included and the content of form of potted biographies of the World’s automobiles, this book can be judged by its chapter titles: “Enzo Ferrari’s copiously illustrated. This publishing triumph of the early history”, “”, “1,500 c.c. supercharged Ebury Press was re-issued in the three following years Ferraris”, “Unsupercharged Fl Ferraris”, “F2 Ferraris”, and a final, revised edition came out in 1973. This would “2.5-litre Fl Ferraris”, “V6 Dino F1 and F2 cars”, “Rear- seem to be an adequate reference work of its kind, apart engined GP types”, “The Championship Contest, 1964- from being now out-dated by six years, and no other 1978”, “Experimental and Special Ferraris”, “The Sports would really seem to be called-for. Cars”, “The Road Cars”, and “Colombo and Lampredi However, historian Burgess Wise has copied V12 Ferrari engines”. The Appendices are too many to the idea and has come up with another such work. It list here, but contain masses of specifications, race-results includes makes not listed in the Georgano volumes; but with causes of retirements, performance figures for various in general the information touted is less complete. The of the road-cars, not to mention valve timings! The 1974 copious illustrations are interesting; as in the Georgano Introduction by Tanner and a 1977 Introduction by Nye work they are a mixture of contemporary and modern explain the purpose behind this complex book, which is a pictures of the older cars. The Wise Encyclopedia follows that of the road signs, household items, and general motoring Georgano work in having colour plates to lead into its A ephemera — scarcely a thing omitted! Indeed, this book to Z entries, and it also starts off with articles about Pre- is nothing if not thorough — its Appendices include a History, Radiators, Badges and Mascots, Wheels, Body very detailed list of some motoring cigarette cards and Styles, Art and the Automobile, and so on, together with trade cards, with their subjects and dates of issue — gone potted histories of different automotive periods, and are the happy days when these were given away free, to information on how mass-production evolved and how delight small boys and others — and a list of museums, cars are made, right up to a piece about alternative fuels. societies, clubs, and publications devoted to motoring. It seems that the publishers were determined not to leave I confess that I find the execution most attractive. out anything they could possibly include! The author has included some interesting illustrations, Of the two Encyclopedias I prefer the previously- such as the Rowland Hilder’s advertisements for published one. But the fact remains that Hamlyn’s have Dunlop, depicting typically British motoring scenes produced a book with more than 4,000 entries, covering of the 1930s, including the moonlight bathing party autos from 1862 to the present day, at a highly competitive with a swim-suited girl standing beside the Dunlop- price. Whereas the Wise glimpse of all the World’s shod two-seater of her man-friend, and the poster motors can be bought in these inflationary times for a advertising the £100 Ford Eight saloon. There is also a mere £7.95, the Ebury Press work cost £9.50 seven years Ford advertisement indicating that Clive Upton, who ago. The big Wise work runs from AAA to Zwickau, has painted it, expected Brooklands racing to be resumed, brief biographies of celebrities in the motoring world, after the war! Children’s motoring books arc illustrated from the Appersons to Alexander Winton, and a makes in colour - I remember well the pleasure I got from “The cross-reference — for example, for Bambi see Chile-built Wonder Book of Motors” — and among the toy cars Fuldamobil. There is also a Glossary of technical terms. illustrated are some pedal cars and the recent electric- The book has nine contributors apart from Burgess Wise. powered Meynell and Phillips blower-4.5 Bentley The publishers deserve to succeed! The end-papers are children’s car. I was interested to note that those rather fun. They show a Kaiser-War London street-scene, one-time Jep tin-plates car models are illustrated, but ah with plenty of taxis on a rank and a big notice on an hough I recall the Citroen, Renault and Delage versions adjacent building which reads “DON’T USE A MOTOR and was aware that there was also a Panhard- CAR FOR PLEASURE”. The printing was done in Hong- Levassor edition, all on a common base, I did not know Kong. — W.B. that the series included a Hotchkiss and Delaunay- Belleville, as the author states, Nor. surprisingly, does he “Automobilia — A . Guided Tour For Collectors” mention tlx larger Alfa Romeo P2 clockwork models. The by Michael Worthington-Williams. 192 pp. 10” x 7”. Jep Rolls-Royce and Hispano Suiza models (which New (B. T. Batsford Ltd., 4, Fitzhardinge Street, London. W1H Cavendish Books have adequately covered in another 0AH. £12.50.) volume) are mentioned briefly in the text and I am glad that the Bing Model-T FORD clockwork toys (priced new It is interesting to note that this book is published at 1/-) are referred to I remember the glossy black Tudor jointly by Batsford, pioneers of motor-book publishing, (or Ford?) saloon, coupe, and two-seater you could get and the RAC. So, like the AA, the RAC has entered the at Woolworths when I was a boy, if indeed these were book-trade! the Bing toys, and I deeply regret never having seen The purpose behind this book is to enhance one since. It is rather a blow to find in this book a colour the value of every possible facet of what the author picture of that fine scale-model of the 1912 GP Peugeot calls “automobilia”, in the eyes of collectors. This is (wrongly given as 1913) that Sir Malcolm Campbell understandable, whether or not undesirable, because used to race at Brooklands captioned as sold recently by Worthington-Williams is Head of Sotheby’s Veteran, auction for £850 — because when MOTOR SPORT went Vintage and Special Interest Motor Car Auction specially to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu Department. Having said that, I must add that his to photograph this model for an article I was doing on book is comprehensive to a degree, accurate, and very the disappearance of most of the real racing Peugeots, fascinating. It covers just about everything, every nick- I greatly coveted this model and thought of offering nack, associated with motoring, apart from the cars. £25 for it but I did not know that the Museum intended And it contains some very rare illustrations, the pictures disposing of it. . . . as comprehensive as the author’s text. After you have I see from a picture of some of the radiator badges digested the possibilities of buying, or selling, your old in Peter Richlev’s collection that he possesses one from motoring posters, promotional material, brochures and a Crossley Bugatti, which proves that the one I have sales-catalogues, you can contemplate doing likewise is not a “loner”, and I wish the Bourton-on-the-Water with desired or unwanted perennials, monthlies and Motor Museum would tell me whether the trophy weeklies about motoring and motorcycling. Should they exhibit,of Eyston’s record-breaking MG Midget at that not appeal, or be possible, the next instalments of Pendine in 1932, came from a nearby hotel, because I this book tells you about enamel signs, model and toy noticed such a trophy behind the curtains in the dining- vehicles, cigarette-cards, postcards and trade-cards, room of such an hotel many years ago but could never accessories, tools, containers, garage equipment, radiator find it again. . . . One could go on and on describing items badges, club badges, radiator mascots, early photographs from this book — a Briggs and Stanton/Wall autowheel of motoring and motors, branded trade gifts, cups, the author bought for half-a-crown, rather like my ABC trophies, items associated with motoring sport, early Scootermotor engine, but mine was a gift. Tte pictures of Storey cars, which I remember seeing in their Clapham * * * Park depot long before the war. The old road signs, which are becoming so hard to obtain — Radnor RDC Reece Winstone, FRPS, has issued another of his refusing to tell me the fate of some 5 m.p.h. triangles photographic books about the City of Bristol. “Bristol As which vanished from the Llandrindod Wells’ lakeside It Was, 1928-1933”, 76 pp., 10” X 6.75”, can be obtained road a few years back. The sultry blonde from a Pirelli for £4.85 post-free, from the author, at 23, Hyland Grove, calendar (now apparently another thing people collect Henbury Hill, Bristol, 9. It contains many street scenes, — not blondes but paper calendars!), and the naughty and cars figure in at least 34 of these. Makes suchas 1930s girl-sitting-on-a-Renault-coal-scuttle bonnet Bristol’s Armstrong Siddeley 14 taxis, Riley, Ford, Buick, poster, which Worthington-Williams thinks might be and a great many Morris cars are to be seen, apart from disowned by Tony Ronald of Renault’s present Publicity Model-T Fords and old ‘buses and trams. One picture Department. . . . shows a Clement Bayward taxi, of the type that ran in Whether or not you approve of the speculative Bristol from 1908 to 1930 and which fetched 45/- (£2.25) aspect of this book, it is undoubtedly irresistible, although each when sold, outside the Grand Hotel. Another its cost I note continues the theme! shows the Austin 7 cars and Austin and other vans of W.B. the Evening Times & Echo, by Tontine Building, and there are glimpses of a Morris Commercial platform- “British Aviation—Widening Horizons-1930-1934” truck and a Wolseley in this pictorial book, as well as by Harald Penrose, 340 pp. 8.75” x 5.5”. (Her Majesty’s a fine photograph of Baldwin Street taken from the top Stationery Office, Atlantic House, Holborn Viaduct, London, of a tram — with 20 cars, a motorcycle, two bicycles, EC1P 1BN. £7.95). six ‘buses, four trams and five horse-drawn vehicles in sight, that in circa-1930. Again, Morris and Austin makes After having completed three volumes of his great, predominate. There is an even more fascinating study of extremely-thorough work about the development of College Green, seen in the early 1930s, with what could British aviation, Harald Penrose’s publisher deserted be a Willy-Knight saloon leading an Austin 20, with a him and it seemed that his two final volumes might fine Riley Nine sunroof saloon and an Austin 7 Chummy never appear. Fortunately, after a long struggle, HMSO. parked on the right and two Morrises, one a 2-seater, realised the importance of this history and the fourth and three Austins, one a Seven, parked on the left of volume has thus appeared. The first three, dealing with the road. A Morris van and a Morris Eight saloon are the aviation periods 1903-1914, 1915-1919 and 1920- glimpsed at some early traffic-lights and a big Morris Six 1929, have already been reviewed enthusiastically in and a Wolseley at Park Row. A vintage Humber tourer, MOTOR SPORT. Austin 12 tourer, and what is captioned an Armstrong The reason why this is no ordinary aeronautical Siddeley saloon figure in a shot of St. James’s Square in history is because the author was there in an active role October 1930. There is an Ashton tram seen braking from when it was all unfolding — as Westland’s test-pilot 18 m.p.h.; it carries an advertisement for Fry’s chocolates and one who was connected intimately with the design, and is passing a parked Morris(?) 2-seater. Those who building, and selling of aeroplanes, which has occupied like identifying cars should enjoy this book, which also most of his busy lifetime. has pictures of the Graf Zeppelin over Bristol in 1932, So this is an exceptional account of the enormously- more Morris and Austin cars in other pictures, a Daimler interesting happenings in aviation in this country, from negotiating Bedminster Down Bridge in 1932, even shots the military, civil and sporting angles, during a period of the opening of Filton aerodrome in May, 1930 and of when light aeroplanes were flourishing, great long- passengers in a DH Dragon that flew a Western Airways distance flights were taking place, and the wood and Bristol-Cardiff service in 15 minutes (after 13 minutes in canvas lighters and bombers were gradually being a ‘bus.) for 9/6 single fare (the author names the tourer replaced by metal aircraft. That Penrose can write fluent approaching the aerodrome as a Singer 9). Finally, there prose is evident from his splendid little book “No Echo is a good picture of an early Austin 7 van still used by the In The Sky”, which is a series of short sketches about Bristol Evening News in April, 1930. episodes from his days as a test-pilot. He applies the same high quality of thought and expression to this present * * * description of British aviation during the exciting period from 1930 to 1934, a book, as I have said, much enhanced With our Motorcycle Industry overrun by the because he knew most of those involved, flew some of Japanese, there is much to be said for looking back at the very many aeroplanes referred to, and was present at some of the more recent and better British motorcycles. many of the happenings in person. To this end, Peter Howdle has compiled “Best Of British- This book is less copiously illustrated than the Classic Bikes of Yesteryear”, which Patrick Stephens of earlier volumes but is of the same page-size, but far Bar Hill, Cambridge, publish in conjunction with EMAP slimmer. But it is in clear type, contains the same C. G. National Publications. It is a 160 page, 9.25” x 7.25”, book Grey quotations here and there, and the great thing is with 95 pictures, and it costs £6.95 that it has seen print. I await the final volume with keen anticipation and then hope that this very talented author * * * will give us a personal autobiography. — W.B. To commemorate their 75th Anniversary, Rolls- Royce Limited have produced a 46-page landscape formal soft-cover book printed on high-quality Wiggins Teape paper, covering the early life of the Hon. C. S. Rolls, his historic meeting with Henry Royce, and what happened SPORTING TURBOS afterwards, on the road, in the air and on the water, in the Rolls-Royce context. This is a record which will appeal An AC ME 3000 and Reliant Scimitar to R-R enthusiasts in particular and collectors in general. It is very fully illustrated, although it is surprising that Coupe turbocharged by Robin Rew. the Hay/Hall Bentley saloon which ran at Le Mans in 1949, 1950 and 1951 is included, but the TT exploits with AFTER Robin Rew founded the Reliant Sabre and the open Bentley of Eddie Hall are not. Nor did a 40/50 Scimitar Owners’ Club in 1973, this well-known motor Rolls-Royce lap Brooklands at 101.5 m.p.h. in 1911. as a racing photographer and one-time Silverstone Press caption claims. It only did this over a quarter of a mile. Officer was so inundated with requests for technical The mainly very small illustrations run from before 1904 information and assistance that he was forced to to the present, the last one depicting the famous 1906 exchange Pentax for spanner. Now Rew runs a thriving Silver Ghost standing by a Rolls-Royce Camargue. Lots little business specialising in the tuning and repair of of the pictures have been used in previous R-R material. Sabres and Scimitars from his home at Overbeck House, The book was edited by David Roscoe of Rolls-Royce Bengal Lane, Greens Norton, just a couple of miles from Motors Ltd. and is obtainable for £2.95 post free from the Silverstone. R-R Public Relations Dept., Pyms Lane, Crewe, Cheshire. Rew, an engineer with AEI before his then hobby of photography overwhelmed his life, gained his * * * enthusiasm for the Tamworth marque from his own ex-works competition Sabre. This stalwart car. with The Society of Automotive Engineers has issued a wishbone rear suspension, has been a familiar sight in catalogue of all its series-publications that are available sprints, hill-climbs, the Pomeroy Trophy and occasional to its 36,000 members. This is another 75th Anniversary races for more than a decade, Rew showing notable publication, which is distributed by MIRA. competence behind the wheel. For the 1979 season, however, the straight-six Sabre was given a well-earned * * * rest, while its owner transferred allegiance to a 3-litre V6 Scimitar Coupe. This dull grey, ten-year-old car has “Vintage Car Annual” edited by Mike Worthington- surprised more than a few people, for under its bonnet Williams (96 pp., 12” x 8.25”) is another publication that lurks a very effective turbocharger system. reflects the growing interest in the older motor vehicles. It was this turbocharger development upon Ford’s Not a review of the 1979 Vintage and classic motoring 3-litre V6 Essex engine which took me back to Overbeck season as might have been expected, this annual is based House, which I first visited in 1969 to sell Rew a 2” SO on the format of Old Motor before that publication carburetter and manifold off the Group 1 engine of my changed proprietorship. It is a mish-mash of articles, very ex-works BMC 1800, by then modified to Stage 5. At that well illustrated on fine art-paper, as if the old Old Motor time Rew’s only interest was to add a bit more steam to his had been reborn. These articles cover a young man’s visit own road car, now he does the same for other enthusiasts’ to the 1926 and later Olympia Motor Shows (he recalls cars. And it was a customer’s vehicle which lent the major the Trojan-bags in which we schoolboys carried our interest to this visit, for Reg Phillips, at 64 perhaps the collected loot of catalogues and brochures), the Robbins doyen of British hill-climbing, had commissioned Rew of Putney concern, a rather lurid look at the old American to turbocharge a brand-new AC ME3000, ready for the board-track racing, Michael Sedgwick being historical 1980 season. This order resulted from a friendly duel on about Armstrong Siddeley, the Douglas light cars, the the hills throughout 1979 between Phillips’ TVR Turbo Belgian FN, the rebirth of a vintage AC, Bubble Cars, and Rew’s turbocharged Scimitar Coupe. “At Shelsley the Autobrix cyclecars, the cars of Cyril Barrington, and Reg used to pip me by about 0.25 sec. and at Prescott I much more besides. An excellent bedside book for those pipped him by about 0.25 sec”, Rew relates. “We were unable to sleep because they are depressed by modern this close throughout the season and had a marvellous motoring legislation and rising costs. The price is £5.95 arrangement where the winner bought the beer for the and the publishers are Marshall Harris & Balwin, 17, Air opposing team!” Now that Phillips has played into the Street, London, W1. There is to be a 1980 edition. hands of the opposition, who will be the big-spender at the bar in the 1980 season? While the principles of turbocharging the mid- engined AC’s Essex engine are exactly the same as for the Scimitar’s similar Ford cast-iron V6, physical considerations in the former’s transverse engine layout have necessitated a separate development approach. The basics are the same: an Air Research turbocharger blowing, rather than sucking, through a 1.25”-choke Recce-Fish carburetter. Rew prefers this particular Air Research turbocharger for semi-competition applications in a light car because the characteristics of the turbo- housing let boost pressure rise more quickly. He uses Rotomaster turbochargers in what he terms production possible to supply a properly developed turbocharger road car applications and Rotomaster waste-gates (blow- system using fixed-jet or SU carburetters without years of off valves) exclusively. development to get the correct jetting and spring/needle The AC’s transverse layout makes for a particularly combination,” he says. “With the Reece-Fish it can be neat turbocharger installation, neater perforce than found in an hour.” One drawback with this carburetter in Rew’s Reliant. The turbocharger nestles to the is its lack of cold start facility. This did not prevent the offside of the engine, above the clutch housing, its cold engines of the AC and Reliant starting promptly compressor outlet linked by a straight pipe to the in my presence. Plans are afoot to blow through Ford’s Reece-Fish carburetter, which is mated to the standard standard Weber carburetter on road cars in order to inlet manifold by an alloy adaptor plate. Air is drawn incorporate a choke, but the Reece-Fish will still be used into the compressor via convoluted trunking from a on competition cars. big Volvo air-cleaner tucked down in the nearside rear Both cars were made available to me for testing wing. Mike Broad, of Auto-Power Services, Daventry, round the miserably wet and muddy Northamptonshire with whom Rew liaised on turbocharger development, lanes. The dull-grey SE4 Reliant was first on the turbo designed the very tidy exhaust manifolds, essentially menu. This wolf in sheep’s clothing has had an active large pipes linked to each port flange by a smaller stub, season of sprints, hill-climbs and the odd club race, yet the horizontal manifold from each bank being linked has only disgraced itself once, when Rew overfilled its into a Y-piece collector upon which the turbocharger sits. sump in the 750 MC’s Six-Hour Relay Race at Donington A big-bore pipe takes the waste exhaust gases from the Park; the Scimitar finished its appointed sessions with turbine into a big. transverse Thrush silencer with but one broken ring-lands on two pistons. Rew claims that exhaust tail pipe instead of the AC’s usual two. This is a turbocharging has made it 25 m.p.h. faster than before, temporary exhaust system; Rew is having a stainless steel with overall performance like a Morgan Plus 8, yet it arrangement manufactured. A reflective stainless Steel returns 24 m.p.g. on the road for everyday motoring and heat shield contains the white-hot glow of the turbine 30+ m.p.g. on motorways. It achieved a best of 38.5 sec. housing. The Rotomaster waste gate is hidden beneath at Shelsley Walsh and 55.3 sec. at Prescott. the turbocharger. on the Y-piece, and a fuel pressure The system fitted to the Reliant is similar to that regulating valve lives on the nearside panel of the engine on the AC except that the exhaust manifolding is much bay. A Bosch electric pump provides the high pressure less complicated and easier to fit; only one manifold has fuel flow. Low compression cylinder heads reduce the to be changed, linked to the other by a cross-over pipe compression ratio from 8.9:1 to 8:1, equating to a real running beneath the engine. Low compression pistons ratio of about 10:1 with the turbocharger set at 7 p.s.i. are fitted and a Holley high-pressure fuel pump is used. boost. When engines are rebuilt during the turbocharger Maximum boost pressure is set at 9 p.s.i., to which the conversion. Rew fits low compression pistons rather AC will be upgraded when its engine is fully run-in. than change the heads, but the AC’s brand-new “short” This 1969 car surprised from the start with its engine was not disturbed. excellent chassis behaviour, quite belying the age of its An unexpected installation problem arose in design. Rew has removed the positive camber from the finding a suitable throttle cable for this mid-engined front wheels, fitted stiffer front springs and Koni shock- sports car. There aren’t many alternatives available with absorbers and installed a Powr-Lok limited slip unit in the the required 10 foot length! The production cable was Salisbury differential. These minor changes have resulted just a few inches too short. As a solution, Rew used an in a very taut, well-balanced and pleasantly handling car outboard motor control cable. with precise and responsive steering; it felt very vice- Rew’s first attempts at turbocharging. on Scimitars, free and easy to drive in spite of its gross performance used the suck-through system with the carburetter increase and the slippery roads. No wonder then that on attached to the inlet side of the compressor, through Rew’s first competitive outing with it at last year’s VSCC which the fuel/air mixture is drawn and fed to the Pomeroy Trophy meeting, the combination came first engine via a long pipe. Now he favours the blow-through overall in the high-speed steering test against some very system, with the carburetter attached directly to the inlet thoroughbred opposition. On the same day it was timed manifold, fed by air from the turbocharger compressor. at 15.7 sec. over the standing quarter-mile, and that with The shorter inlet tract encourages better throttle response its turbocharged engine not fully sorted out. I might add and also prevents the treezing to which a Reece-Fish that the brakes are considerably better than might have carburetter is prone with i suck-through system, without been gauged from the Scimitar’s zero performance in the necessitating some form of carburetter heating. One braking test, which prompted a cryptic comment from assumes that it must be of benefit also to low-speed Peter Hull in his report for MOTOR SPORT: “Robin Rew running in the normally aspirated mode before boost gained no marks and perhaps should have built some pressure builds up. Another advantage to the blow- reverse thrust into his turbocharging”! through system is its relative compactness, an essential On this brief acquaintance Rew’s Reliant showed consideration in the AC’s restricted underbonnet space. up all that is good about turbocharging with none No bodywork modifications arc required; the stumpy of the frequently encountered drawbacks. At low Reece-Fish firs atop the engine without requiring an revolutions, off boost, the engine feels to have lost none unsightly bulge in the bonnet. of its standard performance and has no holes at all in Rew holds the Reece-Fish carburetter in high regard its carburation. It is smoother and more flexible too and for its good fuel atomisation, mixture distribution, fuel only transmission snatch foils attempts to pull less than economy and ease of tuning. “My theory is that it isn’t 1,000 r.p.m. in the very high overdrive top gear, with the standard 3.58:1 final drive ratio. With plenty of throttle Certainly Rew’s modi¬fications showed Phillips’ car to applied in that same gear, boost starts to rise rapidly have a lot of potential. from as low as 2,000 r.p.m. In the lower gears, with less Similar turbocharger conversions on the AC will load, maximum boost is reached at about 3,200 r.p.m. cost around £1,800. The less complex installation in the For practical, fast and economical motoring, the engine Scimitar (all V6 models) is about £1,250. is best kept “on the boil” between 3,000 and 3,500 r.p.m., The Reliants are Rew’s main interest and for these pretty quick on the Scimitar’s gearing. There is no jolting he offers a comprehensive practical and parts service, step as the turbocharger comes in. so this is an easy car including reconditioned and uprated engines and to drive smoothly at modest speeds around the engine reconditioned axles and gearboxes. His stainless steel, revolutions where boost comes in, without giving rise tubular exhaust manifolds have shown an extra 8 b.h.p. to the on-off feeling of some turbocharger installations. at 3,000 r.p.m. on the rolling road. These cost £90 plus Driven in anger, the old Reliant whooshes horizon-wards VAT or £80 if bought with his £148 plus VAT stainless like the proverbial, so fast that on the slippery roads of steel exhaust systems. Other items available include the test the use of its maximum 6.000 r.p.m. was out of uprated, chrome vanadium road springs, Koni dampers, the question. Rew has proved its ultimate performance heavy gauge replacement fuel tanks for the SE5 and SE5a pretty conclusively during the course of the season. GTEs and bib spoilers. A subtle change to the gearbox ratios has helped Rew, or his assistant, Geoff Burrows, can be both the performance and the driveability. Like me, contacted on Towcester S0753. those readers familiar with the Scimitar’s Zodiac-type The Reliant Sabre and Scimitar Owners Club, overdrive gearbox will have cursed the massive gap which Rew instigated, now has some 1,600 or 1,700 between second and third. Rew has overcome this by members. Among the benefits of membership is one of fitting a Granada layshaft cluster and second gear into the brightest, and most useful in terms of technical tips, the existing casing. It’s a service he can offer to customers magazines I have seen from a small one-marque club. and well worth while. Membership details arc available from Roger Tipler. The Excessive heat build up under the bonnet is a Old Bakery, I, Silver Street. Brixworth, Northants. NN6 problem which afflicts standard Scimitars, let alone 9BY. — C.R. turbocharged ones. I remember vividly being left out on a limb, while overtaking a long line of nose-to-tail cars on a two-lane road, when vaporisation in the fuel pump cut dead the engine of the road test GTE I was driving to the 1971 British Grand Prix. A change from a glass bowl to an all metal pump on later models cured (his characteristic fault but the underbonnet heat build up remains to this day. With the added heat of the turbocharger installation this could lead to fuel vaporisation in stop-start traffic or after the car is parked. To overcome this Rew raises slighdy the rear edge of the bonnet and fits a Kenlowe fan which runs on for a few minutes after the engine has been switched off. If vapour lock persists, Rew has developed a tiny heat exchanger which fits into the float chamber of the Reece-Fish. Fitting it is only a 20-minute job. The AC ME 3000 was less lively than the Reliant, for reasons which will be removed before Phillips takes to the hills. The new engine and transmission were tight, boost pressure was set to a more modest 7 p.s.i. (Rew boosted one Scimitar at 11 p.s.i. at the customer’s request and no problems have been encountered) and the gearing was too high to enable the best use of the engine characteristics. Phillips is fitting new sprockets (yes, sprockets!) to lower the final drive. Again, the engine had no throttle lag, though that lengthy cable made the throttle action somewhat dead. Apart from the less vivid performance, the AC’s Ford V6 behaved just as satisfactorily as that in the Scimitar, if rather more noisily and with a pronounced bellow as the turbocharger stalled when the throttle was released. Underbonnet heat is less of a problem on the AC so no special precautions have had to be taken. I don’t propose to discuss the AC’s general behaviour here, as we hope a standard road test car will materialise early in the New Year. Brief impressions of a prototype appeared in MOTOR SPORT, August 1975. Bob Wollek in the quicker Gelo 935, throughout which ENDURANCE RACING he was constantly chasing or fending off Ludwig or Plankenhorn in the rival Kremer Porsche. The Frenchman SURVEY was almost totally exhausted at the end of his virtually unbroken 227 mile drive, for cockpit temperatures were A review of the last five races in the reaching anything up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit on a very hot afternoon. Frequently during his two hour marathon World Championship for Makes series (and he had already driven earlier in the race) the red SEVERAL MONTHS have passed since we last reviewed Gelo Porsche and the white Kremer car were nose to tail; the World Championship for Makes, in which time but when John Fitzpatrick relieved Wollek for the final five further rounds have taken place. The June edition stint, with seven laps to go, the Gelo team had gained the of MOTOR SPORT covered “the story so far” up as far upper hand, albeit by only a few seconds. as the Rivet Supply Six Hours at Silverstone in May. At During the last hour, Ludwig found the Kremer that point, all four rounds of the “sports car” endurance 935 increasingly hard to drive, for its chassis was flexing championship had fallen to Porsches of one kind or and its gear-change baulking badly after key bolts on the another, with two victories for the 935s run by the Gelo chassis had failed to withstand the stresses of “the Ring”. racing team, one the Interscope 935 entered by Ted Yet Ludwig began to gnaw away at Fitzpatrick’s slender Field, and one for Reinhold Joest’s Liqui-Moly 908/4, a advantage nevertheless, and entering the final lap he turbocharged 2.1 litre Gp 6 sports-racer of many years was only ten seconds behind. In an all-out bid for glory, standing. the German slashed the Englishman’s lead to under lour The five subsequent events that completed the 1979 seconds in three-quarters of a lap, but Fitz was well in World Championship for Makes produced enormous command of the situation. As his scarlet Gelo Porsche variety in the quality of racing, if little in the way of blasted over the line for a memorable victory, Ludwig’s outstanding new technical interest. One race, at the pursuit was checked dramatically: his car engine had incomparable and still daunting 14.2 mile Nurburgring, blown a piston on the sprint from the very last corner! was a cracker, as good a long distance contest as one Nothing else in long distance racing during the could hope to see these days, and deservedly watched whole of 1979 was half as exciting. A week later came Le by the biggest crowd seen for some years for an ADAC Mans, once again barred from the World Championship, 1000 Km. Another race, at Watkins Glen, was above this time because of its proximity to the Nurburgring average, while Brands Hatch’s contribution was “fair”. race. A full report of the 24 Hours was included in the But the other couple of so-called championship rounds, July edition of MOTOR SPORT, but it is worth recalling at Pergusa in Sicily and Vallelunga near Rome, were that Ludwig and the Kremer team reaped their revenge frankly awful and undeserving of their status. in partnership with the American Whittington brothers. First event in the series after Silverstone was that A fortnight later, on June 24th, came one of the memorable ADAC 1000 Km. at Nurburgring on June awful races, at the Lake Pergusa circuit near Enna in the 3rd. After an intense initial tussle for the lead between heart of Sicily. Hardly any non-Italian teams bothered in the Kremer Porsche 935 K3 and Bob to make the long trek south, and a mere handful of cars Wollek in a Gelo 935, went convincingly eligible for Championship points took part. There could ahead in Reinhold Joest’s Porsche 908/4. Ludwig’s rapid have been no race at all but for a sprinkling of 2-litre Gp white 935 appeared at last, limping into the pit road with 6 sports-racing cars, ineligible for points but this year a reflating rear tyre, and everyone in the vast timber allowed to compete alongside their production based grandstand sat back thinking “That’s it. We won’t see counterparts. the lead change again. The car that led all the way at After a very dull six hour procession, the race fell to Dijon, the car that captured pole by five clear seconds, one of these 2-litre Gp 6 machines, an -BMW PA7 is now out front and with Stommelen at the wheel it will shared by Leila Lombardi and Enrico Grimaldi. The only stay there.” Yet it was not to be — and the subsequent significance of the whole event lay in the fact that a works struggle for supremacy proved long distance racing can Lancia Beta Montecarlo driven by and still create a real spectacle of genuine excitement lasting Carlo Facetti finished second, five laps behind, and was right through to the final kilometre. therefore the first Gp 5 car home. The little turbocharged After 11 laps of the Nurburgring’s famous North Lancia, you may remember, had made a dreadful debut circuit, the Stommelen/Joest 908/4 retired because at Silverstone, retiring after only a few miles; but at of an irredeemable fuel leak. The heat of a very warm Nurburgring it had risen to fifth place overall before its summer’s day had made its bag tanks swell slightly, so engine expired in the final hour. that they rubbed against the chassis. With the latter in The seventh round of the championship, at Watkins turn scraping against the track in certain places, the tanks Glen on July 7th, was vastly better. These days there are had been literally wearing themselves away. From then probably more competitive Group 5 Porsche Turbos in on, the battle was a straight fight between the Gelo and North America than in Europe — and their drivers are Kremer 935s — and what a duel they made. not bad either, when it comes to long distance events! The Every time one of the cars made a refuelling stop, race at the Glen was evidence of this trend, for the lead the other would snatch the lead, only to lose it when its changed hands a dozen times during the six hours, and own stop fell due. From half distance onwards, the main was shared by six different cars. In the end, the result was two protagonists were within sight of each other for lap an exact replica of Le Mans, as Klaus Ludwig helped Don after lap. The highlight was an heroic 16 lap stint from and Bill Whittington take their newly acquired, Kremer prepared 935 K3 to a four lap victory over the Barbour six positions, with Leila Lombardi aril Giorgio Francia 935 driven by Dick Barbour himself, Rolf Stommelen and sharing first place in a works Osella-BMW PA7, ahead Paul Newman. of two other 2-litre and a Chrysler engined Of the other cars to hold the lead, the Ongais/Field Chevron B36. It was a dreary end to a generally dreary Porsche collided with a back marker who had spun to a championship, and it was really of only academic halt across the road; the Gregg/Haywood 935 first ran interest that Porsche (naturally) took the FISA title with out of fuel and then destroyed a wheel bearing; the Paul- 120 points to Lancia’s 50, BMW’s 38 and Ford’s 30. One Holbert 935 lost a wheel five minutes from the finish after can only hope this coming year sees a revival of the a series of earlier problems; while the 935 shared by Brian series, but it seel unlikely in view of Porsche’s virtual Redman and Bill Whittington lost time in a turbocharger abandonment of Group 5 racing. Lancia will run two change and finished seventh. The American race saw works Montecarlos, ,and March their quasi-works M1 an impeccable debut for Group 44’s immaculately but otherwise prospects are even dimmer than a year prepared V8 Triumph TR8, which Bob Tullius and Brian ago. — J.C.T. Fuerstenau drove to a category winning sixth place. This team has enjoyed great success with Triumph TR6 and Jaguar E-types and XJ-Ss in past seasons. A fortnight before its scheduled date of August 6th, the Rivet Supply sponsored Brands Hatch race had all the hallmarks of being the worst event ever to hold World Championship status. But then decent entries positively flooded in, so that the BRSCC was rewarded with a large and fully representative grid of cars, even though Georg Loos decided at the last moment to withdraw the two cars that he had entered late in the first place The race was not over-enthralling, however After Ludwig had forced a new Kremer Porsche 935K3 ahead for the first two laps, Joest slotted his 908-4 into the lead shortly before the ends this third tour, and with the assistance of co-driver Volkert Merl kept it firmly out front ft the remainder of the six hours! Ludwig and Plankenhorn gave constant chase in the Kremer Porsche, so there was at least a semblance of a race, but it was to no avail. They were a lap or two behind for most of the event, and took the flag two laps down. Tony Charnell and Martin Raymond inherited a fine class winning third place with a 2-litre Chevron- Ford B36 after John Cooper and Pel Lovett had seen their chances evaporate when their ex-de Cadenet Lola-DFV broke its steering linkage in the last half hour. Alain de Cadenet himself fell from contention when his Frew co-driver Francois Migault was brought to an abrupt halt by a tyre’s disintegration on the fastest part of the circuit. Their DFV powered De Cadenet was eventually persuaded back to life but could finish no higher than sixth, a place behind the works Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo that had been third at one stage, but which had suffered all sorts of niggling problems, including a minor collision. The British event also saw the actual race debut of the March built BMW Ml that had failed to qualify at Le Mans. Driven by , the very special monocoque M1 lay an impressive fourth for much of the first hour but then spun into retirement because of a hiccup in its spark-box soon after rising to second place. After that, it was only left for the championship to fizzle out at Vallelunga, where there was another indifferent field, most of it not eligible for championship points anyway. March sent their Oxford built Ml and Lancia fielded two works Montecarlos for the first time, but neither was it luck. The BMW crashed, this time because of brake failure, one Lancia suffered gearbox failure and the other went out with serious overheating At the end of six hours, Group 6 machines flled the top On the Ferrari there is a very short primary column FORMULA ONE TREND to a universal joint behind the instrument panel and then a secondary column running downwards almost OF DESIGN vertically into the pinion housing under the floor. This secondary column is in the cockpit and the driver sits with his legs on each side of it, the column being virtually Steering Gear between his knees. THE FORMULA ONE designers are unanimous on one Most of the designers use a proprietary steering design feature, and that is the use of an enclosed rack- wheel of about ten inches diameter with a heavily and-pinion steering gear. Apart from being mechanically padded rim and three spokes, and many of them are efficient this mechanism fits neatly into the front end quickly detachable by means of a clamp or locking pin. layout of a single-seater racing car. In the position and This is done either to allow easy ingress, or easy egress in mounting of the steering rack there is some difference of the case of an accident. It has on occasion proved a mixed opinion; while one designer mounts it behind the centre- blessing, as for example when a driver spins off into the line between the front wheels, another mounts it ahead rough and out of a race and detaches the wheel to get of the centre-line. and while this divergence of opinion out and does not bother to put it back on again. When is sometimes due to individual ideas on geometry, more the mechanics collect the car after the race the wheel often than not it is a question of space requirements. has gone, whisked away by a light-fingered spectator. Most of those who mount it behind the centre-line, Pushing a racing car back to the paddock without a like Lotus, Tyrrell. Williams and Arrows, have the steering wheel is a tiresome business, for which the rack running across the monocoque above the driver’s driver gets no thanks. The thoughtful driver brings the knees, and the short track-rods at each end of the rack wheel with him back to the pits. — D.S.J. lie directly behind and in line with the upper suspension members. Ligier and McLaren have their rack mounted a bit lower, with the track-rods in the air stream between the upper and lower suspension members. Ferrari strikes an individual note in having the rack mounted on the floor of the cockpit, under the driver’s knees, but behind the suspension centre-line. The track-rods lie between the suspension members, and near to the lower ones. Brabham and Renault are agreed that the steering rack should be mounted ahead of the front suspension assembly centre-line, and both designs have the track- rods in front and level with the upper suspension members. In all cases the rack housing is clamped to the monocoque and does nothing else than steer the car. but used a novel layout on the last Shadow design he did, where he used the steering rack casting to carry lugs from which the upper front suspension members were hung. When he left Shadow to start the Arrows team this was one of the design features he took with him and used on the Al Arrows, and it was part of the lawsuit between Shadow and Arrows, which Shadow won. so the design featured a more conventional unstressed rack assembly. The mechanism for joining the steering wheel to the rack-and-pinion varies according to the space available, the driving position required and the location of the rack. Lotus use 3 short, straight steering column running direct from the wheel to the rack, with a splined muff joint between the column and the pinion shaft. Ligier and McLaren use a short column running to a universal joint and then another short shaft into the pinion housing. The Arrows A2 uses a similar layout, with a mere stub of shaft out of the pinion housing, Williams use a similar layout to the Lotus. Brabham use a short column from the steering wheel to a universal joint and then another shaft running downwards, at an angle to the primary column, and into the forward mounted rack and pinion Renault use two universal joints in their steering column, one behind the instrument panel which allows the secondary shall to run downwards and the second one directly onto the pinion housing. Staniland raced the Multi-Union during 1938 and RACING CAR before the 1939 season it underwent another major rebuild and became the Multi-Union II, in which form it DEVELOPMENT still exists. The original Alfa Romeo front axle assembly mounted on leaf springs was changed for a proprietary FEW PEOPLE with a racing car arc satisfied with its Italian independent layout known as Tecnauto which performance, they always want more; more acceleration, used coil springs in twist with trailing arm geometry. more braking, more speed, which after all is all part of The Alfa Romeo rear axle, with its twin torque tubes and racing. The racing driver, designer or engineer is never twin propeller shafts, was retained but the half-elliptic satisfied, he is always striving to improve. Since the springs were replaced by coil springs and the axle was “bolt-together” concept came into being, personified located laterally by a Panhard rod. A completely new and accelerated by the Lotus 49 in 1967. it has not been supercharger and inlet manifold layout was made, new too difficult to assemble racing cars, and rather than oil and water radiators, new tanks, a new body and the make major changes people have built new cars in their rod-operated brakes were replaced by new Lockheed entirety. Before that it was generally a case of making a hydraulics, with new drums, back plates and shoes. The new racing car out of the best parts of an old one, either three-speed gearbox was changed for a new four-speed past its prime, or at the limit of its development. The unit. Of the original Monoposto Alfa Romeo the chassis special builder is the genius at this sort of thing and by its side rails remained, the rear axle, the engine and the very nature a “one-off” special is never finished; from the steering gear. — D. S. J. moment the wheels turn the builder will have thought of an improvement. Over the years there have been a number of racing Bringing Back the Rudge cars that underwent such a major development that RUDGE, one of the great names of motorcycling, is the original car has been destroyed for all time, and the to reappear on a new motorcycle alter a gap of about series of features starting with this issue shows some forty years. of the more interesting ones. It will also serve to nudge The prototype, a racing machine to be completed the “restorers and rebuilders” who have developed early this year, will be a 500 c.c. single-cylinder four- a remarkable faculty for “finding” long lost historic stroke with a four-valve head, in true Rudge tradition. A racing cars. The original cars depicted in this series have road version will follow, along with a 50 c.c. Road Racer been destroyed or altered beyond all reclaim, unless The men behind Rudge Motorcycles Ltd. are everything is made new, and if anyone produces a car Mike Cook, a racing motorcyclist for many years and said to be one of these we shall know it for what it is; a responsible lor the 50 c.c Road Racing Association, and fake, a replica, or a resurrection, call it what you will. Ron Gardner, familiar in the motorcycle world for his Today, old racing cars are considered to be worth a connections with the Gardner Carburetter Co. and the lot of money and there are many people, well-meaning or Ron Gardner Racing Team. Both men are involved with avaricious, who are producing old racing cars that either plastic and machine tools and the Rudge Co. will be part never existed or at best have been destroyed. Examples of Cook’s firm C.K. Consultants (Plastics) Groups in of Maserati 250F, Type 35 Bugatti, Ferrari Dino 246. ERA Welwyn Garden City and Alfa Romeo are among the “illegitimate”, which is Could the re-appearance of this famous name to say they are apparent historic entities, but in fact have start a turnabout in the dreadful fortunes of the British no genuine parenthood. That they exist now, you cannot motorcycle industry? deny, but at best they were conceived “on the wrong side • The official SMM&T Motor Show will be held in of the blanket”. the Birmingham NEC site “for at least the next decade”, It is to be hoped that no-one will be naive enough according to the SMM&T A new 10.000 square metre hall to claim they have found any of the cars in the upper of is to provide much-needed extra space lor the biennial our two photographs in this series. We have a long list of exhibition, which next takes place from October I7th- cars for the series, but would be interested to hear from 26th. 1980. readers of any cars they think might not be in our list. • Vauxhall say that their styling exercise on a In 1935 Chris Staniland acquired the Monoposto Chevette that features 0.25”-0.5” thick rubber skirting all Tipo B Alfa Romeo number 5003 from Raymond round, shows up well in wind tunnel tests. Compared Sommer, after the Frenchman had driven it in the to a production 1.256 c.c. Chevette a massive 20.42% Donington Grand Prix of that year. It was blue at the reduction in aerodynamic drag is reported. Even against time and Sommer had bought it trom the Scuderia the front and rear spoiler-equipped HS2300 a 12.14% Ferrari, it being one of the original 1932 Alfa Romeo improvement was measured. This was using 3.25” deep factory team cars. Alter racing it in British events in skirts, now on sale through DTV Sportparts, but with the 1936 and 1937. Staniland realised it was becoming rather impractical 6” depth fitted for further tests even outdated, though the engine was still very competitive, better results were recorded, Perhaps you could finance especially in British handicap races, so a major rebuild the inevitable increase in skirt wear and tear by charging and design was undertaken by J. S. Worters with the local councils a road sweeping fee? backing of W. C. Deveraux of Lockheed, and the result was renamed the Multi-Union, as a play on the name of the German Auto-Union which was very much to the fore in those days. many do this that crowds invariably gather, but at least LOMBARD RAC RALLY they are largely enthusiasts who know exacrly what they are about. OF GREAT BRITAIN The rally itself was just the kind of contest which has produced this enviable reputation throughout the world. RALLY REVIEW Indeed, it is an attraction not only for spectators, but for many competitors from other countries who, if they are STATISTICS, it is said, can be made to prove anything, but unable to compete, consider it entirely worthwhile to he would be a very clever statistician indeed who could come along just to watch. This year we met several such produce figures, with anything approaching accuracy, people from Europe and Scandinavia, and even from to give a measure of the massive spectator attendance South Africa. around the route of November’s Lombard RAC Rally What is more, the event has even become a Mecca of Great Britain. Vast crowds turned up everywhere, at for organisers of other international rallies, all anxious to special stages, service areas, time controls and even at publicise their own events among the largest gathering roundabouts and crossroads on comparatively dull parts of international competitors to take place during the of the route where cars were likely to do no more than year. Meetings, receptions, film shows and the like have slow down or stop briefly. become so numerous in the few days before the start Service areas were thronged with people anxious that it is quite impossible for anyone to visit all of them, to watch amazing feats of mechanical ingenuity, whilst although it is rather useful that the base town of the RAG special stages were often lined by spectators along their Rally has become recognised as a distribution point for entire lengths, all eager to see what is undoubtedly the information concerning other rallies. finest display of high speed driving on loose-surfaced The RAC Rally is considered by manu¬facturers’ roads that could be envisaged. teams to be one of the big publicity plums of the year, Attendance estimates have run into millions along with the Safari and, although not now as much and, having been associated with the event in various as in the past, the Monte-Carlo Rally. Being part of the capacities over many years, we consider that, if anything, World Championship is of secondary importance; what they err on the conservative side. The editor went out really matters is the event itself, for it generates far more to see a forest stage in Wales and got himself so snarled publicity around the world than the championship of up in a vastly over-populated and under-sized parking which it is part. area in Radnor fores that we doubt whether he will want Since 1972 it has always been won by Ford Escorts, to repeat the experience, whilst a straight-faced D.S.J, which says much for the suitability of those cars for the attempted an estimate of attendance by a head count style of “forest racing” to be found in Britain, for the skill on the photograph on this page and some extremely and rallymanship of those who drive them, and for the empirical multiplication. dedication and ingenuity of those who build and service This splendid event, together with its overtures them. Indeed, so successful have Escorts been in Britain and finale, spans close on a week and puts a fine, (elsewhere too, of course) that it has become as| common mobile spectacle right under the gaze of those who to say that it’s hard to beat the Escorts in Britain as it has choose to go out to see — and many of them brave that it’s hard to beat the Finns in Finland. fog, ice and ram to stand on bleak Yorkshire moors or Fortunately, the event has never become regarded windswept Welsh mountainsides to do just that, even as an Escort preserve, and manu-facturers other than m the middle of the night. Ford continue to make determined bids to topple Forest stages are far more exciting and have Boreham from its pedestal. It’s a kind of chain reaction, considerably more atmosphere than those on the the more teams who want to challenge Ford, the more somewhat artificial roads of private estates and parks, popular and competitive the event becomes, and that but it is regrettable that the former have nothing like the gives rise to a greater attraction for even more teams. available parking spaces of the latter. In recent years this It was all sparked off in the first place, of course, by has prompted the organisers not to disclose to the public the negotiations of some twenty years ago which resulted the locations of most of the forest stages. Their motives in the roads of Britain’s State Forests becoming available were sensible, for no-one would thank them lor allowing for use as special stages; superbly engineered roads, traffic jams and indiscriminate parking to disrupt the well founded and cambered, along which it is a positive progress of competitors who, after all, are the people the delight to drive a car with spirit, determination and spectators want to see, hut this selective funnelling of precision, or to see one so driven. Drivers, particularly spectators into just some of the available places has itself Scandinavians, were quick to realise that British forest created congestion. Making more such places known to roads were so satisfying and exhilarating at high speed, the public would lessen the con¬centration by spreading and as professionalism advanced in rallying, so the the spectators out a little more. It would certainly not works teams followed the paths trodden by the men they attract a greater number of spectators for that reason had hired to drive for them. alone, for already they travel substantial distances to But it has all become very costly, and nowadays the watch the event, whilst the knowledgeable and astute Forestry Commission has a standing charge based on the among them (and there are many thousands) are-able to number of starters and the distance to be covered which find the locations of secret stages and go there to watch, all rally organisers, from the smallest to the biggest, must partly to get away from crowds and partly to witness pay for the use of its roads. The RAC Rally, for instance, what they consider to be the best action. Ironically, so with 175 starters, was obliged to pay well over £100 for every mile of forest road used, and that represents a huge , a company which has been increasing its chunk out of any budget. rallying activities of late and plans an even greater The levy is intended as fixed compensation for road increase in the future, brought three of their f.w.d. 80s, surface damage, and we see no reason why it could not be whilst there were the inevitable Ladas from Russia’s dropped in lieu of a supporting government grant which Avtoexport organisation and Wartburgs from East rallying, as both a prestigious and income-bringing sport Germany, the only cars now left in rallying to herald and a fine shop window for British car makers, deserves their approach by that characteristic ring-a-ding-dong so much. Damage to roads must be put right, but this sound which, in Saab % days, was always likened to a could so easily be covered by a paper transfer of funds swarm of bees. so that the books of the Forestry Commission would not Ford had the biggest team of the lot with no less show a loss. than seven Escorts being looked after by the leap- Ford’s challengers this year were as numerous as frogging fleet of service vehicles. Such a big team always ever, including three other British makes Vauxhall, Talbot presents a headache, for if loo many of them arrive too and Triumph. Even some foreign makes were represented close to each other at a service point the mechanics arc by British-based dealer consortiums or factory-backed hard pressed to give each one the attention it needs. They offshoots The other works teams were those of Saab, don’t always need attention, of course, but refuelling and Datsun, Toyota, Opel, Audi, Lada, Wartburg and Fiat, tyre changing are always necessary, whilst it is better to the latter with both Lancia Autobianchi as well. spend a few minutes here and there having precautionary The Saab team has been the most faithful of checks than to waste a much bigger chunk of time having overseas visitors to the RAC Rally, and even is the quiet some broken part replaced. time when the attentions of development engineers Servicing is now such a large scale operation for were turning from the 96 V4 to the Turbo they always every team and no doubt every private entrant that came. Indeed, since Erik Carlsson notched up those three the number of vehicles involved is far greater than the consecutive two-stroke victories at the start of the ‘sixties number of competing cars. Before such support became in November outing to the British forests has become so sophisticated it was possible to stop and have your almost a tradition in Trollhattan. car fettled by mechanics at any convenient lay-bay, verge Although Harry Kallstrom won twice with or forecourt, but when the number of support vehicles Fulvias in 1969 and 1970. Lancia has never won with began increasing the RAC began to regulate such a Stratos even though the team has tried many times. matters. At first they specified where servicing could not Many old Lancia loyalties have been smothered by the be carried out, but nowadays they clearly define where Fiat take-over, but this ambition persisted to such an it can, to the exclusion of all other places except private extent that one of the very few remaining Stratos, a premises with their owners’ permission, and then only model now officially retired, was taken from beneath on certain roads. its wraps, refettled and brought over in a last ditch Teams overcame the carly rules by having service attempt to win an event which has eluded there for cars sitting just off those parts of the official route on years. Alas, they got no more than fifth, whilst the which service was forbidden. They were not on the team’s Fiat 131 Abarth finished even further down the actual route, so the rule was not being broken. Nowadays list. Vauxhall had two Chevettes driven by a Scot and there is no such loophole, but that does not stop teams a Finn, Triumph five of their TR7 V8s driven by two using unmarked supervisory cars and support cars Englishmen, a Swede, a Finn and an American, and (the latter have to be registered with the organisers and Talbot a lone Sunbeam Lotus driven by Britain’s Tony display official numbers) to “patrol” sections of the route Pond, It was a shame that the factory entered only one which are officially forbidden to service cars. If they are of these spirited little cars, for it performed so well caught actually assisting a competing car, then that car that seasoned professionals among other teams were can be excluded, but if the car is ailing and would retire heard to remark that it was the most significant new anyway if not given immediate attention, then the risk is car to appear in international rallies for quite some considered worthwhile. time. Alas, Pond hit ice, slid into a bridge, left the road, It can often be quite amusing to watch first overturned and reined from the rally. the convoy of official service cars travelling to their Two Datsun Violets came from the Milton prearranged locations, and then the unofficial ones Keynes base of Team Datsun Europe, and three Toyota prowling around forests exits and lurking in pub car Celicas from the Cologne base of Toyota Team Europe. parks, their crews endeavouring to appear as nonchalant It seems that these Japanese factories both feel that as possible whilst all the lime their very presence is lor the way to operate is to set up an outfit in the area a most definite purpose. They are all linked by radio, of where rallying is most concentrated, Europe. Neither course, and some of them now use codewords for their is actually owned by its factory; they are both separate positions in order not to give anything away on a radio entities with contracts to operate on behalf of the channel which might have listeners other than those manufacturers. intended to hear. An Ascona came from Britain’s Dealer Opel Team, Each team has a most involved operation, and it providing Brian Culcheth with his last major drive takes a military strategist to co-ordinate it all efficiently before giving up competing in favour of a managerial and to produce written instructions for every man post, whilst a Kadett came from the dealer consortium in concerned, from team manager to sandwich maker. Sweden, where such dealer operations first began many When there are so many teams taking part, each with years ago, to be copied in many other countries. intricate plans overlapping, the whole thing becomes a very complicated cavalcade as it moves in leap-frogging, Two Toyota Celica’s stopped, one with clutch meandering groups of formations from one part of the failure and both with injection pump troubles, leaving country to another. Tapio Rainio, the former Saab Finland driver, to finish For Ford it was a successful, if somewhat tense in eleventh place. Of the two Datsuns one had various rally almost from the start. We say almost, for the bothers including a roll, but Timo Salonen took his, a Gp positions achieved during the daytime on the Sunday, 2 car it should be noted, to a fine third place which must the first day, were little more than academic. The stages have pleased the Tokyo engineers immensely were relatively short, all in private parks and estates, The distinction between Gp 3 and Gp 4 does not and penalty differentials were so marginal that things exist in the RAC Rally, tor these groups are linked in the changed almost as soon as the event got into real forests same classes. However, the Op 1 cars are always involved in Yorkshire. in a hot contest and the winner on this occasion was New However, for Bjorn Waldegard. keen to keep his Zealander Alan Carter whose Escort RS2000 finished in substantial lead over Hannu Mikkola for the title of nineteenth place overall. World Champion for 1979. that first day was disastrous. We must not forget the highest placed British On the first stage he ran wide into a ditch, across the grass driver, Russell Brookes who took a commendable second and over a tree stump winch did considerable damage to place after a tussle with Tony Pond ended when the latter his rear axle and left rear hub. His time was not so much driver’s Sunbeam Lotus went off the road. Ari Vatanen greater than those of his rivals, but the incident had a had been second in his Escort, but dropped a lew places rather demoralising effect on his stride and he was never during the second leg in Wales as a result of booking in quite in his customary form. Much later in the event he too early at the Machynlleth time control. went off again, and even suffered a broken jack as he was It is easy to find fault with something which stands changing a wheel after a puncture, the latter coming just out in the public eve. rather like the old saying that before the long, important stages in Kielder Forests. He politicians make the best Aunt Sallies merely because they started them in quite the wrong frame of mind, and this are ready targets, and indeed we have done so ourselves. must have contributed to his finishing position of ninth. But we have done so not just to point out shortcomings, In contrast Hannu Mikkola had an untroubled run more so that these little matters can be put right in the from start to finish, the car behaving perfectly and the future. The rally remains a superb competition and we Finnish driver always appearing unruffled, perfectly commend all those thousands of volunteers who worked composed and supremely confident For him and Arne hard to make it possible, and those who tackled the Hertz it was their second successive victory in the RAC enormous administration. — G.P. Rally, although Hertz has won it once before, as Stig Blomqvist’s partner in a Saab 96 in 1971. Mikkola’s ten championship points brings him within striking distance of Waldegard whose score of two points was his lowest of the year and could not even be counted at all since it was his eighth score, and only the best seven can count. Waldegard still leads, of course, but all now depends on the outcome of December’s Bandama Rally in the Ivory Coast, alas too late in the month to be recorded in this issue of MOTOR SPORT. Both will have driven Mercedes 450 SLC for the factory team, and Mikkola needs a high place, with Waldegard not too close behind him, in order to snatch the title from the man who has led the series for most of the year. Saab had a tough time, for both their Turbos were out in the first night of the rally, having had steering and drive shaft joint breakages, a few clouts with trees and water pump failure. The Stratos, although it did lead tor a time, had as much trouble as the Fiat, but both did struggle to the finish, Markku Alen doing rather well CO recover to fifth place. Leyland, or rather, BL cars, had an equally troubled rally, the highest of their TR7s being that of Per Eklund who finished thirteenth. Pentti Airikkala’s Chevette never sounded right from the start, and its overheating and low oil pressure was a constant source of worry that it would expire in a cloud of smoke and steam at any moment. But the Finn ploughed on. using his brakes so little in order to compensate for lack of power that he nudged almost every kind of obstacle he encountered and finished with a car which hardly had an undamaged body panel on it. Amazingly, he was eleventh. be most welcome. It is one of the most original of the HISTORIC PREPARATION “monoposto” cars, though the engine had to be rebuilt using some sports-car components. It is now having UNLIKE today’s Formula One teams, who have to begin a complete engine rebuild in readiness for the coming preparation for the next season as soon as the present one season and the chassis is seen awaiting this work to be is finished, those people involved in historic car racing done. It carries Scuderia Ferrari emblems on its bonnet have a clear period of some months in the winter to as a legacy of the days when it was part of Enzo Ferrari’s prepare for the next season. We paid a visit to some of the team of Alfa Romeos. places where historic cars are being rebuilt or overhauled The historic racing scene should be enlivened this in readiness for “old car racing” in 1980, whether it be year if we have Cooper’s car racing against the Talbot- VSCC club events, or sponsored historic championship Lagos of Paul Grist and Richard Pilkington in the post- racing, and the colour section of photographs shows war category and Corner’s Alfa Romeo racing against de some of them. Cadenet’s similar car and the Maseratis of David Black There never seems to be a shortage of historic cars and Bill Summers in the pre-war category. for racing, and as we hinted last month, if you cannot Although people have built replica Bugattis, find one you can make one and then produce the letters, Maseratis, Alfa Romeos. Mercedes-Benz and so forth, no photographs, race reports and so on afterwards to prove one has vet produced a replica ERA, though one is said its authenticity. If you are surrounded by sufficient to be nearing completion and another is mooted! ERA unknowledgeable and gullible people and your story history is very well documented and each car’s history sounds reasonable you have an historic car that isn’t is totally known, there are none of the convenient “grey questioned. It is only if someone starts delving into the areas” beloved of the restorers. R10B was the ERA past that you are likely to be found out and even than it bought new by Peter Whitehead in 1936 and raced very is surprising what a bit of bluff can do. Popular remarks regularly by him and Peter Whitehead up to the war are “. . . it is one of the best documented cars . . .” or “. . . in 1939. It then passed to Graham Whitehead, Peter’s history was very grey around that period . , .”or”. . . no- half-brother, who ran it for a number of years. As with one really knows . . .”. Two cars that will be reappearing all ERAs it ended up in the ranks of the VSCC and is in racing in 1980 after long sojourns in museums are the now owned by American member Joel Finn, who keeps Talbot-Lago and the Tipo B “monoposto” Alfa Romeo it in England. It is undergoing a total rebuild by Tula illustrated in colour on pages 68 and 69. Engineering and has been returned to its original black The 4.5-litre Talbot-Lago Type 26C is number colour, having spent many years painted dark green. 110007, of the l948 series, and was raced by-Louis It was black in the days of the Whitehead Walker Chiron for Paul Vallee’s Ecurie France, winning the partnership and was notable in those days for the way 1949 French GP. It then went to Australia where Doug it was cornered on opposite lock with the tail well out Whiteford raced it and came to England some years of line and the rear wheels spinning, when Peter Walker ago. After a time of rest in the Donington Collection it was at the controls. As can be seen in our photographic passed through various hands in the used-car trade until feature the chassis and body are finished and it just it went to rest again in the Midland Motor Museum in awaits the engine and gearbox. Bridgnorth. It has now been bought by Robert Cooper, Among the many specialist activities at Bassett- of Swindon, who will be racing it this season. It is having Down Engineering is the rebuilding of vintage racing a cheek-over by Nigel Arnold-Forster at Bassett-Down engines and the more complex and challenging the more Engineering and among the jobs to do is a modification they seem to like them. One that has just been completed to the cockpit side and the steering column to enable and is seen ready to be put on the dynomometer is the the tall Cooper to get in and out more easily. Originally 1.5-Litre Eldridge-Anzani, dating from around 1923/4. these cars had Solex downdraught carburetters but at Ernest Eldridge, a skilled engineer of the vintage years some time in its life this one was fitted with horizontal built his own Eldndge Special racing car and evolved Weber carburetters. this engine using a side-valve 1.5-litre Anzani engine as The Tipo B Alfa Romeo is one of the classic a basis. A twin overhead camshaft layout was devised, “monoposto” models, so often erroneously called a P3 driving the camshafts by roller-chains from the rear of by casual journalists. This one belongs to Neil Corner the crankshaft, with an aluminium housing dove-tailing and it has been sitting in the Donington Park racing neatly into the Anzani crankcase The cylinder head car museum for many years, in fact, since the museum was fitted with two sparking plugs to each cylinder opened in 1973. It is number 5006 and was one of the first and these were fired by twin magnetos mounted at the batch of cars built in 1932, but was uprated to comply front of the camshafts. The vertical supercharger at the with the new Formula rules that came into being in front of the engine was normal Anzani practice, the 1934. The Scuderia Ferrari, who were running these Alfa supercharged side-valve engines giving a very good Romeos at the rime, sold in to “Georges Raph” a French power-to-weight output. The Eldridge twin-cam layout driver and in 1938/39 it came to England when it was for this engine produced a very lively 1.5-litre vintage bought by Mrs. Jill Thomas It then passed to Anthony racing engine. The Eldridge Special itself seems to have Powys-Lybbe who raced it in numerous Irish events been broken up many years ago and the engine was and then it passed into the ownership of various VSCC in a rather special Frazer Nash chassis some 35 years members. The last time we saw it in action was when ago. The present owner intends to install it in a chassis Peter Waller drove it for Neil Corner in VSCC races in built by Parry Thomas in the vintage years, to concoct a 1972 so its reappearance in the hands of Vic Norman will rather nice “period-piece”. Another vintage “period-piece” seen in the up and check-over and the gold-painted frame is being background in the Talbot-Lago photograph is the restored to its original silver colour, in readiness for Becquet Special, which Arnold Forster is hoping to get another season of historic racing. The second car, 2528, is completed this year lor himself. The Frenchman Becquet owned by Neil Corner, and 2529 is in America. built his first special in 1920, using a 1914 Grand Prix New to the historic scene this year will be a very Alda chassis, into which he put a V8 Hispano-Suiza interesting car, photographed at Crossland Engineering aero-engine of 1918/1919. This very compact and light in Sussex. This is a 1960 Ferrari Dino single-seater into aeroplane engine had a shaft-driven overhead camshaft which the factory installed a 3-litre V12 sports car engine to each bank of cylinders and was of 100 x 150 mm. bore for wealthy New Zealander Pat Hoare. This was done and stroke giving 9,427 c.c. Becquet built this special for at the end of 1960 for Hoare to use in the Tasman Races French hill-climbs and any free formula races that might and in the recently published book by Doug Nye on the be held. complete story of all the Dino Ferraris this car is illustrated In 1923 Delage built a 2-litre V12 unsupercharged on page 106. The photograph was taken on October 26th car for the Grand Prix, but it was not successful and a 1960 at the Modena autodrome when the car was on test. totally new design produced for 1924, still using the It was chassis 0007 with which had won the . In 1925 these cars were supercharged and Italian GP, using the original 2.5-litre V6 engine, and Nye became one of the landmarks in Grand Prix design. The gives a complete story on the car in his excellent book 1923 car was abandoned and in 1925 Monsieur Becquet “Dino: The Little Ferrari”. In 1978 Neil Corner acquired acquired it. Less engine, and installed his V8 Hispano- the car, by now converted into a sort of road-going GT Suiza aero-engine in it, throwing away his primitive car, and Dick Crossthwaite and his men have put it all 1914 chassis. He ran it in verious free-formula events, back into pure Tasman single-seater form. Fortunately such as the Spanish GP in 1926 and in French races and the Kiwi conversion did not destroy much of the original hill-climbs As a Grand Prix Delage the car had a rear car and they kept all the body panels and old bits, even fuel tank that formed part of the long shapely tail, but parts of the tubular superstructure of the chassis around Becquet removed all this and fitted a bolster tank and the radiator, so the rebuild job has not been as bad as crude bodywork around it. The car rested in Switzerland some. In Corner’s capable hands this interesting car will for many years and some time ago was acquired by be worth seeing, especially when he comes up against Arnold Forster and with it came the original Delage fuel Willie Green in Anthony Bamford’s 2.5-litre V6 Dino tank, so it has not been too difficult, having the scuttle Ferrari, that performed so well last season. and the tank to build a new body as near to the original Historic car racing in 1980 looks as though it is going Delage one as can be seen by eve Various small parts to be very interesting and while some of the entries may were missing off the Hispano-Suiza engine but another be a bit short on history and a little suspect as to origins, one came to light recently so Bassett-Down Engineering we have a hard-core of genuine historic racing cars that have the interesting job of building up this . It will give pleasure to everyone, drivers, mechanics and is wider and slightly bulkier than the original V12 Delage spectators alike. — D.S.J. engine, so that the cylinder heads protrude from the sides of the bonnet, but what is fascinating is that this 9-litre V8 engine weighs almost the same as the 2-litre V12 Delage engine. When completed this vintage “period-piece” will enliven the VSCC paddock, even if it doesn’t get as far as the. starting grid. The expression “... a total strip and rebuild . . .” is exemplified by Vic Norman’s 250F Maserati shown on stands in his workshop. At the time of calling in only needed the removal of the fuel tank-cum-tail, for the space-frame chassis to be laid completely bare. This is Maserati number 2527, which was the first of the famous trio of “lightweight” cars that formed the works team for Fangio, Behra and Schell in 1957. The first two cars, 2527 and 2528, were actually completed before the end of 1956 for they were then put on a boat and sent to South America for the Argentine winter races. The third car, 2529, was completed later, in time for the European season. These three cars with lightweight chassis frames, the ultimate in Maserati drum brakes, five-speed gearbox and sleek, shapely bodywork are considered to be the best 250F Maseratis ever built. After these three Maserati built some V12-cylinder versions, that were never fully developed, and then the short wheelbase “piccolo” cars, one of which we illustrated last month, but none of these were so nicely balanced and forgiving as the trio of 1957 lightweight ears. Norman’s car is having a total clean- Another unpainted car, with bonnet-rivets as well, was VSCC FROLICS AT Swann’s 3-litre Invicta. Horton’s Type 43 Bugatti gave us the authentic ring of engaging starter-teeth when he ENSTONE was ready to go, which unnerved the stop-watch, so he was given second stab at test-3, and Ash rode about in a THIS YEAR the VSCC’s December Driving Tests again very stark, pointed-tail Alvis 12-50 Special. Nice’s Ulster took place on the Enstone Airfield Complex near Oxford, Austin was going well, tail out, as when Di Threlfall mercifully in warmer weather than in 1978. We entered raced it, which caused her husband to pop stronger by a back lane, the various frolics to try drivers and cars valve springs into their Ulster, and Lloyd, chauffeuring laid out on the run-ways, over which a glider soared the aforesaid Renault, contrived to change-up in one of in the winter sky. One wondered whether the cars had the tests, and the Costigan Austin Ulster actually boiled. monopolised its landing areas, so that the pilot was It is pointless to try to describe what happened hoping for sufficient thermals to last him until the last in the tests, except that Young bravely pushed his vintage car had departed. . . . Morgan backwards when he had to. as no reverse was The entry numbered 46, a substantial two-dozen provided on this model; the engine was presumably down on last year’s figure. Oldest car to undertake running on Redline, from a can on the running-board. the ordeal-by-pylon was Reece’s 1911 Renault two- The results must speak for themselves, best performance, seater, which puttered happily about on its two 603 cc. incidentally, being made by Joseland in his Frazer Nash cylinders. A star attraction, had the public been present, Fast Tourer, just beating Hare’s Austin Ulster. — W.B. was Ian Young’s ex-MacMinnies’ 1918 Morgan Grand Prix three-wheeler, with side-valve, water-cooled JAP engine, an immaculate little car original even to its gas side-lamps and strap-secured one-man hood. It was driven to the venue and had the honour to start things rolling, carrying the unique competition number “0”, signifying that the Post office had lost Young’s entry. In this class entries ranged from the Renault as the only four-wheeled Edwardian to Angela Cherrett who had wisely come in the protection of her 1931 four-door 1750 Alfa Romeo saloon. In this class, too, Tom Threlfall and his wife were sharing their rare 1924 BSA light-car, its “radiator” completely blanked-off to try to get the oil circulating in the air-cooled vee-twin engine, a crossed- guns mascot riding high above it all. The girls had perhaps been attracted by an innovation on the part of the VSCC, a dinner-dance at Banbury afterwards. Anyway, Mrs. Harcourt-Smith was there in a nice 12-50 TE Alvis tourer, Janet Giles was giving Freddie a day off by conducting their TT Replica Frazer Nash (so ambitiously that she hit a marker under braking, at the conclusion of the third frolic), Mrs. Costigan was in the Ulster Austin, Mrs. Hogg was going well in the Edwards’ Ulster Aston Martin, but Mrs. Doey retired early when the cam followers of the Coventry- Climax i.o.e. engine in her 1937 Morgan 4/4 came unstuck. Ian Taylor was getting good results from a well- known Austin Seven Chummy, a car in decidedly competition rig, which had arrived in an enormous van, the little Renault wore a label reading “This Side Up — Must Not Be Turned Over”, and it wasn’t, and we noted that fold-flat windscreens ranged from that on the Threlfall BSA, stripped of its spare wheel in the best racing tradition, to the one on Briscoe’s 1933 Alvis Firefly. Barry Clarke explained carefully to us his 1913 Singer, thal inspite of its bolster tank, isn’t the TT Replica we thought it was but is simply a very spartan sports light-car. Peter Harris had forsaken his Bentley lor a 30/98 borrowed from Brenda Rowley but wrong-sided at one pylon, Tony Jones demonstrated excellent anchorage in his 30/98, and Hill even more so in his Morgan 4/4, which stopped too soon in test-3. Marsh was content with his Oxford-engined four-speed Morris Sports.