Le Mans and Canada

What a weekend’s motor racing; a close finish at Le Mans and an epic drive by Jenson Button from 21st place to win the Grand Prix of Canada. Eurosport’s TV commentators cheerfully admitted they weren’t born the last time Le Mans was that close. Well, it was 1969 and it was 1.5sec or so, against a yawning 14sec this year. It was not quite the first time a driver has come from last to first in a grand prix. Jim Clark did not win the Italian Grand Prix of 1967 but like Button’s drive yesterday, it was perhaps his best race ever. Button won on almost the last corner. Clark lost.


Ickx and Oliver snatch victory in tight finish

From ERIC DYMOCK : Le Mans, June 15: The Guardian

Amid scenes of excitement almost unprecedented in motor racing, Jacky Ickx of Belgium and Jackie Oliver of England won the Le Mans 24 hour race today on the Circuit of the Sarthe. In the final hours they raced neck-and-neck with the survivor of the German Porsche team, driven by Herrman and Larrouse, for one of the most prestigious wins in the whole 47-year history of the race.

Incredibly, the two cars battled wheel-to-wheel for the final two hours, the Slough-based, Gulf-sponsored Ford snatching victory through reliability in the face of the German team’s superior speed. Porsche led until 11 o’clock this morning and with 21 hours of high speed running behind them, the car driven by by Vic Elford and Richard Attwood looked sure to win, with its team-mate, the German-crewed Lins-Kauhsen car, in second place. Then, within the space of 20 minutes, both cars failed with transmission trouble.

Porsche still take the annual world manufacturers’ championship, but the Ford GT 40, the same car with which Pedro Rodriguez and the late Lucien Bianchi won this race last year, battled to the finish against the remaining fragment of Porsche s most determined effort to win Le Mans…

With the final refuelling stops between midday and the end of the race at 2 p.m., the Porsche and the Ford closed on each other. When the Ford called at its pit, the Porsche passed. Then the Porsche refuelled for the last time and, with Herrman and Ickx driving, the two cars went round the 8½mile course with first one in front, then the other.

Two cars still racing after 23 hours is like extra time in a Cup Final or winning the Open on the last green. The enclosures were packed to capacity and the crowd in a ferment as the two cars sped round, cropping fractions from their lap times, out-braking each other for the corners. They caught up momentarily on Mike Hailwood in the second GT 40, who was fighting off the Beltoise-Courage Matra for third place and might have detained the Porsche to take pressure off Ickx.

Victory in the tyre war was at stake, with the Porsche Dunlop and the Ford on Firestone, and the fuel giants battled it out with the Porsche on Shell, and the Ford on Gulf. The Ford won virtually by a decimal place - a tenth of a kilometre, or a second-and-a-half - after 5,000 kilomctres of racing.


I took this picture of the start at Monza from the press tribune at the top of the grandstand. Clark (Lotus-Ford 49) is on pole on this side of the track, Brabham (Brabham Repco V8) in the middle, Bruce McLaren (McLaren BRM V12) on the outside. (Chris Amon (Ferrari V12) and Dan Gurney (Eagle-Weslake V12) are on the second row. Eventual winner John Surtees (Honda V12) is on row 4.

Jim Clark led the Italian Grand Prix of 1967, lost a lap in the pits, then caught up the entire field by overtaking every other car, some twice. It was an unimaginable accomplishment unique in modern grand prix racing. Effectively he raced a full lap ahead of everyone else up till the last lap when his car faltered for lack of fuel. It was an astounding display in an era when cars were closely matched and races decided in terms of a few seconds, on a circuit famous for close racing and yards-apart finishes. Once again Clark displayed that enormous faculty he had for self-control: outwardly calm, inwardly burning with a source of energy that improved his performance with every peak on the graph of indignation or frustration or whatever his motivation was. These were the occasions when he was able to show the world just how much ability he held in reserve, to the despair of his competitors.


Monza was nearly a famous victory, but his fuel pumps failed to collect the final few gallons in the bottom of the tanks. At first he blamed Colin Chapman, and after the crowds had stopped mobbing the winner, John Surtees in a Honda, and himself as the moral victor, he rounded on Chapman for miscalculating the fuel required for the race.

His soaring adrenalin level left Chapman the victim of a tongue-lashing that revealed a side of Clark rarely seen in public. Ten years before when the Berwick and District Motor Club had, as he saw it, cheated him out of a proper acknowledgement of his skill, he had had to defer to its authority. Now the authority was his and Jim Clark was very, very cross.

from: Jim Clark, Tribute to a Champion Now available as an ebook from Waterstones or on Amazon Kindle

Ecurie Ecosse at Le Mans

Ecurie Ecosse never really got enough credit for winning Le Mans. Twice. In 1956 and 1957. I have been revising and updating our Jaguar book before publishing it as an ebook.
Wagers on the 1956 Le Mans 24 Hours would have received short odds on a win by the works Jaguar D-types. Hawthorn and Bueb, Fairman and Wharton, and Frère and Titterington looked formidable. The engines had the new 35-40 cylinder heads (inlet valves inclined at 35 degrees, exhausts at 40 degrees), raising power output from 186.32kW (250bhp) to 205.07kW (275bhp). However, within five minutes of the start two of the works cars were out, when Paul Frère’s collided with Jack Fairman’s at the Esses. The Hawthorn/Bueb car suffered misfiring due to a fault in the new Lucas fuel injection and dropped back. Fortunately Jaguar had a second string. It had disposed of former works cars to the Scottish team Ecurie Ecosse, a compliment to its organiser David Murray, acknowledging his loyalty to Jaguar since creating the team in 1952. Ninian Sanderson and Ron Flockhart saved the day by winning in an “old” car.
The following year Flockhart and Bueb led a clean sweep of four D-types. Yet another was 6th, making Jaguar’s domination of the world’s greatest sports car race complete. The factory had withdrawn from racing and in recognition of having saved its reputation in 1956, Jaguar secretly lent Ecurie Ecosse one of the latest factory 3.8 litre fuel injected engines. Its 212.53kW (285bhp) made one car comfortably faster than any of the other D-types, including Ecosse’s own second car with carburettors. Against all the odds Ecurie Ecosse won again, covering 4397.28km (2732.42miles), its weaker second string D-type only 122.31km (76miles) behind. They had outpaced or outlasted 54 of the world’s best sports racing cars. Flockhart was paired this time with Englishman Ivor Bueb, Jock Lawrence from Cullen co-drove the other car with Sanderson, and there were five Jaguars among the first six finishers, the only interloper a 3.8 Ferrari in 5th place.
BODY open 2-seater; 2-doors, 2-seats; weight 880kg (1940lb).
ENGINE 6-cylinders, in-line; front; 83mm x 106mm, 3442cc; compr 9:1; 206.56kW (277bhp) @ 6000rpm; 60kW (80.5bhp)/l; 358Nm (267lbft) @ 4000rpm. 1957 see text
ENGINE STRUCTURE two chain driven ohc; aluminium cylinder head, cast iron block; 3 twin choke Weber DCO3 45mm carburettors; 1957 Lucas fuel injection see text; 2 electric fuel pumps; Lucas coil ignition; 7-bearing crankshaft; dry-sump lubrication; 15.9l (3.5gal) oil tank.
TRANSMISSION rear wheel drive; 19.05cm (7.5in) Borg and Beck hydraulic triple dry plate clutch; 4-speed synchromesh gearbox with helical teeth; hypoid final drive 2.53 for Le Mans; alternatives 3.54:1, 2.53:1; 2.69; 2-pinion differential.
CHASSIS brazed 50ton tensile steel tubular detachable front sub-frame; stressed skin 18-gauge magnesium centre section monocoque; ifs by wishbones, torsion bars; rear axle on trailing arms, transverse torsion bar, anti-roll bar; Girling telescopic dampers; hydraulic Dunlop 32.38cm (12.75in) disc brakes; rack and pinion steering; 163.7l (36gal) flexible fuel tanks; Dunlop light alloy perforated disc wheels with knock-off hubs; 6.50-16 Dunlop racing tyres.
DIMENSIONS wheelbase 229.4cm (90.3in); track 127cm (50in); length 410.21cm (161.5in); width 165.9in (65.3in); height 79.06cm (31.125in) at scuttle; 114.3cm (45in) over fin; turning circle 10.67m (35ft); ground clearance under the engine 13.97cm (5.5in).
EQUIPMENT full-width Perspex windscreen
PERFORMANCE (1956) maximum speed 183mph at 6000rpm on 2.79 axle; 54.42kph (33.9mph) @ 1000rpm for Le Mans; 0-100kph (62mph) 7.0sec; fuel consumption 18.8-23.5l/100km (12-15mpg).

AC Cobra

The electronic time trap credited me with 183mph. I was at the wheel of the Le Mans AC Cobra 39PH. It was 1963 and it felt quick. Alas The Motor’s technicians pooh-poohed electronics, their slide-rules calculating that the change in axle ratio, described in the feature published July 17, rendered it more likely to be about 170mph.
Click to enlarge

Peter Bolton and Ninian Sanderson had just driven 39PH to seventh place at Le Mans. The following week I met Sanderson by chance, outside Harrods. I knew him through my association with Ecurie Ecosse and he suggested AC might lend the car for test. My colleague on the road test staff Roger Bell, later editor of The Motor and an accomplished saloon car racer, joined me at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) test track. We did just short of 140mph, about 22.5mph per 1000rpm, through an electronic trap on the banked circuit, so at 6,500rpm it might have managed 146-147mph. On the Le Mans axle it was doing 160mph on Mulsanne at 5,500rpm, or around 29mph per 1000rpm, so had it been able to pull 6,500rpm with its rather blunt aerodynamics, that would be 189mph.

On the fresh axle ratio, even at 7,000rpm, 165mph at MIRA was more likely than 180, so discretion suggested that the figure be excluded from the feature. MIRA had a second electronic time trap on the road course, inside the banked outer circuit, on which you could go faster before braking hard for the next corner. Photographer Maurice Rowe took a fine picture of Roger lifting the Cobra’s inside wheel on one. Perhaps the slide-rulers at The Motor (they were usually precise) were not perverse to rob me of my 183mph but that assumes, of course, that all the other calculations were right.

When AC stopped making cars in 1939, they were using an engine already 20 years old. John Weller’s aluminium 1,991cc single overhead camshaft wet liner 6-cylinder was first shown at the London Motor Show in 1919. Production resumed in 1945 with the same engine in a saloon not long for the automotive mainstream. There was little to distinguish it from 1930s counterparts, except that the headlamps had sunk into the wings and the grille curled over. So long as cars remained in short supply it held its own. Traditionally a sports car manufacturer, AC wanted to make 2-seaters so engaged John Tojeiro whose sports cars were doing well in British racing. He had been hired by Charles and John Cooper to plan the front-engined Cooper-MG. Tojeiro’s formula was straightforward, his twin-tube frame accommodated the Weller engine much the same as it had obliged the 4-cylinder MG.

The shape of the AC Ace was cribbed, without much alteration and certainly no acknowledgement, from a contemporary Ferrari Barchetta. It used Weller’s now 34 year old engine and went on sale in 1953 at a premium price. The chassis was simple, a frame of two 3in diameter tubes and independent suspension both ends. The frame was stiff and the handling exemplary; still good in the 1960s after nearly 700 had been made. A coupe, the Aceca (320 made) became a collector’s piece and through steady evolution an excellent, intuitive design improved, although the power was insufficient to exploit the excellent road holding. In 1956 as an alternative to Weller’s 102 bhp, AC offered the Bristol (neé BMW) 2 litre with 125 bhp, providing over 115 mph.

The Ace was a classic, the Ace-Bristol spectacular but in 1961 Bristol stopped making the engine. A modified Ford Zephyr pushrod, of 170 bhp, scant refinement and great weight was unsatisfactory.

Above: AC Aceca In the nick of time the United States Cavalry arrived, led by colourful Texan Carroll Shelby. The first Cobra prototype of 1962 was basically an Ace chassis altered to take a Ford V-8, with wider tyres and body modifications to cope with more than twice the horse power of the Zephyr. For sheer bravura, nothing could match it. There were 4.2 or 4.7 litre V8s, then from 1965 a 7 litre giving up to 345bhp in road trim and a top speed around 145mph. The standing quarter-mile took under 13sec.

The V8 made immense demands on the chassis, and changes were wrought, starting with rack and pinion steering. Like many carry-over designs of the 1930s the Ace continued using drop-arms and drag links, until the tendency of rack and pinion to lock-up at inconvenient moments was curbed. The Cobra's suspension was changed, coil spring and damper layouts with wishbones replacing transverse leaf springs.

Cobras went under a lot of names. Sometimes AC was dropped altogether; it was known as a Shelby Cobra, A Shelby American, and sometimes a Ford Cobra. AC provided it with a Frua body and called it simply the 428, a stylish but unsuccessful model that formed the sole AC exhibit at the London Motor Show long after production effectively stopped. The Cobra was probably the most copied, most replica-ed sports car ever. And when I see 39PH I bask briefly, just a little, in some of its glory.

Driving in Europe

Pride of Dover a couple of weeks ago
I am careful of French police. I used the BMW Z8’s splendidly straightforward cruise control on the recent Le Mans Classic trip. Went Dover-Calais by P&O and although this time I never saw any, I’ve been caught too often, along with other British tourists, by Autoroute radar traps. They must make millions of Euros in tolls and fines. I wish somebody would do a survey of how much, like the one undertaken by the German online travel-agency ab-in-den-urlaub.de .

This showed that Germans drivers suffered 515 874 speeding tickets from Switzerland, Holland, Austria, Belgium and Italy alone, while Germany rarely fines foreign motorists. Around 5 million German cars are taken on European holidays each year. There are many reasons for the fines – sometimes tourists can't read the Italian-language sign for “Quiet Street”, hidden in the parking area next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This means €194.50 if you are not prepared to pay without appealing.

The agency ab-in-den-urlaub.de has calculated that 515,874 parking tickets with a value of €53.6 million were sent to German drivers during 2009 alone. That means in 10 years, European countries have cashed in €520 million from German drivers abroad.

Around half the total €25.5 million is collected in Switzerland. Swiss police accompany drivers to the next bank to demand money on the spot. Second highest earner is the Netherlands. In 2009 192,503 fines were sent to Germans with a total value of €19.2 million.

Transport lawyer Alexander Koden told the agency, “It is particularly difficult to prove whether a foreign traffic offence is really justified.” It can take over a year before a payment demand arrives. Not only that: The Italians accept only appeals which are written in Italian. English, German and French are accepted as official languages within the EU, however that still does not mean that one is allowed to write to an Italian police department in English or German.

Once more, says the agency, “The EU has shown its neither-here-nor-there mentality. Traffic signs in Sweden, Greece and Italy may only be produced in the local language. As unity of the signage is not provided, many tourists fall into the traffic fines trap simply as a result of misunderstandings.”
Joanna was driving the BMW at 115mph; OK in Germany, not elsewhere

Le Mans Classic 2010

Imposters every one. None had a proper ticket for the air-conditioned press tribuneLe Mans Classic. More like a motor racing Glastonbury than Garden Party Goodwood. The press service was well-meaning rather than effective. Took a long time to get accreditation because they wanted professional insurance of some sort and when we got to the Circuit de la Sarthe they had very nice well-mannered gels, very polite, very French, very pretty and totally unhelpful. It was very hot, 40 degrees, and it would have been nice if my number one daughter had been given some sort of paddock pass so she could carry my camera bag. At my age you need somebody to do that, but no it was impossible. What about a car pass to get us around on the infield? No that was impossible too.

In the event it scarcely mattered. Forty years of blagging into places where officials don’t want you to go, got us pretty well everywhere we wanted. It helped having BMW’s Z8, which meant we could park it at the BMW Classic exhibition tent. It also helped that number one daughter has big eyes, which distracted officials sufficiently when I mumbled (in Englishy French – it might as well have been Gaelic) that mamselle was with me and waved my enamel badge on a string.

Camped at Maison Blanche, well I say camped, number one son Craig had brought a camper van, which was a help although the queues at the shower block and half a dozen loos for a very large car park, mostly full of Brits, was more Pop Festival than Glorious Goodwood.

I always liked Le Mans. It was one place I thought I’d go back to as a spectator when I stopped covering Le Vingt Quatres Heures. I did this mostly between 1965 and 1985 and even went to the French Grand Prix (2 July 1967, Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans if you are interested) to see Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme win in Brabham Repcos from Jackie Stewart in a V8 BRM and Jo Siffert in a V12 Cooper Maserati. The caravan site looked like a loop of the Bugatti circuit, which was never used for a French Grand Prix again although Le Mans likes to think of itself as the birthplace of French motor racing. OK the first grand prix ever took place there in 1906 but it really is now a bit of a circus that takes itself much too seriously.

Ah well. The Le Mans Classic was fine really, with lots of swarthy rich people in Ferraris driving rather badly and masses of worthy clubs from the UK, Triumphs, MGs, Jaguars all having a wonderful time. The enthusiasm people show for classic cars is quite touching. They’ll chat uninhibitedly in the queue for the loo about how they fell in love with their first TR2 in 1955 and isn’t it nice the way you can drive along with your arm overhanging the door. Nostalgia is exactly how it used to be. Any TR2 driver will tell you to get the revs at two-five for the little crackle noise in the exhaust.