More digitised photographs

Goodwood Easter Monday April 2 1956, and the Richmond Formula 1 race for the Glover Trophy was extended to 32 laps (76miles). BRM was getting over its dog days with two of the cars introduced the year before, driven by Tony Brooks and, looking a bit as though he had anticipated the starter’s flag’s first twitch in Bill Henderson’s photograph, Mike Hawthorn. The first lap was Hawthorn’s but on the second was overtaken by Archie Scott-Brown in number 6, the Syracuse Connaught. In October 1955 Brooks had covered Connaught in glory by beating nine Maseratis and two Ferraris to win the Syracuse Grand Prix. It was applauded as the first grand prix win by a British car since Segrave’s Sunbeam in 1924. Not quite a championship race but it was the best all-British win in a big race for a long time.

In the Glover Trophy Brooks was in a second BRM starting from the second row, but went out after 10 laps with low oil pressure. Hawthorn disputed the lead with Scott-Brown and Moss, whose Maserati No 1 was now fuel-injected. Les Leston and Bob Gerard (Connaughts) were in the running until by half distance Moss was in the lead and drew away by 2sec a lap. The Maserati gained on acceleration, the Connaughts drawing away on the straights. On lap 22, according to a contemporary account, “something went wrong with the BRM suspension and the car slid off the road upside down. Hawthorn escaped with a shaking. Moss was now without a rival, leading by half a lap, the steady Gerard third a lap behind Salvadori. Moss averaged 94.35mph, the fastest race yet seen at the circuit.”

Result: 1. Stirling Moss (Maserati) 48:50.4; 2 Roy Salvadori (Maserati) 49.53.6; Les Leston (Connaught) 50.25.8; FR Gerard (Connaught) 31 laps; Reg Parnell (Connaught) 31 laps; Robert Manzon (Gordini) 30 laps. Fastest lap Moss 1min30.2sec (new record).
The 8-cylinder Gordini No 2 is the pretty one with the cowled front on the left of the picture. Among the other starters were Le Mans winner Louis Rosier (Maserati) and Ken Wharton driving Rosier’s Ferrari. WK Henderson had an outstanding career as Scotland’s photographer for Autosport and his great archive is available on http://www.thebillhendersoncollection.co.uk.

Hawthorn “escaping with a shaking” was not the only mishap of the afternoon. Compare race reporting then with now. “Two fatal accidents marred the day. APO Rogers (Sun-pat Special) and AFF Dennis, driving Hamilton’s D-type Jaguar, both sustained fatal injuries.”

Dramatic V16 BRM

I have been digitising.

I have no pictures of the first time I saw it winning a race at Turnberry, Ayrshire. But I took some in 1967 at a Formula 2 race at Oulton Park when Jackie Stewart demonstrated it. What a sensational noise the supercharged V16 made. Stewart fairly lit up the back wheels on the Oulton Park start line

Up to the 1970s BRM competed in grands prix longer than anybody except Ferrari. They had watched the passing of Alfa Romeo, Alta, Gordini, Talbot, Cooper, Vanwall, Maserati, Connaught, Aston Martin, Porsche, Honda, Eagle and more. Yet it was a hangover from a bygone age. BRM arrived in racing about the same time as Fangio. Graham Hill had barely got behind a wheel; Jackie Stewart was ten. British Racing Motors was conceived by Raymond Mays out of the ashes of the pre-war English Racing Automobiles (ERA). The British motor industry, Mays reasoned, ought to be concerned with racing, if not individually then collectively. The old inspiration of racing for national prestige persisted.

If only it had been that simple. The resources of BRM would have been barely sufficient to run a team of ordinary cars, far less design, build and develop anything so monumentally complicated like the BRM V16, even if it was a copy of something Germany had been going to produce in the 1940s. The engine, a supercharged 1½ litre of astonishing complexity, would have been more than a new team could cope with.

Mays had miscalculated. He was out of tune with a new age and the entire British Motor Racing Research Trust that he had created eventually had to be sold. It was bought by industrialist Sir Alfred Owen, one of its earliest supporters. BRM was never forgiven its opening debacle at the Silverstone International Trophy race in 1951. Over-publicised and under-developed, the long-awaited V16 lurched forward a yard or two and stopped with a broken transmission.

It raced on after the formula for which it was built had been superseded, usually in British national races of little significance like the one I saw at Turnberry. In the first seasons of the 2½ litre formula BRM bought a Maserati to gain experience, then at the end of 1955 brought out its own car. Where the V16 had been complex and difficult to manage, the new car was simple, reliable and competitive. It failed to make the grade at first but by 1959 BRM had won a championship grand prix, although rival Vanwall had overtaken it and won the constructor's championship. It was only after Sir Alfred Owen had issued an ultimatum that unless it won races BRM would be shut down, that it gained the drivers' and constructors' world championships. In 1962 the 1½ litre V8 BRM gave the team, led by Graham Hill, its most successful season ever.

Bright Spark?

Some press releases are too good to ignore. Back in August the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) agreed to licence commercial rights of its Formula E Championship to, “a consortium of international investors, Formula E Holdings Ltd (FEH).” Formula E is for electric “Formula” cars, presumably open-wheelers. “It represents a vision for the future of the motor industry over the coming decades.”

Well, maybe. That's what Camille Jenatzy (right) thought in 1899.

Behind FEH is London-based entrepreneur Enrique Bañuelos, CEO and shareholder is former MEP and racing team owner Alejandro Agag. Also associated are Lord Drayson, Labour’s old Minister for Science, and Eric Barbaroux, Chairman of the French electric automotive company "Electric Formula". Demonstrations of Formula E cars start next year, followed by a championship in 2014 with an objective of 10 teams and 20 drivers. The races "will be ideally" staged in the heart of the world’s leading cities, around their main landmarks. Well, maybe.

With luminaries like Drayson and an ex MEP involved, they'll be looking for subsidies from greenies. Paying customers would never make an electric grand prix commercial, yet expect FEH to be awash with taxpayer cash. And expect more announcements like: FOUNDATION OF SPARK RACING TECHNOLOGY. OFFICIAL SUPPLIER OF THE FIA FORMULA E CHAMPONSHIP. PARIS, 12th November 2012: Frédéric Vasseur is pleased to announce the birth of Spark Racing Technology, a company dedicated to the creation and assembly of cars participating in the FIA World Championship Formula E. E for electric, exciting, efficiency, environment, and last but not least, a new era. Well, maybe.

Spark Racing Technology will be part of a newly founded consortium whose purpose is to design the most efficient electric cars possible, in regard to mechanical, electrical, electronics and engine. Frédéric Vasseur is proud to announce that McLaren is among the key players in the said consortium. The collaboration of Spark Racing Technology with a major car manufacturer whose reputation and success speak for themselves is a guarantee of success and innovation. McLaren will provide the engine, transmission and electronics for the cars being assembled by Spark Racing Technology.

The FIA Formula E Championship will be launched in 2014.

The press release waxes lyrical. It will run exclusively in major international cities and it has all the assets needed to reach a worldwide audience, becoming a bridge between the old and new era of industry and motorsport. Frédéric Vasseur (CEO, Spark Racing Technology): “I am proud and happy to give birth to this project that is innovative and extremely rewarding for a company both technically and philosophically. Personally, I can write a new chapter, regardless of my other ventures in motorsport. Confidence and commitment from our partner McLaren is a guarantee of quality and reliability without which this project would not have been possible. The association with a globally recognized car manufacturer is definitely the right way to go. Sport and society are evolving and Spark Racing Technology is proud to be the pioneer and leader in the new field of electric cars that will revolutionize the motor racing industry and attitude.”

You can only hope that Martin Whitmarsh (Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) had his tongue in his cheek: “I’m a passionate believer in the role that motorsport can play in showcasing and spearheading the development of future technologies, and regard the Formula E concept as an exciting innovation for global motorsport. McLaren has worked with Frédéric Vasseur for many years, and our association has been very successful. Working together in Formula E, McLaren’s world-class technology and Spark Racing Technology’s expert knowledge will combine to allow both companies to stay at the forefront of technical innovation and hopefully open up great opportunities for the racing cars of tomorrow.”

Or maybe not. Thought of a London Grand Prix in 1981 for Sunday Magazine

Four Wheel Drift

Pom liked analyses. This illustrated the forces working on a mid-engined Cooper-Climax

Road test cars in lurid skids are so 1950s. Only louts and motoring hacks drive cars sideways in clouds of smoke. Power slides, what Stirling Moss used to call four wheel drifts, went out with skinny tyres.  Jack Brabham was still “hanging the tail out” with the Cooper-Climax in 1960 but it now looks a quaint relic of a bygone age.

Up to about 1937 racing drivers tended to brake before a corner, go round on half throttle, and then accelerate. With more power they could spin the back wheels, skidding out the tail, keeping control by steering on opposite lock. When independent suspension came in wheels had more grip and for the first time understeered. In Design and Behaviour of the Racing Car (Kimber 1963) by Stirling Moss (left) and the late and much lamented Laurence Pomeroy, Moss says: “It was now possible to produce a halfway house between the trailing throttle and power slide techniques. At Rheims in 1938 spectators saw cars set up for right hand corners by turning the front wheels well to the right then feeding power into the rear wheels with such control that wheelspin, and a power slide, was avoided, but at the same time the cornering power of the tyres was so reduced that the tail came out without the wheels spinning. The car then went round, pointing well in-field, so that a photographer standing back might have it pointing straight at him. Thus was the four wheel drift initiated.”

Well, it’s different now. Any grand prix driver getting that far out of shape is either wasting time or having an accident. The fastest way through a corner is a precise line, yet surprisingly editors still like pictures of Ferraris, or any fast car it seems, in a tyre-screeching skid. It does not prove road testers are clever drivers. There’s no skill to it. But it makes me wary.  It looks as though motoring magazines are designed for juveniles and not for Ferrari-buying classes at all. Exemplary road test picture: Jaguar (right)

Nothing new about a London Grand Prix

There’s nothing new about a London Grand Prix. Sunday Magazine in 1981 wasn’t first to suggest it and now, apparently, Bernie is encouraging the idea of one round the Olympic Stadium. Thirty years ago I revived a 1930s proposal. Innes Ireland came to lunch and agreed a Hyde Park Grand Prix course with racing cars tearing down Park Lane at 180mph, braking hard for a sharp right hander at the Hilton, flat-out in fifth past the Serpentine.

Grand Prix cars only had five gears then and were racing round some unlikely places, like the Caesar’s Palace car park, Las Vegas, and street courses in Montreal, Long Beach and Detroit. Lunch with Innes was always entertaining.

Maybe Whitehall, Birdcage Walk and The Mall was a bit ambitious. Hyde Park was probably more practical; Grosvenor House and The Dorchester would have been good viewing points. Decent breakfast and all-day bar. Parliament Square was a product of artist Geoff Hunt’s imagination.

On Wednesday Telegraph Sport revealed that a bid, tabled by Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd, was among the shortlist of four accepted. According to the formal documentation, it was listed as being “on behalf of Formula One”, though Ecclestone said on Thursday he “had not put his name to it”.

The plan is thought to propose a track running into the stadium and then around the Olympic Park, which has considerable wide-open spaces, though designed for pedestrians rather than F1 cars. Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd was founded last year, with headquarters listed as Wanstead, east London.

Santander is sponsoring a competition to envisage a London grand prix circuit. Nothing’s new.

Ecurie Ecosse - World Cup

Describing Ecurie Ecosse as a, “two-time Le Mans 24 Hours-winning squad” is as disingenuous as calling England FIFA World Cup winners. Ecurie Ecosse won Le Mans in 1956 and 1957, England the World Cup in 1966. I suppose stretching credulity is what publicists do. It’s nice to see Ecurie Ecosse racing again and I’m delighted it managed a “… solid finish” in the “challenging Blancpain Endurance race at Silverstone.” It races Barwell BMW Z4 GT3s and while 34th overall can’t match two Le Mans wins on the trot, it was probably quite hard work, “after battling tricky weather conditions at the British Grand Prix venue.” Not quite the debut win by Alasdair McCaig and Roger Bryant at Oulton Park, but satisfactory.

This is not the Ecurie Ecosse BMW. This is another BMW winning the 2010 24 Hours race at the Nurburgring

I don’t much envy Andrew Smith, Ecurie Ecosse’s publicist. Roy Hodgson, England manager, had a similar problem at the Donbass Arena when a French journalist quipped that England was no longer a major football power. “Of course we feel the weight of history," Hodgson said. "It was a facetious question but there was an element of truth in what he was saying. As a top nation we haven't won as many tournaments as we should or done as well as we should."

It was the same with Ecurie Ecosse. Founded in 1952 it was well presented, highly competitive and successful. Winning Le Mans barely four years later, almost the only private team that ever managed it, was astonishing even with covert support from Jaguar. It was, alas, downhill from then, except for a few minor triumphs such as almost inventing (with John Tojeiro) the mid-engined coupe and spotting the potential of both the Buick V8 and Jackie Stewart.

Nearly all that 1950s “squad” are gone; David Murray the team patron, Wilkie Wilkinson, all the drivers Ron Flockhart, Ninian Sanderson and Ivor Bueb, although happily mechanics survive, Stan Sproat and Ron Gaudion, from whom I heard only the other week. He lives in Australia and endorsed some of the views I took in Ecurie Ecosse, David Murray and the Legendary Scottish Motor Racing Team (PJ Publishing 2007), about Wilkie, whose role as an engineering expert I thought much exaggerated.

Ron confirmed that Wilkie’s Snetterton crash in XKD 501 (MWS 301)was entirely his own fault and XKD 603 (RSF 303 second Le Mans 1957 was prepared by Ron and Stan Sproat, while 606 (RSF 301) the fuel injected 1957 winner, was rebuilt at the works. Lofty England would not countenance it returning to Edinburgh because he had no confidence in Wilkie. Likeable enough but self-serving, it was all very well Wilkie tuning MG carburettors with a stethoscope at the Evans’s Bellevue Garage in the 1930s. Twenty years later he was well out of his depth.

What a tangled web they wove.

Flockhart-Bueb winning Le Mans, 1957