MOTO GUZZI: ULTIMATE CUSTOM PLATFORM?

September 14, 2014 0

D-TYPE: BENEATH THE SKIN

Source: Jaguar Sports Racers
Why is the D-Type such a beguiling beauty? Well, it remains as in all things aesthetic a matter of opinion, but in the case of the this particular machine there are some concrete factors that help explain its enduring charisma.

The D-Type looked, in 1954, unlike anything else out there on the race track, let alone the road. Its aerodynamic features were all about function, but this focus on winning unwittingly created something spectacularly pleasing to the eye.

The introduction of aviation technology that facilitated the speed and reliability of the cars was a slowly blossoming flower that came to represent a patiently awaited premium for Britain.

When they saw C and D-types swathed in green (and occasionally blue) so successful on the circuits of Europe, Brits started to realise that they really had something to be proud of – that the struggles of the previous decades just might have been worth it.

This was in the years immediately after the Festival of Britain, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth and the conquering of Everest by that colonial hero Hilary.

Rationing of basic foodstuffs might have remained a part of people’s every day lives, but the cutting edge of British engineering demonstrated that these strictures could be transcended.

As Norman Dewis told us a couple of years ago, when the Jaguar team set off from Browns Lane en route to Europe the streets would be lined with flag-waving patriots. It’s a far cry from the international corporatism of today’s motorsport.

Jaguar’s spectacularly named race manager Lofty England led the team that produced the Jaguar D-Type. The car was produced to extend and deepen the success of the C-Type – and it immediately performed well. In its first appearance at Le Mans in 1954, the Jaguar team’s cars suffered, apparently, from sand in their fuel. Once this problem had been rectified, however, this car (No 14, driven by Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt) immediately reestablished itself. Eventually it finished less than one lap down on the winning Ferrari.

This D Type was the first first works car to be completed, on the 4th of May 1954. As well as its debut second place at Le Mans, it came second also at the Reims 12 Hours and raced at various Grand Prix and Trophy events in the UK. Interestingly, in 1956 it was converted to a road going version of the car, a sort of almost-XKSS, with a screen frame created and the central member between cockpits removed.

It has been claimed that these innovations originally inspired the factory to go ahead and produce the limited run of the road-going XKSS, though this was denied by the crew at Browns Lane. Either way, the car was used on the road for many years and was sold to its current owner in 2000.

The Monocoque chassis of the D-Type was developed using battle-garnered aviation expertise. Sheets of aluminium alloy formed the central tub which carried the cockpit – and an aluminium subframe was attached to this that carried the engine in its compartment as well as the front running gear and the steering mechanicals. Drive train and rear suspension was attached directly to the tub – and fuel was carried inside ‘bags’ mounted in compartments in the monocoque itself.

Malcolm Sayer, who, along with development engineer Norman Dewis had worked in the aviation industry in the forties, designed the D-Type’s beautifully sculpted coachwork. With the removal of the traditional separate chassis that had featured in the C-Type, a greatly reduced frontal area was made possible. The engine was angled over slightly (notice the off-centre bonnet bulge) and engineers developed a dry-sump form of lubrication so that the whole issue could be lowered. A low-drag underbody combined with the stabilizing fin behind the driver made high speeds at Le Mans just about manageable. After 1955 a long-nose version of the body was introduced which resulted in even greater top-end velocity.

That the D-Type’s aerodynamic properties and road presence would go on to inform that of the E-Type, which in turn went on to define glamorous yet accessible motoring in the sixties is testament to the power of these cars.

September 14, 2014 0

DATSUN 240Z

We’ve had a thing about Datsun’s sporty Z cars since when they were the hottest, newest sporty Jap on the market. Call the designation the Fairlady if you like, but we’ll always think of the long nosed beauty as the Z-car. The popularity of the Z cars is perennial and understandable. I mean just look at the thing. It is automotive prettiness incarnate. We particularly dig the Datsun 240z: the earliest manifestation of the Z car that hit the market right at the start of the seventies.

Despite this appeal, these baby’s are surprisingly affordable. Just look at THIS ONE for sale at a reasonable price, tricked out and apparently clean as a whistle.

We think what’s at work here is simple, plain old fashioned brand snobbery. In this country, the Datsun moniker is, well, less than glamourous, and for some even the upgraded Nissan ident doesn’t do a lot to get the classicist juices flowing. But look: this is an extremely able, relatively rare GT with renowned reliability and the sort of panache that you only get from a Japanese GT of the seventies. We reckon this stock is bound to rise…

September 14, 2014 0

1976: HUNT VS LAUDA

The James Hunt versus Niki Lauda battle for the 1976 world championship elevated motor racing from the back pages to the front.

Hunt was the tall, blond, good-looking British public schoolboy, who liked a ciggy and a beer and wore ‘sex-the breakfast of champions’ badges on his overalls. He arrived in Formula 1 as the underdog — a talented, brave driver run by Lord Alexander Hesketh and his bunch of Hooray Henry Establishment friends.

Hunt was a good story, especially when he broke his duck and scored a fine win in the ’75 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, beating Lauda’s Ferrari into second place. When Emerson Fittipaldi unexpectedly left McLaren to start his own team, Hunt suddenly found himself with a top drive.

Lauda was the buck-toothed young Austrian chancer from wealthy stock opposed to his career choice! He borrowed to the hilt to get himself into the March and BRM teams, then along came Ferrari and Niki no longer needed to worry about cash. By the end of ’75 Lauda had arrived, winning five races en route to the championship – Ferrari’s first champion since John Surtees in 1964.

At the start of ’76 it was all Lauda. Hunt was quick but things didn’t go his way. But then Lauda tipped a tractor over while building himself a house and cracked a rib. In Spain he had to drive in a corset with pain-killing injections. James came down his inside, edged him over a kerb, knocked the wind out him and won the race. But then Hunt found himself disqualified, his McLaren marginally too wide.
It was typical of Hunt’s luck, it seemed. On a weekend trip on team mate Jochen Mass’s boat, Hunt had to knock girlfriend Hottie (Jane Birbeck) out of the way when she was almost collected by an errant sail arm.
“She nearly went for a burton and it would be careless of me to lose another one like that…” joked James, whose wife Suzy had run off with actor Richard Burton.

Going to the south of France for the French GP at Paul Ricard, Hunt’s situation looked hopeless: Lauda led the championship with 55 points and five wins, Hunt had no wins and eight points. But Niki’s Ferrari blew up while leading, James won and also heard he’d had his Spanish win reinstated. The score was now Lauda, 52; Hunt, 26.

The British GP at Brands Hatch was next and Hunt’s bad luck reverted to type. The Ferraris collided on the first lap and Hunt’s McLaren was damaged in the ensuing debacle. Hunt won the restarted race but was disqualified for failing to complete the first lap of the original race and therefore being ineligible for the restart. Niki scored another maximum.

But then it all changed. Lauda crashed at Nurburgring and the Ferrari burst into flames. Niki, badly burned, was pulled from the car by four fellow drivers but for days his life hung in the balance as the oxygen count in his blood fell below that generally necessary to sustain life.
A priest shocked Lauda into hanging on by administering the last rites and, amazingly, six weeks later, having missed just two races, a badly disfigured Lauda was back in the Ferrari cockpit at Monza. Well-known British sports broadcaster Harry Carpenter, whose main beat was boxing, called it the bravest sporting story he had ever reported.

Hunt, meanwhile, had won the restarted Nurburgring race in which Lauda had been injured and also the Dutch GP that Niki missed. Suddenly he was right back in the fight. The score was now Lauda, 61; Hunt, 47, with four races to go.

Monza of course, is Ferrari territory. Hunt found himself put to the back of the grid due to a fuel octane infringement and Lauda came home a fabulous fourth, the first of three Ferraris entered that day.
‘Hunt versus Lauda’ became great newspaper copy as the media lapped up the twists and turns. In Germany, meanwhile, Bild ran headlines such as “how can a man live without a face,” having snapped a bandaged Lauda lying defenceless in a Mannheim hospital bed. Niki had recently married Marlene Knaus, formerly the partner of actor Curt Jurgens.

Hunt won Canada as Lauda struggled home eighth in an ill-handling Ferrari. The Italians had signed a deal with Michelin for ’77 and the Goodyear tyre development was going in McLaren’s direction. At Watkins Glen in the USA, Lauda got up early on race morning, knocked on Hunt’s bedroom door and informed him, “today I win the world championship!” He didn’t. Niki came home third as James won again.
With the score Lauda, 68; Hunt, 65, it all came down to the season finale at a soaking Fuji in Japan. That was bad news for Niki. His eyelids and tear ducts had been burned in the accident and despite an operation he could no longer blink away tears properly. He was okay in the dry but, in the wet, Lauda freely admitted that he was struggling, and scared.

Emerson Fittipaldi was among those protesting that conditions were too bad, but the race went ahead as TV scheduling won the day. Lauda parked after the first two laps, along with Carlos Pace. Ferrari offered to say it was the engine but Niki declined. “Life,” he said, “is more important than the world championship.”
Hunt needed a third place to overhaul him. He led but then needed a tyre change and came back fifth. He passed Lauda’s Ferrari team mate Clay Regazzoni and then Alan Jones to do just enough to win the title. At first, amid the confusion, he didn’t realise he’d done it and berated McLaren team principal Teddy Mayer for not pitting him earlier. Then someone put a hand on his shoulder and told him he was world champion, 69 points to 68. Lauda was already on his way to the airport…

September 11, 2014 0

HONDA NSX: TAO OF TECH

HONDA NSX: THE TAO OF TECH
In a project as big and complex as the development of a new supercar it’s hard to isolate the influence of an individual. As time passes the Honda NSX seems to be seen more Ayrton Senna’s supercar than Honda’s.

In truth, the NSX didn’t occupy much of Ayrton’s time and it’s unlikely that its engineers made it fifty per cent stiffer purely on his say-so after his first drive in a prototype between F1 pre-season tests at Suzuka in February ’89.

But he did drive it, and gave his opinion, and drove it again to assess the all-aluminium double-wishbone suspension settings once the design had been frozen.

It was the only road car he had any input into, and he ‘owned’ at least two examples, of which one, with his personal plate, remains in family ownership in Brazil.

And for Honda and Senna fans, that’s enough: the car is the embodiment of the relationship between the utterly un-Japanese Brazilian, and the essentially Japanese corporation with whose engines he won world championships, and which loved him for it.

And Honda’s engineers didn’t really need the help anyway.

Their 3.0-litre, quad-cam transverse V6 with variable valve timing making 270bhp at 7100rpm was hailed, from launch, as ‘one of the world’s finest engines’.

The NSX benchmarked the Ferrari 348 – not a particularly tough target – and ended up the benchmark for the brilliant F355, so it plainly caused Maranello to raise its game.

Younger readers might not remember the years when a Honda regularly, naturally featured in car magazine group-tests alongside Ferraris and Porsches, and beat them. But in its day, the NSX wasn’t just the competition; in many respects, it was the standard.

September 10, 2014 0

Honda and F1

Honda’s F1 history dates back to the early sixties when the company looked to translate its motorcycling success onto four wheels.

Honda tried to strike a deal with Lotus and Colin Chapman, which had won the world championship with Jim Clark in 1963 but when Chapman decided against it, the Japanese pressed ahead with their own car and engine. The Honda RA271E, with a load-bearing transversely-mounted V12, made its debut at Nurburgring in 1964 with young American Ronnie Bucknum driving.

Starting a trend that would continue, F1 Hondas were prodigiously powerful if sometimes heavy. The RA272 gave around 230bhp, estimated to be 10% more than its rivals, and allowed ex-Ferrari driver Richie Ginther to win the company’s 11th race, the 1965 Mexican GP, the last race for the 1.5-litre F1 category.

The new 3-litre V12-engined car ran second on its debut in ’66 and the following year Honda elected to run a single car for John Surtees — the only man to win world championships on two wheels and four – who had fallen out with Ferrari. Lola’s Eric Broadley designed the RA301 chassis, dubbed the Hondola, which first raced in the ’67 Italian GP at Monza. Surtees battled with Jim Clark and Jack Brabham and when one ran out of fuel and the other ran wide, the car won its first GP having led the one and only lap it would ever lead!

In 1968 there was pressure to run an air-cooled V12 to promote air-cooled road cars and the RA302, using lightweight magnesium parts, was built. On testing it, Surtees declared it dangerous and refused to race it. Honda France brought in Jo Schlesser to drive it in the French GP after Johnny Servoz-Gavin turned it down. The unfortunate Schlesser died in a horrible fireball accident when he crashed on the second lap of the last F1 race to be run at Rouen. Surtees finished second in the RA301. Surtees again refused to race the 302 at Monza and shortly afterwards Honda announced a ‘temporary withdrawal’ from F1.

That lasted until 1983, when Honda returned as an engine supplier with the new Spirit team, which graduated from F2 amid F1’s turbo era. The RA163E engine showed enough promise for Williams to do a deal to run Hondas the following year. Keke Rosberg found on/off turbo power delivery and a flexing chassis a tricky combination, but took the Williams-Honda to victory in Dallas.

At the end of 1985, Rosberg and Nigel Mansell won the last three grands prix in Williams-Hondas. The team was dominant in ’86 as Mansell and Nelson Piquet won nine races and the constructors championship but lost out in the drivers championship to Alain Prost when Mansell suffered a spectacular tyre blow-out 18 laps from the end of the season finale in Adelaide.

The team won 11 of 16 races in ’87, with Piquet claiming his third drivers’ title. Honda, however, switched allegiance to McLaren in ’88 as the RA168 engine gave Ayrton Senna his first world title in a year that saw the Brazilian and team mate Prost win 15 of 16 races for McLaren-Honda.

It would have been a clean sweep had not Senna tripped over a backmarking Williams-Judd a handful if laps before the end of the Italian GP. In a great irony, the Williams was driven by Jo Schlesser’s nephew Jean Louis who, standing in for Mansell, who had chicken pox, was making his first F1 start on the eve of his 40th birthday…

In an era of continuing McLaren domination Prost (89) and Senna (90) took world titles with V10 Honda power, then Senna repeated the success and took his third and final crown in ’91 with the V12 Honda RA121E-engined McLaren MP4-6. At the end of ’92, however, with the active suspension Williams-Renault now dominant, Honda withdrew once again.

They were due to return with a chassis being tested by Jos Verstappen and developed by Harvey Postlethwaite in ’99 but the project was stillborn and Postlethwaite died shortly afterwards from a heart attack at a Barcelona test.

Again as engine suppliers only, Honda returned with British American Racing and Jordan, eventually buying out BAR in 04/5 and returning solely as the Honda Racing F1 Team in ’06. Jenson Button gave them a first win in nearly 40 years with the RA806 in a mixed-condition Hungarian GP, but the going was tough.

It got tougher still in 07-8 with no sign of a competitive car. Ross Brawn had been recruited, however, and early in a hopeless 08 season, the decision was taken to concentrate on next year’s car. During that time a Japanese aerodynamicist came up with the double diffuser that was key to the ’09 season. Suddenly though, in a shock announcement in December 08, with the worldwide recession taking hold, Honda pulled the plug. Button went on to win six of the first seven ‘09 races en route to the championship. Honda reputedly injected over £90m running budget to avoid having to close down the Brackley factory. The car though, ran as a Brawn and carried a Mercedes engine. If only they’d known…

September 10, 2014 0

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