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Post by Carl on Mar 19, 2018 4:23:44 GMT
A picture is worth a thousand words for those who understand the beauty portrayed.
Thank you for these fantastic photographs, Mikael!
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Post by chrisb on Mar 19, 2018 5:29:40 GMT
I wholeheartedly agree with Carl - these are wonderful photographs Mikael, thank you - mind you I didn't know that Jim drove the red and gold car at South Africa i always though that was in Australia
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Post by mikael on Mar 19, 2018 5:41:25 GMT
I wholeheartedly agree with Carl - these are wonderful photographs Mikael, thank you - mind you I didn't know that Jim drove the red and gold car at South Africa i always though that was in Australia Thank you Chris - it was my mistake. I have now corrected the caption. Best wishes Mikael |
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Post by chrisb on Mar 19, 2018 5:46:39 GMT
all the best Mikael, thought i'd missed something - thank you - cheers Chris
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Post by charleselan on Mar 19, 2018 9:30:40 GMT
another thing Jim used to say was - that it wasn't about when or how late you braked it was more about for him when you came off the brakes This was one of the main principles of driving that Jackie Stewart used to reinforce Chris. He said it wasn't how you braked that mattered but how you came off the brake application. Coming off abruptly would unsettle the car and lift the front taking weight from the front wheels; Jackie always stated that by coming off the brake pedal gently kept the car at an even level and more balanced. I have a great book by JYS "The Principles of Driving" in which he talks about this at quite some length. |
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Post by René on Mar 19, 2018 14:35:27 GMT
Some amazing and beautiful pictures, Mikael!
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Post by charleselan on Mar 19, 2018 15:38:39 GMT
Wonderful! Pure joy! Thank you! Clark is indeed much more aggressive on the throttle than the others. This "bpp bpp bpp" through the corners is similar to the style that Senna adopted some twenty years later. Mikael, A very notable observation that had not passed me by also. The comparison is interesting in that both Ayrton and Jim employed similar throttle techniques. I do know that Ayrton applied this method in the "turbo" era, particularly in his days at Lotus with the Renault motor. At that time the Turbo had quite pronounced lag and Ayrton developed the throttle blipping technique to keep the turbo spinning, or as they say these days "spooled up". With regard to Jim it obviously wasn't due to him having a turbo as the little 1.5 litre Coventry Climax V8 was naturally aspirated. I have seen nothing in print as to the reason why Jim drove with this technique, however I am left to wonder if it may have been due to certain power characteristics of the 32 valve Climax engine that he was using at the Nurburgring. The engine was not only very troublesome throughout 1965, and I believe no other Climax powered team actually used one in a race that season. Could it be that it had a peaky power delivery and Jim was keeping the revs up by blipping the throttle? The BRM engines in Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart's were known to be probably the best engine by then, especially in what was called the "central exhaust" configuration ( BRM being the pioneers of having the exhaust exiting between the "V" of the 8 cylinder engine). These BRM engines definitely had a smoother power band. Interestingly I have been watching again the 1967 German GP film that is YouTube, and not the one featured in "9 Days in Summer" and Jim does not appear to be blipping the throttle in the DFV powered Lotus 49. |
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Post by charleselan on Mar 19, 2018 17:34:38 GMT
This is the magical Castrol film of the 1967 German GP that Chris mentioned earlier, not the same footage as "9 Days In Summer" which also has some wonderful footage of this very race.
Once Jim had encountered troubles which I don't think were a surprise to him, Dan and Denny were way ahead with Mr Gurney in absolute peerless form until that blasted drive shaft broke. Denny ended up 45 seconds ahead of Jack who held back the advances of the under powered Ferrari of Chris Amon. Also what about the incredible "Enfant terrible" in the little F2 Matra, simply stunning.
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Post by chrisb on Mar 19, 2018 21:24:56 GMT
There is also some excellent tapes of the 1965 Dutch GP, but I don't remember Jimmy blipping the throttle, but I will double check,
the one GP of that year I really would love to see an extended version of was the Belgium GP - when you see the stills of he race he is singing to himself - honestly, 160mph on skinny tyres on the most daunting circuit of its day, driving mainly one handed and singing to yourself, can't imagine why he is so revered
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Post by Carl on Mar 21, 2018 3:22:42 GMT
I believe this is the film of the 1965 German GP that Chris has referred to in his recent post. An incredible bit of film (30 odd minutes of highlights) that has no annoying commentary but the live sound track which is just pure joy. A while ago the full race was available on YT but has been removed, I have it in my archive however. The film shows what an amazing place the Nurburgring was. In this film it is fascinating to see the technique of Jim and the other drivers, Jim having a distinctive throttle application that differed from the likes of Graham; Dan and Jackie. These four were already miles in front of the rest of he field even on lap one. John Charles, Absolutely stunning film! Great camera work, especially the tracking shots of Clark and the briefly quiet moments as the camera anticipated his appearance. At the 14:27 point, a whitewall has appeared on his right front tyre, possibly from lightly brushing a dirt verge or barrier. At top speed over one of the tallest crests, at 15:42 and several other times, Clark clearly rises a bit and falls back gently within the cockpit. I kept wishing I had been there. What a fantastic race! There was such class then. As Clark came to a halt there were no clouds of toxic tyre smoke, on the podium no idiot conducted interviews and champagne, instead of being sprayed or gulped from an overripe driving shoe, was drank from a silver cup. Cheers, Carl |
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Post by mikael on Mar 21, 2018 6:52:48 GMT
...Could it be that it had a peaky power delivery and Jim was keeping the revs up by blipping the throttle? ... Interestingly I have been watching agan the 1967 German GP film that is YouTube, and not the one featured in "9 Days in Summer" and Jim does not appear to be blipping the throttle in the DFV powered Lotus 49. John Charles, the driving styles of the great drivers is a most interesting subject. Perhaps Clark actually changed his style a bit for the DFV powered Lotus 49? Certainly it was quite a step-up in power. As to Senna, it seems that the throttle-blipping became a habit for him. There's a movie at Youtube of Senna driving the Honda NSX-R at Suzuka in '92. Here he's blipping the throttle too, although the engine has less than 300HP. (At that time there was a kind of Gentleman's Agreement among the Japanese automobile makers that no domestically produced car should have more than 280HP. Actually some had a bit more, but not that much more.) Somehow I feel that it wouldn't really be necessary to blip the throttle with such a relatively "tame" standard engine in a relatively heavy car (approx. 1400 kg even though it's with an aluminium body) ... Here's a link to a good version of the movie: Returning to the 1965 movie, how great a sound those small V8 engines made! Real high-strung racing engines! Another interesting point is the gentle gearshifts of Clark. Watching Formula Ford races in Denmark as a child/young man, I recall that eager drivers often shifted without lifting the accelerator (just a blip on the clutch). With Clark there's nothing like that - it's very neat and gentle gearshifts, all the time. (Probably it doesn't give anything in lap time either, to shift so aggressively - but it sounds good!) Thank you also for posting the 1967 Castrol movie, it's a real pleasure to watch. For me, the cars of 1967, with the 3 litre engines finally in place yet still wingless, are the most iconic and beautiful F1 cars ever. Mikael |
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Post by charleselan on Mar 21, 2018 14:13:44 GMT
John Charles, Absolutely stunning film! Great camera work, especially the tracking shots of Clark and the briefly quiet moments as the camera anticipated his appearance. At the 14:27 point, a whitewall has appeared on his right front tyre, possibly from lightly brushing a dirt verge or barrier. At top speed over one of the tallest crests, at 15:42 and several other times, Clark clearly rises a bit and falls back gently within the cockpit. I kept wishing I had been there. What a fantastic race! There was such class then. As Clark came to a halt there were no clouds of toxic tyre smoke, on the podium no idiot conducted interviews and champagne, instead of being sprayed or gulped from an overripe driving shoe, was drank from a silver cup. Cheers, Carl Carl, I share your wish about attending that race meeting at the Nurburgring in 1965. For me it has everything that motor racing should have. Some time back I had a discussion with R in T on MS about this very thing, following his assertion that no fans today would put up with waiting 8 minutes for the cars to appear on each lap. It isn't about seeing them flash by every 90 odd seconds on an anodyne venue is it? For me being out in the countryside seeing the track winding its way towards you and then disappearing away through trees and undulating terrain is the essence of motor sport. Then one can hear the cars in the distance engine revs rising and falling along with distinct gear changes; then they burst into view and we are made aware of who is in front etc. Can you imagine being high up on a grass bank looking down on the cars seeing Jim et al working away in the cockpit as they pass beneath, those are memories to cherish for those most fortunate enough to have witnessed it at first hand. I was fortunate enough to see something similar back in the 1970/80's when watching rallies, which offered a similar sensation, made even more exciting when they had night time stages. Although I have yet to attend the IOM TT motorcycle races I can well imagine that a similar feeling can be experienced. John Charles |
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Post by chrisb on Mar 21, 2018 14:57:49 GMT
JC, i would totally agree - to me a Grand Prix in that era was an 'event' something that you almost felt you were invited to, something that you socialised to and enjoyed in awe as to how someone could drive that quickly, which is interesting because you are also correct in saying that about the TT,which is also an event, not 'just' a race, where one just turns up - watches and go home, but the TT - apart from the fact watching these incredible machines at such speeds on common roads - is a package of enjoyment and fear but mighty
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Post by chrisb on Mar 21, 2018 15:04:07 GMT
Mikael, Jimmy was the smoothest driver i have ever seen and what always took him above all others was, not only his sheer intelligence but his ability to drive around problems, especially the ZF gearboxes, but he found out that the hard way in i think 1963 when he tried to be sensitive to the gearbox when out on the lead and got two gears at once and retired,
I always got the opinion that Jimmy could adapt to what he drove - i guess we all can to a certain degree but he kinda took it far in excess of anyone else
so agree with you Mikael 1967 GP cars were beauties, and probably my favourite
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Post by charleselan on Mar 21, 2018 16:58:20 GMT
JC, i would totally agree - to me a Grand Prix in that era was an 'event' something that you almost felt you were invited to, something that you socialised to and enjoyed in awe as to how someone could drive that quickly, which is interesting because you are also correct in saying that about the TT,which is also an event, not 'just' a race, where one just turns up - watches and go home, but the TT - apart from the fact watching these incredible machines at such speeds on common roads - is a package of enjoyment and fear but mighty What a great term to use for real racing Chris; "event" that fits perfectly as that is what these were/are. I always think of how I felt in the build up to the British F1 Grand Prix, the excitement grew as the week progressed, and then being there, be it Brands or Silverstone. It was just something special. I had the same feeling as a child and teenager in the build up to attending a big motocross meeting, particularly the British 250 or 500 GP's. Goodness me I would give anything to feel like that now; I have little desire to attend any sort of race meeting these days, although I keep saying to myself that I should pop down the road to Le Mans but then see the ticket prices and think the money would be better spent elsewhere  . The IOM TT is something I have to do one day as I cannot meet my maker without seeing those guys and machines in the flesh. |
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