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Post by Carl on Jun 6, 2019 3:59:48 GMT
I'll never forget practice/qualifying at Long Beach when McLaren had a 6-speed gearbox. In the 70s drivers were still synchronizing gearbox and engine themselves by blipping the throttle while braking. James Hunt was brilliant with downshifts and did so at lightning speed as he approached the Queen's hairpin at 195 mph. Standing nearby, I was mesmerized.
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Post by René on Jun 6, 2019 20:07:03 GMT
Here's some good old fashioned Grand Prix racing for you guys; the last laps of the 1990 Mexican Grand Prix. The battle for second is fantastic, Mansell at his best! And no DRS, only real passing! Put the volume on 10 and enjoy the screaming sound of the V12 Ferrari and V10 Honda engines! Commentary by Murray Walker and James Hunt. In addition to the glorious sound of V12 / V10 / V8 engines, an additional sound that one can miss from those years is the "bang!" emitted at any gearshift. This was, apparently, because the ignition was short-cut momentaneously, in order to avoid using the clutch (by gearshifts). It was not represented well on the television, but live, it sounded just fabulous! (I heard it first time at Suzuka in '96; my first live GP since Anderstorp '78. I was completely in awe!) At that time there also was a lot of blipping on the throttle by downshifts, in order to coax the gears into contact. (I imagine (believe) that those downshift throttle-blips were done electronically; any time the driver pulled the gear lever - towards a lower gear - the throttle was also activated - but I'm not sure of this. It would seem the natural way to do it, though.) (Nowadays much more delicate approaches are used, apparently, and both the "bangs" and the "blips" have disappeared. Now gearshifts sound just like by normal automatic transmission ...) Apparently the same thing was done in CART in the mid-90's; and one can actually hear it in the Youtube clip posted recently on the Motor Sport Magazine website (in the time frame 1:00 - 1:05). The clip is re-posted below.
The 1996 CART season was monumental, one of the best racing seasons ever (including F1) with fantastic drivers and beautiful cars. I can remember it as if it was yesterday. I didn't miss a race. |
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Post by René on Jun 6, 2019 20:22:17 GMT
I'll never forget practice/qualifying at Long Beach when McLaren had a 6-speed gearbox. In the 70s drivers were still synchronizing gearbox and engine themselves by blipping the throttle while braking. James Hunt was brilliant with downshifts and did so at lightning speed as he approached the Queen's hairpin at 195 mph. Standing nearby, I was mesmerized. Great memory Carl. You never forget things like that. James Hunt was much better than he often is creditet for. I have a similar memory of the 1980 Belgian Grand Prix. I had a weekend/paddock ticket for the first time and on the saturday it was raining cats and dogs. During morning practice I found myself a good spot near the Jacky Ickx chicane and watched the cars in the pooring rain trying to negotiate the chicane. I can still hear and see it in my mind and like you I was mesmerized. |
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Post by Carl on Jun 6, 2019 21:24:19 GMT
The driver who'd been in the lead at Laguna Seca in 1996 (in the video Rene posted) lost the lead and substantial pride to Alex Zanardi's incredible pass across the apex at the steep Corkscrew turn. That was, of course, Brian Herta, father of current rookie sensation Colton Herta.
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Post by René on Jun 7, 2019 14:18:14 GMT
I'll never forget practice/qualifying at Long Beach when McLaren had a 6-speed gearbox. In the 70s drivers were still synchronizing gearbox and engine themselves by blipping the throttle while braking. James Hunt was brilliant with downshifts and did so at lightning speed as he approached the Queen's hairpin at 195 mph. Standing nearby, I was mesmerized. Great memory Carl. You never forget things like that. James Hunt was much better than he often is creditet for. I have a similar memory of the 1980 Belgian Grand Prix. I had a weekend/paddock ticket for the first time and on the saturday it was raining cats and dogs. During morning practice I found myself a good spot near the Jacky Ickx chicane and watched the cars in the pooring rain trying to negotiate the chicane. I can still hear and see it in my mind and like you I was mesmerized. Here's a picture I made on that very rainy saturday in 1980. Derek Daly in the Tyrrell on the pit straight while one of the Lotus cars can be seen on the left bottom.
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Post by René on Feb 2, 2020 12:47:52 GMT
I came across this really good short movie (by British Leyland) on the 1977 F1 season. Three races are highlighted, namely Long Beach, Silverstone and Watkins Glen. Fantastic racing footage mixed with drivers and team managers talking about set up and how to approach a race. A lap with Niki at Silverstone and with Gunnar Nilsson in a road car on Watkins Glen. Absolutely great stuff!   |
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Post by Carl on Feb 3, 2020 1:01:46 GMT
I came across this really good short movie (by British Leyland) on the 1977 F1 season. Three races are highlighted, namely Long Beach, Silverstone and Watkins Glen. Fantastic racing footage mixed with drivers and team managers talking about set up and how to approach a race. A lap with Niki at Silverstone and with Gunnar Nilsson in a road car on Watkins Glen. Absolutely great stuff! Rene, Thanks for the great film! Were there really 30 different entries that year? That's awesome and speaks of the overall health of motorsport in the 70s. The scenes with Gunnar Nilsson were very moving on several levels. As he spoke, his intelligence and reasoning seemed on a higher plane, and so did his great courage the following year as death neared, declining strong pain medication so he could better communicate with researchers seeking a cure. A great man and great loss to the sport. The narration was very good, the voice familiar, but a New York accent was toned down enough to confound. Despite the comment at Watkins Glen that only Hans Stuck liked the rain being typical Brock Yates bombast, it was another missed clue. My friend and I were sitting at the second hairpin in Long Beach and witnessed Andretti's pass of Scheckter. No-one in the grandstand knew about Jody's deflating tyre and so we all thought it was brilliant overtaking. From the first lap until almost the end, #20 Wolf, #5 Lotus and #11 Ferrari were nose to tail in an epic race! |
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Post by charleselan on Feb 3, 2020 15:05:42 GMT
Many thanks for posting this brilliant film of what was an extremely good season in Grand Prix, unfortunately for you guys it is going to allow me to inflict upon you one of my rambles.
Firstly I remember listening live to the Long Beach race on American Forces Network Radio which gave a very good commentary of proceedings. Listening to how the first three ran away together with Jody leading for lap after lap in the neat little Wolf WR1, by then Mr Scheckter was at the top of his game. Mario was fortunate to win due to Jody's punctured front tyre but a Lotus win was not to be sniffed at.
I had a great weekend at the British GP held at Silverstone, the weather was Ok but not hot on race day as the voice over in the film mentions. This race marked the first use of my then brand new 35mm camera which I had been encouraged to buy by an elderly co-worker who was also a life long motor sport enthusiast and photographer. On his advice and encouragement I had decided to purchase a Olympus OM1 body with a 300mm Tamron telephoto lens. It was night and day from the heavy and somewhat clunky Zenit E and cheap lens' that I had worked with for the past 6 years.
Managing to take some decent photos from a limited amount of film available (those using digital cameras today have no idea of the restrictions imposed by having to use film) my favourite shot of the weekend being of Little Art Merzario in his new bright red March 761B.
Wattie was in superb form that weekend and the Brabham BT45 Alfa Romeo looked and sound sublime. He was robbed of a definite victory by fuel issues (some say the over thirsty motor ran dry) allowing a typically nationalist display of exuberance following James Hunts victory. Followed home by a steady and measured Niki Lauda and the rising star Gunnar Nilsson in the fabulous Lotus 78.
I do believe that in this film it was my first encounter with Gunnar's spoken word, and what an articulate and reasoned speaker he was. A truly tragic case in that the terrible illness that took this brilliant young driver from us when at the beginning of what would have been an illustrious career. Gunnar was a charger but also intelligent and I am certain that he and the Arrows FA1 would have been a brilliant combination in 1978. As Carl points out above, a very brave lad in the face of that terrible illness.
Of course one other thing that we should not forget was that it was in this race that Gilles made his GP debut in the third works McLaren. He was outstanding driving the older M23 and we all knew that here we had a shining star of the not too distant future.
The final part featuring the US GP at Watkins Glen had everything we recall about this legendary event, from the mud in the infield and the high jinks of the crowd in that area to the great and challenging circuit. The comment about Hans Stuck being the only one who liked the rain was not entirely true, but allowed this driver who in F1 was a complete enigma, to shine until a
car issue forced him to crash. Hanschen was an amazingly gifted race driver who achieved huge success in sports cars and touring cars as well as Formula Two, but he never gelled in F1.
It is a fact that the Porsche team judged him to be the quickest driver ever to pilot the 956/062 factory cars, and that included Stefan Bellof, but little has ever been published about that in the English speaking media. I also remember reading a wonderful piece in the weekly Motoring News paper during Hans' Formula Two days in the factory March where he was observed one morning probably at an Austrian meeting stood stark naked on the balcony of his hotel yodelling across the town square.
One other thing that showed up in the Watkins Glen wet race was the performance of Ronnie in the unloved Tyrrell P34 six wheeler, as ever when it was raining Super Swede would shine, a crap car being no draw back to such a huge natural talent, running fifth in a car that couldn't break the top ten in the dry was ample illustration of his ability. To think that it was felt he was on the decline by the idiots in the F1 paddock at that time, to the extent that to get a reasonable drive he had to accept number two status to Mario at Lotus the following year along with a bung to the team from his supporter Count Zanon.
The narration by Brock Yates was a surprise to me in the credits afterwards as I remember him from his magazine articles etc in the USA and was it his who partnered the great Daniel Sexton Gurney in the amazing "race" across America in the Ferrari Daytone that inspired the "Smokey and the Bandit" film franchise, following his excellent book that described the event. I recommend anyone to get a copy of that book it is a great read.
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Post by René on Feb 3, 2020 16:47:22 GMT
I came across this really good short movie (by British Leyland) on the 1977 F1 season. Three races are highlighted, namely Long Beach, Silverstone and Watkins Glen. Fantastic racing footage mixed with drivers and team managers talking about set up and how to approach a race. A lap with Niki at Silverstone and with Gunnar Nilsson in a road car on Watkins Glen. Absolutely great stuff! Rene, Thanks for the great film! Were there really 30 different entries that year? That's awesome and speaks of the overall health of motorsport in the 70s. The scenes with Gunnar Nilsson were very moving on several levels. As he spoke, his intelligence and reasoning seemed on a higher plane, and so did his great courage the following year as death neared, declining strong pain medication so he could better communicate with researchers seeking a cure. A great man and great loss to the sport. The narration was very good, the voice familiar, but a New York accent was toned down enough to confound. Despite the comment at Watkins Glen that only Hans Stuck liked the rain being typical Brock Yates bombast, it was another missed clue to my undiscerning ears.  My friend and I were sitting at the second hairpin in Long Beach and witnessed Andretti's pass of Scheckter. No-one in the grandstand knew about Jody's deflating tyre and so we all thought it was brilliant overtaking. From the first lap until almost the end, #20 Wolf, #5 Lotus and #11 Ferrari were nose to tail in an epic race!
Yes, that was a full starting grid although not all 30 at once!
Several teams intoduced a new car or B spec later in the season. It's interesting to compare the Tyrrell P34 from Long Beach with the Watkins Glen version. You can see they moved the small front wheels outside the bodywork later in the season, I believe for better cooling. But of course that undermined the initial idea of low air resistance. The end of an experiment.
I think Mario was a deserving winner, even if it was bad luck for Jody. There was nothing between Jody, Mario and Niki that day. What an amazing season that was for Jody come to think of it. He could have won a few more races with better reliability and a bit more luck. It was a great season and for me really the time when it all begun, the passion for racing and F1 in particular. Great memories.
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Post by René on Feb 3, 2020 16:49:29 GMT
Many thanks for posting this brilliant film of what was an extremely good season in Grand Prix, unfortunately for you guys it is going to allow me to inflict upon you one of my rambles. We don't expect anything else!  |
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Post by René on Feb 3, 2020 16:52:36 GMT
Of course one other thing that we should not forget was that it was in this race that Gilles made his GP debut in the third works McLaren. He was outstanding driving the older M23 and we all knew that here we had a shining star of the not too distant future.
And what a sublime debut it was. It didn't go completely unnoticed in northern Italy either...
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Post by Carl on Feb 4, 2020 1:44:09 GMT
John Charles,
Great rambles are contagious and a basis for good conversation, so ramble on!
I saw Hans Stuck Jr. one time, fully clothed and in his element at Laguna Seca, dominating the IMSA race in a factory BMW 3.0 CSL. It was amazing how fast and smooth he was exiting the fast left hand sweeper after the corkscrew turn, inch perfect every time! Had he won as he deserved at Watkins Glen, he may have gone on to better rides.
I always wanted the Tyrrell six-wheel concept to succeed, as it might have with more assistance from Goodyear. Also memorable about the 1977 Long Beach Grand Prix is that the top three were so busy racing, they all forgot to pit!! Wonderfully innovative designs and the avoidance of pit lane define racing as it should be.
-Carl
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Post by charleselan on Feb 4, 2020 13:18:05 GMT
To Kind René & Carl, but good to keep the fires lit. Ramble on reminds me of two things; firstly the track from Led Zeppelin 2 entitled "Ramble On", thanks for that Carl; and then the great Kenny Everett with one of his TV characters Rambling Syd Rumpo  . Originally I did not get the inference in your last comment Carl, but it became clear on second reading. Pit stops were unnecessary back in the 1970's unless otherwise avoidable and the racing was much the better for being without it. I am sure there are some who populate the MS Forum that would say the Long Beach event of 1977 was a bore as there was no overtaking between the first three running line astern. However unless;ike the boring processions of the current era we had all three drivers on the very limit in three very different cars in design concept, no comparison. With regard to the Tyrrell P34 it was indeed Goodyear that sold the six wheel concept short by refusing to develop the small front tyres, no doubt due to lobbying from certain other major players who used their rubber. I don't think we will ever see such diversity in motor sport again, let alone in F1. It is my understanding that the widening of the front track was not only to do with cooling issues it was also done to try and get rid of the horrendous understeer the car had. The team also moved some of the radiators into the nose cone as well in an attempt to gain more front end bite. The whole concept of an understeering car was a complete anathema to Ronnie, plus the fact that it makes for an inherently slow race car. Ronnie's response was to pitch the car hard into the bends to promote oversteer and also hammer the brakes in doing so (no doubt left foot braking). Apparently some years later Derek Gardiner the cars designer stated that Ronnie was the hardest driver on brakes he had ever worked with; unfortunately he seems to have failed to understand the reason why that was the case. |
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Post by chrisb on Feb 4, 2020 20:43:08 GMT
Ramble on, one of my favourite tracks, and one of my favourite pastimes, so will always enjoy fellow ramblers,
1977 was a fascinating year, tragic because of that dreadful accident at Kyalami which marred the year, my abiding memories were the French GP with Wattie and that wonderful Alfa engine and how Mario really raced hard to stay with him and of course reaping the rewards, also Silverstone, how frustrated I had become with Mario, patently holding up Gunnar, and then when released he went like a rocket, the clever drive at Belgium and the 'rabbit and the rat' having a difference of opinion, who remembers the rabbit? I saw Gunnar at Brands in 1978, really tragic, I will always remember his laugh and cheerful demeanour, his memorial day at Donnington was so sad, although I got to see real F1 cars race there I would have preferred to have seen Gunnar recover
I liked the 1976 Tyrell P34 - it was a good looking car and Ken kindly put some windows in the side of the car at Brands so we could see the drivers at work, but the 77 version looked big and cumbersome, so it was with relief it went away
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Post by René on Feb 5, 2020 16:46:06 GMT
I liked the 1976 Tyrell P34 - it was a good looking car and Ken kindly put some windows in the side of the car at Brands so we could see the drivers at work, but the 77 version looked big and cumbersome, so it was with relief it went away It's strange how perception differs. I agree the 1976 Tyrrell was and is the ultimate six wheeler but I found the (original) 1977 version actually a bit more elegant.
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