Formula 5000

[Carl]

Here's a cool 22 minutes of some wonderful F5000 cars, most formerly driven by the great drivers, at the 2018 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca

[Deleted]

I had good intentions of posting some pictures from this years Skope Classic event here in New Zealand.
As ever a highlight was the F5000 races, with the ever young (77 year old) Kenny Smith still leading the way. The field is getting smaller, but the variety of cars keeps it interesting.
It looks like the Aussie Formula Thunder attempt to create a modern F5000 series has stumbled, as its launch has been put off for another year, though I believe that the cars are being manufactured. But I don't know if hey are being sold.

Anyway, I'll dig those F5000 photos out and see if there are any ones worth posting.  

[René]

Wonderful video Carl! Thanks for sharing, enjoyed that one.

@ Jim: would be great to see some photos of the Skope Classic!

[charleselan]

Great video Carl.

I seem to recall that F5000 was pretty strong in the Antipodes with Aussies like Max Walker and John Walker being very successful along with a young Warwick Brown who came to Europe and America but suffered serious injuries which not surprisingly took the edge of his undoubted ability. So, yes Jim, let us see some of those photos. What a guy Kenny Smith is; age has not dimmed his speed.

[charleselan]

Further to the items on this F5000 thread I searched out some information on the Surtees TS5 which was in my opinion one of the best looking cars of that category in its early years. Interesting to read that the car which I knew was designed by Len Terry (very prolific in those days) for Roger Nathan who intended to run the cars himself. However they were bought out by James Garner for his AIR team and John Surtees was used as a sort of intermediary.

Unfortunately during winter testing in America the car suffered rear suspension failures and James Garner's partner Jon Crean (that name seems familiar from the MS Forum and somewhat argumentative comments , a link maybe) decided to get Dan Gurney to produce some Eagle cars instead. Surtees then took complete control of the project and thus the Surtees TS5 became a works team in F5000 with two cars in the UK series, and two in the States.

Excellent detail can be found on this site linked below :-

www.oldracingcars.com/surtees/ts5/

Here are some superb monochrome shots of David Hobbs works Team Surtees TS5 at Oulton Park which illustrate what a lovely looking car it was and the outrageous five litre Chevrolet motor with its huge exhausts and inlet pipes.

[René]

Great post and fantastic looking car!

Hmm yes, a very interesting subject to convert to 1/32 scale...

[Carl]

John Charles,
                      Wonderful photos of a very young David Hobbs in his beautiful TS5 Surtees, complete with front arrow! That looks like Peter Gethin in a McLaren next to Hobbs on the grid at Oulton Park.

                      Interesting and risky that the high wing on the TS5 had no supplemental supports, as many did. I wonder if those Chevrolet V-8s were already so well developed in American Trans-Am that the proven (and massive) exhaust headers were just carried over into the F5000 cars.

                     As you stated in an earlier post, those were wonderful days now sorely missed...
Cheers, Carl

[charleselan]

Thanks René and Carl, I have really got into a bit of delving on this particular car. it is so typically Len Terry of the late 1960's as one can see so many similarities with his other creations like the Indy Lotus 38 and Eagle's, as well as the BRM P126/133.
I also had a sneaking feeling that Dinky Toys France had produced a 1/43rd die cast model of the car, and indeed they did along with the Ferrari 312 of 1968 and Matra MS11. I have the Ferrari which for the time was very good, I picked up a model boxed a few years ago for next to nothing, now some joker is asking 97€ for the Surtees on eBay!!!

There are also some decent scale drawings on the internet which I believe come from the old "Model Cars" magazine "of the Surtees TS5.

You are correct Carl that is Peter Gethin alongside Hobbo, at the time "Geth" was virtually unbeatable in the McLaren M10, but gradually the Surtees cars caught up. As you mention the exhausts are massive and we used to call them "drain pipes' due to their huge diameter. All of those Uk F5000 Chevrolet motors would have come pre tuned from America, probably by the top firms like Traco etc.

[Carl]

Here are the scoundrels who sought to avoid attention by calling themselves "Traco", and an article about their partnership.

                              Frank Coon [on the left] and Jim Travers

www.hemmings.com/blog/article/jim-travers-frank-coon/