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Post by chrisb on Oct 3, 2018 21:01:38 GMT
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Post by charleselan on Oct 5, 2018 12:51:44 GMT
Carl,
Bondurant was a classy driver, and will forever be remembered by me as the archetypical Cobra pilot. However he was also extremely good in the Lola T70, very smooth.
Thanks for the Sports Car Graphic cover image, it really was a good magazine and filled many holes of knowledge in my early years about the American scene, especially the SCCA series and early Can Am. Thanks to the nearby Fairford Airbase that was occupied by the American Airforce those magazines were readily available in my local towns. As a kid I will always remember being in my parents large garden looking up and seeing the B47's and then later the B52's soaring into the heavens having taken off from Fairford some 20+ miles away.
John Charles
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Post by Carl on Oct 5, 2018 16:01:28 GMT
Carl, Bondurant was a classy driver, and will forever be remembered by me as the archetypical Cobra pilot. However he was also extremely good in the Lola T70, very smooth. Thanks for the Sports Car Graphic cover image, it really was a good magazine and filled many holes of knowledge in my early years about the American scene, especially the SCCA series and early Can Am. Thanks to the nearby Fairford Airbase that was occupied by the American Airforce those magazines were readily available in my local towns. As a kid I will always remember being in my parents large garden looking up and seeing the B47's and then later the B52's soaring into the heavens having taken off from Fairford some 20+ miles away. John Charles John Charles,
Sports Car Graphic was a great magazine and a wonderful learning ground, with editors such as Karl Ludvigsen and Jerry Titus, both early heroes of mine as journalists and Titus also as a driver. He had great early success in amateur racing, then drove GT-350s for Carroll Shelby and became the first champion of the ultra competitive Trans-Am series. I still remember the great sense of loss when he crashed fatally during practice at Road America in 1970, a year of loss worldwide.
Cheers, Carl
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Post by charleselan on Oct 5, 2018 16:24:01 GMT
Great link Carl, a very good read, thanks.
JC
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Post by René on Nov 3, 2018 11:28:15 GMT
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Post by charleselan on Nov 3, 2018 17:33:36 GMT
Some great photographs there René, surely no person of right mind cannot but be impressed by those amazing race cars.
I week or so back I came across some Can Am films on YT which I had not seen previously and one in particular was really excellent. It featured the first season of the Penske Porsche 917/10 and i was amazed to see how big that thing was, and how big its rear wing was. No doubt the huge power out put allows the use of such things. However it was no match in the looks department for the McLaren of that season which was a stunning looking car in my opinion.
Here is the film in question which is rather good:-
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Post by Carl on Nov 3, 2018 20:42:51 GMT
Some great photographs there René, surely no person of right mind cannot but be impressed by those amazing race cars. I week or so back I came across some Can Am films on YT which I had not seen previously and one in particular was really excellent. It featured the first season of the Penske Porsche 917/10 and i was amazed to see how big that thing was, and how big its rear wing was. No doubt the huge power out put allows the use of such things. However it was no match in the looks department for the McLaren of that season which was a stunning looking car in my opinion. Here is the film in question which is rather good:- Great film John Charles!
The Porsche 917-10 seemed larger than others because of its immense rear wing and clumsy and awkward nose, an unlovely example of Teutonic form following function but about the same size overall as the others.
Later that year at Riverside, George Follmer set a track record top speed of 219 mph. From the Turn 6 grandstand, its acceleration after exiting the nearby Turn 8 onto the one mile back straight was like an illusion. Follmer had replaced Donohue in the 917-10 after Donohue was injured testing at Road Atlanta. When Donohue, the following year, predicted a top speed for the 917-30 of 250 mph at Riverside, track management disappointed every race fan by deciding to use the short course, which joins the back straight at Turn 7A.
Donohue should have kept quiet...  Cheers, Carl
Here's a short and very cool description of Mosport
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Post by Carl on Nov 3, 2018 20:44:24 GMT
Awesome photographs, Rene. Thanks! |
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Post by charleselan on Nov 3, 2018 22:21:18 GMT
Some great photographs there René, surely no person of right mind cannot but be impressed by those amazing race cars. I week or so back I came across some Can Am films on YT which I had not seen previously and one in particular was really excellent. It featured the first season of the Penske Porsche 917/10 and i was amazed to see how big that thing was, and how big its rear wing was. No doubt the huge power out put allows the use of such things. However it was no match in the looks department for the McLaren of that season which was a stunning looking car in my opinion. Here is the film in question which is rather good:- Great film John Charles!
The Porsche 917-10 seemed larger than others because of its immense rear wing and clumsy and awkward nose, an unlovely example of Teutonic form following function but about the same size overall as the others.
Later that year at Riverside, George Follmer set a track record top speed of 219 mph. From the Turn 6 grandstand, its acceleration after exiting the nearby Turn 8 onto the one mile back straight was like an illusion. Follmer had replaced Donohue in the 917-10 after Donohue was injured testing at Road Atlanta. When Donohue, the following year, predicted a top speed for the 917-30 of 250 mph at Riverside, track management disappointed every race fan by deciding to use the short course, which joins the back straight at Turn 7A.
Donohue should have kept quiet... Cheers, Carl
Here's a short and very cool description of Mosport
Good to hear that you liked the film Carl, it is rather good. Also thanks for your link to Bruce McLaren's track guide to Mosport which is excellent. It actually comes from a superb short film of the 1966 Players 200 which features a great win for Bruce, and a quite conventional looking JYS who drove a Mecom Lola T70. |
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Post by Carl on Nov 4, 2018 0:43:42 GMT
John Charles, A lot of these older films are less than sharp but still fascinating. Bruce McLaren had his McLaren Elva dialed in and dominated both heats, impressively smooth and fast. There were several Canadians in this race, a precursor to the Mosport Can-Am race five months later, and Lothar Motschenbacher and John Cannon displayed good speed on their home track. The filmmaker's interest in Jackie Stewart may have been because of his impressive 1965 debut season in Formula One.
Was that Ray in Toronto being greeted on behalf of the Premier... and later doing the twist?
Cheers, Carl
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Post by Carl on May 17, 2020 20:25:12 GMT
1967 was the first year of McLaren's Can-Am domination, one not driven by money but great leadership, superb planning and preparation, mastery of fine points of design, and expert driving. Jacques Villenueve's CART pole lap was 25 seconds faster in 1995, clearly his finest year, winning the Indy 500 and series championship, which meant he was gone the next year.   |
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Post by René on May 18, 2020 14:58:21 GMT
1967 was the first year of McLaren's Can-Am domination, one not driven by money but great leadership, superb planning and preparation, mastery of fine points of design, and expert driving. Jacques Villenueve's CART pole lap was 25 seconds faster in 1995, clearly his finest year, winning the Indy 500 and series championship, which meant he was gone the next year. I have seen this one before, it's wonderful. What a beasts those cars were! 25 seconds faster on virtually the same track is amazing, that's progress. But CART in the mid 90s was still great racing so you can go a lot faster without losing quality of racing which is sadly the case with the high downforce monsters of modern F1. Insanely fast (remember, 15 seconds faster on COTA than Indycars) but racing has suffered big time. |
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Post by Carl on May 18, 2020 15:46:05 GMT
1967 was the first year of McLaren's Can-Am domination, one not driven by money but great leadership, superb planning and preparation, mastery of fine points of design, and expert driving. Jacques Villenueve's CART pole lap was 25 seconds faster in 1995, clearly his finest year, winning the Indy 500 and series championship, which meant he was gone the next year. I have seen this one before, it's wonderful. What a beasts those cars were! 25 seconds faster on virtually the same track is amazing, that's progress. But CART in the mid 90s was still great racing so you can go a lot faster without losing quality of racing which is sadly the case with the high downforce monsters of modern F1. Insanely fast (remember, 15 seconds faster on COTA than Indycars) but racing has suffered big time. Yes, it's unclear who sold their soul, but surely the poison dwarf is the beast and aerodynamicists his idiot savants. |
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Post by René on May 19, 2020 19:46:28 GMT
Here's a great interview with Jim Hall of Chaparral. The grandfather of the race car aerodynamicists?
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Post by Carl on May 19, 2020 22:44:07 GMT
Here's a great interview with Jim Hall of Chaparral. The grandfather of the race car aerodynamicists? Yes, with a lot of assistance from General Motors' engineering department, kept quiet since GM had a strict policy prohibiting racing involvement. Shhhhh!  Jim Hall was a superb engineer and the senior partner as Chaparral evolved, but to collaborate with General Motors was a tremendous advantage.
On the left is a General Motors design project called the Corvette GS-ll
 And the very similar Chaparral 2A 
I have a lot of respect for Jim Hall for guiding the great success of Chaparral, but he had one hell of an ace in the hole.
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Jim Hall was a superb engineer and the senior partner as Chaparral evolved, but to collaborate with General Motors was a tremendous advantage.
