|
|
Post by charleselan on Jul 24, 2021 18:48:10 GMT
It was with great sadness that I read of the passing of Jean Pierre Jaussuad earlier this week at the age of 84 years. Jean Pierre was always a favourite of mine back in the 1960's when Formula Three was an intense breeding ground of talent. J-PJ was one of a large group of very talented French drivers at that time and along with JP Beltoise; Pesca and Johnny Servoz-Gavin formed the works Matra F3 team. I thought that Jaussaud was extremely unlucky not to have an opportunity of a F1 drive in his career and was extremely underrated, he was easily a match for Pesca in those days but he did not get the recognition he deserved. However he did win the highly competitive French F3 Championship and later won many races in both F3 & F2 driving techno and Brabham cars. The highlights of his career must be his two Le Mans 24 Hour wins, firstly with a young Didier Pironi in the Renault A442B in 1978 and then with Jean Rondeau in 1980 driving the very slippery looking Rondeau coupe. In Formula Two he finished runner up to the great Mike Hailwood in 1972 driving a Brabham BT38, winning two races that year in the process. A superb racing driver, rest in peace Jean Pierre.  Jean Pierre in his wonderful F3 Matra MS5 with his bright orange helmet and matching nose on the car.  Jean Pierre Jaussaud driving the winning Renault A442B to victory in the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours.  Driving to victory in the Rondeau M379B at le Mans 1980. |
|
|
|
Post by mikael on Jul 25, 2021 18:24:13 GMT
I remember being very impressed (as an easy-to-impress 14-year old) by the "roof" of the 1978 Renault Le Mans winner, studying photos in the 1978 (Danish) motorsport yearbook endlessly. Interesting that "field of view" was open, but perhaps the rather steep part below (with the "Renault" lettering) created a kind of "aero-curtain", such that through-flow wasn't too severe after all (?)
The colour combination of Jaussuad's Formula 3 (Elf Motor Oil colours), is truly beautiful (and then it happens to be the "French racing Blue" as well). And the matching helmet is just "the icing on the cake" (in Danish we would say, "the dot over the "i" ") - it looks just great.
|
|
|
|
Post by robmarsh on Jul 26, 2021 9:04:53 GMT
RIP Jean-Pierre. Very nice obituary Charles. Michael thanks to your comments it is the first time I have noticed that the front of the aero screen on the Renault was open and I have looked at pics of that car quite a few times. I think you were right about the steepness of the screen creating an aero curtain. The current F1 cars use that philosophy with all the vortices generated by all the aero "furniture" that proliferates these days.
|
|
|
|
Post by charleselan on Jul 26, 2021 11:38:51 GMT
Many thanks Rob I try my best to give drivers like Jean Pierre the correct obituary which often the so called specialist sites fail to do, in my opinion. Mikael, Indeed the colour scheme looks striking and this was carried over on the other team cars, Henri Pescarola had his car decked out with a bright emerald green nose band to match his helmet colour. Jean Pierre Beltoise had a white nose band on his car which did not quite reflect his helmet and Johnny Servoz Gavin tended to have vacations of bright yellow with either a noseband running into a central stripe to two stripes running the length of the nose cone. Another driver that ran works Matra MS5's in F3 was a very talented young guy called Roby Weber who had a very dark blue or black helmet with a red/orange peak and this was replicated on the nose band, sadly young Weber perished in a tragic accident before achieving great success which his obvious talent indicated.  Henri Pescarola in his Matra MS5 F3 car at Brands Hatch.  J-PB in his F3 Matra MS5, note the earlier side draught carburettor, Pesca's above sporting the later down draught carb.  Unfortunately only a B&W image of Johnny Servoz Gavin in his F3 Matra MS5 with a single yellow central stripe. Interestingly when they ran MS5's in Formula Two much the same was true of the identification colours, and there were many more variations with different drivers which would make another interesting discussion. |
|
|
|
Post by René on Jul 26, 2021 12:37:25 GMT
Thank you for your nice piece on Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, JC.
There were a lot of very talented French drivers coming into the sport from the late 60's and throughout the 70's. The most well known were the ones who made a name in Formula One but there were more who could have been successful in F1 given a good opportunity. And Jaussaud was certainly one of them.
He was one of those 'very French' drivers who was always a factor at Le Mans. And winning that race twice is no mean feat!
A little search in my model/slot car collection for Jaussaud cars resulted 'only' to these two Matras from 1973 and 1974. I actually never liked the look of the Rondeau but I might add one to the collection for 'historical' reasons.
|
|
|
|
Post by robmarsh on Jul 26, 2021 13:06:58 GMT
I loved the look of the '73/'74 Matra No 8. Just loved the way the nose curved down sharply between the headlamps.
|
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Jul 26, 2021 17:48:36 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by charleselan on Jul 26, 2021 19:46:24 GMT
A great photo of Roby Weber, Carl. I do not think I have ever seen any shots of him out of the car before and this set me off doing some online research as always. On my initial investigation into the F3 Matra MS5's nothing came up other than photos of Roby's recent Spark model of his MS5. However on further searching i have found some more and quite a few French sites and Autosport Forum have some info on him. I had forgotten that he lost his life while testing a Matra sports car at Le Mans during the Test Week; apparently he had been driving another version of the car with a smaller V8 BRM engine and then just before everything was wrapped up he asked to take out the larger engined car that Jean Pierre Jaussaud had been testing. Jean Pierre had said that it was very unstable on the Mulsanne Straight with the nose lifting dramatically and it became hard to control. Against the better judgement of the team member in charge Roby took the car out and never came back, the car destroyed in a horrendous crash, A similar fate also befell Henri Pescarolo in a similar car but against all odds Henri miraculously was spared but sustained very bad burns. Apparently the senior team member that let Roby Weber take the car out never forgave himself for the rest of his life. Many thought Roby was a huge talent with a very classic style of driving, and was destined for great things. Some more photos of him and his Matra MS5.  Roby leading Jean Pierre Jaussaud and Peter Gethin in I believe a Brabham BT21.  Probably from the same race meeting here Roby leads jean Pierre and Peter Gethin who is followed by Chris Williams (another F3 talent who lost his life) and then the nose of Pesca's Matra MS5. |
|
|
|
Post by René on Jul 27, 2021 18:50:16 GMT
Fascinating stuff on Roby Weber. I never heard of him before to be honest but very intriguing. This is a very interesting page on Roby Weber. It’s in Spanish but it has lots of pictures and you can always use Google translate. Scroll down to see the pictures. Link: Todos los pilotos muertos - Roby Weber
|
|
|
|
Post by robmarsh on Jul 27, 2021 20:32:55 GMT
Thanks chaps, I echo Rene's comments, learnt a lot.
|
|
|
|
Post by charleselan on Jul 27, 2021 21:13:53 GMT
Formula Three in the 1960's always was a special interest to me as a teenager growing up. The class was so full of extraordinary talent a breeding ground like no other. many got passed by for F1 like Jean Pierre Jaussaud and others like Roby Weber and Chris Williams did not survive this extremely dangerous period.
The little 1 litre F3 cars were exquisite and most ran with a 997cc Ford engine block (all engines had to be production car based with some tuning) a single carburettor was mandatory, but the engine tuners extracted amazing performance from these motors. They weren't known as "The Screamers" for nothing.
If you are minded do some research to see how many great drivers came through this category from 1964 through until the early 1970's when the engine size was increased to 1600cc, it will astound you; JYS was the first British F3 Champion in 1964 and also won the prestigious Monaco F3 race that year driving Ken Tyrrell's Cooper BMC.
Moving on to René's two beautiful Matra slot car models, a wonderful tribute to both Jean Pierre Jaussaud and Bob Wollek.
With regard to the Renault A442B the winning car did indeed have that unique roof to the cockpit however some of the other team cars had a conventional open sport prototype cockpit which made for an interesting line up of factory Renault cars.
|
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Jul 27, 2021 23:37:01 GMT
Fascinating stuff on Roby Weber. I never heard of him before to be honest but very intriguing. This is a very interesting page on Roby Weber. It’s in Spanish but it has lots of pictures and you can always use Google translate. Scroll down to see the pictures. Link: Todos los pilotos muertos - Roby Weber
The article features an excellent overhead photo of Roby Weber in his race car with body removed, about halfway down. |
|
|
|
Post by René on Jul 28, 2021 16:38:40 GMT
Fascinating stuff on Roby Weber. I never heard of him before to be honest but very intriguing. This is a very interesting page on Roby Weber. It’s in Spanish but it has lots of pictures and you can always use Google translate. Scroll down to see the pictures. Link: Todos los pilotos muertos - Roby Weber
The article features an excellent overhead photo of Roby Weber in his race car with body removed, about halfway down. Yeah that is a cool photo hey.  |
|
|
|
Post by René on Jul 28, 2021 16:53:45 GMT
Back on topic... Jean-Pierre reunited with the 1978 Le Mans winning Renault Alpine.  |
|
|
|
Post by charleselan on Jul 28, 2021 18:58:29 GMT
I think that we have not strayed too far off topic René, as Jean Pierre is mentioned in most of the following comments and to two were closely linked in their careers at that time.
Incidentally I had no idea that Jean Pierre was from Caen which is not that far from my own location these days, and that is a wonderful picture of him with his victorious Renault A442B along with Didier's helmet, also note that the car doesn't not have the cockpit covering.
The great photo of Roby Weber sat in his car with the bodywork removed is an Alpine Renault which I believe he won after winning a national F3 championship. He used this car with further success before getting his factory Matra drive.
|
|
