Friday was our day for the vintage races at Laguna Seca, and the best way to see the cars up close was in the paddock. There were so many historic cars we wondered about listing them in chronological order, then considered alphabetical order, and decided to start with this car because of the heroic story attached to it. It's an Alfa Romeo 3000CM (3.5 liter DOHC inline six), one of 4 coupes and 2 spiders bodied by Carrozzeria Colli. Juan Manuel Fangio took 2nd place in the 1953 Mille Miglia with it. What's so special about 2nd place, you ask? Well, take a close look at the photo below...
You'll notice that the front wheel on the passenger side doesn't seem to be following the driver's side front wheel on this RHD car. That's because the steering linkage on that side had broken, and Fangio had to complete most of the 2nd half of the contest with only one steerable front wheel. This, in a race with 577 entrants, a race run on public roads lined with spectators. That Fangio was able to finish at all is a testament to his skill, endurance, and maybe, just a bit of luck...
Another car Fangio made famous was under the shady canopy of the display-only selection of historic cars not racing at Laguna Seca. It's a 1956 Maserati 250F originally raced by Stirling Moss. Fangio won his 4th consecutive World Championship in a 250F in 1957, the year that Maserati introduced a 2.5 liter 60-degree V12 to race alongside their DOHC, twin-plug inline six. Drivers liked the handling balance of the 250F with its 4 & 5 speed transaxles; mechanics might have preferred its straightforward design compared to the Mercedes W196 Fangio had piloted in '54 (splitting his drives with Team Maserati) and '55, and the Lancia Ferrari D50 with which he'd taken the world title in '56.
Among the smaller cars being readied to race during Car Week was this Fiat Abarth 1000. This body design replaced the earlier, Zagato-designed and built (except for late versions by Corna) Record Monza body style in 1961. The new body design by Mario Colucci for Abarth featured headlights under rounded plastic covers and an oval opening for an optional auxiliary radiator. The 1000 engine was offered with twin-cam Abarth head and Weber carburetors, as well as a Monomille version, a play on words that signified the displacement as well as the single cam in block with pushrod valve operation.
This 1000 has the longer tail with upturned spoiler that first appeared in 1963. Early bodies for the Monomille pushrod-engined cars and Bialbero versions were built by Beccaris, a small, specialist coachbuilder. So-called "long-nose" versions of the Monomille with exposed (and less aerodynamic) headlights were bodied by Sibona and Basano. As with most Abarth models, production figures are sketchy, but these cars are rare today.
This Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato was designed by Ercole Spada and premiered at the Geneva Salon in March 1960. With alloy body and plexiglas windows, the SZ was lighter and faster than the Bertone-bodied Sprint. Over 200 were built...
...in a style called "round tail", after the Coda Tronca, Kamm-tailed version appeared in 1961 and continued into 1962, with disc brakes in front.
It was the Giulia TZ, though, that incorporated the most extensive engineering changes in the Zagato-bodied, series production Alfas. The "T" stood for tubolare, the tubular chassis that Alfa engineers adopted along with fully independent rear suspension, the first on an Alfa production car. Braking was by discs all around. Under that forward-hinged hood and fender assembly, the 1.6 liter twin-cam engine was tilted an an angle. 112 were built between 1963 and '65, with another dozen of the lower, fiberglass-bodied TZ2 with twin-plug, dry-sump engines.
Below is one of 21 Lotus 17 models built to a design by Len Terry. Brought on by the success of the Lola Mk. 1 (see below) against the Lotus 11, it was the first fiberglass-bodied road racer offered for sale by Lotus, and the last front-engined one.
The Climax engine was offered in various sizes including the 1,098 cc FWA, 1,216 cc FWE, and 1,460 cc FWB. The 17 was not successful when introduced, owing to early failures of the MacPherson strut front suspension, which was replaced by conventional wishbones on many cars. By the time Colin Chapman's team had changed this detail, racing had moved on to mid-engined cars. The new Lotus 18 was one of those...
And so was the Lotus 19 below. Built from 1960-62, and designed to take Coventry Climax engines from 1.5 to 2.75 liters, it featured an improved version of the Lotus-designed 5-speed sequential lightweight transaxle that had caused trouble on the Lotus 15. Chapman nicknamed the car the Monte Carlo after the Lotus victory in the 1960 Monaco GP. Cooper had similarly named their 2-seat road racer the Monaco after a Cooper won there in '58.
The Lotus 23 was the company's mid-engined offering to small-displacement club racers. Made in 1962 and '63, with Climax engines under 750 cc and Cosworth engines ranging from 1 liter to 1.6 liters, the Lotus 23 hit some kind of sweet spot. Around 130 were built. Owing to changes in racing rules, the 23 offered a regulation trunk space, windshield wipers, head and tail lights, and even a horn. Bodywork was fiberglass over a space frame.
The 1958 Denzel 1300 below is a rarity, with Austria's Wolfgang Denzel building under 300 cars in a decade starting with the first prototype in 1948; production ended in 1959. Like Porsche, Denzel modified VW engines and kept them at the rear, moving from steel bodies to aluminum in the mid-Fifties, with low weight being a priority for the weekend racers who bought these cars. Only the roadster style was offered.
My '58 Road & Track Test Annual featured a test of a WD 1300 roadster (there was also a 1500) and the alloy-bodied car was lighter (by over 500 lb. at 1,415) and quicker than the Porsche 1600 coupe tested the same year, with a 0-60 time of 13.7 seconds. It was more expensive too, at $4,695 compared to $3,790 for the Porsche. Both synchromesh and non-synchro transaxles were offered; the test car had the "crash" box. Gee, one wonders if this could be the same car that Road & Track tested...
The 1957 Maserati 200SI below is from the same era. The "I" signifies compliance with International racing rules and means that it was one of the series built to comply with then-new FIA racing regulations requiring full weather protection, full-width windshields, and bigger doors. Early versions of the 200S featured 4 speed gearboxes, while later ones were offered with 5 speeds.
Though Maserati production cars broke with the Italian tradition of not offering upper crust cars with left hand drive earlier than Lancia or Ferrari, their racers often came with RHD. Bodywork on this car was by Fantuzzi.
Ferrari's 166 with Superleggera Touring Barchetta ("little boat") bodywork became famous when Luigi Chinetti, the eventual US East Coast Ferrari distributor, won the 1949 Le Mans 24 Hours in the 2 liter V12, beating a field of cars with larger engines. It launched a long saga of racing success for the Colombo-designed, 60-degree, SOHC V12...
With maybe the most successful run belonging to the 3 liter version of the engine, including the 250GT short-wheelbase Pininfarina coupe below, its dry-sump engined Testa Rossa relatives, and of course the dry-sump, disc-braked 250GTO that Ferrari somehow got homologated as a version of their 250GT production car...
The bodywork on this 1956 Devin Special may look familiar if you have an Ermini in your garage. Its Oklahoma-born creator, Bill Devin, settled into the fertile LA hotrod scene after WW2, raced cars in the SCCA starting with a Crosley Hotshot, then worked up through various Ferraris, and actually invented belt-driven overhead cams but never took out a patent. Devin couldn't patent the lovely bodywork mounted over Joe Huffaker's tubular chassis (one of 2) because molds for his fiberglass shells were taken directly from the Scaglietti body of an Ermini Type 357. Even if you just count the roughly 30 complete Chevy-powered Devin SS cars the company sold in the late 50s, Devins in this style probably outnumber Erminis.
Frank Nichols' Elva cars (from "Elle va", French for "she goes") were first conceived as less expensive alternatives for club racers to compete with cars from Lotus and Cooper. Elva originally based his cars on production components (Ford 10 engines, Triumph front suspensions like this Mark 1 from 1955) and saved money by early adoption of fiberglass bodies, but #814 here was originally equipped with a 1.5 liter Maserati four, and has an alloy body. Mark 1 was the first Elva for sale to privateers, and the Mark 1B featured an Elva-designed front suspension.
By the time Keith Marsden designed the Mark 6 for Elva in 1961, the mid-engined revolution was in full swing, but it was his design for the Mark 7, aimed at the under 2 liter class for sports racers, that expanded Elva's success, especially with distributor Carl Haas in Chicago. Introduced in 1963, the car introduced disc brakes and 13" wheels, with adaptability for 1.6 liter Ford Cosworth twin-cam engines, the then-new BMW four, and even a 1.7 liter version of the 4-cam Porsche. Just under 6 dozen examples of the Mark 7 & 7S left Elva's shops between 1963 and '65.
Lola's Mark 1, introduced by designer Eric Broadley in 1958 and powered by the familiar 1,100 cc Climax four, began to beat the aging Lotus 11 soon after it appeared. The Lotus 7 next door is a reminder of how much progress British specialist car makers made in the late 50s. Early Mark 1s had alloy bodywork over tubular space frames, but fiberglass bodies appeared in 1960.
The Lola T 70 below followed the mid-engined Mk. 6 GT that, though only built in 3 examples, inspired Ford's GT40. Introduced in 1965 and made in coupe versions for endurance racing as well as the open cars that competed in big-bore SCCA races and the Canadian American Series, the T70 was popular by racing car standards, with over 100 built before the last one left the Lola workshops in 1969. Power units included reliable small-block Chevrolets and an unsuccessful Aston Martin V8 at '67 Le Mans.
The fetchingly graceful Chevron B16 below appeared the same year the Lola T70 ended production. After the 1969 launch of the light, Formula 2 Ford Cosworth-powered Group 4 sports prototype racer, other engines like the Mazda rotary and BMW M-10 were tried by Chevron, which built just under two dozen of these cars.
Engineer John Tojeiro, who'd designed a prototype bought by AC Cars for their 4-wheel indy suspension Ace in the early Fifties, applied his talents to the 1,100 cc class of English club racers after that success. The result was this lightweight, graceful, alloy-bodied Tojeiro Climax from 1957. As it resembles the Mk. 2 version built in 4 examples in '58, and that body was designed by Maurice Gomm, we suspect this was too. The chassis is a space frame type, and the engine leans to avoid a hood bulge. Competitors "in period" included the Lola Mk. 1 and Elva Mk. III.
Briggs Cunningham's C-4R, powered by a Chrysler 331, was lighter than his previous efforts, and came closer to his goal of winning at Le Mans than any others. They were handicapped by the lack of disc brakes, but still took 4th place there in 1952, and 3rd as well as 5th place in 1954. A C-4R won the Sebring 12 Hours in 1953. Two roadsters and one Kamm-tailed coupe, the C-4RK, were built.
The first version of Malcom Sayers' immortal D-Type Jaguar saw competition in 1954, with what was later called the short-nose body configuration, but only after the factory tried the longer snout. With 4-wheel disc brakes and that signature stabilizing fin, D-Types won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times in a row, 1955 through '57.
Aston Martin's DP215 endurance racing prototype was designed around the 4 liter DB5 engine in 1963, but also allowed enough space for the V8 that would finally make its debut at Le Mans mid-mounted in a Lola T70. As with the V8 project, Aston Martin's racing prototypes were the victims of limited budgets; despite this, DP215 qualified 4th at Le Mans. It was the last front-engined Aston Martin road racer.
Over at GM that same year, Chevy's Corvette guru Zora Arkus Duntov briefly persuaded management to support development of the lightweight Grand Sport to counter Carroll Shelby's SCCA success with his Ford-powered AC Cobras. The original plan was to build over a hundred cars, but only 5 escaped the factory before GM's racing ban shut down the program.
Alfa Romeo's Type 33 mid-engined road racers first raced in 1967, powered by 2-liter, 4-cam V8s designed by engineer Carlo Chiti, who had designed the V8s in the short-lived 2.5 liter ATS GT and 1.5 liter GP cars. 5 open Type 33 spiders were built with this periscope-style air intake. Autodelta developed the T33/2 version for 1968, and one of these took won the 2-liter class at the 24 Hours of Daytona that year.
The Chaparral 2 was the first car designed by the Texas team of Jim Hall and Hap Sharp, and used an aluminum version of the small-block Chevy engine. The design may have adapted its pointy snout and headlight placement from Larry Shinoda's similarly mid-engined Corvair Monza GT show car, but the lift-reducing air dams were all Chaparral's. From 1963 through 1965 seasons, the Chaparrals won well over half their races against international competition, and introduced an automatic transmission midway in '64. As with that aluminum engine block, this may have involved some help from GM.
Dan Gurney's Eagle Indy cars, like the one below, appeared with his Formula 1 cars in 1966 as designed by Len Terry, who followed the basic layout of his design for the Lotus 38. Some collectors, and a more than a few designers, think these Eagles are the best-looking open-wheel race cars ever built. They remind one of Gurney's famous question: "If you have a chance to make something beautiful and you don't, what does that say about you?" A feast for the eyes, and a fitting place to end our tour of the paddock...
*Footnote: Stories on the following cars have appeared before in this blog. Titles and dates are in parentheses.
Alfa Romeo 3000CM Superflow ("After the Flying Saucers", Aug. 5, 2018)
Abarth ("The Etceterini Files Part 13", Jan. 15, 2018)
Lola ("1st. Impressions of the Monterey Historics: Whatever Lola Wants", Aug. 28, 2018)
Elva ("Forgotten Classic: Elva GT 160---She Goes with BMW Power", Nov. 7, 2020)
Tojeiro ("Forgotten Classics: Designed by John Tojeiro, Aug. 13, 2021)
Photo Credits:
All photos are by the author, except for the monochrome of Fangio's Alfa 3000CM at the Mille Miglia, which came from museofangio.com.
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