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Monza this weekend
Ferraris
The Italian GP is this weekend and the
Tifosi will go mad. There never has been a year of such
total domination in the history of F1. With Schumi the elder
racking up his 10th win of the year, thereby eclipsing Nigel
Mansell’s 9 in a season record, that was enough to show that
the red cars this year are uncatchable. While it can easily
be seen that Michael Schumacher is the best of the bunch,
Rooby Baby is only level with the rest of the drivers, but
yet, he is practically uncatchable too - as long as he is in
the Ferrari F2002. The interest will be in the McLaren-BMW
Williams scrap for the remaining place on the podium. Oh
yes, I almost forgot, Alex Yoong should be returning to take
his usual place at Minardi as either the mobile chicane, or
the grid position of DNQ (Did Not Qualify)!
The race should start at 7 p.m. on the Sunday. Join me in
front of the big screen at Shenanigans, but double check the
starting time. I have been wrong (well, I thought I was
wrong once, but I was mistaken).
Autotrivia Quiz
Tucker
Last week I asked about a car of which
they made only 37, but volunteer workers assembled another
14. The original design called for no gearbox, just two
torque converters connected directly to the rear wheels,
fore-running the CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission)
concept current today. It had a converted helicopter engine.
I wanted to know the car and its designer. It was, of
course, the Tucker, built by Preston Tucker and released in
1948.
So to this week. The forerunner of the 1955 release MGA
actually goes back to 1951 and raced at Le Mans and had an
MG TD chassis. The concept was the brainchild of Sidney
Enever who could see that the writing was on the wall for
the old “square rigger” T series MG’s. The MGA roadster
spawned a record breaker which was driven by Sir Stirling
Moss. The question for this week is then, what speed did Sir
Stirling do in this car and what was the name of the
vehicle?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to fax 038 427 596 or email automania@pattayamail
.com
Good luck!
What did we learn from the Belgian GP?
Well, we learned that it is pretty boring when one car is
around 1 second a lap quicker than his team mate and 2
seconds a lap quicker than anybody else. I am a fan of
Schumacher’s driving (but not of the man) but it wasn’t a
race - it was a farce.
 Irvine
We also learned that Kimi Raikkonen is a star of the future.
He is only 22 years old and to out-qualify team mate David
Coulthard says it all. However, one person who is saying it
very loudly is the loquacious Irishman, Eddie Irvine.
Eddie used his column in British tabloid “The Sun” to launch
his attack on David Coulthard.
The Jaguar driver, who gave his team, and its owners Ford, a
much needed morale boost by finishing sixth in the Belgian
GP, warned Coulthard not to make any room on his Monaco
mantelpiece for the World Championship trophy.
“David can forget any dreams he may have of winning the
world crown,” wrote Eddie, following that broadside with,
“He should even dismiss the notion that he is now McLaren’s
team leader, for David’s career has been killed by team-mate
Kimi Raikkonen. It’s ironic that David started the season
believing he would finally be McLaren’s big hope following
the retirement of double world beater Mika Hakkinen, only to
find himself blown away by the younger Finn.”
The Sun report continued, “While David may like to think he
is now the team’s top dog, I feel Kimi is the one that boss
Ron Dennis is looking to. Kimi has something David lacks,
star quality,” added Irvine, clearly going for the kill.
With the scent of blood in his nostrils, Eddie finished up
with, “It was generally assumed that once Mika left, David
would be the shining light, but Kimi has really put him in
the shade. The trouble is David lacks the natural ability
which sets some drivers apart. I always thought that while
Mika was a great driver, he was too inconsistent. If
everything wasn’t spot on, he didn’t go flat out. But Kimi
appears to give 100% every time he steps into the cockpit.”
I do have to hand it to Eddie, he never knows when to give
up!
About the only other notable fact from Belgium was the
longevity of the Honda engines - or I should say, the lack
of longevity. Olivier Panis destroyed three engines, just on
his own. No wonder he is going to Toyota next year!
A man called Victoria
The following came to me from a friend in
Hawaii, Peter Cabrey, who has done some research on Gordon
Buehrig, the man who designed the stylised eagle used as the
radiator mascot of the Deusenbergs, and subject of the
Autotrivia quiz a couple of weeks back.
Cord 810
In 1989 Buehrig was
inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in America at a
ceremony at Detroit’s Renaissance Center. At that time, he
had designed more timeless classics than any other man
alive. He was then 85 years old and had designed the
magnificent coffin-nose Cords 810 and 812, the Auburn
Speedster and a number of incredible Duesenbergs, designer
of the legendary Stutz and the ’51 Ford Victoria hardtop
coupe.
At that same ceremony in 1989, Soichiro Honda was also
inducted, with the founder of the Honda empire gaining most
publicity. It is understandable that Honda would grab most
of the headlines. Few media representatives had ever seen a
Cord or a Duesenberg and many drove cars made by Honda. So
did Buehrig, as a matter of fact. Buehrig had a ’51 Ford
Victoria and a more modern Corvette in his garage, but his
favourite for everyday use was a Honda CRX. “The Honda is a
great car,” Buehrig said, “like a modern Model T.”
Buehrig designed a couple of special Hondas off his own bat,
one a sportster with a rumble seat (called the “Rumble”),
the other a high-performance 150-mph speedster (called the
“Competitor”). He submitted the designs to Honda Motor Co.,
but they showed no interest.
Buehrig was born in 1904 in Mason City, Illinois, and began
his automotive career in 1924 at Gotfredson Body Co. in
Wayne, Michigan, which made bodies for the Wills St. Clair,
Peerless and Jewett cars.
In 1927, he was hired by General Motors, the fourth designer
hired for Harley Earl’s new Art and Color Department, the
industry’s first styling operation. A year later, at age 24,
he became chief body designer for Stutz, in Indianapolis,
then the year after that became chief designer for the most
legendary American nameplate of all, Duesenberg, also built
in Indianapolis.
He designed such Duesenberg classics as the Beverly Berline,
the Torpedo Phaeton, the Derham Tourster and the Weymann
Boattail Speedster as well as the Duesenberg eagle hood
ornament.
In 1934, he was transferred to Auburn, where he designed
Auburns and Cords and produced his most celebrated designs,
the Auburn Boat-tail Speedster and the 1936 “coffin-nose”
810 and 812 Cords. It is said that a poll of visitors to the
New York Auto Show in 1936 where the Cord 810 was released
was that twice as many people rated the Cord tops as the
second place-getter, the Lincoln Zephyr.
After World War II, Buehrig moved to Ford, where he designed
the ’51 Ford Victoria hardtop coupe and worked on the Mark
II Continental. He retired from Ford in 1965 and taught five
years at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena,
California.
He died in January, 1990.
Thank you Hawaii Pete from bringing those details to my
attention. After driving a Cord 810, I remained in awe of
Buehrig’s imaginative concepts. I was also unaware of his
connection with FoMoCo and the Victoria. |
The great
SSK’s
I make no secret of
the fact that I believe that some of the “great” cars were
pre WWII and some of the “great” drivers likewise. Two of my
favourites are the SSK (and SSKL) Mercedes-Benz sports cars
and Rudi Caracciola, one of the most successful drivers of
these cars.
 MB
SSK
The SSK’s were originally designed by Dr. Ferdidnand Porsche
(amazing how the same names crop up, time after time), but
their later development was masterminded by Dr. Hans Nibel,
one of Benz’s chief designers. These cars were two seater
sports cars, but the factory would pull the guards off them
and race them, with staggering results. In 1927, they were
even quicker than the Mercedes-Benz grand prix car! At the
Nurburgring in 1928, the SSK’s came in 1-2-3 against the
combined GP cars of the day. In 1929, Caracciola drove an
SSK at Monaco and came 3rd, only because he had to stop and
change tyres! In 1931, Caracciola won the Mille Miglia in
one and then backed up and won the German Grand Prix in
another SSKL.
They were truly monster motor cars: 7 litre engines,
supercharged, with 300 BHP available in the SSKL versions.
Weighing around two and a half tons, the biggest problem was
pulling them up. The cars were capable of 130 mph and
retardation was negligible. A contemporary report said, “At
40 mph you were lucky if you could halt within a 200 foot
New York City block.” It is no wonder then that Caracciola
averaged 96 mph on the 129 mile section of the Mille Miglia
from Brescia to Bologna! He couldn’t pull up!
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