8 Burst results for "Colin Chapman"
The Autosport Podcast
"colin chapman" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Did we have the chance to see one of these in action, we took three amazing cars on track recently, it's still Silverstone and tell us all about it is a chief editor, Kevin Turner. This is a fascinating story going back to the early 1960s when, well, American V8 power arrived and really changed everything. What are we talking about today? So yeah, we're talking about the arrival of the Ford galaxy in the British Sloan car championship. As is my want at the end of last year, I was reading, I read the year ahead of the anniversary. So I was reading the 1963 old sports at the end of 2022, as you do. And I came across this reminded me that this anniversary has happened. I thought that would be quite cool to do something on this, started doing a bit of research that all this is an interesting story. What else can we do? Let's see if we can do a track test. So I contacted a couple of all sports friends out in paddocks and somehow we ended up getting three cars to get at Silverstone. So yes, I would have done a little package in the 11th of May of all sport magazine, which happens to be the exact anniversary to the day since the galaxy arrived on these shores. Wow. So Ford galaxy started to be made in 1959 to describe this as a full size saloon car is even then probably an understatement. There's not much differentiating this from a tank on wheels. The Ford galaxy was just huge. Galaxy, by the way, not as in Milky Way or universe, but IE on the end. Although I gather, it was named to sort of tap into this fascination with the space race in the U.S. in the 1950s, 1960s. So that's kind of where the name comes from. But this was just enormous this thing. You know, you could fit maybe four people lying down in the boot itself. And so tell us about when this arrived in British racing and what the dominant car at the time was. So Jaguar very much ruled the rules ruled the roost in bridge to the car racing prior to this. And in fact, the race that's generally regarded as the starting point of saloon car racing in the UK, 1952, Silverstone. Support race to the non championship F one race there was one by Sterling moss in what were then would have been regarded as an enormous car, the Jackie a Mark 7. Throughout the 50s, Jaguars tend to set the pace whenever there are saloon car races and by 1958, that's when the British saloon car championship begins and of course that is now called the British touring car champion. It's actually a starting point for bridge toy and car championship, really. And Jaguars won virtually all the races, even when they didn't win the championship because if you were winning lower down in your class, you got the same number of points as overall winners. So this is something that I come back to whenever I talk about British tour and guard history. The champions are a bit random and all over the place. But in terms of the overall winners, it's almost all Jaguar. In 1960, they'd bring out the Mark two, which is kind of, I guess, the ultimate evolution of all the work that they've done. In endurance racing and touring car racing during the 1950s, so it's got disc brakes, it's got they produce some lightweight special race versions. It's got tweaked engine. So it's effectively like a Jaguar D type engine, dropped into a saloon car. So they would have been the quickest things on the outside of a 300 SL Mercedes you're talking pretty much the quickest things that would have been on the road or in saloon car racing. They were very refined and they were the cars they were the cars to be in 61 and 62 they won every single championship race. So when I say jag Mark two, if anyone needs to paint a mental picture of what these are of a certain age, our viewers have inspector Morse. Think that Jaguar, that famous outline shape, the jag Mark two. The more skulls are 2.4. That would have been a tiddler compared to these. But yeah, if you've been to the Goodwood the Goodwood revival and races like that. So depending on where they do the cutoff point, if you're talking 50 saloon cars, then really okay now there are some Austin a 40s and things, but really the Jags were the things to have. Get to 9 63. The first four races are won by Mark two Jaguars. At this point, Jaguars won 43, but just leaving car races. Now this is in the days where they had maybe 8 or ten races in a year, not 30 like now. So that could be and they've won over 40 of them. 40 43. Exactly. And so who was any famous names that we would recognize driving these jacks? Yeah, absolutely so obviously Mike hawthorn would have been one of the top saloon Jaguar I was obviously he was their sports car driver and he'd rock up and drive the saloons, but this is back in back in the day when they sort of did everything. The 11th of May 1963 race that we're going to talk about, the leading Jaguar drivers were so Graham hill. So the reigning Formula One World Champion. Max Verstappen rocking up and doing the British touring car race, which would be brilliant. I would have thought that was driving style, but perhaps that's a different podcast. Roy salvadori, who is a long-standing well established British racing driver and Mike salmon ditto really. So top drivers during the course of the next 12 months, we'd see other names that you might be familiar with like Jim Clark and Jack Brabham. Slotting into the championship races as well. Top drivers of the day and the jacket up until the 11th of May 1963 is the only car to bother with if you wanted to win the races outright. So what happens on the 11th of May 1963? John willman automobiles, they were already attracted Jax's, who was the first British touring car champion 9 58 to come and drive them for 63. Now they had various projects ongoing at the same time. So waiting in the wings or rather being developed by Colin Chapman is the loads of cortina, which we'll come to later. That's not ready yet. So it starts the season with the cortina GT racks up some points when you use class, but again, you're never going to beat the Jags with that. However, they are also getting hold of Holman and moody built Ford galaxy, special cars with all the lightweight bits and I say lightweight is still 1600 kilos.
Past Gas
"colin chapman" Discussed on Past Gas
"Vehicle. We'll be right back with more of this story, but first, a word from our sponsors. Hello. Advance for advance auto parts here. Welcome to Ed talk radio. Today's episode, how to save at the pump. Short answer? Advance speed perks. Slightly longer answer? You can use your speed perks points at participating shell stations to save money on fuel. The more speed perks points you have, the more you can save on gas, then you can tell everybody you saved at the pump. People love that. Okay, thanks for listening to my Ed talk. This is how we advance. Big thank you to our sponsor this week, indeed. Hiring for your business can feel harder than winning, a Formula One championship. But now I actually look forward to hiring. Why? Because we use indeed. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract interview and hire all in one place. Don't spend hours on multiple job sites looking for candidates with the right skills, when you can do it all with indeed. 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Sadly, the 1968 season would be Jim's last. His year began with his third win at the australasia tasman series championship race, and during his time there, he stayed with Australian driver, Leo gagan and his family in Sydney. In the quiet champion, gagan recounts a funny story where Jim arrived for his stay when no one was home, but gagan's mother. She didn't know who Jim was, and assumed he was there to mow their lawn. This poor guy, like everybody just thinks like, he's just like this down south. He looks like a farmer. Redneck, farmer guy, and they're just like, he's here to mow the lawn. No, he's a Formula One champion. Anyway, she naturally told him that the mower was in the shed and that he could start at any time. When gagan, his dad and his brother returned home, they were surprised to find Jim's shirtless and mowing the front lawn. That's just like someone who wants to avoid conflict. Yeah. He doesn't want to have a conversation about it. So if you tell him to mow the lawn, he's just going to. Unfortunately, just over a month later, Jim was racing a lotus 48 gold leaf in a formula two race at the hockenheim ring when his car left the track at a 150 mph. Jim did not survive. The accident was a shock to everyone. Formula One drivers from around the world flew to Scotland's churn side Paris church to pay their respects at Jim's funeral, alongside his family and friends. Chapman said he lost his best friend and Graham hill said what he would miss most was Jim Clark smile. Drivers like surtees and Brabham were adamant that his crash was not due to driver error. And they didn't believe that Jim was capable of making a life threatening mistake. Driver Chris Amon said, if it could happen to him, what chance do the rest of us have? The crash was investigated for three weeks by aircraft crash investigators, and eventually the team concluded that the reason for the crash was a tire failure. Dang, that sucks. I think the thing that makes me the saddest about this was that back in the day, drivers, because there were only ten to 12 Formula One races, drivers filled the gaps with things like formula two and the tasman series. This race that Jim was racing at was a contractual obligation by firestone, his tire manufacturer. Oh. He had, yeah, he had to pick between this race and a thousand kilometer race and brands hatch and he chose the formula two race because it was more relevant to his Formula One career and because the entry list was a credible, like Derek bell appears courage, Graham hill, clay Rick and Sony, like all of the big names were already competing. So why not Jim Clark? And his tire failed and that was it. And what's really interesting is that today, these racing schedules are generally so long and team owners are so they're so protective of drivers that often drivers don't get to race in a lot of other series these days. So it was completely the opposite back then. People were racing all over the place. These days, team owners were like, no, you're going to race in my series because if you get hurt, that impact sponsors that impacts everything that impacts the bottom line. And you know, it's less likely for something like that to happen today. Not like it's not completely unlikely. It's just less likely because things are more strict. There is an MLB picture that had to secretly he was like a Bronco rider and he just had signed a $400 million contract for over ten years. And was banned from doing anything, you know, like writing ETV's, he's like a country boy. But then they found out that he was writing bulls and bucking Broncos under this pseudonym, and they were like, you got to stop doing that. Your hands are your life, man. Good lord. I mean, honestly, though, if you're that rich anyway, like I get that he has contractual obligations, but if you have that much money anyway, do whatever you want. If your career ends, you still have money. It doesn't matter. Because on the other hand, there's a guy who a pitcher who is about to pitch in the World Series and could it because he was messing around with a drone and he cut his hand. Oh my God, that's embarrassing. To this day, there is a memorial for Jim at the hockenheim track and a gym Clark memorial award is given out annually by the association of Scottish motoring writers. And of course, many gather for the gym Clark rally held in berwickshire every year. Jim Clark's death actually really changed the way that team owners and team principles related to their drivers. This was the incident that made everyone kind of back up and take a step away and say we're not going to be Friends anymore. We're going to be business associates and this was especially important because Colin Chapman and Jim Clark were such good buddies. Colin Chapman actually became a after that to all of his drivers and y'all can rent was especially known for butting heads with Colin Chapman, and he was the one who replaced Jim Clark. I find this really interesting because like, okay, we're not going to have a relationship because we're business associates, but also the reason we're not having a relationship is because in this business that I am paying you to do, you may die. Like, that's so morbid. During his time in Formula One, Jim achieved 33 pole positions and won 25 of the 72 Grand Prix he took pardon. This win record gives him a 34.7% win rate, and is one of the top 5 most winningest Formula One drivers of all time if we go by win rate. He won the driver's championship twice and was crucial to the success of the lotus team. Jim was known to adapt to any car he was driving, or as sir Jackie Stewart put it, quote, he was so smooth, so clean, he drove with such finesse, he never bullied a race car. He sort of caressed it into doing things he wanted it to do. He really ferreted those race cars. We're going back to Barrett.
Past Gas
"colin chapman" Discussed on Past Gas
"Faces every week. Unfortunately, though, 1964 was a troublesome year for the lotus team, as a series of car failures took them out of contention for the championship. Though Jim finished third in the driver's championship as did lotus. But lotus worked to fix the lotus 33s issues, and with Jim's help, quickly turned things around in 1965. By the end of the season, Jim had won 6 out of 9 races and his second Formula One championship title. If Jim wasn't considered unstoppable then, he would be soon thereafter. At the 1965 Indianapolis 500, Jim led a 190 of the 200 laps in his lotus 38, racing at the then record average speed of over a 150 mph. Wow, wow. He became the first non American in almost half a century to win the Indy 500, as he beat, parnelli Jones, and Mario Andretti. The lotus 38 also broke a record. It was the first rear engine car to win the Indianapolis 500. That actually forced the hand of everyone in American open wheel racing. They were all raising front engine roadsters at that time. This was the race, the single race that made everyone decide that they needed to switch to rear engine cars. Well, thank you, Colin Chapman. Thank you, Colin Chapman. 1965 was a racing season, still considered by many to be the greatest season ever by any driver in the history of motor sport. To this day, Jim still remains as the only driver to win a Formula One World Championship and Indy 500 title in the same year. I feel like if we got max on some iRacing ovals at Indy, I think he could do it too. Yes, but also he can't unless he skips the Monaco Grand Prix because 19 races out of 24. I'm sure he doesn't need it. But I don't believe that Christian Horner, our guy, would ever let max skip Monaco because Monaco is such a big race for Formula One, because in racing, Monaco, the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 always happened on the same day. I agree with Liz, they'll have the title wrapped up by Monaco. Yeah, by race 7. Just go. But drivers have done the Indy 500 in the Coke 600 on the same day because you can actually fly between them. That's insane. Yeah, it's called doing the double doing the double. You do the Indy 500 at like noon and then you do the Coke 600 at like 5 30. So you get out of here 8500 car, get on the plane and you fly to Charlotte. You put an IV in your arm on the flight, eat some cliff bars. Doing the double. Oh my God. After his Indy 500 win, Jim's international fame grew. This wasn't a good thing for him as the quiet Scott began to dread press conferences and was often visibly uncomfortable when he had to make public appearances. His long-term girlfriend, Sally swart, described the press as very difficult for him and said that he was still very shy. She said, quote, it was a different life for him compared to life on the farm. While Jim was admired and liked by his peers aside from his teammates, known in the sport really knew him too well. In fact, Graham hill and sir Jackie Stewart, who were two very extroverted drivers that Jim consistently raced against, both said that Jim was the exact opposite of them. In the car, Jim was often described as the epitome of calm and controlled aggression, but off the track, he constantly chewed his fingernails and was surprisingly indecisive. Sounds like me. His girlfriend swart also said that going out to dinner together was frustrating because Jim couldn't even decide which restaurant to go to. His lack of decision making capabilities is even what eventually led him in swart to break up. This man would not survive Netflix. No. You know? No. And also, just go to a chain restaurant. I do it all the time. Swart was described as the love of his life, but she explains that they broke up in the end because Jimmy couldn't make up his mind. To what do you think that this is just the point of view of a jilted X? Jim was often described by friends as a terrible decision maker. I said. I think the in Jackie Stewart's autobiography, I think there's even like a little anecdote about how they were driving in Jim couldn't decide which fork in the road to take. Or like, did he just a map? No. Decided at the very last second, it was either that or it was like a train was coming and they were trying to figure out whether or not to stop. Oh my God. Yeah, just like trying to figure out whether or not stop. That sounds so whether or not you can make it. But the thing about sports and particularly racing is it's all about decisions. You see another driver do something and you have to decide, do I commit to this or do I back off? Maybe it's because he had too much time to think about it. On the track and more of just a reaction. That's true. Jim's success made him extremely wealthy, something that led him to become what they call a tax exile in Paris. There he would fly a piper twin Comanche plain that he bought from Colin Chapman and was often seen hanging around with different female companions. Friends said that pairs loosened him up a bit, got him liberated, with his new French citizenship though, Jim was unable to return to UK soil for a whole year. His sister said that it was quote a rough time for him to not be able to come and go as he pleased. Though Jim was never married, he did admit to a girlfriend of his that his goal was to eventually settle down and have a family of his own, back on the farm in Scotland. These long-term goals in mind, Jim began to purposely only sign one year contracts so that he could be free to leave the sport whenever he wanted. I respect that a lot, good for him. Formula One's 1966 season had a change in regulations that not only affected Jim, but the sport as a whole. At the time, sports cars were capable of outrunning Formula One cars due to their much larger, more powerful engines. So, the FIA increased inching capacity to three liters, which was not a smooth transition for many drivers or carmakers. Because the lotus 33 had a two liter Coventry, climax engine, the team was far less competitive than in previous seasons. Jim din score any points until he drove in the British Grand Prix and took third place in the following race at the Dutch Grand Prix. However, at the 1966 Italian Grand Prix and all races onwards, the team began using the highly complex BRM H 16 engines in their lotus 43 car, which finally gave Jim his only victory that Formula One season at the U.S. Grand Prix. He beat yakin rent and John surtees in the penultimate race. I love that name yakin rent so sick. I think any name that starts with a good year is a really good name, like a yeah. It's just intense. Sound like you're about to throw up a little bit. That's actually so true. Listen, it adds a little pizzazz. In 1967, Jim raced in three different lotus cars with three different engines. Chapman praises his ability to be flexible because as he put it, Jim was, quote, very easy on the machinery, which sounds like something like an older man would tell a woman standing next to a car. Yeah. The lotus 43, which he had driven to victory in 1966, made its final appearance at the 67 South African Grand Prix. After both Jim and his teammate, Graham hill had to retire the cars. The team then moved on to build the much more successful and aforementioned lotus 49, which was developed after lotus began working with Ford Cosworth. Jim drove it to victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, beating out Jack Brabham and Denny Holm. But unfortunately, his four wins of the season couldn't take away. His 5 retirements, and Jim ended the season in third. Jim did have some success in his third lotus, the now aging lotus 38, which he drove to victory at the Australia ziet tasman series, though he placed 31st at Indy in the
Past Gas
"colin chapman" Discussed on Past Gas
"From present day Italy, but from Croatia. Yes. That's a fun fact. That's a fun fact. I also think just Phil hill Phil hill is a pretty good name, like it's no wolf gang. It's no viper, but. Big rhymes. It makes me think of a guy that's as wide as he is tall. That's so true, actually. Yeah. A 100%. You got that completely right. So Jim found himself at a fork in the road with his career, with just one Formula One season under his belt, he was seriously considering retiring from the sport. On top of this, the Italian police got involved and blamed Jim for the accident and the deaths because von trips wheel got caught on Jim's wheel. However, after being questioned by police for three hours, Jim was fully cleared of the accusation. Fellow driver John surtees has since said the crash was very much erasing incident, and it took more than one thing for it to happen. Jimmy was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why does this sound so much like a modern Formula One investigation? There were a lot of crashes obviously involving the Ferrari team throughout their 70 years of racing. But every time something this big happened, the Vatican and the Italian government would come out against Ferrari and be like, we're investigating no more racing. They'd try to shut down Ferrari's race team every time this happened. And I thought that was a really interesting thing. In that book, the limit that they talked about is like, Enzo had fain empathy and be like, ah, you know, but he was really concerned about his cars more than he was his drivers. Well, you know, Elizabeth is full of not fun facts about Ferrari divers dying in Formula One. That's actually that's actually one of the biggest spots that stake it in her mind is that I was gonna say I think about them poor drivers a lot. Yeah. She does. And she talks about it. I think Ferrari is haunted now. That's why they can't win a race. Yeah. The dead drivers. Well, Jim retreated to his family's farm for some peace, but reporters followed him there to try to document anything they could. F one driver and friend John whitmore said Jim would suppress his emotions and didn't like to express them publicly. Then the emotions would build up and burst out excessively. He would get quite frustrated with journalists. Throughout Jim's career, the farm became his escape from the media. But you know, what's crazy is the most dangerous eras of motor sports happened when people were not talking through their emotions or getting therapy or anything like that. This was a rough time. Despite Jim's misgivings about continuing and Formula One, though, Chapman persuaded him to stay in the game. As lotus star driver. In 1962, team lotus introduced the revolutionary lotus 25. This car is powered by a climax V8 engine and was the first in F one history to have an aluminum alloy monocoque chassis. It was also extremely fast, though often unreliable. Chapman was so good at like he was a genius when it came to developing these super fast cars and they were always technically innovative, but there was no way you could actually test them until you took them out on the track. So that's why they were all of these hot messes. You'll hear this a lot in all of F one history, but especially with Colin Chapman. Every time he had a car, everyone hated it, it was always bad. Yeah. I mean, specifically the lotus 88, Elizabeth and I did a lot of research on the lotus 88, which was a revolutionary car because at the time Formula One was banning ground effect, ground effect basically glues the cars to the ground, makes them really fast. Formula One, they instituted a minimum ride height and basically said, look, your cars have to be this far off the ground. So Colin Chapman, the lotus 88, it was like a double chassis car. So when it was on pit road, still, it met the minimum ride height. And then when it would go out on track, the aerodynamics would push that chassis down, glue it to the ground and just completely reinstate the ground effect that Formula One tried to band. That's really interesting. And you got the stewards like, hey, what the heck? Yeah, they initially approved the car to race. It was good to go. Got the seal of approval, and you can still see it on the car, the little stamp that says good to race is on there. And then they evaluated it again right before the race, and they said, no, you can't race this. Yes. Regardless of the car's fickle nature, Jim success that year was proof of his true ability to drive any car he was sitting in. With the lotus 25, he blew the 1962 Formula One season out of the water. On top of winning three Grand Prix, the Belgian British and French, he also finished second in the championship to Graham hill. A title he only lost by 9 seconds. Jim's fame was growing on an international level. He was gaining a large fan base who not only admired him for his driving skills, but loved his humor and humble quiet nature. Fellow drivers loved and respected him too, quote, when he showed up, he was outstanding, said parnelli Jones, quote, he showed us the way. He did not get upset about losses, and if he was upset, he didn't show it. He was perfect when it came to being a gentleman. He never lost his cool about anything. Because he was bottling it up. Yeah. He takes it out on his turnips at his farm. He doesn't yell at the sheet. Yeah. Get back in the fence. Then came 1963. To give you an idea of how dominant Jim was that season, we'll talk about the Belgian Grand Prix. Jim started 8th on the grid, but passed all the cars in front of him, including early race leader, Graham hill. 17 rainy lops in, Jim had lapped the entire field except Bruce McLaren. In the end, Jim finished almost 5 minutes ahead of all other drivers. Good for him. This is why I love the arguments that people make nowadays that racing used to be so much more entertaining back in the day. You used to have stuff like this and like a 5 minute gap to the league. We thought like 40 seconds was bad, try 5 minutes. Jim set one record after another in 1963. He won 7 out of ten Grand Prix, a record that was not broken until Ayrton Senna won 8 races in 1988. By the end of the season, Jim became the youngest driver ever to be crowned world champion at age 27. For his over the hill now. Can you imagine having a Formula One season with ten races and we're like in the mid 20s now? Be hard to do a podcast. That's for sure. Make sure you check out donut racing show. It's our podcast with me, Alanis and Liz, and we talk Formula One every week, baby. We're going weekly this year. It's been a lot of fun. That is so exciting. Wow, I get to see y'all
Past Gas
"colin chapman" Discussed on Past Gas
"In 1958, at age 22, Jim raced against Colin Chapman in a ten lap race. Jim later described the experience as a whale of a dice with Colin and admitted, quote, if I had known what I know now, I wouldn't have done half the things I did in that race. What does that mean? I'm talking about. Jim and Chapman were neck and neck when a back marker spun in front of Jim's car, which let Chapman slip past him and take the win. Jim finished second. Chapman was impressed by Clark's driving skills and asked Jim to join lotus formula junior, something that launched Jim into the next phase of his career. Chapman wanted to finesse the lotus car and felt Jim was the perfect driver to test it. He offered Jim a job, and even stopped his own racing to focus on the mechanics and engineering of the lotus car. Over time, Jim and Chapman became closest brothers and relied on each other for different needs. Chapman admired the humble and sincere qualities in Jim. Quote, Jim was as impressive as a human being as he was, a driver. Chapman understood Jim's feedback opinions and requests when few others did. Jim was not as technically minded as Chapman and he relied on him to translate his concerns with the cars and racing into engineering terms and solutions. Also, Jim Clark was very, very small and light, which if you know Colin Chapman, he loves that. He loves small and light. Yeah. That is so true. I actually don't know if Jim was smaller, light. He was both. He was pretty short. He was 230 pounds, 6 foot tall, had a size 38 waist. I love how he had glasses. We're just describing this guy as like, he came from a farm and wasn't technically minded at all. And he just drove the cars fast. Like, I don't know. He's definitely not from that racing background, you know? Sometimes you need just like a stupid guy that's willing to put his life on the wrist. Yeah, exactly. He's still thinking back then. Yeah. The two are always standing together, making tweaks on their car with the harmony of a pair of long practice musicians, according to Brendan mcaleer, of the drive, very well put. Chapman often say to that he had, quote, no idea where Jim speed came from, while Jim said quote, I don't drive faster, I just concentrate harder. Because I started that, now he's just southern. Jim's 1959 racing season ended with 19 wins and 11 podiums. But he and Chapman would go on to even greater wins in the years to come. Holy crap, that's a dominant season there. Jim's career was moving in a direction he could have never imagined when he drove his sunbeam Talbot at local rallies. While he's still dreamed of working on the family farm, he made room for a new dream too, driving in Formula One. I like how he's just like, man, these race cars are awesome. And I'm very good at it. But you know what I really want? To be a farmer. I want to smell sheep all day. I just read the limit about the 1961 Grand Prix and they talk a lot about Wolfgang von trips, who is like a royalty basically. He was a count, his family had a big estate and after the war they were just kind of, you know, all they had was the estate and they had to use the land to farm and stuff. And he would go in between Formula One seasons to go like harvest, turnips and stuff with his damn. I thought that was a similar time. Wolfgang is like the name of all names. That is such a cool name. My name was Wolfgang. I would be so insufferable. I'm Wolfgang. Wolfgang viper over here. Walking viper. That would be, I would be so uncomfortable. What I'm thinking about when I'm reading this is can you imagine like a modern farmer in Formula One? The reality show would be a combination of drive to survive on Netflix. And that new show that I keep getting advertisements for during NASCAR races, which is far more like a wife. Barbara wants a wife. A watermelon man? Watermelon farmer? That's so much more normal for NASCAR than Formula One. Watermelon farmer and NASCAR totally normal. Formula One. Farmer wants a wife. That would be interesting. Anyway. After winning the formula junior championship, the 23 year old was promoted to team lotus for the latter part of the 1960 Formula One season. Jim competed in a total of 6 races that season, and even achieved his first ever Formula One podium. By placing third at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Jim proved that he was serious competition in the sport, and many people took notice of his success. But not all attention is good attention. Damn, 23 years old and he got a podium. Can you imagine how happy Niko hulkenberg would be? A year into his Formula One career, Jim suffered one of the worst weekends in Formula One. Early on in the Belgian Grand Prix at spa, driver Chris bristowe fatally crashed his Cooper and Jim had to swerve to avoid him. Then, a few laps later, Jim's lotus teammate Alan Stacy died after he was hit in the face by a bird and lost control of his car. What a lame way to get. I mean, not on it's not his fault. I'd be pissed. I die in that accident. I'm in the afterlife. And I look up. I'm like, that was a freaking bird just take me out. And the bird is right next to you, because you died at the same time. Saint Peter, you're like, oh, that hawk really hurt my head, and he's like, that was a Finch dog. Yeah. That was a tiny little chickadee. Well, I mean, you know, racing drivers always talk about how, you know, if they're gonna die in action, then they died doing what they loved. But does that apply when a bird hits you? The bird that Randy Johnson killed with his pitch. He's looking over like, yeah, not so cool, is it? See how it feels? Not so cool because in later interviews, Jim confessed that this race nearly put him off of racing forever, and that he was driving scared stiff pretty much all through the race. Following these tragedies, Jim entered into a race that would haunt him throughout his career. During the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, driver Wolfgang von Tripp's Ferrari failed to see Clark in his blind spot and collided with his lotus. Von Tripp's car skidded off, wrote up an embankment off the track and struck a fence. Killing 9 spectators immediately. That is a lot. Another 5 would die a short time later. This is said to be one of the most tragic accidents in F one history. Von trip was found thrown from the car having died from blunt force trauma to his head, and from his car landing on him. Clark was devastated. Oh man, that's a, that's a. This is like the opposite of a fun fact, but von trips his death at monzo meant that his teammate Phil hill won the championship that year. Phil hill was the first of two Americans to win a championship. The other was Mario Andretti, who secured his championship after his teammate died in an accident at the Italian Grand Prix.
Past Gas
"colin chapman" Discussed on Past Gas
"This not better than thinking your way better at driving and racing than you are? Because I feel like that's a lot of people today. They're like, oh, I'm the best and they're not. I don't know, it's still kind of assuming you're the best. Is he? Just assuming everyone is worse. I think it's more endearing, we've got this little farmer guy who's just like, what's going on? I'm just imagining him with like overalls and a straw hat, driving a race car around now. Yeah, that was actually probably the safety standard back then. That is why so many people died. There's like a quite literally. The inch of sheep's wool between his hair and leather cappy's wearing. Oh yeah, super safe. Well, around this same time, Jim was starting to get some heat from his parents about his participation and motor sport, like many parents, they were afraid of the very real dangers associated with competitive driving. Jim struggled with his push and pull as his skills and love of Gracie, racing grew. He felt loyal to his family and the life he came from, but he couldn't deny his talent. Eventually, Jim began to take driving more seriously and with time left that simple life on the farm behind him. On June 16th, 1956, 20 year old Jim entered his very first race where he drove a DKW sonda class or special class at the cremin track in Scotland. The track was on an old airfield perimeter and had a typical circuit structure, but this type of track was completely new for Jim. Most Scottish tracks were flat. On top of this, Jim's DKW lacked the power compared to his competitors cars. The DKW didn't look like the type of car someone would race in. It was high and narrow, and the engine only had 34 brake horsepower. Jim was outraged beyond belief, only passing one car in all of his laps. His competition included dougie Duncan in a Jaguar XK one 20. There is Canadian Bruce Allen in a Jaguar XK one 40. As Charlie Davidson in a triumph TR two and J O'Hare in an MG. It's a cool names in there. Can you imagine driving a vehicle with 34 brake horsepower? Yeah, I've driven a Miata. I think the cabriolet that we have the VW cabriolet had like 41 horsepower or something when they took it to the dino. Man, that's rough. Yeah. Jim and his DKW eventually headed for the pits with a broken half shaft that landed him in last place. Despite the loss, Jim still had impressive times and was in high spirits. Scott Watson said, quote, Jimmy loved to go to crema. We stayed at a bed and breakfast near the village, and there's always a barn dance somewhere in the vicinity. He never wasted any time fairing out the best looking girl. That is so weird. People said back then, ferreting, or is this just an interesting word? He threw in there. You know what? Aggressively searching. I think it's probably hunting because you have dogs that would hunt vermin or. Yeah, but the ferret is running away. The ferret isn't hunting. So is he running away from these little you have your little Scottish terriers that you take ferreting? That's what I would guess. Oh. That makes sense. Okay. I think ferritin means you are the ferret. And you're square run around. So he's running away. Yeah. Storing food for the winter? Have you ever held a ferret? It's like, always goes up. Snakes with legs and fur. This is not a good visual anymore. 'cause I was out there squirming around. Do people sleep? You know, Jim Clark always trial and for. Oh my God. Okay, well. All right. That was awful. 16 months after Jim's first race, he swapped out his DKW for Scott Watson's 1957 Porsche 1600 S in three races in charter hall, berwickshire. He finished third, second, and then first, and won the BMR C trophy. This one was monumental for Jim's career and proved he deserved a place in the sport. He even beat local garage owner and border reavers founder, jock mcbain. Hell of a name. Sickest name ever. No, I think the sickest name ever is viper. Shit. I can't argue with that. I can't argue with that. What they viper, you would be like, damn. I think that's a sick name. The keyword is if, 'cause I've never met anyone named viper. Listen, I thought about making my name viper. Like, hey, I'm viper. People will be like, what? Yeah, that would be pretty sick. Let's move along. Jock with bane, who was light years more experience and had more power and money backing him. Mcbain was impressed by Scott Watson and Clark and set a meeting with the two, where he asked Jim if he was, quote, prepared to race a real race car and if Scott Watson can manage a revamped border reavers team. They agreed and began searching for the right car, resulting in a market brothers D type or better known as the Jaguar D type. At age 21, Jim was officially entering the big leagues. Big gym entering the big leagues. This seems so impressive on a 50, 70 years ago scale. But today, people enter the big leagues at like 18. Yeah. Yeah, but those are like sons of multi millionaires and billionaires. And this guy's a farm. They won the dad lottery. Yeah, they won the dad lottery. I still think about when we went to the fast X trailer premiere and Michelle Rodriguez is like, kids in Europe, they're not cornballs. They start racing early. I'm talking 14 years old. Is cornball not something people call corny people? What is a cornball? Nothing she said made sense. They were 14. They started four. They started four, yeah. Okay. The new border reavers team was an impressive group. Their team name was inspired by the historical 13th to 17th century raiders who resided along the Anglo Scottish border and raided the entire country's border, basically killing anyone that crossed their paths. The revamped crew team consisted of mcbain as the local garage owner, Scott Watson is the secretary, Jim is the main driver and Alec Calder, who later married one of Jim's sisters as the second driver. The team worked together to fine tune their cars and to races and organize events so Jim could perfect his natural talent. Besides each member of skills and brains, friendship and close ties are what truly brought them together. In the wow. That was cute. That was so cute. In the Jaguar D type, Jim set a record at full Sutton circuit becoming the first driver to average over a 100 mph in a British sports car race. That's nuts. That's Holland ass. A full month later, the team entered their first continental race at spa Franco shop in Belgium for the 1000 kilometer race. Jim finished 5th on the demanding circuit while driving their Porsche 1600 super. Mcbain was so ecstatic about Jim's win in progress that he decided it was time to get him into a formula two single seater. Even though Jim had never driven a single seater car or driven at brain's hatch before, he was instantly impressive. Jim was set to test the border reavers lotus elite prototype and so entered as a lotus 16 minivan wall contender. Some other pretty notable names are in attendance to test that car as well. Cliff Alison in Ireland, Graham hill. Of course, lotus founder Colin Chapman was there too, just in time to change Jim's career trajectory forever. What I find really interesting about the description of single seater is like pretty much all race cars are single seater unless they're rally cars. We just call it a single seater because it's only fit for one person. The other cars, they just take the seats out. It's kind of like stock car at NASCAR. It doesn't really have any meaning anymore. But we still say it. It's
F1: Beyond The Grid
"colin chapman" Discussed on F1: Beyond The Grid
"Welcome to be only agreed with me. Tom clark's this week. Going back a few decades to speak to a driver some of you may have heard of and some you may not but whose f. one story is both inspiring and humbling and at times incredibly frustrating. His day of days came at the nineteen ninety japanese grand prix. He finished second in that race behind his friend. Mental and benetton teammate. Nelson piquet the man. I'm talking about is brazilian. Supersub roberto marina suzuka. Ninety was roberto's first race for benetton and the only podium of his formula one career he'd been drafted in to replace the injured alessandro menini hence the nickname supersub and he would race for the team for most of nine thousand nine hundred one as well until is one michael schumacher arrived on the scene and replaced him from the italian grand prix. Onwards but roberto untimely exit from benetton shouldn't detract from what he achieved in his racing career. Because it was a career that happened against all odds. He arrived in europe from brazil with no money. Not a cent and yet. He managed to climb the racing ladder on talent alone. He was formula three thousand champion and got tess rolls with colin chapman's lotus and with ferrari the latter as they were developing icon. Ick send me automatic gearbox in late eighty s when it came to racing. Though the bulk of roberto's machinery was second rate aside from bennett's own he drove for f one minnows. Ats colonie europeran andrea moda and forty the fact that roberto managed to qualify the andrea moda for the nineteen ninety. Two monaco. grand prix was little short of miraculous. What you're about to hear is one of the most interesting and emotional conversations. We've had on beyond the great for eto is incredibly candid. And he's living proof that perseverance pays off. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Rebecca how fantastic to see it really is where in the world are you first of all i mean florida way. I came full. Formula one was done for me. I remember any cars was a great saying i done in the past. Raise the money to go back to full the one. So i thought well i'll take ago and I came to florida to doing the cars and my gals grew up here. I have two girls. And i had to stay because they grew up in this area suspicious house though he i am because now roberto when i think of your formula one career the first thing that comes to mind..
AM 970 The Answer
"colin chapman" Discussed on AM 970 The Answer
"The last two or three weeks we've bean Hold back across the English Channel over to our wonderful friends who we loved her. French kiss and hug him share onions with and be friendly and drink wine and break bread. That is the French. The French automotive industry seems to be in the news. Constantly in Europe and for very, very good reason. Because today we are to reveal having enjoyed some nice French music from the French filmmaker Jack Tatty. A wonderful new piece of news, which is that Renault is to reintroduce some designs off older cars that it was really excellent at In the seventies and eighties, starting off, namely with the Renno five, which was a real hit here. I think one or two might have made their way over to your side off the scene, and they were certainly very, very visible here. Ah, fantastic piece of packaging design. If ever there was The French have a neck off making very nice, smooth running cars that are not always beautifully manufactured. But we're not going to talk about that today. What we're talking about is great design in jewels. What should you resurrect it? And this is this is the key. This is the key. Mike, are you Are you asking or telling us? Well, I'm kind of telling you s O. I will go straight in and just summarize what is actually happening. Why are Renno resurrecting some older designs off phased out cars? From the seventies and eighties. Well, very, very simply. Reynaud is fast losing profits. Sadly, so it's decided to look back at its heritage. And that's always a very, very good idea when you're working as a designer. To draw on previous designs that you have lurking in your sketch pad on as we know design is key in all human endeavor. And design is about making things better in everything that we do, and especially in the automotive industry. We have design, which is a key word, which is used in the exterior and the interior off a vehicle. Basically a car is a box, which contains loads of complex components over 20,000 components, which all go into this box with wheels with a former propulsion that gets you along the Earth's surface. This ultimate package or box where all these components go. Has to look right at each car manufacturer has its own set of credentials in terms of its visual identity, and each car designer expresses what that is, in terms of how He is interpreting what the values off the car company that he is working for. So in a nutshell. Every manufacturer has its own visual identity, so I don't need to run through all the cars that are out there. Some have wonderful design. Some don't I think that the moment the majority all seem to look pretty much the same. So sticking to the point Ren of of quickly looked how they can really get back into profit. And as we know electric vehicles off, the thing on electric vehicles are really gathering pace, so Much the same way that fit resurrected the fit 500 BMW kept the famous mini, although it seems to have taken a foot pump to the mini and made it a big me As a test of money. They made their made the many really big This is not an unusual thing for a car manufacturer to look back and draw upon the previous, really great piece of design and resurrect it. Of course, it's not going to be an identical image off the rain 05. And the other thing is that there is that Renault understand are looking at the remarkable Renno Al Peen, which is a sports car, which is also out there at the moment for sale. There's talk that this will be converted to be on evey. But we look at design on we have to understand that design is a result of many, many things. It's the result of emotion. It's a result of psychology, marketing social influences on also, above and beyond anything else, a desire by manufacturers such as Renault. To try and dominate its particular market segment Vet it is positioning itself and so as we conceive, vehicle design is is complex. It's not a simple thing, and it's really, really interesting. How Renno Have made this decision to go forward with a previous does. You know, I think design is so important. But like we saw with the drink which end? All right, the Fiat 500 like they resurrected, and it didn't do too well in the United States, And I'm you know, one of the reasons why it didn't do so well is because the car was terrible. I mean, it looked good. But it broke down all the time. I mean, so everything is like Renault once know wants to get get back in the game. Why don't you make a car that that that's where a lot of David What are you complaining about? You get to fix them. Oh, I get to hear screaming customers going. Why can't fix my field because we can't get parts because they're in Italy. Um So I mean, Robert, I get it, You know, design and you know, like Volkswagen also brought back to be all right, you know, but the Beetle I think was it's a reliable It's a much more reliable car. I mean, you can't just build the car. So let's bring back this design and that's gonna save us. How about bringing back that? I'm often bringing back nice designs, but let him You know, when you turn the key, they should start that That beetle was probably the best resurrection of old. Anybody agree. I would, I would say on and it's still now it's on. What is it a 2nd 3rd Generation four generation or whatever. It's They keep anybody any bet someone when it comes back again in I mean, when it comes back again next time they didn't bring it back is a sales slump a little, but Yeah, but interesting about design and how those The best designs of my opinion really started like mid sixties and went up to maybe the late seventies. You know, much more variety and design And I think it's probably because of aerodynamics. Wright Robert. I mean, it's weird Dynamics kind of came into the picture on def you'll economy and government, you know, input on all that stuff. You saw a lot of similar designs in cars, right fuel economy. Very, very true. I mean, Fuel fuel economy Using lighter weight materials, you know, lotuses design genius. Mr. Colin Chapman's mantra was designed And add lightness, so design and add lightness. That's a very, very cool thing. Toe think about But there is a question running here on the final question is resurrecting old design. Is that a cool thing? Could it be that designers are running out of fresh stimulus? Are we in an era of visual design, Aunt style stagnation that's really reflecting where we are currently in the world. Now with this pandemic, is it Because design is a feeling That there's a pressure things are not looking very good. So we're looking into our past, looking a great things that made us feel good. All of this thing about design is about stimulus on Ask any designer and he'll tell you that he looks or she looks for all sorts of reference points. It could be a trainer. It could be the cut off a jacket. It could be A polyester bag that has got a little design detail in its in its corner, and that just sticks in the mind and that sketched out and it goes on to some other starting point. It's a very interesting time on it could be that we're having a renaissance. With the electric vehicle that's coming up that designers in car companies who are there at the forefront are looking at all the great good stuff that came before developing it. As a building block to go forward..