Booby Prize from Wide Track Country - Pontiac Firebird

In 1954 vice president of engineering at General Motors Oliver K Kelly called Packards head of Research and Development John DeLorean to offer him a choice of jobs across the five divisions on General Motors. DeLorean who at the time also had the choice of moving to Studebaker with whom Packard had just merged settled on becoming assistant to chief engineer Elliot 'Pete' Estes at Pontiac.



By 1963 John had become chief engineer at Pontiac, and Estes had become general Manager when they together with engine specialist Russell Gee and chassis engineer Bill Collins convinced the GM management to let them offer a $296 performance package on the Pontiac LeMans Coupé and Convertible body stiles that included a 325 hp 6.4 litre / 389 cui V8 motor normally found in the full size Pontiac Catalina and Bonneville models, from whence the 'Wide Track' strap line was born and named it GTO a name John picked up from the Ferrari 250 GTO.



The Pontiac GTO with initial production limited to 5,000, by a disbelieving Pontiac Sales Manager Frank Bridge, was an instant hit with Ronnie and the Daytonas, the youth market at which it was aimed and GM Management. The GTO was responsible for transforming the image of the brand from an 'aunties car' to a youth orientated performance brand with over 32, 000 units built in 1964.



As the GTO was launched John DeLorean moved on to the development of the Pontiac Banshee a concept car to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette which was killed by GM's top management. DeLorean seen as Pontiacs golden boy was promoted to head of the entire Pontiac division and given the consolation task of turning the Chevrolet Camaro into a Pontiac Pony Car with the proviso that there could be no alterations to the sheet metal except to the front and rear panels.



By incorporating a signature Pontiac split grill with built in bumper at the front and a version of the rear strip lights seen on the two Banshee concept cars the Pontiac Pony car was easily distinguishable from it's Chevrolet sibling, Having failed to acquire the Banshee naming rights from rocket scientist Eugene F. Lally, who had successfully raced a Corvette powered special of the same name, for less than ¢50 per car, the name Firebird which had been previously used by GM on three seriously out landish gas turbine concept cars, was eventually adopted for the Pontiac pony car.



The absence of marker lights, Federally mandated in 1968, and the E suffix on the registration plate confirm this as most likely one of the five variations of the 1967 model line up.



The Ram Air bonnet / hood suggests this car had the top of the range 6.6 litre / 400 cui motor installed when it left the factory.



Just over 100,132 1967 Firebirds are thought to have been manufactured of which 9,980 were convertible.

Thanks for joining me on this Wide Track Country edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Perfect Car For A Wedding #6 - Rolls Royce Corniche

I am off to a wedding today, the first one I have attended where my friends children are the ones getting married, so it seems appropriate to feature another Perfect Car for a wedding on today's blog.



Today's Rolls Royce is known as the Silver Shadow Mulliner Park Ward Drop Head Coupé which first appeared in 1967 was renamed Corniche in 1971 when this model scene at the Haynes International Motor Museum was built.



The Corniche assembled and finished in London by Mulliner Park Ward is based on the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow / Bentley T floor plan with the same 'adequate' aluminium 6230 cc / 380 cui Rolls Royce motor.



The Corniche name was first used by Rolls Royce in the 1930's for a Mark V prototype with Parisian coach work by van Vooren, legend has it that after 15,000 miles of Continental testing in Europe was awaiting repatriation to England when it was hit by a bomb at Dieppe docks.

In the UK it would probably take a particularly brave couple to opt for a convertible on their wedding day but then as they used to say in Rome 'Fortes fortuna adiuvat'. For the brave this Corniche can be hired from the Haynes International Motor Museum.

Wishing Lotti & Ronnie and all those getting married today all the best and many happy years together.

Thanks for joining me on this Corniche edition of 'Gettin a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Tribute to Ronnie - March 71B - 08

Resting in the entrance to Colin Bennett's CGA Engineering in Warrington a couple of Saturdays ago was this March 71B belonging to Katsu Kubota a 'gentleman driver' who admires one of my heroes Ronnie Peterson.



The car is painted in the colours used by Ronnie Peterson when he drove a similar car in 1971 to win the European Formula 2 Championship, a second tier open wheel series for cars powered by engines up to 1600 cc / 109.9 cui.



Ronnie frpm Almby in the vicinity of Örebro, Sweden, secured the championship with four wins at Rouen, Mantrop Park, Flugplatz Tulln-Langenlebarn, Vallelunga and took five pole positions. Ronnie also secured second place in the World Drivers Championship in 1971.



The ambitious March team took it's name from founders Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd, in 1969 they built a Formula 3 third tier open wheeler and the following year decided to take the racing world by storm by manufacturing vehicles to compete in Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula Ford and Can-Am for customers to race, while also running factory teams in the Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 open wheel series. Jochen Rindt originally agreed to race the works Formula 1 car but backed out when he realised the scale of the March undertaking outside Formula 1.



This 71B was originally built to take part in Formula Atlantic races in 1971, Formula Atlantic also known as Formula B in the USA was a halfway house between Formula 3 and Formula 2 powered by 1600 cc / 109.9 cui motors that were not in such a high state of tune as either Formula 3 or Formula 2 and therefore much cheaper to run. The 71B chassis has many components that are interchangeable with the March 713 and 712 chassis built for Formula 3 and Formula 2 respectively.



At present I know nothing about the history of chassis 71B - 08 prior to Mr Kubota's ownership if you did please chime in below or send me an e-mail, my e-mail address can be found in my 'Blogger' profile.



I understand wooden gear stick knobs are popular in the racing community because they save weight, the Porsche 917 famously used a gear stick knob made of balsa wood.



The motor fitted to Mr Kubota's March is an out of period 1,975 cubic centimetres /120.5 cui Ford Cosworth BDG 4 cylinder unit with an aluminium cylinder block of a type that was sanctioned in Formula 2 from 1972.



Last year Mr Kubota became the first driver from Japan to win an FIA sanctioned Formula One race in the Historic Formula One series, this year he will also race the genuine March 761/06 as raced by Ronnie Peterson to victory in the 1976 Italian GP, a car that will appear in a future blog once I have seen it run later in the summer.

My thanks to Colin Bennett for having me and several members of The Nostalgia Forum visit his fascinating workshop and to Tony Gallagher for organising the trip.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Tribute to Ronnie Peterson edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

When Everything Went Wrong - Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs

The Indianapolis 500 run in 1964 will be for ever remembered as one of those days where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, not just in front of the 250,000 spectators at the track , including the late Ed Arnaudin who took took today's photos from the exit of turn 4, but also on live close circuit cinema broadcasts through out the United States.

The out come of everything going wrong was a fireball and the instant death of Eddie Sachs and a couple of hours later, as a result of his injuries, the death of Dave MacDonald.

Eddie Sachs was known as the 'Clown Prince of Auto Racing'. Born May 28th 1927 in Allentown, PA, Eddie won the 1958 USAC Midwest Sprint Car Championship.

From 65 AAA and USAC starts Eddie won 8 USAC Championship races, he started twice from pole at Indianapolis in 1960 and '61. With three laps to go in '61 Eddie made a pit stop from the lead to replace a delaminating tyre finishing second saying afterwards "I'd sooner finish second than be dead." This was to be his best career result in the 'Indy 500'.

In 1963 Eddie was running 4th behind Parnelli Jones and Jim Clark in the Indy 500, when Parnelli's oil tank split spilling oil on the track allegedly causing Eddie to spin into retirement with 9 laps to go. After the race Eddie got into a fist fight with Parnelli over the issue and earned himself a year on probation from USAC.

Dick Sommers Eddie's team owner at the race has been quoted since as saying “I’ve often regretted not having yelled and screamed at the USAC board that day in the hope that Eddie would follow suit. He probably would have been suspended for a year and might be still around.”

Dave MacDonald known as the 'Master of Oversteer' was born in July 23rd 1936 in El Monte, CA, Dave's start in motor sport was on the Drag Strips of California and proceeded on to road courses with Don Steven's Corvettes usually numbered '00'. Scoring a remarkable 26 wins from 57 races in three seasons brought Dave to the attention of Carroll Shelby in 1963.

Shelby's faith in Dave was rewarded with 17 further outright and class wins including the first wins recorded in the 260, 289 and Shelby Daytona Cobra's. Daves last victory was at the wheel of a King Cobra at the USRCC event at Kent Washington on May 10th 1964. From 101 races Dave managed a remarkable 44 victories.

Also severely injured in the aftermath of the 2nd lap incident at Indy in 1964 was Ronnie Duman who's car caught fire after a secondary collision causing injuries from which it took two and a half months to recover.



As if to emphasis just how difficult it was to learn the lessons of the fireball at Indy in 1964 Bobby Marshmam, who started in the middle of the front row at Indy that year, went tire testing at Phoenix at the end of the season, he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt when his fuel tank ruptured in an accident. A week later Bobby died of the burns sustained in the accident.

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin for the scans of his Dad's photographs.

Join me again tomorrow for another edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres'. Don't forget to come back now !