The Pawn - Ferrari 637

Ever since Renault turned up on the grid of the British Grand Prix in 1977 with a 1500cc / 91.5 CUI the stability and hegemony that had been born out of the 500hp 3 litre / 183 cui Ford sponsored Cosworth V8 as the dominant force in Grand Prix racing in 1966 had been under attack. By 1985 power output of the little turbocharged motors had risen from 525 hp in 1977 to 1200 hp in qualifying trim, expensive motors were being built simply to last a couple of qualifying laps a situation that could not last indefinitely.

To get a grip on the situation for 1987 the FIA the ruling body of Grand Prix racing mandated a limit of 4 bar / 58 psi on turbochargers which was reduced for 1988 to just 2.5 bar / 36 psi in 1988 when 3.5 litre / 213.5 cui normally aspirated motors would be allowed to take part in preparation for a completely normally aspirated formula 3.5 litre formula in 1989.

These normally aspirated motors were originally intended to be of a mandated V8 configuration, and this detail upset Enzo Ferrari, who wanted to build a V12 for the new regulations, so badly that he set in motion the design of the Ferrari 637 to compete in the Indianapolis 500.

Consultation with Goodyear led to the leading Truesports team and their March 85C complete with driver Bobby Rahal conducting tests in Italy with Ferrari Grand Prix driver Michele Alboreto.



Photographer Unknown image will be credited or removed upon request.

After the tests Ferrari took the March apart and with the lessons learned Gustav Brunner designed this pretty Championship racing car seen here with Michele Alboreto at the wheel.

Unlike the still born Lotus 96 which was built entirely out of carbon fibre for Al Unser Jnr to drive for Winkleman racing in 1985, the Ferrari 637's monocoque was manufactured from a carbon fibre lower half and a conventional aluminium top half.

Between the announcement of the Ferrari Indycar project and its first tests the FIA relented and removed the stipulated V8 configuration for the 1989 Formula One regulations.

In consequence Ferrari built a mildly successful V12 engine which was completely usurped by the V10 engines of first Honda, Renault and Ilmor Mercedes which won most of the drivers and constructors Championships from 1989 to 2000 interrupted ironically only by the Ford V8 which Michael Schumacher used in his Benetton to win his first World Drivers Championship in 1994.

In 1989 Alfa Romeo part of the same FIAT automotive empire as Ferrari announced it's own still born Indy Car programme with an engine designed completely from scratch, unrelated to the Ferrari engine tested in 1986, which was fitted to a proprietary March chassis. At the press launch of the programme journalist Doug Nye spotted an all white vehicle that was clearly not a March chassis with an ALFA Romeo logo on it that nobody from ALFA Romeo was prepared to talk about, it turns out that ALFA may have considered using the chassis of the Ferrari 637 as a test hack for their new motor.

Thanks for joining me for this Ferrari Friday edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow for AJ Foyt Day tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

English Corvette - TR7 V8

The prototype V8 powered Triumph TR7 variant was produced as early as 1972. The performance of the model led to these vehicles being dubbed English Corvettes in some circles.



The Triumph TR8 Coupe was in production from 1978 to 1980 the TR8 Drophead was designed by Michelotti and introduced in 1980 continuing in production until 1982.



As a result of poor labour relations and the inherent industrial action it is thought that only 400 TR8 Coupes were built along with an estimated 2400 Dropheads, the majority of which were sold in the United States and Canada.



In other countries outside North America some TR7 owners upgraded their cars with variations of the all alloy Buick / Rover 3528cc / 215 cui V8. From the best records available to me this appears to be one such upgraded car.

My thanks to the Pistonhead who brought this TR7 V8 along to the Sunday Service at the BMW plant back in January.

Slightly off topic, why is it the only time 'my' driver 'Happy' Harvick wins a cup race I am too busy too catch it ?

Congratulations to Kevin, who is misquoted to give this blog it's name, and the #29 Richard Childress Team :-)

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

Moby DIck - Porsche 935/78 #006

The Porsche 935/78 was a one off vehicle built to win the 1978 Le Mans 24 hours and was the ultimate works development of the, then 15 year old, 911 which would not be topped until the advent of the 911 GT1 built in the late 1990's. Notice that in preparation for Le Mans the drivers seat was placed on the right hand side optimising weight distribution for a race run on a clockwise track.



Thanks to a rule made at the request of arch enemy BMW the body was lowered 10cm 3.9 inches over the standard 911 by cutting out the standard floor plan with the engine like wise now lowered the gearbox was inverted to raise the drive shafts closer to their original height. Apart of from the front windscreen almost every body panel was optimised to maximise the top speed on the 4 mile Mulsanne straight where 235 mph was eventually achieved.



The 935/78 was equipped with a 750 hp 3.2 litre 195 cui flat 6 with 4 valves per cylinder in water cooled cylinder heads, a first for Porsche who had always raced air/oil cooled motors up until this time.



The car seen here driven Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass at the 1978 Silverstone 6 hour race, a warm up for the Le Mans 24 hours, romped away from the opposition, mostly private Porsche's with a single works BMW driven by Ronnie Peterson and Hans Joachim Stuck, finished a ridiculous 7 laps ahead of the rest of the field.



Stommelen/Schurti qualified 'Moby Dick', as the 935/78 was known, third on the grid at Le Mans however a silly stunt in which the car was driven on the road from Porsches garage outside the circuit to the circuit on race day went horribly wrong when predictably the car got caught in race day traffic causing the engine to over heat which created an oil leak. The subsequent loss of performance meant the car could only finish 8th.

935/78 #006 appeared twice more in 1978 but disgraced itself with two retirements and has since been consigned to the Porsche Museum. Joest Racing built two further 935/78's from factory drawings in 1981.

Hope you have enjoyed today's 235 mph edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again for another turbo charged blog tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !