Allard + Farrell + Maserati = The Farrallac MK2

The origins of the Farrallac featured today lie in the Allard J2, chassis J1911registration JWP 800, that rising star Peter Collins purchased and took delivery of in Kidderminster on March 29th 1951.



[Photo supplied by David Hooper copyright holder unknown, this photo will be credited or removed upon request]

Peter Collins seen above, possibly at Westwood Park, on the left drove JWP 800 to victories at two national events held at Gamston and at least one more at Croft where he set an outright lap record.



After passing through the hands of a businessman in the Midlands JWP 800 ended up in the hands of cycle manufacturer Don Farrell who with his wife Stella, a champion cyclist, used the car to compete in hillclimbs and sprints.



In order to improve the stability and straight line speed of the cycle winged J2 Don built an all enveloping body for the vehicle and with the unoffficial aid of Allard draghtsman, later Chief Engineer, Dave Hooper fitted the car with wishbone front suspension.



The Farrallac Mk1 was used by the Farrells for two years until October 1959 when crossing the finishing line on a hillclimb near Marlow, having set Fastest Time of the Day a track rod broke which consequently sent the car over a barbed wire fence rendering JWP 800 beyond repair and left Don Farrell nursing his wounds in hospital.



While recovering Don planned The Farrallac Mk2 which he subsequently built in 1960



[Photo Courtesy David Hooper]

using the 400 hp 5980cc Cadillac engine,



Alvis gearbox and some of the suspension salvaged from JWP 800 which were fitted to a new twin tube chassis along with Alfin drum brakes.



David Hooper tells me the rear body work came from a J2



while the front was sourced from a Maersati.



With a top speed of 165 mph



The Farrallac Mk2 was campaigned by the Farrells covering standing 1/4 miles in 12 seconds.



In the mid sixties the Farrallac Mk2 passed into the hands of Burno Ferrari who replaced the Cadillac motor for a Ford then the car disappeared,



resurfacing in the hands of Tony Bianchi in the late 1970's.



Tony spent seven years bring the car back to health finding a Cadillac engine and fitting it with "Offy" cylinder heads from a stock car. Tony still owns the Mk2 33 years later.

Bob Bull the passenger above tells me he saw an indicated 160 mph as he hung on to his helmet flying along Silverstone's Hangar Straight.

My thanks to Bob Bull, Colin Warnes of the Allard Register, Allard Chief Engineer David Hooper, Simon Taylor, Classic and Sportscar Magazine (July 1985), The Nostalgia Forum members C Drewett, and Fuzzi for their photo's and help with information for today's blog.

Thanks for joining me on today's Farrallac edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' join me again tomorrow for another visit to Castle Combe. Don't forget to come back now !

Thirty Years Ago - Le Mans 1981

This weekend sees the 79th running of the Le Mans 24 hours , unfortunately I will not be there in person but will almost certainly follow the progress of the race on the internet. Thirty years ago I went to Le Mans for the first time.



I arrived as practice was already under way, one of the many reasons I had wanted to see this particular race was because the Kremer brothers were running a brand new Porsche 917, see above, that they had built for the 1981 season, ten years after the original 917, immortalised in Steve McQueen's film that takes its title from the race, had been made obsolete by the FIA.

It looked great sounded even better with a 5 litre / 305 cui flat 12 however it was a disappointment qualifying only 18th. During the race Bob Wollek the cars only professional driver took no further part in the race after his friend Jean-Louis Lafosse driving the #25 Rondeau was killed in an accident. The 917's remaining drivers Xavier Lapeyre and Guy Chasseuil retired after completing 82 laps.



There is no on track action on the Friday before the 24 hours and back in 1981 spectators had access to virtually all area's while the teams prepared for the race.



Cale Yarborough joined AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti in becoming one of the few drivers to compete at Le Mans, the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500 in 1981. While his #35 Stratagraph Camaro sounded good, easily the loudest car in the race, and was as fast as any other vehicle in a straight line, topping 200 mph, the Camaro's brakes were puny compared to the competition and simply not up to the job of slowing, easily the heaviest car in the race, down. After the first hour the brakes gave up and Cale resorted to driving the car into the wall, ironically at the corner called 'Indianapolis' in order to bring his car to a stop, without injury to himself or anyone else.



The weekend of the 1981 Le Mans 24 hours was an absolute scorcher, Spaniard Emillio de Vilotta prepares to board his Lola T600 which he shared with Guy Edwards and Juan Fernandez, The Ford DFL powered #18 Lola started 12th and finished 15th after a multitude of problems which included running the last couple of hours in top gear only.



For this race Porsche AG prepared two special 936 models fitted with 2.65 litre / 161 cui twin turbo flat 6 motors that had originally been designed to run on methanol in the Interscope Indy car project. The #11 of Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell was the class of the field qualifying 3 seconds ahead of it's sister driven by Mass / Schuppan / Haywood and finishing the 24 hour race with a record lead of 14 laps over 112 miles after covering a total distance of 4825 kms / 2998 miles.



Like many people I enjoyed taking a pictures of the cars at night, unlike many people this led to an all consuming passion for artificial light and film which after many years took me into the realms of art and animation.



The only challenge to the utter dominance of Porsche at the 1981 race came from the 5 car Rondeau team, it was the teams two slower GTP cars that survived the night with Jacky Haran, Jean Louis Schlesser and Philippe Streiff coming home a distant second in the #8 Rondeau M379 with



Gordon Spice and erstwhile Connew pilot Francois Migault coming home third in the #7 Rondeau. Both of the Rondeaus were powered by detuned 3 litre / 183 cui Ford DFV motors more commonly found in Grand Prix cars.



After a couple of hours sleep the relentlessness of 24 hour racing really came home to me on the circuit that used to be known as the world fastest round about. The #55 Porsche 935 K3 of Claude Bourgoignie, John Cooper, Dudley Wood, seen here just after dawn came in 4th overall winning the Group 5 class. I believe this vehicle has passed through the hands of Nick Mason, it may still be in his collection.



The #47 Ferrari 512BB LM #31589 of Andruet/Ballot-Léna qualified 37th, and finished 5th o/a 1st in IMSA GTX.



The PRV (Peugeot Renault Volvo) Turbo V6 powered #4 WM 79/80 of Denis Moran, Charles Mendez and Xavier Mathiot started 16th and came in 13th the faster #82 P81 sister car of Thierry Boutsen was not so lucky having an accident on the Mulsanne Straight which resulted in the death of a track worker at the end of the first hour of the race.



Despite two fatalities during the race victory celebrations went ahead as usual, not sure that would happen today.

Hope you have enjoyed today's trip into memory lane and that you'll join me again tomorrow for a look at a unique vehicle called The Farrallac. Don't forget to come back now !

Hill Climbing "Pam" - Ferrari 512M #1024

Old racing cars do not die, they just get harder to identify, a case in point is the Ferrari 512M which is painted in the colours of the Ecurie Fillipinetti racing team.



Thanks to Aardy at FerrariChat this vehicle has been identified as chassis #1024, a vehicle that was built in 512S guise, then before it ever turned a wheel in anger got upgraded for the 1971 season to 512M specification, distinguishable by less rounded body panels and the winglets hanging on either side of the tail.



25 Ferrari 512's were built to conform to the FIA Group 5 regulations that were in force for sports cars from 1969 to 1971.



Unlike Porsche who supplied four different independently funded teams with 917's that had factory backing creating a competitive inter marque rivalry, Ferrari ran its main effort from the factory and gave little or no support to the customer teams like Scuderia Brescia Corse which originally ran chassis #1024 seen here.



Power for the 512 Group 5 racing cars came from a 560 hp 60º V12 displacing 4993 cc / 304.6 cui with 4 valves per cylinder.



The sound of this vehicle in the enclosed confines of the garage is well beyond expletive awesome, pure magic IMHO.



The M specs rear bodywork was clearly influenced by the work JW Automotive had done on the rear of the Porsche 917 for the 1970 season.



The most frequent driver of this Scuderia Brescia Corse vehicle in World Sports Car and Interserie (a European Version of Can Am) championships raced under the pseudonym 'PAM'.

Thanks to REDARMYSOJA aka Robby Stockman at The Nostalgia Forum, we know the identity of 'PAM' was Marsilio Pasotti who raced a variety of vehicles including Fiat Abarths and a Ferrari 206 from at least 1962 to 1977.

It transpires that 'PAM' won his class in the Italian and European Touring car championships in the 1960's and took four outright victories on the Malegno-Borno hillclimb.



The steel chassis already heavier than the alloy chassis Porsche 917, combined with the weight disadvantage of the 512's cooling system over the air cooled 917 meant the 512 was 100 kg / 220 lbs heavier than the Porsche which thanks to it's flat 12 engine layout also had a significant handling advantage because of it's lower centre of gravity.



The 512 was relatively outclassed by the 917 in results, though 'PAM' did win the Malegno-Borno hillclimb with the vehicle pictured.



In 1970 the 512 was driven to victories at Sebring and Kyalami but none in the World Sports Car Championship during 1971.



This vehicle was completely restored in 2001 and sold to an American collector in May 2008. Nick Mason also owns a 512 in the older 1970 'S' guise.



This car should be out racing during the forth coming Silverstone Classic weekend, with luck I might just see and hear it in action.

My thanks to everyone at FerrariChat and The Nostalgia Forum for their help identifying the real identities of the car and original driver 'PAM'.

Thanks for popping by for Ferrari Friday at 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' I hope you'll join me again when I'll be celebrating the 30th anniversary of my first trip to Le Mans. Don't forget to come back now !

Sweet dreams are made of this #2 - Connew PC1 02

Continuing the improbable but never the less true story of the Connew Grand Prix team that I started on Boxing day today I am looking at some of the trials and tribulations the team had preparing for the French Grand Prix in 1972.



Having built thier car with a dummy engine as seen in the previous Connew blog, Peter managed to secure funding from a French consortium lead by Vincent Mausset to run Francois Migault in 5 races.



The funding took the form of a 'wad' of French Francs which Peter, his cousin Barry and chief mechanic Roger Doran could only exchange to Pounds Sterling at £30 a time, thanks to foreign currency exchange restrictions in operation at the time.



Peter managed to put a deposit down on a second hand Ford Cosworth DFV engine, in need of a rebuild, from Phil Kerr at McLaren, and purchased a brand new gearbox.



Francois borrowed a truck from his brother who was in the furniture manufacturing business with a company called SAPAL, in return for the truck which was used as the teams transporter SAPAL stickers appeared on the Connew.



While final preparations of the car were made for it's first Grand Prix and the truck was fitted out for racing car transporter duties, Barry got married, heroically spending just 24 hours with his bride before returning to help the team at it's lockup in Chadwell Heath. FInally the team was ready to go with a truckie named 'Mansell' at the wheel of the SAPAL transporter, in Portsmouth customs officials were reluctant to let the truck leave the country because it was on French registration plates but the driver 'Mansell' was English.



Once in France just outside Le Mans the trucks engine blew up. The truck was towed to Le Mans, Francois home town and the team used the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit, where these photos were taken, to do some testing while the truck was repaired.

On the first day of testing it became apparent that the cars suspension had been damaged in transit and with that the teams plans to go to the French Grand Prix had to be abandoned while repairs to the car were made.

To be continued....

With thanks to Peters cousin Barry Boor for the photographs if you'd like to read the whole story of how the Connew team came together over a period of two years and it's trials and tribulations the year after please read Barry's account of his part in this 'Boys Own' adventure here.

Hope you have enjoyed the second part of the Connew story and that you will join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday. Don't for get 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 !