The Autoshite Racing Car

[dozeydustman]

I’m quite surprised the Tyrrel P34 hasn’t yet been mentioned.

The Bedford VAL of motosport

[Justin Case]

[Bradders59]

On 3/23/2023 at 9:51 PM, egg said:

maybe?

Picked that up with our HIAB truck at Lydden European Championship meet(early 90,s) after it had a huge crash and briefly caught fire.

Probably pics / footage somewhere on the interweb.

[egg]

50 minutes ago, Bradders59 said:

Picked that up with our HIAB truck at Lydden European Championship meet(early 90,s) after it had a huge crash and briefly caught fire.

Probably pics / footage somewhere on the interweb.

yeah, I saw him race in the early 90's too, but not the big crash, as posted elsewhere on here.....me in my pleather jacket.

[Bradders59]

Found the crash on youtube.  can even see our truck to the right of the ambulance at 10 seconds.

Pretty sure the RS200 involved was Gary Baker. Think we picked that up too.

Had to keep the crowds away from the truck when one of them was sat on the back (Gollops car I think ) because petrol was pissing out of it. 

Someone carelessly chucks a fag butt down, and it could have been very nasty indeed.

 

[Bradders59]

My memory isnt too bad apparently

Not me in the pic but my old workmate Martin "Bunny" Bunn. All that can be seen of me is my hand steadying the lifting frame to stop it from spinning. 

Some fantastic racing in Rallycross in those days. Martin Schanche was a crazy man. The Gilles Villeneuve of rallycross in many respects.

For those interested in such things. The truck was a Volvo FL7 fitted with a Cormach 35t / metre crane, which I believe was the biggest truck mounted crane in the country at the time.

Company we worked for was Milbank floors / trucks. Milbank trucks was bought outduring the financial crash by its MD, David Watson and is now known as David Watson Transport.

https://dw-transport.co.uk/

[martc]

This is a translation of the text that accompanied this fantastic photo - Barkas support vans for maximum coolness - I haven't the time to tidy it up, so make of it what you will...

'Sports and industrial advertising - this was unthinkable in the GDR so far, it was after all an expression of the growth of professional sports in Western countries. So at the NARVA performance in racing sport, it could not go bad for paid advertising, but the thing had to have a "socialist component".

Lu Günther designed a contract concept with NARVA, which envisaged the promotion and financing of cross-country sports in various motorsport disciplines. The ADMV motorsport club of Erfurt Verkehrsbetriebe (EVB) was chosen as a partner. This is where NARVA let its financial grants flow, some of which were to be used "for outstanding advertising effectiveness". On the one hand, the funds flowed into the wide sport of the EVB-club of about 150 members. Supported the training and competition operations of all sections, moped courses, traffic participant training or technical inspections.

For the second time, the EVB club decided on the performance principle which assets should be supported throughout the country with a NARVA paint on the race car and a associated financial injection. This "outstanding advertising effectiveness" of racing cars painted in NARVA colours on the GDR and Eastern Europe circuit courses was most clearly felt.

In this way, the Günthers became the hub and junction of all other activities of the NARVA combination in racing. Klaus, as chairman of MC EVB, promoted to "NARVA team leader" at the request of the industry partner. After the sports cars (RS1000 and PT73), NARVA conquered the touring cars (Peter Mücke) and the Formula Easter. Peter Mücke later drew NARVA into the auto-cross sport and even the most successful race boats of the DDR eventually wore the NARVA colours. Especially in the 1980s, in the look of the lamp manufacturer, the racing cars had become synonymous with power and attendance to victories. It stayed that way until the end of DDR racing.'

[martc]

This one doesn't need translating.

[somewhatfoolish]

On 3/23/2023 at 2:55 PM, yes oui si said:

It'd be driven by Taki Inoue... 

Ukyo Katayama shirley?

[mk2_craig]

5 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Ukyo Katayama shirley?

Got to be Andrea de Cesaris. Over 200 race starts without a win, and eventually perished after binning his motorbike on a public road. So actually it would have to be the ghost of Andrea de Cesaris.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

On 3/23/2023 at 2:26 PM, quicksilver said:

Surely the Autoshite racing car has to be something completely unsuitable for the sport in which it is being used. I therefore suggest a Series Land Rover for any discipline that doesn't involve off-roading.

Not sure about S1’s but the British Army used S2, 3 and Lightweights at different times in rallying. I think they had to be 2wd only as it might be an unfair advantage on rough stages( obviously pre- Quattro)The only thing they couldn’t do was buy vehicles specifically for rallying, hence using whatever was lying around. Including Officers Staff Cars!

[quicksilver]

4 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Got to be Andrea de Cesaris. Over 200 race starts without a win, and eventually perished after binning his motorbike on a public road. So actually it would have to be the ghost of Andrea de Cesaris.

So who would we entrust with managing the AS Racing Team? Andrea Sassetti? His initials fit anyway.

[somewhatfoolish]

F1's Mr Nice, Ken Tyrrell? The 1980s non-racewinning version at any rate?

[andy18s]

23 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

I’m quite surprised the Tyrrel P34 hasn’t yet been mentioned.

The Bedford VAL of motosport

If Ferrari hadn't spat the dummy (again) and let Goodyear develop the 10"tyres needed,this car would have changed the whole f1 world..

[Richard_FM]

22 minutes ago, andy18s said:

If Ferrari hadn't spat the dummy (again) and let Goodyear develop the 10"tyres needed,this car would have changed the whole f1 world..

Oddly Ferrari moved to Michelin tyres in 1978 because they reckoned that the Goodyears didn't have enough grip!

[Magic]

28 minutes ago, andy18s said:

If Ferrari hadn't spat the dummy (again) and let Goodyear develop the 10"tyres needed,this car would have changed the whole f1 world..

That's a bit of a stretch- ground effect arrived in 1977, the second year of the P34. That did change the world.

[Pieman]

On 24/03/2023 at 08:24, motorpunk said:

In F1 the most utterly useless team has to be "Life" who invented their own engine, 12 cylinder thing configured in three banks of 4 cylinders, used a someone elses' hopeless chassis, drivers refused to drive it, never qualified for anything, bits fell off, it all turned to shit. I'll write the story up someday, it's brilliant. 

Just seen this post - I did write up the story (fairly briefly) recently, so will repost it here...

While Senna and Prost fought tooth and nail at the top of Formula 1 in 1990, at the other end of the pit lane things were quite different. The Life L190 may have looked a little like a Ferrari, but its performance couldn't have been further from one, and this is regarded by those who remember it as one of the worst F1 cars of all time.

The project began when former Ferrari man Franco Rocchi designed a bizarre "W12" engine with three banks of four cylinders. The rights to his design were bought by businessman Ernesto Vita, founder of the Life Racing Engines company, and he tried to sell the concept to a Formula 1 team. When unsurprisingly no-one bought it, he bought a prototype chassis from Lamberto Leoni's stillborn FIRST team which had been built the previous year, installed the W12 into it, and entered F1 himself.

It quickly became apparent that the car was pathetically slow and hopelessly unreliable. Australian Gary Brabham quit the team in disgust after two races, with veteran Italian Bruno Giacomelli brought in as his replacement. The car never even looked like making it out of pre-qualifying, with the few lap times Giacomelli registered being often whole MINUTES behind his opposition, and it rarely completed more than one lap at a time before something broke.  Perhaps the most infamous moment came at Imola, when the fastest pre-qualifying lap was a 1m26s effort by Éric Bernard's Larrousse Lola, while Giacomelli managed a heroic 7m16s - a time he could easily have beaten on a bicycle!  Rumour has it said time was achieved after the car broke down leaving the pits and the timing transponder was left switched on while it was towed back to the pits behind a recovery truck, but this was never proven.

In the end the team abandoned the W12 engine concept completely, bought a Judd V8 engine and stuck that in the back of the Life....only to then discover that the engine cover didn't fit over it! Not surprisingly, the team folded shortly afterwards, ending what was a decidedly embarrassing effort.

In 2009, the Life attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and was driven on the hillclimb course by Arturo Merzario, complete with the original W12 engine. Some wags commented that this was probably the furthest it had ever travelled in one go without breaking down!

[Pieman]

As for the banger rally posts further up the thread, I think I like the suggestion made in the recent Simca from Spain collection thread - a banger rally in reverse.

Fly to a specified location in Europe, armed with a budget of a few hundred Euros or other local currency in cash.  Find a suitable piece of autoshite for sale locally within budget - the more unusual, obscure or fucked the better - buy it, insure etc via the interweb, and drive it back to the UK.

The winner is the person who makes it back home with the fewest FTPs.

[St.Jude]

1 minute ago, Pieman said:

As for the banger rally posts further up the thread, I think I like the suggestion made in the recent Simca from Spain collection thread - a banger rally in reverse.

Fly to a specified location in Europe, armed with a budget of a few hundred Euros or other local currency in cash.  Find a suitable piece of autoshite for sale locally within budget - the more unusual, obscure or fucked the better - buy it, insure etc via the interweb, and drive it back to the UK.

The winner is the person who makes it back home with the fewest FTPs.

I’d be all over that.

[bangernomics]

Pick a country with insurance and tax vignettes like Bulgaria. Probably need a lot of luck to make it back in anything you’d buy there. Jeopardy 14/10


Gzongenflatch
In memory of Phil.

[Bradders59]

On 23/03/2023 at 21:51, egg said:

maybe?

Picked up the remains of that with our Hiab truck after a huge crash at the European Championship round at Lydden. 

Also picked up the RS200 ,driven by Gary Baker if my memory serves. It sat on the back of the truck, leaking petrol for quite a while.

Had a job on our hands keeping people from wanting to have a close look, while having a smoke at the same time. 

Truck is clearly visible at 10 seconds, just before the big crash.

 

[egg]

5 minutes ago, Bradders59 said:

Picked up the remains of that with our Hiab truck after a huge crash at the European Championship round at Lydden. 

Yes, I've posted before I saw Gollop race at Lydden when I was a teenager, but don't think it was that day!

[Bradders59]

Christ my short term memory must be shot. I have no recollection of posting that just over a year ago ! 🫢

I can remember the day it happened (over 30 years ago) as though it were last week.

Scary !

[Pieman]

5 hours ago, bangernomics said:

Pick a country with insurance and tax vignettes like Bulgaria. Probably need a lot of luck to make it back in anything you’d buy there. Jeopardy 14/10

As I mentioned in the euro tat thread, from Google Streetview pics Serbia would be a good hunting ground, there are still tons of Yugos and other 80s shite everywhere.  Do the above rules apply there?

[St.Jude]

6 minutes ago, Pieman said:

As I mentioned in the euro tat thread, from Google Streetview pics Serbia would be a good hunting ground, there are still tons of Yugos and other 80s shite everywhere.  Do the above rules apply there?

Jeopardy goes up to 16 there given it’s getting a bit tasty…

[bangernomics]

I’ve no idea about their local road laws but I know a couple of Serbs. I’ll ask


Gzongenflatch
In memory of Phil.

[catsinthewelder]

Bosnia still had a decent amount of chod when we passed through 6 years ago.  Just watch out for bent coppers.

Albania might be worth a look too.

[motorpunk]

On 28/05/2024 at 17:58, Pieman said:

The Life L190

Sorry for the thread detail, but I’d love to know where this car is now. I’m becoming slightly obsessed by the whole hopeless thing.

[Pieman]

Ask Goodwood, that was the last place in the UK I've known it to have run.

[Richard_FM]

10 hours ago, motorpunk said:

Sorry for the thread detail, but I’d love to know where this car is now. I’m becoming slightly obsessed by the whole hopeless thing.

There were a few interesting F1 entries around this time, this being one of the more bizarre, mostly due to the W12 engine, which had at least 200hp less than the Honda engines McLaren were using!

Someone else made a W12 & tested in an old AGS, but it never got close to being raced.