Features

AUTO MANIA: by Dr. Iain Corness [email protected]

Canadian GP this weekend

Canadian GP

The Grand Prix circus returns to Canada, a ‘real’ circuit for ‘real’ drivers, with none of the imitation glitz of the Monaco processions. The Canadian raceway is the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit, constructed on a man-made island which had been used originally in the 1967 Expo. Previously called the Ile Notre Dame circuit, it was renamed in Villeneuve’s memory after his death in 1982. The location is one of the loveliest in Formula One since the track threads its way through lakes and parkland. It is a narrow, medium-fast, 4.4 km circuit with 13 corners. Some corners were eased for 1979, a new corner before the pits was added in 1991 and a chicane was added in 1994. And, it is possible to pass, as opposed to Monaco! With a well placed DRS, it will make passing even more probable. However, it does have a couple of corners with some very unforgiving walls at the edge of the bitumen, which a few champions have tried out for size, now christened the “Champions Wall”.
It will be interesting to see if the soft option tyres can last more than 10 laps. Pirelli assure us they will - but I will reserve my judgment.
Now here comes the bad news - At the time this was being written we still had a midnight curfew and the race starts at 1 a.m. Thai time. If the curfew is still on then we won’t be watching in Jameson’s pub.

Jaguar - the other end of the Indian car saga

LWT E-Type.

Jaguar, the brainchild of Sir William Lyons is now owned by India’s Tata Motors, who have announced that they will build the six “missing” E-Type Jaguars that were due to be built in 1964. These E-Types were destined to be race-bred Lightweight E-types that were to be built as ‘Special GT E-Type Cars’.
Only 12 of the aluminium bodied Lightweight E-Types were eventually built of the planned 18, the last in 1964, the remaining six designated chassis numbers having lain dormant, until now.
The new cars will be hand-built in-house by Jaguar’s finest craftsmen. Each car will be constructed to the exact specifications of their original 1960s forebears - including the 3.8 liter straight six XK engine.
The Lightweight carried approximately 114kg less weight than a standard E-type, thanks to its all-aluminium body and engine block, a lack of interior trim and exterior chrome work and a host of further weight-saving features including lightweight, hand-operated side windows.
Jaguar expects a high demand for the six Lightweight E-types. Established Jaguar collectors, especially those with historic race car interests, will be prioritized amongst those potential customers who express interest.
Tata believes that these “new” E-Types will be snapped up, and well they may be - but are they 1963 LWT E-Types, or are they 2014 LWT E-Types and re-creations?

The Morry Oxford finally lies down and dies

RIP Hindustan Ambassador.

Followers of the iconic Morris Oxford from the early 50’s will be saddened to hear that the Hindustan Ambassador Mk III has been laid to rest. At one stage, it was about the only sedan that one could buy in India, and all Indian politicians had white ones. New Indian PM Nerendra Modi has one, and naturally white.
The dies and all tooling that was needed were sold to the Hindustan company after BMC stopped production and the first Hindustan Ambassadors began coming off the assembly line in 1958.
With the continuous production, the Ambassador has the world record for length of service, and in many ways a tribute to the solid engineering of British cars of that era. I can remember, as a small boy, going into the Morris dealers and getting a brochure on the new 1953 Oxford for my scrap book.
The final accolade for the Hindustan Ambassador came from the British Top Gear program who declared it as the best taxi in the world in episode 2 of their 20th series.

Natter Nosh and Noggin

The Pattaya car club meets at Jameson’s Irish Pub on Soi AR next to Nova Park. The next meeting is on Monday June 9 at Jameson’s at 7 p.m. A totally informal meeting of like-minded souls to discuss their pet motoring (and motorcycling) loves and hates (plus lies and outright exaggerations). Come along and meet the guys who have a common interest in cars and bikes, and enjoy the Jameson’s specials, washed down with a few beers. A couple of the members were scrutineers at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, so they may have some scuttlebutt about the F1 scene. Always a fun night. Be prepared to laugh a lot at some of the antics of the members (when they were younger)! The Car Club nights are only on the second Monday of the month (not every second Monday).

Billycart Grand Prix

For longer than there had been motor cars, there had been billy carts, some even drawn by billy goats (hence the name). In the UK and the USA these were also called soap-box carts. However, the need for speed begins in childhood, and unofficial races down hills were soon the norm in all communities.
Today, that need for speed is still there, and so are the gravity powered billy carts. In the UK, soap box derbies are still popular, such as the Red Bull race, held at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. (Is there anything that Red Bull doesn’t sponsor?)
This extends even to the Hill Tribes in Northern Thailand. During the Hmong New Year celebrations, “race” carts fashioned from the wooden carts used for hauling produce are entered, where Hmong boys and men will race against members of the Lisu, Engor, and Muser hilltribes. These races were sponsored by the Royal Project Foundation, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), and also the Red Bull brand energy drink. (There really isn’t anywhere without Red Bull, is there?)
But what about children who lived in areas without hills? Enterprising fathers began by putting car starter motors on the wooden carts, along with a car battery. The electric powered cart was born, which amongst other things, gave birth to the go-kart (and the golf cart).
And of course, go-karts are where we once found Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and most of the other F1 drivers of today, some of which are sponsored by Red Bull, so we’re back to where we started.

History

History is important, as without history there could be no today. Man has always been fascinated by self-propelled vehicles, with the earliest example being the steam tractor built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot for the French government in 1771. Not only did it carry a payload of 4 metric tonnes, but he, and it, are also remembered as having the first road accident when the esteemed Monsieur Cugnot lost control trying to break 4 km/h and demolished a stone wall in the grounds of the Paris Arsenal.
Like most retrospectives, there is always an air of romanticism when you look back at the start of any new form of racing. Myth becomes a mixture of fact and fiction, and it should not be forgotten that motor racing itself is only just over 100 years old. The Gordon Bennett races, which were the first truly international events, became fact through the love of speed and competition that the motor car gave to mankind.
The drivers then were as colorful as the racing cars of today. The wild man of the turn of the century motoring, Camille Jenatzy, AKA The Red Devil (1868-1913) was the first man to exceed 65 mph in his electric car called La Jamais Contente and claimed the world land speed record. He also won the Gordon Bennett Trophy in 1903 in a stripped touring Mercedes. The event was held in Ireland over 320 miles and Jenatzy won at an average speed of 80 km per hour! Not bad for 1903!
However, his career (and life) ended when he was shot in the Ardennes by his mate who mistook him for a wild boar (and I am sure he would have been fairly wild about that too). What an end! Shot in the Ardennes (that’s a forest, not part of his anatomy)!
The heroes of those days remain in the collective minds of enthusiasts today. Louis Renault was a very well known driver in the early 1900s who used the sport to publicize his cars. Something that continues to this day, with Fernando Alonso winning the world championship in 2006 aboard a Renault.
Even Henry Ford I owed his success to the Ford racers that he built, which in turn gave him enough credibility to raise the finance to build his first Model Ts. The great American race car driver Barney Oldfield was given his start in motor racing by Henry. Ford had built two 18 liter monsters in 1902 and Barney Oldfield took over one, raced and won at the Grosse Point fairground. What was so remarkable about Barney Oldfield’s first race was that he had never driven a car before, only raced bicycles! Or so the legend has it.
However, for most people, up to and immediately after WW II, motor sport was a spectator sport. Only the rich could really indulge themselves in racing.
Even Thailand’s first international motor racing hero, Prince Bira (after whom the circuit outside Pattaya was named) was an aristocrat from the Royal House of Siam. He was a prince and it was his cousin Prince Chula who was rich enough to be able to purchase a brand new ERA for his 21 year old cousin, that set Prince Bira on the road (and track) to fame.
However, it was not till after the hostilities that motor sport began to become more affordable, as new types of home-built inexpensive race cars began to appear on the British and European tracks, most of which were disused airstrips left over from the war. The small 500cc rear-engine lightweight cars began to have a strong following, but it was not the 500cc Coopers that were driven by such notables as Sir Stirling Moss that were the trail-blazers. That honor belongs to a Colin Strang who in August 1946 won the Prescott Hill Climb in his home built Vincent-HRD Strang Special.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I wrote about a 14 HP Bean that was the first to make the trip London to Sydney. It took nine months. I asked who was the driver? It was Francis Birtles, who in July 1928 became the first person to drive from London to Melbourne, a nine-month part-solo journey completed in the Bean which he called ‘The Sundowner’. He donated the Bean in 1929 to a proposed national museum in Canberra.
So to this week. An aeronautical engineer invented one of the most common items for bicycles, motorcycles and sports cars. Exactly what did he invent?
For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email [email protected].