Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Motor Sport Magazine

THIS WAS THE TAYCAN I MOST looked forward to. It stood to reason: in my experience, the cheaper the Taycan the better it has been. No one needs the absurd punch of the Turbo and Turbo S when the far more affordable 4S is still startlingly rapid and thousands cheaper. This entry level Taycan would continue the trend, not least because it loses its front electric motor and driven wheels, making it the only rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive model on sale. It’s the Taycan’s answer to the 911. Except that’s not how it turns out. The less-is-more principle that applies to the 911 fails to translate into the digital world. Because here pretty much the only exciting thing electric cars do is go fast, and this one doesn’t. Indeed its 0-62mph time…

IndyCar – Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, April 18 INDYCAR’S delayed season gets underway at Barber Motorsports Park and it’s a star-studded grid in 2021. Scott Dixon defends his crown against familiar faces and championshipcalibre rookies, as seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Australian Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin arrive on the scene in what is sure to be an intriguing season. Romain Grosjean has confirmed he will be competing in select rounds of the 2021 season on circuit and street layouts with Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing. Arrow McLaren announced it will have a new line-up for 2021 with the arrival of Felix Rosenqvist, but also has a headliner in the car in the form ofJuan Pablo Montoya, who will attempt to win the Indy…

ALTHOUGH THE PANDEMIC HAS given the old Ecclestone-inspired era of F1 a year’s stay of execution for 2021 before Liberty’s full vision of the sport becomes real next year, this coming season is so much more than that. There are so many fascinating sub plots to play out in front of us even as huge structural changes are happening beneath the sweep of the radar in preparation for the brave new world. The first part of that vision, the cost cap, comes into play this year though, and together with an aerodynamic tweak to the existing cars (the chassis of which must be retained from last year, as a cost-saving measure) defines quite a challenge for the teams, as Mercedes’ technical director James Allison recently explained. “The [2021] aero changes…

The cut-glass English is remarkable, but it’s the clarity of thought and methodical logic of what this engineer actually says that is most striking. No wonder McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl is so well regarded in F1 circles. He might well turn out to be Zak Brown’s most significant signing. The German speaks with the dextrous diction of a linguist – and puts Motor Sport to shame, even when we lob a googly towards his wicket... “Given Daniel Ricciardo’s obvious pedigree, is this make or break time for Lando Norris?” “No, I don’t see it like that,” he bats on the front foot. “Looking at Lando’s first two years with us in F1, it was great to see the step he made from year one to year two. We expect…

Tech Spec: Item Scale: 1:32 Easy change guideblades: Yes High Detail: Yes Magnatraction: Yes Manufacturer: Lotus Lotus 25 Colin Chapman’s first championship victory came in the hands of Jim Clark behind the wheel of the ground-breaking Lotus 25. Powered by a 1.5 litre engine this small nimble machine proved to be an excellent all-round racing car. Lotus 49 His next landmark design was the superb Lotus 49. Clark also enjoyed success in this car, as did his one-time rival Graham Hill, with Hill winning a world championship in the car. Lotus 72 Completing the set is the iconic Lotus 72. A DFV powered masterpiece that in JPS livery is the formula one car of the 1970s and surely the best looking GP car in all of Scalextric history. Competition closes…

The Mk IV was all dressed up with no place to go when the FIA banned engines larger than 5 litres from endurance racing immediately after it won Le Mans in 1967. So Ford transformed two coupés into roadsters designated G7As and developed an all-aluminium three-valve-per-cylinder 7-litre engine nicknamed the Calliope for the Can-Am series. Unfortunately, the Calliope turned out to be a catastrophic triple threat – overweight, underpowered and unreliable. So in 1968, Ford sold two chassis – J-9 and J-10, which had been built but never raced – to Charlie Agapiou and his brother Kerry for $1 apiece. Mario Andretti tested J-10 a week before winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1969. The chassis was excellent. The engine, not so much. Over the next two years, Agapiou would go…

The cockpit of the Lola is a pleasingly familiar environment and takes me straight back to the majestic Gulf-liveried Aston Martin LMP1 coupé I raced a decade or so ago that was built essentially around this same tub. As was the case back then, my 6ft 2in frame is once again comfortably accommodated. The dash panel and steering wheel controls are encouragingly straightforward, with one large, clear display embedded into the wheel to tell you what’s going on. But as with the Aston all those years ago, lateral vision through the tiny letterbox windscreen isn’t great: those huge front wheel arches commandeering more than their fair share of the view and rendering it hard to gauge when a pass is complete. I needn’t worry too much about that though. With…

IT WOULD BE HARD TO UNDERESTIMATE just how bad things must have been at Lotus the day Margaret Thatcher came to visit on August 5, 1981. The original plan had been for her to come to the factory at Hethel, but a prime minister’s schedule is a busy one, so in the end it boiled down to a photo op at Norwich Airport a dozen miles away. For props to represent its racing and road divisions, Lotus had brought a Formula 1 car and Lotus Esprit, the latter of which Thatcher drove and was reported in the local press to have said, “I was tempted to drive away in it.” The Formula 1 machine was the Lotus 88, perhaps the most revolutionary grand prix car in F1 history, boasting not…

THERE CAN BE FEW PEOPLE WHO know more about track days than motor sport impresario Jonathan Palmer, so the fact that he was central to the design of this Jaguar-powered two-seater suggests that whoever buys it can be confident it’s ‘fit for purpose’. Originally conceived as a track weapon capable of giving visitors to Palmer’s Bedford Autodrome a slight flavour of what it’s like to drive an LMP car, it was inspired by the Zeus Challenger. Original Challengers, produced in Oxfordshire by Zeus Motorsport Engineering, were single-seaters powered by 2-litre Toyota four-cylinder engines but Palmer wanted to create a small ‘fleet’ of two-seaters that could accommodate a driver and an instructor during the popular corporate track day events for which his company became famous. In the style of celebrated Remington…

AUTOMOBILIA USED TO BE A FEW items at the beginning of a car auction. Now there are specialist dealers and entire auctions devoted to the area. And just as with paintings and antique furniture, provenance is the watchword. Some items are attractive or fascinating in themselves, some of only mild innate interest - old race programmes or photos, say. But if that programme was filled in by an eager youth who grew up to be a champion, or that photo is signed by an ace, then it’s open season. Case in point - Gooding’s sale, online as I write, of Phil Hill’s personal racing collection, the items that he simply kept during and after his impressive career - trophies, race suits, helmets, passes. They’ve been in the Hill family home…

MINIATURE SHOOTING STARS If you thought Velasor’s first edition of Austro-Daimler slot cars were something, the Spanish firm’s second release goes even further in its quest to become the ultimate in finely crafted small models. This time focusing on the revolutionary Peugeot L45, Velasor has recreated the French brand’s entire trio of works entries from the 1914 ACF Grand Prix of Lyon, led by the dynamic Georges Boillot – plus the unmarked reserve car with Boillot’s cheerful younger brother André at its wheel. The L45 was remarkable given its pioneering work with pre-war aerodynamics, and each model shows off the car’s distinctive sweeping tail section in intricate detail. Against the stubby Mercedes 18/100 of the day, Peugeot hoped to find increased performance from the dart-like L45 and showed the car’s…

Headlamp covers are vulnerable to scratches and cracks, so in a long day and night race it’s worth protecting them when not needed. Hence the crewman here taping covers over the lights of this McLaren/Andretti Ford MkIV featured in our story on page 78 before the 1967 Sebring 12 Hours. The US airfield circuit was famously rough and prone to breaking up, with gravel fired back from car wheels like bullets. The covers were peeled off when dusk fell. Motor Sport (ISSN No: 0027-2019, USPS No: 021-661) is published monthly by Motor Sport Magazine GBR and distributed in the USA by Asendia USA, 17B S Middlesex Ave, Monroe NJ 08831. Periodicals postage paid New Brunswick, NJ and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Motor Sport, 701C Ashland Ave,…

Grand prix motorcycle racing reached an important crossroads 50 years ago. Imagine that Jackie Stewart’s closest rivals during the 1971 F1 World Championship were a bunch of young upstarts driving pimped-up Jaguar E-types and Ford Capris. This was the situation in which Giacomo Agostini found himself that summer. During 1971 the Italian stallion won his sixth consecutive 500cc world title, riding four-stroke grand prix bikes belonging to the Agusta family. He had no serious opposition because Meccanica Verghera Agusta was the only manufacturer contesting the championship, but the privateers who shared the podium that year rode mongrels powered by two-stroke engines taken from a new generation of high-performance Japanese road bikes. Agostini’s state-of-the-art three-cylinder MV made around 80bhp and was available only to those riders anointed by Count Agusta, which…

Remember the original Mach Mustang, the Mach 1? Introduced in 1969 as a high-performance version of Ford’s original pony car, it went on to fame and fortune, not least in a starring role in the Bond caper Diamonds Are Forever. A 7-litre V8 probably helped too. Excellent. Now forget it. Completely. Because while the name of this Ford Mustang Mach-E differs by just one letter, it is as far removed in time and concept from the Mach 1 as was the Mach 1 from the Model T. It shows just how hard Ford is trying to sweep up stardust dropped over half a century ago, and sprinkle it on what is, after all, an electric SUV. You won’t even find a Ford badge on it, not least because it reckons…

ANYONE WHO KEEPS AN EYE ON the modern watch market will know that it is currently a waste of time to walk into a Rolex retailer that deigns to allow you to purchase a steel Cosmograph Daytona chronograph. Demand is so high that dealers’ waiting lists now stretch into the next decade, so the only way to secure a ‘new’ Cosmograph is to look to the preowned market and pay a huge premium above retail for one that’s being ‘flipped’. The first result thrown up by a Google search for such a watch offered a 2021 model delivered in three weeks for a price of £27,880. The Rolex RRP for its so-called ‘watch born to race’ is a more reasonable £10,500. The market is so hot that such watches are…

NORMALLY, THE MIDDLE OF February would see Formula 1 teams shipping out to Barcelona for the first preseason tests. This year, however, testing is restricted to one three-day session at the Bahrain International Circuit in March thereby delaying this year’s launch schedule. In fact, only McLaren, AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo had revealed their cars by the time Motor Sport went to press. Nonetheless these offered important clues as to how teams would be tackling the final year of the current regulations before all new cars are revealed for the 2022 season. McLaren was first out of the blocks with its MCL35M and the Woking outfit was in an unusual position among its fellow chassis manufacturers. Thanks to a switch from Renault to Mercedes power (which used all of its development…

THE CARS OUT ON TRACK, SOME of them at least, look as though they are hot off a World Endurance Championship grid. It’s a double-take moment because the prototypes and GTs lapping Donington Park - an Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 racer and a Lola-Judd LMP1 coupé among them - are now historic racers. Machinery that competed at the Le Mans 24 Hours this century, and deep into it, has found a home in a new series launched by Masters Historic Racing. Post-historic would probably be a better term for the cars that compete in the series started up in 2017 by the British-based organisation, best known for its FIA Masters Historic Formula 1 Championship. Masters Endurance Legends (MEL) from next year will encompass cars built from 1995 to 2016. The…

Stepping into the BR01 is like entering the future. It’s hard to believe I’m here testing it in the context of a ‘historic’ racing series. The cockpit is a bedazzling rainbow of lights and switches, and the central display more detailed than that of the Lola. I’m told to ignore most of it and need only remember the sequence required to engage first and neutral, which isn’t quite as straightforward as you might think. In contrast to the Lola, the field of vision is outstanding, which proves most helpful when scything through a gaggle of Caterhams. I can’t say I feel hugely assisted by the power steering, but the paddle-operated gear change is perfectly tuned. At first I struggle to get temperature in to the tyres, and it takes a…

Harold Clisby was born in Adelaide in 1912. At age seven he was given a Meccano set and a lathe to keep him out of the workshop – and a life of engineering was away. In 1938, having built his first cars, he left the family business and joined Litchfield Engineering, which made model aircraft engines like those he had been building and selling. In World War II, a General Motors-Holden senior engineer noticed the self-constructed gas producer on Clisby’s car and offered him a job. He progressed to project engineer. Post-war he saw an opportunity to build air compressors, products that Clisby Engineering constructs to this day. Harold first raced an MG TC at Nuriootpa in 1949. He helped lay out Collingrove Hillclimb, then built the Clisby-Douglas Spl in…

Never claiming to be a ‘replica’ of anything but acknowledged to have been influenced by the designs of unusual-looking cars such as the Healey Silverstone and the Frazer Nash TT Replica, the Kougar was a kit car designed and built by former racing driver and engineer Rick Stevens. He was inspired to develop a lightweight sportster based around Jaguar running gear during the mid 1970s after realising that his own S-type had a scrap value of less than £200. Indeed, those were the days when Jaguar saloons frequently ended up on banger racing circuits and 10-year-old E-types would change hands for only a few hundred quid. So in 1976, Stevens stripped the 1600kg S-type, set aside its silky-smooth 3.8-litre engine, Dunlop disc brakes, high-geared steering and independent suspension, and attached…

1972 MATRA MS670 SOLD BY ARTCURIAL. £6.1M Chosen as our star sale car for the February issue, this Matra didn’t disappoint when it crossed the block at Artcurial’s Parisienne 2021 season opener (the substitute for the usual Retromobile-based auction). Strong bidding drove the price close to the high estimate but £6.1m still didn’t seem excessive for a car that led a one-two finish at Le Mans, was driven by Graham Hill and had remained in single ownership since new. When things get ‘back to normal’ it will no doubt be giving the crowds their money’s worth at events around the world. Not least the Le Mans Classic. 1972/73 CITROËN SM SOLD BY GOODING & COMPANY. £150,000 This rig comprising an SM customised into a pick-up, a trailer with Citroën hydraulics…

THERE HAD NEVER BEEN A LAUNCH event like it, and there never will be again. Do something as extreme as the car itself. That was certainly achieved when a makeshift cinema full of journalists collectively gasped as a real-life 6R4 burst through the big screen showing a promo film, with driver Tony Pond just halting the car before landing in their laps. This summed up the 6R4 perfectly. A car so wrong, it’s right. During the days of fire-breathing Group B monsters like the Audi Quattro, Ford RS200 and Lancia 037, a diminutive Metro had no place. Then the lunatics, led by Austin Rover’s motor sport head John Davenport, took over the asylum and delivered a mad idea to the board. Group B rules were thriving, with multiple brands building…

THE LIST OF AMERICAN SUCCESSES AT Le Mans is long and littered with star names such as Shelby, Hill, Gregory, Gurney, Foyt, Cunningham and more. Could Glickenhaus be the next to be added to the US roll of honour as the independent manufacturer prepares to make its Le Mans debut with a fresh Hypercar entry? Jim Glickenhaus’ eponymous concern is gearing up to run two of its new twin-turbo V8 LMH 007s at this year’s event, and has already unveiled a star list of drivers - including Briton Richard Westbrook and two-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas. The cars will also be operated by the Joest Racing outfit, which formerly ran Audi’s ultra-successful works efforts. The team hardly smacks of an amateur effort, and the New York-based entrepreneur and film…

IT IS A CURIOUS STATE OF AFFAIRS, BUT one that has existed for so long it can no longer be considered a matter of luck or coincidence. Yet again Audi has taken over the essential mechanical specification of a Volkswagen and made it worse. It can’t be true, but it’s beginning to look like policy. This new Audi S3 sits on the same platform, uses the same engine, gearbox and suspension architecture as the VW Golf R. To be fair, the latest Golf R has yet to make it to the UK but compared to the previous car the S3 has the same punchy performance and slick sevenspeed double-clutch gearbox. So far so good. But the chassis feels wooden. It does what’s required of it, offering copious amounts of grip…

GEORGE MONKHOUSE, LOUIS Klementaski, Bernard Cahier, Geoffrey Goddard, Michael Cooper... Motor racing was covered by some very fine photographers in times gone by - and there were others of equal gift. It is unlikely, however, that you will have heard of Edwin Vernon Starr, at least until now. While he shouldn’t be added to the group above, Starr (1912-2000) appears to have been a keen enthusiast with a handy knack for finding his way into the pits at major motor racing events, for which it seems he was never accredited. The title refers to the ticket price for the 1962 Silverstone International Trophy. The book has been a long time planning. Co-author Tim Beavis acquired Starr’s archive at an auction in 2004 - and his desire to turn it into…

BRIAN JOSCELYNE’S RACE PHOTOS [RACING BACK IN TIME, JANUARY] WERE MAGIC. The shots of the Nürburgring, Montjuích and the Swiss hillclimb show the glories (and dangers) of the past. With my anorak on it may be of interest to your readers to know that the 917 at Montjuïch is chassis 013. It came second, due to a misfire as a result of the Spanish petrol it had to use. The next event was Montlhéry where it won. Except for Montjuïch it won every race it entered in 1971. Chassis 013 has been a member of the Finburgh family since it was rescued from the back yard of Porsche Stuttgart in 1973. Some readers may have seen the car at various Goodwood Festivals of Speed and even a Members’ Meeting, and…

“EVERYONE WAS THINKING that this year would be easier, but it is not. The proof we have given in terms of professionalism, structure and protocols in place have been very important to manage this situation.” When Stefano Domenicali accepted the role of Formula 1 CEO, like many of us he was expecting to face a challenging situation but one that was improving all the time. That much was made clear by the record 23-race calendar the sport approved at the end of 2020, kicking off in Australia as usual and ending once again in Abu Dhabi. But no sooner had Domenicali got his feet under the desk in January than changes needed to be made. Australia was pushed back to November, China postponed and Imola added, while a TBC race…

BOB RILEY IS THE GREATEST American racing car designer of the postwar era, full stop. His portfolio bulges with drawings for cars stretching from the Coyote that AJ Foyt drove to victory in the Indianapolis 500 in 1977 to Daytona Prototypes that won the Rolex 24 nine consecutive times. And while he’s not exactly the kind of guy who wallows in nostalgia, he does have a soft spot in his heart for the Ford GT Mk IV. In 1965, Riley was part of a small team of engineers who created the J-Car. Two years later, the J-Car was re-fashioned into the Ford GT Mk IV, which won Sebring and Le Mans before being mothballed without ever having been beaten. Now, Riley Technologies - the firm Bob runs with his son,…

The 911 is the earliest car in the group and the difference in cockpit technology is pronounced. No snazzy displays and flappy paddles, just a good ol’ six-speed manual gearbox and a surprising quantity of production-spec interior trim. In fact, so unassuming is the engine on start up, that until you blip the throttle, there are few indications from the driver’s seat of being at the wheel of anything particularly spicy. But the response confirms otherwise and belies the modest surroundings. Revealing itself, the car bolts from pitlane with gusto and immediately I’m transported to a retrospective Porsche paradise. Entirely analogue and perfectly imperfect, the nose bobs and weaves while the rear disputes the laws of physics. Rowing through the gears is a joy, accompanied by that flat-six rhapsody, so…

• A report by insurance company HAGERTY reveals the impact Brexit will have on the classic car market, with extra bureaucracy and paperwork expected to hinder business. One such change is the Access/ Temporary Access Carnet, a passport for goods that guarantees items won’t disappear on arrival in the EU. A 40 per cent returnable bond means a car worth £1m will need an upfront payment of £400,000 – a “heavy monkey to carry” as one classic car specialist noted. • And they say romance is dead. With HR OWEN’s assistance, a Bugatti Chiron Sport (prices from £2.3m) in pink and white and named ‘Alice’ was one of the more imaginative gifts from husband to wife on Valentine’s Day. • One of only three 2013 McLAREN MP4-12C CAN AMs is…

WHEN THE FIRST DE TOMASO Pantera was unveiled at the 1970 New York Motor Show, few predicted that it would enjoy a 23-year production run, a raft of derivative designs and shift 7000 units, putting what would otherwise have been a boutique Modena manufacturer well and truly on the map. Before the Pantera took De Tomaso transatlantic, there were fewer than 500 examples of its first two models combined. But such was the potential that the firm was brought to Ford’s attention, helping De Tomaso grow beyond recognition. Founded by Argentinian racing driver Alejandro de Tomaso in 1959, the company first specialised in motor racing prototypes before branching out into production cars in 1963. Much of De Tomaso’s early design work was done in partnership with Turin-based Carrozzeria Ghia, resulting…

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