thebear's archive of motorsports trivia

[thebear]

Please `bear' with me as I will be posting some obscure automotive trivia, not necessarily in chronological order but fascinating to say the least. The origins of many things will be revealed to those with patience. Please subscribe to the thread and hang on for the ride.

[thebear]

1950 Track was 3.5 miles long

1952 Track was 5.2 miles long

1966 Warehouse Turn re-routed

1983 Backstraight (16-17) re-routed, 4.86 miles long

1987 Turn 1 revised and 2-3-4 loop around Flagpole added, 4.11 miles long

1991 Current Turn 2-3-4-5-6 added, turn 10-11-12-13 revised to current configuration, 3.7 miles long

1997 Turn 8-9 revised to "Fangio Chicaine" in order to provide more of a margin of safety to the regular road traffic adjacent to the track on driver's left. Turn 15-16 revised to current configuration which is mostly ignored as drivers tend to go wide at turn 15.

1998 Turn 7 revised from Hairpin to Safetypin per the request of Mario Andretti and the CART (now OWRS) organization. They only run at the track for purposes of `spring training' or early testing.

see http://www.marshalspost.com/circuit/80.html for an illustration that has relavance starting with 1991.

[thebear]

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company:

Goodyear began business in the winter of 1898 in Akron, Ohio, making bicycle and carriage tires, horseshoe pads and poker chips. The 13 original employees earned 13 to 23 cents per hour, Today, more than 100,000 associates run manufacturing operations in more than 30 countries, supported by sales and marketing operations in almost every county around the world.

In 1999, Goodyear formed an alliance with Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd., of Japan. that brought the Dunlop tire brand to its fold, returning Goodyear to Its position as the number one tire and rubber company worldwide.

Goodyear's heritage in racing started in 1901 with its first victory after Henry Ford put Goodyear rubber on his car sponsored by the Detroit Driving Club.

The company launched its first serious race tire development program in 1916 and cars equipped with Goodyear Cord Tires began to dominate at U.S. racing circuits.

By 1919 Goodyear tires were on the winning car in every major race that year, including the Indianapolis 500.

In 1957 Goodyear asked NASCAR driver Lee Petty to do a limited race tire test program in West Palm Beach, Florida.

By 1959 Goodyear ran, at Darlington and driver Jim Heed won a Goodyear tires.

In 1960 Goodyear won its first international sports car race with Maserati driver Stirling Moss at the Grand Prix of Cuba.

In 1964 Goodyear won the 24 Hours of LeMans with Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant in a GT Cobra.

The first overall international victory Goodyear recorded was at the 1965 24 Hours of LeMans. They also won their first Formula One race and their first Formula One World Championship title.

In 1987 Goodyear rolled into victory lane with A.J. Foyt, the company's first lndy 500 win since its re-emergence to racing in 1958.

In 1994 Goodyear reached two important milestones in racing: the 300th victory in Formula One at Barcelona, Spain, and the 300th consecutive victory in Indy Car at Vancouver, B.C.

Goodyear's 1,000th Winston Cup victory was achieved in April of 1995 when Jeff Gordon won the Bristol race.

[thebear]

1934 The T-77 starts delivery from the Tatra factory in Czechoslovakia. Big Deal? Absolutely. It was the worlds FIRST aerodynamically designed rear engined passenger car. It featured an air cooled 3L V-8, seated six passengers and the driver was in THE CENTER of the front seat. It had a top speed of 88mph (140km/hr). The body was built under a licensing agreement with BUDD Company in the US and featured a dorsal fin to aid in taming the swing axle's handling "irregularities".

1935 The T-77a Tatra debuts with a 3.4L air cooled V-8. New features are headlights that are no longer flush with the fenders and a central headlight that turns with the front wheels. Top speed was 94mph as the redesigned body had a Cv (coeffecient of drag) of only 0.21.That is better than any of today's cars. Approximately 255 were sold in two years.

1936 The T-87 Tatra "Luxury" model debuted and could reach 100mph.

1937 The T-97 Tatra debuted. It was a scaled down version with a 1.8L motor, still capable of 81mph.

1938 German occupation put an end to new Tatra design/engineering. The factory was converted to support Germany's military needs. The T-87 was produced in limited quantities as it was an excellent Autobahn vehicle. Sometime in the postwar era production resumed with a total of just over 3,000 examples built when production stopped in 1950.

[D-Type]

And 1953 - a Tatra T-600 wins its class in the inaugural Coronation Safari

[thebear]

Trivia (F-1):

Weird, but true #1

Two time World Driving Champion Alberto Ascari was killed at the Monza Autodroma in May 1955. His father Antonio Ascari was killed in an accident during the 1925 French Grand Prix. Both died on the 25th day of the month, four days after another frightening accident. Each was 37 years old at the time. The accidents were on left hand turns, each was ejected from his car (no seat belts then) and each left behind a wife, a son and a daughter.

Wierd, but true #2

Italy's Giulio Cabianca died at the wheel of a Ferrari engined Cooper in June of 1961. He was testing the car at the Monza Autodromo when either the throttle stuck open or the brakes failed. The car went thru an open gate onto the street outside of the Autodromo. It hit a taxi and killed three people in the cab as well as Cabianca.

Wierd, but true #3

German touring car driver Hans Hyer did not qualify in a Penske-Ford entered in the 1977 Hockenheim G-P by the ATS team. When the 24 qualifiers started, Heyer joined them. He was the only illegal starter in the history of the World Championship. He retired with a broken shifter before he could be black flagged.

Wierd, but true #4

In 1981 there was the distinct possibility that there would be two different Formula 1 championships. The Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) was unhappy with FISA's (FIA's predecessor) operating methods. FOCA's Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley created the World Federation of Motor Sport. In November of 1980 WFMS announced that it was the only official sanctioning body for F-1 and all the British teams concurred. The continental manufacturers (Renault, Ferrari and ALFA-Romeo) supported FISA. FOCA had a race in South Africa and after four months the "Concorde Agreement" was signed. It recognized the FISA/FIA as the owner of the F-1 World Championship and FOCA as the owner of the TV rights. The rest as they say, is history. During that same period a similar disagreement was brewing between FISA/FIA and the Automobile Club d' Ouest (ACO), the organizers of the 24hrs of LeMans.

[Peter Mallett]

IIRC the South African race was an all Ford engined event. The fastest Formual Ford race ever?

[thebear]

On Aug. 10, 1907, Italian Prince Scipione Borghese is the first of five entrants to arrive in Paris, claiming as his prize a magnum of Mumm champagne for winning the 12,000-mile (19,300-km) Peking to Paris race. Accompanying the prince in his 7.4L, 4-cyl. Italia racecar is his chauffeur/mechanic and co-driver, Ettore Guizzardi, and Luigi Barzini, an Italian reporter covering the event. The race begins June 10 in response to a challenge laid down in March by the French newspaper Le Matin. Although suspicious Chinese officials reportedly try to keep the race from taking place, five cars show up for the sendoff. In addition to Borghese's Italia are two 10-hp French de Dions, a 25-hp Dutch Spyker and a 6-hp French Contal 3-wheel cycle car.

There are no rules (although participants work out a “gentlemen's agreement” for mutual assistance), and the only official is the flagman hired to wave the cars off at the start. However, the race quickly becomes a contest between Borghese's Italia and the Spyker, driven by a Dutch circus roustabout named Charles Goddard. An accomplished con man, Goddard not only gets the loan of the car, but talks his way into free boat passage to China and hits up fellow competitors for gasoline. To supply racers with fuel — the Italia averages 6 mpg (33L/100km) — a caravan of camels laden with gasoline containers is dispatched from the Chinese capital in advance of the race.

With no official course, no maps and, for half the race, no roads, drivers navigate by counting telegraph poles, by compass and by observing the position of the sun. Hazards include deep mud and a collapsing bridge that nearly wipes out the Italia in Russia. Plus, the race cars need to be hauled over the mountains at Nankow, China, by men and mules. Crossing the Gobi desert, the Contal 3-wheeler gets stuck in and then covered by sand. Its crew, nearly dead, is rescued by local tribesmen. Borghese is so confident of victory he takes a 1,000-mile (1,609-km) detour to St. Petersburg, Russia, to attend a banquet given in his honor.

In 1997, the race is celebrated with a 45-day trek between the same two cities, including 100 entrants from 22 countries. The winner this time is a '42 Willys Jeep driven by a British team.

[Anuauto]

Goodyear seem a bit confused as to when they first won Le Mans! (GT category in 64, which was first in the FIA championship, but third in the race?)

[thebear]

1961 The first six speed gearbox appeared in F-1.

1962 The F-1 season ended with Graham Hill (BRM) as the champion with four wins and Jim Clark (Lotus) second with three wins. Stirling Moss retired during the year due to injuries sustained in a crash during a non-championship race. Worthy of note was Jim Clark's car. The Lotus 25 was the first monocoque racer and Clark used it to good effect by passing 17 cars on one lap in the rain at the German GP at the Nurburgring.

Ferrari withdrew from the last two races as they were having a disastrous season.

1972 The F-1 season ended with Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus) on top with five wins. He was 25 years old and the youngest F-1 champ.

Jackie Stewart (Tyrell) was second Dennis Hulme (McLaren) was third, Jacki Icxx (Ferrari) fourth, each with one win.

Joachem Bonnier died in an accident at the 24hrs of LeMans.

Bernie Ecclestone purchased the Brabbaham F-1 team.

The German company Eifelland entered F-1 with a car driven by Rolf Stommelen. It was a March based chassis and was most noted for the single rear view mirror mounted on a single post in front of the driver and resembling a backwards periscope. The best results were a few 10th places.

1981 "Slick" tires made their first appearance in F-1

1990 Subaru's flat 12 F-1 motor appeared briefly. The car was manufactured by Italy's Motori Moderni and entered by the Coloni team. It was overweight, handled poorly and never even pre-qualified.

[thebear]

"Ackerman Links" for the steering systems of vehicles were patented in 1819 by Rudolph Ackerman (1764-1834). Although there were no motor wagons to employ the idea, it was seen a a `safety enhancement' to the horse drawn wagons of the day as the center post pivot wagons of the day could an did turn over with regularity. He had inventions in many fields including the waterproofing of fabrics.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The swing axle rear suspension used in the original VW `bug' was patented in 1903 by Edward Rumpler, an engineer working at the Adler Automobile Company.

[thebear]

Indianapolis Speedway Lore:

- Although the Indianapolis 500 was part of the F1 world championship between 1950 and 1960, the first genuine US Grand Prix was not held until 1959. The race, held at Sebring, was won by Bruce McLaren. Then 22, he became the youngest winner in F1 history - until Fernando Alonso stole that title at Hungary.

- The United States has held grands prix in more places than any other country with no fewer than eight circuits holding world championship races. Sebring, Riverside, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Detroit, Dallas, Las Vegas Phoenix and, of course, Indy.

- The US became the only country ever to host three Grands Prix in a season in 1982 when races were held at Long Beach, Detroit and Las Vegas.

- The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) opened in 1909. It was developed by a consortium of four local businessmen led by car dealer, Carl.G.Fisher. The group shared a dream of creating a ‘great outdoor laboratory’ for the then very young automotive industry.

- The Speedway has had three owners. The original consortium was taken over in 1927 by World War I flying ace Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker – and, since 1945, the great oval has resided firmly in the hands of the Hulman/George family.

- When the IMS was built in 1909, Indianapolis was at the center of the American car building industry. Manufacturers Duesenberg, Stutz, Marmon and National were all situated nearby.

- The Speedway's track surface consisted of crushed stone and tar but was replaced after a year by a paved surface of 3.2 million bricks, hence the nickname ‘Brickyard’. The circuit, except the start and finish straight, was covered in asphalt in 1937 with the straight remaining bare until 1961. A yard of bricks can still be seen on the start/finish line today.

- The first ever race at the IMS was actually for gas-filled balloons. Cars first circled the track in August 1909 and the first Indianapolis 500 Motor Sweepstakes took place in 1911.

- The circuit is built on a 559-acre site, including an infield of 224 acres onto which the road course link for the US Grand Prix was built. The oval circuit track width is 50 feet on the straights and 60 feet in the banked corners or ‘Turns’. Gradient of the banked turns is 9 degrees.

- The IMS complex is so vast that the infield of the oval contains a nine-hole golf course.

- There is a popular saying that there are only two types of driver at Indianapolis - those who have hit the wall and those who are going to hit the wall.

- The Unser family have no fewer than nine Indy 500 wins between them. Al Senior scored four wins, brother Bobby three, while Al Junior has won the famous race twice.

- A number of F1 stars have won the Indy 500, including Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. The only current driver to have done so is Juan Pablo Montoya, who won the oval race in 2000.

- The last turn on the circuit runs through Turn one on the oval track, which is the only banked corner on the F1 calendar. The track also features the longest flat-out section of all the F1 circuits, with drivers running full throttle for around 22 seconds from Turn 11 to Turn one at speeds in excess of 210mph.

[cavvy]

Bear, got any trivia on your namesake aka Denny Hulme - now he was THE BEAR!

[thebear]

Originally posted by cavvy
Bear, got any trivia on your namesake aka Denny Hulme - now he was THE BEAR!

I will put my `best engineer' on the project.

[thebear]

The haze has cleared in the Crystal Ball and the Chronicles have revealed:

Denny was born 18 JUN 1936. He was the son of a New Zealand mystic, water diviner and fortune-teller who won the Victoria Cross when fighting with the ANZAC forces in the Battle of Crete in 1941, Hulme grew up on a tobacco farm owned by his grandparents at Moteuka on South Island. After the war the family moved to Te Puke on North Island where Clive Hulme started a trucking business. Denny went to work in garage when he left school and having saved up enough money bought an MG TF and started to take part in hillclimb events in 1956. He made steady progress in racing and eventually acquired a Cooper-Climax with which he began to win races. This resulted in in him being chosen as the New Zealand Driver to Europe for 1960 along with another youngster called George Lawton. Hulme bought a Cooper-BMC Formula Junior and began travelling from race to race in Europe. Lawton was killed in an accident at the Roskildering in Denmark but Hulme went on. The following year he helped to make ends meet by working as a mechanic in Jack Brabham's garage in Chessington and gradually worked his way up the racing ladder. An early break was a factory Abarth drive at Le Mans in 1961 and then in 1962 Ken Tyrrell asked him to race in Formula Junior. That led to an invitation to become a Brabham works driver in Formula Junior. In 1963 he won half the Formula Junior races he entered and that resulted in an invitation from Jack Brabham to join the Brabham Formula 2 team in 1964. Brabham and Hulme won most of the races that year and finished 1-2 in the European Championship.

Jack Brabham gave Hulme the occasional runs in non-championship F1 events in 1964 but as he had Dan Gurney signed up and was racing the second car himself there was no room for Denny. Hulme made his World Championship at Monza in 1965 and scored his first points later in the year. When the Formula 1 regulations changed in 1966 Gurney left the team to start his own operation and Hulme became the team's second driver in F1. The Repco engines proved to be very competitive and Brabham won the 1966 World Championship while Hulme finished fourth. In 1967 he won the Monaco and German GPs and a string of strong finishes took him to the World Championship. He also competed in CanAm with McLaren and finished second in that series and he was fourth in one of Gurney's Eagles at the Indianapolis 500.

At the end of the year he had little choice but to leave Brabham but he was happy to join McLaren. He raced not only in F1 and CanAm in McLaren machinery but also took part in British sports car events in a Sid Taylor Lola T70. That year he won the Italian and Canadian GPs and the non-championship International Trophy. He won the CanAm title with victories at Elkhart Lake, Mosport and the Stardust Raceway and in Britain he won the Tourist Trophy.

The CanAm success continued in 1969 but this time Bruce McLaren beat Hulme to the title while in F1 Denny was only able to win one race - the Mexican GP.

In 1970 Hulme showed his mettle. He suffered serious burns to his hands when his car caught fire in Indianapolis and then McLaren was killed in a testing accident at Goodwood. Hulme proved to be one of the mainstays of the team and despite his injuries he won the CanAm title again and finished fourth in the World Championship after aa string of good finishes but no wins.

The 1971 season was not a great success as the F1 cars were not competitive and in CanAm Hulme was beaten by his new team mate (and friend) Peter Revson but in 1972 Hulme was back in his winning ways in F1 with victory in South Africaand some other good results taking him to thrid place in the World Championship.

He was winning again in 1973 with victory in Sweden but he was overshadowed by Revson. At the end of that year Revson left to join Shadow but early in 1974 was killed while testing at Kyalami. Hulme was there are tried in vain his save his friend's life. After the accident he decided that he would complete the season and then retire. He won the Argentine GP that year and was second in Austria but otherwise made little impact and retired quietly at the end of the season. For a while he led the Grand Prix Drivers Association's campaign for better safety standards, but bureaucracy and Denny Hulme did not mix well and he retired to New Zealand. He returned to racing touring cars in the early 1980s, notaably as a member of Tom Walkinshaw's Austin Rover team in the European Touring Car Championship. When he was not racing he loved to tinker with a collection of steam engines and an old McLaren F1 car which he acquired. He even traced and bought his MG TF and had it restored.

On October 4, 1992 he suffered a fatal heart attack while at the wheel of a BMW M3 during the Bathurst 1000 in Australia. He was 56.

[thebear]

hrug:

The swing axle rear suspension used in the original VW `bug' was patented in 1903 by Edward Rumpler, an engineer working at the Adler Automobile Company.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Prior to the launch of the 1966 models, Pontiac announced that their new overhead camshaft inline six cylinder engines would be the first time that such a power plant was used on an American passenger car. Unfortunately, no representatives of Duesenberg, Stutz and Wills Saint Claire (all dating from 1924) were available to protest.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1799-1813), a contemporary of Lewis & Clark was commissioned in 1805 to chart additional portions of Thomas Jefferson's "Louisiana Purchase". His journeys were frought with errors and omissions, including losing all his charts to the Spanish when he was arrested as a spy. He is best remembered as the man who put Pike's Peak on the map as he discovered it and deemed it "insumountable".
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
1951 was the year crash helmets became compulsory in FIA-sanctioned events and Ford Motor Company starts the first car crash test program in USA.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
1955 was the first year European cars were offered with safety belts. By 1957 Volvo fitted them as standard.

;p

[marcus]

great stuff bear , im really enjoying reading this stuff

[D-Type]

Originally posted by marcus
great stuff bear , im really enjoying reading this stuff

Seconded

[thebear]

Originally posted by D-Type
Seconded

Thanks, friends. I really have no way of knowing how many subscribers there are to this thread.

[Don Capps]

You might want to check some of your supposed facts and trivia.

[cavvy]

Onya thebear,
I'm a follower of your work.
Memo Don Capps - if you can add a bit I'm sure it is appreciated e'g M6 a & b - thanks mate.

[Don Capps]

Wierd, but true #4

In 1981 there was the distinct possibility that there would be two different Formula 1 championships. The Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) was unhappy with FISA's (FIA's predecessor) operating methods. FOCA's Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley created the World Federation of Motor Sport. In November of 1980 WFMS announced that it was the only official sanctioning body for F-1 and all the British teams concurred. The continental manufacturers (Renault, Ferrari and ALFA-Romeo) supported FISA. FOCA had a race in South Africa and after four months the "Concorde Agreement" was signed. It recognized the FISA/FIA as the owner of the F-1 World Championship and FOCA as the owner of the TV rights. The rest as they say, is history. During that same period a similar disagreement was brewing between FISA/FIA and the Automobile Club d' Ouest (ACO), the organizers of the 24hrs of LeMans.

This one is so layered with myth and misinformation among truth and facts that it is little wonder folks steer clear of it like the plague. The problems began long before Mr. Ecclestone and Mr. Mosley entered from stage right and then M. Baltestre from stage left. Although the usual emphasis is on just the money, the real focus was actually on the control of the money rather than the money itself. True, a very subtle thing, but when viewed in this way the "Ahah!Light" usually begins to power up.

[paulSenna]

1981 "Slick" tires made their first appearance in F-1

Really? I wonder what those big, black round things that I saw throughout the 70s in F1 were then.

[thebear]

Originally posted by paulSenna
Really? I wonder what those big, black round things that I saw throughout the 70s in F1 were then.

I have alredy been advised of the error by PM. Sorry to all.

[Vitesse]

Originally posted by thebear
- Although the Indianapolis 500 was part of the F1 world championship between 1950 and 1960, the first genuine US Grand Prix was not held until 1959.

You don't count that thing they ran beteween 1908 and 1916 then? "American Grand Prize" they called it ...

Originally posted by thebear
- The United States has held grands prix in more places than any other country with no fewer than eight circuits holding world championship races. Sebring, Riverside, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Detroit, Dallas, Las Vegas Phoenix and, of course, Indy.

.... Savannah, Milwaukee, Santa Monica and San Francisco.