Le Mans Duckhams Ford; origins in Ferrari 312PB, or Brabham BT33?

Hi,

I read somewhere that the Duckhams Ford sportscar (Le Mans 1972) was projected by Gordon Murray using parts from the Brabham Bt33 Chris Craft drove at Watkins Glen in 1971.

The car is very beautiful but ... it seems very much a Ferrari 312 p/b (the 1971 car) to my eyes.

Am I wrong ?

VBR.
André Acker.

Andre
Curiously, I saw a program on Speed TV just a week or two back about the Monterey Historics where Alain de Cadenet was waxing lyrical about a BT33 and mentioned that he had owned one "which we used the suspension parts from to build a le Mans car" .... this is definitely the Gordon Murray-designed 1972 and 1973 Duckhams car. It was 12th in the 1972 race, but DNF the following year.
According to one of the other ever-reliable TNF threads, the chassis of that car later became Colin Hawker's famous "DFVW" supersaloon.

The sports racers of the late 60's and early 70's were a great influence on my young life - I passed many happy hours at school drawing Ferrari 312PB-shaped cars, and would still love to own anything of similar ilk (Chevron B19, Martin BM8, lots of Lolas ... oh, and of course a Ferrari )

Dave

If I'm not wrong the car is currently up for sale...its shape is very close to the 312P one, in both short&long tail form.

IIRC the intention was to use the wishbones uprights etc from the BT33 in reality only the uprights were used , I have a file of articles on the car from the period , cant get to them at present . Regarding the body shape , there was no budget for wind tunnell time so I am sure Gordon took inspiration from he knew worked , and he wasnt the first to do that . For all that a wonderful effort , built in a London lock up.

No doubt it was a beautiful car and I can not blame Murray for doing something similar to other people's work as this is the rule in motor racing.
What caught my attention was that the two cars looked like twins and nobody never said anything about this when the Duckhams appeared, in 1972 or after.
Anyway, I can use the same Ferrari 312 p/b body to do the Ferrari and the Duckhams slotcars ...

VBR.
André Acker.

lookforward to seeing rhe result.

Ok, but it will take some time, the list of cars is big, the free time to do them is limited and the Ferrari and Duckhmans have to go in the end of the queue ...

VBR.
André Acker.