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A place in history (anti-Connews look no further)


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#1 Barry Boor

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 07:57

Recently, contact has been re-established between Peter Connew and Vincent Mausset. Vincent was the Darnval part of the Darnval-Connew F.1 car. He now lives and works in Hong Kong and has been involved with the design and construction of boats for many years.

Peter has worked in China several times during the last few years and finally a year or so ago they met - for the first time in over 30 years!

Peter is out there again at present and his meetings and discussion with Vincent have led to a semi-serious consideration of the circumstances regarding the whole Connew saga, with relation to whether or not the project may warrant a place in the Guinness Book of Records or at least in a list of biggest/smallest/fastest/slowest etc as carried by this website...

http://www.f1technical.net/f1stats/

Vincent has compiled a short list of facts, some of which can never be proved one way or the other, but maybe one or two can.... I offer the list and would really appreciate comments thereon:

The smallest budget. Understand you guys had to go around the paddock in Austria with your hats in hand to refuel the truck to return home.

The youngest team of promoters : Peter was 25, the rest of you guys in the same region and I was 27.

The smallest factory :lol: , if I remember we had to take the nose off the car to close the garage door !

The less motorized team, one engine series 9 (Others like Jacky Stewart were on series 12 ??) for both training, practice and race.

The shortest presence two practices and one GP start.

The longest stay- together team. Peter and Vincent still trying to launch something together 32 years later.


The last item, sadly, does not involve F.1 racing!!! Any comments?

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#2 David McKinney

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 10:12

I suspect there would be "yes" answers to just about all those things at the time, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were contenders for some of the others back in history

#3 Doug Nye

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 10:18

Just for starters perhaps Bugatti (for one) beats the shortest presence performance?

Otherwise - go for it... :up:

DCN

#4 Twin Window

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 10:20

Regarding the penultimate point; surely Lola's 1997 (?) effort was of even shorter duration with just a solitary race attendance and a pair of DNQs...

#5 ensign14

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 11:36

Originally posted by Barry Boor

The shortest presence two practices and one GP start.

McGuire, one DNPQ.

Or, into the non-championship rankings, the VM...one snooze.

#6 Ray Bell

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 11:50

I'm sure it would win the category for orange and yellow-liveried DFV powered cars with borrowed engines that were built in undersize lockups...

That is what Guinness records are about, of course. Finding as many different things to make records out of so that more and more people can hold the records.

#7 Vicuna

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 13:30

Originally posted by Ray Bell
I'm sure it would win the category for orange and yellow-liveried DFV powered cars with borrowed engines that were built in undersize lockups...

That is what Guinness records are about, of course. Finding as many different things to make records out of so that more and more people can hold the records.


Orange or red?

#8 Barry Boor

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 18:45

Most definitely RED! Colours change due to being upside down I believe...

#9 Ray Bell

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Posted 03 September 2005 - 20:32

That's okay then... they can create yet another category for red and yellow ones...

#10 Terry Walker

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Posted 04 September 2005 - 06:33

How about a TV documentary? Got to be enough still and video to support one, plus living participants, and the car...there've been a lot less worthy subjects.

#11 Roger Clark

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Posted 04 September 2005 - 06:58

Originally posted by Terry Walker
How about a TV documentary? Got to be enough still and video to support one, plus living participants, and the car...there've been a lot less worthy subjects.

I'm sure that a television documentary would be too compromised for a general audience to be of much interest to most of us, but how about an item on one of the specialist DVD magazines, MFQ or Yesterday's Racers?

#12 RTH

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Posted 04 September 2005 - 07:00

Originally posted by Terry Walker
How about a TV documentary? Got to be enough still and video to support one, plus living participants, and the car...there've been a lot less worthy subjects.


................Sounds like a job for Supercharged Broadcast Ltd - what about it Gary ?

#13 Barry Boor

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Posted 04 September 2005 - 07:24

Interestingly, (or not!) there is but one known moving shot of the car. Looking back down the hill towards the grid in Austria, Francois trundles up at the back of the pack in a sequence taken at the start of the race.

It is on a video of the 1972 Austrian Grand Prix produced, I think, by Castrol. The same sequence may well be on the season review video for the same year.

As Roger correctly points out, although there may be great interest in all things Connew amongst a very small group of people who inhabit this forum, in the big wide world the interest in such a piffling little microdot on the page that is motor racing would be less than zero.

#14 RTH

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Posted 04 September 2005 - 08:33

Don't be so modest Barry.

Our own Gary C has just started making a series of retrospective DVDs in a magazine format interviewing current owners of historic racing cars , delving in to the history, background, the people involved with period footage , still photography, and studio comment. It's wonderful stuff.

Now, this is just the sort of story that would make a 20 min piece on a 1 hr DVD.
Volume 1 is just out, and I happen to know Gary is now assembling material for volume 3. It's top quality in every way.

Anyone who likes TNF will love this. ( It's nothing to do with me , but having bought the first volume I am very enthusiastic about the project) , because it is, just up our street and as you rightly say Barry this is a minority interest and I feel anyone gathering this fascinating material should be supported to keep the project going.

So if the people involed in Connew would tell their story on film and if there is a collection of photographs etc , it definitely is of interest to plenty of people.

www.yesterdaysracers.com

#15 Terry Walker

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Posted 04 September 2005 - 09:56

I still think it has a much wider potential TV audience than TNFers. Even if you're not much interested in F1, it's still a great story of the little guy dreaming the impossible dream, and achieving the impossible goal. As you say, world's smallest F1 car factory, tiniest budget, etc. I think it's a natural for a wide audience. Of course, much would depend on the on-camera personas of the guys who took part.

#16 Ray Bell

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Posted 04 September 2005 - 10:16

Yes, I'll go along with Terry...

Approached as a comparison with Minardi today, with the scale of the difference to McLaren, Williams or Ferrari, it would certainly grab people's attention.