15 replies to this topic

[Isetta]

Forgive me if this is a well trodden path but I am interested in the history of the Merlyn MK11 as driven by Tim Schenken in 1968.

I know that the car passed to Emerson Fittipaldi after Tim graduated to Formula 3 so was wondering if this was The ‘Magic Merlyn’ as mentioned in the Colin Vandervell thread.

Also did this car use the Kent engine known as ‘Patch‘?

The car (and engine) seemed to be a lucky talisman for its first two drivers and I was wondering what subsequently became of it and whether it can still be seen competing.


Pete (Isetta)

[Simon Hadfield]

To Jody Scheckter after Colin, then Frank Sytner (who sold it to buy Ian Schecter's Mk 20a - Frank said Ian's car was "in much better condition") who gave £800 for the car then spotted some years later and purchased by Paul Pfanner in the USA, the publisher of Racer magazine (and restored I think by John Bright) and from him back to Jody Scheckter who has the car today. Patch I always thought was later but Andrew Kitson would be the man for that I think. The car can be seen on the cover of the American book on Formula Ford which was published in the mid 90s

Edited by Simon Hadfield, 02 December 2009 - 18:34.

[Tim Murray]

As Andrew Kitson stated in the Colin Vandervell thread, Fittipaldi bought the 'Magic' Merlyn new in 1969, so it was not the car raced by Schenken. 'Patch' famously powered four successive winners of the Formula Ford Festival between 1980 and 1983 and first appeared in 1977. It has its own thread:

Patch

[Stephen W]

Colin Vandervell at Brands in 1970

[Andrew Kitson]

Emerson's Merlyn was not the Schenken car, it was indeed brand new from the factory. The first person Emerson went to see on arrival was Frank Williams in February 1969 and he asked FW to order a Titan for him. Titan could only offer a 3 month delivery, so he went to see Denny Rowland who sorted him a new car from Merlyn and offered to build his engines. It was finished in a pale orange colour. Many people think he did the JRRDS course. Emerson never did, nor did he race for Jim in FF until the South American Temporada races after his F3 campaign. Jim picked him up and managed him from F3 onwards and entered his Lotus in JRRDS colours, having seen his potential in FF.

Emerson's first go in the Merlyn was at a shakedown test at Lydden Hill with Denny Rowland on the way to cross the channel to Zandvoort, where he qualified second but was leading when the engine blew. Once repaired, Emerson doing most of the work himself, it was off to Snetterton where he won his first FF race. Quite a start.. first FF race in April '69, switched to F3 in July '69 and won the title, GP debut July '70 and we know the rest..

EDIT: Nick Brittain's book 'The Formula Ford Book' (from 1977) says that when Schenken went F3 towards the end of '68, his Merlyn was handed over to the Motor Racing Stables school for Ray Allen to drive.

Edited by Andrew Kitson, 02 December 2009 - 21:03.

[Isetta]

Thank you all for your kind replies. Like most fans I was brought up on the motor racing journals of the time, motoring news, motor sport etc and somehow seem to have convoluted the facts, it just goes to show what an unreliable witness memory alone can be. Its great getting old isn't it

Thanks again


Pete
(Isetta)

Edited by Isetta, 03 December 2009 - 10:11.

[DennyRowland]

Emerson's Merlyn was not the Schenken car, it was indeed brand new from the factory. The first person Emerson went to see on arrival was Frank Williams in February 1969 and he asked FW to order a Titan for him. Titan could only offer a 3 month delivery, so he went to see Denny Rowland who sorted him a new car from Merlyn and offered to build his engines. It was finished in a pale orange colour. Many people think he did the JRRDS course. Emerson never did, nor did he race for Jim in FF until the South American Temporada races after his F3 campaign. Jim picked him up and managed him from F3 onwards and entered his Lotus in JRRDS colours, having seen his potential in FF.

Emerson's first go in the Merlyn was at a shakedown test at Lydden Hill with Denny Rowland on the way to cross the channel to Zandvoort, where he qualified second but was leading when the engine blew. Once repaired, Emerson doing most of the work himself, it was off to Snetterton where he won his first FF race. Quite a start.. first FF race in April '69, switched to F3 in July '69 and won the title, GP debut July '70 and we know the rest..

EDIT: Nick Brittain's book 'The Formula Ford Book' (from 1977) says that when Schenken went F3 towards the end of '68, his Merlyn was handed over to the Motor Racing Stables school for Ray Allen to drive.

The Magic Merlyn seems to have gathered a few misconceptions as the years have passed. These are the actual facts. Following a short but quite successful season in 1968 I sold my Mk11 Merlyn to Sonny Eade and ordered a new Mk11a I then set about making it much better than the standard car. It was my intention to carry on racing myself. At that time I was approached by Emerson Fittipaldi Who wanted to hire the car. As I had already entered into hire deals with Ricardo Achcar, also from Brazil. It seemed like a good idea as I was short of money for the coming season. One thing lead to another and Emerson eventually bought the car from me and I ran the car. Emerson then set about decimating the opposition amid the usual allegations that the car could not be legal as it was so fast. At that time their were many big names who were all trying to jump on the Formula Ford band wagon. BRM, Holbay, Lotus. Titan, Jim Russell Chris Steele to name but a few. It all came to a head at Mallory Park when Ford Motor Co. were brought in to organise a massive strip down of the first six cars. They announced the results in reverse order.. The only car that was found to be completely legal on all counts was the winner driving my own Magic Merlyn as it was soon to be named. That single event sparked off what was to be a long and successful business selling FF engines all over the world.
Lotus were somewhat hacked off with the disgrace that was brought upon by themselves and then set about finding a way to get Fittapaldi in one of their cars. I seem to remember a classic statement from Colin Chapman who said well done Denny but you need to understand that cheating is a part of Motor Racing the only disgrace is getting caught. A piece of advice that I chose to forget.
The car was then sold to Colin Vandervell and he continued in even more dominant form than Emerson did. 26 starts and 26 wins during 1970. Never done before or since. Jody Schecter then ended up with the car and also became fairly dominant once he learned how to stay on the track. I built FF engines for another 15 years until I had become totally bored with the whole thing, but managed to win the major title 13 times as I recall. The secret to what made this car so successful was to be found in what I was not doing rather than what I was doing. It was not until many years later when working as a development engineer for Ricardo that I fully understood and learned about Tumble and Swirl and it's effect on combustion. What was a seemingly bad design in the standard crossflow engine was in fact a carefully designed sharp edge that stimulated the swirl. I have no idea what happened to the car after Frank had it. My passion for flying then took over and I lost all interest..

Edited by DennyRowland, 16 June 2011 - 15:03.

[Doug Nye]

Super response from the horse's mouth. Thanks so much for spending the time, Denny...

DCN

[petestenning]

Many thanks for the accurate info rigth from the man who would know.

I was a 16 yo at the time of Emersons first race at Snetterton and he was impressive for a guy new to the car, circuit , and country , but as you say he completely dominated.

And i remember both Denny and David Minister another who turned tuner when they drove FF.

Murray Sandman had the Merlyn after Frank i believe.

Edited by petestenning, 16 June 2011 - 17:41.

[David M. Kane]

Great stuff Mr. Rowland!

[Giraffe]

IMHO that's the post of the year so far.

[Gatmo]

IMHO that's the post of the year so far.

Seconded. You cannot beat first hand accounts!

[sterling49]

Great post Denny, I remember the times well, having watched all the names mentioned over many week-ends. Fond memories

[BritishV8]

Very interesting thread indeed!

-----------------------------------

Incidentally... anyone interested in distinctive Merlyn 11A design and construction details should check out these new articles:
Dave Fairchild's Merlyn 11A Formula Ford (includes 44 photos) and Bernard Bradpiece's Merlyn 11A Formula Ford (includes 48 photos).



If you you're curious to compare the Merlyn 11A with its contemporaries, a Lotus 51c, an Alexis 14, and a Macon MR7 have been similarly featured, as have a few somewhat newer cars (Lotus 61, Royale RP3A, and Hawke DL11). Howard Fineman's Merlyn 11 and James VanDeurzen's Merlyn 17 are being researched and written-up right now; they'll help fill-in the story of how Colchester Racing Development's design and manufacturing techniques were evolving. My goal is to put together an encyclopedic photographic reference on the history of Formula Ford design. Please contact me by p.m. if you have information to volunteer to the project.

[DennyRowland]

Very interesting thread indeed!

-----------------------------------

Incidentally... anyone interested in distinctive Merlyn 11A design and construction details should check out these new articles:
Dave Fairchild's Merlyn 11A Formula Ford (includes 44 photos) and Bernard Bradpiece's Merlyn 11A Formula Ford (includes 48 photos).



If you you're curious to compare the Merlyn 11A with its contemporaries, a Lotus 51c, an Alexis 14, and a Macon MR7 have been similarly featured, as have a few somewhat newer cars (Lotus 61, Royale RP3A, and Hawke DL11). Howard Fineman's Merlyn 11 and James VanDeurzen's Merlyn 17 are being researched and written-up right now; they'll help fill-in the story of how Colchester Racing Development's design and manufacturing techniques were evolving. My goal is to put together an encyclopedic photographic reference on the history of Formula Ford design. Please contact me by p.m. if you have information to volunteer to the project.

Thanks for sharing those links to the cars. I do remember them all being present on a trip to Sweden when Nick organised a race there in 1968. I often wonder what happened to Birgita Larson. A stunning local lass who Tim Shenken and I used to ......... they were the days.

[DennyRowland]

I remember the British GP as being my favorite race day of the year. I would head for the Vandervell hospitality bar where I would find a great collection of interesting people. Keith Duckworth was my best drinking partner for a couple of hours where we would engage in typical bar talk about things engineering. Doc. Joe Erlich and the top guy from Renault were there on one occasion as I sketched out an idea, that It would be possible to do away with valve springs and use compressed air instead as this would remove the natural harmonic frequencies that limit the current valve train designs. Keith was mildly interested but was far more interested in getting a refill plus his main thought process was centered around keeping spiraling RPM's down. However the the guy from Renault was a little more attentive. About a year later Renault were to change the 13 year dominance of the Cosworth DFV with a revolutionary pneumatic valve train, the rest is history. To me it was just a bar talk idea, I had no proof that it would actually work. At that time none of us would have believed that this principle would one day see V12 Ferraris that could run above 20,000 rpm.

Edited by DennyRowland, 17 June 2011 - 11:18.