28 replies to this topic

[nexfast]

Good Evening,

I am looking for information about a F3 Finnish driver from the fifties, Kauko Ranta, particularly if it is the same man that was in the forties one of the drivers of Finnish President, Marshal Mannerheim. Photos, DOBs, Results welcome.

Thanks

[David McKinney]

He raced one of the Effyh-based KG Specials built by K-E Kronqvist and Fred Geitel in 1950 and 1951, then an Effyh proper in 1952. Never raced much outside Finland, and was not one of the stars of local events, though he collected numerous places

I don't recall hearing of any connection with Marshall Mannerheim

[nexfast]

He raced one of the Effyh-based KG Specials built by K-E Kronqvist and Fred Geitel in 1950 and 1951, then an Effyh proper in 1952. Never raced much outside Finland, and was not one of the stars of local events, though he collected numerous places

I don't recall hearing of any connection with Marshall Mannerheim

Thank you, David. Let's hope some of the Finnish members of the Forum might add some more information.

[Tim Murray]

According to Jimmy Piget's list of winners he won the Näsikallianajot at Tampere on 26th April 1953 driving an Effyh-JAP.

[nexfast]

According to Jimmy Piget's list of winners he won the Näsikallianajot at Tampere on 26th April 1953 driving an Effyh-JAP.

Thank you Tim. The information I have so far is based on Sheldon's F3 fact books, completed by some information on www.500race.org Both have Ranta driving either in Helsinki or Tampere from 1949 to 1954, first in a KG special till 1951 and then in an Effyh from 1952, like David indicated. Information about other F3 races in Finland is sketchy and it seems Ranta did not even bother to race in Sweden like some of his compatriots (Loivaranta, Rikkila, etc.). As you mentioned, he won the Tampere race in 1953 (and came second in 1952 though more than 40 sec after the winner) which is kind of surprising since his results in Helsinki were never extraordinary. Perhaps more of a local driver.

The reference about a Kauko Ranta as Mannerheim's driver comes from this site: http://www.mannerhei...ity/e_auto3.htm

[Tomas Karlsson]

Yes, it is the same person. I have read it somewhere else that Ranta had been Mannerheims chauffeur during the war.
There were a lot of races for F3 (or midget) in Finland. Some of them on horse-track ovals.

[Tomas Karlsson]

He raced one of the Effyh-based KG Specials built by K-E Kronqvist and Fred Geitel in 1950 and 1951, then an Effyh proper in 1952.

This is the first time I have heard that the KG specials were based on Effyh. Where does that information come from?

Edited by Tomas Karlsson, 27 April 2013 - 12:21.

[David McKinney]

From here:

http://www.500race.org/
(Go to Marques then K.G. Special)

[Tomas Karlsson]

I had a quick look through my papers and found 33 races where Ranta participated or were entered. But then I have a very limited knowledge about the Finnish races. I don't have anything about the ice-races for instance.
But there were a lot of races during the spring and summer in Finland in those days. Some on horse-track ovals, but also a lot of road races on tracks that was far from international standard.
In 49-51 he raced one of the Finnish-built KG specials (they were not based on the Effyh - unfortunately). The best result (I have found) was a second at Riihimäki (1000m oval) in 1950 and two thirds Pori 1950 and Imatra 1951.
For 1952 he got an used Effyh (a lot better then the KGS) and was second at Sorsapuisto, Tampere, and third at Riihimäki. In '53 he won at Näsikallio, Tampere, was second behind Lincoln at Kuusankoski and third at Imatra.
In 54 he was third at Näsikallio and the last outing I have found was at Helsinki in '55.
There is still a lot to be found in Finland...

[Tomas Karlsson]

From here:

http://www.500race.org/
(Go to Marques then K.G. Special)

Don't trust everything you read on the Internet.
The Effyh most certainly inspired Geitel and Kronquist. But they certainly didn't have an example of the Swedish car. From the pictures I have of the first Finnish car, it is clear that they couldn't even have seen the Effyh without it's body. The Effyh's chassis was a lot stiffer with box-sections both front and rear. The Effyh could run circles round the KG. If the Finns had had an Effyh they wouldn't have touched it.

[nexfast]

Don't trust everything you read on the Internet.
The Effyh most certainly inspired Geitel and Kronquist. But they certainly didn't have an example of the Swedish car. From the pictures I have of the first Finnish car, it is clear that they couldn't even have seen the Effyh without it's body. The Effyh's chassis was a lot stiffer with box-sections both front and rear. The Effyh could run circles round the KG. If the Finns had had an Effyh they wouldn't have touched it.

Tomas, thanks for this. It is the beauty of this forum, there is always someone who has additional information. Is there any source (book or web) for those Finnish races you've mentioned that you can recommend?

[Tomas Karlsson]

Tomas, thanks for this. It is the beauty of this forum, there is always someone who has additional information. Is there any source (book or web) for those Finnish races you've mentioned that you can recommend?

There was a soft-bound book from 1991 "Nordiskt formel3 register" by Tommy Sjöberg and Jöran Hedberg. But I am not sure if it is possible to find it anymore. I rely mostly on old magazines and newspapers in libraries. You have to get close to the source.
F3 racing in Scandinavia started before "F3" was invented. After WWII enthusiasts in Sweden and Denmark started to build small racing cars inspired by American midget racing. The thought was to use the same small ovals as the speedway motorcycles. The first two cars in Sweden was one front-engined Zündapp and a rear-engined Harley-Davidson. But in the winter 46-47 the ex-motorcycle rider Åke Jönsson got the Håkansson brothers to build him a midget with a 500cc speedway JAP engine. The little Effyh was an immediate success and Jönsson toured around Scandinavia and did exhibition runs at a lot of motorcycle races. He also met other "midgets" but left them for cold. The Effyh even scared the big V8-engined sportscars.
So when the Swedish federation decided to make rules for the midgets for 1948, they wrote them along the Effyh lines. Unfortunately several big-engined midgets had already been built. But in that way you could say that the Effyh was the model for all the Scandinavian midgets. Then in 1949 the international motorsport federation drew up rules for F3, and they used the British AND Swedish rules. Unfortunately they didn't go for the Swedish rule that demanded a roll-hoop. The Swedish cars had to be modified in one aspect. They had to get 4-wheel brakes. They had been built for the small 400-meter oval tracks (or sometimes 1000m ovals), but now they also could be used for real road racing. Effyh built a new series with bigger tanks and brakes all around.
The Finnish KGS could not scare the Effyh drivers. Finland had a shortage of good material and it was difficult to import (at least from the west). The first real Coopers and Effyhs they got was thanks to the Finnish motorsport federation. The Danish and Norwegian racing had several difficult years in the beginning of the Fifties, but got going again in the middle of the decade.
All along the F3 or midgets (as they were called) had a close connection to motorcycle racing. They raced on the same tracks. Not only ovals, but there were several road race tracks in Sweden and Finland, that were considered to narrow for cars. But not for midgets. So that's why you can find a lot of strange track names connected to this class.
Here is a page with old Finnish motorcycle racing tracks. On most of those they also raced F3s.
http://riuta.suntuubi.com/?cat=56

[nexfast]

There was a soft-bound book from 1991 "Nordiskt formel3 register" by Tommy Sjöberg and Jöran Hedberg. But I am not sure if it is possible to find it anymore. I rely mostly on old magazines and newspapers in libraries. You have to get close to the source.
F3 racing in Scandinavia started before "F3" was invented. After WWII enthusiasts in Sweden and Denmark started to build small racing cars inspired by American midget racing. The thought was to use the same small ovals as the speedway motorcycles. The first two cars in Sweden was one front-engined Zündapp and a rear-engined Harley-Davidson. But in the winter 46-47 the ex-motorcycle rider Åke Jönsson got the Håkansson brothers to build him a midget with a 500cc speedway JAP engine. The little Effyh was an immediate success and Jönsson toured around Scandinavia and did exhibition runs at a lot of motorcycle races. He also met other "midgets" but left them for cold. The Effyh even scared the big V8-engined sportscars.
So when the Swedish federation decided to make rules for the midgets for 1948, they wrote them along the Effyh lines. Unfortunately several big-engined midgets had already been built. But in that way you could say that the Effyh was the model for all the Scandinavian midgets. Then in 1949 the international motorsport federation drew up rules for F3, and they used the British AND Swedish rules. Unfortunately they didn't go for the Swedish rule that demanded a roll-hoop. The Swedish cars had to be modified in one aspect. They had to get 4-wheel brakes. They had been built for the small 400-meter oval tracks (or sometimes 1000m ovals), but now they also could be used for real road racing. Effyh built a new series with bigger tanks and brakes all around.
The Finnish KGS could not scare the Effyh drivers. Finland had a shortage of good material and it was difficult to import (at least from the west). The first real Coopers and Effyhs they got was thanks to the Finnish motorsport federation. The Danish and Norwegian racing had several difficult years in the beginning of the Fifties, but got going again in the middle of the decade.
All along the F3 or midgets (as they were called) had a close connection to motorcycle racing. They raced on the same tracks. Not only ovals, but there were several road race tracks in Sweden and Finland, that were considered to narrow for cars. But not for midgets. So that's why you can find a lot of strange track names connected to this class.
Here is a page with old Finnish motorcycle racing tracks. On most of those they also raced F3s.
http://riuta.suntuubi.com/?cat=56

Fascinating stuff in the link, Tomas. I had seen videos of cars racing in the Helsinki circuit but not bikes. Not totally unexpected that the latter stopped to go there in 63 when you see the ferocity of the accidents in 62. And the riders were probably lucky rain came only after the chequered flag. Thanks for the information. I found the Sjoberg/Hedberg book (even in CD) in two Swedish libraries, perhaps I will have to plan some visit to your country one of these days.

[Tomas Karlsson]

The F3 book is of the same type as Sheldon's black books (I think they cooperated), so there is no pictures. Just facts. Although they dug up a lot, I have found that there is more to be found. And unfortunately they concentrated on the road race tracks only. Other races only appeared in a short top three summary. But in those days there were no borders between roadracing, oval races, hill climbs or ice races. It was the same drivers and cars in all (at least almost - there were some drivers who had different cars for road races and ovals/hillclimbs).

[Tomas Karlsson]

... and of course, I almost forgot the excellent book on the Helsinki races: "Kuolemankurvasta moukaripörssiin" by Geitel, Juurikkala and Talvitie from 1993. A lot of pictures and the story behind every one of the automobile races in the Djurgården park. I have found some small errors*, but otherwise very fascinating. (thanks to Google translate)
(* just saw in the book that Ranta should have changed to a Cooper for the last race in 55. But in a startline-photo on the same page, his lone Effyh is clearly visible on the last row.)

[nexfast]

... and of course, I almost forgot the excellent book on the Helsinki races: "Kuolemankurvasta moukaripörssiin" by Geitel, Juurikkala and Talvitie from 1993. A lot of pictures and the story behind every one of the automobile races in the Djurgården park. I have found some small errors*, but otherwise very fascinating. (thanks to Google translate)
(* just saw in the book that Ranta should have changed to a Cooper for the last race in 55. But in a startline-photo on the same page, his lone Effyh is clearly visible on the last row.)

Many thanks again, Tomas. I discovered a Finnish bookshop accepting orders in English and I just ordered it, it is still being sold. Of course, like you I kill have to use Google Translator a lot. Not perfect but better than nothing.

[Scuderia Naftalin]

Hi guys, apologies for the late response but I've been busy finalising our book about the Finnish Formula History, covering the first years from 1947 until 1989 and one of the persons in that book is Kauko Ranta, the war-time chauffeur of Marshall Mannerheim. Just a quick note now about KG Special - it's based on Kieft. And I guess Thomas has given quite a good summary of Kauko Ranta's racing career but there's a bit more of him in our book, released four days ago. I'll add some photos of the early KG's next week - will be racing with my own ex-Calle Jonson Formula Vee this week-end, travelling to the Botniaring tomorrow morning for the historic races, but when back, will return to this. Our book is in English and Finnish - more of that later. And as you've noticed, there are some errors in both Internet and "Kuolemankurvasta Moukaripörssiin" -we've tried to rectify some of those and have interviewed some of the old chaps still around from the "Eläintarhanajaot" -era. And we have 1100+ fotos in the book to verify our facts

[Tomas Karlsson]

Just a quick note now about KG Special - it's based on Kieft.

Ehrm... We were talking about the KGS cars that showed up in 1948, not Loivaranta's Elhoo. The first Kieft was built in 1950 I think.

How can I get your new book?

Edited by Tomas Karlsson, 09 May 2013 - 09:33.

[nexfast]

Hi guys, apologies for the late response but I've been busy finalising our book about the Finnish Formula History, covering the first years from 1947 until 1989 and one of the persons in that book is Kauko Ranta, the war-time chauffeur of Marshall Mannerheim. Just a quick note now about KG Special - it's based on Kieft. And I guess Thomas has given quite a good summary of Kauko Ranta's racing career but there's a bit more of him in our book, released four days ago. I'll add some photos of the early KG's next week - will be racing with my own ex-Calle Jonson Formula Vee this week-end, travelling to the Botniaring tomorrow morning for the historic races, but when back, will return to this. Our book is in English and Finnish - more of that later. And as you've noticed, there are some errors in both Internet and "Kuolemankurvasta Moukaripörssiin" -we've tried to rectify some of those and have interviewed some of the old chaps still around from the "Eläintarhanajaot" -era. And we have 1100+ fotos in the book to verify our facts

This looks exciting! Same question as Tomas, give us more information on the book after your races, please. At least, you have already two prospective buyers.

[Tomas Karlsson]

Found it:

http://scuderianaftalin.com/

[Tomas Karlsson]

Interesting to note that a book about formula racing has a portrait of Lincoln sitting in a sportscar on the front cover...
And I hope the book has sorted out all the typos in the pdf-pages that are linked to the homepage

[Scuderia Naftalin]

Hello again, back from my trip (which continued a week+ longer than planned) - anyway, some of you have already find our web site, I'll try to add some more info there in English in the days to come. I tried to publish some photos here -but with no luck so far, maybe this one will be OK. It shows the first ever KG Special.
http://scudnaftalin....a/KG_lowres.jpg
If interested, just send an email to scuderia.naftalin@gmail.com with your postal address and I'll get back to you. When shipped to UK / Europe, we have to check the postage separately for each country. Book weights about 1.5kg (hard cover, nearly 500 pages) but we'll keep the price as low as we can.
Tomas, I was expecting questions like "why is Curt Lincoln sitting in a sports car if the book is about Formulas...?" - and there's a long story behind this, but the short version is: it's a photo we have at home, with his autograph, and it may get the attention better than the first proposal of the cover (with photos of different "Finn-Made" formulas) - and as that was the opinion of the female team members......well, I don't want to get into the longer version

There are still some errors / typos / "missing stories" but as a history book (and reasearch behind it) is always an on-going saga, we'll try to benefit from it, by asking for help from the readers. We'll publish new stories (new stories ) and corrections to errors ( corrections ) and other info like this ( car makes ) - some of that still in Finnish only but will be in English later this week) - please feel free to send us your comments! Even questions are welcome and will be published (without sender's name, of course, unless they insist...) - and we'll try to get answers too!

[Tomas Karlsson]

My copy hasn't arrived yet, but as I wrote there are a lot of small typos in the pdf:s on your homepage.
On the persons list, apart from the missing capitals for Veikko, Rindell, Stenberg and Troberg, we have:
Bjolke - should be Sten Bielke
Blckdyk - Blokdyk
Boittler - Beuttler
Gunnarsson Stig-Olof - Gunnarsson Sven-Olof
Loens - Loëns André
Nelleman - Nellemann (both Robert and Jac)
Thinghoj - Thinghöj

and maybe these should get their real names:
Borgudd Tommy "Slim"
Hulme Denis "Denny"

[Michael Ferner]

If "Denny" isn't a "real" name, how can "Tommy" be? Serious question.

[Tomas Karlsson]

If "Denny" isn't a "real" name, how can "Tommy" be? Serious question.

In Sweden British names have been popular through the years. And not the original names, but the ones that have been used.
You will find a lot of Tommy, Ronnie or Ronny, Connie or Conny, Sonny, Benny, Johnny and so on over here (I got a laugh when a British magazine once called Ronnie Peterson Ronald).
A Ronald here is never called Ronnie, but just Ronald. And a Thomas is called Thomas. But we have people that are christened Tom.
We have other names that get pet variants, like Bosse instead of Bo (see Ljungfeldt) Kalle instead of Karl or Lasse instead of Lars. But just to make it a bit more confusing I know a guy who is christened Kalle (or Calle).

[Scuderia Naftalin]

In Sweden British names have been popular through the years. And not the original names, but the ones that have been used.
You will find a lot of Tommy, Ronnie or Ronny, Connie or Conny, Sonny, Benny, Johnny and so on over here (I got a laugh when a British magazine once called Ronnie Peterson Ronald).
A Ronald here is never called Ronnie, but just Ronald. And a Thomas is called Thomas. But we have people that are christened Tom.
We have other names that get pet variants, like Bosse instead of Bo (see Ljungfeldt) Kalle instead of Karl or Lasse instead of Lars. But just to make it a bit more confusing I know a guy who is christened Kalle (or Calle).

...and when you move on, from Sweden over the border to Finland, you might get even more confused. The Swedes tried to transfer their culture, language and names (or actually, I guess it was the Danes who got here first) but as we Finns are too stupid (and stubborn) to use foreign letters like C, D, F, G...we replace them with our own K, T, or whatever so a Calle or Carl is always Kalle, David is Taavi, Charles => Karl => Kaarlo - and Lasse is just Lasse (our 4-time Olympic Gold Winner Lasse Viren is not Lars Virén -and doesn't speak Swedish, despite the name)
Anyway, apologies for the typos, most of those are corrected in the book, but of course you'll find some others there instead. Proof reading pdf documents is never a pleasant task, especially if in hurry and if reading your own text, which you get blind to...a lame excuse but even if it is important to get your spelling right, we are just humans. And I take the blame (yes, there's a proof-reader in the InDesign s/w but unfortunately even that was run by me, the built-in dictionary doesn't cover foreign names or all words so.....)

Anyway, hope you find the book interesting.
Tapani
ps ten points for anybody who know what the origin of my first name is....
pps my Kaimann -73 was bough new by a Calle!

[Michael Ferner]

Stephen?

Can I invest my ten points in the purchase price for the bokk?

[Scuderia Naftalin]

Stephen?

Can I invest my ten points in the purchase price for the bokk?

CORRECT! and yes, one point equals one euro in postage / mailing :-)

[Tomas Karlsson]

I just recieved my copy of "Finnish Formula History 1947-1989" (in Finnish AND English). A massive book with an enormous amount of pictures and tons of facts! Seems to be worth every penny... or euro. It will take a while before I have read through the whole book.