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Next best to Jimmy?


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#1 David Beard

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Posted 13 April 2015 - 18:09

I think this is just brilliant. Not sure if Simon was 3 wheeling, but perhaps Jimmy had the front ARB too stiff?

 

https://grrc.goodwoo...XQPrGMeItdr0.97


Edited by David Beard, 13 April 2015 - 18:09.


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#2 Charlieman

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Posted 13 April 2015 - 19:49

I'm pretty sure that the Cortina owned by my sister's boyfriend didn't have that many lights on the radio console.



#3 john aston

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Posted 14 April 2015 - 05:52

I don't remember him three wheeling ; very few historic Cortinas do that now. But it was a great drive , as was Richard Meaden's at 2014 Classic. Sure the cars may not be quite au point from a purist viewpoint but HSCC meetings offer the best contemporary racing in the UK . As the saying has it, of the 10,000 Lotus Cortinas made , 15,000 survive    :drunk:



#4 fuzzi

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Posted 15 April 2015 - 05:31

Not to denigrate Simon Hadfield, but surely the next best to Jimmy was Sir John Whitmore? :wave:



#5 kayemod

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Posted 15 April 2015 - 08:31

Not to denigrate Simon Hadfield, but surely the next best to Jimmy was Sir John Whitmore? :wave:

 

Jack Sears?



#6 Doug Nye

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Posted 15 April 2015 - 15:35

Neither. Graham Hill.   :cat:

 

DCN



#7 sterling49

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Posted 16 April 2015 - 22:36

Luckily I got to watch all of these race Cortinas and quite often, agree with Doug, NGH was just very, very good, Jacky Ickx should be there somewhere too I feel ( saw him too)

#8 GMACKIE

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Posted 16 April 2015 - 22:58

And there was the 'Other Jimmy' , in Australia...Jim McKeown. :up:



#9 Ray Bell

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Posted 16 April 2015 - 23:46

Of course, he specialised...

But he was consistently good in Lotus Cortinas for four or five years.

Pete Geoghegan had his problems with his, but his car went on to destroy itself in the hands of two subsequent owners as I recall.

#10 AAGR

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Posted 17 April 2015 - 06:47

I'd like to nominate Sir John Whitmore too. I used to watch him 'at work', trackside, in Lotus-Cortinas. It wasn't just that he was very fast, but that he was obviously enjoying himself too.

 

AAGR


Edited by AAGR, 17 April 2015 - 06:49.


#11 Glengavel

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Posted 17 April 2015 - 08:15

Information about Whitmore's racing career is pretty sparse; judging by his results he seems to have been a decent driver - second place in the Spa 1000km isn't to be sniffed at. Walked away in 1966 - did he think he wasn't good enough, or decided it wasn't worth the risk?



#12 Doug Nye

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Posted 17 April 2015 - 13:39

John had deafened himself quite painfully in a Cobra roadster after its exhaust split during the Oulton Park TT, and his mind was increasingly on other matters philosophical...his life was changing at the time, and retirement from racing was part of a lengthy process - which was our loss...

 

DCN



#13 David Birchall

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 04:02

I dunno, full cage, dog box, fifty years of engine development, NASCAR style seat-
Jimmy didn't have any of that...

#14 kayemod

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 08:59

I dunno, full cage, dog box, fifty years of engine development, NASCAR style seat-
Jimmy didn't have any of that...

 

No he didn't, the seats in original Lotus Cortinas were just the standard Ford cheap vinyl seats with a lumpy pvc cover slipped over it, the lumps at the sides there to provide a slightly improved restraint, and they were described optimistically in the brochure as "buckets". At least in the early years, works cars raced with these somewhat rudimentary standard seats, accompanied by the standard aluminium three-spoked steering wheel. Were Jim and others ever provided with something better, and what kind of harness would have been fitted? Perhaps the reason that we don't see much three-wheeling from these cars today, is the vastly improved structural stiffness afforded by a modern roll cage, cheap cars in those days were flimsy affairs, early Cortinas more than most, and I recall that the all-up weight of a standard Cortina back then was similar to that of the much smaller Mini.

 

I was amused by Charlieman's post on the standard dashboard lights on his sister's boyfriend's Cortina. I suppose it would be rude to ask if she ever experienced "paradise" by them...



#15 RogerFrench

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 13:44

Hmmmm......more likely to lift a wheel with a stiff chassis I'd have guessed?

#16 David Birchall

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 16:00

Also, did I mention tires or even tyres?

#17 kayemod

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 17:57

Hmmmm......more likely to lift a wheel with a stiff chassis I'd have guessed?

 

You probably know more about this kind of thing than I do, but I'd have thought that a stiffer car made it possible to run stiffer suspension, hence the lack of wheel lifting with today's motorised roll cages. The old Lotus Cortina was flimsy and floppy, very lightweight. Two door cars weren't good, but the four door Mk 2s were worse. Very few of these were built, some police forces had a few, a retired Oxfordshire copper I know who ran one told me that the rear doors would keep flying open on bumpy roads and during ambitious cornering. Lotus got two four doors, and The Old Man ran one, it was his favourite car, but rumour had it that the rear doors couldn't be opened.



#18 AAGR

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 21:39

Three-wheeling Lotus-Cortinas ? Technical types may shoot me down on this one, but as I recall,Team Lotus set up their cars with soft rear suspension, but firm front suspension so that both rear tyres would be transmitting torque most of the time, especially in hard cornering.

 

  Alan Mann once told me, though, that he didn't believe in this approach, and that his famous red/gold ETCC cars of the same 1964 - 1966 period were not 'three-wheelers' ....

 

  Comments, or disagreements, welcome ....

 

 

 

AAGR



#19 GMACKIE

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Posted 18 April 2015 - 22:01

IMHO it depends on how much differetial 'locking' is employed. If fully locked [spool etc.], a very 'heavy' rear anti-roll bar can be used, reducing front wheel lift. There's a bit more to it than that though.  ;)