23 replies to this topic

[Chris Bloom]

A very sad day.

Chris

[Vitesse2]

Indeed. A great man passes ...

[Uncle Davy]

The first GP I ever attended was the 1968 rain-fest at the old 'Ring, which JYS ran away with in Ken's Matra MS10-Cosworth.

...also loved the P34...

Thanks, Ken...rest now.

[fines]

thanks for the memories! Other than that, I'm speechless!

[Leif Snellman]

[Keir]

the last of the street fighters!

[FredF1]

God Speed Ken.

[Rainer Nyberg]

He had his moments in the glory. Unfortunately those moments were never repeated. Maybe, too a nice guy for F1? Attracting sponsorship was never his forté. I always thought it was a shame, but he refused to give up.

[Roger Clark]

Jackie Stwewart said he owed everything in his professional life to Ken Tyrrell. In many ways the determination and the way he maintained his team when times became harder was just as admirable. He was a racer and he loved racing. By all accounts, that enthusiasm never dimmed. He seemed to have a firm view of what was good and what was bad about modern racing, but I never heard of him pining for the good old days of thirty years ago.

Denis Jenkinson told a story from the 1950s when Tyrell was racing a formula 3 Cooper-Norton. At a prize giving party he strode over to a grand piano and with a great flourish pounded out the opening bars of a Rachmaninoff piano concerto. The audience sat back, thinking, "This is going to be nice", at which Ken got up, walked away from the piano and said, "That's all I know".

[Zawed]

[Niky]

A gentleman, with no doubt. We miss him!

[deangelis86]

Ken Tyrrell was F1..................an indescribable loss, he leaves us with so many fine memories of F1 in the 'good 'ol days'.

He deserved so much more success.

RIP, Ken.

[Joe Fan]

He was one of my favorite car owners in the modern F1 era. RIP Mr. Tyrrell you will be sorely missed.

[tyrrellp34]

Thank you very much uncle Ken for giving my idol Patrick Depailler his first chance in F1.
Thank you very much for using nornal aspirated engines in the mid 80ies.
Thank you very much for building the six wheeler.

R.I.P. Ken Tyrrell

[Dave Ware]

Jackie Stewart once said that every driver should be so fortunate as to have the opportunity to drive for Ken Tyrrell.

Ken Tyrrell conducted himself with class and dignity.

Dave

[Marco94]

While the passing of Ken Tyrrell was not a suprise, it is still a sad occasion. I hold the man in great regard. In 1991 a friend of mine approached Ken at Spa, asking about the possibilities of a visit to the Tyrrell factory. Ken told him to phone him if he was in the UK and something could probably be worked out.

In 1992 we went to the tire tests for the Britisch GP and of course the first thing my friend did, was approach Ken again. Now I have to admit our timing was somewhat of. Judging by Ken's reaction, the last thing he was interested in was organising a guided tour for a couple of Dutch blokes. He did it anyway and it was the best guided tour I had, and those include McLaren (2x), Jordan and Ferrari (2x). Very relaxed, we were shown *everything*. The saying at the time was, "well, given our current level of performance, it is safe to show you whatever you want to see." I even have an official blue print of some tiny little bold from a lubrication system. To bad people like Ken are getting in very short supply.

Mr Tyrrell, it was great having you around!

Marco Rooney.

[Gary C]

Just got back from the Historic Festival at Silverstone.
It was indeed a moving moment when Jackie Stewart took 003 out one last time as a tribute to The Man.
RIP, Ken, thank you for everything.

[gcast]

A gentlemans gentleman.One of F1s truly great owners.He will be sorely missed by all.
May the angels hold him in their arms.

[Barry Boor]

Sorry to be a little late getting into this thread, but I've been holidaying in Slovenia for a week.

A very sad, though not unexpected event. Ken will always be one of the great team owners and a man who knew the RIGHT way to go about things.

Gone, but never forgotten.

Back in January when we heard that Ken seemed to have but a very short time left, RICHIE JENKINS sent me an obituary and asked me to post it as and when the sad event occurred. This I will now do, as a separate post.

[Barry Boor]

FROM RICHIE JENKINS:

Ken Tyrrell Obituary
2001 gets off to the worst possible start with the death of one of Formula One's most enduring & liked figures. Although he & John Cooper worked together, it was only as Cooper, who died on Christmas Eve, bowed out of front-line Formula 1, that Ken eased in.
Like Cooper, Tyrrell was a racing driver early in his life, but that wasn't how he started. Born on the 3rd May 1924, his first love was football (he remained a staunch Tottenham Hotspur supporter all his life) but it was a trip to Silverstone that sparked a desire to race. He first raced at Snetterton in 1952 & became a leading contender in 500cc F3 racing, but he soon realised that he would never make it as a driver & decided he would gain more pleasure & satisfaction from helping others by running cars.
This was just one of many sensible, thought out & pragmatic ideas that Ken had either in motor racing or in life, but it wasn't the first. After serving in the RAF in World War Two, Ken had the foresight to see that people would need wood as post war Britain recovered. He became a timber merchant & soon made his first million.
By the time he ended his day-to-day association with Formula 1 at the end of the 1997 season, his cars had drifted to the back of the grid & so it was easy, certainly to someone of my generation, to forget the incredible success & influence Ken had at his peak.
How or what will we remember him for, now that he's gone? Is it for discovering or neutering & then fine tuning Jackie Stewart's development into a world championship winning driver & F1 legend? Maybe for the one of the things than exemplified Ken, his robustness & no-nonsense, which occurred at the 1975 Spanish GP at Monjuich Park, where, quite rightly as it turned out, concerned with the Armco barriers, got out his spanner & proceeded to try & fix them himself & also at the 1989 Monaco GP, where he celebrated his 65th birthday by driving the team's trucks from Ockham to Monaco as there were not enough staff available?
Maybe in one of his different guises, a incredibly successful F2 entrant with Matra & JYS, which preceded his own chassis, or as BRDC President, replacing Lord Hesketh in 1999 & bowing down to Jackie Stewart earlier in 2000. Maybe as the winning entrant in the 1964 European Touring Car Championship or head of the Cooper F1 team in 1965, taking over the firm for who he drove for in the 50's, after John Cooper's road accident?
For his effective domination of Formula 1 between 1969 & 1973, whether with the March, Matra or his own chassis, Stewart winning 3 titles & dominating in 1971 & 1973?
For his choice of drivers, either spotting them, or giving them the grooming, care, loyalty & support which either saw them succeed or have arguably the best spell of their Formula 1 careers;- not only did he make sure Jody Scheckter turned into a fine driver, he also probably kept him alive at the same time - others who had high points in his cars would have to be; Cevert, Depailler, Peterson, Pironi, Cheever, Alboreto, Bellof, Brundle, Capelli, Streiff, Palmer, Alesi, Modena, Katayma & Mika Salo, amongst others & the memories that these drivers invoked in his cars?
For his sharpness & risks as a team owner, like for instance, the rejection of turbo-aspirated cars, which brought him the 1987 Colin Chapman trophy & Jonathan Palmer, the Jim Clark Cup for 'normally'-aspirited cars before the rest followed suit or the Tyrrell 6 wheeler, not only unusual but successful - an extreme rarity in Formula 1. In 1976-77 the P34 took 3rd place in the 1976 constructor's championship & the famous win in Sweden. Ken laughed at his critics, especially when Scheckter & Depailler both praised the turn-in ability of the cars.
Or maybe the bad times?
The death of Cevert & immediate retirement of Stewart which led to Tyrrell short of two leading lights & thus never reached the same heights again. The 1984 fiasco where Tyrrell were thrown out of the series mid-season for an alleged infringement; Bellof & Brundles' hard work forever deleted from the record books? Or the decline, bit by bit, from 1983, when Michele Alboreto became the last man to win in a Tyrrell (US GP) to '97, forced to employ the likes of Grouillard, before handing over to the late Harvey Poslethwaite for 1998 & then subsequently to the faceless, cold & charmless BAR equipe, Ken finally tiring of trying to find the right budget, drivers & engine.
One hopes not. How I'll remember him chiefly is as a warm, extremely sharp (arguably one of THE sharpest team bosses) & above all witty gentleman who didn't care what the establishment thought, until of course, he WAS the establishment! Asked a few years back who my favourite team was, I said that I didn't really care for teams, but I guess it was Tyrrell.
One last story, for me, sums Ken up & all I've said;
"After watching the Dutch GP with the new DFV engine, with which Clark dominated the race, Tyrrell immediately lay down a deposit with Walter Hayes (who also died over the Christmas/New Year period) to buy them for his own forthcoming Formula 1 team for 1968, even though the units were not available for sale at that time!
His comment for doing so; "Well, everything else was rubbish!"
A good man, who after suffering for the last half of the year with stomach cancer, a cruel illness, can now rest his soul in eternal peace.
Ken Tyrrell 1924-2001

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Thanks to Barry Boor, who gave me the preparation for this obituary.

[david_martin]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
How or what will we remember him for, now that he's gone? Is it for discovering or neutering & then fine tuning Jackie Stewart's development into a world championship winning driver & F1 legend?

Is that how he got the nickname "Chopper"

[josh.lintz]

Almost as sad as hearing he had nothing to do with the '98 Tyrrell team.

[Giraffe]

Ten years ago today that Ken passed away. Where does the time go......?

[Nanni Dietrich]

I met him once in my life, he was driving alone a blue Ford Transit van of Team Tyrrell around the streets of Monza, on Saturday early morning before the start of the Italian Grand Prix qulifying session, possibly 1972 or 73. He was stopped at a red light at a crossroads. Suddenly he turned towards us standing at his side and smiled with his distinctive big teeth.

Edited by Nanni Dietrich, 25 August 2011 - 08:19.