78 replies to this topic

[Twin Window]

Great first post, Monza!

And an excellent 'signature' too. Out of the mouths of babes...

Twinny

[MonzaDriver]

Dear Twin Window,
thank you for your reply, I liked that you find great my doughter remark.
Like you said, the innocence of the kids sometimes leave you without words.
I really enjoy in reading your writing in the Nostalgia archive. Beautifuls.
I am pretty sure that just like myself you always dream longlife about driving.
Dear Twin Window I am curios about one of your post.
I dont remembe exactly the argument but you made an observation about the way
Colin Chapman greets Jacky Ickx after a Brands Hatch race. The one witch you are on the photo.
You wrote that you were impressed by the fact that the words of Chapman sound like a " script"
Could you be so kind to explain me better this sensation of your, his very strange way to be happy,
and the words he use on this occasion. Thank you.
Maybe it is interesting also for someone else on the forum.
I am so curious because, in the book " My cars, My career " of Stirling Moss and Doug Nye,
( beautiful book) there is a photo of Chapman, in the same occasion but with Stirling Moss after
a Monaco wins. Well I dont know if you already know this picture, but the look on the face of Chapman it's unforgettable, he was clapping his hands but the look on his eyes, is at least full of
envy. But you know the more I read about drivers and their team principal, the more I am convinced they dont like each others. Not only in the case of Chapman, I mean a really bad habit.
If you can, look at this picture it's impressive.
Thank you in advance.
MonzaDriver.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by MonzaDriver
I am curios about one of your post.
I dont remembe exactly the argument but you made an observation about the way
Colin Chapman greets Jacky Ickx after a Brands Hatch race. The one witch you are on the photo.
You wrote that you were impressed by the fact that the words of Chapman sound like a " script"
Could you be so kind to explain me better this sensation of your, his very strange way to be happy,
and the words he use on this occasion.

Ciao Monza. Thank you for you kind words.

Regarding the above, the event in question was the 1974 Race of Champions. When Ickx came to a standstill after his slowing down lap, Chapman greeted him with words that sounded as if they had been learned from a script! He basically sounded insincere; in other words as if he didn't really mean what he was saying. I'm afraid that I can't remember his exact words, but they were along the lines of "Fantastic race, Jacky! Really, really well done..." etc - but it wasn't his words that shocked me, it was the way he said them. He just sounded false!

Ancora nell'italiano usando un sito web di traduzione... Considerare il sopra, l'avvenimento nella domanda era la 1974 Race of Champions. Quando Ickx è venuto a un punto morto dopo il suo grembo di rallentare, Chapman l'ha salutato con le parole che ha sembrato come se erano stato imparati da un manoscritto! Ha sembrato fondamentalmente insincero; nelle altre parole come se non ha significato realmente che diceva. Ho paura che non posso ricordare le sue parole esatte, ma erano lungo le linee di "la corse Fantastica, Jacky! Realmente, realmente bene fatto. .." ecc. - ma non era le sue parole che ha provocato uno shock, era la maniera loro ha detti. Ha sembrato appena falso!

Twinny

[Twin Window]

Great news! Editing has just been completed on Jo's autobiography!

[Mallory Dan]

Look forward to it TW, now what about your TB book ????

[Twin Window]

It won't be my book, Dan - rather Tommy's own with assistance from Mark Hughes.

I might be needed for a few details, however...

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by Twin Window
Great news! Editing has just been completed on Jo's autobiography!

Is the mythical one he's been working on with Nigel Roebuck for years?

Should be a must, if so.

[MichaelM]

You can order this book on Amazon.uk. It gives a delivery date
of September 13, 2005. Price is 19 pounds.

Michael

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by petefenelon

Is the mythical one he's been working on with Nigel Roebuck for years?

Should be a must, if so.

It's certainly not mythical - Quentin Spurring edited it, and told me it was finished this morning.

[Ivan]

I just ordered two!!

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by Twin Window
It's certainly not mythical - Quentin Spurring edited it, and told me it was finished this morning.

Just as good, another name from the days when Grands Prix really were Grand.

[Neri Moreira]

Not much to add here, only another...

Please Jo, write the book

Yours
Neri

[gerard BARATHIEU]

gentlemen,

if any of you knows if , ''the '' STEVE MATCHETT mentionned in this thread is the same guy

who drove PORSCHE 908 in the USA in 70s ?

[MoMurray]

No he is not. The Steve Matchett mentioned here is an englishman who worked for Benneton in the mid nineties and then wrote a couple of books. He is now the F1 announcer for Speed TV in the US. Many in here rate him highly. I do not. I read his first book and found it to be a boring story of a bit player. Just my opinion though. He is in his late thirties or early forties and so if he raced anything in the seventies it would have been in the schoolboy class.

Mo.

[MoMurray]

Originally posted by wherezmyz
Mr. Ramirez: write it and we will read it! On another note, has anyone heard when Steve Matchett's new book is coming out?

I must apologize as I do not know for sure that the Steve Matchett referred to above is the same one that I referenced in the previous post. That was an assumption on my part and you what you do when you assume, you make an ass out of two other people...thats how it goes...right?

Mo

[Seppi_0_917PA]

Haynes now has some details on the book:

http://www.haynes.co...33257&langId=-1

[Paul Rochdale]

And for those a bit slow on the uptake, tell us what role Jo Ramirez played in F1. Thanks.

[Pedro 917]

Some sad news just reached me. Jo Ramirez' wife died last week. May she rest in peace.
My sincere condolences to Jo, his family and friends.

[MoMurray]

This is terrible news. I just finished reading the book last night. He seemed in the book to be so happy with the prosepect of retirement and all that meant for him and his wife. I am very sorry to hear that.

Regarding the book, it is an interesting and easy read but for someone so close to the furnace, I thought it was short on details and "dirty little secrets". It certainly does not paint a very flattering picture of Ron Dennis. You get the imptession that Mr. Ramirez is a thoroughly nice man, who could have been a team principle or owner if he were a little less nice and a little more ruthless.

Mo.

[WGD706]

Originally posted by Paul Rochdale
And for those a bit slow on the uptake, tell us what role Jo Ramirez played in F1. Thanks.

Better to tell you what roles Jo Ramirez DIDN'T play in F1......
Anyway, there's a brief bio at grandprix.com...
Ramirez came from the same Mexican town as the Rodriguez brothers - Ricardo and his brother Pedro - and although he had similar racing ambitions he did not have the money to achieve what they were able to. He studied mechanical engineering at Mexico City University but dropped out to accompany his pal Ricardo Rodriguez to Europe in 1961, when the Mexican went to rent a factory Ferrari for the Italian GP at Monza in which he sensationally qualified on the front row of the grid. The race itself was a tragic affair with team leader Wolfgang von Trips crashing to his death on the first lap - in an accident that claimed the lives of several spectators. Rodriguez briefly ran in second place before retiring with mechanical failure.

The pair returned in 1962 with Rodriguez showing his pace, finishing second at Pau and fourth in the Belgian GP. In practice for the Mexican GP in November he rented Rob Walker's Lotus 24 and crashed to his death. Ramirez decided to go back to Europe and went on to work for both Maserati and Lamborghini.

In 1966 he moved to England to work with Ford and later joined Dan Gurney's Eagle F1 team. After the F1 team closed down Jo spent three years with Gurney in the United States, working in CanAm, Indycars and TransAm racing but in 1971 he returned to Britain to work as chief mechanic for the John Wyer Automotive Gulf Porsche sportscar team.

In 1972 he was back in F1 working with Jackie Stewart and Francois Cevert at Tyrrell and he stayed with the Ockham team until 1975 when he was hired to be the team manager of South America's own F1 team - Copersucar-Fittipaldi. There followed stints as the team manager of Shadow, ATS and Theodore before he joined McLaren as team coordinator in December 1983. Ramirez retired in 2001.
http://www.grandprix...cref-ramjo.html

[jonb1]

Originally posted by MoMurray
This is terrible news. I just finished reading the book last night. He seemed in the book to be so happy with the prosepect of retirement and all that meant for him and his wife. I am very sorry to hear that.

Regarding the book, it is an interesting and easy read but for someone so close to the furnace, I thought it was short on details and "dirty little secrets". It certainly does not paint a very flattering picture of Ron Dennis. You get the imptession that Mr. Ramirez is a thoroughly nice man, who could have been a team principle or owner if he were a little less nice and a little more ruthless.

Mo.

I thought exactly the same thing, he barely had a good word to say about Dennis, which I thought was strange considering the amount of time spent working for him. We all know Ron's a bit of an oddball but I thought it a bit unnecessary to berate your employer of the last 20 years (even though give us a fascinating insight into life at McLaren!).

Terrible news about his loss though, condolances to him & his family

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by jonb1


I thought exactly the same thing, he barely had a good word to say about Dennis, which I thought was strange considering the amount of time spent working for him. We all know Ron's a bit of an oddball but I thought it a bit unnecessary to berate your employer of the last 20 years (even though give us a fascinating insight into life at McLaren!).

Terrible news about his loss though, condolances to him & his family

I think the portrait the book paints of Ron is considerably more complex than that - you can see that Jo admires what Ron's achieved at McLaren, and seems to respect the man and his achievements immensely, but Jo seems befuddled and belittled by Ron's occasional 'lapses' where he behaves in an astonishingly petty and petulant sort of way... It's interesting to compare Jo's opinions of Hans-Gunther Schmid with his comments on Ron...

I'd like to add my sympathies to Jo and his family and friends. He was very much in evidence at the Mexico City Champcar/GA meeting last month and seemed to be so happy and relaxed. Must be a devastating blow for him.

[jonb1]

Originally posted by petefenelon


I think the portrait the book paints of Ron is considerably more complex than that - you can see that Jo admires what Ron's achieved at McLaren, and seems to respect the man and his achievements immensely, but Jo seems befuddled and belittled by Ron's occasional 'lapses' where he behaves in an astonishingly petty and petulant sort of way... It's interesting to compare Jo's opinions of Hans-Gunther Schmid with his comments on Ron...

I'd like to add my sympathies to Jo and his family and friends. He was very much in evidence at the Mexico City Champcar/GA meeting last month and seemed to be so happy and relaxed. Must be a devastating blow for him.

Yes I'd agree with that, but it does seem to emphasise the bad points rather than the good. I came away from reading the book thinking he really did hold a grudge against Dennis the man. For example mentioning not allowing him onto the podium at Indy, making comments about the leaving present & also mentioning that Ron wasn't paying him too well! From other tales, I've heard that Ron was quite a good employer always taking care of his staff & McLaren having one of the lowest staff turnover rates. Of course Jo would know far more than anyone else how it really was but I just thought the book had a bit too much spite towards Dennis. I would also of loved to of known exactly what happened with the Mansell debacle, but he just glossed over it. Also got the impression there was some juicy tales about Newey (he certainly wasn't a fan), but didn't really elaborate.

Still a good read & obviously written from the heart & refreshing to read an autobiography that isn't ghost written by one of the usual f1 hacks.

[canon1753]

From what Jo wrote and others, I get the impression that Ron Dennis is actually a pretty ok guy (fun may be stretching it) who can have irksome lapses of judgement, especially when you are leaving or retiring from McLaren.

[Giraffe]

Jo was in London today for a meeting of the GP Mechanics Charitable Trust and is pictured here dedicating my copy of his book, now in it's second edition.
Unbelievably, Jo told me it has sold over twenty thousand copies in Mexico alone!


By giraffe138 at 2012-02-01

Edited by Giraffe, 01 February 2012 - 23:46.

[Louis Mr. F1]

Jo was in London today for a meeting of the GP Mechanics Charitable Trust and is pictured here dedicating my copy of his book, now in it's second edition.
Unbelievably, Jo told me it has sold over twenty thousand copies in Mexico alone!

By giraffe138 at 2012-02-01

nice , if only he comes to Toronto, I'd also bring my copy for his signature.

[Longtimefan]

Jo was in London today for a meeting of the GP Mechanics Charitable Trust and is pictured here dedicating my copy of his book, now in it's second edition.
Unbelievably, Jo told me it has sold over twenty thousand copies in Mexico alone!


By giraffe138 at 2012-02-01

Oh Wow!! That is so awesome!

Jo is a HUGE hero of mine, he is beyond 'legend' to me and I've read his superb book so many times I had to buy another copy as it was falling to bits!
I emailed him once about another of my heroes, the much missed Francois Cevert and Jo replied fast and was very helpful.

I'm green with envy

Edited by Longtimefan, 03 February 2012 - 01:28.

[Giraffe]

Jo is a truly wonderful man, and it was a pleasure to be able to spend time alone in his company talking about a wide variety of his many experiences in the sport. I don't think anyone in the world is more qualified to wear a Senna pin on his collar!
One interesting thing he told me was that upon his retirement from McLaren, Ferrari approached him with a fantastic offer to join them. "Just come for a year Jo, and see if you like it here?" was what they said to him. Jo being Jo of course, having been given such a wonderful send off by Ron, DC & Mika (the latter two gifting Jo a Harley Davidson that has become a big part of his life in Spain) turned the offer down. He told me however that with hindsight, he has regretted that decision on more than one occasion...........

[Longtimefan]

Its never too late for him to come back, just seeing him in the paddock would give me a huge thrill.

I hope you really treasure the time you spent together, you are a lucky lucky guy.