The F1 bodywork I wish I still owned...
#1
Posted 30 June 2004 - 23:53
Anyway, upon returning to the paddock, I was somewhat taken aback by the sight of the BRM mechanics having a snowball fight - and using the damaged nose cone from Vern Schuppan's P160 as a trampoline!
Without further thought, I approached the chaps and enquired (somewhat naively) as to whether they were going to bin it. Their answer was rather obvious, so I took the only correct route open to me and adopted it. Mind you, I wasn't exactly 'Mr Popular' with my lift home...
So this gave me an idea. Surely the other teams must have stuff they chuck away too...? Armed with 'new' information as to how to make free phonecalls, I religiously traipsed down the road to the public phone box during my school lunch breaks to ring all the F1 teams and ask for stuff. Incredibly, I was well received! I'd decided to put on a display at my grammar school's open day and any forthcoming bits & bobs would go on show, which I guess must have helped...
In due course a fully liveried elf Team Tyrrell Transit van arrived at my house and disgorged the complete nose section which Francois Cevert had damaged during practice at Montjuich Park. That was followed days later by a similar Transit van in John Player Team Lotus livery with one of the Lotus 72 airboxes! I really couldn't believe my luck... Then March agreed to give me an airbox from Peterson's Monaco (I think it was Monaco) 721X; they would send it via British Rail's 'Red Star' parcels service, but I would have to pay the transit costs. Oh what a bugger; it was exactly £1.00!
So, I'd now got four pieces for my exhibition, but I still kept on at the teams just in case. Meanwhile, a friend of mine who I used to baby-sit for said I could borrow all the bodywork from his Monoposto chassis, plus his helmet and overalls. Fantastic! Plus, I decided to put on a slide show too.
I'd not ignored BRM in this quest either, and one of my earliest calls was to Mike Pilbeam, who was great. Somewhat frustratingly, however, he told me that had he known of my project earlier, I could have had Regazzoni's written-off chassis from Kyalami - but he said they'd simply sawn the engine off and chucked the remnants away...
Still, as deadline approached, I was doing well - and then McLaren said that they'd give me a wheel from their Indy chassis. Great, I thought, but a shame it's not F1. Nevertheless, when it arrived directly to my school on the morning of the open day, as arranged, I would make full use if it. But, when the chap turned up, he didn't have an Indy wheel with him - he had for me the M19 nosecone plus front wings and rad diffuser last used by Revson at Kyalami that March! The funny thing was that the chap thought I'd be disappointed...
My exhibition went down very well, but sadly in August 1977 when (simultaneously) I got work abroad and my folks moved house, the bodywork had to go. I sold the lot to Chris Steyne of Formula One Racewear (which by then was near Brands) for the rather inexplicable sum of £97 quid! The pic above was taken waiting for him to arrive and open up. They were to become stable mates of a Shadow airbox which Tom Pryce had signed for him on his way to the airport to catch his flight to Kyalami that March...
How I wish now that I'd have found some way of hanging onto those fantastic fragments of history. As you can see, I didn't even manage to get a decent photo of them.
Anyone else with any interesting bits & bobs?
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#2
Posted 01 July 2004 - 05:16
I'm not even sure which corner it was from… I think right rear, loking at pictures today. It probably could have been converted into a pretty good lacrosse stick!
It was lost so long ago that I can really only remember the colour.
#3
Posted 01 July 2004 - 08:19
complete nos 550 bellypan...still in original white paint
pair 36DCD sandcast webers for 547 carrera
extra body panels for '35 miller-ford[next to last car out in '35..[chassis#5]
set t-35b bugatti alloy wheels from the 3rd finisher 1930 grand prix of europe-spa
original steering wheel from lotus 12
pistons/rods for miller-tucker aero engine
complete set 4 miller carbs made for the king- bugatti aero engine
gulf-miller annular disc brake bladders
set t-51 bugatti wheels---may have finished 3rd at monaco-1930
a 20++ gallon alloy tank that fit in the back seat of a simca-abarth 2mille..included filler neck that transcects the plexi rear window
the rear wing and side panels off bob garretsons moby 911 race car
a charred but complete cooper monte carlo chassis
a complete set of fairings from a works RC honda
more i'm sure but i can't recall right now...
#4
Posted 01 July 2004 - 08:23
So far the neatest thing I have is a 2000 MSC cap signed by Michael at Malaysia 2003. No car parts yet.. But I almost bought a pair of shoulder straps used by Mika Salo in the Arrows A18, they were on ebay but I didn't have enough cash. Although you can buy RWEP and little tidbits for reasonable prices but the other problem is finding the space for it
#5
Posted 01 July 2004 - 11:08
Some might say that I have never been the same since....
I went to some sort of motor sport forum many years ago. There was a raffle and some poor so & so won a slightly used* ex-Brambilla March tub in scratched Beta Tools orange. I well remember this poor lost soul standing outside the venue clearly wondering how the hell he was going to get it home - and presumably what on earth he would do with it then!
*i.e. rather bent!
#6
Posted 01 July 2004 - 11:14
http://www.users.glo...bilia/index.htm
#7
Posted 01 July 2004 - 13:37
From the March Leyton House CG891 we got the plate (trapezium form) that Adrian Newey thought of to use as plating for the underside of the chassis (in fact at the spot were Guge and Cappelli's bottom had to sit on.
In fact you can see this plate (made of an exotic tropical wood (good engineers use exotic expensiv materials, he)) flying through the air on some pictures from the 89 France GP start collision.
Mechanics gave it away at the german GP. In fact the Tyrrell fans were not so helpful as in your days TW. When we (only) asked for a nosecone (slightly damaged). The answer was....
This was the time you could buy a genuine Williams spark plug for just under 50 quid (a give away price) from this company present at the track as well.
#8
Posted 01 July 2004 - 16:59
originally posted by BRG
I went to some sort of motor sport forum many years ago. There was a raffle and some poor so & so won a slightly used* ex-Brambilla March tub in scratched Beta Tools orange. I well remember this poor lost soul standing outside the venue clearly wondering how the hell he was going to get it home - and presumably what on earth he would do with it then!
That wasn't Frank Williams, was it?
I've had near misses from bits of flying bodywork, including a plywood splitter from a Gp C car, and once at Brands a complete 250cc Yamaha bike landed on top of the bank at Paddock under my nose - but I think the rider would have been upset if I'd pocketed it!
Paul M
#9
Posted 01 July 2004 - 17:16
Originally posted by Arjan de Roos
Wood! Anyone a piece of a Formula One car (from the eighties) made of wood.
From the March Leyton House CG891 we got the plate (trapezium form) that Adrian Newey thought of to use as plating for the underside of the chassis (in fact at the spot were Guge and Cappelli's bottom had to sit on.
In fact you can see this plate (made of an exotic tropical wood (good engineers use exotic expensiv materials, he)) flying through the air on some pictures from the 89 France GP start collision.
Isn't the standard plank made of Jabroc, a laminate? Or is your bit something else?
http://www.permalide...co.uk/hydu.html
#10
Posted 01 July 2004 - 17:25
I have a friend at Renault F1 and he's shown me round the factory a couple of times. The last time, in February, we came across a 'plank' which looked for all the world like wood, even at very close quarters. But, I was told, they're no longer made of wood but some form of man-made stuff. Or have I missed the point, and thet's what Jabroc is?!Originally posted by David Beard
Isn't the standard plank made of Jabroc, a laminate? Or is your bit something else?
#11
Posted 01 July 2004 - 18:15
But this was of course before the plank.
#12
Posted 01 July 2004 - 18:45
Originally posted by Arjan de Roos
It might be. It doesnt taste like Jabroc
But this was of course before the plank.
But still too recent for me to remember properly
#13
Posted 01 July 2004 - 19:29
I have to ask the question, have there been notorious instances where people have grabbed or tried to grab souvenirs from serious or fatal accident scenes?
#14
Posted 01 July 2004 - 20:13
At Holtville I picked up a "Super 90" badge from Dick Barbour's first racing Porsche. That may be the only bit of body work I still have.
Of course there was the flying fiberglass incident at Pomona: I remember an experience with the MacDonald "00" production Corvette. Just before the location where you see the MG TD and the Healey going around a left sweeper in the Pomona photos, the track bent to the right, around one flag station. Another flag station was a little to the left of a line continuing that straightaway, and on the inside of the track. I was working that outside station, facing traffic, during one Corvette race.
MacDonald and someone were racing very hard and came together in Turn Two or Three, fracturing some of MacDonald's left-side fiberglass. A relatively flat piece twelve or fifteen inches square hung on the car until just before the right turn. When it flew off it spun flat, like a Frisbeeâ„¢, sailed most of the fifty yards from the track to the flag position, and skidded the rest of the way, sliding to a stop at my feet. I took it to the Steves Chevrolet pits after the races, and the mechanics seemed happy to have it.
I bought an off-white VW Westfalia camper from Bill Atkinson. We agreed on the deal the day before Bruce McLaren ran over him at Riverside International Raceway. Bill was in a Riverside hospital and the van was parked inside the fence at the track. I went to the hospital and told someone there I needed his keys to get the camper and drive it home, as I was buying it. They said there were no keys in his belongings. Mike Houston and I went back to the raceway and spent a bit of time scouring the site of the accident looking for the keys. No luck.
A spectator who had come to look at the scene told me I was sick, trying to find pieces of McLaren's car for a souvenir. I explained and he apologized and helped search. Several people came by and took tiny pieces of orange-painted fibreglass, which was all that was left by the time I got there. (I found someone who could open and start the VW without benefit of keys)
Frank S
#15
Posted 01 July 2004 - 20:28
A track worker picked it up and, egged on by encouraging calls from the crowd, threw it into us. I made a valiant attempt but it was nabbed by someone that didn't have to cover as much territory as me.
I've often wondered if its new 'owner' would have looked after it the way I would have...
#16
Posted 01 July 2004 - 22:05
Very early in my spectating career I was at Creek Corner at Warwick Farm and as the Cortinas came down the straight the first time Geoff Russell's clutch exploded. Later I saw the car looking like it had schrapnel go through every panel in a circle around the flywheel... right out to the mudguards.
But I scored a fork from the old finger type clutch... I don't recall it, but my brother reckons I just reached up and caught it.
With a little grinding, I reshaped the hole in the larger end and used it as a bottle opener for many years... of course it ultimately got lost...
#17
Posted 01 July 2004 - 22:25
I bought a wreck of a 150S for a sum at the time that would not have bought a run of the mill small family saloon. The panel beater told me the body was beyond restoring.
When I next went to the workshop I asked for the old body. "Too late mate, we cut it up and threw it in the skip!."
I am not sure where the car is now, I have a feeling it passed through Lord Brockets hands, or was that lake?
I apologise to that Maserati for ever bringing it into the UK.
I feel better now that I have been to the TNF confessional.
#18
Posted 02 July 2004 - 13:30
Recently, the motorcycle clubs got permission to move an embankment that was outside of a high speed kink. They were pulling out motorcycle bits from deep in the bank during the whole operation.
#19
Posted 02 July 2004 - 17:30
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#20
Posted 03 July 2004 - 03:18
Originally posted by TFBundy
If we all get together, we can build [one of] the most comprehensively shagged racing cars in the history of the sport! ..... create a plausible history .... flog it for a packet ....
I love it!! What could we call it? How about a TNF (Totally/Nominally F**ked)
My own contribution would be the rear wheel from the Lotus that Jim Clark was leading at Indy with in 1964 when the tire-on this wheel-blew and he retired from the race. I was originally promised this wheel 25 years ago by the Dunlop rep. who was at Indy. At that time it still wore the flayed tire, unfortunately his son set out to "restore" it, disposed of the tire and painted the wheel- Right over the Indy scrutineer's mark!
David B
#21
Posted 03 July 2004 - 03:56
Any road, they can be added to the kit for assembly of the T/NFed project. Assuming I can find them.
Frank S
#22
Posted 03 July 2004 - 07:50
#23
Posted 03 July 2004 - 21:07
It hit me on the side of my face as I was spectating from outside the Crystal Bar (which is/was next to the Tip Top) during the 1981 Monaco GP. The rubbery morsel in question was propelled towards me by Gilles' Ferrari. (of course, it wasn't necessarily from his tyre, but it was nevertheless his Michelin that shot it at my head!) As such, naturally, I hung on to it!
The only problem with it was that it bore a remarkable resembelence to a certain illegal substance. And that is why the Customs guys gave me a hard time...
#24
Posted 03 July 2004 - 22:57
As for parts to add to the collection, I can donate the tachometer, spare wheel, and one rear wheel bearing from an MG Midget (the other bearing serves as a paperweight in my office).
-Wm.
#25
Posted 04 July 2004 - 22:33
Originally posted by David Birchall
.....My own contribution would be the rear wheel from the Lotus that Jim Clark was leading at Indy with in 1964 when the tire-on this wheel-blew and he retired from the race.....
Well, you might be able to con Buford out of the spark plug Jim Clark gave him from the previous year's car...
Then again, you might not!
#26
Posted 05 July 2004 - 06:31
#27
Posted 05 July 2004 - 07:31
As for old race car parts, when I used to get them, I used them on my race cars. We got the wing for my Sprint Car off the top of a garbage can. It was hardly bent up at all. And one stock car race we got a state of the art engine. It was brand new but it blew a head gasket the first time the guys in the next pit ran it. So they took it out and it was just sitting there on the ground. They were drug runners so had they tons of money and they had several more engines and it was too much of a hassle for them to change the head gaskets. They just inserted another engine so they didn't have to get their hands dirty. When they left after the race, it was also too much of a hassle for them to pick it up and put it in the truck. They just left it where it was sitting. So we snatched it.
#28
Posted 05 July 2004 - 07:34
Originally posted by John B
Interesting thread and good story TW.
I have to ask the question, have there been notorious instances where people have grabbed or tried to grab souvenirs from serious or fatal accident scenes?
Well somebody at Indy went home with Zampedri's foot in 1996 at Indy. In the last lap crash the catch fence took off his boot and half of one of his feet. It flew into the stands and they never found it. They were looking through all the trash from trash cans for days. Somebody took it home.
#29
Posted 05 July 2004 - 11:18
I wonder if they put it in the deep freeze?
#30
Posted 05 July 2004 - 11:57
Originally posted by Frank S
I disremember the True Brit translation for "pliers".
Frank S
Frank,
I think you will find that "pliers" is the English word for pliers.
Now what TYPE of pliers? that is the question ;)
#31
Posted 05 July 2004 - 12:04
#32
Posted 05 July 2004 - 12:08
Originally posted by Mark Bennett
Frank,
I think you will find that "pliers" is the English word for pliers.
Now what TYPE of pliers? that is the question ;)
#33
Posted 05 July 2004 - 14:41
Firstly, there's some bits of the nose cone from Guy Edwards' Embassy Racing/John Butterworth Lola T330 after he'd crashed 'round the back' at Brands in '74.
And here's part of the right-hand oil cooler cover from Jean-Pierre Beltoise's BRM P160 after he was involved in the huge shunt at the start of lap 2 of the '73 British GP. (I used to have one of the water rads from de Adamich's BT42, but it seems to have disappeared.)
That race I was at Copse, but my brother was at Abbey and he gathered this debris from the enormous Matthews/Brodie/Booth accident in the saloon race...
...including one of the shocks from Matthews' Capri.
These are from an unknown F5000 at Brands in '74...
...and this is part of the nose splitter from Tony Dean's Chevron B24.
#34
Posted 07 July 2004 - 16:57
As a Ronnie Peterson fan I collect parts from him. At this moment I've got the following two wing plates: a Lotus 78 front wing and a Lotus 79 rear wing end plate. Within some weeks I will have a Lotus 72 airbox which Ronnie used for winning the 1973 USA Grand Prix.
#35
Posted 02 January 2008 - 21:49
What?.............. Vincent Radermecker's Works Marlboro Van Diemen RF92 nosecone
Where?.............Mallory Park, Stebbe Straight
When?..............1992 Rapid Fit British FF1600 race
[IMG]http://img182.images.../vradxp5.th.jpg[/IMG]
We also had Nelson Piquet's Arno Brastemp Ralt RT1 nosecone for ages until the shed was cleared......
And a couple of BMW County Championship front spoilers which TWR had snapped in half and put in a bin at Mallory, they went the same way as the nosecone i'm afraid.....
#36
Posted 02 January 2008 - 22:07
#37
Posted 02 January 2008 - 22:13
#38
Posted 02 January 2008 - 22:32
DCN
#39
Posted 02 January 2008 - 22:55
Except for a side radiator from an IRL car that got intimate with the IMS wall.
Very long ago I kept a BMC 1488 block in the livingroom, which had a spectacular hole in it from a rod saying goodby while my wife was racing her MGA at Nelson Ledges. (When the car was towed to the paddock, she asked if I could repair it; I peered at the ground through the side of the block from above and guessed "no.") I cleaned the block, painted it white and at one time we used it as a planter. I got tired of moving it.
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#40
Posted 02 January 2008 - 22:59
#41
Posted 02 January 2008 - 23:18
#42
Posted 03 January 2008 - 09:41
#43
Posted 03 January 2008 - 11:38
#44
Posted 03 January 2008 - 13:33
#45
Posted 03 January 2008 - 14:11
#46
Posted 05 August 2009 - 01:29
So this gave me an idea. Surely the other teams must have stuff they chuck away too...? Armed with 'new' information as to how to make free phonecalls, I religiously traipsed down the road to the public phone box during my school lunch breaks to ring all the F1 teams and ask for stuff. Incredibly, I was well received! I'd decided to put on a display at my grammar school's open day and any forthcoming bits & bobs would go on show, which I guess must have helped...
Twin Window,
I don't have any stuff, but I remember a similar "freebies" when the Australian Grand Prix was held in Adelaide, and was the last race in the F1 championship.
With all of the spectators milling on the start/finish straight after the race, team managers and officials would give away over the pit wall bits and pieces from the pit lane and garages. A lot of the "freebies" were promotional merchandise such as T-shirts and caps. Were objects such as pit boards, etc ever given away?
#47
Posted 05 August 2009 - 01:51
Wish I had known at the time... I was right there...
#48
Posted 05 August 2009 - 05:52
They were selling the suits, lots of blokes I know bought them from various teams. They used to sell them every meeting or two.At the Millenium race in Adelaide they were giving away drivers' suits!
Wish I had known at the time... I was right there...
An offroader mate bought some CVs which were really only tricked up Porcshe ones. Those teams, even also rans changed that stuff every day.
Open wheel blokes were scrounging gears, crownwheel and pinions from the Hewland box teams.
Apart from promotional gear nothing was given away but a lot was sold cheap.
Bits of broken wings, even floorpans were given away or picked up by flaggies etc.
Once upon a time the Supercar guys used to give away the old damaged panels, if you were lucky you may even get it autographed but not now everything is sold.
Same thing is happening even with Sprintcars these days, it is all sold. Or recycled ,a rolled over wing was worth about $30 as scrap alloy. I can remember an Easter trail where there was 6 or 8 buggered wings just laying in a pile in the centre of the pits.
#49
Posted 05 August 2009 - 11:29
I've got the complete side pod from the 1979/ 1980 Ligier JS 11. It was driven by Jaqcues Laffite, Patrick Depailler, Didier Pironi and Jacky Ickx
That sidepod is an amazing piece of kit, I have to say...
#50
Posted 05 August 2009 - 11:42
That sidepod is an amazing piece of kit, I have to say...
If he had both sidepods he could seat sixteen...