6 replies to this topic

[Fred.R]

Recently reading the George Begg book “Bruce McLaren Racing Car Constructor” I was interested by the Alan McCall written bit in the back of the book saying how Bruce had talked him into constructing his own car when he went to do his own thing as a driver.

The advent of the likes of Hewland, Collotti, Jack Knight, Koni, the A & A upright and Cosworth etc race car gear boxes, steering racks, engines and suspension components were available to those who did not have the facilities of BRM or Ferrari.

Was there a real cost saving in building you own car at the time? Or was the belief that you could build a better car than was available?

Brabham, McLaren, McRae, Tui, Surtees, Merzario, LEC, Connew etc

Any one involved at the time To provide some insight?

[fester82]

Not that I'm an expert, but I would say it was the start of the "kit car" period where all the pieces and parts were available at resonable prices (compare to today) that so many built their own cars. Acquire a couple Cosworths, a Hewland gearbox or two and you have half the car already (being stressed components). I believe they thought they could build a better mousetrap by packaging the bits a bit better here and there. I read that was exactly why Ken Tyrrell created his own car after Matra wanted to go in a different direction then he thought best. Which was also why that period was so interesting as everyone had their own ideas and the cars were so much more diverse looking than today's aero wonders. One could afford to build cars back then when you didn't need full-size windtunnels running 24hrs a day and 1000+ personnel on the team.

[HDonaldCapps]

Barry, your cue.....

[Ray Bell]

When you look more deeply, you find that the first-named on the list, Brabham, was actually very much hands-on at Cooper with the design of the cars...

He'd repatriated Ron Tauranac to England to get his own business going, but prior to that had sent ideas to Ron so that he could get some plans done to get the Coopers more competitive. Then there was the car built at the works without Charles knowing about it.

The whole matter begs the question, "At what point do you call someone a constructor?" too. Looking at Eagle, how much did Dan Gurney put into the cars? There were designers and fabricators and jobbed-out parts.

The same applied to all of them, I'm sure. McLaren had his men, a very competent team, while it could almost be said that Brabham merely applied his name to the RALT business when he shifted Ron back to England.

These cars were pre-much of what was mentioned above, too. While later ones like Surtees arrived in the true 'kit car' era. The Brabhams, McLarens and Eagles had a full length chassis, Brabham actually had some input into Hewland but didn't face the obstacles that had to be overcome by Cooper and Lotus with gearboxes.

The end of Cosworth's exclusive supply of the DFV to Lotus was the true beginnings. Hewland was right into swing by then, the monocoque chassis was a well-known commodity, so many were able to simply join the bandwagon. Apart from drivers going into the construction business, which would give them greater freedom to experiment with their own ideas... and greater control over their own destinies... there were others like Tyrrell (as mentioned) and Hesketh. Not drivers, but owners who wanted to put a better car under their drivers.

[Stephen W]

Even today most of the British-based F1 constructors are sub-contracting out the manufacture of so many parts to the masses of small specialist engineering companies that abound in Britain. Add to this the majority buy in or have their engines provided that there are probably just a couple of true manufacturers left in F1.

But there again as has already been said the advent of the Cosworth engine plus Hewland gearbox meant that it became easier and possibly cheaper to build your own rather than have to buy a year old car from another "constructor".

[fines]

That may be true for F1/GP, but you could argue the point that the "era of the kit car" began with the introduction of Henry Ford's Model T! No racing car manufacturer comes even close to the number of racing cars built around Model T components, be it engine, running gear or chassis, not to mention paraphernalia such as instruments, pedals, brackets and the like. Next in line concerning sheer numbers would probably be the Model B, followed by the Model A Ford... Without Henry's cheap but stout hardware, racing in the Americas would have been very poor indeed!

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by fines
That may be true for F1/GP, but you could argue the point that the "era of the kit car" began with the introduction of Henry Ford's Model T! No racing car manufacturer comes even close to the number of racing cars built around Model T components, be it engine, running gear or chassis, not to mention paraphernalia such as instruments, pedals, brackets and the like. Next in line concerning sheer numbers would probably be the Model B, followed by the Model A Ford... Without Henry's cheap but stout hardware, racing in the Americas would have been very poor indeed!

Take that a step further and the multitude of Kit Car builders in Britain would not exist without Ford components especially the Crossflow and Pinto engines which were, and to some extent still are, the back-bone of the industry.