6 replies to this topic

[Eric McLoughlin]

Which team was the first in motor racing to use pit to car two way radio and when?
I know Moss once used radio at one of the Goodwood Tourist Trophy races to keep track of his position in the race, but I think he was just tuned into the BBC live broadcast of the race.

In this months edition of the magazine "Motor Sport Collector", there is a photograph of a James Hunt helmet which has a DIN plug and lead attached for radio purposes, so I suppose that would date back to at least 1979, the year he retired.

Any ideas?

[Ray Bell]

There was quite a furore over the use of radios at Bathurst for the 1000k race in 1977 (may have been 76, but I don't think so) = and that was not far behind the rest of the world. However, there was one field of racing in the US that had been using radios for years... just can't remember who at the moment... maybe NASCAR?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Indian Chief]

I think it was McLaren in 1974.
In the last race of the season at Watkins Glen, Emmo, Rega and Scheckter were in the running for the championship. To get an advantage over the other two, mcLaren used radios to communicate with Fittipaldi and it worked because he won the championship for them.
By 1976, They had become standard at all races.

[KzKiwi]

With reference to Doug Nyes book "Motor Racing Mavericks", Leon Duray had a 2 way radio link with his pit crew at the 1932 Indianapolis 500.

I believe Joel Thorne repeated this at the 1938 Indy 500.

The BRP team used a radio link to their cars during the 1958 GP season, although I am unsure if this was 1 or 2 way communication.

Other early examples of 1 way pit to car communication were at Brooklands, with S.F.Edge in 1922, and again in 1933 with the Morgan team. Incredibly the Morgan team used LOUDSPEAKERS to relay the messages!!!!

Ain't nothing new under the sun.

[Ray Bell]

It's said that Les Burrows used the car radio in his Hudson Sports Tourer to keep in touch with the race progress while he drove in the 1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix. You remember, of course, that that was the race that went down in history as the 1937 Australian Grand Prix... wonder if he heard that on the radio?
He was used to radios, he had aeroplanes as well.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[buddyt]

In the early days of using radios in race cars, one mister Anthony Joseph Foyt was asked why he did not want one in the stock car he was driving for Hoss Ellington. He said it would be a distraction to hear a voice in his ear. I would think hearing AJ's voice booming over the radio now days would also get your attention. At Daytona he crashed Hoss' car on the back staight and this red colored bottle was lying on the track. NASCAR asked him about the nitrous oxide bottle, said he did not know about it. They asked him about the red button on the dashboard and AJ said "Hell I don't know it is, Hoss just said press it when you get on the back straight." A J Foyt also had a dislike for computers remember when he threw the lap top that showed 2 laps of fuel left in the tank as Billy Boat(his driver) sputtered out of fuel.

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"Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go?"

[Eric McLoughlin]

Thanks for the info'. Pre-war radios must have added quite a bit to the weight of the car too. Not to mention valves popping etc.
Obviously AJ takes a while to get used to "new technology".
I'm sure quite a few team managers have used megaphones and loud hailers over the years, mainly to yell at the pit crew, probably.