5 replies to this topic

[island]

Hi!
The 1975 Shadow DN5A was an aesthetically
pleasing racer, in my opionion. And it was
fast. Looked like a world beater at Buenos
Aires and Interlagos. But no GP wins for
Jean-Pierre and Tom. How do rate their driving ability?

[Jonathan]

Tom Pryce

[Huw Jenjin]

Very different drivers, good for different reasons, and in retrospect as good a driver pairing as you could get for one team.
I think in good cars there would be very little in it. In mediochre cars, Tom would make a better account of himself.
As for really pulling something out of the bag, that was Jarier's forte.

[Jonathan]

Huw Jenjin -

While I respect both of these drivers. I think Tom was clearly more consistant and in addition he hwas much kinder to the cars fragile mechanical capabilities. He had an ability to bring home a failing car, whereas 'Jumper' was the type who would go for broke until something actually did break. By mid-season Jarrier would typically become somewhat discouraged. While on form and trying Jarrier could be very spectacular, I also think Tom could do the same when motivated.

Unfortunatly Tom got stuck in a very bad contract and was basically serving out his 5 year 'sentance' with Shadow up until the time of his death.

While I very much enjoyed seeing Jarrier in the Porsche Supercup races earlier this decade, I have never regarded him as Tom's equal.

[This message has been edited by Jonathan (edited 05-08-2000).]

[KzKiwi]

Pryce was the better driver in my opinion - when the opportunity arose he was fantastic in the wet as well as being a good peddler in the dry. Jarier was far too erractic in his performances. Apparently in 1976 as the season progressed Pryce became more and more respected within the Shadow team, whereas Jarier was cast more and more into the background - which probably sums the situation up between the two.

Jonathon, on two occasions Colin Chapman tried to woo Pryce to Lotus. In early 1975 it was to be a straight swap between Peterson and Pryce, with Shadow said to be very keen on the deal. From this we can read that it was Lotus that backed away from this deal.

Then late in 1976 Lotus again made overtures directly to Pryce for him to join Andretti in 1977. Pryce agonized over this decision and eventually rejected it because of a loyalty to Alan Rees at Shadow, as well as concerns over the fragile track record of Lotus cars. From the second of these two examples it appears that Pryce was not tied to Shadow by contractural terms, more likely loyalty to Rees, etc.

We can only ponder how Tom Pryce would have gone in a Ground effect Lotus!

[Jonathan]

KzKiwi -

While its common knowledge that Chapman did try very publicly to arrange a 'swap' between Peterson and Pryce early in 1975, I think it has been fairly well documented that this was nothing more than a "stunt" designed to to persuade his JPS sponsours to not reduce their level of support inspite of the JPS-72's only so-so level of performance (5th in the WDC ?) in 1974...

I was totally unaware that this was tried again in early 1977.

While I am sure Chapman could certainly spot talent, he would have had to buy out Pryce's contract in order to obtain his services. While I am not sure I can recall who the 'blood-sucking leaches' who 'owned' Pryce were, I doubt they would have let him go cheaply...

[This message has been edited by Jonathan (edited 05-10-2000).]