7 replies to this topic

[jadb1]

Someone knows more about this car ???

 

 

 

[john winfield]

Van Diemen and GRD were two separate companies until 1975 when GRD folded and were taken over by Van Diemen. I think the car in the photo is either the 1975 GRD 375 F3 car or the 1976 Van Diemen model based, I believe, on the previous year's GRD.

If you Google Van Diemen or GRD, or check the f3history site and the F3 section of Stefan's formula2.net site, there's plenty of information out there.

The car does remind me of a Modus too. Edit - that is presumably because of the Jo Marquart connection.

Edited by john winfield, 18 July 2016 - 22:26.

[jadb1]

Tanks John

[DMB81]

I think Ian Taylor ran a GRD in British F3 in 1975 and Don Macleod ran a GRD/Van Dieman, the same year.

[f1steveuk]

It does have the look of a Modus M1 apart from the intake slot is a lot narrower and there doesn't appear to be the forward running roll hoop stays

[AAA-Eagle]

While awaiting for the answers in a neighbour thread (not really hoping for much TNFers' activity at midnight), I decided to sort the thing out here.

So, like in the old times of glorious 8W quiz, here are all the answers on the questions here.

 

The driver on the picture is British privateer Derek Cook, who tastes his first F3 racing experience. He is behind the wheel of a GRD 374 chassis '094-F3' powered by Ford engine -- an ex-Alex Ribeiro car hired from Brian Henton. The latter brought the car from Alex Ribeiro early in the year after Alex had joined the March Engineering F3 team and decided to sold his GRD car he raced in 1974 British F3 with Hollywood sponsorship, and also to sold a transporter for it.

Alex Ribiero was its first owner as the chassis had been sold to him new in July 1974, replacing his earlier car crashed at Cadwell Park. Here is classic Alex Cox photo of the car in its initial colours as raced by Ribeiro at Oulton Park on September 28th, 1974, being pursued by the works SPI March 743 of Jos Chateaubriand and Nick von Preussen's March 733.


Derek Cook only raced the car once and it was at the most wanted venue of all -- at Monte Carlo, as he was taking part in XVII Grand Prix de Monaco Formule 3, the first round of 1975 European F3 Championship, now eligible for 2000 cc cars, and contemporaneously the third round of the BP British F3 Championship.This assured a healthy entry of UK based team in addition to a large contingent of Scandinavian and Continental runners. A total entry of 66 cars would have to battle for the 36 places in the two heats, the first nine from each heat would then qualify for a place in the final, qualifying took place on late Thursday and first thing Friday morning with all the races on Saturday, May 10th, 1975.

Fastest of all the runners was Larry Perkins in the works Ralt who apart from a few minor adjustments was very happy with the car which would duly take up pole position in Heat 1. Second quickest and thus pole sitter for Heat 2 was Tony Brise who was running his Formula Atlantic Modus converted back to F3 specification, other than a few minor problems Brise had a smooth time during qualifying. Conny Andersson and Gunnar Nilsson were second and third on the grid for Heat 1 in their March 753s again neither man had any major problems other than traffic to report. Second on the grid for Heat 2 was the surprise package of Italian Renzo Zorzi in his GRD 374 unusually powered by a Repetto-tuned Lancia Beta engine, many people, a little uncharitably, felt the timekeepers had made an error with his fastest time. Alex Ribeiro took third fastest in Heat 2 with the second of the works Marches.

 

Of the other runners Heat 1 man Mike Tyrrell had a big shunt when a clevis broke on his 733 putting him in the Armco, the non-qualifying Ken Silverstone kindly allowed his March 743 to be cannibalized to provide the parts to allow Tyrrell to race. Also in Heat 1 experienced Freddy Kottulinsky would normally expect to be at the front but problems with his new BMW engine saw him qualify well down the field. In Heat 2 Danny Sullivan had to have his Modus rebuilt using parts from non-qualifier Reudi Gygax's car after the American hit a tree (!) after encountering someone else's oil. Rupert Keegan had a couple of spins without any damage to his March whilst South lost most of the second session when a burnt out coil/distributor stopped his Ray starting.

Of the non-qualifiers, in addition to the aforementioned Ken Silverstone who wasn't used to his "new" March 743 the other UK based runners out of luck were Robert Joubert in his Lola T350 who had an engine bend a valve two laps into the second session after having problems in the first period. Terry Perkins was still sorting out the second Ralt RT1 while Graham Hamilton just couldn't get the Ecurie Ecosse March 753 within 2 seconds of making the cut.

Bob Arnott was late arriving for Heat 1 after there were problems starting his car, the organisers said Alessendro Pesenti-Rossi could take his place as first reserve, when Arnott arrived he wasn't allowed to take his rightful grid position and Pesenti-Rossi took the start. Some behind the scenes arguing saw Arnott allowed to race in Heat 2 (after Giorgio Francia broke a driveshaft as he motored from the paddock to the track) although it would be from the back of the grid.

Larry Perkins took an immediate lead chased by Conny Andersson and Gunnar Nilsson but the unfortunate Nilsson was out almost immediately with a broken gear lever.

 

At the end of the first lap it was Perkins and Andersson out in front with a gap back to Patrick Neve, Pierre Dieudonné and Marcello Rosei. Perkins and Andersson gradually pulled away from Neve and for a while Perkins opened out a gap to Andersson but in the closing stages the Swede closed the gap again and the two cars crossed the finishing line a third of a second apart. Neve stayed in third for the whole race initially chased by Dieudonné until the Belgian lost time with a pitstop to secure a loose coil. Rosei moved up to fourth chased hard by the Marches of Gaudenzio Mantova, Hervé Regout and Ingo Hoffman until Hoffman spun on lap 6 and then the Lancia in Rosei's March began to fail blowing out a lot of smoke so Mantova and Regout finished fourth and fifth. Mike Tyrrell and Freddy Kottulinsky looked like qualifying but as they entered Mirabeau Kottulinsky tapped a backmarker, the German's Modus then hit Tyrrell pushing the Antiguan off the track and out of the race. Kottulinsky lost several places and damaged his nosecone but he still managed to make the final.

Tony Brise made a slow getaway from pole in Heat 2 and it was the unfancied Zorzi that took the lead, Ribeiro moved into second ahead of Ulf Svensson's Brabham and Brise next with the engine on his Modus misfiring. At the end of the lap Brise pitted to have a plug lead refitted, he resumed well down the field, some 34 seconds behind the ninth place he needed to qualify for the final. Zorzi, showing his practice time had not been a timekeeping error, lead the race from start to finish with Ribeiro gradually falling away in second. Svensson was still in third and during the closing laps he moved onto Ribeiro's tail loosing out on the runner-up spot by less than half a second at the flag. Fourth was Jac Nelleman who fought of the attentions of Danny Sullivan with Rupert Keegan finishing a few seconds behind in sixth.

 

As for Brise he flew after his pit stop catching those ahead of him at the rate of several seconds a lap. So fast was his pace that when he caught Richard Hawkins in ninth, the final qualifying place, Hawkins assumed he was being lapped and moved over to let Brise through!

 

It was exactly this Heat 2, in which our hero Derek Cook had to try to qualify for the final. But in the same time his primary task was to not crash the car, so Cook wisely decided that a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush and drove entire race in a really calm manner. His smooth unhurried drive, well in the distance of other cars, was obviously much preferable for the photograpers who were trying to make a classic front 3/4 clear shot of a car for observing purposes. Thus of all seven GRD 374s available at Monaco for the event it was Cook's one that was chosen to use for Top Trumps cards -- where from comes the picture in question.

 

As wasn't hard to predict Cook didn't qualify for the final, finishing in 15th and last position in the heat, but at least he managed to bring the car in one piece and not to be lapped by heat's winner Renzo Zorzi. Of the other UK runners Parsons joined Cook as non-qualifier, while Arnott's back of the grid start saw him move up to twelfth.

Larry Perkins seemed to make a good start from his pole position in the final but Conny Andersson appeared to make an even better one rocketing past Zorzi and passing Perkins at the Casino. In fact the stewards deemed Andersson's start a little too good and he was docked a minute for anticipating the starter. At the end of the first lap the penalised Andersson led from Perkins, Ribeiro, Zorzi, Neve and Svensson with a gap back to Mantova and the rest of the field, at the back a determined Tony Brise was carving his way through the slower runners in an effort to get at the leaders.

 

Lap 3 saw Andersson gradually pulling away from Perkins who in turn was dropping Ribeiro and Zorzi. Brise had made great progress and was already in tenth by lap 4, 25 seconds behind Andersson at the front. Danny Sullivan was out, he had a moment on the first lap and then when Rupert Keegan dived up his inside on lap 4 at St Devote the American was taken by surprise and lost the Modus hitting the Armco hard.

 

By lap 8 Andersson had increased his lead to two seconds over Perkins, there was a gap back to Ribeiro who was still battling with Zorzi with Neve just behind in fifth, next up it was Svensson and Brise who seemed unable to make any impression on the gap to Andersson. On lap 11 the stewards announced Andersson's penalty and Perkins' pit crew passed on the information to Larry, perhaps he relaxed a little for as he entered the swimming pool his foot slipped from the brake to the accelerator and the Ralt spun slowly into the Armco damaging the rear wing.

 

Andersson now had a 20 second lead over Ribeiro and Zorzi whilst Brise was closing in on Neve and Svensson. On lap 17 Brise passed Svensson and a lap later he was ahead of Neve at the Gasworks. Still racing hard Brise then took care of Zorzi which just left Ribeiro who was effectively leading after Andersson's penalty.

 

Entering the Mirabeau Brise pulled out from behind Ribeiro as both cars overtook a lapped backmarker Ribeiro seemed to keep to the racing line whilst Brise kept his line as he braked down the inside, there wasn't the space for two cars and Brise hit Ribeiro who spun round, Brise's Modus mounted the March and both cars were out on the spot.

Zorzi was now in the lead but Neve was trying hard but although he closed in on the March he was unable to find a way past, so at the flag it was surprise package Zorzi in his March-Lancia that took the win with Neve less than a second behind. Svensson took third with Andersson dropping to fourth after his penalty was applied, fifth went to Gianfranco Brancatelli who just held off Mantova in sixth. South had been ahead of Brancatelli but he went straight on at the hairpin and then rejoined the track without the marshalls permission, he was shown a black and yellow "reprimand" flag, thinking this was the same as a black flag South pitted and lost what might have been fourth. Rupert Keegan should have been sixth but he lost third gear and dropped back to finish ninth.

While Monegasque track was now leaved solely for the big boys in F1 cars, Derek Cook was ready to transport his GRD car back home. A week later Henton loaned the car to Mike Tyrrell, who raced it at Brands Hatch, after which it was sold via Mike Gue to the US, where it was bought by Jim Fikse (Seattle, WA).

 

Fikse converted the car to Formula C, with a 1100 cc Cosworth BDJ engine, but crashed it in an early race outing and it needed to be extensively rebuilt, reportedly with a new monocoque. It was repaired in time to be used by Mike Gilbert to win the FC class at the 1976 SCCA Runoffs. It was sold to Peter Gates in March 1977, who raced it in NorthEast Division of the SCCA until the end of 1978. According to the logbook, later owners were Modjean, Jaworski, Slyvester and Greene. Finally the car was bought by Bob Darcey (Lakewood, CO) in 1999.

So such was a story behind. And here is all in short:

 

Who? Derek Cook

What? GRD-Ford 374 '094-F3'

Where? Monte-Carlo; exit of 'S' de la Piscine

When? 10th May, 1975; qualifying Heat 2 for Monaco F3 GP

Why? (see above)

Edited by AAA-Eagle, 20 July 2016 - 20:58.

[AAA-Eagle]

Better quality picture of Derek Cook:

[f1steveuk]

What? And you call that a comprehesive reply!!!!! (Seriously, superb!!)