12 replies to this topic

[petefenelon]

Ooooh!

Buried on the excellent small but perfectly-formed Pilbeam official site on pilbeamracing.co.uk is a full list of Mike Pilbeam's project numbers.

Full site here.... (very good!)
project/type numbers here

The sheer scope of work that Mike and his company have undertaken is little short of amazing!

enjoy
pete

[eldougo]

petefenelon

It,s an amazing list of things he has done ,I meet him in1977 an found him such a
genuine person,an a truley nice guy It,s funny reading it R13 notallocated.i wonder WHY!!
The 1977 Yamaha sidecar racer reminds me of a chap who got GOMME metalcraft to make him
a mono type chassis for a side car about that time ???? I wonder if it,s the same guy.
MP74 Lada (what,s that i can,t here you) rally car fell through,now we can be greatfull for
small mercy,s.An the suspension modifications to the Williams FW05 ? i wonder what they
where?????? O lets start with a fresh piece of paper / wait two years an then build a winning
WC car.!!!!I guess.
He certinaly has been a busy chap, no lack of projects to get his mind into it,s a pitty that he
only one life time to do it all.

[Ray Bell]

I wonder why he had such an issue with the Le Mans organisers?

The fiasco with the Pilbeam in Adelaide two and a half years ago was very sad...

[eldougo]

:
Ray Bell

The fiasco with the Pilbeam in Adelaide two and a half years ago was very sad................?

Remind me Ray i don,t seem to remember what happened. Iam having a
BLONDE day .

[Ray Bell]

Can't remember the name of the team, but they were on the bones... absolutely dependent on being in the race to survive financially.

Pilbeam hadn't, apparently, registered some detail of the car with the Le Mans organisers... so the car wasn't allowed to run. Not even under some kind of appeal...

As for the colour of your day, I have no idea.

[RaymondMays]

I actually did work experience at the Pilbeam factory, and my grandmother was very friendly with Mike Pilbeam's mother. As a child, I remember playing Scrabble and Wist with them!

I have an open invite to a factory tour, when I next visit my parents in Bourne, so hopefully I'll get the low-down on what their plans are.

[Peter Morley]

Originally posted by eldougo
petefenelon

An the suspension modifications to the Williams FW05 ? i wonder what they
where??????

They were actually made to FW04 for Brian McGuire.
McGuire had bought both 1975 Williams FW04s and ran them in the British Shellsport F1 series in 1976 & 1977. He also tried to qualify for the 1977 British GP.

As part of his preparations he had Mike Pilbeam look at the cars.
Pilbeam suggested some tidying up of the suspension, but when I asked Mike he admitted the modifications were very minor, just tidying up of the existing design (the project number was probably a Porsche/Bugatti style idea to make the records look more impressive).

McGuire entered at least one of them (the Brit GP entry at least) as the McGuire BMG1 later on, I can't recall offhand if this was immediately after the Pilbeam work or not.

It is quite clear from the chassis (in my workshop) that the reworking was very minor, no sign of major chassis alterations.

[eldougo]

Peter Morley --------- Thanks for that info peter. Is it your car ? an maybe do you have a
photo to show us.

[Peter Morley]

Originally posted by eldougo


Peter Morley --------- Thanks for that info peter. Is it your car ? an maybe do you have a
photo to show us.

Yes - well technically it is my father's.
No - my workshop is currently being revamped which means everything is piled up out of sight, when normal service is resumed I'll take some pictures for you.

While I'm at it I'll add some more history:

McGuire bought both FW04s:
no. 1 had been used by Laffite for most of 75 (coming 2nd in Germany),
no. 2 was built at the end of the year and was to have been driven by Lella Lombardi in the 77 US GP, which was the last race of the season, however she did not start the race.

McGuire used no.1 until April 77 (winning Thruxton 76), then he only used it once more trying to qualify for the Brit GP in July - the 3 month gap being while he was converting it into the McGuire BMG1 incorporating Mike Pilbeam's suspension tweaks etc.

From May 77 he ran chassis no. 2 in Shellsport until August when he was killed in practice at Brands Hatch.

Apparently John Harper still uses McGuire's old transporter (converted coach?).

McGuire had come to Europe from Australia with someone called Alan Jones, who also enjoyed success in Williams F1 cars!!

[fines]

Thanks Peter, that's most useful - I always wondered what became of the second FW04! So, only the original was converted into a McGuire BM1 spec?

[Bondurand]

Originally posted by Peter Morley



McGuire used no.1 until April 77 (winning Thruxton 76), then he only used it once more trying to qualify for the Brit GP in July - the 3 month gap being while he was converting it into the McGuire BMG1 incorporating Mike Pilbeam's suspension tweaks etc.

Was there other modifications? I remember that the Apollon was said a Williams, but looking at it, some spectacular aerodynamical modification had been made.

Is there a color picture of this so-called McGuire?

[Rob Ryder]

Originally posted by Bondurand

Is there a color picture of this so-called McGuire?

1976 International Trophy - Silverstone


1977 British GP
(Sorry, I can't remember the sources.)

[Stephen W]

Some additioanl information on Pilbeam's stellar projests:

TYPE YEAR DESCRIPTION

MP88 2002 2.0 LITRE V6 CARBON CHASSIS SINGLE SEATER – Specifically designed for the QED K-series V6 2 litre

MP82 1996/97 HILLCLIMB SINGLE SEATER – successor to the MP62

MP62 1991 VAUXHALL OR HART ENGINED SINGLE SEATER – designed for the 2 litre Vauxhall 4 cylinder debut at Harewood 1991 driven by ADO. One chassis was also fitted with a 2.8 Hart.

MP52 1982 SPACEFRAME FF2000 SINGLE SEATER – aka the Swallow SP1

MP51 1982 TOYOTA ENGINED F3 SINGLE SEATER – subsequently converted to hillclimb spec

MP47 1980 COSWORTH DFV ENGINED SINGLE SEATER – Once ADO had sold it on to Chris Dowson it was converted to run the Repco V8 5 litre

MP43 1980 HART-ENGINED HILLCLIMB SINGLE SEATER – NOT a single seater but in fact a very pretty Sports Libre. Using the Hart 420R in 2.0, 2.5 and 2.8 formats the three cars are still about

MP36 1977 HILLCLIMB DEVELOPMENT OF BRABHAM BT35 – work done for Peter Kaye

MP34 1977 DEVELOPMENT OF F2 BOXER-HART PR276 – for Brian Lewis

MP33 1977 HILLCLIMB DEVELOPMENT OF MARCH-FORD 76A – for Chris Cramer

MP32 1977 EVOLUTION OF R28 (KNOWN AS "PILCH")- aka 78P which Martyn Griffiths ran initially

MP31 1977 COSWORTH DFV ENGINED SINGLE SEATER – two cars built for ADO and Peter Kaye

R30 1977 DEVELOPMENT OF F1 PENSKE PC6 – for Hexagon Racing

R28 1977 HILLCLIMB DEVELOPMENT OF MARCH-HART 74B – initial work done on Martyn Griffiths’ March

R22 1976 COSWORTH DFV DEVELOPMENT OF R15 – for ADO. The MP22 chassis were developed in conjunction with Pilbeam Racing by Malcolm Dungworth

R17 1975 LOLA S2000 BASED SKODA SPECIAL SALOON – for Tony Dickinson

R16 1975 SPACEFRAME HILLMAN IMP BDA SPECIAL – for Tony Dickinson

R15 1975 HILLCLIMB DEVELOPMENT OF BRABHAM BT38 – for ADO

R12 1970 DEVELOPMENT OF LOTUS 7X RACER – for Tim Goss