45 replies to this topic

[neville mackay]

The back of this month's Motor Sport contains an advert for the ex Mike de Udy Lola T70 which is coming up for sale at Pebble Beach. I recall de Udy as a regular driver of big banger Lola's in the late 60's both in the UK and in the Springbok series, often racing under the Bahamas racing umbrella. Although familiar with his international racing exploits of that era, I always wanted to know more about his background and wondered if anyone on TNF could oblige. And while I'm on this theme, perhaps someone could advise on (i) how his somewhat unusual sirname is pronounced and (ii) the function of the two torpedo shaped protuberances which sprouted from the roof of his various Lola's.

Neville

[David Beard]

Funnily enough Mike D'Udy has just come up on a forum I used to frequent in my earlier days of internet addiction

Capitain Midnight said....

"The one race that does stick though is a sports car race where Mike D'Udy
racing a Lola ( I think !!! ) and David Piper in a Ferrari ( that much I do
recall !!! ) were battling nose to tail, side by side, for the entire race,
until D'Udy followed Piper into Woodcote, got far too close, ran the nose of
his car under the rear of the Ferrari lifting its rear wheels clean off the
road and " carried " it down pit straight !! Both, needless to say, retired !
I saw the Ferrari in the pits later and its four exhausts pipes resembled
spaghetti !"

I have told him that someone on TNF will name the event, year, etc...

[barrykm]

Neville, to answer your second question - I think these were night-time identification lights used for the Kyalami 9hr race..?

[ry6]

Or perhaps cooling ducts to get some air into the cockpit in the highveld heat waves?

[David Beard]

Originally posted by ry6
Or perhaps cooling ducts to get some air into the cockpit in the highveld heat waves?

I was perhaps a little rude in hijacking the questions posed in the starting post... :

I've looked through Ian Bamsey's "Technical appraisal " book on the T70...D'Udy is shown with shiny versions of these protuberances on the roof of his T70 at Sebring in 68, but I can't find an explanation as to what they for. I agree with Rob that look like some sort of cockpit ventilation- perhaps based on a venturi principle?

The Norman Hayes book of Lola photos shows Frank Gardner in a similarly adorned T70 in the support race for the Oulton Park Gold Cup in 69.

[Frank S]

Here's a --broken link, don' bother-- model of the Sebring Car

Looks to me (counting on the modeller's meticulousness) as if there is too little conduit from the nacelles to the cockpit for it to be other than lighting. It must have a very useful function: had to be costly (and fatiguingly noisy) aerodynamics-wise.

Frank S

[neville mackay]

The problem with the lighting theory is that they appeared pretty much as a standard fitting at all De Udy's races, almost all of which took place in the daytime. And the problem with the cooling hypothesis is - as has been noted - is that their functionality looks marginal at best. So perhaps they were fitted just because they look cool and kept everyone guessing?

[Frank S]

That was the era of The Unfair Advantage, wasn't it? That thought passed through my mind as that post percolated. I also thought about movie cameras and emergency lights. Still no good answer . . .

[Frank S]

And wind-driven generators.

[neville mackay]

what about sirens, as with Stuka dive bombers?

[David M. Kane]

His partner at Sebring was Hugh Dibley, the founder of Palliser, better known in the States as Winklemanns under the agreement between the two.
Bob apparently only sell them if he had that sort of exclusive control.
If I remember correctly, Winklemann was Jochen Rindt F2 mechanic. Perhaps
someone more knowledgeable can feel in any errors I made in the above statement.

Hugh Dibley was also a pilot for one the major British Airlines.

[Alan Baker]

de Udy is pronounced "dee Uddy". Mike came to prominence in British racing with a Porsche 906 in 1966/7. H.P.K.Dibley was a BOAC Boeing 707 and, later, Boeing 747 pilot. The airline became British Airways in 1974. It was rumoured that BA prevailed on Dibley to wind down his motor racing activities and concentrate on being a pilot after he crashed a 747 simulator!

[David Beard]

Seems like he owned 3 T70s..

http://962.com/other.../1969_lola_t70/

I have just noticed that I have being saying "D'Udy", everyone else, "de Udy".
"D'Udy " doesn't defeat Google, however

[Pete Stowe]

Originally posted by Alan Baker
H.P.K.Dibley was a BOAC Boeing 707 and, later, Boeing 747 pilot. The airline became British Airways in 1974. It was rumoured that BA prevailed on Dibley to wind down his motor racing activities and concentrate on being a pilot after he crashed a 747 simulator!

If true, it must have focussed his mind on simulators! Hugh Dibley is now a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a leading authority in flight simulation, having been working in that field for Airbus for many years.

Originally posted by David M. Kane
If I remember correctly, Winklemann was Jochen Rindt F2 mechanic.

Bob Winklemann was the brother of Roy Winklemann, the Formula 2 team entrant who had a pair of cars for Rindt and Alan Rees (later of course one of the co-founders of March). IIRC Roy was a very hands-off team owner, with Rees acting as team manager, and I think the chief mechanic was Peter Kerr. As well as being quick the cars had a reputation for being immaculately prepared. Not sure if Bob W. had any involvement with the team though.

[neville mackay]

Hugh Dibley (who was always somewhat formally referred to as HPK Dibley when he raced across the pond) was famous for doing a backflip in his Lola T70 at St Jovite in the first Can Am year, 1966. Just to prove it was no fluke, Paul Hawkins promptly repeated the exercise at exactly the same place in the same type of car a few hours later. The application of aerodynamics to racing cars was of course in its infancy at that point, although one wonders precisely how much has been learned since when one thinks of similar incidents befalling the likes of Webber, Dumbreck, Dalmas, Morton and Auberlein in recent years.

The Palliser company that Dibley was subsequently involved with produced cars that were both pretty and effective - mainly in formula ford (I recall that Peter Lamplough had a mean purple example) but they also dabbled in F3 with Roger Keele and in F Atlantic where Vern Schuppan had some success in the early 1970's.

Getting back to De Udy, John Starkey's Lola T70 book records that the De Udy "torpedo's" were indeed to aid driver cooling, although how on earth they worked is beyond me!

[Felix Muelas]

Rob Young (ry6) has requested this picture to be posted here ;)

...here is a pic of the Frank Gradner/Mike Spence Lola T70 in the 1967 Rand 9 hours which has these things....

...de Udy co-drove another Lola with Hugh Dibley in the race but his car did not have these things on the roof....

[Milan Fistonic]

There must have been some car and/or bodywork swapping going on.

Motoring News has a photo that shows both the Gardner and de Udy cars at Kyalami. Gardner's car (No 5) is as shown in Rob's photo while the de Udy car (No 6) has a different colour scheme on the nose.

At the Cape 3 Hour race a few weeks later De Udy was driving a Lola with the same colour scheme as at Kyalami but it now has the things on the roof.

As can be seen in Rob's photo, Gardner's car has a damaged nose so I guess what happened was that for the later races de Udy took over Gardner's car and replaced the damaged nose with the one from the car he used at Kyalami.

[neville mackay]

Great picture, great car, great torpedo tubes on the roof! Does anyone know what became of De Udy and why he dropped out of racing suddenly at the end of the 69 season?

[Felix Muelas]

One more picture and text from Rob Young :

...This is the cover of the program for the enduro after the Rand 9 hours but it shows a pic of the de Udy/Dibley Lola T70 which ran in the 9 hours. Other car is Piper Ferrari. As can be seen - "no things on roof"...

[Milan Fistonic]

Originally posted by Felix Muelas
Rob Young (ry6) has requested this picture to be posted here ;)

...here is a pic of the Frank Gradner/Mike Spence Lola T70 in the 1967 Rand 9 hours which has these things....

...de Udy co-drove another Lola with Hugh Dibley in the race but his car did not have these things on the roof....

I've just come across the answer to the question about those things on the roof of the Lola. It's in Frank Gardner's (with DCN) Racing Driver's Manual.

"The venturi on the roof were Gardner-developed to suck cooling air through the cockpit."

[bill moffat]

Well I reckon he nicked them off that Cosin Amigo in the car park...

[bill moffat]

that's Costin Amigo..

[barrykm]

Originally posted by Felix Muelas
One more picture and text from Rob Young :

...This is the cover of the program for the enduro after the Rand 9 hours but it shows a pic of the de Udy/Dibley Lola T70 which ran in the 9 hours. Other car is Piper Ferrari. As can be seen - "no things on roof"...

This program is for the Natal leg of the Springbok Series at the Roy hesketh circuit at Pietermaritzburg, incorporating the Dickie Dale Memorial meeting which had been run for many years prior.

I might still have this program somewhere in the boxes of stuff my wife wants me get rid of...

[h4887]

Originally posted by bill moffat
that's Costin Amigo..

It must be travelling at near light speed to have become so foreshortened...

Geoff

[Hieronymus]

Originally posted by barrykm


I might still have this program somewhere in the boxes of stuff my wife wants me get rid of...

No need "to get rid" of this stuff. I can offer you a good price, since there just may be items that I can add to my collection of South African race programmes.

[Nanni Dietrich]

On the Lola in the picture of the program, the name is written D'Udy.

[Felix]

I saw Mike d'Udy (which is the way I remember his surname spelt in the 60s) on two occassions at the BRDC Clubhouse last year, so he has kept in touch with the fraternity. Believe he is still a member of the club.

[Paul Parker]

I'm away from my library out here but I too seem to recall that it was d'Udy in period but that's 35 years or more ago.

As an aside I also seem to recall that he had a big shunt at Crystal Palace in one of his T70s and I believe the impact with the sleepers that lined part of the track stopped his heart. Fortunately a doctor was on hand who got his heart restarted somehow. Is this true or am I confusing it with someone else.

[richardspringett]

A Mike de' Udy of Chicago is selling a MB 6.9 engine and transmission in Oct Motorsport (page 144). A contact phone number is given.

[Dick Mawson]

In 1966 we prepared Mikes car at GP Speedshop in the Ham Brentford we took the car to the Springbok series Mike fitted those roof vents in SA and they were to extract hot air from inside the cockpit Mike loved them he even took them to bed with him at night,Hawkeye used to rag him unmercifully about them but mike insisted they were the best part of the car on that particular trip we broke the SA land speed record if there is anything else I can help with please let me know Dick Mawson

[Stephen W]

Oulton Park 1967 and this is Mike's Porsche 906 in the paddock.

[hipperson]

Look at this great Nick Loudon shot....be interested to know when. Silverstone I believe.
Richard Attwood has signed the mount for me.....now I know I can get to Mike DU it will make a good auction piece for our charity

[Jean L]

Silverstone yes,Martini Trophy 1967.

[Stephen W]

Mike in his Lola T70 at Oulton Park 1968

[r.atlos]

You wondered what this strange device on de Udy's T70 was ? Autosport gives the answer in its issue dated 15/09/1967 - it's a Montevac !



I think I'd like it - seems I could smoke my cigar in any confined cockpit without opening the window ...

[corsaresearch]

Hello,
does anyone know what happened with Michael De Udy (or is it d'Udy ??) ? -
I've been told he originated from the Bahamas ... ? but like to know more how he got to race for/with Porsche Great Britain;
I know he raced and crashed (already in lap one) a brand new BRG Carrera 6 in the 1966 Targa Florio ...

anyone ??

[Tim Murray]

There is an earlier thread about him:

Mike De Udy

[Giraffe]

I recall reading something somewhere about Mike being from an auspiciously wealthy family, hence his domicile in the Bahamas. He thus had little problem in obtaining suitable competitive machinery and had a modicum of talent, but as is often the case in such circumstances, his family actively discouraged him from pursuing his ambitions.

[corsaresearch]

There is an earlier thread about him:

Mike De Udy

thanks Tim

[Giraffe]

If you scroll down to the sixth question to Frank Gardner on this link (by the Boss Mustang), there's a little background info on Mike.

http://www.ponysite....r_interview.htm

[Giraffe]

A really great pic of Mike De Udy's ubiquitous Grand Bahama Racing Lola T70Mk3B SL76/149 being driven by Frank Gardner at Oulton Park at the 1969 Gold Cup meeting. Photo taken Steve Wilkinson. I witnessed the Lola pass 20 seconds after this shot was taken from the marshal's post at Avenue.

http://forums.autosp...w...t&p=3820857

Mike shared the Lola with Frank for the longer races in 1969, and ran (briefly) at Sebring in 1970 with Mike Hailwood.

I wish someone would re-create this unique livery on an existing T70 or a continuation car.

Edited by Giraffe, 13 April 2010 - 09:48.

[Gary C]

does anyone know if Mike is still around?

[Giraffe]

does anyone know if Mike is still around?

I believe he is still listed as a member of the BRDC.

This thread need merging: http://forums.autosp...howtopic=127611

Edited by Giraffe, 13 April 2010 - 20:07.

[hansfohr]

Please merge it with the 'Mike de Udy' threads.

Edited by hansfohr, 13 April 2010 - 20:40.

[Giraffe]

I believe he is still listed as a member of the BRDC.

No sign of Mike on the current member's list. Does anyone know what became of him?

[helioseism]

For those still interested in Mike de'Udy, he has recently published two books

 

My Side Of The Story

 

Living In The Fast Lane

 

I just received  "Living In The Fast Lane" for Christmas. While it does not represent the heights of book production quality, it does provide his recollections of his life, but a lot of material is not racing related. There is a blurb where he states that the other book ("My Side Of The Story") contains more racing content.