24 replies to this topic

[racer69]

I was told today by a relative, having one of our usual motorsport conversations about the past, that Jackie Stewart raced a Porsche 956 during the 80s. I was of the impression he only tested cars for development of filming purposes after his retirement, but i was adamently told that he raced it saying something like 'it was to good an opportunity to pass up'.

Anyone have any info on whether this actually happened or not?

And how serious did he take the 1982 offer from Bernie to come back?

[petefenelon]

Quote

Originally posted by racer69
I was told today by a relative, having one of our usual motorsport conversations about the past, that Jackie Stewart raced a Porsche 956 during the 80s. I was of the impression he only tested cars for development of filming purposes after his retirement, but i was adamently told that he raced it saying something like 'it was to good an opportunity to pass up'.

Anyone have any info on whether this actually happened or not?

And how serious did he take the 1982 offer from Bernie to come back?

Confusing JYS with Black Jack, who did turn out a couple of times?

[Gary C]

I think I'm safe in saying that JYS never raced a car (of ANY sort) after Watkins Glen '73.

[Dave Ware]

Quote

I think I'm safe in saying that JYS never raced a car (of ANY sort) after Watkins Glen '73.

I'll be the first to second that.

[Macca]

Thirded.

Senna raced a 956 once.

Black Jack was offered hard cash to do some races for Matra in 1970 and snapped it up.

But JYS - no.



Paul M

[philippe7]

Quote

Originally posted by Macca
Black Jack was offered hard cash to do some races for Matra in 1970 and snapped it up.
Paul M

Yes, sure . And his last "race" was indeed , IIRC, les 1000 kms de Paris end 1970. But he hadn't officially retired yet .

[kayemod]

Quote

Originally posted by Gary C
I think I'm safe in saying that JYS never raced a car (of ANY sort) after Watkins Glen '73.

I'm sure that's true, JYS never raced again, and he wouldn't do even demo runs at any kind of speed. I saw him driving one of his championship winning Tyrrells at Silverstone some time in the early 80s, and Formula Fords were flying past him. He told someone then that he never drove fast any more, not even for fun, so I think we can count him out for the GP Masters, or Grandmasters if they start a similar series for even older retired drivers. I think I remember though, that he did a series of articles on current F1 cars (for Autocar?), driving them around Paul Ricard, and he must have been pushing those fairly hard to be able to compare them. One of the cars was a McLaren M26, so it would probably have been some time in early 1977. Anyone else remember this?

[bigears]

I remember he drove a Jaguar XJR9 car at Donington and he did drive other different types of cars as well on the same day for a television programme.

EDIT>> Found it!

http://www.f1archives.com/jys.htm

[Rob Semmeling]

More recently, Stewart was also involved to some extend in the development of the new Ford GT. He drove one at Laguna Seca.

[Gary C]

JYS has probably driven hundreds of race cars for TV specials over the years.....that series at Snetterton in about 1988 etc, etc

[bill moffat]

Now if you subtract 600 and talk about JYS in a Porsche 3 56 then I would agree (albeit not in the 80's).

[edelweiss]

Quote

Originally posted by philippe7

Yes, sure . And his last "race" was indeed , IIRC, les 1000 kms de Paris end 1970. But he hadn't officially retired yet .

It was not his last race.

Jack Brabham drove in a Porsche 956 in a Group C race on Sandown Park on the 2nd of December 1984.
He partnered Johnny Dumfries and Richard Lloyd.
Other famous names in the race: Bellof, Bell, Mass, Ickx, Palmer, Lammers, Ludwig, Pescarolo, Jones, Schuppan, Boutsen, Hobbs etc.

See also over here .

I still have a nice video with aprox. 10 minutes of that race.

[David M. Kane]

Edelweiss is correct. I have the video and he was bloody quick too. Johnny D was grunting and groaning; and he was half Black Jack's age. It is great stuff to see the difference. Afterwards, my mind went, "pretty clear who's the world champion is here!"

[philippe7]

Quote

Originally posted by edelweiss
It was not his last race.

Jack Brabham drove in a Porsche 956 in a Group C race on Sandown Park on the 2nd of December 1984.

OK, OK, sorry ! I stand corrected

[racer69]

Don't forget he also did the Nurburgring 24 Hours a few years back as well in the Hippies Volkswagon Beetle with Ross Palmer. He's also done Goodwood a few times.

He also did Bathurst a few times after 1970;

1976 in a Torana with Stirling Moss
1977 in a Falcon with son Geoff
1978 in a Torana with Brian Muir

Thanks for the info on Stewart, got one up on the next conversation

[canon1753]

Don't forget, JYS crashed the XJR-9.

He also in 1988 drove an F1 car and a Penske CART car.

[DN5]

Didn't JYS do a demo/ test at Brands 1978 GP on the Friday?

I know I got his autograph that day and thought I can recall he drove something that day,

Competition Cassettes certainly had JYS talking about the 78 cars on one of its tapes.

Geoff

[James Page]

He did - the footage of it is on the sadly disappointing '50 Years of On-Board Formula One' DVD. He's not hanging around but it's put in perspective by the clip of Depailler lapping Long Beach in a Tyrell of similar vintage...

[rl1856]

I recall reading the sometime in the late 70's, JYS tested several contemporary F-1 cars. One of which was a Lotus. Based on the results of the test, Colin Chapman was ready to offer JYS a contract on the spot, if he would consider comeing back.

Sometime in the 90's, as owner of the Stewart Team, he embarissed his #1 driver by driving a rally car significantly quicker than the #1 was able to do.

Best,

Ross

[kayemod]

Quote

Originally posted by rl1856
I recall reading the sometime in the late 70's, JYS tested several contemporary F-1 cars. One of which was a Lotus. Based on the results of the test, Colin Chapman was ready to offer JYS a contract on the spot, if he would consider comeing back.Ross

That must have been the series of track tests and articles I mentioned earlier in this string, but no-one else seems to remember much about them.

"I think I remember though, that he did a series of articles on current F1 cars (for Autocar?), driving them around Paul Ricard, and he must have been pushing those fairly hard to be able to compare them. One of the cars was a McLaren M26, so it would probably have been some time in 1977. Anyone else remember this?"

I'm pretty sure they appeared in Autocar, and from what I remember of the cars involved, I'd guess a date sometime in 1977. I'm also pretty sure that I can remember what the JYS conclusions were, that James Hunt was going to win the next F1 Drivers' Champoinship in the McLaren M26, which seemed to have been a bit perverse after he'd had a go in a Lotus 78. Although the 78 hadn't exactly set the world on fire at that stage, I can still remember being surprised by his verdicts on the respective merits of the cars.

[edelweiss]

I think these are the pics:







Source: Sport-Auto (March 1978). Thanks to Aerogi.be via tbk.fameflame.dk

[GeorgeTheCar]

Having spent considerable time, 150-200 hours, with JYS as hs chauffeur when he came to Canada in the 90's to do TV for the Canadian GP and some PR work I got to discuss driving with him.

One thing that became clear is that driving and racing are somewhat seperate things.

With a nickname of PbFt, many people think that I am a fast driver but it was a very different thing to drive with JYS beside you in the front seat.

He did want you to keep your options open and keep space around you but generally speed wasn't an issue. But there were exceptions.

One year after the race when he ahd limited time to catch his flight I organized a convoy out a back way to get to the airport on time. It is one of the funnier elements in my life where many have complained about tailgating and in this circumstance JYS kept exhorting me to stay close to the car in fron so there was no chance that we would get cut out of the train.

Many people got told the story about Jackie yelling Stay close! stay close!

Driving, even driving fast, is all about getting wher you are going safely.

I can well imaging JYS taking a car and getting it to the edge of it's capabilities but not having any interest in doing that within the close quarters of racing when the activity is defined by others. His sensitivity ina car is quite remarkable, even from the passenger seat. I remember one time being told that I was close to the edge of traction as I was on the brakes and the ABS was just sort of bouncing on and off.

The reasons that JYS asks for a driver is, one familiarity with the local geography, and the other is the recognition factor. Even 20 plus years after his championships he is very recognizable and one of my challenges was to be able to avoid the attentions of someone who recognized him in the car in traffic. I was bad enough having people trying to get alongside in traffic, waving at us and much more. I can't imagine what it woudl have been like if he had been driving.

I had never been a fan when he was racing as he raced Fords and I was a Chevy guy but I did develop a real appreciation for him as a man.

After the team became Ford and he didn't return to the broadcast booth, I didn't have a role at the GP any more and had to chose between staying home or paying to go as I had done years earlier.
I just couldn't sit in the stands opposite the pits, not walk down pit lane, not go into the garages and give up the great meals in Bernie's Paddock Club so I watch the race on TV and do a driving school with the money that I would have spent at the GP.

It certainly was an experience that enhanced my appreciation of JYS, F1 and my sport in general.

On the other hand, there are days that it makes no sense but that is a discussion for another day.

[kayemod]

Thanks for the pics edelweiss, and thanks for the reminiscences GeorgeTheCar. I never knew JYS all that well, and only really in connection with the Lola 260 Can-Am car, but he impressed me as an exceptionally nice man. I was never a big fan in his Tyrrell F1 days, though you couldn't question his ability, and I suppose I wasn't expecting too much when we first met. I worked with a lot of F1 people in those days, and they were never quite what you expected, a few better, but often a lot worse, F1 wasn't anything like as big back then, but man, did it all go the the heads of some of them. I was young and impressionable, but the ones I have the fondest memories of were Jackie Stewart , and Denny Hulme. JYS seemed to rub a few people up the wrong way, the voice and alarmingly short stature probably didn't help, I'm quite tall and he didn't even reach my shoulders, but if you knew him at all, a really impressive guy.

Now, does anyone else remember those JYS track test articles?

[Geza Sury]

Quote

Originally posted by canon1753
Don't forget, JYS crashed the XJR-9.

Yeah, IIRC he stuffed the car into the barriers at Copse. What surprised me was that he had blamed the car, the circuit, the tyres and virtually everything for doing that silly mistake instead of admitting that it was a simple driving error. A bit like Alain Prost I guess...

[nmansellfan]

Didn't JYS break the outright lap record around Oulton Park's international circuit in the Benetton B187 as part of the 'World of speed' video shoot?