A big budget film about F1, complete with Oscar winning writers and directors, is set for release in 2011.
Here is the blurb from Autosport
An officially sanctioned Formula 1 movie is set to hit the cinema screens early next year after a landmark deal was reached with the sport’s commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone. Preparations are now well underway for the film, which will be an action documentary charting the history of the sport but focusing especially on the period between 1968 and 1982. The film does not yet have an official name – but it has been decided the main focus will be on the period between Jim Clark‘s death at Hockenheim in 1968 and Gilles Villeneuve’s fatal accident at Zolder in 1982. Oscar winning writer Mark Monroe said “We want to make a big action movie – do something that puts people in the car and makes them gasp at the speed of the thing. Then, tell the human stories all the while, so you can dip in and out of these human stories with these big action moments that are enhanced from archive footage”
We think it sounds great. It would be nice to think that finally there could be an authentic big budget film about F1.
RM Auctions will be hosting their first ever event in Monaco in a few weeks, “Sporting Classics of Monaco“, and they’ve certainly pulled out all the stops. The catalog is absolutely mesmerizing, with offerings including the 1937 BMW 328 Mille Miglia “Bügelfalte”, The stunning Birdcage Maserati we looked at a few weeks ago, and some high-demand Ferraris (275 GTB, Tour de France, Daytona Spider).
This car though, hasn’t been featured much in the sportscar press and I didn’t know it was included in the sale until I happened upon the full catalog today. You are looking at one of the three M14A Formula 1 cars that McLaren built to compete in the World Championship for 1970. The McLaren team entered the new decade in absolute dominance of the motoring world. Their Can-Am effort the previous year was in complete control of the series, with Bruce McLaren or Denny Hulme standing atop the podium at all 11 races of the season. They’d also claimed a handful of wins in ’69 in Formula 1 as well. It was time now to continue that amazing success into the 1970s. This car looked well poised to do it too, with a 2nd place finish in her debut race at Kyalami for Hulme—in this very car. The team was on the podium twice more in the next three races. Not a bad start.
That’s when everything went South. Denny suffered a bad methanol burn following practice at Indianapolis. Bruce of course died in a crash at Goodwood testing the new Can-Am car. Amazingly, Denny missed only two races and returned to the car for the French GP. In the next 8 races, Hulme would finish on the podium 3 times more and finished the season in 4th. Incredibly, he won that year’s Can-Am drivers’ championship—oh for the era of driver versatility.
The car itself, chassis M14A2, looks absolutely perfect. Although it had a short stint in her post-F1 years as a Formula 5000 car, the car was fairly quickly returned to the original specification (is this the original engine?) Ford-Cosworth DFV and Hewland gearbox. The car is presented in the livery she wore during the 1970 season and that orange shade is just so brilliant. The photography for the catalog is absolutely stunning and looks like you could just reach into the photo and take her for a spin. I’m surprised that RM’s estimate is as low as it is at $340,000 – $400,000. I can’t believe I just referred to $400K as a low price on something. But really, who needs a house (or two), when you could take a few laps in this.
More information in the auction catalog – I hope more auction houses follow this practice of releasing their full catalog online.
Drama on the closing lap of the ’67 Italian GP at Monza. Clark set pole and fastest lap, and had a tremendous drive after coming back from a puncture—but he’d end up on the orangeade end of the equation.
Finally. Some proof to back up what many of us have been saying for quite some time. Whether you think the cause is team orders, the air disruption caused by excessive rear wing, the abandoning of mechanical grip in favor of aerodynamic downforce, or any of the dozens of other reasons behind the diminishing state of Formula 1, the answer seems clear. Look at the brilliant chart of overtaking in Formula 1 since 1983 that Brogan presented on Clip the Apex (and I suspect the data would be even more damning if we went further back).
I think we can agree that this is where the interesting bits of racing are, the passing, the maneuvering, the battles. Not in the pits, mind you, but on the track. These are the moments of a race that elevate a race from a pleasant Sunday afternoon’s viewing to legend. The data doesn’t lie, overtaking in Formula 1 has been in absolute free-fall for the past 25 years, and looks likely to continue with the double diffuser.
Head over to Clip the Apex for more analysis and more details on the data used to create the chart. I’m sure you’ll feel the same way I do: both vindicated and bummed out.
The mid-engine revolution was, of course, prompted by Jack Brabham’s 1959 World Championship win at the wheel of a Cooper Formula 1 car. Shortly thereafter Cooper took the 1960 championship winning T53 car to Indy for a test in 1960, entering the race the following year. The Indianapolis 500 community initially shunned the goofy little car, but eventually Indy was running the configuration as well.
What I don’t understand about this is why the rear and mid-engine platform wasn’t adopted more quickly after the war. The Auto Unions certainly showcased the viability of the configuration before the war. Was their dominance so quickly forgotten?
Dr. Porsche’s engineers built upon his design for the Auto Union after the war, working with Cisitalia in 1947 to build a mid-engined Formula 1 car borrowing largely from the basic construction of the Silver Arrows. Their were, of course, some changes. The engine was more powerful, for one. Laurence Pomeroy’s text, The Grand Prix Car, describes in far more detail than I could.
The horizontally opposed twelve-cylinder engine is placed directly behind the driver’s seat and the vertically split light alloy crankcase extends outwards to form the water jackets. Individual cylinder liners in direct contact with the water are inserted and are sealed by light alloy detachable cylinder heads which are cast in one piece for each block. Each head carries two valves at an included angle of 90 degrees which seat direct, the inlet valve having an o.d. of 35 mm. giving a total inlet valve area of 17.9 sq. in. This is slightly greater than the area available on the 1939 3-litre Auto Unions and in accord with a projected output of 500 b.h.p. The valves are opened by two camshafts for each bank through the medium of followers and a single 18 mm. plug is used set well back and with a 6 mm. passage connecting the points to the combustion chamber. The bore and stroke give a piston area of 45.7 sq. in. and the seven-bearing Hirth type crankshaft has the remarkably large diameter of 54 mm., which is nearly equal to the bore itself. Even the gudgeon-pin is 18 mm. diameter, or one-third of the cylinder bore, and although the connecting rods which are one-piece types are conven- tionally proportioned with a length between centres of crank radius x 4 they are absolutely only 4 in. long. In consequence, that section of the rod lying above the big end radii and below the gudgeon-pin fillet is little more than 13⁄4 in. long, giving an exceptionally stiff assembly
Laurence Pomeroy The Grand Prix Car
The suspension did deviate somewhat from the Pre-War Auto Unions. Rather than following up on the swing axles of the Auto Union A-C cars or the de Dion unit of the Auto Union D-Type, the 360 favored independent suspension in a radius arm configuration with a hydraulic damper and torsion bars. Up front was the VW/Porsche type trailing arm independent suspension.
So you see, I just don’t get it: mid-engine, independent suspension all around, 500 horsepower, and this was 1949… Shouldn’t this have made the mid-engine revolution come a decade earlier? Why wasn’t the Cisitalia-Porsche a massive success and powerhouse on the track? I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that it all came down to finances.
The project’s backer plain ran out of funds as the project was finishing. In a scramble for cash, the development team shipped to car to Argentina to try and persuade Juan Perón to help finance the project. But by ’52, the Formula 1 rules had changed and engines displacements were altered, killing the Cisitalia-Porsche 360 before it had any real opportunity to take on the Formula 1 competition. The car participated in a few Formula Libre races in South America before it was shelved.
The project wasn’t a total loss. It did raise enough funds to spring Dr. Porsche from French prison in what was basically a simple ransom. Although Dr. Porsche was held as a war criminal, no charges were ever brought against him and no trial was ever scheduled; there was just the simple matter of his 500,000 Franc bail. Today the car is part of the Porsche Museum’s collection.
What do you think? If the Cisitalia-Porsche had raced alongside Formula 1 competitors in the early 1950’s, would the mid-engine revolution have some sooner?
Look at the enthusiasm of the flag waiver in this shot of Jim Clark winning the 1967 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. I’m sure Jimmy was well pleased to win his 3rd GP of the season, but the flagman here is the real expression of joy in this photo. I’m pretty sure that flagmen aren’t leaping into the air today in their little balcony over the start/finish line.
And don’t you think we should really be reintroducing the laurels to the victors of today’s races? Then again, I suppose that they would cover the sponsor logo patches. Drivers are far more important as walking billboards than they are as athletes or sportsmen. Alas.
The Circuit Bugatti was quite unpopular at the time, but it looks lovely in this footage. It’s also fantastic to see open-wheel cars in the LeMans pits.
Maybe I’m feeling a little nostalgic in the approaching Holiday season. I was about 7 or 8 years old and sitting at the south side of Hart Plaza with my fingers in my ears. If only I’d understood. It wasn’t until years later that punk rock taught me that loud = good. For engines too.
After the race weekend, my dad was able to grab one of those Renault Elf banners you see lining the track. It hung for a couple of years from my ceiling, eventually tearing. It’s near the top of my list of things I wish I’d kept from childhood.
If you can look past the lackluster photography and vacuum of information at all on the sale detail page, this 1939 Maserati 4CL 1500 offers a remarkable story and a beautiful shape. I’m on a bit of a pre-war Italians kick lately, so this Maser jumped right off the screen on Klaus Werner Klassische Automobile’s web site. Like all 4CLs, this straight-4 powered, 4-speed menace was important not only for it’s brutal appearance, but for giving a solid go at fending off the Silver Arrows during their absolute domination in the immediate pre-war period.
This example, chassis 1567, wasn’t just any Maserati 4CL: it’s the first one. British GP Driver Reggie Tongue bought this car, the first complete example, on April 5, 1939, just in time for the International Trophy race at Brooklands a month later. In the 4CL’s race debut, Tongue wrestled the Maser to a 3rd place finish, with Prince Bira winning. Two months later at the Grand Prix de L’albigeois, Tongue did one better, taking 1567 to 2nd place. This time finishing behind fellow Brit Johnnie Wakefield.
Maserati 4CL 1500 Dash
After the war, as was so often the case, 1567 was pulled out of mothballs to take back to the track, this time in the hands of former Delahaye driver, Robert Mazaud. Mazaud re-introduced the car to the racing world at the 1946 Grand Prix de Nice. Unfortunately the car didn’t go the distance, dropping out on lap 22 with a faulty magneto. He had mixed results a few weeks later in the Grand Prix de Marseille, taking pole and winning the first heat, but crashing out on the first lap of heat 2. A 3rd place at I Coupe René le Bègue in June would be his last success with the car. In the following few races, the Maserat DNFed for a variety of reasons; bad steering, bad cylinders. I cannot confirm the chassis number, but it would stand to reason that this 4CL was the car Mazaud was driving when he was killed in the 1946 Prix des 24 Heures du Mans in a crash on the 3rd lap. Mazaud’s popularity was such that in October of ’46, the Bois de Boulogne race was christened “I Coupe Robert Mazaud“.
Can you believe that the seller hasn’t shared any of this amazing story? It’s not only a markedly beautiful car, but this very example shared Brooklands with Bira and Boulogne with Nuvolari. It’s an stunningly beautiful monoposto, and I hope the new owner will continue to race her at vintage events to share her with the rest of us.
Reggie Tongue at the wheel of a Maserati 4CL by Michael Turner
Update: It looks like we’ve mixed up our 4CLs in the immediate post-war. The commenter below informs us that Tongue’s 4CL was sold during the war and the Mazaud record above was with a different Maserati. We’re sorry for the incorrect information in the original post and thank you, Gigleux, for correcting me. I still contend that dealers should share the histories of their cars so it’s not entirely up to racing fans to try and track down this information. Such as the tidbit that The Mestro may have driven this car. This page shows a racing record of Fangio driving 1567 in the Buenos Aires Formula Libre race in January, 1948.
