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Discussion starter · #61 ·
It took me some time to spot that the rear wing is the mounting point for the camera support.
The image is a bit blurred on the wing, so I'm guessing that where the support is.
I noticed several occasions of wheel spin, despite the bone dry conditions.....
 
Most American road racers and fans are familiar with the white with red-and-blue wide stripes of the Brumos brand, usually, but not always, with the number 59. Well, like all liveries, there have been exceptions and I found one as I was reading one of Sportscardigest.com's wonderful race reports from the past. In the detailed report on the 1971 12 Hours of Sebring, there was this startling pic:

Wheel Tire Car Land vehicle Vehicle


And as additional proof that this was indeed a Brumos car, the drivers were legendary Brumos mavens Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood.
 
Discussion starter · #66 ·
Looking at the other cars in the race report is car porn.
For the life of me I just don't see the same level of desirability for models of the recent past.
Uli Nowak confirmed to me he is considering re introducing his body kit for the old Revell 914 now that Norev have produced a new version.
OK it doesn't have the opening features of the Revell, but for me the shape around the front of the roof looks a lot better.
Even the decals for this red version, and indeed the white one would not be too difficult.....
 
Most American road racers and fans are familiar with the white with red-and-blue wide stripes of the Brumos brand, usually, but not always, with the number 59. Well, like all liveries, there have been exceptions and I found one as I was reading one of Sportscardigest.com's wonderful race reports from the past. In the detailed report on the 1971 12 Hours of Sebring, there was this startling pic:

And as additional proof that this was indeed a Brumos car, the drivers were legendary Brumos mavens Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood.
I’d buy this.
 
I was checking my alerts tonight and happened back on this thread and reread the reactions to my post about the unusual Brumos 914/6 livery. And I realized that I am a racing elitist. I worship at the altar of F1, IndyCar and high-powered prototypes vying for overall victories, but usually totally ignore the many "lower" classes in multi-class sports car racing. Classic Le Mans races are a perfect example, where I can go on and on with details about the Ferraris and Maseratis and Jaguars and Fords battling at the front while relegating the MGs and CDs and Tojeiros sometimes performing equally amazing efforts at significantly slower speeds to mere rolling chicanes.

For instance, I learned about Max Moritz Racing because of the research I did into my Exoto Porsche 934/935 set of MMRs Jägermeister-sponsored cars. But I almost completely ignored that team's entry into racing was via the Porsche 914/6 - despite the fact that that car was the first racing car to bear the legendary J-meister orange livery (the first pic in that set's history is of that car, as a matter of fact):

Max Moritz Racing 914/6.

So tonight, after I noted Jon's simple statement ("I'd buy this"), I did my due diligence - and started my research. And I realized how little I knew or cared about this car and so many others sharing its more humble origins:

Ferdinand Piëch, legendary Porsche sports R&D head, was in charge of the 914 project, intended to be a joint VW/Porsche effort to create a successor to the two companies' aging product lines. Initially the same chassis would be sold with a four-cylinder engine as a VW model and a six-cylinder as a Porsche, but it was decided that might confuse the U.S. market and reduce sales so both were sold as Porsches.

The prototype 914 debuted March 1, 1968, but the death next month of the VW chairman resulted in the verbal agreement between the two companies of sharing the model falling apart because of the replacement VW head, Kurt Lotz, who had no association with the Porsche dynasty. He saw the joint agreement as favoring Porsche since VW carried all tooling costs and backed out of it, forcing the pricing of the 914 chassis to skyrocket, destroying the foundation of the shared project. That ultimately shortened the production life of the 914 despite significant sales (outselling the 911 worldwide substantially).

From a purely racing point of view, the little car accomplished quite a bit. It was an instant hit with private and small-team racers worldwide and shows up in race results everywhere. For instance, in the 1971 24 Hours of Daytona, 914/6s finished 7th and 8th OVERALL (aided by substantial attrition, true, but still...). And the Brumos 914/6 whose picture I posted above in this thread? It won the new IMSA GTU season title, including winning three of the six races OVERALL against big-engined GTO competition. Now, granted, this was IMSA's first season and the competitor list pales compared to any of the subsequent seasons, but that still is noteworthy.

So HUZZAH to the Porsche 914/6 and the minnows it represents!
 
Discussion starter · #71 ·
I went to your link in relation to the 914 and enjoyed the whole item about Moritz.
I seem to remember that the CSi (FIA) had a falling out with the Le Mans organisers over regulations or similar.
And I think this is why Sebring was excluded, harking back to the Chaparral issue.
As for splitting the series into two categories, those who love blazers and important sounding titles were a source of much frustration at the time.
As late as Bathurst 1987 and 1988, French officials were busy annoying the locals......
 
Actually, Sebring was dropped by the FIA as a Worldsportscar Championship event after failing to comply with an order to upgrade its very primitive facilities as a condition of having that status for the 1972 season. Race promoter and organizer Alec Ulman never had the kind of money we see thrown around for new circuits nowadays and the track - actually still running on part of an active airport - and it surroundings never had the local appeal of a Le Mans or, frankly, most of the other venues hosting road circuits around the U.S.

But when Sebring lost its championship status before the 1973 season, the fledgling International (optimistic to start) Motor Sports Association claimed the 12-Hour race as its feature event and that relationship has lasted almost every year to the present (with occasional reconciliations with the FIA over the years).

The "Chaparral issue" was never an issue with the FIA - it had given a special dispensation to U.S. promotors because of an anticipated shortage of quality competitors for the country's two major WSC events, the Daytona Continental 2000 Kilometers and the 12 Hours of Sebring, to fill out their grids with Group 9 (later renamed Group 7 and now called Can-Am cars, though the Can-Am was still a year away) cars. There was no controversy to them - it was Ferrari who was pissed off because he knew that his new 330 P2s would be no match for the far less-regulated, much lighter and larger-capacity engined sports cars like the new Lol T70 Mk. I, Chaparral 2 and other such cross-pollinated mutants. So, like always, when he didn't get his way, he stayed home (though Ferrari had never sent a factory car to Daytona - probably fearing the banks - and wouldn't until the 1967 massacre.

Actually, Ferrari probably missed an opportunity since most of the Group 9s - developed to run sprint races of 200 miles or so - wouldn't finish either race anyway. Chaparral and Lola didn't show at Daytona but N.A.R.T., Luigi Chinetti Sr.'s American Ferrari racing arm, had three prototypes, a two year-old 275 P and a year-old 330 P along with a new 330 P2 driven by factory driver and reigning F1 World Champion John Surtees and Pedro Rodriguez. Surtees qualified on pole, ahead of the two newly refurbished Shelby American Ford GT40s, but would go out with a broken axle by one-third distance. But Ferrari's fears were almost realized as one of the mutants - Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant's wildly modified All-American Racers Lotus 19J powered by a 5.4-liter Ford, dominated the race for 2/3rds of the distance until its engine died, leaving the win to one of the Fords, with Shelby GT40s and Cobras alternating in the first four spots.

Vehicle Car Tire Wheel White

Dan Gurney in the #44 AAR Lotus 19J-Ford coming up fast on two Shelby American Cobra Daytona Coupes during the 1965 Daytona Continental.

And of course, the 1965 Sebring 12 Hours and the Chaparral performance there are history...
 
Good stuff.
From what I have read, the kinds of fans who turned up for the Sebring 12 hours in those days were not too troubled by the environment.... :)
And that contributed to the problem. Although there were a lot of true motorsports fans at each 12-Hour, the rest of the fans - mostly college kids - seemed to have been imported from the infamous "Bog" of the classic Watkins Glen track. The inadequate crowd control was exacerbated by the virtually nonexistent safety measures, accentuated by the tragedies of the 1966 12 Hours.

In that year's race, Canadian race team Comstock Racing's second of two Sports Class Ford GT40 Mk. Is had just pitted to refuel, change brake pads and do a driver switch to Bob McLean. During McLean's first laps back on the track, his rear brakes locked, forcing him off the track into a ditch from which the car did multiple barrel-rolls before hitting a telephone pole on the passenger side where the fuel cell was located, causing the car to burst into flames before finally coming to rest upside down. A nearby firetruck was ridiculously underequipped and the fire would burn itself out with McLean, possibly still alive, trapped inside.

Tire Car Vehicle Wheel Hood

Comstock Racing Ford FT40 Mk. I of Bob McLean and Jean Ouellet before McLean's accident.

As was typical of the time, the race continued at speed.

Later in the dark, with less than two hours to go in the race, Mario Andretti brought his year-old NART Ferrari 365 P2 into the pits shortly after making his regular stop but this time with front-end damage that had knocked out his headlights. He reported his gearshift lever broke off in his hand, resulting in a mis-shift that caused him to spin and hit a sandbank. When he managed to get the car restarted, he drove back to the pits mostly without lights. When repairs were completed, he started the car but it burst into flames, so was retired on the spot. Andretti would immediately leave the track to fly to Reading, Pennsylvania for a USAC dirt track race the next day.

Car Wheel Vehicle Tire Racing

The N.A.R.T. Ferrari 365 P2 of Pedro Rodriguez and Mario Andretti here at Sebring was the same car the two had driven to 4th place in the earlier Daytona Continental 24-Hours.

Car Tire Land vehicle Wheel Vehicle

The Otto Zipper-prepared and -entered Porsche 906 of Don Wester and Scooter Patrick


However, Andretti hadn't hit only a sandbank. Before the gearshift break, Andretti had passed the 2-liter Porsche 906 of Don Wester (co-driven by Scooter Patrick); when he spun, Wester was forced to an instant decision of how to avoid hitting the Ferrari, but didn't quite clear it and was shoved off-track into a cloud of dirt and knocked unconscious. Wester woke up still in the car in a machine shop where men had to cut the car frame to get him out. He had a broken leg and a large laceration on his lower leg but found out that the out-of-control Porsche had mowed down and killed four young spectators who were illegally in a restricted area by the circuit. Luigi Chinetti, Jr., son of N.A.R.T. owner and principal Luigi Sr., said the Ferrari was "a very tired car. It is coming in for its 25,000-mile checkup”. Obviously not soon enough.

As a result of the carnage, Sebring came under national AND international scrutiny and criticism for a myriad of reasons and it was a miracle the race returned the next year. But major changes to the infrastructure and organization did come and would continue to arrive over the years, though not enough to satisfy the FIA which ran out of patience in 1972.
 

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Discussion starter · #75 ·
Thanks for the update, Jersey.
You certainly know your stuff!
Nevertheless many (most?) circuits during the 1960's were dangerous with little in the way of amenities.
My local circuit (Mondello park) was usually a mud bath on wet days, particularly in the pits area.
Food you brought yourself, and toilets defy suitable language to describe on a family environment.
And then there were the bitter cold winds - even in summer - that swept the wide open and exposed landscape.
It didn't stop me going......
 
Thanks for the update, Jersey.
You certainly know your stuff!
Nevertheless many (most?) circuits during the 1960's were dangerous with little in the way of amenities.
My local circuit (Mondello park) was usually a mud bath on wet days, particularly in the pits area.
Food you brought yourself, and toilets defy suitable language to describe on a family environment.
And then there were the bitter cold winds - even in summer - that swept the wide open and exposed landscape.
It didn't stop me going......
Thank you, slarti - card-carrying fan since the mid-Sixties here.

Absolutely true. For many, those uncontrolled conditions were part of the appeal.

But, having lived through those times, for me, such conditions were why it was almost a regular monthly - and sometime more frequent - event to read in the newspaper or later in the weekly or monthly racing publications about the death or deaths of drivers and, horrifically, sometimes spectators. If you go on YouTube and watch an in-car video at Sebring or Spa or any number of other famed circuits, what you see going by you are telephone poles, buildings, walls, ditches, all right by the racing surface since in many cases those were just public roads close for a few hours each day for 170-mph racers. And the racing mags LOVED posting photos of photogs, marshals, policemen or spectators standing inches away as a car blasts by often not even paying attention to the on-track action.
Tire Wheel Plant Vehicle Car


And if you hadn't already recognized one of the most famous locations in racing (and I know YOU did, slarti!), this is Eau Rouge at Spa during the 1961 Belgian GP.
 
Discussion starter · #77 ·
And if you hadn't already recognized one of the most famous locations in racing (and I know YOU did, slarti!), this is Eau Rouge at Spa during the 1961 Belgian GP.

Indeed I did!
How it has changed, almost beyond recognition.
And the 'sharknose' Ferrari places it as 1961.
And the cars not much larger than a Formula Ford.
 
And if you hadn't already recognized one of the most famous locations in racing (and I know YOU did, slarti!), this is Eau Rouge at Spa during the 1961 Belgian GP.

Indeed I did!
How it has changed, almost beyond recognition.
And the 'sharknose' Ferrari places it as 1961.
And the cars not much larger than a Formula Ford.
You make a great point there, my friend. I have trouble watching historic races in some categories because the cars look like FFs to me too! And with the ones the owners have updated with modern safety measures (roll bars that actually are sized and built to work, body-formed seats, larger mirrors) many of them look oddly deformed.

I don't know how many pictures I remember seeing of 6-foot-3 Dan Gurney in cars (before his AAR-modified cars and Eagles) where the roll bar was literally a paperclip that ended below his helmet and would have been absolutely useless in a rollover even if it had been built to withstand the pressure (which reports indicate many did NOT).

Tire Wheel Car Vehicle White


Dan Gurney in a BRM during the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix, possibly trying to tell his pit about the suspension which would break and put him out. Look at that joke of of rollbar/headrest!

Helmet Tire Car Vehicle Wheel

Gurney in 1964 in his Brabham BT7-Climax, on his way to his second win of the French Grand Prix, both in Rouen. Again, rollbar?


Because of the primitive safety measures in cars of the time and the #1 fear of a driver - being trapped in a burning vehicle - many drivers developed techniques they hoped would help protect them - or at least minimize their chances of being caught. American driver Masten Gregory - the "Kansas City Flash" (I assume whoever came up with that terrible name was also from KC trying to publicize their home town), who many believe was the first top driver to wear glasses full-time - was considered one of the faster pilots on the international circuit and, indeed, was Jim Clark's hero as the Scotsman was coming up through the lower ranks. Gregory, who won three World Championship endurance races (Buenos Aires 100 Km. in 1957, NĂĽrburgring 1000 Km. in 1961 and Le Mans in 1965) and had several factory rides in F1 (including Ferrari and Cooper during its first championship year and winning three F1 Championship podiums), had his own unusual process to avoid fire: when he saw a crash coming, he would stand up in the car - and jump out!

Gregory never was caught in a fire and lived long enough to retire and later die in his sleep of a heart attack. However, injuries which laid him up periodically, some from this "technique", may have contributed to him never having the long-term relationship with any one team that his driving skills deserved (his "terrible" eyesight evidenced by his glasses may have fed into some team managers' biases too).

Smile Photograph White Black Gesture

Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt celebrating their victory in the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans
 
Discussion starter · #79 ·
The pathetic level of safety in the Brabham is in sharp contrast with the simple, clean lines of the car.
OK - you could say they were basically designed after the shape of a cigar, I suppose that was the biggest thing to test in an available wind tunnel of the time!
As for 'poor' eyesight, how many very fast and successful drivers had a lazy eye?
 
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