1974 Gulf Mirage GR7-Ford Cosworth DFV

Stuart Hall, 1974 Gulf Mirage GR7, Dix Mille Tours, Paul Ricard 2017

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JW Automotive Engineering, Slough, England. Mirage was the name of the occasionally successful line of sports racing cars that JWAE produced from 1967 to 1982. The GR7 was an update of the M6 that had been quite successful during the 1973 season including a win the Spa 1000kms.   Four out of five M6s were rebuilt as the GR7 - the GR standing for Gulf Racing who provided the sponsorship.  The updates included reducing the weight by using titanium for some parts and improving the aerodynamics by moving the wing further back and lengthening the nose.  The chassis was a strengthened aluminium monocoque, the body was fibreglass reinforced polyester and the engine was a 3 litre V8 Cosworth Ford DFV.  First time out was at the 1974 Le Mans test where they proved slower than the main competition which was Matra-Simca and Alfa Romeo.   First race was the Monza 1000kms where Derek Bell and Mike Hailwood finished fourth.  They improved on this at the Spa 1000kms where they finished second with the same drivers. At Le Mans the car lasted the 24 hours and finished fourth with Bell and Hailwood again.  A series of other third and fourth places meant that Gulf Mirage finished second in the World Championship for Makes to Matra but berating Porsche and Alfa Romeo. In 1975 The GR7 was campaigned by the Gelo Racing Team of Georg Loos.  Best result was second in the Nurburgring 1000kms driven by Howden Ganley and Tim Schenken.

1931 Sentinel Steam Bus DG6P "Elizabeth"

Sentinel Steam Bus "Elizabeth" in service in Whitby in June 2010.

Sentinel Waggon Works, Shrewsbury, England.  Sentinel was a producer of steam vehicles from 1906 until the fifties.  Elizabeth was built in 1931 in the Shrewsbury factory of Sentinel as a Super-Sentinel flatbed lorry No.8590.  She is powered by a 2 cylinder double acting steam engine driving the rear wheels through a 2 speed gearbox and chain drive.   There is a coal powered vertical boiler in the cab.  It is rather exciting to see the flames rising in the cab as the bus goes along the road.  After nearly been scrapped in the sixties, she was converted into a steam bus and eventually authorised to carry fare paying passengers.  From 2006 to 2014 Elizabeth operated a steam service in Whitby, Yorkshire.   She has been moved to Weston-super-Mare in Southern England in 2015 where she has been rebuilt and refurbished.  She was recently introduced to the public again.  Long may she continue giving rides as the only steam powered bus in Europe to transport fare paying passengers.  She carries up to 30 passengers.  If you want a ride visit the web site of Crosville Motor Services the operator.

1970 Ferrari 512M

1970 Ferrari 512M, Dix Mille Tours du Castellet, Paul Ricard 1970.

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Ferrari, Maranello, Italy.   With the initial 512S proving to have rather disappointing reliabilty and results against the Porsche 917, a modified version was produced in late 1970.  This was the Ferrari 512M, the M standing for Modificata.  The 512M featured a less rounded shape with improved aerodynamics and all had a closed coupé body style.  The 512Ms were converted from the 512Ss.  These modification first appeared at the 1970 Zeltweg 1000kms on a works car driven by Jacky Ickx and Ignazio Giunti, but it did not finish.  In the next race at Kyalami in the 9 hour race, the same car and drivers won but it was not part of the World Championship.  For 1971 the Ferrari works team concentrated on the 3 litre prototype 312PB and dd not enter the 512M except in an Interserie race at Imola that it won..  However, the privateers who owned many of the 512Ms continued the fight.  Importantly one of these privateers was none other than Roger Penske.   He rebuilt the car from bottom up and produced the best 512M that anyone had.  However, even that car did not prove a winner and it only achieved a third at Daytona and sixth place at Sebring.    The yellow car, pictured, is in the colours of Escuderia Montjuich.  That car's greatest achievement was coming an amazing second in the Tour de France.  Other privateers did achieve 3rd and 4th places at the Le Mans 24 hours and a few wins in minor non-championship races.  Thus, a lovely car but not a 917 beater.

For more about the Ferrari 512S, click here.

1970 Ferrari 512S

1970 Ferrari 512S, Dix Mille Tours, Paul Ricard 2017.

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Ferrari, Maranello, Italy.  Ferrari built twenty five 512S sports cars to compete with the Porsche 917 in the 5 litre Group 5 class of the 1970 World Championship of Makes.  Ferrari had had to wait for Fiat funds and was behind Porsche in development at the start of the 1970 season. The car was powered by a 5 litre Ferrari V12 engine but was heavier than Porsche's 917.  On its debut at the 1970 Daytona 24 hrs, the lead car driven by Andretti, Merzario and Ickx finished third.  Then at the next race at Sebring the car scored a famous win when Andretti took over the Giunti / Vaccarella car and beat the Steve McQueen Porsche 908.  Unfortunately that was as good as it got.  A second place at Monza and Spa and third places at Monza, Targa Florio, Nurburgring and Watkins Glen rounded the season off.  By the end of the season many had been converted to 512M spec but it wasn't much more successful.  In 1971 a NART 512S took runner-up spot in the Daytona 24 hours.   The Ferrari 512 will go down in history as the car that made the Porsche 917 look so great.   917 drivers such as Rodriguez, Oliver and Bell also drover the 512S on occasion.   John Surtees, making a return to Ferrari for the first time since 1966 also drove them with success and Amon who had left Ferrari for the March GP team also drove them.

For more about the Ferrari 512M, click here.

1974 Alfa Romeo 33 TT 12

Derek Bell, Alfa Romeo 33 TT12, Paul Ricard 2017, Dix Mille Tours.

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Alfa Romeo / Autodelta, Milan, Italy.  This car was the fifth evolution of the Alfa Romeo 33 that Autodelta produced for the the World Championship for Sports Cars.   It first appeared in 1973.  The TT stood for Telaio Tubolare or Tubular Chassis that was made of a lightweight alloy.  The 12 stood for the new 12 cylinder 3 litre flat 12 engine that produced 500bhp. The body was fibreglass.  In 1973 the car was unreliable and the best result was a second position for Rolf Stommelen in the 500km of Imola.  In 1974 the team took a 1-2 victory at the Monza 1000kms with Merzario and Andretti in the lead car and achieved second place in the championship.  In 1975 the car was dominant and Alfa Romeo won the World Championship for Makes with the Willy Kauhsen Racing Team.  The drivers that helped them win included Merzario, Laffite, Pescarolo, Bell, Mass, Vaccarella and Brambilla.  They did not take part in the  Le Mans 24 hours as it was not part of the championship as it had special fuel consumption rules.   However, its dominant seven consecutive endurance victories in 1975 makes it perhaps the most successful Alfa Romeo sports cars ever.  Victories for Derek Bell, seen above in the car, included the 1000kms of Spa, 1000kms of Zeltweg, Watkins Glen 6 hours and an interseries race at Kassel-Calden, all in 1975.

1975/6 Cheetah G601 - 2 litre sports car

Beat Eggimann racing a Cheetah G601 in the Dix Mille tours du Castellet 2017.  It came sixth.

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Cheetah Automobiles, Lausanne, Switzerland.  Chuck Graemiger, a Swiss-American racing driver, founded Cheetah, an occasional manufacturer of sports racing cars from the early seventies to the early nineties. He also designed the cars.  The G601 followed on from the G501 and was a 2 litre sports car powered by Cosworth or BMW engines.  It raced in the Le Mans 24 hours from 1976 to 1979 but was never classified as a finisher.   The colours of the car pictured correspond to the Walter Wolf Racing car that entered but did not qualify at the 1980 Le mans.  They also competed in other sports car races but without great success.  Later the same company produced Group C cars, click here for details.

1968 Howmet TX

Xavier Micheron driving the Howmet TX at Paul Ricard in the Dix Mille Tours meeting 2017

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Howmet / McKee, USA.  The Howmet TX was the brainchild of racing driver Ray Heppenstall.  TX stood for Turbine Experimental as the car was powered by a helicopter's gas turbine jet engine. Heppenstall convinced Howmet Corporation, who produced aluminium parts for gas turbines, that the car  could be a winner and a good marketing tool. The chassis was made by McKee Engineering who previously had made some Can-Am cars.  Thus the car was in effect a McKee Mk9.   The original engine was a Continental TS525-1 gas turbine that had been designed for a helicopter program but never used.  The engines were leased from Continental Aviation and Engineering and returned after the racing program ended.  Thus restored Howmet TX tend to use Allison helicopter engines although one still has a Continental engine.  The original Continental engine were classified by the FIA as equivalent to just under 3 litres and thus the Howmet ran in the Group 6 under 3 litre prototype class. The car raced in the major World Championship endurance races of 1968 including the Daytona 24 hours, 12 hours of Sebring, BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch, Watkins Glen 6 hours and finally the Le Mans 24 hours.   In many of these races it did not finish but it did finish third at Watkins Glen in the hands of Dick Thompson and Ray Heppenstall.  It also raced in shorter sprint races at Oulton Park and in the SCCA series in the USA.  In June 1968 Ray Heppenstall took the Howmet's first win at an SCCA race at Huntsville.  Thompson also took a SCCA win at Marlboro. The Howmet is the only Gas Turbine powered car to have won races.  Another driver in period was British airline pilot Hugh Dibley.   In 1970 the Howmet took a few FIA speed records and then the program ended. Two cars were built in period and a third car built in 2000 using a spare chassis.  In recent years the cars have appeared at the major Historic events in the US and Europe.

Leading a Chevron B16 at Paul Ricard.

The rear three-quarter view of the Howmet TX in the Paul Ricard paddock.