The Indy 500 - on the world’s
oldest surviving racetrack
Our sister publication, the Pattaya Mail
this week has reached the epoch making 500th issue, so in honour of
that, we decided to pursue the 500 theme in the regular columns. One
of the most famous 500’s is, of course, the Indy 500, run at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, otherwise known as “The Brickyard”.
In its early days, it certainly was a brickyard, with 3.2 million
bricks being used to build the paved surface necessary to run motor
races; however, most of these were replaced with asphalt in 1961,
leaving just a strip of bricks at the start-finish line. The circuit
was actually first built in 1908 and the first races were held in
1909, but the Indy 500 mile race did not occur until all the bricks
were down in 1911. Since then it has been an annual event, other than
during the war years, but recently the F1 wallahs have been running on
part of the banking and a specially designed new circuit inside the
famous oval, as well as the Indy 500, making it two major events a
year.
The Cooper-J.A.P. 500
After WWII, motor racing began to kick off again in
the UK, but in those days there was not much money around and small
engined race cars, built in back sheds, became the name of the game,
and the original rear engined Coopers had a 500 cc J.A.P. motorcycle
engine installed in them. It was in one of these that Sir Stirling
Moss began his career.
It was a simple, light design using the remains of two Fiat 500s
for front and rear suspension, a J.A.P. speedway engine, a simple
ladder style frame and aluminium body. For largely practical reasons,
the engine was placed in the rear of the car, driving a chain to the
gearbox and a second chain to the rear axle.
Cooper
500
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The Land Speed Record exceeds 500 mph
In 1964, Craig Breedlove and Art Arfons in jet engined record breakers
attacked the Land Speed Record, with Breedlove’s three wheeled Spirit of
America breaking the 500 mph barrier first with 526 mph, to be quickly eclipsed
by Art Arfons in the aptly named “Green Monster” at 536 mph. Neither of
these cars were wheel driven, but were rather planes that didn’t fly!
Art Arfons
Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 was introduced in 1957 and the production run went for 20 years,
with 4 million of the little runabouts being built in that time. The 499cc
engine produced a breathless 18 bhp which gave the diminutive car a top speed of
100 kph. The early examples had ‘suicide’ doors (hinged at the trailing
edge) but this was changed for safety reasons; however, the Giardiniera
‘van’ still retained them till the end. There was also an open model, called
the Jolly and was designed and built by the bodymaker Vignale. The little
buzz-bomb also had drum brakes and a crash (non-synchro) gearbox.
Fiat Jolly
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Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned that historically there have
been many connections between cars and planes, SAAB, Bristol made
both, while even Ferrari had a connection (through the prancing horse
insignia). However, there was also a connection between airships and
cars, with one airship designer also building rear engined cars in the
early ’30s. The designer was a titled gentleman and was British. No
more clues. What was the name of the cars?
The correct answer was the Burney, built by Sir
Dennis Burney, the airship designer.
So to this week, and staying with the 500 theme,
look again at the photo of the Cooper 500. Who is the driver? A clue -
the registration plate on his road car was DAD 10.
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first
correct answer to email automania@chiangmai-mail.com
Good luck!
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FIA to use ‘Spy in the Cockpit’
technology
At the introduction to the media of the new F1
Ferrari challenger, Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn revealed
that the FIA is to introduce a revolutionary ‘spy system’ later
this year in an effort to catch cheats. “At the British Grand Prix,
there will be a series of changes to reduce the usage of Driver
Aids,” he said. “This means that traction control, launch control
and automatic gearboxes will be banned. In order to police these
strategies more effectively,” he continued, “the FIA are
introducing a ‘Spy in the Cockpit’. This will be a monitoring
device inside the car to provide data to detect the usage of these
strategies. We believe it essential we avoid the suspicion and
innuendo that existed prior to the legalisation of these strategies
and we are working together with the FIA to ensure satisfactory
policing in the future.”
Now while that sounds all very fine, the actual
realities will be much harder. The FIA legalised traction and launch
control a couple of years back, because they were unable to find a
foolproof way to police the technology. Indeed, as Ross Brawn
correctly said, there was much innuendo (not an Italian suppository
either) and pit mutterings about who was using launch control and who
was not. Has the FIA managed to come up with the definitive electronic
policeman? I wonder!
There is no doubt in my mind that we, the viewing
public, want to see the drivers get their cars off the line without
stalling and change their own gears. And may the best man win!
There is some discourse in the F1 fans as to
whether the removal of the driver aids will make any difference. Will
we see new faces at the front? I believe you can get an inkling of
what is to come by looking at the performance of the drivers in the
wet. This is a ‘seat of the pants’ situation, and Michael
Schumacher didn’t get given the title of the ‘rainmeister’ for
nothing. MS will still be up there. Another great driver in the rain
is Mark Webber. I watched him way back at Bathurst in a Formula Ford
in the rain - just sensational. That is one reason that I have always
been a Webber fan. Raikkonen is also good in the wet - but I am not so
sure about Coulthard. I believe we shall see Coulthard relegated to
‘Number 2’ status by the year end. Montoya will also out-drive the
junior Schumacher I believe. The answers to this conundrum will be
seen after the British GP when the aids are all turned off!
The Hardie-Ferodo
500
This was a 500 mile race for series production
saloon cars in Australia, held at the Mt. Panorama Bathurst road
circuit. It later became known as the H-F 1000 when Australia went
metric, and now is called the Hardie 1000. Until they restricted the
race and made it V8’s only, it was the most popular motor racing
event down under, but factional in-fighting has seen the popularity
wane as the premier meeting as other Bathurst events have been put
into the calendar. (I raced at Bathurst a couple of times and it was
the most demanding circuit after the old Nurburgring in Germany.)
The manufacturers used the Hardie-Ferodo 500 as a
“Race on Sunday, sell on Monday” promotion, with more and more
powerful models appearing as ‘showroom stock’ vehicles. FoMoCo
even built a Cortina 500 which had twin fuel tanks and all sorts of
good bits to run in this event.
Hardie
Ferodo 500
The Speedway 500’s
The top class in speedway racing motorcycles has
the 500cc engine capacity, and the J.A.P. engines ruled the roost for
many years. I have to admit to the fact that I was (and still am) a
great fan of speedway solos. I have had a few of the great names of
speedway as patients (Ivan Mauger, Phil Crump, John Titman) and was
even in Crump’s crew when he won the Australian title in the mid
70’s and realised a life-long ambition when I rode John Titman’s
world championship speedway bike in the early 80’s. I still believe
that speedway solos are the most exciting form of motorsport to watch,
and incredibly difficult. After my try-out on the speedway solo, John
Titman offered to get me a start in C Grade the following weekend. I
declined. At 41 years of age, I could at last say I had done it -
there was nothing to be gained by tempting fate! Other than perhaps a
broken leg!
Speedway
J.A.P.
Speedway began in Australia in the 1920’s and it
was exported to the world. The bikes are 500cc, run on methanol and
have no brakes! The power to weight ratio is incredible, and riding
one of these jiggers goes down as my all-time most frightening buzz!
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