October issue of Motor Sport magazine

Passion

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Independence

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Perspective

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Op i n i o n

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authority

Formula 1 | goodwood revival | sports cars | road cars | historics

Roebuck scoop!

Lifting the lid on F1 driver deals Ferrari F12: More than just the fastest ever

By Andrew Frankel

Grand Prix focus: The black art of reviving Lotus

By Adam Cooper

‘They called me de Crasheris…’

Now the ‘Marlboro man’ hits back on 14 years of glorious GP mayhem

‘I was supposed to be a farmer…’

David Brabham: flat out in ‘Batmobiles’ – and tractors

‘My leg was starting to smell like bad meat…’

Racing’s greatest ever comeback? Limp forward mighty Mick Doohan

october 2012

Cover AC Cobra gold.indd 1

£4.99

cobra gold

Goodwoo

Revivald

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The ‘special relationship’: Celebrating 50 years of an Anglo-American icon 15/08/2012 10:45

since 1924 – The original motor racing magazine

Volume 88 Number 10

Contents

In the spirit of WB

Features 46 AC Cobra 289 The Anglo-American hybrid that still captures the hearts of enthusiasts 58 ac cobra: greatest hits Some of the most significant racing Cobras, 50 years after the car’s arrival 69 Goodwood Revival preview The Silver Arrows make their return 70 Private view goodwood special Your own images of Goodwood’s past 76 contracts old and new Roebuck sits down with Whitmarsh to compare F1 contracts past and present 84 Lunch With... David Brabham Jack Brabham’s youngest son on a career spent in F1 and sports cars

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97 Donington Memorabilia The result of a Wheatcroft mishap 98 Lotus in Formula 1 Behind this year’s success, and what it means to be ‘Lotus’ on the GP grid 1 05 Nicolas Minassian... ...samples a Gp C Peugeot and takes us inside the Audi vs Peugeot battle 110 Andrea de Cesaris The Formula 1 veteran puts the record straight on his ‘de Crasheris’ label 118 Road tests Ferrari F12berlinetta, GT-R Track Pack and BMW X6 M50D xDrive

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since 1924 – The original motor racing magazine

Volume 88 Number 10

Contents

In the spirit of Jenks

Favourites 16 The Month in Motor Sport Formula 1’s half term report, and Rossi leaves Ducati for his old team Yamaha

122 Sidetracked The JOTA empire and creating a Le Mans prototype driver in four years

22 Road cars Porsche’s new Martini 918 and it may soon be ‘all change’ for London’s taxis

26 Historic scene 1 Overcoming the logistical problems of the Silverstone Classic meeting

24 Events of the month The Silverstone Classic and

Nürburgring Oldtimer meetings

29 Desirables 1 Get ready for the Goodwood Revival

26 Roebuck’s reflections The importance of keeping a trophy and the increase in drivers’ wages

31 Auctions 1 Records broken during Monterey week 133 Book reviews Mechanic Tony Robinson’s biography

35 Dispatches Spa’s rain can’t stop Audi winning its third 24-hour race in 71 days

135 You were there When Ferrari sent three cars to the Oulton Park Gold Cup in 1968

37 on two wheels Mick Doohan’s great comeback

36 Doug Nye 1 SR3 passenger ride evokes memories of the ‘Radicals of the past’

39 The US Scene The emergence of Hunter-Reay

40 Letters

Chance meeting with Lewis Hamilton

140 parting shot Salvadori and Moss in the 1960 RAC Tourist Trophy at Goodwood

november 2012 issue on sale september 28 10

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Nigel Roebuck

Reflections – Why Fernando Alonso is simply the best – How Alain Prost stoked the wrath of Ron Dennis – Mosport Park one day, Brands Hatch the next – The Rothmans 50,000: good idea, poor execution

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hese days it always surprises me to hear Formula 1 drivers enthusing about the Hungaroring. It is very ‘technical’, they say, and satisfying to get into a flow there.

By contrast, in 1986, the year of the first race, the stars of the time hated it to a man, suggesting it was more ‘Mickey Mouse’ than any permanent circuit they had ever seen. Nelson Piquet’s Williams-Honda won, and also set the fastest lap – at slightly under 100mph.

In truth, it probably wasn’t too surprising that the drivers were underwhelmed by this new track, for their terms of reference were somewhat different from those of today.

From Budapest we drove to Vienna, and on to the Osterreichring for the second half of a double-header. “Good to be back at a proper circuit, isn’t it?” Bernie Ecclestone said to me on the Friday morning, and

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so it was. The following day Teo Fabi’s Benetton, its BMW’s turbo boost off the clock, took pole position with a lap at 160mph-plus.

Changes to the Hungaroring have improved it a little over the years, but still it’s a maximum downforce sort of place, abounding in tight turns and chicanes, and consequently it has spawned a succession of tiresome races, devoid of overtaking. As this year’s Grand Prix showed, even the advent of DRS has made little difference.

In the closing laps Hamilton’s McLaren was under pressure from Räikkönen’s plainly quicker Lotus, but only a mistake was going to lose Lewis the race, and it never came: he was at his best throughout, not least in disciplined use of his tyres, something one would never have said of him not so long ago.

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Hungary heart: Lewis Hamilton heads for his second F1 victory of 2012

A week earlier, at Hockenheim, Hamilton was unlucky to run over debris on the third lap, a puncture killing his race on the spot.

As half-distance approached McLaren folk found themselves in a dilemma, for Jenson Button was chasing Sebastian Vettel for second place, yet the way the pit stops fell Lewis, on new soft Pirellis, was lapping faster than either of them. After his stop, he found himself – on the road – between Vettel and Button, so if he were not to interfere with his team-mate’s race he had either to let Jenson lap him... or get ahead of Vettel. It was no surprise that he chose the latter, and no surprise, either, that Sebastian complained about it afterwards. More to the point, perhaps, was that as soon as Hamilton had outbraked him into the hairpin, Vettel’s

anger was clearly evident in his driving, and so the little mistakes began.

None of this had the slightest effect on the result of the race. Alonso took pole in torrential conditions, a position that would

conspicuously not the fastest car.

On Monday, July 30, the day after Hamilton’s win in Hungary, there began the longest break in the Grand Prix season for many years: four successive weekends without a race. We are at more or less the halfway point, so how do we see the state of play thus far?

Alonso has been better in 2012 than ever before. It amazes me that he should comfortably lead the World Championship in a car that, while much improved, is no match in the dry for several others. If his virtuosity has been plain to see, less on public view is his single-mindedness. He has made hardly a mistake in the 11 races to date, and has scored points in every one of them. Uniquely, he and his team have made the absolute most of what they

have been unthinkable for his Ferrari in the dry, made a perfect start, and then drove 67 faultless laps, in control of the German Grand Prix from first to last. All my life I have loved it when a driver wins a race in

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“Alonso and his team have made the absolute most of what they have”

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50 years of the cobra

A lt e r n at i n g Currents

Arguments over its nationality swing back and forth, but 50 years on, by richard heseltine

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the Cobra, with its Yankee muscle and British breeding, is still too big for one passport

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Cobra highlights

King Cobras It’s become a legend. Fifty years after it bellowed its way onto the race track, the Cobra remains a rampant symbol of automotive powerplay. Crude in concept, unsubtle in delivery and aesthetically a generation behind its peers, the Anglo-American wild child still stirs any blood with four-star in it. But even if it didn’t advance racing technology very far, when a Cobra was racing, everyone was watching.

Here are some of the most significant racing snakes

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by Gordon Cruickshank

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1963

le mans Cobra

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or the Cobra’s Le Mans debut, the works AC roadster was one of two 289s given an extended hardtop in an attempt to persuade the air of the Sarthe to slide smoothly over it. That meant a new shorter bottom-hinged boot and a fuel filler poking through the roof. In the 24-hour enduro Ninian Sanderson and Peter Bolton took 39PH to seventh place and a class win, scoring a Mulsanne max of 167mph – hardly spectacular but it helped diminish the gap to Ferrari’s GTO and the Lightweight Jaguar Es. Team manager was Stirling Moss, and two Ford men spent the race in the AC pit quietly making notes for next year… And naturally after its weekend exercise the rumbling beast was driven home to England.

Thereafter the Willment team turned it from metallic AC green into red with white stripes, installed British saloon

car champion and frequent Cobra wrangler Jack Sears, sorted its handling and began to score.

Throughout ’63 and ’64 Sears and Frank Gardner rattled the GTOs, Jags and Astons, but 39PH’s extensive career peaked with the infamous ‘black flag’ race at Brands in July ’64, when a furious Sears bullied his way back from an unfair penalty stop through a top-ranking GT field to a sensational win and a new GT lap record. By the time it was ousted by Willment’s new coupé, 39PH boasted over 350bhp and many mods, and at Goodwood with Sears at the helm proved it was capable of mixing it with Shelby’s new Daytona coupés. Thankfully not much meddled with in the interim, this legendary racer was returned to ’64 TT form in the 1970s and has since appeared often in the Goodwood Revival TT and other events. It will be a star in this year’s all-Cobra spectacular.

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17/08/2012 10:03

Private View A ‘You Were There’ special There is one place where history and the present day come gracefully together

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oodwood holds a special place in the hearts of British racegoers. It came to life in a grim, rationed 1948 with the explicit intention of continuing the enthusiastic pre-war spirit of Brooklands, the historic track that had not survived the Second World War. For almost two decades the new circuit produced unforgettable racing in a unique atmosphere fostered by its patron the Duke of Richmond, all set in beautiful countryside below the rolling Sussex Downs.

Recapturing that atmosphere has been one of the Revival’s great strengths, so as we approach the 2012 meeting we’ve chosen to feature some readers’ images of the past Goodwood that Lord March’s modern enterprise so faithfully echoes.

Mike Compton has captured some very atmospheric moments in the paddock in the late 1950s, featuring the charismatic Archie Scott Brown in a Connaught and ‘Mr Motor Racing’ Moss collecting the Sussex Mike Compton, Easter 1958.

Trophy in an Aston Martin DBR2. With those white picket fences From top: Stirling Moss in pits and and brown mechanics’ overalls, it could almost be 2012… taking victory in Sussex Trophy in Roger Hoyle’s first visit to Goodwood was when his father took Aston’s DBR2, after a fine battle him to the fateful Easter 1962 meeting. Armed with a folding with Archie Scott Brown’s Lister.

Kodak camera Roger snapped, among other things, the wrecked Mike Hawthorn beams from his Lotus of Stirling Moss. They spectated at St Mary’s and after the 246 Dino. BRM P25 of Jean Behra racing walked to the site of Stirling’s crash. “A rather macabre side waits for flag alongside Hawthorn’s note,” he says, “is that I picked up some of the shattered fibreglass Ferrari. Scott Brown gets a push and a piece of the perspex windscreen from Stirling’s car (14-year-old in his Connaught B-type schoolboys do this sort of thing!) and still have them today.”

By the time of the second meeting he has contributed, Roger had moved on to a 35mm camera and that exciting novelty, a telephoto lens.

Apologising about his earlier simple Kodak, Roger says, “Some shots are rather poor quality, but at least I can say, ‘I was there’.” Which was the whole point of creating our feature in the first place…

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Easter 1957, clockwise from top right: moment of film fame for Ron Flockart in BRM. Moss makes smoke in Vanwall. In ‘toothpaste tube’ Connaught Stuart LewisEvans will take Glover Trophy – after both Vanwalls and both BRMs expire. Archie (next two pics) would spin off in Connaught. John Coombs on Connaught pit counter

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James Mitchell

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e’ve noted before the potency of the motor-racing gene, the father-and-son successions such as the Hills and the Villeneuves, and dynasties from the Unsers to the Andrettis. More rarely, a name can mean not just a family but also a team, or a manufacturer. Then – like the word Brabham – it becomes enshrined for ever in the lexicon of motor racing history.

Jack Brabham, the archetype of the tough Aussie, fought his way from humble beginnings on the dirt tracks of New South Wales to be a triple World Champion. The third of those titles was in a car with his own name on its nose, a unique achievement in Formula 1. His three sons Geoff, Gary and David all became racing drivers too. One of his grandsons, Geoff’s son Matthew, is currently racing in Australian Formula Ford. Meanwhile the Brabham marque, founded as Motor Racing Developments by Jack and Ron Tauranac, became the world’s largest manufacturer of single-seater racing cars. By 1970 it had made more than 500 chassis and won countless races around the world. Later, owned in the 1980s by Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 team won more Grands Prix and World Championships.

David Brabham is Jack’s youngest son, and after 30 years on circuits around the world he is still much in demand as an endurance racer who can bring to a team not only speed but also high intelligence and the racecraft that comes from long experience. He is married to Mike Thackwell’s sister Lisa, and they live the village life with their two sons in Berkshire. We take lunch in a delightful country pub, the Frog at Skirmett, deep in the Hambledon valley.

Professional endurance racers have to be very fit – David has a gym at home and his own trainer – and with the Spa 24 Hours a few days away he confines himself to Caesar salad and sparkling water, followed by a cup of mint tea.

He was born in Wimbledon in 1965, when his father was at the height of his racing career, but he was only five when Jack retired and the family moved back to Australia. “My memories of England, and of Dad’s racing, are very fragmented. My earliest memory is visiting him in a London hospital after he’d had a crash and had some pins put in his legs. But motor racing meant nothing to me. As a kid I was much more interested in football, and back in Australia I was playing quite seriously from age seven.

Dad started up several businesses in the Sydney

Lunch with…

David brabham Jack’s youngest son was supposed to be a farmer.

Instead, he followed the ‘other’ family business and ploughed his own furrow, from F1 to sports cars by s i m o n Taylo r area – aviation, marine, a Ford dealership – and of course he was very well-known. We’d be walking down the street and people would point at him, and in restaurants they’d come up and ask for his autograph. I didn’t understand it, because as far as I was concerned he was just my dad.

“We had a 4500-acre farm on the Murrumbidgee River, sheep and cattle, wheat, barley, oats and flowers. Geoff and Gary were both into racing, but my parents did a pretty good job of isolating me from all that: I was intended for the farm. At 13 I was sent to a boarding school specialising in agriculture. Then in 1982, when I was 17,

I went on holiday to America, and hooked up with Geoff. He’s 13 years older than me, and it was his first year in Indycar, with a Bignotti March. He was going to the race shop to be measured for a seat, and I went along. It was a life-changing moment. There was a guy working on a racing kart. I’d never been in a racing workshop before, and I’d never seen a proper kart. I said, ‘Do people race these things?’ I think they thought I was adopted!

“Of course on the farm I’d been driving tractors and utes since I was a small kid, always flat out and sideways. I had no interest in racing, but I loved driving on the edge, as fast as possible. When I saw that kart I w w w. m oto r s p o r t m ag a z i n e . c o m

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lotus f1

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What’s in a A great deal, according to the men behind the resurrection of the team formerly known as Toleman, Benetton and Renault. Lotus isn’t really Lotus.

But then it’s not supposed to be. Confused? Read on…

By Adam Cooper Red Bull could take comfort from remaining atop the constructors’ table even after a below-par race, with its two drivers leading the chase of Alonso.

Arguably none of those teams was as satisfied as Lotus. A first win of 2012 may have continued to elude the former Benetton and Renault outfit, but both its drivers had taken turns to push Hamilton to the limit all afternoon. Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean settled for second and third at a track where passing is difficult, but the point was made. There are other venues where the black and gold cars can still find a way to win.

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s Formula 1 settled into its voluntary summer shutdown several top teams could draw positives from the result of the Hungarian Grand Prix, and for a variety of reasons.

After a troubled few weeks Lewis Hamilton and McLaren were back on the top step of the podium, while World Championship leader Fernando Alonso was relieved to extend his advantage over closest pursuer Mark Webber by salvaging fifth on a day when Ferrari was off the pace.

17/08/2012 09:55

1980

Alfa Romeo 179

1984

Ligier JS23, JS23B

1988

Rial ARC-01

Best Qualifying: 8th (Montréal) Best Finish: N/A

Best Qualifying: 7th (Monaco) Best Finish: 5th (Kyalami)

Best Qualifying: 12th (Mexico City/Montréal/Detroit/ Paul Ricard/Estoril) Best Finish: 4th (Detroit)

1992 Tyrrell 020B

Best Qualifying: 7th (Adelaide) Best Finish: 4th (Suzuka)

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1981

McLaren M29F, M29C, MP4/1

1985

Ligier JS25

1989

Scuderia Italia-Dallara F189

Best Qualifying: 5th (Dijon) Best Finish: 6th (Imola)

Best Qualifying: 7th (Silverstone) Best Finish: 4th (Monaco)

Best Qualifying: 9th (Montréal/Adelaide) Best Finish: 3rd (Montréal)

1993 Tyrrell 020C, 021

Best Qualifying: 15th (Adelaide) Best Finish: 10th (Monaco)

1982

Alfa Romeo 179D, 182, 182B

1986

Minardi M185B, M186

Best Qualifying: 1st (Long Beach) Best Finish: 3rd (Monaco)

Best Qualifying: 11th (Adelaide) Best Finish: 8th (Mexico City)

1990 Scuderia Italia-Dallara F190

Best Qualifying: 3rd (Phoenix) Best Finish: 10th (Monza)

1994

Jordan 194

Best Qualifying: 14th (Monaco) Best Finish: 4th (Monaco)

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Andrea de Cesaris

1983

Alfa Romeo 183T

1987

Brabham BT56

Best Qualifying: 3rd (Spa/Hockenheim) Best Finish: 2nd (Hockenheim/Kyalami)

The bigger picture

Best Qualifying: 7th (Hockenheim) Best Finish: 3rd (Spa)

Andrea de Cesaris reckons the British press only homed in on the trip-ups in his 14-year, 10-team Formula 1 career. We flew to Rome to let him paint the wider scene

1991

Jordan 191

1994

Sauber C13

B

Best Qualifying: 8th (Monza) Best Finish: 6th (Magny-Cours)

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Best Qualifying: 7th (Hockenheim) Best Finish: 4th (Montréal/Mexico City)

by rob widdows

ig breath. I have to go there. The matter has to be raised. So best get it out of the way, no point pussyfooting around the edges.

So I look him in the eye, this man who retains a rather dubious record for starting the most Grands Prix, 208 to be exact, without a single victory. But he is smiling, I am pleased to see, clearly keen to have his say.

There’s also that rather cruel nickname that has stayed with him for so long. The cappuccinos will just have to wait.

“Yes, the English press, they give me this name de Crasheris when I was at McLaren. Yes, it hurt, but now I don’t care. And I will give you my side of the story,” says Andrea de Cesaris from the edge of his armchair. We are sitting in

a plush hotel, in a smart part of Rome, and he has arrived by motorcycle, dressed in striped shirt, jeans and nicely made leather boots. The designer stubble provides only mild disguise.

“I have new things to tell you,” he says, “things I have not said before. For me, the English press never looked at the whole picture, you know?”

We do know. His 1981 season with McLaren was not a success. He was 21 years old when he signed, a multiple karting champion, a winner in Formula 3 and an F2 front-runner with Ron Dennis’s Project Four team, all of which led to two F1 races with Alfa Romeo at the end of 1980.

He was also a man with Marlboro connections.

His father, a tobacco wholesaler in Rome, had supplied kiosks and introduced his son to Aleardo Buzzi, who signed the Marlboro cheques. He was, in many ways, a hot property. w w w. m oto r s p o r t m ag a z i n e . c o m

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Road

tests

by Andrew Frankel

ferrari f12 berlinetta

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very time Ferrari produces a new 12-cylinder two-seat flagship the motoring media pounces on the opportunity to proclaim it the new Daytona. It was fair enough with the Boxer because it literally was, but none that followed – from the Testarossa past the 512TR, F512M, 550 Maranello to the 575M – ever really held the title with any conviction.

The 365 GTB/4 that become known as the Daytona wasn’t just the next in a line, it was a car on another level from any Ferrari that had gone before. Compared with the 275 GTB/4 that preceded the Daytona, its 4.4-litre motor

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had more than a litre of extra displacement and was capable of pushing the car through the air at 174mph, and that wasn’t a creatively imagined Ferrari 174mph, but an independently timed and verified 174mph. The 275 GTB/4 wouldn’t see 160mph.

It’s a bandwagon I jumped upon back in 2006 when Ferrari launched the 599 GTB, because I saw at last a car that advanced its art to a similar extent as had the Daytona in 1968.

More than 100bhp more powerful than its 575M predecessor, the 599 GTB seemed to be proof that Ferrari had at last made its next, Daytona-sized jump. And I guessed it would be another generation before Ferrari felt either able or inclined to make such a step again.

It’s taken just six years. The F12berlinetta (that’s Ferrari’s house style, not mine) represents the single largest leap forward not just in its 12-cylinder models, but any road car in its history save perhaps the occasional F40/F50/ Enzo series which spends far more time out of production than in. The F12 has 730bhp, an increase of 119bhp over the 599GTB, the largest ever power gain from one model of Ferrari to the next. But the car is also lighter, stiffer and smaller in every direction.

Yet some things have remained the same. Like the 275GTB all those years ago, the F12 still has a normally aspirated V12 engine and it’s still located under the bonnet. Similarly, while its gearbox may have seven gears and be operated

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factfile Engine: 6.3 litres, 12 cylinders, petrol Top Speed: Over 211mph price: £239,736 power: 730bhp at 6400rpm fuel/co2: 18.8mpg, 350g/km www.ferrari.co.uk

Fawn again: new GT-R version will be the centre of attention at track days

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by paddles rather than a gear lever, it’s still found between the rear wheels, just like a 275 or Daytona. And, of course, there’s room inside for just two people. A family Ferrari this is not.

I was wary of it at first, as anyone hoping to take it to the limit and bring it back again in one piece must be when given a single day with the car. What would 730bhp feel like when directed through only the rear wheels of a car weighing just 1630kg? Ultra-powerful rearwheel-drive cars sound like heaven on earth but without the traction to cope they are frustrating at best, dangerous at worst.

Would you be surprised to learn that, so long as the road is straight and smooth, the F12 will take all that power in first gear? Correctly

ew cars are as fawned over by press and public alike as the Nissan GT-R. The latest in a long line of cars originally known as Skylines, it has the appearance, heritage, the bewildering technology and, above all else, the on-paper performance to become a cult hero – an everyman blue-collar superhero quite capable of out-accelerating every Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini ever made.

The latest is this so called ‘Track Pack’ version. For an extra £10,000 it brings wheels lighter by a total of 10kg, stiffer suspension, additional brake cooling ducts and front seats covered in clever cloth that helps prevent you migrating across the cabin under the 1.3g cornering forces it can quite easily generate.

Whether this constitutes value when you can buy an entire Ford Fiesta for less than the Track Pack option I shall leave you to decide.

What I can tell you is that the newly Track Packed GT-R offers one of the most intense driving experiences this side

of an Ariel Atom, but unlike an Atom it also has doors, a roof, wipers, sat-nav and cruise control.

But I still don’t want one.

I know it’s essentially a track day car but no road car can live by circuit alone. So I got up very early one Sunday morning and drove it across some of the best roads Wales has to offer. This car is a true exhibitionist, a stranger to subtlety and nuance. If you’re not driving it as fast as it will go, it’s also completely pointless because the new suspension is so stiff it will make your journey miserable.

Drive it as it insists that you do and it will put on a show you’ll never forget, but you’ll still feel you’re in the audience.

The interaction between car and driver, that vital interface that reassures you that you’re in it together, is missing. And for

factfile Engine: 3.8 litres, six cylinders, petrol Top Speed: 197mph price: £84,450 power: 542bhp at 6400rpm fuel/co2: 24mpg, 275g/km www.nissan.co.uk

all its pulverising performance, this is what this GT-R fails to do.

And you can’t put your kids in the back any more. Because it is so much more useable in a wider range of environments, the standard GT-R (which will still get you to 60mph in under 3sec) is a far smarter choice.

I suspect this narcissistic Nissan will make you the talk of the track day as it blasts past every other car out there – it has the power, grip and braking performance to justify fully its formidable reputation.

But I suspect it will be at its absolute best when being bragged about down the pub by its owner.

And when I think what other two-seat road and track warrior this kind of money can buy, my thoughts turn to the sadly no longer available Porsche 911 GT3 and the way it talks to you through every curve. It’s not how fast you go that really matters, but how you go fast. This Nissan is undoubtedly one of the fastest point-to-point cars the industry has ever created, but by comparison and on this scale, to me it still falls short.

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