grand prix
January 17th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
Eighty years have passed since the first Pontiac motor car rolled into the light of day, and the marque has been responsible for some eye-catching machines
There were also some Pontiacs that put up a good fight during the Muscle Car era, continuing through to the oil crisis years with a car that was something of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I have read that Pontiacs were, for many years, considered to be ‘ho-hum’ cars; not something I would agree with, even in regard to some of the earlier models. In that frenetic decade that bristled with the letter ‘f’, the fabulous ’50s, filled with flashy, fantastic, futuristic, flamboyant, fun-filled and finned four-wheeled flyers, Pontiac shone like a beacon in some areas. Toward the end of the decade, into the ’60s and even further, things just got better.
DeLorean
Someone who had more than just a little influence in the path that Pontiac would take was none other than John Z DeLorean, the man who fathered the Pontiac GTO in 1964. It was the GTO that brought about the phrase ‘factory hot rod’, and although the idea of cramming a large displacement, high power engine into a small-ish car was nothing new, DeLorean manipulated General Motors into putting such a combination into production for the masses. It proved to be a winning combination and the GTO, along with many other innovations spearheaded by DeLorean (a man with around 200 patents to his name), took Pontiac to third place in automobile sales, and the marque showed the highest profit (at the time) for GM.
Read the rest of this entry »November 2nd, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
During the 1982 F1 season, 11 different drivers won the 16 races, with the final World Champion, Keke Rosberg, being crowned after winning only one Grand Prix. This was also a season marred by tragedy — the mercurial Gilles Villeneuve and F1 rookie Riccardo Paletti both lost their lives. Didier Pironi, who had been named as the catalyst for Villenueve’s practice session crash, ended his career with a crippling accident.
That year — which witnessed the advent of the turbocharged F1 car and the return of the Super Rat, Niki Lauda — was also controversial off the track as the FOCA-FISA war heated up with the struggle between the turbocharged and normally aspirated teams, and the driver strike at Kyalami over super licences. It was a crucial season for F1. It also marked Hilton’s first F1 season — today he is widely regarded as one of the best F1 historians — and he documents his fledgling season with his usual sense of style and fi nesses. With grid line-ups, results, circuit maps, press cuttings and a series of driver interviews, Hilton covers all the bases in this well-crafted book. The story unfolds with dramatic effect, and any fan of Grand Prix racing will be fascinated by Hilton’s very personal view of a season which would quickly become an annus mirabilis.
1982: The inside Story of the Sensational Grand Prix Season by Christopher Hilton
Review book supplied by Techbooks
Review by James Black
July 15th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
When the F1 engine capacity formula changed in 1961 to 1500cc, only Ferrari was really ready. Its fabulous-looking shark-nose V6s won big time while British teams fought a rear-guard action.
From 1962, though, things were very different. The BRM and Coventry-Climax V8 motors were up and running, Moss had retired after his serious pre-season crash at Goodwood, Chapman introduced the revolutionary Lotus 25, Porsche picked up its only win and the Prancing Horse was a fading force.
Whitelock has written a good book, with over 330 large pages — covering the races, the drivers, the marques and the motors. Despite the initial scepticism of many drivers and enthusiasts, the lap times of the 1500cc F1 cars showed they were not slow even on the very fast open circuits like Reims and Spa: tyre and monocoque chassis technology also led to greatly improved handling.
About a third of the book is devoted to well-written race reports and results (although Bruce McLaren is shown as winning the 1962 Belgian GP when the victor was Clark).
Then come short chapters on the circuits and the top 10 drivers. However, the best part of the book in many ways is the second half, which covers the development of each marque in interesting and comprehensive detail (Emeryson, Gilby and Stebro anyone?). For a book at this price, the absence of colour is a bit of a surprise, though partly offset by liberal use of some very good cutaway drawings.
This is a good effort and well worth considering if you’re at all interested in early ’60s F1.
By Mark Whitelock; ISBN 1-84584-016-X; Review book supplied by the publisher; $180; review by Mark Holman
October 17th, 2007 by NZ Classic Car
Eoin talks to Peter Giddings, who raced this lovely French Grand Prix car at the recent Southern Festival of Speed, and outlines the history of the special car.
Words Eoin Young Photos Terry Marshall
Tony Lago chased the impossible dream of French Grand Prix glory in the post-war years. The long elegant sky-blue Lago-Talbot slung between those tall tyres flirted with the fringes of success, but was generally regarded as being wonderfully glorious in defeat. The photos of ‘Phi-Phi’ étancelin, with his cap on backwards, capture the spirit of those days.
The Lago competed at the Ruapuna, Timaru and Teretonga circuits
Peter Giddings is a quietly spoken international motor sportsman, an ex-pat Englishman with a successful business in the US and now a home in New Zealand, who can afford to indulge in his passion of driving grand old racing cars hard enough to wind back the clock and provide the heroic spectacle and sound of his cars from the golden past. He has owned this Lago-Talbot for the past 30 years.
He raced the blue Lago at the Southern Festival of Speed events during February in the South Island, together with Charles McCabe’s Maserati 250F and Jim Herlinger’s venerable, hot-rod based Chamberlain-Mercury. The Lago competed at the Ruapuna, Timaru and Teretonga circuits, the country road hill climb outside Dunedin, and on the street circuit in Dunedin city. Read the rest of this entry »
