April 14th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The third Grand Prix at Ardmore in 1956 was headlined by Stirling Moss, then the most brilliant young driver on earth – a 26-year-old Englishman who, six months earlier, had taken his debut world championship Grand Prix victory for Mercedes-Benz at Aintree with his mentor, Juan-Manuel Fangio, following in his wheel tracks. Two months earlier, Moss scored a now legendary victory around Italy in the Mille Miglia. Following the death of Alberto Ascari Moss was, without 
doubt, one of the two best drivers in the world and arguably even better than Fangio in a sports-car.
Stirling in NZ
In 1954 Moss raced a Maserati 250F, and would return to the Italian marque in 1956 following the decision of Mercedes to withdraw from the sport.
It was a 250F that he brought for his first visit to New Zealand, but even before the start of the race he’d already triumphed after taking a Porsche Spyder to victory in the sports-car handicap.
Moss’ grey Maserati started from pole, and by lap 15 had lapped all but the top six cars. Victory looked certain until lap 85, when petrol was being sprayed into the cockpit. He reduced his speed until pitting with just eight laps to run. Overcome with dizziness, he vacated the cockpit as a couple of gallons were splashed in, but in no time set a new lap record as he went on to score the first of his three New Zealand Grand Prix victories. Read the rest of this entry »
January 6th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
On February 22, 1970, at Sandown Park in Melbourne, Graeme Lawrence was crowned Tasman Champion, but it was points he accumulated in New Zealand this month 40 Januarys ago that set him up for the title.
The first New Zealand Grand Prix to feature the fire-breathing, ground-shaking F5000s was run at Pukekohe on January 10, 1970 — round two of the seven race Tasman Cup series, in which four events would be run across consecutive weekends in New Zealand with the balance in Australia in February. Gone were the big name Formula One drivers who had graced New Zealand summers since the ’50s, and in their place came 5.0-litre stock-block, V8-powered cars from North America, Europe and Australia.
The top locals (Jim Palmer and Roly Levis) of recent years had retired, and the best Kiwi prospects were reckoned to be Graham McRae and Graeme Lawrence. They approached the task quite differently — McRae was armed with a F5000 McLaren M10A powered by the ubiquitous 5.0-litre Chev V8, whereas Lawrence had armed himself with the Dino Ferrari in which Chris Amon 
had won the 1969 Tasman Championship. This 2.4-litre, V6-powered F2 car was giving away a heap of power, but had the benefit of reliability and lightness. Lawrence concluded the ‘proven method’ was the way to go for 1970, and proved the theory at the opening round at Levin.
Ferrari versus McLaren
You can do no more than capture the pole, lead every lap and set the fastest time. The best 5000 was fancied Australian Frank Matich (also McLaren M10A-mounted) in third, but the experts figured that whereas the Ferrari was perfectly suited to Levin, the V8s would come into their own at Pukekohe and Wigram. And so they did — Matich won both, while the Ferrari was third in the Grand Prix and Lawrence had his annual dose of bad luck at Wigram with a DNF. McRae won round four at Teretonga, but the Ferrari was fourth, so by the end of January, Matich was on 22 points and Lawrence on 16. It looked probable that one of these would be crowned champion. However, McRae rocketed into contention in the first of the Aussie rounds, winning at Surfers’ Paradise from Kevin Bartlett (2.0-litre Mildren-Waggott), Lawrence and Matich.
Round six was run in torrential conditions at Sydney’s Warwick Farm, where the last thing you needed was a F5000, and Bartlett led home his old mate, Max Stewart, for a Mildren one-two with Lawrence third. Matich scored no points, and so five drivers would go to the final round with a shot at the title — two Kiwis (Lawrence and McRae), two Australians (Matich and Bartlett) and the American Ron Grable, who had been quietly accumulating points in another McLaren M10A.
Read the rest of this entry »
February 8th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
The sound of high-octane opera reverberated around the Feilding circuit yesterday as a machine heralded the greatest Grand Prix car of all time was given its first outing in more than 40 years.
The run by the Southward Collection’s highly-prized Maserati 250F, a car former Formula One competitor and New Zealand motorsport legend Chris Amon raced as a teenager, was a shakedown ahead of its star outing at the February 13-14 New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild.
The cigar-bodied 2.5-litre front-engined single seater, today worth millions, is fresh from a comprehensive from-the-wheels-up refurbishment.
The intent today was simply to blow out any cobwebs, Southward restoration manager John Bellamore explained.
“We just needed a couple of laps to make sure everything is working as it should,” said Mr Bellamore, noting that the car was a blast in every sense.
“The car hasn’t been run for some years and it hasn’t run in anything like full racing condition since the late 1960s.”
Manfeild chief executive Heather Verry says the session was a reminder of why motorsport fans of all ages need to get to the GP and see the car demonstrated on the circuit during next Sunday’s lunch break.
“The Maserati 250F is a landmark machine — it was the best F1 car of the 1950s - and seeing it in the metal and on the move is just amazing. That glorious sound is so special.
“I am deeply impressed that Chris Amon raced it when he was just 17, and that it was just his second racing car.
“That he was immediately impressive in such potent machinery says so much about the level of natural talent he had — and still has.
“Chris will at the GP, of course, and we think he will be delighted to be reunited with a car that has always been very special to him.”
The display opportunity arises from a commitment from the Southward Museum trust to bring stars of their world-class collection back to active condition.
This went a step further last year when the museum demonstrated an equally precious Ferrari Monza 750 sports car. The national and international response to that breakthrough event astounded Southwards.
Ms Verry said it was great Manfeild could play a role in the museum’s new direction, and she deeply admired the restorers’ determination and innovation.
“With the Maserati, as with the Ferrari, this is history in the remaking.”
Bringing the 250F back to full health has been exhaustive and expensive, though the cost is easily dwarfed by the probable value of the last of the great world championship front-engined racers.
Just 26 were built and surviving examples have changed hands in recent years for upwards of $10 million – many times its value when it was retired from racing.
Museum founder Len Southward paid several hundred pounds for the Amon car in the late 1960s in a deal sealed outside a pub.
Amon raced the car in the summer of 1962. The 240kmh monster was just the Scott’s Ferry-born farm boy’s second ‘proper’ racing car, following a 1500cc Cooper. A year later he headed to Europe to enjoy a long and illustrious international career, notably leading the Ferrari team for three seasons in the late 1960s. Amon remains a key figure in New Zealand motorsport, no more so than with the Toyota Racing Series, the high-powered wings and slicks single-seater category contesting next Sunday’s GP.
The Chris Amon Trophy is awarded each year to the overall Toyota Racing Series champion.
The 250F was introduced for the 1954 F1 season and remained on the world scene for the net six years. Between 1954 and 1958 it competed in 46 F1 championship events and won numerous races. It achieved immediate success with period great and five-time world champion Juan Manual Fangio of Argentina. Amon’s car was bought new from the factory by British team BRM as a test bed. It was the only 250F in which the oil tank was located beside the driver, and just one of two with disc brakes. Amon had it for the 1962 summer season, highlights being a victory in an all-New Zealand race at Levin and a fighting 11th place in the NZGP at Ardmore.
“I loved that car. You could steer it on the throttle. I’d grown up reading about guys like Fangio and it was from their era. It was that car that got me to Europe. Reg Parnell (the British team owner who took Amon overseas) saw me drifting it at Wigram and told me later he’d never seen a 250F driven like that since Fangio retired. Everything about the car was special, even the fuel – petrol heavily laced with methanol, with 10 percent acetone, a dollop of benzol and a touch of castor oil. It produced between 220-270bhp, depending on tune. I remember the fuel made excellent paint-stripper,” Amon chuckled in memory. “It was a hugely powerful brew.”
Another with sweet memories of the car is British motorsport figure Stirling Moss.
“It steered beautifully, and inclined towards stable oversteer which one could exploit by balancing it against power and steering in long sustained drifts through corners,” he recalled.
Armchair enthusiasts also think highly of it. Not too long ago readers of a respected British motorsport magazine, Octane, named it the greatest racing car ever. It beat other world-class luminaries as the Auto Union Type C, Lotus 49, Porsche 917, Cobra, Mercedes-Benz W196 and Toyota TS010 Group C.
