There is still nothing like the excitement to the build up to a Grand Prix start. If it doesn’t make the hairs on your neck stand up, you are not human

As the F1 teams start testing for 2012, it is a quick reminder that there is nothing like the tension that you experience in the build up to a Grand Prix – or a Formula Ford race. Any race in fact. This video, made by Elf in 1985 captures it brilliantly.

There are rituals, superstitions, drivers who smile and chat, drivers who want to be left alone and focus. They all have routines.

Let’s face it, so do we as spectators. The 30 minutes before a race start is adrenalin fuelled, even for us. The out lap when they first pass you before settling on the grid. Some drivers get out of their cars, a few don’t, happy to be strapped in and keep the outside world away.

Times have changed, TV demands interviews on the grid today. Back then, drivers would prepare their own helmets. One thing hasn’t changed though, every detail is checked over and over before the cars set out for the grid. Maybe it is more intense today, but attention to detail has always been key to winning. The teams prepare the tyre guns for the pit stops over and over, they make sure the hoses are not tangled. They make sure the engines are up to temperature.

Once the cars are on the grid, the racers will take a ‘toilet’ break. They take on a lot of fluids pre-race, as they will lose a load during the race. For the mechanics, there is little more they can do now, apart from shield their drivers from the sun (or rain). The only adjustments may be to the mirrors – maybe that’s just a nervous thing to keep the guys occupied?

Then it’s what I call the ‘Gladiator moment’. Balaclava on, helmet on, into car (usually right foot first, seemingly a superstition that no-one can explain.) The belts are done up and tightened. Then the driver will make them tighter. The grid girls, TV crews, journalists, photographers and celebrities leave the startline, it is now driver and car all alone.

The warm-up lap, belts made even tighter so the driver is drilled tight into the cockpit. Radio check, then time to clear the mind, and focus on the first corner.

Park up in the grid spot. Visor down, and forget the millions of people watching around the world. It’s only a race car isn’t it?

And…. Go.

Thanks to Elf, and everyone who has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in the 30 minutes before a race start. That’s why we are here, isn’t it?

By Andy Hallbery follow me on Twitter @hallbean

Follow @MotorSportRetro on Twitter

Images: TheCahierArchive©

Buy prints of these photographs from just $49

Video: Anatomy of the Grand Prix build up is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

From the utterly bonkers Group B monsters to the pluck of the Mini, rally has seen some of motorsport’s most exciting cars. Often driven through some of the sports most spectacular moments.

This WRC-produced program takes a three part cruise through rally’s history, stopping in to check out its greatest cars.

So, what’s on your list of rally’s greatest cars? Are there any gems that they missed?

Video Documentary: WRC – The Greatest Rally Cars is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Retromobile produced yet another outstanding show in 2012, with an estimated 90 000 people through the doors for the 37th running of the event.

Enjoy these photos and videos from just a few of the 350 exhibitors at this classic French event

Images: monsieur_burns , Manuel F Picaud

Videos + Photos: Retromobile 2012 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

This lovely ex-Chris Amon Matra MS120 is for sale through Art & Revs Luxembourg.

It debuted in 1971 with a victory in the non-championship round in Argentina, finishing ahead of Henri Pescarolo and Carlos Reutemann over the aggregated two-heat event. Amon campaigned the car throughout the ’71 Formula One season, achieving the car’s best finish of third in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The car was upgraded for the start of the ’72 season and used until Brands Hatch, where Amon guided it to fourth place.

Since retiring from Formula One competition the car has run successfully in historic racing, winning its category at the Monaco Grand Prix Historique in 2008. It has received a full rebuild and is currently the only MS120 race-ready with original specifications.

It’s also a wonderful opportunity to take control of that awe-inspiring Matra howl!

Hit this link to Art & Revs’ website or get in contact with them for more info

Photos via Art & Revs

For Sale: 1971 Matra F1 MS120 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Open Day to Celebrate the Ford GTHO Phase IV Prototype’s.

The team at Bowden’s Own Car Care are running an open day tour of their impressive collection, this coming February 26th to celebrate 40 years of the Phase IV Falcon

It was back in December 1973 that Australian car collector David Bowden first acquired one of the corner stone’s for his famous car collection; the now infamous Ford GTHO Phase IV Race Prototype. After owning a succession of GTHO Phase III’s, he was to find that this Bathurst ready “super car” was a vastly different and more refined beast than any he HO he had driven before.  It was a love affair that has lasted almost four decades as he helped slowly piece together the now fabled story of the three unique Phase IV “Super Car” prototypes.

These cars have become icons for those into Aussie muscle cars and for Bowden it was the start of his car collection, giving him the foresight that was needed to save and preserve the many iconic  Australian racing beasts that now form a part of his extended family in the shed.

So this February, the first collection “Open Day” will be a special event celebrating the reclusive Phase IV’s, and a coming together of the former owners of the three race prototypes, including rally legend Bruce “Hoddo” Hodgson, the only man who drove one in anger, in the Australian Rally Championship. Bruce got his car direct from the Ford racing team boss Howard Marsden, and entered it in the Australian Rally Championship, coming a gallant 6th place that first year. He was to later to sell his car, where it was tragically written off in a road accident after surviving for years unscathed in rallying through the unforgiving forestry trails.

How to get on the entry list?

The Bowden’s Own Open Day is strictly by invite only. The free invitations are available inside two of their famous car care kits, the Super Size or Mother Bucket kit, both brimming full of the highest quality products, personally hand crafted by leading Australian chemists to care for the Bowden’s own cars many years ago. Each kit has a registration form for one person and their spouse/ partner/ son/ daughter to attend the full day tour.

History of the Ford Falcon Phase IV Race Prototype

The Phase IV story is the most celebrated story in GTHO folklore.

In 1972 the new XA GT model had been released and a GTHO model was needed to take over from the XY GTHO on the race track. Three XA’s were sent to Howard Marsden and his team at Ford Special Vehicles, Fords internal race division. These were to become new factory race cars. Four of these cars were built, one road car and three race cars. The car in our collection is one of those racers.

The racing rules at that time dictated that 200 standard Phase IV’s had to be produced before a race car could be eligible. Therefore all parts on the racing Phase IV had to be fitted to the standard road going versions. Those rules were to be the death of these mighty machines. In mid ’72 the media hit on a story of these 160 mph ‘Super Cars’ that were about to hit our streets. They gave the impression that these cars were going to be too dangerous for the general public to drive. This was the start of mass hysteria that eventually led to the government stepping in and demanding that all production cease of these road going race cars. The Phase IV project was axed and the cars were ushered out the back door to selected owners in Australia.

Our GTHO was shipped to Queensland rally driver Keith Goodall. It was the only car of the three racers that was completed; it had been tested at Calder, and was all ready to be handed to Fords top driver Allan Moffat. Having talked to Keith recently he was able to give me some insights into his ownership of the Ford racer. Keith raced a GTHO Phase I quite successfully, both at the circuit and on the dirt. He was approached by Howard Marsden during part of the Dulux Rally at Hume Weir and asked if he wanted to get one of the new Phase IV GTHO’s they were developing. Keith had never heard of the new car and asked how much it would cost, “around 2500 dollars” Howard replied. Keith was very interested, it seemed about time to replace the Phase I and the price was right.

Over the next few months Keith rang Howard to get information on the new cars progress. With every call the cars price seemed to be increasing. Howard told him that the factory race team would be attending an upcoming meet at Surfers Paradise raceway, so he travelled there with a bank cheque in hand for $3,500. This was presented to Howard ensuring he received one of the Phase IV GTHO’s. Once again some time passed, then out of the blue he received a phone call telling him to pick up the car immediately from Ford Special Vehicles. Unable to get to Melbourne on such short notice, he had his brother collect the car and organise it onto a boat bound for Townsville, Qld.

Once the car arrived in Townsville Keith was amazed at what he had been sent, a fully prepared race car all sign-written for none other than Allan Moffat! He had read all about the Super Cars and the pressure put on the manufacturers to stop building these machines, so it didn’t take long to put two and two together, and realise what he had in his hands! The HO didn’t come with a drivers manual (funnily enough) and there was a bit of trouble getting the beastie started inside the boat. After about a quarter of an hour they found the kill switch on the side of the console! They flicked it up and she burst into life. For those who have heard what a red-hot Cleveland sounds like, imagine it with a straight through exhaust in the bowels of a cargo boat!! It put the wind up everyone on board including it’s new, now somewhat shaken, owner. With it being a bit too raucous to drive on public roads, he trailered it back to his workshop just outside Townsville and wondered what to do next. Keith crawled all over the car and noticed the numerous modifications that had been made to it. Realising that it was too special for a race car he decided to make use of it as a road car. In order to have it road registered, a standard GT exhaust that came with the car was fitted. This entailed the removal of the panhard rod so the exhaust pipes could get past the differential. The suspension was also raised two inches, (North Qld roads weren’t the best back in ’72) these were the only modifications he made to the car.

Being a racer, Keith wanted to know exactly what this new HO was capable of. He took it on a number of long distance trips and found that it was a magnificently balanced piece of gear on the open road as well as through the twisty stuff. Its only short coming was driving around town, where the combination of a tall diff ratio, (3.00:1) close ratio gearbox and race spec engine made it almost undrivable. And how fast was it on those long country roads? Without giving too much damning evidence, both Keith and David Bowden agreed with Ford Special Vehicles foreman John Wynne, in that the race version was capable of an easy 175 MPH. The car was on the Ford display at the Townsville show and this is where next owner David Bowden first saw it. He just had to have the car, and eventually bought a property from Keith that included the Phase IV as part of the deal. David lived on a property some distance outside Townsville and used the car as quick transport between the city and home. He knew what the car was and was very reluctant to make any changes to it.

David has owned the car on and off throughout the last 30 odd years finally getting it back in 1999. He has now put the famous HO back to how it went out the back door of Ford Special Vehicles in late 1972. It now shares its deserved place in Bowden’s shed next to some famous brethren; the factory GTHO race Phase 1,2,3 and Group C Phase 3 which was built to race when the Phase IV project was abandoned.

Full details of the next Bowden’s Own Open Day can be found on their website by hitting this link . Likewise, you can see just a few of the iconic Australian race and road cars in their collection here.

Images: BowdensOwn.com.au

Celebrating 40 years of Ford Autralia’s “Super Car” GTHO Phase IV is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Check out this shocking vision of George Miedecke plummeting into a river during last month’s Targa Wrest Point Rally.

Driving a Ford Capri Perana, Miedecke and co-driver Daniel Willson missed a corner and ploughed into Tasmania’s Huon River.

Miedecke’s crash followed that of Ralph Norton’s Subaru only moments earlier.

According to his Facebook page Miedecke’s car left the road at around 140kmh before plunging  eight meters into the river.

Co-driver Daniel Willson was taken to hospital with a  suspected fractured vertebrae, whilst Miedecke escaped with minor bruising.

Crash Video: Miedecke’s Ford Capri plunges into river is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Super Bowl commercials have become an institution; rivalling the popularity of the match itself and lighting up social media with passionate conversations world-wide. Yesterday’s game reached a record audience of 111.3 million people and Fiat took the opportunity to chat to each of them about the allure of its storied motorsport history with the Abarth brand in this captivating advertisement.

Fiat bought Abarth in the early ‘70s, turning it into their racing department under the watchful eye of Aurelio Lampredi and producing fever machines like the Fiat 131 Abarth. They brought the brand back into prominence a few years ago, capturing the essence of their sporting and racing heritage and producing some lovely little drivers’ cars.

Take a minute, and enjoy the ad!

Image via Abarth

Video: Seduced by Abarth is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

It has taken 30 months to complete, but Jim Richards says the Shannons 1972 AMC Javelin sedan he will debut at Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 opening round of 2012 Touring Car Masters on March 4 is the finest racing car he has ever built.

As an ardent admirer of Penske Racing and champion American driver Mark Donohue, who together dominated Trans Am racing with Javelins in the early 1970s, the distinctively styled AMC ‘Pony Car’ was Richards’ first choice as a potential successor to his very successful Shannons Falcon Sprint

“We wanted something different that would interest spectators, but would also be in the Shannons mould,” said Richards. “The Javelin ticked all the boxes.”

As only 178 Javelins were sold in Australia by then-distributors AMI, Richards began his search in mid-2008 by looking at US cars on the Internet.

“However it turned out that the uncle of one of my team members was an enthusiast with four or five of them and I picked this car up almost around the corner in North Melbourne!” he said.”

The exhaustive process of turning the former road car into a TCM front runner began mid-2009 and involved stripping the Javelin of every nut and bolt and then rebuilding it methodically to the TCM regulations, employing proven racecar technology.

Richards said the project had taken him and former Gibson Motorsport Crew Chief Bruce Tyson some time to complete because his small team had been focussed on getting the most out of the Shannons Falcon Sprint, which rewarded them when Richards became the 2010 Touring Car Masters champion.

“We believe it has been worth taking our time,” said Richards after the car’s first shakedown at Melbourne’s Calder Raceway. “The Javelin is a step up from the Falcon in every way and all the lessons we have learned from four decades of racing touring cars have gone into it.”

To comply with TCM regulations, the Shannons Javelin runs a 360-ci AMC V8 producing “in excess of 600HP” and weighs a mandatory 1,580kg, plus an additional seeded driver penalty of 30kg.

This will make it 180kg heavier, but more powerful than the 289-ci V8-engined Falcon Sprint and on par with its Mustang and Camaro TCM rivals.

“Being more aerodynamic, wider and with a slightly better brake package, it should also handle and stop a little better than the Sprint, but we can’t guarantee that it will be faster out of the blocks. We’ll have to wait until Clipsal for that!”, said Richards.

Shannons National Sales Manager Paul Gates said interest in Richards’ new Javelin by Australian enthusiasts had been “phenomenal”.

“I have never known the arrival of a new racing car to be so eagerly anticipated,” he said. “Its debut at Clipsal will be huge!”

Touring Car Masters: Jim Richards new AMC Javelin is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Throw anything that life could at him, but Clay Regazzoni still raced whatever he could get his hands on. Even after he was paralysed.

Clay Regazzoni is one of those drivers that seemingly would have fitted in any racing decade from the 1950s onwards.

You can picture the suave-acting, stereotype racer, as he battled with Mike Hawthorn or Sir Stirling Moss, or Jim Clark – and especially Graham Hill – just as well as he fitted in with his personal era in Formula 1 in the 1970s. They were gentlemen all.

In true swash-buckling style of racers in the 1960s and 70s, Clay tried his hand at all sorts. Name any classic event, and he had a go! In 1970, his first year in F1 (making his debut in a Ferrari, something which only a handful of drivers have done), he also shared a Ferrari F12S at Le Mans for the 24 Hours with Arturo Mezario. The car barely made darkness, but he remained racing sportscars for Ferrari, taking second place at Brands Hatch in 1000kms with Jacky Ickx. The pair also won at Monza’s 1000km too – a circuit that, with racing banned in Switzerland, became Reggazoni’s spiritual home.

It’s F1 that most people associate him with though, a career that started in 1970 with a win in his debut season at (where else?) Monza, and sadly ended in 1980 with a very nasty crash at Long Beach that left him paralysed from the waist down.

In between the bookends, he drove for Ferrari, twice, BRM, Ensign, twice, Shadow and Williams. A line graph of his career looks more like a map of a Tour de France mountain stage, as erratic as it was with peaks and troughs throughout his 10 years.

The 1974 championship was the one where Clay came closest to winning the world title. A season-long battle between him, his Ferrari teammate Niki Lauda, McLaren’s Emerson Fittipaldi, and Tyrrell’s Jody Scheckter went to North America for the final two races all four of them with a good chance of winning the title. The Canadian GP at Mosport put paid to Lauda’s chances when he spun out, leaving Reggazoni and Fittipaldi tied on points in the lead, and Scheckter in the running, but needing a huge dose of luck at the final round at Watkins Glen in the American Grand Prix.

The South African qualified sixth, Fittipaldi eighth, and Regazzoni ninth after all three suffered problems. In the end the race was a damp squip. Regazzoni had suspension problems that sent him slipping away to what would be an eventual 11th place, Scheckter retired eight laps from the finish with a fuel pump/pipe problem. The title was Fittipaldi’s.

After that season, ‘Regga’ won once in 1975 – at Monza again to delight the tifosi, but by then Ferrari was Niki Lauda’s team. His final Ferrari win came at Long Beach in 1976.

For 1977 he joined Ensign, and in 1978 moved to Shadow. His best championship position in that time was 16^th, far from the heady Ferrari days.

Clay moved again in 1979 as Williams expanded to two-cars. The team had yet to win a race, so it looked as though his F1 downward career spiral may continue, and let’s face it Clay was 39 years old by then.

It couldn’t have been further from the truth. Frank Williams had funding, Patrick Head designed a simple and competitive car in the FW07. Against all the odds, it was not Alan Jones that won the team’s first Grand Prix, it was Clay, at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix – a fact even he found hard to believe.

“I haven’t deserved anything,” he said after the race. “It’s the car you have to congratulate, the designer Patrick Head who drew it, and Frank Williams who runs it… it’s the car, not me.”

Humble as the Swiss driver may have been, after his career with Ferrari, there was one moment during the racing at Silverstone that brought a smile to his face. The world championship leader, and one of Clay’s title rivals Jody Scheckter in 1974, was on his way to the 1979 world championship. “I was surprised to see a Ferrari in front of me as I led, but when I lapped him coming out of Copse, I thought of the Commendatore [Enzo Ferrari] down in Maranello, watching on TV…”

The British GP win was Williams’ first, and Clay’s final. But he wasn’t about to stop yet.

For 1980, he returned to Ensign. Hopes weren’t high, but Clay was racing and that’s all that mattered. By round four progress was being made, but perhaps in one of the ultimate ironies, he started that race on the final row of the grid. In last place was the guy he fought for the 1974 title – Emerson Fittipaldi. Who would ever have thought that these two would be the last two qualifiers?

Regazzoni’s pace was quick, and within 16 laps, he was up to ninth place. By lap 50 he was an amazing fourth, with Emerson in his wheel tracks in fifth. That’s when it all went wrong. At around 175mph at the end of Shoreline drive, he suffered brake failure. He tried his best to slow down by aiming at Ricardo Zunino’s abandoned Brabham. It scrubbed off 25mph, but the final impact with the wall was still huge. Emerson, was shocked – as was anyone who saw it.

“I was behind him and saw he lost his brakes,” remembers Fittipaldi. “I could see he was trying to spin the car to slow it down, but at that speed, there was nothing he could do.

“When I turned into the hairpin,” the Brazilian added, “I lost sight of him, but I heard an enormous crash.”

As the rescue workers attended to the injured Regazzoni, the race continued. Not many drivers would admit to the next comment Emerson made. “The crash really affected me for a couple of laps,” he said. “It was dreadful, my legs were trembling, and I don’t think John Watson who was behind me could either. He slowed down as well.”

When news came through after the race that Clay had survived, there was relief, tinged with the fact that his back had been broken. “Only a miracle allows one to come out of an accident like that alive,” said Emerson.

After months and years of spinal rehab, it was clear his racing gene was 100% intact. Not only did Regazzoni start racing again in karts, he helped other disabled people. He also returned to his sportscar roots to compete in the Sebring 12hrs, and possibly the most gruelling event in the world, the Paris-Dakar Rally. He closed his personal book on Long Beach too, where he had experienced the ultimate high and ultimate low, by racing in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race in 1994 – as a Pro.

Sadly, after all that he had been through, Clay Regazoni lost his life in a road accident in Italy in December 2006. It was the end of an era.

Special thanks to the Cahier Archive for the photos, and Toyota Motorsport for background information.

By Andy Hallbery follow me on Twitter @hallbean

Follow @MotorSportRetro on Twitter

Like us on Facebook

Clay Regazzoni: The man who could never stop is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

Ahead of the first Formula One pre-season tests to be held at Jerez in Spain this coming Tuesday, let’s take a look back at some of the magic that has occurred on the circuit over the years.

1986 was the first time that Formula One had contested the Spanish Grand Prix since Gilles Villeneuve won the extremely closely-competed 1981 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama.  Ayrton Senna started the race on pole position, followed by the Williams-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. Senna and Mansell wasted no time in christening the brand new Circuito Permanente de Jerez, engaging in furious motorsport and producing one of the closest finishes that the sport has seen.

Enjoy the race coverage from the day, with commentary from the great Murray Walker and Formula One World Champion, James Hunt.

Follow @motorsportretro on Twitter, and join in the discussion on Facebook.

Image:  TheCahierArchive©

Race Day: 1986 Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.