Some FINE Old 8mm Film (Sebring 1958)

The link is to an Etceterini Blog page, and thanks again to The Chicane Blog for the link.  If you were  paying attention to sports car racing in the late 1950's, you'll recognize some of the drivers, cars, and teams at Sebring.

http://www.cliffreuter.com/etceteriniSuzyDietrichVideosPage.htm

The small Modified classes in the SCCA were well-suppored in the Upper Midwest in the late 1950's into the late 1960's: Chuck and Suzy Dietrich, Al Beasley, and "Doc" M.R.J. Wylie (to name three) had very competitive, beautifully prepared, cars.  Suzy often ran in "Ladies Races" because she shared the car for the weekend with Chuck.  But she also competed with men, and in international events.  Both Dietrichs were fast.  Here's a 15-minute interview with Suzy Dietrich in her later years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E_RYDW3EeQ

Suzy Dietrich with her blown MG TC.

Chuck and Suzy Dietrich taking a victory lap in his Elva Mk. VII at Mid-Ohio, probably in 1965.  While Chuck stuck
mostly to Elvas, Suzy drove a wide variety of production and modified cars.  He won the G Modified Championship in
a Bobsy in 1963.  A year earlier, "Doc" Wylie won the same class in a Lola.  Dietrich's customary competition number
was 57, which appears on his early Elvas in the videos in the Suzy Dietrich Collection.

Off Topic: Language Rant

I don't want English, American or British, to be a "dead" language, frozen in time and form.  The French have an Academy to tell them how to speak and what words are approved.  We don't need that. I'm all for newly invented words, and I don't complain (much) about turning nouns into verbs.  I Google.  It takes too long to say "I used a search engine to find..."

But some stuff still grates in the ears of an Ancien.  Like "graduate high school."  My kids say it.  Even our Columbia and Harvard-educated President, and Princeton-educated First Lady, say it.  (It's graduate from high school, people!)  If you lose the "from," you did something to your high school; you turned graduate into a verb.

One knows his language goose is cooked when the error shows up in TV commercials.  In one, a woman with yellow teeth says she got them whitened because she "doesn't want my daughter embarrassed of me."  (It's by me.)  Prepositions are clearly an endangered species: they're disappearing or switching places faster than I can keep up.

Now the proper use of plurals is under attack.  Xerox informs us on TV that they can help us with our "accounts payables."  It's accounts payable, people!  The plural form follows the verb, not the subject: you pay your accounts, you can't pays them.  Yet.  Unless you "pays your money and takes your choice."

Ranting against a usage becoming customary is futile.  But it makes me feel better.  "Graduate high school" still grates on my ear like fingernails on a blackboard.  Like "embarrassed of me" and "accounts payables."

Mostly Unsurprising Answers To An Interesting Question

The April issue of Road & Track published answers to a question posed at the Detroit Auto Show.  Here they are summarized in boldface, with my own observations in italic.  (See pp. 10-11 of the magazine if you want the names of the responders and their longer quotes).  Why nobody from G.M.?

Question: "What will have defined the U.S. market in five years' time?"


Audi: several approaches to energy efficiency; wi-fi connectivity.  So much for the fun of pre-planning a road trip with a Rand McNally Atlas, and enjoying the scenery, the drive, and the car.  When your co-pilot isn't plugged into the virtual world instead of the real one, he/she will be a necessary accessory to avoid distracted driving: your app concierge and amanuensis.

Ford: fuel economy.  Period, full stop.

Volkswagen: besides fuel economy, vehicle cost.  Fewer nameplates, more consolidation.  Porsche, the guppy that tried to swallow the whale in an unfriendly takeover bid, is now owned by VW.  Look for further acquisitions coming to a nameplate near you.

Bentley: CO2 emissions.  Thus that "Bentley Smart" urban concept car: get that CAFE up.

Mini: the customer experience; we want them to be part of "the Mini family."  Sounds like a recipe for the consolidation predicted by VW.  "The Saturn Family" didn't work for G.M. as a stand-alone brand.  It won't work for BMW either.  A Mini model sold from BMW showroom floors?

Dodge: fuel economy and styling.  Um...you might want to get to work on that second part.  And don't Dodge Rams have the biggest engines you can get in a pickup?

Mercedes-Benz: more electric cars and alternative powertrains.

Tesla: electric cars.  What else would Tesla say?  Sounds like they want to get bought by Detroit, too.

Lincoln: value-for-money; not necessarily cheaper, but people will want value more than they want to make a personal statement.  Um...you mean that Ininiti, Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, and Cadillac don't offer value for money?  Lincoln remains a brand in search of an identity.  It will take more than an ugly grille.  Maybe you could buy Tesla.

Jaguar: cars and engines will become smaller, but still internal combustion.  Americans will take a more European approach to purchasing decisions.  Marketing that new turbo 4-cylinder, eh? 

2013 Jaguar XF: "luxury car of the future," according to Jag, with a 240 h.p. turbo inline 4. 

In our various depths of in-the-tankness for the Ford Focus ST, Hotshoe, Pilote, and Watchtower have seen the future of the high-performance car: a turbo 4 or V-6, not an 8.  Maybe even a twin-turbo 1.4 liter four.  (G.M. can always sell enough Chevy Cruzes to offset a 6-liter Corvette; not all nameplates have that luxury.)  Despair not, however: a fix for the distracted driving of your internet hot spot is in my upcoming driverless car rant.   

Cross-Cultural Jag

They say every car has a story.  Wonder what this one's is?

Another ADMAS Nominee

Now and then, another nominee for the Academy of Dragon Motion Arts & Sciences comes up: a car Pilote or others would least like to use for Dragon passes.  Here's one.  In 1963, Ford shipped two Galaxies with the 7-liter NASCAR engine to England.  They ran in the British Touring Car Championship.  When they set sail down a long straight (which most British courses lacked), they were uncatchable--until the next corner.  More often, they ran out of brakes before the races were over, and functioned as mobile chicane.  The white car, driven by Jack Sears, had some successes in the BTCC.

ADMAS nominations are always open.  To qualify, a car should have some pretense to performance or agility, and be offered for sale to the general public.  The Ford Galaxy barely makes the cut, because it was offered for sale with the big block engine and 4-on-the-floor, although the car in the pictures had a racing unit.  The nominees so far:

1) The Fiat-Abarth 750/850
2) The '69 Mustang Boss 302
3) Any Crosley
4) The '62-'66 Ford Galaxy 390/406/427

Either the right bank just let go or this is "normal" brake smoke  ;-).

Trying the outside on a Lotus Cortina and a Mini entering Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch.  Optimism!

A Brief History Of Times At Road America

This chart makes me think: about engines, tires, bodywork, and design engineering.  The one below is pulled from data compiled over the years.  It is as close to an every-five-years snapshot as I can force the data.  By "force" I mean that when the time itself is a benchmark, it trumps the "every 5 years rule."  (Mark Donahue's time in the Porsche 917/30 was one such--it stood as the lap record for 11 years.)  Road America and Road Atlanta are the only courses in the U.S. that are unchanged since they were built.  (Mosport in Canada is also unchanged.)

So the baseline for historical comparison is there.  Mostly.  Road America has been resurfaced twice, widened once, and it now has extra pavement at some corner exits.  So it is a faster course than it was 50 years ago.  But it is four miles around: long, straight, and fast, by road course standards.  Corner improvement has less effect on lap times at Road America than elsewhere.

Data in normal typeface is for race-winning speeds.  Data in italics is for qualifying speeds.  The early races were 500-milers, and included pit stops.  Can-Am and Formula 5000 races were sprints with no pit stops.  CART races included pit stops, but most of the data shown is for qualifying laps.  NASCAR Nationwide and ALMS races include pit stops, but the speed shown is for a "hot lap,"not the average winning speed.

Despite all the disclaimers above, the lap speeds are comparable.  For example, a current ALMS GT car is about as fast as an "unlimited" Can-Am car was in 1969--with an engine 20% smaller and maybe 60% more weight.   If you had offered me a bet that a current Nationwide car is faster around Road America than a Chaparral 2B was, I'd have taken it...

The highest trap speeds I'm aware of are 202 m.p.h. by Bobby Rahal, circa 1991, in a CART car trimmed out for qualifying, and Jonny Cocker's 190 m.p.h. in the Lola-Judd ALMS P-1 car.

YEAR   CAR                                    DRIVER                        LAP TIME        SPEED (MPH)    

1955      Ferrari Monza 3.0                Phil Hill                              3:00:0                  80
1960      Scarab 5.4 Chev                   Augie Pabst                         2:44.4                   88
1965      Chaparral 2B 5.4 Chev        Jim Hall                              2:28.8                   97
1969      McLaren M8B 7.0 Chev      Denny Hulme                     2:08.4                  112
1973      Porsche 917/30 5.4               Mark Donahue                   1:57.5                   123
1976      Lola T-332 5.0 Chev            Brian Redman                    2:01.3                   119
1980      Lola T-530 5.0 Chev           Stephen South                     2:03.4                  117
1985      March 85C Ford 2.7           Danny Sullivan                   1:52.0                  129
1990      Penske PC19 Chev 2.7         Danny Sullivan                   1:49.7                   131
1995      Reynard 95I Ford 2.7         Jacques Villenueve             1:41.3                   142
1999*    Reyanrd-Honda 2.7            Dario Franchitti*               1:39.9*                 144*
2007     Panoz-Cosworth 2.7            Sebastien Bourdais             1:45.x                   137
2010     NASCAR Nationwide 5.9     Carl Edwards                     2:13.x                   108
2010     Lola 809-Judd 5.5                Jonny Cocker                     1:52.4                   128
2012     Corvette C6R 5.5                   Jan Magnusson                 2:05.9                   114
2013     HPD Honda ARX03a 3.4     Klaus Graff                          1:51.x                   130    

* absolute lap record

This Michael Turner painting is based on a photograph of Augie Pabst in a Scarab at Meadowdale.
But for me it evokes anybody in a fast car, hammering up the hill from Canada Corner to Station 13.

Purdy Car, Purdy Picture

Maserati 250 F, Stirling Moss, Parabolica Corner, Monza, Italian Grand Prix, 1957.