Cooper Car Company
The Cooper Car Company is a car manufacturer founded in December 1947 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles's small garage in Surbiton, England, in 1946. Through the 1950s and early 1960s they reached motor racing's highest levels as their rear-engined, single-seat cars altered the face of Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, their Mini Cooper dominated rally racing. Due in part to Cooper's legacy, Great Britain remains the home of a thriving racing industry, the Cooper name lives on in the Cooper versions of the Mini production cars that are still built in England, but are now owned and marketed by BMW; the first cars built by the Coopers were single-seat 500-cc Formula Three racing cars driven by John Cooper and Eric Brandon, powered by a JAP motorcycle engine. Since materials were in short supply after World War II, the prototypes were constructed by joining two old Fiat Topolino front-ends together.
According to John Cooper, the stroke of genius that would make the Coopers an automotive legend—the location of the engine behind the driver—was a practical matter at the time. Because the car was powered by a motorcycle engine, they believed it was more convenient to have the engine in the back, driving a chain. In fact there was nothing new about'mid' engined racing cars but there is no doubt Coopers led the way in popularizing what was to become the dominant arrangement for racing cars. Called the Cooper 500, this car's success in hillclimbs and on track, including Eric winning the 500 race at one of the first postwar meetings at Gransden Lodge Airfield created demand from other drivers and led to the establishment of the Cooper Car Company to build more; the business grew by providing an inexpensive entry to motorsport for every aspiring young British driver, the company became the world's first and largest postwar, specialist manufacturer of racing cars for sale to privateers. Cooper built up to 300 single-and twin-cylinder cars during the 1940s and 1950s, dominated the F3 category, winning 64 of 78 major races between 1951 and 1954.
This volume of construction enabled the company to grow into the senior categories. Though Schell retired in the first lap, this marked the first appearance of a rear-engined racer at a Grand Prix event since the end of WWII; the front-engined Formula Two Cooper Bristol model was introduced in 1952. Various iterations of this design were driven by a number of legendary drivers – among them Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn – and furthered the company's growing reputation by appearing in Grand Prix races, which at the time were run to F2 regulations; until the company began building rear-engined sports cars in 1955, they had not become aware of the benefits of having the engine behind the driver. Based on the 500-cc cars and powered by a modified Coventry Climax fire-pump engine, these cars were called "Bobtails". With the center of gravity closer to the middle of the car, they found it was less liable to spins and much more effective at putting the power down to the road, so they decided to build a single-seater version and began entering it in Formula 2 races.
Jack Brabham raised some eyebrows when he took sixth place at the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix in a rear-engined Formula 1 Cooper. When Stirling Moss won the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix in Rob Walker's entered Cooper and Maurice Trintignant duplicated the feat in the next race at Monaco, the racing world was stunned and a rear-engined revolution had begun; the next year, 1959, Brabham and the Cooper works team became the first to win the Formula One World Championship in a rear-engined car. Both team and driver repeated the feat in 1960, every World Champion since has been sitting in front of his engine; the little-known designer behind the car was Owen Maddock, employed by Cooper Car Company. Maddock was known as ` Whiskers' to Charles Cooper. Maddock was a familiar figure in the drivers' paddock of the 1950s in open-neck shirt and woolly jumper and a prime force behind the rise of British racing cars to their dominant position in the 1960s. Describing how the revolutionary rear-engined Cooper chassis came to be, Maddock explained, "I'd done various schemes for the new car which I'd shown to Charlie Cooper.
He kept saying'Nah, that's not it, try again.' I got so fed up I sketched a frame in which every tube was bent, meant just as a joke. I showed it to Charlie and to my astonishment he grabbed it and said:'That's it!' " Maddock pioneered one of the first designs for a honeycomb monocoque stressed skin composite chassis, helped develop Cooper's C5S racing gearbox. Brabham took one of the championship-winning Cooper T53 "Lowlines" to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a test in 1960 entered the famous 500-mile race in a larger and offset car based on the 1960 F1 design, the unique Type T54. Arriving at the Speedway 5 May 1961, the "funny" little car from Europe was mocked by the other teams, but it ran as high as third and finished ninth, it took a few years, but the Indianapolis establishment realized the writing was on the wall and the days of their front-engined roadsters were numbered. Beginning with Jim Clark, who drove a rear-engined Lotus in 1965, every winner of the Indianapolis 500 since has had the engine in the back.
The revolution begun by the little chain-driven Cooper 500 was complete. Once every Formula car manufacturer beg
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix race track built in 1984, a much longer Nordschleife "North loop" track, built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains; the north loop is 20.8 km long and has more than 300 metres of elevation change from its lowest to highest points. Jackie Stewart nicknamed the old track "The Green Hell"; the track featured four configurations: the 28.265 km -long Gesamtstrecke, which in turn consisted of the 22.810 km Nordschleife, the 7.747 km Südschleife. There was a 2.281 km warm-up loop called Zielschleife or Betonschleife, around the pit area. Between 1982 and 1983 the start/finish area was demolished to create a new GP-Strecke, this is used for all major and international racing events. However, the shortened Nordschleife is still in use for racing and public access. In the early 1920s, ADAC Eifelrennen races were held on public roads in the Eifel mountains.
This was soon recognised as dangerous. The construction of a dedicated race track was proposed, following the examples of Italy's Monza and Targa Florio courses, Berlin's AVUS, yet with a different character; the layout of the circuit in the mountains was similar to the Targa Florio event, one of the most important motor races at that time. The original Nürburgring was to be a showcase for racing talent. Construction of the track, designed by the Eichler Architekturbüro from Ravensburg, began in September 1925; the track was completed in spring of 1927, the ADAC Eifelrennen races were continued there. The first races to take place on 18 June 1927 showed sidecars; the first motorcycle race was won by Toni Ulmen on an English 350 cc Velocette. The cars followed a day and Rudolf Caracciola was the winner of the over 5000 cc class in a Mercedes-Benz Compressor. In addition, the track was opened to the public in the evenings and on weekends, as a one-way toll road; the whole track consisted of 174 bends, averaged 8 to 9 metres in width.
The fastest time around the full Gesamtstrecke was by Louis Chiron, at an average speed of 112.31 km/h in his Bugatti. In 1929 the full Nürburgring was used for the last time in major racing events, as future Grands Prix would be held only on the Nordschleife. Motorcycles and minor races used the shorter and safer Südschleife. Memorable pre-war races at the circuit featured the talents of early Ringmeister such as Rudolf Caracciola, Tazio Nuvolari and Bernd Rosemeyer. After World War II, racing resumed in 1947 and in 1951, the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring again became the main venue for the German Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship. A new group of Ringmeister arose to dominate the race – Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart and Jacky Ickx. On 5 August 1961, during practice for the 1961 German Grand Prix, Phil Hill became the first person to complete a lap of the Nordschleife in under 9 minutes, with a lap of 8 minutes 55.2 seconds in the Ferrari 156 "Sharknose" Formula One car.
Over half a century even the highest performing road cars still have difficulty breaking 8 minutes without a professional race driver or one familiar with the track. Several rounds of the German motorcycle Grand Prix were held on the 7.7 km Südschleife, but the Hockenheimring and the Solitudering were the main sites for Grand Prix motorcycle racing. In 1953, the ADAC 1000 km Nürburgring race was introduced, an Endurance race and Sports car racing event that counted towards the World Sportscar Championship for decades; the 24 Hours Nürburgring for touring car racing was added in 1970. By the late 1960s, the Nordschleife and many other tracks were becoming dangerous for the latest generation of F1 cars. In 1967, a chicane was added before the start/finish straight, called Hohenrain, in order to reduce speeds at the pit lane entry; this made the track 25 m longer. This change, was not enough to keep Stewart from nicknaming it "The Green Hell" following his victory in the 1968 German Grand Prix amid a driving rainstorm and thick fog.
In 1970, after the fatal crash of Piers Courage at Zandvoort, the F1 drivers decided at the French Grand Prix to boycott the Nürburgring unless major changes were made, as they did at Spa the year before. The changes were not possible on short notice, the German GP was moved to the Hockenheimring, modified. In accordance with the demands of the F1 drivers, the Nordschleife was reconstructed by taking out some bumps, smoothing out some sudden jumps, installing Armco safety barriers; the track was made straighter, following the race line. The German GP could be hosted at the Nürburgring again, was for another six years from 1971 to 1976. In 1973 the entrance into the dangerous and bumpy Kallenhard corner was made slower by adding another left-hand corner after the fast Metzgesfeld sweeping corner. Safety was improved again on, e.g. by removing the jumps on the long main straight and widening it, taking away the bushes right next to the track at the main straight, which had made that section of the Nürburgring dangerously narrow.
A second series of three more F1 races was held until 1976. Howe
Carroll Shelby International
Carroll Shelby International was an American automobile manufacturer formed in 2003 from custom performance vehicle manufacturer Shelby American, when founder and owner Carroll Shelby took the company public, additionally forming Shelby Automobiles as a subsidiary from which to continue manufacturing vehicles and parts. In 2009, "Shelby Automobiles" was renamed to "Shelby American", bringing back the original company name to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the 427 Cobra and GT350. Carroll Shelby Licensing is the second wholly owned subsidiary that forms Carroll Shelby International, based in Nevada. Shelby American manufactures component automobiles, including replicas of the small-block and large-block AC Cobras, the Shelby GT350 and the GT500 Super Snake. Since 2005, Shelby American has released new models each year. Carroll Shelby International was working with Texas-based Unique Performance to create new Mustang-based Shelby cars such as the GT350SR and "Eleanor". On November 1, 2007, Unique Performance was raided by the Farmers Branch Police Department due to VIN irregularities and subsequently declared bankruptcy, which ended the Shelby continuation "Eleanor" production and the relationship.
Shelby American was founded by Carroll Shelby in 1962 to build and market high performance parts and modified cars for individuals. The company was based at Santa Fe Springs, Venice, California. Production was moved to the A. O. Smith Company located in Ionia, Whittier and Las Vegas, Nevada; some of the automobiles produced by Shelby American were the Ford Mustang-based Shelby GT350, Shelby GT500 and Shelby GLHS. Shelby American installed the engines of US-market examples of the AC Cobra, an AC Ace with a Ford V8; the company was highly involved with racing, with Shelby cars winning many races and the first title for an American constructor at the World Sportscar Championship in 1965. From 1965 to 1967, Shelby American provided support to Ford for their successful campaign to win the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans as the first American constructor with the mid-engined Ford GT40's. With Shelby Daytona, Shelby became one of only three American constructors to win a title on the international scene at the FIA World Championships.
Shelby American moved in 1998 to Nevada becoming the first automobile manufacturer in Nevada and began production. In 1999 the company was sold for production of the Series I model. Cobra production was not part of the transfer of ownership. In 2003, a new holding company was formed called "Carroll Shelby International, Inc.", it was taken public. Shelby Automobiles was created as a subsidiary and manufacturing arm of the new company. In 2004, Shelby Automobiles purchased the assets to the Series I model. On December 15, 2009, Carroll Shelby International announced in a press release that Shelby Automobiles was being renamed to "Shelby American" in celebration of the 45th anniversary of 427 Cobra and GT350. CSX1000-series AC Holdings Ltd. chassis and aluminum bodies CSX4000-series various manufacturers and aluminum bodywork available CSX5000-series Shelby Series I models built in 2005 as component vehicles. CSX6000-series continuation of the CSX4000 series CSX7000-series 289 FIA Cobra roadster CSX8000-series 289 street car CSX9000-series Cobra "Daytona" coupe, released in 2009 The Shelby Museum is located on the site.
It includes a wide range of Shelby vehicles, from the first Cobra CSX2000 to prototypes of Series 1 and some of the latest creations. Total small-block Cobras 655 Total Cobras built 1,003 1965 GT 350 - 515 GT 350R - 36 GT 350 drag cars - 9 GT 350 street prototype - 1 Competition prototype GT 350 - 1Total 1965 Shelby Mustangs - 562 1966 GT 350 - 1,370 GT 350H - 1,000 GT 350 convertibles - 6 GT 350 drag cars - 4Total 1966 Shelby Mustangs - 2,380 1967 GT 350 Fastback - 1,175 GT 500 Fastback - 2,048 GT 500 Coupe "Little Red" - 1 GT 500 Convertible - 1 GT 500 Fastback prototype - 1 GT 350 Coupe Group II Race Cars - 15Total 1967 Shelby GT Mustangs - 3,240 1968 GT 350 Fastback - 1,253 GT 350 Convertible - 404 GT 500 Fastback - 1,140 GT 500 Convertible - 402 GT 500KR Fastback - 933 GT 500KR Convertible - 318 GT 500 Coupe "Green Hornet" - 1 Total 1968 Ford Shelby Cobra GT Mustangs - 4,451 1969 & 1970 GT 350 Fastback - 935 GT 350 Convertible - 194 GT 500 Fastback - 1,536 GT 500 Convertible - 335 GT 350 Hertz cars - 15 Prototype test cars - 3 Cars updated to 1970 specifications - 789 Total 1969-70 Ford Shelby Cobra GT Mustangs - 3,294 Shelby cars totals - 13,912 1986-1989 1986 GLHS Omni- 500 1987 GLHS Charger- 1000 1987 Shelby Lancer- 800 1987 Shelby CSX- 750 1988 Shelby CSX-T -1000 1989 Shelby Dakota- 1500 1989 Shelby CSX-VNT- 500Total Dodge production- 6,050 Shelby vehicle total- 19,962 AC Cobra Shelby Mustang Shelby CSX GT 500 Convertible Carroll Shelby International Inc. Carroll Shelby Museum-Las Vegas
New Zealand
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia and Tonga; because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal and plant life; the country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington. Sometime between 1250 and 1300, Polynesians settled in the islands that were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands.
In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire and in 1907 it became a dominion. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.9 million is of European descent. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration; the official languages are English, Māori, NZ Sign Language, with English being dominant. A developed country, New Zealand ranks in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic freedom. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy; the service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, agriculture. Nationally, legislative authority is vested in an elected, unicameral Parliament, while executive political power is exercised by the Cabinet, led by the prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
Queen Elizabeth II is the country's monarch and is represented by a governor-general Dame Patsy Reddy. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes; the Realm of New Zealand includes Tokelau. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and named it Staten Land "in honour of the States General", he wrote, "it is possible that this land joins to the Staten Land but it is uncertain", referring to a landmass of the same name at the southern tip of South America, discovered by Jacob Le Maire in 1616. In 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand. Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand.
It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the whole country before the arrival of Europeans, with Aotearoa referring to just the North Island. Māori had several traditional names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North and South. In 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907 this was the accepted norm; the New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised, names and alternative names were formalised in 2013. This set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, South Island or Te Waipounamu. For each island, either its English or Māori name can be used. New Zealand was one of the last major landmasses settled by humans. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within Māori populations suggest New Zealand was first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300, concluding a long series of voyages through the southern Pacific islands.
Over the centuries that followed, these settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori. The population was divided into iwi and hapū who would sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete and sometimes fight against each other. At some point a group of Māori migrated to Rēkohu, now known as the Chatham Islands, where they developed their distinct Moriori culture; the Moriori population was all but wiped out between 1835 and 1862 because of Taranaki Māori invasion and enslavement in the 1830s, although European diseases contributed. In 1862 only 101 survived, the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933; the first Europeans known to have reached New Zeala
Remuera
Remuera is an affluent inner city residential suburban area within Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located four kilometres to the southeast of the city centre. Remuera is one of Auckland's older suburbs characterised by many large houses Edwardian or mid 20th century. A prime example of a "leafy" suburb, Remuera is noted for its quiet tree lined streets; the suburb has numerous green spaces, most obvious of, Ōhinerau / Mount Hobson – a volcanic cone with views from the top overlooking Waitematā Harbour and Rangitoto. According to the 2013 census, Remuera has a population of 7,254 people; the suburb extends from Hobson Bay and the Orakei Basin on the Waitematā Harbour to the north and east, to the main thoroughfare of State Highway 1 in the southwest. It is surrounded by the suburbs of Orākei, Saint Johns, Mount Wellington, Greenlane, Epsom and Parnell. Remuera is home to many well-known New Zealanders including the late Sir Edmund Hillary and the famous race car driver Bruce McLaren.
Remuera has had a long history of human occupation, starting back in the early 13th century when Māori came to the area. The area was attractive to Maori as much of the Auckland isthmus was devoid of trees and covered only in native flax and scrub. Remuera was different, having patches of woodland which were the habitat of many birds suitable for trapping while the adjacent harbour and basins were good fishing areas. John Logan Campbell describes early 19th century Remuera in his book Poenamo: Beautiful was Remuera's shore, sloping to Waitemata's sunlit waters in the days of which I write; the palm fern-tree was there with its crown of graceful bending fronds and black feathery-looking young shoots. Evergreen shrubs grew on all sides, of every shade from palest to deepest green; the tui, with his grand rich note made the wood musical. The suburb is named after a pā on Remuwera. Remu-wera translates to "burnt edge of kilt", commemorating the occasion where a chieftainess of Hauraki was captured and consumed.
Although the most common definition in reference literature, the accuracy of this definition has been described as "highly doubtful". Around 1741, Te Wai-o-Hua iwi was driven away by the Ngāti Te Taoū iwi; these iwi merged with Te Roroa and Te Uri-o-Hau into Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei, the main iwi on the Tāmaki isthmus. In May 1844 one of the largest Māori feasts held in New Zealand took place in Remuera, it was organised by the Waikato iwi and about 4000 Māori and many Pākehā were present. The festivities lasted for a week and large amounts of food and drinks were served: 11,000 baskets of potatoes, 9,000 sharks, 100 pigs, large amounts of tea and sugar. Governor Robert FitzRoy visited the festivities on 11 May 1844 when a haka was performed by 1,600 Māori, armed with guns and tomahawks; when the European settlers wanted to buy the land on the Tāmaki isthmus from the Māori, they first declined. But in 1851, Henry Tacy Kemp, an interpreter to the Land Claims Commissioners, bought 700 acres for £5000.
Subsequently, more plots of land were put up for public auction. The land was suitable for pasture land and as the town of Auckland was some distance away people did not start to build houses until the 1860s; the ideal location included a view of the harbour. Many of the large villas stood on quite big properties, as their owners needed pasturing for carriage and riding horses and enjoyed creating landscape gardens; some had secondary houses for gardeners or estate managers. Many of these early houses still stand, surrounded now by suburban developments or converted into institutions such as schools. Smaller suburban houses began appearing in the area nearest Newmarket and began to spread along Remuera Road; the first shops opened in 1890 at the intersection with Victoria Avenue. Railway stations at Newmarket and Market Road encouraged residents to commute to town. One of the most important routes for the electric tram system created in 1902 was to the Remuera shops, with an extension to the bottom of Victoria Avenue.
One of the first businesses was L. J. Keys’ grocery store on the Clonbern Rd corner, which houses a café. Nowadays, Remuera's main business and shopping area stretches along Remuera Road from Armadale Road to St Vincent's Avenue. Smaller shopping areas are situated at Benson Road. In 1915 Remuera was amalgamated into Auckland City. Up until that point it had been governed by the Remuera Road Board which had opposed joining Auckland in the face of campaigning by the Remuera Ratepayers Association; this included a petition in 1912 in which 791 of the ratepayers signed to join with the adjacent Auckland City. A commission of inquiry was appointed. Again the Road Board declined and it was only after the Department of Internal Affairs intervened that the Road Board gave in; the union was ratified in February 1915 and the 2,520 acres of Remuera became part of Auckland. J. Dempsey said that Auckland had received "the brightest jewel in her crown today", although a subsequent report by the city engineer pointed out that Remuera had not been surveyed, it had 60 miles of primitive roading, lacked proper stormwater drainage, sewe
1970 Formula One season
The 1970 Formula One season was the 24th season of the FIA's Formula One motor racing. It featured the 21st World Championship of Drivers and the 13th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. Thirteen races were held between 7 March 1970 and 25 October 1970, with the Drivers' Championship won by Jochen Rindt and the Constructors' title by Lotus. Rindt died four races before the end of the season, but had earned just enough World Championship points that no other driver managed to surpass his total by the end of the season, it is the only season to date in which the World Drivers' Championship title had been awarded posthumously. Jacky Ickx driving for Ferrari finished the season but his low 4th-place finish in the penultimate round ensured that Rindt's title lead would stand. In the end, all of Rindt's 45 points came from his five wins in the season; the following teams and drivers competed in the 1970 World Championship. For the 1970 Formula One season, following an agreement with Simca, Tyrrell were asked by Matra to use their V12 rather than the Cosworth.
Stewart tested the Matra V12 and found it inferior to the DFV. As a large part of the Tyrrell budget was provided by Ford, another significant element came from French state-owned petroleum company Elf, Ken Tyrrell had little alternative but to buy the March 701 chassis as an interim solution while developing his own car in secret with the first Tyrrell bearing a substantial resemblance to the MS80; the new wedge-shaped Lotus 72 had innovative car design, featuring torsion bar suspension, hip-mounted radiators, inboard front brakes and an overhanging rear wing. The 72 had suspension problems, but when dive and squat were designed out of the suspension the car showed its superiority. Lotus's new leader, the Austrian Jochen Rindt, dominated the championship until he was killed at Monza when he crashed into some poorly installed crash barriers right before the Parabolica corner, he took the 1970 title posthumously for Lotus. Jacky Ickx won the Austrian and Mexican Grands Prix to come second in the Drivers' Championship, having re-joined Ferrari from Brabham.
Had he won the United States Grand Prix instead of Brazilian newcomer Emerson Fittipaldi, Ickx would have been crowned champion. The 1970 season was one of the most tragic in Formula One history. Before Rindt's death at Monza, New Zealander Bruce McLaren was killed testing a McLaren Can-Am car at the Goodwood Circuit in England, Briton Piers Courage was killed at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, driving a Frank Williams-entered De Tomaso. 1970 saw the introduction of slick tyres by Goodyear. After a Formula One career which began at the 1955 British Grand Prix, triple World Champion Jack Brabham retired at the end of the year; the first round was the South Africa Grand Prix held at the Kyalami circuit between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Jack Brabham won the race in a Brabham BT33; the Spanish Grand Prix took place on the Jarama circuit. The defending champion Jackie Stewart won in a March 701; the Monaco Grand Prix ended in a close finish. At the last corner of the last lap, Jack Brabham skidded off the track, allowing Austrian Jochen Rindt in a Lotus 49 to pass and win the race.
Formula One had lost one of its top drivers: Bruce McLaren had been killed testing a Can-Am car at the Goodwood circuit in southern England. But the F1 circus had returned to a wild and dangerous place: the notorious 14.1 kilometres ultra-fast Spa-Francorchamps circuit had returned to the calendar for the 1970 season after some safety upgrades, including steel Armco barriers now lined around the circuit. A chicane had been inserted at the fast Malmedy corner to reduce speeds onto the Masta straight; the field only consisted of 18 entrants. Stewart took pole, followed by Rindt. Rindt took the lead going into Eau Rouge, once the cars came back around towards La Source, Amon was leading. Stewart took the lead, but retired his March-Ford/Cosworth with engine problems. Amon took the lead, but Mexican Pedro Rodríguez in a BRM was making the most of his BRM engine's V12 power, he and Amon battled until the 28th and last lap – and Rodriguez beat the perennially unlucky Amon to the checkered flag by a mere 1.1 seconds.
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Beltoise took the final podium spot, followed by home favorite Jacky Ickx in a Ferrari. But this was the last time the old triangle-shaped Spa was to be used for Formula One – the circuit proved to be just too fast and dangerous with safety modifications; the Belgian Grand Prix was scheduled to be on the following year's calendar, but was taken off the calendar after the circuit was not up to FIA-newly mandated safety specs. The race would move to Zolder; the Dutch Grand Prix of 1970 saw the revolutionary Lotus 72 stamp its authority on the Formula One scene. Although the car made its debut at Spa with John Miles, the car was still not properly finished, but for the Dutch event, it was – and Jochen Rindt dominated this weekend by taking pole and leading from start to finish on the fast, beachside Zandvoort circuit. But the race itself was marred by the fatal accident of Briton Piers Courage in a Frank Williams-entered DeTomaso-Ford/Cosworth. Courage crashed at the fast Tunnel Oost corner, one of the wheels hit him in the head and killed him instantly.
After the car had crashed, it caught fire, as was so common in those days. Courage's lifeless body covered with fuel burned. Formula One went to the 5.1 mile
Briggs Cunningham
Briggs Swift Cunningham II was an American entrepreneur and sportsman, who raced automobiles and yachts. Born into a wealthy family, he became a racing car constructor and team owner as well as a sports car manufacturer and automobile collector, he skippered the first victorious 12-metre yacht Columbia in the 1958 America's Cup race, invented the cunningham downhaul to increase the speed of racing sailboats. He was featured on the April 26, 1954 cover of Time magazine, with three of his Cunningham racing cars; the caption reads: Road Racer Briggs Cunningham: Horsepower, Sportsmanship. He became an early member of the Road Racing Drivers Club, an invitation-only club formed to honor notable road racing drivers; the October 2003 Road & Track magazine article, "Briggs Swift Cunningham—A Life Well Spent", states that "by building and sailing his own ships, building and racing his own cars, Briggs Cunningham epitomized the definition of the American sportsman." He was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1997, named to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Cunningham died in Las Vegas, of complications from Alzheimer's disease, at the age of 96. In 1931 Cunningham was a crew member on the Dorade. In 1958 he skippered the first victorious 12-metre yacht Columbia in the first post war America's Cup race, he invented the eponymous Cunningham used to control a sailboat's luff tension and improve sail shape. Introduced to motorsports as a youngster when his uncle took him to road races just after the first world war, Cunningham began international racing in 1930 with his Yale College friends Miles and Samuel Collier, who in 1933 founded the Automobile Racing Club of America, he continued in competition for 36 years. By 1940 he was building sports cars for others to race, his first race as a driver was with his Bu-Merc, a modified Buick chassis with Buick engine and Mercedes-Benz SSK body, at Watkins Glen shortly after World War Two. Some of his other hybrids involved Cadillacs and Fords. Cunningham was one of the first to purchase a Ferrari Tipo 166 Corsa Spyder, raced along with other marques he constructed or owned.
In 1950 Briggs Cunningham entered two Cadillac cars for Le Mans, one a stock-appearing Cadillac Series 61 Coupé, the other a special-bodied sports car dubbed "Le Monstre." They finished 10th and 11th overall. On December 31, 1950 Cunningham participated in the 6-hour Sam Collier Memorial Race, the first automobile race held on the Sebring Airport race track, won by a Crosley HotShot. Cunningham finished 3rd in class and 17th overall in his Aston Martin DB2 Vantage LML/50/21, the first produced. 1955 was last year for the Cunningham marque of cars. The Internal Revenue Service rules of the time allowed such prototype low volume manufacturers 5 years to reach profitability before classifying the business as a non-deductible hobby. By 1956 Team Cunningham, which fielded other marques, was described as a dominant force in SCCA sports car racing — a distinction the team retained for the next decade; the team traveled in a caravan with tractor trailer vans that contained the automobiles and equipment, set up in the pits to serve every mechanical or personal need of the team.
This contrasted with the typical arrival into the pits of a single race car on a trailer, was described as "impressive" by driver Lake Underwood. The team's chief mechanic was Alfred Momo. Cunningham concentrated on competition automobiles. A few, adapted for street use, were personal vehicles. In 1952, Cunningham introduced the Continental C3 road car; this model established his bona fides as a car manufacturer with the race organisers at Le Mans and elsewhere, justifying his entries of prototype sports-racing cars. Production began in his West Palm Beach plant where his team of mechanics installed 331-cubic-inch Chrysler hemi V-8s in Cunningham C-2R racing chassis; these were shipped to Turin, Italy to be fitted with aluminum and steel bodies by coachbuilder Vignale, after which they were returned to the Florida plant for completion. There were 25 Continental C3s produced: five convertibles, they sold for $8,000 to $12,000. Notable owners included a member of the Du Pont family. In 2017, Jay Leno completed an extensive restoration on a C3.
All 25 cars still exist. Cunningham's announcement in 1951 of his intention to build an American contender for outright victory at the Le Mans race caused a stir on both continents, his team was a favorite with the Le Mans fans, the announcement demonstrated his commitment to fielding a winning team of American drivers and automobiles. One of the cars, the Chrysler-powered Cunningham C2-R built by The B. S. Cunningham Company of West Palm Beach and driven by Phil Walters and John Fitch, finished 18th out of 60 starters; the other, driven by George Rand and Fred Wacker Jr. failed to finish. In 1952, the C4-R of Briggs Cunningham and Bill Spear finished fourth overall at Le Mans. A C4-R won the 1953 Sebring 12 Hours. At Le Mans and Fitch finished first in class and third overall with a C5-R, the two other Team Cunningham cars finished seventh and tenth, they returned to take third and fifth place in 1954. These years were to be the high point of achievement for Cunningham-built cars at Le Mans. With victory unattained, the effort was described as a "gallant failure" by American journalist Ozzie Lyons.
In 1954, a C4-R driven by Briggs Cunningham and Sherwood Johnston finished sixth in the Reims 12 Hour sports car race, behin
New Zealand
