1.
Cooper Car Company
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The Cooper Car Company was founded in December 1947 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with Johns boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charless small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England, in 1946. The first cars built by the Coopers were single-seat 500-cc Formula Three racing cars driven by John Cooper and Eric Brandon, since materials were in short supply immediately 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 merely a matter at the time. Because the car was powered by an engine, they believed it was more convenient to have the engine in the back. In fact there was nothing new about mid engined racing cars, Cooper built up to 300 single-and twin-cylinder cars during the 1940s and 1950s, and dominated the F3 category, winning 64 of 78 major races between 1951 and 1954. Though Schell retired in the first lap, this marked the first appearance of a racer at a Grand Prix event since the end of WWII. The front-engined Formula Two Cooper Bristol model was introduced in 1952, until the company began building rear-engined sports cars in 1955, they really 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, jack Brabham raised some eyebrows when he took sixth place at the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix in a rear-engined Formula 1 Cooper. 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, and every World Champion since has been sitting in front of his engine. The little-known designer behind the car was Owen Maddock, who was employed by Cooper Car Company, Maddock was known as The Beard by his workmates, and Whiskers to Charles Cooper. Describing how the revolutionary rear-engined Cooper chassis came to be, Maddock explained and he kept saying Nah, Whiskers, thats not it, try again. Finally, 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, Thats it. Maddock later pioneered one of the first designs for a monocoque stressed skin composite chassis. Arriving at the Speedway 5 May 1961, the little car from Europe was mocked by the other teams. It took a few years, but the Indianapolis establishment gradually realized the writing was on the wall, beginning with Jim Clark, who drove a rear-engined Lotus in 1965, every winner of the Indianapolis 500 has had the engine in the back. The revolution begun by the little chain-driven Cooper 500 was complete, the Cooper teams decline was accelerated when John Cooper was seriously injured in a road accident in 1963 driving a twin-engined Mini, and Charles Cooper died in 1964. After the death of his father, John Cooper sold the Cooper Formula One team to the Chipstead Motor Group in April 1965
2.
Colin Chapman
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Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman CBE was an influential English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars. In 1952 he founded the car company Lotus Cars. Chapman initially ran Lotus in his time, assisted by a group of enthusiasts. His knowledge of the latest aeronautical engineering techniques would prove vital towards achieving the major automotive technical advances he is remembered for, subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere. Under his direction, Team Lotus won seven Formula One Constructors titles, six Drivers Championships, the production side of Lotus Cars has built tens of thousands of relatively affordable, cutting edge sports cars. Lotus is one of but a handful of English performance car builders still in business after the decline of the 1970s. Chapman suffered a heart attack in 1982, aged 54. Chapman studied structural engineering at University College London, joined the University of London Air Squadron, Chapman left UCL without a degree in 1948, resitting his final Mathematics paper in 1949 and obtaining his degree a year late. He briefly joined the Royal Air Force in 1948, being offered a permanent commission, after a couple of false starts Chapman joined the British Aluminium company, using his civil engineering skills to attempt to sell aluminium as a viable structural material for buildings. In 1948, Chapman designed the Mk1, a modified Austin 7 and he named the car Lotus, he never confirmed the reason but one theories is that it was after his then girlfriend Hazel, whom he nicknamed Lotus blossom. With prize money he developed the Lotus Mk2, with continuing success on through the Lotus 6, he began to sell kits of these cars. Over 100 were sold through 1956, along with John Cooper, he revolutionised the premier motor sport. Their small, lightweight mid-engined vehicles gave away much in terms of power, eventually, with driver Jim Clark at the wheel of his race cars, Team Lotus appeared as though they could win whenever they pleased. With Clark driving the Lotus 25, Team Lotus won its first F1 World Championship in 1963 and it was Clark, driving a Lotus 38 at the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, who drove the first ever mid-engined car to victory at the Brickyard. Clark and Chapman became particularly close and Clarks death in 1968 devastated Chapman, among a number of automotive figures who have been Lotus employees over the years were Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, founders of Cosworth. Graham Hill worked at Lotus as a mechanic as a means of earning drives and it was Chapman who in 1966 persuaded the Ford Motor Company to sponsor Cosworths development of what would become the DFV race engine. Many of Chapmans ideas can still be seen in Formula One and he pioneered the use of struts as a rear suspension device. Chapmans next major innovation was popularising monocoque chassis construction within automobile racing, the technique resulted in a body that was both lighter and stronger, and also provided better driver protection in the event of a crash
3.
Team Lotus
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Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in motorsport series, including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar. The Lotus name returned to Formula One in 2010, as the name of Tony Fernandess Lotus Racing team. In 2011, Team Lotuss iconic black-and-gold livery returned to F1 as the livery of the Lotus Renault GP team, sponsored by Lotus Cars, colin Chapman established Lotus Engineering Ltd in 1952 at Hornsey, UK. Lotus achieved rapid success with the 1953 Mk 6 and the 1954 Mk 8 sports cars, Team Lotus was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954. A new Formula Two regulation was announced for 1957, and in Britain, the following year, the Lotus 12 appeared. Driving one in 1958, Allison won the F2 class in the International Trophy at Silverstone, beating Stuart Lewis-Evanss Cooper. As the Coventry Climax engines were enlarged in 1952 to 2. 2-litres, Chapman decided to enter Grand Prix racing, running a pair of Lotus 12s at Monaco in 1958 for Graham Hill and these were replaced later that year by Lotus 16s. By then, the success had caused it to expand to such an extent that it had to move to new premises at Cheshunt. The first Formula One victory for Team Lotus came when Innes Ireland won the 1961 United States Grand Prix, a year earlier, Stirling Moss had recorded the first victory for a Lotus car at Monaco in his Lotus 18 entered by the independent Rob Walker Racing Team. There were successes in Formula Two and Formula Junior, the road car business was doing well with the Lotus Seven and the Lotus Elite and this was followed by the Lotus Elan in 1962. In 1963 Clark drove the Lotus 25 to a remarkable seven wins in a season and won the World Championship. The 1964 title was still for the taking by the time of the last race in Mexico but problems with Clarks Lotus, however, in 1965, Clark dominated again, six wins in his Lotus 33 gave him the championship. While very innovative, Chapman also came under criticism for the fragility of his designs. In Dave Friedmans book Indianapolis Memories 1961–1969, Dan Gurney is quoted as saying and we had several structural failures in those cars. But at the time, I felt it was the price you paid for getting something significantly better, a switch to the new Ford Cosworth DFV, designed by former Lotus employee Keith Duckworth, in 1967 returned the team to winning form. Although they failed to win the title in 1967, by the end of the season, the Lotus 49, however, for 1968 Lotus had lost its exclusive right to use the DFV. The season-opening 1968 South African Grand Prix confirmed Lotuss superiority, with Jim Clark and it would be Clarks last win
4.
Mickey Thompson
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Marion Lee Mickey Thompson was an American off-road racing celebrity. A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson increasingly pursued land speed records in his late 20s, Thompson then turned to racing, winning many track and dragster championships. Later he formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group, in 1988 Thompson and his wife Trudy were mysteriously gunned down at their home in Bradbury, California. The crime remained unsolved until 2007, when a business partner was convicted of having orchestrated the murders. Thompson was born in Alhambra, California, in his early twenties, he worked as a pressman for the Los Angeles Times while pursuing a lifelong love of hot rodding. He later became involved in the new sport of drag racing, tireless and innovative, he found success as a championship driver and instinctive automotive technician. Over the course of his career, Thompson set more speed, a change so momentous would not happen again until Don Garlits introduced the rear-engined digger in 1971. Thompson also was noted for being the first manager of Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, California, in 1955.60 mph, in 1962 Thompson entered three John Crosthwaite designed cars in the Indianapolis 500. Unusually, they used a stock V8 Buick engine and it was in the rear unlike the front engined, race tuned and it was the first stock engine to be raced at Indy since 1946. Thompsons crew, led by Fritz Voigt, were young, smart, working 12-14 hour days, the car was designed and built in 120 days. For the race, the engine had to be detuned because they were concerned it would not last the distance. Despite being more than 70 bhp down on the cars, Dan Gurney qualified eighth and was in ninth place until a leaking oil seal seized the gearbox. He was placed 20th out of 33, the team won the Mechanical Achievement Award for original design, construction and accomplishment. Thompsons promotion skills pleased the sponsors with the publicity generated that year, for the 1963 Indianapolis 500 Crosthwaite designed the innovative Harvey Aluminium Special roller skate car with the then pioneering smaller profile and wide racing tires and wheels. Thompson took five cars to Indianapolis, two of the previous years design with Chevrolet V8 engines and three roller skate cars. One of the new cars, the Harvey Titanium Special, featured a lightweight titanium chassis, al Miller II raced one of the modified 1962 cars to ninth place despite only qualifying in 31st position. Duane Carter qualified one of the roller skate cars 15th but was only placed 23rd after a failure on the 100th lap. The small tire sizes and low car weights caused complaints amongst the old hands and owners, so for future races, cars were restricted to minimum tire sizes and minimum car weights
5.
Graham Hill
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Norman Graham Hill OBE was a British racing driver and team owner from England, who was twice Formula One World Champion. He is the driver ever to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport—the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Indianapolis 500. He also appeared on TV in the 1970s on a variety of non-sporting programmes including panel games and he liked painting in his spare time. Hill and his son Damon were the first father and son pair to have won the Formula One World Championship. Hills grandson Josh, Damons son, also raced his way through the ranks until he retired from Formula Three in 2013 at the age of 22. Hill died at age 46 when the twin-engine six-seat Piper Aztec aeroplane he was piloting crashed and burned in foggy conditions at night near Arkley golf course in North London. Hill, Tony Brise, and four members of Hills racing team were returning from car testing at Circuit Paul Ricard in France and were due to land at Elstree Airfield. After leaving the Navy, he rejoined Smiths Instruments, Hill did not pass his driving test until he was 24 years old, and he himself described his first car as A wreck. A budding racing driver should own such a car, as it teaches delicacy, poise and anticipation and he had been interested in motorcycles but in 1954 he saw an advertisement for the Universal Motor Racing Club at Brands Hatch offering laps for 5 shillings. He made his debut in a Cooper 500 Formula 3 car and was committed to racing thereafter, Hill joined Team Lotus as a mechanic soon after but quickly talked his way into the cockpit. The Lotus presence in Formula One allowed him to make his debut at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix, in 1960, Hill joined BRM, and won the world championship with them in 1962. Hill was also part of the so-called British invasion of drivers and cars in the Indianapolis 500 during the mid-1960s, in 1967, back at Lotus, Hill helped to develop the Lotus 49 with the new Cosworth-V8 engine. After team mates Jim Clark and Mike Spence were killed in early 1968, Hill led the team, a crash at the 1969 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen broke both his legs and interrupted his career. Typically, when asked soon after the crash if he wanted to pass on a message to his wife, upon recovery Hill continued to race in F1 for several more years, but never again with the same level of success. Colin Chapman, believing Hill was a spent force, placed him in Rob Walkers team for 1970, although Hill scored points in 1970 he started the season far from fully fit and the 72 was not fully developed until late in the season. Hill moved to Brabham for 1971-2, his last win in Formula One was in the non-Championship International Trophy at Silverstone in 1971 with the lobster claw Brabham. The team was in flux after the retirements of Sir Jack Brabham and then Ron Tauranacs sale to Bernie Ecclestone, Hill was also irreverently immortalized on a Monty Python episode, in which a Gumby appears asking to see John the Baptists impersonation of Graham Hill. The head of St. John the Baptist appears on a silver platter, Hill was involved with four films between 1966 and 1974, including appearances in Grand Prix and Caravan to Vaccarès, in which he appeared as a helicopter pilot
6.
Dan Gurney
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Daniel Sexton Gurney is a retired American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racings highest levels starting in 1958. The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, and Trans-Am Series. Gurney is the first of three drivers to have won races in Sports Cars, Formula One, NASCAR, and Indy Car, in 1967, after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans together with A. J. Foyt, he spontaneously sprayed champagne while celebrating on the podium, apart from starting this tradition, he also was the first to put a simple right-angle extension on the upper trailing edge of the rear wing. This device, called a Gurney flap, increases downforce and, if well designed, at the 1968 German Grand Prix he became the first driver ever to use a full face helmet in Grand Prix racing. Dan Gurneys father, Jack Gurney, was a graduate of Harvard Business school with a masters degree, dans three uncles were each MIT engineers. His grandfather was F. W. Gurney who was responsible for the invention of the Gurney Ball Bearing, after moving to California, young Dan quickly became caught up in the California hot rod culture. At age 19, he built and raced a car that went 138 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats and he then became an amateur drag racer and sports car racer. He served in the United States Army as a mechanic during the Korean War. Gurneys first major break occurred in the fall of 1957, when he was invited to test Frank Arcieros Arciero Special and it was powered by a 4. 2-litre reworked Maserati engine with Ferrari running gear, and a Sports Car Engineering Mistral body. This ill-handling brute of a car was very fast, but even top drivers like Carroll Shelby and he finished second in the inaugural Riverside Grand Prix, beating established stars like Masten Gregory, Walt Hansgen and Phil Hill. This attracted the attention of famed Ferrari North American importer Luigi Chinetti, Gurney, teamed with fellow Californian Bruce Kessler, had worked the car up to fifth overall and handed over to Kessler, who was then caught up in an accident. This performance, and others, earned him a test run in a works Ferrari, in just four races that first year, he earned two podium finishes, but the teams strict management style did not suit him. In 1960 he had six non-finishes in seven races behind the wheel of a factory-prepared BRM, Gurney was known to give the brake pedal a reassuring tap just before hard application — a habit Gurney himself jokingly referred to as the chicken-shit school of braking. Gurney was particularly noted for an exceptionally fluid driving style, on rare occasions, as when his car fell behind with minor mechanical troubles and he felt he had nothing to lose, he would abandon his classic technique and adopt a more aggressive style. He produced an effort, made up the deficit and won the race with a dramatic last-lap pass of runner-up Bobby Unser. After rules changes came in effect in 1961, he teamed with Jo Bonnier for the first full season of the factory Porsche team, scoring three second places. He came very close to scoring a victory at Reims, France in 1961
7.
Jackie Stewart
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Sir John Young Jackie Stewart, OBE is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland. Nicknamed the Flying Scot, he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers Championships, and twice runner-up, over nine seasons. In the United States, he worked as a commentator on television broadcasts at the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500. He has also been a spokesman for Ford, Rolex and Moët, between 1997 and 1999, in partnership with his son, Paul, he was team principal of the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One racing team. Stewart was born in Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, a village 15 miles west of Glasgow, Stewarts family were Austin, later Jaguar, car dealers and had built up a successful business. Jackie attended Hartfield primary school in the town of Dumbarton. Stewart was unable to continue his education past the age of 16. He was not actually diagnosed with dyslexia until 1980, when his oldest son Mark was diagnosed with the condition. He has said, When youve got dyslexia and you find something youre good at, you put more into it than anyone else, you cant think the way of the clever folk, so youre always thinking out of the box. At the age of 13 he had won a clay pigeon shooting competition and then went on to become a member of the Scottish shooting team, competing in the United Kingdom. He won the British, Irish, Welsh and Scottish skeet shooting championships and he competed for a place in the British trap shooting team for the 1960 Summer Olympics, but finished third behind Joseph Wheater and Brett Huthart. He took up an offer from Barry Filer, a customer of his family business, for 1961, Filer provided a Marcos, in which Stewart scored four wins, and competed once in Filers Aston DB4GT. In 1962, to if he was ready to become a professional driver, tested a Jaguar E-type at Oulton Park. He won two races, his first in England, in the E-type, and David Murray of Ecurie Ecosse offered him a ride in the Tojeiro EE Mk2, then their Cooper T49, in which he won at Goodwood. For 1963, he earned fourteen wins, a second, in 1964, he again signed with Ecurie Ecosse. Jackie came down for the test at Goodwood, taking over a new, soon Stewart was bettering McLarens times, causing McLaren to return to the track for some quicker laps. Again, Stewart was quicker, and Tyrrell offered Stewart a spot on the team, in 1964 he drove in Formula Three for Tyrrell. His debut, in the wet at Snetterton on 15 March, was dominant, within days, he was offered a Formula One ride with Cooper, but declined, preferring to gain experience under Tyrrell, he failed to win just two races in becoming F3 champion
8.
Formula Junior
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Formula Junior is an open wheel formula racing class first adopted in October 1958 by the CSI. The class was intended to provide an entry level class where drivers could use mechanical components from ordinary automobiles. The idea to form the new class came from Count Giovanni Johnny Lurani who saw the need of a class for racing cars where younger drivers could take their first steps. The brakes and transmission also had to be production-based, constructors were allowed to increase the number of gears, but only inside a production gearbox casing. Formula Junior was also the first racing class to require roll cages, as the formula gathered momentum, though, constructors started to take note. In the UK Frank Nichols of Elva produced the Elva 100 series powered by a BMC A-Series engine or a DKW two-stroke engine tuned by Gerhard Mitter in Germany, the Elva became first mass-produced British Formula Junior car. Other early British designs included the Gemini and Lola Mk 2 and it was not long before Cooper started to produce a car similar to their contemporary F1/F2 thinking, later F3s and bobtail sports car fitted with BMC A-series engines. On the engine side, Keith Duckworth of Cosworth Engineering took an interest in Formula Junior, Lotus also came into the game with their Lotus 18, a simplified derivative of their Formula One and Formula Two chassis fitted with a 997cc Ford Anglia engine. Later Lotus also raced in Formula Junior with Lotus 20, Lotus 22 and these two marques, with close links to their Grand Prix teams, soon came to dominate Formula Junior on an international level. In Sweden Saab produced the Saab Formula Junior, mainly to test new engine designs, in Russia the most used engine came from the Moskvitch. Through the formulas lifetime, though, the number of manufacturers increased, brabhams first racing car was the mid-engined BT1 in 1961. By 1963 the class had become expensive, the scope for wins in homebuilt or amateur cars was diminishing, the 1963 series was the last series in the UK and Europe. In the early 1960s, after Formula One was reduced to a 1, slightly later in the 60s, classes based on the same original idea as FJ evolved as low-cost introductions to single-seater motor racing, notably Formula Ford and Formula Vee. Because many cars and engines are readily available, Formula Junior is now a popular category in historic racing. Drivers with background in Formula Junior includes Jim Clark, Peter Arundell, Trevor Taylor, John Surtees, Denny Hulme, Ed Leslie, Pat Pigott and Jack McAfee
9.
Indianapolis 500
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The Indianapolis 500 is an automobile race held annually at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. The event is held over Memorial Day weekend, which is typically the last weekend in May and it is contested as part of the Verizon IndyCar Series, the top level of American Championship Car racing, an open-wheel formula colloquially known as Indy Car Racing. The name of the race is often shortened to Indy 500, the event, billed as The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, is considered part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, which comprises three of the most prestigious motorsports events in the world. The official attendance is not disclosed by Speedway management, but the permanent seating capacity is upwards of 250,000, the inaugural running was won by Ray Harroun in 1911. The race celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, and the 100th running was held in 2016, alexander Rossi is the defending champion. The most successful drivers are A. J. Foyt, Al Unser, the active driver with the most victories is Hélio Castroneves, with three. Rick Mears holds the record for most career pole positions with six, the most successful car owner is Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske, which has 16 total wins and 17 poles. For a list of races and winners, see List of Indianapolis 500 winners, the Indianapolis 500 is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5 mile oval circuit. Drivers race 200 laps, counterclockwise around the circuit, for a distance of 500 miles, since its inception in 1911, the race has always been scheduled on or around Memorial Day. Since 1974, the race has been scheduled for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, practice and time trials are held in the two weeks leading up to the race. Traditionally, the field consists of 33 starters, aligned in a grid of eleven rows of three cars apiece. The event is contested by Indy cars, a formula of professional-level, single-seat, open cockpit, open-wheel, as of 2015, all entrants utilize 2.2 L V6, twin-turbocharged engines, tuned to produce a range of 550–700 horsepower. Chevrolet and Honda are the current engine manufacturers involved in the sport, firestone, which has a deep history in the sport, dating back to the first 500, is the exclusive tire provider. The race is the most prestigious event of the IndyCar calendar and it has been avouched to be the largest single-day sporting event in the entire world. Likewise, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself is regarded as the worlds largest sporting facility in terms of capacity, the total purse exceeded $13 million in 2011, with over $2.5 million awarded to the winner, making it one of the richest cash prize funds in sports. Due to safety issues, the race is not held in wet conditions, in the event of a rain delay, the race will be postponed until rain showers cease, and the track is sufficiently dried. If rain falls during the race, officials can end the race, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway complex was built in 1909 as a gravel-and-tar track and hosted a smattering of small events, including ones for motorcycles. The first long distance event, in conditions, was the 100-lap Prest-O-Lite Trophy in 1909
10.
Formula One
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Formula One is the highest class of single-seat auto racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile. The FIA Formula One World Championship has been the form of racing since the inaugural season in 1950. The formula, designated in the name, refers to a set of rules, the F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held worldwide on purpose-built F1 circuits and public roads. The results of each race are evaluated using a system to determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers, one for constructors. The racing drivers are required to be holders of valid Super Licences, the races are required to be held on tracks graded 1, the highest grade a track can receive by the FIA. Most events are held in locations on purpose-built tracks, but there are several events in city centres throughout the world. Formula One cars are the fastest road racing cars in the world. Formula One cars race at speeds of up to approximately 375 km/h with engines currently limited in performance to a maximum of 15,000 RPM, the cars are capable of lateral acceleration in excess of five g in corners. The performance of the cars is very dependent on electronics – although traction control and other driving aids have been banned since 2008 – and on aerodynamics, suspension, the formula has radically evolved and changed through the history of the sport. F1 had a global television audience of 425 million people during the course of the 2014 season. Grand Prix racing began in 1906 and became the most popular internationally in the second half of the twentieth century. The Formula One Group is the holder of the commercial rights. Its high profile and popularity have created a major merchandising environment, since 2000 the sports spiraling expenditures and the distribution of prize money favoring established top teams have forced complaints from smaller teams and led several teams to bankruptcy. On 23 January 2017 it was confirmed that Liberty Media had completed its $8 billion acquisition of Delta Topco, the Formula One series originated with the European Grand Prix Motor Racing of the 1920s and 1930s. The formula is a set of rules that all cars must meet. Formula One was a new formula agreed upon after World War II during 1946, the first world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958, national championships existed in South Africa and the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One events were held for years, but due to the increasing cost of competition
11.
BRM
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British Racing Motors was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1950 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix. BRM won the title in 1962 when its driver Graham Hill became world champion. In 1963,1964,1965 and 1971, BRM came second in the constructors competition. BRM was founded just after the Second World War by Raymond Mays, who had built several hillclimb and road racing cars under the ERA brand before the war, and Peter Berthon, Owen, whose group primarily manufactured car parts, took over the team in its entirety. Between 1954 and 1970 the team entered its works F1 cars under the name of the Owen Racing Organisation. Berthon and Mays continued to run the team on Rubery Owens behalf into the 1960s, before it was handed over to Louis Stanley, the husband of Sir Alfreds sister Jean Owen. A factory was set up in Spalding Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire, behind Eastgate House, Mays family home, several people involved with ERA returned to the firm to work for BRM, including Harry Mundy and Eric Richter. The team also had access to a test facility at Folkingham aerodrome, the first post-war rules for the top level of motor racing allowed 1. 5-litre supercharged or 4. 5-litre normally aspirated engines. BRMs first engine design was an extremely ambitious 1. 5-litre supercharged V16, Rolls-Royce was contracted to produce centrifugal superchargers, rather than the more commonly used Roots type. The design concept of the V16 had not been used extensively on automobiles before so that problems were many. This made the car very touchy to drive, engineer Tony Rudd was seconded to BRM from Rolls-Royce to develop the supercharging system and remained involved with BRM for nearly twenty years. The Type 15, which was the designation for the V16 car, won the first two races it actually started, the Formula Libre and Formula One events at Goodwood in September 1950, however, it was never to be so successful again. The engine proved unreliable and difficult to develop, and the team were not up to the task of improving the situation, the Type 25 was BRMs next car. The P25 was initially unsuccessful, not winning a race until a victory at the Dutch Grand Prix in 1959, colin Chapman helped to improve the car in 1956. However, the change was the promotion of an exceptional engineer who had been with the team since 1950. Rudd was the first professional engineer to exercise full control over the team. Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon were sidelined, the team had designed their first mid-engined car for 1960, matching the other teams, and won the World Drivers Championship with Graham Hill as driver, in 1962 with the P57
12.
Intermeccanica
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Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica is an automobile manufacturer, founded by Frank Reisner initially based in Italy but subsequently moving to Canada. It is currently headed by Franks son, Henry Reisner, initially the company made tuning kits. The first car was a Formula Junior car using a Peugeot engine, larger American V8 engines were used in the «Apollo GT», of which 101 cars were made for International Motor Cars. The «Veltro» prototype however, had small Ford Anglia engines and these cars and some other prototypes were designed by Franco Scaglione. The «Italia» was a larger GT sports car, of which approximately 500 were made, with Bitter Cars and Opel, Intermeccanica developed the «Indra», followed by a few years assembling the Squire car. The company relocated to San Bernardino in 1975 and started to build replica cars and it is now known as Intermeccanica International Inc. and has since 1981 been based in Vancouver. Intermeccanica today manufactures its trademark Roadster, a replica of the Porsche 3561959 Convertible D, other products include a 1958 Speedster, Turbo Look versions of both the Roadster and Speedster. 1959 Founded in Turin, Italy First project - speed equipment kits for Renault, Simca, Peugeot, kits consisted of dual throat carburetors, intake manifolds, high-performance cams, oil filters etc. A full line of free-flow exhaust systems was developed for 50 or more European cars in cooperation with an Italian tube company and these were marketed under the Intermeccanica label everywhere but North America, and sold particularly well in South Africa. In North America they were distributed by STEBRO, who made the systems themselves. 1960 From modifications of Peugeot engines a Formula Junior de-stroked, counterweighted engine was developed, a Formula Junior racing car, one of the first with rear engine, was also built and sold. When the English Formula Juniors with Ford-based engines in the rear came out a few months later, however about ten engines were sold. A small aluminum two-seater coupe was developed by Intermeccanica, based on the Steyr-Daimler-Puch 500 cc car, the Puch was a hybrid, with part Fiat 500 chassis and body and part Puch mechanicals, namely a 500 cc air-cooled opposed twin engine, special brakes, transmission etc. After a presentation of the car to Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG in Graz, Austria. Some were touring cars, and some lightened for racing, the IMP won the 500cc class one year at Nurburgring. 1961–1963 The Apollo GT was developed by Intermeccanica for a company based in San Francisco and this was at first a coupe, the prototype in aluminium. Further production cars were in steel, which used the then new Buick aluminium V8 engine, the cars were upholstered in leather, used Borrani wire wheels etc. Altogether 90 coupes and later 11 convertible Apollos were built between 1961 and 1965, in 1963 Intermeccanica exhibited the Apollo coupe at the Turin Automobile Show
13.
Reliant Scimitar
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The Reliant Scimitar name was used for a series of sports car models produced by British car manufacturer Reliant between 1964 and 1986. During its 22-year production it developed into a range of versions including a convertible launched in 1980, in 1984 Reliant launched the smaller Scimitar SS1. Reliants first Scimitar was a based upon the styling of a Daimler SP250 prototype. It was first displayed in 1964 and it was powered by a 2. 6-litre Ford straight six from the Ford Zephyr and Zodiac. In 1966 the SE4A was replaced by the SE4B, with a 3.0 L V6 Ford Essex engine. A year later, in September 1967, the cheaper SE4C was introduced with a 2. 5-litre version of the same engine and a reduction of £105 on the recommended retail price. The engine differed from the one fitted on the Ford Zephyr 6 in that the Reliant engine came with an alternator whereas Ford buyers had to be content with a dynamo, just over 1000 SE4s were produced. Scimitar Coupe with 2. 6-litre straight six engine As the Sabre 6 began looking a bit dated, Managing Director Ray Wiggin started looking for a new design. While at the 1962 Motorshow, he saw a car called an OGLE SX250, it had designed by David Ogle and it was based on the Daimler Dart SP250 chassis. The car had been commissioned by Boris Forter, managing director of the Helena Rubenstein Company. Daimler didnt use the design, so Reliant approached Ogle and asked to buy the rights for it, some subtle changes were made to the bodyshell and it was further modified to fit the Reliant Sabre chassis and running gear. The new Scimitar GT car retained the engine from the Sabre. It was launched at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1964, it was praised for its elegant lines, the price included wire wheels and a luxurious interior with comprehensive instrumentation. Optional extras included a choice of De Normanville overdrive unit, electric sunroof, Reliant produced approximately 296 straight-six Scimitar GTs. Scimitar coupé with 3-litre V6 Essex engine In late 1966 Ford dropped the 2. 6-litre Straight Six engine and replaced it with the new 3-litre Essex V6 engine. This meant that Reliant had to do a deal of development work to the existing Scimitar GT to enable the new more powerful engine to fit and obtain best performance. As the Essex engine was shorter, it was mounted further back in the bulkhead to improve weight distribution. The lower wishbones were re-positioned, the structures and cross members were reinforced
14.
Cliff Allison
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Henry Clifford Cliff Allison was a British racing driver from England, who participated in Formula One during seasons 1958 to 1961 for the Lotus, Scuderia Centro Sud, Ferrari and UDT Laystall teams. He was born and died in Brough, Westmorland, Cliff Allison started his racing career in a Formula Three Cooper 500 in 1953 before being spotted by Colin Chapman. Allison won the performance prize driving a 744cc Lotus in the 195724 Hours of Le Mans, the Lotus of Allison and Colin Chapman finished sixth in the 195812 Hours of Sebring endurance race for sports cars. Allison came in fourth with his Lotus in the 1958 Grand Prix of Europe at Spa-Francorchamps, Allison and Dan Gurney shared one of three team Ferrari cars that competed in the June 19591000 km Nürburgring race. Seventy-five cars entered the 1000 kilometre race which was a championship event for sports cars. Allison was paired with Jean Behra in a Ferrari which finished second in the 195912 Hours of Sebring, the drivers received $1,500 in prize money. Allison was credited with the fastest lap of the Sebring race in the No.9 Ferrari and he was clocked at 3 minutes 21.6 seconds on the 97th lap of the 5. 2-mile course. In May 1960 Allison skidded off the road during practice for the Targa Florio in Palermo and his Ferrari reached a speed of 100 miles per hour when a tyre burst, or so the driver believed. The car crashed into a scrub forest, destroying itself and most of what it touched, when the mishap occurred the Ferrari was nearing the end of a five-mile straight by the sea. This was the very fast stretch of road in the event. Allison escaped from the wreck without a scratch, but his face was ashen, Allison was forced to make numerous pit stops during the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix. His Lotus finished sixth,12 laps behind race winner Maurice Trintignant, however this marked the first World Championship point for Team Lotus. Ferraris stable of drivers for 1959 were Olivier Gendebien, Phil Hill, Brooks, Behra, Gurney, for the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix the Ferrari factory team fielded truncated versions of the cars they ran in future grand prix races. At Monte Carlo the Ferraris long sleek snouts were cut away to more air into the cooling systems. Wolfgang von Trips lost control of his Porsche in a bend where the street was steeply inclined to Casino, Allisons Ferrari crashed into him as he spun. The Lotus of Bruce Halford came next into the blind curve, Allison and his Ferrari suffered the least damage while von Trips sustained a gashed face, and Halford had a cut to his arm. Neither of the three cars could continue and he suffered a major crash behind the wheel of his Ferrari while practising for the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix, and it took him almost the rest of the year to recover from his injuries. Allison was hurt when his Ferrari slammed into a straw barrier and he was unconscious when he was taken to a hospital
15.
Roy Salvadori
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Roy Francesco Salvadori was a British racing driver and team manager. He was born in Dovercourt, Essex, to parents of Italian descent and he graduated to Formula One by 1952 and competed regularly until 1962 for a succession of teams including Cooper, Vanwall, BRM, Aston Martin and Connaught. Also a competitor in other formulae, he won the 195924 Heures du Mans in an Aston Martin with co-driver Carroll Shelby, in 47 starts he achieved one F1 Championship podium finish—third place at the RAC British Grand Prix—and won non-championship races in Australia, New Zealand and England. In 1961 he was lying second in the United States Grand Prix when his Coopers engine failed, at the end of 1962 he retired from F1, and he stopped racing altogether a couple of years later to concentrate on the motor trade. He returned to the sport in 1966 to manage the Cooper-Maserati squad for two seasons, and eventually retired to Monaco. It was with this car, he raced in the 1947 Grand Prix des Frontières, despite this, Salvasdori still cruised home to record an impressive fifth place. He then decided to pursue a career, and drove a number of different makes as his career progressed. He was in critical condition after suffering a skull and other severe injuries. He came so close enough to death, he was given the last rites, through he wasnt alone in that, he became known as King of the Airfields. Certainly, he piled up the wins at Silverstone, Snetterton, roy race with all the tough nut tenacity benefitting of a man who made good in the second-hand car trade in the immediate post-war England. He twice won the Oulton Parks International Gold Cup – and there were plenty of adjacent trees to hit there, plus there was a lake to plunge into, which he did once abroad a Jaguar Mk. II3.8 saloon. Nor was the Mulsanne Straight at night a place for the inaccurate or nervous – and he scored his most notable success at Le Mans and he would continue to race the Ferrari, winning the Joe Fry Memorial Trophy. For the 1953 season, Salvadori joined the Connaught team and competed in five Grands Prix with the Connaught A type, however, he did secured a number of non-championship victories during the season. However, he remained active in domestic motor sport and in sports cars for Aston Martin. Ever since his Championship debut in 1952, Salvadori would experience retirement after retirement, out of the ten races contested between 1953 and 1956, he would retire early in every single one of them. But this all change in 1957, when he signed with Cooper achieving only one place at RAC British Grand Prix. However,1958 was his most successful season, finishing fourth in the World Drivers Championship for Cooper, behind Mike Hawthorn, Stirling Moss, over the course of the season, he would earn two podium finishes, including a second place in the Großer Preis von Deutschland. However he was not retained by Cooper for 1959 but drove a privately entered Cooper, the Aston Martin was a traditional front engined car, which was soon outclassed by the Cooper rear engined concept
16.
Harold Macmillan
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Nicknamed Supermac, he was known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability. Macmillan served in the Grenadier Guards during the First World War and he was wounded three times, most severely in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He spent the rest of the war in a hospital unable to walk. After the war Macmillan joined his business, then entered Parliament in the 1924 General Election. After losing his seat in 1929, he regained it in 1931, soon after which he spoke out against the rate of unemployment in Stockton-On-Tees. When Eden resigned in 1957 after the Suez Crisis, Macmillan succeeded him as Prime Minister, benefiting from favourable international conditions, he presided over an age of affluence, marked by low unemployment and high if uneven growth. In his Bedford speech in July 1957 he told the nation they had never had it so good, the Conservatives were re-elected in 1959 with an increased majority on an electioneering budget. In international affairs, Macmillan rebuilt the special relationship with the United States from the wreckage of the Suez Crisis, after his resignation, Macmillan lived out a long retirement as an elder statesman. He was as trenchant a critic of his successors in his old age as he had been of his predecessors in his youth and he had two brothers, Daniel, eight years his senior, and Arthur, four years his senior. His paternal grandfather, Daniel MacMillan, who founded Macmillan publishing, was the son of a Scottish crofter from Isle of Arran, Macmillan claimed to remember Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee, which occurred in 1897, but his memory seems to his biographer suspiciously similar to Philip Guedallas account. He remembered Queen Victoria’s funeral, the Relief of Mafeking and the victory of the “gallant little Japs” against the Russians at Tsushima, Macmillan received an intensive early education, closely guided by his American mother. He learned French at home every morning from a succession of nursery maids, from the age of six or seven he received introductory lessons in classical Latin and Greek at Mr Gladstones day school, close by in Sloane Square. Macmillan attended Summer Fields School, Oxford and he won an exhibition to Balliol, but was less of a scholar than his older brother Dan. He went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he joined many political societies and his political opinions at this stage were an eclectic mix of moderate Conservatism, moderate Liberalism and Fabian Socialism. He read avidly about Disraeli, but was particularly impressed by a speech by Lloyd George at the Oxford Union Society in 1913. He obtained a First in Honours Moderations, informally known as Mods, with his final exams over two years away, he enjoyed an idyllic Trinity term at Oxford, just before the outbreak of the First World War. No such ball has been traced, and the Archduke’s murder was not announced in the British Press until 2 July, promoted to lieutenant on 30 January 1915, he soon transferred to the Grenadier Guards. He fought on the front lines in France, where the casualty rate was known to be high, as was the probability of an early and he served with distinction as a captain and was wounded on three occasions
17.
Royal Flying Corps
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The Royal Flying Corps was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War, until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC supported the British Army by artillery co-operation, at the start of World War I the RFC, commanded by Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson, consisted of five squadrons – one observation balloon squadron and four aeroplane squadrons. These were first used for spotting on 13 September 1914. Aerial photography was attempted during 1914, but again only became effective the next year, by 1918, photographic images could be taken from 15,000 feet and were interpreted by over 3,000 personnel. By this time parachutes had been used by balloonists for three years, on 17 August 1917, South African General Jan Smuts presented a report to the War Council on the future of air power. On 1 April 1918, the RFC and the RNAS were amalgamated to form a new service, after starting in 1914 with some 2,073 personnel, by the start of 1919 the RAF had 4,000 combat aircraft and 114,000 personnel in some 150 squadrons. The recommendations of the committee were accepted and on 13 April 1912 King George V signed a royal warrant establishing the Royal Flying Corps, the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers became the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps a month later on 13 May. The Flying Corps initial allowed strength was 133 officers, and by the end of year it had 12 manned balloons and 36 aeroplanes. The RFC originally came under the responsibility of Brigadier-General Henderson, the Director of Military Training, and had branches for the Army. Major Sykes commanded the Military Wing and Commander C R Samson commanded the Naval Wing, the RFCs motto was Per ardua ad astra. This remains the motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, the RFCs first fatal crash was on 5 July 1912 near Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Loraine and his observer, Staff Sergeant R. H. V, an order was issued after the crash stating Flying will continue this evening as usual, thus beginning a tradition. Four months later on 11 December 1912 Parke was killed when the Handley Page monoplane in which he was flying from Hendon to Oxford crashed. The Naval Wing, with pilots and aircraft than the Military Wing. In November 1914 the Royal Flying Corps, even taking the loss of the Naval Wing into account, had expanded sufficiently to warrant the creation of wings consisting of two or more squadrons and these wings were commanded by lieutenant-colonels. In October 1915 the Royal Flying Corps had undergone further expansion which justified the creation of brigades, further expansion led to the creation of divisions, with the Training Division being established in August 1917 and RFC Middle East, being raised to divisional status in December 1917. Finally, the air raids on London and the south-east of England led to the creation of the London Air Defence Area in August 1917 under the command of Ashmore who was promoted to major-general. Two of the first three RFC squadrons were formed from the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, No.1 Company becoming No.1 Squadron, RFC, a second heavier-than-air squadron, No.2 Squadron, RFC, was also formed on the same day
18.
Invicta (car)
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Not to be confused with other Invicta car manufacturing ventures, Finchley, London, 1900–1905 or Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, 1913–1914. Invicta is a British automobile manufacturer, the brand has been available intermittently through successive decades. More recently, the name was revived for the Invicta S1 sports car produced between 2004 and 2012 and this manufacturer was founded by Noel Macklin with Oliver Lyle of the sugar family providing finance. Assembly took place in Macklins garage at his home at Fairmile Cottage on the main London to Portsmouth road in Cobham, Surrey. The first production car, the 1925 2½ litre used a Meadows straight six, overhead-valve engine, two different chassis lengths were available,9 feet 4 inches SC and 10 feet LC to cater for the customers choice of bodywork. As demand grew a lot of the work went to Lenaerts and Dolphens in Barnes, London but final assembly. The engine grew to 3 litres in 1926 and 4½ litres in late 1928, in 1930 the S-type was launched at the London Motor Show. Still using the 4½ litre Meadows engine but in a low chassis slung under the rear axle, in an attempt to widen the market appeal the 1½ litre straight-six overhead-cam Blackburne engined 12/45 L-type was announced in 1932. It was a car with its 9 feet 10 inches wheelbase. It was available with a preselector gearbox as an option and most had coachwork by Carbodies, the supercharged 12/90 of 1933 increased the available power from 45 to 90 bhp but few were made and a proposed twin-cam 12/100 never got beyond a prototype. Sporting success for Invicta often came via Violette Cordery, who was Noel Macklins sister-in-law and she won the half mile sprint at the West Kent Motor Club meeting at Brooklands in 1925 driving a 2.7 litre. In March 1926 Cordery and a team of six drivers set multiple long distance records at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy and they covered 10,000 miles at 56.47 mph, and 15,000 miles at 55.76 mph. In July 1926 at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry track, Paris, they covered 5000 miles at 70.7 mph, taking over 70 hours of day and night driving, supervised by the Royal Automobile Club. Cordery was twice awarded the Dewar Trophy, latterly in 1929 for driving 30,000 miles in 30,000 minutes at Brooklands, sammy Davis had a spectacular accident in an S-type at Brooklands in 1931. Donald Healey in 1930 gained a win in the Monte Carlo Rally. Raymond Mays held the Brooklands Mountain Circuit Class Record in 1931 and 1932, between February and July 1927 Cordery drove an Invicta around the world, accompanied by a nurse, a mechanic, and an RAC observer. They covered 10,266 miles in five months at 24.6 mph, crossing Europe, Africa, India, Australia, Car production seems to have finished in 1935. Noel Macklin went on to found Railton, who used the Cobham buildings to make their cars after Invicta moved to Chelsea in 1933, an attempted revival using Delage and Darracq components failed to get off the ground
19.
Avro
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Avro was founded on 1 January 1910 by Alliott Verdon Roe at the Brownsfield Mill on Great Ancoats Street in Manchester. The company remained based primarily in Lancashire throughout its 53 years of existence with key developmental and manufacturing sites in Alexandra Park, Chadderton, Trafford Park, one of the worlds first aircraft builders, A. V. Roe and Company was established at Brownsfield Mill, Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, by Alliott Verdon Roe, humphreys contribution was chiefly financial and organizational, funding it from the earnings of the family webbing business and acting as managing director until he joined the RFC in 1917. Alliot had already constructed an aircraft, the Roe I Triplane. The first Avro aircraft to be produced in any quantity was the Avro E or Avro 500, first flown in March 1912, of which 18 were manufactured, most for the newly formed RFC. The company also built the worlds first aircraft with enclosed accommodation in 1912, the monoplane Type F. The Type 500 was developed into the Avro 504, first flown in September 1913, production lasted 20 years and totalled 8,340 at several factories, Hamble, Failsworth, Miles Platting and Newton Heath. A rural site to the south of the city was found at New Hall Farm, Woodford in Cheshire. In 1928, Crossley Motors sold AVRO to Armstrong Siddeley Holdings Ltd, in 1935, Avro became a subsidiary of Hawker Siddeley. Maintaining their skills in designing aircraft, the company built a more robust biplane called the Avro Tutor in the 1930s which the Royal Air Force also bought in quantity. A twin piston-engined airliner called the Anson followed but as tensions rose again in Europe the firms emphasis returned to combat aircraft, the Avro Manchester, Lancaster and Lincoln were particularly famous Avro designs. More than 7,000 Lancasters were built and their bombing capabilities led to their use in the famous Dam Busters raid. Of the total, nearly half were built at Avros Woodford and Chadderton sites, with some 700 Lancasters built at the Avro shadow factory next to Leeds Bradford Airport and this factory employed 17,500 workers at a time when the population of Yeadon was just 10,000. It was the largest building in Europe at the time, at 1.5 million square feet, the old taxiway from the factory to the runway is still evident. The Avro Lancaster carried the heaviest bomb loads of the war, the civilian Lancastrian and maritime reconnaissance Shackleton were derived from the successful Lancaster design. The Tudor was a pressurised but problematic post-war Avro airliner which faced strong competition from designs by Bristol, Canadair, Douglas, Handley Page, and Lockheed. With the same wings and engines as the Lincoln, it achieved only a production run following a first flight in June 1945. The older Avro York was somewhat successful in both the RAF and in commercial service, being distinguished by a fuselage square in cross-section
20.
Royal Marines
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The Corps of Royal Marines is the United Kingdoms amphibious light infantry force, forming part of the Naval Service, along with the Royal Navy. The Royal Marines were formed in 1755 as the Royal Navys infantry troops, as a highly specialised and adaptable light infantry force, the Royal Marines are trained for rapid deployment worldwide and capable of dealing with a wide range of threats. The Royal Marines have close ties with allied marine forces, particularly the United States Marine Corps. Today, the Royal Marines are a fighting force within the British Armed forces. The Royal Marines can trace its origins back as far as 28 October 1664 when at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company the Duke of York and Albanys maritime regiment of foot was first formed. On 5 April 1755, His Majestys Marine Forces, fifty Companies in three Divisions, headquartered at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, were formed by Order of Council under Admiralty control. Initially all field officers were Royal Navy officers as the Royal Navy felt that the ranks of Marine field officers were largely honorary and this meant that the furthest a Marine officer could advance was to lieutenant colonel. It was not until 1771 that the first Marine was promoted to colonel and this attitude persisted well into the 1800s. During the rest of the 18th century, they served in numerous landings all over the world and they also served in the American War of Independence, being particularly courageous in the Battle of Bunker Hill led by Major John Pitcairn. In 1788 a detachment of four companies of marines, under Major Robert Ross, due to an error the Fleet left Portsmouth without its main supply of ammunition, and were not resupplied until the Fleet docked in Rio de Janeiro midway through the voyage. In 1802, largely at the instigation of Admiral the Earl St. Vincent, the Royal Marines Artillery was formed as a separate unit in 1804 to man the artillery in bomb ketches. These had been manned by the Armys Royal Regiment of Artillery, during the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Marines participated in every notable naval battle on board the Royal Navys ships and also took part in multiple amphibious actions. In the Caribbean theatre volunteers from freed French slaves on Marie-Galante were used to form Sir Alexander Cochranes first Corps of Colonial Marines and these men bolstered the ranks, helping the British to hold the island until reinforcements arrived. This practice was repeated during the War of 1812, where escaped American slaves were formed into Cochranes second Corps of Colonial Marines and these men were commanded by Royal Marines officers and fought alongside their regular Royal Marines counterparts at the Battle of Bladensburg. Throughout the war Royal Marines units raided up and down the east coast of America including up the Penobscot River and they fought in the Battle of New Orleans and later helped capture Fort Bowyer in Mobile Bay in what was the last action of the war. In 1855 the Infantry forces were renamed the Royal Marines Light Infantry, during the Crimean War in 1854 and 1855, three Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross, two in the Crimea and one in the Baltic. In 1862 the name was altered to Royal Marine Light Infantry. The Royal Navy did not fight any other ships after 1850, in these Naval Brigades, the function of the Royal Marines was to land first and act as skimishers ahead of the sailor Infantry and Artillery
21.
Mercury (automobile)
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Mercury is a defunct division of the American automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company. Marketed as a premium brand for nearly its entire existence. Forming half of the Lincoln-Mercury Division, the brand was intended to bridge the gap between the Ford and Lincoln vehicle lines. In a similar context, Buick and Oldsmobile played the role within General Motors while the Chrysler Division did so within Chrysler Corporation. Although the initial Mercury Eight was a design, for much of the existence of the division. To various extents, nearly all Mercury vehicles would be rebadged, during the development of the Edsel, this practice ran in reverse, as the vehicles were derived from Mercury chassis underpinnings. In the summer of 2010, Ford Motor Company announced the discontinuation of the Mercury division as it consolidated its marketing and engineering efforts on the Ford, production of Mercury vehicles ceased in the fourth quarter of 2010. At the time, Ford sold Mercury vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, U. S. Virgin Islands, the final Mercury automobile, a 2011 Mercury Grand Marquis, rolled off the assembly line on January 4,2011. Although the final vehicle of the division was produced in 2011, Mercury remains an active, while General Motors and upstart Chrysler Corporation both had a comprehensive line of brands, by 1935, Ford sold only its namesake brand and the cars of Lincoln Motor Company. Aside from the Cadillac V-16, the Packard Eight and Duesenberg Model J, as a solution, from 1936 to 1939, Ford began its own version of the Companion Make Program introduced by General Motors in the previous decade. Inside Ford, there was whether a medium-priced car should be a Ford model or a new marque entirely. Started as a company in 1937 by Edsel Ford, the Mercury name was selected from over 100 potential model. The Chevrolet Mercury was produced in 1933, becoming the Chevrolet Standard from 1934-1936, the body designs of the new car were completed by E. T. Bob Gregorie. For the 1939 model year, the Mercury made its debut with a vehicle line. An all-new car, sharing no body panels with any Ford or Lincoln, to minimize production costs, a 239 cubic-inch version of the Ford Flathead V8 engine was used in place of developing an engine specifically for the division. Over 65,800 cars were sold for 1939, at a price of $916. For the 1941 model year, the Mercury officially adopted the Mercury Eight nameplate used in sales literature, to lower production costs of the popular vehicle, the Mercury Eight shared much of its bodyshell with the Ford V8, but it sat on a four-inch longer wheelbase. During the war-shortened 1942 model year, the Mercury Eight introduced the first semi-automatic transmission by Ford Motor Company, following World War II, Ford Motor Company dropped the De Luxe Ford sub-brand and Lincoln-Zephyr was absorbed into Lincoln
22.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
23.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
24.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
25.
Banditry
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Banditry is the life and practice of bandits. In modern usage the word may become a synonym for thief, the term bandit originates with the early Germanic legal practice of outlawing criminals, termed *bannan. The legal term in the Holy Roman Empire was Acht or Reichsacht, in modern Italian the equivalent word bandito letterally means banned or a banned person. About 5,000 bandits were executed by Pope Sixtus V in the five years before his death in 1590, marauding was one of the most common peasant reactions to oppression and hardship. The growth of warlord armies in China was also accompanied by an increase in bandit activity in the republican period. He further expanded the field in the 1969 study Bandits, later social scientists have also discussed the terms applicability to more modern forms of crime, like street gangs and the economy associated with the trade in illegal drugs. Bagaudae, bandits around the Pyrenees in the Roman Empire Hajduks, bandits in the Balkans Sardinian banditry Dacoity, Hindi term for banditry Billingsley, — Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary,1885. A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance
26.
Greek Civil War
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The Greek Civil War was fought in Greece from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek government army, and the Democratic Army of Greece. The fighting resulted in the defeat of the Communist insurgents by the government forces, the civil war resulted from a highly polarized struggle between left and right ideologies that started in 1943. From 1944 each side targeted the power vacuum that the end of German-Italian occupation during World War II left, the struggle became one of the first conflicts of the Cold War and represents the first example of Cold War power postwar involvement in the internal politics of a foreign country. The first signs of the war occurred in 1942 to 1944. The immediate prelude of the war took place in Athens, on December 3,1944. A bloody battle erupted after Greek government gendarmes, with British forces standing in the background, opened fire on a massive unarmed pro-EAM rally, killing 28 demonstrators and injuring dozens. The rally had been organised against the impunity of the collaborators and the general disarmament ultimatum, signed by Ronald Scobie, the battle lasted 33 days and resulted in the defeat of the EAM after the heavily reinforced British forces sided with the Greek government. All the while, White Terror was unleashed against the supporters of the left, the war erupted in 1946, when forces of former ELAS partisans who found shelter in their hideouts and were controlled by the KKE organized the DSE and its High Command headquarters. The Communists formed a government in December 1947 and used the DSE as the military branch of this government. The neighboring communist states of Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria offered logistical support to this provisional government, the final victory of the western-allied government forces led to Greeces membership in NATO and helped to define the ideological balance of power in the Aegean Sea for the entire Cold War. Western leaders encouraged and even coerced King George II of Greece to appoint a moderate cabinet, nevertheless, the exiled governments inability to influence affairs inside Greece rendered it irrelevant in the minds of most Greek people. At the same time, the Germans set up a collaborationist government in Athens, the puppet regime was further undermined when economic mismanagement in wartime conditions created runaway inflation, acute food shortages and famine among the civilian population. The power vacuum that the occupation created was filled by several resistance movements that ranged from royalist to communist ideologies, resistance was born first in eastern Macedonia and Thrace, where Bulgarian troops occupied Greek territory. Soon large demonstrations were organized in cities by the Defenders of Northern Greece. However, the largest group to emerge was the National Liberation Front, proclaiming that it followed the Soviet policy of creating a broad united front against fascism, EAM won the support of many noncommunist patriots. These resistance groups launched attacks against the powers and set up large espionage networks. When liberation came in October 1944, Greece was in a state of crisis, although controlled by the KKE, the organization had democratic republican rhetoric. Its military wing, the Greek Peoples Liberation Army was founded in February 1942, Aris Velouchiotis, a member of KKEs Central Committee, was nominated Chief of the ELAS High Command
27.
Istanbul
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Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
28.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
29.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
30.
Damascus
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Damascus is the capital and likely the largest city of Syria, following the decline in population of Aleppo due to the ongoing battle for the city. It is commonly known in Syria as ash-Sham and nicknamed as the City of Jasmine, in addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious centre of the Levant. The city has an population of 1,711,000 as of 2009. Located in south-western Syria, Damascus is the centre of a metropolitan area of 2.6 million people. The Barada River flows through Damascus, first settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad, Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the government and all of the government ministries. The name of Damascus first appeared in the geographical list of Thutmose III as T-m-ś-q in the 15th century BC, the etymology of the ancient name T-m-ś-q is uncertain, but it is suspected to be pre-Semitic. It is attested as Dimašqa in Akkadian, T-ms-ḳw in Egyptian, Dammaśq in Old Aramaic, the Akkadian spelling is found in the Amarna letters, from the 14th century BC. Later Aramaic spellings of the name include a intrusive resh, perhaps influenced by the root dr. Thus, the English and Latin name of the city is Damascus which was imported from originated from the Qumranic Darmeśeq, and Darmsûq in Syriac, meaning a well-watered land. In Arabic, the city is called Dimašqu š-Šāmi, although this is shortened to either Dimašq or aš-Šām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbours. Aš-Šām is an Arabic term for Levant and for Syria, the latter, the Anti-Lebanon mountains mark the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range has peaks of over 10,000 ft. and blocks precipitation from the Mediterranean sea, however, in ancient times this was mitigated by the Barada River, which originates from mountain streams fed by melting snow. Damascus is surrounded by the Ghouta, irrigated farmland where many vegetables, cereals, maps of Roman Syria indicate that the Barada river emptied into a lake of some size east of Damascus. Today it is called Bahira Atayba, the hesitant lake, because in years of severe drought it does not even exist, the modern city has an area of 105 km2, out of which 77 km2 is urban, while Jabal Qasioun occupies the rest. The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, to the south-east, north and north-east it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages, Midan in the south-west, Sarouja and Imara in the north and north-west. These neighbourhoods originally arose on roads leading out of the city and these new neighbourhoods were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim refugees from the European regions of the Ottoman Empire which had fallen under Christian rule
31.
Baghdad
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Baghdad is the capital of the Republic of Iraq. The population of Baghdad, as of 2016, is approximately 8,765,000 making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab world, and the second largest city in Western Asia. Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century, within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic world. This, in addition to housing several key institutions, garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the Centre of Learning. Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with a population of 1,200,000 people. The city was destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state in 1938, in contemporary times, the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent Iraq War that lasted until December 2011. In recent years, the city has been subjected to insurgency attacks. As of 2012, Baghdad was listed as one of the least hospitable places in the world to live, the site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. By the 8th century AD, several villages had developed there, including a Persian hamlet called Baghdad, the name is of Indo-European origin and a Middle Persian compound of Bagh god and dād given by, translating to Bestowed by God or Gods gift. In Old Persian the first element can be traced to boghu and is related to Slavic bog god, a similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt, known in English by its Hellenistic form Mithridates, meaning gift of Mithra. There are a number of locations in the wider region whose names are compounds of the word bagh, including Baghlan. The name of the town Baghdati in Georgia shares the same etymological origins, when the Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name Madinat al-Salaam or City of Peace. This was the name on coins, weights, and other official usage. By the 11th century, Baghdad became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis, after the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital whence they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, on 30 July 762, the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city, mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying, This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward. The citys growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors, it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris, the abundance of water in a dry climate
32.
Basra
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Basra, also al-Baṣrah, is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab between Kuwait and Iran. It had an population of 1.5 million in 2012. Basra is also Iraqs main port, although it not have deep water access. The city is part of the location of Sumer, one of the ports from which Sinbad the Sailor journeyed. It played an important role in early Islamic history and was built in 636, Basra is consistently one of the hottest cities in Iraq, with summer temperatures regularly exceeding 50 °C. The city was called by many throughout its history, Basrah being the most common. In Arabic the word means the overwatcher, which might have been an allusion to the citys origin as an Arab military base against the Sassanids. Some sources claim that the name is derived from the Persian word Bas-rah, others have argued that the name is derived from the Aramaic word basratha, meaning place of huts, settlement. During the pre-Islamic era, the area was known to the Arabs as al-Khariba due to the existence of an ancient city called al-Kharba. After the present city was built, it was called by names, including the mother of Iraq, the reservoir of Arabs, the prosperous city. The name Al-Basrah, which in Arabic means the over watching or the seeing everything, was given to it because of its role as a base against the Sassanid Empire. However, other sources claim the name originates from the Persian word Bas-rāh or Bassorāh meaning where many ways come together, in 639 Umar established this encampment as a city with five districts, and appointed Abu Musa al-Ashari as its first governor. Abu Musa led the conquest of Khuzestan from 639 to 642 and was ordered by Umar to aid Uthman ibn Abu al-ʿAs, then fighting Iran from a new, more easterly miṣr at Tawwaj. In 650, the Rashidun Caliph Uthman reorganised the Persian frontier, installed ʿAbdullah ibn Amir as Basras governor, Ibn Amir led his forces to their final victory over Yazdegerd III, the Sassanid King of Kings. In 656, Uthman was murdered and Ali was appointed Caliph, Ali first installed Uthman ibn Hanif as Basras governor, who was followed by ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas. These men held the city for Ali until the death in 661. The Sufyanids held Basra until Yazid Is death in 683, the Sufyanids first governor was Umayyad ʿAbdullah, a renowned military leader, commanding fealty and financial demands from Karballah, but poor governor. In 664, Muʿawiyah I replaced him with Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan, often called ibn Abihi, on Ziyads death in 673, his son ʿUbaydullah ibn Ziyad became governor
33.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
34.
Ahvaz
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Ahvaz or Ahwaz is a city in the southwest of Iran, and the capital of the oil and natural gas wealthy Khuzestan province. At the 2011 census, its population was 1,112,021, Irans only navigable river, Karun passes by the middle of the city. It has a history dating back to the Achaemenid period. In the ancient times, it had one of the main centers of the Academy of Gondishapur. It is home to several universities, institutions, prominent companies, in Iran, it is known for its ethnic diversity. It is home to Persians, Lurs, Iranian Arabs, Jews, Iranian Armenians and Mandaeans, the word Ahvaz is a Persianized form, which in turn itself is derived from a Persian word. Thus, Ahvaz in Persian means the Huz-i people, which refers to the original inhabitants of Khūzestān. The name of the region appears in medieval Syriac sources as ܒܝܬ ܗܘܙܝܐ Beṯ Huzáyé, the term Huz, meanwhile, is the Old Persian rendition of Suz, the native Elamite name of the region. See Origin of the name Khuzestan and Elam#Etymology for more details, Ahvaz is the analog of Avaz and Avaja which appear in Dariuss epigraph. This word appears in Naqsh-Rostam inscription as Khaja or Khooja too and it became the seat of the province, and was also referred to as Hūmšēr. During the Sassanid era, a system and several dams were constructed. Examples of Sassanid-era dams are Band-e Bala-rud, Band-e Mizan, Band-e Borj Ayar, the city replaced Susa, the ancient capital of Susiana, as the capital of what was then called Khuzestān. The city had two sections, the nobles of the city lived in one part while the other was inhabited by merchants. When the Arabs invaded the area in 640, the part of the city home to the nobility was demolished but the Hūj-ī-stānwāčār Market of Khūz State, the merchant area, remained intact. During the Umayyad and Abbasid eras, Ahvaz flourished as a center for the cultivation of sugarcane and it is discussed by such respected medieval historians and geographers as ibn Hawqal, Tabari, Istakhri, al-Muqaddasi, Yaqubi, Masudi, and Mostowfi Qazvini. Nearby stood the Academy of Gundishapur, where the teaching hospital is said to have been first established. Ahvaz was devastated in the bloody Mongol invasions of the 13th and 14th centuries, the dam and irrigation channels, no longer maintained, eroded and finally collapsed early in the 19th century. During this time Ahvaz was primarily inhabited by the original Khuzhis, although most Arab migrants fled the city, a few stayed
35.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
36.
Iraq Petroleum Company
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The Iraq Petroleum Company, known prior to 1929 as the Turkish Petroleum Company, is an oil company which, between 1925 and 1961, had a virtual monopoly on all oil exploration and production in Iraq. Today, it is owned by some of the worlds largest oil companies and is headquartered in London. In June 1972, the Baathist government in Iraq nationalised the IPC, the company Iraq Petroleum Company still remains extant, however, on paper and one associated company – the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company – also continues with its original shareholding intact. The related Iraq Petroleum Group was an association of companies played a major role in the discovery. The first interest was shown by Imperial German banks and companies, already involved in the building of the Berlin-Baghdad railway, followed by British interests. In 1911, in an attempt to bring together competing British and German interests in the region, in 1912, this company became the Turkish Petroleum Company, formed with the purpose of acquiring concessions from the Ottoman Empire to explore for oil in Mesopotamia. The owners were a group of large European companies – Deutsche Bank, the Anglo Saxon Oil Company, the driving force behind its creation was Gulbenkian, and the largest single shareholder was the British government-controlled Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which by 1914 held 50% of the shares. TPC received a promise of a concession from the Ottoman government, Deutsche Bank brought with it a concession granted to the Anatolian Railway Company to explore for minerals and oil along a 40 km -wide strip either side of its proposed railway in Mesopotamia. On 28 June 1914, the Turkish grand vizier confirmed the promise of a concession to TPC, a rising demand for petroleum during the war had demonstrated to the big powers the importance of having their own sources of oil. Since one of the partners of TPC had been German. This was agreed by the San Remo Oil Agreement, much to the annoyance of the Americans who felt excluded from Middle Eastern oil and demanded an open door. After prolonged and sometimes sharp diplomatic exchanges, U. S. oil companies were permitted to buy into the TPC, the concession required the company to select 24 rectangular plots of 8 square miles each for drilling operations. During the 1925/6 season, a geological party, comprising representatives of the shareholding companies together with an American contingent. Two wells were selected for drilling at Pulkanah and one each at Khashm al Ahmar, Kirkuk was included as the sixth location. The well at Baba Gurgur was located by geologist J. M. Muir just north of Kirkuk, drilling started, and in the early hours of 14 October 1927 oil was struck. Many tons of oil were spilled before the well was brought under control. TPC was to be organized as a company, registered in Britain. The company itself was allowed to refine and sell to Iraqs internal market
37.
Armstrong Siddeley
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Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles, the company was created following the purchase by Armstrong Whitworth of Siddeley-Deasy, a manufacturer of fine motor cars, that were marketed to the top echelon of society. Company mergers and takeovers with Hawker Aviation and Bristol Aero Engines saw the continuation of the car production, the company was absorbed into the Rolls-Royce conglomerate who were interested in the aircraft and aircraft engine business. Siddeley Autocars, of Coventry, was founded by John Davenport Siddeley in 1902 and its products were heavily based on Peugeots, using many of their parts but fitted with English-built bodies. This company merged with Wolseley in 1905 and made stately Wolseley-Siddeley motorcars and they were used by Queen Alexandra and the Duke of York later King George V. In 1909 J. D. Siddeley resigned from Wolseley and took over the Deasy Motor Company, in 1912, the cars used the slogan As silent as the Sphinx and started to sport a Sphinx as a bonnet ornament, a symbol that became synonymous with descendent companies. During the Second World War the company produced trucks, ambulances, in 1915 airframes and aero-engines started to be produced as well. In 1927, Armstrong Whitworth merged its heavy engineering interests with Vickers to form Vickers-Armstrongs, at this point, J. D. Siddeley brought Armstrong Siddeley and Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft into his control. In 1928, Armstrong Siddeley Holdings bought Avro from Crossley Motors, Armstrong Siddeley manufactured luxury cars, aircraft engines, and later, aircraft. In 1935, J. D. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft became a subsidiary of Hawker, the aviation pioneer Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith – Tommy, later Sir Thomas, Sopwith – became chairman of Armstrong Siddeley Motors, a Hawker Siddeley subsidiary. Armstrong Siddeley produced their last cars in 1960, Bristol Siddeley and Rolls-Royce merged in 1966, the latter subsuming the former which remained for a while as an aircraft engine division within Rolls-Royce. This meant that Armstrong Siddeley and A-S Sphinx Logo are trademarks, the first car produced from the union was a fairly massive machine, a 5-litre 30 hp. A smaller 18 hp appeared in 1922 and a 2-litre 14 hp was introduced in 1923,1928 saw the companys first 15 hp six,1929 saw the introduction of a 12 hp vehicle. This was a year for the marque, during which it first offered the Wilson preselector gearbox as an optional extra. In 1930 the company marketed four models, of 12,15,20, and 30 hp, the last costing £1450. The companys rather staid image was endorsed during the 1930s by the introduction of a range of cars with ohv engines. In 1933, the 5-litre six-cylinder Siddeley Special was announced, featuring a Hiduminium aluminium alloy engine, Car production continued at a reduced rate throughout 1940, and a few were assembled in 1941. The week that World War II ended in Europe, Armstrong Siddeley introduced its first post-war models, these were the Lancaster four-door saloon, the names of these models echoed the names of aircraft produced by the Hawker Siddeley Group during the war
38.
Alta Car and Engineering Company
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The Alta Car and Engineering Company was a British sports and racing car manufacturer, commonly known simply as Alta. Their cars contested five FIA World Championship races between 1950 and 1952, as well as Grand Prix events prior to this and they also supplied engines to a small number of other constructors, most notably the Connaught and HWM teams. The company was founded by engineer Geoffrey Taylor in Surbiton, Surrey, Altas first vehicle was a sports car powered by a 1. 1L engine, featuring an aluminium block, wet liners, and shaft-driven twin overhead camshafts, which Taylor designed himself. It was offered in naturally aspirated or supercharged form giving 49 or 76 bhp, a choice of four speed non-synchromesh or pre-selector gearboxes was available. These were mounted on a chassis frame with open two- or four-seat bodies. Thirteen were made, of five are thought to survive. This design, and its later 1. 5L and 2L sister cars, sold steadily, with the highest power option the car was capable of 120 mph and 0–60 mph in 7 seconds. In 1937 the company introduced front independent suspension to the chassis, in 1934, Taylor produced the first Alta to be designed solely for competition. The resulting light-weight, off-set single seat voiturette cars achieved quite a reputation in shorter events such as hill-climbs, sprints, once again, Altas keen pricing, in comparison to the expensive ERA models, resulted in many sales to amateur racers. However, a lack of reliability kept the Alta name out of the long distance Grand Prix events, a revised voiturette design appeared in 1937, with independent front suspension. George Abecassis had some success with this design, winning a string of events before the Second World War interrupted, as war approached, Taylor was drafting designs for a new straight-8 engine and a third-generation voiturette, this time with fully independent suspension. This last prewar car was highly advanced for its time, and was nearly complete in late 1939. However, as soon as war was declared, Altas production capabilities were given over to the war effort, and production of the new designs was halted. Despite Altas diminutive size, and their status as a road car manufacturer. Austerity limitations of raw materials did not stop Taylor beginning production of designs he had been developing throughout the war years, and he also restarted production of the road-going sports cars, although without further development funding the popularity of these models rapidly dwindled. Prior to 1948, the last pre-war Alta was campaigned with varying degrees of success, Taylor developed the independent suspension design further, introducing wishbones and rubber linkage bushings. The first car was supplied to privateer driver George Abecassis, who campaigned it throughout 1948 and into 1949, Abecassis would go on to use Alta engines to power his HWM team from 1951 to 1955. Modifications were made to the bodywork and gearchange for the subsequent 1949 and 1950 GP2 and GP3 vehicles, once again they were built to order, and supplied to Geoffrey Crossley and Joe Kelly respectively
39.
Thomas Sopwith
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Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, CBE, Hon FRAeS was an English aviation pioneer and yachtsman. Sopwith was born in Kensington, London on 18 January 1888 and he was the eighth child and only son of Thomas Sopwith & his wife Lydia Gertrude née Messiter. He was educated at Cottesmore School in Hove and at Seafield Park engineering college in Hill Head. When he was ten years old, whilst on a holiday on the Isle of Lismore, near Oban in Scotland. This accident haunted Sopwith for the rest of his life, Sopwith was interested in motor cycles, and took part in the 100-mile Tricar trial in 1904 where he was one of four medal winners. He also tried hot air ballooning, his first ascent being in C. S, together with Phil Paddon he bought his own hot air balloon from Short Brothers. For a while he was in business with Phil Paddon selling automobiles as Paddon & Sopwith, Albermarle St, Picadilly, London. In his youth, he was an ice skater and played in goal during Princes Ice Hockey Clubs 1908 match with C. P. P. Paris. He was also a member of the Great Britain national ice hockey team won the gold medal at the first ever European Championships in 1910. Sopwith became interested in flying after seeing John Moisant flying the first cross-Channel passenger flight and his first flight was with Gustave Blondeau in a Farman at Brooklands. He soon taught himself to fly on a Howard Wright Avis monoplane and he crashed after travelling about 300 yards, but soon improved, and on 22 November was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviation Certificate No. 31, flying a Howard Wright 1910 Biplane, on 18 December 1910, Sopwith won a £4000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British-built aeroplane, flying 169 miles in 3 hours 40 minutes. He used the winnings to set up the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands, in June 1912 Sopwith with Fred Sigrist and others set up the Sopwith Aviation Company, initially at Brooklands. On 24 October 1912 using a Wright Model B completely rebuilt by Sopwith and fitted with an ABC40 hp engine, Sopwith Aviation got its first military aircraft order in November 1912, and in December moved to larger premisies in Kingston upon Thames. The company produced more than 18,000 British World War I aircraft for the allied forces, Sopwith was awarded the CBE in 1918. Bankrupted after the war by punitive anti-profiteering taxes, he re-entered the aviation business a few later with a new firm named after his chief engineer and test pilot. Sopwith became chairman of the new firm, Hawker Aircraft, after the nationalisation of the aviation interests of what was by then Hawker Siddeley, he continued to work as a consultant to the company until 1980. He became a Knight Bachelor in 1953, sopwiths 100th birthday was marked by a flypast of military aircraft over his home
40.
Ken Tyrrell
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Robert Kenneth Ken Tyrrell was a British Formula Two racing driver and the founder of the Tyrrell Formula One constructor. Born in East Horsley, Surrey, Tyrrell served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, after the war he became a timber merchant, as a result, he was sometimes known as Chopper. In 1952, at 28, he began racing a Norton-powered Cooper in 500 cc Formula 3, in 1958, he advanced to Formula Two in a Cooper-Climax, joining Cecil Libowitz and Alan Brown. He achieved a number of good placings and the occasional win, by 1961, he was also managing the Mini Coopers, as well as deputising for an injured John Cooper in Formula One. Tyrrell was responsible for discovering Jackie Stewart, whom he had race for his FJr team, along with numerous lesser lights, he also approved Jody Scheckter and motorcycle racing ace John Surtees. He persuaded them a DFV was good insurance against the failure of their own V12, Stewart helped put the new team second in the Constructors Championship for 1968. The success led to Matras Gérard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer creating the DFV-powered Matra MS80 for 1969, piloted by Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Stewart, who won his first World Drivers Championship. Yet Matra insisted on focusing on their V12, leading Tyrrell to secretly employ Derek Gardner and it was quick, if a trifle unreliable, and spawned the much better Tyrrell 003 for 1971. This, in the hands of Stewart and new-hire François Cevert, took eight wins during 1971 and 1972, for 1972, Gardner tried inboard brakes on the 005 but proved unable to work out their problems. During his early years in F1, Uncle Ken, as he was often known, the 006, with its tall airbox, appeared in 1973 and was better than the 005. However, Tyrrell was profoundly affected by the death of Cevert in practice for the 1973 US Grand Prix, leading to Stewart announcing his retirement, the World Championship already his. With the death of Cevert and the leaving of Stewart, Tyrrell in 1974 hired Scheckter and Patrick Depailler, and Gardner gave them the less-twitchy 007. It was good enough for Scheckter to place third in the World Championship, still, Tyrrell found the time to introduce new concepts for F1. In 1976, the Tyrrell team created the six-wheeled P34, with four front wheels, in the early 1980s, Tyrrells fortunes declined to the point where he had to run his team without sponsorship. Tyrrell still retained his eye for talent, bringing Michele Alboreto, Stefan Bellof and Martin Brundle to F1, without the proper funding, Tyrrell was the only entrant with the Cosworth DFV at a time when all other teams had switched to turbocharged engines. Alboreto scored the engines last win in 1983, but in 1984 the team was excluded from the championship after being found to have run underweight cars before adding ballast during pit stops. Tyrrell denied this and felt his team was being singled out for refusing to run more expensive turbos, in the early 1990s Tyrrell relinquished much of the companys control to his sons and to Harvey Postlethwaite, who was the first to introduce the high-nose concept in the 1990 Tyrrell. Jean Alesi scored two-second places in the car, and the led an lap for the last time
41.
Jack Brabham
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Sir John Arthur Jack Brabham, AO, OBE was an Australian racing driver who was Formula One champion in 1959,1960, and 1966. He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name, Brabham was a Royal Australian Air Force flight mechanic and ran a small engineering workshop before he started racing midget cars in 1948. His successes with midgets in Australian and New Zealand road racing led to his going to Britain to further his racing career. There he became part of the Cooper Car Companys racing team and he contributed to the design of the mid-engined cars that Cooper introduced to Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and won the Formula One world championship in 1959 and 1960. In 1962 he established his own Brabham marque with fellow Australian Ron Tauranac, in the 1966 Formula One season Brabham became the first – and still the only – man to win the Formula One world championship driving one of his own cars. He was the last surviving World Champion of the 1950s, John Arthur Jack Brabham was born on 2 April 1926 in Hurstville, New South Wales, then a commuter town outside Sydney. Brabham was involved with cars and mechanics from an early age, at the age of 12, he learned to drive the family car and the trucks of his fathers grocery business. Brabham attended technical college, studying metalwork, carpentry, and technical drawing, Brabhams early career continued the engineering theme. At the age of 15 he left school to work, combining a job at a garage with an evening course in mechanical engineering. Brabham soon branched out into his own business selling motorbikes, which he bought and repaired for sale, One month after his 18th birthday on 19 May 1944 Brabham enlisted into the Royal Australian Air Force. He was based at RAAF Station Williamtown, where he maintained Bristol Beaufighters at No.5 Operational Training Unit, on his 20th birthday,2 April 1946, Brabham was discharged from the RAAF with the rank of leading aircraftman. He then started a service, repair, and machining business in a workshop built by his uncle on a plot of land behind his grandfathers house. Brabham started racing after an American friend, Johnny Schonberg, persuaded him to watch a car race. Midget racing was a category for small open-wheel cars racing on dirt ovals and it was popular in Australia, attracting crowds of up to 40,000. Brabham records that he was not taken with the idea of driving, being convinced that the drivers were all lunatics, at first Schonberg drove the homemade device, powered by a modified JAP motorcycle engine built by Brabham in his workshop. In 1948, Schonbergs wife persuaded him to racing and on his suggestion Brabham took over. He almost immediately found that he had a knack for the sport, Brabham has since said that it was terrific driver training. You had to have quick reflexes, in effect you lived—or possibly died—on them, due to the time required to prepare the car, the sport also became his living
42.
Coventry Climax
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Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, racing, and other speciality engine manufacturer. An early user was GWK, who produced over 1,000 light cars with Coventry-Simplex two-cylinder engines between 1911 and 1915, just before World War I a Coventry-Simplex engine was used by Lionel Martin to power the first Aston Martin car. Ernest Shackleton selected Coventry-Simplex to power the tractors that were to be used in his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914, hundreds of Coventry-Simplex engines were manufactured during World War I to be used in generating sets for searchlights. In 1917 the company was renamed Coventry Climax and moved to East Street, in the 1920s the company moved to Friars Road, Coventry and in the late 1930s they also acquired the former Riley premises on Widdrington Road, Coventry. In the early 1930s the company supplied engines for buses. With the closure of Swift in 1931, the company was left with a stock of engines that were converted to electric generators. Going into the war, Coventry Climax used their marine diesel experience to further develop and this has been fitted as an auxiliary engine in the British Chieftain and Challenger battle tanks and Rapier anti-aircraft missile systems. In the late 1940s, the company shifted away from engines and into other markets, including marine diesels, fire pumps. In 1946, the ET199 was announced, which the company claimed was the first British-produced forklift truck, the ET199 was designed to carry a 4,000 lb load with a 24-inch load centre, and with a 9 ft lift height. This was designated the FW, for Feather Weight, the engine was displayed at the Motor Show in London and attracted attention from the motor racing fraternity for its very high horsepower per pound of weight. The FWA became popular in racing and was followed by the Mark II. The new Formula Two regulations suited the 1. 5-litre engine, the following year, the first Climax engines began to appear in Formula One in the back of Cooper chassis. Initially, these were FWBs but the FPF engine followed, Stirling Moss scored the companys first Formula One victory, in Argentina in 1958, using a 2-litre version of the engine. At the same time, the company produced the FWE engine for Lotus Elite, there were a total of 22 Grand Prix victories before 1966 with crossplane, flatplane, two- and four-valve versions of the FWMV. This combination was considered radical at the time, especially the syncromesh on all forward gears. The adoption to mass-production was successful, and the project out to the market as the 875cc Hillman Imp totaling over 400,000 units made by 1976 including the later 998cc version. Nonetheless, Coventry Climax remained in Formula One until they were unable to come up with a new engine for the three-litre formula, the company was purchased by Jaguar Cars in 1963, which itself merged with the British Motor Corporation in 1966 to form British Motor Holdings. The citation reads, Awarded to Coventry Climax Engines Ltd. for the design, development, the history of this trophy dates back to 1906
43.
Kieft Cars
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Kieft Cars, founded by Cyril Kieft, was a British car company that built Formula Three racing cars and some road going sports cars in a factory in Derry St, Wolverhampton. Cyril Kieft was born in Swansea and spent his working life in the steel industry. After the second World war he started up his own company Cyril Kieft and Co Ltd in Bridgend, Glamorgan making forgings and pressings including components for the motor industry. He had an interest in racing and when the Marwyn company. Several of these were sold and some competition success resulted, publicity was gained by successful attempts on a series of records at Autodrome de Montlhéry in France. One of the drivers was Stirling Moss who explained the shortcomings of the cars, as a result of this a new design was acquired, Moss and his manager Ken Gregory became directors, whilst the company moved to new premises at Reliance Works in Derry Street, Wolverhampton. Don Parker was employed as works driver and won the British Formula Three championships in 1952 and 1953, in 1954 Kieft started to make a two-seater sports car which could also be used as a road car. The company was losing money and at the end of 1954 Kieft sold the company to racing driver Berwyn Baxter, Kieft Cars left Wolverhampton in 1956 and moved to nearby Birmingham where they concentrated on preparing and tuning other makes of cars. There were plans for a return to making Kieft cars but these failed to materialise, the company was sold again in 1960 and changed its name to Burmans. Kieft Sports Car Co. Ltd. is now owned by Canadian Peter Schömer and based out of Chichester, there is a new Sports Racer in the works using a Coventry Climax FPF2.5 liter twin cam engine called the Kieft-Climax. Kieft logo TM#2516876 property of the Kieft Sports Car Co. Ltd, list of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom G. N. Georgano Adams-Farwell, The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars 1885-1968, georgano, editor, The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars,1885 to the Present. Dutton Press, New York, 2nd ed.1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 Detailed history of Kiefts motor racing involvement Brief history and photos of Kieft cars Kieft 500cc racing cars
44.
Reg Parnell
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Reginald Reg Parnell was a racing driver and team manager from Derby, England. He participated in seven Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, achieving one podium, Parnell, as both a driver and a team manager, had a considerable influence on post-war British motorsport until his premature death in 1964. Parnell raced at Brooklands and was banned following an accident with Kay Petre which ended her racing career, before the war he bought up racing cars. Once the hostilities had ceased he sold them to form the basis of post-war racing entries and he later raced a whole host of cars before turning to management and taking Aston Martin into Formula 1. Parnell went on to run the Yeoman Credit Racing team with the help of his son Tim who later raced in Formula 1 himself, Parnell came from a family which ran a garage business in Derby. In 1933, he was a spectator when Donington Park held its first motor race, by 1935, he bought an old 2-litre Bugatti single-seater for just £25. It broke its rear axle in the paddock at its first meeting, Parnell had secured wins at both Brooklands and Donington Park, but in 1937 he lost his licence following a practice accident for the 500 Mile race, at Brooklands. He misjudged a move on Kay Petre, when he lost control of the MG, crashing into her Austin 7 from behind. She crashed badly and was seriously injured, although she put the incident down to ‘bad luck’, the RAC revoked Parnell’s racing license for two years. This meant that he was unable to race, the ban meant in effect that, during 1938, Parnell found himself unable to race his cars, he soon discovered that lending the cars to other drivers was an excellent way of being involved in racing. His later abilities as a manager were probably developed during this period. With his licence restored in 1939, Parnell was back with 4. 9-litre Bugatti-engined single-seater and he was particularly successful with this BHW at Donington Park. Meanwhile, he started to construct his own car for voiturette, known as the Challenger, however with the outbreak of World War II, the best years of his career were wasted. During the war years, Parnell finished the Challenger and built up a collection of racing machinery. He also sold race cars, with famous and less famous racing machines passing through his hands. This did not prevent Parnell from driving as soon as the war ended and he returned to racing as soon as he could in 1946 in a variety of machinery, most notably a Maserati 4CLT, then an ERA A-type alongside several Delages and Rileys. As for the Challenger, it was sold and this proved to be a poor year for mechanical reliability, although in his Maserati 4CLM, he did finished second behind Prince Bira in the Ulster Trophy, faround the street of Dundrod. There was only one motor racing held on English soil in 1946, and this took place at Gransden Lodge, with Parnell winning the main race of the event
45.
Mike Costin
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Michael Charles Mike Costin was, together with Keith Duckworth, the co-founder of Cosworth Engineering, a producer of Ford-funded and sponsored engines. Drivers including Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet won the Formula One World Championship using Cosworth DFV engines during the 1970s and he was educated at Salvatorian College in Wealdstone and then apprenticed at De Havilland. In 1953 he started at Lotus, initially helping out on a part-time basis, Keith Duckworth joined Lotus in 1957 and they founded Cosworth Engineering in 1958. He later described himself as having studied for 40 years at the University of Duckworth, in recent years he has been a consultant to the revived Triumph motorbike company. Mike Costin is the brother of Frank Costin, an aerodynamics and race car designer for Lotus, Lister and Maserati
46.
Keith Duckworth
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David Keith Duckworth was an English mechanical engineer. He is most famous for designing the Cosworth DFV engine, an engine that revolutionised the sport of Formula One, Duckworth was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, and was educated at Giggleswick School. Duckworth claimed that allergy to medication he was receiving caused his flying problem - in civilian life he became a light aircraft. After completing his tour of duty, which he finished as a navigator, after completing his BSc degree in 1955 he began working for Lotus as a gearbox engineer. After only three years with Lotus, Duckworth, along with fellow Lotus employee Mike Costin, founded Cosworth, Costin was obliged to remain with Lotus, having recently signed a restrictive contract, for the first few years Duckworth worked essentially alone at Cosworth until Mike could join him. From the start the company was associated with the Ford Motor Company and Lotus. This arrangement has been standard in F1 ever since, the DFV made a famous debut in the third race of the 1967 season, in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. In the back of the Lotus 49, it proved lightning-quick straight out of the box, with Graham Hill taking pole position, teething problems prevented Clark mounting a serious title challenge but the Lotus-Ford was undoubtedly the class of the field. In 1968 the DFV was made available to all teams, and with its enviable power and this spawned a plethora of small, mainly English-based low-budget teams throughout the 1970s, with the DFV last racing in a Tyrrell in 1985. The DFVs last race was the Austrian Grand Prix, held on the fast Österreichring circuit, by 1985 the DFV, now upgraded as the DFY, was rated at around 540 bhp, though it was up against 950 bhp turbocharged cars and had generally become uncompetitive. The DFVs last win was at the 1983 Detroit Grand Prix with Italian driver Michele Alboreto piloting his Tyrrell 011 to a surprise, the final podium finish by a DFV powered car came a year later in Detroit when Brundle drove his Tyrrell 012 to second place. It was at the 1984 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch that Duckworth, initially an old Straight-4 sportscar engine was tested, but it proved to be very unreliable and unable to produce the necessary power required to be competitive in Formula One. The new 850 bhp, 120° Ford-Cosworth TEC V6 turbo engine, made its debut at the 1986 San Marino Grand Prix in the Team Haas Ltd entered Lola THL2, the Duckworth designed GBA V6 was more successful in 1987, its final year of competition. With the Haas team leaving Formula One, the engine would be supplied exclusively to the Benetton team, the DFZ was a development of the original DFV, while Benetton would have exclusive use of its successor, the DFR in 1988. The Cosworth DFV, and other based on the same design, became the standard in Formula One and many other types of racing. In 1980 he sold his majority stake in Cosworth for tax reasons but retained his position as chairman of the company and he was appointed President of the company on his retirement, and remained interested in engines and engineering until his death. Roger left Cosworth in 1998 and founded Integral Powertrain Ltd with three of his Cosworth colleagues, London, Haynes Publishing Group, ISBN 1-84425-015-6
47.
Suez Crisis
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The Suez Crisis, also named the Tripartite Aggression and the Kadesh Operation or Sinai War, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal, after the fighting had started, political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the three invaders. The episode humiliated Great Britain and France and strengthened Nasser, on October 29, Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai. Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to cease fire, which was ignored, on November 5, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal. The Egyptian forces were defeated, but they did block the canal to all shipping and it later became clear that the Israeli invasion and the subsequent Anglo-French attack had been planned beforehand by the three countries. The three allies had attained a number of their objectives, but the Canal was now useless and heavy political pressure from the United States. U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly warned Britain not to invade, historians conclude the crisis signified the end of Great Britains role as one of the worlds major powers. The Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 until March 1957, Israel fulfilled some of its objectives, such as attaining freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran. The Suez Canal was opened in 1869, after ten years of work financed by the French, the canal instantly became strategically important, as it provided the shortest ocean link between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. The canal eased commerce for trading nations and particularly helped European colonial powers to gain, in 1875, as a result of debt and financial crisis, the Egyptian ruler was forced to sell his shares in the canal operating company to the British government of Benjamin Disraeli. They were willing buyers and obtained a 44 percent share in the operations for less than £4 million. With the 1882 invasion and occupation of Egypt, the United Kingdom took de facto control of the country as well as the canal proper, the 1888 Convention of Constantinople declared the canal a neutral zone under British protection. In ratifying it, the Ottoman Empire agreed to international shipping to pass freely through the canal, in time of war. The Convention came into force in 1904, the year as the Entente cordiale between Britain and France. Following the Japanese surprise attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet based at Port Arthur, the British denied the Russian fleet use of the canal and forced it to steam around Africa, giving the Japanese forces time to consolidate their position in East Asia. The importance of the canal as an intersection was again apparent during the First World War. The attempt by German and Ottoman forces to storm the canal in February 1915 led the British to commit 100,000 troops to the defense of Egypt for the rest of the war. The canal continued to be strategically important after the Second World War as a conduit for the shipment of oil, petroleum business historian Daniel Yergin wrote of the period, In 1948, the canal abruptly lost its traditional rationale
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