EP01: The ITALIAN JOBS. Aired Channel 4 16th April 1988 A look at technological development in Grand Prix car design. John Watson drives some of the cars and archive footage is also used, some seen for the first time in colour.
Great video. Love these style roadsters. The sound superb. Love to see more classic racing of these cars today. I just can't imagine why they didn't incorporate roll bars & or caging around the drivers. Thanks so much for posting.
Was John Watson driving the Connaught at RAF Little Rissington? I spent two weeks at Little Rissington with the USAF in the summer of 1984. A delightful look back in time. The pubs at near by Burton on the Water were awesome.
Rubber suspension may sound strange, today. Until you think about rubber tyres. Do you know that in a "reasonably priced car" a considerable part of the suspension is taken care of by.... the tyres?
That 16 cylinder BRM of Peter Berth in in it's original format outputted something like 870 odd horsepower and had to be drastically detuned to make it tractable ( it was an 8 multiple plate clutch frier ). Stirling Moss was the only driver who could get it off the line successfully but still took the hides off the plates and had to crashbox it afterwards
I just can't get over how TINY those engines were. 1.5 litres = 90 cubic inches. 12 cylinders, 4 litre engines: Must have cylinders as big around as a thumb.
+oldfartatplay1320 If you think that's tiny which is true think about the Honda 125cc five cylinder and 250cc 6 cylinder bikes which were also DOHC 20000 revs now that messes with my mind and that was back in the mud to late sixties.
Thank you so much for this. A bit of history I know little about. Great footage. Will there be a continuation to this? Thank you for sharing. Geat stof!
I'm officiating (flag marshal) at historic and club races. Occasionally a 'chaplain' turns up and gets the team together to 'pray to keep everyone safe'. motor racing is dangerous. We 'flaggies' got the best seat in the house and can see what's going on. If you get into a race car and try to beat the others you better rely on your skill and commonsense, not on an 'invisible friend' to protect you and help you win. I walk away until he's done. Suppose it makes him feel good. Recall one time one of them climbed up into the tower at Wakefield park and protested because he didn't like the record someone was playing over the intercom. takes all kinds.
BRM, just what a race car needs, 1500cc spread out with 16 cylinders. What in the world where they thinking? Can you imagine how much rotating mass and internal friction that thing had? While wonderful in their complexity, with a sound that is still unsurpassed in it's beauty, it wasn't a very successful design. I suppose the failures are important , it leads the way to success.........eventually..........hopefully.
To be honest, Britain did nothing good or special anymore after WW2. Look at today's Germany. They are so much ahead and far superior to anything the Brits build today. Britain won the war, and lost subsequently.
@DolleHengst Where do you think the majority of Grand Prix teams are based now? Where do you think the modern Mercedes AMG F1 team and engine builder is based? What about the recently dominant Red Bull? You're talking out your arse.
JeefCakes It's not such a nonsense that you think. GB is very strong in attracting some foreign capitals and technicians to make business and create jobs. But technologically, they lost the war on many level. The De Havilland Comet became a castrophy, and nobody speaks about english planemakers anymore. Lots and lots of english car companies disappeared or was absorbed by foreign groups. All the highly praised electronic that GB was good for is now gone and only the bests of the top stayed (ATC, PMC, Chord or Marshall). Exposure, Vox and many more are now produced and controlled by asian groups, and the british are producing cars for Opel, Toyota and Mitsubishi. But, yes, they have, always today, a lot of local based raceteams there. Probably due to the high density of usable tracks and the "knowhow" of the british peoples in the field of racecars mechanics.
Bob Outélama It's literally a video about a racing car. Britain is the place to be to build the best engine or car. The dominant Mercedes engine in Formula 1 right now, is just a rebranded British engine.Also the most efficient turbo-fan jet engines. And potentially the first SSTO vehicle concept has British air breathing rocket engines, that the EU has deemed viable. You're talking out of your arse. There are many things mediocre about Britain, but it's doing just fine in aerospace and automotive engineering. And if you want to talk about the most reliable or well engineered cars, it's not even Germany any more. It's Japan.
Stop insulting peoples Jeef Cakes. You can have a normal discussion and passing your point of view without insulting anyone that is not completely agreeing with you. Or is the legendary british politeness also dead and burried (sold to the japanese probably) ?
