The rear suspension on these era race cars is what sold me to going full throttle into automobile design and building and enjoyment... Which is why the Tamiya Avanti off road buggy from the mid 1980's and on, and even had a few re-releases productions for the collectors... Just a clever system, deceptively strong too. All the while would break away to absorb impact, even before the idea was fully understood of crumple zone technology and the life saving nature of that tech.
Nice. It's exactly what I think of when I imagine a race car. I would love to see a race series where all the cars look like Lotus 49's or Gurney Weslake Eagles: no wings, no downforce, and the drivers had to finesse the corners rather than trust the ground effect.
I remember this car running for years at Mosport in Ontario Canada when it was blue with a white stripe. Good looking car driven by Dave Scarlett who was a heck of a wheelman. Good times, indeed.
Now you’re speaking my language Casey! Over here in Aus historic racing this car would be group m&o, which is 60’s pre aero car. It’s one of my favourite groups because they are very beautiful and pure racing machines. I can’t wait to buy myself one someday.
Yes but in reality, zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero 1 percent of the Australian population has a car like this. They might get to use it on 1 day for the whole year. Which is an invite to the Australian GP weekend. So apart from V8 super car, there's zero racing in Australia. Sandown race track is soon to be housing. YOU lost to the property developers. Will, you'd better stop talking and protest against the race tracks being sold off.
It can't be awesome in 2022. Pure racing is a racist. Its a long way from purist. Its impossible for casey to drive at the moment. The car must be cut in half and extended so casey can fit in. So he'll be going backwards in life for a while.
Hi Casey, I did the original restoration, and raced this car for a few years. Actually very little has changed since I sold it around 1990, it was then blue with the same white stripe. The grey chassis paint is a mix of Tremclad grey painted with a brush. (I would not recommend powder coat BTW) The original transaxel was a HD5 that I sold to Australia. The first thing I thought when I saw this video was that you would never fit! I’d imagine the engine has been freshened some as originally built be Britain West Motorsport here in Ontario. It will do 1:34’s at Mosport all day long with me, I’m sure faster with you. (if you fit) Have fun, Dave
You made an old man’s heart race again. I raced an FB Brabham Bt18 in the early 70s and a Lotus 18 before. Yes your right about everything you said about how it was. Formula B racing was exiting and we had a really good time. Thanks for the memories.
WOW! I share your joy! That's basically a Lotus 59 you got! My favorite is the Lotus 49 and I feel the same, these are the last "pure" race cars, having only to do with car technology. Then we got involved with some plane related technology for aerodynamics and now computer technology. This is ok, just evolution. But this end of the 60s gave us the purest racing cars ever. Those grooved tires! Those race cars looked like cars, now they look like planes and the driving wheel looks like a full video game system. Have good time with this beauty! (Those tires!)
I love the cars of that time period too. Jack Brabham is a man I find admirable and I think there might be a good bit in common between the two of you.
It would be awesome to see you racing at Nelson Ledges. It's close to my heart because I watched Formula Atlantic's there in the 70s and was blown away by skill it took to keep those things on the road.
Sir, you nailed it! at minute 6:45 thru 7:45 of your video. Today's racers are mainly skilled passengers living out car designers and engineers computer aided dreams. The closest us mere mortals will ever get to what real racing is is all about is to watch the 1960s movie. "Gran Prix"......Drama aside, it was about 'Man and machine'. I'm 74 years old. To me, Indy racing died when the front engine cars gave way to the rear engine cars, motorcycles died when Harley rubber mounted their engines and Stock Cars died when they were no longer modified 'stock' cars, but instead were fully contrived NASCAR formula go-karts. Whether you realize it or not, you, and a few others like Jay Leno for example, are preservers of history. Thank you for that. rocket
A nice smaller track in Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin is Blackhawk Farms Raceway. I used to do track-days there back when I could still ride a Motorcycle.
Thanks for sharing your collection with us. The only thing i have that is kinda fast is my old 2000 Suzuki TL1000s. It's plenty scary for me. Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge. You are blessed with some sweet rides there. Have a good night.
This is also my favorite era of car. Before aero became that thing. One point, Lotus was a very early adopter of monocote construction, so their mid-60's cars were already aluminum tub chassis. Formula Ford is still very much designed and built as this car was. The engine is limited to about 125 hp the last I knew and only a four speed transmission, but much of the rest of the design of those cars is similar to this one.
you are living my dream with this car and your words sound like they just came out of my mouth :) I love it and I will follow this of course. Greetings from Germany
A friend races a Formula B...a Brabham BT18...those are very fast...say 160mph. Lots of fun to drive. The tachometer is called a chronometric tach. Lots of parts/ratios etc available for the Hewland..I think you have Mk5 Hewland. The spindles would be Triumph Spitfire/GT6 based. 180-200 hp is typical...the more hp you make, the more expensive maintenance you need. The car would be great at Watkins Glen...my favorite course to race. Grattan is like a smaller version...lots of fun too.
Interesting car. I raced FB from 1969 to 1972 in SCCA National Racing (So Cal) and the Continental FB series in US, Canada, Mexico and Columbia. I raced a Lotus 41, Chevron B15b and a Brabham BT29 and later on a few races in a Brabham BT 40. I never came across a Chinook. A couple of points. Fire system was a small hand held fire extinguisher mounted on the gear box, no rain light, no removable steering wheel and mostly no fuel cells, 5 point belts and of course no sequential or paddle shifters. The FB cars usually had a Hewland FT200 gearbox and not the VW case models. Data acquisition was your ass and the stop watch. Cronometric Tach, oil pressure and oil/water temp gages were about it. Tires were harder. Dunlop gave me a set of tires early in the 70 season that looked exactly like yours and I ran them all the rest of the year. In 2011 I raced a Vandiemen FF Honda and I was using 6 tires a weekend. There is now a spec tire in FF and it lasts maybe two weekends. Continental races were around 100 miles with lots of practice. Fields in the Continental were 40+. Some tracks had half buried tires at the apex. Tracks like Road America and Mosport had no armco so if, for instance, at Road America you missed the kink or had some agony going towards Canada corner you were in the trees. No one was bumping into each other or running off of the track, even in 50 car fields, because runoff was usually a ditch or a tree. You had to race within your skill level. No sand traps etc. Racing now I get hit all of the time as it is very safe and a lot of drivers think they are Ayrton Senna. The only danger is on your wallet. I think you really understand what was going on. Thanks and good luck with your car.
So cool. Classic race car drivers of the past were so much more skilled, people like Fangio and Moss. Stirling Moss did the Milli Miglia, an 1100 mile race in 10 hours! It’s unreal. Grand Prix is my favorite car movie ever. And probably the greatest. I still watch modern F1 though, they’re incredible cars and make an amazing sound. Still a very exciting sport.
Loved watching all the body work come off. That is one of the reasons that should I reach the point where I do wheel to wheel racing I will purchase a purpose built race car, not a converted street car. Thinking maybe a FV if I go vintage, or SRF if I go modern. It is just nice to be able to get to everything and work on it.
Many race car drivers of the day were small in stature which served several purposes, such as reducing the weight and cross sectional area of the vehicle thus increasing power to weight ratio and reducing aerodynamic coefficient.
I caught air in a Formula car a few years ago. FM, at Texas World Speedway where the infield course crossed the oval to the outside "Boot" of the road course.
Single skin aluminum monocoques used to loosen up necessitating aftermarket tubs for even year old F1 cars used in the British Aurora series making narrow thin vintage formula car monocoques extremely suspect. Absolutely agree with your choice of tube frame Formula B even if that Lotus twin cam will be expensive.
LOL ! Casey. When I worked for Budweiser years ago. I got to drive the Al Holbert Busch Lola thru the pits at Road Atlanta. Being pushed of coarse . I'm 6'3" and I looked like Mr. Potato Head in a tiny go cart..
So glad to hear someone involved in racing to articulate the issues with the obsession of safety in most modern racing. No matter how you slice it, you’re strapping into a 1000hp car going 200mph with others on the track…it’s not safe to start with. It’s like F1 trying to reduce fuel consumption by a small percentage…again, they are race cars, it’s burning fuel in cars for entertainment. Reducing the emissions from 30 cars for 2 hours once a week is like pissing on a forest fire if you really believe it’s causing the earth to burn up. Modern racing is emotionless and boring now compared to racing in the past.
As a fellow Formula B guy, I would like to let you know that we are currently in the early stages of planning a Formula B double header event for 2025 in colorado/missouri. Would love to be in contact so that we can get more cars out. Currently in Colorado we have 10 that should be ready by then, plus multiple from out of state that have raced with us before.
The only racing that I enjoy (nowadays) is the 24 Hour races with different Classes all running at the same time, though the Track does tend to get congested at times. I miss being able to watch all the Racing Scene (except Drag) from the Late 1970's and Early to mid 1980's! Also including NASCAR from the 1960's! even. The Announcers/Commentators where also Very Enjoyable to listen to! (Forgot his name, but he was Impersonated in the movie "Better off Dead" in the Red Light Races...
If I'm not mistaken Jay Leno has his own little blue Formula B car. You should race him! Also in GT7 a bunch of the vintage cars have the same tach and I thought it was the coolest thing when I first noticed it in the Aston Martin DB3S.
That's amazing it looks cool and it's really intresting for me since I don't know much about them but i'm really intrested in them and the moulds should come in handy if anyone wants to recreate this car
That is really cool. Do you have the full history of it? I would love to have a go in one. I agree that motor racing has become more sterile with technology. Across the board I think.
If I remember correctly (probably not), the axillary gauges (temp, oil pressure, etc...) were clocked so at their proper reading the needles were vertical, for a quick status check.
(04:45) _“Not only will you be squished [and] decapitated, when the [water] tubes break you will also be burned from all the hot water.“_ That is the cauterization you will need to stay alive. _Three more minutes._
It is a stunning looking car, always liked the lotus 18 myself. Have to say watching modern F1 is like an elephant dart to the face. Vintage formula ford, formula vee etc is definitely more fun to watch...
I'd love to build something like that with a 305 V8 as a "F5000 track day car". I'd recommend moving that coolant pipe to OUTSIDE the car--saw a guy named Jim Dunkel racing at Road America many years ago. That pipe (inside the cockpit) burst and burned him badly. When you say "lightweight"--how much does it weigh?
The only way I'd be able to drive these kinds of cars safely is through a computer lol I'd never pull of fast times like Fangio or Nuvolari, they had their steel balls acting as ballasts every time they drive metal coffins.
Casey do a Metric conversion if you can for all of us European viewers, and please consider mounting the wings if you ever go to a trackday. It'll be very interesting to see how much they could improve laptimes. Thanks for showing us this epic car
To casey, an instrument gauge is just an instrument gauge. He gave us zero talk about what happens to the driver when looking at those gauges. He only spoke about their mechanism. What's the choice for chrome outer rings? Why white paint on the numbers and needle? Why black out the dial? Why tilt the speedo? The stepped motor gives the driver a reading. Sweeping motors never give the driver a confirmed measurement reading. The needle keeps moving around. Your brain can't relax to finish a task. So when YOU look at your gauge, the needle will be stopped on a measurement. YOU don't look at it for a long time. Now YOU have that gauge, you'll have to change all the gauges in your other cars to this type of gauge. YOU can't have a set of random cars. Its too much for your brain. Your cars must match for you to be truly happy.
I think you would like to watch some of the the Goodwood festival of speed videos. Watch a 1906 Pre-war ( first war) Darracque etc race by extremely brave men 🏁
Are your feet beyond the axis of the front wheels? If so, and i do not know the rules but are you allowed to take it on track? I should have waited when you removed the body i could see the pedal placement.
