I always knew South African Engineers did well in F1 and Great Britain is pretty much the home of F1 racing. Ferrari is of course the exception to the (latter) rule. Here comes the random fact of the day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matra_MS80 I found that surprising and noteworthy. I believe that the first WCC was awarded in 1958 (?).
Or, as our long lost buddy Viszla would have noted, "if my grandma had wheels, she'd be a bus." Cheers, Ian
The MS80 was built using the latest stressed aluminum aircraft technology. its the first one with side tanks built into the monocoque... like aircraft bladders. Matra was way ahead of its time on chassis, and its engines sounded great but they were too heavy. Matra shold have won many more races on its own but just could not get the right drivers at the right time. If they had copied the DFV and kept Stewart - they could have won the WDC -4-5 times.
Here is a 'cool' random fact. Back in 1999, the McLaren car--the one which won Mika the WDC, was having reliability problems. In long runs, the car would tear itself apart. The engineers found that the fuel line was so small (to save weight) that the fuel being pumped through the line was moving so fast that at 17,500 RPM the fuel was exceeding the speed of sound. It was creating mini-sonic booms inside the engine which was vibrating the engine so much it blew. So, McL increased the diameter of the fuel line to slow down the fuel speed and the engine proved to be much more reliable. Can you imagine . . . fuel speed in the fuel line approaching 800 mph? Coooooool.
+1 I had a brief email exchange shortly after he went AWOL. IIRC, it was nothing "specific", just burnt out on Fchat. Which is a shame, 'cos as you say, one of the more reasoned contributors. Maybe he still lurks on occasion and he'll notice how much we miss him. Cheers, Ian
+1 But what a symphony! Was in the pits testing at Brands one time. Matra was in the next garage to Mclaren. Upon initial fire-up of the Matra Uncle Ron almost ****.... Sent one his guys down the road to the race store (wish I could recall their name) & bought their entire stock of ear defenders for him & his guys....... Cheers, Ian
Way cool indeed! However, I'm not convinced "sonic booms" were their problem. As we know, those are (typically) caused by an object exceeding the speed of sound thru another "compound" This is "simply" a fluid flowing thru a tube; So what if it gets to 800mph? It's not interacting with anything else...... Sure, increasing the dia. solved their problem, but I'm suspecting a little "Ron Speak" here. Cheers, Ian
1997 qualifying. Villeneuve, Schumacher and Frentzen qualified 1-2-3. Nothing strange about that, except for the fact that they all drove exactly the same laptime. 1.21.072.
Did you know, in Monaco, they have to weld the manhole covers so they don't get sucked off from the downforce.
Like you say, Matra used aircraft technology to built its chassis. It may be interesting to explain. Between the bulkheads, the outer and inner skins were held by a series of riveted partitions. The units acted as fuel tanks, WITHOUT bladder. During contruction, hot liquid rubber was poured in the tanks, and before it could cool down and harden, the chassis was turned around, side to side, back to front, and upside down in quick successions for the rubber to deposit on all the surfaces and the gaps to prevent leaks in future. The excess liquid rubber was then removed. It was a delicate process (rather messy as well) , that made repairs to the monocoque rather difficult. The advantage was that since the tanks were in fact a succession of small communicating containers, the fuel wasn't sloshing around, and there was hardly weight transfer during accelaration, braking and cornering compared to other cars. That gave the Matra chassis an advantage in road holding, as even Stewart quoted at the time. When Autodelta convinced the FIA to impose its foam-filled rubbed fuel cell in F1, it became impossible for Matra to keep its chassis construction method, and the technical advantage it had over the competition disappeared.
There is a story about Matra engines. When Matra went motor racing (it was a weapons manufacturer), its CEO promised it would win Le Mans and the F1 championship. Matra could build chassis, but didn't have an engine. In sport cars, Matra started to use a BRM F1 engine (V8 1.5L stroke to 2L), then a 4.7L V8 Ford engine (same as GT40). In F1 Matra went in partnership with Ken Tyrell to form Matra International, using a Cosworth DFV, with Stewart. Matra obtained a 1/2 million French Francs grant from the government to build a French engine. Matra mandated Moteur Moderne to build them a 3L engine suitable for F1 and Le Mans. Unknown to the government and Matra, MM subcontracted the project to BRM! When the French government got wind of this, there was a scandal; the engine was supposed to be French!!! Matra (apparently the innocent party in this) was threatened to see its defense contract cancelled. Since Matra was missile supplier for the army and navy, that was no iddle threat. To cool things down, Matra had to take over the engine project, recruit a team of engineers who worked initially from the drawings BRM had already made. That delayed the release of the engine for one more year. In between, Matra "lent" his French driver to Tyrell during that period. Beltoise and Servoz-Gavin shared the second car alongside Stewart. The V12 3L Matra engine never fullfilled expectation in F1, but worked marvels in sport cars. The F1 programme was eventually terminated, but Matra won Le Mans 3 times before finally pulling the plug. Some people who worked on both engines, or at least got near then, say that there was a lot of similarity between the V12 BRM and the V12 Matra.
I did not know the BRM connection. I have to say - hearing both BRM and Matra as well as Ferrari 12's - the Matra was the loudest... and most screaming. BRM always had a that middle of the road roar, and the Ferrari was deeper baritone... but all were excellent to hear. When I was a kid we'd drive up to Watkins Glen in the morning - when they were warming up the cars, and you could hear it down in the village ( we stayed in Montour Falls ) so we'd play the game of name the car... you could always tell the Matra's it was so much higher pitched than the others. DFV's were easy to tell, as it was a lower roar... BRM and Ferrari were harder to separate. just the thought gives me goose bumps!!! those were the days. when I was really young -3-4 I barely remember this, but we drove behind the Ferrari's as they were driven up the hill to the track - this was probably 69 or 70... what I remember is more of a flash back... & then we have pictures of me standing in the middle of my parents car - with an F-1 Ferrari behind us.. in traffic.
The Matra was my First F-1 love. then came Ferrari. I loved the color and the sound. the MS120 was such a cool car... it looked so cool, sadly they did not do much. In my room at home - I had the Poster from the 1969 USGP - original poster which is now framed in my garage... every day I would look at Jackie Stewart in his Matra ...
What is interesting is that Gurney's Weslake V-12 engine was also related to the BRM V-12, since they were both designed by the same man, Aubrey Woods!
If you've never heard the Matra V-12 in action, watch this video. The car is the 1968 MS-11, with the ridiculously long exhaust pipes first seen at Monaco. The chassis is nearly identical to the Cosworth-powered MS-10 which Ken Tyrrell ran for Jackie Stewart (and which was much more successful if less fun to hear.) [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFUMnV_zml8[/ame]
