CSRG Season Finale - Sears Point - Sept. '17

[John Z Goriup]

Eleven days ago, on Saturday, Sept. 30 2017 I spent a brisk, eventually to become a perfectly beautiful warm autumn day at Sears Point ( Sonoma Raceway nowadays ) attanding the last vintage event of the year.

I had planned to post my typical bi-annual CSRG 'photo essay' a lot sooner, but changes in the schedule of some major construction at our home and other things have kept me from doing so, but now with the fires actually consuming parts of the track and springing up all over the area - so far all are still North of the Sacramento River - I thought it's high time to get these images up to celebrate happier times, rather than to dwell on yet another catastrophe being visited upon our grossly mismanaged & benighted state. At the time I remember thinking what a perfect day it was to enjoy the wonderful weather, great racing with historic & significant cars, and visiting with good friends. I missed the entire 2016 CSRG season and did not attend this year's spring opener either due to some health issues, and was genuinely happy to be able to make it to this last event - sadly, the joy was not to last very long.
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Photo #1 was taken from the parking lot overlooking the track, pretty much where the 'ring of fire' is in the photo Unobtainium posted in his thread " Not a good day at Sears Point".

Some general images including a couple of a faithful recreation of a Ferrari TR-61, followed by several images of Mario Andretti's 1970 Lotus 70 Formula 5000 racer. Started life as a Model 68 in '68 actually, the car, bearing Serial # 001, but was modified and re-badged as a Lotus 70 for the Sebring season opener that year. Originally powered by a Shelby-built and tuned Ford 302 Boss V-8 producing approx. 500 HP the car was raced until 1975 and has been through many hands since. It is believed a total of 8 of these cars were produced.

I remember Colin Chapman didn't particularly care for the F-5000 Series, since it was nothing more than an attempt to bring a simpler, more affordable production-based format to open-wheel, single-seat Formula 1-style racing to America, consequently thoughout his brief flirtation with this Series he maintained a certain 'arm's length' relationship with it - I suspect journalists nowadays would probably use the phrase that Chapman merely ' faxed his ideas & designs in' to be produced at Heathel, but yet, the car displays typical, ingenious Chapmanesque touches such as the pivoting cast aluminum "hats' to contain the upper ends of the front-wheel coil-over units ( photo #6 ) to eliminate binding.

Thanks for looking, and my apologies for waiting so long to post this

JZG

[John Z Goriup]

Like the 'Big Boys', CSRG usually selects a marque or a model of a specific marque to be the title theme for one of their events - this time around it was a large gathering of original Minis. These are great little fun cars and offer an affordable, extremely rewarding way to get into vintage racing. During 25 years of spending time in Europe on business and privately, I must have rented Minis hundreds of times and can honestly report that I enjoyed every mile I ever drove in these friendly little cars..........Alec Issigonis was definitely on to something ingenious when he designed the revolutionary MINI in '58, yet he does not seem to be very highly regarded theses days - perhaps that's not the right way to put it, maybe younger 'car guys' simply haven't heard nor care about how we got to this point in car design.

I took photo #8 as I exited the bathroom to get back to watching the racing on track, when I spotted the 'newer, bigger Mini Countryman' that the local dealer had prominently staged there, and couldn't help thinking that the manufacturer is pursuing the wrong track entirely - what made the original Mini such a delight was its diminuitive size and maneuverability, not the ridiculously engorged latest station wagon model.

Incidentally, the hill in the background of photo#9 is the same hill that Unobtainium's image shows all ablaze in his post - I know it's only grass, but at this point we don't know if the fire has reached and / or damaged any of the buildings or shops.

...................I'll be back later with a lot more - need to run some errands.

JZG

[Fubawu]

Thanks for sharing but we need more!

[John Z Goriup]

Continuing with the presentation, more English examples.

The last three images are of a '55 Cooper Formula 3 open-wheeled single-seater, powered by a 500cc single cylinder J.A.P. motorcycle motor making approx. 45 HP, with chaindrive to the rear wheels. These proved to be quite successful and led the father & son team of Charles & John Cooper to build ever faster, more powerful cars in F-2 and finally in '58 for F1, with all models sharing the common characteristic of rear-engined enginer location. There had been rear-engined Grand-Prix cars prior to WW ll, but they were very difficult to drive and the war put an end to development, until the Coopers returned to building their motorcycle-powered single-seaters in the early '50s. The vindication breakthrough victory of their novel rear-engined Climax-powered single seater F-1 car came in the '58 Argentine GP in Buenos Aires and changed GP car technology forever.

[eaton]

Thanks for the photos. What is that light green #9 car in the last photo? Very cool.

[Jon B]

Thanks for the photos. What is that light green #9 car in the last photo? Very cool.

A mid-50s Formula 3 Cooper Mk 9.

Jon B.
Vista, CA

[John Z Goriup]

Sorry about the piecemal delivery, but with 8-10 workmen in the house at any time during the day and the general contractor off co-ordinating other jobs it's nightmarishly hectic and chaotic here - can't wait for the day this is all over and I can relax.

I wanted to continue with the British models and transition to the Italian cars, but No, the site feels like arranging my shots in a different sequence entirely.......... therefore things are as shown - photos #4 & 10 shows the cleanest, fastest, most fastidiously built Sunbeam Tiger I've ever seen.

[John Z Goriup]

Carrying on with the Italian cars, this set features one of my all-time favorite automobiles - of any country or manufacture - the immortal Alfa-Romeo TZ. The T stands for tubolare, i.e.'constructed of tubes' in Italian, and Z of course is for Zagato, the Milanese coach builder who built the chassis and body of this unforgettable car. Designed largely by Carlo Chiti, the racing engineer who was responsible for many of Ferrari's greatest cars of the early '60s including Phil Hill's Tipo 156 'sharknose' championship-winning F-1 car, until he fell out of favor with 'il Vecchio' during the famed palace revolt, whereupon he established the Autodelta Company in Udine, in northern Italy and went on to design some of the greatest Alfa sports racers.

The TZ was powered by Alfa's proven and tested 1570 4-cyl. twin-cam motor, enhanced with twin-plug head, header exhaust cams making up to 160 HP..............but with a weight of barely 1500 pounds the cars are indecently fast and proved winners from race one. Built & sold from '63 through '68, a total of about 110 were produced and bring big $$$ these days.

A couple of years ago I bought a three-lap ride in a TZ ( with the ride fee going to a local children's hospital charity ) from another owner and discovered instant proof of just why owners and enthusiasts are so fond of this car................a fabulous ride.

[mobius911]

Bravo John!

[John Z Goriup]

Continuing with some domestic machinery, including several early ( '65 - '66 ) Ford / Shelby Mustangs - what wonderful cars they were, and still, in fact, are..........surely one of America's greatest cars ever.