F1 Quiz Chain

[Simacher]

The image shows a preliminary form of a British made Grand Prix car (there's possibility that the picture is taken quite recently but let's assume it's from early 1970s). This car shared one of its vital mechanical component with a very common commercial car of the date. State the said component and which car it was from.

[xpensive]

That's the Connew and a wild guess would be the steering rack from a Jaguar?

[Simacher]

You're right about the steering rack (or the entire steering gearbox, to be precise), but it wasn't from a Jaguar. The car is something more posh and common, considering their financial situations...

[xpensive]

Guess it must have been a British Leyland something, Austin or Triumph perhaps?

[xwz]

Someone may recognise the housing, but I can only guess - Ford? Austin/Morris ?

[Simacher]

A small correction here: the said parts was indeed "steering rack" (as stated such in my source) rather than "steering gearbox", seems like I had a small lapse of memory. Where it came from, it isn't an Austin, a Morris or a Triumph; a clue here: the manufacturer of the said production car had very strong connection to the Grand Prix scene of that time (am I giving away the answer with this? I have no idea ).

[xpensive]

Ford, an Anglia perhaps?

[lotus7]

Ford, an Anglia perhaps?

My 1963 Anglia had a steering box IIRC , this rack is centre pinion, whereas Triumph, Austin , Escort was offset - Unless they modified it , with equal length tubes either side

[Simacher]

DSC_1386B by SimacherGT, on Flickr

And here's the disclosal of answer... This is the article seen on Japanese Autosport 1972.4.15 issue, written by Doug Nye and translated by Motohiko Washio. The caption of front section close-up picture below reads:
"Neatly laid out nose structure. Radiator is mounted almost horizontally. Front upright structure is made with welded sheet metal. The steering rack comes from an Escort."

So the answer should be a steering rack from Ford Escort, suggests they might underwent some modifications to fit the thing or they just used the internals of the thing. The car shown here is only their first prototype (AFAIK they made a completely new tab prior to shakedown with different type of sheet metal after regulation was changed), so I don't have any idea whether this Escort component actually hit the track. xpensive came quite close to the correct answer IMO.

[xpensive]

Thanx Sim, I will be back in a flash with a poisonous one!

[xpensive]

Ronnie Peterson retired from the 1971 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch for a very specific reason, what was that?

[lotus7]

So the answer should be a steering rack from Ford Escort, suggests they might underwent some modifications to fit the thing or they just used the internals of the thing.

Aha , my Lotus 7 replica has a modified Escort rack - shortened it. At least it made the track and is still racing after 20 years !

[xwz]

Ronnie Peterson retired from the 1971 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch for a very specific reason, what was that?

a few laps into the race, he suffered a brake shaft failure?

[xpensive]

Indeed he did, driving Frank Williams' IKEA-built March 711, he almost copied Jochen Ridt's fatal crash the year before.

Your go xwz!

[xwz]

Jochen Rindt's fatal crash

Which other drivers suffered fatal accidents during qualifying? (i know of three.)

EDIT - I 'm afraid that's a boring question I put up there some minutes ago, so I'd prefer to replace it with a more specific one:

Same track, same year (Brands Hatch in 1971) - Ronnie Peterson was indirectly involved with another crash of another driver, that also occurred due to failure of a part. Sadly, that driver was not lucky.

What was his name, which part failed, and how was Peterson involved?