F1 Quiz Chain

[Miguel]

I have a good one:

What color was the first McLaren Formula One car, and why?

For some reason, I doubt it's the correct answer, but I'll give it a go: the first McLaren was orange, because that's the colour that corresponded to teams from New Zealand (birthplace of Bruce McLaren).

While this is true for the 1967 car and a few later ones, somehow I think that maybe one car didn't use the national colours from New Zealand.

EDIT: I'm wrong, as expected. But I've found the correct answer and, yes, it is great trivia.

The first McLaren was the M2B, competing in the 1966 Monaco GP. In principle, it was going to be orange but... that race was the one at which John Frankenheimer filmed "Grand Prix". Being tight on money, the McLaren was painted white with a green stripe, impersonating the japanese cars of "Grand Prix".

Is this it? If so, I'll need a couple of hours to find a decent question.

EDITÑ changed the colour of the stripe to green, at 16:04 gmt.

[Roland Ehnström]

Yep, that's it, good job!

McLaren M2B, Monaco GP 1966:



By the way the car wasn't actually supposed to be orange in '66, it was supposed to be green top, silver bottom divided by a yellow stripe - the official New Zealand racing colors. It was indeed painted this way before the Monaco GP, but repainted days before the race when Bruce struck a deal with John Frankenheimer.

In 1967, McLaren raced this bright red M4B in the first couple of races:



He then ended the season in this red M5A with a blue stripe, though I have no idea why he used this livery:



For 1968 the M5A was finally painted orange (pic below), mainly for commercial reasons as I understand it (orange stands out from the crowd, which makes the car attractive for sponsors). Orange is not the New Zealand racing color, as mentioned.



Oh by the way, doesn't this look pretty nice?

[Miguel]

Well, this is not going to be very imaginative, but I hope it will at least entertain you for a while. Please take a look at this picture:


Could you please name the cars, drivers, track and year? As a "clue", and maybe the final point, in this picture we are seeing "two out of three". What, or who, is missing? Why?

EDIT: And I thought I had seen everything! Al Pease was inducted a few years ago to the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame! Al Pease!

[Roland Ehnström]

Ah, that's easy for an old Grand Prix Legends addict. The year is 1967 and that's Bruce McLaren in his McLaren M5A leading (or being lapped by) reigning world champion Jack Brabham in his Brabham BT 24. I guess the "missing" driver would be Dan Gurney in his Eagle-Weslake T1G, the third driver-constructor in 1967. The track is from the end of the season as the M5A wasn't completed until the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport, so it's either Mosport, Monza, Watkins Glen or Mexico City. My guess is Mosport going by your Al Pease hint.

[Miguel]

Well, yes, that's 99% right for Roland. The track is indeed Mosport. The truth is he can't read my mind, or at least I hope so. The reason why, in my mind, Dan Gurney is missing is that Brabham, McLaren and Gurney are the only F1 drivers to have won Grand Prix in their own cars. But he's also the third driver-constructor that year. Gotta love that Eagle Weslake.

[Roland Ehnström]

Who, where, when, why?

[Gary]

Chris Amon, Lesmo, 1968, spun. He'd just got into 2nd place at the time (behind Bruce) and John Surtees went off in sympathy at the same spot attempting to avoid Chris.

He wasn't hurt, btw, which seems slightly amazing judging by the pic.

[Roland Ehnström]

That was quicker than I thought! =D>

Here's what Alan Henry wrote about the accident in his 1984 book Ferrari, the Grand Prix cars:

Chris kept in the leading bunch which included Bruce McLaren's McLaren and Surtees pole-winning Honda RA301, until lap eight when an oil leak on to the left rear tyre (or a hydraulic fluid leak from the aerofoil control system) caused him to lose control dramatically as he entered the 140 mph double right-hander at Lesmo. In one of the most spectacular, yet least-publicized Formula 1 accidents ever, the Ferrari vaulted the barrier and flew, upside down, into the trees. Chris found himself hanging from his seat harness, the car wedged amongst the branches of some densely-packed trees, his legs having come up out of the cockpit without any injury, something he fails to understand to this day. He hug there for a short while, listening to the gentle cracking of the branches, before an obliging track marshal shinned up the tree with a large knife - not to put Amon out of his misery, but to cut the straps before the Ferrari fell out of the tree on top of its driver!

[Gary]

That was quicker than I thought! =D>

Oh lordy, what have I got myself into? I'm new here, so I'm not sure about the level of knowledge but I fancy it's significant! I was a teenager in the 60s so 'my' era is that period but I'm aware we're becoming sparser these days. I don't want to put a patronisingly simple question but neither do I want to be too obscure so here's my attempt at the middle ground.

Jack Brabham nearly won the British Grand Prix at Brands in 1970. But he ran out of fuel at Clearways and coasted over the line in 2nd.

A senior person in the team ran over the track to Jack's stationery car and got growled at by Blackie. For years, the story was that this individual under-filled the car. But that turned out not to be the reason for running out of fuel.

So... who was the poor soul who got growled at?
And what was the cause of Jack running out of fuel?

[WhiteBlue]

http://au.messages.yahoo.com/news/national-news/68496/

Jack recalls how his team boss, John Cooper, missed adding one can of fuel as he was topping the tank on his car. And how his mechanics circled the car as he pushed it 500 metres to the finish line, ensuring there was no outside assistance or any chance of disqualification.

[Gary]

Yeah, Jack had the odd running out of fuel moment, didn't he. However, the quote you posted referred to the 1959 US Grand Prix at Sebring.

(BTW, not wanting to digress, John Cooper denied that theory and, whilst his memory for these things was not, ah, 100% at all times, there is evidence that the reason for that particular incident was not entirely about under filling. But I digress. Back to 1970.)

[CMSMJ1]

The man you are after is our good friend Ron Dennis.

The fuelling mixtures were out which is the real reason the car ran out of fuel.

howzat?

[Gary]

Correct! Black Jack covers it in the autobiography he did with Doug Nye. To paraphrase, he said that he'd figured out the fuel injection system on the DFV had been left on full rich - it had been a cold morning. He got out of the car just before Ron came running up and he concedes that he'd blamed Ron for all those years. He went on to explain that at a dinner in 2002 another former mechanic, Nick Goozzee, finally 'fessed up. "Well that wasn't Ron, it was me..."

A final little aside to this story. A dear friend of mine here in Australia was a part of the select group who assembled in Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour in 2006 to celebrate Jack's 80th birthday. My friend related that 'some old boy', a former mechanic, had leapt to his feet in the midst of all the story telling and yarn spinning that was going on and blurted out that it was him... he couldn't hold it in any more! No idea if that had been Nick but it was the first time I had heard the story and I assumed that had been the first time it had been told. It was only later that I acquired Jack's book and read the account of the earlier admission.

Perhaps the admission was a party piece that was brought up time after time to amuse the fellow diners!

[WhiteBlue]

A nice story but really only accessible to fans, who are prepared to buy specialized books about the folklore of a certain era. In my view if something is too obscure to find it in a 2-3 hour search of public sources it isn't fit for this kind of game. Your milage may vary.

[CMSMJ1]

A nice story but really only accessible to fans, who are prepared to buy specialized books about the folklore of a certain era. In my view if something is too obscure to find it in a 2-3 hour search of public sources it isn't fit for this kind of game. Your milage may vary.

Are you seriously moaning? Or do you want to have everyone google an answer?

I knew this off the top of my head, no googling allowed. I also have never read the book that our friend Gary mentions..

SO, you know things..or you don't.

Personally, I dislike the "name 10 things for safety" type of subjective questions - they are right, or they are not.

Anyways...(someonme will know this without google)

Which driver, when interviewed after retiring from this wet race, said that the drivers in front of him were "Easy meat".

He was catching and passing at a great rate of nots.

Who was it?
Where and when?
Driving which car?