Can Am Car Bodies-Show Your Stuff!

[ctdurf]

If you want to put Rindt's death at Chapman's feet then you would have to blame Chapman's unwillingness to stand up to his star driver when the chips were down . Chapman wasn't convinced of the safety of running the 72 without it's wings . He felt the car would be unstable without them . At least he insisted they remove the fronts once the rear was taken off to try to keep some balance . Miles had his wings put back on as the car was undriveable and Denis Hulme had commented that Rindt's car was snaking all over the road without his .
The second problem was Rindt's choice of seat belt arrangements . Although Rindt was wearing a lap belt and shoulder belts he refused to wear anti-submarine straps . This will kill him .
There was some inconclusive evidence that there may have been a front brake shaft failure . This was never proven or dis-proven as the Italian authorities confiscated the parts and never really had them thoroughly inspected .
For whatever reason Rindt's car speared off the track and hit an improperly assembled guard rail . The nose of the car went under the rail and struck the mounting post . This ripped off the front of the car , entangling Rindt's feet and lower legs in such a way as to pull him down so far into the car that the seat belt buckle slit his throat . Had he been wearing sub straps he certainly would have had gruesome injuries to his legs and feet but would not have bled to death from the slit throat .

[ctdurf]

In 1969 Andretti had a crash in the Lotus 64 due to the failure of an improperly heat treated rear hub . Once USAC and Chapman figured this out new , stronger hubs were manufactured ans shipped over to be fitted to the cars .
Prior to his accident Andretti had sort of been stinking the month up by running 3 to 5 mph faster than anything else on the Speedway . It has been a point of some speculation and even direct comment over the years what influence this had on USAC's actions . They wouldn't allow the cars on the track with the new parts nor would they send them out for engineering inspection . Granatelli and Chapman both felt this was USAC's way of levelling the playing field for the race and for preventing a third consecutive year of watching a day-glo red STP car dominate the race . Chapman was so furious he promised to cut the cars up with a hacksaw , dig a big hole , and bury them .

[ctdurf]

Jack Brabham had been following Clark for a few laps and had noticed him correcting a few small slides in the left hand turns of the stadium section . On the lap before the crash he though that Clark's right rear time looked a little odd and made an attempt to get far enough up along side to signal him that it might be going flat . He did not succeed in doing that and it lost him a little ground . The "straightaway" at Hockenheim wasn't straight . It was actually a long , narrow , tree-lined arc . This characteristic was just enough to allow Clark to go out of Brabham's sight as the exited the stadium so he did not see the actual crash . He did comment that he hadn't heard any evidence of Clark letting off the throttle before the car left the road .

[Ntxslotcars]

Rindt had specifically requested to run the Lotus 49 at Monza, something proven and predictable as the 72 was still experimental. Maybe because of his championship run? Maybe the crash didnt happen if he ran the 49? Still, as you pointed out, his refusal to run a submarine strap sealed his fate. Rindt was afraid the belt arrangment with that strap would be too slow to exit if there was a firey crash. Horrible way to go.

[Speedhoppy]

ctdurf, if I am guilty of anything, it's that I sometimes type too fast and put in the wrong word; I frequently go back and correct on my own, but I don't mind my typos being pointed out. You are correct: it was John Wolfe who was killed in a Porsche 917, and not the author TOM Wolfe!

Once in a while, I type the wrong year, or name, and don't catch it. I'm afraid I am slowing down as I get older; the memory gets a bit shaky, too........

[Old - Mech.]

I see this conversation has really escalated. I do want to join in and add my 2 cents of knowledge & speculation here. Many of you know of my lifelong passion of being fortunate to have been around and involved with some very special cars. I feel I know cars & racing history as well as any man who has been around all that. I went to my first sportscar race at 6 mos. old.
Cradle robbed as I have been told! That would have been the fall of 1962. After that I watched my uncle race for years. Finally racing karts myself at 13-14 yrs. old. I had rebuilt and put my first car together at 15. And the family story/rumor go's I only got my drivers license to show the SCCA registrar's I had one to race. That's all you needed back then,plus a few hours at a regional driver's school. I still race my Triumph TR4 in vintage races,plus a very fast Spitfire. When time permits I go to the venues and race all the old tracks I grew up on. My first Vintage race with the TR4 was 1985,so I do have lots of racing years under my belt.

Speculation? In racing fate is fate! Southgate,Bryant,Nichols,were all great designers/engineers. If your sponser is titanium you will work it into the car somewhere? It's like if STP was your sponser. Are you going to say "ya,but we never use it?" Not quite! It was Southgate's fate to design the DN series Shadow's for F1. Just as it was for Revson to step into one and die. In racing shoulda,coulda,woulda,does not exist. The facts are the facts,and history is what happened. I watched all my boyhood heroe's die. Revson was one of them as well as Donahue. I read about it in the paper's,I heard it on the radio,it was in the magazines of the day.
I think I have seen everyone go that was my fav except for Andretti,Gurney. My whole paternal family side was from England. So Clark was my F1 Indy Car legend too! I can still remember the lull cast over my family when he died in 68. That wasn't fair,that was not supposed to happen,but it did!
Jim Clark; I used to watch him when he came over to places in N. America like Mosport or Indy.
He was not human compared to other driver's of the time. He could lap you over and over again on a good day with a good car. He was actually Superhuman,just ask anyone who raced with him. Jimmy could drive anything fast,which has more to do with his natural talent than his family roots of driving around a Scottish farm with a tractor. I actually think his first race was in a Porsche 356,of all things. His lifelong friend Jacque Swater's brought him into the Scottish racing club of the Border Reiver's. While Ecurie Ecosse was already well known. Just "Goggle" Border Reiver's sometime and you will see the definition basically being old land pirates.

Hockenheim 4/7/68. Yes I have heard the final definition of what happened to Jimmy on that fateful day. Hopefully it is true,makes sense and I believe it? Much speculation revolves around it and several things have already been mentioned here. The official opinion/response was always a deflating rear tire. The insider true theory has been Jimmy would have felt that,he was too good a driver to not realize what was wrong with a car and address it. Derek Bell of LeMans,big Sportscar racing was intervied several years back about this fateful day. Back then Bell was an aspiring F2 driver,as was people like J.Ickx,and Jo Rindt. D. Bell sat at the dinner table with Clark and other F2 driver's,the nite before the fateful day. In his interview he was asked about what Clark had to say about his car. The story go's Clark said his Fuel Injection which was new at the time,was cutting out. His race mechanic's were actually driving his car down the road past the hotel. Bell said,he could hear the car cutting out as they drove it up and down the road. So the basic theory is J.C."s car had a F.I. failure during the race and with the sudden stoppage of the engine. That was enough to make the car twitch and sail off to the bushes. You have to remember it was a rainy wet day there during the race. That is all I know on this subject and what I have learned up to this point. Cheers to everyone who is a fan of racing!

[sracer56]

Donahue is really spelled Donohue.....I've been misspelling it for 50 years myself until it was pointed out by a customer in the last month in my ebay listings.

[Old - Mech.]

Sorry,my mistake. Maybe I should have used his nickname,"Captain Nice". Speaking of Ebay and Donohue,last year I bought a Mark Donohue signature steering wheel. I was lucky to get it as they are quite rare

[C&RHORacing]

Showing some of my stuff

I'll post other stuff in the other "show your stuff" threads.

Way back when I was a kid, I fell in love with Lancer lexan bodies. I didn't like lexan (still don't), but the only way to get these cars was to go that route. And I tried my best to make the bodies representative of cars I as seeing in Road&Track and Sports Car Graphic.

Some of the CanAm cars that I found while relocating are attached.

The #22 is my attempt at the Autocoast Ti22; the #26 is, I think, a Ferrari 612 (it never ran in white); the #9 is a Lola T160; and the #0 is a fantasy King Cobra. The decals are Autoworld (I wasn't doing decals back then). The black lines are FlexTape, a thin flexible tape marketed back then. It worked better than painting the seams. I painted the inside and added the tape on the outside, and I can't believe it hasn't fallen off in almost 50 years and multiple moves.

[Speedhoppy]

I'll post other stuff in the other "show your stuff" threads.

Way back when I was a kid, I fell in love with Lancer lexan bodies. I didn't like lexan (still don't), but the only way to get these cars was to go that route. And I tried my best to make the bodies representative of cars I as seeing in Road&Track and Sports Car Graphic.

Some of the CanAm cars that I found while relocating are attached.

The #22 is my attempt at the Autocoast Ti22; the #26 is, I think, a Ferrari 612 (it never ran in white); the #9 is a Lola T160; and the #0 is a fantasy King Cobra. The decals are Autoworld (I wasn't doing decals back then). The black lines are FlexTape, a thin flexible tape marketed back then. It worked better than painting the seams. I painted the inside and added the tape on the outside, and I can't believe it hasn't fallen off in almost 50 years and multiple moves.

Those are really well done!

[C&RHORacing]

Those are really well done!

Thanks.

[NicoRosberg.]

Anyone got the new JAG can-am bodies yet?

[Speedhoppy]

I have not ordered any yet. I believe Gary Fast ("Fastlap") got some to experiment with for his "FastBodies"cast-resin bodies; maybe he will chime in......

Have gone back and added in pics lost from the "crash"; I noticed not all pics were initially lost; some contributors pics were still there!

[Axle]

Anyone got the new JAG can-am bodies yet?

Are you talking about the "227" bodies on the TR-3 chassis? I see a note in the 227 body-only section that says "Require Metal Body Clip (not included)." Anyone know what that means? How do these bodies mount?

[fastlap]

Hi, I haven't ordered any of the new CanAm bodies or slots from Jag yet.

However, here is photo of my recent Chaparral 2F. I will eventually be doing the Chaparral 2A or 2C, depending on where my modeling takes me. Like was id many posts ago, the 2D is very close to the 2A only with a roof. Here are a couple photos of the 2F.

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