BMW 3.0 CSL

I have to confess that the BMW 3.0 CSL is a car that totally strikes my fancy. To me, it is the super BMW of all time, in fact, the car that really brought BMW to the fore in automobile racing.

It won a few European Touring Car Championships, starting in 1973, with Toine Hezemans, and most of the races between 1973 and 1980. In Group 2 configuration, it also raced in the the World Championship of Makes, beating quite a few lighter prototypes, and it also raced in Group 5 in 1976, winning three races. The car was also used in IMSA in 1975, winning Sebring, with Brian Redman in the crew, and a few other races with Hans Stuck. The car was also used in the DRM and various touring car series.

The car beat competition from Ford, Mercedes, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Opel, and whoever else dared to race against it in the ETC.

A number of great drivers raced it, among them Jacky Ickx, Dieter Quester, Vittorio Brambilla, Henri Pescarolo, Ronnie Peterson, Hans Stuck, John Fitzpatrick, Tom Walkinshaw, Brian Redman, Gunnar Nillson, Albrecht Krebs, Carlo Facetti, Jean Xhenceval, Alain Peltier, Chris Amon, Toine Hezemans, Alan Moffat, Peter Gregg, Bob Wollek.

The age of change

Nowadays we talk a lot about the pace of change in all walks of life. It seems to me, though, that the era when there was the greatest amount of change in automobile racing was the 70s. I am basically talking about the tremendous volume of changes that had a lasting effect on racing.

Commercially, there was consolidation of sponsorship in Formula 1 and all other disciplines of racing. In 1970, a good number of GP teams had some form of commercial sponsorship, however, all teams were sponsored by 1979. Commercial sponsorship not only provided money to teams, but also made racing commercially interesting and sellable on TV, and TV made things more interesting to sponsors. Broadcasting also expanded greatly during the decade, especially in the third world. Thus, by the end of the decade, Bernie Ecclestone in F1 and NASCAR in F1 had began to expand live TV coverage of racing events. The early days of cable TV also provided more outlets and programming needs.

Turbocharging, although widely used in Indy car racing in the USA, began to be used in European racing on the early part of the decade. By 1979, a Renault powered F1 car had won its first event, by which time turbo engined cars were the rule in prototype and sports car racing.

It was also during the decade that circuit safety was taken seriously, through the efforts of many GP drivers such as Joakin Bonnier, Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi. This lead to the death of the Nurburgring's Nordschleife as a GP venue. Additionally, the long Nurburgring was not suitable for TV coverage. This affected circuit design, and greatly reduced the number of motorsport deaths in the decades to come

In the USA, the old style USAC racing gave way to CART, which was founded in 1979. The new style Indycar racing, which lasts to this day, lessened the importance of oval tracks in American single seater racing.

Talking about old style, during the 70s, the Targa Florio was finally removed from the World Championship of Makes, although the race continue to be staged for a few more years. True road racing became a thing of the past, although rallyes thrived.

A lot of traditional races such as Vila Real in Portugal, and Chimay in Belgium, became things of the past, and in fact, a lot of old style circuits, such as Crystal Palace in London and Tulln Langelebarn in Austria were  closed for racing, while a number of modern circuits sprouted all over Europe and Worldwide, patterned after Paul Ricard, in France. The Tasman series, which achieved such prominence in the 60's, morphed into a regional series, which did not attract much in terms of international talent.

Formula 1 reached Asia for the first time in 1976, and Brazil became a force in racing, with a world champion (Emerson Fittipaldi) and a world Championship round. Non-championship Formula 1 races, fairly common early on the decade, also diminished into almost oblivion by the end of the decade.

Technologically speaking, the first steps in computer aided design were taken, these also being were the first day's of telemetry. The importance of aerodynamics in race car design also increased during the decade, and so did the use of wind tunnels. Whereas early on the decade cars were mostly designed by a single man, late in the decade design by committee was used in some corners.

In 1970, GP drivers' earnings were not very substantial, which lead them to accept as many engagements as possible. By 1979, many drivers were paid hefty retainers in Formula 1, and could actually afford to race exclusively in the category.
 

EUROPEAN FORMULA 5000

By Carlos de Paula

Around 1968, the horsepower difference between 3 liter Formula 1 and 1.6 liter Formula 2 cars was great. There was a place for an intermediate, high horsepower single seater category in Europe, powered by stock blocks. The U.S. Formula A was just such a formula: stock block 5.0 liter single seater cars, theoretically fast and inexpensive to run, that were being ran in the USA since 1967 The formula was thus adopted in Europe for a 1969 championship.

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S

ROBERTO MORENO'S F1 CAREER

2/11/1959, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Starts:41
Points: 15
Wins:0
Poles:0
Fastest Laps:1

Understanding Roberto Moreno’s career is a major undertaking, for he was an obviously talented driver, with enough stamina to be driving to this day, who simply did not seem to catch the right breaks at the right time, although on paper he seemed to have plenty of opportunities. A pal of Nelson Piquet’s, Moreno went to Europe in 1979, and by 1980 was a major force in Formula Ford, winning 15 races. He went to Formula 3 in 1981, got excluded from some races due to regulation violations, and that early in his career got a testing contract with Lotus. Having won the Australian GP in 1981, against many established GP aces, Moreno went to the USA to drive in Atlantic. He then got what could be seen as the opportunity of a lifetime, but turned out to almost kill his career: he was entered as a Lotus race driver in the Dutch GP, but failed to come to grips with the car and DNQ’d miserably. That was it as far as Lotus was concerned. Still, he managed to land a works Ralt-Honda F2 drive, in the last year of the Formula, in 1984, finishing runner up in the championship. He then shifted focus to the USA again, trying Indy cars, where he made several contacts that would be useful years later. He returned to Europe to drive in F3000, was unlucky not to win many races, and finally got another Formula 1 break, driving for the underfinanced AGS team in 1987. He did really well to finish 6th in Australia, but that was not enough to get him a permanent Formula 1 drive, even at AGS! He did do a full season of F3000 in 1988, finally winning the championship handsomely, and was hired by Coloni for the 1989 F-1 season. One of the worst cars in the field, Moreno occasionally managed to qualify the beast, including a surprising 15th place start in Portugal. For 1990, Moreno was retained by Euro Brun, barely a change of fortune. The Euro Burn was just as bad as the Coloni, and Moreno managed to start only three races. The big chance of his career would be caused by another man’s unluckiness. Benetton’s Alessandro Nannini had a helicopter crash, as a result of which he had severe hand injuries, and the team needed a competent driver to fill the void. Obviously with some help from buddy Nelson Piquet, Moreno was called to race for the competitive team and had his 15 minutes of glory in F-1, finishing the Japanese GP in 2nd place, after qualifying ninth. Benetton decided to keep Moreno for the next season, and Roberto scored the occasional points, but was not as competitive as management expected. So after finishing 4th in Belgium and posting fastest lap, Moreno was summarily fired from the team, and replaced by Michael Schumacher, who had impressed in his debut race at SPA. As some form of compensation, Moreno got a couple of drives at Jordan, which was a rookie team that year, plus a final race of the year at Minardi. Reportedly he took home a nice sum of cash with his dismissal, but no money in the world could compensate what came next: a season driving for Andrea Moda, a team many reckon to have been the worst ever to grace the GP shores. Moreno actually managed to qualify in Monaco, of all places, but the car was terrible, there were legal problems, no engines, and it was all rather obvious that the team would not survive the year. It didn’t. After that, Moreno did some touring car racing in Europe, until he was called to drive in the largely Brazilian funded Forti team, in 1995. Reminiscent of Copersucar efforts of the 70’s, the yellow liveried team was also very far from competitive, and to make matters worse for Moreno, at times even teammate Diniz, whom many considered merely a rich kid, was faster than him. He saw out the season mostly retiring and never qualifying better than 20th. Moreno’s F1 career was thus over, but he continued racing, becoming known as Super Sub in the hey day of the CART Series in the USA, eventually landing a permanent seat in a good team and a couple of well deserved wins. He now races in the Brazilian Stock Car series, and appears sporadically in Sports Car races in the US.
OTHER CARS DRIVEN:
Formula 3000: Reynard, Tyrrell, Ralt,
Formula 2: Ralt
Formula 3: Ralt
Formula Ford: Van Diemen, Royale
Formula Atlantic: Ralt
Formula Indy: Lola, March, Swift, GForce, Reynard
Sports-cars: Porsche (930, 962), Riley
Touring-cars: Ford, Chevrolet (Brazilian stocks), Alfa-Romeo

The Golden Age of the DRM

By the late 60’s the German economy was in full recovery and local auto racing, which was long a subdued affair, began to flourish. Surely Porsche’s success in the World Championship of Makes revived German interest for auto racing, for such a long time maintained by Mercedes Benz, which quit big time racing after the 1955 Le Mans disaster. However, BMW’s rise to prominence in saloon car racing, as well as F-2, also was a shot in the arm of a moribund local scene. This, in turn, resulted in Ford Germany’s involvement, primarily in the European Touring Car Championship. In fact, the latter two marques waged huge battles all over Europe during the period 1971 to 1974, which brought to light the DRM, the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterchaft, in 1972.

The championship was divided into two divisions, Division I for cars above 2 liters, and Division II for cars above 2 liters. This meant Division I was mostly contested by Porsche 911 and Ford Capris, with an odd BMW, and Division II spoils shared by Ford Escort, BMW 2002 and small engined Porsche 911s. The first championship (1972) was won by Hans Stuck, who drove a Ford in 1972, while Dieter Basche won Division II for BMW. The early days of the championship also included the 1000 km of Nurburgring, the ETC Nurburgring round, the 500 km of Nurburgring (all of which gave double score), as well as the Sauerland and Freiburg hill climbs, but most rounds were specifically run for the championship, at Nurburgring, Hockenheim, Mainz Finthen, Kassel Calden and Diepholz.

Stuck’s main challenger in this maiden championship was Klaus Fritzinger, but several other prominent drivers featured in this championship: Jorg Obermoser, Jurgen Barth, Hans Heyer, Jochen Mass, Rolf Stommelen, Clemens Schickentanz, Jurgen Neuhaus, Harald Ertl, Albrecht Krebs, Reinhold Jost, Dieter Glemser, Erwin Kremer, in addition foreign drivers who did not qualify for points, such as Spaniard Alex Soler Roig, Australian Frank Gardner, who raced a Camaro in a few rounds and Swiss Claude Haldi. The following cars raced in this maiden championship, in Division I: Ford Capri, Opel Commodore, Porsche 911S, BMW 3.0 CS, BMW 2800 CS, Chevrolet Camaro. There was grater diversity in Division II, with the following cars gracing the fields at least once: Ford Escort, BMW 2002, Porsche 911, Opel GT, Alfa Romeo GTA, Alfa Romeo GTAm, Opel Ascona, Opel Manta, NSU TT, Fiat Abarth, Renault Alpine, Opel Kadett, Porsche 914/6, Fiat 128.

As the first edition was a success, for 1973 the BMW works joined the Ford Works team, and Division I was hotly contested, as Porsche was by then fielding the more powerful Carreras. BMW used several of its ETC drivers, such as Brian Muir, Toine Hezemans, Niki Lauda, Harald Ertl (all of them non-German) in addition to newly hired Hans Stuck, but in the end Harald Menzel and Dieter Basche waged battle against Ford’s Hans Heyer, who raced in Division I, and Dieter Glemser, who raced an Escort in Division II. Several of the drivers who contested the European GT championship were then racing in Division I, including Schickentanz, Paul Keller and Gunther Stecknonnig. Helmut Koinigg, who ended up dying, beheaded at the wheel of a Surtees in the 1974 US Grand prix, won the Division II race in Diepholz. The longer “outside” events continued to count double towards the championship, which only had a single hillclimb, and had added Norisring to the schedule.

1974 was tough in motor racing in general, and the DRM schedule was reduced to eight rounds, plus the 1000 km and the ETC round. The BMW works was nowhere to be seen in Division I, except for Diepholz and Norisring, where Stuck raced and won, although Ford continued to field cars for star drivers such as Rolf Stommelen, Toine Hezemans and new star Klaus Ludwig. Although there were less races, the fields were larger, thanks mostly to a large number of Porsche Carreras fielded in division I, for the likes of Hans Heyer, Tim Schenken, Reinhard Stenzel, Hartwig Bertrams, John Fitzpatrick, Herbert Muller and Claude Haldi. The Grosser Preis von Europa meeting featured 32 cars in Division I, including drivers from Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, Sweden and American J. Rulon Muller. Preis der Nationen featured 35 starters in Division II, including a host of Swiss drivers. In the manufacturer front, the novelty was a Toyota Celica, which ran in Klaus Fritzinger’s hands to no great effect. In the driving front, Niki Lauda raced a Ford at the Norisring, a race that was also contested by Derek Bell, in a BMW. Glemser carried the championship again, followed by Obermoser, Ludwing, Stommelen and Heyer.

In 1975, a few BMW 3.5 CSL’s faced the Carrera’s in Division I, while Ford continued mostly unchallenged in Division II. Hans Heyer won division II and Klaus Ludwig won Division I driving factory Fords. Ludwig also raced an Escort in Division II, at Mainz Finthen. Porsches were still being beaten in the first division, but not for long. Among the Stuttgart firm drivers debuted Bob Wollek, who, being a Frenchman, would not score points, a similar predicament facing other Porsche stalwarts such as Schenken, Hezemans and Fitzpatrick. These drivers mostly hauled from the European GT Championship, which was losing in importance to the DRM.

For 1976 the DRM became an international championship, which essentially meant the death of the European GT Championship. Foreign drivers such as Bob Wollek, Toine Hezemans and Tim Schenken, which had been contesting the championship without earning points, could thereafter walk away with the ever more prestigious crown. More important, the Porsche 934 Turbo was allowed to race in Division I, meaning the temporary disappearance of Fords and BMWs from the major division. In fact, Division I comprised exclusively of Porsches in most rounds, while there was still some variety in Division II: Ford Escorts, which won most races, BMW 2002, VW Scirocco and Golf, NSU TT, Porsche 914, Opel Kadett and Ascona and evebn and Audi 80 saw action during the course of the year. In fact, Wolfgang Wolf came in 2nd in the the Div II, at Kassel Calden, driving a VW Scirocco, thus breaking some of the monotony. In the end, Heyer and Ludwig, both of whom raced Fords in Division II, came out on top. Wollek won Div I, followed by Obermoser (Div II), Schenken (Div I), Hezemans (Div I) and Helmut Kelleners (Div I). Among prominent drivers who took part in the championship were Leo Kinnunen, Walter Rohrl, Jurgen Neuhaus and Claude Haldi.

For 1977 there was further upgrade for the championship, which was to be run by Group 5 cars, the FIA silhouette cars that were racing in the World Championship of Makes. 1977 was unarguably the championship’s best year, with a down to the wire battle for Div I honors between Rolf Stommelen, driving for Gelo, and Bob Wollek, driving for Kremer, while BMW fielded its Junior team in Division II, waging battle against the Ford, and finally coming out on top. In addition to Rolf and Bob, Manfred Schurti, Frank Konrad, Tim Schenken, John Fitzpatrick featured well in Division I, with Jochen Mass racing a single time. In Division II a strong 3-car BMW team contested the series, driven by Marc Surer, Eddie Cheever and Manfred Winkelhock, and occasionally Hans Stuck and Ronnie Peterson, while other BMWs were driven by Harald Grohs, Peter Hennige, Albrecht Krebs. Ford’s honors were upheld by Hans Heyer, Toine Hezemans and Armin Hahne. Porsche also ran a small engined Porsche in Division I, in the German GP meeting winning the race with Jacky Ickx, while Toyota attempted to bring variety to Division I, with a Celica Turbo driven by Harald Ertl. The car actually arrived fourth at the Nurburging. The year also marked the internationalization of the series in terms of venues, with two rounds ran at Zolder, in Belgium. It seems to me that the success of the DRM is what essentially killed the Group 5 Makes Championship, as for teams such as Kremer, Max Moritz and GELO, it was a no-brainer: contesting the widely promoted and relatively inexpensive 40 minute DRM races, all close by to each other, against expensive 1000 km Marathons, run as far away as North America, that got no coverage at all. Not surprisingly, from 1978 on the World Championship of Makes went into a steady decline, until Group Five was replaced by Group C in 1982, and the DRM became the de facto most important sports car series in Europe. The championship ended with Stommelen followed by Wollek, Winkelhock (first in Div II), Heyer, Cheever, Surer, Schurti, Stuck, Schenken and Konrad.

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In 1978 interest on the DRM continued, and an additional international race was added in Zandvoort. However, fields were thin, not only in Division I, but also Division 2. In fact, rarely there were more than 20 cars in each division, and only 10 Div 1 cars raced at Avus. Notwithstanding, GELO fielded three cars most of the year, for Hezemans, Fitzpatrick and Ludwig, while Wollek and Volkert Merl defended Kremer’s camp. Reinhold Jost also appeared, with Franz Konrad and Manfred Schurti playing good protagonist’s roles. Stommelen was hired by Toyota, but not even the champ made the Celica Silhouette go. The BMW Junior team was no longer around, but there were several BMW privateers to wage battle against Hans Heyer’s Ford Capri and Armin Hahne’s Escort. Harald Ertl ended up champion, and other BMW hot shoes were Winkelhock, Hottinger, Grohs. Among some curiosities, a Ferrari raced in the series for the first time, driven by Maurice Cantine (a 308 GTB), while future Formula 1 team owner Walter Brun raced a BMW in Division II. Hans Stuck did race a BMW 320 Turbo against the Porsches at Norisring, without much success. The end results were Ertl, Hezemans (winner Div I), Wollek, Hottinger/Fitzpatrick and Ludwig (tied), Heyer, Schurti, Hahne and Winkelhock. At the end of the season, it became clear that the series did not sustain the international momentum gained in 1977, mostly due to the non participation of the BMW works team. While it was in better shape than the Makes championship, it did not make progress in 1978.

Things got worse in 1979. Wollek had tried very hard to overcome the GELO team in the past two seasons, while driving for Kremer, and ended up jumping ship, going to the former enemy. Meanwhile, GELO’s Ludwig was hired by Kremer. It just turned out that Kremer had developed a super Porsche 935, the K3, which was vastly superior to anything GELO, Moritz or Jost could put together. Ludwig won 10 of the 11 races, and the best Wollek could do was winning the Eifelrennen. Former champ Stommelen, driving for Jost, was also not able to face up to the Super Kremer 935. Grids were a bit healthier both in Division I and II, but the only thing that saved interest on the championship was the fight between Heyer, with a Ford, and Winkelhock, in a BMW 320 Turbo. Some of the Division I races featured BMW M1s, and the Norisring round actually featured Niki Lauda, Hans Stuck and Clay Regazzoni driving the type. Jochen Mass also drove one in Diepholz, but the car was not sufficiently fast to beat the Porsches. There was some welcome variety in Division II, which featured, in addition to the common Ford and BMW, Audi 80, Opel Kadett, Renault Alpine, VW Scirocco, Lotus Espirit, Alfetta GTV and a Lotus Europa Turbo, driven by Mario Ketterer in the last round.

From this point on, the DRM lost some of its interest, and as Group 5 was being phased out, eventually it evolved into the DTM, while the Supercup and Interseries were run by Group C cars.

Curiously, during this period (1972-1979) there was not a single Mercedes Benz car raced in this series, while Opel and Audi never showed any interest contesting the series in a works capacity. In latter years, of course, these same three marques have been in the forefront of German racing, while BMW, Porsche and Ford have been involved elsewhere, but not in top level German racing.

EUROPEAN GT CHAMPIONSHIP

1972-1976
By Carlos De Paula


Today GT racing is in a healthy state the world over. We do live in more affluent times, with quite a few dream cars eligible to run in the category and a lot of sponsorship money, which was not the case in the early 70’s. However, the world of sports car racing has always been a struggle between bona fide, purebred racers, mostly called prototypes, and GTs, which are basically racy, production based cars. Plus, there have been categories in between, such as the Group 5 of the mid 70’s/early 80’s, and the 5 liter sports cars of the late 60’s, which required a minimum production run of 25 units.

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An impossible dream

After a brilliant season in 1969, with a Brabham-Ford driven by Piers Courage (two second places), Frank Williams embarked into what seemed to be an eternal career as a back-marker in Formula 1.

In fact in the next season, not even Piers Courage's brilliance could make the De Tomaso-Ford competitive, and other great drivers, Brian Redman and Tim Schenken also failed to make the car fast, after Piers' untimely death.

In 1971 and 1972, Frank fielded Marches, experimenting with the first Williams designed car in 1972, the Politoys. In spite of having good drivers, such as Henri Pescarolo and Jose Carlos Pace, Williams' cars were mostly back-markers.

Having attained sponsorship from Iso-Rivolta and Marlboro, in 1973, Frank fielded upgraded versions of the Politoys, then a revamped car, which still used bits and pieces from the original Williams. In spite of the theoretically good sponsorship deal, the Iso-Marlboros were again back-markers, and got two points in the championship. Frank could be seen in race tracks carrying tires, and the team was most decidedly at the bottom of the food chain as far as F1 was concerned.

Arturo Merzario was retained for 1974, and actually had some outstanding performances with the Iso-Marlboro, starting 3rd in South Africa and finishing fourth in Italy. Notwithstanding, things were not all that well within Williamsland, for Arturo was not being paid as agreed. Merzario continued in the team in the early part of 1975, but when the promised payments did not materialize, he left the team 1/3 into the season. Jacques Laffite was lucky enough to post a second place in Germany, but Williams was mostly a laughing stock of the F1 fraternity by then.

A liaison with Walter Wolf, the purchase of the latest Hesketh design and hiring of Jacky Ickx as a driver failed to bring glories to Williams. In fact, for the first time since 1970, the team failed to score a single point in 1976, and looked more like the De Tomaso days. At the end of the season, Williams parted company with Wolf.

In 1977, while Wolf was winning races as a renamed team, Frank went back to the March route, and fielded a slow March-761 for Belgian driver Patrick Neve, with little or no impact on the circus.

The first iteration of Williams as a team, especially 1970 and 1976, and the first year of the reborn Williams team, 1977 looked more like the 3 teams that have become part of the F-1 fraternity since 2010, Caterham, HRT and Marussia.

I suppose these teams dream having a turn of events that lead Williams, in a short period of two years, to become a top team, in fact winning a championship 3 years after fielding the unsuccessful March for Neve. Of course, the millions brought by Saudi sponsors helped Williams leave its status a a laughable back-marker, turning it into a top team. At the proper time, incidentally. For within two years, the turbo revolution would make teams that could not attract engine partners, such as Fittipaldi and Ensign, irrelevant, causing their ultimate demise. Had Williams failed to produce that much speed when it did, it would likely die a certain second death.

The problem is that it was that much easier, in the late 70s, to turn things around. When Williams won its first championship, most teams still used the Cosworth-Hewland combo, and the difference was basically in chassis design. Williams was so successful in 1979, because it managed to improve on the Lotus 79 concept, like Ligier. Additionally, Williams linked up with Alan Jones and Patrick Head, largely responsible for the team's success.

How can a Marussia improve, with a Cosworth engine these days? Even Caterham, that has the benefit of Renault engines, is unlikely to surge ahead of teams that have a tremendous technological and financial edge over it.

Sure their dreams is to turn things around like Williams did way back when, but I reckon this is pretty much impossible these days. Their choice of drivers only compounds the problem.

They will remain at the bottom of the food chain, and the best they can do is scrap for 10th place.

Carlos de Paula is a translator, writer and motorsport historian, based in Miami