Stomach Churner

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

This 800BHP monster forced the three-time world champion to hang on for grim death. He survived, but not before it gave him an ulcer

From his very early days in the sport Jackie Stewart made sure he always had good machinery at his disposal, and not just in Formula 1. Even when moonlighting in other categories he didn’t want just to make up the numbers. ‘That was part of the business,” says Stewart. “It’s no good driving a donkey. That’s what most people don’t understand. There’s a lot more to motor racing than steering the wheel.”

However, there was one occasion when he lucked out. Ask him what was the worst car he ever raced, and the answer is immediate.

“The Lola T260 Can-Am car would probably make that one. It was quite quick, and we won a couple of races but, boy, was it a dog to drive! The H16 BRM runs it a close second.” The T260 was built for Stewart to use in the 1971 S. Can-Am series at the instigation of importer and team boss Carl Haas. “We always called Carl ‘Shaky’,” Jackie says. “He isn’t known as that now, nobody knows that in modem times, but he was always very nervous, very highly strung.”

The sportscar races were conveniently arranged so there were no clashes with grands prix. For JYS, it was an attractive proposition. The prize fund was good and backing from the L&M cigarette brand ensured that Haas had a strong budget, and could afford the services of the 1969 world champion: “It was pocket money. That’s why we did it.”

The cars to beat, of course, were the works McLarens of Denny Hulme and Peter Revson. And the only way to beat them was to come up with a better design, since privateer M8s never seemed to match up to the factory machines. “It was the only competitor to the McLaren and it showed great promise. It was going to be a brand new car and Carl had a lot of confidence in it. I knew Eric Broadley because I’d driven at Indy with Lola and John Mecom. But it certainly wasn’t a great car.”

Designed by Bob Marston, under Broadley’s guidance, the T260 looked purposeful; huge trumpets sticking out of the massive 8.1-litre Chevy serving to emphasise the brutal appearance. Frank Gardner undertook the initial testing in the UK, but Stewart was able to draw few conclusions from a single outing in the wet at Silverstone before he went to the first race at Mosport in June.

In practice the car was quick enough to challenge the McLarens, but Jackie was decidedly unimpressed by the handling. ‘The thing was all over the place — it was terrible to drive. Sometimes it was quick but, my God, did I have to hustle it.”

The main problem was dire understeer. The Lola’s blunt nose was dotted with mesh-covered holes, through which the underbody air could pass. In theory this helped to provide some downforce. In its initial guise the shape of the front didn’t seem to have any other obvious way of providing grip; Broadley had deliberately opted not to have a fashionable chisel nose. But the lack of downforce at the front was borne out by the position of the giant rear wing, which was unusually far forward — just behind the protruding trumpets — in an attempt to achieve some kind of balance.

Was JYS able to do anything to compensate for its shortcomings? “Yes, I sweated more. It was just a difficult car to drive. There are some cars that are easy to drive and others not, and that was one of the ones that was not.”

JYS actually put it on pole at Mosport and led until the transmission seized after all the oil had leaked out.

Next time out, at the spectacular Mont Tremblant circuit, he found the car a handful over the bumps. In practice the car suffered a suspension breakage, and gave Jackie a real fright when it performed a wheelie as he crested the track’s notorious hump. Fortunately the nose flopped back down. In the racejacicie delighted the Canadian crowd by winning, albeit after Revson had retired and food poisoning had forced leader Hulme to drop back. But at least the McLarens had been beaten at last, and Stewart’s underdog campaign began to attract a lot of support Less popular were his many battles with race organisers to have telegraph poles and trees removed; North American circuits had fallen far behind their European counterparts.

Stewart led for a while at Road Adanta, before retiring when the suspension broke. At Watkins Glen, where yet again the suspension failed in practice, he took another pole, but retired with gearbox failure. At bumpy Mid-Ohio there were no fewer than three suspension failures in practice, and after deliberately opting for a conservative run on race day, Stewart won — ironically after both Hulme and Revson suffered broken suspension. The results weren’t too bad, but JYS was still unhappy. Efforts were constantly being made to improve the aerodynamics, and the nose changed its shape at every race. It briefly grew unsightly high wheel arches after an incident when a tyre had worn through the top of the bodywork. A sign that at least s, some progress was being made with the front end was that the massive rear wing was moved further back, to a more traditional position.

Stewart: “Eric tried everything. Everything! Every race he’d come over with a new pile of parts, and it would take on a new look at the front end. It came out with a ‘cowcatcher’ on it and various aerodynamic aids to get downforce on the front.”

The second half of the season proved less successful than the first, and in the last five races Jackie never qualified better than third. His one chance to beat the McLarens came in the rain at Edmonton, but he slipped up, going off twice while leading and handing the honours to Hulme.

For the last two races, the Haas crew hung an ungainly wing in front of the nose — the cowcatcher referred to above. If nothing else, it would have given JYS a useful advantage in a photo finish.

“I was third in the championship; the McLarens were first and second. I won at Mont Tremblant and Mid-Ohio, and we were on pole position a couple of times. But it was just an amazing hustle. I earned my money on that one!

“It was a terrible car. We could beat everyone except the two works McLarens. Just to keep up with them was a nightmare. They looked so good to be behind — they were great-looking cars. That’s why the next year I agreed to drive one, but I never did it because I got my duodenal ulcer.

“I got mononucleosis driving that bloody Lola!” Jadde Stewart was talking to Adam Cooper