Downtown Detroit, USA, June 23rd
No sooner was the Canadian Grand Prix finished in Montreal than the teams packed their bags and moved westwards and across the border into the United States; to set up camp in Downtown Detroit to prepare for the fourth running of the Detroit Grand Prix, round the streets of America’s Motor City. It is very much the home of Ford, General Motors and Renault America so that apart from being Television Entertainment and a round in the 1985 World Championship series, the Detroit race has pretty important industrial overtones. Ford took the opportunity to announce the official existence of a V6 turbocharged engine for Formula 1, designed by Keith Duckworth’s firm Cosworth Engineering of Northampton, with useful technology coming from Ford’s own Research and Development department. A three year contract has been made with American entrepreneur Carl Haas, who has the financial backing of the Beatrice empire, for the exclusive use by him of the Ford engine in his Lola-named Formula 1 car which will appear before the end of the year, using a Hart 4-cylinder engine, until the new Ford is ready for use in 1986.
On the national front, a Trans-Am race was held on Saturday afternoon, in which a Ford Mercury Capri finished first, and that evening, while Ford were celebrating, the news arrived that the scrutineers had found the winning car to be very much under the weight limit, so it was disqualified and a General Motors Buick was announced as the winner. The race organisers were not too popular with one section of “Motown”.
