Classic crossword
Low-range small-car model name from 1939 through to 1967 (6)
David Cass
Clues Across: 7. Swiss-born automobile engineer who engineered fine cars for Talbot of Britain in the 1920s and 1930s (6) 8. US auto company, best remembered for the flamboyant sporting machines built from 1925 to ’36 under Cord ownership (6) 10. Italian marque active from 1925 to 1989 — its palmy days were the mid-to-late 1950s with its own design construction, but the 1960s saw Fiat-based products of perhaps less interest (7) 11. Prominent US maker of electric vehicles from 1899 to 1916 (5) 12. Classic Lotus sports car built from 1962 to ’74 — said by some to have inspired the Mazda MX-5 design (4) 13. BLMC Australia’s 1969–’72 hatchback E-series 1500cc-engined version of the BMC 1100 (5) 17. The Rolls-royce 40/50 car was built from 1906 to 1925, but, after 1925, was retrospectively known as the Silver ----- (5) 18. VW’S successful supermini introduced in 1975; built in five generations, it has sold more than 12 million cars (4) 22. Model name used by Lotus for the 1957–’63 Type 14 and the 1974–’82 Type 75/83 coupés (5) 23. Chrysler model name used from 1961 to 1981 for lower-spec full-size models (7) 24. French car company active from 1919 to ’32: racing success in the early 1920s helped early sales of its fine sporting cars, but the Depression hit, and it folded in 1932 (6) 25. Ford (UK) Clues Down: 1. Model name for Holden’s upmarket models from 1962 through to 1980 (7) 2. Classic Stutz sports models built from 1912 to 1924, and again from 1931 to 1934 (7) 3. UK motorcycle company active from 1908 to the 1960s, noted for effective two-stroke engines, particularly through the 1920s–’30s era (5) 4. Prominent UK marque, noted for bikes, motorbikes, cars, and aircraft engines pre World War II; success continued under Rootes Group then Chrysler ownership until 1976 (7) 5. Model name for Hillman’s small estate-car version of the Hillman Minx and Imp from 1954 to 1970 (5) 6. This UK car accessory company, ----(Components) Ltd, active pre World War II through to 1953, distributed vehicle suspension products like Hartford dampers and a Girling-designed independent suspension system (5) 9. Strictly, a large luxury vehicle, with glass division between driver and passengers; in practice, these days, the second part of the definition is forgotten (9) 14. Obsolete coachbuilding term for an open tourer with one row of seats and a side-entry door (7) 15. Toyota’s uber-successful small-medium car, introduced in 1966, now in its 11th generation with its sales total well over 40 million (7) 16. General Motors marque name, used from 1926 through to 2010, with the last cars built in 2009 (7) 19. UK city where Rolls-royce and Bentley cars were built during the 1930s (5) 20. French and Italian word for ‘1000’ — several cars and races used the word as a marketing tag (5) 21. This primitive form of ----- axle independent suspension is compromised by considerable camber change (5)
It’s almost 50 years since the Ford-cosworth DFV 3.0-litre motor was unveiled in the back of the Lotus 49, and it’s impossible to overstate the importance of that engineering development for motor sport. Along with its direct descendants, the motor powered 155 Grand Prix (GP) winners between 1967 and 1984.
The DFV was produced in sufficient numbers to enable generations of new racing teams to get onto the GP scene. But, if I’d had to guess how many teams used this motor, I wouldn’t have said 53! Lotus and Tyrrell bookended the run of GP victories. As well as them, successful users of the motor included the obvious teams like Mclaren, Matra, Williams, and Brabham. Others such as Shadow and Penske flirted with success. But then there were the likes of Connew, Apollon, Merzario, and Token that never troubled the trophy engravers.
Author Robson pays a proper tribute to the late Anthony Pritchard, whose family made available the material he had been working on before his untimely death. And Robson has made a fine book. It’s almost a history of GP racing over a 15-year period, because the DFV (and variations like the DFL) were adopted by so much of the field at different times. The contributions made by key individuals, such as Keith Duckworth and Walter Hayes of Ford, get proper recognition. I was pleased to see that Robson gives a few pages to the main competitors during the DFV period, and he also covers how the variants of the motors were used in Indycar and Le Mans racing.
The heart of the book, though, is about 150 pages covering each marque that used DFVS. Each section starts with an outline of the marque, its owners, etc., and then a description of each model (Williams FW07, Ligier JS11, and so forth) and its race history.
It all ties together well, yet it’s not a dry history, because Robson (and I suspect some of this may have come through Pritchard’s writing) doesn’t hesitate to express some blunt opinions. For example, on unsuccessful team, Robson says: “his attempts to run an F1 [Formula 1] team were calamitous and should be dismissed in short order.” With 272 large pages and plenty of photos, this is a good addition to F1 history at a fascinating period.