BRIAN REDMAN’S GREATEST CARS
Brian Redman had a fine career from the 1960s through to the 1980s. He picks out his favourite three machines
When asked to name my three favourite race cars, I thought this would be easy, but going through all the great cars I’ve been fortunate to drive, I realised it was not so simple!
There’s Charles Bridges’ Jaguar Lightweight E-type, 4 WPD, and brother David’s fabulous Chevron B5/ BRM two-litre, which should have won every race it entered but either developed a misfire or the gearbox broke, winning only once, at Crystal Palace. Then you can add in the Chevron B8, all the Porsches – 908, 917K, 917/10, 917/30, 934, 935, 936, 962 – Lola T100, T70, T600, T330, 332, 332C, T400, T432, Ferrari Dino F2, Ferrari 312 PB, Alfa Romeo T33, BMW CSL, Jaguar XJR-5/6/7, Aston Martin AMR1…
So, a difficult decision! When trying to decide, I thought about how much success I’d had with a certain car and how many times I’d driven it – should that make a difference? In the dangerous era of the mid-1960s through to the mid-1970s, should the construction of the car have any bearing? How much should my personal involvement with the testing and running of the car make?
Should the amazing 908/03 be considered? Yes, but I was not too keen on having my feet ahead of the front wheels. The 917K? Yes, but favourite car? No, I lay awake at night before Spa and Le Mans, perspiration dripping off my forehead as I thought about the speed on the Masta and Mulsanne straights and the five chassis that I knew about that had broken in half across the cockpit. Ferrari 312 PB? Fantastic jewel of a car, in 1972 winning every race except Le Mans where Ferrari didn’t go, but I had nothing to do with the development, just drove.
In a moment of patriotism, should I consider where the car was built? Yes! That’s what I’m doing. All Brit...
3rd CHEVRON B16, B16/S, B19
Following the Nurburgring two-litre sportscar success in September 1969 with the beautiful new B16 coupe powered by a 1.6-litre Cosworth FVA, Chevron boss Derek Bennett received several orders for the new car.
But when we went to Paul Ricard for the first round of the 1970 European 2-Litre Sportscar Championship, we were horrified to see Jo Bonnier, Lola’s European agent, in a new Lola T210 spyder, some 90lb (41kg) lighter than our B16 coupe. We won, but only because Bonnier had mechanical problems.
Immediately I asked Derek to take the top off and make a spyder. Because he was still delivering B16 coupes, this was not possible. However, by August he agreed to make the change, but said he had no money for windtunnel work. At that time I was also racing the new Porsche 908/03 and told Derek not to waste time and money, and copy the 908/03.
The first race was, again, the Nurburgring 500Km. At the halfway point we were leading by over two minutes when, after landing from a top gear jump, the B16/S caught fire and was badly damaged. Derek, right-hand man Paul Owens and the Chevron crew performed miracles to completely rebuild the car in eight days and we then went to Spa for the final race of the year.
Bonnier and I swapped the lead for lap after lap and, after I’d passed him on the last lap going into Stavelot, thought I had the race in the bag. Wrong. On the final uphill straight Jo just drove past me. Now, we were side-by-side going into La Source, the last corner of the last lap. Jo was on the inside, I’d been gaining a few feet on braking on previous laps, and now we’re both still flat-out. I didn’t think I could make it, so I went up the escape road with the brakes locking and unlocking. I turned, fully expecting to see Jo crossing the finishing line to win the race. No! He’d spun and was sideways across the track! The win gave Chevron the championship by one point over arch-rival Lola and later the B19 went into production.
We then travelled to South Africa for the Springbok Championship for twolitre cars. The first race, the Kyalami 9 Hours, was open to five-litre cars as well as being a two-litre championship qualifying round. Jacky Ickx and Ignazio Giunti, driving the factory Ferrari 512M won. John Hine and I finished first in class and fifth overall. Then, almost unbelievably, I won all five of the following rounds, sometimes driving single-handed in the three-hour races, and twice with Richard Attwood. And we were up against the talents of South African champion John Love, Mike Hailwood and Helmut Marko in a Lola T210.
2nd LOLA T600
Following my very bad accident in the new Lola T333 Can-am car – actually a T332 F5000 with bodywork – at St Jovite in June 1977, where I broke my neck (C1), sternum, shoulder and ribs, things were not looking too good. I started racing again and somehow managed to win my first race after the accident, the Sebring 12 Hours in March 1978, driving with Bob Garretson and SCCA racer and Sebring promoter, Charles Mendez in a Dick Barbour Porsche 935.
After another year of mixed results I reluctantly decided that there were few racing opportunities in the north of England. I spoke with Carl Haas, the Lola and Hewland gearbox importer for North America, with whom I’d won three F5000 championships. Carl offered me a job and, once again my long-suffering wife Marion and children James and Charlotte were transplanted to a foreign country.
In early 1980, while working in the office at Carl’s headquarters in Highland Park, Illinois, a letter arrived from John Bishop, head of IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) with regulations for a new car, Grand Touring Prototype (GTP). The main purpose of this new class, was to break Porsche domination of the IMSA series.
I spoke with Carl about Lola building a car and he agreed this was worth looking in to. I went to see Eric Broadley and he said Lola could build a car to these regulations. While at Lola, I met John Bright, a talented restorer for the Donington Museum and rapid racer in his own right. John had suffered a personal tragedy and wanted a change of lifestyle. He agreed to build the cars at Lola and then come with them to North America as head mechanic. A new team was formed with Ralph Kent Cooke and Roy J Woods Jr, known as Cooke-woods Racing. I would be the driver and manager.
Because the new Lola would not be ready until April of 1981, Cooke-woods bought a Porsche 935 in which Bob Garretson, a young Bobby Rahal and I won the 1981 Daytona 24 Hours, had problems at Sebring and finished third at the Riverside 6 Hours.
After testing at Sears Point and Riverside, the new T600 was judged ready to go. The 100-mile Laguna Seca race was thought to be the most suitable. John Fitzpatrick’s Porsche Kremer K3 qualified on pole, 1.5 seconds faster than our Lola. However, we were not unduly concerned, knowing that the turbo Porsches could increase their power by some 80hp for short periods, but if they kept doing it, the engine would blow.
On Saturday evening, Haas took me to
one side and said: “If this car doesn’t win tomorrow, Lola Cars are going bankrupt.” No pressure.
At that time, Turn 1 was a difficult, fast top-gear corner with a big earth bank on the outside. On the fourth lap, as I lifted slightly to set up for the corner, the Lola gave an unpleasant twitch at the back. Almost certainly this was a tyre going down, or a loose wheel. Knowing that in a 100-mile race, a pitstop would mean no chance of a win, I kept going.
On the 12th lap, and having dropped to 10th, the Lola was suddenly alright. So, on May 3, Marion’s birthday, the T600 won it’s first race.
The following day, while looking at the car with Eric Broadley, with the rear wheel covers removed, I bent down to look at the left-rear wheel and said to Eric: “Look at that.” Eric bent down, straightened up, took this glasses off and declared: “Well Brian, that’s what’s supposed to happen – but I’ve never seen it before.” The wheel nut had backed off, broken the spring-steel safety clip, and wound itself back on again. Better to be lucky than rich!
We will not examine the miserable experiment of going to Le Mans with a Porsche turbo engine in the second T600 chassis, or the fact Ralph Cooke fired the entire team except for John and myself. It’s enough to say that John put a new team together in record time, and that Chaparral’s engine builder Gerald Davies did a great job with our 5.7-litre Chevrolet engine giving 600 reliable horsepower. We went on to win the championship with five firsts and five seconds in the Lola, with no DNFS.
1st LOLA T330/332C
After a foolish retirement to Johannesburg following the successful 1970 season with John Wyer’s Gulf team and the factory Porsche 917K and 908/03, I finally came to understand the evils of apartheid and returned to England after only four months, with no drive.
The irrepressible Sid Taylor, for whom I’d driven a Lola T70 MK3B in 1969, offered his newly acquired Mclaren M18 F5000 car. In a difficult year we only managed a couple of wins and one heavy crash, with Lola development driver Frank Gardner in his new, F2-based flyer at Snetterton. At the end of the year, Sid bought an earlier Mclaren M10B and I talked with Derek Bennett at Chevron about building an F5000. He replied he could, and would.
Twelve weeks later we took the new B24 to Oulton Park and, as with many of Derek’s designs, the new car was quick out of the box, breaking the lap record and winning it’s first two races. In great excitement Sid shouted: “$20,000 for first place at Watkins Glen – we’re going.”
With little money, the B24 was sent to New York on an open trailer, where we bought a station wagon for $500. Leading on aggregate by 40s from Graham Mcrae, with seven laps to go, the battery went flat. Instead of the $20,000 we made do with $4000.
At Riverside, the last race of the 1972 season, we managed a controversial win. I was slipstreaming leader Sam Posey in his Surtees TS11 when suddenly the back of his car came at me and I swerved, at over 160mph, to miss him. The reason for Sam’s slowing was a yellow flag waving at the fast Turn 9 – wrecker trucks were moving a damaged car.
Sam’s car owner lodged a protest that I’d passed under a yellow.
The clerk of the course came to me and in a strong Lancashire accent said: “Now then lad, I’m Joe Smith from Accrington (about seven miles from where I lived in Burnley) – as one Lancashire Lad to another, dids’t tha see t’yellow flag or not?” I truthfully replied that I’d never seen it and Joe replied: “Right lad – you’ rt winner.” I was fined $100 for the misdemeanor. Haas and Jim Hall were at the race looking for a driver for 1973 and when they asked if I’d join the team, I readily agreed. A production T330 was sent to Chaparral in Midland Texas and Eric, chief mechanic Jim Chapman and I developed another car in England. The first race was at Riverside and without any special practice sessions I went from one car to the other, finally choosing the Jim Hall car. We won the race against a young, hard-charging wild man named Jody Scheckter. Missing two races due to driving for Ferrari in the 312 PB in Europe, we finished second in the championship to Jody by a few points, although winning five races to his four.
In 1974 and 1975 we used the T332 to finish ahead of Mario Andretti and in ’76 ahead of Al Unser Sr to win three US F5000 Championships.
Although several times it looked doubtful, we came through with a superb record of reliability – at a time when the Chevrolet five-litre racing engine was not the most reliable of units. Thanks to the engine building skills of Franz Weis, we had only one engine failure, and that was in practice, in four years.
Leading from the front; Hall, Weis (the ultra-competent engine builder and fast test driver), our brilliant Chaparral crew who prepped the car, Troy Rogers, Tony Connor and Davey Evans. I thanked them profusely then, and I thank them again now. ■