Salvage Squad

Did anyone see that Salvage Squad programme last night where Lee Hurst and the team restored a Lola T142 Formula 5000 car that Keith Holland used to win in at Jarama in 1969?

They did a pretty good job on the car, didn't they?

I do wonder who the programme was aimed at, though. It seemed to be too technical to really be interesting to the non-enthusiast, and yet the stage-managed "race" at the end of the show was so unconvincing that it couldn't but be embarrassing to the Historic Racing fans who were waiting for a "last race in the season" debut as promised.

Still, it was an intriguing insight into what it takes to get a barn discovery into racing condition.

Wonder where the water in the number 1 cylinder did come from.....!

Oh feck!

Tim... you don't have a copy on video do you ?! Someone here forgot all about it... despite having watched all the other episodes in the series... doh!

The little explanations of V configuration engines and disc brakes were obviously aimed at the non technical. The whole series has been a bit hit and miss. At times they've cut corners and used replacement parts to get the job done, at other times they've spend hours debating getting tiny details exactly correct.

Nice idea for a series, hope they do more.

Does anybody really believe that the three non-specialists involved really do all the work in 10 days (or whatever) in each episode? I think that,just as in Scrapheap Challenge,there must be an awful lot of off-screen help available. At the end of the piece there HAS to be a successful conclusion to make a satisfactory TV programme.

Who cares if it's genuine or not - it makes good telly! I once delivered on the set of a Ground Force shoot in Basingstoke... there must have been upwards of 25 landscapers on site, yet when it went to air they would have you believe there were just three people doing all the work.

Think how much that rebuild would have cost. New uprights, new engine internals, new tyres, repainted body work, crack tested chassis, etc. I bet the owner is sitting pretty (if he did not have to pay that is) as he has a fully ready to go race car.

its a pity that an experienced driver, one that races in the present series, did not drive the car and get a lap time comparison, or them mentioning what times the other cars were doing at the same time as they were running around.

btw, the 'lap record' of 51.2 seconds or so is a bit poor. A FF1600 can do the circuit in 48 seconds, F3 cars in 45seconds or so , and the lap record of 38 seconds or so in a modern, mid 1990s, F1 car. The F5000 cars should be down around 43-45 seconds or so. Is this slow speed a sign of how poor the F5000 cars were aerodynamically/chassis wise, as a late 70's F1 car lapped at 40 seconds.

I've recorded it, but probably wont get round to watching it for a while :(

I think the series has been very interesting, and has given an insight into lots of different types of machines. Is there one on next week - if so what???

Tony, I don't keep records of lap-times as such, so I can't give a definitive answer, but I did drag out a Mallory F5000 race report from 1972, and the first two rows of the grid were doing under 45s.

Pole time was 43.8 seconds.

Craig, yes, I did tape the show. Another one to add to the mythical video evening?

HAHAHAHAHAHA! I gather I'm not the only one to have stacks of yet unwatched tapes?

not a bad guess at lap times then :)

I would not mind seeing the F5000 series race again, I saw them at a wet Donington last year and they were great fun, but on a dry track they must be even better.

I am sure ALOT more work went into that car off screen, I doubt you could take a Chevy V8 apart and just screw it back togeather after not running for 20 odd years and expect it to run, what about the electrics & where did that water come from in the block?
A bit more info on the background of that cars race history (and crash's)would have been good, even the wife knows that a F5000 would not have raced in a proper GP in 69, so what cars did it race against in Spain?
Still it was a fun program with some good footage, but why did you keep seem the JagF1?

Argh! Nooo.. Forgot to video this one ourselves, and we were coming back up the M1 when it was on :( Video evening soon, Tim? :)

Are you sure I can't get that TV/video combi for the van, Chris :D

Nordic

Madrid GP at Jarama in 1969 was a glorified Libre race, which not even all the good F5000 runners attended. Still it did give a real tryer like Holland a deserved race win.

Result.
1. Holland Lola T142
2 Tony Dean BRM P261/5-V12
3 Jock Russell Lotus 43/R1-Ford 302 V8
4 Neil Corner Cooper T86B (F1.2.67)-Maserati V12
5 Bill Stone Brabham BT18 or BT21 depending on race report with a Lotus t/c
R Peter Gethin McLaren M10A/300-1-Chevrolet V8
R Max Moseley (yes that Max Moseley) Lotus 59B (59.F2.21)-FVA
R Rob Lamplough Lotus 43/R2-Ford 302 V8

Watching the race at the end of Salvage Squad was embarassing, and I bet the guy who creamed his Lola in "qualifying" felt pleased. I hope that the production company paid for the rebuild, but somehow doubt it.

Tim... I have a plan in mind. But it involves me acquiring a generator... bring it to the Silverstone/Brands weekend just in case I have one by then :)

Its not the first time the driver of the crashed car at Mallory has bent an expensive motor. He has also owned a Maserati which he rolled whilst competing on the Manx classic hence the number 69, which he always uses (same both ways up).

I hope he gets the car back together for this season.

I found the whole program embarrassing. But it must of cost a fortune to cast those uprights. Plus they were repairable. The way they tried to repair them was a bit of a bodge. They should of ground off completely the corner and re-welded a block of metal on the end. Machined it to the required shape, then drill and tap. I have done this before and it worked. They crack tested the chassis yet The steering rack was bent, they straightened it, refitted it but didn’t crack test the rack casing!!!!!!!!!! So many inconsistent things like that. They must have had a team helping as we all know racing car restoration and preparation is very specialised.
The lap times of 52 secs I believe they guessed. He prob couldn’t remember so he was out by a mere 10 secs. My old ff1600 Lola could lap in 48secs.
But at least we got to see such nice F5000’s on the tv
:rotate:

What made me laugh was when the car was fired up and the 'non-racers' all went 'oh my god they are load!!', just look how far Lee ran away at Mallory when it was fired up in the pit lane, all this after he was saying go on thrash it. That also was silly as it was very tricky conditions in a car he had not driven with a new engine, etc.

I just want to see the series with a large grid on a dry day, now that would be impressive.

Regarding the huge teams on hand to do the "Ground Force" jobs, well, they'd have to be to make up for the time lost in camera work and setting up for it...

Crack testing the chassis? Never heard of that being done, but was it done by the spray process? That's at least visible on TV, which would be more important than whether it should be done or not...

Keith Holland was a good guy, met him when he came out here. He had the M10 McLaren the first time and really enjoyed his racing, did a nice job of it too.

I think crack testing is a Force and TGP regulation regarding chassis and suspension. Its good to have it done but my point was the lack of testing on the steering rack.

The Salvage Squad programme was indeed poor as far as that staged race at Mallory was concerned. Tom was crying with laughter at the idea of an F5000 car lapping in 1m 16s and everyone getting excited (especially as the dude cut out the chicane). His FHonda Mallory lap record is 46.76s from 600cc.

At the 1969 F5000 race Fast Peter Gethin had fastest lap at 44s, which is more like it.

But it was wonderful to see F5000s on tv. I loved the things! They were big and handsome (McLaren's M10B and Lola's T330-332 series are among the best-looking race cars ever built). When we tested at Mallory early last season, Simon Hadfield was flying in the ex-Wattie Hexagon Trojan T101 that my old chum Marcus Pye raced so effectively recently. It sounded fantastic and was sooo quick going down to Gerards.

One of the best race series ever was the L&M F5000 Championship in the States, with stars such as Mario and the underrated Brian redman joined by Jody Scheckter, David Hobbs and the fabulously quick but doomed BJ Swanson. He would have been a huge star had he lived.

Seeing Keith Holland on the screen brought back memories of the old days at Motoring News in the early Nineties. Either we printed it, or our 'deadly' rivals at Autosport did, but somebody cruelly sent in information that Keith had died. When this was checked with his secretary she said that was odd because he was in the next office. It was a very unpleasant hoax.

Overall, though, well done Salvage Squad for getting F5000 on tv. Didn't you just love seeing Frank Gardner, Mike the Bike and dear old Trev Taylor in their Lola T192s dicing with Reine Wisell, Mike Walker and Cassius McRae in their McLarens at Brands? But do a bit more homework next time, huh?

David Tremayne

david
Is Trevor Taylor driving in the replica and gt series in England, THE Trevor Taylor??

Mickj
Don't know about the replica and GT series Trevor Taylor, but if he's quick, cheerful and a wonderful fellow, chances are it's the real Trev!

David Tremayne