mantasisg
Registered
Few words on Vanwall and Tony Vandervell.
I think it could be said that Tony Vandervell was the catalyst of British motorsport as well as rapid evolution of Formula One in 1956-1959. One of the first BRM financial backers, later decided to work on his dream to drive British motorsport to victories himself. He studied itialian cars at first, racing and modifying Ferraris as Thinwall cars. He employed specialists like Colin Chapman of Lotus, Frank Costin, Owen Maddock from Cooper. I think these job opportunities could have been major acceleration for Lotus and Cooper developing their own racing programmes. Cooper would win first two races already by 1958, the year Vanwall took first munufacturers championship, and Moss barely didn't become a champion. Next year Vanwall would start fading away and Cooper would dominate, and Lotus would start to dominate in early 60s. Although not associated, perhaps following successes, soon Eric Broadley with Lola would emerge, further cementing British motorsports on the top.
British tires also would become dominant in late 50s. Dunlop R5 was big improvement after R4. Could it also be in someway associated with Vanwall, I don't know. But knowing how Tony Vandervell pursued to use anything best possible on VW chassies, it would make sense if there could have been a push for improved tires.
Vandervell wasn't focused on just British designs. He used help from Porsche for transmissions, they would have used Pirelli tires if they were better, but it turned out that Dunlops were better in wet, while Pirellis were slightly better in dry. When Vandervell learned about Maserati new smaller gearbox he immediately pursued to get one. I get a picture, that as a manager of Vanwall he was no less on the limit than his drivers would be on the track.
Vanwall VW1-11 cars were surely amazing. Considering they had two big flaws - larger in size and with seat position 20centimeters too high. They still managed to compensate and lacked no speed against the competition, and were mostly quicker.
I think Tony Vandervell was a bit like Henry Ford II the way he stirred things up.
I think it could be said that Tony Vandervell was the catalyst of British motorsport as well as rapid evolution of Formula One in 1956-1959. One of the first BRM financial backers, later decided to work on his dream to drive British motorsport to victories himself. He studied itialian cars at first, racing and modifying Ferraris as Thinwall cars. He employed specialists like Colin Chapman of Lotus, Frank Costin, Owen Maddock from Cooper. I think these job opportunities could have been major acceleration for Lotus and Cooper developing their own racing programmes. Cooper would win first two races already by 1958, the year Vanwall took first munufacturers championship, and Moss barely didn't become a champion. Next year Vanwall would start fading away and Cooper would dominate, and Lotus would start to dominate in early 60s. Although not associated, perhaps following successes, soon Eric Broadley with Lola would emerge, further cementing British motorsports on the top.
British tires also would become dominant in late 50s. Dunlop R5 was big improvement after R4. Could it also be in someway associated with Vanwall, I don't know. But knowing how Tony Vandervell pursued to use anything best possible on VW chassies, it would make sense if there could have been a push for improved tires.
Vandervell wasn't focused on just British designs. He used help from Porsche for transmissions, they would have used Pirelli tires if they were better, but it turned out that Dunlops were better in wet, while Pirellis were slightly better in dry. When Vandervell learned about Maserati new smaller gearbox he immediately pursued to get one. I get a picture, that as a manager of Vanwall he was no less on the limit than his drivers would be on the track.
Vanwall VW1-11 cars were surely amazing. Considering they had two big flaws - larger in size and with seat position 20centimeters too high. They still managed to compensate and lacked no speed against the competition, and were mostly quicker.
I think Tony Vandervell was a bit like Henry Ford II the way he stirred things up.
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