TEST WEEK-END AT LE MANS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30110, 19 April 1963, Page 7

TEST WEEK-END AT LE MANS

By

BRUCE McLAREN

LONDON. T ALWAYS enjoy testing and * development work with new cars, and the Le Mans test week-end was a lot of .nstructive fun.

On Friday afternoon, an American, W. Kimberley, and I parked our E-type Jaguars outride the Aston Martin experimental workshops at Feltham and were taken out to London airport where a

David Brown executive aircraft was waiting to whisk us off to Le Mans. There I had my first experience of the legendary Aston Manin efficiency. We touched down at the Le Mans airfield about 5.55 p.m. and our ground transport—a Lagonda shooting-brake and a DB4 Aston Martin—pulled up alongside the plane at 6.03 pm. The drivers were apologetic for being three minutes Idte.

Later a transporter pulled up in the little square in the village of La Chatre, and while half the townsfolk looked on, three dull-green and purposeful Aston Martins were rolled down on to the cobbles.

First Day

Breakfast was at 7.03 the next morning (no one was more than a minute late) and at precisely 8.15 a.m. the three works Astons awakened the countryside for miles around as they set off for the circuit bellowing and coughng in the cold, misty morning air.

Centre of attraction in the pits was of course, the RoverBRM. Richie Gintiher at any time has a mest descriptive turn of phrase when it comes to describing racing cars and his impressions of the turbine car were more than interesting.

First, he said, you can’t induce anything. In a corner you can’t make the tail break

away because the power is so smooth. You lift your foo. and nothing much happens—it just continues on around the corner. And if you lift your foot at 140 m.ph. on the straight, you find that you’re still doihg 120 m.p.h. half a mile down the road. Starting from rest it is apparently just a question of letting the turbine revs, build up, and then taking your foot off the brake pedal. I noticed She pedal was nearly big enough for three large feet, so I presume that you brake with your left foot.

It was certainly aweinspiring when it left the pits on the first lap, hissing away like a kettle coming to the boil, and leaving a smell of kerosene for all the world like a plumber's blowtorch.

Not Trying

There was a light drizzle falling and no-one was trying too hard. The Esses after the Dunlop Bridge were particularly slippery but we had until 4.30 p.m., and it looked as though the sun might come out.

I did a few laps in the two new 3.7 litre DB4 GT Astons, one of them having been set up with slightly heavier springs than the other so that an optimum spring rate for the Le Mans circuit could be arrived at as quickly as possible.

The Aston team had a very comprehensive range of springs, anti-roll bars and shock absorbers, which to the uninitiated might seem to indicate that they were not too sure of their design settings. However, this was not the case, and after lunch at the restaurant beside the Mulsanne straight with Ferraris

and such-like flashing by at 150 miles an hour-plus, I took the Aston out on a drying circuit and found straight away that it was one of the best handling cars I have ever driven. Aston Martins. I think, feel as I do that a racing car is like a piano. You can make something that looks right with all the wires the right length, the right size and pretty close to the right settings, but until it is tuned it will not play well.

Good Times

The Aston was a delight, particularly on the fast corners and late that afternoon we managed to record some times that were substantially better than the best GTO Ferrari times.

Mairesse, Parkes and Surtees had been really turning on the fireworks with the Vl2 rear-engined Ferrari sports car, all three eventually getting well under 3min 50sec. The fastest lap in practice last year was 3min 55sec if my memory serves me right.

I can't see anything hoicking these Ferrari sports cars (GT prototypes) in the race, but Astons might cause a surprise and the new Lola GT should be very quick.

At an Aston Martin drivers' meeting before dinner on Saturday night, Jo Schlesser, Lucien Bianchi, Kimberley and I marked circuit maps with our gear-change and braking points and noted the r.p.m. attained on each straight and through Whitehouse corner. From these the technical men were able

„„ to check back on t'he sheets for the 1962 car and so analyse their improvements.

Sunday

Surtees was out again early on Sunday in the Ferrari and Graham Hill had arrived from England to try the turbine car. It was still very cold when rum ended at 12.30 p.m. and we were glad to bundle into a warm restaurant and get a bite to eat. My impression of the test week-end was that I’d enjoyed myself and I'd increased my knowledge of the circuit considerably. Not as many teams turned up as I thought would, but the Ferraris were as fast as ever (faster) and the Aston Martins proved to be delightful cars with a lot of promise.