ATS 100
The ATS Tipo 100 (also: ATS 100) was a Formula 1 racing car produced by the Italian company Automobili Turismo e Sport (ATS), developed by the former Alfa Romeo and Ferrari engineer Carlo Chiti and used in Formula 1 - 1963 season has been reported to some races. The car had a problematic design - initially the frame had to be sawed to change the engine - and technically unreliable. There were only two ATS 100 finishings in total.
construction
The ATS 100 had a tubular space frame that was similar in structure to the contemporary Scuderia Ferrari racing cars , which were also designed by Chiti. The structure was made of aluminum; the car had a long, low nose with an oval radiator opening and at times a high engine cover with an integrated headrest.
An eight-cylinder V-engine with 1.5 liters displacement and two overhead camshafts for each cylinder bank served as the drive. Each cylinder had two valves and two spark plugs. The mixture was initially prepared using four double carburettors from Weber , later Chiti switched to gasoline injection from Lucas . The power of the engine was specified with 188 hp; it was 20 to 30 hp below the level of performance that the top engines from Ferrari or BRM achieved. The power was transmitted via a six-speed gearbox from Colotti, which Chiti modified for use in the ATS.
The ATS 100 was first presented to the public in late 1962. The prototype had smooth, attractive lines and was neatly assembled.
In the following months, Chiti fundamentally redesigned the car. During the first test drives it turned out that the Tipo 100 was very easy to twist. To increase the rigidity of the vehicle, reinforcing steel pipes were installed above the engine, which were arranged transversely to the direction of travel. These pipes prevented the engine from being changed quickly. In the original version, they had to be sawed apart before changing the engine; After installing the new engine, the mechanics had to weld new reinforcement tubes to the frame. From the summer of 1963, the reinforcement pipes could be removed without sawing or welding. In the first half of 1963, the body was also revised. In any case, the attractive lines of the prototype were partially abandoned. In the form that it had when it first raced in June 1963, the ATS 100 was mostly perceived as clumsy, and the execution of some details showed a low level of manual skills.
Races
The Automobili Turismo e Sport team registered the ATS 100 for a total of seven world championship races in the 1963 Formula 1 season, but only took part in five races. The drivers were the former Formula 1 world champion and Ferrari driver Phil Hill and the comparatively inexperienced Giancarlo Baghetti . Hill and Baghetti qualified in all races they competed in; however, the qualifying times were never enough for the front rows. The backlogs in qualification were sometimes considerable. In the debut race in Belgium, for example, Hill's qualifying time was 12.6 seconds short of Graham Hill's pole time ; Baghetti's deficit was even more than 39 seconds.
In the racing events, the ATS 100 proved to be underperforming and unreliable. At four grand prizes, the drivers retired prematurely due to technical defects. There were only finishings at the Italian Grand Prix in 1963 . Hill finished eleventh, seven laps behind, while Baghetti crossed the finish line in fifteenth, 23 laps behind. The long backlog was due to numerous pit stops in which technical defects had to be repaired.
After the Mexican Grand Prix, ATS ceased Formula 1 operations.
Re-use
An ATS 100 was taken over by the British racing mechanic Alf Francis. He revised the car and registered it for the 1964 Italian Grand Prix under the designation Derrington-Francis ATS100 for the Portuguese racing driver Mário Cabral . Cabral succeeded in qualifying, but was unable to finish the race due to a technical defect. The car was later destroyed by Dan Gurney in an accident during a test drive.
literature
- Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
- David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
- David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
- Mike Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars, 1945–65. Motor Racing Publications, Croydon 1998, ISBN 1-899-87039-3
- Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition. Chronosports, St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).
- Georg Amtmann, Halwart Schrader: Italian sports cars. (From Abarth and Alfa Romeo to Vignale and Zagato. Brands, history, technology, data). Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-01988-4 .
