Oreste Berta
Oreste Berta SA is a company from Córdoba , Argentina that manufactures vehicles and engines for automobile racing and sometimes uses them in the factory in motorsport. The company was initially closely associated with Industrias Kaiser Argentina (IKA) and Régie Renault .
Berta constructions have been used in South American touring car races since the late 1960s. The company later became involved in formula racing. For 1975 Oreste Berta planned the deployment of a works team in the Formula 1 world championship. Although Berta had developed its own chassis and engine for this, the company withdrew its report a few days before the first race. Berta is considered to be the team that has narrowly missed a Formula 1 race.
Today the company is a supplier in the field of motorsport and automobile tuning. It has its own racing team under the name Berta Motorsport , which takes part in South American touring car races.
Company history
The founder of the company is Oreste Berta, a technician who was born in Rafaela , Santa Fe in 1940 . In the early 1960s Berta was trained as an engineer at IKA. Already at that time he was busy increasing the performance of the in-house engines and preparing them for racing. There are reports that sports car manufacturer Alejandro de Tomaso, who was born in Argentina and has been based in Italy since the 1950s, was interested in a commitment from his compatriot Oreste Bertas. In order to keep Berta in Argentina, IKA then supported him in founding his own company in Cordoba, which took place in 1965.
In the 1970s, like other Argentine companies, Berta suffered from his country's economic problems. His company often struggled to get foreign racing components; Berta always had to make do with local parts or switch to self-made solutions. These problems also affected the competitiveness of Berta's designs. Berta survived these difficulties and was able to establish itself as a serious company in South American motorsport.
Differentiating between Berta's individual designs is made more difficult by the fact that many of them are called Berta LR, even though they were very different vehicles.
Touring car sport
Between 1966 and 1971 Oreste Berta was primarily involved in touring car racing. His company initially prepared vehicles of the IKA Torino type for racing. These were essentially conventional sedans produced in Argentina that were derived from the American Rambler American . First and foremost, Berta took performance-enhancing measures; the bodies of the cars, however, remained largely unchanged. The vehicles were often used in South American touring car races, but also in endurance races. One of the company's outstanding commitments was the deployment of three IKA Torino teams in the 84-hour race at the Nürburgring in 1969. The program, which was named “Légion Argentina”, was headed by Juan Manuel Fangio ; Berta had prepared and set up the cars in Cordoba. Two Berta-Torinos failed; the third car, however, which was driven by Eduardo Copello, Oscar Franco and a pilot with the pseudonym "Larry", came in fourth.
Berta continued working with the Torino until 1973. The last version of the 3.8 liter six-cylinder engine achieved an output of 215 hp, which enabled the heavy car to reach a top speed of 205 km / h. Berta later also prepared American series vehicles for racing, including the Ford Maverick .
The Berta LR sports car
The first vehicle to be named Berta LR was an open, fully encased, mid-engined sports car that was developed in 1969 and entered the sports prototype class from 1970. The car, which was as "attractive as it was frustratingly unsuccessful", was powered by a Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder engine. However, some sources report that the six-cylinder engine of the IKA Torino was used at least at times. The chassis is mostly described as "primitive".
The Berta LR was used in some motorsport events in the early 1970s without reaching a single finish. For the first time the LR started at the 1000 kilometer race in Buenos Aires; The pilots were the Argentinians Luis di Palma and Carlos Marincovich . You started the race from third place, but didn't finish. The same applied to the 200 mile race in Buenos Aires a week later.
For the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in May 1970, the Berta LR was again registered for di Palma and Marincovitch. Both qualified the car for 15th place on the grid. However, they did not finish. After the fifth lap they were eliminated due to a water leak.
Two years later the LR was registered again for the 1000 kilometer race in Buenos Aires. The drivers were Luis di Palma and Nestor Garcia-Veiga. They were able to qualify for 24th place on the grid but did not start the race because the engine collapsed before the start. The last time the LR was used was at the 500 kilometer race in Interlagos in Brazil. Rolando Nardi retired after an accident during the race.
Formula 5000: Berta BA3
In 1974 Oreste Berta designed a vehicle for the Formula 5000 for the US team owner Francisco Mir . I had initially used an Eagle chassis for the young Argentinian driver Nestor Garcia-Veiga , but had not been able to achieve any success with it. Veiga awakened Mir's interest in having his own Formula 5000 chassis and then put me in touch with Oreste Berta, for whom he had previously driven sports car races in Argentina. Berta constructed an aluminum monocoque with a conventional suspension. A 5.0 liter eight-cylinder engine from Chevrolet served as the drive . Berta allegedly needed no more than 50 days to design and assemble the car. The first test drives in Buenos Aires were carried out by Marito Garciá, another test took place in the summer of 1974 at the Riverside International Raceway in California. The tests were disappointing; the client did not take over Berta's construction for his Formula 5000 team.
The vehicle was returned to Argentina and served as the basis for Berta's Formula 1 vehicle, which was developed and built in 1974. After its failure, the car was upgraded to the Formula 5000 configuration and again equipped with a 5.0 liter eight-cylinder. The American racing driver Bill Simpson took over the car that he used in Formula 5000 races in Long Beach and Riverside in September and October 1975. Luis di Palma contested another run of this series in October 1975 in Laguna Seca .
Formula 1: Berta LR
Oreste Berta derived a Formula 1 version from the Formula 5000 model in the course of 1975. Outwardly, the car was very similar to the Brabham BT44 . An eight-cylinder engine, which Oreste Berta claims to have designed himself, served as the drive. Most sources assume that Berta modeled the design features of the Cosworth DFV engine and possibly adapted it to the Argentine circumstances with regard to the parts supply. Another source, however, sees - not least because of the good business relationships between Berta and Renault - a connection to the eight-cylinder engine that the French sports car manufacturer Alpine had developed in 1968 as a test vehicle for Formula 1.
The Formula 1 vehicle called Berta LR was completed at the end of 1974. Berta then registered his car for the Argentina and Brazil Grand Prix , which were held in January 1975. His car was given the starting number 29.
In preparation, Nestor Garcia-Veiga carried out a first test drive in Buenos Aires in December 1974. It turned out that Berta's engine delivered an output of only 400 hp, while the Cosworth engines made over 460 hp. Berta exchanged the pistons they had made themselves for American ones; however, this did not increase performance. Four engines collapsed in the course of the test drives. Berta then withdrew his report for the upcoming Formula 1 races. There was no new attempt. The car was upgraded to the Formula 5000 configuration over the next few months.
Formula sport
In the 1970s and 1980s Berta developed a number of vehicles for the South American series of formulas 2 and 3. Some of these vehicles were quite successful, depending on the local conditions.
literature
- David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 . Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
Web links
References and comments
- ^ "The Grand Prix car Argentina almost had". For the whole, see the history of the Formula 1 project on the website www.forix.autosport.com (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ^ History of the Formula 1 project on the website www.forix.autosport.com (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ a b Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 30.
- ↑ Pictures of the Berta-Torinos deployment at the Nürburgring in 1969 (accessed on November 20, 2010).
- ^ Image of Berta LR (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ "Famoso y en gran parte frustrado". see. www.f1-web.com.ar (accessed November 29, 2010).
- ↑ a b www.f1-web.com.ar (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ Race statistics on the website www.jacky-ickx-fan.net ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ Overview of the Berta LR races on the website www.racingsportscars.com (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ a b c d History of the Formula 1 project on the website http://forix.autosport.com (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ Illustration of the Berta F 5000 with Bill Simpson on the website www.myf5000.com (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ Overview of the Berta BA3's Formula 5000 operations on the website h www.porsche917.com.ar (accessed on November 29, 2010).
- ↑ According to Hodges (Rennwagen from AZ after 1945, p. 30) there were similarities to the Brabham BT34. That shouldn't be the case. The BT34 was a one-off from 1971 with a high front wing and no air scoop. The Berta F1, on the other hand, like the Brabham BT44, had a high air scoop with a massive cockpit surround and a low-hanging front wing that spanned the entire width of the car, which is mostly called "lobster-claw" in English-language media.
- ↑ For this engine cf. Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 16.
