Surtees TS5

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The Surtees TS5 was a Formula 5000 racing car that was developed and built in 1969 and 1970.

Development history

The TS5 was built on an initiative by British racing car designer Roger Nathan . Nathan, who in the second half of the 1960s had developed a racing car with Frank Costin under the name Costin Nathan , was looking for partners to develop a Formula 5000 racing car at the end of 1968. Nathan wanted to get into this newly created racing series and needed a usable racing car. He approached the British racing car technician Len Terry , who agreed to design a car. Terry had mainly as a designer of the successful Lotus - seater 33 and 38 made a name. He spent the year 1968 at Lola to where the Formula 2 - BMW T102 to develop. The third party involved was former motorcycle and Formula 1 world champion John Surtees . In 1968 Surtees was still a very active racing driver. He was a works driver at Honda and finished the Formula 1 drivers' championship in seventh overall.

Parallel to his engagements as a driver, Surtees had long since started to build up his own racing team, the Surtees team. After Nathan, Terry and Surtees, American actor James Garner was the fourth participant in this project at the end of 1968 . Garner maintained a racing team called American International Racers and was looking for a vehicle to be able to compete in the US Formula A series, the local counterpart to the British Formula 5000.

Terry designed and built the first four chassis in his small workshop in Poole and was supported logistically by Surtees. Originally, the vehicles were to be named Terry-Surtees TS5 for Formula 5000 and Garner TS5 for Formula A. But funding stalled, Nathan jumped off the project and Garner had already sold his Lola T70 and CanAm - Lola T162 in order to finance his part of the project. It was only when John Surtees took over the project that the process was given a reasonable technical and financial basis. Terry's four chassis were completed at the Surtees factory, and three other cars were completely built there.

In his design, Terry followed the slim design that was already used in the Lotus 38. The racing car had a monocoque , independent suspension and a Hewland LG 500 transmission. A 500 hp 5-liter V8 engine from Ford was originally intended as the power unit. In the winter of 1968/1969 the Garner team pilot Scooter Patrick took over the test drives with the prototype. When the two Garner TS5 were handed over to the Americans in March 1969, they equipped the cars with V8 engines from Chevrolet , which subsequently remained the main engines of this racing car. Further test drives in Riverside were unpleasant. Scooter Patrick and Dave Jordan - who did the test work - complained about the poor handling of the car. In addition, there were constant problems with the suspension, which motivated James Garner to also get out of the project. The vehicles came back to England and the actor commissioned new racing vehicles from Dan Gurney's AAR Eagle .

In addition to building the rest of the vehicles, John Surtees also took over their races and renamed the vehicles Surtees TS5. This was the beginning of the long typology of the Surtees racing cars under the abbreviation TS for Team Surtees .

Racing history

Formula 5000

The TS5 made its racing debut in April 1969 at Oulton Park . It was the opening race of the European Formula 5000 Championship in 1969 and at the same time the first race in this newly established series . John Surtees had brought the Garner back to Europe and used the cars, still with a Chevrolet engine, under his own team leadership. David Hobbs , Andrea de Adamich and Trevor Taylor were signed as drivers . In contrast to the test experience in the USA, the cars were fast in training and had no technical problems. David Hobbs achieved the fastest lap time in qualifying with 1: 30.6 and put his TS5 on pole position . Andrea de Adamich reached fourth place in training, but was unable to take part in the race because he had an accident just before the end of training and severely damaged the car. In the race, Hobbs only had to admit defeat to Peter Gethin in the McLaren M10A and achieved a podium finish in the first race.

At the third round of the season at Brands Hatch there was the second pole position, this time driven out by Trevor Taylor. A defective clutch also prevented his start. Hobbs celebrated his first race win at the sixth round of the season at Mondello Park , where he was flagged as the winner after 84 laps in front of Mike Hailwood in a Lola T142 and Alan Rollinson in a Brabham BT30 .

A winning streak followed by Trevor Taylor, who won the races in Koksijde , Zandvoort , Snetterton and Hockenheim one after the other . But he could not secure the overall ranking; this went to Peter Gethin, preferably through the deletion of results from Taylor.

In 1970 there was only the first win of the season at the ninth round, when Trevor Taylor won ahead of Peter Gethin in the redesigned McLaren M10 and Frank Gardner in the Lola T190 . In the course of the season, Surtees withdrew from Formula 5000, as the entry into the Formula 1 World Championship was pending, which required the entire attention of the team. One vehicle, a TS5A with chassis number 008, was sold to the Irishman Alan Rollinson, who had little success with the car and switched to a Lotus 70 before the end of the season .

At the end of the year all TS5 and TS5A were sold. In 1971, Surtees entered the Formula 5000 championship again at the factory with the successor model, the TS8 .

Formula A

The American racing driver Mike Goth acquired the TS5 with the chassis number 005 in the spring of 1969 and used it in the championship from the sixth race of the season in Elkhart Lake . In the debut race, which consisted of three sprint races and the ensuing overall ranking, he finished third behind Tony Adamowicz in an Eagle Mk5 and McLaren driver John Cordts . Surtees accepted the great logistical challenge and also used works cars in Formula A. For this purpose, the vehicles had to be repeatedly transported by air between Great Britain and the USA; this was also a not inconsiderable expense financially. In the same race as Goth, David Hobbs was also at the start in the works car, but already retired on the second lap due to a defect. After Hobbs achieved second place in the second race, the race in Lime Rock, the third race, the Minnesota Grand Prix in Brainerd , was followed by the first race victory of a TS5 in the USA. Another four victories of the season by Hobbs followed, whereby there was even a double victory in Mont-Tremblant when he won ahead of Andrea de Adamich.

As in Europe, Surtees was unable to win the championship overall standings in the USA, despite strong races and countable successes, because the team entered the series too late in the year and Tony Adamowicz's lead in points in the Eagle was therefore unmatchable.

In 1970, Surtees' plant involvement in the USA also ended.

Tasman series

Mike Goth also competed in the races for the Tasman series of that year with his TS5, chassis 005, in January and February 1970 . With ten points, he finished eighth in the championship.

Chassis of the TS5

  • Chassis TS5 001: The first TS5, still built by Len Terry; Trevor Taylor drove the car in 1969 in Formula 5000 and Andrea de Adamich in Formula A; Destroyed in an accident by Scooter Patrick in Mont-Tremblant in 1969.
  • Chassis TS5 002: A Garner TS5 that was returned to Surtees by Garner after delivery; renamed to chassis F1R and sold to the South African Doug Serrurier ; Jackie Pretorius drove the car in South Africa; in the 1970s the car was severely damaged in a dragster race; a British collector found the car in a South African barn in 2003 and had it fully restored in Europe in 2005.
  • Chassis TS5 003: Driven by David Hobbs in 1969 in Formula 5000 and Formula A; Sold to Royal American Competition in late 1969 ; Hamilton Vose drove the car in Formula A; destroyed in an accident at Sears Point.
  • Chassis TS5 004: Driven by David Hobbs, Trevor Taylor and Andrea de Adamich in 1969 in both Formula 5000 and Formula A; Sold to Royal American Competition in late 1969 ; driven by Dick DeJarld ; later became the TS5A of John Martin.
  • Chassis TS5 005: sold to Mike Goth in 1969; subsequently had several owners and was involved in several accidents; was later restored and now belongs to the American Rob van Westenberg.
  • Chassis TS5 006: Originally built in 1969 for the Japanese Tetsu Ikuzawa , whose contract with Surtees was not concluded in 1969; Driven by Trevor Taylor and Derek Bell in Formula 5000 in 1969 ; Sold to Sherwood Johnston in 1970 ; further whereabouts controversial.
  • Chassis TS5 007: Hobbs and Taylor factory car 1969; then sold to Robert Fischetti ; Destroyed in Watkins Glen in 1972 .

Surtees TS5A

In 1970 the TS5 was revised and became the TS5A . There were detailed improvements to the suspensions, the fuel tanks and the engine lubrication. The braking system was improved and switched from the LG500 to the DG300 gearbox from Hewland. There are different details about the number of items produced. While John Surtees spoke of 15 vehicles built, despite the confusing chassis stories, only ten TS5A can be moored. The purchase of a copy by the British racing car manufacturer Trojan is secured . The McLaren M10 was manufactured at Trojan and a TS5A served as a technological illustration. A completely impossible process in racing car construction today.

The TS5A were driven by various private drivers until the late 1970s. The American Howie Fairbanks drove a TS5A in 1978 in the SCCA series.

Chassis of the TS5A

If it is easy to assign the chassis numbers to the TS5, it is much more difficult with the TS5A. This is mainly due to the missing assignment of the cars delivered to Royal American Competition Enterprises Fred Opert Racing and Doug Hooper , which leads to a great potential for confusion. Nevertheless, an attempt should be made here to assign the numbers.

  • Chassis TS5A 001: works car at the beginning of 1970; driven by David Hobbs and Trevor Taylor; destroyed in a Taylor accident at Brands Hatch in May 1970.
  • Chassis TS5A 002: one of the cars delivered to RACE, Opert or Hooper; Assignment unclear.
  • Chassis TS5A 003: one of the cars delivered to RACE, Opert or Hooper; Assignment unclear.
  • Chassis TS5A 004: one of the cars delivered to RACE, Opert or Hooper; Assignment unclear.
  • Chassis TS5A 005: one of the cars delivered to RACE, Opert or Hooper; Assignment unclear.
  • Chassis TS5A 006: Sold to USA in 1970; driven by John Gunn for Fred Opert in the Formula A championship, later used by Luigi Chinetti at the 1971 Argentine Grand Prix ; Driver Nestor Garcia-Veiga retired after a technical defect.
  • Chassis TS5A 007: works car with an eventful history; Driven by David Hobbs in the USA in 1970; In 1971 awarded to the Belgian racing driver Hervé Bayard ; Sold at the end of the year to the South African Eddie Keizan , who replaced the Chevrolet with a Ford engine; came back to Europe in the 1980s and today belongs to the German Franz Guggemos.
  • Chassis TS5A 008: built in 1970 for Irish racing driver Allan Rollinson; partly driven by Tony Trimmer ; 1971 sold to Eddie Kiezen like 007; he used both cars with different drivers in South African formula races; further whereabouts unknown.
  • Chassis TS5A 009: Trevor Taylor factory car in 1970; destroyed in an accident at the Salzburgring .
  • Chassis TS5A 010: one of the cars delivered to RACE, Opert or Hooper; Assignment unclear.

literature

  • David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on James Garner's motorsport activities
  2. ↑ Garner TS5 with a Chevrolet engine
  3. ↑ Debut race at Oulton Park in 1969
  4. ↑ Pole position for Trevor Taylor at Brands Hatch
  5. ↑ First race win in Mondello Park
  6. ^ Peter Gethin - Formula 5000 champion 1969
  7. ↑ Tony Adamowicz wins the Formula A overall ranking in 1969
  8. ↑ Tasman Series 1970
  9. ↑ The Serruier-Pretorius TS5
  10. ↑ The restored chassis 002
  11. ↑ Chassis 003 destroyed in an accident
  12. ↑ Chassis 007 had an accident
  13. ↑ The TS5A from Fairbanks with a new front section in 1977 in Brainard
  14. ↑ Chassis 001 destroyed in Brands Hatsch
  15. ↑ Argentine Grand Prix 1971