Post by David Mitcham on Jan 30, 2017 3:27:24 GMT -5
The 1967 Italian GP at Monza followed the Canadian Grand Prix and was the last Championship race of the season in Europe.
Ferrari entered only one car for Chris Amon; a rather unusual situation as Ferrari was usually more inclined to have at least two, if not three, cars for the ‘home’ race. A brand new car was ready, 0007, and was similar in chassis layout to the previous version, being a mixture of monocoque and tubular structure, and suspension was similar though it was lighter and neater. The engine was new, still a 3-litre V12-cylinder, but with an entirely new cylinder-head layout, with four valves per cylinder, and this was coupled to the latest gearbox. The car also featured glass fibre air intakes for the fuel injection trumpets.
In practice Amon recorded fourth fastest time at 1:29.35 which was just over eighth tenths slower than Jim Clark’s pole time of 1:28.50.
The start of the race was a very confused affair with some drivers believing there was to be a dummy grid before moving to the grid proper. However the officials seemed unsure about the procedure and Jack Brabham, second on the grid, interpreted their dithering as the start of the race and accelerated away accordingly whilst Jim Clark, on pole, took the opposite view and accelerated at a much slower pace assuming a move to the grid proper. Nearly everyone else took off after Brabham at racing speed. Amon nearly hit the back of Clark's hesitant Lotus, and put the clutch out, the Ferrari engine revs going sky high. There must have been a bending of valves as his engine henceforth would not rev above 9.400 rpm, whereas it should have gone to 10.800 rpm. As the race unfolded the Ferrari held on to sixth place battling with the new Honda 300 (the Hondola) of John Surtees. On lap 47 Amon pitted with a suspected suspension fault and lost a lap. He stopped again later to see if the left rear shock-absorber could be made to work which, on rejoining the race, dropped him to the end of the field to finish a distant seventh, four laps behind the winner, John Surtees.
Whilst the race was something of a disaster for Ferrari and Chris Amon it is regarded as one of the most exciting Grand Prix ever run with numerous changes of lead and leaders (Gurney, Clark, Hill, Brabham, Hulme, Surtees), a superb come-back drive by Jim Clark and a very close finish of 0.2 seconds between Surtees and Brabham.
I’ve made good progress carving the Ferrari 312 body despite being away at our daughter’s in New Zealand – in fact her workshop (she’s a jeweler) has been most useful. I could have adapted the Classic glass fibre shell but decided on ‘doing it myself’ as the engine in the Classic version is the older 3 valve unit and other details are different to the Monza car. I’ve use tooling/modeling board instead of wood and have found it easy to work with as it has no grain and carves and sands very well – but beware of the dust, a face-mask is essential! Below are some pictures. Once I’ve completely finished it I’ll be asking John Warren to mold and cast it.
Best Regards
David
PS I must comment that using imgbb is so much easier than Photobucket.
Ferrari entered only one car for Chris Amon; a rather unusual situation as Ferrari was usually more inclined to have at least two, if not three, cars for the ‘home’ race. A brand new car was ready, 0007, and was similar in chassis layout to the previous version, being a mixture of monocoque and tubular structure, and suspension was similar though it was lighter and neater. The engine was new, still a 3-litre V12-cylinder, but with an entirely new cylinder-head layout, with four valves per cylinder, and this was coupled to the latest gearbox. The car also featured glass fibre air intakes for the fuel injection trumpets.
In practice Amon recorded fourth fastest time at 1:29.35 which was just over eighth tenths slower than Jim Clark’s pole time of 1:28.50.
The start of the race was a very confused affair with some drivers believing there was to be a dummy grid before moving to the grid proper. However the officials seemed unsure about the procedure and Jack Brabham, second on the grid, interpreted their dithering as the start of the race and accelerated away accordingly whilst Jim Clark, on pole, took the opposite view and accelerated at a much slower pace assuming a move to the grid proper. Nearly everyone else took off after Brabham at racing speed. Amon nearly hit the back of Clark's hesitant Lotus, and put the clutch out, the Ferrari engine revs going sky high. There must have been a bending of valves as his engine henceforth would not rev above 9.400 rpm, whereas it should have gone to 10.800 rpm. As the race unfolded the Ferrari held on to sixth place battling with the new Honda 300 (the Hondola) of John Surtees. On lap 47 Amon pitted with a suspected suspension fault and lost a lap. He stopped again later to see if the left rear shock-absorber could be made to work which, on rejoining the race, dropped him to the end of the field to finish a distant seventh, four laps behind the winner, John Surtees.
Whilst the race was something of a disaster for Ferrari and Chris Amon it is regarded as one of the most exciting Grand Prix ever run with numerous changes of lead and leaders (Gurney, Clark, Hill, Brabham, Hulme, Surtees), a superb come-back drive by Jim Clark and a very close finish of 0.2 seconds between Surtees and Brabham.
I’ve made good progress carving the Ferrari 312 body despite being away at our daughter’s in New Zealand – in fact her workshop (she’s a jeweler) has been most useful. I could have adapted the Classic glass fibre shell but decided on ‘doing it myself’ as the engine in the Classic version is the older 3 valve unit and other details are different to the Monza car. I’ve use tooling/modeling board instead of wood and have found it easy to work with as it has no grain and carves and sands very well – but beware of the dust, a face-mask is essential! Below are some pictures. Once I’ve completely finished it I’ll be asking John Warren to mold and cast it.
Best Regards
David
PS I must comment that using imgbb is so much easier than Photobucket.