From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
STRETCHING THE ENVELOPE: Racing cars are built to a set of rules, which - in theory at least - define the parameters to which a car can be built. Perhaps not surprisingly, since the dawn of motor sport there has been a long list of designers who have been prepared to stretch these rules in the course of seeking a performance advantage. Sometimes, these attempts have led to brilliant innovation - on other occasions to simple cheating.
In the early days of the sport, the Gordon Bennett series of races was the sport's pinnacle and for one race, Darracq of France had three cars built by Weirs of Glasgow in an attempt to make them eligible for the British team. Before they could compete in the eligibility trails it was necessary for them to be checked and weighed by the Automobile Club to ensure their eligibility and that they conformed to the rules. The appointed day came but the cars were still being finished in Glasgow, so that they had to be sent to London by special train.
In their haste, the works had miscalculated their weight and to their horror discovered just before presenting them for examination that they were overweight. Desperate to have them passed, the team decided on an original plan. Pistons and gears were removed from two of the cars while a large part of the chassis was left out of the third car. This car at least had an engine that functioned.
The two cars without engine and gearbox parts were presented first and while they were being examined the engine of the third car was started with an overfull sump of oil. The result was an immense cloud of oily smoke that soon filled the garage. To pleas of 'Turn it off' the mechanics pretended to be unable to do so because of a faulty switch. By the time it was finally stopped everybody was nearly suffocated by the fumes and two units of the London Fire Brigade were arriving. When the officials were asked if they would like the engines of the remaining two cars started the instant reply was 'Certainly not!'
The result was that all three Glasgow-built Darracqs passed the examination. Alas, such ingenuity was not rewarded as the cars had numerous mechanical problems and failed to perform satisfactorily at the trials.
Of more recent times, Lotus founder Colin Chapman found himself on the wrong side of the rules on more than once occasion. Most famously, in the early days of the company, Chapman built a Le Mans challenger. Now the organisers of Le Mans, the Automobile-Club de L'Ouest, famously inflexible, always managed to turn up a few additional regulations which caused entrants difficulties. In the case of the Lotus, the problem was that of cockpit dimensions, Chapman realising upon arrival at Le Mans that his entry would just fail to comply with the dimensions required. Overnight, legend has it that a new steel ruler was produced, which measured 13 inches to the foot! During scrutiny this was proffered and accepted to measure the cockpit dimensions and pass the Lotus as fully complying with Le Mans regulations!
Many years later, in 1970, the author witnessed Jochen Rindt's last corner victory at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch driving the wedge-shaped Lotus 72. In this race, Jack Brabham famously ran out of fuel on the last corner before the finish after leading from almost the start. Now this was the time when the winning car was loaded unto an articulated trailer and did a victory lap with driver, mechanics and entrant acknowledging the acclaim of the large crowd. Only years later did I learn that the reason the mechanics spent this lap leaning on the rear edge of the cars 'tri-plane' wing was because Chapman was afraid it was too high to pass post-race scrutiny! However, pass the Lotus 72 did, and kept its win.