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Gateway Relay Vol IV, No. 5 St Louis Sports Car Council January 2015
Council News & Notes A very Happy New Year to
all, we here at StLSCC cen-tral hope all enjoyed the re-cently concluded holiday sea-son and are driving confident-ly into 2015.
Big first-of-the-year news, we’re pleased to welcome our ninth affiliate club, the BMW Car Club of America-St Louis Chapter. Yup, StLSCC has added a German car club and we’re thrilled to have them.
The club dates to November 1970 and still has several original members. Its regular events include dinner meet-ings, driving schools at Gate-way Motorsports Park, social activities, road rallies and other activities. Club mem-bers also regularly show up in large numbers at June’s Eu-ropean Auto Show and Cars & Coffee.
The BMW club has a great bunch of enthusiasts, we hope everyone in StLSCC’s other clubs will welcome them to the inter-club drives and events.
Finally, as can be seen at right and on page two, the calendar for the year is rapid-ly filling up. The schedules are in for Cars & Coffee and the Boeing Sports Car Club Autocrosses and clubs are setting up for the year.
Stay tuned!
In Print The December 2014/January 2015 issue of Road & Track offers up the 2015 Perfor-mance Car of the Year, with competition between 14 different vehicles including the BMW M3, M235i and Jaguar F-Type R Coupe (ah, but the Porsche 911 GT3 took the title). The 22 December issue of Au-toweek contains a pretty eclectic mix: an article on the Austin-Healey “Bugeye/
Up & Coming 19 Jan 2015—Tech Session hosted by the MG Club of St Louis, at All British Car Repair, 2618 Woodson Rd, St Louis, 7-8 PM. John Mangles will lead the session on “What to take along for emer-gencies on the road.”
22 Jan 2015—RUBCO (Retired/Unemployed British Car Owners) Breakfast Gathering, Denny’s at 11266 Midland Blvd east of Lindbergh, 9:30 AM. Email Rich Berger at [email protected] if you plan to attend.
22-25 Jan 2015—Annual St Louis Auto Show, America’s Center/Edward Jones Dome, downtown St Louis. Adults $11.00, children 6-12 $6, other info including hours at www.saintlouisautoshow.com.
24 Jan 2015—3rd Annual Gateway VCOA Eagle Spotting Drive, up the Mississippi River. Meet at Ethyl’s Smokehouse & Saloon, 8505 Veterans Memorial Parkway, O’Fallon, at 11:30 to talk some Volvo and enjoy some BBQ prior to the 1 PM departure; “then we scoot up the Seven-Nine with bellies full of swine.” RSVP to [email protected] by 23 January please so we can get a head count for the event. More info at https://sites.google.com/site/gatewayvcoa/.
24 Jan 2015—MG Club of St Louis Annual Holiday Party, at Sqwires Annex, 1415 S 18th St, Lafayette Park. Cash bar at 5:30 PM, dinner at 6:30, cost per person $15 (club subsidized), reservations must be made by Monday, 9 January. Make pay-ments on club web site (www.stlouismgclub.com/) or mail check to Ranney Dohogne, 12970 Ambois, StL 63141.
7 Feb 2015—Overstreet House of Cars Visit and Tour, Jaguar Association of Greater St Louis. Meet at Overstreet, 10263 Baur Blvd, Creve Coeur, at 10:45 AM. Lunch following at Schneithorst’s. Please RSVP to [email protected] by Thurs-day, 5 February for restaurant accommodations. Info at www.jcna.com/clubs/main.php?club=sc20&Vref=sc20.
8 Feb 2015—32nd
Annual SLTOA Polar Bear Run. The traditional start of the driv-ing season: all-weather, tops down, heaters on high, over the river and through the woods to New Haven. Final details to follow including meeting/departure point loca-tion and time, monitor www.sltoa.org in the meantime.
16 Feb 2015—Tech Session hosted by MG Club of St Louis, at British Cars Restora-tions & Services, 2338 N Lindbergh Blvd, StL, 7-10 PM. Tech talk/demo on installing the wily MGB top.
(Continued on page 2)
Note: Some club driving events restrict participation to club members only, primari-ly for national/chapter insurance reasons. If interested in joining in on a drive or other event, we recommend you contact the club’s event coordinator in advance for details.
(Continued on pg. 2)
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19 Feb 2015—Gateway VCOA Social, at The Fountain On Locust restaurant and ice cream bar, 3037 Locust St. Details to follow, monitor https://sites.google.com/site/gatewayvcoa/.
16 Mar 2015—Tech Session hosted by the MG Club of St Louis, at All British Car Repair, 2618 Woodson Rd, St Louis, 7-8 PM. Tech topic TBD, monitor www.stlouismgclub.com/.
21 Mar 2015—Terry Fanning Memorial Rally & Picnic, hosted by the MG Club of St Louis, 10 AM-2 PM. Details to fol-low, monitor www.stlouismgclub.com/.
21 Mar 2015—Gateway VCOA Tech Session on brakes, 10 AM at Integrity Automotive, 9741 Gravois Rd, Affton (314)717-5556. Details to follow, monitor https://sites.google.com/site/gatewayvcoa/.
4 Apr 2014 – Annual Gateway Healey Association Wash-Up/Tune-Up, in advance of the Forest Park Easter Con-cours. Details to follow, monitor http://clubs.hemmings.com/gatewayhealey/.
5 Apr 2015—54th
Annual Forest Park Concours/Easter Car Show, in the Muni upper parking lot, Forest Park, hosted
by the Horseless Carriage Club of Missouri. Information at www.hccmo.com/. The event includes the 7th
Annual MG-Triumph Challenge; monitor www.stlouismgclub.com/ and www.sltoa.org for details/preps/boisterous commentary scurril-ous language and good-natured thinly veiled threats.
18 Apr 2015—Cars & Coffee returns! Westport Plaza, I-270 and Page, 8:30 AM.
18-19 Apr 2015—Annual Missouri Endurance Rally, hosted by the MG Club of St Louis, details to follow, monitor www.stlouismgclub.com/.
19 Apr 2015—Start of the Boeing Sports Car Club autocross season, Family Arena, St Charles. Show about 9-9:30 for tech inspection and course walk, $35 for six runs, AM and PM sessions. Any questions or to get on the email event listing for future autocrosses, contact Racer Steve at [email protected].
20 Apr 2015—Tech Session hosted by MG Club of St Louis, at British Cars Restorations & Services, 2338 N Lindbergh Blvd, StL, 7-10 PM. Tech talk/demo on “the fine art of joining metals.”
2-3 May 2015—Fling in the Spring, hosted by the MG Club of St Louis. Drive to Big Rock (IL) State Park, stay the night, Sunday brunch at the lodge. Details TBA, monitor www.stlouismgclub.com/.
9 May 2015—BSCC Autocross No. 2, Family Arena, St Charles, 9-9:30 show time. For info contact Racer Steve at [email protected].
16 May 2015—Cars & Coffee, Westport Plaza, I-270 and Page, 8:30 AM.
16 May 2015—Gateway VCOA Route 66 Drive, on the Mother Road in Illinois. Details to follow, monitor https://sites.google.com/site/gatewayvcoa/.
17 May 2015—3rd
Annual Gear Head Grape Stomp Classic Car/Truck Show, at Cedar and Main in Washington, MO. Registration 8 AM to 11 AM, $20 per car, awards at 2 PM including class and special awards. Car show held in conjunction
with the 34th
Annual Art Fair & Wine Fest, all proceeds benefit Grace’s Place Crisis Nursery. Info at www.gracesplacecrisisnursery.com under the events tab.
28-30 May 2014—4th
Annual British National Meet, in Hot Springs, AR. Large number of events and standout cars, this annual event draws cars and LBC enthusiasts from all over the US. More information is available at www.britishnationalmeet.com and on the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-British-Marques-The-National-Meet/201070176584388.
30 May-7 Jun 2015—British Car Week. Drive em!
Cruises: http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/lakerscarclub.
Up & Coming (Continued from page 1)
Frogeye” Sprite Mk I plus something akin to a celebration over two new additions to the magazine’s long-term fleet: a Jaguar F-Type R Coupe and BMW M3.
The December issue of Classic & Sports Car has info for both Volvo and Mini owners, starting with an article with road test of the short-lived Volvo PV60, the predecessor to the PV444 (it’s said the PV444/544 look like a ’46 Ford? The PV60, developed during the late 1930s, looked like a 1938 Chevy). Elsewhere, a test of two Mini Mokes, the “tent on wheels.”
Moving into January’s magazines, Car & Driver does a road test of the M235i, picked as one of the magazine’s 10 best cars for 2015. Elsewhere in the magazine is a test of the BMW Alpina B6 Gran Coupe. Over at Classic Motorsports, the January edition includes the latest installment of “Project Mini” (body repairs and painting) along with two pages of tech tips for owners of the 59-67 Austin-Healey 3000 and two more pages on the MG T series (“Pure Sports Car Enjoyment”).
Pretty much something for everyone in the January Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car, starting with a cover article on the 14th Jaguar E-Type roadster built for the American market and continuing with coverage of British Invasion XXIV, held in Stowe, VT, in late September; an article on the Volvo 480 (“The coolest Volvo you never saw!”); one owner’s experiences with a 2000 BMW 528i wagon; and a buyer’s guide for the 1996-2002 BMW Z3. Finally, over at Octane, the “ultimate TR3,” a new-build TR3-Beta, the car Triumph once planned to manufacture to bridge the TR3 and TR4. Basically a TR4 chassis with TR3 body and interior, the car has 200bhp and 130+ mph capability.
In Print (Continued from page 1)
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Roadwork: Die Neue Klasse Goes Racing
Among cult cars, the BMW 2002 is an obvious favor-ite. Sure, it was the car that put BMW on the map in North America, beginning a timeline that leads directly to the company’s current status as a universally re-spected manufacturer of high-performance street cars. For that matter, the 2002 probably did much to forge the appeal, if not the concept itself, of the European sport sedan – Terry McGean
They’re fun but durable, like an Alfa GTV that traded a little romance for a dose of build quality and practi-cality…it introduced this country to BMW as a brand, sparking a half-century of growth and a host of imita-tors. The Germans always claim to have invented the sports sedan with this thing, but that’s a fib. In reality, they took the Italian blueprint and perfected it – Sam Smith, Executive Editor, Road and Track
Der Bayerisch Motoren Werke has a long, proud – and occasionally harrowing, primarily for financial reasons – history, including a strong record in automotive competi-tion. For example, BMW 328s dominated in several races on the European conti-nent during the late 1930s,
including first place finishes at the Eifelrennen Nürburgring in June 1936; Grand Prix des Frontières, Grand Prix Bucharest and Eifelrennen Nürburgring (again) in 1937; Hamburg, Avus, Hockenheim and Grand Prix Nurburgring, Germany, Anvers, France, and Grand Prix Bucharest in 1938; and Zandvort in 1939. A streamlined hardtop 328 driven by Huschke von Han-
stein and 3 took the outright win at the 1940 running of the Mille Miglia. Other BMWs finished third, fifth and sixth in the event, held on 28 April 1940…some seven months following the start of World War II.
During the war, BMW functioned as one of Germany’s pri-mary aircraft engine and motorcycle manufacturers, turning out the R75 cycle and legendary BMW 801 twin-row radial, which powered the Dornier Do 217, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and Junkers Ju 88/188/288/388, among others. However, the bombing campaign of the US Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force all but destroyed the company’s plants in Munich and at Eisenach-Dürrerhof. Postwar, the allied powers occupied what was left and stripped the factories of the surviving heavy industrial equipment, while placing tight limits on what the remnants of German industry could manufacture. .
The company survived – barely – through the pro-duction of kitchen utensils, pots, pans and the like, until it received authorization to resume motorcy-cle and car pro-duction, in 1948 and 1951 respec-tively. The first four-wheel vehicle
to come out of the rebuilt Munich factory was the 2-liter, six-cylinder 501 (aka “The Baroque Angel”). BMW followed up with the V8-powered 502 and 503, along with the license-built Isetta microcar and larger 600 variant, the rear-engined 700 and 3.1-liter V8 BMW 507 sports roadster, designed specifi-cally for the US market.
Unfortunately, while the cars were technologically sound, they didn’t sell particularly well and by the end of the 1950s,
BMW found itself under severe financial duress. Driven to des-peration, in 1959 the company’s management considered a sale to Daimler-Benz. The proposal failed; according to BMW historian Nicole Bergmann,
…for the company’s core business, the automobile and motorcycle program, the management and board searched for an industrial partner. Correspondingly BMW started discussions with Ford, Fiat and also Borgward, all of which explorations came to naught. Based on these developments it became clear that BMW would have to redefine itself from within as an independent enterprise.
Under the leadership of majority shareholder Dr Herbert Quandt, the company regrouped and started working on a fol-low-on to the reasonably successful BMW 700 compact: a new, mid-sized sporting sedan. The BMW 1500 debuted to near universal acclaim at the 1961Frankfurt International Motor Show. According to Bergmann, “these “Neue Klasse” sedans represented a totally new development with no connection to the technically outdated V8 sedans of the 1950s.” The “New Class” vehicles constituted a major success – vehicle sales jumped an incredible 47 percent – and guaranteed BMW’s fi-nancial stability for the first time since 1945.
The 1500 offered a 1499cc 4-cylinder engine which devel-oped 75bhp. BMW followed up with 1600 (1574cc, 85bhp) and 1800/1800 Ti (Turisimo Internationale; 1773cc, 90bhp) models. The company also produced 200 1800 Ti/SAs (Ti/Sonderausführung, or “special edition”) specifically for competi-tion use. The engine featured larger valves, 10.5:1 compres-sion ration, two 45DCOE Weber carbs and a different camshaft – good for somewhere around 150bhp – as well as a five-speed gearbox and disc brakes at all four corners.
BMW wound up selling just about every 1500/1600/1800 it could produce and had to scramble to boost production. Imme-diate racing success also boosted demand for the car; Hubert Hahne, driving a suitably modified 1800 Ti, took the German Championship for Touring Cars in 1964, winning 14 of 16 events. Competition led to production changes, resulting in the 1966 debut of the BMW 2000 with 100bhp and a top speed of 170 kmh/105 mph.
Over in the states, BMW’s increasing popularity – and suita-bility for competition – came at a good time. In 1966, the Sports Car Club of America initiated two new pro driver/manufacturer championships, the Can Am Series for Group 7 sports cars (Group 7 meaning, “There are no rules”) and the Trans-Am for sedans. The latter series had two components, for cars over and under 2.0 litre displacement. BMW enthusi-asts, who had seen a few (very few) 507s compete in SCCA club racing into the early 1960s, along with the more numerous
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BMW 501 with a Lufthansa Constellation providing the backdrop. Source: Flickr
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BMW 700, quickly realized the company’s sedans were highly appropriate for the new series.
The initial Trans-Am race took place at Se-bring International Raceway on 25 March 1966, a four-hour run held the day before the traditional 12-hour race for prototype, GT and sports cars. This first sedan race featured a rather eclectic mix of vehicles, in both clas-ses: Dodge Darts (including one entered by Group 44), Plym-outh Barracudas, Chevrolet Corvairs and Ford Mustangs in 02L and Alfa Romeo GTAs, Mini Coopers, Saab 93s, Volvo 122s and Renaults in U2L. Four BMW 1800 Ti/SAs compet-ed; one, driven by John Ryan and Lin Coleman, finished in 9th place, behind a gaggle of Alfas including the race winner, en-tered by Autodelta and driven by Jochen Rindt. The Group 44 Dart, driven by Bob Tullius and Tony “A2Z” Adamowicz, fin-ished second.
The Trans-Am season ran through seven events at various tracks around the country, culminating at the legendary River-side International Raceway in Southern California. Generally, the factory-supported Alfas ran the table although Lotus Cortinas managed to win two events. BMW co-drivers Herb Swan and Bob Birne finished 13th in an 1800 Ti/SA at St Louis’ Mid America Raceway on 12 June.
At the fourth race, 31 July, Virginia International Raceway, Danville, Reid and Marianne “Pinkie” Rollo attracted attention when they ran their 1800 Ti/SA to eight place. Something of a
celebrity, Pinkie’d been featured in a 1964 Sports Illus-trated article which referred to her and regular co-driver Patricia Mermone as “…the two best women racing driv-ers in the U.S.” Rollo was also nota-ble for running the 1960 Sebring 12-hour with Denise McCluggage in a
Camoradi Racing Osca 187S. She and McCluggage teamed up again at Sebring in 1967, this time driving a Ferrari 275 GTS/4 for the North American Racing Team (NART).
At the end of the inaugural Trans-Am season BMW placed third in the under 2.0-liter manufacturers’ championship, be-hind Alfa Romeo and Ford of Britain. In 1967, American man-ufacturers responded to the growing popularity of the series and started fielding additional factory teams. For whatever reason, that season also marked the debut of the Porsche 911 as an under-2 liter “sedan,” by decision of the SCCA. Por-sches dominated in 1967, 1968 and 1969, although the 1968 season did see the US competition debut of the 2002 Ti, driv-en by Herb Swan and others.
The 1970 season was a big year, with at least four 2002 Tis battling it out with the Alfas. At the 18-19 April season opener at Laguna Seca, Nels Miller finished second in his 2002 to Lee Midgely in a GTA…and was promptly disqualified for having oversized valves. Second place then went to Don Pike who’d finished on the same lap as Midgely and Miller. Heinz Eck-hardt placed third in his BMW, followed by Terry Enk in sixth and Carl Fredericks in 8th.
BMW finally broke into the win column later in the season, with Peter Schuster taking the 31 May Bryar Motorsports Park event and Bert Everett winning at Mid-Ohio on 7 June. Schuster followed up with a hard-fought third place at 20 June’s Bridge-hampton race and took second in the 19 July Road America contest. Don Pike finished second at Kent, Washington, on 20 September.
In 1971, the SCCA altered the classes to over and under 2.5-liter and Datsun entered the series with 510s, under the auspi-ces of Brock Racing Enterprises. Now facing two factory ef-forts, the privateer BMW drivers carried on but in the end, Dat-sun took the U2.5 championship in its first season, followed by Alfa Romeo and BMW. The pattern pretty much repeated in 1972.
The 1972 season marked the effective end of the original or “classic” Trans-Am. In the under 2.5-liter class, both Alfa Ro-meo and Datsun dropped out; factory participation in O2.5 also waned, as Porsches returned to duke it out with a gaggle of privately-run Chevrolet Camaros, plus the occasional sedan (?) oddities such as the De Tomaso Pantera, Ferrari Dino and even a Sunbeam Tiger. The series itself went into decline, with only six races in 1973 and three in 1974. BMW 2002 Tis con-tinued to run in the 1973 events, albeit in small numbers and usually towards the back of the pack.
However, bigger things were coming, her-alded by the 1972 for-mation of BMW Motor-sport, which enabled greater factory involve-ment in sedan, prototype and formula racing. The year also saw the en-trance of the Schnitzer Motorsports 2800CS at Le Mans, followed by the development of the 3.0 CSL for international competition. In the states and internationally, BMW went on a competitive roll which continues to this day.
The Neue Klasse cars—which remain highly popular in vin-tage and historic racing—provided the foundation.
Sources: Sam Smith, “I’m racing this restored Alpina 2002 in Monterey,” Road & Track, 6 August 2014; Dave Friedman, Trans Am: The Pony Car Wars, 1966-1971 (Minneapolis: MBI Publishing Co., 2001); Sports Car Digest; Terry McGean, “BMW 2002 FAQ,” Motor News, July 2008; Kurt Ernst, “Newly restored, BMW’s 1970 Alpina 2002ti returns to the track in Mon-terey,” Hemmings Motor News, 12 August 2014; Barbara H. LaFontaine, “The Furious Fun of Pinkie and Pat,” Sports Illus-trated, 24 August 1964; “BMW 1500 (1962),” NetCarShow, www.netcarshow.com; “Motoring Icons: A Tribute to BMW’s 1500/1800/2000 series, Carscoop, 6 April 2011; Concept-Carz.com; Rob de la Rive Box, ed., Encyclopaedia of Classic Cars: Sports Cars 1945-1975 (Godalming, Surrey, UK: Rebo Productions Ltd., 1998); Nicole Bergman, “Annual Meeting 1959 – a new beginning for BMW,” BMW Vintage & Classic, September 2009.
Sebring 1966: the John Ryan/Linn Cole-man 1800 Ti/SA pushing AJ Foyt . Source: Gwadagone.
The Rollos at Virginia International. Source: BMW2002FAQ.com
BMWs and Alfa Romeos through the Cork-screw, Laguna Seca in 1970. Source: BMW2002FAQ.com
Still popular in vintage racing: Steve Walker in July 2014’s event at Port-land, OR. Bill Wagenblatt/Sports Car Digest
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Featured Events contd
Rear View Mirror
The Hemmings Daily blog (http://blog.hemmings.com) has been running a series of street scenes for the past several months. The one to the right showed up online the week of 11 January.
Submitted for your considera-tion: Sports Economy Cars of St Louis, apparently taken during the early 1960s. Per the comments this dealership stood on Chippewa across the street from Donut Drive-In (6525 Chippewa), about a block east of Ted Drewes.
The selection included Jaguars, Mercedes, Triumphs, Volvos, VWs, Hillmans, Peugeots, Renaults, Porsches...and at least one Lancia. The cross street is apparently Sutherland; Schaefer’s Auto Care now occupies the lot.
Annual Deer Creek Club Gala JAGSL—10 January 2015
Photos by Amy Stoffel Smith/JAGSL
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Featured Events Annual Christmas Party GHA—13 December 2014
Holiday Lights Tour MGCStL—13 December 2014
Photos by Jim Reiter, GHA
Photos by Pete Westbay, MGCStL
