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Gateway Relay Vol VI, No. 11 St Louis Sports Car Council September 2017

Council News & Notes Two TDYs (temporary duty) for

the editor, plus a month of watch standing in response to hurricane season and relief efforts so yes, this one’s a tad later than normal.

BUT, be of good cheer and take a look to the right:. It might argua-bly be getting a tad cooler, the days are definitely getting shorter and the year’s running out, but as can be seen there are still more than a few events remaining. Drives? Several. Shows? Ditto? Social activities? Absolutely! Get your car, call some friends and take your choice.

The Relay photo staff should be out for several of the events. We got to do one club’s drive last month which was an absolute hoot. As this issue goes to press, we’ll be covering a number of the activities coming up this week-end. As always, if you’re looking for photo support, just drop an email. Chances are we’ll be able to accommodate.

With this issue we’ve also reached the traditional part of the year when the calendar goes to a single page. Still, with a light schedule of activities between now and the spring, there are several holiday parties to prepare for. Keep that car ready, too; you never know when we’ll get a mid-winter heat wave, eh? .

In Print Car & Driver leads off the proceedings with a bang in its October issue: the annual “Lightning Lap,” which pits a large number of performance vehicles against each other

at Virginia International Raceway. The competitors this year included the BMW M240i, M760i xDrive and Alpina B7 xDrive, Same issue, a comparison of station wagons (yes, station wagons), including short summaries of the Volvo V60, V90/Cross Country, Jaguar XF S Sportbrake and the BMW 3-Series Sports Wagon. The 18 September issue of Autoweek debuts the magazine’s new format (complete with a return of the old

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Note: Some club events restrict participation to club members only, primarily for na-tional/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.

Up & Coming 7 Oct 17—Annual Jaguar Association of Greater St Louis Concours d’Elegance, at Bishop’s Post, 16125 Chesterfield Park-way West. Cars on the lot at 9 AM, judging from noon to 3:30 PM, followed by an awards dinner at Bishop’s Post, monitor www.jagstl.com and the online Growl.

7 Oct 17—MG Club of St Louis Winery Drive. Meet at the Target parking lot in Chesterfield at 10:30 for an 11 AM departure. Monitor www.stlouismgclub.com.

7 Oct 17—Top of the Trail Festival, at the Missouri end of the Chain of Rocks Bridge (10950 Riverview at I-270). Join us for mu-sic, fun and food by BJ’s Gullicious Backyard BBQ and a classic car show. Registration 9:30-12 noon, $10 per car, trophy presentation at 4 PM. $25 VIP package includes a lunch ticket and drive across the bridge with souvenir photo. For info or to register, email cor-

ca2stl@outlook.com.

7 Oct 17—Cars & Coffee-O’Fallon, SunRise UMC, 7116 Twin Chimneys Blvd, O’Fallon, MO, 8-10 AM.

8 Oct 17—BSCC Autocross No. 7. Family Arena, show around 9:30 AM, six runs for $35. Contact Racer Steve at sshab@yahoo.com for info or to get on the email-ing list.

8 Oct 17—Cars & Coffee-Gateway, Gateway Motorsports Park, 12-3 PM.

6 Oct 17—Memories Car Club Monthly Cruise – aka “The Zoo” – at Faith Church, 13001 Gravois Rd, Sunset Hills, 4-9:30 PM. Held the first Friday of each month through October for cars 1979 and older; door prizes, please bring a canned good item for the church’s food pantry.

14 Oct 17—3rd

Annual SLTOA Fall Colours Drive. Start at the McDonalds in Alton at 10 AM for a drive through the historic town of Elsah, followed by a run over the back roads of Pere Marquette and a finish at Aerie’s Winery in Grafton for food, refreshments and a fantastic view. Monitor www.sltoa.org for additional infor-mation.

14 Oct 17—Cars & Coffee-Chesterfield, The Place, 600 Spirit Valley East Dr, 9 AM-Noon.

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SHORT FUSE!

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Competition Press helmet logo) and an article on a concours Preservation-class Jaguar XK120. The pub also has a two-page driving summary of the new Volvo XC60 (“Go-Go Volvo”).

Thoroughbred & Classic Cars for October offers up the “Hot 30,” the editor’s read of the fastest appreciating classics. They include (at various funding/financing levels) the Austin-Healey 3000, BMW Z4M, Z8, M5, M635CSi, Jaguar E-Type Series I and XJ220. Contained elsewhere are an article on the restoration of a Frazer Nash-BMW and the life story of an MGA. September’s Classic & Sports Car provides an evaluation of three drop-tops, pitting a Jaguar XKR against a Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG and Maserati 4200 Spyder. Octane, same month, has a feature on the Swiftune Mini (“Better than a Cooper S!”).

Another XK120 – this one a 120M – features prominently in September/October’s Vintage Motorsports. The issue also includes features on a former BMW Motorsport E9 coupe and June’s Kastner Cup race at Blackhawk Farms up by Beloit; lots of good pho-tos of Triumphs as well as other vintage racers which participated in the mid-month gathering by the Vintage Sports Car Driver Association. Kastner Cup coverage also appears in the September edition of Victory Lane, along with a large number of other vintage events.

In Print (Continued from page 1)

15 Oct 17—St Rose Fireman’s Fall Fest, St Rose Park, St Rose, IL, sponsored by the St Rose Volunteer Fire Department and Ladies Auxiliary. Starts at 1 PM, all classic makes and models, food and beverages available. Events included a ven-dor’s fair (over 20 booths, great for early Christmas shopping!), live music 2-6 PM, shooting match and ladies barrel blow. Proceeds will be used to purchase more firefighting and lifesaving equipment.

20-22 Oct 17—Volvo Club of America National Meet, Tulsa, OK. Host hotel is the Hyatt Regency Tulsa Downtown, for information call Gretchen at (607)639-2279.

21 Oct 17—Cars & Coffee-Westport, at Westport Plaza, 8-11 AM. Info at http://carsandcoffeestl.org.

21 Oct 17—Annual MG Club of St Louis Sporting Clays Shoot, at the Blackhawk Valley Hunt Club, Old Monroe, 10 AM. Bring your favorite shotgun along with 50-100 shells and ear and eye protection; sorry, no shotguns larger than 12 ga al-lowed, no shot larger than 7½ and NO handguns. The costs for the day consist of the cost for your shells (usually around $25 per 100 at WalMart, Cabela’s, Bass Pro, etc) and $25 per 50 rounds (clay birds) or $35 per 100 rounds). There is a pa-vilion with picnic tables so if you want to eat, bring a picnic lunch; alcohol is strictly forbidden on the shooting course. Other-wise, Harry J’s Steakhouse in nearby Moscow Mills has become a traditional after-shoot lunch spot. Open to all, if you want to join in, contact John Mangles at mgdoc@sbcglobal.net, (314)426-1600 or (314)852-1706 NLT 14 October.

21 Oct 17—6th

Annual Mascoutah Fall Fest Car Show. Register 9 AM-noon, $15 ($10 for show vehicles), 1st-3rd place trophies in 16 classes, plus special awards. Dash plaques first 150 entries. At Main & Railway downtown, enter the show area from Church St, info (618)444-7447.

22 Oct 17—St Louis Region SCCA Autocross No. 9, Gateway Motorsports Park. Info at www.stlsolo.org.

28 Oct 17—Gateway Cars & Coffee, at Gateway Classic Cars, 1237 Central Park Dr, O’Fallon, IL, 9 AM-12 noon, pastries and coffee provided by Dunkin’ Donuts. For information call (618)589-9952 or call up www.gatewayclassicars.com.

28 Oct 17—Street Survival School, sponsored by the SCCA. Low-speed driving skills clinic for teen drivers, please register at http://streetsurvival.org/.

29 Oct 17—St Louis Region SCCA Autocross No. 10, Family Arena, St Charles; last event of the 2017 season. Info at www.stlsolo.org.

31 Oct-4 Nov17—48th Annual BMWCCA Oktoberfest, New Orleans. Info at http://ofest.bmwcca.org/.

5 Nov 17—5th

Annual Veterans Day Drive, sponsored by SLTOA with proceeds from donations going to a veterans support organization such as the Fisher House Foundation and the Purple Heart Foundation. Start at the McDonalds in Co-lumbia, Illinois on IL 3 at 10 AM, cars depart at 10:30 for a drive to Chester, followed by lunch at Stonie’s in Perryville. Open to all cars/clubs.

12 Nov 17—BSCC Autocross No. 8. Family Arena, show around 9:30 AM, six runs for $35. Last event of the 2017 season, contact Racer Steve at sshab@yahoo.com for info or to get on the emailing list.

19 Nov 17—Gateway Autocross Association events 5&6, Gateway Motorsports Park, info at www.gatewayautox.com.

1 Dec 17—Annual SLTOA Christmas Party, at the Missouri Athletic Club-West, 1777 Des Peres Rd, Town & Country. Cocktails at 6:30 PM, dinner at 7:30 PM, cost $20 per person (club subsidized). Please bring one car-related gift per couple or individual, $15-20 range, for the gift exchange. A second, unwrapped gift for Toys for Tots would be most welcome! Make your reservation by sending payment (checks only please, payable to SLTOA) to Kathy Kresser, 114 Maple Lane, Ballwin, MO 63011. Any questions, call Kathy at (314)314-9970 or Bonnie at (314)412-0589. Deadline for reservations is 26 Novem-ber.

13 Jan 18—Annual Jaguar Association of Greater St Louis Dinner Gala, at the Deer Creek Club, 9861 Deer Creek Hill, St Lou-is, 6:30 PM-9 PM. For more information, monitor www.jagstl.com and the online Growl.

Jan 18—Gateway VCOA Annual Holiday Party, details TBA.

St Louis Car Shows and Cruises: http://clubs.hemmings.com/lakerscarclub

Up & Coming (Continued from page 1)

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If you read the earlier article on the BMW Neue Klasse cars (“Die Neue Klasse Goes Racing,” Gateway Relay, January 2015), which gave birth to the legendary 2002, among others, you’re aware that during the early 1960s the corporation en-dured serious financial problems. These held the prospect of BMW’s demise or, at the least, merger into another company. Unfortunately, the funding flail served as a repeat of corporate difficulties from a decade earlier. And, once again, BMW man-agement and engineers came up with a solution which allowed the company to thrive.

During the early 1950s, BMW relied on the strong sales of its motorcycles to keep the company afloat, in and around pro-duction of (primarily) the tiny BMW-Isetta and a few high-end GTs and roadsters, particularly the BMW 503 and 507. Unfor-tunately, the latter didn’t sell in any numbers, or at least well enough to guarantee the company’s survival. Adding to the financial festivities, BMW motorcycle sales dropped substan-tially during the mid-to-late 1950s, putting the corporation in extreme financial duress. In reference to corporate reliance on the license-built Isetta, automotive writer Daniel Vaughan noted,

…BMW soon realized that this bubble car was too small for the new customers entering the market who, as a result of the German “economic miracle,” soon expected a lot more of their new car in the late ‘50s. Quite simply, therefore, such spartan “super-minis” had already passed their climax, with customers demand-ing a longer wheelbase and more comfort

Initially, the company’s leadership attempted to boost sales and profit by building a bigger Isetta, the BMW 600. The car

retained the flat twin in the rear layout but pushed the rear wheels out to the corners, thus adopting a somewhat more tradi-tional ap-pearance. However, the

600 did retain the swinging front door, which tended to turn off prospective buyers, although it did offer a conventional side door on the right for the rear seat passengers. Still, it was obviously a larger Isetta; the car, produced from 1957 through 1959, didn’t sell all that well but on the plus side it bought BMW a little time.

Austrian BMW importer and occasional racer Wolfgang Den-zel led the charge in pushing corporate for a more convention-al car. BMW’s Development Division hit the drawing boards and came up with an initial design of four wheels, longer wheelbase (83½ in), the rear-mounted 697cc flat twin air-cooled engine and, more importantly, a conventional layout with side doors and room for four people. Denzel then hired stylist Giovanni Michelotti to come up with some proposals for the body of the car.

Wilhelm Hofmeister led the design team which took Mi-chelotti’s proposal and turned it into a production car. Notably, it served as BMW’s first monocoque or unibody; it weighed about 1300 pounds, with plenty of room for four people and their luggage (up front, natch), good fuel economy (about 47 mpg imperial) and reasonable performance from the single Solex carburetor, 32 bhp engine. The front suspension was modified from the BMW 600 design with leading arms, while the rear had trailing arms which yielded good handling. Steer-ing was by rack and pinion, the transmission was the 4-speed

out of the 600 and drums at all four corners stopped the vehi-cle.

The design – des-ignated the BMW 700 – met with cor-porate approval and went into production in October 1958. On 6 June 1959, Chief Executive Dr Heinrich Richter-Broehm debuted the car for a group of automotive journal-ists at Feldafing, near Munich. BMW followed up with a display featuring the 700 sedan and coupe at the 1959 Frankfurt Auto Show, which announced prices of DM5300 (about $1267 US) for the two-door fastback and DM4760 (~ $1138) for the sedan. According to one of the company’s executives,

Both new models were warmly welcomed by motor jour-nalists and the public alike, showing a response well beyond even our most optimistic expectations. As a result, we successfully made an unusually large number of sales not only in Germany, but also and above all in our export markets.

Over 35,000 700s left the showrooms in the first year; many buyers had to wait for their cars, while BMW turned them out as fast as possible. Financially, the high sales put the compa-ny on much firmer financial footing. Per Mike Burroughs,

The 700 is often credited with saving the company from financial ruin – its monocoque chassis, 700cc flat-two engine, and ultimate simplicity made for a car that was both friendly to the wallet and inspiring to drive – all of which heavily benefited sales figures…Hardly tipping the scales at a mere 1350 pounds, the 700 was as nim-ble as it was economic.

In the end, BMW produced about 188,000 700s between 1959 and 1965, the majority sedans…and, of course, enthusi-asts regularly ran them in competition, starting in 1960 (hey, you knew we had to bring up the racing connection, right?)

On 31 July 1960, Walter Schneider took first place in the GT 1.0 class at the Rheinland-Pfalz Preis Nürburgring in a 700, followed by another class win on 4 September by Herbert Linge and Heinz Schwind at the Nürburgring 500. A number of wins and top-five finishes followed at multiple tracks, with victories by Herberg Linge at Pferdsfeld; Walter Schneider at Hocken-heim; Horst Eiteneuer at Trier; and Italian Angela Fontana at Monza. In late 1962, South Africans Tony Woodley and Henri du Toit won their class in a BMW Coupe at the Kyalami nine-hour race. Belgian Jacques-Bernard “Jacky” Ickx got his start

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Roadwork—Flat Twin Sport!

Yup, still an Isetta. Photo via ConceptCarz.

The BMW 700. Photos via Hemmings (above) and Automotive Database.

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racing 700s, prior to moving into Formula 2 and later Formula 1 and endurance racing.

In the States, Charles Callan-an and Albert Ackerly entered 700s in August 1961’s SCCA Nationals at Bridgehampton, with the latter finishing 17th in the combined G Modified/H Mod/Formula III event. In 1962, Vasek Polak started entering

700s in various SCCA events on the west coast; driver Frank Copeland took the sedan class at the 25 May 1963 regional at Santa Barbara, with Tom McColughlan taking a divisional championship in Galveston one month later, racing in GT class. The cars even showed up at the annual Nassau Speed Weeks; in November 1964, Ray Heppenstall scored a class win (35th overall) in the big Nassau Tourist Trophy Race and finished up with GT850-class victories in the Tourist Trophy 2000cc event and Governor’s Trophy race. The cars re-mained competitive into the early 1970s, well past the intro-duction of the BMW 1600, 1800 and 2002.

No surprise, but during the car’s production run BMW regu-larly turned out improved and modified variants, including a cabriolet with body fabricated by Karosserie Baur of Stuttgart, roughly 2600 built. In 1960, BMW produced a hot rod 700 (of sorts), the 700 Sport. With higher compression ratio (9:1 over the original engine’s 7.5:1), twin Solex carbs and a few other mods, the horsepower increased to 40 bhp which raised the top speed to 84 mph. It too found its way to the track in a few locales.

Ah, but the best was yet to come: the 700 RS two-seat sports roadster, designed by Alex von Faulkenhausen, Ludwig Apfelbeck and Willi Martini, with two completed as test and evaluation vehicles in June 1960. The cars used a tube frame with aluminum body. Originally fitted with twin Dellorto carbs and chain-actuated valves, the cars’ 700cc flat twins subse-quently received two 40mm Webers and pushrods, dual-point distributor, four coils and two plugs per head, good for 80-85 bhp (which apparently delivered a power-to-weight ratio simi-lar to the early BMW M3). Notably, the 700 coupe’s rear win-dow served as the RS’s front window and the only instrument provided the driver was a tachometer, mounted above the

BMW 700 (Continued from page 3) steering wheel. With fuel and vitals added, the car weighed an incredible 830 pounds.

Hans Stuck, who’d started racing in 1926 with a 2-liter Dürkopp and had recent experi-ence running 700s – including a win in the 1960 Hockenheim 6-Hour Race for Touring Cars, with Josef Greger – immediately went out in the 700 RS and scored victo-ries in the German, Swiss and Austrian hill climb championships. The RSs raced through 1963; one car currently resides in BMW’s museum while the other – Chassis No. 1, Stuck’s hill climb championship car – is in a private collection in the United States.

In 1961 BMW introduced the 700 De Luxe and a convertible model, built by Baur Coachbuilding in Stuttgart. Finally, in 1962, the car grew in 12½ inches in length, creating the LS/LS De Luxe. A coupe version – appropriately designated the LS Coupe – followed. While by 1963 the company was concen-trating on development of the Neue Klasse cars, BMW contin-ued to produce its popular little two-cylinder sports coupe/sedan through 1965.

Like a lot of cars seen in these features, BMW 700s periodi-cally come up for sale. Bring A Trailer (www.bringatrailer.com) remains a good – and always highly entertaining – source; on 14 August BAT offered up a particularly nice 1961 example available in Seattle. The BAT author that because of the en-gine, the car was suitable for the same tuning improvements available to BMW motorcycles.

Roughly a month later, on 22 September, something of a 700 hot rod: a car with a 1.8L VW flat four and VW transaxle in the back (“With more than twice the displacement it should be mak-ing about 100% more than the ~40 HP it left the factory with”).

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Ickx ran into a bit of trouble during his first attempt at competition, 1963’s Hill Climb of La Roche. Photo via BMW700.net.

Stuck in the RS, Austria, 1961. Photo via Serious Wheels.

Engine bay of the 700 RS. Photo via StanceWorks.

1965 BMW 700 LS “long tail” coupe, auctioned at Pebble Beach for $35,200. Photo via ConceptCarz.

...and a vintage racer, seen at Portland International Raceway, Oregon. Photo via Subcompact Culture.

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Featured Events

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St Louis-BMWCCA Drive

27 August 2017

JAGSL Do-Nuthin’ But Show-Up Picnic

21 August 2017

Photos by Jim Atkinson, Allan Ellis, Heather Johnson, Mat-

thew Johnson and John Sippel

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Featured Events—BMW drive continued

SLTOA Aces & Eights Poker Run

27 August 2017

Photo by John Moore

Photo by John Moore

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Featured Events—continued Friday Night at the Sonic

1 September 2017

Other mods included the use of NSU Prinz wheels and NSU finned aluminum front drum brakes. The car was offered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with the buyer looking for $15,000.

Otherwise, a few 700s of various models currently compete in vintage racing. While any examples ever turn up here in St Lou-is, either on the track or on local roads? You never know, one might just pop up at cars and coffee or one of the local shows somewhere down the line. If it happens, it’ll be fun hearing at that flat twin as the 700 take its place among the other BMWs.

Sources: Bring A Trailer; Daniel Vaughan, “The BMW 700: the car that saved the company,” ConceptCarz, April 2014; Terry O’Shea, “The Little BMW That Could-BMW 700LS,” Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car, November 2013; Racing Sports Cars, www.xxx; Harold Pace and Mark R. Brinker, Vintage American Road Racing Cars 1950-1969 (Osceola, WI: Motorbooks Interna-tional, 2004); Andy Lilienthal, “Nostalgic Subcompact: BMW 700S,” Subcompact Culture, 24 August 2012; Máté Petrány, “This Secret Car Collector Owns 50 Percent of the BMW 700 RS Population,” Jalopnik, 5 November 2015; Mike Burroughs, “The 1960 BMW 700RS Chassis #1 of 2,” StanceWorks, 15 August 2014.

BMW 700 (Continued from page 4)

During the early 1960s, BMW’s 697cc two-cylinder proved highly popular with several specialty sports car manufac-turers. In 1962, aerospace engineer Aldin “Red” LeGrand used the 700’s engine and transaxle in his Cheetah Mk 1,

designed for Formula 4 racing (the Formula Racing Association or FRA intro-duced the entry-level class for vehicles with a minimum weight of 400 lbs and engines of 500-750cc displacement). LeGrand put the BMW components in a tubular space frame with four-wheel disc brakes and fiberglass body. He con-verted the engine to dual carbs and added a header, which resulted in the little mill turning out 75 bhp.

The early LeGrand proved quite popular and also quite successful; works driver Bruce Eglinton regularly beat more powerful cars and won the FRA end-of-season race in 1964. LeGrand followed with the Cheetah Mk 2, utilizing the same running gear enclosed in a full body with two seats for H Modified racing (want more power? A buyer could fit a Saab 3-cylinder two-stroke). As with the Mk 1, the cars proved highly popular.

During this period Gene Beach, WWII fighter pilot and postwar MG driver, also developed a sports-racer using the 700 running gear. After producing a number of Fiat and Saab-powered Begras with partner Henry Grady, he set up Competition Components and turned out the Beach Mk 4, a true concoc-tion of parts: Triumph Spitfire suspension uprights and disc brakes, Fiat gear-box and BMW’s 700cc twin, clothed in a slick fiberglass body. He built two prior to the 1964 introduction of the Mk4B; his later cars used a wide range of engines.

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LeGrand Cheetah Mk1, complete with BMW roundel. Photo via Bring A Trailer

Beach Mk4. Photo via ConceptCarz.

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Cars & Coffee—O’Fallon

2 September 2017

Chesterfield Community Church Show

9 September 2017

Featured Events—continued

Photos by Stephen Paur

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Cars & Coffee—Westport

16 September 2017

Boeing Sports Car Club Autocross No. 6

10 September 2017 Featured Events—continued

Photo by Andrew Ackerman

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Featured Events—continued All-British Welcome BBQ

22 September 2017

All-British Car & Cycle Show

23 September 2017

Photos by Andrew Ackerman

This year’s featured model: the Sprite/Midget/Spridget.

Photo by Darren Frazier

Photo by Darren Frazier