Bottom post of the previous page:
a re-print of 'To Hell and Back' will be released on February 27th.
Good thinking there. Im pretty sure it was primarily sheer will power that pulled him through. It was that will power that took him from last rites to 4th place in Italy 6 weeks later.
As long as the wires don't short out or corrode
....'been around the block more than a coupla' times...... 
Near enough 8pm Thursday
I'd say probably a mixture of both. A stubborn determination can get you a long way in life, it can sometimes hold you back too, but that's another story
The "will" started when he got his last rites. The "luck" was that some drivers stopped and got him out of that car. Merzario, Edwards, Lunger and Ertl were his angels.
I wasn't watching F1 back when Niki had his accident but I have however seen Rush, that's the closest I've got to seeing what happened to him and that was bad enough. I have to assume it was pretty accurate but then again I know you can't always trust these things.erwin greven wrote: ↑3 years agoThe "will" started when he got his last rites. The "luck" was that some drivers stopped and got him out of that car. Merzario, Edwards, Lunger and Ertl were his angels.
Niki said it was and a BBC documentary on the 1976 season is almost identical to the film, so yes it is pretty accurate.Star wrote: ↑3 years agoI wasn't watching F1 back when Niki had his accident but I have however seen Rush, that's the closest I've got to seeing what happened to him and that was bad enough. I have to assume it was pretty accurate but then again I know you can't always trust these things.erwin greven wrote: ↑3 years agoThe "will" started when he got his last rites. The "luck" was that some drivers stopped and got him out of that car. Merzario, Edwards, Lunger and Ertl were his angels.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature/91 ... at-ferrariHistory tends to paint him as the wily pragmatist who calculated his way to a pair of Ferrari world titles in the mid 1970s - a kind of prototype Michael Schumacher.
Those labels alone do Niki Lauda a monumental disservice, however. Clinical? Oh yes, certainly. But also searingly fast - a match for anyone at his mid-decade zenith, and almost certainly on a curve that was still rising... until the Nurburgring 1976.
The blazing crash, head-melting scars and awe-inspiring recovery are the stuff of Lauda's legend, though his contribution to Ferrari's myth-making in the team's fourth decade was already of epic proportions, even before that fateful meeting with the barriers at Bergwerk.
Like all the Formula 1 greats before him - Fangio, Moss, Clark and Stewart - Lauda reset the bar: he was fitter, more dedicated, more professional and, as 18 impressive pole positions in 29 races across '74-75 indicate, consequently the best of his time. That's the speed he had, right there. Without the horror at the 'Ring, it's unlikely he'd have needed to wait until 1984 to be proclaimed a three-time champion.
Of course, Niki didn't do it all alone. Like Schumacher two decades later, he was part of an axis of power within which his strengths could shine. Watching his back was the smooth-talking lawyer and beside him the bespectacled genius forging racing gold. Without them, Lauda's legend might have remained latent.
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was Gianni Agnelli's man, parachuted in by Fiat's patriarch in the midst of all-too-characteristic Ferrari turmoil during 1973. That season, the Scuderia hit perhaps their lowest ebb, missing races mid-season and dropping to the status of a one-car team. Just 12 points were dredged to leave the reds joint sixth in the constructors' standings.
But Montezemolo was pedalling fast - and somehow without any notion of undermining the Old Man. Mauro Forghieri's Peter Sellers-style specs were back in the F1 pitlane by August, the mercurial designer coming back in from the cold (again) following exile to the 'experimental department'. Then for '74, Ferrari hired Lauda.
His stock was of similarly aristocratic pedigree to Montezemolo's, but in defiance of his grandfather, Lauda raised sponsorship to gain access to the F1 fold, becoming with hindsight the sport's most celebrated 'pay driver'. But his talent, first at March and then BRM, quickly elevated him beyond such dismissive tags.
Moustachioed Ferrari team leader Gianclaudio 'Clay' Regazzoni knew what Lauda was made from and was man enough to point it out to Enzo. The Swiss, through solid reliability, would lead an unlikely title revival in '74, losing out only in the final round to Emerson Fittipaldi's McLaren. As for the future, as far as Ferrari were concerned, that was in the hands of Clay's forthright team-mate.
Lauda had labelled the '73 B3 a pile of "shit" on his first test at Fiorano, then immediately set to work, in harness with Forghieri, to dial out the trouble. By the new season, the B3's heavy revisions included an en vogue periscope air intake, improved weight distribution, pannier-mounted radiators and improved aerodynamics.
From an embarrassing also-ran, the B3 was transformed into the fastest thing on the grid. Niki's nine poles would confirm that status, but a return of only two wins offers clues to his stalled title challenge. No matter, '75 would be their year - and in some style thanks to another dash of career-defining Forghieri genius.
The result of Lauda, Forghieri and di Montezemolo was the 312T of '75 and the beginning of Ferrari's greatest series of F1 cars until Rory Byrne began to weave his magic for Schumacher
Upon arriving at Maranello, Lauda had wondered why Ferrari didn't win every year, such were their resources and facilities. Like John Surtees before him, he'd learn the hard way that Italian machination could (and often would) undermine the best-laid plans - but for now he had Montezemolo to protect him, as Schumacher would have Jean Todt 20 years later.
Luca's first significant call remains, for some, one of his most destructive: he canned Ferrari's sportscar programme at a single slash. Once the dominant force at Le Mans, Ferrari have still yet to return to the 24 Hours as a true factory force.
Montezemolo, though, had circled the problem that had frustrated Surtees a full decade earlier: Le Mans was a distraction to the F1 effort. Luca knew what had to be done - and the subsequent success of 'Total F1' would offer all the justification he'd ever need.
Montezemolo's other giant contribution, and in part a consequence of the sportscar cull, was how he carved Forghieri the space and freedom to do what he did best. The result was the 312T of '75 and the beginning of Ferrari's greatest series of F1 cars - at least until Rory Byrne began to weave his magic for Schumacher.
'T' equals Trasversale - and represents the key feature of a car that would dominate '75, and in subsequent evolutions deliver a hat-trick of constructors' titles. Obsessed with the quest to conquer the polar-moment-of-inertia physics that defined this pre-ground-effects era, Forghieri was convinced that a gearbox mounted transversally would unlock new levels of performance in alliance with his masterpiece flat-12 that remained the benchmark, to the tune of at least 20hp over rival Cosworth V8 DFVs.
Memories of painful experiments at March left Lauda unconvinced, but he trusted Forghieri, and as usual, his instincts proved sound. This would be one of the great F1 cars.
Lauda's season started quietly with a fifth and sixth in the South American opening rounds in the old B3. The new car took its bow in South Africa, but only after Niki crashed it in practice. A lacklustre fifth in Kyalami brought howls from the Italian media, Forghieri stood firm.
The first win, at the non-championship Silverstone International Trophy, was a narrow one over Emerson Fittipaldi's McLaren. But the 312T was just beginning to get into its stride.
Next up, Niki would claim pole for the final (and tragic) Spanish GP at Montjuic Park, a race forever recalled for the crash involving Rolf Stommelen's Hill that killed five spectators. Safety (or rather the lack of it) at Barcelona's swooping park track dominated the whole weekend and Lauda was haunted by the memory. His girlfriend Mariella Reininghaus angrily accused him and his fellow drivers of hypocrisy for taking the start at all, after team members felt compelled to tighten bolts on barriers, such were the lamentable levels of circuit preparation.
Consecutive victories in Monaco, Belgium and Sweden ensured Lauda had one hand on his first title by the summer, despite a subsequent fallow patch. He'd secure the title with a safe third at Monza, to the delight of all Italy, before winning the final round at Watkins Glen to finish a healthy (for those days) 19.5 points clear of best-of-the-rest Fittipaldi.
By future Schumacher standards, this had been a far from perfect campaign. But in the perspective of this super-competitive era, Lauda and Ferrari looked formidable. Who - or more pointedly what - could possibly beat them in '76?
James Hunt had already defeated his friend at Zandvoort in '75, proving the true substance beneath the good-time frivolities at privateer Hesketh Racing. Now he found himself thrust into a top-line McLaren drive thanks to Fittipaldi's puzzling decision to leave. Hunt was clearly better than he'd been given credit for - but could he really lead McLaren in a title battle against the might of Lauda and Ferrari?
The answer to that question is too well known to require a detailed recount here. Hunt stepped up gloriously in a manner that would capture attention around the world. In the year punk shook the cultural establishment, a dishevelled public schoolboy took F1 beyond its narrow band of fans to a global sporting audience ravenous for the next chapter of a riveting rivalry: 1976 was Year Zero in more ways than one.
Without the horror of the Nurburgring, would Hunt have been able to claw back the deficit to Lauda and beat him to the title? It's an irrelevant and pointless question. More pertinently, the events of the long, hot summer of '76 proved to Lauda once and for all that there's more to life than world titles. The bravery of his racing return, and perhaps more significantly his decision to stop and walk away from the deluge at Fuji, capture the true spirit of this incredible man more than any career stat ever will.
From a Ferrari perspective, the most significant factor in this famous episode of their history was an absence; the man who was no longer there. His task seemingly achieved, by '76 Montezemolo had been promoted away into the upper hierarchy of Fiat. Lauda surely missed his influence, but more significantly Ferrari returned to bad old habits.
The callous response to Lauda's trials - the handling of Carlos Reutemann's hiring just as Niki was coming back at Monza, and the lack of support for his brave stand at Fuji - cost Enzo his champion. Sure, Niki stayed on and even secured a second title in '77 - but once he'd done so, he couldn't wait to exact his revenge and walk away.
Once he was gone, Ferrari - as usual - wasted little time moving on. Especially when they had someone fresh on their books, a brilliant French-Canadian who would blaze a wondrous trail for an all-too-brief handful of seasons.
For many, Gilles Villeneuve remains the Ferrari grand prix driver archetype: free-spirited, utterly committed, squeezing every last drop from life - and devastatingly fast. Enzo saw something of his pre-war hero Tazio Nuvolari in Gilles, and loved him like a son.
This purist racer burst into F1 at the wheel of a McLaren at the '77 British GP, having impressed Hunt during a sojourn to a Canadian Formula Atlantic race. But to eternal bemusement, McLaren boss Teddy Mayer let Villeneuve walk - straight into the arms of his arch rivals.
When Lauda quit immediately after securing his title, Villeneuve was catapulted straight into a Ferrari race seat. The hard-trying mistakes, the flailing rear wheels sparking off asphalt are all well documented. But the sensitivities, how he became adept at nursing tyres and how fellow racers just loved to go wheel-to-wheel with a man they knew they could trust... these are qualities less commonly celebrated.
When Jody Scheckter joined him for '79 there might have been reason to expect more sparks. Once a 'wildman' himself, Scheckter was now an elder statesman with a strong survival instinct, looking for a title that would allow him to quit on his own terms. In the 312 T4 on Michelin radials, against ground-effect Ligiers and Williams yet to be fully tamed, still-grenading Renault turbos and '78 champions Lotus trying to back out of one of Colin Chapman's occasional technical cul-de-sacs... he had his chance.
Sure, Villeneuve was faster over one lap and won races early in the season, but Scheckter's consistent approach eventually delivered the title his career deserved. And perhaps against expectation, the pair became firm friends. After his fair share of run-ins with the establishment, perhaps it's no surprise that Jody loved Gilles' racing spirit and full-blooded approach. At Monza, Villeneuve respectfully played the team game. A man of high morals, he obediently followed his team-mate across the line for Scheckter to secure victory and the title. His own chance would come, reasoned Gilles.
Not in 1980 it wouldn't. The old boom-and-slump habit bit hard as Forghieri persevered with his cherished flat-12 a year too long, the T5 proving slow and even unreliable against the now mature ground-effect opposition. At season's end, Scheckter stepped from the cockpit, purposefully walked down the nose of his car... and kept going into the sunset.
Scheckter's title had capped a fruitful decade for the Scuderia; at the birth of the 1980s no one would have imagined the tree would be barren for the next 21 years.
https://www.speedcafe.com/torquecafe/gm ... f1-legend/GMA T.50s Niki Lauda: Track day tribute for F1 legend
Legendary Formula 1 designer Gordon Murray has unveiled a fitting tribute to a legendary F1 driver. Murray has taken the wraps off the track-only version of his T.50 supercar, calling it the T.50s Niki Lauda.
Murray worked with Lauda during his time at Brabham, so Murray chose the late Austrian’s birthday as the launch date for his latest Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) creation, unveiling it online overnight from his UK headquarters.
“The T.50s is named in honour of Niki to commemorate his famous win with the Brabham BT46B fan car in the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix,” Professor Murrary explained. “Niki was a great racing driver and he was also a good friend and it is absolutely fitting that we are launching the T.50s Niki Lauda on his birthday. Niki would have appreciated the innovation and engineering detail in our car.”
Murray also sought and received the blessing of Lauda’s family for the new car.
“We are proud that Gordon Murray Automotive has named its new car after Niki,” said the Lauda family in a statement. “He would have been extremely honoured to have been associated with a car designed and engineered by Gordon, with whom he had such a long association and friendship.”
The goal for the T.50s was relatively simple but grandiose – create an “on track experience like no other car to date” that would “define its era”. In the same way the T.50 was designed to be the best driver’s car on the road – with its lightweight construction, free-revving naturally-aspirated engine and central driving position – Murray wants the T.50s to be the most enjoyable track car money can buy.
“The T.50 is the ultimate road-going supercar, but I always dreamed of taking it one step further… to build a version that will deliver an ontrack driving experience like no other car in history,” he explained.
Murray added: “We had no interest in achieving the ultimate lap time or creating an over-tyred and over-downforced spaceship at the expense of driver involvement, because ultimately you have to possess an F1 driver level of skill and fitness to get the best out of them.”
“Instead, I laid out some parameters to create the ultimate driver’s car and experience on track: a central driving position, a V12 just behind your ear revving to over 12,000rpm, producing over 700-horsepower (560kW) and with an even faster response time than the T.50, downforce limited to 1500kg and a weight of under 900kg. Plus the ability to turn up at any track, make a few basic checks and have fun, without the need for an entire support crew.”
Tech specs
The specifications of the T.50s Niki Lauda make for some stunning reading. As he targeted, the 3.9-litre V12 engine makes 540kW (725hp) thanks to a new RAM air-intake, and the overall weight of the car has been kept to 852kg; a whopping 134kg less than the ‘regular’ T.50. That means the T.50s has a power-to-weight ratio of 614kW/tonne better than an LMP1 car.
Without road regulations to worry about, the Cosworth-built engine now breathes through a straight-through exhaust that the company claims makes it “one of the greatest and most characterful sounding cars ever made.”
It sends its immense performance to the rear-wheels via a six-speed paddle-shift transmission built by racing gearbox experts, Xtrac. This replaces the six-speed manual ‘box in the road-going T.50. GMA will offer the T.50s with two sets of gear ratios, one that can deliver a top speed of more than 320km/h and another that are closer for better response of shorter circuits.
The brakes are unchanged, with track-spec Brembo carbon ceramic discs (370mm front, 340mm rear) clamped by six-piston calipers taking care of slowing the T.50s.
New look, more downforce
While based on the T.50, Murray and his design team have developed a completely new body for the T.50s Niki Lauda, with not a single panel carried over between the road and track versions.
However, the unique 400mm fan that helps generate stable downforce remains, now working with a larger rear diffuser and fixed rear wing. There’s also an LMP1-style central fin running down the back of the car from the roof-mounted airbox.
At the front there are new barge boards and a new splitter with dive planes to generate suitable downforce. Murray admits they actually reduced the downforce the car could generate, from a possible 1900kg to 1500kg, to make it “more manageable” for drivers who aren’t used to high-downforce track cars.
The T.50s gets a unique suspension set-up that is 87mm lower at the front and 116mm lower at the rear. The springs, dampers and anti-roll bar have also been re-tuned for track performance with no consideration for open road driving.
Spartan cabin
Inside the cabin Murray’s trademark central driving position remains, but there’s only a single passenger seat available (or can be optionally deleted if you don’t plan on taking your friends for a ride) on the left-hand side. The right-hand side seat has been removed and replaced by a fire extinguisher system and a switch panel.
The steering wheel is “a lesson in simplicity” according to Murrary, slim and rectangular in shape it only has the essential buttons (traction control, launch control, radio and neutral) to meet the designers exacting standards.
“I used to make my drivers take their watches off, partly for weight, but also because it adds to the steering inertia,’ Murray explained “Big wheels with lots of switches are quite heavy from a steering inertia point of view, so for the T.50s I wanted to keep the wheel small, clean and simple.”
Unique builds
GMA will only build 25 examples of the T.50s Niki Lauda, with each set to be made to the buyer’s personal taste. Not only that, but each of the 25 chassis will be named after an F1 win from Murray’s career; the first chassis will be called Kyalami 1974, which Carlos Reutemann won in the Braham-Ford BT44. In addition, each car will also come with a specially commissioned book about the specific race it’s named after with Murray’s memories of the event.
While Murray has designed the car to be used for private track days, he’s also planning on hosting specific track day events for those lucky enough to buy one of the 25. And while his goal is to make it able to be run alone, GMA will provide track support to any owner who wants it.
“It was essential to me that the T.50s Niki Lauda is easy to live with and enjoy,” Murray said. “You will own the car, you will be completely in control of where and when you enjoy it. My vision is that owners will take it to a circuit, check the tyre pressures, climb in, fire it up and have fun. That’s the way it should be.”
Murray is also working on a possible Le Mans hypercar entry with the T.50 and says he’s in discussions with GT sports car racing czar Stefan Ratel about a possible ‘GT1 sports club’ for similar track-only supercars with a view to a future racing category.
