Motorsports Trivia Thread!

  • Thread starter Cap'n Jack
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dingodile_r89
Wasn't it the C type Jag which won the 1953 Le Mans? Or am I way off? Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt, if I'm not mistaken.
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A question does not answer a question. Please provide a declarative statement.

I will allow that a C Jag driven by Rolt and Hamilton won Le Mans in '53, and that Austin-Healey 100S took 2nd and 3rd in class. But it wasn't the first race victory for a disc brake equipped sports car, if my research is correct.
 
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Dotini
A question does not answer a question. Please provide a declarative statement.

I will allow that a C Jag driven by Rolt and Hamilton won Le Mans in '53, and that Austin-Healey 100S took 2nd and 3rd in class. But it wasn't the first race victory for a disc brake equipped sports car, if my research is correct.
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jack-sparrow-running.gif
 
The disc brake was a major safety and performance innovation pioneered in racing cars of an earlier era, much superior to the drum brake - even the best. They are common on all racing and road cars today.

Which of the below, all known to be pioneers of the disc brake, was the first to win a race using discs - or was it something else not pictured? Please answer with date, race, car and driver(s).
  • Pic-V16-RaceRetro-2015.jpg

    1.5 liter supercharged BRM V16. Incredibly powerful, nearly undrivable, continued development after it's eligibility for F1 ended in 1951. Had disc brakes by 1951(?), but such terrible reliability it could not win a race for a seeming eternity.
1950_ferrari_375_thin_wall_special_f1.jpg

Tony Vandervell's Thin Wall Special, 4.5 liter V12 Ferrari 375 F1 car from '50-'51 era. Continued development through F2 era ('52-'53), and possibly the world's quickest road racing car for a short period in time. Might have done well at Indy. The world-beating Vanwall was its successor.





  • Austin Healey 100S. The S is for Sebring (hint). A special production run of 50 cars begun in 1953 with all-aluminum body, aluminum cylinder head, sturdy 2.7 liter 4 cylinder engine. Did respectably well in under 3.0 liter sports car endurance racing. Involved in terrible Le Mans accident, 1955. - click to enlarge


    • Jaguar C-Type. Won Le Mans two times. Excellent for endurance racing. Enough said. - click to enlarge
 
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I'm sure there were one or two shed-built one offs that were raced with a form of disc brake before those well known ones shown above. The ones above are all small-series runs or factory-built efforts so are the ones that commonly get credited. The answer will no doubt be Bob Smith with his Garagista Special MkII. But i'm not going to spoil it by Googling the answer.
 
TheCracker
I'm sure there were one or two shed-built one offs that were raced with a form of disc brake before those well known ones shown above. The ones above are all small-series runs or factory-built efforts so are the ones that commonly get credited. The answer will no doubt be Bob Smith with his Garagista Special MkII. But i'm not going to spoil it by Googling the answer.
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I could find no way to Google the answer. Some sleuthing will be required. To my knowledge there are no shed-built specials which first won a race with disc brakes. I believe the answer is a proper factory built car; after all, this is cutting-edge automotive technology we are talking about here. But I do not know the answer with absolute certainty. I could be wrong! :confused:

But I will add 2 clues, one in post #5343, one here: Consider the question of class wins and indices of performance, a system of handicapping common it Europe.

^Edited.
 
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Dotini
The disc brake was a major safety and performance innovation pioneered in racing cars of an earlier era, much superior to the drum brake - even the best. They are common on all racing and road cars today.

Which of the below, all known to be pioneers of the disc brake, was the first to win a race using discs - or was it something else not pictured? Please answer with date, race, car and driver(s).
Click to expand...

4796477234_c7bf505fdc_b.jpg


1950 - Sam Collier Memorial Sebring Grand Prix of Endurance Six Hours - Crosley Hotshot - Fritz Koster / Ralph Deshon

The Hotshot road car was fitted with disc brakes - i can't find evidence either way that this race car didn't have them also.
 
Can it be that my trivia question was not trivial enough? I mean, after all, the question of who was the first to win with disc brakes is significant in the story of automotive technology, of which racing is a vital part. So yes, maybe not trivial enough.

So, to hurry us through the tedium, I will give new clues. The winning car was green, bore the number 19, was driven by an American and a Dutchman, and was a factory built car which spawned a generation of shed-built specials. In 1966 I found myself working on one of them in a one-car garage in Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood. An excellent entry level racer, it was.

Ah, tree'd by @TheCracker most excellent!

I will add the Crosley Hotshot defeated several Ferraris, winning on the Index of Performance formula.
Forgotten history - first Sebring http://crosleyautoclub.com/Sebring/Sebring.html

    • Click to enlarge
 
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Not a trivia question as such, and I know it's not my turn, but I thought this would be the best place to post this question.

This is an Exoto model of a Sauber C9 in Michelin livery. It says it's driven by Mike Thackwell, but the only blue Sauber seems to be the Kouros one. The only info I can find on the Michelin C9 is the Exoto model, or 3D renders. Does anyone know the Michelin one actually existed, or have Exoto made it up?

c9-6.jpg
 
daan
Not a trivia question as such, and I know it's not my turn, but I thought this would be the best place to post this question.

This is an Exoto model of a Sauber C9 in Michelin livery. It says it's driven by Mike Thackwell, but the only blue Sauber seems to be the Kouros one. The only info I can find on the Michelin C9 is the Exoto model, or 3D renders. Does anyone know the Michelin one actually existed, or have Exoto made it up?

c9-6.jpg
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I think it's based on the 1987 German Supercup car (Thackwell drove #63) but it's darker and lacks the Michelin logo, although everything else about it looks identical:
1987SSP61_car2.JPG


This is the only real image I could find of a Michelin car:
img3631_1_8_medium.JPG
 
daan
Not a trivia question as such, and I know it's not my turn, but I thought this would be the best place to post this question.

This is an Exoto model of a Sauber C9 in Michelin livery. It says it's driven by Mike Thackwell, but the only blue Sauber seems to be the Kouros one. The only info I can find on the Michelin C9 is the Exoto model, or 3D renders. Does anyone know the Michelin one actually existed, or have Exoto made it up?

c9-6.jpg
Click to expand...

This is the only photo of the actual car i can find in the Michelin livery. Oddly, it's on Exoto's own site.

*tree'd*

RSC, Racing Sports Car's excellent website only shows photos of that chassis, 87-C9-01, in the Kouros livery. I'd take a guess that the car was unveiled with Michelin livery, instead of none at all, but then Kouros jumped on board as main sponsor when the season started.


*EDIT*

The photo posted above by Jason_Rocks looks to have been doctored (pre-Photoshop days) The areas on the sides and above the side window where the Michelin logos should be have definitely been messed with. The tone of the black/dark blue doesn't match the rest of the photo. Weird why they'd do that.
 
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(I know it's not my go, but still)
What statistic previously held by Alain Prost did Lewis Hamilton break at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix?
 
You'd think that Rosberg would have beaten that already if it was, considering his championship lead. :P

I admit that this is a completely blind guess, but; Consecutive GPs with the same engine manufacturer?
 
None so far.

The answer I'm looking for isn't a record breaking statistic, it's more of a weird quirk of some aspect in the weekend.
There were 413 Grand Prix's between Hamilton doing what Prost was the last driver to do.
 
Jimlaad43
(I know it's not my go, but still)
What statistic previously held by Alain Prost did Lewis Hamilton break at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix?
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Jimlaad43
None so far.

The answer I'm looking for isn't a record breaking statistic, it's more of a weird quirk of some aspect in the weekend.
There were 413 Grand Prix's between Hamilton doing what Prost was the last driver to do.
Click to expand...

I correctly answered the question, yet the goalposts have been moved from a statistic to a weird quirk. Imprecisely worded question in the first place?
 
Liquid
Lead every lap of a wet race?
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Prost's GP in question was dry.
As far as I can tell, the last time someone led every lap of a wet race was Lewis himself at the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix.
Dotini
I correctly answered the question, yet the goalposts have been moved from a statistic to a weird quirk. Imprecisely worded question in the first place?
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You didn't though, as he broke the record at the race. Rosberg is also on 9 wins and could still lose the championship, so even if I was taking Abu Dhabi into account, it wouldn't be correct, as Nico equalled that record more recently.

Even if it is a weird quirk, it is still a statistic also.
 
Alain Prost finally won at his 13th attempt to win the Canadian GP, almost the only one that had been on the calendar his entire career without previously winning. He won by 15 seconds over a German. He did not set fastest lap.

Lewis Hamilton finally won the Brazilian GP, the only one that had been on the calendar his entire career without previously winning. He won by 11 seconds over a German. He did not set fastest lap.
 
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Dotini
Alain Prost finally won at his 13th attempt to win the Canadian GP, almost the only one that had been on the calendar his entire career without previously winning. He won by 15 seconds over a German. He did not set fastest lap.

Lewis Hamilton finally won the Brazilian GP, the only one that had been on the calendar his entire career without previously winning. He won by 11 seconds over a German. He did not set fastest lap.
Click to expand...
Well deduced, but not correct. The Grand Prix in question was not the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix.

The two Red Flags were not related to the stat, but they were the contributing reason.
 
Prost won a race in which a 2nd generation driver was potentially denied victory by a red flag (or a lengthy pit stop).

Hamilton won a race in which a 2nd generation driver was potentially denied victory by a red flag (or an additional pit stop).
 
Nah, you'll need a clue.

This factoid was only possible because of the weather conditions under the current F1 rules.
 

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