Quote:
Originally Posted by andy97
Thats good info, Grant.
ISTR reading that Derek Gardner(& others presumably) did some of the work in Derek’s garage at home.
There’s s new book on the Tyrrell team coming out in July 2023, by a Richard Jenkins, which is supposed to include previously little known stories, eg the fact that the 008 was conceived from the start to be a “fan car” but they couldnt get the fan to work reliably.
I also understand that the original Tyrrell shed may be be relocated to Goodwood.
I am on the Tyrrell Racing Organisation FB site where several previous employees often pop up with a story or two.
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I had not heard about a new book.
Many of the people I knew back then have probably left us by now.
The P34 launch was an interesting day.
At one of the big hotels at Heathrow.
We took a 007 and the P34 prototype. They were set up on low temporary plinths - some sort of wooden boxes as I recall - and covered with a typical launch cover sheet.
Someone had made a couple of rounded infills to fit between the front wheels of the P34 such that when covered by the sheet it looked like a regular 4 wheel car.
The Sporting Director from ELF, who knew what to expect, flew over from Paris with a load of journalists who were picked up from the plane and taken to the hotel.
Someone had found, late in the day, a rather elderly and somewhat tatty coach in something very close to the Tyrrell blue colour and with the unusual feature of 3 axles with 4 wheel steering.
So as the French journalists got on the coach the ELF Director was making jokes about "only the British would design a bus with stupid 4 wheel steering", etc.
Jackie Stewart was on hand for the day and started the presentation with a reference to the 007 as the existing car used for most of the previous 2 years.
And then the covers were taken of off the P35, starting at the back, which looked totally normal being more or less an 007 anyway, and rolling it to the front making sure that the false wheel "bulge" was lifted with the cover, revealing the small front wheels and the very narrow front track of the prototype.
Gasps all around, a short somewhat shocked silence, followed by all sorts of reactions including laughter.
Various presentations and Q&A sessions followed, some refreshments and so on and off they wall went, back onto the silly bus with 4 wheel steering and a return flight to France.
We extracted the cars, loaded up the Transporter and the Tranny and trailer and headed off to the BBC studios where Bob Wellings interviewed JYS as part of the early evening magazine-style program, with the cars in the studio for visuals.
Program over, we extracted the cars, put them back in the transport and managed to get back into the Green Room to enjoy further BBC hospitality for a while until we were kicked out because they had someone more important to take occupancy.
It was a long but fun day.