[Tropi]

Whatever happened to . . .

I was actually looking for information on Trebron Suspension when I came across this
interesting page from 1992.

1992, the year that Nigel Mansell gained his 5 GPs in a row and Schumie hasn't yet surpassed that, though who would lay odds that he won't?
1992 was a year when Schumie was actually racing Mansell and starting to show his immense potential in a Benetton.

I looked at the list of F1 cars and wondered what happened to so many of them.
Of course, we still have Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Benetton. I hadn't realised that Minardi had been around that long either! But whatever happened to Dallara, Tyrrell, Footwork, March, Venturi, Ligier, Lotus and Fondmetal?

Normal number of cars qualifying to race was twenty six in those 'good old days'.
Shrinking grids ever since.
I can remember a time when manufacturers would enter as many three cars in a race, rather then two, and the star driver could swipe his team-mates' cars should he happen to break his own!

Eventually I discovered why Google had taken me to this page
QUOTE A Japanese consortium is planning to build the country's first Formula One car since 1977. Canadian Norbert Hamy is the driving force behind the team, which will be called Trebron Racing Systems. He is both chief designer and director. Trebron will have a factory in Japan, where the cars will be built, and another in England, where the team will be based during the racing season. Hamy, who is yet to name any drivers, intends to have the first car completed by November in time for the 1993 season.
Well, I wonder what happend to that, too!
But none of this nostalgia trip left me any the wiser with regard to Trebron suspension.
So I am still left wondering, whatever happened to that?

 

[Tropi]

Bad form to post two in a row, but sod it - it's late afternoon Friday and I am off to the POETS club in a moment.

Another dead end in the hunt for Trebron came up with this link
Grand Prix cars/entries that never raced (work in progress)
It's an interesting list and I thought might appeal to scratch builders looking for something more unusual to model.

Here's one example
QUOTE 1952 DB-Panhard "twin-engine"
Amazing four-wheel drive, twin-engine project that saw front-ends of two cut-and-shut DB chassis mated to form a F2 car with 750cc Panhard engines and gearboxes powering each axle.
Plans to substitute 750cc units with fully tuned 850cc engines.
Great in theory, flawed in practice.

OH! Had to mention this!
QUOTE 1967 Khadi-8
Streamlined Russian "F1" car conceived in Kharkov.
It bore an 8-cylinder, 1974cc engine with an output of 340hp.
Its wheelbase was 2600mm and it weighed 550 kg.
With its maximum speed being 200 kph, Vladimir Kapsheyev established a national 500m record in the 5000cc class in this car, reaching a speed of 96.5 kph, but the car sustained serious damage in its competition use.
In 1971-'72 it was restored, incorporating large design changes, and renamed Khadi-10.

Khadi 8 Pic 1
Khadi 8 Pic 2

Khadi 10 Pic 1
Khadi 10 Pic 2

Could not let it go with out mentioning this.
Bet you didn't know that DAF managed to get its rubber band transmission installed in a GP car where, after producing "spectacularly fast times", it was . . . wait for it . . . .
BANNED!
QUOTE 1993 Williams-Renault VDT FW15C Experimental continuous variable transmission (CVT) set-up by Van Doorne Transmissie (VDT) on championship-winning car bridged gap to late-sixties F3 and FJ efforts by Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek, better known to the world as DAF. The CVT paired to a Renault V10 constantly revving at its peak led to spectacular test times by David Coulthard, after which CVT was quickly and silently banned from Grand Prix racing in 1994, much in the fashion as six-wheeled racers had been banned by the FIA after worryingly fast test times by a Williams...

More Interesting Info and great pics at Ritz/DAF

 

[BEEJAY7]

That Khadi is interesting Tropi...

It looks a little, shall we say, ...under-rubbered in the wheel department, perhaps due to raw material shortages, at that time, in Russia?. Certainly an unusual project for someone...not me I hasten to add!.

Regards

Alan

 

[howmet tx]

Didn't know it was bad form to post two in a row! Sorry. Apologies all round.

 

[howmet tx]

....but I wondered about the rear-engined Vanwall that Surtees tested (I think). Not on that fascinating list, so maybe it did start a race. But what an interesting project that would have been. Anyone know any more?

 

[peter]

The DAF story is really great - I would have never guessed...

sorry for not being able to help out otherwise though!
//peter

 

[Tropi]

It's a LONG time ago but I think I have vague memories of seeing a rear engined Vanwall when Raymond Baxter was resident commentator for BBC motor sport - before Murray Walker, who no one had heard of in those far off days!.

 

[JohnP]

The rear-engined Vanwall did race - Surtees finishing fifth in the 1961 International Trophy. In fact he led for a brief spell but spun in the wet eventually finishing three laps down.

I wonder if Russell has a video of the race complete with Raymond Baxter commentating? We can but hope!

 

[howmet tx]

Raymond Baxter fan club! Who's in?

 

[JohnP]

...and how about Biddy Baxter fan club too? What would Blue Peter have been without her!

 

[Tropi]

For those who have no idea, Trebron Suspension was designed to make a car tilt in to a curve instead of rolling outwards as normal.
Trebron is Norbert in reverse, named after its inventor, Canadian, Norbert Hamy.
All I found so far is this
QUOTE I've just found a copy of "Automobile Suspensions" by Colin Campbell in my office. It was published in 1981, and it's got a section on the Trebron double roll centre suspension, which at that time its inventor, a Canadian called Norbert Hamy, had been working on for more than a decade - i.e. since about 1970. It utilises a separate bulkhead, connected on each side to the chassis and to the top wishbone by a swinging link, to carry the SLA suspension arms. The geometry of the swinging links gives the bulkhead its own, very high, roll centre so that it banks into a corner, whereas the rest of the sprung mass rolls as normal. As a result, the swinging links modify the tyre cambers to compensate for roll. A similar aim to the Michelin OPT system, but does anyone know anything more about it? Apparently it was fitted to a Broadspeed Gp5 Ford Escort with "very promising" results, but the regs were changed which made it illegal.

To have disappeared without trace, I guess it might have been a terible failure. But on looking at how certain vested interests have managed to ban all sorts of innovations, I am left still wondering.