British endurance race car driver Alex Brundle is a man on a mission. The Adrian Flux sponsored racer already has two visits to the Le Mans 24 hours podium, multiple World Endurance Championship race victories and the 2016 European Le Mans Series Championship to his name.
But this summer Alex Brundle is looking for more chequered flags and even more podium exposure.
The 29 year-old son of former F1 driver turned commentator Martin Brundle has taken time off the track to assess three of the most exciting cars he will be pushing to their limits this summer.
Looking forward to the magic and excitement
“There are three machines peeking out of the calendar at me and they are all adding a little magic and extra excitement to my season.
They are awesome, a term I criminally overuse, but awesome in a different way to the surgical efficiency of a modern prototype. Different again to the cut and thrust excitement of the wheel to wheel battle to make it to the massive stage of Formula 1.”
The three awesome cars whetting Alex Brundle’s appetite are the Ford Cologne Capri, the Lola T70 MK111 B and the iconic Jaguar E Type.
Alex Brundle on the Ford Cologne Capri
The only car in the programme I have yet to test, and boy will I need my head screwed on!
The factory European touring car I’ll be driving at Spa is the newest car on the programme.
In 1970 in response to the new group 2 regulations the Ford Capri 2300GT fuel injected V6 met with immediate failure in the fight for the ETCC.
Unreliability and lack of power cost Ford the championship to the beautiful Alfa Romeo GTAM. But they were back in 1971 and 72 snatching the championship with a revamped machine.
For ’73 the Capri was overcome in a tremendous championship battle by clever homologation work by their nemesis at BMW on the mighty CSL. The German Capri’s lost out to the tune of 500cc as well as the ability to undertake significant downforce work, losing the championship to the full BMW works effort.
Ford went back to its European base in Cologne licking its wounds but the response was what was known as a homologation special and this was the result!
To update the car’s capacity to a higher class, Ford needed to return to the ETCC with a brand-new design.
The redesigned engine was bored to achieve 3412cc and 420bhp but always using the mandated standard Capri leaf spring suspension. Ford loaded an aerodynamic package on the family saloon and the ‘74 Cologne Capri was born!
Alex Brundle on the Lola T70 MK111 B
From the Lola stable, of robust and powerful sports prototypes throughout the 60’s, the Lola T70 series was the go-to for customer sportscar teams, competing in the 24 hours of Le Mans, 24 hours of Daytona, Can-AM and other global sportscar series.
Lola started work with the Mk11 smashing 5 victories out of 6 races in the 1966 Can-AM series, with John Surtees at the wheel. The MK 111 and then the beautiful MK111b came next.
As a modern LMP racer this is the closest I can get to winding back the clock and getting a feel for what it would be like to challenge the Le Mans 24 hours in that era. No wonder the legends have hearing aids!
The car carries the hint of modern prototype feel, but blows you away in terms of its physical effort to drive. The gearbox is sweet but heavy, and you can feel every movement of the mechanicals as the big robust gears move. The front bounces and weaves on the road as the great big V8 hunkers over the “moon sized” rear tyres.
It’s loud and brash but rudimentary downforce at speed makes it stable and friendly, as long as you mind your manners.
In my many years of racing I have never experienced a sound like the 5.0L carb V8 on the example I will be racing wheel to wheel. It takes a bit of tummy tickling to get her running, then it’s flat out or nothing like a muscular greyhound on steroids.
Making the car turn in requires some real brake pedal gymnastics, but with that soundtrack, who cares!
Alex Brundle on The Jaguar E Type
Name a more ‘British’ object, I’ll wait… The Jaguar E Type series one is one of the most iconic shapes of a truly iconic era of British sportscars.
First constructed in 1961, it has independent front and rear suspension with all around disk brakes, just like Jaguar’s massively successful D type Le Mans racer of the late 50’s. This makes the car feel nimble, racey and light.
Despite more pitch and roll than a modern car there is a “tightness” to the rack and pinion steering assembly and no power assistance. The road surface can be felt beneath your fingers as it tugs and tracks at the front end through the narrow wooden wheel.
Clutch and 4-speed gearbox are light, precise and swift but still take concentration to nail the gear change. You become fully aware of the adjustment in angle of the long nose as the power is re-engaged through the 4.2l straight 6 which starts, idles and runs much more politely than it’s 50’s counterpart.
Raced in all major GT series at the time including the RAC TT races, it is brought to life each year at the Goodwood revival. This was GT3 in the 60’s. A car you could truly drive to the circuit, race all day and then drive home.
Alex Brundle and Adrian Flux
Alex Brundle teamed up with specialist motor insurance broker Adrian Flux this year thus extending the company’s portfolio of prestige sporting sponsorships and associations.
If you’re lucky enough to drive a car similar to these three which have set Alex Brundle’s pulses racing, you’ll be looking for a rather special insurance deal too.
Adrian Flux is famed for its sensible approach to quoting on motor insurance policies and you will probably find their prices refreshingly reasonable. Call 0808 503 9920 for a quote or book a call back at a time that will suit you.
It’s cheaper by phone: 81.5% of customers receiving an online quote in August 2022 could have obtained a cheaper deal if they had called (based on information they provided).
https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/blog/2017/05/qa-callum-ilott.html
