{"id":3879,"date":"2011-10-03T17:44:56","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T06:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelwyres.com\/?p=3879"},"modified":"2011-10-03T17:44:56","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T06:44:56","slug":"dodgy-fuel-or-dodgy-wheel-arches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/2011\/10\/dodgy-fuel-or-dodgy-wheel-arches\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgy Fuel or Dodgy Wheel Arches?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the latest chapter in the history of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bathurst_1000\">Bathurst 1000<\/a> due to be written this coming weekend, I thought I would take a moment to look back at probably the most controversial incident in the history of the race &#8211; the post-race disqualification of the Eggenberger Texaco <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ford_Sierra_RS_Cosworth\">Ford Sierras<\/a> that finished first and second in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1987_James_Hardie_1000\">1987<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There has always been some confusion amongst many as to the exact reason they were rubbed out of the results &#8211; was it dodgy fuel, or dodgy wheel arches?<\/p>\n<p>Here is a short snippet of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Neil_Crompton\">Neil Crompton<\/a> revealing to the television audience of the suspicion of illegal fuel running in the black Sierras:<\/p>\n<p><center>\n<table border=\"1\" width=\"450\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n  <tr>\n    <td align=\"center\" width=\"450\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"290\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xZTvoYi_ocU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/center>\n<\/p>\n<p>I was at the 1987 race &#8211; (getting very wet) &#8211; and my memory of the cars were that they did sound different to every other Sierra on the circuit that day.  That doesn&#8217;t mean they were doing something under the desk, but something was certainly different about them.<\/p>\n<p>As it turned out, a CSIRO lab in Melbourne cleared the fuel samples on the Monday or Tuesday after the race.  While the fuel was found to be &#8220;different&#8221; to that which should have only come from the official fuel supply at the circuit, it was deemed to still be within the regulations.<\/p>\n<p>There were rumours of &#8220;tanks inside tanks&#8221; adding something to the fuel while the car was running, but stuff like that was never substantiated. <\/p>\n<p>The real reason the cars were rubbed out &#8211; (and it took nine months of protests, and counter protests) &#8211; was for illegally modified wheel arches, which allowed for larger wheels and tyres to be fitted to the cars.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at these two pictures from the 1987 Great Race Yearbook &#8211; (click for larger version) &#8211; of one of the Texaco cars alongside an Australian-built <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dick_Johnson_Racing\">DJR<\/a> Shell Sierra in the scrutineering bay on the Tuesday before the race.  They SHOULD be the same as each other.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>In particular, note that on the black Texaco Eggenberger car, the top of the wheel arch meets the crease in the quarter panel, yet on the red Shell car, there is clearly a gap between the top of the wheel arch, and the crease in the panel.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly different.<\/p>\n<p>Also note that the wheels &#8211; (and see that both cars are fitted with the BBS rims that were common at the time) &#8211; on the Texaco car are clearly of different dimensions, and that the tyre is more &#8220;signficant&#8221; than on the DJR car.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s what tripped them up, and lost driver <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Klaus_Ludwig\">Klaus Ludwig<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Klaus_Niedzwiedz\">Klaus Niedwiedz<\/a> the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1987_World_Touring_Car_Championship\">World Touring Car Championship<\/a> &#8211; the points they lost from the disqualification were enough to hand the title to BMW&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roberto_Ravaglia\">Roberto Ravaglia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Had they kept the points, Ludwig and Niedzwiedz would have finished equal on points, and ahead of Ravaglia.<\/p>\n<p>Shall we say, lets hope for a less controversial finish this weekend!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the latest chapter in the history of the Bathurst 1000 due to be written this coming weekend, I thought I would take a moment to look back at probably the most controversial incident in the history of the race &#8211; the post-race disqualification of the Eggenberger Texaco Ford Sierras that finished first and second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[115,567],"class_list":["post-3879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport","tag-bathurst1000","tag-v8sc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwyres.com.au\/mwdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}