IN GRAND PRIX racing circles the Toleman Formula One team
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is generally reckoned to have a 'fairly strong driver line-up in Ayrton Senna, Johnny Cecotto, Derek Rogers and Dave Hughes.
Derek Rogers and Dave Hughes? You have not heard of them? Well, they are not too competitive this season because their Formula One entries are roughly 50 or 60 times as heavy as their rivals. And they have only half the horsepower available to Senna and Cecotto.
You guessed it — Messrs Rogers and Hughes drive the two lveco car transporters that are supplied to the Toleman Formula One team by one of its sponsors.
The link between the multinational vehicle manufacturer and the small, relatively lowbudget British racing team is the Toleman car transport company which runs 250 Iveco vehicles and has just ordered a further 100 Iveco 165.24 drawbar rigids. The racing team (Called Toleman Group Motorsport) is part of the Toleman Group, but run as an independent company which is required to cover its costs via sponsorship.
CM had to visit the Toleman team at its base near Witney in Oxfordshire back in January before the first of the races in the Formula One calendar. Had the season (which runs from March to October) begun we would have had little chance of catching up with the transporters.
It is not feasible to take the transporters to the most distant Grand Prix venues, such as South Africa or Brazil, and so the cars and spares are air-freighted across in containers and local transport arranged for the transfer to the circuit.
But the transporters do attend the 10 races held in Europe, starting with the Belgian Grand Prix in April. Why two transporters, each of which can hold three or four cars, when Toleman is fielding two cars? One attends the actual Grand Prix and practice days before each race, while the other goes to the test sessions that the teams arrange on the various circuits. The test/race movements sometimes overlap and so from a logistics point of view ills easier to run two transporters.
The race unit driven by Dave Hughes is indeed an impressive outfit. It is pulled by a lefthand drive lveco 190.38 tractive unit, finished to the special limited edition specification that was first seen at the Turin Show last Spring.
It is easy to become confused about the Fiat/Magirus identity and how one should refer to individual models; this particular unit really adds to the confusion because it carries lveco badges, is signwritten with the Magirus name and yet has the Fiat water-cooled engine rather than the Deutz air-cooled unit.
I was told that the Magirus name refers in this instance to the sponsor, not the unit and that it was used to counteract connections with Fiat, which owns one of Toleman's racing rivals — Ferrari.
The 190.38 race unit was new for last season when it replaced a highly customised Ford Transcontinental. The special limited edition pack certainly helps give a sporty appearance befitting its role. The all-embracing lveco roof-mounted fairing dominates the cab and partly hides the two chromium plated vertical exhaust stacks that rise behind the cab. Below the chromium plated bumper is an air dam incorporating four fog lamps. Air horns, chrome wheel trims and louvred panels covering the rear side windows complete the exterior adornments.
Inside there is air conditioning, citizens' band and stereo radio to add to what is already a high-specification cab.
The race transporter's trailer was purpose-built by Hoynor of Braintree and is now three years old. It is an air-suspended tandem axle step-frame trailer running on 8.25R15 tyres to give a fairly low deck height. Behind its rear shutter is a Ratcliff column-mounted tail-lift which incorporates an unusually long platform so that the cars can be wheeled onto the lift. The trailer normally carries three cars, the ones on the top sitting on the surface of the workbenches that run down either side of the interior. The front portion of the trailer above the stepped part is used for carrying the array of spares and tools needed at a race.
To supply electricity for the tools and lighting there is a generator slung low down in an exterior locker, and driven by a two-litre Volkswagen petrol engine. In similar lockers are eight compressed air bottles for pneumatic tools.
With all these fitments, plus a full complement of spares and three racing cars, Dave Hughes says the transporter is heavier than one would imagine, but the 190.38's engine makes light of the load, and so it should; the 17.17 litre V8 develops 280kW (375bhp) and 1,650Nm (1,217 Ibft) of torque, which really is a sledgehammer to crack the Toleman nut.
All in all, an impressivelooking outfit with performance to match. I asked Dave Hughes if there are any better transporters in the Grand Prix "circus" — after all, Toleman is one of the smaller teams. "Well", he replied, "Let's put it this way. I wouldn't swap with anyone."
He enjoys his work, the driving being the best part of the job. He also has to set up all of the associated equipment when he arrives on site. During races he doubles as a tyre-change marshal!. Last season he was refuelling the car, but fuel pit stops are no longer permitted.
As soon as the race is over — and there is literally no time wasted — the team packs up and the transporter is loaded for the fast, return run home. The reason for the haste is that both racing cars have to be stripped down at Witney and completely rebuilt from the ground up before leaving for the next Grand Prix venue.
Given that the races are often just one or two weeks apart and that practising starts a few days before the race, one can see the action's non-stop.
Dave Hughes' colleague Derek Rogers has seen all of the action — he used to drive the race transporter, but has now opted to take the test unit instead: "It's a more relaxed atmosphere at the test sessions. I prefer it."
One of the sacrifices he has made is that he does not have a 190.38 to drive. The test trailer is pulled by an Iveco 190.29 which does have a Deutz air-cooled engine to match the Magirus name on the front. It is the Deutz 12.76 litre V8, which develops 200kW (268bhp) and has a torque rating of 1,110Nm (819 lbft).
Although not in the same power league as the 190.38 Derek Rogers says it too is no slouch, it is pulling rather less weight. The test trailer is a single axle step-frame model by Crane Fruehauf and normally carries just the one racing car plus enough spares to build another. It is therefore lighter and is also lower. Derek says it is actually a lot quicker up the hills than the race transporter.
There is no limited edition version of the 190.29 and so the unit has been loaded with a similar selection of goodies so that it visually matches the race unit as far as possible. Inside, however, it lacks air conditioning.
Its trailer carries its generator in the nose cone and, in addition to the workshop equipment, it also has built-in such domestic touches as a refrigerator and microwave oven. At test sessions it has to survive on its own, whereas the race transporter is supported by a motorhome at Grand Prix.
During the winter close season the two transporter drivers have more time on their hands. In addition to taking holidays and generally sorting out the transporters in preparation for the next season, they drive the Toleman vans on errands to pick up the car parts that are machined by outside specialist companies. Apart from these, the Toleman cars are built at the base on the trading estate, outside Witney.
lveco is heavily involved in sports sponsorship with successful football teams such as Watford, popular events such as last year's World Cross-Country Championship and top boxing bouts.
The Toleman team has a new car, the TG184, which was due to make its race debut at the French Grand Prix at Dijon last weekend. Using last year's TG183 cars, the team's only world championship point in the four races until then was for Ayrton Senna's sixth place in South Africa. Everyone concerned hopes that the new car will find success; Grand Prix racing is a phenomenally expensive sport and sponsors cannot afford to back also-rans.