The late Denis "Jenks" Jenkinson (1920-1997) was the long time Continental reporter for the English magazine MOTORSPORT. Considered by many to be the best reporter of the GP scene during the fifties and sixties, he also rode with Stirling Moss to a resounding victory at the Mille Miglia in 1955. This appraisal of the Vanwall GP car appeared as a booklet, by PROFILE PUBLICATIONS (selling for 2 shillings) in 1966-67.
 
 

The Vanwall Grand Prix car started as the hobby of Mr. Guy Anthony Vandervell and developed into an obsession and a passion that nearly ruined his health but in that time it won the Manufacturers' Championship in Grand Prix racing and set a standard in motor racing that is still hard to match. Tony Vandervell was interested in motor racing many years ago and when the B.R.M. was planned in 1945 he gave it his full support, but as that idealistic scheme for a Grand Prix car got into worse and worse muddles in its early days, Vandervell left the syndicate and started his own racing department in his factory at Park Royal in West London where he had the headquarters of his great Vandervell Bearing concern.

For a number of years his team raced Ferrari cars, bought from Italy and extensively modified by themselves, and called Thinwall Specials, after the trade name of his shell-bearings. Vandervell had close connections with the Norton motorcycle racing team, and it was from this association with the racing 500 c.c. single-cylinder motorcycle engine that the idea of a 2,000 c.c. 4-cylinder engine developed, this being the size of engine for the 1952/53 seasons of Grand Prix racing. Vandervell had a personal desire to see a British car beat the Italian cars at motor racing, for they were in complete command, with Alfa Romeo Ferrari and Maserati cars.

It was for this reason that he first of all supported the British Racing Motor project, but having started his own team the idea of a Vandervell-built car beating the Italians began to be more than just a dream. Norton Motors started to build a 4-cylinder 2-litre engine, based on their extensive knowledge, while Vandervell began the design and construction of a chassis. Not unnaturally the basic layout of the car followed Ferrari principles, as the team had had a lot of experience with the Italian cars, but progress was slow and the 1952/53 seasons were finished before the car was even nearing completion.

It was 15th May 1954 before the Vanwall Special first appeared in a race, which was the International Trophy at Silverstone, where the car was driven by Alan Brown. By this time the formula for Grand Prix racing had been changed to a capacity limit of 2.5 litres, so that the Vanwall was handicapped by its smaller 2-litre engine, but already work was underway
designing a new 2.5 litre version. The new car went well, finishing sixth in its heat, but in the final it was put out by a broken oil pipe. As an interim measure a second engine of 2.3 litres was built and installed in the car in place of the original 2-litre engine, and in this form the car took part in the British Grand Prix, again on the Silverstone circuit, but this time driven by Peter Collins. Trouble developed in the cylinder head of this new engine, and a water leak caused the car to be withdrawn after only 17 laps of the race, but these sort of things were put down as 'teething troubles' and it was hoped that the future would see better things.

The great desire to beat the red Italian cars saw Vandervell sending his team off to Italy next, for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, with Collins as driver once again. Unfortunately the new 2.5-litre engine gave trouble while on test, shortly before the team left home, so the earlier 2.3-litre version was installed and in spite of being under-powered compared with its rivals it ran well and finished seventh, after a pit stop to repair an oil leak.

Back in England the car was driven in four short-distance events, two at Goodwood and two at Aintree, and it gave a good account of itself, finishing 2nd at the former circuit, driven by Collins, and 2nd at the latter circuit driven by Mike Hawthorn. Both these events were for Grand Prix cars, and though the opposition was not strong, it was quite representative so that the car's performance could be judged. For these events it was using the new 22-litre engine, and at both meetings it also ran in Formula Libre events, finishing 4th at Goodwood, but retiring at Aintree after spinning off on to the grass. These outings in small races were most encouraging and though Vandervell did not need anything in the way of support from the racing world, everyone became eager to help, as in the Vanwall Special they could see a car that was worthy of wearing the British Racing Green in Grand Prix racing.

Very late in the 1954 season the Spanish Grand Prix took place on the outskirts of Barcelona, and the Vanwall Special was entered, driven by Collins, but during practice he made a driving error and turned the car over, doing so much damage that it could not be repaired in time for the race and the entry was withdrawn. This was a sad ending to a first season of this new car, but Vandervell was not unduly disturbed as he was determined to develop the car and strive for better things, already planning a new chassis and the formation of a two-car team for 1955.

Mike Hawthorn was signed up to drive in 1955 and as a second car was being built Ken Wharton was taken into the team. The name of the car was changed to Vanwall, the Special part being dropped, and the two cars being ready for the first important race at Silverstone, which was the International Trophy. The engines had been greatly improved by the addition of Bosch fuel injection; the injectors being in the inlet tracts, with the bodies of Amal carburetors being used to provide throttle slides. It looked as though this season was going to be a good one for Vandervell with a first-rate driver in the team, and two cars to challenge the opposition. However, things did not turn out as expected, and in the first race both cars retired, Hawthorn with a gearbox oil leak, while Wharton had the misfortune to crash, the car catching fire and being badly damaged. This bad start was to put the team into a muddled state, and trouble plagued them at Monaco and Belgium, after which Hawthorn terminated his contract and joined another team. As a replacement Vandervell signed on Harry Schell, a Franco-American driver of no great skill, but enormous enthusiasm and courage and he proved to be just what the team wanted. Small troubles continued to plague the cars but when things were right Schell drove with great spirit and convinced many people that the Vanwall had the makings of a winning Grand Prix car, if only it could get over its 'teething troubles', which were going on too long.

It was Vandervell's plan to race his cars only in the major Grand Prix events, where the opposition would be strongest, and in particular where the 'red cars' would be. He was not interested in 'pot hunting', by racing his cars in small events against little opposition, but during 1955 he was forced to do this as a number of the big Continental events were cancelled during the summer. Consequently Schell and Wharton finished 1st and 2nd in a race at Snetterton, and Schell was 2nd at the Crystal Palace, but these successes did not impress Vandervell as the opposition had been negligible. A more serious proposition faced the Vanwall team when they went to Monza at the end of the season and though both cars retired, Schell put up a good fight, showing once more that the Vanwall was fast, though still fragile. All that was left of the 1955 season were two small British events, so that Vandervell was more or less forced to run his cars in these, in order to get more experience for the cars, drivers, mechanics and his own organization. Against quite good opposition at Oulton Park the Irishman Desmond Titterington finished 3rd, while Schell won two short races at Castle Coombe airfield circuit.

By the end of the season Vandervell was ready to field a team of three cars, this being his ultimate aim so that he could combat the big foreign teams with the same amount of equipment as they themselves had. Throughout 1955 the Vanwalls had been fast enough, but handling and road holding was not the equal of some of the rival makes, even though a coil spring suspension had been used in place of the original transverse leaf spring suspension. Before the 1956 season began Vandervell called upon Colin Chapman of Lotus, to assist in the design of a new chassis, while a new gearbox was designed, giving 5 speeds instead of the previous 4 speeds. Chapman had been making a name for himself with his Lotus chassis designs, as well as streamlined sports cars with bodywork designed by Frank Costin, so Vandervell wisely contracted for these two to design a new Vanwall to take the powerful 4-cylinder engine built at Acton. The resultant work produced an entirely new Vanwall that was received by the motor racing public with mixed feelings. It was aerodynamically correct, even if not aesthetic by current racing car standards, and was devoid of slots openings, louvres, bulges and so on, and had a remarkably small radiator opening in the nose while the cockpit and windscreen blended into a high and bulbous tail, the driver being completely enclosed by the bodywork, apart from an opening on the top of the cockpit. Even the multiple pipe exhaust was let into a recess in the bodywork, to avoid unnecessary breaks in the airflow across the body.

The whole aspect of this new Vanwall was one of functional efficiency rather than any sops to traditional racing car shape, and underneath this shape the Chapman influence had been applied in the same way to the chassis frame of small-diameter tubing, and to the suspension. While some of Vandervell's rivals were still using drum brakes, and others were experimenting with disc brakes, he had been using Goodyear disc brakes on his cars from the beginning with complete success. These brakes incorporated radial drilling of the disc to assist cooling, and even in 1965 this problem of perforated discs was still causing one of his rivalís trouble. The Vanwall/Goodyear disc brakes had been developed on the old Thinwall Special Ferrari, and the knowledge and experience carried on to the smaller Vanwall.

There was now every intention of fielding a full three-car team, the only problem being to find suitable drivers, for Vandervell was a difficult man to satisfy and had very fixed ideas on what he wanted from a driver, tending towards drivers with wide experience of all types of circuit rather than a very fast 'aerodrome racer'. This was because his real interest was the series of World Championship Grand Prix races on the circuits of Europe, no two of which bear any resemblance to each other. Harry Schell remained with the team and was joined by Maurice Trintignant a driver who was not outstandingly fast, but was absolutely reliable and very experienced in the ways of Continental Grand Prix racing. The Vanwall 4- cylinder engine was now giving a very good power output, in excess of 270 bhp and certainly equal to most of the rivals' makes. With Daimler-Benz having retired from racing, some of their engineers and consultants from Bosch assisted Vandervell with his fuel-injection system, so that he was able to perfect its working, though the installation was still giving him problems.

The intention for 1956 was to concentrate on the World Championship events, and all entreaties from organisers of small races were ignored, even at the risk of upsetting people, for Vandervell knew what he intended to do with his cars and nobody was going to sway his decision. He relented as regards the International Trophy at Silverstone, as it was on the same circuit that the British Grand Prix was due to be run later in the season, and it provided a useful 'practice session. For this race he was fortunate in having Stirling Moss drive one of the new cars, Schell naturally having the other one, and the two new sleek Vanwalls were on the front row of the starting grid. Schell was forced out by a broken fuel injection pipe but Moss drove magnificently to win the race against quite strong opposition, but not over a full Grand Prix distance. This was a wonderful debut for the new cars, and it caused a lot of people to take a very different view of the Vanwall team.

All along Tony Vandervell had ignored popular publicity and the Press, believing that results were the things that would impress people, not a lot of talk before anything happened. Being a very wealthy man quite capable of financing the cars from his own resources, he had little need of outside publicity and in consequence the sporting world did not know a great deal about the team other than what could be seen, and this suited Vandervell. He was out to conquer the Grand Prix world and in particular 'beat the bloody red cars' as he used to say, and when he had done that there would be time enough for talking and he hoped that by that time everyone would know about the Vanwall team anyway, by reason of their success.

With the success of the new car on its first outing it looked as though 1956 was going to be a good year for the Vanwall team, but it was not to be. Although Schell and Trintignant competed in the major Grand Prix races the only result they could show was a 4th place by Schell in the Belgium Grand Prix on the very fast Francorchamps circuit. For the rest it was retirement after retirement, from engine breakages, suspension breakages, drive shafts, fuel systems, accidents, overheating, gearbox troubles, in fact just about everything that could go wrong did so during the season, and a lesser man than Vandervell would have withdrawn against such bitter odds. However, during this holocaust there were moments of brightness that drove everyone on to overcome adversity, for it was clear that the Vanwall was a good and fast car and well capable of winning a Grand Prix, if only the odds could be in its favour for a short time. In Belgium Schell showed that it was faster than its rivals, though his ability and the Vanwall's handling were not up to the conditions of the race. In France after minor setbacks he again showed the speed of the Vanwall, giving rise to great concern in the Ferrari team, while the same thing happened at Monza, but always retirement after these efforts was the result.

This constant attacking by Schell and the Vanwall was first-class stuff, and by the end of the season everyone was agreed that if reliability could be found success was inevitable, and even the Italian opposition agreed with this. Many top drivers with ability far greater than that of Harry Schell were made conscious of the Vanwall's performance and were thinking what would happen if they drove the car. During the season the Vanwall racing department continued to build chassis, engines and gearboxes, and twice they attempted to run a team of three cars but the 1956 'gremlins' got at them

A third car was entered for the French Grand Prix for Colin Chapman to drive, he having good possibilities as a driver as well as a designer, but an unfortunate accident in practice damaged the car beyond repair for the race. In the British Grand Prix three Vanwalls actually got on the starting grid, the third one driven by the Argentinean Jose Froilan Gonzalez who had driven the old Thinwall Special for Vandervell in the past. A drive shaft broke as he let in the clutch at the start, and the team were back to their usual two-car team again. Eventually the full team got under way at Monza, when Piero Taruffi joined them for the Italian Grand Prix, but all three cars retired. The Italian teams were watching all this with great interest, having seen the first Vanwall Special appear at their track in 1954; two years later there being a team of three very advanced cars that only lacked reliability. Coming from Great Britain this was something new, for in the past most attempts at Grand Prix racing that stemmed from Great Britain, not only suffered from poor reliability, but were seldom fast enough, the engines giving insufficient power. Now there was a green car with a British engine that was the equal in power output to anything from Italy, or anywhere else for that matter.

At the end of the season a single car was meticulously prepared for Stirling Moss to try, and after numerous long-distance tests he agreed to sign up with Vandervell to lead the Vanwall team in 1957 in the World Championship battle. To do this meant leaving the Maserati team, and they in turn signed on Juan Manuel Fangio, the only driver who was superior to Moss. This now made the Vanwall future very bright and it pleased Vandervell to think that the forthcoming season was not only going to be a battle between his green cars and the red ones but that the two best drivers in the world were shared, one on each side. As second driver to Moss Vandervell signed on Tony Brooks, a relative newcomer to Grand Prix racing, but a driver with uncanny skill and judgment, a smooth and fast driving style and a very serious and scientific approach to motor racing. The excitable Harry Schell left the team, having done them a power of good and raised them from the depths of despair by his spirited fighting and gay disposition.

There was a third car ready to race but until a driver could be found who was capable of staying with Moss and Brooks, Vandervell preferred not to race it. In actual fact there were many more than three cars available, for the Park Royal factory spent the winter months hard at work on the production of engines, gearboxes, frames and so on, in order that no car needed to be raced twice in succession. Vandervell was only interested in the Championship races, and the policy was to send the cars back for a complete overhaul after each event, so that the drivers always started a race with fresh cars. This meant an outlay in men, materials and money that was so great that nobody was prepared to hazard a guess at the total cost, apart from saying it was astronomical.

Vandervell could see his goal in sight when Moss agreed to drive for him, and in spite of the setbacks of the 1956 season, the good signs had been so encouraging that he threw everything he had into the battle and worked and worried himself as much as anyone in the team. What had started out as a single car and nothing much greater than a hobby, 'instead of playing golf' he used to say, had turned into an obsession and he was now driving himself and the whole works at full pressure for he could see that the Italian teams were beginning to stumble in their efforts to stay ahead of his cars.

The first part of the season saw a repetition of 1956 the cars had not been changed radically, except for replacing the leaf spring rear suspension by coil springs, and improving numerous details, but reliability still eluded them. All the time the cars were proving very fast, Moss and Brooks being the equal of any opposition, but little troubles still beset the cars. The Vanwall cars set fastest laps but seldom finished, apart from a very good second place by Brooks at Monaco, but it was second to Fangio and the Maserati, the deadly enemy. In mid-season the two regular drivers were unwell and unfit to race, so for two races Roy Salvadori and Stuart Lewis-Evans filled the gaps. The latter driver was fresh to Grand Prix racing. but had had a lot of experience with smaller cars, and he took to the Vanwall in a most impressive manner, and but for an oil leak from the engine he would have won the Grand Prix on the fast Rheims circuit. His performance so impressed Vandervell, and everyone else for that matter, that he was signed on as the third member of the team when Moss and Brooks were fit once more.
 
 

At last the fortunes of the Vanwall team began to improve and in the British Grand Prix at Aintree one of the cars came home in first place, having been driven by Brooks to start with and then being taken over by Moss, who gave a fantastic display of driving, the car standing up to every minute of it. The Ferrari and Maserati opposition had misfortune right at the end of the race, which allowed the Vanwall to romp home to its first real victory, and Britain's first Grande Epreuve victory since 1923, when Henry O. D. Seagrave won the French Grand Prix in a Sunbeam. This success spurred the team on and apart from a slight setback at the German Grand Prix they went on to better and better things, the 'gremlins' seemingly being ousted at last. At Pescara, in Southern Italy, Moss trounced Fangio and the Maserati well and truly, scoring Vanwall's second win of the season, and after that the team went to Monza, Vandervell's greatest challenge.

Monza is the home of Italian racing and apart from the World Championship it was Vandervell's ambition to trounce the Italians on their home ground. After the success at Aintree and Pescara the whole team was in fine spirit and the three drivers dominated practice and gained the first three positions on the starting grid, and a fine sight it was to see the three sleek Vanwalls on the front row of the Italian Grand Prix, with red cars in row upon row behind them. The opening laps were classic in Grand Prix racing with two Maseratis trying to beat the three Vanwalls, but the British team drove superbly and dominated the Italian cars, while the rest of the entry were left way behind. A price had to be paid for this domination, and Brooks and Lewis-Evans had mechanical troubles, but so did the Maseratis and Moss swept on to the first undisputed victory of the Vanwall, and
Tony Vandervell's finest hour of glory, all the disappointments and frustrations of the past three years being swept away as Moss received the winner's flag. The Ferrari team were never in the picture and the Maserati team were vanquished in open battle; Vandervell was indeed a happy man that night.

This magnificent victory was spoilt when the team returned to England, for Moss insisted on doing a 10-lap high speed demonstration with the car at Goodwood just as it had finished the race. This was too much for the engine and it broke in an ignominious cloud of steam before the short demonstration was completed. This vastly improved 1957 season ended with a race in Morocco, near Casablanca, and though the team put up a good fight it could only manage a second place, Maserati getting their revenge.

The Vanwall team was now in as strong a position as any Grand Prix team has ever been, the cars were the match of any opposition, the three team drivers were unequalled as a well-knit trio, the resources of materials and equipment behind the racing cars was second to none, and the whole organisation was geared to victory. In 1958 they competed only in World Championship events, putting all their efforts into these important Grand Prix races, and they went into battle fully prepared. Fangio had virtually retired, leaving Moss as the uncrowned champion of Grand Prix driving, while Maserati had succumbed to the Vanwall onslaught and withdrawn their official team, though Ferrari was still as strong as ever.

The Vanwall cars did not need to be altered in any major respect, except that new racing rules limited fuel to ordinary petrol, whereas Vandervell had been using special alcohol fuels in 1957. A lot of development work had to be done on the engines, still 4 cylinders and virtually the same design as the original 1954 2-litre engine, in order to make them give sufficient reliable power on the poorer fuel. Race distances were reduced in length so that the cars could be made lighter, having less fuel load to carry; with the need for tyre changes gone, it was possible to use fixed wheels, and experiments were done with alloy non -detachable wheels, but the basic design of the Vanwall remain unchanged, as did the body shape, although experiments were tried with completely enclosed cockpits and fully streamlined bodywork.

The 1958 season was not one of 100 per cent reliability, but it was one of success, and the trio of Moss, Brooks and Lewis-Evans were virtually unbeatable. Of the nine Grand Prix races entered the Vanwalls won six, being 2nd in one and 4th in another, the first race of the season seeing all three cars retiring with engine troubles. Victories were gained at the expense of failures, but Vandervell did not mind this as long as one of his cars was first, and by winning the Grand Prix races of Holland, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Morocco he was acclaimed World Champion Manufacturer for 1958, and received numerous coveted awards of merit, as befitted this magnificent achievement. By the end of 1958 the Vanwall team was all conquering, winning the last four events in a row, but once again this supreme effort had to be paid for, and it was Tony Vandervell who paid the price, not in money, but in health.

Throughout the four years existence of the Vanwall team he had been in sole command, an absolute dictator in his own empire, but a worthy one, at times ruthless, at times a bit muddled, but it was his team and they were his cars, and he drove everyone on to greater and greater efforts all the time, and no-one more than himself. He was not a young man, reaching his 57th birthday on the day of his first victory at Monza in 1957, and he took all the responsibility of the team upon his own shoulders. What had started out as a game and a hobby had become an obsession and he suffered mental anguish during a race, not only for the outcome but also for the safety of his drivers and the lives of all the people he employed. A race completed was a great relief for him, and he used to pace up and down in front of the pits, a tired and worried man as a race drew to a close.

All this strain told on his health, for in addition to running the Vanwall team he was still head of the vast Vandervell Bearings empire, a multi-million business into which he had put all his efforts and capital. In the last race of the season Lewis-Evans crashed and subsequently died from his injuries, and this affected Tony Vandervell deeply, as he felt he was directly responsible. He would say, 'if it wasn't for my bloody silly passion for racing cars, and my obsession to beat the red cars, this wouldn't have happened'. All these things were mounting up against him as the victorious 1958 season wore on, and by the end of it he was completely spent, and his doctor ordered a complete rest before a serious nervous breakdown took place.

Tony Vandervell had achieved his ambitions, so reluctantly he disbanded the Vanwall team at the height of its glory, and the race at Casablanca on 19th October 1958 was the last appearance of this fine team of Grand Prix cars from Britain, proudly wearing the colour of British Racing Green. They went out on the crest of the wave, and drivers mechanics, team personnel dispersed into other parts of the motor racing world, leaving Vandervell and his cars in the quiet of his Park Royal factory.

After a year of rest there were small stirrings again in the Vandervell factory and a single new car was built and made a very brief appearance, but it never developed, for by this time Grand Prix racing was almost completely dominated by British cars, the Continental teams never really recovering from their crushing defeat by the Vanwall team. Tony Vandervell found no pleasure at all in racing his car against his fellow countrymen, 'If there is not an International battle it's not interesting' he would say and the Vanwall withdrew from the scene of its former triumphs.

In 1961 it looked as though Inter-Continental Formula racing might produce some 'foreign' opposition, and Vandervell built another new car, this time in the modern idiom with the engine behind the driver, and John Surtees drove it, but the old spark of battle was not there and it was not a Vanwall of the great days of 1957/58, it was more a Vanwall Special of the early days, but without any objective behind it.

The Vanwall cars were true factory racing cars, only driven by factory employed drivers, and none of them ever left the works team to go into private hands, as happens with a lot of factory cars. Every time a Vanwall competed in a race it was under the watchful eye of its originator, Guy Anthony Vandervell, maker of Thinwall Shell Bearings, builder of the Thinwall Specials and the victorious Vanwalls.