Four great historical pictures of Deep Sandersons at Le Mans have been unearthed through AC Heritage. The motor manufacturer and restoration business, based on the old Brooklands site, published them recently in an article on their own heritage. They show the Deep Sanderson works entries of 1963 and 1964 (full stories here and here) - both years in which AC took part in the French endurance race, too. Is it a coincidence that the AC men took relatively many pictures of the Le Mans underdog? Or did the fact that namesake Ninian Sanderson was part of the AC team help these pictures come about?
1963: The Deep Sanderson #44 works car is pushed to pit or track here. Short film here
Picture courtesy acheritage.co.uk
1964: Deep Sanderson takes two cars to Le Mans. The car on the right is crashed dramatically
Picture courtesy acheritage.co.uk
This is the aluminium works racer (No.42 in 1964). Tank is small for an endurance racer (Update: it's the dry sump's oil tank!)
Picture courtesy acheritage.co.uk
The car at the start grid in '64. This picture was taken slightly later
Picture courtesy acheritage.co.uk
Is that really ONLY fuel tank pictured behind the engine? It looks like to me in other pictures that there's filler cap on the front hood, so maybe they had dual tanks? Or perhaps the rear was just emergency reserve. (highly tuned Cooper S block might have been thirsty side and Le Mans lap is rather long and really fast.)
ReplyDeleteAlso having fuel tank only behind the rear axle seems a bit acward sollution to weight distribution on full tank, making the front rather light especially engine being rear as well... could be wrong though.
Nappe, you are right. Thinking about it this has to be the oil tank as the Deep Sanderson racer used a dry sump system!
Deleteah, that explains it. :) I wonder how long life expectation A-Series, gearbox-on-a-place-of-sump engine had in the sixties with Dry sump lubrication? around 100 hours or less? :D
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