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1974 Amon AF101

If one believes in luck then New Zealand's Chris Amon would have to be considered the kind of man that would have a brand-new car break down on him as soon as he left the lot. Year after year, Amon's seasons would be marked by remarkable close calls never coming to fruition. Throughout those years Amon had suffered at the hands of cars designed and built by others. Therefore, in an effort to reverse his fortunes, Amon would strike out like his fellow New Zealander, Bruce McLaren, and would build his own racing car.

There had never been any doubt as to Amon's abilities behind the wheel of a racing car. In fact, he seemed destined to be a future World Champion. This is why he would make his Formula One debut at the age of 19 as part of Reg Parnell's team.

There was no doubting his speed and abilities, but it certainly seemed reliability and he were complete strangers. Victories seemed inevitable, and yet, luck had a way of dispensing some really cold doses of reality.

Amon could only get a Formula One car to complete a full race distance when he wasn't well out in front in the lead. Interestingly, while he could not get his cars to complete a race distance in the lead, a period of just a couple of hours, Amon would partner with McLaren in the famed 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans and would overcome serious tire issues to come through victorious.

By the early 1970s, Amon was still suffering from his feud with luck. Still, to win a World Championship grand prix, the New Zealander was growing more and more desperate to break the monkey on his back. Perhaps it was like a dam? That first victory would bring a tidal wave of more success.

Throughout his Formula One career, Amon would experience mechanical woe after mechanical woe. This terrible 'luck' would always leave Amon on the bubble within teams. Replaced for drivers that seemed to finish races or left with cars still in their early development phases, Amon certainly seemed like he left on the outside looking in.

Still, Amon would get his opportunity driving for Ferrari for three years. This would allow Amon to score his best result in Formula One, a 2nd place in the 1968 British Grand Prix. Then came the surprising 1970 season with March Engineering. Driving the March 701, Amon would score a couple of 2nd place finishes in the Belgian and French Grand Prix and would enjoy his best year in Formula One since his freshman year driving for Scuderia Ferrari in 1967.

1973 would see the struggling Tecno team have a great opportunity. Chris Amon wasn't in any firm driving commitments for the season, and therefore, the team would sign him to drive their underachieving PA123/6.

The trouble with the car meant Amon's season wouldn't even begin until the fifth round of the World Championship, the Belgian Grand Prix. Although he would be terribly unhappy with the car, he would manage to bring it home in 6th position. Frustrated with the development of the car, Amon would turn to Gordon Fowell to help turn the struggling car into a more successful competitor.

The result of Fowell's work would be a car that certainly seemed as dangerous as a modern jet fighter. However, Amon would declare it to be 'the best chassis I've ever sat in'. The harsh reality was there happened to be a great difference between the handling of a car sitting still and one at speed. This would lead to the Tecno team coming to an end before the end of the season.

The Tecno team's departure from Formula One would leave Amon without too many options for the upcoming 1974 season. But, to Amon, he happened to see a great opportunity he hoped would turn his Formula One fortune around.

Amon saw the un-drivability of Fowell's design as a mere technicality. Therefore, he would decide to take the plunge and would start his own Formula One team. Amon's approach was simple: 'I want to keep my team as simple as possible and I don't want to get too caught up in the organizational side of things. I just want to drive.'

What Amon wanted to drive was a further developed example of Fowell's concepts for a Formula One car. Although the Tecno had proved uncontrollable, Amon believed, with more time, his designs could prove successful.

Chris Amon had started Chris Amon Racing in years past but had mostly taken part in lower formulas of racing as a team owner. A Formula One team, however, was going to be a much bigger investment despite Amon's desire to keep things as simple as possible. Thankfully, Amon would be able to secure funding from John Dalton. Then, Amon would manage to hire the talents of Professor Tom Boyce to oversee the mating of an aerodynamic package to Fowell's chassis.

Fowell didn't have a whole lot of experience designing and building race car chassis, and this is exactly what Amon liked about him as he believed he would bring a fresh approach to the situation.

And a fresh approach Fowell would indeed bring. What would become known as the AF101, would be innovative from nose to tail. Fowell's main innovation that has since become a standard in Formula One was the positioning of the fuel tank between the cockpit and the engine in a single tank. This single-tank design would put the weight of the fuel much lower in the car and its center positioning helped to make the car much more neutral.

But the innovation would stop with the fuel tank. Instead of coil springs, Fowell would experiment with titanium torsion bars. Boyce would also work hard at designing the most aerodynamically-effective airbox to fit over the 3.0-liter Cosworth engine that Amon wanted. Raked far forward and sporting a rectangular-shaped airbox inlet, Boyce spent a lot of time focusing on the flow of air, not as much around the airbox, as much as once inside it.

The car's body would also be innovative. The nose would not be conventional by any means. While a wide, wedge-shaped nose wasn't all that uncommon, a contoured upper portion was not all that common. And, instead of wings being attached to either side of the wedge-shaped nose, the early prototypes of the AF101 would sport a wing attached to the top of the nose positioned further back toward the front tires. The intention with this design was that the two structures would work in concert to counteract lift at higher speeds. This design feature would be later abandoned for a much more conventional layout with the wings attached to either side of the nose. The contoured nose, however, would remain.

Just to either side of the cockpit, just a little soon for the times, were a couple of square radiator sidepods. Keeping with the times, the car would feature disc brakes at the front and rear. However, the rear brakes would sport an in-board disc instead of having them positioned out at the wheels. This, along with other areas of the car, would prove to be a real weakness to the AF101.

The rear end of the car would undergo some changes throughout its short life. When the car made its debut, the airbox would be the only thing fitted over the Cosworth engine. However, at the International Trophy race the car would feature bodywork that fully enclosed the sides of the engine. Large NACA vents would be positioned in the bodywork to feed cooler air to help cool the in-board disc brakes.

It is not unusual for cars to suffer teething problems, but then, not all cars are produced by the much-maligned Chris Amon. Early testing at Goodwood would see Amon leave the circuit at more than 140mph due to the right-front wheel sheering off due to worn CV joints. Amazingly, though he would plow through a hedge and would come to rest against a bank, Amon and the car would be relatively untouched. However, it did go on to show some underlying problems the car would suffer from throughout its short life.

Structural rigidity and vibrations in the brake shafts would be just some more of the problems the AF101 would suffer. These, and other, issues would lead to Amon's team not making its debut until the fourth round of the 1974 Formula One World Championship, the Spanish Grand Prix.

In spite of the terrible problems Amon suffered in testing and at other events, Amon would manage to qualify for the Spanish Grand Prix. Using a Cosworth producing around 465bhp and a Hewland FG400 5-speed gearbox, Amon would prove the AF101 had the speed to compete. Ignoring vibrations felt in the car, Amon would qualify his car 23rd on the grid.

Unfortunately, the vibrations noted a much deeper problem with the car. And, after just 22 laps, the brake shaft on the car would snap leaving Amon fighting hard to control the car as the whole brake and suspension assembly had broken free.

In an attempt to cure the vibration problems before Monaco it was decided to move the disc brakes out to all four wheels. A new nose design would also be incorporated with the car for Monaco that would position the radiator in the nose.

Though Amon would go on to set the 20th fastest time, the vibrations in the wheel hubs remained. This made for a tough decision. Though he wanted to race and further develop the car, the reality the car would likely suffer a failure during the race would lead Amon to decide to withdraw from the race. The team just did not have the money to pay for repairing a car.

More troubles would come the team's way at the German Grand Prix when neither he nor Larry Perkins could post a time fast enough to even make the field. There were now only four rounds left in the 1974 Formula One World Championship and the car was proving to be further and further away from being competitive. The money was running out. This would leave Dalton-Amon International, Chris Amon's team, making just one more attempt at Formula One glory.

Amon would arrive at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza with just a single car. Unfortunately, it would have taken a fleet to help Amon qualify for the race. Instead, Amon would fail to qualify and Amon's efforts as a racing team owner in Formula One would come to an end after attempting to take part in just four races.

Having completed just 22 laps in its entire Formula One career, the AF101 would be one of the most unsuccessful cars in the series' history. And, unfortunately, the failure of the car and the team in Formula One only served to bookmark Amon's volumes on 'bad luck'.

Sources:
'Teams/Amon/Profile', (http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/amon/profile.html). F1Rejects.com. http://www.f1rejects.com/teams/amon/profile.html. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

'Amon to Unite with Amon AF101', (http://nzmotorracing.co.nz/amon-to-unite-with-amon-af101.html). Welcome to NZ Motor Racing. http://nzmotorracing.co.nz/amon-to-unite-with-amon-af101.html. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

McDonough, Ed. 'Profile: Wing and a Prayer', (http://www.vintageracecar.com/pages/thismonth.cgi?magid=76&magiid=292). Vintage Racecar. http://www.vintageracecar.com/pages/thismonth.cgi?magid=76&magiid=292. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

'Seasons: 1974', (http://www.manipef1.com/seasons/1974/). ManipeF1. http://www.manipef1.com/seasons/1974/. Retrieved 26 December 2012.

Wikipedia contributors, 'Chris Amon Racing', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 September 2012, 07:16 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Amon_Racing&oldid=511341683 accessed 26 December 2012

Wikipedia contributors, 'Chris Amon', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 December 2012, 01:07 UTC, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Amon&oldid=527447263 accessed 26 December 2012

By Jeremy McMullen

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