Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four February 1980

Fitzpatrick’s opinions of the machines he drove
after the Capris included the observation that the 1978
Group 5 BMWs were, “well engineered and easier to
drive than the Group 2 BMWs had been, simply because
they had more grip for braking and cornering. We had
some fantastic races in the car. The bad luck of leading
for so long at Zeltweg and the Ring was made up for by
the win at Silverstone, when Wollek was hammering
after us in the Kremer Porsche all the way to the line.
“I did Kyalami with Ronnie Peterson and enjoyed
that. He was just so easy to share with-letting you go out
and set the car up. and he’d drive it just as it was, seat
and all, and simply go like hell. Kyalami is a good track
too, which helped,” John concluded.
It is easy to think that Fitzpatrick grew up with the
turbo Porsche 934 and 935 models, but he actually missed
the first year (1976) that these magnificent machines were
available. In 1977 be joined Kremer again as team-mate
to Bob Wollek and recorded, “All the other drivers had
got used to them, but it took me two or three races to get
used to the Porsche-turbo. It was just so incredibly quick.
They ‘only’ had 600 b.h.p. then (the 1980 3.2-litre, twin
turbo. Kremer Porsches that Fitzpatrick will race have an
anticipated 825 b.h.p. at 8,200 r.p.m!) but the acceleration
was so uneven. You seemed to have not enough power
when needed and bags too much when you didn’t!
“The handling hasn’t changed much but the brakes
are incredible for a car that weighs about a ton. If you
want to turn a quick lap at Le Mans you wind the 935 twin
turbo up to 225 m.p h. and brake at the end of Mulsanne
to something like 25 m.p.h. or so for the first-gear corner.
You brake at the 200-metre board, so you can knock 200
m.p.h. off in the same number of metres, roughly!”
The new generation of twin-turbo 935s built by
Kremer will cost about £100,000 each. The 3.2-litre fiatsix
engines cost some £30,000 of that total, which is one of
the reasons Fitzpatrick foresees no slackening in demand
for the services of experienced drivers like himself.
Indeed the two-year-old car that enjoyed so much
success for Loos in long distance races was sold at the
end of 1979 for £61,538 at December 1979 exchange rates,
a regret to John, for he would have liked to have bought
that one for himself. There is no Fitzpatrick racing car
collection, but he would like to have started it with such
a car. He recalls it proved capable of 0-124 m.p.h. in 9.2
secs, when he drove it for one of the German magazines!
That’s about the kind of elapsed time you would expect
for a sporting car like the 2.0 Alfetta GTV or BMW 320
6 to lurch from rest to 60 m.p.h. Talking of the German
championship in general. Fitzpatrick’s impressions were
that the best year had been 1978 with Loos running three
935s against opposition that included Manfred Schurti in
the Jagermeister 935, Bob Wollek in the Kremer Porsche
and Rolf Stommelen in the Schnitzer Toyota. “This year
Klaus Ludwig and the Kremer car just disappeared into
the distance. If he had wanted to, I think Ludwig could
have run 1.5 secs. a lap faster than the rest of us, for
the Kremer car had a horsepower advantage from the
air intercooler arrangement (our water system got hot
after a couple of laps), plus a different rear suspension
that allowed the use of softer springs. Kremer also had
a Kevlar body of superior aerodynamic values to our
Porsche arrangements. We even asked the Renault
aerodynamicist what was wrong and he simply said the
Kremer was in a different class to us for downforce and
drag. There was probably a 100 lb. weight penalty as well
on our cars, but the real point was that, whatever Loos
tried — 3.3-litre engines, trick bodies, air coolers, and
so on — we did not go any faster. In tact I could go as
fast as our Porsche-developed car in that two-year-old
one. Perhaps the Porsche people didn’t really need to try
very hard: after all they would just be beating another
customer.”
Talking about the series in general, Fitzpatrick
thought, “The coverage from press and TV is exceptional
Remember this is the premier series in Germany High
spot of the year is Norisring (his favourite is Nurburgring)
where 80,000 people plus the TV make sure it is a big
occasion. The low spot is racing around oil drums at
Diepholz airfield. 1 don’t know why the entrants go
in such expensive cars: we lost half the body this year,
you’ve just nothing to judge on and the track is so rough .
. . and it’s not the only airfield track like that in the series.
“I think the two-class racing is easier for the public
to understand than the kind of multi-class saloon car
racing we have here, the smallest class nearly always
providing the champion while the big cars knock
themselves out trying to win outright.” We understand
from a recent German trip that there is a proposal to
bring the German series down to 2-litres only (but with
the turbocharging factor of 1.4 it could actually be 2.8 or
3-litres for convenience) and John was all for that idea.
Fitzpatrick was plainly appalled by the low crowds
at some British championship rounds (he did part of the
1978 season in a Dolomite Group 1 with a self-confessed
lack of success) and he also found that the spectators in
Germany tended to be more knowledgeable than their
British counterparts.
However it’s not a case of Deutschland uber alles so
far as Fitzpatrick is concerned. “I am moving to America
because I think the way that their IMSA and TransAm
series, plus the World Drivers’ Cup is developing, is the
better way for my career. American drivers tend to have
more money themselves, rather than be just dependent
on sponsors, as they must be in Germany.”
I asked a series of “biggest” questions next,
beginning with, “What was the biggest disappointment
in your career?” The reply was prompt: “When Leyland
stopped the Jaguars racing. I have always won some races
in the cars I have driven regularly and I was sorry this did
not happen with those cars. They were competitive, and
we should have won the 1977 TT, in my opinion, if the
team management had pulled Andy Rouse out and put
in either myself (I had not driven that day and was fresh)
or Derek Bell. That is no reflection on Andy: he was as
fast, if not faster than the rest of us in testing and light
traffic conditions, but I believe experience would have
helped drive such a big fast car through comparatively
heavy traffic, while under enormous psychological
pressure to win.
“There was another factor too. Ralph must have
had a dream, or something, during the nights before the
race. For official practice we found the cars would not
handle, they just understeered like pigs everywhere. On
race morning the drivers were told that he had put in a
100 per cent locked differential!
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