How to Build a Car: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Formula 1 Designer. Adrian Newey

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of Lola’s 1987 car, then he would weaken the enemy and hence strengthen his sales. As a designer, my stock in IndyCar was high. After all, my cars had won the Indy 500 twice: the March 85C in 1985, the 86C the following year. In USA sporting terms, that’s a bit like coaching two successive Super Bowl-winning teams.

      And then there was Carl. He was a real character, always, but always with a huge cigar clamped between his lips. I’m not sure how often it was lit, but it was certainly a permanent fixture, to the extent that on the odd occasion he removed it, you could see where it had left a permanent indent.

      He was very superstitious. I remember in Mid-Ohio in 1985, Bobby was on pole, Mario second. Carl always had this thing where he’d make a big performance of blessing his car on the grid – so he’d come up to it and walk around it, touching it while muttering Hebrew under his breath.

      That day, he’d gone through the whole rigmarole before he realised he was blessing the wrong car. He was blessing Bobby’s car, not Mario’s. So great was his indignation that he removed the cigar, actually took it out of his mouth, and tossed it in fury across the track. He marched to Mario’s car for a hurried blessing.

      It didn’t work. Or, you might say, it did work. Because Bobby dominated.

      Carl was a likeable guy though. The team was based in Chicago and the first time he picked me up from the airport ready for the first test – early 1987 – we walked back to the car park, got in his car, a brand new BMW, and it wouldn’t start.

      ‘This goddamned car,’ he growled, ‘it’s got a security code.’ But he’d forgotten it. We tried every significant combination of numbers he could think of – his birthday, his mother’s birthday, etc. – until at last I said, ‘How about 0000? Isn’t that the factory setting?’ And that was it.

      Carl always had lots of change in his pocket. I can’t remember how it happened, but he fell over outside a restaurant one day, and all his quarters and nickels and dimes rolled off down the street. Being so superstitious he assumed it was an omen of bad luck and we had to help him pick up every single dime.

      He and his wife, Bernie, both looked after me. The Lola T87 had been designed for the Cosworth DFX engine, which every IndyCar team used up until that point, but my first job was to install a new Chevrolet engine made by Ilmor, a company based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and run by their chief designer, Mario Illien and his business partner, Paul Morgan. It marked the beginning of an ongoing and very fruitful relationship with Ilmor.

      It also meant I had to design a new front end to the gearbox and a new oil tank for the Lola, so I got stuck in.

      Meanwhile there was the job of forging a relationship with another Mario – Andretti – for whom I was to be race engineer. I’d met him previously during my three seasons in IndyCar, but only briefly, so the opening test of the season at Laguna was the first time I was properly introduced to him.

      We took seats in a little restaurant in Monterey. The waiter brought the menus and I watched as Mario looked at his, squinted a bit and then stretched his arm right out, trying to find a bit of light from the table lamp to read it.

      I thought, What have I done? This guy needs reading glasses!

      Thankfully my fears would turn out to be groundless. As with many people, his eyesight had started to deteriorate in his mid-forties (I’ve been extremely lucky in that regard, so far), but while Mario sometimes found it difficult to focus in low light, he was fine in daylight.

      I wondered whether he’d asked Michael about me. Or whether Michael had volunteered his opinion. It was by no means certain either way. They had a very strange relationship. On one occasion I remember being with Mario at his house in snowy Pennsylvania. He’d ploughed a circuit for snowmobiles, the idea being that he and Michael would take it in turns to see who could clock the fastest time.

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAgEBLAEsAAD/4REFRXhpZgAASUkqAAgAAAAOAAABAwABAAAAyAUAAAEBAwAB AAAAYgcAAAIBAwADAAAAtgAAAAMBAwABAAAABQAAAAYBAwABAAAAAgAAABIBAwABAAAAAQAAABUB AwABAAAAAwAAABoBBQABAAAAvAAAABsBBQABAAAAxAAAABwBAwABAAAAAQAAACgBAwABAAAAAgAA ADEBAgAcAAAAzAAAADIBAgAUAAAA6AAAAGmHBAABAAAA/AAAACgBAAAIAAgACADAxi0AECcAAMDG LQAQJwAAQWRvYmUgUGhvdG9zaG9wIENTMyBXaW5kb3dzADIwMTc6MDk6MTYgMTc6NTU6NTEAAwAB oAMAAQAAAAEAAAACoAQAAQAAAO4CAAADoAQAAQAAAL4DAAAAAAAAAAAGAAMBAwABAAAABgAAABoB BQABAAAAdgEAABsBBQABAAAAfgEAACgBAwABAAAAAgAAAAECBAABAAAAhgEAAAICBAABAAAAdw8A AAAAAABIAAAAAQAAAEgAAAABAAAA/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAgAASABIAAD/7QAMQWRvYmVfQ00AAf/u AA5BZG9iZQBkgAAAAAH/2wCEAAwICAgJCAwJCQwRCwoLERUPDAwPFRgTExUTExgRDAwMDAwMEQwM DAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwBDQsLDQ4NEA4OEBQODg4UFA4ODg4UEQwMDAwMEREM DAwMDAwRDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDP/AABEIAKAAfQMBIgACEQEDEQH/3QAE AAj/xAE/AAABBQEBAQEBAQAAAAAAAAADAAECBAUGBwgJCgsBAAEFAQEBAQEBAAAAAAAAAAEAAgME BQYHCAkKCxAAAQQBAwIEAgUHBggFAwwzAQACEQMEIRIxBUFRYRMicYEyBhSRobFCIyQVUsFiMzRy gtFDByWSU/Dh8WNzNRaisoMmRJNUZEXCo3Q2F9JV4mXys4TD03Xj80YnlKSFtJXE1OT0pbXF1eX1 VmZ2hpamtsbW5vY3R1dnd4eXp7fH1+f3EQACAgECBAQDBAUGBwcGBTUBAAIRAyExEgRBUWFxIhMF MoGRFKGxQiPBUtHwMyRi4XKCkkNTFWNzNPElBhaisoMHJjXC0kSTVKMXZEVVNnRl4vKzhMPTdePz RpSkhbSVxNTk9KW1xdXl9VZmdoaWprbG1ub2JzdHV2d3h5ent8f/2gAMAwEAAhEDEQA/AOTMyUki dT/sS+5a7iKSS7dkvuRUulql4cfgmB8h+CSmQkFLWFEcnhLskil9UtUxcTE/LRNKSaZCUgUwOqcf EJIXkeKUkaGCPvTT8wmmPCElUvPhwn7KMwU89v8AXlJVP//Q5Ekylu0iAmPJS+a1nGplOilS5wsG xwa7XV0AcfyvahnwTsIDgSA4AyWngoHUEeCY6SB2otpzrCI318A/m6AaQ0pH1XESajukbobEy2dU L1MeP5qTP7x4TNsqAE1g6QfcdT+8o+E9I7eEP+/bBnHrO7/rZP8A1WmbY8kjdVIgiWtj97TTama+ 3YA19bQwNI41PP8An6odZre9tbagXWFrWjcdXH2/S/lbkb7Flhjf1Ox7ZBbY1riHtPuBa9g2v3fv NSMf6vbpD/vlCV/p3v1yf94xDrZPuqEH+T209v3Jy64TL6QddPZzx4KRw7hS+44hFdYJe4kt27Xe m+Q47vpt2qv6tILSKhA5BJMoVf6P4Q/75PEANZ1/hZPt/m0pfYQZdUYEfm6QA8bf+oUg+73OL6jI k/QPefDcgi2iI9EfHcfBNvq9MgVgOMDdJ8P3URH+r+EP++QZj/OdP3sn/eMQeE06FN35S7cqa2rS 5PmpTqod1OP9fmkh/9HkDyUwTmZSK1nGWSmEoPKbVBLN1VjWMscIZZJYfGDtcpjHvda2lrCXvAc1 o19rhva7/MVmw0NwcQXVvfIsgseGfnnndXajWjey+qgH1X0Y5YzlxrD

СКАЧАТЬ