1978 Tyrrell 008 Formula 1

Ken Tyrrell’s team

Ken Tyrrell is the greatest privateer entrant in Formula 1 history. The Tyrrell Racing Organisation’s extraordinary partnership with Jackie Stewart - signed initially to drive his works F3 Cooper following a test at Goodwood in 1964 - and Elf achieved all but two of the Scot’s 25 Grand Prix victories, plus World Drivers Championships in 1969 [as Matra International], 1971 and 1973.

Tyrrell was not a motor sport enthusiast until he attended the 1951 British GP meeting with friends, but was wowed by the frenetic 500cc F3 support race. Tyrrell decided to start racing, thus acquired a Cooper-Norton MkV from local ace Alan Brown, debuting at Goodwood in 1952. Wins at Beveridge Park in 1953 presaged others at Snetterton, Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Davidstow over three seasons, plus a gold at Karkskoga, Sweden, in 1955. Ken also won an F2 heat and placed sixth overall at Crystal Palace in 1958 in Brown’s Cooper T45.

A partner in the family timber business, Tyrrell discovered that his metier was team management. His relationship with the Cooper Car Company - F1 champion with Jack Brabham - strengthened when he ran multiple world motorcycle champion John Surtees to second place, behind Team Lotus’ Jim Clark, on his car debut in a Formula Junior Cooper-BMC at Goodwood in April 1960. Tyrrell subsequently nurtured the talents of Henry Taylor, Tony Maggs and John Love.

But it was rising superstar Jackie Stewart with whom Ken and his small dedicated team became synonymous. Stewart dominated 1000cc F3’s inaugural season in 1964, then spent three seasons in F2 - latterly partnered by meteoric Belgian Jacky Ickx - while cutting his F1 teeth with BRM. Stewart won his first two GPs in 1965 and 1966 before BRM waned. His future and the Tyrrell Racing Organisation’s were as one.

By 1968, Tyrrell and the French Matra aerospace concern were ready to graduate to F1 with Ford Cosworth DFV engines. Stewart finished second in the drivers’ championship with three wins. They went one better in 1969, with a sensational six victory rout. Tyrrell struck out alone from 1970, fielding a customer car from F1 debutant March - in which Stewart won Brands Hatch’s [non-points] Race of Champions and the Spanish GP - until its eponymous 001 arrived.

Jackie won 15 GPs over three seasons in Ford-powered Tyrrells designed by Derek Gardner, adding two drivers’ titles and the 1971 constructors’ crown to the equipe’s haul. French team-mate Francois Cevert added the US GP in 1972, but his death there in 1973 prompted Stewart’s immediate retirement. His record of 27 GP victories from 99 starts was phenomenal.

The team tallied 23 championship race wins, bolstered by future world champion Jody Scheckter’s four - three in 007s in 1974 and ’75 and one in Gardner’s revolutionary six-wheeled P34 in the 1976 Swedish GP - through to Michele Alboreto’s turbocar-slaying pair in 011s at Caesar’s Palace (1982) and Detroit (1983) in the USA. Fittingly, the final hurrah for the DFV engine, evolved by Cosworth since 1967, came in Ford’s home city.

But Tyrrell’s ‘other’ win - the 21st - was perhaps more special. Frenchman Patrick Depailler was Ken’s loyal soldier from 1974 and in 1978 he was finally rewarded with his maiden win, in Monaco.

Driving a conventional, in comparison to the 6 wheeler P34, 008 designed by former De Havilland aircraft engineer Maurice Philippe [of Lotus 72 and Parnelli VPJ4 fame], Depailler’s jour de gloire was the team’s third and final triumph in the principality.

The 008 was a departure from the radical concept of the 1976 P34, whose four front wheels were well and truly outside the box. Instead, the 008 of 1978 had the usual four wheels, and featured a neatly executed and lightweight low profile aluminium monocoque with inboard pushrod front suspension and outboard rear dampers.

Brabham’s BT46 attracts a lot of attention for its fan-car design, however the 008 was originally penned by Philippe to be exactly that, with a crankshaft mounted fan to push air through water and oil coolers positioned at the bottom and rear of the car. After a test at Paul Ricard in 1977, the fan project was put on hold, though not before a Brabham employee was said to have spotted the concept…

The 008 was also designed with active camber control in mind. Philippe’s concept was to use MOOG valves to vary the camber through the top inner mounts of the front and rear wishbones. Despite testing it on his Lotus Cortina road car, it didn’t come to fruition on the 008, however the variable mounts were kept in service on the suspension and the provision for active adjustment is visible.

Powered by the revered Cosworth DFV engine, the transmission of that power was handled by Hewland’s FGB gearbox and CV jointed driveshafts through very elegant fabricated steel uprights to the 15” rear wheels.

Tyrrell’s 1978 season also saw the introduction of data logging, with the 008s often fitted with equipment ahead of the dashboard structure, and a hatch in the front of the cockpit bodywork to allow access. It was their sponsor Data General that brought the development along with Dr. Karl Kempf, and the concept is now commonplace across all levels of motorsport.

Finished in the familiar Elf blue with white upper section carrying the First National City bank sponsorship, Tyrrell lined up for the 1978 Formula 1 World Championship with the 008 for drivers Patrick Depailler and Didier Pironi. Triple World Champion with Tyrrell, Jackie Stewart, was never far from the team and drove 008s mounted with large onboard cameras on several occasions during the season, offering a first hand insight to onlookers and enthusiasts worldwide.