Mario Andretti on Driving the Tipo 33/2

[Hirsch <Catenary@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Alfisti,

One of the benefits of being a AROC-USA local club newsletter
editor is seeing other chapter's newsletters. The Indiana
chapter newsletter (edited by Margaret Bethke) reprinted a
short article in their Oct '98 issue which I thought would
be interesting to other Digesters. It follows.

Rich

from Cam Chatter, AROC-USA Indiana

Mario Andretti on Driving the Tipo 33/2

by Presten Lerner, Automobile Magazine, September 1998

In 1968, Mario Andretti co-drove a Tipo 33/2 to sixth place at
Daytona. He laughs as he recalls the event: "Lucien Bianchi was
a close friend of mine. He asked me to drive with him, and I
figured, =91Jesus Christ, a two-liter car!=92 But I didn t have
another ride going..."

"So I take the car out, and it oversteers like crazy on the
banking. I was scared to death. I said there had to be a
problem with the setup, but the crew told me everything was
fine."

"So after dinner, Lucien and I went back to the garage. We
measure the car. The right-side wheelbase is three-and-a-half
inches longer than the left. The frigging Italians must have
been drunk when they put the car together."

"We fix it without telling anybody, and the next day I=92m putting
two-and-a-half seconds on the other cars. Finally, Lucien lets the
cat out of the bag. Chiti comes up to me: =91You are questioning the
integrity of our mechanics.=92"

"Questioning, shit!=92 I told him, =91Those guys don=92t know what the
hell they are doing! Is there any problem with us going faster
than everybody else?=92"

"In the race, the bodywork got messed up when a Porsche flipped
in front of Lucien. The only other problem was that my arm was
killing me because I had to shift all the time to get any power
out of the engine. I mean, I worked the piss out of that six-speed
box. But the car ran like a charm."

"And you know? They never did fix those other cars."

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