The Mechanic's Gallon

I came upon the phrase ‘the mechanic’s gallon’ a while ago. Lotus in the 60’s were trying to save weight and make the car as light as possible, inc. putting as much fuel in the car at the start of the race so that it lasted JUST to the end. This generally worked but a few times ran out of fuel with a few laps to go. So unbeknownst to Colin Chapman, the mechanics when fuelling the car would add an extra gallon, just to make sure it was enough, hence the ‘mechanic’s gallon’!

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Chris Hessey - recorded October 2025

Download the audio here - coming soon on YouTube - 62 mins.

Our guest this time is Chris Hessey who had a thirty year career in Formula One. Chris is unusual in that he never worked in the lower formulae, he jumped straight into Grand Prix racing from being a master mechanic in a garage. We go from 1984 with Ram Automotive through Leyton House March, Simtek, Williams, Pacific Grand Prix, Benetton finally ending up in Formula E with Virgin Racing.

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Peter Warr of Lotus

Download the audio here, also on the YouTube Channel

Here is an excerpt from the interview we filmed with Peter Warr for my Lotus 72 documentary. These are the pieces where he's not talking about the 72! Peter (or PEW as he was known) was the Team Lotus Team Manager as well as at Walter Wolf Racing. But before that, he worked at Lotus very early on. He also tells us one of the ways that Jim Clark won the Indy 500 in 1965, pay driver Alex Soler-Roig at Clermont-Ferrand in 1970 and Dave Walker in F3 in 1971. The interview was conducted by Steve Holter.