The Beebee 1965 Ford Mustang on the 'legendary 'Silverstone track
On the 23rd - 25th of July this year, Robert Beebee partnered by his co-driver son Josh, took part in the Silverstone Classic race event. Below is Robert's personal diary entry of the event:
The IPU Racing 1965 Ford Mustang has been through a major rebuild this year, trying to get it ready for the July 23-25th Silverstone Classic event. A newly built engine and gearbox have been carefully prepared by ‘Steve Smith of Vibration Free’ and dyno tested by Peter Knight Racing, developing 350 HP at the flywheel.
The car then moved to IPU where a variety of true craftsmen including Mick Millard, Robert Ralphs, Phil Wilkes, worked on its electrics, lambda sensor and rev limiter installation. Oh, Ross and Martin were the wheel and tyre preparation team. While Karl and Sagar helped with the steering geometry..... Even Marketing guru Andy Hill specified the Ferris Alternator for it....but the real man who has worked with great passion on it is Andy Slater. A virtual full front end steering and suspension rebuild, radiator and wiring replacement. The list goes on and on.
Andy Slater - next to 'The Beast' and Josh Beebee - dressed in black suitWe got it to Silverstone for Thursday testing, it overheated when I took it on track. We fettled it for Friday qualifying when Josh and I just managed 3 laps each to qualify 19th out of 40. Not bad, but it still overheated... the old man did a 2.21.5 while hot shoe Josh was ‘learning the track’......
More fettling was done to cool it down for my Saturday race.
The rolling start to the race was hairy! 40 cars barrelling in to the first right hander was frightening, trust me! Lots of diving and weaving.... But at 140mph down the Hangar Straight I could relax and read the instruments.
For four laps it was great fun moving from 19th to 14th....then it overheated again and I justslowed down for the rest of the race finishing 19th I think.
So Andy slept by the car that night for an early start. A bigger radiator was brought up from a friends in Hertfordshire and we fitted another oil cooler....
Josh started the Sunday race full of hope, but it was short lived as the engine started misfiring at 6000rpm. He wisely came in to the pits twice for checks and treated the race as a test session.
So, we finished two races, saw some good potential and now will change the coil and fuel pump to cure the misfire. Then Donnington Sunday 5th September.....
