F1 restoration: Jordan 195
Warren Stean still has a long way to go with his Jordan 195, but he is learning more about it. Much more…
“It’s now clear to me that the restoration of my Jordan-Peugeot 195 is going to have quiet times and considerably busier times. We’re now into a quieter period, but we’ve scheduled the build and ordered some of the parts with the longest lead times. Next month I will hopefully be able to delve into some of the detail regarding the engineering work and processes that go into the redesign and manufacture of gearbox internals.
“When purchasing the car, one of the focuses of my research was to establish whether or not it was actually a Jordan driven by Rubens Barrichello, chassis no4. A great aid for me here was the 1995 season review by Giorgio Piola, his F1 95 Analisi Tecnica. I believe this was F1’s first seasonal technical analysis, only available in Italian. It’s a masterpiece.
“The book details which driver used which chassis at which race for all F1 teams in ’95, as well as giving information on engines, gearboxes and very helpful drawings of various car parts. This includes some drawings of the pedal boxes for the Jordan drivers, Barrichello and Eddie Irvine. His drawings matched the pedal box I was looking at on my car.
“Staying on the subject of pedals, I recently went to Tour-de-Force Power Engineering’s workshops for a fitting session. Although the car has two pedals and Barrichello was a right-foot braker, the brake pedal is on the left side of the tub – and, crucially, to the left of the steering rack. I must have considerably larger feet than Mr Barrichello because it was tricky for me to move my right foot from accelerator to brake without getting it stuck under the column. Luckily, a straightforward solution was found by detaching the pedal and flipping it around. The side with the most metal now protrudes to the left rather than the right – perfect for left-foot braking.
“While doing this we noticed the pedal had ‘Rubi’ hand-written on the reverse side, so I guess I needn’t have bought the book. One last area to check was how I fitted the cockpit. This particular car has covered recesses approximately at elbow height on both sides of the tub, to house the electronics. We needed to check whether or not I might need to use those recesses to be comfortable in the car. That would entail repositioning the electronics, which would have had a knock-on for loom design. Despite Rubens being 5ft 7in to my 5ft 11in, the car fits like a glove.
“It brought home just how exciting it’s going to be when we fire the car up for the first time ahead of the car’s shakedown. That’s some way off yet. There are gearboxes, engines, electronics, brakes and a host of other items to deal with first. I can’t wait.”
Next month: A more detailed look at what it takes to stitch together a 1990s F1 car
Thanks to: Tour-de-Force Power Engineering, Warren Stean