It is the friends you make along the way who change your life and your work for the better.

Ayrton Senna, Juan Manuel Fangio and Sir Jack Brabham.

All three of these outstanding World Champions had a direct impact on our involvement in racing.
We were lucky and honored to meet and work with them.

 

 

 Rick Huseman and Chris Weismann became friends in 2006 and together went on to dominate Pro 4 racing with our 5 Speed Manual 4wd and Unlockers.

 

 

Jean-Marc Sanchez and Patrick Weismann became friends working at the Rainbow Offshore Team and then he took us to Victory Team for (4) UIM Class1 and (1) Class2 World Championships with our dry-sumped drives and our computer controlled multi-speed gearboxes.

 

Also gone too soon, Shaun Carlson. Shaun and Chris Weismann became great friends and Shaun took us to the worlds of Pro-FWD Drag Racing and Drifting.

 

 

Carroll and Peter were both working for the Ford Le Mans GT40 program when they met in 1965. Through out the years, Peter and Carroll maintained their great friendship and many of Carrol's "how to" books references our succesful lockers and transmissions.

His friendship extended to Chris and Pat as well, with Chris now serving as the drivetrain judge for the Formula SAE Competitions on the west coast- a competition that owes it's place in the world to Carroll.

Peter Weismann and Hardy Allen at Riverside in Oct 1966
First race for Christopher Weismann at the age of 8 days
 

Carlo Chiti and Wolfgang Von Trips at Aintree in 1961
(photo  Michele Albert)

Dottore Ingegnere Carlo Chiti was chief engineer at Ferrari when, as Michele Albert,  I met him in 1960.

Joy ride on the back of the 1962 Le Mans winning Ferrari of Phil Hill - Gendebien. By then there had been a major shake down at Ferrari and the team manager was a gentleman and a dear friend , Eugenio Dragoni

After Chiti left Ferrari , he  went back to Alfa  and adopted the Weismann Locker in the World Marques Championship winning Alfa 33s in 1975 and 1977.

Alfa-Romeo was the engine on the Brabham when F.1 came to the first Long Beach GP in 1975. Chiti re-introduced Peter & Gordon Murray , and this led to a very successful teamwork in F1 with Gordon over the next 17 years  after Bernie invited us in "his office" on the straightaway of Long Beach.

Transverse  transaxle for the still-born Alfa- Brabham Formule One Car

Chiti also turned to us for a 6 speed transverse transaxle when Subaru commissioned him to do a boxer engine for the sleek  Jiotto Caspita Supercar.

In the early '90s, he needed 2 speed transmissions for his Motori Moderni V 12  in UIM Offshore racing,  It took  the Weismann to a successful venture in Offshore.

Edoardo Polli's SDA cat sported 4 of Chiti's engines.  Jean Marc Sanchez and Patrick Weismann were part of the crew . JM Sanchez was the link to Victory Team, where we met Felix Serralles. Owner of his own racing team in Puerto Rico, Mr. Serralles seen here with Patrick Weismann, was insuring that his son had technical advantages. We dry-sumped the drives for both teams, and later did 4 speed gearboxes for Victory team,  and 6 speeds for Don Q.

 
 

The man behind the first Weismann Transaxle for Indianapolis in 1969
 Sir Jack Brabham

Jack Brabham - Pete Weismann - John Judd

Gordon Murray had just been hired at Brabham, when Pete designed his first trans for Jack in 1969. When the Brabham team was sold to Bernie Ecclestone Gordon became chief designer. It was Chiti who in 1975 showed our Quickshift to Gordon, and kick started a collaboration  which took us beyond our wildest dreams.

Knee-high, la Sogliola  (the Flounder) our pride and joy. First test at Donnington of the BT55!

In Seville it was not all joy in 1986

 

 

In 1992 Gordon came to California to test the prototype transmission for his supercar, the McLarne F1.

 

In 1980 we did a radical transverse gearbox which complemented a very sophisticated suspension design by Gordon. The idea was to make a very narrow gearbox with smooth sides which would be part of the ground effect tunnel. The transaxle is the small white rectangle in the lower left picture, and you can see it with the shocks tucked behind it in the bottom center picture.

 

I believe Giorgio Piola liked us because we always gave him something new and different to write about
 The articles and drawings of Giorgio Piola were so technically outstanding, we can only be thankful we had a chronicler for the most enjoyable times  of our career. Our thanks also to the photographer Amaduzzi and Autosprint.

 

Interestingly enough we became good friends with our main competitor Williams technical director, Patrick Head, because of his love for transmissions. Here we were running a "Quickshift" at Silverstone  with Couthard testing. 

 

 

and last but not least

 My dearest friend and mentor Hubert Schroeder, secretary of the FIA, presenting the world championship cup to Phil, and my first boss in the US, Bill France Sr. a giant and a gentleman.

In 1961 these three friends were at Monza when Phil Hill became the first American to win the F1 World Championship for Ferrari. 46 years later they celebrated Phil's 80th birthday in California.

 

Jesse Alexander- Michele Weismann - Phil Hill
Jay Leno's garage  2007
 

Monza September 1961

 

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