Just A Mix Of Pics - Ray Green Collection

[ERC]

Post #993 has the current CUT7 Steve, one of the two with now the blue nose (also CUT8), taken at Goodwood 2016. Due to a late change of plan, looks as though we won't now make the Goodwood Festival this year. No longer sporting the 1967 front indicator/side lights in your pic Steve, and looks to have gained a small air intake duct on the bonnet. Colour is nothing like the original either.

I wonder if Donington are doing anything to celebrate the 40 years since re-opening, May 2017, particularly as it has now been bought by former Marcos driver, Dr Jonathan Palmer! (January 2017.) Might be worth an email...

http://www.nottinghampost.com/donington-park-racing-circuit-and-estate-taken-over-by-motor-racing-firm-msv/story-30052608-detail/story.html

[Steve Holmes]

Ray, Protheroe actually had three E Types which he registered as CUT 7. The first was only the fourth ever right hand drive fixed head coupe to be built. This is the car that appears in your post #993, painted gunmetal grey with the blue flash across the nose, which was believed to be a reference to Bugatti blue, as he was said to have loved these cars.

The first CUT 7 started life as a road car which Protheroe converted into a race car. He competed with this car throughout 1962, and achieved excellent results, but felt the car was too heavy. So he re-registered it as 636 CJU and sold it as a road car.

He then built a second fixed head coupe for 1963, with the emphasis being on getting the weight down. This car was registered as CUT 7. This car he crashed at Snetterton in early 1963, rolling three times. The car was rebuilt but Protheroe never felt at ease with it, so registered it as 256 DJU and sold it.

In June of 1963, Protheroe visited the Jaguar Competition Department with the intention of purchasing a lightweight E Type. He was told production had ceased on these cars. Jaguar originally intended to build special low drag lightweights, but only one was ever produced. This car, the one-off experimental, was sitting in a corner gathering dust. Its believed this car would have been scrapped as Jaguar cancelled plans to race the model.

Protheroe was close friends with Sir William Lyons and was able to purchase the one-off car. It featured an alloy engine block, fuel-injection etc. Protheroe registered the car as CUT 7 and raced it throughout the rest of 1963 and 1964 before selling it in early 1965. It was advertised at 3200 pounds and sold to David Wansborough. It was re-registered as 738 EUT. It was later sold to Mike Wright who I believe was racing it the day you photographed it in 1967.

Protheroe was killed racing a Ferrari at Oulton Park in 1966, and his wife took over the family business. There were a bunch of racing E Type parts laying about the shop so she had the mechanics build another fixed head coupe which was registered CUT 8.

Incidentally, the Protheroe low drag lightweight you photographed at Shelsey in 1967 was the only low drag car built by Jaguar. A further two were converted into low drag cars. So that was a very special car you snapped that day.

[ERC]

Thanks Steve. Great information. I also snapped that car at a Prescott Hillclimb, 1970 or 71 but it isn't the best I have taken, so I haven't published it.

The Nottingham Sports Car Club obviously had some links as they instituted a Protheroe Trophy. I wonder what happened to that - along with all the other silverware the club owned, engraved with many famous names?

At one stage, the club was one of the largest in the country, due mainly to their super efficient full time secretary, Betty Shaw and their prime bank Holiday meetings at Mallory Park and Silverstone.

Had they managed to secure a track of their own, (and they tried!) I wonder what the club would be like today?

When I took over as Competition Secretary, after they finished racing, in the late 1970's until I left for NZ, I'd like to think that my efforts in shifting the focus to sprints and hill-climbs, instigating their very successful Sprint Championship, ensured their survival and a step towards their current strong standing.

[ERC]

Once again, a request... Can anyone please PM me an entry list for the TACCOC Whenuapai meetings for 1988 and 1989 or is willing to sell me the race programmes? I have pics but no entry details and I can only accurately date and identify a couple of pics based on where I was flag marshalling and knowing that those drivers didn't run those cars in a different year.

The problem with trying to compile any sort of database, meeting by meeting from that period is that most of the cars and drivers are no longer racing, so they are single entries. Easy to deal with the John Hudsons of this world, where all I have to do is write the race number! As at today, 1034 drivers added, but it will NOT be a complete list, as I have often just added drivers of cars that interest me and have no intention of manually creating an entry for every single driver and car!

[ERC]

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Prescott 1971

Ardmore 1989

Whenuapai 1990. MGCC President Derek Prior in 'MG 500' before presenting the number 39 MG Sports that was so successful, until it was written off three years ago at Taupo.

Alan Lacey's TVR.

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For Kiwis, the first episode of the new 'Father Brown' series, had a stunning Daimler drophead and an immaculate XK120 (?) FHC and what might have been a pre-war Standard. Always a good selection of cars in this series and other period based series, though the mint and shiny commercial vehicles always look a bit brighter than they ever did in their day.

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Nice bodywork...

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[Steve Holmes]

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For Kiwis, the first episode of the new 'Father Brown' series, had a stunning Daimler drophead and an immaculate XK120 (?) FHC and what might have been a pre-war Standard. Always a good selection of cars in this series and other period based series, though the mint and shiny commercial vehicles always look a bit brighter than they ever did in their day.

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Nice bodywork...
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This is something I regularly notice on period-set tv and movies Ray. The cars are always too clean and shiny. Commercial vehicles too much so. Also, the cars are often all too modern; eg, if a period movie is set in 1965, all the vehicles seem to be from 1965, or very close to it. There aren't any 15 year old cars with dents and missing hubcaps as there would have been in period. Just like as today there are loads of 15 year old cars mixed amongst the new ones on our roads.

Also, in period tv and movies, way too many cars have perfect clean whitewall tyres. In any country where it rains, this would never be the case.

I'm clearly way too much of a nerd.

[ERC]

Not a nerd Steve, just like me, taking great delight in cars. Full stop!

Who can forget the Midsomer Murders episode, where there was a Concours held in the grounds of a college (for young ladies!), but was won by an ex F1 Cooper! (The race footage of it in action was genuine.)

As for the years, George Gently's dozy sidekick Sergeant starts off with a 1964 MGB (the first series was set in 1964) whilst Gently has a pre 1963 Rover. Later, set in 1969, when supposedly skint after a broken marriage, Sergeant is driving a brand new Ford Corsair, whilst Gently has updated to a P6 Rover - registered in 1967! Oh, and that dratted Standard Pennant must have been stalking the crew as it is seen in almost every street!

[ERC]

Not a nerd Steve, just like me, taking great delight in cars. Full stop!

Who can forget the Midsomer Murders episode, where there was a Concours held in the grounds of a college (for young ladies), but was won by an ex F1 Cooper! (The race footage of it in action was genuine.)

As for the years, George Gently's dozy sidekick Sergeant starts off with a 1964 MGB (the first series was set in 1964) whilst Gently has a pre 1963 Rover. Later, set in 1969, when supposedly skint after a broken marriage, Sergeant is driving a brand new Ford Corsair, whilst Gently has updated to a P6 Rover - registered in 1967! Oh, and that dratted Standard Pennant must have been stalking the crew as it is seen in almost every street!

The last series of Gently started filming in January.

[Steve Holmes]

Ha ha, thats funny Ray. My wife gives me grief when I point this stuff out. I guess she just doesn't appreciate attention to detail.

[GD66]

Continuity has improved, though. It used to drive me nuts in English cop shows when a car having allegedly pursued a villain across town would drive on-set with steam billowing from the exhaust, indicating the car had only just been fired up on a cold night. Also used to watch period dramas for digital watches and tv aerials. There's still an issue with filming in England with sunlight and shade interspersed in nearly every sequence. Latest boo-boo I have noticed was 633 Squadron, there is a shot from the front looking back at a set of 500-lb bombs being towed down an airport pathway, suddenly in the background a white mini scorches through a crossroad a hundred yards behind. Heartbeat gives the best representation of the actual vehicle sounds of all the old stuff including the bikes. And George Gently I eventually flagged as they won't stop bloody chainsmoking through all of every scene, especially that dropkick sergeant. I'm aware people used to smoke a fair bit in the sixties, but they just won't let up. Makes a mockery of banning ciggie ads on tv....and on race cars.

[ERC]

Yup, the chain-smoking is annoying. I walked out of Friday afternoon planning meetings in the early 1980's, as I couldn't stand the smoke from the others.

The steam from the exhaust is one of my pet hates too. Having watched them filming for 4 hours next door, for what was a 30 second scene in 'Blue Rose', I'm not surprised that vehicles never get warm. (I hope the UK crews are a bit more efficient and cost effective than the NZ crew.)

I am still spending the evenings adding names and cars to the list, which is a fascinating if long winded exercise. There must be cars that changed hands several times over the years but I have no way of linking them. Then there are also drivers who seem to turn up or drive a different car at each event.

Just a couple of samples from the events list. The missing info is usually because it was missing from the programme or I haven't yet found a photograph to cross reference the colour. In pre computer days and handwritten entry forms, mistakes were not unheard of either.

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[ERC]

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Not sure of the date, but Lotus Elite at Donington and could be July 1988.

Andy Lowe

Puhoi MGCC Hillclimb

Andy Culpin, Manfeild practice 1990

'Skidmark' Parsons, Whenuapai 1991

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[Roger Dowding]

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Not sure of the date, but Lotus Elite at a Donington practice day. Could be much later than the current 1980 date attached.
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Andy Lowe
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Puhoi MGCC Hillclimb
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Andy Culpin, Manfeild practice 1990
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'Skidmark' Parsons, Whenuapai 1991
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Ray, seeing the Andy Lowe MGB V8, not factory with that reverse airscoop, when he ran at Otaua in the mid 1980's AHCCNZ Hill Climb, the scrutineer passed the car and the MANZ Steward came to me to object, to the scoop [ as oil could blow onto the windscreen ], I spoke with Andy, and he pulled out his log book and showed the steward all the scrutineering stickers on the car window, recent ones too !!, the Steward apologised and walked away .. and it was not Bill Kelly who was great MANZ Steward..

Skidmark was my Milkman in Mount Albert in the 1970's and we were both members of NSCC, think his cars were a bit quicker than mine

[ERC]

Still a random mix as slides are scanned...
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Nothing remarkable maybe, but this was outside my first house (on the left) from 1972/3 until 1978. Behind Mike Causer's Lotus Elite was a rolling bodyshell I'd just bought, as the 998cc Mini Cooper behind had rust issues, so I was about to transplant the engine and box. Behind that, but not visible, is the 1955 RME Riley.

Of more interest (to some) is the Vauxhall, an ex-prototype police car fitted with a bigger engine than standard. Thankfully the police never bought any as although it was fine in a straight line, in the dry, it was woeful in the damp and had the grip of slicks on ice. Bought at auction by my ex-boss, who flicked it on not long after, for a far more useful but tatty Austin 1800, as a company hack. Apologies if I have posted this before...
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Merlyn GT at Donington.

Heron MkIV - Whenuapai 1986

We'll possibly see this car out again before too long.

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[Jac Mac]

[color="#0000FF"]Post 1415 #1 would be Ross Baker- Heron Cars, Rotorua? in his rendition of a Ford GT MKIV.[/color]

[ERC]

Correct (I have since labelled it). Apparently this car is now in Europe. It had me baffled initially but having accessed the race programme, then gone Googling - as you do - it was yet another interesting diversion. I knew it looked like the Ford but also knew it wasn't one, but initially knew nothing more. Always a lift when you can correctly date and label a slide that has been in limbo for a number of years.

[ERC]

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Another of the Super Saloon Skodas. I think 1980, Cadwell Park

Not sure about dates again for the following - but Roger will be happy anyway. Any confirmation of dates would be appreciated, as always.

I may have posted this pic before, but have rescanned it as I only had a tiny image, but always a sucker for posting any Gordon Keeble pic. As they only built 99, I think I might have pictures of at least 10%.

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[Jac Mac]

Correct (I have since labelled it). Apparently this car is now in Europe. It had me baffled initially but having accessed the race programme, then gone Googling - as you do - it was yet another interesting diversion. I knew it looked like the Ford but also knew it wasn't one, but initially knew nothing more. Always a lift when you can correctly date and label a slide that has been in limbo for a number of years.

Yes, current owner posted on GT40's a while back looking for info to rebuild transaxle, from his pics I was hopefully able to point him in right directions, never came back to let us know if he had success though, like so many others. Dont know where the other post went, went to add further comment and it vanished.

[Steve Holmes]

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I may have posted this pic before, but have rescanned it as I only had a tiny image, but always a sucker for posting any Gordon Keeble pic. As they only built 99, I think I might have pictures of at least 10%.
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Is that Gordon Keeble in New Zealand Ray? I too am a huge fan of these cars. The styling is very similar to one of my all-time favourite cars in the world, the Iso Rivolta IR 300. Both were styled by Bertone. There are many similarities between the two, particularly the roof line. Both pretty cars. If I had to choose one, it would be the Iso. One day I will own one of these.

[John McKechnie]

Both have 327 Chevs in them.