The Roaring Season

Originally posted by Spgeti
.....the Smica V8 which is a Flattie and a Ford V8 60 from what I have been told.

Essentially it was...

The progression from the V8/60 (US production) was that the design was sent to England for production there, bearing in mind 'rated HP' taxation issues. Some minor changes were made in British production then the design went to Ford France.

There a number of other changes were made and it was increased in size by about 100cc. Ford France then sold out to Simca, who continued with it before Chrysler took over and a few years down the track Chrysler sent the tooling to Brazil for their branch there to work with. More improvements took place.

And into the mid-sixties they bought the rights to the ARDUN heads and made a few models with no inlet or exhaust ports in the block and using the ARDUN designed heads. As pictured above.

When Simca took over Ford France there were existing long-term contracts for the supply of trucks to the French military with the regular-sized Ford side-valve V8. Chrysler continued to honour these contracts, so on one side of the Atlantic Chrysler were still building their own side-valve sixes for military use and the other they were building side-valve Ford V8s for military use - both well into the sixties!

!!

Diana Dors in her 1949 Saoutchik-bodied Delahaye 175 S,

Bruce McLaren, Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Graham Hill, Jo Bonnier, Wolfgang von Trips. and 1996 world champion Damon Hill.

Diana Dors!.... Way back when I was in the UK Prison Service, her young chauffeur was arrested for something or other and remanded in custody. Imagine our surprise when she turned up to visit him. She was delightful - but I'm sure she didn't turn up in the Delahaye!

Love the other pic of the GP drivers too - all looking so smart in decent suits, collars and ties, polished shoes.

How does one get to see these elusive pics?

They're not visible to me...

All credit to the photographers

and some more

more

Chris Amon, Bruce McLaren, Ken Miles and Denny Hulme Photo credits: Eric della Faille

" Daffodils " - Described as " A bittersweet Kiwi love story told with re-imaginings of famous New Zealand songs "
Last night -the Movie on TV1 from 2019 - starring Rose McIver, George Mason, Kimbra and AK2289.
- a 1963 Ford Zephyr 6. The car is owned by John Stokes a Fordophile who has written a Book on Fords in new Zealand a few years ago and is writing another on the Seaview Ford Assembly Plant in Wellington
The Music was good - the storyline OK but the Star was this ;



As mentioned love these cars, Dad had one when I got my Drivers Licence in August 1965 - he owned it 1963 - 1968 and I was allowed to borrow it for " QSFN " - Queen Street Friday Night - with Merv Smith on Radio 1ZB in town with 3 or 4 or even 5 Mates.
With its Original Plate 1963 - 64 and later its permanent plate 1964 on.

The movie was based on a couple from my local district , the lady I went to school with.

Re the photos of Amon, McLaren, Miles and Hulme -

Any indication as to if they were taken before, or after, the race?

Ray,
Tell us what, where and when please.
Ken H

Michael Clark wrote:Re the photos of Amon, McLaren, Miles and Hulme -

Any indication as to if they were taken before, or after, the race?

Michael,
From what I have read and movie scenes etc. that these photos are definitely from before the race in my opinion.
(Ken H.)

Peter M wrote:The movie was based on a couple from my local district , the lady I went to school with.

Yep, Peter did hear the mention of Otorohanga " I'll drive you home " offer " but " its over a hour away from the Hamilt(r)on.
My Mums family, had family there in the 1930's she grew up in Hamilton, but used to visit.

Cheers
Roger

Originally posted by khyndart
Ray,
Tell us what, where and when please.

Ken, if you scroll back to post 325 (which is a quote from a previous page...) and check the first photo in that post, you'll be looking at this car. Somewhere in that photo.

There were, I understand, seven of them built and there's seven of them in the photo. This one I came across most unexpectedly.

I was driving from Brno to Mulhous in 2016 and I came upon this little rig in Lichtenstein (or it might have been Switzerland). I had time to get the camera up and switched on and get this one shot before it took an exit.

It was a pretty good day, really. I wanted to look at the Bremgarten circuit and set the GPS from Bremgarten not knowing there were two towns with that name in Switzerland. When I got to the wrong one (and still didn't know it) I saw a workshop with a motor sporting kind of name on it and so I went in there to ask directions to the circuit.

The owner of the place showed me around some of his cars...







His name is Rudi Caprez, he had pics of other cars he raced too. Including a pretty quick looking thing he drove in the Targa Florio. No wonder he could afford a smile...



Sadly, when I got to Bern I found there was so little left of the old Bremgarten circuit it wasn't worth the effort. And the effort was made harder than it should have been because nobody seemed to know what I was talking about. I struck the same problem at Rouen a couple of weeks later.

Anyway, I hope that answers your question, Ken. And that these photos are 'random' enough for this thread.

Thanks for that answer Ray,
Going to the wrong town certainly had surprising results and you left enough crumbs to know the rest of the story.
Ken

I think Rudi's business was 'Grand Prix Garage' or similar...

Which is why I went in there. His wife was there but about to go shopping, I started asking questions in English and she hung around for a while because she's much, much better than Rudi in English. Very helpful.

It was a nice interlude the day after driving around the 19km Brno circuit and the day before visiting the Schlumpf Museum.