The Roaring Season

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Hamish's return to NZ and the earlier practice in Dad's car didn't quite go to plan... But he was able to carry on with the scratch race but took it a little easier.


Metal fatigue? Certainly a stub axle failure that bounced the Sprint over the kerb and caused a ripple through the boot, totally smashing the battery.


Paul Madeley's race did go to plan with a well deserved win in today's scratch race.


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Amazing photo of the Dolly, great reaction time!

Thanks Rhys. There must be something about Triumphs, metal fatigue and me.

I was flagging when Martin Adams rolled Chris Watson's TR5 and landed right in front of us after a propshaft failure I believe.

In 2003, a TR6 rolled in front of me and I whacked the infamous Pukekohe mountain wall on the inside trying to avoid him, wrecking the tail and the bonnet and front suspension, when a front stub axle failed on the Triumph.

Now this...

Minor point - Dolly Sprints have a live axle rather the IRS (so no stub axle at the rear), but yes, Triumphs can suffer from stub axle breaks - both front and rear (and Spitfires, GT6s, TRs, 2500PIs have all had it happen over the years).

Poor Geoff - his major roll in the brown Dolomite at HD in 2010 is still fresh in my memory!

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Metal fatigue? Certainly a stub axle failure that bounced the Sprint over the kerb and caused a ripple through the boot, totally smashing the battery.
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Sorry yes. Half shaft not stub axle. Stands in corner with well used white conical hat with a big 'D" on it...

The damage to the Dolly is a bit more extensive than first thought and this may well turn out to have been its final appearance - not all of it due to the condition of the car.

Beautiful.

Pukekohe Saturday - ERC competitors.

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These three have been racing these cars a LONG time...




This car was joint winner of the series in my first year and is now on its third series owner.


Wendy is now enjoying herself in two race series.

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With Roycroft approaching, a delve back into the past with a few more of Dad's photographs from pre-war Donington.

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Apologies if any have been uploaded before. Running your mouse over the images will give you the original file name and all of mine are dated, so 139_0706 would be 1939 July 6th. These have been scanned from prints rather than the original negatives, most of which are on glass plates.

Wow! When did you take this photo Ray? Where is this car now?

I always loved David Pipers roof chopped 250GTO as well.

ERC wrote:From the archives again...

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David Piper's 250LM Ferrari at Mallory Park. I even have a 1/43 scale model of that car.
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This is interesting. It appears to be Chaparral I? I'm pretty sure this car is now back in the US. Was it based in the UK when you took this photo Ray? Or was it just visiting for an event?

ERC wrote:From the archives again...
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i was at silverstone about 20 years ago, and david piper, and chris rea were running a 250lm (i assume this car). Chances are he may still own it

Steve Holmes wrote:Wow! When did you take this photo Ray? Where is this car now?

1966 Steve - as per my post above, I name all pics by date taken as far as I can. Dating some of them is proving to be a major mission, but I keep chipping away. Often, correctly dating just one pic can confirm the dates of others based on location and even clues such as the state of the foliage in the background or the condition of the track. Programme collectors are often a useful source of info too but so far, some of the marque clubs have been less useful than you'd think.

Chaparral was 1988, when I made a fleeting visit to the UK. Sorry, I have no other details.

Thanks Ray. Loving these pics!

rogered wrote:i was at silverstone about 20 years ago, and david piper, and chris rea were running a 250lm (i assume this car). Chances are he may still own it

Thanks Roger, great memory! You've triggered some recollections for me too. I also recall being at Silverstone in 1994 (Coys Historic Festival) and seeing David Piper and Chris Rea teaming up in a Piper Ferrari. I went and unearthed the programme and it has them entered in a 275LM, which I assume is the 250 fitted with a bigger motor? Also, from memory the car at Silverstone was fitted with 5 spoke magnesium wheels rather than the Borrani wires.

Incidentally, Piper had also entered a Ferrari 330 P2, 365 P1, Porsche 917 and Lola T70 MkIIIB in the same race. Nice!

And, noting Ray's thread regarding the recent passing of Jem Marsh, Jem and Chris Marsh were entered in the same race in a Marcos GT.

Useless info-The 250/275 etc in a Ferrari refers to the individual cylinder capacity in cc.... eg a twelve cylinder car with 250cc per cyl will be 3000cc all up.

Jac Mac wrote:Useless info-The 250/275 etc in a Ferrari refers to the individual cylinder capacity in cc.... eg a twelve cylinder car with 250cc per cyl will be 3000cc all up.

Huh, OK, thanks Jac. Maybe it was a different car I saw. It was a long time ago.

Steve Holmes wrote:Huh, OK, thanks Jac. Maybe it was a different car I saw. It was a long time ago.

Just did a quick google, and found him running no less than 3 different 250lm chassis's in the 60s, as well as a few 250gtos, a P3 and most other significant models of the era. I recall him at another meeting in a 330p. So i assume he was just running a few of his old cars he must have tucked away.

Chris Staniland's Multi-Union. (The original photograph wasn't so good, so needed a fair bit of cleaning up, hence the delay.) I had to Google the correct spelling - i.e. one word or hyphenated. Although I know the car from these and other period pics, I didn't know that it was effectively a P3 Alfa Romeo. Needless to say, it has not survived in this form, but has been converted back to a P3 Alfa. There has been some debate about recreating it, using the left over bits.

Those of you who saw James May's TV Toy series and the Scalextric recreation of Brooklands, may just have glimpsed that some of the streets were named after Brooklands' drivers, one being Staniland.

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When you see pictures like this, you can understand why modern racing cars (almost identical anyway) with totally hidden drivers, look so bland.

The car is well known, but driving lights and a spot light? Maybe it was driven on the road to the track?
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Always a cigarette on the go...


Helmet - check; roll over bar - check; seat belts - check; overalls - check; starting handle to stab the guys in front - check... Well, 1 out of 5 isn't too bad.


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Ray, post 528, middle pic, is that Prince Bira? Also the guy on the right looks a lot like Reg Parnell. Looking closely at the logo on his overalls though, could be Bira's White Mouse team logo so might be his mechanic. Or I could be completely wrong....