The Roaring Season

ERC, great photo's love the C-type versus Leaf and friends..

A narrow French flavour from the archives. Even a cheap digital camera seems to cope very well these days compared to an expensive camera of a decade or three ago.

[CENTER]









[/CENTER]

Wow, I will pass these onto my son who is a French fanatic. Great photos as usual. Cheers

My pleasure! Any requests? (Other than stop posting on other threads of course...) Make, model, circuit, body type, age, era etc.

Still so many to scan and a fair pile I doubt I'll ever get around to. I have recently been scanning from old negatives, but for a change, may have a go at a few slides (I get bored easily), but dating them is a total nightmare, other than when I took slides and negs on the same day. The other problem is that many slides are in glass mounts and really need removing and the glasses cleaning, as after up to 50 years or so, they tend to get a bit misty.

Overseas for a few days shortly, so it may go a bit quiet on this thread. I'll miss the TACCOC meeting.

Back to the 1970's.... Still from negatives and in order of date taken. File name is always by year, month, day where known. Anything that is '00' is a not known, so a blind guess.


Mallory Park - of course. My favourite viewing spot as it was the only place where you could get a half decent pic without a telephoto lens. A great viewing spot anyway so once there, I rarely moved as the crowd was usually 3 or 4 deep.
[CENTER]
Malcolm West, Camaro, having a bit of a moment.


John Pope finished 3rd or started from 3rd on the grid!

The 7 litre Mustang driven (not owned) by Tony Rosen laps the Minis on this 1.35 mile track. Sadly, the Mike Berman 'Berpop' was a non-starter. Fastest was Alec Poole or Rhoddy Harvey-Bailey in the Broadspeed modified Escort. My pic of that is too fuzzy to print. Sorry.


From the 'if only I'd kept it' section. I bought this1955 RMA Riley for a song but with clapped out big ends. Beyond my ability to restore so sold on for a handsome profit (then). The number-plate alone would now fetch at least $10,000 in the UK. SLH 85 - and I also just happen to have 55 CEW on my old Greeves which needs to go back to the UK to capitalise on the plate value. Co-incidence with a two digit number.


Neil Corner again at Oulton Park. I wonder what they were soldering? I still have an identical blowlamp and I even had the same brand of solder!


First and only one of these I think I have ever seen.


[/CENTER]

[CENTER]
When you look at the construction of cars built for racing in this era, you realise just how inefficient the use of space, but, they have a character that makes them memorable.


Not the best of pics, but a nice car anyway... Taken at Wollaton Park 1975 during a Festival. Wollaton Hall was in the latest Batman film as Wayne Towers I believe. Same venue as the pics I posted last year of the Nottingham Industrial Museum which has a great display of Brough Superior bikes and one car under restoration.




Chris Milner was not just a very competent driver, but he also spent a lot of time and effort getting his Capri to handle and steer. I could be wrong, but he may even have worked for Ford. picture taken at Curborough Sprint course, where I seemed to spend most Sundays for a year or two.

Arthur Nash - who built my Mini engine that may yet see service in Mike Lucas' car... Also at Curborough. When last contacted, Arthur believes he may have been related to Walter Nash, better known in NZ!


[/CENTER]

Thanks for the photo of my car "Alpene" Ray, now owned by Peter Benbrook.

Loton Park Hillclimb August 1973. One of the UK's longest climbs and very tricky to learn with so few runs.

[CENTER]
Alan Payne's Smiley Riley, still with an 1800cc engine, before he shoehorned the Rover V8 in. Judging by the width of the tyres, I'd guess that the V8 wasn't so far away.


Castrol/BARC Hillclimb contender Nigel Pow's E Type Jag


Di McMasters Clan Crusader. Amazing how many of these were used in competition.


Open necked long sleeved shirt, elbow on the door. Yup, even another BARC contender looked casual - but he is wearing gloves...


[/CENTER]

Roger's thread elsewhere alerted me to the considerable number of 'specials' in my collection. So, in date/alphabetical order, here goes, starting with Roger Herrick's A40 special at Chelsea. By the way, when is it this year - I missed it last year?

Some of these really are superb and a real credit to their builders.

[CENTER]










[/CENTER]

[CENTER]


Probably one of my least favourite specials...












[/CENTER]

Ray the Magnette wasn't cheap but its being enjoyed by its new owner (geebeenz) who may yet put it around Hampton Downs.

Graeme

ERC wrote:Pity so many pre '61's have been scrapped, particularly the very cars you need, as restoration was uneconomic. Restoring a Mk2 Jag is expensive, but worth it. Restoring a Riley Pathfinder might cost just as much, but probably not worth it.

Standard Ensigns Rover P4's and suchlike are now quite rare and those in good nick are not going to be racers. Moggie Minors and some Vauxhalls might still be cheapish, but A30 prices seem off the clock for what they are. Mk1 Jags? Not that many around. Good to see the Morris Oxford out there at HD - though it wouldn't be my choice! Ford Zephyrs also seem to be sought after, but most are for restoration/concours these days, not racing.

My choice would be a Riley 1.5...

The Magnette on TM went for a shade under $10,000!

Good news Graeme! I have a fair few bits removed from my own, (no engine or gearbox bits) so give us a call if you are stuck!

Any date yet for the Chelsea climb?

[CENTER]










[/CENTER]
Its a shame that so many afterthought roll hoops are so ugly.

ERC wrote:Probably one of my least favourite specials...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]30912[/ATTACH]

Might be a bit visually jarring, but it has a long and successful race history dating back to 1952.

http://www.bmhcomic.com.au/

Wow - what's this sexy beast?
http://www.theroaringseason.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=30938&d=1444683467

I know enough about Daimlers to recognise the engine and fluted grille but that's about it. And is the car at all quick? All too often, in several different cars, I've been a bit disappointed with how the Daimler 2.5 V8 goes... (that may of course be a 4.5 V8).

ERC wrote: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.

[CENTER]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27977[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27978[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27979[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27980[/ATTACH]
[/CENTER]

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

Ray, did your father take these shots?

Yes Steve. Although apart from a couple of years around 1950, we had no family car, he had a passion for cars and particularly ERA's.

He was a press photographer pre war and later, manager of a large company, specialising in schools (pupils!), industrial, commercial and aerial photography. The boss was a keen pilot and was still flying a microlight in his 80's.

Thanks Ray, they're such outstanding images I thought they must have been taken by a professional photographer.

Even more remarkable Steve, as they are on glass negatives - which I still have. That would have meant a maximum of probably 12 shots a day!

Although these were scanned from his original prints (not the negatives) they still needed a lot of work to eliminate the dust spots. In his day, had they been for publication, he would have 'spotted' the prints himself - and he was very much the perfectionist. I think he would have been quite chuffed to know that 75 years later, his efforts would be appreciated by one so young!

His efforts are greatly appreciated. These are gold.

I second that Steve and as I have stated before to Ray these are fantastic and be proud of his Dad's skill.