Jim Palmer
#1
Posted 14 October 2011 - 14:54
What happened with him?
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#2
Posted 14 October 2011 - 15:26
#3
Posted 14 October 2011 - 15:52
The refusal of the Australians to allow him to race single-seaters was in spite racing for more than a dozen years without an accident that I can recall, or causing one. I'm sure the fact that he'd just broken the Bathurst lap record had nothing to do with it
#4
Posted 14 October 2011 - 20:57
He had no problem until that time because he raced on his NZ licence. But when David McKay wanted him to contest the Gold Star for Scuderia Veloce, he had to obtain an Australian licence and this was denied him. There was no distinction between openwheelers or any other class, by the way.
I doubt that this had any impact on his chances to go F1, however. Does anyone know what rules applied there?
#5
Posted 14 October 2011 - 21:45
Don't know how that fits with a definition of "monocular vision"
As for your last sentence - the question has been discussed on TNF before
http://forums.autosp...showtopic=69620
#6
Posted 15 October 2011 - 01:14
#7
Posted 15 October 2011 - 04:10
Maybe if he had raced for a Victorian team instead of a Sydney team it would have been different?
You are not suggesting, for one moment, that anyone might have been adjusting the "tilt" mechanism on the playing field, surely.
Is nothing sacred?
Stu
#8
Posted 15 October 2011 - 07:51
Same question I can ask for Leo Geoghegan
#9
Posted 15 October 2011 - 08:18
I don't believe you are correct David. I had some dealings with him at the time including some assistance in the pits, and I am certain that he had definite monocular vision.Palmer apparently had (has) a "lazy" eye - not, as many believed, a glass eye
Don't know how that fits with a definition of "monocular vision"
As for your last sentence - the question has been discussed on TNF before
http://forums.autosp...showtopic=69620
#10
Posted 15 October 2011 - 08:25
(Something the thread starter could easily have found if he had cared to use Google to answer his own question. It took me less than a minute using "Jim Palmer" & "racing driver".)
Edited by ReWind, 15 October 2011 - 12:10.
#11
Posted 19 October 2011 - 04:21
He pretty much retired from open-wheeler racing when he sold his McLaren M4A after his fourth Gold Star, and from motor racing generally, following his brief time in saloons. Being a naturally shy sort of chap, he was happy to fly under the radar - raise his family and run his business.
While researching something else about the so called 'golden age' of NZ motor racing, it dawned on me a decade or so ago that simply having the best car doesn't count for a lot if you can't drive - and all one need do is look at the relative performances of Jim and the Australians who came here with broadly similar machinery - they were really the better comparison than the locals. On that score Jim achieved fantastic results - not just in NZ but significantly also in Australia.
I've written a few articles about Jim now for NZ Classic Car and he has become a friend - that aside I have aimed to put his performances in perspective, afterall - it wasn't his fault no one in NZ could ever get anywhere near him. Sure it would have been interesting if Roly Levis or Graham McRae had been armed with decent 2.5-litre Climax powered cars during the 60s, or if Graeme Lawrence and Roly had run their FVA powered cars, and Laurence Brownlie for that matter, against the Palmer F2 McLaren - so that we could have had a measure of they performed against him - but it never happened.
The season spent with the ex-Jim Clark Lotus 32B highlights just how good Jim Palmer was. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he would not have disgraced an F1 grid but he turned down the chance for the Driver to Europe scheme and I doubt he spends time wondering 'what if?' - unlike some others.
Best of all he is a top bloke and if there is a 'straighter' used car dealer around then I'd be amazed.
#12
Posted 30 October 2011 - 11:27
Foley,Palmer,Hamilton and Reg Mort.
#13
Posted 21 November 2012 - 04:44
He had good results in Tasman Serie in the 60s. Why doesn't he get the chance in F1 like other drivers from Australia and New Zealand in these days?
What happened with him?
L-R: Jim & Judy Palmer, Michael Clark & friend at Pukekohe, July 2012....
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#15
Posted 19 August 2014 - 14:56
L-R: Jim & Judy Palmer, Michael Clark & friend at Pukekohe, July 2012....
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I also see Howden Ganley in the photo
#16
Posted 02 January 2024 - 03:20
A couple of nice shots of Jim Palmer in the ex-Clark Team Lotus 1965 Tasman Cup winning Lotus 32B Climax #32-FL-8
It's the 1966 Sandown Park Tasman round where Jim was fourth. He was a splendid fourth in the Tasman too, behind the Stewart and Hill BRM P261s and Jim's Lotus 39 Climax. He also won the NZ Gold Star with it in 1966.
https://primotipo.co...w-zealand-1965/
The shot above is on the blast away from Peters/Torana with 'Lexs' dam and the Corrigan Road carpark in the background
Photos - State Library of New South Wales
Aussie Greg Cusack bought the car off the Palmers and raced it to fourth in the '67 Gold Star - one win at Symmons Plains.
Decades later part of Classic Team Lotus after owner/restorer John Dawson-Damer did a deal on another Lotus, 79 perhaps?
Edited by MarkBisset, 02 January 2024 - 03:45.
#17
Posted 03 January 2024 - 01:30
Sunday February 27, 1966 LCCA Sandown Tasman Meeting (7th round).
Event 2 Qualifying Heat ANF 2.5litre Cars Exide International Cup Race 6 laps 12.30pm p23
1 Team Lotus Lotus 39 Climax Green J Clark Scot 2495
8 J Palmer Lotus 32B Climax Green/Yellow Driver NZ 2495
Event 7 Exide International Cup Race
The 7th Heat of the Tasman Championship
(for ANF 2.5 and Aust 1.5 Racing Cars) 52 laps 3pm p37
1 Team Lotus Lotus 39 Climax Green J Clark Scot 2495
8 J Palmer Lotus 32B Climax Green/Yellow Driver NZ 2495
Mark you meant to type 1966 Gold Star? 32B swapped for 79/5
And before JD-D, spent time in an upstairs storage area in bits at John Roxburgh's Datsun dealership, when Tony Johns worked for him.
Stephen
Edited by cooper997, 03 January 2024 - 01:31.
#18
Posted 03 January 2024 - 13:26
And after Cusack...
With Mel McEwin for a lesson in how to depreciate. It retained the Brabham-style suspension fitted by Bruce Burr in the Cusack era, I suspect that remained with it until D-D took it back to original.
The odd thing was that Burry, as Cusack's appointed buyer, had determined to buy this car because he believed that the 32B and the 39 were the cars which wandered about the least.on the Flying Mile at Longford. So alter the suspension to be the same as the cars which wandered more?
#19
Posted 05 January 2024 - 04:50
Today is Jim's 82nd birthday - I sent him this thread with my birthday greetings this morning.
He loved that 32B and had his best 'Tasman' with it.
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#20
Posted 05 January 2024 - 05:09
Not forgetting its Tassy stint with the Sternbergs of course before Roxburgh owned it........ my favourite racing car back then.
#21
Posted 05 January 2024 - 08:55
It is interesting to see a SAAB 96, presumably V4 engined, in the paddock back in 1968. Were many sold over there in period?
Thanks for posting the shot in any case.
Roger Lund
#22
Posted 05 January 2024 - 10:35
Undoubtedly V4-engined, Roger...
There was a rash of activity around them for a short time, but I doubt that they sold more than several hundred Australia-wide.
And yes, Lindsay, I forgot David Sternberg in that line. It was a quick thing in the local racing in Tassie.
#23
Posted 06 January 2024 - 09:44
Saturday & Monday March 5 & 7 1966 (P – d1 & d2) Longford - 4th South Pacific Meeting - final round of Tasman & AGP for Motor Cycles
Sat, Event 6 The Examiner Racing Car Scratch Race 10 laps 2.50pm p17
1 Team Lotus Jim Clark Lotus Type 39 2493 Int
11 Jim Palmer Jim Palmer Lotus 32B Climax 2495 Int
Mon, Event 4 Fourth South Pacific Championship – final round of the Tasman Cup 27 laps 2.30pm p18-19
1 Team Lotus Jim Clark Lotus Type 39 2493 Int
11 Jim Palmer Jim Palmer Lotus 32B Climax 2495 Int
Stephen