Mallory Park in the '60s

Maurice Bruton has given me a series of photos he took at Mallory Park in the early 1960s which are additional to the ones already posted on the Mallory Wednesdays thread. Travelling by train to Hinkley and then by bus to the circuit, Maurice's expenses did not stretch to a programme, and thus he cannot identify either the meetings or the cars pictured. They are all before my time, and hopefully TNFers will enjoy identifying them. Please bear with me as there are 101 images to post, some better than others but all of some historical significance.......

Edited by Louism, 16 November 2012 - 13:48.

The leading E type, coupe, in front of CUT 7 is probably Robin Strurgess in 2BBC, and the little silver car behind the Aston no 24 at the end of post 5 is probably David Lewis in the mk 2 DRW, so may be able to sort date. I am not near my records/progs at present for another week.
Roger Lund

PS Lovely stuff, Tony. The Elite with stripes will be John Wagstaff in all probability, BRC..... after he took 98FP off his car. He still has the reg.

The original programme lists Mike Garton as the driver of number 78.

Pete, Any chance of posting this Mallory programme?
Jake Alderson
Morgan historian

Jake, was it just this event you wanted? Pete


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Edited by Sharman, 28 November 2012 - 14:08.

It must be Dick Crossfield in the Shapecraft, the Surbiton Motors cars were a darker colour and had an additional side window behind the B pillar.

Edited by bradbury west, 27 November 2012 - 13:59.

Jake, was it just this event you wanted? Pete


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Pete,
Thanks for the programme. Since you ask, if you have any programmes that identify and date the other Morgan photos in the Mallory photos I'd love to see them.
Sincere Thanks
Jake

The very first race meeting I was taken to as a young teenager was at Mallory Park as we lived quite close by. it would have been mid 1960's and what I remember was being amazed at the antics of the minis in the saloon race, the smell (Castrol R?) and a very beautiful Lola T70 driven I think by Norman Surtees in either a GT race or Libre race.
A few years later when I was able to drive myself I have great memories of the Formula 3 internationals with huge fields and again the Libre races which were great fun at Mallory with the likes of Willie Green, Chris Meek, Martin Shardlow and many others in all sorts of (to us) exotic machinery. Anyone else remember these Libre races, usualyy final race of the meeting?

Having a special interest in Marcos GTs (I own one where the early history is unknown so far) I notice that in addition to Raymanond Nash, there was another Marcos GT entered, this one by Team Fife and driven by T. D. Simpson. First time I hear about team as well as driver, so I wonder if someone out there know more about them and.

/Lars-Göran

The entry by Surbiton Motors of an Elan to be driven by "L.G.Arnold" - surely that wouldn't be Graham Arnold? Would he fit into an Elan?

Apologies for the slight tardiness of the reply! No, this was Les Arnold, who was not particularly noted as a racing driver and ran a taxi firm in London. He crashed the car fairly comprehensively (I seem to recall at Zandvoort in summer 1964) and never raced it again. I think it was rebuilt by The Chequered Flag and advertised for them a year or so later and it still exists today.

Edited by bradbury west, 02 February 2018 - 22:14.

Again, what a wonderful thread started by Tony' generosity.
I think the damaged E type with hardtop is Ken Baker's car, 7CXW, which reappeared at the Revival a couple of years back, still on wires.
Depending on the year, the Attila may be being driven by John Bekaert, although someone shared it with him at a couple of Brands sprints. That of course was not the first Attila which was/is a road car and lives in Belgium.

No 42 looks like a smoking Felday, and 124 looks like a Lola F1 car like the one John Surtees used to win the 2000guineas in 1962 but with a larger nose opening. Didn't someone win in it the next year fitted with a 2.7litre 4 pot Climax engine in it? Or perhaps the memory is failing.....

Roger Lund

That smoking 42 is the Attila that Roy Pierpoint drove in 1964.

Did someone say Mallory Park in the 60's. From my late Father's collection - annotated Mallory 1964.

Looks like Formula Libre or an allcomers race. I have no other info.

Pole car livery  looks like the John Taylor Bob Gerard Cooper Ford

Roger Lund

I just came across this old thread and was immediately transported back to those halcyon days. I spent a lot of time at this circuit in the 60's and was inspired to raid the attic for my old programmes. I have a lot from this era and may be able to shed further light on some of the photo's. After a trawl through the programmes, these are the official printed entries:

#23, the Daimler SP250 is Dick Crosfield according to the programme.

The F3 race had a glorious entry and the first four finishers were 1) Jackie Stewart, 2) Pete Arundel, 3) Mike Beckwith and 4) Mike Spence.

The Ken Tyrrell entry for John Taylor won and this was the first ever UK F3 race (to the 1000cc F3).

Paul Emery entered the twinny mini but the driver is  down as To be Nominated, so probably Paul or Rod Embley.

Note that #25 is down as the Attila Climax.

Browsing the entry lists of these programmes is mouth watering and there are some hidden gems. Amongst the likely lads in event 8 at the 2/6/63 meeting were "T Bone" driving for "Ecurie Freeze", and an "F. O. Williams" driving a Speedwell Sprite entered by "Lido Speed Accessories Ltd." I wonder what became of him?

My apologies for the non appearance of my prepared attachments. Can someone please direct me as to how to attach photo's etc. to this Forum?

Thanks Tim. Please pm me! I have signed up to Postimage, uploaded my images and posting to this site is still impenetrable.

By way of a test posting, here I hope are two photo's of Paul Emery's amazing twin-engined Mini in the Mallory paddock. This is a later incarnation of the one in earlier posts and has a bulge on the front of the bonnet for the Weber intake trumpets.

That appears to be a success - thanks Tim for the instructions. Here is another one - Chris Lawrence's Deep Sanderson.

What, what, what!?!! Never known of a Deep Sanderson looking anything like that. Can anyone enlighten?

I suspect I'm not the only person taken aback by Jim Clark (and Tony Maggs) being entered in F3 in 1964. It was an F2 event, won by Clark in a Lotus 32.  

What, what, what!?!! Never known of a Deep Sanderson looking anything like that. Can anyone enlighten?

That's the far less well-known Shallow Sanderson.      Not sure what it is, it looks familiar though, but not Deep.

I suspect I'm not the only person taken aback by Jim Clark (and Tony Maggs) being entered in F3 in 1964. It was an F2 event, won by Clark in a Lotus 32.  

F3 or F2, what was a 1071cc Mini Cooper S doing in the race?

On the Emery Twin-Mini, what's the engine in the back?  It certainly isn't an A Series?

Proviz - you are correct. My note on the back of the photo is wrong and I have been under a misaprehension for 54 years. I have consulted my old programmes again and the car is given as a Desauto GT of 998 cc driven by an A. Stevens at the1965 Boxing Day meeting. It appears again during 1966 as the Desauto Stevens, entered by A.Stevens and driven by P. Gaydon. Could this be Peter Gaydon, ex director of the BRDC? It is not shown in his records.

I suspect I'm not the only person taken aback by Jim Clark (and Tony Maggs) being entered in F3 in 1964. It was an F2 event, won by Clark in a Lotus 32.  

Apologies again! F2 indeed. Ron Harris - Team Lotus entries for Clark and Arundel. The first 5 on that list are all F2.

The 1071 Mini and the other cars were at the same meeting, not necessarily in the same races.

 

On the Emery Twin-Mini, what's the engine in the back?  It certainly isn't an A Series?

After further research, the twin Mini I photographed was built by Gordon Allen and had engines based on Jaguar components shortened to four cylinders to fit on top of a Mini transmission - quite a feat of engineering. I read somewhere that he cast new blocks. Both engines were the same.

Rod Emblley drove the car and it was very fast. It could see off a well set up 3.8 Jag mkII.

Proviz - you are correct. My note on the back of the photo is wrong and I have been under a misaprehension for 54 years. I have consulted my old programmes again and the car is given as a Desauto GT of 998 cc driven by an A. Stevens at the1965 Boxing Day meeting. It appears again during 1966 as the Desauto Stevens, entered by A.Stevens and driven by P. Gaydon. Could this be Peter Gaydon, ex director of the BRDC? It is not shown in his records.

Ahhh, that's interesting, I seem to remember a sales ad in Autosport of a Desauto with a small photo, car perhaps still incomplete. Must check at the weekend when I get back home. 

After further research, the twin Mini I photographed was built by Gordon Allen and had engines based on Jaguar components shortened to four cylinders to fit on top of a Mini transmission - quite a feat of engineering. I read somewhere that he cast new blocks. Both engines were the same.

 

Rod Emblley drove the car and it was very fast. It could see off a well set up 3.8 Jag mkII.

I thought the engine had a Jaguar-esque look to it, but could not see how it could be such as it was clearly only 4 cylinders!  As you say, a real feat of engineering. - assuming they started with the minimum of a 2.4 XK, that would still give them two 1.6 litre motors, totalling 3.2 litres.  And if they were really keen and went for the 3.8 XK as a base, they could have had over 5 litres!

As it seems to have been little known of, even in these learned parts, I presume it wasn't a roaring success?

A G**gle search for this car/maker throws up almost nothing. Maybe between us we can add something to the world's knowledge!

assuming they started with the minimum of a 2.4 XK, that would still give them two 1.6 litre motors, totalling 3.2 litres.  And if they were really keen and went for the 3.8 XK as a base, they could have had over 5 litres!

 

As it seems to have been little known of, even in these learned parts, I presume it wasn't a roaring success?

I seem to remember at the time calculating from the programme's published engine size what the original Jag bits came from and it did work out almost exactly to one of the Jg engine sizes but I forget which. More programme searching is necessary!

It was a success as a saloon car but IIRC was out of any recognised class at the time so had to compete against large capacity prototype and GT cars, or Formula Libre. It seemed to have a fairly short life though. I read a comprehensive account of Gordon Allen and the car in the internet some time ago but can't find it now.

assuming they started with the minimum of a 2.4 XK, that would still give them two 1.6 litre motors, totalling 3.2 litres.  And if they were really keen and went for the 3.8 XK as a base, they could have had over 5 litres!

 

As it seems to have been little known of, even in these learned parts, I presume it wasn't a roaring success?

I seem to remember at the time calculating from the programme's published engine size what the original Jag bits came from and it did work out almost exactly to one of the Jag engine sizes but I forget which. More programme searching is necessary!

It was a success as a saloon car but IIRC was out of any recognised class at the time so had to compete against large capacity prototype and GT cars, or Formula Libre. It seemed to have a fairly short life though. I read a comprehensive account of Gordon Allen and the car in the internet some time ago but can't find it now.

Would this be the one?

https://twiniminis.com/

And there's more on Gordon and his work under 'History' on the website's options.

A G**gle search for this car/maker throws up almost nothing. Maybe between us we can add something to the world's knowledge!

Keith, here's something interesting on Tony Stevens, the Desauto and various other projects of his. Seems that he worked for Rootes, and combined two Imp engines to power the Desauto.

https://www.grantfor...evens-elf-s-tlc

Coincidentally I was at that 1965 Boxing Day meeting (aged 8) and I still have the programme. I see the Desauto was first reserve so I wonder if we saw it race. It's a beautiful looking beast!

Another car at the meeting that stands out in my memory is Bernard Unett's 'Le Mans' Sunbeam Tiger.

Thanks John. That is a great article and sheds a lot of light on the man. The car however is still a bit of a mystery as it ran in 1965 and 66, is clearly the same car as illustrated in the article, but there is no mention of it in the otherwise fairly thorough timeline. I remember it as orange (I was going to build a slot car version which is why I took the photo), and it is down in the programme as being 998cc. I always thought that it probably had a Mini Cooper engine like the Unipower and Cox GTM, but it appears from the article that it must have been Imp based. The wet linered engines by Greetham and Hillthorne were 998cc.

Here is another oddity - the Cooper Arden of Graham Eden. The history of this car is covered well in post 59 of the 60's Formula Libre thread.

The photo was taken at Mallory on 13/10/63

Edited by Keith Rolleston, 10 June 2020 - 18:59.

The Marcos of Alan Eccles, also at the 13/10/63 meeting. I have always thought that this was the best looking car that Marcos produced. The rear end treatment is much more harmonious than the later 1800, and we won't mention the M*n* - Marcos.

Any from the 70s Keith. I was a regular between 74-83ish.

Yes Dan. This post thread is about the 60's though so I will post them under a new topic heading - Mallory in the 70's.