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The Tom Tom Grands Prix


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#1 Cirrus

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Posted 09 November 2003 - 17:11

Do any other UK TNFers of a certain age remember the 60's boy's magazine programme "Tom Tom" on the BBC. Hosted, if memory serves, by Jeremy Carrad (the one who looked like Dracula) and John Earle (the polo-necked sweatered adventurous one), the programme had a feature in which it attempted to restage the key moments of the previous weekend's Grand Prix, but with slotcars. A somewhat older guy (who's name escapes me) had lovingly crafted replicas of the current season's F1 cars (long before they could be purchased commercially from Scalextric) and attempted to show us what happened. Younger menbers should know that very few Grands Prix were broadcast in those days.

One of the few GP's that had been shown live was the '67 Italian, and the tension involved in recreating the "Hondola" passing Jack Brabham on the line was palpable.

Anyway, is it just me, or are there other sad specimens out there whose brains are little more than a repository for useless rubbish?

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#2 Jeremy Jackson

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Posted 09 November 2003 - 17:17

I'm afraid (!) I do remember those GP reports, that's what got me interested in GPs at the tender age of 8...

Remember Jeremy Carrad, not quite sad enough to recollect Jon Earle - at all.

#3 Cirrus

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Posted 09 November 2003 - 17:25

THANK GOD!!!!! - I'm not alone!

PS - A disturbingly prompt response JJ

#4 dolomite

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Posted 09 November 2003 - 21:15

This has been mentioned before on this forum....

http://forums.atlasf...928#post1139928

#5 Vitesse2

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Posted 09 November 2003 - 22:02

Originally posted by Cirrus


Anyway, is it just me, or are there other sad specimens out there whose brains are little more than a repository for useless rubbish?


/ me raises hand :wave:

Jeremy Carrad is still around, currently living in Bristol - after Tom Tom he moved on to regional news. He's done some theatrical production too - funnily enough, there was a short article about him in the Western Daily Press a few days back.

#6 ian senior

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Posted 10 November 2003 - 12:33

Real "blast from the past" stuff here. I remember these races well. Wonder if the cars still survive, or did Rex Hayes take them home with him? More to the point, is there still any footage left? I guess not.

Would have been interesting to see the same approach taken to other racing of that period. 1-liter F3 would probably have meant a Scalextric track with about 40 slots on it.

#7 2F-001

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Posted 10 November 2003 - 15:50

I remember these too!

One model was actually set alight to recreate an instance of a car being in flames as it passed the pits. Can't work out which race that would have been though...

I recall sending off for a special Grand Prix results chart that you could fill in as the year progressed.

#8 Mallory Dan

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Posted 10 November 2003 - 15:52

I was very young at this time, but recall them too. Wasn't Raymond Baxter involved ??

#9 Barry Boor

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Posted 25 February 2008 - 22:17

Last week, David McKinney (bless him!) sent me 5 photocopied pages from the International Motor Racing Book No.3 (edited by Phil Drackett, 1968) which cover the Tom Tom F.1 extravaganza.

Like David, I have no memory of these programmes, but then at that time I was at College and had other, more 'interesting' things to think about!!!!

Anyway, the details of the programme are all here with me along with some splendid photos, the copyright to which, I am unable to vouchsafe.

I could always scan them and make them available, privately, to anyone who is interested.

I would LOVE to see one of the programmes.

(Thread revived after over 4 years.... :eek: )

#10 Alan Cox

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Posted 25 February 2008 - 23:09

I remember well the series of GP recreations. I must have been 12 or 13 at the time, and as a keen devotee of Scalextric, I thought they were brilliantly effective (could be rose-tinted spectacles, but I suspect not entirely!). Like Barry, I would love to see one of the programmes again, if only to confirm my opinion formed at the time.

One website reports that viewers were encouraged to follow the progress of the various teams via mail-order posters available from the programme. Anyone remember those? I seem to remember that Prof Eric Laithwaite (he of linear motor fame) was the resident scientific expert.

I believe that it ran from 1966-69 and one race, in particular, which springs to mind for some reason was the '66 German GP.

#11 Barry Boor

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Posted 25 February 2008 - 23:11

If I may quote from the pages David sent me:

"...we should continue the grand prix story by covering the 1966 Grand Prix Driver's Championship. This we did using a giant scoreboard and moving scale relief models across it as the points were scored, causing the cars and drivers to 'race for the Championship' as the season progressed. This was an instant and, indeed, almost paralysing success for letters in excess of 40,000 poured in during the first two races alone."

The article goes on to explain how this success led to the much more ambitious race recreations which apparently commenced in 1967 - so, Alan, your memory doesn't quite serve you right, but almost. (i.e. the programme WAS running in '66 but not in the form it later took.).

#12 Alan Cox

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Posted 26 February 2008 - 08:25

Must have been the '67 German GP then!