Or a bean?

Lima bean otherwise known as a butter bean.

From memory Wilson was originally Doug N's mechanic, so was involed all the time. Latterly they shared the Beetle, Jeff W took it over 'full-time' after Doug finished. The car is being prepared as we speak to start racing again with Dave Taylor, who moons ago ran the Cortina mk3 Chev Superloon.

Quick technical point - I always thought that in Special Saloons (which I loved) the engine location had to mimic the base car - in which case the Beetle's engine should have been hung out the back rather than sitting ahead of the rear wheels? I guess my youthful understanding of the rules was erroneous...

I have posted this elsewhere in the dim and distant past, but here is said Cortina in the picturesque magnificence of the Longridge paddock...

Aussie sports sedans [very similar]also had that dilemma, particularly when Frank Gardner put a Chev in front of a Hewland in a Corvair. It was very succesfull in both Franks and later Alan Grices hands.
In the end CAMS finally banned it though it had won 2 Australian titles meanwhile.
Those VW beasts though make our cars look standard. Our cars have to run standard wheelbase and engine no further back than centreline of car [or in the case of the Corvair no further forward]

Photo's found on FlickR:
Copyright: Shipscompass







Regards,

Henk A. Hazelaar

Elevated at Oulton.

That looks like Fosters at Oulton, Ian Ashley in flying no.3, Vern Schuppan and Guy Edwards, 1975.

Historic Gts 1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNpo4zthmX4
Historic Single Seaters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L0gI-XCSE4

Cheers
Steve

Where were these pictures taken? Croft, maybe? They don't look familiar.

I have loved all of your pictures and will dig mine out and post a couple if I can find them.
Has anyone got any Renault 5 ts challenge pics from 81 or 82 I was driving a yellow ,white and black car number 27 then 22.(Saving money only having to buy one bag of numbers!)
It would be great to see them if any of you have any. Again thanks for the memories...

Hello chaps I'm back, not that youv'e missed me, I last posted at the end of October last year, just before going off to Thailand for a couple of weeks. On my return I had to get this finished, going slightly off topic here.

It's a Westfield kit car, it was booked in for SVA on New years eve, for those not familier with kit cars, SVA= Single vehicle approval, it's a test carried out by VOSA, Vehicle and operator services agency, to ensure kit cars have been built to a safe standard and meet current regulations, anyway it passed first time, phew.
In the meantime at Christmas I got a slide scanner, and I've been trying (without much success) to scan in some of my 'old' slides, so here we go, Nick Whiting at Oulton in I think 1975, the scan leaves a bit to be desired, cos' the slide looks almost perfect when projected onto a screen or through a viewer, but I will win eventually.

Also I've been scanning negatives as opposed to scanning photo's, I get a bit better results doing this.

But from spectator areas there's always a post gets in the way :\
Any of you more experienced scanners got any tips ?

Ok not a lot of time for replies to the above, so here's a few more 'normal' scans from photo's mostly b+w, but first Stirling and a very young mr Brundle at Oulton I do like the 2 mechanics stood by them.


Davis Vine is in the second car here it's a Cooper Bristol from 1953



More Historics



Minis



Mr Foulston



And my favourits Special saloons and Formula Ford



Ooops



Ooops again




All taken at Oulton from the outside of Knickerbrook

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Paul Hurdsfield
[B]Hello chaps I'm back, not that youv'e missed me, I last posted at the end of October last year, just before going off to Thailand for a couple of weeks. On my return I had to get this finished, going slightly off topic here.
some of my 'old' slides, so here we go, Nick Whiting at Oulton in I think 1975, the scan leaves a bit to be desired, cos' the slide looks almost perfect when projected onto a screen or through a viewer, but I will win eventually.



Don't care if it is on a screen or a through a viewer that is a terrific shot of a car which will strike a chord with those members who watched Club Racing in the mid - 1970s

Kind regards

Phil

Nice photos Paul, Nick's cars were always superbly prepared. What motor in the Westfield?

Thanks chaps I have got plenty more from around that time, buit I really would like to get better quality from the slide scans before I pop then up here.
The Westfield has a 2.0ltr Ford Zetec engine pushing out about 165bhp, it's mated to a Ford Type 9 gearbox from BGH Geartech with all the right ratios It's also got a Sierra Lsd, so it should put the power down quite well. It's taken me a year to build. This is my second westy, the first I had for 8 years before I ran out of talent

I've been practising with the scanner again, in the words of Mama Cass It's Getting Better" (but not much)
Both about 74'/75 I think.





Also the wife made me put some stuff in the loft this morning, and I found a binder full of b+w negatives, these seem to come out a bit better from the scanner, but not much, but as they say practice makes perfect
I haven't a clue what years, but I know some of you chaps will soon be along to tell me

Paul, this is what you can achieve when the scanned image has been tidied up:

Mid 80's Thundersports?

Keep em coming

Thanks Stephen

But when I tried to lighten them up the colours all went to pot
I'm using an ION scanner and Photo impression 6 software that came with the scanner, oh well I'll just have to keep on practising trouble is the wife keeps saying "what are you doing up there all this time"

Hi all, what a great site, came across it by accident, never joined a forum before, recognised some people I know on this thread, also started a thread hoping to find all the classic FF drivers from the eighties & nineties, with pics to share, I have put these couple of pics on with drivers Mr Smith knows well and I had the pleasure of racing with albeit that one of them shoved me off the track. Castle Coombe 6th Aug 1994, I was having a superb dice with Richard Peacock while Peter Ecclestone and Malcolm Barfoot were following in close attendance, in the second shot you can see peter looking over my shoulder or was he exhaling the cigarette secreted inside his lid, I was having a great race till Richard decided I should go & go I did, infield through 4ft high grass & weeds, I dont know how far I went but it took the Marshalls a while to find me. Hope lots of you from the Nineties Classic FF 1600 post some pics on my thread, cheers all...................

A few photos posted recently on other threads....

Mike Thackwell dices with Bernard Devaney, 1978



Roberto Guerrero, F3 Argo 1979

Some more from my Oulton Park collection.

Volvo estate


2 wheel racing


Now I'm not sure about these, so if anyone thinks they're in bad taste please say so and I'll remove them, I'd like to add the driver was Ok and walked away.
Note the steering wheel on the right still in the air after he chucked it.


Not the most elegant exit


Where's that car gone



And the show must go on

Wow, that brings back some memories! The slightly singed driver is Peter Duke (of the Duke Transport family) in a works Swift. He was perfectly OK, if somewhat rattled by his exit from the event. Not the last time that season that a Swift would suffer the same fate . Never did understand why he chose that particular spot to stop, but it made for a couple of interesting moments for the rest of us!

I believe the last picture features India's first Grand Prix driver, Narain Khartikayen, driving the works Vector - a very tidy little car, driven to great effect that season by Jason Watt. Narain was quick on his day, if not necessarily the most consistent driver on the grid. Following him is Geoffroy Horrion in a works Van Dieman and iirc Omar Betin in an Olympic VD.

Those fiery FF shots remind me of a similar thing that happened to my pal Steve Bradley. He was racing a Merlyn Mk20 in the HSCC historic FF series at Donington a few years ago. As he was coming past the museum he could smell petrol, carried on and braked for the chicane and as he did he realised the floor pan was filling up with fuel, as it sloshed towards his boots and pedals under braking. Suddenly the thing was ablaze, he got the car through the chicane whilst bailing out 'Douglas Bader' style, the car still moving albeit fairly slowly, falling onto the grass at the chicane exit. The burning Merlyn slowly carried on and hit the pit wall where the marshals quickly dealt with it. No damage to Steve thankfully and very little damage to the car. A fuel pipe behind his shoulder that connected with the carb had split, spilling fuel down the side of his seat.

In the first season or two of Formula Ford with the 1800 Zetec, teams born and raised on the simple and mild-mannered 1600 Kent were learning about the brave new world of electric fuel pumps, considerable pressure in the injection system and very hot catalytic converters the hard way - FF fires in '93 and '94 were too common to count, though happily injuries were few and far between. Eventually everyone learned to use good quality plumbing, to check it for tightness and to keep plenty of air around the almost red-hot cats...

Excuse me the indulgence, I enclose a few pictures from my Renault 5 days
Apologies for the state of the scans, and I will post some better pictures
(not of myself) soon.

Go back a few pages and you may find a few more R5's swaying in the breeze

I saw them, thats what prompted me to dig mine out, I wish mine were as good as the others.

Looking at the saloon pics, I won't swear to it, but the 'Daily Express'-backed Rover (Jeff Allam perhaps?)suggests 1981 or thereabouts. Is that Dennis Leech in the Capri in the top pic?

Antonio Albacate in the Madgwick Reynard FF2000 at Cadwell Park, 1984 (ish).



For some reason Albacate's helmet was thrown out by the Scrutineers and Antonio and Robert Synge were trawling the Paddock looking to borrow a replacement. Andrew Whitehouse and myself were racing our PRS in the 1600's and Albacate ended up using Andrew's helmet, which came back complete with a Madgwick sticker on the visor. The sticker stayed attached for some time afterwards

Alan,

Isn't Albacete's Reynard a 1986 model? IIRC, its very pointed nose sets it apart from the 1984 model, the 1986 model being a (very) slightly revised version of the 1984 car, the aesthetically pleasing pushrod suspended, behind-the-driver-radiator 1985 Huidekoper design having flopped. I wonder how many instances there have been of a production racing car being superseded by its predecessor? One is reminded of Mad Ronald's second honeymoon in 74 with the type 72 after the type 76 failed "...drag out the old one, I'll race that..."

It could be 1986, hence my (ish) after 1984. Dates have all been confused in the mists of time

Although not identical, the 1981 FF2000 Reynard had much more in common with the 1979 car than the 1980 version.

Maybe it's a Reynard thing...

That 1986 Reynard was a great looking car, though - a really tidy design.

First lap of race 2 for FF1600s at Aintree in 1981


Andy Middlehurst (Pacer) is ahead of the carnage as Wally Warwick spins


Warwick drags John Anderson into following him out wide as Westwell & Waudby keep out of trouble


Warwick still is motoring backwards as the tail clears Country Corner

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Stephen W
[B]First lap of race 2 for FF1600s at Aintree in 1981



Warwick still is motoring backwards as the tail clears Country Corner

Number 20 looks like Jim Kelly ......while 10 looks like Richard Peacock, he must have become caught up in the carnage to be that far back.

Unless he was late to the grid due to Ian Smith warming up his tyres with a lighter?

Kind regards

Phil

Crosslé 30F #9 is driven by Alan Stringer. Bill Reece is in Merlyn Mk30 #18. And John Swales (Van Diemen RF80 #17) appears earlier in the sequence. I don't have the programme, but suspect I might well have covered this meeting for MN (and, probably, the Altrincham Guardian)...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Phil Rainford
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Stephen W
[B]First lap of race 2 for FF1600s at Aintree in 1981



Warwick still is motoring backwards as the tail clears Country Corner

Number 20 looks like Jim Kelly ......while 10 looks like Richard Peacock, he must have become caught up in the carnage to be that far back.

Unless he was late to the grid due to Ian Smith warming up his tyres with a lighter?

Kind regards

Phil [/QUOTE]Peacock looks like he was P7 into Country, so either qualified well and fluffed the start, or qualified poorly and made a stonkerooney of a start, or qualified P7 and held station into Country.

20 is Jim Kelly, who has sadly been in hospital for the last seven weeks. He underwent a serious operation yesterday. It was a 50 50 job and Jim bravely opted for it. So far the signs are positive.

Richard Peacock can be clearly seen almost coming to a halt to avoid running into the back of John Anderson in the Merlyn - hence the 'late get away'.

A propos a recent reference to him on the "Personal photos from the track" thread, here is Stuart Baird displaying the various liveries adopted on his Merlyn - always very neatly turned out.

Look like a Pygmée MDB14...

"stonkerooney"

Mmmmm. Another slang term from Merseyside perchance? Although clearly from the blue side...

Merseyside perchance? Don't know, but it was used well before that Shrek lookalike, footballing thug, appeared on the scene.
Reply posted from the red side.

Is that anything like the dark side of the Force?

I always consider that the Toffees are Liverpool's reserve team.

No, Liverpool Reserves are Liverpool's reserve team. The Toffees are just a minor irritation on the other side of Stanley Park.

Unlike the major irritation that resides at the other end of the East Lancs Road ;)

Kind regards

Phil

Oh I get it! You mean Manchester City! They are not yet an irritation!

These are from the BARC meeting at Brands on 1st July, 1979:

David Leslie


Frank Bradley


Dave Gilbert


Ray Chamberlain


Stuart West


Miki Dee (15)


Ian Briggs


Howard Drake in front

Aintree '75, Kincraft leads in some sort of Libre race.