16 replies to this topic

[ericbirks]

Hi My name is Eric Birks I was mechanic for Mike Bond Aston Martin DB3S at the Angola Grand Prix in 1959 so know some about it Have Cup and photoes if anyone is still interested

[Doug Nye]

Hi My name is Eric Birks I was mechanic for Mike Bond Aston Martin DB3S at the Angola Grand Prix in 1959 so know some about it Have Cup and photoes if anyone is still interested

Related, by any chance, to Arthur Birks of Motorworks, the Whitehead company?

Welcome to TNF - Happy New Year - and, of course, photos would be fascinating...

DCN

[sramoa]

http://motorsportina...a.blogspot.com/

Here is a good blog,possible try it!

[ericbirks]

Related, by any chance, to Arthur Birks of Motorworks, the Whitehead company?

Welcome to TNF - Happy New Year - and, of course, photos would be fascinating...

DCN

Hi Doug Arthur Birks was my Farther we both worked at Motorwork (Chalfont) Ltd.We then moved on with Graham Whitehead and started the buiseness in Farnham Surry called Graham Whitehead Ltd the old man was manageing director and i was director in charge of the raceing department there. lots of stories and information if you'r interested Best wishes and Happy New Year Eric

[quintin cloud]

I would say post the pictures in this forum, it is always good to see new pictures.

[RWB]

Hi Doug Arthur Birks was my Farther we both worked at Motorwork (Chalfont) Ltd.We then moved on with Graham Whitehead and started the buiseness in Farnham Surry called Graham Whitehead Ltd the old man was manageing director and i was director in charge of the raceing department there. lots of stories and information if you'r interested Best wishes and Happy New Year Eric

I remember the garage in Farnham, opposite the cemetary and within sight of Mike Hawthorn's grave. The Aston Martin DBR1 was in the showroom for a time which would make it 1959-61 era. Was the garage there for long? I seem to remember a builders merchant there in later times. Someone said Sir Peter Moon (?) worked at the garage.

[ericbirks]

I remember the garage in Farnham, opposite the cemetary and within sight of Mike Hawthorn's grave. The Aston Martin DBR1 was in the showroom for a time which would make it 1959-61 era. Was the garage there for long? I seem to remember a builders merchant there in later times. Someone said Sir Peter Moon (?) worked at the garage.

Not quite sure when it finished although I was there till the end. It went into volentry liquidation at the finish .Perhaps thats why it was nicknamed by the local motor traders as "Mortuary Motors" and not its neareness to the cemetary.Sir Peter Moon did indeed work there at the same time,as a car Salesman and at the time we were quite close friends. Brit Pearce also worked for us he had been Mike Hawthorn's Mechanic. The DBR1 was displayed in the showroom to try to attract some intrest to the garage.The Photos I have are all on 35mm slides so will need converting to put any on this Forum. will do it soon as i can but it will take a while. Eric

[RWB]

Not quite sure when it finished although I was there till the end. It went into volentry liquidation at the finish .Perhaps thats why it was nicknamed by the local motor traders as "Mortuary Motors" and not its neareness to the cemetary.Sir Peter Moon did indeed work there at the same time,as a car Salesman and at the time we were quite close friends. Brit Pearce also worked for us he had been Mike Hawthorn's Mechanic. The DBR1 was displayed in the showroom to try to attract some intrest to the garage.The Photos I have are all on 35mm slides so will need converting to put any on this Forum. will do it soon as i can but it will take a while. Eric

Thank you for confirming my memories Eric. They're not always reliable. I know we would enjoy learning more about your experiences and seeing your pictures when you have a chance.

[O Volante]

Welcome Eric,
back to your original proposal: yes, I would be very much interested to see your picture of your "expedition" to Africa, both Léopoldville and and Luanda. I can not be 100% sure, but I would thing I can identify or comment on most of what happend in the two races ...

[llmaurice]

Hi My name is Eric Birks I was mechanic for Mike Bond Aston Martin DB3S at the Angola Grand Prix in 1959 so know some about it Have Cup and photoes if anyone is still interested

Hello Eric ,Interesting that you did Angola in 1959 because in '58 I worked for Pierre Berchem with the Lotus 15 and he too did the Congo in '58 .
The record shows he "won" at Leopoldville but that was after the ENB Ferrairs had all gone out . He then went on to Luanda but suffered "queerbox" failure out there . Because he let me downover injections etc.for the Congo so left me behind . Maybe the gearbox failure was poetic justice ? We fell out over that so I came back to UK and Lotus .
I'm very interested in your connection with the Whiteheads and TT and wonder if you had much to do with the late ,much loved Brit Pearse . I hope you have because I find so few people that knew Brit but I joined him in 1960 to look after Mike Taylors Lotus 18 and the 15s and we had some lovely times together .
I 'd like to hear your experiences of Brit -if you have any .

[ericbirks]

Hello Eric ,Interesting that you did Angola in 1959 because in '58 I worked for Pierre Berchem with the Lotus 15 and he too did the Congo in '58 .
The record shows he "won" at Leopoldville but that was after the ENB Ferrairs had all gone out . He then went on to Luanda but suffered "queerbox" failure out there . Because he let me downover injections etc.for the Congo so left me behind . Maybe the gearbox failure was poetic justice ? We fell out over that so I came back to UK and Lotus .
I'm very interested in your connection with the Whiteheads and TT and wonder if you had much to do with the late ,much loved Brit Pearse . I hope you have because I find so few people that knew Brit but I joined him in 1960 to look after Mike Taylors Lotus 18 and the 15s and we had some lovely times together .
I 'd like to hear your experiences of Brit -if you have any .

Hi llmaurice Brit Joined us at Graham Whitehead Ltd in Farnham but I cant remember the exact date .With him came a Lotus he was looking after for Doug Graham Complete with Standard Vangard and trailer to transport it with. Dont know why but above his workbench was a German Swastiker.He also had a fosselised Rat in a box which was named after a well known raceing car manufactuar. occasionly he would take off the lid and shout at it .The rest of us found this realy funny. Aparentley he had been involved in a court case with this firm over a failed steering part.sometime earlier .I enjoyed my time in the workshop with him and liked him very much.We didnt do many circiuts together as I was looking after Graham Whiteheads cars.and him Doug Grahams,we would only mix jobs if one of us was behind in our prep work.
The Congo and Luanda in 1959 were a wonderful experence I cant offhand remember the results though .At Leopoldville we sufferd severe overheating Mike Bond was all for going down to Luanda overland because he thought it would be quicker to give us more time to take care of the engine problems. Our transporter was the Ex Team Aston Martin lorry which at the time was very old and leaking diesel badly.Iflatley refused to be any part of it (we would proberly still be goeing round in circles somewhere in Afiica to this day without proper prepairation) The lorry was put on the train at Leopoldville and sent out to Bira on the coast then by boat to Luanda,we flew down and awaited the arrival of the car .When it eventually arrived it was off with the cylinder head which was found to be considerably warped. Nobody seemed to have the facility to re surface an aluminum cylinder head,eventually a Portugese man with a huge Lathe ofered to turn it flat. then came the worry of the valve to Piston clearence So i made a new solid copper gasket of the the correct thickness to take any doubt out of it.When the car was eventually sold the gasket i had made was still on it.After all the work Ithink it still got too Hot dureing the race,Just didnt like the tempriture out there.Enough rambelings for the moment .Excust spelling but was always better with a set of Webers than a pencil. Best Wishes speak soon Eric

[llmaurice]

Hi llmaurice Brit Joined us at Graham Whitehead Ltd in Farnham but I cant remember the exact date .With him came a Lotus he was looking after for Doug Graham Complete with Standard Vangard and trailer to transport it with. Dont know why but above his workbench was a German Swastiker.He also had a fosselised Rat in a box which was named after a well known raceing car manufactuar. occasionly he would take off the lid and shout at it .The rest of us found this realy funny. Aparentley he had been involved in a court case with this firm over a failed steering part.sometime earlier .I enjoyed my time in the workshop with him and liked him very much.We didnt do many circiuts together as I was looking after Graham Whiteheads cars.and him Doug Grahams,we would only mix jobs if one of us was behind in our prep work.
The Congo and Luanda in 1959 were a wonderful experence I cant offhand remember the results though .At Leopoldville we sufferd severe overheating Mike Bond was all for going down to Luanda overland because he thought it would be quicker to give us more time to take care of the engine problems. Our transporter was the Ex Team Aston Martin lorry which at the time was very old and leaking diesel badly.Iflatley refused to be any part of it (we would proberly still be goeing round in circles somewhere in Afiica to this day without proper prepairation) The lorry was put on the train at Leopoldville and sent out to Bira on the coast then by boat to Luanda,we flew down and awaited the arrival of the car .When it eventually arrived it was off with the cylinder head which was found to be considerably warped. Nobody seemed to have the facility to re surface an aluminum cylinder head,eventually a Portugese man with a huge Lathe ofered to turn it flat. then came the worry of the valve to Piston clearence So i made a new solid copper gasket of the the correct thickness to take any doubt out of it.When the car was eventually sold the gasket i had made was still on it.After all the work Ithink it still got too Hot dureing the race,Just didnt like the tempriture out there.Enough rambelings for the moment .Excust spelling but was always better with a set of Webers than a pencil. Best Wishes speak soon Eric

You've got Brit SPOT ON Eric ! I did hundreds of miles with him in that Vanguard with a thick layer of Wills Woodbine ash all over the front carpets . In fact on our way to LeMans in 1960 the carpet over the gearbox almost caught fire due to his ill famed Woodbine which Brit alwats managed to get about an inch of ash on the end of before it would fall in his lap ! The Fossilised rat is news to me but I certainly know the man he would shout at when viewing his rat as I was with him at Spa when Mikes steering column snapped ,hence the court case and subsequent out of court settlement . Dougs was one of 3 Lotus 15s we had so I reckon the date of Brit being with you would be 1961 possibly as the the ill fated Spa GP was 1960 .
Many thanks for the tale of Brit . Made me very happy to hear more about the old Adolph Hitler lookalike !

[ericbirks]

You've got Brit SPOT ON Eric ! I did hundreds of miles with him in that Vanguard with a thick layer of Wills Woodbine ash all over the front carpets . In fact on our way to LeMans in 1960 the carpet over the gearbox almost caught fire due to his ill famed Woodbine which Brit alwats managed to get about an inch of ash on the end of before it would fall in his lap ! The Fossilised rat is news to me but I certainly know the man he would shout at when viewing his rat as I was with him at Spa when Mikes steering column snapped ,hence the court case and subsequent out of court settlement . Dougs was one of 3 Lotus 15s we had so I reckon the date of Brit being with you would be 1961 possibly as the the ill fated Spa GP was 1960 .
Many thanks for the tale of Brit . Made me very happy to hear more about the old Adolph Hitler lookalike !

We defanatley are talking about the same bloke. Had forgotton about the Woodbines .Brit always reconed a good dose of fag ash on an engine rebuild helped with bedding in. We must know each other somewhere along the line .I was at Le Mans in 1960 with Graham Whiteheads 250 Ferrari Eric

[llmaurice]

We defanatley are talking about the same bloke. Had forgotton about the Woodbines .Brit always reconed a good dose of fag ash on an engine rebuild helped with bedding in. We must know each other somewhere along the line .I was at Le Mans in 1960 with Graham Whiteheads 250 Ferrari Eric

Our paths MUST have crossed Eric as Brit and I did LeMans in 1960 too . With Mike Taylor in hospital at Spa We went down to LeMans as Innes was down for the awful 2.0litre Elite and Jon Seiff was also in a Lotus but the 2,0L Elite was pulled out (just as well because Irelands feet were getting burnt through the exhaust etc. routing) and Seiff crashed badly leaving Brit and I with nothing to do which as I'm sure you'll know is a dangerous state to be in but fortunately Willie Griffiths had no reliable people to help him run the Laurent /Masson Elite so the three of us did all the pit work which paid off as we won the 1100 class .
Should have won the Index but The cars Manufacturer pulled a fast one when the Buxton Elite had starter failure and Mr/C.shouted to the plombeurs that we were doing an abnormal refuel and as soon as the guy turned back to us a starter motor appeared over the counter to replace their failed one .
Maybe yet another reason for Brits fossilised rat then ? Yes, he reckoned that when we did valve shims on the Climax motors they HAD to have a liberal coating of fag ash as it was as good as graphogen on startup !
Brit idolised Mike Hawthorn and often talked about Leslie his Dad . Happy memories -well , memories anyway I guess !

[ericbirks]

Our paths MUST have crossed Eric as Brit and I did LeMans in 1960 too . With Mike Taylor in hospital at Spa We went down to LeMans as Innes was down for the awful 2.0litre Elite and Jon Seiff was also in a Lotus but the 2,0L Elite was pulled out (just as well because Irelands feet were getting burnt through the exhaust etc. routing) and Seiff crashed badly leaving Brit and I with nothing to do which as I'm sure you'll know is a dangerous state to be in but fortunately Willie Griffiths had no reliable people to help him run the Laurent /Masson Elite so the three of us did all the pit work which paid off as we won the 1100 class .
Should have won the Index but The cars Manufacturer pulled a fast one when the Buxton Elite had starter failure and Mr/C.shouted to the plombeurs that we were doing an abnormal refuel and as soon as the guy turned back to us a starter motor appeared over the counter to replace their failed one .
Maybe yet another reason for Brits fossilised rat then ? Yes, he reckoned that when we did valve shims on the Climax motors they HAD to have a liberal coating of fag ash as it was as good as graphogen on startup !
Brit idolised Mike Hawthorn and often talked about Leslie his Dad . Happy memories -well , memories anyway I guess !

Am I right in thinking that Jonathan Seiff ended up in a ditch on the right hand side somewhere on the Maulsane Straight? Eric

[llmaurice]

Am I right in thinking that Jonathan Seiff ended up in a ditch on the right hand side somewhere on the Maulsane Straight? Eric

Yes! Poor bloke suffered serious injuries and the French made such a mess of him that the Seiff family (M&S) had him flown to Sweden to be properly put back together.He was such a strong fellow and I remember him lifting Innes up off the pit counter by his ankles .It seems that as he (and the car) hit the barn it collapsed totally .
I don't know if you knew that Brit used to "tend" the bar at the Selborne Arms where I last saw him in around 1980 .
I don't think Jon.Seiff ever raced again but after his Spa injury ,Mike Taylor raced David Cunninghams LolaT70 spider at Croft Endurance race in '85 to help David sell the car and that was the end of our Beaconsfield base team although its interesting to hear that Brit continued on with Doug Graham from your base Eric .Along with Alf Francis ,Willy Griffiths ,Stan Elsworth,Brit and a few others in that period will never be copied now I feel.

[ericbirks]

Yes! Poor bloke suffered serious injuries and the French made such a mess of him that the Seiff family (M&S) had him flown to Sweden to be properly put back together.He was such a strong fellow and I remember him lifting Innes up off the pit counter by his ankles .It seems that as he (and the car) hit the barn it collapsed totally .
I don't know if you knew that Brit used to "tend" the bar at the Selborne Arms where I last saw him in around 1980 .
I don't think Jon.Seiff ever raced again but after his Spa injury ,Mike Taylor raced David Cunninghams LolaT70 spider at Croft Endurance race in '85 to help David sell the car and that was the end of our Beaconsfield base team although its interesting to hear that Brit continued on with Doug Graham from your base Eric .Along with Alf Francis ,Willy Griffiths ,Stan Elsworth,Brit and a few others in that period will never be copied now I feel.

Iremember seeing the car at the time ,dont remember why but we went past it. Maybe on the way to the signaling pits .Last time I saw Brit was in about 1971, We had lunch together at a pub somewhere near Sonning .Not much to eat but pleanty to drink.Didn't know much about his personal life,seem to remember him talking of his landlady,maybe there was more to it than that.
Just before Farnham colapsed I had a very bad road accident in Graham's 250.Had just been to colect documents for a race at Aintree and was to drive up there that night .A man coming the other way collected me . As a family man this worried Graham he seemed to treat it as some sort of warning .Ironicley the man in the other car was Mike Bond.So it was the same person who I started with also just about finished my time with serious motor raceing .There was much more to it than that but better not aired to the general public.After Farnham my Farther and I started a small buiseness near Princess Risbourough We did go to Le Mans once more ,with Major Baillie. We also took on Chrs Kerrison's Ferrari Bread Van lookalike for a season. Eric