11 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

Fellow members,

Dario Resta won at Saltburn Sands in 1914 driving a car called "Toodles IV". Apparently "Toodles IV" had raced at Indianapolis. Does anyone have any more information?

[Vitesse2]

It was the Sunbeam which Guyot drove at Indianapolis in 1913.

[Graham Clayton]

It was the Sunbeam which Guyot drove at Indianapolis in 1913.

Vitesse2,

Thanks for the quick reply

How did the car get the name "Toodles IV"?

[David McKinney]

Because it was the one after Toodles III?

(Sorry)

[D-Type]

I think that "Toodles" was Louis Coatelan's pet name for his wife"

I suspect the Brooklands custom of giving cars names (like horses?) had something to do with it.

[Tim Murray]

You beat me to it, Duncan - it was indeed Coatalen's pet name for his wife Olive. So presumably she was Toodles I (as there doesn't appear to have been a car with that name). The cars were Toodles II to Toodles V.

[oliver heal]

In 1910 Coatalen drove a stripped 12-16 Sunbeam at Brooklands that carried the name 'Toodles' so I think it must be regarded as Toodles I.

I think you will find that the car Resta drove at Saltburn in 1914 was in fact the V12 9 litre Sunbeam usually known as 'Toodles V'. It subsequently went to the USA and was raced by De Palma at Sheepshead Bay and then in 1916 by H. Hughes who wrote it off in a major accident in Los Angeles. Confusingly my father in his book refers to it as Toodles IV at this point.

'Toodles IV' was a 6 cylinder 6 litre car built in 1911 that set up records at Brooklands before being rebuilt for Albert Guyot to drive at Indianapolis in 1913. It appears to have returned to the UK as Bunty Scott Moncrieff claimed to have owned it around 1930.

[Vitesse2]

Surely the only 1910 car was Nautilus? And your father doesn't mention a Toodles I in this 1962 letter to The Times: I'm pretty sure Duncan is right regarding Mme Coatalen being the original Toodles.



Interestingly, only Toodles II is specifically mentioned in Nickols & Karslake's "Motoring Entente" although the index refers to Toodles cars in the plural.

[Roger Clark]

I think Oliver Heal is correct that the Saltburn car was Toodles V, the 12-cylinder car, and not Guyot's Indianapolis car. There is a photograph on page 48 of his father's book.

[Roger Clark]

Because it was the one after Toodles III?

(Sorry)

Was there a Toodles III?

[Marticelli]

Was there a Toodles III?

Don't know about Toodles III but Boddy's excellent book on aero-engined racing cars at Brooklands has a whole chapter on the 1913 V12 Sunbeam, which points out that this was perhaps the first example of an aero-engine being installed in a racing car, primarily as a tool to develop the aero-engine not as a way of getting a cheap powerful car together. In 1913, aviation was still a perilous business and Coatalen wanted to get the V12 Sunbeam from a prototype into a reliable unit, so riunning it for prolonged sessions at Brooklands was a good idea. Although Toodles V was not the most successful thing he developed, the Sunbeam-Coatalen Mohawk airship engine which was the result of the development programme was a highly reliable and successful unit, seeing active service from 1915 - 1917 in RNAS airships.

Regarding Boddy's claim that this was the first example of an aero-engined special, I would suggest that actually the Maybach airship-engined Metallurgique was probably the first such car, which is now understood to have been put together around 1910 for an attempt at the Land Speed Record, although at the time Boddy's book was published (1992). it was described as having been put together in 1919. This monster still exists and is regularly exercised by Brian Moore at VSCC speed events, much to his credit, and quite daunting to behold never mind drive, as spectators of its recent Prescott and Mallory Park appearances will testify. Boddy's description of a trip out on the road in the Mother-in-Law seat behind Douglas Fitzpatrick and his German riding mechanic I rate as one of the all time best stories ever published in Motor Sport in its heyday.

Marticelli

[oliver heal]

Surely the only 1910 car was Nautilus? And your father doesn't mention a Toodles I in this 1962 letter to The Times: I'm pretty sure Duncan is right regarding Mme Coatalen being the original Toodles.

I think my father regarded the stripped 12 16 racers as modified production cars and therefore excluded them. To have included them would have opened up the whole subject of standard cars entered in competitions throughout the period he covered and if he had done that then why not go further back in time and cover the earler trials and hill climbs etc? Nautilus was created purely and simply for racing so that was clearly a racing car. I am concious that someone will no doubt turn round and say that the Coupe de l'Auto cars were just modified 12 16s and that the logic is a little suspect! Sadly he is no longer with us and cannot answer the conundrum. I have tried to fill in some of the gaps in the article i wrote for the STD Register Journal a couple of years ago that traced Coatalen's personal career as a racing driver. In 1910 he competed about four times as often on a 12 16 as he did with Nautilus. There is a photograph somewhere of him on a stripped 12 16 at Brooklands that has 'Toodles' painted on the bonnet.

If this 1910 'Toodles' is considered as 'Toodles I' then presumably Mme Coatalen must be regarded as the 'Prototype Toodles'!

Toodle pip.