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Jim Clark hillclimbing in a Terrier Mk2?


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#1 bradbury west

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Posted 01 October 2011 - 21:40

Looking at the BBC4 profile programme Jim Clark, the Quiet Champion, very early on in the programme, when Ian Scott-Watson and Graham Gauld are setting the scene for the very early days, there is series of old family film clips showing JC in some early events. One short sequence shows what I believe to be an ali-bodied Terrier mk 2 being driven up what looks like it could be Rest and be Thankful. Is that the case? This would be late 1958, or 1959 I imagine.
Did Jim Clark compete in a Terrier?
If so does anyone know which car/chassis it was, or reg number, and whose car it was?.
Roger Lund

Edited by bradbury west, 02 October 2011 - 07:11.


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#2 D-Type

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Posted 01 October 2011 - 22:22

Jim Clark, Grand Prix Legend by Andrew Tulloch, the curator of the Jim Clark Room in Duns, includes a list of Clark's competition results. The only references to Rest-and-be-Thankful are to the events on June 28th and July 5th 1958 when Jim competed in his TR3 and Ian Scott Watson's Porsche 1600S. The only other hillclimb featured is the July 11th 1959 Bo'ness Hill Climb when he drove Ian Scott Watson's Porsche and Lotus Elite and the Border Reivers Lister-Jaguar. (I don't know whether the record covers every event Clark competed in).

Edited by D-Type, 01 October 2011 - 22:23.


#3 David Birchall

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Posted 02 October 2011 - 00:09

Could it be a Gemini?

#4 David McKinney

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Posted 02 October 2011 - 06:40

I know of no other hillclimbs Clark contested in 1958 and 1959, though there were several sprints. Winfield would have been an airfield venue, but I don't know about Hawick

And I'm fairly sure the only cars he competed with in those years were the TR3, the Porsche, the D-type, Lotus Elite, Lister-Jag and, at the Boxing Day 1959 Brands Hatch meeting, an FJ Gemini. No record of anything Terrier-like

#5 Alan Cox

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Posted 03 October 2011 - 19:06

Could it be a Gemini?

The Gemini which he drove at Boxing Day Brands 1958 was polished aluminium IIRC. Was the car cycle-winged, Roger?

I know of no other hillclimbs Clark contested in 1958 and 1959, though there were several sprints. Winfield would have been an airfield venue, but I don't know about Hawick

I think, though stand to be corrected by GG, that the Hawick venue would be Stobs Camp, an army camp which closed in 1959.

#6 WillHenderson

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Posted 03 October 2011 - 23:01

The clip in question shows a split screen with, on the left, the polished alloy bodied Terrier leaving the start at the Bo'ness hillclimb. The image on the right is the car at the Rest and be Thankful. The next edit shows the Rest and be Thankful on both the left and right of the screen however the car in the left image is distant but is dark coloured, perhaps a lotus, and it's the terrier again on the left image. The car's competition number is 20 and in June 1962 Miss Jill Hutchison entered a Terrier at the Rest with the competition number 20. So the film is probably not of Clark. I'll have a look at my father's photos to see if there are more clues.
(Images of the Rest and Bo'ness can be seen on my father, Bill Henderson's web site www.thebillhendersoncollection.co.uk)

#7 bradbury west

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Posted 05 October 2011 - 16:55

I have now had the opportunity to speak at length with 2 of Jim Clark's very old and dear friends from the very earliest days to the end, and they both confirm that it is Tynesider Jill Hutchinson, later editor for many years of the Border MC magazine, and that Jim did not drive a Terrier. I had checked all the usual sources in the books on the shelves here.

I got the impression that there was an air of disappointment that the programme's producers had not taken fuller advantage of the 90 minutes of home cine film from those very early Jim Clark years, rather than taking non-relevant clips , other than to show a broader view of period events.
Len Terry was looking forward to hearing that Jim might have had experience of one of LT's designs prior to their meeting at Lotus later.
Thanks for everyone's efforts.
Roger Lund

edit. Wearing another hat, does anyone recall the reg no of the Hutchinson Terrier?

Edited by bradbury west, 06 October 2011 - 16:09.


#8 IanMH

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Posted 05 October 2011 - 19:57

I think it's the car still raced in Scotland by Scott Goodfellow 137 TBB

Photo on John Crae's website from Bo'ness 1962

http://jcrae.smugmug...151434553_zpwRq

Bo'ness 2009

Posted Image

Cheers Ian



#9 Graham Gauld

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Posted 06 October 2011 - 14:56

The Gemini which he drove at Boxing Day Brands 1958 was polished aluminium IIRC. Was the car cycle-winged, Roger?

I think, though stand to be corrected by GG, that the Hawick venue would be Stobs Camp, an army camp which closed in 1959.



Absolutely correct. Stobs was an army camp on a hillside. Have attached a photo of former BMC factory rally driver John Williamson driving his Riley Elf - or Wolseley Hornet, you choose. Note the camp building in the background.



Posted Image

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#10 David McKinney

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Posted 06 October 2011 - 15:05

Too big for either of those models, Graham. They were Mini-based

Looks to me like a Riley One-Point-Five, sister of the Wolseley 1500 (and, if you're Australian, of the Austin Lancer and Morris Major)

#11 Graham Gauld

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Posted 06 October 2011 - 16:21

Too big for either of those models, Graham. They were Mini-based

Looks to me like a Riley One-Point-Five, sister of the Wolseley 1500 (and, if you're Australian, of the Austin Lancer and Morris Major)



You are right David it was the Riley 1.5 I did not realise you were that old !!!!

GG

#12 Allan Lupton

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Posted 06 October 2011 - 16:29

Too big for either of those models, Graham. They were Mini-based

Looks to me like a Riley One-Point-Five, sister of the Wolseley 1500 (and, if you're Australian, of the Austin Lancer and Morris Major)

Yes and pre-1960 at that, as it has the external bonnet hinges!

#13 hatrat

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Posted 06 October 2011 - 18:47

The Gemini which he drove at Boxing Day Brands 1958 was polished aluminium IIRC.


The Gemini Jim drove at Brands on Boxing Day was in 1959. It was his first ever single seater drive and contrary to some reports the engine was not a Cosworth Ford but a 1000cc BMC. Photo below with the designer of the Gemini, Les Redmond, in the dark sports coat, talking to Jim :

Posted Image

Photo from the Brad Ward collection.

Edited by hatrat, 06 October 2011 - 18:49.