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Pomeroy, Setright - so what about Bolster ?


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#51 Robin Fairservice

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Posted 10 January 2016 - 05:32

Can I come back to Bolster?  I read Autosport every week for many years and always enjoyed his Road Tests.  I have all of the High Performance" year books, and they come in handy for memory reminders.  I used to work on the track at Brands Hatch for the BRSCC (and before them for the Half Litre Car Club).  At one time I wondered about an inside job in the Timekeeper's box so I worked there as their assistant for one day. Part of my task was to pass messages to John in his tiny commentary box.  Under his desk was a crate of beer which was empty by the end of the day!  Which would explain why, at the end of a busy day, we heard John say "..and he is passing Uren along the main straight"!  Then John added: "There, I have wanted to say that for a long while",

 

Each timekeeper had two watches and I was told that they cost about £150 each!  As a student I gave up that idea quick.  After very many years working as a Flag Marshal, I finally became a time keeper when computers took over that job, so now work inside in an air conditioned building!



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#52 Allan Lupton

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Posted 10 January 2016 - 09:50

Each timekeeper had two watches and I was told that they cost about £150 each!  As a student I gave up that idea quick.

Yes that's how it was when I first had reason to be in the timekeepers' box in the late 1960s. Price of the watches aside, they had to be calibrated annually at NPL which wasn't cheap.

It was a good education to watch a timekeeper timing every lap of four or five cars to a fifth of a second using the two split-action chronographs. What's more there were people like Roland King-Farlow still working - a man who could match JVB's alcohol level. As he wrote in the VSCC Bulletin in Autumn 1971:

"Years ago a senior timekeeper wrote an article in the Autocar stating that alcohol was strictly forbidden in Timing Boxes, a statement that I have devoted the autumn years of my life to disproving."



#53 P.Dron

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Posted 10 January 2016 - 11:57

Russell B was a big Midas fan and used one regularly for a while to drive quite long distances - and he seemed to squeeze himself into that quite successfully. A couple of friends of mine were quite involved with Midas (more especially the later, great-looking but short-lived 'Gold') so I took a particular interest. 

 

Gordon Murray was fan too and at one point I remember him talking of an Alfa-engined derivative, but as we know he was soon consumed by other, higher-profile projects. The Midas founder, Harold Dermott, was involved in the development of the original McLaren F1 road car - later becoming (I think) Head of Customer Care.

Sorry - straying off topic again...

 

Russell was, one might say, deeply attached to his Midas which he ran as a long-term car when we were both on the staff of Motor. Normally, long-term cars were used by most staff members as well as by their nominal "owner", but Bulgin, as Sports Editor, did not consider that this rule should apply to him.

 

However, for the farewell article, there was always a "Second Opinion". The one on the Midas was assigned to me and I practically had to prise the keys from him. Overall, I thought it was not bad but I was astounded that Russell had not mentioned in his reports how cramped it was for tall drivers and that forward visibility was poor. I am well above average height but Russell was several inches taller. I described in my short article how I kept banging my head on the roof on bumpy roads and added that it must have been far worse for RB. He seemed seriously miffed about my remarks for some reason, but he was a notoriously sensitive chap. 



#54 h4887

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Posted 10 January 2016 - 21:42

I'm now on my second Midas, a Mk3, and I recently got in touch with the chap who built my car in 1987. He told me he's 6' 5" - presumably he made sure he would fit before placing his order...



#55 Robin Fairservice

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Posted 10 January 2016 - 22:08

John's commentary box wasn't actually in the Timekeepers Box, but was a short distance along a passageway.  Hi space wasn't much larger than a closet!



#56 P.Dron

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Posted 11 January 2016 - 12:11

I'm now on my second Midas, a Mk3, and I recently got in touch with the chap who built my car in 1987. He told me he's 6' 5" - presumably he made sure he would fit before placing his order...

 

It is possible that the seating position had been altered by then.



#57 john aston

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Posted 13 January 2016 - 07:43

I wonder if Mr Dron has any thoughts to share on the estimable Roger Bell , who would have been a colleague at Motor ?  He wrote as well as he drove , I thought , and I recall seeing him winning a number of times in the production saloon car championship in the 2002Tii . In fact I think he won the championship.

 

It is also heartening to see that the  journalist racer tradition is being carried on by comparative youngsters Messrs Meaden and Harris, whose drives at Silverstone Classic in T70s and Cortinas have been top drawer stuff.   



#58 P.Dron

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Posted 13 January 2016 - 12:01

I wonder if Mr Dron has any thoughts to share on the estimable Roger Bell , who would have been a colleague at Motor ?  He wrote as well as he drove , I thought , and I recall seeing him winning a number of times in the production saloon car championship in the 2002Tii . In fact I think he won the championship.

 

It is also heartening to see that the  journalist racer tradition is being carried on by comparative youngsters Messrs Meaden and Harris, whose drives at Silverstone Classic in T70s and Cortinas have been top drawer stuff.   

Yes, Roger was my first Editor. Wonderful chap, excellent driver, outstanding road tester. I keep in touch with him. 



#59 oliver heal

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Posted 15 August 2020 - 13:11

I have just come across an extraordinary letter dated 24 Feb 43 signed John VB which I am convinced is from John Bolster. But it ends up you must meet Betty soon. From the obituaries his wife appears to have been called Rosemary. Anyone know if she was known as Betty?



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#60 Roger Clark

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Posted 15 August 2020 - 14:36

In his autobiography Motoring is my Business, Bolster says that following his 1948 accident he was “learning to drive a Bath chair with a power unit rated at one-Betty-power; in other words, it was pushed by my wife”.



#61 Geoff E

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Posted 15 August 2020 - 14:59

John Bolster was married three times :-

 

  • In January 1943 to Georgina E Dunnell (Rainier)

 

 

Her first husband Roger H Dunnell was a motor engineer, in receivership in 1952, likewise in 1973.



#62 oliver heal

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Posted 16 August 2020 - 09:06

Thank you very much for that clarification. The letter to Anthony Heal was dated 24 Feb 43 and reads as follows:

Dear Anthony,

Many thanks for your letter. Actually, I couldn't get along to the Veteran's beer up, because I've been extremely busy, as I'll explain.

 

You see, I took a girl out one evening, and when she got back home, a gentleman whom she'd refused to marry ambushed her, and chased her upstairs firing his revolver at her. She gave a hearty yell, and he evidently thought she'd had it, because he then shot himself, his marksmanship in this case being 100%. Needless to say, this has caused a helluva to do, and it hasn't been fun at all, but its all straightened out now, and I have run away for a few days to a quiet pub. Oh, by the way, I've brought the girl with me, but its all right, because I've married her!

 

This young woman, at the age of 27, has somehow produced, from a former marriage, no less than three sons and a daughter, so my family numbers five so far. I hope they will all work very hard in later years, so that they can pay for my expensive tastes in alcoholism. Anyway, everything is absolutely grand, and you must meet Betty soon.

 

I hope Theodora and Ambrose are in good form.

yrs.

John V.B.

 

 

He was certainly a good story teller!



#63 Geoff E

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Posted 16 August 2020 - 11:34

Mrs Dunnell obtained a divorce in 1940 following her husband's admission of adultery, said to have taken place in a caravan in Gravesend.



#64 Doug Nye

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Posted 16 August 2020 - 12:25

Aah - those Gravesend caravans, eh?

 

DCN



#65 Vitesse2

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Posted 16 August 2020 - 12:36

Aah - those Gravesend caravans, eh?

 

DCN

Perhaps he didn't want to fork out for the more usual Brighton hotel used by the 'better class' of professional co-respondent ...  ;)



#66 Ray Bell

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Posted 16 August 2020 - 14:30

Gravesend obviously means something different to you blokes than to me...

 

I think of the one-horse town between Warialda and Moree.

 

There a caravan might be considered comfortable.



#67 68targa

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Posted 16 August 2020 - 17:23

As if driving "Bloody Mary" was not enough excitement for JVB