38 replies to this topic

[petestenning]

Things i regret i have 2 major ones, nostalgically .

1ST when we moved from a 3 bedroom house to a bungalow i had a collection of race programmes i had collected from 1969 to the 1990 's all with additional entries and non starters, grids and results , but i threw them out as there was no room for them. My biggest mistake as these would have been invaluable now to historians like myself.

My 2nd regret is that i was down to marshal at the very last meeting at Crystal Palace, this would have been my first and only visit to the track for a car meeting.
I worked with another parts man and we both marshalled but one of us had to work that day and sadly it was me.

Luckily i had been taken to the Palace years before my by granddad to watch some bike racing when i was about 8/9


Pete

[Gary Davies]

Oh by a large margin, it's not finding the time and the money - coulda done both if I'd been awake - to jump on a plane from Oz to Blighty to join my dear old dad in walking up a beach in Normandy on June 6 1994.

He disembarked on that coast 50 years earlier and he went all the way to the Brandenburg gate. Bless him.

[sabrejet]

Motorsport-wise? Not going to more Group C races. I also regret not seeing the light regarding F1 and looking wider for better motorsport.

[cdrewett]

Not buying my brother's Le Mans Replica Nash that he offered me in 1963 for £325

[Allan Lupton]

Not buying a B type Connaught for £650 from Frank? Norris in 1962.
What's more, had I bought it, two people who were subsequently killed driving it wouldn't have been - but I might have been of course.

Edited by Allan Lupton, 14 October 2012 - 12:15.

[Hse289]

Not a big regret but whilst chatting to Chuck Daigh one year at Goodwood i forgot to ask him for his autograph.

[Ralf Pickel]

Not buying an AC Ace, but an XK 120 instead in 1995.
Both similarily priced at the time.....
The XK is gone again, I am pretty sure the Ace would still be here !

[arttidesco]

Selling my collection of Autosports 1977 - 1992 to pay for some travel insurance for a nine month trip to India did not seem very wise, but then my girl friend got sick on day four and spent the next ten days in a private hospital, so it seemed like a canny investment when we flew home two weeks after we left.

[Sharman]

Not buying an AC Ace, but an XK 120 instead in 1995.
Both similarily priced at the time.....
The XK is gone again, I am pretty sure the Ace would still be here !

Not quite Snap Ralf but very close, I bought a TVR in 1960, I could have had a full race Ace Bristol for the same price and got a better part X on my Minor

[Ralf Pickel]

At least I am not alone with that Ace thing...

[wolf sun]

Not even close to Aces and Jags, let alone Connaughts - but not keeping my 1976 Opel Kadett C Coupé after someone crashed into the back of it - would be nice to still have it...

On a smaller scale (or maybe not), missing out on the last 1000km race on the proper Nürburgring in '83, instead giving in to my sister who was urging my dad and me to go home...

[E1pix]

In racing, turning down an offer to be Toleman's only sign painter for 1984.

We now know who drove it.

[arttidesco]

In racing, turning down an offer to be Toleman's only sign painter for 1984.

We now know who drove it.

Ah yes two time world motorcycle champion Johnny Cecotto, Stefan Johanson, Pierluigi Martini and some bloke from Brazil with reputation for taking Martin Brundle out from behind in Formula Three

Edited by arttidesco, 14 October 2012 - 18:24.

[E1pix]

Sometin' like that.

[David Beard]

In racing, turning down an offer to be Toleman's only sign painter for 1984.

We now know who drove it.

If you had stayed, how are you on JPS style logos?

[Belmondo]

Not buying a B type Connaught for £650 from Frank? Norris in 1962.
What's more, had I bought it, two people who were subsequently killed driving it wouldn't have been - but I might have been of course.

Stephen Langton? That car claimed someone else's life too?

[retriever]

Never having the courage to speak to Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan & Ernest Borgnine on a interior set of the Dirty Dozen in Elstree in the sixties.

Just filled with wonderment to be in their company as they rehearsed.

[LittleChris]

Stephen Langton? That car claimed someone else's life too?

http://www.motorspor...php?db=ct&n=706

[GMACKIE]

Not buying Jack Bono's supercharged 356 Porsche race car, in 1963. Jack offered it to me for 500 pounds - with trailer and heaps of spares.

[BRG]

I was offered the chance to co-drive on the Safari Rally back in the early 1970s, by an Kenyan Asian bloke I worked with. It would have meant paying soem cash towards it, and I decided I couldn't afford it. Regret it now...

Also a bloke offered me two Ford V8 Pilots for £25 back at the same time, but I had nowhere to put them.

[RogerFrench]

Not buying a 1750 6C Alfa many, many years ago. OK, it didn't have a body but even so....

[E1pix]

If you had stayed, how are you on JPS style logos?

I used to have to convince people my schtuff was hand-painted. I'm a perfectionist prick that way.

[Stephen W]

I have a few:

1. Never going to Sicily for the Targa Florio
2. Not buying an AC Cobra for £500.00 because it was going to cost me £1200 a year to insure it!
3. Leaving it until I was in my mid forties to start sprinting and hillclimbing!

[RS2000]

I don't regret a number of "missed opportunities", such as turning down invitations to do the Acropolis or Portugal, although I slightly regret missing the 1000 Lakes as a driver (having already done it as co-driver) and the last "proper" RAC in 85.
I actualy now regret far more throwing out copies of MN from 66 onwards when I got married, What are lofts for, after all?
Where would we be for some vital information (recently on the 69 RAC) without Milan Fistonic's readiness to help with copies?

[fbarrett]

Not buying a Porsche 904 (very nice original) for $25,000 in 1976.
Not buying a Porsche RS60 (ex-Ginther, nice, with trailer and fresh engine) for $3,500 in 1973.
Not buying a Porsche Speedster for $1,200 in 1968.

[TimRTC]

Not getting into attending motor racing events until 2012.

Not settling in the Midlands and avoiding having to travel 200 miles+ each weekend to get to the tracks.

Edited by TimRTC, 16 October 2012 - 20:30.

[hamsterace]

Not a personal experience, but a friend of my father's back in the '60s went to look at an (admittedly body-less) Blower Bentley which he had seen advertised for £75 in a local rag, but turned it down as apparently the clutch was slipping....

Again slightly O/T, whilst looking through an Autosport from the '60s recently I saw an advert for '64 Ferrari GTO for something around £3,500 with the insightful description of "Ferrari GTO. Red. New Tyres".

Well after all, we wouldn't want to have paid that much money for a GTO with a set of bald boots, would we?

Edited by hamsterace, 17 October 2012 - 14:11.

[uffen]

Had the chance to become an F1 photographer back in 1981. It wasn't a sure thing but a regular guy was quitting and had to find a replacement for himself. I was offered the chance and I chickened out. Damn.

Edited by uffen, 18 October 2012 - 11:20.

[ralt12]

Not buying the Lister-Buick we found up to its hubs in mud in upstate new York; had the money, but no place to put it. $5500 bucks would have bought it.

[john aston]

Je regrette beaucoup ; such as-

Not accepting the free ticket from a friend for a gig at Leeds University . By The Who. Oh yes , THAT gig.. They were indeed Live at Leeds. What the hell did I do instead ?

Missing out on a £1200 Elan Sprint in 1978 which had just been rebuilt by a Team Lotus mechanic;I was so miffed I bought a 2CV - which at least had the saving grace of being a hoot to drive.And being a quite startling orange as well .

Never going to the Targa Florio when I could and should have done.Vaccarella in a red machine...God yes

Bloody glad I have seen,heard and driven what I have though..but if anybody has a V12 Ferrari needing exercising I am happy to help-any will do but if it was a 275GTB I would be in hog heaven.

And if anybody here is thinking ..hmmm ..what should I do before I'm too old ? If you have never done it before..go and watch some Top Fuellers and Funny Cars at Santa Pod. You will thank me...

[Jack-the-Lad]

Aside from all the cars my instincts told me to buy (don't ask) but my brain told me not to.....my only real regret (with respect to motorsport) was not chatting up Phil Hill on the few occasions when I had the opportunity. I think I was so intimidated by the fact that he was my boyhood hero...and now the chance is gone forever.

I've learned my lesson. Now I don't let those moments slip past me.

[ringers23q]

Not bugging my parents more to buy me a go-kart in my younger years...

[Paul Rochdale]

Answering a job advert for an engineering draughtsman in the 1970s with ARROWS and not even getting an interview.

[David Birchall]

Not buying an AC Bristol and then an Ace when they were Cheap.
Not going to the Targa Florio.

Oh. I see we've had those...

Never meeting DSJ or The Bod.
Never owning a v12 Ferrari.

[richardspringett]

In the mid 70`s I was at Goodwood testing my Alfa Romeo SZ; Derek Bell was there driving something far more current and competitive, but he wandered over and asked if he could do a couple of laps in it. I turned him down - worried that the expensive recently rebuilt engine hadn`t completed running-in - and regret that decision ever since....

Richard

[David McKinney]

Yes, wouldn't you have felt good if he'd bee a second slower

[Doug Nye]

Not having - or somehow finding - the £650 asking price when David Plumstead had an ex-Mackay Fraser Ferrari MM Berlinetta for sale in around 1964-65. I stood and gawped at it for ages, but my £8.00 per week wouldn't go anywhere near it. Then around 1967-68 not having the £2,750 which I was told could have bought the Lola GT lying out in the weather beside Peter Westbury's Felday Garage at Holmbury St Mary...

But never mind, eh - we bought our first bungalow in 1971 for £7,950...and nine years later that proved to have been a remarkable investment.

DCN

[Lee Nicolle]

My biggest motorsport regret is not going to Bathurst. As a Sports Sedan competitor I had an entry to race at Bathurst, had accomodation booked the lot. This was in the mid 90s
Unfortunatly 3 weeks before I had a minor engine problem racing at Sandown due to component failure and I just did not have the time and money to repair the engine. And I was not prepared to 'bodge' the engine and hope it would be ok.
As for a lot of us a shame that work [and money] gets in the way of our hobbies.
A real shame, I am sure I would have run in the top 10 as my car always had very good straight line speed which is always helpfull at that track.

[David Birchall]

Not having - or somehow finding - the £650 asking price when David Plumstead had an ex-Mackay Fraser Ferrari MM Berlinetta for sale in around 1964-65. I stood and gawped at it for ages, but my £8.00 per week wouldn't go anywhere near it. Then around 1967-68 not having the £2,750 which I was told could have bought the Lola GT lying out in the weather beside Peter Westbury's Felday Garage at Holmbury St Mary...

But never mind, eh - we bought our first bungalow in 1971 for £7,950...and nine years later that proved to have been a remarkable investment.

DCN

A friend bought a house in Torquay for 2000 pounds in 1969-so that Lola was a chunk of money even then.
That Lola, or its twin sat in an enclosed trailer in vancouver for ten years before being sold off for $65,000 in the late nineties. And THAT would not have bought you a house...

Edited by David Birchall, 04 November 2012 - 00:02.