23 replies to this topic

[doc knutsen]

This country is fascinated with the ongoing Downton Abbey saga as it unfolds on our television screens. In the last episode I saw, the whole estate appeared to be in the throes of a sale...does anybody know how many more episodes I will have to sit through before Daniel Richmond takes over and re-names it Downton Engineering? There is ample storage room for his bottles of bubbly. And the roads of the estate would serve them well when developing the latest tweaks for 1293 A-series motors...

Any truth in the rumours that the BBC is working on a new series calles Easton Neston by the way?

[RTH]

They do already have some very nice cars in the series. One chap turned up in a rather nice AC tourer.

[Pullman99]

They do already have some very nice cars in the series.

Only trouble is, the family seems to be so skint that they have made do with basically one car (Renault) from the very beginning! And, that Model T Ford seems to be in every episode. Not that I watch it of course...

I was driving past Highclere on the A34 the other day and at the exact moment that I was passing the exit fpr the Castle (Downton in the series), I found myself behind a Downton Transport truck. I too always think of the Wiltshire town. Turns out that the series is set in Yorkshire, so perhaps there's room for a Jowett or two!

[simonlewisbooks]

The series does have a slight motor racing connection ... I think... bear with me on this ....
As mentioned the house is actually Highclere, the home of Lord Caernarvon who funded the hunt for Tutankhamum's tomb (spelling,...never my string point) in Egypt.
This was a project he got into, according to one article I've seen, "while he was recovering from a motor racing accident".
There you go!
So the question is what's known of Lord C's motor racing career (if indeed the story is accurate) and his history changing accident?

[bradbury west]

There are photographs of his Lordship in his various cars exhibited in the Egyptian display in the basement of Highclere, cocmpletre with pertinent narrative. A bit too early for Dick Protheroe's alloy 120, though, methinks.......
Roger Lund

[arttidesco]

The series does have a slight motor racing connection ... I think... bear with me on this ....
As mentioned the house is actually Highclere, the home of Lord Caernarvon who funded the hunt for Tutankhamum's tomb (spelling,...never my string point) in Egypt.
This was a project he got into, according to one article I've seen, "while he was recovering from a motor racing accident".
There you go!
So the question is what's known of Lord C's motor racing career (if indeed the story is accurate) and his history changing accident?

Not noted for it's accuracy Wiki says " Carnarvon was at first best known as an owner of racehorses and a reckless driver of early automobiles, suffering in 1901 a serious motoring accident near Bad Schwalbach in Germany which left him significantly disabled."

Can't have been too many races passing through Bad Schwalbach in 1901, if indeed it was a motor race Lord C was participating in ?

BTW is this Downton prog also known as TOWIY which seems to be mentioned ad infinitum in the intel web news headlines ?

[Tim Murray]

As Arttidesco says, in the summer of 1901 Lord Carnarvon was motoring fast along the Däderstrasse near Bad Schwalbach in the Taunus region of Germany when he came upon two ox carts in a dip, blocking the road. He swerved to avoid them, two tyres burst and the car overturned. There doesn't seem to have been any racing involvement. Carnarvon received life-threatening injuries which left him weakened for the rest of his life, and he was advised to winter in warmer climes. Thus in 1903 he headed off to Egypt and developed his abiding interest in Egyptian archaeology. More details in the book Bad Schwalbach, Lord Carnarvon und das Grab des Tut-ench-Amun by Manfred-Guido Schmitz.

Edit - further corroboration here, also confirming that he wasn't in a race:

http://www.squidoo.c...#module25248822

Edited by Tim Murray, 16 October 2012 - 22:52.

[David McKinney]

BTW is this Downton prog also known as TOWIY which seems to be mentioned ad infinitum in the intel web news headlines ?

I haven't come across it

TOWIE is the nickname for The Only Way is Essex, so I supposed someone might have thought the other should be The Only Way is Yorkshire, which doesn't really fit

[Bloggsworth]

I haven't come across it

TOWIE is the nickname for The Only Way is Essex, so I supposed someone might have thought the other should be The Only Way is Yorkshire, which doesn't really fit

Yorkshire doesn't fit anywhere, any right thinking person realises it is entire unto itself...

[ianselva]

They do already have some very nice cars in the series. One chap turned up in a rather nice AC tourer.

Although I dont pretend to have any expertise on the subject ,the cars do appear to be a very varied bunch, from some that look very early 1900s to some that look correct period or even later. .

[simonlewisbooks]

And on that point - would aristocratic families in 1920 really be running round in chauffeur driven Model T's?
Lords and Ladies of this era would surely have not lowered themselves below the level of Daimlers, Rolls, Napiers and Delauneys for formal transport?
Later in the decade a Bentley Saloon would have been suitable, if one was 'with it', but in 1920 WO's new brand of sports tourer would have been a brash newcomer at best.
Then again the remote Yorkshire village in the series also seems to have asphalt roads...

[Allan Lupton]

Cars in films and TV dramas provide the well-informed nit-picker with endless fun
For example registration numbers with digits first seen on a car in "Foyle's War"; a baddie in a "Morse" episode who claimed to have a collection of Jaguars including an "F Type" which was just a script error although most of us assumed it was a clue; a journey time quoted in "Brideshead" that would have implied that the 12-15 Mors had averaged more than the top speed of that model.
However they have to use what's available and many of us have been warned off lending/hiring our cars because of the way they can be mistreated. If you insist on driving your car (and if it's a chauffeur-drive job that's quite feasible) you spend days on end hanging around for five minutes of filming that becomes 15 seconds on the finished work.

[Phil Rainford]

Lord Grantham is not fan of the car




PAR

[RCH]

Cars in films and TV dramas provide the well-informed nit-picker with endless fun
a baddie in a "Morse" episode who claimed to have a collection of Jaguars including an "F Type"

I seem to remember he had an A and a B Type Jaguar?

[Pullman99]

Cars in films and TV dramas provide the well-informed nit-picker with endless fun

Oh heck! Is Downton Abbey the new Blood Pressure?

[Geoff E]

... well-informed nit-picker ...

Where would you find one of those? ???

[Marticelli]

Where would you find one of those? ???

Marticelli

[doc knutsen]

Cars in films and TV dramas provide the well-informed nit-picker with endless fun
For example registration numbers with digits first seen on a car in "Foyle's War"; a baddie in a "Morse" episode who claimed to have a collection of Jaguars including an "F Type" which was just a script error although most of us assumed it was a clue; a journey time quoted in "Brideshead" that would have implied that the 12-15 Mors had averaged more than the top speed of that model.
However they have to use what's available and many of us have been warned off lending/hiring our cars because of the way they can be mistreated. If you insist on driving your car (and if it's a chauffeur-drive job that's quite feasible) you spend days on end hanging around for five minutes of filming that becomes 15 seconds on the finished work.

In said Morse episode, the shady motor trader claimed to have an A-type, B-type and a C-type Jaguar in his collection, if memory serves. And yet, the culprit proved to be the driving school proprietor...

[doc knutsen]

Lord Grantham is not fan of the car




PAR

I am sure he would be, er converted, once he got to know Mr & Mrs Richmond...

[doc knutsen]

Oh heck! Is Downton Abbey the new Blood Pressure?

As the initiator of this thread, might I suggest Atacand Plus? A2 blockers are to be preferred to beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors when it comes to enjoying 1293S motoring...

[Jimisgod]

a baddie in a "Morse" episode who claimed to have a collection of Jaguars including an "F Type" which was just a script error although most of us assumed it was a clue

http://www.motortren...ype_first_look/

Must have been some form of a time-traveler.

[Sharman]

In said Morse episode, the shady motor trader claimed to have an A-type, B-type and a C-type Jaguar in his collection, if memory serves. And yet, the culprit proved to be the driving school proprietor...

Surely not the proprietor of the Wrexham School of Motoring

[Jack-the-Lad]

While in England for Revival my wife and I took a side trip to Highclere. Very worthwhile, especially for the Egyptian artifacts and displays. It was also quite eye-opening to see the contrast between the way the interiors look in "Downton Abbey" vs. the way they really are!

(Sadly, Lady Mary was nowhere to be seen.....)

Edited by Jack-the-Lad, 19 October 2012 - 05:12.

[Glengavel]

In said Morse episode, the shady motor trader claimed to have an A-type, B-type and a C-type Jaguar in his collection, if memory serves. And yet, the culprit proved to be the driving school proprietor...

I don't remember the A-type being mentioned but I remember the character saying " I even had a B-Type...that's very rare", and thinking "you're not kidding!".

At the end, Morse gives him an old Jaguar steering-wheel by way of apology, mentioning that "I believe it won at Le Mans, or something", so by now it's probably been used as the basis for an 'original' C or D Type...