4 replies to this topic

[DavidHill]

Hi Chaps,

I've been enjoying 'Brian Lister and the Cars from Cambridge' by Paul Skilleter since my girlfriend bought it for me for my birthday. I haven't been able to put it down, it's the perfect present and thoroughly absorbing. Especially so as I've been living in Cambridge for over three years, so recognising the locations and the handiwork of Listers around town has been fascinating. I pass Archie Scott Browns old house (Complete with blue plaque!) on my way to work, but I live a stones throw from Cambridge Place where Don Moore was based. There's very little information in the book about Dons workshop, understandably so as the focus is Brian Lister, and just a few photographs. I've been for a walk around Cambridge Place but I can't imagine the location of any workshop for exotic cars and racing engines...just a Dominos pizza shop seems to exist now!

I know TNF'ers are better than good with the obscure, so I'm hoping somebody can dig up some photographs of Don Moores workshop, any information of when it existed and who could be seen, and perhaps personal recollections of the place?

Here's hoping you can cure my curiousity,

David

[Morris S]

I arranged to interview Don Moore in the late 90's but sadly he passed away before I got to speak to him. A highly talented engine builder his cars were driven by the likes of Paddy Hopkirk, Mike Campbell Cole, Christabel Carlisle, Ed Lewis, John Whitmore , Andrew Hedges etc, I'd love to find out more myself.

Pete

Edited by Morris S, 12 May 2013 - 20:08.

[Bloggsworth]

I was nobbut a lad and living on Parker's Piece in the early 50s, must have passed Listers on my way to the station to meet my Gran off the train - I never knew...

[RobertE]

By a strange coincidence, today (13 May) is Archie Scott Brown's birthday. He would have been 86...

Don Moore was a lovely man and hugely gifted. He'd been in the Royal Engineers during the war and had ended up in bomb disposal, so also a very brave one.

His work on the BMC A engine was legendary and he was frequently consulted by the original builders of others. Examples include Bristol (for which he helped develop the gear-driven cam drive for the BS4) Maserati (via Alf Francis, with some friction) and, of course Jaguar. The Coventry engineers thought much of him; his contributions were mainly in the area of 'blueprinting' and exhaust fabrication, although he did advise regarding the developement of a twin-plug version of the D-type head, not in the end taken up, as Jaguar themselves moved on. The jury is still out on the matter of whether the Don Moore prepared Jag engines were the most powerful of the customer-developed units, or whether that distinction belongs to Ecosse.

And then, of course, the BMC work. Don always swore that the first time he took delivery of some parts for re-fettling, the driver of the van was Tom Walkinshaw...

His workshop was not extensive - there is a photo in 'Archie & The Listers - to be re-issued soon - but not a 'panoramic'' one - but he always told me that he liked a small 'shop as it always looked busier than it sometimes actually was.

Archie's own efforts at running an engineering business drove him to distraction, he recalled.

[kayemod]

I was nobbut a lad and living on Parker's Piece in the early 50s...

Anyone who knows Cambridge would assume that means you lived in a tent, but I'd guess you resided somewhere like Gonville Place or Regent Terrace?