32 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

For almost 30 years I have been custodian of an obscure little English club racing sports car - the Hallam Special. It dates from the early 1950s and was built by Harry Hallam - who was, I believe, one of the founders of the Midlands Motor Enthusiasts Club, who organised a series of race meetings at Silverstone, for example. The car used a Fiat engine initially, later replaced by a hefty Lea Francis unit. It had a lovely and well made aluminium body with long flowing wings a la XK120 in side elevation, but with a nose treatment rather more akin to a Sunbeam Alpine or one of the artisan Italian etceterini. I have never got around to doing anything with it, and it is on trestles in my garage surrounded by dismantled components, including its cut-down, ex-Parnell E-Type ERA radiator (of which Harry Hallam was very proud).

I have never, in all that time, got around to researching its competition history, beyond recalling sight of it in a photo-copied shot taken Silverstone...probably in an MMEC meeting.

Might anyone with a better memory, or perhaps relevant race programmes, be willing and able to fill in some of the little car's history for me?

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 02 April 2014 - 17:33.

[Mistron]

What size engine is in it Doug? Was the Lea-f Unit a 2 litre?

[Doug Nye]

I think 1991cc, but I have never paid much attention to it. I have the rusted solid headless engine, with all its head studs bent like a used wire brush...    

 

DCN

[Allan Lupton]

I think it would be 1767 cc, the normal displacement of the 14 h.p. Lea-Francis engine

[raceannouncer2003]

The following links from Racing Sports Cars show H. Hallam in a "Simca Fiat 1100" in two races at Gamston in May, 1950.  Would that be the one?

 

http://www.racingspo...05-29-7239.html

 

http://www.racingspo...05-29-7238.html

 

Vince H.

Edited by raceannouncer2003, 03 April 2014 - 06:12.

[Stephen W]

Any photos of it in period?

[Doug Nye]

Vince H. FANTASTIC!  I really never thought to look there.  A race winner, already.  A photo not in period, but here it is in around 1982-83 - 

 

https://dl.dropboxus...LAM SPECIAL.jpg

 

Quite a pretty little thing.  It appealed to me, anyway.

 

DCN

[Mistron]

They say that eligiability to race at Goodwood is desirable, so I think you might be in luck, Doug.

 

http://www.goodwood....tal-racing.aspx

 

Looks close enough to fool the scrutineers.

 

(no need to rebuild that rusty old lump either)

[David Birchall]

Doug,  all the time you had this and yet you built a replica C Type?  

Perhaps we need to see the chassis?

[ken devine]

The front mudguards are very much like Austin A40 design.

[Stephen W]

Thanks for the photo Doug, I have searched through a collection of prints and negs that I bought off EBay but no sign of the Hallam Spl.

[Sharman]

ken devine, on 04 Apr 2014 - 10:40, said:

The front mudguards are very much like Austin A40 design.

I'd say A70 profile

[Doug Nye]

Doug,  all the time you had this and yet you built a replica C Type?  

Perhaps we need to see the chassis?

 

Oh ye of little faith...  As you can see below, photographing the chassis - which is under the bodywork - is not the work of moments...

 

https://dl.dropboxus...PL IMG_2347.jpg

 

Front suspension with transverse leaf a la Fiat Topolino...

 

https://dl.dropboxus...88/IMG_2346.jpg

 

'Coachwork' is not in great nick...but has enormous potential...

 

https://dl.dropboxus...88/IMG_2351.jpg

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 04 April 2014 - 14:03.

[garyfrogeye]

Ah, you have a similar filing system to my own .

[Doug Nye]

Yes - everything under 'P' for 'paper', or 'photograph', or 'papyrus', or....

DCN

[Sharman]

Doug Nye, on 04 Apr 2014 - 17:06, said:

Yes - everything under 'P' for 'paper', or 'photograph', or 'papyrus', or....

DCN

...or even PUT as in "now where did I...."

[D-Type]

Ah! - a true disciple of DSJ. 

[P.Dron]

When I joined Motor magazine in 1976, the archives were run by a charmingly eccentric old bat called Madge who always had an inch of ash about to fall off the end of her fag (perhaps I should rephrase that for any Americans reading this). If you said to her that you needed to find an article about a particular car, with a vague date region of such and such, she would say, "Leave it with me, dear", and somehow she would usually find it within 10 minutes. This amazed everyone, because the archives resembled Doug's garage, minus the rusty old heap/restoration project. Of course, when she was away on holiday, nobody could find anything.

   When Madge retired, we all thought, well, that's that, goodbye archives department. However, Carol, the Editor's secretary (who may already have become Rex Greenslade's wife at that point, I cannot recall) put herself up for the job and got it. Within four weeks she had reorganized everything, with cross-referenced card indexes. Anybody could then go into there and find anything, almost as quickly as Madge. Carol later ran all Chrysler's PR in the USA and ended up earning more than Rex, who had risen fairly high in the Ford hierarchy!

Edited by P.Dron, 04 April 2014 - 16:52.

[MartLgn]

Is the manuscript for BRM volume 4 somewhere beneath that lot Doug? :-)

[Doug Nye]

Just call me Madge...

When I really need it, I can usually find it...

...and, no, I don't mean that in the sense of an RN cadet on leave in Valparaiso...

DCN

[P.Dron]

Right. I am going into training tomorrow morning. Next time we meet, I shall say, "Hello, Madge."

[David Birchall]

Ahhh,  Perhaps the C type was the right choice...

[Doug Nye]

Hmmm - having spent a wee while, after the challenges above,  excavating here (not at all competitive, you see) it's amazing what one finds...as provided by Harry Hallam back in August 1988.  Only photo copied pix, sadly, but the best I have ever had.

 

https://dl.dropboxus...L 1950ISH 2.jpg

 

Harry Hallam in the car as first completed with cycle mudguards, pending attachment of its flowing wing sections, then being made by "...Len Fiddymolt and Ralph Thompson of The Loughborough Panel Beating Company".

 

https://dl.dropboxus...L 1950ISH 1.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...L 1950ISH 4.jpg

 

Here's Harry Hallam racing the car in its final form with the flowing wing sections added, and a cut-down ex-Reg Parnell E-Type ERA radiator within the nose...

 

https://dl.dropboxus...L 1950ISH 3.jpg

 

Then here's the car - surviving body and chassis separated - photographed in 1991, only 23 years ago...

 

https://dl.dropboxus... SPL 1991 2.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus... SPL 1991 1.jpg

 

If this waffle about my own lump of junk hasn't already bored everybody rigid, I have also rediscovered a letter from Harry Hallam in which he explains that his special came about because just after World War 2 nothing that a recently demobbed Sapper could afford would go quickly enough for his taste, "...and the solution resolved itself into acquiring a decent chasis with good brakes and shoe-horning the largest modestly priced engine that would fit. My first attempt was to mate up a Green Goddess brand new fire pump engine bought for £5 to a Riley clutch and gearbox fitted to a Riley Alpine chassis".  When that didn't work, he adapted a Fiat Topolino-type frame with Fiat 1100cc engine adapted "with Mille Miglia manifold, magneto ignition and Type 75 Wilson pre-selector gearbox" (!).  Front suspension was by transverse spring and wishbone, rear featuring quarter-elliptic springs and radius-arm located Wolseley Hornet back end complete with hydraulic brakes.  Front hubs and brakes were also Wolseley Hornet modified to carry Fiat 500 kingpins and bushes.  When the Fiat 1100 engine proved too feeble, Hallam replaced it with a 1 1/2-litre Lea-Francis unit and gearbox (very similar to the Riley project).  "The body I designed having in mind the profile of the XK120 and the nose of a 4CL Maserati..."

 

I am still keen to find some genuine photographs of the car in period, should anyone come across such material.

 

Madge

Edited by Doug Nye, 05 April 2014 - 17:56.

[kayemod]

 

Then here's the car - surviving body and chassis separated - photographed in 1991, only 23 years ago...

 

https://dl.dropboxus... SPL 1991 2.jpg

 

Madge

 

So, which of those two is the au pair's car then... err Madge?

[Doug Nye]

  Madge's daughter's car is on the far left...if we'd ever had an au pair I think the best she could have expected would have been use of the bike. Hmm - quite energised by this voyage of rediscovery.  Now where might I find a Wolseley main dealer's old parts stock?

 

DCN

[Mistron]

Ebay. :-)

[P.Dron]

Super pics, but how tall was Harry Hallam? Would biggish people such as you or I fit into it?

[rbm]

Doug,

 

what wonderful machine...

 

... so when are we going to see you out in it?

 

Richard

[Doug Nye]

To be perfectly candid, I think BRM V4 and the Phil Hill book are both more likely to appear first...

 

DCN

[D-Type]

Where does a blue moon feature in that sequence?

[Dennis David]

BRM V4? Quick, need another trip to the lumber yard and planking for more book shelves!

[Steve L]

Looks to be a really interesting bit of kit Doug, just the thing for burbling around the country lanes on a sunny evening 

 

Have you tried contacting Midlands clubs such as the Nottingham Sports Car Club to see if they have any information or photos in their archives?

[Doug Nye]

No I have not. But that might be a sensible approach - though more in hope than expectation. Thank you Steve...

DCN