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Freddie Dixon


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#1 Derwent Motorsport

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Posted 04 July 2015 - 14:37

I recently read his biography and I thought he was an interesting and complex guy but that the biography left a lot to be desired.

In fact the book by David Mason, a NE lawyer, did come over a slightly odd. At the start there were a lot of race reports, obviously rewritten from magazines and newspapers.One strange thing was that if Freddie retired early in the race the full race report continued to the end. Perhaps it was to fill space? The print is quite large so it was a quick read really so perhaps needed more words?

I also got the feeling that Mason lost interest once Freddie moved south as from then on there is a lot less detail of what he did during the war and after the war when running cars for Tony Rolt and others. What was the point of the ERA Delage for example and why was it built. Indeed why was it not a Delage ERA?

Surely when the writer was researching the book in the early years of this century, there must have been people around who knew Freddie in post war times? They could have provided much more about his character.



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#2 Vitesse2

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Posted 04 July 2015 - 16:03

I reviewed the book when it first came out: http://forums.autosp...dpost&p=3249741

 

As you'll note, I came to pretty much the same conclusions. Of course, part of it is that Freddie wasn't one of the 'right crowd' - he'd come from the bike world, where the only acceptable 'chaps' were Eric Fernihough (MA Oxon), Lord Sandhurst.(for reasons which should be obvious!) and - arguably - TE Lawrence. His several run-ins with the law and - I believe - a somewhat cavalier attitude to the sanctity of marriage, meant he wasn't exactly persona grata as far as the pre-War (and early post-War) racing establishment were concerned. Like Reg Parnell (haulier and pig farmer) and Leslie Brooke (scrap dealer) he was in trade. They even worked on their own cars rather than employing an oily mechanic to do it for them. So, obviously not gentlemen then ...

 

There's probably a good book to be written about Freddie. Unfortunately, that wasn't really it.



#3 Doug Nye

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Posted 05 July 2015 - 20:18

Spot-on.  The interesting thing to me is that Major Tony Rolt, who was most decidedly 'a proper chap', became a very close associate of Freddy Dixon's postwar and had the Alfa-Aitken modified and prepared by him. They spent a lot of time together and the Major evidently had considerable faith in Dixon for quite a period, regardless of some of the Brooklands-set toffs looking down their noses upon Dixon as being nothing more than a hard-drinking, womanising, motor-cycling common man. Earl Howe thought Dixon was "very sound". The more committed and the more hands-on real racers evidently recognised a kindred spirit...

 

Which is nice.

 

DCN



#4 Vitesse2

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Posted 05 July 2015 - 20:32

And of course Dixon did spanner - and breathe on - Remus for the Major (then only a Lieutenant) in 1938/9. I've also seen suggestions that he was planning to build a 1500cc car for the 1941 Formula - which, from rumours which were circulating at the 1938 Motor Show, I think might have been based on an Opel block.