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Immediate post WWII British drivers


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#1 alessandro silva

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Posted 04 November 2001 - 14:00

I am a bit disappointed about the no-results for my query at (I can't find it anymore)
From my previous query I got enough info only about Lord Selsdon.
I am trying to make it more appealing to the numerous British members of this Forum.

I would like to know some in the “Who were they” vein about the following British drivers (active 1946):

Bob & Geoffrey Ansell (owners of Mas. 4CL 1567 and ERA R9B)
George Bainbridge (raced the Ansells cars)
Gordon Watson (Bugatti driver, later Alta 69-IS)

Of the above I know major racing stats.

Of the following I know only some racing stats:
John Appleton (builder of Appleton Spls)
? Buck
C. Davenport
Owen Finch (raced Kennington’s Amilcar)
J. Greig
Ian Metcalfe
C. Miller
Charles ‘Chas’ Mortimer (raced Alta 53S in ’46)
Ian Nickols (owner of ex Parnell Magnette)
V. Patterson
Gerald Sumner
R. ‘Bobby’ Sumner
R.V. Wallington (owner of Alfa-Aitken)
Hamish Weir (Magnette owner)
John Williams (Alta owner)

And somebody could tell me what the Ansell beer is (or was)?

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#2 Vitesse2

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Posted 04 November 2001 - 21:54

Chas Mortimer was a specialist tuner, mainly of motorbikes IIRC, although he worked on cars as well. He also raced motorbikes quite extensively. In his later years he was a book dealer, specialising in motoring topics. I seem to recall a biography of him being published at some point in the early 80s.

More later ...:)

#3 Felix Muelas

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Posted 04 November 2001 - 22:06

Originally posted by alessandro silva
I am a bit disappointed about the no-results for my query...


Well, don´t !;) I am sure I am not the only member of this Forum that has recently decided to devote some time to find details about that list of drivers that you posted...two days ago!

I fully understand that you might not be an active Sisifo´s follower, but on the other hand, you´re really re-defining the term "impatient"!

Un abraccio

Felix

#4 Vitesse2

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Posted 04 November 2001 - 22:58

Ansells Brewery:

http://www.camrabirm...k/breweries.htm

Not much I'm afraid, but I'll try to explain to a non-Brit :) . Until the 60s, Britain had literally hundreds of local brewers, each producing individual beers for their local market. Some were big (like Ansells), some were small, some were microscopic! Gradually, big brewery chains took over the business, bought out the small companies and closed them down, along with their beers:( By the early 70s, the craft of brewing was almost dead and we were being submerged in a sea of chemical brews and lagers:rolleyes: . CAMRA was formed about this time and saved the brewing industry from itself. There is now a thriving (if small) market for traditional beers - long may it continue!

Mine's a pint of Old Peculier thanks, if anyone's buying!!:eek:

And a bit more about the later history of Ansells, which was one of the founding companies of Allied Breweries (BOOOO!!!!)

http://www.thetaste....834-001174.html

And finally, if you're really interested, here's the recipe for Ansells Stout (or a reasonable facsimile!)

http://websites.ntl....t.htm#brumstout

#5 Don Capps

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Posted 04 November 2001 - 23:00

Alessandro,

I am sorry that I haven't been able to contibute to this since several of the names pop up in my memory bank and, as mentioned, most of my "Euro" notes are stacked off to the side while I work on a project.

#6 Vitesse2

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Posted 04 November 2001 - 23:28

Chaters list the following titles by Chas Mortimer:

CONSTANT SEARCH COLLECTING MOTORING BOOKS
MORTIMER C
Published by HAYNES.
ISBN No: 0-85429-260-8

BROOKLANDS BEHIND THE SCENES
MORTIMER C
Published by HAYNES.
Year of Publication: 1980
ISBN No: 0-85429-262-4

BROOKLANDS AND BEYOND
MORTIMER C
Year of Publication: 1974
ISBN No: 0-900404-23-X

WITH HINDSIGHT A LIFETIME IN HARMONY
MORTIMER C
Year of Publication: 1991
ISBN No: 1-872955-04-5

RACING A SPORTS CAR (1ST EDITION)
MORTIMER C
Published by MACMILLAN PUB LTD.
Year of Publication: 1951
ISBN No: X-333-00568-5

RACING A SPORTS CAR (FOULIS HANDY SERIES)
MORTIMER C
Published by MACMILLAN PUB LTD.
Year of Publication: 1957
ISBN No: X-333-00569-3

"With Hindsight" is the autobiography I mentioned in my previous post. All the above are out of print, but some appear to be in stock second-hand.

#7 alessandro silva

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Posted 05 November 2001 - 09:47

THANK YOU ALL!!!
I'll be on the road for the week and I expect to find a lot next Saturday, now that the ball is rolling (do you say that in English?). Impatient? No, Felix. Just embarassed for how little I know. I have five Italians on my original list and I can't find a single thing about them!

#8 Hans Etzrodt

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Posted 05 November 2001 - 12:33

Originally posted by alessandro silva

.....Charles ‘Chas’ Mortimer (raced Alta 53S in ’46).....

The information I have about Charles Mortimer comes only from his book The Constant Search, published in 1982. It is a rather important book insofar as it has helped me to collect auto-racing books.
The book does not reveal much:
Cyril Posthumus and Goeff Goddard were friends of his.
He had a daughter, named Pippa.
In his book on page 8 under Author's Note he writes that he began collecting books and magazines around 1925. In 1930 he sold his entire collection "to finance my own first powered transport. From 1930, almost to the start of World War Two, I was so busily involved in motoring, motorcycle and car racing that I hardly gave a thought to literature although, in the early part of 1939, I did start again to build up another collection."

"By 1959 I was both collector and part-time dealer and a year later a full-time dealer. ....

" I was born only twenty years after the first motor cars appeared on the roads of Britain." He must have been 68 in 1981.

That's all, Alessandro. Not even the dustcover of his book reveals anything about his racing career except that he was an "erstwhile competitor".

#9 Vitesse2

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Posted 05 November 2001 - 14:12

Gordon Watson: I'm pretty sure I saw something in an early post-war Motor Sport about him and Robert Cowell being in partnership to build a British GP car - don't remember the details though.

#10 Racer.Demon

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Posted 05 November 2001 - 22:49

Originally posted by alessandro silva
THANK YOU ALL!!!
Just embarassed for how little I know. I have five Italians on my original list and I can't find a single thing about them!


I am copying Sandro's feeling for the Dutch Verkade brothers on his original list. I am Dutch but can't find a single thing about them! And then to imagine that their names are those of Holland's most famous cookies and chocolate bars, no less.

How about those six other Dutchies on TNF chipping in? I've done a fruitless genealogy search so you can close that available road. However, Eric is a very regular name among the cookie and chocolates family, so he must be related to them. How else can you become a wealthy amateur/privateer in such poor times? But there's just no Eric Verkade that matches with the many Eric Verkades in the Verkade genealogy, that is, one that has a matching brother named Philippe (or Philip/Filip/Flip). In fact, Philip is a name that doesn't come up in the Verkade genealogy at all.

And then there the claim by Cimarosti that the brothers were car dealers in Amsterdam but I can't verify that. Hallo Nederland?

#11 alessandro silva

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Posted 11 November 2001 - 14:50

Not just to put my query back on top.

Felix, here is the description of the Sumner-JAP in Motorsport, July 46 (courtesy of Hans):
-blown JAP engine
-Bugatti gearbox and rear axle
-Lancia Lambda front end
-Bowden-operated (I do not know what that means) rear brakes
-GN clutch-pedal
Must have been quite a curious thing!

Also. Richard, the Ansell beer must have been quite a profitable business at that time. I have found a picture from the Jersey race in 1947 of Ansell's Maserati at the pits. The car looks immaculate and the two characters (male and female) in the background have a distinctive look of elegant affluence strikingly different from the usual post-warish looks of the period. According with my wife, the lady's hairdo and leather purse are exquisite.

#12 Milan Fistonic

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Posted 19 November 2001 - 06:56

Alessandro

I have just come across the obituary of Leslie Brooke. He scored Britain's first post-WW2 'Grand Prix' victory at Chimay in 1946.

He's not on your list but if you are interested in him let me know.

#13 Milan Fistonic

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Posted 19 November 2001 - 09:46

From Motor Racing January 1968.

The Vintage Scene by V. V. H.


Leslie Brooke

I was very sorry to learn of the recent death of H. L. Brooke, at the age of 58. Leslie Brooke, ‘Les’ or ’Brookie’, was distinctly a character in British motor racing during the late ‘30s and in the post-war revival, driving first his own Brooke Special, a very homely device consisting of a Riley Imp frame and a K3 MG Magnette engine. This unit later gave way to ex-Freddy Dixon Riley and Alta engines, but whatever the brand of power, the Special always appeared precarious and scruffy, so that it came as a surprise when Les finished a strong second to Bira’s Maserati in the 1939 International Trophy at Brooklands.

After the war, during which he gained the George Medal for bravery in the Coventry blitz, Brooke acquired Arthur Dobson’s famous high-tailed white B type ERA (today owned by Dudley Gahagan) and ‘campaigned’ this car, as they say, on the Continent in 1946 and part of 1947. He drove at Geneva, Albi, in the Bois du Boulogne, Chimay, Turin, Milan, and elsewhere, but with the spares famine and his own rather happy-go-lucky ways, Les met his share of troubles. He did, however, succeed in winning the GP des Frontieres on that pleasant Belgian circuit at Chimay, won the Remich hillclimb on the Moselle in West Germany, and came fifth at Albi and Barcelona.

The following year he fell for that attractive but ill-fated British GP contender, the E type ERA, took it to Indianapolis but did not qualify, and managed the first E type finish in a race in the 1947 British Empire Trophy at Douglas, IOM, carefully nursing it home to fourth place. His next mount was a 4CLT/48 Maserati, another handsome deceiver which went well under works care but gave private owners bags of trouble. Brooke had his full quota at Albi, Monza and elsewhere, but always contrived to enjoy himself immensely. He gave up circuit racing shortly after, and took to rallying with a Triumph TR2.

Unkind souls declared that Les’s racing cars betrayed his profession, which was motor spares and car breaking, but he was a most interesting and likeable person with a fund of entertaining stories; in him motor racing has lost a great enthusiast.

#14 Racer.Demon

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 09:02

Originally posted by Racer.Demon


I am copying Sandro's feeling for the Dutch Verkade brothers on his original list. [/I]


Why don't I echo here what I already privately mailed to Alessandro? It concerns new information on Eric Verkade, thanks to Hans Hugenholtz Jr, the son of the famous track designer, participating on Paul Hooft's new Dutch Racing History Group at Yahoo:

Apparently, Eric was the son of Eduard Verkade, a well-known Dutch actor, and both were indeed part of the Verkade dynasty that created Holland's most famous biscuits and chocolate bars. Hans tipped us on a book in Dutch by Jan Apetz that also tells the story of the Verkades - I will certainly go out and buy that. [It's been ordered!]

Eric was the owner of several Bugattis and even a 16-cylinder Maserati. A famous anecdote told by Hugenholtz Sr to his son is about Eric revising the engine of his Maserati in the living room of his priceless mansion at Distellaan 16 (that's the address) in Aerdenhout (an upper-class village to the west of Haarlem, halfway down to road to Zandvoort). Trouble was that when Eric and his mechanic had the engine in one piece again they found that it could not fit through the door. So they took the expensive way out: taking out the entire front portico...

Hans will dive into his old NARC (Dutch Auto Racing Club) journals to see whether he can find some more on Eric Verkade. Hugenholtz Sr was the founder of the NARC in 1936.

[BTW, I've asked Hans Jr - a GT racer in his own part these days, and who will be in the new Spyker GT line-up for the upcoming Sebring 12 Hrs - to join TNF. But no sign of him yet...]

#15 dmj

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 09:35

[BTW, I've asked Hans Jr - a GT racer in his own part these days, and who will be in the new Spyker GT line-up for the upcoming Sebring 12 Hrs - to join TNF. But no sign of him yet...]

Are you sure? See posts 30 and 38 in this thread: http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=36812 :D

#16 Racer.Demon

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 10:44

Ah, so he did. Excellent!

#17 Doug Nye

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 16:02

Perhaps we can help a little with Alessandro's original query:

The Ansells were indeed from the Ansells Brewery family. Bob was Robert Edward, born 18-11-17 - lived at Upper Billesley House, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire. Geoffrey was his cousin, I believe?They were well-heeled, very enthusiastic - Bob moreso than Geoffrey - and their Maserati and ERA cars were prepared for them - and sometimes driven by - George Bainbridge. Cosmetically the cars looked great - unlike their record for mechanical reliability. Nontheless running them cost the Ansells dear in financial terms. At least one of the Ansells is still around...but I can't recall which...

George Hugh Bainbridge, born at Walton Woodhouse, Warwickshire on February 1, 1916 - lived in the Old Rectory, Sutton-under-Brailes, near Banbury (tel. no. Little Cherrington 37 if you REALLY want to know....).

Sheila Darbyshire was apparently a lovely person - knocked around with the Parnell/Hampshire set - drove their cars and apparently no, it was not necessarily 'a lascivious relationship' as queried previously!

Gordon Watson was moneyed and keen - partner with Bob - subsequently after Bob's Your Auntie operation Roberta - Cowell - in Leacroft of Egham, coachbuilders. Hopeless driver, but v. keen and very pleasant bloke.

Appleton, Robert John Walter - ran stationery supplies company, named 'ESA' supplying schools etc with books, desks, chairs, canes... Very well liked, trained structural engineer, developed Riley Appleton Special along lines of W25 Mercedes - born Forest Hill, London, 23-4-10 - lived in Bird-in-the-Hand Lane, Bickley, Kent.

J.H. Appleton was a builder from Shepherds Bush, West London.

Davenport - hmm, without searching the results, got us there... plainly NOT Basil Davenport of British hilclimb and sprint fame.

Owen Finch - ran Weybridge Motors (near Brooklands, Surrey) - in partnership with the moneyed Frank Kennington - the Amilcar was Finch's shared with Vic Hearn - Kennington's father was director of GM Frigidaire division in the UK, also on the board of GM Detroit (reputedly) - Frank bought 'hot' (in the smuggled sense) Cisitalia D46 from 'Arree Schell...

J. Greig - Frazer Nash exponent - nice feller, ran grocery chain - gave up racing to run the family business, it would appear.

Ian Metcalfe - ex-Army officer pre-war, not during war, known as 'whiskers' - not much admired pre-war - took over mushroom factory at Shepperton-on-Thames to tune, service and trade in Bentleys etc. Bought a lot of exBrooklands Bentleys - had the Barnato-Hassan Special, put on the body which earned it the name 'The Whale' - ran it in Spa 24-Hours - also had Pacey-Hassan Special - later became UK agent for Borgwards. Earned some credibility postwar that he had lacked pre-war.

Ian Nichols - 'Fatty' Nichols - Old Etonian - born Wetherby, Yorkshire, 22-4-16 production engineer became motoring writer postwar - lived at Oxted Mill, Oxted, Surrey. MG exponent. Cannot verify this opinion - though I met Nichols once in the early 1960s but one who knew him well recalls him as "an utter bastard"...for what that's worth. Seemed innocuous enough to me... ran very fast ex-Parnell MG K3 special with Lancia Augusta front end and Pomeroy head, etc.

Gerald Bertram Crothers Sumner - born Wilmslow, Cheshire, 4-4-12 - lived at Ravenscroft, Hook Heath, Woking, Surrey (Tel: Woking 10)! - apparently a likeable bloke, one of the leading lights in the Junior Car Club movement at Brooklands pre-war - raced tiny GNs and big V12 Delage LSR car amongst other things.

His brother drove the GNs too.

R.V.Wallington was Robert Arbuthnot's partner in High Speed Motors at Watford, just north-west of London - owned and traded in such cars as the ex-Ruesch Alfa Romeo 8C-35 GP car - Arbuthnot was apparently not very interested in female company - killed in head-on crash with a lorry -which detsroyed the ex-Dorothy Patten (Countess Dorendorff) Peugeot - after Arbuthnot's death Wallington persevered with HS Motors - at one stage had the ex-Straight ex-Scuderia Ferrari ex-Duller Brooklands Duesenberg track car for sale - sold frame to Gordon Andrews who installed Mercury engine - sold Clemons engine to Paul Emery who put it in the GP Emeryson - Jenks later acquired both and the Duesey is now preserved in the Brooklands Museum.

Hamish Weir - ineffective moneyed Brooklands-era MG exponent reappeared postwar. Fine K3 single-seater passed on more effectively to Donald Pitt.

John Williams ran the ex-Hugh Hunter Alta with ugly body by Milledge - I am told.

I hope some of the above might be of interest.

That will be 24-million Euros.

DCN

#18 FEV

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 16:13

:eek: :eek: :up: Thanks a million, Sir !

#19 alessandro silva

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 17:12

Yes, thank you Doug. An electronic cheque will follow (yellow thing)

Seriously, I'll send you a private message to thank you and to explain the reasons for my interest. Need a few hours to word it properly though. Thank you again indeed.

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#20 David McKinney

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 20:02

This must be one of those threads I looked at and thought I'd provide some info, but then forgot abput it. Couldn't have done as well as DCN anyway.
Re Davenport - I seem to remember Basil had a brother who did a few events?
I think Geoff Ansell died in the very early 1950s. But Bob Ansell was alive and well and at the Silverstone Historic Festival in 1998
There's reference to Hamish Weir in one of the Rivers Fletcher autobiographies - I think they might both have been connected with Monaco Motors at the same time (Watford again)

#21 Felix Muelas

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 20:21

Originally posted by Felix Muelas
... you´re really re-defining the term "impatient"!

117 days after...

Doug Nye --- :kiss: --- Alessandro Silva

Thanks, Sir! :clap:

Felix

#22 ensign14

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Posted 28 February 2002 - 21:20

Just to link this to my other favourite subject, Ansells used to be shirt sponsors to Birmingham City :p

My replica kit does not have Ansells' name on it, because I was only 9at the time and having a beer company's name on a children's shirt was deemed advertising alcohol to minors :lol:

#23 Racer.Demon

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Posted 05 March 2002 - 16:30

Originally posted by Racer.Demon

Apparently, Eric was the son of Eduard Verkade, a well-known Dutch actor, and both were indeed part of the Verkade dynasty that created Holland's most famous biscuits and chocolate bars. Hans tipped us on a book in Dutch by Jan Apetz that also tells the story of the Verkades - I will certainly go out and buy that. [It's been ordered!]


A good buy, the book by Jan Apetz on early Dutch motorsport history. It gave the following additional information on Verkade:

He ran a motorsport bar called 'Le Circuit' in Amsterdam, on Spuistraat 330, the invitation for the grand opening reading 'Where all the drivers meet!' It seems to have been quite a unique place in the Netherlands, and if you ask me, a concept that needs repeating! It was inspired by the Steering Wheel Club in London, but apparently it was shortlived. It was founded after the war but ceased to exist as early as 1947, as it cost considerably more than it yielded.

He also had a garage called 'Autosport' on the Lassusstraat, so Cimarosti was right on that count. Hence the Ecurie Autosport? Nothing on the Basadonna link, however.

In the thirties he worked as a mechanic with Alfa Romeo, on the cars that were delivered to Sommer, Chinetti and Nuvolari.

Just before the war, expecting a large inheritance he acquired a brand new 4CL, that until '45 remained hidden in a shed near Bologna.

He began a trading business in Brussels, with one of his acquisitions being the Maserati 'Sedici Cilindri', which after the war he restored to its original state. He did this in cooperation with another leading light in Dutch motorsports, Hans Herkuleyns, and the coachbuilders Schutter & Van Bakel, before selling the car on in England.

In '45 he drove to Bologna to drive his 4CL out of the aforementioned shed, driving it back to Holland and demonstrating it on the Liberation Party hosted by Maus Gatsonides. In '46, as you know, he became a Grand Prix driver with it. (But did he ever actually race it? His only real appearances are recorded in an Alfa - at St.Cloud - and a Talbot - at Geneva.)

So why did he suddenly disappear from the grids? We have to point to his lack of business acumen - see 'Le Circuit', where he hosted his guests to frequent free meals - and his involvement in all sorts of shady deals, ending up in what he called 'the Zurich Hilton', a place which actually was a Swiss prison...

Calling hhh: what do you make of the Philippe Verkade that was apparently entered in the 1946 Marseille GP in an Ecurie Autosport 4CM, taking part in (and crashing out of) the first heat? Christian Kautz was entered as alternative driver, but never raced it that weekend. A mistake by the organizers (or Sheldon)? Was this Philippe actually Eric as well?

#24 BRG

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Posted 05 March 2002 - 17:24

Originally posted by alessandro silva
And somebody could tell me what the Ansell beer is (or was)?

I am completely ignorant of any of these drivers, I fear, but beer is something I can maybe comment on!

IIRC, Ansell's was a brewery in the town of Cirencester in Gloucestershire, GB. They produced traditional British "real ale". It was presumably a family run business back in the time that Alessandro is interested in, although I think it was absorbed into one of the big brewery groups back in the 1980s.

I came across them when Ansell's sponsored some rallies, which were held in Cirencester Park in the 1970s (a large park around a stately home, Cirencester House, which lies just to the immediate west of the town). So it sounds like the family had some motorsport interest over quite a long period of time.

#25 Paul Medici

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Posted 05 March 2002 - 17:26

Alessandro

Found a record of an early race in England that you might find
interesting. Can you send me your e-mail address?

Best regards,

Paul

#26 2F-001

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Posted 05 March 2002 - 17:59

Whilst beer is still on the menu...
Someone mentioned Chimay a few posts back. Now that's a real beer.
My annual holiday, these days, is a trip to the Ardennes - ostensibly to thrash my car around Spa for a couple of days, and then on for more of the same on the Nordschleife - but the various monastry and other brews are another attraction. After a day on the track, unwinding among the Chimays, Leffes and spontaneously-fermented Lambic beers and a plate of wild boar casserole is heavenly.

Sorry, I'm rambling again... I'd been thinking to visit Chimay too (not just for the beer) - has anyone been there lately? Is there much to see? Is the circuit still navigable?

#27 2F-001

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Posted 05 March 2002 - 18:01

I do apologise - that was way, way off-thread...

#28 alessandro silva

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Posted 05 March 2002 - 20:24

Thanks to Mattijs another piece of the puzzle is going almost in its place.

Auto-Sport was the name of Basadonna's garage in Geneva too. A curious coincidence?

In Marseille "the other" (Philippe) Verkade hired the second Auto-Sport 6CM, destined to Kautz. The latter practised on the car (photo evidence). It is not the Auto-Sport 4CM with Tecnauto ifs as claimed by Sheldon. This 6CM was destroyed in the subsequent race by Balsa at Forez.
My conjecture is that there was only one Verkade. French daily L'Equipe does not give first name for the Verkade in Marseille.

My contention that the 4CL had somehow evaporated by mid 46 has some evidence in the fact that Eric entered such a car for Chimay. The same week-end he hired the 8C 2300 Monza from Friderich's Ecurie Blanche et Noire and raced it at St Cloud. As for the Valentino entry, the car had probably already returned to Italy by the time that entries were filed.

If it was purchased in 1939, it was one of the first 4CL. Factory records show that in this case the most likely conjecture could be chassis 1566. 1566 can be traced in France by Spt/Oct. 1946 (after Valentino).

ensign14:
I unfortunately do not know what a shirt sponsor is! I'd love to know.

BRG
Thank you for information on the beer and its racing activities.

Paul Medici:
I sent you a message through the Forum. I hope it works. in any case:
silva@mat.uniroma1.it

#29 Richard Jenkins

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 19:30

I'm interested in finding out more about Robert Arbuthnot & Leslie Brooke.

All I know about Leslie Brooke is he died c.1968, was an engine builder/designer(?), rally driver & won the George Medal for bravery during the blitz. There must be more tales about this man....

Also, Arbuthnot. Killed in a road crash. Member of the banking family. RMW Arbuthnot - that's all I know about him.

of course Bob Ansell has since died. :(

#30 ensign14

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Posted 04 February 2005 - 19:55

Originally posted by alessandro silva

ensign14:
I unfortunately do not know what a shirt sponsor is! I'd love to know.
[/email]

Bit late...just the name of a company on the front of a footy shirt. So Blues now have flybe.com, Man Ure have Vodafone &c &c.

Robert Arbuthnot entered a Lagonda at Indianapolis in 1946. Perhaps the oddest Indy entry ever (other than the 1914 Peugeot entered by Lindley Bothwell in 1949). It DNQ'd, unsurprisingly enough.

Obituary for Leslie Brooke, nicked from Motor Racing (January 1968):

I was very sorry to learn of the recent death of H. L. Brooke, at the age of 58. Leslie Brooke, ‘Les’ or ’Brookie’, was distinctly a character in British motor racing during the late ‘30s and in the post-war revival, driving first his own Brooke Special, a very homely device consisting of a Riley Imp frame and a K3 MG Magnette engine. This unit later gave way to ex-Freddy Dixon Riley and Alta engines, but whatever the brand of power, the Special always appeared precarious and scruffy, so that it came as a surprise when Les finished a strong second to Bira’s Maserati in the 1939 International Trophy at Brooklands.

After the war, during which he gained the George Medal for bravery in the Coventry blitz, Brooke acquired Arthur Dobson’s famous high-tailed white B type ERA (today owned by Dudley Gahagan) and "campaigned" this car, as they say, on the Continent in 1946 and part of 1947. He drove at Geneva, Albi, in the Bois du Boulogne, Chimay, Turin, Milan, and elsewhere, but with the spares famine and his own rather happy-go-lucky ways, Les met his share of troubles. He did, however, succeed in winning the GP des Frontieres on that pleasant Belgian circuit at Chimay, won the Remich hillclimb on the Moselle in West Germany, and came fifth at Albi and Barcelona.

The following year he fell for that attractive but ill-fated British GP contender, the E type ERA, took it to Indianapolis but did not qualify, and managed the first E type finish in a race in the 1947 British Empire Trophy at Douglas, IOM, carefully nursing it home to fourth place. His next mount was a 4CLT/48 Maserati, another handsome deceiver which went well under works care but gave private owners bags of trouble. Brooke had his full quota at Albi, Monza and elsewhere, but always contrived to enjoy himself immensely. He gave up circuit racing shortly after, and took to rallying with a Triumph TR2.

Unkind souls declared that Les’s racing cars betrayed his profession, which was motor spares and car breaking, but he was a most interesting and likeable person with a fund of entertaining stories; in him motor racing has lost a great enthusiast.



To win the GM meant he had real balls.

#31 RS2000

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Posted 05 February 2005 - 00:02

Seems to be a bit of confusion a few posts (and a couple of years) back. Arkells was the brewery sponsoring rallies at Cirencester Park (mid 70s, certainly 76). Ansells much more northerly-based.
Cue: "southern beer is all ****" from the inhabitants of the wastelands north of Watford?

#32 Stephen W

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Posted 05 February 2005 - 12:18

Further to Doug Nye's superb analysis...

Sheila Darbyshire was the first woman to participate in the British Hillclimb Championship when she was sixth at Bo'ness (17/05/47).

:cool:

#33 Marc Ceulemans

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Posted 05 February 2005 - 18:15

I was very sorry to learn of the recent death of H. L. Brooke, at the age of 58. Leslie Brooke, ‘Les’ or ’Brookie’, was distinctly a character in British motor racing during the late ‘30s and in the post-war revival, driving first his own Brooke Special, a very homely device consisting of a Riley Imp frame and a K3 MG Magnette engine. This unit later gave way to ex-Freddy Dixon Riley and Alta engines, but whatever the brand of power, the Special always appeared precarious and scruffy, so that it came as a surprise when Les finished a strong second to Bira’s Maserati in the 1939 International Trophy at Brooklands.

After the war, during which he gained the George Medal for bravery in the Coventry blitz, Brooke acquired Arthur Dobson’s famous high-tailed white B type ERA (today owned by Dudley Gahagan) and "campaigned" this car, as they say, on the Continent in 1946 and part of 1947. He drove at Geneva, Albi, in the Bois du Boulogne, Chimay, Turin, Milan, and elsewhere, but with the spares famine and his own rather happy-go-lucky ways, Les met his share of troubles. He did, however, succeed in winning the GP des Frontieres on that pleasant Belgian circuit at Chimay, won the Remich hillclimb on the Moselle in West Germany, and came fifth at Albi and Barcelona.

The following year he fell for that attractive but ill-fated British GP contender, the E type ERA, took it to Indianapolis but did not qualify, and managed the first E type finish in a race in the 1947 British Empire Trophy at Douglas, IOM, carefully nursing it home to fourth place. His next mount was a 4CLT/48 Maserati, another handsome deceiver which went well under works care but gave private owners bags of trouble. Brooke had his full quota at Albi, Monza and elsewhere, but always contrived to enjoy himself immensely. He gave up circuit racing shortly after, and took to rallying with a Triumph TR2.

Unkind souls declared that Les’s racing cars betrayed his profession, which was motor spares and car breaking, but he was a most interesting and likeable person with a fund of entertaining stories; in him motor racing has lost a great enthusiast.



The Remich hillclimb, a flying km, was organised by the AC of Luxembourg, so I was not on the Moselle in West Germany but in Luxembourg. It was the day after the GP des Frontières (Whit Monday, 10 June 1946).

Is the Remich hillclimb included in the Hans' list ?

#34 Stephen W

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Posted 05 February 2005 - 20:08

I suspect Leslie Brooke would have been a little more than 58!

Try 88?

#35 Marc Ceulemans

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Posted 05 February 2005 - 20:16

No 58 seems ok, as his dead was announced in January 1968 (so born in 1909 / 1910). But I 'm not at home, and I will check it later...

#36 alessandro silva

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Posted 05 February 2005 - 20:19

58

Leslie Brooke
(12/9/1910-9/11/1967)

#37 xkssFrankOpalka

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Posted 06 February 2005 - 01:30

I knew Charles Mortimer very well, he was a fine gentleman of the old school. We met thru old books and I have most of them. I think his son races motorcycles yet as I saw his name during the Goodwood races.

#38 Vitesse2

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Posted 06 February 2005 - 11:39

Originally posted by xkssFrankOpalka
I think his son races motorcycles yet as I saw his name during the Goodwood races.

Yep - that's his son. Not a bad rider either.

#39 O Volante

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Posted 27 February 2005 - 11:10

Richie,

a word or two on Robert Arbuthnot ...

"Robert Michael Wemyss, b. 9 March, 1914, educ. Eton, and Trin. Coll. Camb., d. unm. 29 Aug. 1946." - that's his entry under ARBUTHNOT OF KITTYBREWSTER in Burke's Peerage!

The interesting thing about this is you won't find him in the Peerages published during his lifetime. He entered the record only posthum when his elder brother, John Sinclair-Wemyss became a baronet in 1964.

Banking family is OK. And yes, there was always the story he was gay.

Robert Arbuthnot was killed in a traffic accident at the Purley bypass when a tyre bursted at a Buick driving in the opposite direction and that car swerved across the road into his Peugeot. This info, plus a little more info on the man is found in Graham Gauld's biography on Reg Parnell, p. 39.

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#40 Richard Jenkins

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Posted 27 February 2005 - 14:47

Thank you :up:

#41 D-Type

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Posted 28 February 2005 - 01:02

Originally posted by O Volante
Richie,

a word or two on Robert Arbuthnot ...

"Robert Michael Wemyss, b. 9 March, 1914, educ. Eton, and Trin. Coll. Camb., d. unm. 29 Aug. 1946." - that's his entry under ARBUTHNOT OF KITTYBREWSTER in Burke's Peerage!

The interesting thing about this is you won't find him in the Peerages published during his lifetime. He entered the record only posthum when his elder brother, John Sinclair-Wemyss became a baronet in 1964.

Banking family is OK. And yes, there was always the story he was gay.

Robert Arbuthnot was killed in a traffic accident at the Purley bypass when a tyre bursted at a Buick driving in the opposite direction and that car swerved across the road into his Peugeot. This info, plus a little more info on the man is found in Graham Gauld's biography on Reg Parnell, p. 39.

Trivial point: as there isn't a Purley bypass, the road is more likely to be Purley Way, which bypasses Central Croydon and runs from (more or less) Mitcham to Purley.

#42 Richard Jenkins

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Posted 28 February 2005 - 10:38

According to other sources, I have the WATFORD by-pass near Bushey, Herts as the scene of the crash.

#43 Tim Murray

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Posted 28 February 2005 - 11:25

From the Parnell biography mentioned by O Volante:

Arbuthnot . . . was killed in a road accident on the Purley Way bypass in August 1946 driving his Peugeot.

Famous photographer and Brooklands driver Louis Klementaski was a close friend of Robert Arbuthnot: 'I received a telephone call from one of the members of the family asking whether I would go up to the Purley Bypass and photograph the wreck of the car. What had apparently happened was not Arbuthnot's fault. A Buick travelling in the opposite direction burst a tyre and the car swerved across the road into Arbuthnot's Peugeot and he was killed.

'Some time earlier Robert had been had up on the same Purley bypass for speeding and on that occasion I went out with him and photographed this great big wide road as evidence in his defence, but I don't know if this picture got him off or not'.



#44 Adam F

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Posted 28 February 2005 - 12:06

Arbuthnot's accident was on the WATFORD by-pass. (Source - his death certificate)

I believe Purley is about 40 miles to the south.

#45 Arjan de Roos

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Posted 16 September 2011 - 10:43

He ran a motorsport bar called 'Le Circuit' in Amsterdam, on Spuistraat 330, the invitation for the grand opening reading 'Where all the drivers meet!' It seems to have been quite a unique place in the Netherlands, and if you ask me, a concept that needs repeating! It was inspired by the Steering Wheel Club in London, but apparently it was shortlived. It was founded after the war but ceased to exist as early as 1947, as it cost considerably more than it yielded.


I found a picture with Spuistraat 330 when 'Le Circuit' was open. Today its a hair dressing salon.

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Edited by Arjan de Roos, 16 September 2011 - 10:44.