63 replies to this topic

[David Beard]

A few weeks ago I found a copy of John Bolster’s “Specials” in a second hand book shop in Southport, and paid £18 for it. I don’t know whether that was the right price, but I find the book absolutely fascinating.

I was first of all very taken when I read the opening words on the Freikaiserwagen....

When Auto Union produced their fabulous rear engined, independently sprung cars, David Fry and Dick Caesar were very impressed, and decided to build a similar machine themselves. They had one advantage over Dr. Porsche however, for whereas the august Teutonic designer had
probably never even heard of a G.N. chassis, Fry and Caesar actually had one.

Then I moved on to read about the incredible Halford special, with this engine, produced in 1925. It’s turbocharged! Is this the first turbo application in a car? It got replaced by a Roots supercharger: it’s nor clear to me whether it ran with the turbo.


The Halford engine apparently found its way into an Aston Martin chassis, was raced by George Eyston and later became a road car. Is it around today?

[dretceterini]

I think that price was more than fair. The book is pretty difficult to find today.

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by dretceterini
I think that price was more than fair. The book is pretty difficult to find today.

Seconded, I got outbid on a copy at about 25 quid a few months back.

[GIGLEUX]

David, in 1987 in his book "Directory of Historic Racing Cars" D.S.Jenkinson wrote about the Halford:

"George Eyston drove it in the French Grand Prix at Montlhéry (1927), but after that Halford withdrew it from racing and over the years it became dismantled and the components were scattered throughout the racing world.
In the 1970s James Cheyne began a monumental research and a hunt to trace all the parts. This he achieved over a number of years and the Halford Special was resurrected to as near original as made no difference. It was truly the resurrection of the age, and the car is often seen in action in VSCC and other club events..."

[Barry Lake]

It is many, many moons since I read Bolster's book (probably not far short of half a century, in fact - late 1950s?) but one bit I remember well is his description of his serious crash in an ERA (was it Silverstone? British GP?). Very graphic, yet matter-of-fact.

[Tim Murray]

Some twenty years ago, my then lodger's parents arrived to visit her. Knowing I was into motorsport, they brought me as a present a book they had picked up in some jumble sale or other for 35p. It was Bolster's book. I was 'like, over the moon, Brian'.

PS: John Bolster's crash happened at Stowe corner during the 1949 British GP.

[Coogar]

.....And if anybody knows where I can find a copy.......
My Dad had one but somewhere, during a house move, it vanished. Were my right arm of any realistic cash value, I would part with it........

[Vitesse2]

Currently quite a few for sale, including a very cheap one in Edinburgh ...

http://dogbert.abebo...sn=&sortby=&fe=

[Roger Clark]

A few weeks ago, someone was describing the Halford engine to me. He said that the compressed air ran horizontally from the exhaust to the inlet side of the engine. I was somewhat bemused by this as I couldn't understand how it could do so without interferring with the pistons going about their lawful business. I can now see that my informant was telling porkies and that the air makes the long journey under the sump, through the inter-cooler provided for it.

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Roger Clark
A few weeks ago, someone was describing the Halford engine to me. He said that the compressed air ran horizontally from the exhaust to the inlet side of the engine. I was somewhat bemused by this as I couldn't understand how it could do so without interferring with the pistons going about their lawful business. I can now see that my informant was telling porkies and that the air makes the long journey under the sump, through the inter-cooler provided for it.

No, no, no, Roger, it's exactly as I was describing it!
Have you lost my sketch?

The carb is on the right, feeding the turbo through the pipe that somehow threads between the cylinders. The pressurised mixture then goes under the sump, through the intercooler and back up to the inlet ports.

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by David Beard


No, no, no, Roger, it's exactly as I was describing it!
Have you lost my sketch?

The carb is on the right, feeding the turbo through the pipe that somehow threads between the cylinders. The pressurised mixture then goes under the sump, through the intercooler and back up to the inlet ports.

Your sketch was on the back of a train ticket receipt and is now somewhere in my company's files, attached to an expense claim.

Are you sure the pipe from the carb threads between the cylinders? I assume at that time that there was only one carb, so the pipe could be at one end of the block.

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Roger Clark


Are you sure the pipe from the carb threads between the cylinders? I assume at that time that there was only one carb, so the pipe could be at one end of the block.

Well, Bolster says..

The carburettor was mounted on the "cold" side of the engine, and the mixture was conducted through a passage in the crankcase to the centrifugal blower, the outlet volute of which was connected to an inter-cooler situared beneath the sump

Just means a longer cylinder block than might have otherwise been, I suppose.


And anyone, as I asked earlier, is this the earliest car turbocharger application? Or was it never actually built?

[David Beard]

Originally posted by GIGLEUX
This he achieved over a number of years and the Halford Special was resurrected to as near original as made no difference. It was truly the resurrection of the age, and the car is often seen in action in VSCC and other club events..."

Has it appeared in the last year or two? I would hate to think I missed it.

[David McKinney]

I think so
It was certainly out and about five years or so ago

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by David Beard


Well, Bolster says..


Just means a longer cylinder block than might have otherwise been, I suppose.


And anyone, as I asked earlier, is this the earliest car turbocharger application? Or was it never actually built?

I wonder how the air knew which way it was supposed to be going next.

[Roger Clark]

It seems I owe David an apology.

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Roger Clark
It seems I owe David an apology.

Thanks Roger!

I will bring a proper sketch pad to our next meeting. We can all try to produce a diagram of how the Fuzzi 2 axis throttle pedal worked, enabling different throttle openings for front and rear engines. Then we can try to imagine how the heck Mr Waddy managed to drive it.

[David McKinney]

...and Mr L Macklin
(not a lot of people know that)

[David Beard]

Originally posted by David McKinney
...and Mr L Macklin
(not a lot of people know that)

I certainly didn't!

Is elaboration available?

[David McKinney]

The Bolster book mentions Macklin as owner of the Fuzzi at the time of publication, but I can probably add a bit.
When he got out of the RN, young Macklin was keen to get into motor-racing. The only British events at that time were sprints and hillclimbs, so he bought the Fuzzi. He built up a four-wheel-drive system incorporating a freewheel device so that only the rear wheels drove through the corners, and the fronts cut in on the straights. In place of the two 1000cc JAP engines he installed a V8 Mercury engine amidships.
The whole project cost a fortune, but before the car was properly developed, real racing had started up again, and he went halves in a 6CM Maserati, and abandoned the Fuzzi project.
from a long chat I had with LM about 1968

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by David McKinney
The Bolster book mentions Macklin as owner of the Fuzzi at the time of publication, but I can probably add a bit.
When he got out of the RN, young Macklin was keen to get into motor-racing. The only British events at that time were sprints and hillclimbs, so he bought the Fuzzi. He built up a four-wheel-drive system incorporating a freewheel device so that only the rear wheels drove through the corners, and the fronts cut in on the straights. In place of the two 1000cc JAP engines he installed a V8 Mercury engine amidships.
The whole project cost a fortune, but before the car was properly developed, real racing had started up again, and he went halves in a 6CM Maserati, and abandoned the Fuzzi project.
from a long chat I had with LM about 1968

So presumably he didn't drive it with the twin axis throttle pedal?

[David McKinney]

Can't answer that.
Possibly in a test-drive before his upgrade.
He certainly drove it with the V8 engine (which presumably would not have required the magic throttle system).
It's probably all detailed in the MotorSports of the time - maybe I'll get a chance to have a look some time.

[Ruairidh]

Originally posted by David Beard
a second hand book shop in Southport,

Broadhursts by chance?

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Ruairidh


Broadhursts by chance?

Well no, Kernaghan Books in the Wayfarer's Arcade, a nicely restored Victorian place to visit. But I have bought a number of books from Broadhurst's, including a new but under priced copy of Mon ami Mate. Broadhurst's is a proper old book shop...lots of floors. narrow stairs, coal fires, and purchases wrapped up in brown paper and string. Do you know it, or did you Google?

[Ruairidh]

Originally posted by David Beard


Well no, Kernaghan Books in the Wayfarer's Arcade, a nicely restored Victorian place to visit. But I have bought a number of books from Broadhurst's, including a new but under priced copy of Mon ami Mate. Broadhurst's is a proper old book shop...lots of floors. narrow stairs, coal fires, and purchases wrapped up in brown paper and string. Do you know it, or did you Google?

Spent a lot of youthful hours in Broadhursts and Lord Street- is Kernaghan the bookshop up the stairs on the left as you walk in the Arcade as it widens? And yes, the brown paper and string sticks in my memory too. Got my first copy of Theme Lotus and all too many books on Motor Racing and Cricket wrapped and strung from there.............

[David McKinney]

Getting back to “Fuzzi” (it seems it was a nickname, like Bolster’s “Bloody Mary” and countless others, rather than an actual title, so was never referred to as “the Fuzzi”).
Since my last post on this subject, I’ve spent a diverting few hours with my 1946, 1947 and 1948 MotorSport files, seeing if I could find anything about the car and Macklin’s exploits with it.
There was actually quite a bit, and I’ve transcribed a couple of pieces which might be of interest.
First mention is in reference to the establishment of a new business in Lightwater (Surrey) by two former directors of Continental Cars, Robert Cowell and Pat Whittet, with their respective wives also participating and an early employee expected to young D S Jenkinson. An advertisement in the March 1946 issue offers for sale “Fuddy’s Wazzi - Fozzy’s Widdy - well anyway, that four-wheel-drive device built and run with such success by Wobert Raddy”. O tempora! O mores!, as the late Mr Cicero might have said.
The magazine subsequently visited Cowell Whittet & Co [or perhaps by then they had a mole in place] and reported in the August issue that Fuzzi had been purchased by “Lance Macklin, son of the Director of Railton’s”. It goes on:
“The steel-tube chassis has been lengthened 22in to enable a V8 Mercury engine to be isntalled and this will drive, via a Ford V8 “22” gearbox, by chain to a shaft running along the near sde of the chassis, which will, in turn, pick up with the front and rear axles. Whittet...is prefarbricating the engine mountings and suchlike from welded-up steel sheeting. Suspension is on the Porsche torsion-bar system at the front and by transverse leaf spring at the rear and an entirely new, very Mercedes-like body will be made up for the lengthened chassis.”
The partnership dissolved, apparently amicably, before the year was out, and the January 1947 issue reported that the Fuzzi project was “well on its way” at Pat Whittet & Co.
In September a columnist again reports seeing the car, and gives more detail of its design.
“With its decidedly ingenious front-wheel drive, this will be an interesting car to watch at sprint venues. The long layshaft which takes the drive fore and aft lives in a tunnel along the near side of the chassis and is driven from behind the gearbox at more than twice engine speed by duplex chain drive, further duplex chains taking the drive across to the normal transmission line.”
Macklin told me 20-odd years later that the revised car had been “very successful” but the only mention I could find of it appearing in competiton in this form was the Stanmer Park speed trials on 5 June 1948, in which Macklin placed second in his class (but was nowhere in the overall times).

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Ruairidh


Spent a lot of youthful hours in Broadhursts and Lord Street- is Kernaghan the bookshop up the stairs on the left as you walk in the Arcade as it widens?

Yes...to the left in this photo..

[David Beard]

Originally posted by David McKinney
Getting back to “Fuzzi” (it seems it was a nickname, like Bolster’s “Bloody Mary” and countless others, rather than an actual title, so was never referred to as “the Fuzzi”).
Since my last post on this subject, I’ve spent a diverting few hours with my 1946, 1947 and 1948 MotorSport files, seeing if I could find anything about the car and Macklin’s exploits with it.
There was actually quite a bit, and I’ve transcribed a couple of pieces which might be of interest.
First mention ...........

Thanks David : great stuff!
I got over excited in reading the description of Fuzzi in its first iteration, and missed the Macklin reference over the page.

And what about the Harker special with the "Double Austin" ...two A7 engines side by side and geared together, plus a supercharger. What should we call that - a U8 engine? Then later it used MG Midget engines, and was installed in a Lombard chassis. Is this one still around?

[Philip Whiteman]

Surprised that no one has mentioned John Bateman's The Enthusiast's Guide to Vintage Specials (publ Foyles/Haynes in 1994, ISBN 0 85429 794 4). Yes, it's now a decade out of date, but it does detail the restoration of the Halford Special and it covers all the usual suspects: Becke powerplus; Caesar Special; Cognac Special; Fuzzi; Hardy Special III etc.

There is also lots of material on more widely-known machines in VSCC circles, among them Babs, the Bentley-Napier and brave Chris Staniland's ill-fated Multi-Union (it was a bastards' trick, breaking up that one!).

I thought this rather nice book would have a very limited circulation when I bought my copy (and embarrassed the ever-modest and quiet JB by getting him to sign it for me (he used to work near to where I did, at Esso's Abingdon research centre - now closed. Amongst the crew of motorheads there was Nick oh-what's-his-name, the fellow who turned his district nurse mum's Moggie Minor into a formidable Rover V8-engined hillclimber - another smashing bloke).

[Tim Murray]

Nic Mann. He and I were apprentices together at Rolls-Royce many moons ago. He's currently developing a very interesting 4wd hillclimb car with a turbocharger featuring a combustion chamber between the compressor and turbine, to cut down lag by keeping the turbocharger up to speed on the overrun. The art of special building is not yet dead.

[Philip Whiteman]

Not impressive that I should forget Nick's name! I remember talking to him about his turbocharger-with-a-combustion chamber scheme: you end up with a gas turbine connected to your piston engine. I think Nick had made his own combustion chamber before he found a proprietory unit that would do the job - or has memory again failed me?

Interestingly, Paxman (Colchester-based makers the big V12 diesel used in the HS125 railway train) had been working on the hyperbar system for fast patrol boats at the same time. This also used combustion chambers to keep the turbochargers running at high boost - not easy to keep the whole thing under control, I believe.

I also met in the mid 1980s a young development engineer at Cosworth (Paul ?) who was building a hillclimb car with a Lysholm (sp?) screw compressor. A couple of years later I learned to my horror that he had died from some rare blood disorder. There is an F1 connection here in that some people thought there may have been a connection with the fuel brews he had been exposed to, although that could have just been one of those legends.

Funny story from that era: I was then working at BP Research Centre. Our fuels chemist, Greg Lang was at a F1 test session when he saw rags been used to clean up spillage of a rival fuel blend being dumped in an oil drum. Discretely removing one of these and popping it into a sample bag, he returned to Sunbury with it for anlysis and bingo! we had the opposition's blend on a plate...

[Tim Murray]

Originally posted by Philip Whiteman
I think Nick had made his own combustion chamber before he found a proprietory unit that would do the job - or has memory again failed me?

I can't remember either. He did e-mail me a whole lot of info on the project a couple of years ago, but it's on my old computer which is currently u/s.

[Stoatspeed]

Originally posted by Philip Whiteman

I also met in the mid 1980s a young development engineer at Cosworth (Paul ?) who was building a hillclimb car with a Lysholm (sp?) screw compressor. A couple of years later I learned to my horror that he had died from some rare blood disorder.

I know it's a couple of years late, but the "Paul" was Paul Squires. He developed a very effective 1100 class racer with fellow Cosworth employee Phil Kidsley, based on an older Brabham F3 chassis (?BT28? - I'm sure the Brabham guru's can correct me!), always immaculately turned out, fitted with a screaming short-stroke Cosworth BDJ (?BDH?) with the Lysholm blower. Initially the car ran with a full 1100cc displacement, since at the time hillclimbing did not penalise forced induction. After a year or two of running the car (allegedly producing over 200 hp!), the regs changed to 1.4 equivalency, so the interpid duo reworked the car with an even tinier version of the engine (785cc) with a more advanced blower arrangement which featured modified parts from the Cosworth V6 turbo F1 engine. IIRC, this engine was even louder than the earlier version (this was just before the mandatory silencers for speed events!), and I think still they managed to run competitively - both were very capable drivers with a good measure of bravery, and typically placed 1st and 2nd in class, often only a few hudredths of a second apart.
Commentators often referred to them as the "Squidsley" team, so closely matched were they.
I also heard the sad news about Paul's passing, but since emigrating I have somewhat lost touch with the fate of the car or Phil Kidsley.
On the topic of the thread, this car was most certainly innovative in the Bolster style, despite the fairly conventional chassis - I think it was granted acceptance as a "Shelsley Special" based on the MAC's time-honoured requirements (maybe Toby Moody can confirm this?)
Thanks for the memory jogger, Philip!

[2F-001]

I remember that car very fondly. The later supercharged version (the 785cc BDJ one) was quite the noisiest thing you could imagine in the confines of a typical British hillclimb venue - up there I think with the unsilenced racing Mazdas, but more ear-and-brain piercing than that curious chest-collapsing sound pressure that made you think the grandstands might fall down each time the Mazda passed (or is it just me who thought that?).

It was said that the 'Lysholm' blower that gave the car it's nickname came from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal - if that was so, then I assume it was pressurizing some auxiliary power system rather than the prime motive power. It was however a big blower and took a lot of power to it. On the aural aspects - there is a story that on its first outing, at Prescott, it broke the noise meter - that's apocryphal, but I did read that it was off scale.

I think it was primarily the noise that did for it, and it was later turbocharged - bringing a host of other problems to be solved. The power from the turbo version was monstrous - over 300bhp was claimed I think (from 785cc) - but the power band was very narrow and delivery within it fairly abrupt so I don't imagine it was easy to drive.

Paul or Phil, I forget which, wrote a splendid feature on the history and development of the car for "Speedscene" magazine which I must now try to dig out.

[Stoatspeed]

Tony - I had forgotten the turbo evolution of the car, but for sure the noise limits were making life tough for any supercharged engines. Rather than the Mazda comparison (which I always found to be a really unpleasant noise - just plain painful), the noise I would most closely equate the sound to the V16 BRM - I recall being rather TOO close to the Wheatcroft car when Rivers Fletcher demonstrated it at Shelsley one year (early 80's - must look it up!). The car was fired up on the return road behind the paddock (after due amounts of spark plug replacement!) and the noise was unholy! On the hill, the car was glorious - growling, wailing, barking, snarling through the Worcestershire woods! From time to time, I have to get a fix of that V16 sound from the "Into the Red" CD - splendid!
As for the origins of the Lysholm blower, my recollection was that the unit had been a cabin pressurising device from a commercial aircraft, but the Ark Royal story sounds intriguing - whatever the truth, it certainly was not one of the later breed of screw-superchargers like Sprintex and had required considerable old-fashioned ingenuity to adapt to the new home. The blower and plumbing were sustantially larger than the engine!
I think this car may have been the first 1100 under 30 seconds at Shelsley - anyone know for sure?

Another related memory jogger - the Nitus-Bedford single seate which had a Shorrock-blown 1600cc Bedford van engine - hillclimbers are a resourceful group, which I think is where this thread began with Bolster!

Dave H

[2F-001]

Oh, I agree about the Mazda - I was comparing the sheer loudness rather than the nature of the sound!
I must that Speedscene article - it had loads of little details in abd some pics of the engine components.

Who were the pair than ran a fairly modern Austin production engine - turbocharged - in an early 70s March chassis? Rob Oldaker? And Andy something? One of them (at least) was something fairly influential at BL, I think.

[Stoatspeed]

Rob Oldaker and Andy Smith .... both were chassis development engineers at BL at the time, but Rob went on to become Engineering Director of the last (RIP) incarnation of MG(-Rover).
The engine was a transverse-mounted turbo A-series, so not so modern (and probably not that powerful, either!). However the chassis was very well sorted and they were both able to keep most of the power applied most of the time! Another case where the two drivers traded times closely, but IIRC Smith came out ahead more often.
Can't remember the exact vintage of the March - there's a voice in my head that says 733 (one for the March historians there!), but that may be way off. Prior to being adapted to the March, the engine started life in a Terrapin - it looked more at home there than in the gangly spaceframe hanging off the March tub!
Reminds me of another Terrapin graduate, Keith Gowers. He ran a blown Honda motorcyle engine in one of Mr Staniforth's creations, then built the wonderful Monopin (well documented by Alan S in his "Race and Rally Car Source Book") around the same engine. I had the pleasure of knowing Keith quite well during the time - he was a technical guru with Cheswick & Wright who supplied OE exhaust systems - he was a "proper" engineer and a real enthusiast for hillclimbing. In some ways, the Monopin was the forerunner of today's dominant small motorcycle-powered hillclimb cars (if we skip forward from the Classic 500's and vee twin 1100's of the 50's, of course!).
I really must go digging in my photo box - would like to post some pix in the "Pictures from the hills" thread ... watch out for it! I went to Shelsley most meetings from about 1971 to the early 90's, and also Prescott, Loton, Gurston .... and assorted sprints.

Great stuff!

[Tim Murray]

Originally posted by Stoatspeed
Can't remember the exact vintage of the March - there's a voice in my head that says 733 (one for the March historians there!), but that may be way off.

It was a 722, according to an old programme I've dug out. The engine capacity is quoted as 1140 cc - this obviously to qualify in the up-to-1600 cc class with the 1.4 equivalency formula.

The same programme (Loton Park - July '79) confirms the Squire/Kidsley Brabham as a BT28.

[2F-001]

Speaking of 'modern' 500s - I used to routinely get emails from folk who were actually looking for the creator of the 'Marengo' hillclimbers (we have the same name). They've usually found me through another car-related forum or a magazine I'm involved with, but having discovered they have the wrong person, they are quite surprised that I have some inkling of what they are asking about!

[Stoatspeed]

Originally posted by Tim Murray

"It was a 722" ........ "confirms the Squire/Kidsley Brabham as a BT28".

Thanks for the fact-checking, Tim!
IIRC, the Oldaker/Smith March was never quite as sharply turned out as the "Squidsley" Brabham. It was also luridly decorated for a while with decals proclaiming "Vroooom", which was bizzarely being used as a tag line for advertising the unloved Allegro ... never quite saw the connection, but Mazda seem to have got the point with "Zoom Zoom" now!
Oddly, I actually competed in an event once in a "works" Allegro -- the event was the BP Economy Run in 1979, in a 1750SS Allegro driven by long-time rally and hillclimb competitor Brian Field, and I was the navigator. Interesting event ...

Oh well, back to work ..

[2F-001]

The Squires/Kidsley car had (at least in its latter days) a non-original full-width sports car type nose which I never felt did it any favours aesthetically. (Although come to think of it the works BT33 F1 car that Tim Schenken drove had a particularly unresolved-looking nose of that type too in '71).

(Dave: on the subject of '71, check the 'Introductions' thread again...)

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Tim Murray

It was a 722, according to an old programme I've dug out. The engine capacity is quoted as 1140 cc - this obviously to qualify in the up-to-1600 cc class with the 1.4 equivalency formula.

The same programme (Loton Park - July '79) confirms the Squire/Kidsley Brabham as a BT28.

Anyone know (Steve) the history of this '722', if thats what it was, before or after the Allegro turbo days. I also recall it being called that, but don't remember MAWP or anyone else detailing its provenace.

[Stoatspeed]

How about that ... I've come across a shot of the March-Austin 722 in action at Shelsley. You can clearly see the engine dangling off the back of the tub .... very odd-looking!



There may be more pictures out there, and I'm sure I photographed the "Squidsley" Brabham more than once ... ... I'll keep looking.

Dave

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan


Anyone know (Steve) the history of this '722', if thats what it was, before or after the Allegro turbo days. I also recall it being called that, but don't remember MAWP or anyone else detailing its provenace.

Sorry but NO. I remember the car and I always thought it looked more 723 than 722!

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by David Beard
A few weeks ago I found a copy of John Bolster’s “Specials” in a second hand book shop in Southport,

I got my copy yesterday from Spencer Elton, always a reliable source of good books, and he seems to know everybody.

Try his website, usual disclaimers etc.

RL

[Allan Lupton]

Originally posted by David Beard

And what about the Harker special with the "Double Austin" ...two A7 engines side by side and geared together, plus a supercharger. What should we call that - a U8 engine? Then later it used MG Midget engines, and was installed in a Lombard chassis. Is this one still around?

It appeared at a VSCC Silverstone a few years ago (in the hands of Gerry Michelmore I think). Still not fully sorted after half a century of trying

[brescia_I]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by David Beard

And what about the Harker special with the "Double Austin" ...two A7 engines side by side and geared together, plus a supercharger. What should we call that - a U8 engine? Then later it used MG Midget engines, and was installed in a Lombard chassis. Is this one still around?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



It appeared at a VSCC Silverstone a few years ago (in the hands of Gerry Michelmore I think). Still not fully sorted after half a century of trying

Dear Allan,

I'm mostly interested by Lombard..

Are you able to tell me more about this special ?

By chance one of you may have a picture somewhere ?

regards,

Julien

[bradbury west]

Has it appeared in the last year or two? I would hate to think I missed it.

http://www.classican...NLC-Newsletters

A chance to see it in action in 1980
Roger Lund

[Neil Smith]

Came across this old thread while hunting for more info on the Multi-Union (copy of Bolster's Specials in front of me...). The Halford Special is alive and very well in Brooklands Museum where it has resided for a few years now in between racing outings. It is currently being fettled and is sans radiator.

BTW has anyone any current info on the Multi-Union?

cheers

Neil

[arttidesco]

Came across this old thread while hunting for more info on the Multi-Union (copy of Bolster's Specials in front of me...). The Halford Special is alive and very well in Brooklands Museum where it has resided for a few years now in between racing outings. It is currently being fettled and is sans radiator.

BTW has anyone any current info on the Multi-Union?

cheers

Neil

As I remember it DCN mentioned sometime ago mentioned 'someone' (in best diplomatic & polite terminology) having decieded some parts of it were worth more configured as yet another Alfa Romeo than a unique special and so the Multi Union is no more.

Looking forward to borrowing Tim's copy of the Bolster Specials book on Friday