80 replies to this topic

[petestenning]

Steve Hodges [Chevron B8 ] in historics , Jim ? / Mini Marcos, there was a Clubmans driver who i cant remember at present [Phantom ] i think .
ALL come from the Biggleswade area.

Michael Willis [VW Golf]. Baldock, Ian Richardson [A C Cobra/Mclaren/Chev Corvair came from Ampthill.

Allen Gibson [Chevron B8 ] from Chawston/Colmworth

[Bloggsworth]

I recall that Bygraves of Biggleswade* used to enter Lotus Cortinas in 63/64, I remember working on them in Delemare Road.








*They are still extant.

Edited by Bloggsworth, 11 March 2012 - 21:35.

[Nick Wa]

Ampthill....wasn't Vic Elford the village Post Master?

Wasn't Huntingdon still Hunts. when Lola moved there?

Can't spell this morning!

Edited by Nick Wa, 11 March 2012 - 23:55.

[Odseybod]

I recall that Bygraves of Biggleswade* used to enter Lotus Cortinas in 63/64, I remember working on them in Delemare Road.

*They are still extant.

Not forgetting the Berkeley 3- and 4-wheelers were produced at their factory in Hitchin Street, Biggleswade, I think originally to use up surplus fibreglass from their caravan manufacturing business (or did I dream that?). .

Btw, Crown & Cushion in Gransden's website is now here - not sure if there's still any motoring involvement but seems very strong on music (and curry).

[bradbury west]

Not forgetting the hillclimb at Woburn, in both its iterations.
Roger Lund

[alansart]

I seem to remember ex Prod Saloon racer Barry Boult ran a pub in one of the villages near Woburn.

[La Sarthe]

Other Bedfordshire lads include GT-ace Oliver Gavin, Porsche Supercup race-winner Nick Tandy and his late brother Joe.

[roblegin]

I seem to remember ex Prod Saloon racer Barry Boult ran a pub in one of the villages near Woburn.

The White Horse at Husbourne Crawley, near J13 of the M1. The saloon bar had a good selection of memorabilia, including bits of a works Porsche Group 6 car which crashed at Silverstone in 1979 / 1980? if I remember correctly. Nearby Woburn Abbey hosted rallycross in the late 60's early 70's and Daren sportscars were built in Leighton Buzzard, in a unit close to the railway station. Mike Nicholson ex Competition Manager(?) of the Vauxhall touring car team is or was a resident and quite a few of the Mini Miglia / Mini7 contingent came from Bedfordshire.

[fatbaldbloke]

Luton Hoo hosted hillclimb events and I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Jem Marsh and Speedex? Based in Jubilee Street, just off the Hitchin Road.

[Youichi]

Theres an ex DERA / QinetiQ wind tunnel just north of Bedford, which has been passed along between Arrows - Jaguar - Red Bull.

http://www.grandprix...ns/ns03739.html
it's one of these buildings

and then just north of that theres the ex DERA aerodrome, now used by Jonathan Palmer as a test track. (it's one click north on the multimap site)

As the thread has been bought back from the dead, this wind tunnel has been used by Scuderia Torro Rosso for the last couple of years.

[petestenning]

On the same airfield as Royale at Colmworth Sid Hoole use to prepare his Coopers, not sure if he is still there , as i havent been that way for Years.

[David McKinney]

I thought he was at (or near) Kimbolton, which is more your Cambridgeshire

[DogEarred]

As the thread has been bought back from the dead, this wind tunnel has been used by Scuderia Torro Rosso for the last couple of years.

I believe the Bedford, ex DERA tunnel is used by Red Bull.
Toro Rosso use the Reynard built tunnel in Bicester, which was RB's second tunnel until the time restrictive aero rules came in 2 or 3 years ago.

Williams now hire their second tunnel to the Caterham F1 team.

Mclaren have been using another tunnel quite a bit lately allowing another team to use theirs.

All very complicated & silly.

[john winfield]

Currently reading Murray Walker's book which reminded me of one thing - motocross scrambles were held on Dunstable Downs. (and indeed Muzza was there as a young pup on his bike!)

Curses, missed them! Perhaps they had finished by the time I was living there, in Kensworth, near Whipsnade, in the early 1960s. I was only young but remember some scrambles more on the Whipsnade Heath / Kensworth side rather than Dunstable Downs themselves.

We need Bauble for this - he'd know all about Bedfordshire motor sport. Didn't Paddy Hopkirk have his accessory business in Eaton Bray? Chiltern Cars had some very exotic machinery in Leighton Buzzard, but I don't know if they raced. Roy James used to do the occasional sprint near Cheddington.

Edited by john winfield, 13 March 2012 - 09:03.

[Allan Lupton]

Roy James used to do the occasional sprint near Cheddington.

Yes, on foot from the train to the getaway car.

[jcdeleted]

I believe that the rapid and multi-skilled driver and writer Mark Hales hails (sorry!) from the county, as does the Classic Clubmans champion Mark Charteris, whose immaculate and quick Mallock embarrassed many of the Derek Bell Trophy runners last season.

And then of course, the man from the village of Haynes, who in my opinion was the best true Formula One privateer of the 1960s if not of all time; Bob Anderson, a true hero.

[roblegin]

Curses, missed them! Perhaps they had finished by the time I was living there, in Kensworth, near Whipsnade, in the early 1960s. I was only young but remember some scrambles more on the Whipsnade Heath / Kensworth side rather than Dunstable Downs themselves.

We need Bauble for this - he'd know all about Bedfordshire motor sport. Didn't Paddy Hopkirk have his accessory business in Eaton Bray? Chiltern Cars had some very exotic machinery in Leighton Buzzard, but I don't know if they raced. Roy James used to do the occasional sprint near Cheddington.

Paddy Hopkirk had a factory in Eaton Bray which then moved to Leighton Buzzard. It still exists, but is now called Mont Blanc, which makes roof bars and cycle racks for cars. Also based in Leighton Buzzard were Paramount which made a Ford 10 based car back in the 50's. Later models were fitted with 1500cc Ford Consul engines. Garage Proprietor Lenny Elkerton ran modsports Austin Healeys from his garage in Linslade and SAH Components were well known in the 60's and 70's for 'go faster' parts for Triumphs.

Laterly in their life, Erhlich racing cars were built just across the border in the Edlesborough / Eaton Bray area. Speaking of which, I think Duncan Bain (F Atlantic?) was the landlord of a pub in Eaton Bray but I might be getting a bit confused there!

For bike fans, the late Kenny Irons came from Dunstable and Sid Mularney, an ace bike tuner, famed for Manx Nortons had a garage in Leighton Buzzard until the mid 80's.

Edited by roblegin, 13 March 2012 - 14:26.

[fuzzi]

There were/are the following courses in Bedfordshire:

Beechwood Park (Markyate) Hillclimb
Chaul End Proving Ground, Sprint Course
Haynes Park Sprint course
Luton Hoo, Speed Trial, sprint and Hillclimb course
Millbrook, Sprint course
Orwell Hill Hillclimb
Putteridge Park Sprint couse
Santa Pod Drag Strip and former sprint course
Sharpenhoe Hill Hillclimb
Tempsford Airfield Sprint Course
Woburn Abbey Hillclimb

Admittedly only Santa Pod and Temspford (by sprint motorcycles) are still used.

Edited by fuzzi, 15 March 2012 - 06:23.

[alansart]

Paddy Hopkirk had a factory in Eaton Bray which then moved to Leighton Buzzard. .

There was a well known Rally Driver of the 70's (in Escorts) who ran a Rally Parts business (and I think something to do with Lawnmowers) in Barton-le-Clay, but I can't remember his name

[jcdeleted]

There was a well known Rally Driver of the 70's (in Escorts) who ran a Rally Parts business (and I think something to do with Lawnmowers) in Barton-le-Clay, but I can't remember his name

I think that would be Mick Briant, of whom many tales have been told.

[alansart]

I think that would be Mick Briant, of whom many tales have been told.

That's the man. Pretty quick in his day if I remember

[condor]

I believe the Bedford, ex DERA tunnel is used by Red Bull.
Toro Rosso use the Reynard built tunnel in Bicester, which was RB's second tunnel until the time restrictive aero rules came in 2 or 3 years ago.

We could also call it the ex-RAE tunnel
Red Bull have some rather dodgy electronic gates to their wind tunnel - got locked in by them a few months ago when I'd delivered something...was fairly easy to get in....near enough impossible to get out

[Allan Lupton]

I think that would be Mick Briant, of whom many tales have been told.

That's the man and he published a book about it last year!

[elansprint72]

There's a bloke called Bob Bull on BBC Radio Bedfordshire/ BBC Three Counties Radio who has been providing motor sport news every week for years. He sounds a bit of a grumpy old bugger, so would probably fit right in here.

Since I packed in driving all over the place for a living last year, I really miss listening to the local radio stations. I'm completely out of touch with the crab stocks in Cromer and the asparagus crop in Worcestershire; where the sauce comes from.

Edited by elansprint72, 14 March 2012 - 15:43.

[Eric Dunsdon]

There's a bloke called Bob Bull on BBC Radio Bedfordshire/ BBC Three Counties Radio who has been providing motor sport news every week for years. He sounds a bit of a grumpy old bugger, so would probably fit right in here.;)

He was, but he didnt!.

[john winfield]

He was, but he didnt!.

Yellow card and sin bin punishment now over, surely? Turn again, Bob Bull of Bedfordshire, your forum needs you.

[MCS]

Not forgetting the hillclimb at Woburn, in both its iterations.
Roger Lund

Ah ha! Finally!!

I have been trying to ascertain which roads were used for this for quite some time. And now you say there were two!

Do you have any details?

[Cranclive]

Ah ha! Finally!!

I have been trying to ascertain which roads were used for this for quite some time. And now you say there were two!

Do you have any details?

Sorry can't help on this one but I recall going to Woburn to see a stage of the British round of the World Rally Championship; we also went to Millbrook too. Stanley Mann ran an event at Millbrook and records have been set there on the banked test track.

Mention of Paddy Hopkirk reminds me that Alec Poole was based at the Nissan Technical Centre Europe at Cranfield for a period of time.

Paul Jaye was based in H. Crawley and then Eversholt. Paul has restored many cars including Altas and Richard Bolster's car. He now resides in Pury End in Northants.

The late Bob Anderson's family lived in Aspley Heath and I remember seeing a set of laurels that Bob received in the garage there. I have one of Bob's trophies in my cabinet at home. Bob ran his Brabham out of Haynes as DW Racing Enterprises. The car was transported on a cut down VW. David Stanbridge who farmed at Stagsden had the remains of an engine that Bob grenaded at Oulton Park. After his crash at Silverstone the remains of the Brabham went to Luton and his wife asked for the chassis to be cut up. but that's another story.

[Eric Dunsdon]

I installed a new telephone switchboard system at ERA in London Road, Dunstable when they were involved, I believe, in Mini conversions of some kind. While there I got to talking with one of the older employees who recalled the days when Leslie Johnson ('The Guvnor') used to take the E Type ERA for a pre-race check down the A5 to Markyate and back. If all was going well he would give the thumbs up sign as he passed the works on his return run and proceed down to the town centre and pick up fish and chip suppers for the lads. This trip involved him passing directly in front of the Dunstable town police station. Knowing how tempermental the E Type was I wondered how much it might have cost 'The Guvnor' for the suppers?.

[Allan Lupton]

I installed a new telephone switchboard system at ERA in London Road, Dunstable when they were involved, I believe, in Mini conversions of some kind. While there I got to talking with one of the older employees who recalled the days when Leslie Johnson ('The Guvnor') used to take the E Type ERA for a pre-race check down the A5 to Markyate and back. If all was going well he would give the thumbs up sign as he passed the works on his return run and proceed down to the town centre and pick up fish and chip suppers for the lads. This trip involved him passing directly in front of the Dunstable town police station. Knowing how tempermental the E Type was I wondered how much it might have cost 'The Guvnor' for the suppers?.

I'd have thought it would have been the G type which was a Dunstable car rather than the E type which was a pre-war Bourne job, but what do I know?

[Eric Dunsdon]

I'd have thought it would have been the G type which was a Dunstable car rather than the E type which was a pre-war Bourne job, but what do I know?

I believe that Leslie Johnson took over as managing director of ERA in 1947 and relocated to Dunstable shortly after. The chap that I spoke to recalled the car in question as being the E Type. I suppose that it could have been the G type although that car was even less likely to have made Markyate and back than the E!.