11 replies to this topic

[Alpine a442]

Hi all, I have a Les Leston pitboard which i believe is from the 1960's. I can't find much out about Les Leston
pit eqipment or in fact any products! It is complete in a carry bag with numbers etc and has had some use, though not for a long long time. I was wondering if anyone out there knows if this would count as nostalgic memorabilia for collectors and suchlike, or is it only any good for use if you have a strong armed pit-mate?
I would much appreciate any information on Les Lestons equipment and it's desiribility!

Thanks in advance

[luca]

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[Catalina Park]

How about this....

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Catalina Park
How about this....

Wow, excellent. Spent many days using one of those as a lad in the 60s & 70s. You could always lend/hire it out to a Revival competitor's crew.

[Rob29]

Leston ran a shop in London's High Holborn.Having previously been a leading F3 driver.Only thing I remember buying was an umberella in the colours of flag signals-sadly no longer have this though it lasted many years Les later did a motorsport news radio programme on Radio Luxembourg.I think the first such prog on radio or TV here?

[Graham Gauld]

Les is quite a character he came to a special dinner I organised in 1993 for all of Jim Clark's friends twenty years after Hockenheim and Les came to this. On the day of the dinner I arranged a coach for a lot of the gang to go down to the Jim Clark Room at Duns and on arrival Les and Peter Jopp repaired to the local pub, the Whip and Saddle and entertained the locals. They were a star turn.
This is what he looked like in 1953 in his Leston Special at Charterhall.

[Lotus23]

I'm quite certain I bought my blue Dunlop racing coveralls from Les in '62 or early '63.

When I wore them in my first race stateside (Spartanburg, SC) in late '63, they caused much comment. One of the few times in my life I've been considered avant-garde.

btw, they still hang in the back of my closet. But somehow they've mysteriously shrunk around the midsection...

[Catalina Park]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson


Wow, excellent. Spent many days using one of those as a lad in the 60s & 70s. You could always lend/hire it out to a Revival competitor's crew.

I picked that up in the late 80s when they couldn't give them away! It has sat in a cupboard for years and every now and then I think of getting some stop watches for it while I still can.

[Barry Boor]

My Dad, who worked all his life just around the corner from Les' shop in Holborn, bought me a 'Les Leston Databoard' in, I reckon, around 1963.

The clip for the stopwatch has long gone but the board is still in regular use, for racing purposes, in the Millennium Shed.

So as not to cause confusion with the pit boards mentioned above, I should add that the Databoard is simply a black vinyl covered piece of hardboard, with two 'tubes' running laterally across the top into which pens or pencils can be lodged and a press-down clip to hold sheets of paper.

I still find it extremely useful.

[john winfield]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
My Dad, who worked all his life just around the corner from Les' shop in Holborn, bought me a 'Les Leston Databoard' in, I reckon, around 1963.

The clip for the stopwatch has long gone but the board is still in regular use, for racing purposes, in the Millennium Shed.

So as not to cause confusion with the pit boards mentioned above, I should add that the Databoard is simply a black vinyl covered piece of hardboard, with two 'tubes' running laterally across the top into which pens or pencils can be lodged and a press-down clip to hold sheets of paper.

I still find it extremely useful.

I think I still have my 'Databoard' somewhere - very useful, although I always really wanted the three watch board posted by Catalina. There wouldn't have been much point though as I could only afford one watch......

One thing I always regret is not being brave enough to approach Les Leston in the paddock. He ran an advertising campaign in the early 1970s in which, if you approached him in the (Brands?) paddock and said loudly 'Les, baby, you're the greatest!', you won a free something or other. I can't think what the 'prize' was - one Nomex sock perhaps? Anyone remember?

[mgtd]

But did you realise the "Robotimer" cost the vast sum of £37.10.0 in 1968?
Neither did I,but I've just emptied a box of stuff including race programmes going back to that year intending to sort them in order to join the c**p in my garage which I call my archives.
Anyway,lo and behold an almost mint copy of the 1968 Les Leston motor racing equipment catalogue just fell into my hands and there it was,the "Robotimer"....AND it included 3 Hanhart Precision timers,actually quite a bargain I think.I can't remember where I got the catalogue from,probably picked it up from the shop in High Holborn.On examination Order Form 1 appears to be missing from the back,maybe I did buy something for the Triumph Herald I had just started wrecking,no,driving I think!
















And just in case you didn't believe me-













I have just spent hours enraptured by the sight of one G.Hill posing in his Driving Gloves (59/6 the pair) and Rallymaster Jacket (an exorbitant £10.10.0). Magic stuff


mgtd

[Giraffe]

By giraffe138 at 2009-01-06

Me in my Graham Hill Rally Jacket in 1970, purchased from a Les Leston concession in Liverpool. I got through two of 'em in time, and wish I had one now! note the little helmet insignia which was the giveaway. I had the gloves too!