437 replies to this topic

[Phil Rainford]

You should really learn how to quote as well!

"To be or not to be"

It never seems to work when I edit the quote

PAR

[David McKinney]

You should be OK as long as you leave the [ quote ] and [/ quote] bits in place

[Phil Rainford]

You should be OK as long as you leave the [ quote ] and [/ quote] bits in place

Thanks David


PAR

[richie]

Two veteran racers going back to their roots in the Formula Ford encounter - Ray Mallock (Mallock) and Frank Sytner (Merlyn)

L-R: Richard Evans, Teddy Pilette, Simon Hadfield and Tony Trimmer after the first Derek Bell race

The tartan McLaren is a M10A not B as previously quoted by me. Owned by John Bowtell in the early 70's chassis no 300-16. "Bought from Jack Lilley complete with 5 litre Rover Engine, which proved to be very fragile, hence DNFs !! It was sold to a sprint hillclimb man who was sponsored by an aftershave company Monsieur Houbigant and it was painted in their colours of orange and black diamonds !! John was was delighted to be re-acquainted with his old McLaren which John Peskett bought along to the reunion".

[elansprint72]

The tartan McLaren is a M10A not B as previously quoted by me. Owned by John Bowtell in the early 70's chassis no 300-16. "Bought from Jack Lilley complete with 5 litre Rover Engine, which proved to be very fragile, hence DNFs !! It was sold to a sprint hillclimb man who was sponsored by an aftershave company Monsieur Houbigant and it was painted in their colours of orange and black diamonds !! John was was delighted to be re-acquainted with his old McLaren which John Peskett bought along to the reunion".

Brown and black, I'd say.

[Giraffe]

By giraffe138, shot with HP ojp7700 at 2009-08-10

Derek told me yesterday that his book is now due out 31st October.

On the subject of F5000 in books, here is a transcript of an e-mail conversation I had with Brian Redman 2 days ago, that I have already posted on the recent thread regarding his forthcoming book, but it seems appropriate to post it again here:

"Dear Brian,
I've been pestering you for a number of years now regarding your proposed book, and you came to mind at the Gold Cup F5000 40th Anniversary re-union. I am the chap who pushed your Collier Collection Porsche 917PA to the assembly area at Goodwood with Doug Nye. I contribute (like Doug and very occasionally in the past yourself) to TNF (The Nostalgia Forum) where I am known as "Giraffe" for my sins!

As a Birmingham resident, I tracked down Sid Taylor and I'm pleased to say he attended the reception. (See attached pics re. these two events). Yourself and Peter Gethin were very much missed. Chris Sharples of HSCC who invited me, told us that you had written a long and profuse apology for being unable to attend.

Meeting all the old drivers prompted me to encourage you to try and make a concerted effort to complete the book on a couple of counts. Firstly, your recollection is still first class (I know as you spoke to me about crashing Sid's Lola at the Oulton TT in 1969), and secondly, you still have a very large fan base worldwide of chaps like me of around my age, who would love to be able to read about your life, career and experiences. That fan base is likely to diminish rather than grow with the passage of time, so now would seem to be the right time to capitalize on it!

I know you are a busy man Brian, but please please please make some time and do it for your fans! (Oh and please post again on TNF!)

Best Wishes,

Tony Gallagher. (Giraffe on TNF)".

Reply from Brian............................

"Dear Tony,

Many thanks for your kind message!

The book is coming along quite well......we have over 1,800 photographs!

Good to hear you met with Sid! Quite a character!
Unfortunately, I can't repeat the best "Sid" stories in the book!

The F5000 years were really great......although I seem to be best known as a "sports car" driver, those F5000 days were the best.

Gordon Kirby is writing a book on Newman Haas Racing and in it there is a pretty big section on F5000.
Somewhat surprisingly, Jim Hall said those were the best series days he ever had and crew chief/engine builder/test driver Franz Weis had this to say:

"Franz Weis offers some final words of perspective on Redman and Haas/Hall’s four years in F5000. “We were awful lucky, you know, but we had a heck of a crew, a hell of a team, and Brian was a big part of it,” Weis remarks. “As long as I’m alive, Brian is always going to be number one in my eyes. He wasn’t just a hellacious driver. He was as good as anybody back in those days, but he’s something special as a person. He appreciated so much all the work we did at Chaparral and at Carl Haas in Chicago. You just didn’t expect that. He was just something else.
“I’ve said to Brian, ‘As long as I’m alive, you’re the greatest person I ever met in motor racing.’ And he said, ‘Franz, you’re making me cry.’ But that’s the way I feel and I still do thirty-five years later.”

Makes me cry - again !!

All the best, Brian"

Brian Redman

Edited by Giraffe, 12 September 2009 - 11:23.

[Alan Cox]

Brown and black, I'd say.

Funny how we all see colours differently - Orange and black, I would say. I think the preponderance of black in the scheme tends to trick the eye into giving the orange a brown tint.

[Tim Murray]

Putting Alan's McLaren photo alongside Phil Rainford's photo of an undeniably orange car:



I'd agree with Alan that the McLaren is definitely orange (and black).

[Giraffe]

Nearer tan I would say; a tad too dull for orange.

[Slurp1955]

Nearer tan I would say; a tad too dull for orange.

Agreed, the "Monsieur Houbigant" logos are orange - contrast and compare.

Edited by Slurp1955, 13 September 2009 - 08:09.

[Giraffe]

Certainly the logos are orange, the car tangerine??? I can spot John Bowtell, Frank Sytner and Simon Hadfield in that pic! Anyone else there? Under pit number 13 is a chap who I see at almost all events, usually on his Jack-Jones; who is he and let's get him signed up to TNF!!!

[Slurp1955]

You would certainly know the personell better than me. I took about two hundred shots on the Sunday, mostly of the static machinery in the paddock, and of Judy Lyons of course, in the static machinery on the track. The wonders of digital eh! The standard of other photographic posts on this thread means at least I have a decent folder of shots from the races. I am still struggling a bit with exposure levels for action shots, particularly as it was quite dull for a lot of the meeting. Maybe we should have a Northern TNF "Photographic Evening" at some point over the winter, and we could pick the brains (and equipment!) of our group. In the meantime, here's the best car I saw in the public carparks at the Gold Cup, a lovely Series 3 Lamborghini Espada - in black.

Edited by Slurp1955, 13 September 2009 - 10:35.

[Kingsleyrob]

Brown and black, I'd say.

I think some folk have missed your mischievousness Pete Time to bring out the colour blindness test, last seen on the "BRMs are Brown" thread...

As my sometimes hopeless mobile phone network and ISP supplier once said, "The Future's Brown".

Rob

[Slurp1955]

I think some folk have missed your mischievousness Pete Time to bring out the colour blindness test, last seen on the "BRMs are Brown" thread...

I recall my (and others) posts on the Ishihara being faded out of that thread

[Phil Rainford]

It would be an extremely boring world if we all viewed life the same way

However these two cars from the Gold Cup I would define as orange



Marcus Mussa in the classic Modus colours.....



and the Crossle 51F of James Ledamun

PAR

[Kingsleyrob]

It would be an extremely boring world if we all viewed life the same way

PAR

Yes Phil, you are right

Here is the Snapper snapped, viewing Life Thru a Lens (Robbie Williams, 1997)...



I was hampered getting a decent shot of this transporter and almost had to adopt the Lotus position to get this poor effort...



And of course my favourite...



Rob

[elansprint72]

I think some folk have missed your mischievousness Pete Time to bring out the colour blindness test, last seen on the "BRMs are Brown" thread...

As my sometimes hopeless mobile phone network and ISP supplier once said, "The Future's Brown".

Rob

Rob;
At last someone got it. ;)



I have more where this came from.

[elansprint72]

You would certainly know the personell better than me. I took about two hundred shots on the Sunday, mostly of the static machinery in the paddock, and of Judy Lyons of course, in the static machinery on the track. The wonders of digital eh! The standard of other photographic posts on this thread means at least I have a decent folder of shots from the races. I am still struggling a bit with exposure levels for action shots, particularly as it was quite dull for a lot of the meeting. Maybe we should have a Northern TNF "Photographic Evening" at some point over the winter, and we could pick the brains (and equipment!) of our group. In the meantime, here's the best car I saw in the public carparks at the Gold Cup, a lovely Series 3 Lamborghini Espada - in black.

Being a relative newcomer here I have to say that not only does the NW England (+Wales?) TNF group seem to be one of the most talented (and vociferous) linguistic groups on the forum; there are more than a few top-class snappers too. What about (I'm going to regret having said this) a Winter evening of photos at one of the, erm.... evenings?

Edited by elansprint72, 13 September 2009 - 22:39.

[Mallory Dan]

Brown and black, I'd say.

Simon Riley was the Monsieur Houbigant Hillclimb man who had the Bowtell McLaren. He later used a Brabham BT33 on the hills.

[Stephen W]

Simon Riley was the Monsieur Houbigant Hillclimb man who had the Bowtell McLaren. He later used a Brabham BT33 on the hills.

Simon Riley started with a Lotus 7. He used the BT33 mainly in the sprint championship throughout 1976/77/78 and in 1979 ran a March 741.

[Pullman99]

Simon Riley started with a Lotus 7. He used the BT33 mainly in the sprint championship throughout 1976/77/78 and in 1979 ran a March 741.

I remember that Simon brought the BT33 to Silverstone as part of a small gathering of ex-Graham Hill cars that I helped organise for the 1976 International Trophy. The Brabham was in Monsieur Houbigant colours at that time - although we hadn't realised that was the case until he turned up! We were hoping that it would have been in the Brabham works colours as raced by Graham and I know that it came as a bit of a shock to Robert Fearnall.

[Barry Boor]

Any pictures of the Brabham in those colours, Pullman?

[Pullman99]

Any pictures of the Brabham in those colours, Pullman?

Hi Barry,

I did take some pics of the International Trophy in '76 but cannot instantly find them . We're in the process of moving house so anything could turn up! The event was jointly supported by Imperial (John Player) and by WD & HO WIlls (Embassy) and so their archve smay have some pics as well as the BRDC. There was not really an opportunity to do justice to the intended parade due to time constraints as the International Trophy was named in Graham's honour fairly late in the day annd was also a fundraising event for the charity set up in his name. The intention with the parade was to highlight the diversity of cars that Graham had driven and we wanted to include, ideally, the two World Championship cars, the 1962 BRM P57 and 1968 Lotus 49B (examples of both provided by The Donington Collection), the 1972 Le Mans Matra MS670B, and the 1966 Lola T90 Indianapolis winner. Sadly, we could not get the Matra and Lola so it was a bit of mixed bag in the end.

Somewhat OT, it did, however, include the immensely interesting Rover-BRM gas turbine car in 1965 form. At the 1975 International Trophy, I had interviewed both Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart for segment of an audio-visual presentation (how archaic does that sound!) to accompany an exhibition at Coventry Museums' Herbert Art Gallery & Museum on Rover's gas turbine programme. Several cars were preserved there (at that time) following closure of the gas turbine unit at Solihull. The team at Rover were, of course, heavily involved with the aircraft gas turbine programme of Sir Frank Whittle but eventually the fruits of their labour were passed on to Rolls-Royce and the Rover W2B ultimately became the Welland (to power the Gloster Meteor). The Solihull team went on to produce the world's first gas turbine car - registered JET1 - and before their final fling at commercial vehicle gas turbines as part of Leyland, they joined with BRM to plan an assualt - with some success - on Le Mans in 1963 (Graham Hill and Richie Ginther) and 1965 (Hill and Jackie Stewart). At that 1975 meeting, Graham and Jackie very kindly autographed - in a 1965 British GP programme -a Rover advert featuring their achievement an subsequently that was given to the museum.

Creating a "tribute" parade to Graham today would probably be easier as the "key" cars seem to be more accessible.

Maybe we could attempt to create a season of "showstoppers" that we couldn't quite manage 30 or so years ago. How about a Connew and Token dsiplay?????

Edited by Pullman99, 14 September 2009 - 19:18.

[alansart]

Caption, anybody?

Blimey, you go away for a few weeks and people start talking about you. I had a look at this at an Apple store in Miami and got some funny looks when I burst out laughing

Now I'm back here are a few more a few more of my meagre efforts from the sunday.


Jeff Bloxham steps up for a group photo.




More of the F5000 line up




Tony Trimmer's mount for the day.




The huge silencers cut some of the noise of the big V8's, but they still sounded good.




Neil Glover was looking good for 3rd until that man Trimmer took him near the end...a late lunge by Trimmer at Lodge almost resulted in tears, but they got away with it!




Anthony Taylor's Chevron




There were some good things to look at in the paddock.




The Lotus boys were busy.




Ex GP driver Ian Ashley in the LDS Alfa




Ex Formula Fordie Nigel Bancroft in a Cooper




It was wet for 2nd Formula Junior race

[Giraffe]

I was recognised and stopped by two very enthusiastic bearded brothers from North Wales as I walked along the bank on the infield at Avenue on the Sunday of the Gold Cup. Long time TNF'ers, they had a wodge of period photos that they had taken at Oulton; I remember the first one they showed me was of a very youthful David Purley in F3. It was a pleasure to meet you both, and I'd be obliged if you could PM me if you see this, gentlemen!

[Alan Cox]

I was recognised and stopped by two very enthusiastic bearded brothers from North Wales.... Long time TNF'ers, they had a wodge of period photos that they had taken at Oulton;

Any chance you can get them to post some photos, if they make contact, Tony?

[Giraffe]

Any chance you can get them to post some photos, if they make contact, Tony?

That's what I'm hoping I can encourage or even help them to do, Alan. They are a couple of regular TNF'ers who rarely if ever post for a variety of reasons. I'm sure there are many similar TNF'ers out there with equally wonderful material!

[Giraffe]

The latest Motor Sport magazine has the amazing Tony Trimmer at 66 years of age! He really is a Peter Pan, and you could easily mistake him for a man 20 years younger, with the driving ability of a 30 year old, and a skilled one at that!


By giraffe138, shot with EX-M2 at 2009-10-06


By giraffe138 at 2009-10-06

Here he is pictured also at Oulton Park, aged 25 and autographed for me (at long last!) at the Gold Cup meeting.


By giraffe138 at 2009-10-06

And here he is having a bit of banter with another driver of not inconsiderable skill, Barry Whizzo Williams, whose age I dare only guess at!!!

Edited by Giraffe, 06 October 2009 - 12:47.

[Paul Hurdsfield]

I was recognised and stopped by two very enthusiastic bearded brothers from North Wales as I walked along the bank on the infield at Avenue on the Sunday of the Gold Cup. Long time TNF'ers, they had a wodge of period photos that they had taken at Oulton; I remember the first one they showed me was of a very youthful David Purley in F3. It was a pleasure to meet you both, and I'd be obliged if you could PM me if you see this, gentlemen!

They weren't by any chances twins were they?
Maybe even Westfield owners?
If so I may be able to help

[Giraffe]

They weren't by any chances twins were they?
Maybe even Westfield owners?
If so I may be able to help

I'm not too sure about the Westfields but they did look very much like twins to me, and most definately North Walian, so you may well be onto something, Paul.

[Alan Cox]

Can anyone help with naming ths so-far unidentified drivers at Sunday night's reception for them???

To wrap up this question, I can now confirm the full line-up as: (L-R) Gordon Spice, Bob Marston, Terry Sanger, Ian Ashley, Kaye Griffiths, Mike Walker, Teddy Pilette, John Bowtell (hidden), Tony Trimmer, Alan Rollinson, Steve Thompson, Dave Berry (partly hidden), Sid Taylor, Patrick Sumner and Trevor Twaites.

[Giraffe]

My pics of the F5000 photocall for cars.....Awesome!


By giraffe138 at 2009-10-19

By giraffe138 at 2009-10-19

By giraffe138 at 2009-10-19

[Giraffe]

Just received a disc of the photo montage that was shown at the F5000 driver's reception at the Gold Cup from Auroraf1 (Phil Hosker at MSV) to which I contributed, and with it Phil kindly sent me this period flyer advertising that very first F5000 race in the UK.


By giraffe138

Edited by Giraffe, 22 October 2009 - 11:51.

[Auroraf1]

Just received a disc of the photo montage that was shown at the F5000 driver's reception at the Gold Cup from Aurora Phil (Phil Hosker at MSV) to which I contributed, and with it Phil kindly sent me this period flyer advertising that very first F5000 race in the UK.


By giraffe138

Hi Tony

It is actually a copy of an original poster which we had on show on the night, knidly leant by one of Oulton Regulars Alan Cornes.

We were selling them as autograph cards, but there is a surplus. There are some available for sale on ebay.

Northern TNFers may find them cheaper at the next get together.

Phil

[Giraffe]

Hi Tony

It is actually a copy of an original poster which we had on show on the night, knidly leant by one of Oulton Regulars Alan Cornes.

We were selling them as autograph cards, but there is a surplus. There are some available for sale on ebay.

Northern TNFers may find them cheaper at the next get together.

Phil

Actually Phil, I remember three in poster size being autographed by the drivers at the reception; I also recall one idiot who shall remain nameless putting his glass down on one of them, a caper repeated later by several people in attendance!
What is happening to the autographed posters???

Edited by Giraffe, 22 October 2009 - 11:51.

[Auroraf1]

Actually Phil, I remember three in poster size being autographed by the drivers at the reception; I also recall one idiot who shall remain nameless putting his glass down on one of them, a caper repeated later by several people in attendance!
What is happening to the autographed posters???

One went to Alan in return for lending his (he understandably didn't want that one signing), one is here waiting to be framed and one mysteriously disappeared!

[Giraffe]

....... one mysteriously disappeared!

Let's hope it was the one on the right with all the glass rings & slopped booze on it!

[MCS]

Hi Tony

It is actually a copy of an original poster which we had on show on the night, knidly leant by one of Oulton Regulars Alan Cornes.

We were selling them as autograph cards, but there is a surplus. There are some available for sale on ebay.

Northern TNFers may find them cheaper at the next get together.

Phil

A nice little memento Phil - I've just bought one.

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