83 replies to this topic

[richie]

It reminds me of all those colour ads that Duckhams ran in Autosport (and elsewhere) featuring the car. As part of the campaign they also painted up an F1 Surtees TS9 - I seem to recall.

But did Rollinson ever race the car? I simply can't remember...

MCS

I recall there used to be a Duckhams Oil magazine featuring some pics of their sponsored cars and drivers. Who were they?

I also remember the group were pictured next to a Duckhams liviered caravan. Does that jog any memories?

[RS2000]

My car featured in a photo in their magazine when used as a service car on the RAC Rally. Their caravan was on a lot of major events - but once when I went to get some anti-freeze from it at the (only) overnight halt on one of the 5 day RAC Rallies, they had not brought any.... So we had to drain the rad (having had to change the coolant earlier and having only water) to let the car sit overnight in a freezing Blackpool.
Having said that, Duckhams in the late 60s early 70s under Ron Carnell were magic and gave large quantities of products freely on major events. I once had a large truck turn up at my home before one Welsh International Rally and I still have a stock of Palmit hand cleaner left today! Later it got tight and I recall only getting given 5 litres of oil for one RAC Rally (when Champion too gave only 4 spark plugs).

New Zealander Alan Carter won Gp1 on the 79 RAC in a Sutton-run RS2000 in Duckhams colours.

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by richie

I recall there used to be a Duckhams Oil magazine...

The magazine was entitled Duckhams Quest.

As far as I'm aware, Rollinson never actually raced the TS9 featured in the Silverstone-based ads but at that time he was the benefactor of Duckhams sponsorship and raced a fully-liveried Lola T300 in F5000 during 1972 and a similarly-bedecked McRae (below) in 1973 (but perhaps not for the whole season though, I forget).



Ron Carnell is standing next to Rollo in my pic above, taken at Mallory Park in '73.

Another famous Duckhams-sponsored car of the early-seventies was Alain de Cadenet's Duckhams Ford which he used to some success in WSC events and Le Mans if I recall.

[alansart]

They were also the main sponsor of the works Van Dieman FFords in the 80's.

This is Dave Coyne in 1984

[bigears]

I recall Duckhams sponsoring Karl Jones' Ford Escort for the BTCC series in 1985 or 1986 before continuing to sponsor his Ford Sierra in 1988 (perhaps more years?)

I got a nice Motor article about the Duckhams sponsored Ford Escort, I will dig it up tonight.

[Alan Cox]

As Richie says, there was a Duckhams magazine produced which featured the exploits of their sponsored drivers. IIRC all the photos were taken by a photographer called Bruce Grant-Braham. I think Cyd Williams received their sponsorship at some stage in Atlantic.

[Phil Rainford]

Originally posted by bigears
I recall Duckhams sponsoring Karl Jones' Ford Escort for the BTCC series in 1985 or 1986 before continuing to sponsor his Ford Sierra in 1988 (perhaps more years?)

I got a nice Motor article about the Duckhams sponsored Ford Escort, I will dig it up tonight.

Here is the Sierra......




PAR

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Alan Cox
As Richie says, there was a Duckhams magazine produced which featured the exploits of their sponsored drivers. IIRC all the photos were taken by a photographer called Bruce Grant-Braham. I think Cyd Williams received their sponsorship at some stage in Atlantic.

That Quest mag used to be great, some really good colour pics of clubbie drivers/cars. Used to be good fodder for my scrapbooks, regrettably scrapped when I left home in '84!

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan


That Quest mag used to be great, some really good colour pics of clubbie drivers/cars. Used to be good fodder for my scrapbooks, regrettably scrapped when I left home in '84!

I still have a couple of Quest mags. In the days when published colour photos were rare, especially UK club & national racing, each Quest issue was eagerly awaited!

Duckhams had stickers on several cars that featured in the magazine, the Brooke-Bond Surtees team, Sid Taylor's F5000 B24, David Purley's & Colin Vandervell's F3 Ensigns, Jon Fletcher's Mod Sports Elan, Sid Fox's FF Hawke and as stated, Cyd Williams' F.Atlantic March 722 & Brabham BT40 among others.

Full liveried cars were indeed the Rollinson F5000 cars, the De Cadenet Duckhams Special Le Mans car designed by Gordon Murray, (raced at LM in '72 by de Cadenet & Chris Craft) that morphed into Colin Hawker's Supersaloon DFVW (now restored back to the Duckhams Special), Gerry Pedersen's Gemco-Oldsmobile (McLaren Can-Am look-a-like) in New Zealand and as Alan Raine says, the works Duckhams Van Diemen Formula Ford's.

Ralph Firman had worked with Duckhams for many years, the Russell school had Duckhams backing (Jim is Ralph's brother in law) when Ralph worked for him before setting up Van Diemen with Ross Ambrose. Full Duckhams livery first appeared on his 1977 RF77 driven by Don MacLeod and Duckhams stayed on board with the works team right up until fairly recently, 2004 I think, when the works VD cars were run by Comtec.

[RS2000]

Originally posted by Alan Cox
[B]IIRC all the photos were taken by a photographer called Bruce Grant-Braham.

Pretty sure Colin Taylor took some. Can't check the one copy I have right now.

[Alan Cox]

You're probably correct, RS. It was probably just that I don't remember Grant-Braham's pics appearing anywhere else. As Dan said, Quest was a great mag for impoverished young enthusiasts who wanted to see colour photos of club-racing heroes.

[Henk A. Hazelaar]

Richie,

Found these photograp's in Quest No. 22 1971 (magazine published by Duckhams Oils).
In this magazine a article "Some need a special racing oil" with the photograph's of the Formula 1 Surtees.

Testing the Surtees
Friday, 19th November 1971
Formula 1 Surtees driven by A. Rollinson

If anyone like a copy (PDF-file) of this article (5 pages) please send me a PM.







Best regards,

Henk A. Hazelaar

[Twin Window]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson

In the days when published colour photos were rare, especially UK

The Goodyear periodical was nice for the same reason, although it didn't have much colour inside. Marlboro Sports Special was brilliant as it had loads of colour, but was printed on poor quality paper.

[Henk A. Hazelaar]

Dear All,

How many Quest magazines were published, who can give me the answer?

I still have 54 Quest magazines in my archive, starting with issue 5 from March 1969, some examples I received as supplement of Autosport magazine.

A superb magazine especially UK club & national racing, F5000, Formula Ford and the reports of Mike Kettlewell.







Best regards,

Henk A. Hazelaar

[ensign14]

I remember Niko Palhares and Phil Andrews, sponsored by Duckhams in FFord, had Duckhams-coloured helmets that they kept throughout their careers. Was that coincidence or common for Duckhams-sponsored drivers in the 80s? Dave Coyne had the same design through his career, but different colours on occasion.

[MCS]

Originally posted by Henk A. Hazelaar
Testing the Surtees
Friday, 19th November 1971
Formula 1 Surtees driven by A. Rollinson




Best regards,

Henk A. Hazelaar

It had never occurred to me that this car - featured as a static shot in all of the ads, I believe - actually took to the track!!

[Mallory Dan]

That Purley pic is brilliant, is he in front of Henton in the Boxer, then Val M's March?? Anyone recognise the team crew around him?

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by MCS


It had never occurred to me that this car - featured as a static shot in all of the ads, I believe - actually took to the track!!

It did feature in an ad as an onboard shot, approaching Copse I think, looking over Alan's right shoulder. I reckon the pit lane shot posted above shows the camera guys messing around with the rig that held the camera, fixed to the roll over bar.

[Andrew Kitson]

From a Duckhams ad in the 1972 Autocourse. Rollinson with his T300.

[MCS]

Ah, yes. I can certainly remember that one Andrew.

And here's the same McKechnie mechanic tending the unique Formula Atlantic Puma HM22A in period - not a terribly good picture, but hey...



I noticed recently that this car was entered for Bob Evans at the Rothmans 50,000 race at Brands in 1972 but didn't appear; whereas Rollinson finished seventh in the Duckhams liveried F5000 T300.

[richie]

Great pics, distinctive livery.

Duckhams Oils of West Wickham no more? What happened to the company?

[Gregor Marshall]

Originally posted by bigears
I recall Duckhams sponsoring Karl Jones' Ford Escort for the BTCC series in 1985 or 1986 before continuing to sponsor his Ford Sierra in 1988 (perhaps more years?)

I got a nice Motor article about the Duckhams sponsored Ford Escort, I will dig it up tonight.

1987 Duckhams sponsored Karl in the Escort (Mike Smith's spare production saloon car from '86) - a deal my late Dad had put together and the reason him and Karl didn't speak for almost 20 years and yes, Duckhams then sponsored Karl in the Sierra Cosworth in '88.

I'm surprised that Andy K hasn't mentioned a certain Lotus driven by GM that he has colour photos of (mine are black and white so not much fun!!) - Duckhams sponsored.

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Gregor Marshall

I'm surprised that Andy K hasn't mentioned a certain Lotus driven by GM that he has colour photos of (mine are black and white so not much fun!!) - Duckhams sponsored.

Oh yes, the Victor Raysbrook modsports Elan. Forgot that one.

[Phil Rainford]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gregor Marshall
[B]

1987 Duckhams sponsored Karl in the Escort (Mike Smith's spare production saloon car from '86) - a deal my late Dad had put together and the reason him and Karl didn't speak for almost 20 years and yes, Duckhams then sponsored Karl in the Sierra Cosworth in '88.

Here is the 1987 Escort......



.....while from FF2000 Paulo Carcasci leads the field at Oulton.



PAR

[Kevan]

Originally posted by Gregor Marshall


1987 Duckhams sponsored Karl in the Escort (Mike Smith's spare production saloon car from '86) - a deal my late Dad had put together and the reason him and Karl didn't speak for almost 20 years and yes, Duckhams then sponsored Karl in the Sierra Cosworth in '88.

I'm surprised that Andy K hasn't mentioned a certain Lotus driven by GM that he has colour photos of (mine are black and white so not much fun!!) - Duckhams sponsored.

Gregor, I thought Karl Jones' Duckhams sponsorship covered two Escorts? the production saloon you mentioned, and also a Group A example for a partial season of the BTCC- this being the Escort shown in Phil's photo. Think it was one of the ex-Longman/Datapost cars?

[Gregor Marshall]

I don't think so but I am happy to be proven wrong - I don't think Karl and Richard Asquith would have had the resources to do more than one car anyway. There is a very good Mk3 Escort website and they've pretty much traced all the Prod Saloon and Gp1 cars whereabouts - it's very interesting if you're into that sort of thing!!

[Kevan]

Phil's pic definitely shows a car with Dunlop BTCC number backgrounds on the doors, and looks more like a Longman Group A car than a prodsaloon

I think the Group A car only did about half-a-season at most?. Debut was probably at the British GP meeting at Silverstone (I suspect this is where Phil photographed it?) and it may have only been selected races for the rest of the year, I'd have to look up the race results to be sure- think Karl had a run in Dennis Leech's Rover at some point as well for one of the 2-driver races (Donington or Oulton).

From memory, I think there was a Tiff Needell track test article in Autosport towards the end of the year in which he compared both cars (I ought to have that to hand somewhere, as I was looking at it a few months ago)

[Gregor Marshall]

Originally posted by Kevan
Phil's pic definitely shows a car with Dunlop BTCC number backgrounds on the doors, and looks more like a Longman Group A car than a prodsaloon

Kevan - sorry; I wasn't clear really; it was Mike Smith's prod saloon car updated/upgraded to Gp1 spec - it's well documented and I have the mis-fortune of being very good friends with Karl (if you ever met him you'd understand ;)) so I can always double-check what other people tell me.

[bigears]

Found the Motor magazine with me. It is from the 30th August 1986 edition.

Mark Hales drove the Duckhams/Motor Escort Turbo (280bhp) for the 1986 season. It was built by Terry Drury Racing of Steeple (based near Maldon in Essex)

The Escort was raced in the BSCC Class B of the championship.

[Andrew Kitson]

[Phil Rainford]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kevan
[B]Phil's pic definitely shows a car with Dunlop BTCC number backgrounds on the doors, and looks more like a Longman Group A car than a prodsaloon

I think the Group A car only did about half-a-season at most?. Debut was probably at the British GP meeting at Silverstone (I suspect this is where Phil photographed it?) .......

Good call

PAR

[Kevan]

Originally posted by Gregor Marshall


Kevan - sorry; I wasn't clear really; it was Mike Smith's prod saloon car updated/upgraded to Gp1 spec - it's well documented and I have the mis-fortune of being very good friends with Karl (if you ever met him you'd understand ;)) so I can always double-check what other people tell me.

Cheers Gregor- see what you mean- I knew there was a Group A car, but hadn't thought of it being the ex-Smith car upgraded. I'll dig that Autosport article out anyway, as I've got a feeling it's the issue with the '87 BTCC season review, and I promised someone on another forum I'd look out the points table

[Kevan]

Originally posted by bigears
Found the Motor magazine with me. It is from the 30th August 1986 edition.

Mark Hales drove the Duckhams/Motor Escort Turbo (280bhp) for the 1986 season. It was built by Terry Drury Racing of Steeple (based near Maldon in Essex)

The Escort was raced in the BSCC Class B of the championship.

I'd forgotten about Mark Hales in the Terry Drury RS Turbo having Duckhams backing- I now have a very vague recollection of the cars being white, rather than in full Duckhams colours, but wouldn't swear to that?

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by ensign14
I remember Niko Palhares and Phil Andrews, sponsored by Duckhams in FFord, had Duckhams-coloured helmets that they kept throughout their careers. Was that coincidence or common for Duckhams-sponsored drivers in the 80s? Dave Coyne had the same design through his career, but different colours on occasion.

There have been many good drivers to race the works Duckhams Van Diemen FF1600 cars. A flick through the programmes reveals some of them:
are:
Don MacLeod 1977
Michael Roe 1978
Terry Gray 1979
Raul Boesel 1980
Tommy Byrne 1981
Enrique Mansilla 1981
??? 1982 ?
Mark Peters 1983
Dave Coyne 1984
Ruairi O'Coileain 1985
Jason Elliot 1986
Eddie Irvine 1987
Derek Higgins 1988
Niko Palhares 1989
Giampiero Simoni 1989
Michael Vergers 1990
Mark Goossens 1991
Andrew McAuley 1992
Jan Magnussen 1992
Russell Ingall 1993
Justin Keen 1994
Ralphie Firman 1994
Kevin McGarrity 1995
Jiri de Veirman 1995
Mark Webber 1996
Jacky van der Ende 1997
Marcus Ambrose 1998
Dan Wheldon 1998
David Besnard 1998
Rob Collard 1998
Ricardo van der Ende 1999
James Courtney 2000
Robert Dahlgren 2000
Patrick Long 2001
Richard Goransson 2001
Robin Rudholm 2001
Gary Turkington 2001
Westley Barber 2002
Stuart Hall 2002
Mike Conway 2002
Jan Heylen 2002

[MCS]

Originally posted by richie
Duckhams Oils of West Wickham no more? What happened to the company?

I'm pretty sure that they are now part of BP.

[Arjan de Roos]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson

I thought immediately of the Lotus 76!! Thanks Andrew!

[Phil Rainford]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
That Purley pic is brilliant, is he in front of Henton in the Boxer, then Val M's March?? Anyone recognise the team crew around him?

To be a total anorak....is that a Surtees airbox behind the March ( Or Trojan )

PAR

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Phil Rainford


To be a total anorak....is that a Surtees airbox behind the March

PAR

Is the chap with the beard Greg Field with Mike Earle just in view behind him? What is the distant pale blue car - Sana? I'd say that is the race at the '76 FF Festival meeting.

[bigears]

I was reading my 2009 Autosport International programme and I found a photo of David Coulthard driving in Formula Ford in 1989 and he got some Duckhams sponsorship but it was a small decal on the nose of his car.

[barrykm]

Originally posted by MCS


I'm pretty sure that they are now part of BP.

With Castrol..

[ghinzani]

I always used to look forward to the Festival and the unveiling of the next years Van Diemen in Duckhams colours. The rf85 in 1600 and 2 litre form was a stunner in those colours. Then at the end of 89 as I recall they unveiled the RF90 1600 and it was all black, like a stealth bomber.

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson

Is the chap with the beard Greg Field with Mike Earle just in view behind him? What is the distant pale blue car - Sana? I'd say that is the race at the '76 FF Festival meeting.

I'd go for Divis TS16 as the airbox Phil, and Ray Mallock's March as the pale blue car Andrew.

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan


I'd go for Divis TS16 as the airbox Phil, and Ray Mallock's March as the pale blue car Andrew.

Doesn't look like a March nose to me Dan, perhaps Nick May's Sana or Grob's Chevron..or poss Rouff's Modus. Is that a front rad intake we can just make out? If so, not the Sana..or March.

[Mallory Dan]

But the Mallock '752' Andy had a very odd nose, with a front radiator, said at the time to be based on a U2 nose, so I think it could be the car after all.

[MCS]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
But the Mallock '752' Andy had a very odd nose, with a front radiator, said at the time to be based on a U2 nose, so I think it could be the car after all.

I agree - it's Mallock's pale blue March (number 14).

[Andrew Kitson]

Right..I'm with you now! Agreed. A lot of good drivers in that race, in grid order:
Cheever, Purley, Bell, Robarts, de Villota, Holland, Galica, Mallock, Rouff, Wardle, de Dryver, Musetti, Grob, May, Uriarte, Wilds, Friswell, Nicholson, Leech, Crawford.

[Chris Townsend]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson

There have been many good drivers to race the works Duckhams Van Diemen FF1600 cars. A flick through the programmes reveals some of them:
are:
Don MacLeod 1977
Michael Roe 1978
Terry Gray 1979
Raul Boesel 1980
Tommy Byrne 1981
Enrique Mansilla 1981
??? 1982 ?
Mark Peters 1983
Dave Coyne 1984

1982: Bjorn Langrekken IIRC

[Andrew Kitson]

The FF Festival meeting race was November 7th, at the tribute to James Hunt raceday.

[Chris Townsend]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson
The FF Festival meeting race was November 7th, at the tribute to James Hunt raceday.

I think that's Henton in the Boxer, in which case it would have to be the race at Brands on October 24th

[Barry Boor]

I'm somewhat hesitant about mentioning this but Duckhams, through one of their guys, whose first name was definitely Fred - (surname, either Place or Game, IIRC) were very helpful in the early days of the Connew effort.

That they never remained on board was naturally due to the fact that Francois Migault was so heavily tied in with Shell. Indeed, at one time we thought all the money came from Shell France, although nowadays, we are not so sure...

But that's another story and has no place on a Duckhams thread.