28 replies to this topic

[Roger Clark]

I am thinking of GP cars being driven on public roads.

In the 20s it was common for cars to be driven to races. In 1923 the Fiats were driven actoss the Alps from Turin to Tours. Bordino arrived well ahead of everybody else, apparantly. They must have had some faith in the reliability of the cars as these were the first GP contestants to have supercharged engines. THey all amde it to Tours, but all ertired in the race, despite being by far the fastest cars there.

In the 50s it was common, particulalry at Spa and Reims for the cars to be garaged in town and driven to the circuit, in one case by the owner who cooked the clutch, much to the annoyance of the driver.

Not a GP car, but in England we had the famous case in 1965 of AC cars testing their Le Mans car at 190mph (alledgedly) on the then new M1. It made the front page of thhe national papers for several days and provided the government with an excuse to introduce a blanket 70mph speed limit which we still have.

Until the late 60s, Ferraris would often have the letters MO31 stencilled on the back. This was the company's trade plate number and indicated that the car had been tested on the road. I'm not sure whether the number made it legal in the eyes of Italian law, but it would take a brave policeman to prosecute Ferrari, although one did eject Enzo from the Monza pits one year. I haven;t checked, but I think the numbers disappeared around 1970. I don't suppose that Michael and Rubens try them down the road very often.

[Ray Bell]

It was common for cars to be driven to the Longford circuit in Tasmania... I think it was Geoff Smedley drove either Matich's Brabham or Youl's Cooper eight miles or so from Launceston to Longford once... and there were others, plenty of them.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Don Capps]

Here is something from my 8W article on the Vanwall. It is 1955 and the scene is is Spa-Francorchamps...

Once again the team entered only a single car, VW1, for the race since Wharton was still on the sidelines due to his injuries from Silverstone. As was the norm in those days, the team would find space in a garage or auto agency somewhere in the area of the circuit in a village or town since there were really no facilities at the circuit for any extensive work on the cars. This meant the cars were usually driven by the mechanics from where the team was staying to the paddock or the pit area. This served to both give the mechanics an opportunity to check out the car and to give the race some free publicity. For the first practice session, Vandervell decided to drive the car to the circuit. It being his money and his car, no one objected - or at least within his earshot. The Guv eased himself into the cockpit and the mechanics push-started the car. After a lap around the square, Vandervell headed for the pit area. Normally, these jaunts were uneventful and rarely saw any problems occur. Besides the cars usually could get there quickly since few interfered with them on their way to the circuit. Needless to say this was not to be. With a group of mechanics in the Vandervell Bentley following him, the Guv was batting down the road and despite some initial problems with the uphill sections, doing okay. Then he started to get mixed up with the spectator traffic. As he neared the pits the traffic got worse. Vandervell was subjecting the clutch to more and more abuse as he slipped the clutch more and more since he was on an uphill section. By the time he reached the pits, the clutch was in pretty poor shape. Vandervell hopped out and walked off. The mechanics immediately set to work and hoped for the best. Hawthorn set off to lap the circuit and he barely cleared the pits when the clutch completely packed up. It must be said that Hawthorn was notorious for abusing clutches, but for once he was not at fault. Hawthorn was furious. He stormed back to the pits on foot and left the circuit. That evening, as he stayed with friends in Spa, he was expressing his displeasure with the way the team was performing.

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[BRG]

For many years, they used to drive the cars down the streets of Monaco from garage to circuit. Often one of the mechanics would drive. This certainly went on into the 1970s. I think the F3s and F3000s may still do it even now.

I did witness the Mclaren display at Woking in late 1998 to celebrate their WC win when Mika drove from the firestation around the ring-road and into the central plaza - on a cold damp British winter's morning, it was quite a handful for him!

Italy seems the best place for this - Ferrari had a session (for their 50th anniversary?) when Schumacher and Irvine drove the F1 cars on the road. And of course the notoriously flexible Italian law allowed the "Prova" system where Ferrari, Alfa, Lancia, FIAT etc could put almost anything on the road as a prototype. I am sure if they wanted to road register a F1-2000, the authorities would allow it even now!

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BRG

"all the time, maximum attack"

[Eric McLoughlin]

I've read Coopers used to test their F1 cars on the A3 near Surbiton. They used to head down to the Tolworth roundabout (now an underpass) and back to Surbiton.

[Ray Bell]

I once had to run in an engine in my Clubman on the morning of a race meeting at Amaroo Park. I strapped a muffler on the end of the exhaust and went ambling down and back, round and up all the local streets among the farms that are now being swallowed up in South Penrith... you learn how to watch for the worst bumps!

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Roger Clark]

There is a story about the 1959 French GP at Reims. THe weather was very hot that year and the road surface was melting in the heat. Toto Roche, the race director (who deserves a thread to himself one day) was determined to stop unauthorised use of the circuit.

On Saturday evening, after practice had finished, Ferarri wanted to try some adjustments to Gendebien's car. Genedebien wasn't available, but Phil Hill was. Hill didn't have his crash helmet, so he borrowed Gurney's. He drove the car from Reims out to Thillois and set off on a lap.

Roche was standing in the pit area, making sure that the locals who were, of course, trying the circuit for themselve didn't go too fast and damag his track. Anybody going over about 50mph was liable to suffer the Wrath of Roche. You can imagine his consternation when he saw a GP car coming down the hill on the wrong side of the road at 170.

Next day roche sought out Gendebien: "Not me M Roche, I was in town all evening", and Gurney, whose helmet he recognised "No, no, I haven't sat in a Ferarri since the end of practice"...

[Don Capps]

HEY!!! I was at Reims when that happened!!! That story made the rounds both that weekend and at Aintree a few weeks later. Yes, THERE was a Dino blasting down the road and Roche did go nuts!!! I had forgotten completely about this! Too bad since I should have put in my story of the 1959 season in RVM.

GREAT!!! And thank you for bringing that story to my attention!! Telflon Brain is a terrible disease - things just keep sliding off it...

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Eric McLoughlin]

I've just come across an article in the January 1958 edition of Motor Sport. I'm not going to repeat it verbatim but the gist of it relates to Denis Jenkinson taking out a Formula 1 car for a spin on Christmas Day, 1957. The theory being that no-one else was out driving and the local constabulary were probably sitting around a stove in the police station tucking into Christmas dinner. At no point is the type of car mentioned, the only reference to the make being the expression "The Manufacturer". No indication is made in the article as to where this highly illegal joyride took place, However, the piece is accompanied by a photograph which shows a head-on shot of an open wheeled racing car leaving what appears to be the slip road out of a car park. The car looks like a Lotus 12 and I can personally positively identify the location. The car is actually leaving the car park of The Phoenix Inn, Hartley Whitney, Hampshire and is shown joining the A30 Camberley - Basingstoke road. I know this location well because that is where the local branch of the Lotus 7 Club meets every month. According to DSJ, he took the car up to 120mph - which at the time was not illegal in Britain in "No Speed Limit" areas. Driving a car without lights, handbrake, reg' plate etc. was, of course, very illegal.

[Don Capps]

Eric, It was a Lotus 12...and another great story...

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Eric McLoughlin]

Don

Thanks for confirming the ID of the car. The picture in Motor Sport was not that big and the shot was a bit fuzzy too. I think it was the shape of the radiator intake that led me to believe it was a Lotus 12. Do you have any more information on this story? I identified the location because one of the buildings shown in the shot is still standing. It is right beside the pub car park and is used today by a business that specialises in tuning Weber carbs. There's also a Bently/Lagonda specialist in the adjoining unit. You can see why this pub is a popular watering hole with car clubs.

It just goes to show all the little gems tucked away in old magazine articles. I had only pulled out that edition because I wanted to read their reviews of the 1958 season (the year I was born).

[Ray Bell]

We know, we know... many times we 'only pulled the magazine out...' and three days later....

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Don Capps]

ONLY three days later?

Why do you think I have to struggle to get my columns for Rear View Mirror done? I start reading some of the articles or my notes and.....................

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Barry Lake]

And how many times do you start to research a story or column and forget completely what it was you were planning to write about?
I often write a column about something entirely different from what I had originally planned.
And don't blame it on age, I have been doing it since I was a kid.
Conversations can be similar. Only last night I phoned fellow motor racing historian John Medley (author of that magnificent Bathurst book). After an hour of interesting and often hilarious banter that had taken us around Australia and across Antarctica (do you realise how many Antarctic explorers used cars to...) and through hundreds of years (and you thought Cugnot had the first self-propelled road vehicle in 1769...) I couldn't remember why I had phoned him.
Once, John arrived at my door and without so much as a "hello" we picked up, almost mid-sentence, on a conversation we'd been having some years earlier.
But, more often, his opening line is, "Shall we digress?"

[Ray Bell]

What I really like is the way he introduces friends... one of his mates who might have been drinking solidly since the last race will be introduced to you at ... say 9:00pm as... Well let's do it properly:
"Hello, John, how'd the Nota go today."
"Well, indeed, Harry... oh you don't know Bill... Harry, this is the remains of Bill..."

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Roger Clark]

Another story from the usual source.

"A few years ago Enzo Ferarri was busy making his annual announcement about withdrawing all his cars from racing and going to live in a monastry as there was nothing left in life for him, and on this occassion he was being taken pretty seriously be the daily newspaprs. speculation was rife as to whether it was the end of Scuderia Ferarri and the Press room at Monza after the Italian Grand Prixwas humming with stories from people who really knew the answer , and who had had personal interviews and so on. While the world was reading about the end of Ferarri racing on Monday morning I was mororing along the road between Modena and Maranello, and on the long straight which heads into Maranello village there were little groups of locals standing well back on the grass verge. I pulled onto the side of the road and very soon there was a shattering roar and the head mechanic of Scuderia Ferarri went by at about 130moh in a Super Squalo Grand Prix Ferarri. Shortly he was back again, and by the way he was belting up and down this long straight he was not doing it just to have the wind blowing through his hair. THere was no need to call at the factory to see if they had withdrawn from racing, or to go on reading the papers. I merely went on my way towards the next raceon the calendar, satisfied in the knowledge thst Scederia Ferarri would be there."

----DSJ

[Ray Bell]

"There was no need to call.." ... yes, the usual source, no need for the initials at the end. If you weren't sure at that stage, when you read "I went on my way satisfied..." it was confirmed.
Where would we be without him?
It's a good thing the world stopped twenty years ago, or we would certainly need a replacement.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Roger Clark]

THey did it in america too! This is from tony Rudd's autobiography and concerns the 1960 USGP

"We were issued with American number plates so we could drive the racing cars to the circuit, but someone blew a speed cop of, so then we had to travel with a heavy escort from the California highway Patrol."

[Ray Bell]

I guess most of the world has some form of what we call 'trade plates' - numberplates issued to car dealers so they can deliver unregistered cars...
The story goes that Eldred Norman, whenever he road tested the Maserati 6c he bought from Colin Murray (and for which he virtually hand built a new engine, but that's another story), wore the trade plates around his neck - one on his chest, one on his back.
When he road tested the double-Mercury (which was probably the heaviest monoposto ever built - two side valve Ford V8 engines coupled together in a Dodge Weapons Carrier chassis), he would often rush back into his workshop before the police arrived. One day they came and asked if he'd been out in the car... "No, it hasn't been started since yesterday..." "Boy, the engine retains its heat," said the policeman as he bid him a nice day. The next time he hosed down the bonnet...

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Alfisti]

Ray,

South Penrith?? Your getting awfully, awfully close to Alfisti's house.

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"Life will not break your heart, it'll crush it" - Henry Rollins.

[Ray Bell]

How close is Castle Road, Orchard Hills?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Barry Lake]

Don made mention earlier in this thread about "teflon brain".
I have great news. Just saw/heard a lady interviewed on TV (I can see part of it from my desk, between boxes of books). Missed the name but they said she was "possibly the most knowledgeable person in the world on the workings of the human brain".
She said that, like your body, the more you use it, the better it becomes. And it doesn't degenerate as quickly as the body.
Use your mind, she said, and it will still be in tip-top shape when your body finally gives up.
She did say that older brains are not as quick in their operation as younger brains, but more than make up for this with experience and knowledge.
There is a saying among people in that area that the subconscious mind, "sees and hears everything and forgets nothing."
The problem is, like a filing system (or book collection) as the knowledge grows in volume, it just takes longer to find any one particular thing. Or you can forget (consciously) where you filed it.
But if someone triggers the memory (something like saying, "Have you checked the file in cabinet four, second drawer, marked 'Reims'...") and out it pops.
Keep reading and posting on this board; it's some of the best mental exercise you can get.

[Alfisti]

Jeeeeeez Ray, you don't know a guy by the name of Joe Mizzi who lives up on a hill and has grapes????? My uncle.

I am in Mt Druitt now but was closer to Penrith.

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"Life will not break your heart, it'll crush it" - Henry Rollins.

[Ray Bell]

You know the green shed behind the house he rents out on the property? I do...

And, Barry, That's a great prospect.. to be fully conscious of how your stinking body is letting you down. I know Lance Lowe was hating it as he died.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Alfisti]

I dunno, i haven't spoken to the arsehole for years... everyone hates him. His nickname is "Judas" and in a Maltese family you could imagine what that means.

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"Life will not break your heart, it'll crush it" - Henry Rollins.

[RehsperW]

I recall an old issue of Road & Track. In the last page "PS" there was a picture of a helmetless Stirling Moss in a Lotus 18 behind a bunch of regular cars at Monaco.
The caption read something like: "At the back of every traffic jam there's some guy who thinks he's Stirling Moss."

RehsperW

[Ray Bell]

Hey, I remember that one, too!

Not as good as the PS picture of a sticker on the back of a Mini:
"Why do the British drink warm beer? Because they have Lucas refrigerators!"

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[This message has been edited by Ray Bell (edited 05-10-2000).]

[Roger Clark]

I've been reqading "A Passion for Motor Sport" which is a collection of Jenks' writing for the BRDC journal in which he recalls his Christmas day 1957 jaunt. He was a little cynical about other magazines' gimmicy Christmas road tests (road rollers, lawn mowers and invalid carriages) and thought it would be fun to drive a Grand Prix car on the road. As he wasn't one for celebrating Christmas with the family he thought 25 December would be a quiet day on the road. His first thought was for a Vanwall. If he was caught it would be worth doing time for, but Vandervell was concerned about the bad publicity for his campany. He tried for a privately owned Marerati, but settled for a F2 Lotus 12.

Chapman brought the car himself, on a trailer behind a Ford Anglia and left Jenks to get on with it. This wasn't to be a quick dash up the by-pass but a 180 mile run on a route Jenks often used for trying interesting cars.

Unfortunately, being a Lotus, it broke a drive shaft and Jenks coasted into somebody's drive. The family were preparing Christmas dinner and must have been a little surprised to have a bearded gnome in their midst, asking to use the telephone, and a single seater racing car in the drive.

[Ray Bell]

That's Lotus, always in advance of Pomeroy's theory!

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Life and love are mixed with pain...