My late father worked in an office in Vancouver from 1976-1986 with a younger guy named Bob Sheridan, which I suppose makes Bob eighty something today. Bob is a very cool guy, still around and sharp as ever, a talented amateur artist and he has an interesting automotive history, to say the least.
He has also been a valued research assistant for Jake Alderson's 2014 book concerning Morgans.
I was yakking with him by email yesterday and he told me about a short stint when he owned a Deutsch Bonnet Formula Junior car in southern California. It was 1962. Bob tells the story thusly:
"I got into the car business in California in 1960 in Santa Ana, with a Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Siata dealer. We moved back to San Francisco where I worked for Frank Crane, handling Morgan, Triumph and AC Bristol.
From there I worked for Renault West (Renault and Peugeot) as a parts rep for 5 NW states. The Crane dealership changed hands so I went to work in sales and parts with the new owner, until I got the opportunity to work for Alfa Romeo as a 5 state sales rep. They gave me a new 2600 Alfa Spider to drive, 5 gas credit cards, $500 in cash, working out of the SF region.
Up to then I had been racing my Morgan in California, and Nevada. At that time I counted 78 different brands of import cars. Some came and went in a hurry. Dealers made money or went broke, manufacturers were selling anything they could produce: 2 cylinders, 3 cylinders, 4 cylinders, 6 cylinders, 8 cylinders. A whole lot of almost motorcycle cars, coming from countries recovering from WW2, with little gas available.
One of those cars was the Panhard, a lightweight sedan which barely got into the market before the distributor failed.
At that time Rene Pellandini was the Morgan and AC Distributor. I got to know him when selling Morgans out of San Bruno. Rene wanted to add another line and one day I went into his West Hollywood dealership and a black Deutsch-Bonnet (Panhard) 850 Coupe was on the showroom floor. I got into it and was wholly impressed.
Rene even went to the factory in France to seal the deal, and while there he had DB take the 750cc engine out of a Formula 2 car that had run in races there, had them put in a Panhard Tigre 850cc engine that would allow it to run in the Formula Junior series that was getting popular in California. It was not competitive with Cooper, Lotus 1100s, but was still fun to run with Stanguellini and similar earlier marks.
Then the picture changed. With the LA distributor folding the Panhard line, it also affected the DB branch, so Rene’s deal with DB ended and he was stuck with a race car that would be of no benefit to him. He soon decided to move back to Switzerland and sold the dealership to Lew Spencer. He hadn’t any success with moving the DB for his $1995 asking price so I offered him $995 for it. He accepted it with nothing down, $100 per month payment, to be sent to Switzerland. As it happened I was back working with Frank Crane, who had some money coming from Rene for warranty work he’d done for him and Rene allowed me to pay Frank the money he owed him.
I got a friend with a trailer and we brought the DB to San Bruno and had our mechanics work on it. Not with much success, but a Laguna Seca race weekend was coming up so I entered the car along with my Morgan in Class E. It was my first time driving it but it wasn’t the slowest car on the grid. But during the race the Nardi steering wheel’s inlaid ring (for looks) came loose and was dangling like a loose coat hanger. On top of that I experienced a spray of gasoline had penetrated the cockpit, and over my flameproof coveralls, forecasting a possible fire if things went wrong. So ended my racing career in Formula Jr.
The weekend was not a total loss as I had my first experience driving the Laguna Seca course in my Morgan.
P.S. I put the DB on the market, got some interest, but the best offer was $750, which I accepted. Would you believe that not long after I sold it the new owner managed to blow the engine. There are a million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
-Bob Sheridan
Here, Bob seems to be thinking, why the hell are you taking a photo of me??
Rear view of Bob's DB Formula Jr. Panhard Tigre 850 powered car - Michelin X tires!
Another view of the Panhard-powered DB Formula Jr. and Bob chatting with another competitor.
An action photo from a race....
And Bob's Morgan at Laguna Seca in 1962.
Edited by 404KF2, 22 September 2020 - 22:13.
