59 replies to this topic

[Herbert Austin]

The production company were filming the VSCC New Year Driving Tests yesterday, mainly concentrating on the progress of 3 competitors during the day.

[Vitesse2]

I am now insanely jealous of Orlando Lindsay!

[Allan Lupton]

I am now insanely jealous of Orlando Lindsay!

The piece on him learning to drive the Napier-Railton was better than most of the rest. Orlando seemed fully aware that his grandfather had not just owned but also raced the car, but perhaps doesn't know of the wet Formule Libre race we discussed elsewhere. Allan Winn's tutorial was clear and to the point, so little wonder that Orlando got the hang of it - it was said he had raced an old car, but not what it was. Does someone know?

[Vitesse2]

The piece on him learning to drive the Napier-Railton was better than most of the rest. Orlando seemed fully aware that his grandfather had not just owned but also raced the car, but perhaps doesn't know of the wet Formule Libre race we discussed elsewhere. Allan Winn's tutorial was clear and to the point, so little wonder that Orlando got the hang of it - it was said he had raced an old car, but not what it was. Does someone know?

All that shows up on Driver Database are some tintops at Goodwood Revival and Speedweek. The Napier-Railton is a bit of a step up from a Ford Prefect and a Dolomite Sprint. I think he might have raced some modern touring cars as well.

[Michael Ferner]

The most influential Grand Prix car of all time?

 

I'll bite. So, why is that?

[ensign14]

   It showed that you did not have to be a "volume" car manufacturer to build a Grand Prix car.  Also that you could "subcontract" by building one up using proprietary materials from elsewhere.  The spiritual Adam to McLaren/Williams &c.

 

I'm not sure if there were any GP entrants before then who were not road car builders as well. 

[Michael Ferner]

The first "special" in Grand Prix racing? Hmm, possible. But I'm not sure the term "influential" is proper in this context - specials were around for a long time already, it didn't take Frank Halford's "influence" to make people think of entering them in Grands Prix, too. The slackening of the "factory entries only" rules, more likely.

[Collombin]

Very disappointed by the lack of midget racing clips from Nutley Velodrome so far this series!

[Derwent Motorsport]

The Halford Special was the first "turbo charged" racing car they said.  It's a good series but they do need Doug Nye to fact check the script!

[Vitesse2]

The Halford Special was the first "turbo charged" racing car they said.  It's a good series but they do need Doug Nye to fact check the script!

Ahem ...

 

Halford initially fitted a turbocharger to the engine, making this the first known turbo-charged car, though the experiment was short-lived.

 

https://www.brooklan...halford-special

Halford - as an aeronautical engineer - would no doubt have been aware of Sanford Moss's work for General Electric, the use of turbochargers on the V12 Liberty aero-engine and (perhaps) on marine diesels.

 

So it just wasn't the first successful use of a turbo in a car. At that point the theory - initially patented in Germany in 1905 by Alfred Büchi - was probably still ahead of the available technology and materials for smaller installations, but there were turbo diesel trucks running by the late 1930s.

 

Like the innovative Australian Chamberlain 8, the Halford was later fitted with a Berk supercharger.

 

https://forums.autos...bradford-yorks/