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Posted 09 April 2021 - 12:56
Of course, as a First Lieutenant, he preferred a somewhat wetter track...
Posted 09 April 2021 - 13:01
Posted 09 April 2021 - 13:05
A perfect picture for the occasion, Doug...
Posted 09 April 2021 - 17:29
Of course, as a First Lieutenant, he preferred a somewhat wetter track...
... and in later life, a different kind of horsepower. Still wet though.
Posted 09 April 2021 - 17:43
Also at the 1975 British GP, HRH seems to be enjoying a joke with Le Patron, Master James and Bubbles - maybe he's just been reading Hunt's overalls?
Posted 10 April 2021 - 07:38
A grand lady of my acquaintance once described him as '150% male'. He will be missed. RIP.
Posted 10 April 2021 - 07:47
Posted 10 April 2021 - 08:11
Pillow talk......About thirty five years ago I was on the Council of the National Playing Fields Association in Scotland and had organised a Businessmans Dinner to raise funds for the Association that was attended by the Duke of Edinburgh as President. I was presented to him so what do you say to the Duke of Edinburgh ? So I said " I was with a friend of yours recently" to which he replied " Oh, who?". Me " Jackie Stewart ".......the Duke " Oh don't talk to me about him talk to my daughter!"
Posted 10 April 2021 - 15:59
Both of the above Silverstone GP photos were shown on BBC2 today at the start of their Rome E-Prix coverage
Edited by Dick Dastardly, 10 April 2021 - 15:59.
Posted 11 April 2021 - 09:02
And if I may also introduce some respectful levity, as every serious enthusiast knows, HRH was - after the passing of Girling Foss last year - the last surviving participant in the Grand Prix of Gibraltar.
"Here's the duke, smiling as always! ... As I said before, on another occasion, anything he does, he does well. ... For the student of history and decorum that was certainly the high spot of the race."
Posted 11 April 2021 - 11:51
HRH Price Phillip. A long life, lived well and to the full. Sad he will be laid to rest in such a low-key manner, but perhaps that would have been his preference.
Re post #7 by cooper997 with the cover shot of his 1954 Lagonda, I note this car was sold a few years ago. By then, it was bearing the reg XYX 3, instead of OXR 1 as pictured. That latter reg is no longer in use according to DVLA. I wonder why, as it would surely be worth a great deal, even without the royal connection? Do former royal regs get retired, I wonder?
And as side issue, why is that cover shot emblazoned with the word 'Minx''
Edited by BRG, 11 April 2021 - 11:52.
Posted 11 April 2021 - 12:25
https://www.youtube....h?v=4SPo820Rm3s
Another motor racing link of sorts.
In his capacity as MD of BOAC, the man sharing Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s last steps on British soil before returning abruptly to very different roles, is Whitney Straight – he appears at 00:18, 00:50 and 02:35. The previous October, fears for the ailing King George VI had led to Whitney visiting the couple at Clarence House. They were about to depart on a tour of Canada, and he made arrangements for their speedy return, should the King’s condition deteriorate: not needed on that occasion, but acted upon to bring the couple back from Kenya.
Whitney had a great deal of affection and respect for Prince Philip. This is from his diary for 23 May 1972, after an event at the Council of Industrial Design (now the Design Council): ‘Spent all day at a COID do – talked with Prince P who as usual was very good – I admire him enormously - he would make a splendid and benevolent dictator.’
RIP, HRH.
Edited by P0wderf1nger, 11 April 2021 - 14:52.
Posted 11 April 2021 - 13:12
And as side issue, why is that cover shot emblazoned with the word 'Minx''
I don't think it referred to someone who had caught Phillip's eye, but I might be wrong.....
It was probably a Hillman enthusiast / owner marking up a copy with a Minx article inside. Rootes' finest featured in that issue's 'Know Your Car' series.
https://www.magazine...ume-1-number-3/
Posted 11 April 2021 - 15:15
I believe OXF was transferred to an Alvis drop head in the early 1960s. I think I recall it in more recent years on a later vehicle with HRH Prince Philip, probably or certainly before the reported lease deal with Land Rover came into being.
I recall seeing the Duke and his male passenger in the Lagonda , roof lowered, in 1959/60 ish when my parents were in a Scottish touring holiday. We had parked in a park area at the top of the twin hairpin Devil’s Elbow hill on our way to Ballater. The Lagonda was coming the other way towards us. We later saw Her Majesty , with customary headscarf, driving out through the Balmoral gateway in a Ford Zephyr Farnham Estate car, with a roof panel raised up about 9 or 10 inches for more headroom, with a full length roof rack.
Looking at the carriage driving photo above, I look forward to reports of the future successes of Lady Louise Windsor in her own carriage driving exploits, following in Grandpa’s wheel tracks. She seems quite adept at it already.
As an aside, following the revelations in the tributes to the late Duke, I cannot be alone in thinking he was something of a polymath.
May he Rest In Peace.
Roger Lund
Posted 11 April 2021 - 16:22
Posted 11 April 2021 - 16:57
From the top floor windows of my office in Buckingham Gate, you could just see into the back garden of the Palace - at least in winter when the trees were bare. I recall on one occasion seeing HRH walking out to a Royal Flight helicopter that had landed on the lawn, possibly to take one of his final turns at the controls. Later, it was helicopters from a commercial operator that ferried the Royals into and out of the Palace.
Posted 11 April 2021 - 17:57
If they really were supposed to be visiting the Balkan states, then I guess they hadn't found the right airport...!A few years ago, when his BA flight crew landed in Tallinn on HMQ and HRH's official visit to the Balkan States they had just taxied to a halt beside massed bands, a shiny guard of honour, floodlights and a red carpet when a knock at the flight-deck door preceded the Duke stepping in. He leaned down, gazed out of the cockpit side windows, then said gruffly “Well done gentlemen, you appear to have found the right airport” ...
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Posted 11 April 2021 - 19:17
Ahem - Baltic States.
(Well done Godfrey...I wondered who would be first to spot that)
DCN
Posted 11 April 2021 - 21:57
...
And as side issue, why is that cover shot emblazoned with the word 'Minx''
Just wondering if it had anything to do with the Hillman Minx Convertible they used while living in Malta - maybe a feature on royal dropheads (though that may have caused ancestral confusion with a certain H. Tudor)?
Posted 12 April 2021 - 01:43
"How do you plead?" asked the judge. "Not guilty your honour!" sheepishly responded cooper997. As he wondered if it would be an 'off with your head' sentence.
Apologies folks. I didn't intend creating a Royal scandal on TNF. The Minx reference written on the Modern Motor cover was placed there long before the magazine reached my collection. Perhaps unfortunate in the circumstance, but John Winfield hit the nail on the head - Hillman Minx feature within (and a Frank Ashby tuning piece and Jack Brabham feature too). Perhaps a more talented IT guru would have buffed out 'Minx' with photoshop or the like, but alas the cover was put up in good faith.
For my sins I offer the following, hopefully less controversial. Although, given HRH is showing his 'Gipsy' lifestyle from a February 1962 visit to the BMC CKD assembly plant in Colombia. Perhaps not!
cooper997 collection
Stephen
Posted 12 April 2021 - 22:07
No Land-Rover for a Champ like him?
Not the last time he'd ride on rubber...
Posted 13 April 2021 - 11:47
Well, he was visiting an BMC plant, although what the Colombians had done to deserve getting Austin Gypsies instead of proper Landies is unknown. No wonder they took to drugs.
Posted 14 April 2021 - 14:43
There's a feature on HRH's cars on the Telegraph website - the pictured Lagonda (which earned the company its first Royal Warrant) was apparently such a favourite that he had it shipped to Australia on HMY Britannia for the 1956 Olympics, so presumably there will be some pictures of it on Australian roads? He and Her Maj allegedly also used it to officially open the M1 in 1959 - although all the newsreel I can find suggests it was opened by Ernest Marples! Who didn't apparently drive along it at the time.
His other vehicles included a couple of MGs - first a TC and then a TD - and after the Lagonda an Alvis TD21 drophead coupé. In later years of course he became a Range Rover man - he and Her Maj have apparently owned about thirty of them!
I'm also more than a little dubious of the claim in the article that at the launch of the Hillman Imp 'he drove one away from ... the Rootes factory in the Midlands at a tyre-screeching 80mph.' For one thing, the launch was at Linwood, which I suppose could be described as in the Scottish Midlands, but as the author seems more at home writing about modern 'supercars' I suspect he's unaware that Linwood isn't actually somewhere near Birmingham. And I also suspect the only way you could get a standard Mark 1 Imp to travel at 80mph would be with the aid of a very large trebuchet and a following wind - top speed is quoted as an optimistic 75mph and even the later upgraded ones are quoted at over 16 seconds to get from 0-60! A friend had one and it struggled to exceed 65 on the flat on the M4.
Posted 14 April 2021 - 16:42
0-60 in 16 seconds was respectable in period , barely a second slower than a Mk 1 Triumph Spitfire . But only an Imp Sport could achieve a 16 seconds time ,with the standard car taking a more leisurely 22 seconds - but still quicker by a couple of seconds than an 850 Mini . As for VMax, the standard Imp/Chamois did 79 mph , 6 mph faster than a Mini 850. All figures taken from Motor's ten year road test yearbook November 1971.
Imps were lovely cars - as agile as a Mini , and with a revvy little ohc engine which was far nicer than a thrashy A series, and would rev to very high figures without complaint . My Clan Crusader had an 875cc Imp Sport engine, then a Hartwell 998 Imp Rallye engine , and it was a very zippy little car, light years ahead of the MG Midget it replaced . Any Imp I've been in would happily do 70mph all day .
Perhaps your mate hadn't found fourth gear?
Posted 14 April 2021 - 18:19
OXR1 is shown on a Freelander in a shot on the Mail Online, described as the Duke’s car.
I agree with John’s comments about the Imp. A school pal’s Ma had one new in 63/64 and it went very well. They were cracking little engines, especially against the 850 Mini, and the 105E Anglia was so much better than the wheezy old A Series.
Roger Lund
Posted 16 April 2021 - 10:34
A friend had one and it struggled to exceed 65 on the flat on the M4.
There must have been something very wrong with it then! My recently sold, completely standard, Singer Chamois would hold a steady 70mph (GPS-verified) all day without strain.
Posted 16 April 2021 - 11:34
Maybe it was the original 'mark 1' Imp which had a pneumatic throttle linkage. Unless you pumped it regularly, the speed would just bleed off as the pressure leaked out.
OXR1 is shown on a Freelander in a shot on the Mail Online, described as the Duke’s car.
Was this the one that ended up in a heap outside Sandringham? I wonder where registration OXR 1 is now? According to DVLA 'Vehicle Details Not Found'
Posted 22 April 2021 - 19:23
Posted 17 May 2021 - 06:44
Classic scenario of while searching out something else the following came to light (and relevant to the Modern Motor cover above)...
7/4/54 The Motor (UK)
"Honour for H.W.M.
The Lagonda drophead coupe which is being acquired by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is being supplied by H.W. Motors, Ltd., Walton-on-Thames.
This is the concern which, as a private venture, has engaged in a wide programme of racing with the H.W.M car on the Continent and at home during the past few years."
Stephen
Edited by cooper997, 17 May 2021 - 06:44.
Posted 18 May 2021 - 18:57
1975 visiting Norwich Union
Posted 19 May 2021 - 07:05
Well, he was visiting an BMC plant, although what the Colombians had done to deserve getting Austin Gypsies instead of proper Landies is unknown. No wonder they took to drugs.
Landrovers would turn me to drugs. In the not so distant past with classic speedway we had two blokes towing with Discos. It was a lottery if they would get there. Drive ok when running and use far more fuel than my [then] Falcon towcars. And be slower doing it.