90 replies to this topic

[Rupertlt1]

Where racing cars are fettled:

From SU to Weber, from Snap-on to King Dick, from Zoller to Shorrock, from chalk marks to CAD/CAM, from wrenches to benches, from windage trays to wind tunnels, Nissen huts to railway arches, from Hornsey to Bourne, from Molsheim to Maranello. Set it down here.

 

RGDS RLT

[Barry Boor]

Look for the little yellow X.  Then at the second picture.  Not quite like the McLaren H.Q.

 

 

 

 

Yes, a Formula 1 car really was built there.   Sadly, or maybe not, all gone now.

[Doug Nye]

 

The Evans family's Bellevue Garage, as was...

 

 

Now occupying the old workshop site...

 

 

Bellevue Road, London SW17.

 

DCN

[nicanary]

Look for the little yellow X.  Then at the second picture.  Not quite like the McLaren H.Q.

 

 

 

 

Yes, a Formula 1 car really was built there.   Sadly, or maybe not, all gone now.

Needs a blue plaque........

[Michael Ferner]

... or maybe just a coat of paint?

[marksixman]

Needs a blue plaque........

Was that the Connew ?

 

Adam.

[10kDA]

[Vitesse2]

Rather than looking for the address as above (which returns a photo taken on a murky winter's day) you can get a good street view of the site by searching for 2425 County Road 70, Akron on Google Maps. Seems to have been either demolished or extensively remodelled. Rather than the building right at the roadside, I think it could be the cream-painted one set further back - note the position of the trees.

[D-Type]

Was that the Connew ?

 

Adam.

Yes, Barry Boor was one of the 4(?) men who built it.

[10kDA]

Rather than looking for the address as above (which returns a photo taken on a murky winter's day) you can get a good street view of the site by searching for 2425 County Road 70, Akron on Google Maps. Seems to have been either demolished or extensively remodelled. Rather than the building right at the roadside, I think it could be the cream-painted one set further back - note the position of the trees.

2414 Pickle Road is the southernmost building, at the far left of the pic. My guess is the vantage point of the shot in the poster was from the side or back of the building, not from the side facing the road. Art's son Tim operates Akron Turbine Group out of 2396 Pickle Road, at the far right. They manufacture turbine-powered track dryers of a practical size, able to fit in the bed of a standard-size pickup truck. Tim also runs the Green Monster turbine-powered rail out of that shop.

 

[10kDA]

The Green Monster salt flats car coming together in the Arfons shop. Tom Mayenschein photo.

 

[Ray Bell]

Formerly BP Castlecove Service Station:

 

Home of the Matich stable. Frank Matich did everything from and on this site for several years. He sold fuel to the passing motorists, raised his family and entertained guests upstairs, dealt in Firestone racing tyres and oversaw the construction and race preparation of the SR3 and SR4 Sports Racing Cars just inside that back door.

[Sterzo]

Lola Cars are an aspiring shed-spotter’s delight, as they’ve used so many different ones. I’ve long wondered where they were based in Bromley, Kent (actually the London Borough of Bromley). Now I’ve found the location but possibly not the shed.

From 1958 they operated from an address in Napier Road, and were there until Ford persuaded Broadley to move to Slough in either late 1963 or in 1964.

Napier Road is one of several narrow streets mixing small terraced houses with, you’ve guessed it, sheds. It lies just off the main A21 Masons Hill just south of Bromley town centre. The entrance to the former Lola works is an archway through a terraced house, pictured in Simon Taylor’s Motor Sport “lunch with” Eric Broadley (below).

 

 

Here’s a photo of the archway as it is today. It no longer gives access to a workshop, but only to the garden of the white-painted house. I wanted to respect the occupants’ privacy, hence not taking a full-on shot. However, I did sneak a look, and the shed behind does not look like the one in the Motor Sport picture. The old one is gable ended, the current one flat-roofed.

 

 

Here’s Google’s aerial view. The passageway through the house (blocked by a parked car) is opposite the ‘R’ in the upper Napier Rd. The remains of a driveway are visible behind the house. You can see the flat roof of the current shed, and it looks like it’s integral with the pitched-roof shed labelled Autoworx UK. That would tie in with the fact there’s no separate access to it.

 

 

The Autoworx shed is in fact now the workshop of Creative FX, who will vinyl-wrap or letter your van, or decorate your entire car.

 

Now the question is, was this shed also a part of Lola? I think it unlikely, as there’s direct access onto Stanley Road which would make the narrow archway redundant.

Incidentally, cousin Graham Broadley’s clothiers at 144 High Street, Bromley, has long gone, replaced along with its neighbours by a modern building. No chance of the shed behind having survived. That would be where Graham built his 750 special, and Eric his 1172, each helping the other.

Edited by Sterzo, 22 March 2022 - 21:28.

[Sterzo]

Now to the chewy question, what was built where and when? We know the first Lola was built at 144 High Street, and Broadley said the first three Mk 1 Lolas were assembled in Maurice Gomm's workshop, but the remainder were "built at Rob Rushbrook’s garage at Bromley." Rushbrook left the family business to become Lola works manager – but when? And were the Lola premises actually all or part of the old Rushbrook works?

 

I Googled "Rushbrook motors Bromley" and was led to Bromley Car Repairs whose website says:" In April 2015, we acquired a second workshop known as Amos & Rushbrook on Masons Hill which is where the main service reception and MOT waiting area is now located." This is three minutes' walk from Napier Road, a shed down an alleyway off the main road, at 151 Masons Hill.

 

 

Were the cars perhaps built at 151 Masons Hill but sold from Napier Road?

 

(Just to confuse things, Bromley Car Repairs also have a smaller workshop at 1A Napier Road, but that has no Lola connection).

[Doug Nye]

Is it just my computer or are the illustrations apparently attached to Sterzo's two interesting Posts above not coming through?

 

DCN

[RogerFrench]

A number of Austin Seven enthusiasts discovered a few years ago that my father's garage was still standing in Gloucestershire, and arranged for its removal, storage and ultimately re-erection in the Atwell-Wilson motor museum in Wiltshire.
I don't have pictures to post, but if you search the internet for Jack French Garage there are several to look at.

[timf5000]

Is it just my computer or are the illustrations apparently attached to Sterzo's two interesting Posts above not coming through?

 

DCN

They are fine on my laptop but not there on my i-phone!

[LittleChris]

Fine on both my laptop & android phone

[Doug Nye]

Hmm - maybe it's a Mac thing?

 

DCN

[Sterzo]

The pics are hosted on Dropbox, and it seems that no matter what hosting site you use, they can't be bothered to test their software on different browsers and different operating systems. Mutter snarl grumble...

 

Which browser do you use, Doug?

[Doug Nye]

Ummmm - what's a browser?   

 

DCN

[Bloggsworth]

Ummmm - what's a browser?   

 

DCN

Lorries the army use to transport liquids...

[Charlieman]

The pics are hosted on Dropbox, and it seems that no matter what hosting site you use, they can't be bothered to test their software on different browsers and different operating systems. Mutter snarl grumble...

MacOS X Safari does not like the dl=1 setting in the picture URLs. Presumably this has been set by Dropbox. If I copy the URL and change it to read dl=0, I can view the image in a new window. If I just copy the URL, the image file is downloaded.

 

In Firefox on MacOS X, the images display inline with the forum page.

[BRG]

Ummmm - what's a browser?

DCN

You meet a lot of them in Waterstones - often searching for Vol 4 of a certain BRM history.

[Sterzo]

MacOS X Safari does not like the dl=1 setting in the picture URLs. Presumably this has been set by Dropbox. If I copy the URL and change it to read dl=0, I can view the image in a new window. If I just copy the URL, the image file is downloaded.

 

In Firefox on MacOS X, the images display inline with the forum page.

Ah, thank you Charlieman. Believe it or not I always change the dll to 1 from 0 because with 0 it doesn't display in Firefox on Windows... At the risk of clagging up the thread, I'll repost below with 0.

[Sterzo]

For those of you who cannot see the pictures in unlucky Post 13, here they are in a visible format - I hope! (Some who could see them in Post 13 won't see them again here).

1. The Bromley Lola entrance in 1958

 

 

2. The same place as it is today

 

 

3. The aerial view from Google.

 

 

For text, see Post 13.

Edited by Sterzo, 22 March 2022 - 21:41.

[Sterzo]

...and the picture from Post 14, the Rushbrook garage.

 

[Bloggsworth]

It's a funny old world. I just caught a bit of the news from The Ukraine showing soldiers loading their machine guns. It took me right back to when, at 9 years old, in 1954, I sat on the floor of the armoury at RAF Amman and helped the erks load ammunition belts for the Vampires - 9 plain 1 tracer, 9 plain 1 tracer, 9 plain 1 tracer, 9 plain 1 tracer...

[raceannouncer2003]

On my Mac, these images show up fine on Firefox, but not on Safari.

 

Vince H.

[Doug Nye]

I use a Mac with Safari - which I now understand is "a browser" - and as Vince describes above, the images in question don't appear.

 

DCN

[Charlieman]

I use a Mac with Safari - which I now understand is "a browser" - and as Vince describes above, the images in question don't appear.

It's time perhaps to switch the discussion on non-appearing Dropbox images to the How to post photos thread. A quick web search throws this up as a known problem, I'm afraid.

 

In the meanwhile, those of us using Safari on a Mac can easily view the second set of images which Sterzo kindly provided. If you command-mouse click on the image, or use the third mouse button, Sterzo's images (the ones which end 'dl=0') can be displayed in a new window or tab.

 

Hmm, Lola's premises? Presumably Eric Broadley had a good story to tell his bank manager when seeking capital investment.

Edited by Charlieman, 23 March 2022 - 10:39.

[Lee Nicolle]

For those of you who cannot see the pictures in unlucky Post 13, here they are in a visible format - I hope! (Some who could see them in Post 13 won't see them again here).

1. The Bromley Lola entrance in 1958

 

 

2. The same place as it is today

 

 

3. The aerial view from Google.

 

 

For text, see Post 13.

These do not show to me using Google. The others above do.

The bloody internet where too often the left hand does not know what the right is doing. And for us technophobes is just plain too hard!

The reason I gave up putting pictures on here

[Rupertlt1]

A notable Canadian racing shop:
Autosport, 139 Dundas West, Cooksville, Ontario.

Run by Jack W. Wheeler and Bob Hanna.

Raced Buckler, Lotus, Triumph etc. Various drivers.

https://www.racingsp...-Hanna-CDN.html

"A prospective new member to the club is Jack Wheeler (happens to work at Avros); apparently an M.G. type from pre-war days; on his fifth marque, anyway." B.E.M.C. Bulletin, Feb-March 1951, Page 2.

In 1960-1961 advertising Mercedes, Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Standard-Triumph, Lotus

"Where you get the best 'After Sales' Service."

 

Was Jack Wheeler, the presenter on the Canadian TV show Wheelspin, circa 1961-1963, the same man?

(I wonder if any of these shows survive — apparently they covered Sebring and Nassau.)

https://broadcasting...ision/wheelspin

 

A new feature will be a

technical topics section, with

technical expert Jack

Wheeler. Viewers will be

invited to write in with

their technical problems for

Wheeler to answer. Jack

Wheeler is a familiar figure

to racegoers in Eastern Can-

ada and is one of Canada's

most experienced racing

mechanics. He prepared the

cars driven by Stirling Moss,

Olivier Gendebien and Peter

Ryan at Mosport Park last

season.

The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) Saturday 7 Jul 1962, Page 94

 

Bob MacGregor of Montreal (left), writer-producer of CBC radio's

RPM show, and Jack Wheeler, venerable motor racing expert and

regular on the CBC television summer program Wheelspin, are

shown as they receive plaques for outstanding services to the sport

of motor racing. The presentation by Paul Cooke, vice-president of

the Canadian Racing Association, took place at the CRDA's annual

dinner in Toronto recently.

Canada Track & Traffic/April, 1966

 

Also column in Canada Track & Traffic: Wheeling Around.

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 05 April 2022 - 06:31.

[klemcoll]

Doug -

 

Firefox for the Mac (v. 98.0.2) is FREE. It often works better than Safari.

 

Peter

[Lemnpiper]

  Hi all, 

  

   In the USA there is a website called HistoricAeriels   where overhead pictures of places can be seen  ( and for a price bought) .  You will have to get past the terrain page to the aeriels page by clicking on links to the leftand entering a street address  city and zip code. Depending on the location   they could be from 1950's to within a year or so ago. There should be a list of the years available  . I dont know if this site has connections to other nations as well.

 

  Paul

[Rupertlt1]

1974:

McRae Cars,

Balena Close,

Creekmore,

Poole, Dorset.

(Associated: Malaya Garages, High Street, Billingshurst, West Sussex.)

 

Penske: Upton Industrial Estate, Upton, Poole, Dorset.

4 Factory Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 5SJ

A local source here says that Penske had a second facility at Holton Heath where he worked — can anybody stand this up?

Possible connection to Sunoco?

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 10 April 2022 - 06:45.

[Ray Bell]

His workshop wasn't pretty, so it didn't attract many cameras...
 
But Bob Britton built a lot of Rennmaxes in a shed at the back of what was his parents' home in Croydon Park, Sydney. It's in the background here:
 



 
Note the assorted body panels up against walls and fences. On the roof of the shed was what was termed 'Racing Car Heaven' where dead tubs and tube chassis finished upater he moved, putting up a temporary home for his family on a few acres near Amaroo Park. When the house proper was finally built it became his workshop and, again, saw many cars go out the door:
 


The 'heaven' is now in the rafters of his storage sheds down the yard a bit.

[Macca]

I had a tour of the Classic Team Lotus base a couple of weeks ago; they moved into a new purpose-built facility a couple of years ago so the old Team buildings are now apparently empty. Perhaps someone could identify which buildings housed what activity in the good old days:

 

 

 

 

Paul M

[2F-001]

I was there a few weeks back, Paul. My understanding is that, as a part of the planning approval for the new building, the old ones have in due course to be demolished/removed.

 

I can't remember what was what or where in the old set up...

[john aston]

I'm surprised they weren't listed. Isn't it odd that we preserve ancient battlefields and castles , but cynically ignore so much evidence of WW2 ? Just a mile or so from me is an Italian POW camp - rotting and unloved on a riverbank. But if Mary Queen of Scots had stayed in the same village , it'd be awash with brown tourist signs . 

[Nigel Beresford]

1974:
McRae Cars,
Balena Close,
Creekmore,
Poole, Dorset.
(Associated: Malaya Garages, High Street, Billingshurst, West Sussex.)

Penske: Upton Industrial Estate, Upton, Poole, Dorset.
4 Factory Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 5SJ
A local source here says that Penske had a second facility at Holton Heath where he worked — can anybody stand this up?
Possible connection to Sunoco?

RGDS RLT

The Sunoco thing on Holton Heath was some sort of racing fuel distributorship and nothing whatsoever to do with Team Penske - presumably just a matter of the historical association of the two names causing someone to jump to a conclusion. Maybe in the dim distant past they had something small over there but I never heard such a thing mentioned, whereas stories of Balena Close would pop up quite regularly during teabreaks - a few of my colleagues at the Upton site in the 90s and noughties had been with the team long enough to have worked there in the early days (including for Leda/McRae) before PCL relocated to Factory Road.
My understanding is that when Penske Cars Limited originally moved to Factory Road they occupied the factory adjacent to No.4, but then moved next door and eventually expanded significantly (in 1996) by acquiring a neighbouring piece of land which allowed the construction of a large composites department on the ground floor with an autoclave big enough to accept an Indycar underwing and an upper floor big enough for a DO of up to 16 to 20 engineers, aerodynamicists and designers.

There was a second, much smaller single unit just a little further along Factory Road in Ventura Place which was used for storage and structural testing (welli tests and the like).

Edited by Nigel Beresford, 10 May 2022 - 21:10.

[Rupertlt1]

The Sunoco thing on Holton Heath was some sort of racing fuel distributorship and nothing whatsoever to do with Team Penske - presumably just a matter of the historical association of the two names causing someone to jump to a conclusion. Maybe in the dim distant past they had something small over there but I never heard such a thing mentioned, whereas stories of Balena Close would pop up quite regularly during teabreaks - a few of my colleagues at the Upton site in the 90s and noughties had been with the team long enough to have worked there in the early days (including for Leda/McRae) before PCL relocated to Factory Road.
My understanding is that when Penske Cars Limited originally moved to Factory Road they occupied the factory adjacent to No.4, but then moved next door and eventually expanded significantly (in 1996) by acquiring a neighbouring piece of land which allowed the construction of a large composites department on the ground floor with an autoclave big enough to accept an Indycar underwing and an upper floor big enough for a DO of up to 16 to 20 engineers, aerodynamicists and designers.

There was a second, much smaller single unit just a little further along Factory Road in Ventura Place which was used for storage and structural testing (welli tests and the like).

 

Ref Sunoco nobody jumped to a conclusion — I asked a question.

I've had a further conversation with my source, who says he worked at a machine shop in Holton Heath off of Blackhill Road "down the bottom, fabricating parts for racing cars" for Penske. The shop was a walk from Holton Heath railway station, where he commuted. His boss was Andy Combes, a sub-contractor (no longer with us). He further stated that when Poole closed, Holton Heath opened. He said that Lidl is now on the Poole site. He further stated that Upton (Poole) had military contracts working on army vehicles.

 

RGDS RLT 

Edited by Rupertlt1, 11 May 2022 - 08:25.

[2F-001]

The Sunoco race fuels service is still based at Holton Heath, I think.

 

(I was chatting with one of their guys at Brands a couple of weekends back - he was delivering and collecting barrels from a friend's paddock stall)

[Nigel Beresford]

Ref Sunoco nobody jumped to a conclusion — I asked a question.

I've had a further conversation with my source, who says he worked at a machine shop in Holton Heath off of Blackhill Road "down the bottom, fabricating parts for racing cars" for Penske. The shop was a walk from Holton Heath railway station, where he commuted. His boss was Andy Combes, a sub-contractor (no longer with us). He further stated that when Poole closed, Holton Heath opened. He said that Lidl is now on the Poole site. He further stated that Upton (Poole) had military contracts working on army vehicles.

 

RGDS RLT 

 

OK....thanks fror the correction.

 

The place at  Holton Heath must have been a machining or service provider we used or else something opened by ex employees after 'Cars shut down. . I don't think we ever "put out" any fabrication  while 'Cars was active - we had a large, well staffed fab shop capable of making everything from uprights and wishbones through to header bags -  but we did get some machining done externally in spite of having a  fair sized machine shop, We never did any work for the military.- the primary purpose was to design, develop, manufacture and supply cars, parts and equipment for Penske Racing, with the occasional side project of doing stuff for Roger's latest boat or some odds and ends for people like McLaren. 

 

Presumably the Lidl is on the Balena Close site because Factory Road is now occupied, I believe, by one of our previous suppliers. 

 

This is Factory Road in the early 90s - before the extension for the carbon shop, autoclave and DO

 

Thanks, Nigel

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nigel Beresford, 11 May 2022 - 16:19.

[Doug Nye]

This from Nick Goozée former head of Penske Racing at Poole - whose past premises are discussed above:

 

Penske Cars was incorporated in November 1973, having purchased the assets of McRae Cars - including five members of staff. The 5,000 sq ft unit, situated in Balena Close, Creekmoor Industrial Estate, still exists today, now being used by a Packaging business. ( I visited the site a few months ago out of curiosity, and it amazes me that with a total staff of 12 in 1976 a Grand Prix-winning car was made in that unit). 

In January 1978, Penske Cars rented No 8 Upton Industrial Estate, Poole, which was an 8,000 sq ft unit. 

In June 1984, Phillips Packaging, the 15,000 sq ft Unit No 4, Upton Industrial Estate, (two Units down from No7) was purchased.  Penske Cars total Staff was then 15. and the company vacated No 7 Factory Road in December 1984, moving into the refurbished  No 4 unit.

In Nov 1994, the spare piece of land adjacent to No 4 was purchased and during 1995 a new Unit (4a) was built there to house the Composite workshop and Design Office. The new, complete, Penske Cars facility was officially opened on July 15th, 1996, by Walter P. Czarnecki, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Penske Corporation, Hans Tauscher, Managing Director of Mercedes-Benz UK and Murray Walker OBE.  The total Penske Cars floor area was then 35,000 sq. ft. and we had a staff of 91. 

On March 31st, 2006, Penske Cars ceased its operations and its assets were either sold or shipped to Team Penske in the USA. The Facility was eventually sold in Feb 2009 to a Wimborne-based machine tool company who, as part of the Sale Agreement, made some machined parts for Team Penske but this arrangement soon expired after a few months. 

On March 31st, 2009, Penske Cars was removed from the Companies House register, London. 

That is the Penske Cars history in its entirety, please pass it onto the Nostalgia network.

 

DCN

[Glengavel]

Needs a blue plaque........

 
No blue plaques here either...

[Cirrus]

The white building at the back of the shot here was the base for the Token F1 team in Walton-on-Thames

 

Edited by Cirrus, 13 May 2022 - 08:20.

[BRG]

The white building at the back of the shot here was the base for the Token F1 team in Walton-on-Thames

 

 

What???  Really?  I never knew this and I pass by MJA's used car lot all the time and have done so for 30+ years.  If I had know, I would dipped my ensign in tribute!

[kayemod]

Ref Sunoco nobody jumped to a conclusion — I asked a question.

I've had a further conversation with my source, who says he worked at a machine shop in Holton Heath off of Blackhill Road "down the bottom, fabricating parts for racing cars" for Penske. The shop was a walk from Holton Heath railway station, where he commuted. His boss was Andy Combes, a sub-contractor (no longer with us). He further stated that when Poole closed, Holton Heath opened. He said that Lidl is now on the Poole site. He further stated that Upton (Poole) had military contracts working on army vehicles.

 

RGDS RLT 

 

Some supermarket confusion here. This doesn't add anything much to the discussion, but as far as I know, Lidl have never had any connection with any of Penske's places in Factory Road Upton, there's no retail development of any kind on the Upton Industrial Estate, never has been. The only large retail store of any description in Upton is a recently built Aldi supermarket about a mile away, it was built on the site of a long derelict domestic fuel depot off Blandford Road North, and that's right up against the A35 dual carriageway, known locally as the Upton bypass.

 

 

 

 

 

Something that certainly is relevant is this, a photo of the very first Penske premises on the Creekmoor Indstrial Estate. This is the one on Balena Close previously mentioned, and it's on the outskirts of Poole, roughly three miles east of the later Upton address. This is the unit that was originally the  McRae place, maybe 2000 sq ft, run for Penske by Roger's ex ski instructor Heinz Hofer, and this is where the Penske F1 operation was operated from. The unit was a little larger than the width of the three parked cars, but went back further. The place "Elegance" next door was then run by a couple of friends of mine, one of which was Jim Clark, yes the ex Specialised Mouldings one. They were a fibreglass moulding operation, and as well as some sub-contract work for me, they also produced all the bodywork for their next door neighbours. The original name was FKS Fibreglass, but they later branched out into carbon composites and renamed themselves Griffin Design. They were good, and as well as Penske they made bodies for several other racing companies, including some for the Gulf Mirages, later ones in carbon, and all styled by Jim Clark.

Edited by kayemod, 13 May 2022 - 11:00.

[Charlieman]

The white building at the back of the shot here was the base for the Token F1 team in Walton-on-Thames

Crikey, two unrelated F1/WDC teams in a town of 22,000 people.