80 replies to this topic

[D-Type]

I have just finished reading On the Beach by Nevil Shute. This novel was written in 1957 and is set in a future Australia (1963). It tells the story of people awaiting death by radiation following a nuclear war. The book includes a lurid description of a final Australian Grand Prix featuring a Ferrari, 3 litre Maserati, Jaguars, Coopers, Lotuses, MG's, Austin Healeys, Bugattis and vintage Bentleys. One car named a Gipsy Lotus is described in detail as being

"a terrifying concoction of a Lotus chassis powered by a blown Gipsy Queen aero engine of about 300 horsepower and little forward view, built and raced by a young air mechanic"

I believe that Nevil Shute Norway, to give his full name, raced in club events in Australia so the description could be based on an actual car. In 1957, the Lotus chassis could have been a Mk 6 or an 8, 9, or 10. The engine would have been about 5 litres so such a car could have existed.

Does any body know whether the description is based on an actual car, or is it pure fancy?

[Doug Nye]

Ern Tadgell's Sabakat Special!

[jondoe955]

I reread that book 5 years ago. The saddest of stories, but a wonderful tale. And what an empty feeling, to be awaiting anihilation - and not even knowing who started it... or why. My sons used to think I was nuts when I would say I was surprised we lived thru the 50/60's. Lately, they haven't thought that was so looney.

Can't help you with the car, but if you rent the movie you can see a bunch of old racers - and their destruction (Hollywood style). I saw it as a teen, and again a few years ago. The race looked a lot better as a kid. It's worth watching, but give it a few years. It's too depressing to see too often.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
Ern Tadgell's Sabakat Special!

Doug's on the pace here, it was indeed the car...

And as for Lotus 6, 8, 9 or 10 chassis, nosirree!

This was a Lotus 12 which originally had an FPF driving through an MG Magnette gearbox. The car burned to the runway at Lowood in 1960 and held up the start of the Australian Grand Prix in so doing just long enough for Alec Mildren to fit a new driveshaft to his Cooper Maserati. Which went on to win by a fifth of a second, by the way...

Rebuilt by one of those who'd helped build it in the first place, Tony Caldersmith, using the original factory drawings, it became the second love of Graham Howard. Graham had somehow acquired what was needed to claim provenance, either a brake caliper or a piston therefrom or something maybe even more substantial... it was one hell of an inferno and was fuelled also by strawbales to ensure the utter destruction of most of the car.

I believe it's moved on to another owner now, but it was always a lovely thing as an original 12. I never saw it as the Sabakat, nor heard it, which is probably more to the point.

Why 'Sabakat'?

This car and a Cooper were imported by Tadgell and Austen Miller, the Cooper having been driven first in the German GP by Paul England. They came in disassembled as 'crop dusting machinery parts' for the business one or both of them operated, dodging lots of tax in the traditional way, and raced as the Sabakat and the Miller Special.

When I saw that photo of the rear of the grid at Rheims last week I naturally thought of this car...

[BorderReiver]

Its a fabulous book, and an average movie too. This may have already been brought up here, but in this fictional universe, would the John (I think thats his name) be the last ever World Champion? His victory in that race being the last motorsport win ever? I seem to remember that the radiation finally reaches Melbourne around April to May time, so fairly early in the season then . . .

Just a wierd thought.

Also in the book if I recall correctly the mortality rate in that final race is outrageously high with drivers who havent got long to live anyway just giving it their all. Perhaps someone with a copy to hand can confirm this, but I think 13 fatalities are mentioned.

[Geoff E]

Originally posted by BorderReiver
around April to May time, so fairly early in the season then . . .

Is that early or late season in Oz?

[BorderReiver]

Very good point Geoff, never even considered that. . .

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Geoff E
Is that early or late season in Oz?

There is really no 'season' in Australian racing...

Summer is okay, but you miss the crowds if it's a stinking hot day and they go to the beach instead, or they just don't want to swelter. Takes a top event to draw a good crowd on a very hot day in our summer... it does happen, but not always.

Winter is more pleasant, but not in Tasmania. Lots of racing happens in our winter. So our major series seem to start late in summer and run through to late winter or into spring.

The Tasman Cup, obviously, was different, as it depended on being in the European off season for its success.

[Doug Nye]

A word for Neville Shute might not go amiss - a remarkable bloke in his own right, more than just another literary airhead...good aeronautical design draughtsman and engineer, worked on the R100 dirigible (the Barnes Wallis-designed one which worked and worked very well, but was still ordered to be scrapped by a bunch of red-faced politicians ruling our country after their own bureaucratised rival project - the R101 - had met its fiery fate in the rolling fields near Beauvais). He later worked for Airspeed I think, based on the old Portsmouth Airport, flanking Langstone Harbour. Then his literary talents took off, his books such as 'Slide Rule' sold spectacularly and he no longer depended upon the aeronautical industry for his living. He knew his stuff...

DCN

[john medley]

The Ern Tadgell Lycoming powered Lotus 12( AKA Sabakat) only ran once and then briefly before it burned, and that was in 1960, the car having arrived as "aircraft spares" a bit over a year before.It had been raced at various locations between arrival and the fire, powered by FPF Climax.Among the rumble of bigger-engined cars I still recall its shrieking noise up the hill at Bathurst in 1959--- nowhere near a modern F1 shriek but very distinctive back then. Its arrival in 1958 therefore postdated the book" On the Beach" by a year or so, so its aero-engined version could not have been the template for Neville Shute's Gipsy Lotus.
I'd suggest that a Gipsy Queen powered Lotus was the product of an excessively fertile imagination. NS KNEW about aircraft, including the 6 cylinder ( I think) Queen engine. A friend of mine has 2 of these in stock for a future project , and they are HUGE: I'd say the aircraft mechanic not only lacked a forward view but a future ( but, then, that was the point of the exercise, wasnt it?)

[Ray Bell]

Not the Cuttlefish, surely?

It doesn't bear thinking about...

[David Beard]

If the book was written in 1957 he couldn't have been thinking of the Sabakat, surely?

Complete transcript from Autosport 5 August 1960, Australian Grand Prix. (as previously posted in "Baddest car" thread)

"Sensation of the day was the appearance of one Ernest Tadgell with what had
once been the Formula 2 Lotus based Sabakat Special. Instead of the Sabakat's
original 1.5 litre Climax engine, Mr. Tadgell had chosen to install the 8,150
c.c. air-cooled opposed-six Lycoming power unit from a crashed Crop-duster
aircraft. Brave Ernie piloted his hideous pink-painted monstrosity around in a
surprising 2 mins. 18.9 secs (73m.p.h.). Lathered in sweat, despite the
lateness of the hour and the crispness of the Queensland winter evening. He
reported 120 m.p.h. at something less said the critics. "She'll do," muttered
Emie through chattering teeth.

Preceding the Grand Prix was a three lap "warmer-upper", of which Tadgell and
the Lycoming-Sabakat saw but half a tour and two hair-raising turns. On the
third, Castrol Comer, the garish monster slid, hit the straw bales, flipped,
tossed Ernie on his back in the infield, flipped again and exploded with a loud
roar. An ambulance carried Tadgell away with two broken ribs and a bent nose.
His car was still burning an hour later. Up front, Mildren broke a halfshaft on
the line, Davison won by 20 yards from Stillwell, and young Victorian-resident
Englishman John Leighton (Cooper-Climax) was third. Later, from the ambulance,
Ernest Tadgell announced his retirement from racing."

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
Ern Tadgell's Sabakat Special!

Historic Sandown 9-10 Nov 2002
#112 Ricard Bendall Lb Racing Sabakat Monoposto

[lanciaman]

"There's still time, brother."

An affecting book and movie.

Especially when Fred Astaire contentedly meets his end in the race winning Ferrari Mille Miglia, revving it in his closed garage....

[Option1]

The movie is also notable for one other feature, well actually a quote. Ava Gardner, who played the female lead, when asked what she thought of Melbourne is reported as replying, "Melbourne is the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world." Apparently, the people of Melbourne were not amused.

Neil

[eldougo]

OPTION 1,


"Melbourne is the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world."

[Criceto]

I've never had a chance to see the film, although the book is an extraordinary read. However, I am curious as to the calibre of machines that were used in the filming. Autocar once published a still from the film showing what I am 90% sure is a Nash-Healey taking its last flight off the end of a cliff. Were there any other important cars that didn't survive the film-makers' attentions?

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Option1
The movie is also notable for one other feature, well actually a quote. Ava Gardner, who played the female lead, when asked what she thought of Melbourne is reported as replying, "Melbourne is the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world." Apparently, the people of Melbourne were not amused.

Nice to see you posting again, Neil...

And even nicer to see you haven't lost your sense of humour!

[lanciaman]

Originally posted by Criceto
I've never had a chance to see the film, although the book is an extraordinary read. However, I am curious as to the calibre of machines that were used in the filming. Autocar once published a still from the film showing what I am 90% sure is a Nash-Healey taking its last flight off the end of a cliff. Were there any other important cars that didn't survive the film-makers' attentions?

The race is over the top in mayhem. Wild crashes, exploding cars. I recall a 120/140 FHC demised, the usual A-H splatters and can't remember what else. The medical crews were kept busy, though you had to ask why, as it was the end of the world.

IIRC the movie was remade not long ago, or is going to be remade...?

[lanciaman]

Here is a link that describes the racing filming for the movie:

http://www.users.big...otb.htm#filming

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Option1
The movie is also notable for one other feature, well actually a quote. Ava Gardner, who played the female lead, when asked what she thought of Melbourne is reported as replying, "Melbourne is the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world." Apparently, the people of Melbourne were not amused.

Neil

... and if you read on through lanciaman's link, it turns out to have been a journalistic invention!

Shame really - nice story!

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
... and if you read on through lanciaman's link, it turns out to have been a journalistic invention!

Shame really - nice story!

Sounds like a Sydney jouno's line then...

Probably didn't like Fosters.

[Option1]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


Nice to see you posting again, Neil...

And even nicer to see you haven't lost your sense of humour!

Aww shucks, thanks Ray. Blame Darren Galpin - he emailed me asking to help with some more transcription stuff. I have been looking in here occasionally, but basically been trying to take a break from the net - 'til now.

As far as Ava Gardner's purported remark goes, I suspected it was a journalistic invention, but it has attained a certain mythical status.

Neil

[Frank S]

My page at The Pits 5: More Photos offers a little more information on the filming and whatnot.


Frank S

Edited by Frank S, 22 November 2010 - 21:00.

[D-Type]

BorderReiver,
Sorry I've only just noticed your questions.
It was 13 fatalities (7 in the qualifying race that was described in detail and 6 in the final which was only featured as a radio report listened to by two other characters).
The book is set between late December and September when the radiation reaches Melbourne. The race takes place on August 10th having been brought forward from its usual November date.

Everybody,
Thanks for all the contributions. Does anybody have a picture of the Sabakat? It may not be the right car but it fits the description.

[Bruce Moxon]

The film was remade- into a mini series of four hours' duration. This time they had Australians playing Australians. Bryan Brown was the "scientist" and racing driver. There are no racing scenes, but you do get a glimpse into his garage - a Ferrari 550 parked next to a 1960s Brabham. BB meets his end at the end of the main straight at Phillip Island. Waste of a 550 if you ask me.

More harrowing in some ways, having the end set in the near future (again) 2007 - following a nuclear exchange between China and the USA over Taiwan (Dubya, Hu, are you listening?)

Quite a few of Shute's novels feature cars - not racing though. I think he was a bit of an enthusiast - which made up for his rather pedestrian prose.

Bruce Moxon

[Bruce Moxon]

Here, have some links:

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0053137

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0219224


Enjoy



Bruce Moxon

[Terry Walker]

Slightly OT, Shute also wrote No Highway, about the world's first jetliner, British, which crashes due to metal fatigue...

...published before the Comet ever flew (and crashed due to metal fatigue).

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

I believe that I know this as 'No Highway in the Sky', featuring James Stewart and Glynnis 'Peaches' Johns.

[TonyCotton]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
A word for Neville Shute might not go amiss - a remarkable bloke in his own right, more than just another literary airhead...good aeronautical design draughtsman and engineer, worked on the R100 dirigible (the Barnes Wallis-designed one which worked and worked very well, but was still ordered to be scrapped by a bunch of red-faced politicians ruling our country after their own bureaucratised rival project - the R101 - had met its fiery fate in the rolling fields near Beauvais). He later worked for Airspeed I think, based on the old Portsmouth Airport, flanking Langstone Harbour. Then his literary talents took off, his books such as 'Slide Rule' sold spectacularly and he no longer depended upon the aeronautical industry for his living. He knew his stuff...

DCN

He also designed the Airspeed Oxford and Ambassador (BEA Elizabethan). The latter suffered by being Centaurus piston engined when its rival for Brabazon Committee type 2(?) spec was the innovative turbine Dart powered Viscount. DeHavilland bought up Airspeed.

As for the film version of No Highway, the part of the aircraft was played by a modified Handley Page Halton, which was a civilianised Halifax bomber. Good film of its type as I recall.

Bit of a Renaissance man, I think.

[Mallory Dan]

I think the plane in No Highway was called a 'Reindeer', odd name I always thought for an airliner, even in the 50s. Anyone remember a fil of a later era, 'The Persuaders', sort of Bond-spoof, it featured a modified Valiant in the star role.

[philippe charuest]

the movie "no highway " is a perversion of the book. at the end it fall into an absurd Ayn Rand style speech on the individualism ,theres nothing more remote to the humanism of Nevil Shute, it look like a movie who was start with good intention but was rewrite and twisted bit the hollywood producers to do a "Capra" lookalike

[sandy]

Originally posted by D-Type
I have just finished reading On the Beach by Nevil Shute. This novel was written in 1957 and is set in a future Australia (1963). It tells the story of people awaiting death by radiation following a nuclear war. The book includes a lurid description of a final Australian Grand Prix featuring a Ferrari, 3 litre Maserati, Jaguars, Coopers, Lotuses, MG's, Austin Healeys, Bugattis and vintage Bentleys. One car named a Gipsy Lotus is described in detail as being

"a terrifying concoction of a Lotus chassis powered by a blown Gipsy Queen aero engine of about 300 horsepower and little forward view, built and raced by a young air mechanic"

I believe that Nevil Shute Norway, to give his full name, raced in club events in Australia so the description could be based on an actual car. In 1957, the Lotus chassis could have been a Mk 6 or an 8, 9, or 10. The engine would have been about 5 litres so such a car could have existed.

Does any body know whether the description is based on an actual car, or is it pure fancy?

This is Neville Shute in a Jaguar XK120 (or XK140) racing at Fisherman's Bend 1958.

[Allan Lupton]

Just picked this up as a result of the above posting

Chronology of Nevil Shute's books: novels were the money-spinner and the autobiography "Slide Rule" cam rather later.

Originally posted by TonyCotton

He also designed the Airspeed Oxford and Ambassador (BEA Elizabethan). The latter suffered by being Centaurus piston engined when its rival for Brabazon Committee type 2(?) spec was the innovative turbine Dart powered Viscount. DeHavilland bought up Airspeed.

NSN founded Airspeed but was not the Chief Designer: MD or Chairman I think. Certainly Arthur Hagg (ex-de Havilland, where he was responsible for the Albatross, inter alia) was Chief Designer of the Ambassador.

As for "No Highway", metal fatigue was well-known well before that, and the Rutland Reindeer's fatigue failure (which was of the tailplane) would have been avoidable at that time. The Comet's problems were to do with the pressure shell and were quite different.
Agreed that the revisions for the film made it a travesty. Films in that period often were.

[D-Type]

So, are we any nearer to identifying NSN's inspiration?

The Sabakat was a year or two too late.

Were there any other light aircraft engined cars built or planned n Australia/New Zealand in the mid fifties?

The Lycoming Special in New Zealand almost fits as it was first seen in 1957, I believe. So it is conceivable that it may have been talked about in the Australian racing circle that Nevil was a member of.

I picture a discussion on the lines of:

"Some character in NZ is building a car with a Lycoming engine."
" There's a badly damaged DH Moth on the next farm. Would the Gipsy engine fit into a car?"
"X has got a Lotus Mk ** with a blown engine."
"Hmmm"

[David McKinney]

The Stanton Special raced in NZ with DH Gipsy Moth engine from 1954 - aero-engined cars in that country date back to at least 1930, so it was by no means unheard of.
There was a Lycoming Special in Australia in the 1940s but that may well have used a car engine (as fitted to Cords etc, IIRC). Can't OTTOMH think of any (other) aero-engined car in Australia but I would be surprised if there weren't any

[john medley]

BUT DONT FORGET

Any Lotus chassis of the period was small, light, and airy...... a Gipsy Queen engine is HUGE and tall( ErnTadgell's Lycoming was a flat 6, I think)

There were a few aero engined cars in Australia, mainly in the 20s and 30s, but none even faintly along the lines of Neville Shute's Gipsy Lotus. The inspiration was all his own

[Allan Lupton]

Originally posted by john medley
BUT DONT FORGET

Any Lotus chassis of the period was small, light, and airy...... a Gipsy Queen engine is HUGE and tall( ErnTadgell's Lycoming was a flat 6, I think)

And also don't forget that the Gipsy Queen ran inverted, so would have to be modified to run upright.
The original 4 cylinder Gipsy ran upright, but Gipsy Major was inverted to give the pilot some sort of view forwards. There're one or two running upright in VSCC specials at present.
Agree that the Lycoming would have been a horizontal opposed engine.

[Loren Lundberg]

According to a now deceased friend, Jim Wilkinson (father was Chief Engineer on the Franklin), the race scenes were done at Riverside on a weekend - Friday night party thru Sunday night party) with members of the Cal Club as drivers, with the occasional "pro" thrown in. Jim's car was the silver '58 Corvette (his 2nd Vette - was going to order a an FI car until a friend said "I'll build you a motor."; friend's name was Ed Pink) and it was being driven by Ak Miller.

[Terry Walker]

Chances are that Neville Shute Norway, an aviation man and a car man, knowing all about early aero engined specials including the various Chittys and the Higham Spl, simply imagined a modern equivalent and added to his novel.

I think this is by far the most likely explanation. If he can invent the end of the world, hell, he can invent a racing car.

[Stan Patterson]

NOT ENTIRELY CORRECT

some scenes were filmed at Phillip Island....Alan Jacks ex-Patto Cooper Bobtail and a Chyrsler Royal Ambulance may be seen ..if you are quick

[Frank S]

This may be of some use:
http://delarue.net/beach.htm

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Just a little headsup here, chaps.

WNED, the PBS station out of Buffalo, NY, is scheduled to broadcast this movie tomorrow night, March 21, @ 20:00 hours.

I know I'll be taking it in. Again.

[Frank S]

And " Next US TV Airing: Wed. Mar. 26 1:30 PM TCM ", per IMDB

[Bloggsworth]

Neville Shute was the Stress Calculator for Barnes Wallis, I suppose nowadays it would be called Finite Element Analysis. I thought Airspeed was Shute's company, producing the Envoy which was adapted for the RAF as the Oxford and used during WWII.

[Pete Stowe]

Shute’s autobiography Slide Rule is mainly concerned with his 20 year career in the aircraft industry, and provides a fascinating account of that industry in the 1920’s and 30’s. The bulk of it covers his experiences working on the R100 airship, and then how he created the small aircraft company Airspeed.

After graduating from Oxford with an Engineering degree, he first joined De Havilland as a stress & performance calculator. He then moved to Vickers, initially working as a calculator for Barnes Wallis on the R100 at Howden, on the Humber. He eventually rose to be Deputy Chief Engineer under Wallis, and when Wallis left the company he carried on in charge through the R100 trials. Thus he’s able to give an absorbing first hand account of the construction and trials of the R100, and its ill-fated rival the R101.

After the end of the airship project he then founded Airspeed, initially in York, later moving the factory to Portsmouth, and continued with Airspeed through its takeover by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, all the time battling through the commercial difficulties surrounding aircraft manufacture, until he left in 1938, shortly before it was bought by De Havilland.

By this time his writing, which he’d initially begun as a hobby and continued as relaxation from the day-job, was providing a secure future income.

For anyone interested in the aviation industry of that era “Slide Rule” is an excellent read. There are plenty of second-hand copies around; I picked up a paperback version a couple of years ago for just £1.50.

[Ray Bell]

A couple of pics from Geoff Smedley:


I'll have to post this in the On The Beach thread too...
Aussie Miller in Fred Astaire's car ready to stand in for the Hollywood
dancer and actor.


Aussie with Fred Astaire, looks like it's at Phillip Island?

[fbarrett]

Friends:

Having been born in York and spending my working life as an engineer then an editor, I've always been fascinated by Nevil Shute and his life. I recall first reading his work in the British magazine John Bull (I think) during the 1950s. For those who want to know more about him, see Nevil Shute Society.

Since he was such a good aircraft designer and a racing enthusiast, I've always wondered why he apparently never designed a car . . .

Frank

Edited by fbarrett, 28 October 2009 - 17:34.

[275 GTB-4]

The movie was shown on Sydney TV tonight...quite interesting to revisit a classic movie set in a southern city (I can't bring myself to say it  )
 
Fred Upstairs about to gas himself on Ferrari fumes...



1964 AGP Winner...

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 23 May 2015 - 12:36.

[Marc Sproule]

i reckon i saw the movie when it came out in '59.

 

i was 12 years old.

 

i still remember how vividly it affected me.

 

heavy topic for a 12 y/o.

 

found an old paperback copy a couple of years ago.

 

still the same emotions.