119 replies to this topic

[Dutchy]

Brian Cutting had a Martin engined Escort entered by F English , Bournemouth i believe in the 70 'S.

I wonder if that was the same car as Hal Danby had. He also died recently I'm sad to say.

[Macca]

When I worked in Bournemouth about 10 years ago and had a Ford company car, it was serviced at an F.English garage in an old building near the corner of Palmerston Road with Christchurch Road in Boscombe, which was sold and redeveloped as a supermarket some years ago - would that have been the same one mentioned or were there several branches?

Neil Corner is another racer who built a model railway layout, mostly after he retired from racing in 1990, and with rolling-stock that he hand-built from scratch.

There are some pictures of Ted Martin's garden railway here , and an article about his involvement with model aero engines here (the motor-racing parts of the latter article are confused, but I've e-mailed them with corrections!)

Paul M

edit: page 7 of this has some more about Ted's railway.

Edited by Macca, 05 September 2011 - 13:15.

[kayemod]

When I worked in Bournemouth about 10 years ago and had a Ford company car, it was serviced at an F.English garage in an old building near the corner of Palmerston Road with Christchurch Road in Boscombe, which was sold and redeveloped as a supermarket some years ago - would that have been the same one mentioned or were there several branches?

There are some pictures of Ted Martin's garden railway here , and an article about his involvement with model aero engines here (the motor-racing parts of the latter article are confused, but I've e-mailed them with corrections!)

Paul M

edit: page 7 of this has some more about Ted's railway.

No, I'd forgotten about their Boscombe service branch, the one I meant was the main site in Westbourne, now a Tesco supermarket. As you looked from the road, the main showroom was to the left with offices above, the pumps more or less in the middle, with the used cars to the right. There was a high wall behind the pumps, and Colonel Ron's train shed was housed in a large wooden hut behind the wall.

It always amused me a little that F English (Bournemouth) weren't actually in Bournemouth at all, the site was in Poole Road Branksome, and unquestionably in Poole. They always claimed quite wrongly to be in Bournemouth, that was what appeared on all their letterheads and invoices etc, but they were about half a mile on the 'wrong' side of the dividing line. There's an incomprehensible local snobbery among some residents that Bournemouth is somehow 'better' than Poole, which was almost certainly the reason for that rather silly attempt at deception. The strange thing is that Poole has hundreds of years more history than Bournemouth, most of which was still sand dunes when Queen Victoria came to the throne, and almost all of the most desirable local real estate, Sandbanks etc, is in Poole.

On Ted's truly magnificent garden railway, it must be just about the most impressive example of its kind anywhere in the world, and I was told that Ted actually built most of the 7½" gauge steam locos himself. Although I had several invitations, I was never able to visit, and almost all my knowledge came from the late Phil Smith, who died last year within a few days of Ted Martin. Phil was an expert photographer, and had whole albums full of photos of Ted's railway, though I imagine they first met through shared model aero engine interests.

[arttidesco]

Pix of the Lotus Martin sans body work I believe the chassis plate reads Unit No 35 / F / 21 Engine No Martin / 100c

Love these trains run by Colonel Ron and Ted Martin

Edited by arttidesco, 06 September 2011 - 16:23.

[kayemod]

Love these trains run by Colonel Ron and Ted Martin

No idea whether Ted and Colonel Ron ever met, but if they had I'm sure the main topic of conversation would have been trains. Their two layouts were quite different, Ted's was a huge 7½" gauge open air setup, worked almost entirely by steam, and the Colonel's was all electric, I'm pretty sure it was 0 gauge which is about 1¼" between the rails, much smaller than Ted's, though still far larger than the 00 gauge HornbyDublo stuff that many will be more familiar with.



I'm fairly certain that this link shows the layout I saw back in 1981. I was given a quick look by the Ford salesman who'd just handed me the keys of my new Capri 2.0S, which was parked outside. He told me that no-one was normally allowed inside the big shed unless Colonel Ron was there, which wasn't very often, as I think he'd more or less retired by then to live in Hong Kong, where he spent much of his time. I was promised a proper viewing and demo next time Ron visited, but I think the salesman moved away not long afterwards, and that never happened.

[Giraffe]

Pix of the Lotus Martin sans body work I believe the chassis plate reads Unit No 35 / F / 21 Engine No Martin / 100c

The original car was #35 / F / 19.

[arttidesco]

Looking into the origins of the Martin V8

I understand a Lotus 24 was also rumoured to have had a Martin V8 fitted by Ted Martin for John Lewis to drive, did this car ever race ?

Were there any other Martin V8 powered single seaters apart from Ted's Lotus 24 and Charles Lucas Lotus 35 ?

Does anyone know how many of the 3 litre Martin V8's were produced ?

I understand there were also one/some 2 litre Martin V8's produced was this part of a planned V8 production programme ?

Relevant answers maybe credited and used in a forthcoming blog.

Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.

Edit some questions have been deleted from the original post.

Edited by arttidesco, 11 February 2012 - 16:36.

[mariner]

I once read a report that I think relate to the Martin engine. Supposedly they are held together with many allen screws. The story claimed that Martin (?) fixed a problem for some bus company who paid him in allen screws!

Sucha strange story it might even be true!

[arttidesco]

I once read a report that I think relate to the Martin engine. Supposedly they are held together with many allen screws. The story claimed that Martin (?) fixed a problem for some bus company who paid him in allen screws!

Sucha strange story it might even be true!

I wonder if that was because Ted thought allen screws were more elegant than nuts and bolts or because a couple of pounds of allen screws would be harder for HMRC to tax ? Thanks for that tidbit mariner, there are certainly a few allen screws to be seen on the cam covers of the Martin engine.

[Tim Murray]

This post starting a new thread in the Technical Forum may be of interest:

I have the very sad project of managing the late Ted Martin’s Engineering workshop and Engine components, is anyone out there interested in a wide range of engine parts, a fuill set of drawings and correspondence, I have 3 Engine blocks and a complete Engine assembly,
email pjd@ilecsys.co.uk.

[arttidesco]

I once read a report that I think relate to the Martin engine. Supposedly they are held together with many allen screws. The story claimed that Martin (?) fixed a problem for some bus company who paid him in allen screws!

Sucha strange story it might even be true!

 

Since your original post seven years ago I've had the priviledge of looking at a DFV very close up, that too is held together with many allen screws, of several different sizes too ;-) 

[MissPippa]

I well remember the Brian Cutting Escort as, F English the Bournemouth Ford Distributor, was a sponsor in the early '70s.
I wonder where Brian is now. Anybody in touch with him?
Garry

Back around 1968 prior to my gender transition from Paul Special Tool, (my nick name due to me always managing to make up special tools to do jobs), to now Pippa Jones, I helped out on a club racing car as mechanics assistant to Clive Hall looking after a Ford Mustang from Brian Cutting in Bournemouth, UK.

Brian decided to build a new car around the Ford Escort shell, and the engine was to be Ted Martins V8. I was involved in the building of the car shorty before I gave up my involvement to take up my DJ work, a completely irrelevant story brought about due to a very bad bank holiday racing weekend, and a DJ/Car salesman also called Brian and employed by Brian C.

Being as one of my many interests was photography, I have recently come across 6x6 negatives of shoots I had taken in Brian’s Winton Car Sales workshop. Can’t remember much about the build except something that is probably of no interest what so ever, but has always stuck in my mind. That being even with my small build, I could lift this V8 engine just clear of the ground.

Sorry to say I was never the best photographer, but I just hope that the attached picture of the magic (3?) litre Ted Martin V8 engine just after it’s delivery to Brian, workshop behind Winton Car Sales in Bournemouth, may be of interest to you.

I have also found amongst my possessions one of the Clubman’s Car Races programmes from my days with Brian, dated Sunday October 25^th, 1970 at Brans Hatch. I believe there is a mis-print to the Brian Cutting listing for the Event 4, Start: 15:30, 10 lap races, on page 8. It has Brian number 206 as For Escort V6. I just can’t remember being there, but with this programme in my possession I must have been, but I am sure this must have been one of the first races for Brian’s Escort Martin V8.

Like you Garry, I too often think about just where Brian, Clive and other acquaintances are from those days back in the late 60s, only which has to be a name drop from me has sprung to mind that being Richard Longman. Prior to retirement I spent 27 years driving the mobile library on the New Forest and one of my stops was right outside Richards cottage.

[bradbury west]

Welcome to TNF and thank you for posting the photograph.
As an aside, could I ask if in your Brands programme there are any entries in the Clubmans race for DRW clubmans cars? I would welcome a copy of the entry sheet if so.
Many thanks
Roger Lund
DRW marque historian

[MissPippa]

Thanks Roger, I am away at the moment but will be home Tuesday so I will  check that out for you.  Pippa

[MissPippa]

One here for Roger Lund, and anyone else interested in his question. Sorry not sure what DRW is    so, I have just scanned all reference to clubman race, also found a little bit in a Motoring News 03 November 1977. Hope they will help.

ps having trouble uploading pictures, just hope these links will work.

 

 

https://ibb.co/LYv0ChZ

https://ibb.co/Tt9xKHZ

https://ibb.co/XWctsDF

https://ibb.co/QMvHHrM

 

Thruxton     https://ibb.co/RNQK3b3

[Ray Bell]

Look for the option, 'Embed codes' on the ibb page...

 

Then hover your mouse over the 'BB code' and 'copy' will appear in grey. Click on that and then go to the next line of your post... as here:

 

 

And right click, then left click on 'paste'.

[GazChed]

Wasn't it after Derek Daly won the British Formula Three championship that entrant Derek McMahon started singing 'When Irish eyes are smiling' from the Thruxton podium ? And for the record the black and white picture is not Andrew Neilson in his Mallock but Jeremy Rossiter in his Formula Ford 2000 winning Reynard SF77.

[MissPippa]

Look for the option, 'Embed codes' on the ibb page...

 

Then hover your mouse over the 'BB code' and 'copy' will appear in grey. Click on that and then go to the next line of your post... as here:

 

 

And right click, then left click on 'paste'.

Thank you Ray for that, couldn't understand my Martin Engine pic post alright. Hopefully thanks to you and fingers crossed, it will happen this time and I won't get the dreaded "

An error occurred

You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community.

 

message.       Opps! still not working, tried all 3 BB copies,

 

One here for Roger Lund, and anyone else interested in his question. Sorry not sure what DRW is    so, I have just scanned all reference to clubman race, also found a little bit in a Motoring News 03 November 1977. Hope they will help.

 

MissPippa [post=''][/post]

[Ray Bell]

The line about 'image extension' refers to the tag at the end of the filename...

 

So it depends on what type of file you save the image as. If you are scanning, set the scanner to save the files as .jpg files for preference, they are the most commonly accepted.

[GazChed]

With regard to DRW Clubmans cars while looking for Ladas and Moskvichs in old programmes I checked out the Clubmans races and found that Nigel Chrisman ran a DRW 7C in the Richardson Trophy race at Thruxton on the 26/10/1975. He was unplaced. What surprised me was the variety of chassis in the race with several Gryphons and early Phantoms as well as CTG, Harrison, Hustler, Haggispeed, Mysterex, Gopher and of course the DRW taking on the Mallocks one of which was driven by Arthur Mallock. The programme relating to the MN report that MissPippa posted (Thruxton 30/10/77) confirms that no DRWs were entered in the Clubmans race.

With apologies for going OT.