27 replies to this topic

[Ted Walker]

Can anyone help me with contacting or supplying anything on P& M > They ran the "Un official Brabham F3 Team of BT21s as raced by Mike Beuttler,Piers Courage, Derek Bell. Who were the P and the M ??

[Ray Bell]

Piers and Mike?

Just a thought...

[David Beard]

Originally posted by Ted Walker
Can anyone help me with contacting or supplying anything on P& M > They ran the "Un official Brabham F3 Team of BT21s as raced by Mike Beuttler,Piers Courage, Derek Bell. Who were the P and the M ??

Dunno..but this gives the impression they are still around....

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/?http://www.autoexpre...ry.php?id=35082

[Pete Stowe]

Thumbing through some old Autosports, the P was Paul Vincent, who had previously raced F3 and Porsche. According to their ads in the classifieds, they operated from The Arches, Chiswick Park Station, London.

[Doug Nye]

Wasn't the 'M' Mike Ticehurst whose younger (I think) brother was the unfortunate co-pilot of the Staines air disaster Trident airliner.... (top of head stuff - absolutely unchecked, unverified, unsupported...all usual health warnings...)

DCN

[Ted Walker]

Well done chaps. I think Paul Vincent might have passed away,but does anyone know the whereabouts of Mike Ticehurst ??? My interest in this is because I think they were involved with the running of Chris Lamberts BT21 FVA after he departed from McKechnie Racing. Lambert raced a BT23 the following season and had his fatal accident.

[Geoff E]

Originally posted by Ted Walker
Well done chaps. I think Paul Vincent might have passed away,but does anyone know the whereabouts of Mike Ticehurst ???

This Google page has two references to "the late Mike Ticehurst" (relating to a Porsche 924):-

http://www.google.co.....ke ticehurst"

but if you click the links there is no reference to him.

[David Force]

Paul Vincent lost his most courageous battle with cancer this summer, to the last he was still planning to run his outrageous Escort in hillclimbs.

Paul latterly ran MacDonald Racing and prepared Ben Lieberts beautiful Eagle Weslake. He worked for Brabhams and spent time with Dan Gurney when he returned to Goodwood, also McLaren, Wolf/Fittipaldi and others.

His memory will be celebrated with a 'Best Prepared Car' award in FORCE events this season. A great engineer and an even better raconteur he is sadly missed but not forgotten

[MCS]

Didn't P & M Racing enter the two March 733s for Nick Crossley and Nicky von Preussen in F3 in 1973..? The same P & M, I assume.

MCS

[Ted Walker]

It would appear that Mike Ticehurst may have also passed away recently.

[raoul leDuke]

A long break since the last post on this tread but with reference to Mike Ticehurst, he was killed in a car crash coming out of Nettlebed, Oxforshire. He was confronted by two Thames Water vans side by side, apparently racing. Unable to avoid then, he perished in the ensuing accident. Mike had been suffering from cancer and his prognosis was not good.

It was his younger brother who was the co-pilot of Trident airliner involved in the Staines air disaster.

Mike's son, Tiggy Ticehurst, is now living and painting in New York City and building quite a reputation for himself.

[petestenning]

P & M also entered Colin Crang in Formula Ford in the late 60's, and if memory serves me right David Martell's Brabham in 1.0 F3.?


Pete

[Bjorn Kjer]

My old handwritten F3 records do not show P&M as "winners" and did not have any "works" deal :
1966 : M.Keens
1967 : M.Keens & D.Wiliamson
1968 : M.Keens ,J.Epton,D.Williamson,M.Beuttler,B.McInerney
1969 : K.Jupp ,M.Keens (Tecno)
1973 : N.Van Preussen (March)

Brabhams elsewhere

Interesting thread!

[John Saunders]

In 1972 P & M Racing Preparations ran an (Ex. Barry Maskell) Chevron B15/17 for Nick Crossley, Winning
the Formula 4 Championship that year. Then in 1974 P & M ran & entered an (Ex. Stan Mattews)
Ensign for Nick Crossley again winning the 750 Motor Club Formula 4 Championship. Two of the mechanics at P & M at this time were a Kiwi Don Henshaw & Roger Porteous (one time mechanic to Jim Clarke).
I thought Nick Crossley owned P & M at this time BUT I could be wrong about that, I never heard any more of P & M after 1974. By 1975 Nick was running the Horseless Carriage Company of Hove, which went on to
build the Delta Formula Ford 2000 cars.

[phinorman]

Hi,

For my book about Mike Beuttler, can you confirm or not that P&M racing preparations prepared Mike's F3 Brabham in 1969 and 1970 ?

Thanks in advance.

Regards from Phinorman

[Bjorn Kjer]

My F3 records says M.Beuttler: driver ,Clarke-Mordaunt : team/entrant ,1969 :BT28 Holbay/1970 :BT28 Lucas

[phinorman]

Hi Bjorn !

Thanks for that.

I think that P&M racing preparations would be the preparator of the MB's Brabham in 1969 and 1970 with Clarke/Mordaunt as entrant.

Best regards.

Phinorman

[eurocardoc]

I began my career at Chequered Flag, but drank at the same pub as Paul and Irish Tim among others. They took me on as a trainee mechanic at P&M and I learned early how to eat reheated chinese food at 5 in the morning after the all-nighter!
There were many cars run out of that arch, F3 1litres built by Paul were not too shabby. Keith Jupp was the "manager". Several Brabhams running Climax engines were prepared for Libre events. I recall that several clients were royally connected. I started running Russell Wood in FF there before we went off on our own.

I was so pleased to have run into Paul at the USGP when the Gurney came over, he had not changed! But those years of drinking pints with port chasers and chain smoking probably get us all in the end. Sorry to hear of his passing.

Brian

[eurocardoc]

Another anecdote from that wonderful era.

P&M was a stopping off point for most of the scandinavian F3 drivers. The trade for parts was often in paper form, and not banknotes!, but porn!

Most were driving VW pickups modified to carry the car on the back. Many times we were 4 or 5in-line slipstreaming to get full speed out of those things. No way would we ever had got stopped in a hurry. One time on the way to Brands, we realised that another truck had our passes, so we exchanged via the windows going along the A20 at about 70 mph. sadly I recall that the Novamotor engine builder died when he had a head-on crash, the race car came forward through the cab.

Brian

[GeoffE]

Originally posted by raoul leDuke
he was killed in a car crash coming out of Nettlebed, Oxfordshire.

Perhaps this was his death registration-

Michael Gorham Ticehurst, born 23 May 1943
Died Sep 2001 Aged 58
Death registered in Henley district

[raoul leDuke]

This definitely relates to Mike. His long time business partner Joff Ward still runs their Porsche business, Finlay-Gorham (Jonathan Finlay Ward and Michael Gorham Ticehurst).
finlaygorham.com

[ReWind]

Originally posted by GeoffE
Perhaps this was his death registration-

Michael Gorham Ticehurst, born 23 May 1943
Died Sep 2001 Aged 58
Death registered in Henley district

"September" must be a mistake (or those dates refer to another person) because Mike Ticehurst died on 12 January 2001.

[GeoffE]

Originally posted by ReWind
"September" must be a mistake (or those dates refer to another person) because Mike Ticehurst died on 12 January 2001.

I should have said the death was apparently registered in September - perhaps there was some sort of delay for the inquest; but he would still have been 57 when he died???. The birth of Michael G Ticehurst had been registered in Eton district.

Suprisingly, there were two Michael Ticehursts born in 1943. T'other one born and died in Eastbourne 2004 ... and a further one born in 1944 whose death was registered in Nov 2001.

[Colin Crang]

Just picked this up.........(newly registered)

I remember P&M very well.....under the Arches at Chiswick Park.
In 1969 I gave them my FF Merlyn to look after and enter and we did quite well once I had learnt how to race and not just practice on the right line!!
After my 1st Mk 11 Paul Persuaded me to buy a Brabham BT28 which Was flipped in testing by a March and sold. Then we had an FF mk 20 which was very successful....
About this time John Maitland Cook became manager and he had been working for John Wyer at Slough and running the Gt 40's. The franchise or whatever for the GT40's came to P & M and they were mainly road prepared for customers. I used to drive them on the early bit of the M4 to and from the paint shop at slough. Lucky me. One name I rember was Jim Hardman a Kiwi who did my Car at the start and he I believe was the first guy to be reported in Autosport as owning a "rent a Brabham" for F3 people who had smacked theirs but needed championship points. I know Mike Beutler was one such. Jim was also v. quick in saloon cars.
They were great times and I rember going to the pub with Paul and a guy called "Alan Jones"! telling us all about his dad who was a very active Aussie race driver down under.......some evening that was.

Anyway if anyone was interested, I have quite few Pand M bills and work records. I also would like to catch up with guys like John Cook and Russell Wood etc......
PS can't remember who owned the premises but I think it was a friend of John Cook.

[petestenning]

Nice to here from you Colin, yes P & M ran Russell Woods car after he graduated from Formula Ford an underated driver in my opinion.

P & M appear in quite a few of my archive of late 60's early 70' s programes entering Formula Fords and F3,
David Martell, Jim Edwards, Tom Walkinshaw,Keith Jupp, Mike Beuttler, Brendan McInerney,Alex Trotter,John Epton, in F3
Jonny Dimsdale's Ginetta G12
Jim Hardman who you mention,and Russell Woods Merlyn MK11A,Nicky Von Preussen and of Corse Colin Crang.

A large variety of drivers indeed.

Pete

[jonnyd]

I too have just picked up this thread and am deeply impressed that someone remembers P & M running my G12 Ginetta. I had bought it powered by an ex-McLaren 1.5 litre Climax V8 but I could never get it to run properly, so P & M replaced it with a BRM prepared Lotus Twin Cam. Then I had a lot of fun with it. Ambition got the better of me and I went to Racing Preparations (later known as Royale) who rose jointed all the rubber mounted suspension, which didn't do any good as the chassis twisted so much.

I don't remember if it was Paul who suggested it but I then bought the ex-Lambert BT21 from Bob Howlings somewhere round Manchester. Lambert had fitted an FVA and but I bought it as a rolling chassis and took it to Jim Hardman, who had set up on his own in another arch 1/2 mile away on the same railway line! He then fitted my BRM twin cam, but the chassis had never been properly modified and regularly cracked round the engine bay but I had a bit of success in the first year of Formula Atlantic.

Whilst at P & M, I remember a youngish Australian arriving and buying a Lotus 41 into which he also inserted a twin cam. He didn't have much money so he and his father did a lot of the work themselves. They then took it to a practice day at Brands and Alan (for it was he!) was promptly taken off by a slower car that failed to use its mirrors and arrived back at the Arches feeling very low. He then joined up with Brian McGuire and they went into the rent-a-camper-to-Aussies business but I think that they both still had their cars at P & M.

Regarding Mike Beuttler, Clarke-Mordaunt were the entrants/sponsors. Mike had been a stockbroker before going racing full time and Ronnie Clarke and ? Mordaunt were senior, and wealthy, stockbrokers too. Ronnie Clarke was also the owner of Motortune, the BMW, Porsche and Alfa garage in the Brompton Road, where I went to work for a couple of years, along with Stuart Rolt. I don't remember if P & M looked after Mike's car.

P & M actually belonged, I believe, to Alex Trotter, who Pete Stenning correctly remembers as having a 1 litre F3 car. Alex is a Scottish landowner and lives at, and I think still owns, Charterhall, scene of Jim Clark's early successes.

[Denis Lupton]

Jim Hardman is alive and well, still attending to racing cars in Melbourne, Australia

[Sterzo]

Delighted to find this thread, alerted by John Winfield who refers to it in the "Info on Keith Jupp?" thread. For a few weeks in late 1971 I was a very unskilled gofer, helping take rubbish to the dump and whitewashing the inside of the railway arch (slowly and badly). High spot was being equipped with wire wool and climbing into the mechanism of a roadgoing GT40 to polish up the half shafts, so it didn't look so neglected. Memory is a dangerous thing, but I think the car belonged to VSCC racer Piers (?) Masarati, and I believed at the time he was one of P&M's owners. He was due to visit, hence cleaning his car!

 

The storeman, if I recall, went on to be the truckie for AIRO (Australian International Racing Organisation), who may also have lived in the nearby railway arches.This was an important job, as they were just a truck and a pot of orange paint, otherwise a bunch of private owners. Another arch at around this time, further towards Hammersmith, was said to have Kitchener tub hung from its ceiling.