41 replies to this topic

[janeprophet]

Hi, prompted by helpful feedback and advice from members of the Transporters Forum, my sister and I have started a website to archive our father's (somewhat patchy!) career as a driver, David Prophet.

http://www.janeproph...phet/index.html

This is in its first stages and we will add new pages bit by bit. We started with 2 cars that are still around now (The Kieft Formula Junior and the McLaren GT6). Thanks to the current owners of those cars for the fun and informative emails. There are bound to be errors on the website (Lisa and I were small kids when Dad was racing so this is sleuth work thru a few boxes of unfiled photos and 3 scrapbooks from the early years). We may have categorised cars incorrectly as well as made other errors. Joan (our mother) is making a commentary for the site, she is now 72, and as gorgeous and fiesty as ever (the commentary promises to have some illuminating anecdotes but she has become suprisingly diplomatic of late!)

We'd love to hear from members with corrections, copyright information on some of the images, and anecdotes we can add to the site.

Also, should I email the forum when we add a new section (car by car) or would this be intrusive to the forum? Please advise.

Thanks for your time

Jane Prophet

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by janeprophet
Hi, prompted by helpful feedback and advice from members of the Transporters Forum, my sister and I have started a website to archive our father's (somewhat patchy!) career as a driver, David Prophet.

http://www.janeproph...phet/index.html

This is in its first stages and we will add new pages bit by bit. We started with 2 cars that are still around now (The Kieft Formula Junior and the McLaren GT6). Thanks to the current owners of those cars for the fun and informative emails. There are bound to be errors on the website (Lisa and I were small kids when Dad was racing so this is sleuth work thru a few boxes of unfiled photos and 3 scrapbooks from the early years). We may have categorised cars incorrectly as well as made other errors. Joan (our mother) is making a commentary for the site, she is now 72, and as gorgeous and fiesty as ever (the commentary promises to have some illuminating anecdotes but she has become suprisingly diplomatic of late!)

We'd love to hear from members with corrections, copyright information on some of the images, and anecdotes we can add to the site.

Also, should I email the forum when we add a new section (car by car) or would this be intrusive to the forum? Please advise.

Thanks for your time

Jane Prophet

Welcome and thanks - a very promising site and I'm sure the TNF community will offer as many memories as they can! I'd definitely be interested in seeing the updates. Your father was active through one of the most interesting periods in the history of racing and a site that captures some of the feel of the 60s is always a good thing.

[ensign14]

Isn't there a story somewhere of him being pulled over for a driving incident? When he gave his name as "Prophet, David" and place of birth as Hong Kong he was gaoled?

[Barry Boor]

Jane, as an owner of 2 websites of my own, may I suggest, in all humility, that you use a lighter font colour on a darkish blue background as the black lettering barely shows?

[Rob Semmeling]

A great idea, this website! I'm looking forward to any additions, particularly on the McLaren M6 GT/M12, a very interesting car.

And that correspondance with the Stuttgart Motor Show secretary is priceless!

[Richard Jenkins]

Originally posted by janeprophet
Also, should I email the forum when we add a new section (car by car) or would this be intrusive to the forum? Please advise.

Oh no, please do! I'm quite interested in seeing how this project develops. Well done on your work so far.

[Alan Cox]

Nice to see this site in development, Jane. When I was at Sedbergh in the 1960s, I started a car club and wrote to your father to invite him to come to speak to a bunch of spotty youths. I still have quite a long correspondence with your father's secretary but, sadly, his commitments never enabled him to make it.

[Doug Nye]

Jane - what a lovely way to remember your late father. One small point - there's a bit of a muddle with your McLaren M6GT photos - the side-on shot of David in his silver McLaren with open bodywork heading left to right is not the M6 at all, but his earlier tubular-chassised M1B model.

I hope this helps. I was always a great fan of the privateers, as long as they didn't get in the way of the frontline racers.

DCN

[Duncan Fox]

Hi Jane and family, as I have an interest in all things McLaren I will help in this dept as I can. In yours CARS section, the top middle photo shows the car at Trojans workshop,the photo to its right is one of a sequence of shots taken of the model that was being used in an attempt to obtain group 4 homologation. On the bottom row car # 50 is in fact an M1B McLaren so we now have another car type in the pot.

I have been studying the F 5000 M10B McLarens. Your Dad drove one of these , it may in fact have been two. I am talking with Bruce Leeson in California, he has one car, the 2nd is in the U.K.

Great to see new photographs appearing and well done on making the effort to gather all this information together and post it . My Grandfather was a Minister of the Crown in the Nash Labour Government here in NZ and I always regret not taking the time to record his life and achievements from seaman through the unions and into Government, as now much material has been lost.

Keep up the good work.

[janeprophet]

Thanks for all the replies. I am now implementing the changes!

ensign: well, he had a south african driving license and was known to flash it, put on a SA accent and pretend to be a tourist to try and evade speeding tickets... i think this worked more than once , but did not help when caught doing a ton on Brighton seafront...

Barry: yes, good point, the black text is a mistake and will be gone very soon.

Rob: not much more in terms of photos on the McLaren M6 GT/M12. I had great correspondence with Gilles who owned it for many years in Canada, and now with James Edwards who is sprucing it up. So, more pics may well be of it in its current state.

Alan: ah, the Sedbergh years. I have a 8mm film of a Sedbergh cross country run, Dad is about 10 years old, all floppy hair and knobbly knees. Very Brideshead Revisited!

Doug: thanks so much for these updates, I will sort this out. I'm sure that the car's new owner will be inteterested too.

Duncan: will try and get the F 5000 M10B McLaren section online soon.

Thanks to you all this is a fabulous response. I will print and post to Mum (she's ditched her email/online life). Lisa is staying with her right now, but I'm sure Lisa will post to the site as well soon.

gratefully,
Jane

[Hieronymus]

Originally posted by janeprophet

ensign: well, he had a south african driving license and was known to flash it, put on a SA accent and pretend to be a tourist to try and evade speeding tickets... i think this worked more than once , but did not help when caught doing a ton on Brighton seafront...

This was probably why it was once suggested that David was a South African.

David raced quite regularly in SA from 1963-1967...also here in Cape Town.

I have race reports and even some race programmes of all the races in which he raced here in SA. If you need, any details or have questions on these races, I can perhaps help you.

[janeprophet]

He loved South Africa. I'm hoping to find more photos from his times racing there. I'd love to see the material that you have. mum has some great stories about their adventures driving across the country.

His head mechanic once lost all his tools while working on a car there. The he saw me, aged about 12 months old, walking to a big oil barrel with a spanner. I reached above my head and dropped the spanner in, enjoying the sound it made as it slid through the oil and thunked to the bottom. I had dropped all the tools in, one by one.... Problem sorted by strapping me into the seat of the car so I was both centre of attention and away from the oil barrel.

[Hieronymus]

Jane, I'll go through my files tonight and will let you know if I have something worthwhile that specifically relates to David.

[barrykm]

Thank you Jane, a great idea. I also remember your dad racing in South Africa and will read with interest.

[janeprophet]

I've updated the site as per most of the replies. Thanks.

A new page thanks to email from the current owner of the McLaren M6 GT, James Edwards. He describes taking the car to the 40th reunion for Can Am cars recently and meeting Bruce McLaren's daughter there.

http://www.janeproph...ments_M6GT.html

[D-Type]

Jane,

Loved the oil drum story

[Bjorn Kjer]

Hello Jane , nice pics ,I am a transporter fan especially , liked the photo sequence of loading!

Found 2 partphotos of D.Prophet transporters : : www.racehistorie.nl go to "zandvoort 3"


and : Atlasf1 TNF : personal photos from the paddock
page 25/post 963

Regards Bjørn

[Ted Walker]

I am trying to get in touch with this website ...............but cant make it work ????? is it still there ????????????????

[Bjorn Kjer]

Sometimes feeling ignored, perhaps because I am not good enough with PC/Internet , I choose not to say a word! Good to see others with that problem , all though sad that we cannot get through!

[Carlos Guerra]

Yeah, can't get through either.
Hi Jane, are you there?

[janeprophet]

Hi, I'm here. Sorry for the website problems, the server at my ISP crashed and all data has been lost. I am uploading from scratch right now. Will post update ASAP. No additions of late but will work on the site this week. Best wishes, Jane

[Ted Walker]

Jane Ive sent you an E mail re Lotus 30.

[David M. Kane]

Jane:

That Keift FJ sure is a pretty car!

A very good start!

[Ted Walker]

The BT6 is alive and well and living in Gloucestershire,

[Andrew Kitson]

I spotted David's old transporter in the background of Michael's GT40 shot at Snetterton from the GT40 thread:
http://i72.photobuck.../LiddleGT40.jpg

[Bjorn Kjer]

Good spot Andrew!

[Alan Cox]

A Roger Ellis shot of DP with his McLaren (M1B?)-Chevvy at the Croft Wills Trophy meeting, 14th August 1966.

[Giraffe]

By giraffe138 at 2009-03-06

Bringing this thread back to life, here is a pic of David Prophet in March 1970 at Oulton Park with his immaculate McLaren M10B. David is on the left the car, his jacket thrown casually over it! I can't remember who the chap with tie, handkerchief and sports jacket is at the back; I have a feeling he was an official, any clues?
I saw David race at Oulton the previous May in a Lola T70 Mk3 which he shared in the Tourist Trophy with Ed Nelson. It was the ex-de Udy car with the Bartz engine out of his unraceable McLaren M6GT.
I note that not much progress has been made with his website, so I thought I'd kickstart this thread again.

[barrykm]

Thanks Giraffe, hopefully more will follow.

[Giraffe]

By giraffe138 at 2009-03-08

Another shot of David's fabulous McLaren M10B at Oulton in 1970. as you can see from the caravan in the background, hospitality units have advanced over the years even more than racecars have!
I also saw David finish a very respectable fourth at the Interserie round in July of that year at Croft in his McLaren M12 entered by Bill Bradley. At the same meeting he raced a Chevrolet Camaro for Pierre du Plessis.
In the space of 14 months I saw him race Lola T70 Mk111, McLaren M10B, McLaren M12 & Chevrolet Camaro; he was certainly versatile!

[Giraffe]

Prompted by IIRC Tim Murray in the summer, I e-mailed Jane Prophet and out of the blue got this reply on 7th Dec:

"Hi Tony

Yes, please email the pics and I will add them, with a credit to you, when I finally update the website

best wishes

Jane "


I then e-mailed the two pics in the thread just above and received this reply yesterday:

"Thanks, Tony. I remember this car well!"

---------------------------------------------------------
www.janeprophet.com
---------------------------------------------------------
Professor of Art and Interdisciplinary Computing
Goldsmiths College, University of London

Job done thanks to Tim!

[Tim Murray]

Very happy to have been the catalyst, Tony.

[richie]

By giraffe138 at 2009-03-08

Another shot of David's fabulous McLaren M10B at Oulton in 1970. as you can see from the caravan in the background, hospitality units have advanced over the years even more than racecars have!
I also saw David finish a very respectable fourth at the Interserie round in July of that year at Croft in his McLaren M12 entered by Bill Bradley. At the same meeting he raced a Chevrolet Camaro for Pierre du Plessis.
In the space of 14 months I saw him race Lola T70 Mk111, McLaren M10B, McLaren M12 & Chevrolet Camaro; he was certainly versatile!

This image is part of the page, from Autosport.

F5000 drivers in a season's review from 1971, but from which circuit was this photo taken?

[MCS]

This image is part of the page, from Autosport.

F5000 drivers in a season's review from 1971, but from which circuit was this photo taken?

No idea, but I was always curious as to why just eight drivers were photographed.

[Giraffe]

No idea, but I was always curious as to why just eight drivers were photographed.

All eight of these drivers were entered for the 1970 F1 / F5000 Gold Cup at Oulton Park and they are all stood on grass!

[richie]

All eight of these drivers were entered for the 1970 F1 / F5000 Gold Cup at Oulton Park and they are all stood on grass!

Are you mistaken on the year?

Neither John Myerscough or Lingard Goulding are mentioned in the entry list for 1970 whereas in 71 Myerscough is but not Kaye Griffiths or LG.

[Giraffe]

Are you mistaken on the year?

Neither John Myerscough or Lingard Goulding are mentioned in the entry list for 1970 whereas in 71 Myerscough is but not Kaye Griffiths or LG.

????? This is the programme for the Gold Cup, 22nd August 1970...............


By giraffe138 at 2010-05-12

All are present.

[richie]

????? This is the programme for the Gold Cup, 22nd August 1970...............


By giraffe138 at 2010-05-12

All are present.

Well done Giraffe.

I was mistaken as I was looking at Old Racing Cars web site of F5000 races for 19/9/70 at Oulton Park. In their listings OP Gold Cup meeting is missing from their extensive listings. I've contributed some programmes to help out. I'd say they could use yours to fill in the obvious gap, how about it?

[Giraffe]

Well done Giraffe.

I was mistaken as I was looking at Old Racing Cars web site of F5000 races for 19/9/70 at Oulton Park. In their listings OP Gold Cup meeting is missing from their extensive listings. I've contributed some programmes to help out. I'd say they could use yours to fill in the obvious gap, how about it?

No probs Richie. However it's probably not listed as a F5000 race as it was a non-championship F1 race with a F5000 division.

Edited by Giraffe, 12 May 2010 - 22:02.

[richie]

No probs Richie. However it's probably not listed as a F5000 race as it was a non-championship F1 race with a F5000 division.

The previous year's Oulton Park Gold Cup was put on Oldracing Cars web site, so your programme would be useful to Allen Brown. Do you have the results & practice times aswell?

[ajhl9898]

Hi Jane.
My Dad Geoff Langford knew your dad through F5000 as he was a mechanic with various teams throughout the 70's. When I see him next I will see if he has any information to help you.

Aaron Langford

[Alan Cox]

Lovely shot of David Prophet's McLaren, complete with anti-aircraft exhausts and incredible induction trumpets. Mr Prophet standing talking to the fuel pump attendant.
http://www.fotolibra...t-brands-hatch/