22 replies to this topic

[Gary C]

Does anyone remember this? Apparently in the parade there were 3 Formula 1 cars. Was just wondering if anyone knows what they were and who drove them? FYI: the Lord Mayor's Show is a traditional parade through the streets of central London every November (I think) of just about anything, it seems in 64 there were some race cars involved!

[Vitesse2]

I've seen pictures of this Gary. IIRC Graham Hill and Jim Clark were involved for BRM and Lotus respectively, but the Times report mentions only "famous motor racing heroes of the age ... near the head of the procession", without specifying who they were or what they drove! Golden Arrow, the Napier-Railton and Bluebird, plus "the James Bond trick car" are all mentioned as is "a shapely girl in a bikini who rode unprotected on the tyre industry's float." In rain, in London, in November!

The theme of the show that year was "British Motoring" BTW.

[Gary C]

ah, excellent. Thank you indeed.

[Alan Cox]

Without checking, I'm sure they were Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Bruce McLaren in Lotus, BRM and Cooper respectively.

Unless someone beats me to it, I shall look out the Autosport coverage and report whether this is corrrect.

[Rob29]

I was there and filmed it on my 8mm-since copied on to VHS.Above is correct-afer F1 cars ran in the streets they were loaded on to floats to take part in the main procession.

[Roger Clark]

Here's one I posted earlier.



I think it was from Motor Sport and that J Brabham is at the back. If only they were racing!

[Barry Boor]

I was there, too. And filmed it on my Dad's standard 8 cine camera.

Not very good though because the camera was playing up and all the shots - through a crowd of heads, are very dark. But I can confirm Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren and Jack Brabham.

In some ways, the highlight was seeing Bluebird (the car) going by on a trailer.

I don't remember any bikini.... but then, as I was with my girl-friend, I was probably distracted.

[Jager]

An old post I know, but a picture of this event popped up online yesterday that I thought was interesting.

 

[Vitesse2]

In the interests of balance, this thread at the Sunbeam Tiger forum has - as well as a picture of a Sunbeam Tiger passing the 'Black Lubyanka' on Fleet Street - a shot of NGH, Dickie Attwood, Tony Rudd and others on the Owen Organisation float. Attwood appears to have been relegated to the role of official keeper of the umbrella :

 

http://www.sunbeamti...opic.php?t=2040

[Gary C]

.....and as featured in my first book www.shutterandspeed.com !

[BRG]

An old post I know, but a picture of this event popped up online yesterday that I thought was interesting.

 

'aven't they ever 'eard of 'ealth and safety?  All them geezers standing on a moving flat bed more than 2 metres above the ground, and not a safety 'arness or a 'ard 'at in sight.  

Edited by BRG, 12 May 2021 - 10:09.

[9203RW]

In the interests of balance, this thread at the Sunbeam Tiger forum has - as well as a picture of a Sunbeam Tiger passing the 'Black Lubyanka' on Fleet Street - a shot of NGH, Dickie Attwood, Tony Rudd and others on the Owen Organisation float. Attwood appears to have been relegated to the role of official keeper of the umbrella :

 

http://www.sunbeamti...opic.php?t=2040

Members of the Sunbeam Talbot Darracq Register must be in a state of apoplexy at seeing a 1904 Sunbeam described as "the earliest Rootes car on parade" in that Tiger forum article!

[Odseybod]

Perhaps inevitably, my father was there. Here are some of his pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reckon it's about time we did it again ...

 

 

 

[Tim Murray]

Thanks for posting, Tony. Is that Rivers Fletcher squatting next to Graham’s BRM?

[Odseybod]

Certainly looks like him - and where we'd expect him to be.

[BRG]

Excellent photos by your dad!  nice to see a couple of rally cars there.  The Healey 3000 is the car used by David Seigle-Morris in 1962 but was perhaps used by others (Hopkirk, Makkinen) in 1964?  A bit puzzled about the Cortina GT with a UK reg but 'EAK' plate.  I see Vic Elford had taken 10th on the 1964 Safari.  Could that be his car?

[JtP2]

Is there any significance in the RAC van being in font of the Lotus transporter?

[Odseybod]

One of the pics I didn't post has a closer view of the rear of the Cortina GT, in which you can just make out the number 3 on the rally plate, suggesting it's the 1964 Safari winner - I'd imagine the EAK plate refers to its local crew (Peter Hughes and Billy Young), though being built and entered by Dagenham presumably qualified it for a place in a 'British Motoring' parade. Well, that's my theory and I'm fairly proud of it, even though pics of it on the Safari (and the nice looking Trofeu model) show it wearing the registration number KHS 600 - perhaps a Kenyan one that wouldn't have been valid for use on the streets of London?

[BRG]

One of the pics I didn't post has a closer view of the rear of the Cortina GT, in which you can just make out the number 3 on the rally plate, suggesting it's the 1964 Safari winner - I'd imagine the EAK plate refers to its local crew (Peter Hughes and Billy Young), though being built and entered by Dagenham presumably qualified it for a place in a 'British Motoring' parade. Well, that's my theory and I'm fairly proud of it, even though pics of it on the Safari (and the nice looking Trofeu model) show it wearing the registration number KHS 600 - perhaps a Kenyan one that wouldn't have been valid for use on the streets of London?

I had discounted the Safari winning car as it was shown as having a Kenya registration, but now I think your theory holds water.  There was probably some bureaucratic reason for it.  Maybe the car was first registered in the UK then sent to Kenya for the rally and re-registered locally, only to revert on its return to the UK?  

Edited by BRG, 13 May 2021 - 15:53.

[Odseybod]

The B suffix of course indicates a 1964 plate. We really need an expert on Kompetition Kortinas to chime in on whether Dagenham (not yet Aveley by then?) was as casual about swapping number plates around as they would be later with Escorts, or whether each plate stayed with a car/shell until it died. I'm certainly not getting any Google or other hits suggesting that EEV 413B has a long (or any) competition career, but of course that's nothing to go by.

[D-Type]

The Safari-winning Cortina had Kenya registration plate KHC600 and had KENYA  above the screen when it ran in the rally.  But this means very little.  The team cars might have been entered by Ford UK or the local dealers, Hughes Ltd.  The cars were definitely purpose-built in Dagenham but may have had final preparation by Hughes.  The Kenya number plate suggests it was brand new and first registered in Kenya. Nobody would have cared what registration it carried no matter who the entrant was.  It would have carried an EAK plate.  Similarly, if it had a British Registrtion it would have carried a GB plate. 

The organisers required the cars to have their nationality painted above the windscreen.  I don't know whether this was the crew or the entrant.  This was very relxed.  I have photos of works Fords with Kenya registration marked England or Kenya, with British, Kenyan or mixed crews.  There are also cars with combinations of Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania registration and crews.
Throwing all this into the melting pot, the only suggestion I have is that the Lord Mayor's Show car is one of the Safari team cars, maybe the winner, complete with decals and baked-on mud, but re-registered with a British number plate for some reason.  

[Odseybod]

Thanks for adding some more ingredients to the pot, Duncan. According to the Safari results I've found, several other Fords carried a KH* *** registration number (KHS 596  - Cortina GT, KHK 819 - Zodiac, KHS 599 - Cortina GT, KHS 597 and 598 - both Cortina GTs that retired), so maybe that was a Kenya (Nairobi?) number, or even dealership trade plates, as they were consecutive, with the winning car's completing the series. Then, just to upset this wonerful idea, I've spotted an M-B 220 SE among the retirements, registration KHR 680 ... Incidentally, Mr and Mrs Carlsson were driving (works?) Saab with registration numbers P 44308 and P 44309 respectively, so apparently no requirement for competing cars to be registered locally.

 

Anyway, just to complete the picture(s), here's a closer view of the Cortina. Looks as though it had twin fuel fillers (and twin tanks?).

 

 

 

[BRG]

Throwing all this into the melting pot, the only suggestion I have is that the Lord Mayor's Show car is one of the Safari team cars, maybe the winner, complete with decals and baked-on mud, but re-registered with a British number plate for some reason.  

Some years later, 1972, when I was working in the air freight world, I was at Luton Airport (no sign of Lorraine Chase though) awaiting 'my' Boeing 707 freighter inbound from Kenya.  We had a load of stuff for Bangla Desh, but the plane was late arriving and the loaders, who were council employees as Luton Airport was owned by the council back then, knocked off at 6pm and went home, just as the 707 landed.

 

So we unloaded it ourselves - not too hard as it was just 13 palettes of freight.  Mostly fruit and veg, but in the middle of the place was a palette carrying an works Escort RS1600 - it was Mikkola's winning Safari car, still just as it crossed the finish line, red mud and all. 

 

Someone said that it should be taken off the palette as Ford were coming to get it, so being a helpful young chap, I volunteered to drive it off the palette and into the warehouse. Fortunately, I had done enough rallying by then to know what to switch on and managed it OK.  So you are dealing with a works Ford driver here, so show a little respect!