Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four January 1980

January 1980 

Motor Sport 

Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four

MATTERS OF MOMENT 

■ THE FUTURE OF THE SPORT 

“God is generally for the big battalions 

against the little ones” 

— Bussy Rabutin, 1677. 

IT SEEMS prudent, at the beginning of the New Year, 

to pontificate, as Willie Green thinks we motoring 

writers do, about the state of the Sport. D.S.J, had 

made it clear to anyone in any doubt that Fl racing is 

in a highly interesting stage, and his arguments are as 

convincing as his enthusiasm is infectious. So the 1980 

Grand Prix season that starts in nine days’ time should 

be a magnificent one, with the excitement of seeing 

whether the Saudis will see their support of the Williams 

team fulfilled, the computerised-might of Ferrari again 

prevail, Lotus, linked to Ford and now to Rolls-Royce, 

retrieve lost status, Renault achieve a Turbo charged 

Championship, or whatever. 

National racing, reviewed in MOTOR SPORT last 

month, more or less thrives, in many different categories, 

and there is absolutely no denying the popular appeal 

of, and interest in, International Rallying. On a rather 

more amateur footing, the racing of vintage and historic 

cars is on the increase. Nevertheless, we must guard 

against anything that might be detrimental to these and 

any other facets of the Sport. For the time being there 

seems absolutely no foundation for rumours to the effect 

that the Sport may have-to be curtailed on account of 

the need to conserve fuel. Petrol, at a price, is now freely 

available again (at least when Shell’s tanker-drivers do 

not go on strike) and while package-tourists fly about the 

World in Jumbo Jets and horse-race and kick-ball crowds 

travel in a multitude of cars and motor-coaches, there can 

be no call to reduce motoring sport under a fuel-saving 

heading. So, at lop level, all seems set-fair for another 

magnificent motor-racing season, with flourishing events 

in the other sections of the Sport. However, greed and 

other factors have intruded into non-motorised sports, so 

let us be watchful and jealously guard ours. 

The smaller Clubs will be hit, for instance, by 

new financial and organisational penalties imposed on 

them by the RAC Motor Sports Council, unless enough 

resistance is brought to bear for Belgrave Square to 

retract. In fact, this month’s VSCC Measham Rally 

is the first casualty. A friend of ours who lives in the 

motoring past, but who claims to be closely in touch 

with the younger members of many of the smaller 

motoring Clubs, considers that the time has come for 

the RAC to operate two-tier control of the Sport. He 

thinks that at present Clubs running amateur events, 

amateur drivers, and newcomers to the Sport, are all 

carrying a disproportionate load, not only financially, 

but in respect of rules and regulations. With this view 

we agree, and while realising that in Inflationary times 

the RAC is no more immune than other organisations to 

increased running-costs, it is surely to the big battalions 

that it should look for a bigger income. Greed has 

affected other sports, if only by demanding too much of 

a good thing, which is why they now play cricket with 

black pads and a white ball under floodlights, tennis 

is no longer confined to summer afternoons on grass 

courts, and kick-ball happens almost every evening 

to amuse crowds, some of whose other interests are 

violence, hooliganism, and the smashing up of trains ... 

So let’s be watchful of our own Sport, with the thought 

that there may even now be too much racing going on, 

little of it, away from Fl, of the status of great contests 

from the past, such as Le Mans in its heyday, the TT 

when it was a great sports-car road-race, and those 

Silverstone saloon-car races when Jaguar, Daimler 

(yes!) Mini-Minor and the rest competed and the 

spectators, watched cars battling it out which were not 

too dissimilar to those they had arrived in, and which 

many of them could afford to purchase . . . 

On the sordid subject of greed, did you know that, 

according to a Rally Promotional Executive, the Forestry 

Commission received a minimum of £42,000 from the 

RAC in respect of last year’s RAC Rally? Yet when 

we drove into to the Radnor Forest Castrol Enthusiast 

Rally Stage in the Editorial Rover, with a huge Official 

Press sticker on its windscreen, we were told to pay £1 

admission fee for the privilege of reporting the event 

(“You can claim it back from your paper”) or else go 

back, which was clearly impossible with a great queue of 

spectators’ cars behind us. We did not grudge the quid, 

but we were disappointed to find that there was no carpark, 

no indications of where to watch, and nothing to 

stop visitors from driving on along what should have 

been a one-way traffic system, only to come to a dead-end. 

The spectators’ cars were packed bumber-to-bumper on 

both sides of the forest roads and they stretched literally 

for miles. How they all got out again is a modern miracle. 

Such enthusiasm for rallying is highly satisfactory. 

But, remembering that the Forestry Commission took 

£1 for each spectator’s car at the many Stages, as well 

as receiving the aforementioned fee for the use of the 

course, it might have laid on a better service for those 

who came to watch and who may have thought Castrol 

to blame. Accidents under such conditions, with adults 

and children not used to the speed of rally cars let loose 

in the dark forests, could easily happen and could be very 

detrimental to this now healthy branch of the Sport. Yet 

with marshals having to rely only on ropes and whistles 

to keep the course clear, it can only be the good discipline 

of British crowds that has prevented a disaster from 

occurring. God may be on the side of the Big Battalions, 

be these wealthy Fl contenders or happy crowds wanting 

to see International rally drivers at work. But let us not 

push our luck too far . . . 

■ OH. AUNTIE! 

There will be many who are absolutely delighted 

that The Times newspaper has been able, at the cost 

of £30-million, to weather an industrial storm and 

recommence publication. For “Auntie” is essentially 

a very British institution. And has been for nearly 200 

years. But we hope that the long break in its daily doses 

will not be responsible for reduced standards of accuracy, 

in a paper whose once-proud boast was that you could 

trust its every word.

The reason we say this is because in a long obituary 

about Signor Amedee Gordini that appeared in The 

Times last year it was stated that this engineer who was 

responsible for the Gordini-Simca and other racing cars, 

and who worked for Renault (not mentioned), designed 

a chassis round an old Hispano Suiza engine in 1921, and 

that after Tazio Nuvolari had tested this car at Monza he 

“took it over to Brooklands, where it was timed at nearly 

150 m.p.h.”. It has been our belief that Nuvolari, one of the 

greatest of racing drivers, only drove once at Brooklands, 

in Earl Howe’s Bugatti, and that in 1933 in practice for 

the BARC Mountain Championship, in which he failed 

to start. If Nuvolari came to the Weybridge Track 12 

years earlier and drove so quickly there, this would be 

of the greatest interest, to a great many people. But we 

think we can safely say this never happened. 

In the first place, although The Times says Gordini 

met “the great Nuvolari” in 1921, at that time Tazio 

was only just commencing his motorcycle racing, 

and had scarcely earned such acclaim. Secondly, in 

1921 the Track lap-record stood at under 122 m.p.h , 

the Land Speed Record at 124.1 m.p.h., and there was 

meat excitement when K. Lee Guinness’ big Sunbeam 

was unofficially timed at 135 m . p . h . o v e r the 

Brooklands half-mile that year. It was another 14 years 

before Cobb’s big Napier-Railton was timed at over 150 

m.p.h. at Brooklands. When America claimed a record 

of more than 156 m.p.h. from Milton’s twin-engined 

Duesenberg in 1920, no-one in Europe would accept it. 

If a then little-known Italian driver, using a car with an 

old Hispano Suiza engine, had been timed at nearly 150 

m.p.h. on Brooklands, surely the feat would have aroused 

considerable comment ? Of course, Nuvolari’s 1921 visit 

might have happened on a non-race-day, when few were 

present. If The Times can convince us that it definitely 

happened, the Editor of MOTOR SPORT will have to 

eat a Times’ Leader, however indigestible. A number 

of racing cars was built with V8 Hispano Suiza aeroengines 

around this period, apart from Miller’s wellknown 

Brooklands Wolseley Viper which delighted and 

alarmed Track visitors for several years. These engines 

seem often to have been of smaller capacity than the wellknown 

war-time Hispano Suiza aero-engines, and they 

were used in the D’Aoust, the EG. the Becquet Special, 

the Bor-genschutz, and in an Isotta-Fraschini Special. It 

seems probable that it was the last-named, which Alfieri 

Maserati raced successfully, that Nuvolari also drove, 

but not at Brooklands, surely? It may seem harsh to harp 

on this presumable mistake, except for the impeccable 

reputation The Times should have. We remember when 

someone who was reporting a Goodwood motor race 

meeting for that great newspaper wrote ERA when he 

meant HRG, from a lapse of concentration. He told us that 

the fuss was immediate and at top-level; he was made 

to understand that errors might creep into mere motor 

journals but must never appear in The Times! Which is 

why we would like confirmation of whether Nuvolari 

did or did not come to Brooklands in 1921. We notice 

other errors in the Obituary, such as naming Cattaneo as 

“an Hispano Suiza expert” when he was the Isotta- 

Fraschini designer and ascribing a fictitious win in the 

1934 Bol d’Or to Gordini. Now we all make mistakes 

— only last month MOTOR SPORT said that cx-W. O. 

Bentley employee Walter Hawgood was unknown to the 

BDC, whereas he appears as “believed deceased” in the 

Club’s list. 

But with standards falling everywhere, it will 

be a great pity if we can no longer rely on The Times 

newspaper for almost l00% accuracy. It is possible that 

their Amedee Gordini obituary was not written by a 

staff-man and that they used a commercial hand-out. 

which they singularly failed to check? — W.B. 

The Things They Say . . . 

STUART TURNER, Ford’s Director of Public Relations, 

in a hilarious, but pertinent speech at the BRDC dinner 

dance in the London Hilton las month: “I don’t hold with 

all this British Mafia nonsense in Formula One. The way 

the Fl constructors trade makes the bloody Mafia look 

effeminate!” 

Stars 

IN THE article elsewhere in this issue the design of the 

1914 TT Star is attributed to Cecil Cathie. In fact these 

cars were designed by Tom Mathie, who had previously 

been with Sunbeam’s. We expect to have a long Star 

postscript in a future MOTOR SPORT. 

A Cheap Lift 

LOADS of up to a quarter of a ton can be lifted by a very 

compact, light and cheap (£10.37) Mini-Hoist made by 

Hi-Way (Automotive) Ltd; We have found it to be a 

much more convenient device for modest lifting jobs 

than a conventional block and tackle. It should cope with 

most smaller engines and from memory even a Jaguar 

engine without gearbox should just about be in its scope 

— at least, we intend to try it for that purpose over the 

winter, but readers planning a similar exercise should 

check their engine weight first 

The seven-part hoist has non-rusting alloy pulley 

wheels and 60 ft. of nylon rope, giving an eight-fool lift. 

Double hooks arc fitted top and bottom for security, and 

a jamming cleat allows the load to be held firmly at any 

height. 

The Mini-Hoist is available from most accessory 

shops, or in case of difficulty write to Hi-Way Automotive 

Ltd.. 33, South St., Corsham, Wilts. 

Hung-over Rover 

FOR the benefit of those readers who wondered what on 

earth last month’s Tailpiece photograph of a muddy pit 

was ail about, before the gremlins attacked it the word 

HANGOVER was obvious in place of RANGE-ROVER 

on the Solihull workhorse’s tailgate Humorist or cynic?

THE 1980 SEASON 

IT SEEMS incredible that it was ten years ago that we 

said goodbye to the swinging sixties and stepped into 

the seventies with hope for more rational and balanced 

living. Here we are stepping into the eighties with a 

slightly apprehensive look The seventies were not all 

bad, though there was much that was sordid, but never 

squalid thank goodness. The keynote as far as Formula 

One was concerned seemed to be rules and regulations, 

squabbles and controls, hut it all levelled out by the end 

of 1979. Through all the red tape and wrangles those 

people that really matter in Formula One. the designers 

and engineers came out with a flourish, producing really 

smooth looking cars (Lotus 79). fascinating and intriguing 

cars (Brabham-Alfa Romeos), startlingly efficient and 

effective cars (Williams FW07) and as always Ferrari 

12-cylinder cars, while a whole new world began to 

evolve with the Renault turbo. In American track racing 

and European long distance racing the exhaust-driven 

turbo-charger really took over, thanks to the Cosworth 

DFX and the Porsche 935. 

If the sixties were “swinging” and the seventies 

were “sordid” then I feel the eighties are going to be 

“efficient”, I cannot see much room for razz-ma-tazz in 

the 1980s and bull-shit will be a thing of the past. Those 

who are not efficient and effective will fail by the wayside 

and there will be no helping hands, for the hands of 

the successful will be very full trying to maintain their 

efficiency and to stay effective. In the sixties everyone was 

on the bandwagon and all were enjoying the merry-goround, 

but in the severities the merry-go-round began to 

slow down and many of those who did not have a firm 

grip slipped away into oblivion. Now the merry-goround 

has slopped, the bandwagon has gone and only 

those who are truly dedicated and prepared to work and 

sacrifice some things will survive. I think it will be all 

right for those of us who are left; I hope so. 

The accompanying list of events lor 1980 for all the 

various racing categories is as big as ever, though do not 

be surprised if some of them do not happen. At its Paris 

Press Conference on December 13th, FISA threatened 

more changes to the GP calendar in the next few weeks, 

and the list below should be considered provisional. 

The Argentine and Brazilian races will take place as 

scheduled, though. Already the Swedish and Mexican 

GPS have been cancelled. Some people would like to get 

rid of the Spanish GP and quite a few are trying hard to 

get rid of the USA GP a! Watkins Glen, especially those 

who are forcing the issue for a Grand Prix at Las Vegas. 

Many of those who campaigned against Monza are now 

having second thoughts, especially after the face-lift the 

whole place was given last year. The Belgian GP is still 

at the little Zolder circuit, though it might return to the 

new shortened circuit at Francorchamps in 1981. The 

French GP takes its turn on the flat arid wastes of the 

Paul Ricard circuit and the British GP takes its turn at the 

cramped Brands Hatch circuit. Monaco is still Monaco, 

and the other events are stabilised, though there is some 

lobbying going on to revise the dates of those events 

due in August, to avoid clashing on Television with the 

Olympic Games. 1 he TV moguls and those who make 

large bags of gold from it are far more interested in their 

own welfare than that of the paying spectator who lines 

the circuit. If you listen to the ideas of the television 

fanatics you gel the impression that it won’t be long 

before the paying spectator is done away with and the 

whole business of a Grand Prix will be staged for the 

benefit of the viewers and the vested interests of those 

who are manipulating the money bags (Mr. Ecclestone 

in Formula One). Eventually the viewer will be shown 

only what Ecclestone and his backers want you to see; 

at the moment the paying spectator often sees more than 

he is supposed to, and quite often not sufficient of what 

the moguls want him to see. To listen to some people 

the Grand Prix cars and the racing are of secondary 

importance. 

The long-distance scene is far from healthy, for 

such racing should be the province of manu facturers, but 

when Porsche withdrew last year it became glorified club 

racing, on an international level. The Le Mans organisers 

did not see eye-to-eye with the new-look Group 5 rules 

so they opted out of the so-called World Championship 

of Makes and ran their 24 hour race as an individual 

event standing on its own merit, without the prop of a 

Championship. And they succeeded. They formulated 

their own rules and never looked back, but meanwhile 

the Championship events dwindled to the farcical. Now 

the FIA has taken the Le Mans 24-Hour race back into 

its Championship for what it is worth, but the Le Mans 

organisers are still running their race to their own rules 

regardless of any Championship. 

Formula Two seems to be determined to struggle 

and remain self-sufficient, though it does not seem to be 

heading anywhere in particular, whereas Formula Three 

has a rosy future and the World of Formula One seems 

to think that the logical progression of Formula Three, 

Formula Two and Formula One is unnecessary and a 

jump from F3 to Fl is quite all right. Certainly Formula 

Three has the support of manufacturers, for both Renault 

and Alfa Romeo are marketing engines that challenge 

the near monopoly of Toyota Extra to our lists of lesser 

Formulae this year is the Aurora AFX series for Fl and F2 

cars and non-championship drivers. It was hoped that 

this category would be a stepping-stone up into Formula 

One. but at the moment it has proved to he more of a 

stepping-stone in reverse, for failed Formula One drivers. 

It was also hoped thai events could be run on Grand 

Prix circuits, to give drivers an opportunity to find their 

way around, but the 1980 list seems restricted to British 

curcuits with a preponderance of events at Mallorv Park. 

— D.S.J.

THE FORMULA ONE 

SCENE 

IN LESS than two weeks the 1980 Formula One season 

will be under way and there should be a report of the 

Argentine GP in the February issue of MOTOR SPORT, 

for it is due to take place at the Autodromo in Buenos 

Aires on January 13th. While some teams are in a state 

of flux and indecision, others are well advanced with 

the first part of their 1980 programme. Quite often these 

early races in South America have been little more than 

extensions of the previous season and if that proves to be 

the ease this year we can expect to see the Ferrari team 

vying with the Williams team for pride of place, with 

Renault very close behind and Ligier waiting for any of 

the top three to falter so that it might jump in. 

Ferrari: The 1979 cars, designated T4, were 

pensioned off and the T5 replacement was announced 

in December. The basic concept of the car has been 

unchanged but a lot of re-designing has taken place, 

particularly in the engine, where a revised cylinder head 

and valve gear design has permitted the 1980 flat-12- 

cylinder engine to be narrower in overall width, to help 

towards better air-flow under the car and to improve 

the weight transfer on cornering. The top part of the 

bodywork has been reshaped to improve the air-flow and 

the resultant down-force generated by the body, while 

the rear brakes are hub-mounted as on the T4B which 

was tried at Monza. There have been no changes within 

the team, Mauro Forghieri is still chief engineer. Piccinini 

is still team-manager and Scheckter and Villeneuve are 

still the two happy drivers. 

Renault: The 1979 cars RS10, RS12 and RS14 

have been taken completely apart and redesigned 

and rebuilt to the same general format, with the twin 

turbo-charger layout on the V6 engine. About all that 

remained of the 1979 cars was the rear bulkhead of the 

monocoque and the floor pan. everything else has been 

revised mainly with the aim of saving weight, but also 

to provide an easier car to work on at races, The 1979 

layout was a bit complicated and routine work on the 

engine and transmission took too long; this facet of the 

design has been greatly improved. The oil tank is now 

between the engine and gearbox, the-rear anti-roll bar is 

a simpler layout, the exhaust tail pipes are shorter, the 

side-pods are an improved shape, the side-skirts are of 

a better design and the nosepiece and fins are improved. 

Development work in the engine department has been 

aimed at improved reliability, especially in the valve 

gear, while power output is considered to be sufficient 

for the time being. The totally rebuilt cars are some 30 kg. 

lighter than last year, and they have been renumbered 

RE20, RE21 and RE22 The previous designation of 

RS stood for Renault-Sport, the official name of the 

competition department of the Regie-Renault. They were 

always backed by the ELF fuel company, but this year 

the ties are even stronger and the cars are designated 

Renault-ELF, hence the RE numbering. 

As mentioned last month Francois Castang, the 

chief engineer, has moved on to other things and his place 

has been taken by Bernard Dudot, who was previously 

assistant chief engineer. Gerard Larrouse is still head of 

the Renault competition department, aided by Jean Sage, 

and the two drivers are still Jean-Pierre Jabouille and 

Rene Arnoux. The RE20 was out on test last November 

and before the end of the year had done considerable 

testing in Brazil and Argentina, supported to the full by 

ELF and Michelin. 

Alfa Romeo: The new V12 Alfa Romeo only 

appeared at the end of last season so no major redesigns 

were to be expected, though the rear brakes have been 

moved “outboard” onto the hubs. The major change 

within the team is sponsorship by Marlboro and a 

change of colour from Alfa red to the garish white and 

day-glo red/orange of Marlboro. Patrick Depailler is the 

number one driver, though his fitness is in some doubt 

still, and he is backed up by Bruno Giacomelli. A test and 

development programme is being carried out on Alfa 

Romeo’s private track at Balocco and Vittorio Brambilla is 

doing all the experimental driving. Carlo Chili is at work 

on two variations on the 1.5-litre turbo-charged theme, 

one a V6 and the other a V8, the former being literally 

half the existing V12. The new car is being designed to 

take cither a turbo-charged 1.5-litre or the existing V12, 

and Alfa Romeo say it is their intention to run three cars 

in some of the European events. 

Williams: As mentioned elsewhere in this issue the 

Williams team are starting 1980 with B-versions of the 

successful FW07 cars and at the time of writing it seems 

pretty certain that Carlos Reutemann will be Alan Jones’ 

partner on the driving side, otherwise there are no major 

changes. 

Ensign: Morris Nunn and his one-car team look to 

be starting 1980 in better condition than ever before. The 

team now has the financial backing of Unipart. This is 

the highly successful branch of British Leyland that deals 

in replacement and service components for nearly all the 

cars in the world, not only BL cars, with the exception of 

those from East Germany. Unipart has been supporting 

the sport for a few years now, first with a rally car and 

then with a Formula Three team. Now they are stepping 

up into Formula One by backing the Ensign team and to 

justify the support Morris Nunn has assembled a strong 

team with “Clay” Regazzoni to do the driving. Ralph 

Bellamy on design, Nigel Bennett (from Lotus’) as chief 

engineer and Rod Campbell as team-manager. All the 

old Ensign cars have been thrown out and a brand new 

car has been built around the inevitable Cosworth DFV- 

Hewland gearbox package, with the accent on simplicity 

and lightness, taking a leaf from Patrick Head’s book. This 

new cur is Type N180 and follows on in the MN series. 

The first new one is due to appear in Argentina, where 

it will carry the red, white and blue colours of Unipart. 

By the time the European season begins Regazzoni will 

have three cars available, one to race, a spare car and one 

at the factory being prepared for the next race. The workforce 

at Ensign has almost trebled and plans are going 

ahead to move into a new and larger factory unit. 

Most of the other teams have been out testing 

revised versions of their 1979 cars or new drivers, or 

trying experimental innovations and it all suggests that 

1980 will be at least as busy as 1979. The permanent racing 

numbers have been altered slightly. Ferrari moving up 

to 1 and 2, while Lotus become 11 and 12. Some of the

driver line-up is still unsettled at the time of writing but 

it looks like this: 

Ferrari — Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve 

Tyrrell — Jean-Pierre Jarier, Derek Daly 

Brabham — Nelson Piquet, Ricardo Zunnino 

McLaren — John Watson, Alain Prost 

Lotus — Mario Andretti, Elio de Angelis 

Renault — Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Rene Arnoux 

Ligier — Jacques Laffile, Didier Pironi 

Alfa Romeo — Patrick Depailler, Bruno Giacomelli 

Fittipaldi — Emerson Fittipaldi, Keijo Rosberg 

Williams — Alan Jones, Carlos Reutemann 

Ensign — Gianclaudio Regazzoni 

On January I3th everything should be settled so 

next month we can tell you in more detail who drives 

what, paid for by whom and what colour everything is. 

The scene is a little late this year. 

Correction 

(from the Oh Dear! department) 

I WAS so busy making sure that the Saudi Arabian 

names in the article on Frank Williams sponsors were 

spelt correctly last month that I had a mental block on 

the simple matter of the Williams car type numbers. I 

wrote in glowing terms about the first Saudia-backed car 

being the FW07, when it should have been the FW06, and 

then went on to talk about the very successful FW08 in 

1979. This no doubt made Patrick scratch his head, for 

he has not completed the design of FW08 yet, let alone 

built one. I should, of course, have been referring to the 

FW07. What I did get right was the fact that the team 

is starting 1980 with B-versions of the FW07, improved 

as regards suspension, monocoque construction and 

general efficiency of detail design. The 1979 cars have 

been taken apart, the monocoques unriveted and new 

cars built up around the bare bones of the FW07 series. 

An all-new FW08 should appear later in the season. 

To re-cap, the first Saudia-backed Patrick Head 

design was the FW06 which raced throughout 1978 and 

the early part of 1979 and this was followed by the FW07 

which notched-up five Grand Prix wins and these cars 

have now become FW07B. Apologies all round. — D.S.J. 

PORSCHE’S 

INDIANAPOLIS PLANS 

PORSCHE are to return to single-seater racing this season 

tor the first time since 1964, with a programme aimed 

specifically at the Indianapolis 500, but taking in too the 

entire USAC calendar of at least 10 races. They will field 

one car and one driver, the Hawaian Danny Ongais. 

The historic revelation came as the Indy car was 

wheeled on to the stage at the Stuttgart Hilton last month, 

prior to the presentation of the 1979 Porsche Cup. It is not 

an entirely new car, it is not an entirely Porsche car, but 

it marks the start of a long-term project which Porsche 

hope will reach a successful peak in 1982. 

The project is being run in conjunction with Ted 

Field’s Interscope team, from Santa Anna, and the 

first Interscope Porsche as shown to us in Stuttgart 

was built around a 1979 Parnelli P6B, a five-year-old 

design which stemmed from the Lotus 72. It is powered 

by a development of the turbocharged, flat-six, fouroverhead-camshaft. 

Porsche 935 engine reduced in size to 

2,649.5 c.c. (92.3 mm. x 66 mm.) to comply with the 2.650 

c.c. limit on the USAC engine alternative chosen. Only 

one turbocharger is permitted instead of the two run on 

935s, this KKK unit with Garrett Air-Research wastegate 

boosting at the regulation maximum of 60” of mercury 

(14.5 p.s.i.). The compression ratio is 9:1 and the power 

output is quoted as 630 b.h.p. at 9.000 r.p.m. and 412 lb. 

ft. of torque at 6,400 r.p.m. It drives through a Porsche 

four-speed gearbox with dog engagement. As this flat-six 

cannot be used as a stressed member, a tubular subframe 

has been built on to the Parnelli monocoque to carry the 

engine and suspension. Suspension is conventional, with 

front and rear anti-roll bars adjustable from the cockpit. 

Porsche’s Manfred Jantke revealed that the Parnelli 

is very much an interim, development chassis and 

that a brand-new chassis, designed jointly by Porsche 

and Interscope and built in Santa Anna, will hopefully 

make us debut in time for the Indianapolis 500 in May. 

It all goes well, two cars will be run in the 1981 season. 

Helmut Flegl. designer of the 928 chassis, is in charge 

of the project for Porsche, working in conjunction With 

Interscope’s Chapman, while engine development at 

Weissach is the responsibility of Valentin Schaffer. the 

engineer who developed the 935 engine. 

The lnterscope-Porsche appeared at Stuttgart with 

no sign of sponsorship and Jantke claimed that there was 

no truth at the moment in the rumour that Martini or 

Essex would enter USAC with Porsche: “Sponsorship 

is still open. We could go it alone but would like some 

financial balance.” 

Two initial shakedown tests of the lndy car have 

been made by Ongais at the Ontario circuit in California 

one at the end of October, the other just four days before 

the Press Conference. 

Porsche had planned to enter the American series 

before the split between the USAC and CART factions. 

“We had completed development for the then current 

high-boost pressure regulations — the engine was giving 

about 900 b.h.p — before the split, but because of the 

split we decided to hold fire and have lost two years,”

said Jantke. The two organising clubs are still at daggers 

drawn, but Porsehe chose the USAC route to guarantee an 

entry at Indianapolis Jantke said it would not be feasible 

to contest both the USAC and CART series because 

differences in the boost pressures (CART’S is higher) and 

the use of movable skirts by CART would call for two 

distinct engine and chassis development exercises 

The Interscope Porsche uses fixed skirts in a broad 

vee below the monocoque, but it is not a full ground 

effect car. Improved ground effect with the fixed skirts 

will be gamed in the new chassis by moving the engine 

higher and further forward in the chassis and moving the 

driver further towards the nose. Air flow over the engine 

is adequate enough to make intercoolers and the familiar 

Porsche fan unnecessary, but the Indy engine follows the 

935 design of water-cooled cylinder heads, with radiators 

mounted in the sidepods 

Power outputs are much of a muchness in USAC, 

where the Cosworth DFX is prolific, but Porsche 

are hoping tor an advantage in reliability and fuel 

consumption USAC rules enforce a maximum fuel 

tank size of 40 US gallons (151.2 litres) and include a 

consumption formula of a maximum of 1.8 US gallons 

per mile. The fuel is pure methanol. 

Porsche will eschew their long-running Dunlop 

connection for the USAC series to make use of Goodyear’s 

ready-developed tyres and experience. 

Barbour to contest the IMSA series in a 935. But he may 

have to commute regularly to Europe to drive a Kremer 

935 in the World Championship of Makes, it current 

discussions reach a successful conclusion. — C.R. 

Le Mans with 924s 

AFTER dominating with the 935 and Porsche 936 Porsche 

will restrict their European racing activities in this first 

year in the decade to engineering development ready 

for the new Appendix J regulations forecast for 1982. To 

this end, the factory will enter a three-car team of 2-litre, 

turbocharged 924 Carrera GTs in the GT prototype class 

in the Le Mans 24 hour race These will be based on the 

prototype racing car shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show 

A production road car version is planned for release next 

August. 

Porsche hope for a class win with the cars, Porsche’s 

first, front-engined works racing cars, which will run on 

Dunlop tyres, with drivers still undecided. The fight for 

fifth Porsehe outright win at Le Mans will be left to the 

host of privately-entered 935s. 

Sponsorship for the factory cars at Le Mans is 

undecided. “We are moving into a new generation of 

Porsches in racing and would like more Porsche identity 

for marketing purposes.” Jantke told us over dinner. “So 

although we are still very friendly with Martini we might 

not tie up with Martini for Le Mans.” he said, adding. 

“Martini were very upset by the Lotus business and by 

their Formula One experience in general.” 

No more 935s will be built by the factory which 

has put a premium on the existing cars, still the most 

competitive weapon tor the World Championship of 

Makes and the American IMSA series. “I thought about 

buying the Georg Loos 935 I had my three wins in this 

year.” John Fitzpatrick told us on the flight back from 

Stuttgart, “but when Porsche announced they weren’t 

going to make any more, the price went up another 

100,000 DM!” 

The popular “Fitz” is moving house from Solihull 

to San Diego in the New Year and has signed with Dick

HISTORIC RACING CARS 

LAST MONTH in our article on historic racing we 

suggested that some of the cars taking part had rather 

dubious ancestry or little of the original car now left. 

The ravages of continual racing arc such that many of 

the cars built in the nineteen fifties have become used 

up. The quality of the metals used and the standards 

of workmanship were often far removed from the toolroom 

with the result that they have not withstood the 

test of time. Some cars are entirely as they were made 

by the parent factory, but others have gone through the 

“famous axe” syndrome, of “six new heads and six new 

handles ... but it is still the original axe.” As Michael 

Bowler says in his letter on page 70 “. . . cars should have 

a continuous line of history. . .” It is when cars disappear 

or are broken up and then resurrected that ancestry 

becomes dubious. The two P23 BRM single-seaters that 

are racing are examples of total resurrection from the 

dead. When BRM went over to rear-engined cars they 

chopped up all the front-engined cars, except one, which 

is still retained by the Owen Organisation, and used the 

engines and sundry parts to build the rear-engined P48 

cars. When Tom Wheatcroft decided to resurrect the 

front-engined BRMs he acquired the rear-engined cars, 

or their remains, salvaged the engines and odd bits and 

pieces and reconstructed three of the front-engined P25 

models. The first was 2510 which had destroyed itself in 

the monumental crash at Avus in 1959. A new chassis 

frame and body were made and as many original parts 

were used as possible; the resultant car on show in the 

Donington Collection is a total resurrection of a car that 

was crashed and never rebuilt by the factory. While 

making one-new frame and body Wheatcroft decided to 

make-two more and from the rear-engined cars’ remains 

he salvaged enough to resurrect two more cars, though 

nobody at BRM could say exactly how the original 

cars had been used up in the development of the rearengined 

cars. One of this pair is raced by Neil Corner lor 

the Donington Collection and it has been kept going by 

cannibalising the other two cars for spare parts. 

Some of the people at BRM scathingly referred to 

the Wheatcroft chassis (tames as “electric-light conduit 

specials” mainly because they were not made at the BRM 

factory. A fourth chassis was made for a man with a 4 

cylinder BRM engine and some bits and pieces. These 

were built up into the car that Lamplough races. The 

only truly original P25 BRM is the one which is kept by 

the Owen Organisation, assumed to be the car that won 

the Dutch GP in 1959. 

The story of these BRM cars is typical of many 

cars built in the period 1950-1960 and many Cooper- 

Bristols, B-type Connaughts, Maseratis and Ferraris 

went through this form of metamorphosis. Sometimes 

a car’s history can be traced almost day by day, even 

though it may-have undergone changes to all the major 

components, others disappear and are never changed, 

while many pass into oblivion to reappear many years 

later apparently totally resurrected. For sale in the Trade 

at the moment is a 1952 Osca 2-litre Formula Two car 

which has led such a sheltered life that it could almost 

claim to still have the original air in the tyres. It was raced 

in 1953 by Elie Bayol and then put away when the Grand 

Prix Formula changed in 1954. It remained unused and 

untouched until it was discovered in about 1972 and all 

it needed was a complete strip and clean up. It has barely 

run since then and really is the genuine Osca No 2001. 

In complete contrast are some of the Cooper-Bristols 

that were contemporary with this Osca. One particular 

one was converted into a 2-seater sports car, when its 

useful Formula Two life was finished and it was raced 

quite successfully in club-racing until it was more or less 

“used-up”. Another Cooper-Bristol owner bought it as a 

useful source of spare parts and eventually all that was 

left of the original car were a few bits and pieces in a box. 

Recently these bits and pieces were retrieved from the 

box and formed the nucleus for a total resurrection and 

the Cooper-Bristol that now stands on modern wheels 

and tyres is not even a good replica of the original car. 

Another one ended its useful life having the back of the 

chassis cut off and the front part welded into a hill-climb 

special. When this was resurrected into a Cooper-Bristol 

a new rear end was made, another engine and gearbox 

acquired, sundry bits were made and the end result is a 

passable reconstruction of the original car. 

Roderick Macpherson has been in touch with us 

to point out that his number one Cooper-Bristol, which 

he unfortunately crashed rather badly last August, has 

a very continuous history which stamps it as the Mark 

2 car that Ken Wharton drove in 1953, or at least many 

parts of that car. After being raced by Wharton it passed 

to Anthony Crook Motors, where it lay with a blown-up 

engine. In 1955 it went to Australia and led an active life 

fitted with first a Holden engine and then a V8 Chevrolet 

engine. In 1966 it came back to England, less its engine 

and a Bristol engine was installed by the new owner 

Stephen Curtis. It was all rebuilt back to 1953 standard 

as far as possible, though it used a Bristol gearbox and 

not an ENV preselector gearbox as it had in Wharton’s 

day. The original Cooper cast-alloy wheels were no 

longer safe (old age and metal fatigue) so were replaced 

by modern alloy wheels as the original patterns for the 

Cooper wheels had been destroyed. It was raced in 

historic events by Curtis and in 1973 passed to Robert 

Cooper (no relation to the car builders) who raced it in 

VSCC events. In 1976 Macpherson bought it and raced 

it continuously until his accident at Donington Park last 

year, but it is now being rebuilt. 

This would appear to be a good example of a car 

that has had many parts changed throughout its life, but 

the continuous thread has not. been broken. It is not the 

actual car that Ken Wharton raced but is ostensibly the 

same one; the “six new heads and six new handles on the 

axe” syndrome, unlike the Osca mentioned earlier which 

really is “the original axe”. Another car that has gone 

through the “new heads and handles” syndrome, due to 

being raced regularly and thus worn-out and used-up. is 

the DBR4 Aston Martin that Richard Bond drives so well 

for Geoffrey Marsh. Fundamentally this is one of the 1959 

works Grand Prix Aston Marlins, but all that is left of 

the original car is the gearbox/final drive unit, the lower 

part of the chassis, the rev-counter, the radiator and the 

odd bracket or clip. The ravages of time and wear-andtear 

have caused everything else to be renewed and it has 

been using a 3-litre Aston Martin engine from one of the

works DBR1 sports cars, and at other times a production 

3-litre engine. A car with a history, but hardly an historic 

car in the true sense of the term. 

The problems and controversies within the historic 

car scene are many and fascinating and very interesting, 

as long as we do not take it all too seriously. A couple 

of years ago there was an historic car race following 

the British GP and in the paddock the atmosphere was 

very serious and tense, there being quite a needlematch 

between the front-runners, while competition in 

the various classes was very strong. Everyone thrashed 

round and drove their hearts out, using their historic 

machinery to the full and the atmosphere and excitement 

in the pits was as tense as during the Grand Prix. Later 

I met a friend who had been spectating on the outside 

at Copse Corner, in the public enclosure and he said 

“I enjoyed the Grand Prix, and stayed on afterwards 

for that old car parade; that was good too.” I made no 

comment! — D.S.J. 

New Exhibits for the 

Donington Collection 

TWO more interesting Grand Prix cars have found their 

way into the Donington Collection of Single-Seater 

Racing Cars. Motor Racing Developments Ltd. have 

loaned the controversial Brabham “fan-car”, BT46/6B, in 

which Niki Lauda won the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, the 

cars’ (there were two of them — Watson drove BT46/4B) 

only race before the suction fan was banned. The flattwelve 

Alfa Romeo-engined Lauda car is the only one of 

the pair to survive in “fan-car” form. 

Walter Wolf has loaned Wolf WR1, in which 

Scheckter scored a first time out victory in the 1977 

Brazilian Grand Prix, gave the Cosworth DFV its century 

with a win in the Monaco Grand Prix and later in the 

same year won the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport. 

DRIVING DOWN-UNDER 

In which J.W. concludes his experiences 

of motor racing and motoring 

in Australia 

THE motorway has not come into wide use yet. They 

drive with right-hand steering and kilometres. The 

overall limit is likely to be no higher than 62 m.p.h., or 

just over 75 on the motorway, but each state makes its 

own laws. The road signs are green and white, just the 

same as America on main trunk roads. The police use 

either radar or other speed entrapment devices widely. 

The police cars have Highway Patrol badging and arc 

usually large American style barges from Ford. 

Those are just some of the impressions that I 

brought back with me, but the overwhelming one was 

of the number of dirt roads. The day after the Bathurst 

race I went up to the home of Gabriel Szatmary, 

publisher of weekly newspaper called Motoring 

Reporter, which was up in the old gold mining town of 

Hill End. A mischievous lady guide decided that if the 

men were so keen to drive on dirt roads she would lay 

on the real thing . . . The result was hours of travel along 

roads equivalent to dry Welsh and Scottish stages on 

home international rallies. Quite the best hours of my 

trip, though I did feel for the slightly modified Holden 

Isuzu Gemini coupe that I pounded along at speeds 

up to 80 m.p.h. Especially when we encountered a 

drainage ditch and flew for several hundred feet. It was 

the only time my co-host lor the trip, and Gemini owner 

Mark Fogarty, looked even slightly apprehensive. Then 

it was because his flat-mate was pounding along in a 

Commodore, somewhere within the choking clouds 

of sandy dust swirling behind us. On the way back I 

further brushed up my technique cruising at 60-70 

m.p.h. along broader dirt roads in the comfortable 

Commodore, a machine developed by German Opel 

engineers in association with the Australians around 

a Record passenger cockpit and Senator front end. I 

was astonished at the damping refinement they have 

managed to build in, my passenger smoking a cigarette 

and stubbing it out accurately while we wrestled 

through a series of ess-bends using all the steering lock 

provided. 

That Commodore was a 3.3-litre straight six 

automatic, but I also drove a version powered by the 

4.2-litre V8 and a 5.7 version. These are Australian 

engineered developments of the Chevrolet ilk and few. 

if any, parts are interchangeable. The six was the type 

of tough engine you can imagine farmers using, the 

4.2 was a nicely balanced pleasure to drive and the 5.7 

quire a tyre smoking character, though very nose-heavy 

when pointed at wet corners in a hurry. It would “nod its 

nose” in worried manner until a firm foot on the throttle 

solved the understeer and supplied as much tail-happy 

motoring as a budding Makinen could require. 

I drove the bigger engined, manual four-speed 

example, well over 1,000 miles and enjoyed them all at a 

steady 15.5 m.p.g. with speeds indicated up to 124 m.p.h. 

Some estate car!

I also covered 300 miles or so in a Ford Fairlane 5.8, 

this 14.4 m.p.g. machine also equipped with four-wheel 

disc brakes and power steering. However this Ford 

really represents an amazingly successful combination 

of American comforts associated with sheer size and 

handling braking abilities that can easily be judged by 

European standards on first acquaintance. 

Neither of these big V8 cars was that fast in outright 

terms, the 5.8-litre Ford covering the standing quartermile 

in 17 seconds with a three-speed automatic, a little 

slower than a 2-litre RS Escort. However their big engines 

do confer instant passing ability on the often miserably 

crowded two-lane roads that are normal tare. 

So far as sales go in Australia at the moment, 

GM lead Ford (both American owned companies 

have made losses in the past couple of years: strikes 

and new model investment are blamed) with Toyota 

third. To avoid swingeing import duties (57%) every 

leading manufacturer has local assembly plants, odd 

bedmates appearing in the cause of scale economies 

in a market capable of absorbing around half a million 

vehicles a year. 

I am deeply sorry to say that the least impressive 

vehicle I drove in respect of bangs and breaks over 

Australian roads was the Rover 3500, which is currently 

very popular in the executive class — a category led by 

Ford with the Falcon/Fairlane, while GM tend to lead 

in the expanding smaller categories. Another threat 

that has materialised to Rover is the Japanese off road 

competition from Toyota for the Land Rover. I was 

bluntly told by one country man that the Toyota was not 

only cheaper, but also now improved to the point where 

it was better for the job. I was not able to judge the truth 

of this, but there are certainly a lot more Toyota off road 

vehicles around than Land Rovers and Range Rovers put 

together. 

Prices? The Fairlane cost about £6,000 complete 

with air conditioning, electric windows and all the other 

things, except an i.r.s. rear end (it is creakily leaf-sprung) 

that a European Granada buyer would expect for £8,000 

plus. Other prices 1 checked at random were the Alfetta 

2000L. at approximately £6,000 too, while a Volvo 244GL 

starts at £5,250 for a four-speed manual. 

Lots of vehicles are missing from the World’s 

offerings of course, principally the front drive machines. 

There is a prejudice against the layout, coupled to the 

fact that it would cost so much to import the transaxles 

— and it is not really worth tooling up for the needs of 

f.w.d. for Australian sales. GM are currently arguing 

with the government over this, trying to trade off exports 

(which are almost non-existent at the moment because of 

Australian labour rates) against imports at a reduced duty. 

Leyland used to be represented by a large-scale 

manufacturing plant producing specialist six, eight, and 

four cylinder cars for the market, but that is now history, 

along with the Mini. 

From a strictly motorist’s viewpoint I enjoyed the 

price of petrol, the chance to drive some interesting 

bigger engined cars and the dirt roads. I didn’t much like 

the worry of police action (Super Snooper radar detection 

is vital and effective) or the normal main road driving. A 

fine country for the enthusiast of saloon car racing, but 

even better rallying country. — J.W. 

VETERAN EDWARDIAN 

VINTAGE 

Star Story 

A SECTION DEVOTED TO 

OLD-CAR MATTERS 

AT THE suggestion of Jeremy Collins, whose 1921 11.9 

h.p. Star Scorpio two-seater is a well-known performer 

in VSCC Light Car Section and other events (it now 

belongs to his wife), 1 went with him to “talk-Star” with 

Mr. Wallace Marsh, who was a premium apprentice at 

the Star Motor Company in Wolverhampton from 1910 

to 1914, and who keeps another well-known Star, his 

1908 12 h.p. two-seater single-phaeton, at his house in 

Chipping Campden. 

Collins became interested in Star affairs when 

he was serving with the RAF in Cyprus, where Stafftransport 

was provided by an old Star Fourteen. After 

the war he kept an eye open for such a car and in 1958 

found the Scorpio in Darlington and purchased it for 

a pound (yes, £1). He began using this little car. after 

he had resuscitated it, in VSCC events and in 1965 he 

acquired the ex-Michael McEvoy Zoller-supercharged 

Star, which he is still in process of rebuilding. Then, in 

1974. On a used-car lot, he came upon the 1931 18 h.p. 

Star Comet Sports saloon which he has used since as 

practical transport, to supplement his big-mileage Lancia 

Fulvia S2 which he purchased as a new car direct from 

the Turin factory in 1972 — but that is another story. 

The 18/50 Star Comet was in original condition 

and paintwork, with all its correct equipment, and after 

acquiring it Collins found a spare engine and gearbox for 

it in Colchester, from a similar car in which the owner 

had installed a diesel engine. He has since found yet 

another spare engine. 

Appropriately, it was in this Star Comet that I set 

out from Abingdon to meet Mr. Marsh, accompanied by 

Mrs. Pat Lacy, who married one of the many sons of Mr. 

Edward Lisle, founder of the Star Company. The history 

of this particular Comet is rather interesting. The Star 

Motor Company had been taken over by Sydney Guy 

in 1928 and by March 1932 it was in financial trouble, 

with a Receiver appointed. It was then that this Comet 

was supplied to Mr. Broadhurst, an Aldershot coalmerchant. 

He had originally ordered a Little Comet, 

which order had been taken by Sydney Guy himself, 

early in September 1931. This was changed to the 18 h.p. 

Comet in November 1931, offered to Mr. Broadhurst 

for £310 nett, whereas a new Comet was priced at £495 

— perhaps one of the reasons why Star folded was the 

modest prices asked for their high-quality cars. The order 

number rallied with the car number — D970 — and the 

Comet did not reach its purchaser until March 18th, 1932, 

after the Receiver had been appointed. Which suggests 

that it “came out of the factory by way of the back door”. 

The Broadhurst family used the car continuously 

for some 149,000 miles but after the war it went into a

eaker’s yard, but was given a reprieve and was then 

discovered in a barn with a seized engine by Melvin 

Jones of Wallingford, who got it going and used it for 

appearances in Television advertisements, etc. Collins 

saw it at a local garage and a second rescue operation 

was put in hand. . . . When new the Comet would do 

some 70 m.p.h., and 57 m.p.h. in third gear. Today, in 

deference to its age, one changes quickly from 2nd into 

3rd. and on into top, to cruise at about 40 m.p.h. — I 

was somewhat surprised the car wasn’t faster — when 

Collins gets about 18 m.p.g. The Star-built four-door 

saloon body offers great comfort, with a useful boot 

behind. All the doors arc front-hinged and the driver’s 

possesses an ingenious window, the lower pane of which 

can be pushed up easily if a hand-signal has to be given. 

The leather upholstery and wood fillets look almost new 

and provide a vintage aura, although the dashboard 

has a later connotation, with all the instruments in one 

central panel, with the speedometer in the middle and 

a vertical tube-type petrol-gauge below the detachable 

ignition-key. Small, oblong-dial gauges for dynamocharge 

(5 amps.), and oil-pressure (20 lb./sq. in.) flanking 

the big dial. The car’s equipment is generous indeed — 

built-in hydraulic jacks, automatic chassis lubrication, a 

sun-roof, picnic-tables in the backs of the separate front 

seats, smokers’ companions in the parlour, stowage for 

six spare sparking-plugs beneath the bonnet, together 

with an inspection-lead-light, a tinted sun-vizor over the 

openable windscreen, a reserve fuel-tap by the driver’s 

right leg, a cigar-lighter, a starting handle under the 

dumb-iron apron — all original and working. The sixcylinder 

69 x 110 mm., 2,470 c.c. push-rod o.h.v. engine 

idles very slowly and quietly, like that of a 1930 Sunbeam 

Sixteen I used to drive. It has a big SU carburetter on the 

n/s. A weakness lies in the water-pump, from which 

the tandem dynamo and magneto are driven; it tends, 

apparently, to dribble into the sump. The gearbox on this 

Comet does not have a “silent-third”, you change gears 

with a long r.h. lever working in an open gate arranged 

as on a vintage Vauxhall with the lower gears outboard 

of 3rd and top. There is a r.h. brake lever, quite short and 

very well placed, so that it is easily located yet does not 

rush up one’s trousers-leg when entering the car. The 

brakes are the notorious Bendix-Perrot type, but with 

a fair prod they are quite powerful, without pulling to 

one side. The moulded centre of the large wheel which 

controls light steering carries the hand-throttle and 

ignition advance-and-retard stubs. 

It was in this interesting car, sighting over the 

long, shouldered bonnet, past a big mascot and a sixpointed 

star on the scuttle, that I drove off to meet Mr. 

Wallace Marsh. The history of the Star Motor Company 

is fairly well documented, so what follows is more in the 

nature of items extracted from our conversation than a 

condensed history’ of this British motor manufacturer, 

who started to make autocars in 1898, the first Star 

looking somewhat like a Benz of the period, as did other 

pioneer makes. Actually, it had all started much earlier 

than that, when Edward Lisle, aided by a mechanic 

called Sharratt, made velocipedes. These bicycles were 

based on the French machines of the time and a book 

published in 1869 spoke very well of them. At that 

period Mr. Lisle was offering a tricycle intended for rural 

postmen for as little as 35/-, when normal velocipedes 

cost from about £8 to £20 and more. 

Apparently no-one at the Star car factory had much 

knowledge of engineering, apart from the designers, but 

high standards were set and maintained under Edward 

Lisle. These designers included Cecil Cathie - he was 

also a Director who looked after the sales-side of the 

Company, and who taught Joe Lisle to hunt. Another 

was F. A. S. Acres, and J. A. Irving came in to develop the 

Comet engine. Star cars were sold under various other 

names along the years. For instance, Charles Friswell 

used to take delivery of them before the 1914/18 war sans 

the famous star badge and sell them as the Knight of the 

Road, and there were the Thistle? Starling and Stewart, 

and Edward Lisle, junr. was allowed to make the Little 

Briton, which was really a simplified Star, and might 

have beaten William Morris to light car sales-successes. 

In pre-WWl days the Company turned out perhaps 14 or 

15 cars in a good week, laying off workers when times 

were bad. It had its own foundry, but the larger alloy 

castings were supplied by outside firms, down to the 

end of car-production. It was left to the Chargehands to 

run the different departments of the works, as distinct 

from appointing Foremen for this purpose. The enginebuilding 

shop had long rows of individual bays, where 

four or five men would assemble the engines. There was 

a well-equipped machine-shop, with Tommy Haines in 

charge. A Mr. Graham looked after the body-shop, Mrs. 

Richards was the Company Secretary, and F. R. Goodwin 

managed the London depot in St. Martin’s Lane. In this 

not over-large, scattered factory two operatives, Billy 

Down and his mate Charlie, would be seen walking 

slowly one behind the other, carrying a ladder; their task 

was to lubricate the overhead-shafting that carried the 

pulleys for the belt-driven machine-tools. There is the 

delightful story of how, one day, Edward Lisle was in 

the factory, checking up on things, in his gruff voice that 

made even the most conscientious employee jump to 

attention when addressed. Seeing the two men walking 

slowing past, one behind the other, Lisle said to Billy 

“What are you doing?” “Taking a ladder to oil the shafts, 

sir”, came the timid reply, to be followed by the voice 

of Billy’s mate, standing some few feet behind, saying: 

“We’ve forgotten the b***** ladder!” One can imagine the 

scene; yet old Edward Lisle, the perfectionist, treated his 

workers to free coal and free turkeys every Christmas. 

Incidentally, when he was told that the belfry of St. Luke’s 

church in Wolverhampton lacked a clock he supplied 

both clock and bells — which continue to function to this 

day, I believe. 

The Star made a name for sound design and good 

workmanship. When the RAC opened a driving school 

before WW1 it ordered Stars for the pupils to do their 

worst on. In places such as Australia, New Zealand 

and South Africa, where the going was hard, Stars sold 

well, and after the war authoress, Mrs. Diana Strickland, 

drove her 14 30 Star tourer “Star of the Desert” the 6,000 

miles from Dakar to Khartoum with a notable absence of 

trouble. Star entered cars for the 1903 and 1905 Gordon 

Bennett races, one of the latter racing cars having recendy 

been restored to running order for Nick Ridley of the 

VCC. Stars were also raced at Brooklands and elsewhere 

with considerable success. Mr. Marsh recalled Cathie

dressing his hair with a horrid mixture of starch, water 

and perfume so as to drive at Brooklands bare-headed. 

Members of the Lisle family also competed, Joe Lisle, the 

General Manager of the Company, crashing one of the 

two huge 1905 GB cars when testing it at Wergs Road, in 

Wolverhampton, and later driving a special 20.1 h.p. Star 

at Brooklands, and Dick Lisle, whose normal duties were 

covering sales in the North of England and in Scotland, 

ran a 1912 4.3-litre Star called “The Comet” at the Track. 

Mr. Marsh recalls it as unsuccessful; its best lap seems 

to have been at 65.61 m.p.h. It had a streamlined body 

with slab-tail and two external exhaust pipes merging 

into a cylindrical silencer. However, that year Dick Lisle 

put the class 12-hour record to 66.82 m.p.h. and in 1913 

the same driver again successfully took long-distance 

records, with a bigger Star. Stars had also run in the 1906 

and 1907 TT races, without distinction. 

The Company nevertheless entered two cars for 

the 1914 TT race in the IoM. Although, in Mr. Marsh’s 

opinion, Star cars had suffered all along the years from 

restricted breathing, due to poorly-designed induction 

manifolds, in the TT cars an effort was made to improve 

matters. The cars were bright red four-cylinder sidevalve 

two-seaters of 90 x 129.5 mm. (3,308 c.c.), which 

their designer, C. Cathie from Sunbeam’s (he was killed 

in the war), had endowed with large tulip-shaped 

valves and curious hoop-shaped inlet-piping. It was 

deemed desirable to cool these big valves by fitting 

water-cooled valve-caps above them, rubber rings 

sealing these at the base. Star I was driven in the twoday 

contest by Dick Lisle, with Wally Marsh riding 

with him, and Star II was driven by R. F. L. (“Tiny”) 

Crossman. A Heenan & Froude fan brake was installed 

in the test-shop specially to test these racing engines, as 

up to then the Star Company had no such equipment, 

although they retained it afterwards. On one occasion 

the arms and fan of this brake carried away and went 

through the test-shop roof, narrowly missing one of the 

Lisles and flying across Frederick Street, a bolt falling 

through the roof of the body-shop and damaging 

the bonnet of a brand-new car, to the disgust of Mr. 

Graham! The missing arms, etc. mysteriously vanished, 

being found years later in one of the test-shop overhead 

water-supply tanks. . . . 

In the race Star II suffered from leaks at the valvecap 

joints and soon retired. Dick Lisle was going well 

in Star I on the first day. However he had been delayed 

by a slipping cone clutch, cured by jamming bits of twig 

between the cones and by throwing in handfuls of earth, 

after which the clutch wouldn’t withdraw, making gearchanging 

difficult. Then there was difficulty in passing 

Burgess in the Humber on the narrow course, Lisle 

having to wait until the tarmac section down from Bray 

hill. In making up time he approached a corner by the 

golf-course too fast, and skidded into a wall, bursting 

a tyre. A garage-type jack was carried, clipped to the 

side of the car, so the tyre was quickly changed, timed 

by Julian Orde of the RAC. However, unknown to Lisle 

or Marsh, the brake gear had been damaged and when 

they came fast into the then-blind S-bend through Ballig 

Bridge, still trying to wash out the time-loss caused by 

the slipping clutch and the skid, the car touched the kerb. 

At that moment Lisle yelled that he had no brakes, telling 

Marsh to try to pull on the cables. To no avail — the Star 

went backwards into the bridge, its back axle being 

rammed under the gearbox. Both men went to a near-by 

doctor’s house, where they were well looked after. But 

by then Marsh had lost interest in the race, which was 

won by K. Lee Guinness in the Peugeot-type twin-cam 

Sunbeam. However, the Dunlop and Rudge-Whitworth 

people were able to advertise the accident, as tyres and 

wheels on the crashed Star were still intact. Apparently 

these TT Stars were tested on Brooklands and driven to 

competition venues. Lisle did well with his at the 1914 

Caerphilly speed hill-climb and also ran it at Porthcawl, 

in Wales, etc. Crossman, a Major in the Royal Marines, 

died at Antwerp during the war. . . . 

Although Mr. Marsh left Star to serve in the Army 

during the war, and later went out to India, he maintained 

his links with the Company and his faith in Star cars. In 

1922 he was told that there was a car at the works that he 

could have cheaply. It turned out to be an odd animal! 

It was a disc-wheeled 11.9 h.p. chassis with a two-seater 

body, which retained the normal chassis frame, but with 

nothing connected to the dumb-irons. This was because, 

instead of half-elliptic springs, very long cantilevers 

were used, rather as on the then-new Trojan, but in 

conjunction with Gabriel snubbers. The car — NT 2484 

— was very comfortable but lacked lateral stability, and 

Star never put the idea into production. 

Another special Star offered to Mr. Marsh at a low 

price was one of two built when Malcolm Campbell, 

who had a Star agency, wanted to race a car of this make 

at Brooklands. Outwardly a standard o.h.v. 12/40, the 

engine had ball bearings instead of plain bearings. This 

was obviously a worthwhile move, as Campbell won the 

1925 Autumn 75 m.p.h. Short Handicap at 79.5 m.p.h., 

lapping at 87.84 m.p.h. Sir Malcolm Campbell by the 

way, was driving a Bluebird-blue Star Comet sports 

saloon in 1932, at which period I believe Norman Creed 

was Star’s Public Relations man. On this special 12/40 

Mr. Marsh built a body based on that of the 1914 TT car, 

as it was simple to make. 

Mr. Marsh taught Mrs. Alex Lisle, wife of Edward 

Lisle, to drive, on a box-bodied Star test chassis. She later 

had five Scott motorcycles in succession, and used to 

take her husband about in the sidecar of one of them! 

He also remembers being with Cathie in a 1926 20/60 

Star, brand-new from the body-shop, on a steep hill near 

Llangollen which was so slippery that nothing would 

arrest the downward path of the Star except rubbing 

it along the banks beside the road — and as they thus 

progressed more and more bits of the car were torn off 

and left strewn in the road! Another recollection is that 

when HRH The Prince of Wales wanted a chauffeur one 

was sent to him from the Star Company, which may have 

been why he later used a Star tourer. 

Mr. Marsh had just put an Hispano Suiza V8 aeroengine 

into an ex-RFC Crossley tender at Farnborough 

after the war when he was posted to India and never saw 

it again. But in Kaula Lumpa he had a sports-car made 

from Overland Whippet parts and a Type 37 Bugatti, etc. 

— but that is another story. Back in England, at Hook 

on the A30 in about 1960, he found his now beautifullyrestored 

Edwardian Star in an antique emporium and 

acquired it for sentimental reasons.

We talked also of Star aeroplanes. The Company 

made two monoplanes as early as 1907, which Granville 

Bradshaw and Joe Lisle flew, from the race-course near 

Wolverhampton. The engine used was a 40 hp watercooled 

four-cylinder with a carburetter at the back, feeding 

through a very long induction-pipe. This was acquired by 

F. Ludwick Bartlett, JP, in 1910, when he was interested 

in a very odd four-wheeled 12 cwt. flying-machine with 

flapping wings of over 32 ft. span. These wings were 

driven by chains from the engine, whose propeller boss 

had been converted into a flywheel, to provide a drive. 

This machine was built by the Polysulphin Co. Ltd. of 

Brislington near Bristol and was apparently exhibited at 

the 1911 Olympia Aero Show, but I doubt whether it ever 

flew. Years later the Star aero-engine was discovered by 

Mr. Marsh during a car-rally at Henlow and it is now in 

the RAF Museum at Hendon. — W.B. 

V-E-V Miscellany.— Chris Booth, who runs that 

primarily-Morgan-three-wheeler-orientated Motor 

Museum at Rolvenden in Kent, has acquired a mysterious 

Morgan about which he seeks information. It was used 

by the late Geoff. Harris, well-known Morgan trials 

exponent, but appears to have been built specially for 

track racing, and is believed to have run in an MCC High 

Speed Trial at Brooklands, circa 1930. It has a basically 

1928/29 Super Sports chassis specially adapted to a rare 

Blackburne KMB engine dating from about 1925 (No. 

KMB 333) of which only three are reputed to have been 

modified to accept high-level exhaust pipes, as on some 

post-1930 Morgans, and the track is 2” wider than on 

a standard Super Sports. Track rod and drag-link are 

much heavier than normal, are stamped “Brico” and 

have ball joints. Newton dampers are fitted at the front, 

with a Hartford shock-absorber over the back wheel, 

the B-type bevel-box has extra strengthing webs cast 

in, the rear wheel is an M-type with internal-expanding 

brake, and the front brakes are larger than usual, having 

8” ribbed drums. There is an outside hand-brake sans 

ratchet, operating the front-wheel brakes, the fuel tank 

is air-pressure fed, the steering wheel is large and there 

is a hump over the rear wheel. It sounds something like 

a copy of the famous Harold Beart record-breaker, but 

no Reg. No. or chassis number has been found. It was 

in poor condition when rescued but is to be rebuilt. 

Information about this Morgan or any racing done by 

Geoff. Harris would be welcomed by Mr. Booth. Letters 

can be forwarded. 

It is sad to learn that Bob Peacey, who was 

contributing to our correspondence quite recently, died 

last year. He was a Bugatti enthusiast and had also worked 

with his father, the Rev. W. H. Peacey, on rotary-valve 

engines, which he patented. In addition, he prepared a 

number of motorcycles and cars for Brooklands races, 

such as Cottins and the HP three-wheeler which was 

described in MOTOR SPORT’s “Fragments on Forgotten 

Makes” series. Peacey worked at Bristol’s during the 

war, afterwards becoming a REME Captain, serving in 

Normandy. From the 1930s he had had a Riley agency, 

which was continued in Cheltenham until increasing 

paralysis forced him to discontinue this activity in the 

1950s. To the end Peacey lived in that town, never far 

from his beloved engines, and he contrived to drive 

a Citroen 2cv adapted to take a wheel-chair, which he 

would run down a slope from his house and into the 

car unaided. We understand that his 1929 Model-90 

Sunbeam with rotary-valve engine is to be presented to 

the National Motor Museum. 

Apart from requiring a quote for panel-bashing a 

new body for “Babs”, Wynn-Owen would also like to 

hear from anyone who could spin him wheel-discs for the 

car, these needing to be of 16-gauge aluminium, 24” in 

diameter. Cancelled last year due to the petrol shortage, 

the VSCC has cancelled this strenuous night trial again 

this year — it was scheduled for January 12th/13th. 

Old-time road scenes seem popular — the cover of the 

Vintage Austin Magazine, official organ of the Vintage 

Austin Register, recently depicted an Austin 16/6 

negotiating Piccadilly Circus in about 1932 (with several 

Morris cars in close company!), this being a picture from 

the archives of the London Transport Executive — see 

last month’s Book Reviews — and in the Austin Seven 

Clubs’ Association Magazine No. 1979D there was 

a double-page spread of an early Austin 7 saloon in 

Smethwick High Street, Birmingham, in June 1930, when 

that thoroughfare still had its tram-lines. Incidentally, 

this Club journal has been looking at Austin 7 dynamos, 

cut-outs and switch-panels, with useful illustrations 

and wiring diagrams. The respective secretaries of these 

two Austin organisations are: Frank Smith Marshbrook, 

Butts Road, Ashover, Derbyshire and Phil Basildon, 167, 

Groby Road, Leicester. 

The Vintage Motor Cycle Club can now claim 

more than 6,000 members. The Alvis Register Bulletin 

has come out in a new format and the October 1979 

issue contained an illustrated piece about a 12/50 Alvis 

beetleback that competed at the Craigantlet hill-climb in 

the mid-1930s before its engine and radiator were used 

for the Sullivan Special “Himmelwagen”. The last issue 

of Sphinx, the magazine of the Armstrong Siddeley OC, 

to reach us contained a fine picture of a 1926 Armstrong 

Siddeley Twenty saloon at a wedding, its Sphinx mascot 

serving to anchor the festive ribbons. Some unusual cars 

appeared on last year’s Bean CC Harvest Tour, such as 

the Hampton coupe, a Sizaire Berwick coupe”, a 1915 

Overland and a bull-nose Morris-Cowley on beadededge 

tyres. From that Club’s magazine we learn that 

several ABC motorcycles have been changing hands 

recently, with two more coming to light in Norway and 

another in Denmark, that a rare 1930s Vulcan military 

chassis is being restored in Berkshire and that an OK- 

Bradshaw with the 1920s oil-cooled 350 c.c. engine has 

been found in London and is being restored. A very 

original 20/60 Vauxhall saloon has also been discovered, 

sheeted up in a garage. — W.B.

The Wartime Diaries 

of an RFC Officer 

Continued from the Dec. 1979 issue 

BEFORE I commence another instalment of these old 

diaries I must refer to a letter received from a Mr. J. Ross 

of Brigg, in which he makes it clear that I have done our 

RFC pilot out of one type which he had flown by 1915. In 

his Log Book entries there is no distinction made between 

AW (Armstrong Whitworth)-built BE2c aeroplanes and 

FK3s built by that Company, the latter being entered 

simply as AWs, followed by the reference numbers. This 

is perhaps understandable, because the FK3 was merely 

a simplified version of the BE2c designed by Frederick 

Koolhoven. The fact remains that aeroplanes referred to 

by the numbers 5330 and 5331 in the earlier diary extracts 

were FK3 biplanes. Thus, by the end of 1915, after his 

return from brief Active Service in France, “X”, as I shall 

call this RFC pilot, had been aloft in Maurice Farman 

Shorthorn and Longhorn, BE2a, BE2e, RE8, and FK3 

aeroplanes, as well as in the Depperdusin monoplanes 

which he either owned, or had borrowed, before joining 

the RFC. I am indebted to Mr. Ross for pointing this out. 

* * * 

On sick-leave from flying, in March 1916, X was still 

working at the War Office, enjoying the social round, and 

playing about with cars. He was anxious to resume use of 

his Adler but after paying a bill of £14.15/- for repairs, to 

a person named Lagden, and sending his man Tollerton 

for it, the car wasn’t ready. So, after lunching a number 

of friends at Prince’s, X had to use Talbot’s Mercedes 

for getting about in London, which meant going to the 

Shaftesbury Theatre and then taking some “flappers” out 

to supper at the Piccadilly Hotel. The next day X went 

out to Cricklewood in person to get his Adler but it still 

wasn’t ready, and the Itala had gone round to Paddon 

Bros. However, this lack of motor cars was not allowed 

to intrude on X’s participation in the gaiety of war-time 

London. Leaving the War Office that day, X had tea at his 

flat, dined with his father at the Marlborough Club, and 

then fetched his mother and took her to a play, “which 

was rotten”, so they went on to see “My Lady Frayl” 

again, obtaining a box for half-price. Zeppelins came 

over from the East Coast (it was March 31st 1916) and 

one of them was shot down at the mouth of the Thames 

by an RFC pilot. 

After a busy morning at the “War House,” X might 

lunch at the Cavalry Club. But one Saturday he got out 

the big Itala, on its fresh set of tyres, and after a visit to his 

doctor, lunch at the Batchelors Club, and a run home via 

the Thaxted House Club, where his friend Vernon failed 

to show up, X started down in the Itala for Lennoxwood, 

with his mother, Lady X. They returned after dinner, 

having spent a day there with friends, after which there 

was time to do some more work at the War Office. Then, 

on the Sunday, Tollerton first brought round the Itala and 

then went and fetched Trevors in the Mercedes and, after 

Archie de Pass had been picked up, the party lunched at 

Prince’s, before driving down to “Lennoxwood”. All X’s 

family were there and after dinner he started back with 

Trevors, staying with Col. Trevors until 12.30, “awaiting 

the Zepps”. (Whether this was out of excitement, or 

refers perhaps to a plotting task X did at the War Office, 

I do not know.) 

There was apparently much to occupy X at his office 

at this time (April, 1916). Pat Pigott “reported himself”, 

and, the diary says, X, “got office in order and Jenkins 

moved out”. He was again on guard duty at St. James’s 

Palace. He had now got the Adler back and it would be 

sent to fetch him on mornings when he had to go to the 

War Office. On one such afternoon X drove, after lunch 

with some lady-friends at Prince’s, to Lennoxwood, 

and then on to Farnborough “in Doris Reynolds’ little 

Merk 2-seater”. Leaving after tea there, they got back to 

London at about 8.30 p.m. in lime for a stint at the WO 

and dinner at Pratts Club. In mid-week X might send his 

assistant up to Nottingham, send his girl-friends back to 

Richmond in the Mercedes, dropping off “at the garage 

to see Lt. Cleghorn about cars”, before returning to his 

office, and then, after dining at Prince’s, driving out in 

the evening to Richmond and back in a little Berliet, to 

see the Trevors. 

Early in April X went before another Medical 

Board and was given a month’s light duty, followed by 

sick leave, and they refused indefinitely to pass him for 

General Services. So all that was left was to return to 

the WO, lunch with friends at the Berkeley, and motor 

down to Brooklands, with Pigott and his brother-inlaw, 

where “old Martin” gave the latter a joy-ride in a 

Maurice Farman Shorthorn. There was a Saturday when 

Wilson Thomas lunched with X at Prince’s and they went 

in his Rolls-Royce to the Ritz, after which X went home 

to change and with a party motored out to Hendon in the 

Itala, before going to the King’s Theatre, Hammersmith, 

to see “Raffles”, and finally driving Trevors home and 

leaving the Itala at the RFC garage. 

Petrol still flowed freely, because one April Sunday, 

although the Adler was again “in dry-dock”, the Mercedes 

was used for a happy jaunt, to lunch at Slough and go on 

to Maidenhead, Bourne End and Swinley Woods, before 

taking tea at Ascot. Almost every week-day X lunched at 

one of his favourite haunts, such as “the Berkeley with 

Col. Proby, the Baron, and another old buffer”, or the 

Carlton with “Stewie, Pussy, Major and Mrs. Evans, Pike 

of the Grenadier Guards, and Geoff Hart”. One day he 

motored down to Weybridge with Capt. Dugdale in the 

Itala and saw Gordon Watney’s works and “had tea with 

Gordon Watney himself”. (It does seem as if the Itala was 

an official RFC vehicle and no doubt the Gordon Watney 

factory, where old Mercedes were formerly rebodied, 

was engaged on war work, but all these contacts no 

doubt were useful to X in his post-war racing activities). 

To celebrate that meeting with Watney X fetched Mrs. 

Pigott from the Cadogan Hotel, for dinner at Prince’s, 

before seeing “Mrs. Manhatten” at the Prince-of-Wales 

Theatre, after which Lady X took Mrs. Pigott home, 

allowing her son to dash off to the Shaftesbury Theatre. 

It is still April 1916 when we find X taking five 

Grenadier Officers by train to Brighton. They lunched 

at the Metropole, where they were met by the Itala, and 

it then took them out to Shoreham aerodrome, where

Major Read showed them round. Tea was taken at the 

aerodrome and they returned to London on the 5.45 train. 

(Could this have been a move to persuade Grenadier 

Guards’ Officers to volunteer for the RFC?) It made X 

“very tired”. 

X maintained his connection with the Mercedes 

Company, drawing £20 from them on one occasion and 

paying a £2 fee to Chamberlain (who figured in the postwar 

Brooklands scene, I think), when the Adler was 

being seen about, and a Rolls-Royce looked at. The mid- 

April Saturday saw X as best-man at Jack Mansfield’s 

wedding, after he had lunched with the bridegroom and 

his father, who was a Major in the RFC. The WO was 

used as a meeting place that afternoon and a party later 

saw “Joyland”, X then going on to Ronnie Wilson’s dance 

at the Grafton Galleries — “It was a great show. Met lots 

of old pals there. Got back about 3.30”. 

The bad weather in the spring of 1916 made X feel ill 

but he contrived to motor in the Itala to Newmarket, to stay 

at his fiancee’s house, where her father had a Studebaker, 

which X and she used for local runs. The Adler was now 

having alterations made to its radiator and the Itala began 

to give “several small troubles”, so that the run back to 

London took from 11 a.m. to about 4 p.m. (This might not 

seem too bad, over the roads of 1916 in war-time, but it 

did not satisfy X, although I expect it included time-out for 

lunch on the way.) He had been accompanied by “Olga 

and Gerald”, and after tea in London Gerald went off to 

Oxford to join the RFC and X got the Mercedes out and set 

off with Olga for Crawley, getting there at about 7.30 p.m. 

although the “car was running badly”. They put up at the 

George Hotel “which was beautifully comfortable”, and 

“messed about all the evening and Olga played the piano”. 

The Mercedes survived to run them on to Brighton on the 

Sunday for lunch at the Metropole with Pat Pigott and his 

wife (probably the former had been posted to Shoreham) 

and back to London, calling at Crawley on the way for 

their luggage. 

Although X had a “very dud cold” and was “still 

feeling very ill”, this did not prevent him from driving 

to Newmarket again in the Itala, after a Corporal had 

brought it round. They “had a glorious run there, lunching 

at the Rutland Arms Hotel”. They looked at horses, had 

tea with X’s fiancee’s parents, and left at 7 p.m. but dined 

at Saffron Walden, where they left the car and came on 

by train. (Was the Itala giving more trouble?) The theatre 

wasn’t neglected but “The Show Shop” at the Globe is 

described by X as “the rottenest show I have seen”. Work 

involved him in going down to Weybridge on duty, with 

Gordon Watney, Pat Pigott and his wife ‘after lunch, of 

course, at the Berkeley Grill-Room), in the Berliet, having 

tea in Weybridge, and then returning to the WO to see 

Col. Warner, to whom X was reporting about his WO job 

and promotion. 

At about this time he sold the Adler to Lt. Frenchville, 

RN, for £125, lunching with Frenchville at Prince’s and 

afterwards seeing about bodies for the car, and also going 

to the RFC garage to see that the Itaia’s axle had been taken 

down. There was a Saturday when X changed for dinner 

after seeing a matinee performance of “The Bing Boys Arc 

Here”, dined at Prince’s, went to a supper-dance at the 

Savoy, then “changed back into ordinary clothes and left 

for Oxford at 4.30 to 5.30, in the Berliet. Had a topping 

run and got there at 7.30 a.m.” Yet after breakfast, Mass, 

and lunch. X drove back to London the same day — “Had 

lovely run. Glorious day, had tea at flat”. 

On May 1st X went again before the medicos and 

was still passed unfit, although he would be flying 

again before the month was out. Meanwhile, I intend to 

spare you some of the repetitive social whirl in which he 

existed. One Wednesday he had gone to Newmarket by 

the 12 o’clock train, having the Berliet brought up for the 

return journey. They started this after dinner but “had 

poisonous run, and lost our way twice, and eventually 

broke down in Ware and had to leave the Berliet, and 

hired a car and got back at 4.30 in the morning.” Later 

there was a trip in the Itala to Hounslow to persuade 

Major Bradley to lend X a BE2c so that he could fly to 

Newmarket at the week-end! Capt. Anstey was seen and 

that evening X’s doctor, Dr. Swann, was dined at X’s 

home, with his mother — “Very nice little evening, and 

think Dr. Swann enjoyed himself.” Most of one day was 

spent in the garage getting the Adler fixed up but X also 

“saw O’Mally (in Col. Holt’s office) about the BE2c”. 

(To be continued) 

V-E-V Odds & Ends.—According to Lanciana, journal 

of the American Lancia Club, Vobril, a Czechoslovakian 

who left his native country in a 1923 Fiat some ten 

years ago to settle in California and make a living out 

of his skills in woodworking, has rebuilt the Vanderbilt 

Lancia Kappa, literally from baskets full of dismantled 

parts. Owen Wyn-Owen has acquired an early twocylinder 

engine with automatic inlet valves, that had 

been in a boat for many years, and wonders if anyone 

can identify it? — sec accompanying photograph. Our 

apologies to Miss Leslie Sayers who helped to repaint 

the BL Heritage Daimler featured in the November 

MOTOR SPORT but whose name, and sex, were 

incorrectly quoted in the story. Foden’s are again to 

sponsor the HCVC’s Commercial Vehicle Brighton Run 

this year. Entries apparently close on January 5th and 

a three-day rally is planned to coincide with the finish 

of the Run in Brighton. The Railton OC is continuing its 

campaign against ridiculous prices being asked for this 

make of car; its current Bulletin contains a picture of a 

Carbodies Railton tourer owned by a Swiss enthusiast. 

From Flutenews, issued monthly by the Vauxhall OC, we 

learn that a 1929 Vauxhall R20/60 tourer has come to this 

country in roadworthy order, after having spent most of 

its life in Ceylon. 

A reader has sent us an interesting invoice relating 

to a 15 h.p. Napier, No. 484, ordered in 1904 by a Miss 

Talbot of Margam Park, Port Talbot, from S. F. Edge Ltd. 

This “Napier Motor Carriage complete with four-cylinder 

engine, electrical ignition apparatus, accumulators, petrol 

tank, Napier Hydraulic Air Regulator, Inducted draught 

system of water cooling, four speeds and reverse, brakes, 

sprag, etc.”, and with a wood-and-aluminium Roi-de- 

Belge body, cost her £900, “the whole to be finished in 

the best possible manner, painted in standard Napier 

green, black mouldings and fine white lines, upholstered 

in scarlet leather, and complete with five lamps”. S. F. 

Edge offered to license the car with the London County 

Council. Incidentally, speed-trials were held at Margam 

Park after the war, I believe. — W.B.

MASERATI 250F 

IN THE November MOTOR SPORT there was an 

advertisement which read as follows:— “250F Maserati. 

Built up from original parts using engine number 2522 

and a new chassis frame. Car is in perfect condition and 

duty free in UK £57,000.” 

This naturally aroused interest as Maserati 2522 

was built by the factory in Modena in March 1956 and 

was one of the works team cars. Stirling Moss won the 

Richmond Trophy at Goodwood in it. and then won 

the 1956 Monaco GP with it. In the Belgian GP it was 

driven by Moss and Perdisa and finished 3rd. In 1957 it 

was sold to the Scuderia Centro-Sud run by Signor Dei 

and Harry Schell finished 2nd in the Pau GP with it. In 

1960 Gino Munaron drove it in the Buenos Aires City 

GP and finished 3rd and after that it disappeared amidst 

the vast collection of old Maserati cars and parts that 

gathered dust in the Centro-Sud workshops in Modena. 

Eventually Cameron Millar acquired most of this stuff 

and when he sorted it all out he re-assembled 2522 as best 

he could from what he had. It was rebuilt and sold and 

now resides in Holland, so the car in the advertisement 

could hardly be called 2522. 

It later transpired that the writer of the 

advertisement had put the wrong engine number, and 

what he meant was 2520, but this would not have helped 

much for Maserati 2520 still exists and is owned by David 

Llewellyn, though it no longer has engine number 2520 

in it. The car that is advertised is one that Cameron Millar 

built up 

from spare parts, using as a basis a chassis and body 

he had made in England. Engine, gearbox, suspensions, 

brakes etc. are all genuine Maserati 250F components 

and the cylinder head is stamped 2520, but that is all. It 

was sold to America on the understanding that it had 

no identity in the history of the 250F Maserati model, 

and indeed it does not and never will. The nearest it can 

be is a replica of a 1956 Maserati 250F and if it needs an 

identity it should be stamped CM REP 1, indicating that 

it is a Cameron Millar Replica Number 1. 

This suggests that more replica 250F Maseratis are 

being built, and indeed this is true, for at least 

three more are known to be well under way. Millar 

is building a replica of a “Piccolo” 250F, the last model 

to be made, and to avoid any confusion in the future the 

chassis carries the number CM REP 2. Lots of bits and 

pieces for Maseratis are being made, to replace worn 

and broken parts, such as engine internals, brake parts, 

drive-shafts, gears and so on, which is all legitimate to 

keep the existing cars in action, but if these spares are 

going to form the nucleus for “new” cars then it makes a 

mockery of Maserati history, denigrates the interest and 

enthusiasm for old Grand Prix cars and borders on the 

fraudulent. — D.S.J. 

BOOKS FOR THE 

NEW YEAR 

“BMW — A History” by Halwart Schrader. Translated 

by Ron Wakefield. 392 pp. 11” X 9.75”. (Osprey Publishing 

Ltd., 12-14 Long Acre, London WC2E 9LP. £24.95.) 

This is a complete BMW history, from the origins of 

the famous Bavarian Company and its entry into the 

car market following aero-engine construction, with 

copies of the British Austin Seven, to the present-day 

models, right up to the BMW 635 CSi and M1. The story 

is supported by much illustrative material; indeed, this 

large-format book contains over 1,000 illus¬trations, 

including 49 full-colour pictures. 

BMW has risen from the days of the little Dixies to 

be one of the World’s greatest makes, so it is fitting that a 

full-length history of the Company should be published. 

This one comes from the Automobile Quarterly Library, 

with an Introduction by L. Scott-Bailey of that publishing 

house, in which he refers to the Deutsches Museum in 

Munich which holds 570.000 volumes, 15,000 manuscripts 

and over 2,000 technical publications in its library, and to 

the Automobil Basar library of automobile literature in 

the same city, from which sources much help has been 

obtained. This contact with German automotive records 

led to Automobile Quarterly publishing motoring books 

by German authors and this BMW history is one of 

them, translated into English by Ron Wakefield and copublished 

here by Osprey. 

The book includes every facet of BMW, from the 

start in Bavaria with aeroplane engines in 1916 to the full 

motor-car story, embracing BMW’s highly-successful 

competition activities, and including the BMW 

motorcycles, the Wartburg story of 1899-1903, the Dixi 

era spanning the period 1903-1928, and the start of the 

BMW cars proper in 1928. In addition, derivatives of the 

make are dealt with, such as Bristol, Frazer Nash-BMW, 

EMW, Glas, and even some home-constructed cars using 

BMW components, which bring in a lew fascinating 

cyclecars. Nor is this all, because there is a section 

covering Dixi and BMW commercial vehicles, including 

the three-wheeler transports. And, of course, the Isetta 

bubble-cars are included in the appropriate place. 

In setting the early scene there are some pages 

devoted to “Europe in the Twenties”, from which we 

learn that there were 25 different makes of German 

passenger-cars on the market in 1928, including Ford, 

comprising a total of 80 different models, and that in that 

year the German Reich manufactured 117,117 passenger 

vehicles, of which about 15,000 had custom bodywork, 

and 22.900 trucks. The least-expensive car when Dixi 

was entering the private-car market was the Hanomag 

Kommissbrot, known unkindly as Army Bread”. A 

rather incongruous full-page 

picture has crept into the English edition of this 

BMW history, showing some spectators’ cars lined up 

against the rails at a horse-race meeting in this country in 

1928. Almost ail of them are open tourers and almost all 

of them have the lop-panels of their windscreens open, to 

afford a better view. The makes recognisable are P-12/15.

Fiat with two-panes to the top panel of its windscreen), 

Lea-Francis. Singer 14/40. MG, Austin Twelve, and in 

the back rows, an Armstrong Siddeley saloon, a pre-war 

Rover Twelve, a bull-nose Morris, a Calcott and what 

looks like another Fiat — unless anyone can do better! 

Reverting to BMW, which is what the book 

is all about, this is a truly detailed history of the 

Company, although some of the cars are dealt with in 

a rather “catalogue” format, but with pleasingly large 

illustrations and diagrams. Some rare photographs are 

included, one reminding us that when General Charles 

de Gaulle made his dramatic return to France in 1945 

he did so in a BMW 332 prototype saloon, and there is 

a splendid picture of Sammy Davis in the Paddock at 

Brooklands in the doorless, lightweight Frazer Nash- 

BMW 328 with which he covered over 100 miles in the 

hour on the Track, For this reviewer the book is redolent 

of happy times in BMW cars, with reminders of the Type 

45 and Type 55 Frazer Nash-BMWs he drove before the 

war. one of the latter in a memorable BOG Night Trial, 

and of the BMWs used after the war, from trying the new 

1.5-litre round the Nurburgring and realising that BMW 

had something rather special, to the BMW 2500 and 520i 

used as Editorial cars in later times. 

The Appendices in this big book cover all models 

from the Wartburg 3.4 of 1899 to the present BMWs, with 

engine sizes and power outputs, they give the structure 

of the Directorate of the Baverische Motoren Werke AG 

from 1928 onwards, and there is even a picture-page 

of BMW-powered boats, and colour reproductions of 

the different marque badges, etc. Essential study for all 

BMW converts! — W.B. 

“Ferrari” by Hans Tanner with Doug Nye. 542 pp. 11” x 

8”. (Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset, 

BA22 7JJ. £24.) 

This book is already well known as the standard reference 

work to the complex story of the great make of Ferrari, by 

the late Hans Tanner. The book first appeared in 1959 and 

went into three more editions. It has now been updated 

by Doug Nye into this fifth edition, which unfolds the full 

Ferrari history in thirteen chapters and 17 Appendices. 

The clear text on glossy art-paper is embellished by a 

wealth of pictures, both colour and black-and-white, and 

there are also numerous diagrams, plans and cut-away 

drawings of racing Ferraris, etc. The account runs from 

Enzo Ferrari’s first contact with cars and his racing with 

Alfa Romeos, to the Commendatore’s 1979 activities. The 

racing career of the make is included and the content of 

this book can be judged by its chapter titles: “Enzo Ferrari’s 

early history”, “Scuderia Ferrari”, “1,500 c.c. supercharged 

Ferraris”, “Unsupercharged Fl Ferraris”, “F2 Ferraris”, 

“2.5-litre Fl Ferraris”, “V6 Dino F1 and F2 cars”, “Rearengined 

GP types”, “The Championship Contest, 1964- 

1978”, “Experimental and Special Ferraris”, “The Sports 

Cars”, “The Road Cars”, and “Colombo and Lampredi 

V12 Ferrari engines”. The Appendices are too many to 

list here, but contain masses of specifications, race-results 

with causes of retirements, performance figures for various 

of the road-cars, not to mention valve timings! The 1974 

Introduction by Tanner and a 1977 Introduction by Nye 

explain the purpose behind this complex book, which is a 

sort of standard introduction to the marque Ferrari and to 

the many one-model and other specialised Ferrari books 

already published. — W.B. 

“The Coachwork of Erdmann & Rossi, Berlin” 

by Rupert Stuhlemmer. 244 pp. 10” x 7.25”. 

(Dalton Watson Ltd., 78, Wardour Street, London, W1V 

4AN. £14.50.) 

In this latest picture-book in the Dalton Watson format 

the coachwork of the German company is depicted 

on many different makes of chassis. These run from 

Maybach to Horch, from Rolls-Royce and Bentley to 

Mercedes and Mercedes-Benz, and there are, in addition, 

pictures of this bodywork on a variety of other chassis — 

Adler, Cadillac, Minerva, DKW, Bugatti, BMW. and on 

other chassis, many of them American. Military vehicles 

and commercial vehicles for which Erdmann & Rossi 

were responsible find a place in this book and there is 

a Register of their bodywork covering fifteen pages. 

Short “biographies” of the different makes so bodied 

are included. The Berlin works of the Company were 

damaged by aerial bombardment in 1943 and destroyed 

by this means in the summer of 1944, incidentally. 

Although a specialised publication, this book will 

be essential reading for students of the old coachbuilding 

methods, explaining as it does, and so admirably 

illustrating, the aims (which included streamlined 

bodies) and achievements of this German bodybuilder, 

who can still be found today at the office premises 

at Karlsruherstr. It is interesting that the great racing 

drivers, Caracciola and Rosemeyer. ordered cars from 

Erdmann & Rossi and that before an Avus race the Alfa 

Romeos and Bugattis due to compete were garaged at 

their office premises. Those who can read both English 

and German should know that this book is “bi-lingual”, 

so that they are really getting only half the text — but a 

great many fine photographs. — W.B. 

“The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles” 

by David Burgess Wise. 352 pp. 12” x 8.5”. 

(The Hamlyn Group, Astronaut House, Feltham, 

Middlesex. TW14 9AR. £7.95.) 

In 1968 G. N. Georgano, who is now in charge of the 

National Motor Museum Photographic archives, had 

the brilliant idea of compiling a complete encyclopedia 

of motor-cars, from 1885 onwards. It duly came out, a 

stupendous tome, bulging with information, in the 

form of potted biographies of the World’s automobiles, 

copiously illustrated. This publishing triumph of the 

Ebury Press was re-issued in the three following years 

and a final, revised edition came out in 1973. This would 

seem to be an adequate reference work of its kind, apart 

from being now out-dated by six years, and no other 

would really seem to be called-for. 

However, historian Burgess Wise has copied 

the idea and has come up with another such work. It 

includes makes not listed in the Georgano volumes; but 

in general the information touted is less complete. The 

copious illustrations are interesting; as in the Georgano 

work they are a mixture of contemporary and modern 

pictures of the older cars.

The Wise Encyclopedia follows that of the 

Georgano work in having colour plates to lead into its A 

to Z entries, and it also starts off with articles about Pre- 

History, Radiators, Badges and Mascots, Wheels, Body 

Styles, Art and the Automobile, and so on, together with 

potted histories of different automotive periods, and 

information on how mass-production evolved and how 

cars are made, right up to a piece about alternative fuels. 

It seems that the publishers were determined not to leave 

out anything they could possibly include! 

Of the two Encyclopedias I prefer the previouslypublished 

one. But the fact remains that Hamlyn’s have 

produced a book with more than 4,000 entries, covering 

autos from 1862 to the present day, at a highly competitive 

price. Whereas the Wise glimpse of all the World’s 

motors can be bought in these inflationary times for a 

mere £7.95, the Ebury Press work cost £9.50 seven years 

ago. The big Wise work runs from AAA to Zwickau, has 

brief biographies of celebrities in the motoring world, 

from the Appersons to Alexander Winton, and a makes 

cross-reference — for example, for Bambi see Chile-built 

Fuldamobil. There is also a Glossary of technical terms. 

The book has nine contributors apart from Burgess Wise. 

The publishers deserve to succeed! The end-papers are 

rather fun. They show a Kaiser-War London street-scene, 

with plenty of taxis on a rank and a big notice on an 

adjacent building which reads “DON’T USE A MOTOR 

CAR FOR PLEASURE”. The printing was done in Hong- 

Kong. — W.B. 

“Automobilia — A . Guided Tour For Collectors” 

by Michael Worthington-Williams. 192 pp. 10” x 7”. 

(B. T. Batsford Ltd., 4, Fitzhardinge Street, London. W1H 

0AH. £12.50.) 

It is interesting to note that this book is published 

jointly by Batsford, pioneers of motor-book publishing, 

and the RAC. So, like the AA, the RAC has entered the 

book-trade! 

The purpose behind this book is to enhance 

the value of every possible facet of what the author 

calls “automobilia”, in the eyes of collectors. This is 

understandable, whether or not undesirable, because 

Worthington-Williams is Head of Sotheby’s Veteran, 

Vintage and Special Interest Motor Car Auction 

Department. Having said that, I must add that his 

book is comprehensive to a degree, accurate, and very 

fascinating. It covers just about everything, every nicknack, 

associated with motoring, apart from the cars. 

And it contains some very rare illustrations, the pictures 

as comprehensive as the author’s text. After you have 

digested the possibilities of buying, or selling, your old 

motoring posters, promotional material, brochures and 

sales-catalogues, you can contemplate doing likewise 

with desired or unwanted perennials, monthlies and 

weeklies about motoring and motorcycling. Should 

that not appeal, or be possible, the next instalments of 

this book tells you about enamel signs, model and toy 

vehicles, cigarette-cards, postcards and trade-cards, 

accessories, tools, containers, garage equipment, radiator 

badges, club badges, radiator mascots, early photographs 

of motoring and motors, branded trade gifts, cups, 

trophies, items associated with motoring sport, early 

road signs, household items, and general motoring 

ephemera — scarcely a thing omitted! Indeed, this book 

is nothing if not thorough — its Appendices include a 

very detailed list of some motoring cigarette cards and 

trade cards, with their subjects and dates of issue — gone 

are the happy days when these were given away free, to 

delight small boys and others — and a list of museums, 

societies, clubs, and publications devoted to motoring. 

I confess that I find the execution most attractive. 

The author has included some interesting illustrations, 

such as the Rowland Hilder’s advertisements for 

Dunlop, depicting typically British motoring scenes 

of the 1930s, including the moonlight bathing party 

with a swim-suited girl standing beside the Dunlopshod 

two-seater of her man-friend, and the poster 

advertising the £100 Ford Eight saloon. There is also a 

Ford advertisement indicating that Clive Upton, who 

painted it, expected Brooklands racing to be resumed, 

after the war! Children’s motoring books arc illustrated 

in colour - I remember well the pleasure I got from “The 

Wonder Book of Motors” — and among the toy cars 

illustrated are some pedal cars and the recent electricpowered 

Meynell and Phillips blower-4.5 Bentley 

children’s car. I was interested to note that those 

one-time Jep tin-plates car models are illustrated, but ah 

hough I recall the Citroen, Renault and Delage versions 

and was aware that there was also a Panhard- 

Levassor edition, all on a common base, I did not know 

that the series included a Hotchkiss and Delaunay- 

Belleville, as the author states, Nor. surprisingly, does he 

mention tlx larger Alfa Romeo P2 clockwork models. The 

Jep Rolls-Royce and Hispano Suiza models (which New 

Cavendish Books have adequately covered in another 

volume) are mentioned briefly in the text and I am glad 

that the Bing Model-T FORD clockwork toys (priced new 

at 1/-) are referred to I remember the glossy black Tudor 

(or Ford?) saloon, coupe, and two-seater you could get 

at Woolworths when I was a boy, if indeed these were 

the Bing toys, and I deeply regret never having seen 

one since. It is rather a blow to find in this book a colour 

picture of that fine scale-model of the 1912 GP Peugeot 

(wrongly given as 1913) that Sir Malcolm Campbell 

used to race at Brooklands captioned as sold recently by 

auction for £850 — because when MOTOR SPORT went 

specially to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu 

to photograph this model for an article I was doing on 

the disappearance of most of the real racing Peugeots, 

I greatly coveted this model and thought of offering 

£25 for it but I did not know that the Museum intended 

disposing of it. . . . 

I see from a picture of some of the radiator badges 

in Peter Richlev’s collection that he possesses one from 

a Crossley Bugatti, which proves that the one I have 

is not a “loner”, and I wish the Bourton-on-the-Water 

Motor Museum would tell me whether the trophy 

they exhibit,of Eyston’s record-breaking MG Midget at 

Pendine in 1932, came from a nearby hotel, because I 

noticed such a trophy behind the curtains in the diningroom 

of such an hotel many years ago but could never 

find it again. . . . One could go on and on describing items 

from this book — a Briggs and Stanton/Wall autowheel 

the author bought for half-a-crown, rather like my ABC 

Scootermotor engine, but mine was a gift. Tte pictures of

Storey cars, which I remember seeing in their Clapham 

Park depot long before the war. The old road signs, 

which are becoming so hard to obtain — Radnor RDC 

refusing to tell me the fate of some 5 m.p.h. triangles 

which vanished from the Llandrindod Wells’ lakeside 

road a few years back. The sultry blonde from a Pirelli 

calendar (now apparently another thing people collect 

— not blondes but paper calendars!), and the naughty 

1930s girl-sitting-on-a-Renault-coal-scuttle bonnet 

poster, which Worthington-Williams thinks might be 

disowned by Tony Ronald of Renault’s present Publicity 

Department. . . . 

Whether or not you approve of the speculative 

aspect of this book, it is undoubtedly irresistible, although 

its cost I note continues the theme! 

W.B. 

“British Aviation—Widening Horizons-1930-1934” 

by Harald Penrose, 340 pp. 8.75” x 5.5”. (Her Majesty’s 

Stationery Office, Atlantic House, Holborn Viaduct, London, 

EC1P 1BN. £7.95). 

After having completed three volumes of his great, 

extremely-thorough work about the development of 

British aviation, Harald Penrose’s publisher deserted 

him and it seemed that his two final volumes might 

never appear. Fortunately, after a long struggle, HMSO. 

realised the importance of this history and the fourth 

volume has thus appeared. The first three, dealing with 

the aviation periods 1903-1914, 1915-1919 and 1920- 

1929, have already been reviewed enthusiastically in 

MOTOR SPORT. 

The reason why this is no ordinary aeronautical 

history is because the author was there in an active role 

when it was all unfolding — as Westland’s test-pilot 

and one who was connected intimately with the design, 

building, and selling of aeroplanes, which has occupied 

most of his busy lifetime. 

So this is an exceptional account of the enormouslyinteresting 

happenings in aviation in this country, from 

the military, civil and sporting angles, during a period 

when light aeroplanes were flourishing, great longdistance 

flights were taking place, and the wood and 

canvas lighters and bombers were gradually being 

replaced by metal aircraft. That Penrose can write fluent 

prose is evident from his splendid little book “No Echo 

In The Sky”, which is a series of short sketches about 

episodes from his days as a test-pilot. He applies the same 

high quality of thought and expression to this present 

description of British aviation during the exciting period 

from 1930 to 1934, a book, as I have said, much enhanced 

because he knew most of those involved, flew some of 

the very many aeroplanes referred to, and was present at 

many of the happenings in person. 

This book is less copiously illustrated than the 

earlier volumes but is of the same page-size, but far 

slimmer. But it is in clear type, contains the same C. G. 

Grey quotations here and there, and the great thing is 

that it has seen print. I await the final volume with keen 

anticipation and then hope that this very talented author 

will give us a personal autobiography. — W.B. 

* * * 

Reece Winstone, FRPS, has issued another of his 

photographic books about the City of Bristol. “Bristol As 

It Was, 1928-1933”, 76 pp., 10” X 6.75”, can be obtained 

for £4.85 post-free, from the author, at 23, Hyland Grove, 

Henbury Hill, Bristol, 9. It contains many street scenes, 

and cars figure in at least 34 of these. Makes such as 

Bristol’s Armstrong Siddeley 14 taxis, Riley, Ford, Buick, 

and a great many Morris cars are to be seen, apart from 

Model-T Fords and old ‘buses and trams. One picture 

shows a Clement Bayward taxi, of the type that ran in 

Bristol from 1908 to 1930 and which fetched 45/- (£2.25) 

each when sold, outside the Grand Hotel. Another 

shows the Austin 7 cars and Austin and other vans of 

the Evening Times & Echo, by Tontine Building, and 

there are glimpses of a Morris Commercial platformtruck 

and a Wolseley in this pictorial book, as well as 

a fine photograph of Baldwin Street taken from the top 

of a tram — with 20 cars, a motorcycle, two bicycles, 

six ‘buses, four trams and five horse-drawn vehicles in 

sight, that in circa-1930. Again, Morris and Austin makes 

predominate. There is an even more fascinating study of 

College Green, seen in the early 1930s, with what could 

be a Willy-Knight saloon leading an Austin 20, with a 

fine Riley Nine sunroof saloon and an Austin 7 Chummy 

parked on the right and two Morrises, one a 2-seater, 

and three Austins, one a Seven, parked on the left of 

the road. A Morris van and a Morris Eight saloon are 

glimpsed at some early traffic-lights and a big Morris Six 

and a Wolseley at Park Row. A vintage Humber tourer, 

Austin 12 tourer, and what is captioned an Armstrong 

Siddeley saloon figure in a shot of St. James’s Square in 

October 1930. There is an Ashton tram seen braking from 

18 m.p.h.; it carries an advertisement for Fry’s chocolates 

and is passing a parked Morris(?) 2-seater. Those who 

like identifying cars should enjoy this book, which also 

has pictures of the Graf Zeppelin over Bristol in 1932, 

more Morris and Austin cars in other pictures, a Daimler 

negotiating Bedminster Down Bridge in 1932, even shots 

of the opening of Filton aerodrome in May, 1930 and of 

passengers in a DH Dragon that flew a Western Airways 

Bristol-Cardiff service in 15 minutes (after 13 minutes in 

a ‘bus.) for 9/6 single fare (the author names the tourer 

approaching the aerodrome as a Singer 9). Finally, there 

is a good picture of an early Austin 7 van still used by the 

Bristol Evening News in April, 1930. 

* * * 

With our Motorcycle Industry overrun by the 

Japanese, there is much to be said for looking back at 

some of the more recent and better British motorcycles. 

To this end, Peter Howdle has compiled “Best Of British- 

Classic Bikes of Yesteryear”, which Patrick Stephens of 

Bar Hill, Cambridge, publish in conjunction with EMAP 

National Publications. It is a 160 page, 9.25” x 7.25”, book 

with 95 pictures, and it costs £6.95 

* * * 

To commemorate their 75th Anniversary, Rolls- 

Royce Limited have produced a 46-page landscape formal

soft-cover book printed on high-quality Wiggins Teape 

paper, covering the early life of the Hon. C. S. Rolls, his 

historic meeting with Henry Royce, and what happened 

afterwards, on the road, in the air and on the water, in the 

Rolls-Royce context. This is a record which will appeal 

to R-R enthusiasts in particular and collectors in general. 

It is very fully illustrated, although it is surprising that 

the Hay/Hall Bentley saloon which ran at Le Mans in 

1949, 1950 and 1951 is included, but the TT exploits with 

the open Bentley of Eddie Hall are not. Nor did a 40/50 

Rolls-Royce lap Brooklands at 101.5 m.p.h. in 1911. as a 

caption claims. It only did this over a quarter of a mile. 

The mainly very small illustrations run from before 1904 

to the present, the last one depicting the famous 1906 

Silver Ghost standing by a Rolls-Royce Camargue. Lots 

of the pictures have been used in previous R-R material. 

The book was edited by David Roscoe of Rolls-Royce 

Motors Ltd. and is obtainable for £2.95 post free from the 

R-R Public Relations Dept., Pyms Lane, Crewe, Cheshire. 

* * * 

The Society of Automotive Engineers has issued a 

catalogue of all its series-publications that are available 

to its 36,000 members. This is another 75th Anniversary 

publication, which is distributed by MIRA. 

* * * 

“Vintage Car Annual” edited by Mike Worthington- 

Williams (96 pp., 12” x 8.25”) is another publication that 

reflects the growing interest in the older motor vehicles. 

Not a review of the 1979 Vintage and classic motoring 

season as might have been expected, this annual is based 

on the format of Old Motor before that publication 

changed proprietorship. It is a mish-mash of articles, very 

well illustrated on fine art-paper, as if the old Old Motor 

had been reborn. These articles cover a young man’s visit 

to the 1926 and later Olympia Motor Shows (he recalls 

the Trojan-bags in which we schoolboys carried our 

collected loot of catalogues and brochures), the Robbins 

of Putney concern, a rather lurid look at the old American 

board-track racing, Michael Sedgwick being historical 

about Armstrong Siddeley, the Douglas light cars, the 

Belgian FN, the rebirth of a vintage AC, Bubble Cars, 

the Autobrix cyclecars, the cars of Cyril Barrington, and 

much more besides. An excellent bedside book for those 

unable to sleep because they are depressed by modern 

motoring legislation and rising costs. The price is £5.95 

and the publishers are Marshall Harris & Balwin, 17, Air 

Street, London, W1. There is to be a 1980 edition. 

SPORTING TURBOS 

An AC ME 3000 and Reliant Scimitar 

Coupe turbocharged by Robin Rew. 

AFTER Robin Rew founded the Reliant Sabre and 

Scimitar Owners’ Club in 1973, this well-known motor 

racing photographer and one-time Silverstone Press 

Officer was so inundated with requests for technical 

information and assistance that he was forced to 

exchange Pentax for spanner. Now Rew runs a thriving 

little business specialising in the tuning and repair of 

Sabres and Scimitars from his home at Overbeck House, 

Bengal Lane, Greens Norton, just a couple of miles from 

Silverstone. 

Rew, an engineer with AEI before his then hobby 

of photography overwhelmed his life, gained his 

enthusiasm for the Tamworth marque from his own 

ex-works competition Sabre. This stalwart car. with 

wishbone rear suspension, has been a familiar sight in 

sprints, hill-climbs, the Pomeroy Trophy and occasional 

races for more than a decade, Rew showing notable 

competence behind the wheel. For the 1979 season, 

however, the straight-six Sabre was given a well-earned 

rest, while its owner transferred allegiance to a 3-litre 

V6 Scimitar Coupe. This dull grey, ten-year-old car has 

surprised more than a few people, for under its bonnet 

lurks a very effective turbocharger system. 

It was this turbocharger development upon Ford’s 

3-litre V6 Essex engine which took me back to Overbeck 

House, which I first visited in 1969 to sell Rew a 2” SO 

carburetter and manifold off the Group 1 engine of my 

ex-works BMC 1800, by then modified to Stage 5. At that 

time Rew’s only interest was to add a bit more steam to his 

own road car, now he does the same for other enthusiasts’ 

cars. And it was a customer’s vehicle which lent the major 

interest to this visit, for Reg Phillips, at 64 perhaps the 

doyen of British hill-climbing, had commissioned Rew 

to turbocharge a brand-new AC ME3000, ready for the 

1980 season. This order resulted from a friendly duel on 

the hills throughout 1979 between Phillips’ TVR Turbo 

and Rew’s turbocharged Scimitar Coupe. “At Shelsley 

Reg used to pip me by about 0.25 sec. and at Prescott I 

pipped him by about 0.25 sec”, Rew relates. “We were 

this close throughout the season and had a marvellous 

arrangement where the winner bought the beer for the 

opposing team!” Now that Phillips has played into the 

hands of the opposition, who will be the big-spender at 

the bar in the 1980 season? 

While the principles of turbocharging the midengined 

AC’s Essex engine are exactly the same as 

for the Scimitar’s similar Ford cast-iron V6, physical 

considerations in the former’s transverse engine layout 

have necessitated a separate development approach. 

The basics are the same: an Air Research turbocharger 

blowing, rather than sucking, through a 1.25”-choke 

Recce-Fish carburetter. Rew prefers this particular Air 

Research turbocharger for semi-competition applications 

in a light car because the characteristics of the turbohousing 

let boost pressure rise more quickly. He uses

Rotomaster turbochargers in what he terms production 

road car applications and Rotomaster waste-gates (blowoff 

valves) exclusively. 

The AC’s transverse layout makes for a particularly 

neat turbocharger installation, neater perforce than 

in Rew’s Reliant. The turbocharger nestles to the 

offside of the engine, above the clutch housing, its 

compressor outlet linked by a straight pipe to the 

Reece-Fish carburetter, which is mated to the standard 

inlet manifold by an alloy adaptor plate. Air is drawn 

into the compressor via convoluted trunking from a 

big Volvo air-cleaner tucked down in the nearside rear 

wing. Mike Broad, of Auto-Power Services, Daventry, 

with whom Rew liaised on turbocharger development, 

designed the very tidy exhaust manifolds, essentially 

large pipes linked to each port flange by a smaller stub, 

the horizontal manifold from each bank being linked 

into a Y-piece collector upon which the turbocharger sits. 

A big-bore pipe takes the waste exhaust gases from the 

turbine into a big. transverse Thrush silencer with but one 

exhaust tail pipe instead of the AC’s usual two. This is a 

temporary exhaust system; Rew is having a stainless steel 

arrangement manufactured. A reflective stainless Steel 

heat shield contains the white-hot glow of the turbine 

housing. The Rotomaster waste gate is hidden beneath 

the turbocharger. on the Y-piece, and a fuel pressure 

regulating valve lives on the nearside panel of the engine 

bay. A Bosch electric pump provides the high pressure 

fuel flow. Low compression cylinder heads reduce the 

compression ratio from 8.9:1 to 8:1, equating to a real 

ratio of about 10:1 with the turbocharger set at 7 p.s.i. 

boost. When engines are rebuilt during the turbocharger 

conversion. Rew fits low compression pistons rather 

than change the heads, but the AC’s brand-new “short” 

engine was not disturbed. 

An unexpected installation problem arose in 

finding a suitable throttle cable for this mid-engined 

sports car. There aren’t many alternatives available with 

the required 10 foot length! The production cable was 

just a few inches too short. As a solution, Rew used an 

outboard motor control cable. 

Rew’s first attempts at turbocharging. on Scimitars, 

used the suck-through system with the carburetter 

attached to the inlet side of the compressor, through 

which the fuel/air mixture is drawn and fed to the 

engine via a long pipe. Now he favours the blow-through 

system, with the carburetter attached directly to the inlet 

manifold, fed by air from the turbocharger compressor. 

The shorter inlet tract encourages better throttle response 

and also prevents the treezing to which a Reece-Fish 

carburetter is prone with i suck-through system, without 

necessitating some form of carburetter heating. One 

assumes that it must be of benefit also to low-speed 

running in the normally aspirated mode before boost 

pressure builds up. Another advantage to the blowthrough 

system is its relative compactness, an essential 

consideration in the AC’s restricted underbonnet space. 

No bodywork modifications arc required; the stumpy 

Reece-Fish firs atop the engine without requiring an 

unsightly bulge in the bonnet. 

Rew holds the Reece-Fish carburetter in high regard 

for its good fuel atomisation, mixture distribution, fuel 

economy and ease of tuning. “My theory is that it isn’t 

possible to supply a properly developed turbocharger 

system using fixed-jet or SU carburetters without years of 

development to get the correct jetting and spring/needle 

combination,” he says. “With the Reece-Fish it can be 

found in an hour.” One drawback with this carburetter 

is its lack of cold start facility. This did not prevent the 

cold engines of the AC and Reliant starting promptly 

in my presence. Plans are afoot to blow through Ford’s 

standard Weber carburetter on road cars in order to 

incorporate a choke, but the Reece-Fish will still be used 

on competition cars. 

Both cars were made available to me for testing 

round the miserably wet and muddy Northamptonshire 

lanes. The dull-grey SE4 Reliant was first on the turbo 

menu. This wolf in sheep’s clothing has had an active 

season of sprints, hill-climbs and the odd club race, yet 

has only disgraced itself once, when Rew overfilled its 

sump in the 750 MC’s Six-Hour Relay Race at Donington 

Park; the Scimitar finished its appointed sessions with 

broken ring-lands on two pistons. Rew claims that 

turbocharging has made it 25 m.p.h. faster than before, 

with overall performance like a Morgan Plus 8, yet it 

returns 24 m.p.g. on the road for everyday motoring and 

30+ m.p.g. on motorways. It achieved a best of 38.5 sec. 

at Shelsley Walsh and 55.3 sec. at Prescott. 

The system fitted to the Reliant is similar to that 

on the AC except that the exhaust manifolding is much 

less complicated and easier to fit; only one manifold has 

to be changed, linked to the other by a cross-over pipe 

running beneath the engine. Low compression pistons 

are fitted and a Holley high-pressure fuel pump is used. 

Maximum boost pressure is set at 9 p.s.i., to which the 

AC will be upgraded when its engine is fully run-in. 

This 1969 car surprised from the start with its 

excellent chassis behaviour, quite belying the age of its 

design. Rew has removed the positive camber from the 

front wheels, fitted stiffer front springs and Koni shockabsorbers 

and installed a Powr-Lok limited slip unit in the 

Salisbury differential. These minor changes have resulted 

in a very taut, well-balanced and pleasantly handling car 

with precise and responsive steering; it felt very vicefree 

and easy to drive in spite of its gross performance 

increase and the slippery roads. No wonder then that on 

Rew’s first competitive outing with it at last year’s VSCC 

Pomeroy Trophy meeting, the combination came first 

overall in the high-speed steering test against some very 

thoroughbred opposition. On the same day it was timed 

at 15.7 sec. over the standing quarter-mile, and that with 

its turbocharged engine not fully sorted out. I might add 

that the brakes are considerably better than might have 

been gauged from the Scimitar’s zero performance in the 

braking test, which prompted a cryptic comment from 

Peter Hull in his report for MOTOR SPORT: “Robin Rew 

gained no marks and perhaps should have built some 

reverse thrust into his turbocharging”! 

On this brief acquaintance Rew’s Reliant showed 

up all that is good about turbocharging with none 

of the frequently encountered drawbacks. At low 

revolutions, off boost, the engine feels to have lost none 

of its standard performance and has no holes at all in 

its carburation. It is smoother and more flexible too and 

only transmission snatch foils attempts to pull less than 

1,000 r.p.m. in the very high overdrive top gear, with the

standard 3.58:1 final drive ratio. With plenty of throttle 

applied in that same gear, boost starts to rise rapidly 

from as low as 2,000 r.p.m. In the lower gears, with less 

load, maximum boost is reached at about 3,200 r.p.m. 

For practical, fast and economical motoring, the engine 

is best kept “on the boil” between 3,000 and 3,500 r.p.m., 

pretty quick on the Scimitar’s gearing. There is no jolting 

step as the turbocharger comes in. so this is an easy car 

to drive smoothly at modest speeds around the engine 

revolutions where boost comes in, without giving rise 

to the on-off feeling of some turbocharger installations. 

Driven in anger, the old Reliant whooshes horizon-wards 

like the proverbial, so fast that on the slippery roads of 

the test the use of its maximum 6.000 r.p.m. was out of 

the question. Rew has proved its ultimate performance 

pretty conclusively during the course of the season. 

A subtle change to the gearbox ratios has helped 

both the performance and the driveability. Like me, 

those readers familiar with the Scimitar’s Zodiac-type 

overdrive gearbox will have cursed the massive gap 

between second and third. Rew has overcome this by 

fitting a Granada layshaft cluster and second gear into 

the existing casing. It’s a service he can offer to customers 

and well worth while. 

Excessive heat build up under the bonnet is a 

problem which afflicts standard Scimitars, let alone 

turbocharged ones. I remember vividly being left out 

on a limb, while overtaking a long line of nose-to-tail 

cars on a two-lane road, when vaporisation in the fuel 

pump cut dead the engine of the road test GTE I was 

driving to the 1971 British Grand Prix. A change from 

a glass bowl to an all metal pump on later models 

cured (his characteristic fault but the underbonnet 

heat build up remains to this day. With the added 

heat of the turbocharger installation this could lead to 

fuel vaporisation in stop-start traffic or after the car is 

parked. To overcome this Rew raises slighdy the rear 

edge of the bonnet and fits a Kenlowe fan which runs 

on for a few minutes after the engine has been switched 

off. If vapour lock persists, Rew has developed a tiny 

heat exchanger which fits into the float chamber of the 

Reece-Fish. Fitting it is only a 20-minute job. 

The AC ME 3000 was less lively than the Reliant, 

for reasons which will be removed before Phillips takes 

to the hills. The new engine and transmission were 

tight, boost pressure was set to a more modest 7 p.s.i. 

(Rew boosted one Scimitar at 11 p.s.i. at the customer’s 

request and no problems have been encountered) and 

the gearing was too high to enable the best use of the 

engine characteristics. Phillips is fitting new sprockets 

(yes, sprockets!) to lower the final drive. 

Again, the engine had no throttle lag, though that 

lengthy cable made the throttle action somewhat dead. 

Apart from the less vivid performance, the AC’s Ford V6 

behaved just as satisfactorily as that in the Scimitar, if 

rather more noisily and with a pronounced bellow as the 

turbocharger stalled when the throttle was released. 

Underbonnet heat is less of a problem on the AC so 

no special precautions have had to be taken. 

I don’t propose to discuss the AC’s general 

behaviour here, as we hope a standard road test car will 

materialise early in the New Year. Brief impressions of 

a prototype appeared in MOTOR SPORT, August 1975. 

Certainly Rew’s modi¬fications showed Phillips’ car to 

have a lot of potential. 

Similar turbocharger conversions on the AC will 

cost around £1,800. The less complex installation in the 

Scimitar (all V6 models) is about £1,250. 

The Reliants are Rew’s main interest and for these 

he offers a comprehensive practical and parts service, 

including reconditioned and uprated engines and 

reconditioned axles and gearboxes. His stainless steel, 

tubular exhaust manifolds have shown an extra 8 b.h.p. 

at 3,000 r.p.m. on the rolling road. These cost £90 plus 

VAT or £80 if bought with his £148 plus VAT stainless 

steel exhaust systems. Other items available include 

uprated, chrome vanadium road springs, Koni dampers, 

heavy gauge replacement fuel tanks for the SE5 and SE5a 

GTEs and bib spoilers. 

Rew, or his assistant, Geoff Burrows, can be 

contacted on Towcester S0753. 

The Reliant Sabre and Scimitar Owners Club, 

which Rew instigated, now has some 1,600 or 1,700 

members. Among the benefits of membership is one of 

the brightest, and most useful in terms of technical tips, 

magazines I have seen from a small one-marque club. 

Membership details arc available from Roger Tipler. The 

Old Bakery, I, Silver Street. Brixworth, Northants. NN6 

9BY. — C.R.

ENDURANCE RACING 

SURVEY 

A review of the last five races in the 

World Championship for Makes series 

SEVERAL MONTHS have passed since we last reviewed 

the World Championship for Makes, in which time 

five further rounds have taken place. The June edition 

of MOTOR SPORT covered “the story so far” up as far 

as the Rivet Supply Six Hours at Silverstone in May. At 

that point, all four rounds of the “sports car” endurance 

championship had fallen to Porsches of one kind or 

another, with two victories for the 935s run by the Gelo 

racing team, one the Interscope 935 entered by Ted 

Field, and one for Reinhold Joest’s Liqui-Moly 908/4, a 

turbocharged 2.1 litre Gp 6 sports-racer of many years 

standing. 

The five subsequent events that completed the 1979 

World Championship for Makes produced enormous 

variety in the quality of racing, if little in the way of 

outstanding new technical interest. One race, at the 

incomparable and still daunting 14.2 mile Nurburgring, 

was a cracker, as good a long distance contest as one 

could hope to see these days, and deservedly watched 

by the biggest crowd seen for some years for an ADAC 

1000 Km. Another race, at Watkins Glen, was above 

average, while Brands Hatch’s contribution was “fair”. 

But the other couple of so-called championship rounds, 

at Pergusa in Sicily and Vallelunga near Rome, were 

frankly awful and undeserving of their status. 

First event in the series after Silverstone was that 

memorable ADAC 1000 Km. at Nurburgring on June 

3rd. After an intense initial tussle for the lead between 

Klaus Ludwig in the Kremer Porsche 935 K3 and Bob 

Wollek in a Gelo 935, Rolf Stommelen went convincingly 

ahead in Reinhold Joest’s Porsche 908/4. Ludwig’s rapid 

white 935 appeared at last, limping into the pit road with 

a reflating rear tyre, and everyone in the vast timber 

grandstand sat back thinking “That’s it. We won’t see 

the lead change again. The car that led all the way at 

Dijon, the car that captured pole by five clear seconds, 

is now out front and with Stommelen at the wheel it will 

stay there.” Yet it was not to be — and the subsequent 

struggle for supremacy proved long distance racing can 

still create a real spectacle of genuine excitement lasting 

right through to the final kilometre. 

After 11 laps of the Nurburgring’s famous North 

circuit, the Stommelen/Joest 908/4 retired because 

of an irredeemable fuel leak. The heat of a very warm 

summer’s day had made its bag tanks swell slightly, so 

that they rubbed against the chassis. With the latter in 

turn scraping against the track in certain places, the tanks 

had been literally wearing themselves away. From then 

on, the battle was a straight fight between the Gelo and 

Kremer 935s — and what a duel they made. 

Every time one of the cars made a refuelling stop, 

the other would snatch the lead, only to lose it when its 

own stop fell due. From half distance onwards, the main 

two protagonists were within sight of each other for lap 

after lap. The highlight was an heroic 16 lap stint from 

Bob Wollek in the quicker Gelo 935, throughout which 

he was constantly chasing or fending off Ludwig or 

Plankenhorn in the rival Kremer Porsche. The Frenchman 

was almost totally exhausted at the end of his virtually 

unbroken 227 mile drive, for cockpit temperatures were 

reaching anything up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit on a very 

hot afternoon. Frequently during his two hour marathon 

(and he had already driven earlier in the race) the red 

Gelo Porsche and the white Kremer car were nose to tail; 

but when John Fitzpatrick relieved Wollek for the final 

stint, with seven laps to go, the Gelo team had gained the 

upper hand, albeit by only a few seconds. 

During the last hour, Ludwig found the Kremer 

935 increasingly hard to drive, for its chassis was flexing 

and its gear-change baulking badly after key bolts on the 

chassis had failed to withstand the stresses of “the Ring”. 

Yet Ludwig began to gnaw away at Fitzpatrick’s slender 

advantage nevertheless, and entering the final lap he 

was only ten seconds behind. In an all-out bid for glory, 

the German slashed the Englishman’s lead to under lour 

seconds in three-quarters of a lap, but Fitz was well in 

command of the situation. As his scarlet Gelo Porsche 

blasted over the line for a memorable victory, Ludwig’s 

pursuit was checked dramatically: his car engine had 

blown a piston on the sprint from the very last corner! 

Nothing else in long distance racing during the 

whole of 1979 was half as exciting. A week later came Le 

Mans, once again barred from the World Championship, 

this time because of its proximity to the Nurburgring 

race. A full report of the 24 Hours was included in the 

July edition of MOTOR SPORT, but it is worth recalling 

that Ludwig and the Kremer team reaped their revenge 

in partnership with the American Whittington brothers. 

A fortnight later, on June 24th, came one of the 

awful races, at the Lake Pergusa circuit near Enna in the 

heart of Sicily. Hardly any non-Italian teams bothered 

to make the long trek south, and a mere handful of cars 

eligible for Championship points took part. There could 

have been no race at all but for a sprinkling of 2-litre Gp 

6 sports-racing cars, ineligible for points but this year 

allowed to compete alongside their production based 

counterparts. 

After a very dull six hour procession, the race fell to 

one of these 2-litre Gp 6 machines, an Osella-BMW PA7 

shared by Leila Lombardi and Enrico Grimaldi. The only 

significance of the whole event lay in the fact that a works 

Lancia Beta Montecarlo driven by Riccardo Patrese and 

Carlo Facetti finished second, five laps behind, and was 

therefore the first Gp 5 car home. The little turbocharged 

Lancia, you may remember, had made a dreadful debut 

at Silverstone, retiring after only a few miles; but at 

Nurburgring it had risen to fifth place overall before its 

engine expired in the final hour. 

The seventh round of the championship, at Watkins 

Glen on July 7th, was vastly better. These days there are 

probably more competitive Group 5 Porsche Turbos in 

North America than in Europe — and their drivers are 

not bad either, when it comes to long distance events! The 

race at the Glen was evidence of this trend, for the lead 

changed hands a dozen times during the six hours, and 

was shared by six different cars. In the end, the result was 

an exact replica of Le Mans, as Klaus Ludwig helped Don 

and Bill Whittington take their newly acquired, Kremer

prepared 935 K3 to a four lap victory over the Barbour 

935 driven by Dick Barbour himself, Rolf Stommelen and 

Paul Newman. 

Of the other cars to hold the lead, the Ongais/Field 

Porsche collided with a back marker who had spun to a 

halt across the road; the Gregg/Haywood 935 first ran 

out of fuel and then destroyed a wheel bearing; the Paul- 

Holbert 935 lost a wheel five minutes from the finish after 

a series of earlier problems; while the 935 shared by Brian 

Redman and Bill Whittington lost time in a turbocharger 

change and finished seventh. The American race saw 

an impeccable debut for Group 44’s immaculately 

prepared V8 Triumph TR8, which Bob Tullius and Brian 

Fuerstenau drove to a category winning sixth place. This 

team has enjoyed great success with Triumph TR6 and 

Jaguar E-types and XJ-Ss in past seasons. 

A fortnight before its scheduled date of August 6th, 

the Rivet Supply sponsored Brands Hatch race had all the 

hallmarks of being the worst event ever to hold World 

Championship status. But then decent entries positively 

flooded in, so that the BRSCC was rewarded with a large 

and fully representative grid of cars, even though Georg 

Loos decided at the last moment to withdraw the two 

cars that he had entered late in the first place 

The race was not over-enthralling, however After 

Ludwig had forced a new Kremer Porsche 935K3 ahead 

for the first two laps, Joest slotted his 908-4 into the 

lead shortly before the ends this third tour, and with 

the assistance of co-driver Volkert Merl kept it firmly 

out front ft the remainder of the six hours! Ludwig and 

Plankenhorn gave constant chase in the Kremer Porsche, 

so there was at least a semblance of a race, but it was to 

no avail. They were a lap or two behind for most of the 

event, and took the flag two laps down. 

Tony Charnell and Martin Raymond inherited a 

fine class winning third place with a 2-litre Chevron- 

Ford B36 after John Cooper and Pel Lovett had seen their 

chances evaporate when their ex-de Cadenet Lola-DFV 

broke its steering linkage in the last half hour. Alain de 

Cadenet himself fell from contention when his Frew 

co-driver Francois Migault was brought to an abrupt 

halt by a tyre’s disintegration on the fastest part of the 

circuit. Their DFV powered De Cadenet was eventually 

persuaded back to life but could finish no higher than 

sixth, a place behind the works Lancia Beta Montecarlo 

Turbo that had been third at one stage, but which had 

suffered all sorts of niggling problems, including a minor 

collision. 

The British event also saw the actual race debut of 

the March built BMW Ml that had failed to qualify at Le 

Mans. Driven by Manfred Winkelhock, the very special 

monocoque M1 lay an impressive fourth for much of 

the first hour but then spun into retirement because of a 

hiccup in its spark-box soon after rising to second place. 

After that, it was only left for the championship 

to fizzle out at Vallelunga, where there was another 

indifferent field, most of it not eligible for championship 

points anyway. March sent their Oxford built Ml and 

Lancia fielded two works Montecarlos for the first time, 

but neither was it luck. The BMW crashed, this time 

because of brake failure, one Lancia suffered gearbox 

failure and the other went out with serious overheating 

At the end of six hours, Group 6 machines flled the top 

six positions, with Leila Lombardi aril Giorgio Francia 

sharing first place in a works Osella-BMW PA7, ahead 

of two other 2-litre Osellas and a Chrysler engined 

Chevron B36. It was a dreary end to a generally dreary 

championship, and it was really of only academic 

interest that Porsche (naturally) took the FISA title with 

120 points to Lancia’s 50, BMW’s 38 and Ford’s 30. One 

can only hope this coming year sees a revival of the 

series, but it seel unlikely in view of Porsche’s virtual 

abandonment of Group 5 racing. Lancia will run two 

works Montecarlos, ,and March their quasi-works M1 

but otherwise prospects are even dimmer than a year 

ago. — J.C.T.

FORMULA ONE TREND 

OF DESIGN 

Steering Gear 

THE FORMULA ONE designers are unanimous on one 

design feature, and that is the use of an enclosed rackand-pinion 

steering gear. Apart from being mechanically 

efficient this mechanism fits neatly into the front end 

layout of a single-seater racing car. In the position and 

mounting of the steering rack there is some difference of 

opinion; while one designer mounts it behind the centreline 

between the front wheels, another mounts it ahead 

of the centre-line. and while this divergence of opinion 

is sometimes due to individual ideas on geometry, more 

often than not it is a question of space requirements. 

Most of those who mount it behind the centre-line, 

like Lotus, Tyrrell. Williams and Arrows, have the 

rack running across the monocoque above the driver’s 

knees, and the short track-rods at each end of the rack 

lie directly behind and in line with the upper suspension 

members. Ligier and McLaren have their rack mounted 

a bit lower, with the track-rods in the air stream between 

the upper and lower suspension members. Ferrari strikes 

an individual note in having the rack mounted on the 

floor of the cockpit, under the driver’s knees, but behind 

the suspension centre-line. The track-rods lie between 

the suspension members, and near to the lower ones. 

Brabham and Renault are agreed that the steering 

rack should be mounted ahead of the front suspension 

assembly centre-line, and both designs have the trackrods 

in front and level with the upper suspension 

members. In all cases the rack housing is clamped to the 

monocoque and does nothing else than steer the car. but 

Tony Southgate used a novel layout on the last Shadow 

design he did, where he used the steering rack casting 

to carry lugs from which the upper front suspension 

members were hung. When he left Shadow to start the 

Arrows team this was one of the design features he took 

with him and used on the Al Arrows, and it was part 

of the lawsuit between Shadow and Arrows, which 

Shadow won. so the Arrows A2 design featured a more 

conventional unstressed rack assembly. 

The mechanism for joining the steering wheel to the 

rack-and-pinion varies according to the space available, 

the driving position required and the location of the 

rack. Lotus use 3 short, straight steering column running 

direct from the wheel to the rack, with a splined muff 

joint between the column and the pinion shaft. Ligier and 

McLaren use a short column running to a universal joint 

and then another short shaft into the pinion housing. 

The Arrows A2 uses a similar layout, with a mere stub 

of shaft out of the pinion housing, Williams use a similar 

layout to the Lotus. Brabham use a short column from the 

steering wheel to a universal joint and then another shaft 

running downwards, at an angle to the primary column, 

and into the forward mounted rack and pinion Renault 

use two universal joints in their steering column, one 

behind the instrument panel which allows the secondary 

shall to run downwards and the second one directly onto 

the pinion housing. 

On the Ferrari there is a very short primary column 

to a universal joint behind the instrument panel and 

then a secondary column running downwards almost 

vertically into the pinion housing under the floor. This 

secondary column is in the cockpit and the driver sits 

with his legs on each side of it, the column being virtually 

between his knees. 

Most of the designers use a proprietary steering 

wheel of about ten inches diameter with a heavily 

padded rim and three spokes, and many of them are 

quickly detachable by means of a clamp or locking pin. 

This is done either to allow easy ingress, or easy egress in 

the case of an accident. It has on occasion proved a mixed 

blessing, as for example when a driver spins off into the 

rough and out of a race and detaches the wheel to get 

out and does not bother to put it back on again. When 

the mechanics collect the car after the race the wheel 

has gone, whisked away by a light-fingered spectator. 

Pushing a racing car back to the paddock without a 

steering wheel is a tiresome business, for which the 

driver gets no thanks. The thoughtful driver brings the 

wheel with him back to the pits. — D.S.J.

RACING CAR 

DEVELOPMENT 

FEW PEOPLE with a racing car arc satisfied with its 

performance, they always want more; more acceleration, 

more braking, more speed, which after all is all part of 

racing. The racing driver, designer or engineer is never 

satisfied, he is always striving to improve. Since the 

“bolt-together” concept came into being, personified 

and accelerated by the Lotus 49 in 1967. it has not been 

too difficult to assemble racing cars, and rather than 

make major changes people have built new cars in their 

entirety. Before that it was generally a case of making a 

new racing car out of the best parts of an old one, either 

past its prime, or at the limit of its development. The 

special builder is the genius at this sort of thing and by its 

very nature a “one-off” special is never finished; from the 

moment the wheels turn the builder will have thought of 

an improvement. 

Over the years there have been a number of racing 

cars that underwent such a major development that 

the original car has been destroyed for all time, and the 

series of features starting with this issue shows some 

of the more interesting ones. It will also serve to nudge 

the “restorers and rebuilders” who have developed 

a remarkable faculty for “finding” long lost historic 

racing cars. The original cars depicted in this series have 

been destroyed or altered beyond all reclaim, unless 

everything is made new, and if anyone produces a car 

said to be one of these we shall know it for what it is; a 

fake, a replica, or a resurrection, call it what you will. 

Today, old racing cars are considered to be worth a 

lot of money and there are many people, well-meaning or 

avaricious, who are producing old racing cars that either 

never existed or at best have been destroyed. Examples 

of Maserati 250F, Type 35 Bugatti, Ferrari Dino 246. ERA 

and Alfa Romeo are among the “illegitimate”, which is 

to say they are apparent historic entities, but in fact have 

no genuine parenthood. That they exist now, you cannot 

deny, but at best they were conceived “on the wrong side 

of the blanket”. 

It is to be hoped that no-one will be naive enough 

to claim they have found any of the cars in the upper of 

our two photographs in this series. We have a long list of 

cars for the series, but would be interested to hear from 

readers of any cars they think might not be in our list. 

In 1935 Chris Staniland acquired the Monoposto 

Tipo B Alfa Romeo number 5003 from Raymond 

Sommer, after the Frenchman had driven it in the 

Donington Grand Prix of that year. It was blue at the 

time and Sommer had bought it trom the Scuderia 

Ferrari, it being one of the original 1932 Alfa Romeo 

factory team cars. Alter racing it in British events in 

1936 and 1937. Staniland realised it was becoming 

outdated, though the engine was still very competitive, 

especially in British handicap races, so a major rebuild 

and design was undertaken by J. S. Worters with the 

backing of W. C. Deveraux of Lockheed, and the result 

was renamed the Multi-Union, as a play on the name 

of the German Auto-Union which was very much to 

the fore in those days. 

Staniland raced the Multi-Union during 1938 and 

before the 1939 season it underwent another major 

rebuild and became the Multi-Union II, in which form it 

still exists. The original Alfa Romeo front axle assembly 

mounted on leaf springs was changed for a proprietary 

Italian independent layout known as Tecnauto which 

used coil springs in twist with trailing arm geometry. 

The Alfa Romeo rear axle, with its twin torque tubes and 

twin propeller shafts, was retained but the half-elliptic 

springs were replaced by coil springs and the axle was 

located laterally by a Panhard rod. A completely new 

supercharger and inlet manifold layout was made, new 

oil and water radiators, new tanks, a new body and the 

rod-operated brakes were replaced by new Lockheed 

hydraulics, with new drums, back plates and shoes. The 

three-speed gearbox was changed for a new four-speed 

unit. Of the original Monoposto Alfa Romeo the chassis 

side rails remained, the rear axle, the engine and the 

steering gear. — D. S. J. 

Bringing Back the Rudge 

RUDGE, one of the great names of motorcycling, is 

to reappear on a new motorcycle alter a gap of about 

forty years. 

The prototype, a racing machine to be completed 

early this year, will be a 500 c.c. single-cylinder fourstroke 

with a four-valve head, in true Rudge tradition. A 

road version will follow, along with a 50 c.c. Road Racer 

The men behind Rudge Motorcycles Ltd. are 

Mike Cook, a racing motorcyclist for many years and 

responsible lor the 50 c.c Road Racing Association, and 

Ron Gardner, familiar in the motorcycle world for his 

connections with the Gardner Carburetter Co. and the 

Ron Gardner Racing Team. Both men are involved with 

plastic and machine tools and the Rudge Co. will be part 

of Cook’s firm C.K. Consultants (Plastics) Groups in 

Welwyn Garden City 

Could the re-appearance of this famous name 

start a turnabout in the dreadful fortunes of the British 

motorcycle industry? 

• The official SMM&T Motor Show will be held in 

the Birmingham NEC site “for at least the next decade”, 

according to the SMM&T A new 10.000 square metre hall 

is to provide much-needed extra space lor the biennial 

exhibition, which next takes place from October I7th- 

26th. 1980. 

• Vauxhall say that their styling exercise on a 

Chevette that features 0.25”-0.5” thick rubber skirting all 

round, shows up well in wind tunnel tests. Compared 

to a production 1.256 c.c. Chevette a massive 20.42% 

reduction in aerodynamic drag is reported. Even against 

the front and rear spoiler-equipped HS2300 a 12.14% 

improvement was measured. This was using 3.25” deep 

skirts, now on sale through DTV Sportparts, but with the 

rather impractical 6” depth fitted for further tests even 

better results were recorded, Perhaps you could finance 

the inevitable increase in skirt wear and tear by charging 

local councils a road sweeping fee?

LOMBARD RAC RALLY 

OF GREAT BRITAIN 

RALLY REVIEW 

STATISTICS, it is said, can be made to prove anything, but 

he would be a very clever statistician indeed who could 

produce figures, with anything approaching accuracy, 

to give a measure of the massive spectator attendance 

around the route of November’s Lombard RAC Rally 

of Great Britain. Vast crowds turned up everywhere, at 

special stages, service areas, time controls and even at 

roundabouts and crossroads on comparatively dull parts 

of the route where cars were likely to do no more than 

slow down or stop briefly. 

Service areas were thronged with people anxious 

to watch amazing feats of mechanical ingenuity, whilst 

special stages were often lined by spectators along their 

entire lengths, all eager to see what is undoubtedly the 

finest display of high speed driving on loose-surfaced 

roads that could be envisaged. 

Attendance estimates have run into millions 

and, having been associated with the event in various 

capacities over many years, we consider that, if anything, 

they err on the conservative side. The editor went out 

to see a forest stage in Wales and got himself so snarled 

up in a vastly over-populated and under-sized parking 

area in Radnor fores that we doubt whether he will want 

to repeat the experience, whilst a straight-faced D.S.J, 

attempted an estimate of attendance by a head count 

on the photograph on this page and some extremely 

empirical multiplication. 

This splendid event, together with its overtures 

and finale, spans close on a week and puts a fine, 

mobile spectacle right under the gaze of those who 

choose to go out to see — and many of them brave 

fog, ice and ram to stand on bleak Yorkshire moors or 

windswept Welsh mountainsides to do just that, even 

m the middle of the night. 

Forest stages are far more exciting and have 

considerably more atmosphere than those on the 

somewhat artificial roads of private estates and parks, 

but it is regrettable that the former have nothing like the 

available parking spaces of the latter. In recent years this 

has prompted the organisers not to disclose to the public 

the locations of most of the forest stages. Their motives 

were sensible, for no-one would thank them lor allowing 

traffic jams and indiscriminate parking to disrupt the 

progress of competitors who, after all, are the people the 

spectators want to see, hut this selective funnelling of 

spectators into just some of the available places has itself 

created congestion. Making more such places known to 

the public would lessen the con¬centration by spreading 

the spectators out a little more. It would certainly not 

attract a greater number of spectators for that reason 

alone, for already they travel substantial distances to 

watch the event, whilst the knowledgeable and astute 

among them (and there are many thousands) are-able to 

find the locations of secret stages and go there to watch, 

partly to get away from crowds and partly to witness 

what they consider to be the best action. Ironically, so 

many do this that crowds invariably gather, but at least 

they are largely enthusiasts who know exacrly what they 

are about. 

The rally itself was just the kind of contest which has 

produced this enviable reputation throughout the world. 

Indeed, it is an attraction not only for spectators, but for 

many competitors from other countries who, if they are 

unable to compete, consider it entirely worthwhile to 

come along just to watch. This year we met several such 

people from Europe and Scandinavia, and even from 

South Africa. 

What is more, the event has even become a Mecca 

for organisers of other international rallies, all anxious to 

publicise their own events among the largest gathering 

of international competitors to take place during the 

year. Meetings, receptions, film shows and the like have 

become so numerous in the few days before the start 

that it is quite impossible for anyone to visit all of them, 

although it is rather useful that the base town of the RAG 

Rally has become recognised as a distribution point for 

information concerning other rallies. 

The RAC Rally is considered by manu¬facturers’ 

teams to be one of the big publicity plums of the year, 

along with the Safari and, although not now as much 

as in the past, the Monte-Carlo Rally. Being part of the 

World Championship is of secondary importance; what 

really matters is the event itself, for it generates far more 

publicity around the world than the championship of 

which it is part. 

Since 1972 it has always been won by Ford Escorts, 

which says much for the suitability of those cars for the 

style of “forest racing” to be found in Britain, for the skill 

and rallymanship of those who drive them, and for the 

dedication and ingenuity of those who build and service 

them. Indeed, so successful have Escorts been in Britain 

(elsewhere too, of course) that it has become as| common 

to say that it’s hard to beat the Escorts in Britain as it has 

that it’s hard to beat the Finns in Finland. 

Fortunately, the event has never become regarded 

as an Escort preserve, and manu-facturers other than 

Ford continue to make determined bids to topple 

Boreham from its pedestal. It’s a kind of chain reaction, 

the more teams who want to challenge Ford, the more 

popular and competitive the event becomes, and that 

gives rise to a greater attraction for even more teams. 

It was all sparked off in the first place, of course, by 

the negotiations of some twenty years ago which resulted 

in the roads of Britain’s State Forests becoming available 

for use as special stages; superbly engineered roads, 

well founded and cambered, along which it is a positive 

delight to drive a car with spirit, determination and 

precision, or to see one so driven. Drivers, particularly 

Scandinavians, were quick to realise that British forest 

roads were so satisfying and exhilarating at high speed, 

and as professionalism advanced in rallying, so the 

works teams followed the paths trodden by the men they 

had hired to drive for them. 

But it has all become very costly, and nowadays the 

Forestry Commission has a standing charge based on the 

number of starters and the distance to be covered which 

all rally organisers, from the smallest to the biggest, must 

pay for the use of its roads. The RAC Rally, for instance, 

with 175 starters, was obliged to pay well over £100 for

every mile of forest road used, and that represents a huge 

chunk out of any budget. 

The levy is intended as fixed compensation for road 

surface damage, and we see no reason why it could not be 

dropped in lieu of a supporting government grant which 

rallying, as both a prestigious and income-bringing sport 

and a fine shop window for British car makers, deserves 

so much. Damage to roads must be put right, but this 

could so easily be covered by a paper transfer of funds 

so that the books of the Forestry Commission would not 

show a loss. 

Ford’s challengers this year were as numerous as 

ever, including three other British makes Vauxhall, Talbot 

and Triumph. Even some foreign makes were represented 

by British-based dealer consortiums or factory-backed 

offshoots The other works teams were those of Saab, 

Datsun, Toyota, Opel, Audi, Lada, Wartburg and Fiat, 

the latter with both Lancia Autobianchi as well. 

The Saab team has been the most faithful of 

overseas visitors to the RAC Rally, and even is the quiet 

time when the attentions of development engineers 

were turning from the 96 V4 to the Turbo they always 

came. Indeed, since Erik Carlsson notched up those three 

consecutive two-stroke victories at the start of the ‘sixties 

in November outing to the British forests has become 

almost a tradition in Trollhattan. 

Although Harry Kallstrom won twice with 

Fulvias in 1969 and 1970. Lancia has never won with 

a Stratos even though the team has tried many times. 

Many old Lancia loyalties have been smothered by the 

Fiat take-over, but this ambition persisted to such an 

extent that one of the very few remaining Stratos, a 

model now officially retired, was taken from beneath 

its wraps, refettled and brought over in a last ditch 

attempt to win an event which has eluded there for 

years. Alas, they got no more than fifth, whilst the 

team’s Fiat 131 Abarth finished even further down the 

list. Vauxhall had two Chevettes driven by a Scot and 

a Finn, Triumph five of their TR7 V8s driven by two 

Englishmen, a Swede, a Finn and an American, and 

Talbot a lone Sunbeam Lotus driven by Britain’s Tony 

Pond, It was a shame that the factory entered only one 

of these spirited little cars, for it performed so well 

that seasoned professionals among other teams were 

heard to remark that it was the most significant new 

car to appear in international rallies for quite some 

time. Alas, Pond hit ice, slid into a bridge, left the road, 

overturned and reined from the rally. 

Two Datsun Violets came from the Milton 

Keynes base of Team Datsun Europe, and three Toyota 

Celicas from the Cologne base of Toyota Team Europe. 

It seems that these Japanese factories both feel that 

the way to operate is to set up an outfit in the area 

where rallying is most concentrated, Europe. Neither 

is actually owned by its factory; they are both separate 

entities with contracts to operate on behalf of the 

manufacturers. 

An Ascona came from Britain’s Dealer Opel Team, 

providing Brian Culcheth with his last major drive 

before giving up competing in favour of a managerial 

post, whilst a Kadett came from the dealer consortium in 

Sweden, where such dealer operations first began many 

years ago, to be copied in many other countries. 

Audi, a company which has been increasing its 

rallying activities of late and plans an even greater 

increase in the future, brought three of their f.w.d. 80s, 

whilst there were the inevitable Ladas from Russia’s 

Avtoexport organisation and Wartburgs from East 

Germany, the only cars now left in rallying to herald 

their approach by that characteristic ring-a-ding-dong 

sound which, in Saab % days, was always likened to a 

swarm of bees. 

Ford had the biggest team of the lot with no less 

than seven Escorts being looked after by the leapfrogging 

fleet of service vehicles. Such a big team always 

presents a headache, for if loo many of them arrive too 

close to each other at a service point the mechanics arc 

hard pressed to give each one the attention it needs. They 

don’t always need attention, of course, but refuelling and 

tyre changing are always necessary, whilst it is better to 

spend a few minutes here and there having precautionary 

checks than to waste a much bigger chunk of time having 

some broken part replaced. 

Servicing is now such a large scale operation for 

every team and no doubt every private entrant that 

the number of vehicles involved is far greater than the 

number of competing cars. Before such support became 

so sophisticated it was possible to stop and have your 

car fettled by mechanics at any convenient lay-bay, verge 

or forecourt, but when the number of support vehicles 

began increasing the RAC began to regulate such 

matters. At first they specified where servicing could not 

be carried out, but nowadays they clearly define where 

it can, to the exclusion of all other places except private 

premises with their owners’ permission, and then only 

on certain roads. 

Teams overcame the carly rules by having service 

cars sitting just off those parts of the official route on 

which service was forbidden. They were not on the 

actual route, so the rule was not being broken. Nowadays 

there is no such loophole, but that does not stop teams 

using unmarked supervisory cars and support cars 

(the latter have to be registered with the organisers and 

display official numbers) to “patrol” sections of the route 

which are officially forbidden to service cars. If they are 

caught actually assisting a competing car, then that car 

can be excluded, but if the car is ailing and would retire 

anyway if not given immediate attention, then the risk is 

considered worthwhile. 

It can often be quite amusing to watch first 

the convoy of official service cars travelling to their 

prearranged locations, and then the unofficial ones 

prowling around forests exits and lurking in pub car 

parks, their crews endeavouring to appear as nonchalant 

as possible whilst all the lime their very presence is lor 

a most definite purpose. They are all linked by radio, of 

course, and some of them now use codewords for their 

positions in order not to give anything away on a radio 

channel which might have listeners other than those 

intended to hear. 

Each team has a most involved operation, and it 

takes a military strategist to co-ordinate it all efficiently 

and to produce written instructions for every man 

concerned, from team manager to sandwich maker. 

When there are so many teams taking part, each with 

intricate plans overlapping, the whole thing becomes a

very complicated cavalcade as it moves in leap-frogging, 

meandering groups of formations from one part of the 

country to another. 

For Ford it was a successful, if somewhat tense 

rally almost from the start. We say almost, for the 

positions achieved during the daytime on the Sunday, 

the first day, were little more than academic. The stages 

were relatively short, all in private parks and estates, 

and penalty differentials were so marginal that things 

changed almost as soon as the event got into real forests 

in Yorkshire. 

However, for Bjorn Waldegard. keen to keep his 

substantial lead over Hannu Mikkola for the title of 

World Champion for 1979. that first day was disastrous. 

On the first stage he ran wide into a ditch, across the grass 

and over a tree stump winch did considerable damage to 

his rear axle and left rear hub. His time was not so much 

greater than those of his rivals, but the incident had a 

rather demoralising effect on his stride and he was never 

quite in his customary form. Much later in the event he 

went off again, and even suffered a broken jack as he was 

changing a wheel after a puncture, the latter coming just 

before the long, important stages in Kielder Forests. He 

started them in quite the wrong frame of mind, and this 

must have contributed to his finishing position of ninth. 

In contrast Hannu Mikkola had an untroubled run 

from start to finish, the car behaving perfectly and the 

Finnish driver always appearing unruffled, perfectly 

composed and supremely confident For him and Arne 

Hertz it was their second successive victory in the RAC 

Rally, although Hertz has won it once before, as Stig 

Blomqvist’s partner in a Saab 96 in 1971. 

Mikkola’s ten championship points brings him 

within striking distance of Waldegard whose score of 

two points was his lowest of the year and could not 

even be counted at all since it was his eighth score, and 

only the best seven can count. Waldegard still leads, 

of course, but all now depends on the outcome of 

December’s Bandama Rally in the Ivory Coast, alas too 

late in the month to be recorded in this issue of MOTOR 

SPORT. Both will have driven Mercedes 450 SLC for 

the factory team, and Mikkola needs a high place, with 

Waldegard not too close behind him, in order to snatch 

the title from the man who has led the series for most 

of the year. 

Saab had a tough time, for both their Turbos were 

out in the first night of the rally, having had steering and 

drive shaft joint breakages, a few clouts with trees and 

water pump failure. The Stratos, although it did lead 

tor a time, had as much trouble as the Fiat, but both did 

struggle to the finish, Markku Alen doing rather well 

CO recover to fifth place. Leyland, or rather, BL cars, 

had an equally troubled rally, the highest of their TR7s 

being that of Per Eklund who finished thirteenth. Pentti 

Airikkala’s Chevette never sounded right from the start, 

and its overheating and low oil pressure was a constant 

source of worry that it would expire in a cloud of smoke 

and steam at any moment. But the Finn ploughed on. 

using his brakes so little in order to compensate for lack 

of power that he nudged almost every kind of obstacle 

he encountered and finished with a car which hardly 

had an undamaged body panel on it. Amazingly, he was 

eleventh. 

Two Toyota Celica’s stopped, one with clutch 

failure and both with injection pump troubles, leaving 

Tapio Rainio, the former Saab Finland driver, to finish 

in eleventh place. Of the two Datsuns one had various 

bothers including a roll, but Timo Salonen took his, a Gp 

2 car it should be noted, to a fine third place which must 

have pleased the Tokyo engineers immensely 

The distinction between Gp 3 and Gp 4 does not 

exist in the RAC Rally, tor these groups are linked in the 

same classes. However, the Op 1 cars are always involved 

in a hot contest and the winner on this occasion was New 

Zealander Alan Carter whose Escort RS2000 finished in 

nineteenth place overall. 

We must not forget the highest placed British 

driver, Russell Brookes who took a commendable second 

place after a tussle with Tony Pond ended when the latter 

driver’s Sunbeam Lotus went off the road. Ari Vatanen 

had been second in his Escort, but dropped a lew places 

during the second leg in Wales as a result of booking in 

too early at the Machynlleth time control. 

It is easy to find fault with something which stands 

out in the public eve. rather like the old saying that 

politicians make the best Aunt Sallies merely because they 

are ready targets, and indeed we have done so ourselves. 

But we have done so not just to point out shortcomings, 

more so that these little matters can be put right in the 

future. The rally remains a superb competition and we 

commend all those thousands of volunteers who worked 

hard to make it possible, and those who tackled the 

enormous administration. — G.P.

HISTORIC PREPARATION 

UNLIKE today’s Formula One teams, who have to begin 

preparation for the next season as soon as the present one 

is finished, those people involved in historic car racing 

have a clear period of some months in the winter to 

prepare for the next season. We paid a visit to some of the 

places where historic cars are being rebuilt or overhauled 

in readiness for “old car racing” in 1980, whether it be 

VSCC club events, or sponsored historic championship 

racing, and the colour section of photographs shows 

some of them. 

There never seems to be a shortage of historic cars 

for racing, and as we hinted last month, if you cannot 

find one you can make one and then produce the letters, 

photographs, race reports and so on afterwards to prove 

its authenticity. If you are surrounded by sufficient 

unknowledgeable and gullible people and your story 

sounds reasonable you have an historic car that isn’t 

questioned. It is only if someone starts delving into the 

past that you are likely to be found out and even than it 

is surprising what a bit of bluff can do. Popular remarks 

are “. . . it is one of the best documented cars . . .” or “. . . 

history was very grey around that period . , .”or”. . . noone 

really knows . . .”. Two cars that will be reappearing 

in racing in 1980 after long sojourns in museums are the 

Talbot-Lago and the Tipo B “monoposto” Alfa Romeo 

illustrated in colour on pages 68 and 69. 

The 4.5-litre Talbot-Lago Type 26C is number 

110007, of the l948 series, and was raced by-Louis 

Chiron for Paul Vallee’s Ecurie France, winning the 

1949 French GP. It then went to Australia where Doug 

Whiteford raced it and came to England some years 

ago. After a time of rest in the Donington Collection it 

passed through various hands in the used-car trade until 

it went to rest again in the Midland Motor Museum in 

Bridgnorth. It has now been bought by Robert Cooper, 

of Swindon, who will be racing it this season. It is having 

a cheek-over by Nigel Arnold-Forster at Bassett-Down 

Engineering and among the jobs to do is a modification 

to the cockpit side and the steering column to enable 

the tall Cooper to get in and out more easily. Originally 

these cars had Solex downdraught carburetters but at 

some time in its life this one was fitted with horizontal 

Weber carburetters. 

The Tipo B Alfa Romeo is one of the classic 

“monoposto” models, so often erroneously called a P3 

by casual journalists. This one belongs to Neil Corner 

and it has been sitting in the Donington Park racing 

car museum for many years, in fact, since the museum 

opened in 1973. It is number 5006 and was one of the first 

batch of cars built in 1932, but was uprated to comply 

with the new Formula rules that came into being in 

1934. The Scuderia Ferrari, who were running these Alfa 

Romeos at the rime, sold in to “Georges Raph” a French 

driver and in 1938/39 it came to England when it was 

bought by Mrs. Jill Thomas It then passed to Anthony 

Powys-Lybbe who raced it in numerous Irish events 

and then it passed into the ownership of various VSCC 

members. The last time we saw it in action was when 

Peter Waller drove it for Neil Corner in VSCC races in 

1972 so its reappearance in the hands of Vic Norman will 

be most welcome. It is one of the most original of the 

“monoposto” cars, though the engine had to be rebuilt 

using some sports-car components. It is now having 

a complete engine rebuild in readiness for the coming 

season and the chassis is seen awaiting this work to be 

done. It carries Scuderia Ferrari emblems on its bonnet 

as a legacy of the days when it was part of Enzo Ferrari’s 

team of Alfa Romeos. 

The historic racing scene should be enlivened this 

year if we have Cooper’s car racing against the Talbot- 

Lagos of Paul Grist and Richard Pilkington in the postwar 

category and Corner’s Alfa Romeo racing against de 

Cadenet’s similar car and the Maseratis of David Black 

and Bill Summers in the pre-war category. 

Although people have built replica Bugattis, 

Maseratis, Alfa Romeos. Mercedes-Benz and so forth, no 

one has vet produced a replica ERA, though one is said 

to be nearing completion and another is mooted! ERA 

history is very well documented and each car’s history 

is totally known, there are none of the convenient “grey 

areas” beloved of the restorers. R10B was the ERA 

bought new by Peter Whitehead in 1936 and raced very 

regularly by him and Peter Whitehead up to the war 

in 1939. It then passed to Graham Whitehead, Peter’s 

half-brother, who ran it for a number of years. As with 

all ERAs it ended up in the ranks of the VSCC and is 

now owned by American member Joel Finn, who keeps 

it in England. It is undergoing a total rebuild by Tula 

Engineering and has been returned to its original black 

colour, having spent many years painted dark green. 

It was black in the days of the Whitehead Walker 

partnership and was notable in those days for the way 

it was cornered on opposite lock with the tail well out 

of line and the rear wheels spinning, when Peter Walker 

was at the controls. As can be seen in our photographic 

feature the chassis and body are finished and it just 

awaits the engine and gearbox. 

Among the many specialist activities at Bassett- 

Down Engineering is the rebuilding of vintage racing 

engines and the more complex and challenging the more 

they seem to like them. One that has just been completed 

and is seen ready to be put on the dynomometer is the 

1.5-Litre Eldridge-Anzani, dating from around 1923/4. 

Ernest Eldridge, a skilled engineer of the vintage years 

built his own Eldndge Special racing car and evolved 

this engine using a side-valve 1.5-litre Anzani engine as 

a basis. A twin overhead camshaft layout was devised, 

driving the camshafts by roller-chains from the rear of 

the crankshaft, with an aluminium housing dove-tailing 

neatly into the Anzani crankcase The cylinder head 

was fitted with two sparking plugs to each cylinder 

and these were fired by twin magnetos mounted at the 

front of the camshafts. The vertical supercharger at the 

front of the engine was normal Anzani practice, the 

supercharged side-valve engines giving a very good 

power-to-weight output. The Eldridge twin-cam layout 

for this engine produced a very lively 1.5-litre vintage 

racing engine. The Eldridge Special itself seems to have 

been broken up many years ago and the engine was 

in a rather special Frazer Nash chassis some 35 years 

ago. The present owner intends to install it in a chassis 

built by Parry Thomas in the vintage years, to concoct a 

rather nice “period-piece”.

Another vintage “period-piece” seen in the 

background in the Talbot-Lago photograph is the 

Becquet Special, which Arnold Forster is hoping to get 

completed this year lor himself. The Frenchman Becquet 

built his first special in 1920, using a 1914 Grand Prix 

Alda chassis, into which he put a V8 Hispano-Suiza 

aero-engine of 1918/1919. This very compact and light 

aeroplane engine had a shaft-driven overhead camshaft 

to each bank of cylinders and was of 100 x 150 mm. bore 

and stroke giving 9,427 c.c. Becquet built this special for 

French hill-climbs and any free formula races that might 

be held. 

In 1923 Delage built a 2-litre V12 unsupercharged 

car for the Grand Prix, but it was not successful and a 

totally new design produced for 1924, still using the 

V12 engine. In 1925 these cars were supercharged and 

became one of the landmarks in Grand Prix design. The 

1923 car was abandoned and in 1925 Monsieur Becquet 

acquired it. Less engine, and installed his V8 Hispano- 

Suiza aero-engine in it, throwing away his primitive 

1914 chassis. He ran it in verious free-formula events, 

such as the Spanish GP in 1926 and in French races and 

hill-climbs As a Grand Prix Delage the car had a rear 

fuel tank that formed part of the long shapely tail, but 

Becquet removed all this and fitted a bolster tank and 

crude bodywork around it. The car rested in Switzerland 

for many years and some time ago was acquired by 

Arnold Forster and with it came the original Delage fuel 

tank, so it has not been too difficult, having the scuttle 

and the tank to build a new body as near to the original 

Delage one as can be seen by eve Various small parts 

were missing off the Hispano-Suiza engine but another 

one came to light recently so Bassett-Down Engineering 

have the interesting job of building up this V8 engine. It 

is wider and slightly bulkier than the original V12 Delage 

engine, so that the cylinder heads protrude from the sides 

of the bonnet, but what is fascinating is that this 9-litre V8 

engine weighs almost the same as the 2-litre V12 Delage 

engine. When completed this vintage “period-piece” will 

enliven the VSCC paddock, even if it doesn’t get as far as 

the. starting grid. 

The expression “... a total strip and rebuild . . .” is 

exemplified by Vic Norman’s 250F Maserati shown on 

stands in his workshop. At the time of calling in only 

needed the removal of the fuel tank-cum-tail, for the 

space-frame chassis to be laid completely bare. This is 

Maserati number 2527, which was the first of the famous 

trio of “lightweight” cars that formed the works team 

for Fangio, Behra and Schell in 1957. The first two cars, 

2527 and 2528, were actually completed before the end 

of 1956 for they were then put on a boat and sent to 

South America for the Argentine winter races. The third 

car, 2529, was completed later, in time for the European 

season. 

These three cars with lightweight chassis frames, 

the ultimate in Maserati drum brakes, five-speed gearbox 

and sleek, shapely bodywork are considered to be the 

best 250F Maseratis ever built. After these three Maserati 

built some V12-cylinder versions, that were never fully 

developed, and then the short wheelbase “piccolo” cars, 

one of which we illustrated last month, but none of these 

were so nicely balanced and forgiving as the trio of 1957 

lightweight ears. Norman’s car is having a total cleanup 

and check-over and the gold-painted frame is being 

restored to its original silver colour, in readiness for 

another season of historic racing. The second car, 2528, is 

owned by Neil Corner, and 2529 is in America. 

New to the historic scene this year will be a very 

interesting car, photographed at Crossland Engineering 

in Sussex. This is a 1960 Ferrari Dino single-seater into 

which the factory installed a 3-litre V12 sports car engine 

for wealthy New Zealander Pat Hoare. This was done 

at the end of 1960 for Hoare to use in the Tasman Races 

and in the recently published book by Doug Nye on the 

complete story of all the Dino Ferraris this car is illustrated 

on page 106. The photograph was taken on October 26th 

1960 at the Modena autodrome when the car was on test. 

It was chassis 0007 with which Phil Hill had won the 

Italian GP, using the original 2.5-litre V6 engine, and Nye 

gives a complete story on the car in his excellent book 

“Dino: The Little Ferrari”. In 1978 Neil Corner acquired 

the car, by now converted into a sort of road-going GT 

car, and Dick Crossthwaite and his men have put it all 

back into pure Tasman single-seater form. Fortunately 

the Kiwi conversion did not destroy much of the original 

car and they kept all the body panels and old bits, even 

parts of the tubular superstructure of the chassis around 

the radiator, so the rebuild job has not been as bad as 

some. In Corner’s capable hands this interesting car will 

be worth seeing, especially when he comes up against 

Willie Green in Anthony Bamford’s 2.5-litre V6 Dino 

Ferrari, that performed so well last season. 

Historic car racing in 1980 looks as though it is going 

to be very interesting and while some of the entries may 

be a bit short on history and a little suspect as to origins, 

we have a hard-core of genuine historic racing cars that 

will give pleasure to everyone, drivers, mechanics and 

spectators alike. — D.S.J.

VSCC FROLICS AT 

ENSTONE 

THIS YEAR the VSCC’s December Driving Tests again 

took place on the Enstone Airfield Complex near Oxford, 

mercifully in warmer weather than in 1978. We entered 

by a back lane, the various frolics to try drivers and cars 

laid out on the run-ways, over which a glider soared 

in the winter sky. One wondered whether the cars had 

monopolised its landing areas, so that the pilot was 

hoping for sufficient thermals to last him until the last 

vintage car had departed. . . . 

The entry numbered 46, a substantial two-dozen 

down on last year’s figure. Oldest car to undertake 

the ordeal-by-pylon was Reece’s 1911 Renault twoseater, 

which puttered happily about on its two 603 cc. 

cylinders. A star attraction, had the public been present, 

was Ian Young’s ex-MacMinnies’ 1918 Morgan Grand 

Prix three-wheeler, with side-valve, water-cooled JAP 

engine, an immaculate little car original even to its gas 

side-lamps and strap-secured one-man hood. It was 

driven to the venue and had the honour to start things 

rolling, carrying the unique competition number “0”, 

signifying that the Post office had lost Young’s entry. 

In this class entries ranged from the Renault as the only 

four-wheeled Edwardian to Angela Cherrett who had 

wisely come in the protection of her 1931 four-door 1750 

Alfa Romeo saloon. In this class, too, Tom Threlfall and 

his wife were sharing their rare 1924 BSA light-car, its 

“radiator” completely blanked-off to try to get the oil 

circulating in the air-cooled vee-twin engine, a crossedguns 

mascot riding high above it all. 

The girls had perhaps been attracted by an 

innovation on the part of the VSCC, a dinner-dance at 

Banbury afterwards. Anyway, Mrs. Harcourt-Smith 

was there in a nice 12-50 TE Alvis tourer, Janet Giles 

was giving Freddie a day off by conducting their TT 

Replica Frazer Nash (so ambitiously that she hit a marker 

under braking, at the conclusion of the third frolic), Mrs. 

Costigan was in the Ulster Austin, Mrs. Hogg was going 

well in the Edwards’ Ulster Aston Martin, but Mrs. Doey 

retired early when the cam followers of the Coventry- 

Climax i.o.e. engine in her 1937 Morgan 4/4 came 

unstuck. 

Ian Taylor was getting good results from a wellknown 

Austin Seven Chummy, a car in decidedly 

competition rig, which had arrived in an enormous 

van, the little Renault wore a label reading “This Side 

Up — Must Not Be Turned Over”, and it wasn’t, and 

we noted that fold-flat windscreens ranged from that 

on the Threlfall BSA, stripped of its spare wheel in the 

best racing tradition, to the one on Briscoe’s 1933 Alvis 

Firefly. Barry Clarke explained carefully to us his 1913 

Singer, thal inspite of its bolster tank, isn’t the TT Replica 

we thought it was but is simply a very spartan sports 

light-car. Peter Harris had forsaken his Bentley lor a 

30/98 borrowed from Brenda Rowley but wrong-sided at 

one pylon, Tony Jones demonstrated excellent anchorage 

in his 30/98, and Hill even more so in his Morgan 4/4, 

which stopped too soon in test-3. Marsh was content 

with his Oxford-engined four-speed Morris Sports. 

Another unpainted car, with bonnet-rivets as well, was 

Swann’s 3-litre Invicta. Horton’s Type 43 Bugatti gave 

us the authentic ring of engaging starter-teeth when he 

was ready to go, which unnerved the stop-watch, so he 

was given second stab at test-3, and Ash rode about in a 

very stark, pointed-tail Alvis 12-50 Special. Nice’s Ulster 

Austin was going well, tail out, as when Di Threlfall 

raced it, which caused her husband to pop stronger 

valve springs into their Ulster, and Lloyd, chauffeuring 

the aforesaid Renault, contrived to change-up in one of 

the tests, and the Costigan Austin Ulster actually boiled. 

It is pointless to try to describe what happened 

in the tests, except that Young bravely pushed his 

Morgan backwards when he had to. as no reverse was 

provided on this model; the engine was presumably 

running on Redline, from a can on the running-board. 

The results must speak for themselves, best performance, 

incidentally, being made by Joseland in his Frazer Nash 

Fast Tourer, just beating Hare’s Austin Ulster. — W.B.

Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four January 1980

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