For those interested in old cars.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, steve1 said:

Talking of magazines, I found this in amongst some of my old books. 

 

steve

 

 

That takes me back, 50 + years. I knew someone who was building one of the Geoff Jago model T hot rods. I don't know if it was ever finished.

[boxbrownie]

15 hours ago, 30801 said:

 

In Mini terms the 850 & 998 engines were surprisingly (to me) different considering the minimal change in capacity.

The 998 being designed to be much stronger for the strenuous job of propelling a Riley Elf. Different block, different pistons. Camshaft given the heady luxury of whitemetal bearings instead of just running in the block.

 

Body weight difference between the two was quite small, we raced a Riley Elf in Super Saloons albeit with a full race/sprint ‘S’ engine by Richard Longman, the extra boot length enabled us (not officially ) to lengthen the wheelbase an inch or so giving much better handling over normal Minis.

 

Pretty sure the 998 engine was just a cycle plan update of a very “long in the tooth” design by then, they knew the Mini was going to keep going in production and needed a more powerful engine to reflect competitor vehicles at the time who were intent on catching up, the special small engine was the 970 as in the original Cooper which was obviously designed for higher engine speeds (which it did admirably) for competing in the saloon car championship, they needed the continued competition success rolling in from the Monte Carlo wins.

 

Unfortunately I gave away all my BMC/BLMC Special Tuning manuals years ago, which gave fascinating reading.

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, steve1 said:

Talking of magazines, I found this in amongst some of my old books. 

 

steve

 

 

A supercharged A series in a dragster?  That is a first for me…..

[steve1]

41 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

A supercharged A series in a dragster?  That is a first for me…..

 

I seem to remember that, back in the day, it was quite well known.

 

http://www.stripduster.co.uk/site/Home.html

 

steve

Edited September 7, 2021 by steve1

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, steve1 said:

 

I seem to remember that, back in the day, it was quite well known.

 

http://www.stripduster.co.uk/site/Home.html

 

steve

We were roundy roundy, none of this brrm bang brake stuff 

 

It looks like a nicely prepared vehicle for sure.

[Rugd1022]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

Body weight difference between the two was quite small, we raced a Riley Elf in Super Saloons albeit with a full race/sprint ‘S’ engine by Richard Longman, the extra boot length enabled us (not officially ) to lengthen the wheelbase an inch or so giving much better handling over normal Minis.

 

Pretty sure the 998 engine was just a cycle plan update of a very “long in the tooth” design by then, they knew the Mini was going to keep going in production and needed a more powerful engine to reflect competitor vehicles at the time who were intent on catching up, the special small engine was the 970 as in the original Cooper which was obviously designed for higher engine speeds (which it did admirably) for competing in the saloon car championship, they needed the continued competition success rolling in from the Monte Carlo wins.

 

Unfortunately I gave away all my BMC/BLMC Special Tuning manuals years ago, which gave fascinating reading.

 

The venerable 970 S was a homologation special and many of them sat around in dealerships waiting to be shifted, find a genuine one now with its original engine and box and you're laughing all the way to the bank. Only 963 were made, 481 badged as Austins and 482 badged as Morrises.

[alastairq]

I once owned briefly, a mini cooper with the 1071 cc engine......just to add some flavour to the discussion...

[petethemole]

5 hours ago, steve1 said:

Talking of magazines, I found this in amongst some of my old books. 

 

steve

 

 

I have some of those, I subscibed for a year. I must dig them out of the lock-up and see if they will sell.  I went to Santa Pod a lot in its early years, it wasn't far from home.

[Rugd1022]

My current 'screen saver' pic on my PC, Roger Moore has so much to answer for.... 

 

 

In two episodes of 'The Persuaders!' the crew forgot to fit the fake 'BS 1' number plates in a couple of scenes, so it accidentally appeared with the 'PPP 6H' plates!

 

 

[boxbrownie]

20 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

My current 'screen saver' pic on my PC, Roger Moore has so much to answer for.... 

 

 

In two episodes of 'The Persuaders!' the crew forgot to fit the fake 'BS 1' number plates in a couple of scenes, so it accidentally appeared with the 'PPP 6H' plates!

 

 

In that colour it actually looks very nice indeed, I wouldn’t have thought so though.

 

Back in the 80’s I was asked to photograph the AM production (if you could call it that) line because so many US execs were insisting on visiting the factory “to see what we bought”, it was a real eye opener……I came away with the impression it was the best kit car manufacturer in the world (even if they were sold complete….mostly!) the best bit of the whole week was a secret visit to the garage/storage warehouse…….a very strange assortment of weird and wonderful colours and options, one had two doors on the drivers side of a LHD DBS for sale to a Japanese business man who wanted to carry his kids in the back and be able to exit on the pavement side when dropping them off, another had an interior that would rival the seediest whore house in Holland, with deep buttoned red velour type trim which surprise was being stored for a Middle Eastern customer who used it on his visits to the U.K. and was always delivered by AM to his hotel!

 

Its a different world for some.

[Rugd1022]

That must have been an eye opener! Some more AM goodies....

 

 

The late great Terry Thomas with the 'Bellini' in 'School For Scoundrels'....

 

Peter Sellers with his own DB4GT in 'Wrong Arm Of The Law'....

 

 

Roy Salvadori in a DBR1 at Le Mans in 1957....

 

Peter Ustinov with his DB2 (I think) in France in 1955, filming 'Lola Montes'....

 

Newport Pagnell in 1960 with a line of DB4s under construction, amongst them are two DB4GTs....

 

The first production DBS chassis number 5001 in 1967 with split DB6 style bumpers, this car appeared in an episode of 'The Avengers' in February 1968 driven by Nigel Davenport....

 

Another year later and it's been repainted a lighter colour and given a full width front bumper....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Rugd1022

[boxbrownie]

55 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

That must have been an eye opener! 

 

The late great Terry Thomas with the 'Bellini' in 'School For Scoundrels'....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yes, they had some amazing craftsmen working there and still using English wheels and butt welding the alloy bonnet sections, absolute artists!

One shocking revelation was at the end of the line at inspection there was a DBS V8 with a front wheel off and a chap grinding away, when I asked what was wrong my guide said upon visual inspection the front wheel was slightly out of centre with the front wing arch, so it was easier and a lot cheaper to realign by chopping, welding and making good the space frame front suspension cradle into alignment with the wheel arch!  Each panel was hand made and finished, let alone the paint work so a very slightly shorter wheelbase one side’t’other would make not a jot of difference on the road 

 

 

School for Scoundrels…….one of my all time favourites, absolutely brilliant.

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by boxbrownie

[RJS1977]

I'm pretty sure Terry Thomas was a passenger in BS1 in one episode of The Persuaders, too.

[steve1]

Abysmal but historically significant photos from the starting paddock at Heathrow of the RAC Rally. Think it was 1968 but could have been 1969.

 

steve

 

 

Edited September 10, 2021 by steve1
Correct years

[steve1]

Someone has a bit of work ahead of them. Seen in my village earlier today.

 

steve

 

 

[boxbrownie]

17 minutes ago, steve1 said:

Abysmal but historically significant photos from the starting paddock at Heathrow of the RAC Rally. Think it was 1976 but could have been 1975.

 

steve

 

 

It looks like your framing was getting ready for the mobile phone era 

[boxbrownie]

I assume taken on a Pen-F…….

[Rugd1022]

29 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

I'm pretty sure Terry Thomas was a passenger in BS1 in one episode of The Persuaders, too.

 

He was indeed, it was 'The Man In The Middle', first shown on 17th December 1971 with Terry playing Roger's uncle, the lovely Suzy Kendall was also a guest star in it....

 

 

 

 

 

[RJS1977]

I could remember that he was in an episode, my only doubt was to whether or not he travelled in BS1, but yes, he did:

 

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

He was indeed, it was 'The Man In The Middle', first shown on 17th December 1971 with Terry playing Roger's uncle, the lovely Suzy Kendall was also a guest star in it....

 

 

 

 

 

That’s an episode I would watch again 

[boxbrownie]

49 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

I could remember that he was in an episode, my only doubt was to whether or not he travelled in BS1, but yes, he did:

 

He might not have actually “travelled” in it, just sat in it at the studio while the bloody awful old fashioned background ran through 

 

I do hope he played the Uncle with a bit of tongue in cheek, I couldn’t imagine him any other way.

[steve1]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

I assume taken on a Pen-F…….

 

I really can't remember what camera I was using. Around that time I had a 110 Instamatic but the image size says 120 to me. It was most likely, going on the wonkiness of the images, a Penguin 120 I had. (Actually still have.)

 

steve

[Rugd1022]

27 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

He might not have actually “travelled” in it, just sat in it at the studio while the bloody awful old fashioned background ran through 

 

I do hope he played the Uncle with a bit of tongue in cheek, I couldn’t imagine him any other way.

 

Oh he definitely played it 'Terry Thomas style', he even did a few of his own stunts in some scenes! 

 

I bit of background info on 'BS 1'..... on Thursday 28th May 1970 Aston Martin Service Department employee Carl Seager was charged with driving it from the factory at Newport Pagnell down to Pinewood Studios, then from there he drove it to Nice where he arrived on 1st June in time for filming to start....

 

 

 

 

While filming in England took place in the Autumn and Winter of 1970 / 71 Roger Moore was given use of a brand new Range Rover....

 

 

in one of these English episodes a poor unfortunate VW Kharman Ghia went for a swim....!

 

 

While filming at Pinewood Tony Curtis took a test drive in the Jensen factory demonstrator Interceptor Mk2 (which appears very briefly in the episode 'Greensleeves')....

 

 

he subsequently ordered a brand new LHD Interceptor which he had delivered to the Studio, when filming was over he took it back to the US....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[boxbrownie]

15 hours ago, steve1 said:

 

I really can't remember what camera I was using. Around that time I had a 110 Instamatic but the image size says 120 to me. It was most likely, going on the wonkiness of the images, a Penguin 120 I had. (Actually still have.)

 

steve

Could have been, that’s a 6x9 roll film so if you held the camera “the right way up” it would have been portrait as your pictures are 

[boxbrownie]

Mr Curtis chose the best colour combination as well.