All our yesterdays...

[Nemesis]

Well, it's period property of a sort... but if you look closely there's a bit of my period property in this clip, and that's me in the yellow hat.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa7w0xlL0Rg

 

[Moo]

A very fetching hat, Nem. Not so sure about the beard, though.

 

[Nemesis]

All classic sports car owners have to have one. And a pipe.

The bearded one was the yellow hat after mine. My car is Standard Triumph British Racing Green.

Maybe one day I will post the entire event video. If I ever find out how.

(Paddy Hopkirk was first in a Min, although he said he would rather have been in my 2. He did graciously help fix it at one point.)

http://www.smithmaps.fsnet.co.uk/retrospective.htm


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q5ug9NMB3Bs

 

[Penners]

that's me in the yellow hat.

Well, call me old-fashioned, but I think you might at least have shaved, if you were going to be interviewed on t'telly.

 

[Penners]

Sorry - just realised that I was a bit slow off the mark with that joke. That jolly japester, Moo, beat me to it.

 

[Nemesis]

Actually, it was quite amusing. It was a pretty mega event with some international superstars (and me) but the TV folk sent local camera crews to the start to give local reports.

Interviewer: And how do you think this old car will fare wiith over three gruelling days of road, track , tests and special stages?

Me - Oh, no problem at all, as well as being used regularly for competition it is used for everyday transport etc etc... built like a tank - rugged reliable British car, a TR2 won the RAC in 1954, etc etc... blah blah...

So - crew sets up shot of us driving off...


Me - after the starter solenoid had failed to work - Em - could you and the camera crew please give us a push for a bump start? Pretty please?

And the other half has not been ever allowed to forget the Mr Boddy report in Motorsport, re the brake fade on the driving test at Blenheim on the Vanbrugh bridge:

TR2 - overshot the mark.


(Still, we did very well, despite having no mega backup crew and breaking the rocker shaft at the start of the final day.)

 

[skier-hughes]

The good old days when a car broke down you could fix it

 

[Penners]

Push-rods and rocker shafts, eh? They don't build 'em like that any more.




Thank goodness.

 

[Nemesis]

With a few tools in the boot - and when a rocker shaft broke you carried on, and finished the event.

I do recall one race meeting we had three other cars jacked up in the paddock and borrowed bits for a race, only to return them at the end (yes they were friends...).

A gearbox out and clutch change in under an hour...

And a through the night drive to darkest Herts to dismantle a front hub attached to a chassis, housed in a wasteland of nettles as the front one had broken (OH - 'I was just driving along (this on the Brands GP circuit) and this wheel overtook me and I thought it looked familiar...') by torchlight, back to the paddock, fix the car, so it could race again the next day.

We must have been mad. Or just young.

 

[Nemesis]

Push-rods and rocker shafts, eh? They don't build 'em like that any more.




Thank goodness.

Well we are...

And our mate Neil is carrying on the tradition. But with some modifications.

http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=102&i=8483

http://www.revingtontr.com/shop/default.asp

No doubt he will be working on an electric version next.

 

[chuckey]

Hm, starter solenoid failed, Ah yes, the benefit of having Lucas electrics!
Frank