Quote:
Originally Posted by dikko
I have recently taken on a project in the form of a Merlyn Mk 17 FF which has (to my inexperienced knowledge) an unusual feature in the form of a 'Y' - shaped brake pedal allowing left-foot braking. The car hasn't raced for 25 + years and it has a sticker with Newbridge racing on it. It also has an aluminium screen in place of it's (normal?) perspex one. Anybody recognise racing/working on it?? It went to Norway where it has been in hibernation since... Hope you can help. PS Clive Haywood at CRD is checking it out too.
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After posting a few nights back about an unusual merlin which at the time I thought could possibly have been John Mutters Mk 11that I had driven at Thruxton one time.
I got to thinking about it again in bed & recalled Newbridge Racing did for a time have a customer with a Mk 17 merlin, digging out my oldest phone book I called the guy, Robert Eyers or Bob the Pube as he was nicknamed, he confirmed that I had built & fitted his brand new engine & had a days testing with him at Llandow.
He did later paint the car a similar yellow to our 3 Dulon teams cars, his Merlin nosecone was painted darkish blue, there was no stripes on the car at all, & his buddy who sometimes helped him out with the car was a local Southampton lad named Trevor.
Interestingly one race day when we were all competing down at Llandow I must have been well up in the running to win the Welsh FF championship & my Dulon had in practice developed an insurmountable rear wheel bearing problem, oh dear !
Bob generously offered me his Merlin for the championship FF race & after some serious adding of foam + an old coat or two for comfort we had a discussion with the clerk & I was allowed to race it in the FF event finishing well enough up to keep championship hopes alive.
Bob raced in the Libre event after the FF race the same afternoon.
After a year or 3 competing in FF & Libre Bob advertised the car for sale, some while later a very very tall guy from NORWAY phoned Bob in Southampton & later turned up with his tiny girlfriend & with cash sterling the Mk 17 was bought less engine.
The new owner was Bob says then going to drive from Southampton up to Birmingham to 1st purchase an FF engine then have a week or so holiday in UK with his girlfriend who intended to go shopping in Carnaby St London, he called Pubes some 2 weeks later thanked him for a good deal on the Merlin & was never heard from again.
Bob confirmed yesterday that the Norwegian chap must have done the brake pedal mod in Norway, as when his Merlin MK 17 left Uk it had standard pedals, it did also have 2 early type Newbridge Racing stickers on the car.
Today is 12th Oct 2014, Bob is sending me a photo of his MK17 in the next few days, if you are interested mail me
tonybroster@aol.com
It's 100% correct correct to say that I never owned a MK 17 Merlin but I had built & fitted the new FF engine with Bob into his blue/ yellow Mk 17,
done a full chassis set up in the Newbridge workshops, had a days Llandow testing & later raced Bobs car just once in a sometime later FF 1600 championship event at Llandow.
A very belated Thank You again Robert Eyers for the generous loan of your race car that day.
I do thanks to Bobs memory have the Norwegian buyers name on a bit of paper here somewhere, & from what you posted & what Bob says there can be no doubt that it simply has to be his old Mk 17 Merlin.
I trust if you ever get to read this that it helps you out, Let me know hey.
Bros.