Take a 2019 Tea Break with Delta

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Willmaz223

Was wondering if anyone has any idea what happened to the supposed Aston Martin race series that was meant to be at the Classic and Spa 6 Hours.Seems to have disappeared of the latters timetable so thinking it maybe have been canned as a series.Hope not as it seemed a like a good idea.

I suggest it’s got a lot to do with this...... (read it )

https://www.theguardian.com/business...CMP=GTUK_email

[bauble]

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/cycling/...96/story.shtml

So you think you have a fast car! Dream on.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by bauble

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/cycling/...96/story.shtml

So you think you have a fast car! Dream on.

“We think we can go supersonic”....... Really?

[Lancsbreaker]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Lancs can you adjudicate in the Great Imp Clutch Riddle above? I'm sure a statement from the club would settle it once and for all.



Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I was biting my tongue when I saw the post about an Imp with a cable clutch Never, ever has a production Imp had other than hydraulic operation....I don't know of any non-production ones, either, but I'm covering my back

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I suggest it’s got a lot to do with this...... (read it )

https://www.theguardian.com/business...CMP=GTUK_email

Great article Mike. Very enlightening. Thanks for the link.

I must confess to prior ignorance of AM's perilous state... I thought they were doing rather better.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

I was biting my tongue when I saw the post about an Imp with a cable clutch Never, ever has a production Imp had other than hydraulic operation....I don't know of any non-production ones, either, but I'm covering my back

But of course, as mentioned on here before, it was infamous for originally being fitted with a pneumatic accelerator...... Someone must have thought it a bright idea!

[GORDON STREETER]

Watching Michael Portillo tonight I saw that he was up your neck of the woods Mike Bell.

[Lancsbreaker]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

But of course, as mentioned on here before, it was infamous for originally being fitted with a pneumatic accelerator...... Someone must have thought it a bright idea!

Not many left with that - my first one was a 64 model and when I got it in 69 it had been converted to cable throttle and a manual choke.



On the Alfa theme, we rallied a Sud Sprint - successfully in the 1300 class on tarmac stages, but less effectively on the loose, and I did a few road rallies in my Sud Super. A good few years back I acquired a couple of Giulia saloons, one of which is left-hand drive, with no documentation - which I intended to convert for historic racing.....it might still happen, but for now they are both back-burner projects. Of course as the Coupe prices have increased markedly the saloon prices are following them so even though worth nothing like a Lotus-Cortina (one of which I stuffed through a stone wall back in the mid-70s (sob) ) their value is increasing. Some years later I bought a trackday prepared 75 twinspark....and then we got the race 75 V6 so the TS is another project cluttering up my unit



I'm much better at buying cars than I am at selling them


Anyway off to the Netherlands in a day or two to attend the Dutch Alfa Club's Spettacolo Sportivo at Zandvoort - so for a couple of days at least I'll be with people who "get" Alfas

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by E.B

Great article Mike. Very enlightening. Thanks for the link.
I must confess to prior ignorance of AM's perilous state... I thought they were doing rather better.

No problem. It says it like it is! Those that did rather well out of the AM flotation include the Venture Capitalist firm that owned a majority share up until then. They now have a majority stake in Morgan, so fingers crossed that company doesn’t suffer the same fate.......

Shame as AM have some fantastic cars in their range (at fantastic prices), but there’s a lot of World and industry problems facing manufacturers at the moment. Some race programs can be justified if they help sell cars, but not sure about the one you mention- sounded more like a ‘vanity project’ to me......

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Watching Michael Portillo tonight I saw that he was up your neck of the woods Mike Bell.

Was that in his railway series? Ignoring his ‘dress sense’, that was quite watchable......

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I suggest it’s got a lot to do with this...... (read it )

https://www.theguardian.com/business...CMP=GTUK_email

Author is one Jasper Jolly.


Any relation to a well known racer with the same (unusual) surname?

[Willmaz223]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I suggest it’s got a lot to do with this...... (read it )

https://www.theguardian.com/business...CMP=GTUK_email

I did.

Didn't get all of it but enough to get the gist of things

Oh dear.Not good.Shame as it was again a good idea looking at the success of its Le Mans support race.

[Willmaz223]

Originally Posted by bauble

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/cycling/...96/story.shtml

So you think you have a fast car! Dream on.

This is one of the few places I can escape from cycling and my dads obsession with it.Now this .

174.That is some going.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Willmaz223

This is one of the few places I can escape from cycling and my dads obsession with it.Now this .

174.That is some going.

Quite impressed that the Cayenne could reach that speed in the available space with the shed on the back.

Being pulled along at 174 in the shed a couple of feet behind a car sounds like an unnerving sort of experience.

Presumably they have run several tests to get to that point. Kudos to anyone brave enough to take it on as a challenge.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by grantp

Quite impressed that the Cayenne could reach that speed in the available space with the shed on the back.

Being pulled along at 174 in the shed a couple of feet behind a car sounds like an unnerving sort of experience.

Presumably they have run several tests to get to that point. Kudos to anyone brave enough to take it on as a challenge.

I was staggered when Guy Marting broke the then UK cycling speed record at 112mph behind a racing truck. A few years ago now.He mentions in this he wants to do 200mph.

Who will get there first.... Guy Martin or Neil Campbell (I trust he is not part of that Campbell family known for speed records)"

Hats off to anyone keen / brave enough to want to do 200mph on a bike.

Guy Martins ride

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT0eJXtrwHg

[VIVA GT]

I remember some years ago similar thing being done behind a Group A Rover. I don't remember the cyclist's name, but they used one of the Bastos SD1's with a huge shed type fairing on the back, the car was driven along the (unopened) M45 Motorway from Coventry and I think there was also an observer in the car sitting in a seat facing backwards so he could see the cyclist. I'm sure there's footage of this somewhere on the interweb.

[Peter Mallett]

Driven by Geoff Allam IIRC.

[Peter Mallett]

Correction: Driven by Win Percy:

http://www.theroaringseason.com/cont...Cycling-Record

[VIVA GT]

OK, so it was the M42!¬
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmpxJWAJbFM

[midgetman]

Funnily enough the old record behind a 935 came up on my FB timeline this week too. Can't find it or I'd post the photo here.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Mike Bell]

None of those as cool as the truck Guy rode behind!

[bauble]

"BECOME WHAT YOU ARE" José Meiffret
"In case of fatal accident, I beg of the spectators not to feel sorry for me. I am a poor man, an orphan since the age of eleven, and I have suffered much. Death holds no terror for me. This record attempt is my way of expressing myself. If the doctors can do no more for me, please bury me by the side of the road where I have fallen."
Anyone who's familiar with the life story of motorcycle racer Burt Munro and his world record breaking rides on his highly modified 1920 Indian Scout will instantly identify with the life story of José Meiffret, the world record breaking cyclist. Munro's life as a motocycle racer was popularised in the 2006 film The World's Fastest Indian. Setting his first world record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 1962 at Speedweek, Munro recorded a speed of 288 km/h with his engine bored out to 850cc's. If you've seen The World's Fastest Indian you'll know the anticipation that surrounded the run of the forty two year old Indian Scout with it's 63 year old rider on board. Munro's record was set only a few weeks after José Meiffret scorched down the Autobahn near Friedburg Germany to set the fastest speed ever recorded by a bicycle rider of 204.93708 kmh on July 19 1962. (Currently held by Fred Rompelberg - 268,831 km/h) It was a significant hallmark of the era, men who made the most of exceedingly restricted circumstances and as a consequence were cut of steel.
Meiffret was an orphan who took to bicycle racing as a child. In Clifford Graves' account of Meiffret's life he wrote about the despair felt by Meiffret at being laughed at by his fellow competitors, after he was dropped in his first ever bike race. Meiffret took a long hard look in the room of mirrors and understood what the doctors assessment meant about his weak heart. In disagreement with his fellow racers and his doctor, Meiffret doggedly hunted down Henri Desgange to seek advice. Desgrange dispensed this "Try motor-paced racing, my boy. You might surprise yourself."1


Google Jose Meifret for pictures.

And there's more.
Meiffret's records below show he shared one other thing in common with Burt Munro, he wasn't afraid of racing and training at an advanced age relative to what he was trying to achieve. Meiffret still clocked 146,341 km/h at the age of 59 in 1973. Today Meiffret's 130 tooth chain ring has become legendary, befitting of his admittance into the League of Steel Willed Wheelmen.
87,918 km/h 7 Sept 1949 - Aged 35
104,880 km/h 7 Feb 1950 Aged 36
109,113 km/h 27 Oct 1973 Aged 59
139,500 km/h 5 Oct 1950 Aged 36
144,578 km/h 27 Oct 1973 Aged 59
146,341 km/h 27 Oct 1973 Aged 59
175,609 km/h 13 Oct 1951 Aged 37
176,500 km/h 29 Sept 1961 Aged 47
176,557 km/h 2 Nov 1951 Aged 37
178,926 km/h 12 Nov 1961 Aged 47
186,625 km/h 12 Nov 1961 Aged 47
204,778 km/h 19 July 1962 Aged 48
For a full account of significant speed records set on bicycles go to Fred Rompelberg's site. 1,2,3Full story by Clifford L. Graves titled Date With Death
MORE BIKE RACER STORIES

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

None of those as cool as the truck Guy rode behind!

I must admit I like an unusual truck. I hate to think the power /torque the one in the GM clip, given it was doing over 110mph with a windbreak stuck on it. They wanted to go faster but were thwarted by a wheel bearing failure.... be it truck or bike I dont know.

In Aus I have been watching a TV show called Outback Truckers.... follows a group of private operators and their big triple trailer rigs crossing some of the most horrific (unmade) roads on the planet, coping with floods roads closed and collapsing. Crossing rickety bridges the width of the trucks. Quite an eye opener. Not sure if you get it in the UK, but there are plenty of episodes on YT.

Here is a brief 'trailer' for want of a better word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLdz0qnsehE


Found this clip not from the show, but a group of truckers needing to move thousands of cattle and having to deal with a burst river and soft mud where the road was. 5 Prime movers all linked together with each pulling 3 double deck fully loaded trailers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmm51fAxVPQ

[E.B]

The Jose Meifret story that Bauble was mentioning a couple of posts previous had me googling for more info and pics .... found some of his 'tow'/ shield car, an MB 300SL Gullwing, but what staggered me was the 120 tooth drive gear.... almost the size of the front wheel.

Thanks for the story Bob. Oh and yes I have watched the Worlds Fastest Inian more than once and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Mike Bell]

I’ve watched an episode of ‘Outback Trucker’. Some of the stuff makes the M25 on a Monday morning look a piece of cake....

I’ll watch the vids later!

Was wondering how fast a modern artic tractor circa 440-500bhp would go without a limiter. Very much doubt it would get anywhere near the Race truck Guy used.......