Bell's Banter 2022

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Peter, also a trip to the loo for my wife walking past in the background: laugh:

Noticed that! But are smoking regulations still being flaunted in bars and restaurants. Usually the main culprits were the Guardia Civil and Policia Locale when I was living there.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Noticed that! But are smoking regulations still being flaunted in bars and restaurants. Usually the main culprits were the Guardia Civil and Policia Locale when I was living there.

We see them flouted quite a bit but not in restaurants, however this particular bar is open to the elements at both ends and if the management tried to stop the band having their "splif" they would probably stop playing.
The cops do still (just turn up to have a look) get their free drinks and go away: laugh:

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Peter, also a trip to the loo for my wife walking past in the background: laugh:

Yes, I thought that it was Sue but too polite to mention it.

[Lancsbreaker]

Originally Posted by E.B

Not sure if I have posted this in here before although I posted in a decade ago at tenths.... it isnt specifically about a Transit V6 race car transporter but one does get involved. Anyway an amusing story on this link.
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126383

Happy days.

Thanks for that link, E.B - hadn't seen that before and some good tales....

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Yes, I thought that it was Sue but too polite to mention it.

Never had her hair cut for over 55 years, but I trim it for her sometimes. I often wonder what those 15/16-year-old schoolboys used to think about her when she worked at the school back when this picture was taken

[Gerard C]

[QUOTE=GORDON STREETER;4130040]I often wonder what those 15/16-year-old schoolboys used to think about her when she worked at the school back when this picture was taken Well I dont wonder what the schoolboys used to think about at that time. Why? Be cause I know!!!

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Well I dont wonder what the schoolboys used to think about at that time. Why? Be cause I know!!!

She used to walk past the garage that I worked at back in the 60s when she was a schoolgirl going to the local grammar school the picture was actually taken when she was 40 and worked at a boy's public school.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by andy97

Tyrrell were always my favourite team, probably because of Jackie Stewart and then the P34/6.
Interesting fact - Mercedes GP still has the same company regustration number as Tyrrell following the sale to BAR, then Honda, Brawn and Merc.
As for Goodyear, i remember the factory well, and they sponsored Wolves! I was at school with a lad whose father worked on the F1 tyres (and the Goodyear Airship) in the 70s. Later i played golf several times, through a good friend, with the former head of the Goodyear F1 test division.

Oddly I was a Lotus fan (influenced by Jim Clark being the first real F1 hero I became aware of back in the mid 60s) before getting a job a Tyrrell - that in itself being a rather random event when someone in part of my pub-visiting social circle happened to mention that there was a job going.

I left shortly after the P34 launch and early testing at Silverstone and went to work for ELF in the UK. The idea was that ELF were going to run a more-or-less full race Capri (but road registered) for the newly retired JYS to do promotional in-car filming before each of the European GPs. The car would be towed around Europe using, possibly, a Range Rover and as I had worked on some ELF/Ford/JYS promotions as well as the ELF UK Launch in the UK they thought I could do the transportation job for them. That sounded good to me and would keep the connection with Tyrrell going to some extent ...

However, it all seemed to be taking a while to pindown the details so the PR guy, a really nice bloke, ex WW2 Navy, and with a load of Big Oil company PR experience, persuaded me to join in an Oil Sales role working in the West Country (where he lived and was temporarily keeping an eye on a vacant sales territory as well as doing the PR stuff). I could then begin to understand the business,or at least the Lubricants side of it - the takeover of petrol stations was all handled by a different part of the operation - and be in the right place when the plan came together.

Like John mentioned in his experiences before, the expected job did not materialise and the concept was panned. I hung around for about 18 months but became somewhat disillusioned at the way things were going.

When a mate was sent up to the midlands to become GM of a motor caravan dealership and was looking for a known quantity to work with him (from memory he was only about 22 at the time) I decided that might be a good way out of lubricant sales given it was a "small UK company being absorbed into a large French Government Company" situation.

It turned out to be sort of frying pan to fire result in the end but that's a different story.

I can't remember who I used to see during the rare trips to Goodyear at Wolverhampton. Most of the tyre stuff was handled at tracks during GPs or test days but when private testing was undertaken and tyres were required we would go to the Racing Division operation which, from memory, was somewhere near Watford/Rickmansworth. That was quite useful once when I picked up a set of "part worn" rally knobbly tyres for my Mexico. £5 a tyre, "only used for a few miles stage testing ....", I needed to fit 2 of them due to tread-free fronts when I bought the Mex, but money was short to get the others fitted and the original rears were still good. And then I changed jobs, got a company car and the Mex sat unused for 6 months before I sold it, throwing the 2 unfitted tyres into the deal as I had no other use for them.

I never really experienced the full potential of the Mexico. Dunlop SP68s on the front and Goodyear knobbly rally stage tyres on the back made for some interesting handling traits.

[John Elwin]

Yes Grant, being in the right place at the right time was very much part of it in the racing business but I think we all rather accepted as being 'the norm'.

It brought it home to me when an old school friend, who spent his entire working life with British Gas remarked to me one day that I always did seem to like taking things a bit risky. I bet I had more fun though!

Wonder what it is like these days? Can't imagine there is much fun around the Austrian & the Spice Boy at Red Bull!

[GORDON STREETER]

As a lot of my family got "interested" in motor racing because of me, my great nephew now works at Mclaren on the design side

[S griffin]

My Aunt worked for Prodrive. Knew some great names from the world of rallying and tin tops. Colin Mcrae and Ari Vatanen were her two favourites due to their nice personalities

[midgetman]

Genuine ex-Jim Clark, Goodwood legal

[The Fat Clerk]

Wow,
How much will that go for?

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by The Fat Clerk

Wow,
How much will that go for?

Probably more than it is worth!

I think I am correct in saying it was cobbled together in the US fairly recently, not 1965 as then it would have been an 'Airflow' car.

[The Fat Clerk]

Best avoided then?

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by The Fat Clerk

Best avoided then?

It might well be a very nice, well-built car but I suspect not genuine.

[John Elwin]

....would make the ideal tow-car for Dr Bob's Elite though!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by John Elwin

Probably more than it is worth!

Of course - something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

[crmalcolm]

The Only One Ever Made: A 1965 Ford Cortina Lotus Mk 1 Estate Custom

$100,800 USD | Sold

[Lancsbreaker]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

The Only One Ever Made: A 1965 Ford Cortina Lotus Mk 1 Estate Custom

$100,800 USD | Sold

Much as I love a Mk1 estate......that seems a tad expensive

Especially when I note that the article says an estimate of $35K - $50K !

[morninggents]

Although the article mentions the car was fitted with Lotus Cortina suspension it looks from the front that the longer Lotus track control arms have not been fitted as it looks to me to have positive camber as opposed to the original slight negative camber.
Of course it might just be an optical illusion!

[John Elwin]

Noted that too - the RH front looks decidedly iffy.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Although the article mentions the car was fitted with Lotus Cortina suspension it looks from the front that the longer Lotus track control arms have not been fitted as it looks to me to have positive camber as opposed to the original slight negative camber.
Of course it might just be an optical illusion!

Would be about right, perhaps, if it lacked an engine when the snap was taken.

Or maybe it is set up for the drag strip?

I always thought the Cortina could look interesting with a Jenson Interceptor style rear hatch.

Better still for that sort of styling would have been the Mk4 Zephyr/Zodiac.

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by grantp

Would be about right, perhaps, if it lacked an engine when the snap was taken.

Or maybe it is set up for the drag strip?

I always thought the Cortina could look interesting with a Jenson Interceptor style rear hatch.

Better still for that sort of styling would have been the Mk4 Zephyr/Zodiac.

Sort of like the Renault 25? Or even a Saab, the type number of which I forgot.

In a funny sort of way I've come to quite like the Mk4 Zephyr/Zodiac - the styling at least.

[andy97]

I do wish more companies had built/ build Scimiter GTE type cars.

The last ones I can think of are the Alfa 156 estate and the BMW Z3 Coupe. I always thought Jaguar missed a trick by not put a “Lynx Eventer” type car into production, and Porsche built similar protypes of the 928 and 944 I think but never productionised them. Shame.