Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[ron54]

Jack, Tell us about the Cossie... was that during the Bill B era or the the newer version??

[jackiewilson]

Jack, Tell us about the Cossie... was that during the Bill B era or the the newer version??

Gonna have to dig deep into your mind-----and mine,----even I am not bloody clairvoyant, now do you want to know about the "LOTUS ÉLAN " that was K.D/s own car-----or the BDG engined Cortina Estate that Bill Brown found the engine for-----that we put a corsair gearbox and diff. In,
That thing was so far ahead of its time, went like S--t of a Teflon coated shovel, would run 120+ mph. Used to get all the wannabe boy racers on the south water by-pass and take money off them all. Like "The Beach Boys" used to sing------------WE ALWAYS TAKE MY CAR 'COS ITS NEVER BEEN BEAT.
My wife (driving the Cosworth), once conned a GTO Ferrari into chasing her onto a roundabout , she made it round------the Ferrari didn't -----it all ended in arms and legs and blood, snot and tears and a rather large insurance claim.
Or did you mean the first 2liter BDG Cosworth Miles boat, Bill Brown and I put together---there was some good history there -----with some bile and bitterness chucked in before we finally parted company ( that was after the Carlsberg sponsorship that Bill wanted 100% of)
Long before that happening I had done a deal with Garbrecht and bought a big old fully rigged Keith Black engined Jones KT----and shipped it over for "The Duchess of York" trophy at Chasewater
Ran four more 2 liter Cosworth---Hodges and a Scimitar.
Or did you mean the 3 liter DFV V8 32 valve 20' Hodges?.. That's it for today MGGWY.J.

[ron54]

Ha Ha ,wouldn't take much of a spade to dig into my mind,very thin top soil there!...I was meaning the Cortina, that would be some chariot today
let alone in the last century..

Better still tell us a bit about each of them them.. bit by bit in episodes.. y'know like Dickson of Dock Green.
Imagine it.....Great cars I have known/Great boats I have known/Great girls I have kn.......weeel maybe not the last one too much!!!!!remember all that
fuss with that D.H.Lawrence book....

[powerabout]

Hiya Steve, long time no hear-----good to hear all about your family coach business .
Ill lay money the Indian was an ex WD bike-----they were for sale in a a motor cycle shop down Manningham Lane---for £25 ---- That was my old stamping ground, where I served my apprenticeship to become a Master Baker under the. Watchful eye of old man Holdsworth, a Swiss chocolatier -----this was long before the PAKI INVATION---the locals moved out and the Punjabis moved in.
My first bike was a 1936 -----650cc Triumph Twin With a Steib Sidecar----took it off and ran it Solo.
Next up was a Triumph Speed Twin----sprung hub and a nacelle headlight.
Then a 1951 Thunderbird----Followed by an MG----TA,, Swopped it for a V 12 Lagonda---drop head
Next a J 2 Allard all before I was 20 years old. That's enough about me for today,
Will get to some of the cars I owned if you remind me, including ----Lotus Élan ----Cosworth Ford----Porshe ---9/11S---Ferrari--Dino---------Aston DB 8 ----and a bunch more----that's all for another day. It's been a funny old day-----MYGGWY. J.

Nice taste in cars Jackie
you dont happen to have the Lagonda or the Allard do you?

[jackiewilson]

Nice taste in cars Jackie
you dont happen to have the Lagonda or the Allard do you?

I suppose we're all good at being very wise after the event------any one of the cars we had as nippers-----both sides of the pond----would be worth a tad more today than they were back then.
Lagonda did 12 mpg so no one wanted it in 1949----I gave £10 and my push bike for it complete with 10" headlights and wire wheels. (Today's value around the $ 1,000,000 mark).
Allard was a J2 with a V8 lump in it----I bought it after a wee shunt with a snow drift just outside Chamonix whilst it was being driven in The Monte Carlo Rally----swopped for Lagonda and £10.
You have to remember in the late 40/s you could have bought any green or red label Bentley for around $150,----all the student doctors at Guys and St. Thomas's hospital had them until they found the mini----then the market was flooded with unwanted vintage bentleys.

[jackiewilson]

My friend Chas had just bought this gaillow fly (yellow) Ferrari Dino and enthused for a week about the damn thing and got my "I want one of those things" taste buds tingling.
Was just passing through Shamley green on my way to Guildford-----now there is one of these car showrooms that cater for " entrepreneurial " and discerning enthusiasts------in other words-----rich bitches and spoiled bastards. Right in the centre of the showroom window was a yellow Dino Ferrari.
Now anyone who has ever met me( cruise liners at the captains table being the exception) will confirm I am not the best dressed dude in the street, nor do I purport to be-----and this time was no exception! waltzed right in there and kicked the tyres -----ran my fingers over the gleaming yellow coach work and had an immediate orgasm------whereupon this slick haired "tricky dicky" of a super salesperson came out of the traps like a derby winner, waving his arms about like a poor demented purveyor of fine motor carriages, pulls his handkerchief and wipes my offending finger marks from the aforementioned vehicle and yells at me (no touchy Feely Feller)!!! it does not take a great deal to piss me off normally and this wasn't exactly normal---- I can tell you----the occasions when you rush out and buy a Ferrari Dino are exceedingly few and far between. Well, to my credit, I never touched the little s--t-----I just told him to get the manager before he found my left trainer buried five lace holes deep. Surprisingly he did just that------turned out he was a chap who had bought a complete rig only two weeks before and I had towed it down to Nice where his 110' motor yacht was berthed. Easy peasy from there on in------- the final deal was a 12' Avon+ 3hp Mercury and £3,000in oncers and I topped up with a 2,000 mile Yellow Ferrari Dino. More at bedtime.

[STEVERINO]

Gonna have to dig deep into your mind-----and mine,----even I am not bloody clairvoyant, now do you want to know about the "LOTUS ÉLAN " that was K.D/s own car-----or the BDG engined Cortina Estate that Bill Brown found the engine for-----that we put a corsair gearbox and diff. In,
That thing was so far ahead of its time, went like S--t of a Teflon coated shovel, would run 120+ mph. Used to get all the wannabe boy racers on the south water by-pass and take money off them all. Like "The Beach Boys" used to sing------------WE ALWAYS TAKE MY CAR 'COS ITS NEVER BEEN BEAT.
My wife (driving the Cosworth), once conned a GTO Ferrari into chasing her onto a roundabout , she made it round------the Ferrari didn't -----it all ended in arms and legs and blood, snot and tears and a rather large insurance claim.
Or did you mean the first 2liter BDG Cosworth Miles boat, Bill Brown and I put together---there was some good history there -----with some bile and bitterness chucked in before we finally parted company ( that was after the Carlsberg sponsorship that Bill wanted 100% of)
Long before that happening I had done a deal with Garbrecht and bought a big old fully rigged Keith Black engined Jones KT----and shipped it over for "The Duchess of York" trophy at Chasewater
Ran four more 2 liter Cosworth---Hodges and a Scimitar.
Or did you mean the 3 liter DFV V8 32 valve 20' Hodges?.. That's it for today MGGWY.J.

A short while ago I drove a friends VW Golf 2.0 petrol 4wd with 500hp @ 7500rpm I can tell you Jackie you wouldn't want to be a passenger in it he tells me it does 0-100 mph in 10 seconds and it feels like it`the only thought I had was it would make a fast boat engine if you could tame it` all from a stock VW engine block?.

[ron54]

Ahh Ferrari! was there ever a name more synonymous with heartbreak & tragedy....my pal from little school's dad had just got a red 250 GTO direct from the Colonel, what a thing..it looked and sounded like a spaceship to us yokels brought up on Ford Pops and rusty Vauxhalls,I decided to aim high
and that one day I would have a Ferrari.. any Ferrari.

All these fanciful ambitions took a back seat over the ensuing years (as they do) until Chas came down to Dons for an "old pilotes" weekend in the
246.Being the big hearted guy he was he took Charlie Sheppard then Yours Truly out for a hoon.......Charlie wisely decided to stick to his Merc, whilst
I decided to carry on saving........

Well you did say you wanted folks to talk to yo

[jackiewilson]

Ahh Ferrari! was there ever a name more synonymous with heartbreak & tragedy....my pal from little school's dad had just got a red 250 GTO direct from the Colonel, what a thing..it looked and sounded like a spaceship to us yokels brought up on Ford Pops and rusty Vauxhalls,I decided to aim high
and that one day I would have a Ferrari.. any Ferrari.

All these fanciful ambitions took a back seat over the ensuing years (as they do) until Chas came down to Dons for an "old pilotes" weekend in the
246.Being the big hearted guy he was he took Charlie Sheppard then Yours Truly out for a hoon.......Charlie wisely decided to stick to his Merc, whilst
I decided to carry on saving........

Well you did say you wanted folks to talk to yo

More than anything, I want as many people as possible to talk on this site, it's about all of us, hopes, heartbreaks, what we nearly did, and a lot of what we actually did, so please, everyone join in anytime.
Oh dear, oh dear, what have you done? If I get onto the capers that Chas and I got up to on long summer evenings ----for no particular reason -----and because we could,------ bear in mind he lived 220 miles up the road with a little old place called London in between, you may understand the stupid enormity of our pleasures. Now these tales of derring do and adventures galore may take a while to unfold as it's half a lifetime ago and Chas copped his clogs two years ago and entrusted me to tell a decent narration of some of the events that shaped both our lives.
Don Ross was my long time friend and co driver for years , when he retired he bought a hotel in Torquay with a bar----mainly used by Don and his boat racer pals.
So , let The tales begin, where the hell do I start ?

[ron54]

Jay Dubbya...Remember the old maxim....NEVER LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY!!!!
We,re all sitting comfortably now you can begin.........

[jackiewilson]

It's damn near midnight----then I turn into a frickin pumpkin say goodnight to the people Phil.
lets see what transpires tomorrow .j.

[jackiewilson]

A short while ago I drove a friends VW Golf 2.0 petrol 4wd with 500hp @ 7500rpm I can tell you Jackie you wouldn't want to be a passenger in it he tells me it does 0-100 mph in 10 seconds and it feels like it`the only thought I had was it would make a fast boat engine if you could tame it` all from a stock VW engine block?.

My grandson Simon has one of those vicious little bastards-------V24 I think it's called, with a supercharger he claims around 400 hp, which is about what we had in "The Cosworth "-----have trundled the roads with him on a couple of occasions and I have to admit to being a tad impressed!!

[jackiewilson]

Jay Dubbya...Remember the old maxim....NEVER LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY!!!!
We,re all sitting comfortably now you can begin.........

Phil, are you suggesting there may be a suggestion of a little "guiding the lily" here and there?
See how the day transpires!!!

[ron54]

Phil, are you suggesting there may be a suggestion of a little "guiding the lily" here and there?
See how the day transpires!!!

J.....No Sir. The ability to put a smile on one anothers fizzogs is what differs us from monkeys- well that and not having a tail of course and a few other things that I can't readily bring to mind.Carry on with what you do, bit of gelt so what?? nobody round here's gonna gripe,

[Vulture27]

All this reminds me when I went to buy a new vette. Went in to take a look and this sales wank comes out while I'm looking and asks me to take it for a ride. Short ride later he says take for the weekend, Ok, I've got the car for couple days and come back Monday morning and same sales guy meets as I drive and asks if I'm ready to buy and I tell him yeah. He says he's got the paperwork ready and to come on in. I tell him that I want a blue vette, not black and besides someone's run this piss out of the black one.