Didn't several of the GP and Aussie touring car drivers race them? One nearly tipped over didn't it? You couldn't do that today, imagine the insurance premiums!
Printable View
Didn't several of the GP and Aussie touring car drivers race them? One nearly tipped over didn't it? You couldn't do that today, imagine the insurance premiums!
Steve, the driver must have been doing something pretty stupid to nearly tip a tractor over at Puke. I was at Lincoln, as you all know in 1959 when roll frames on tractors were just begining to be developed. We used to spend time as part of our training in the engineering shop fabricating roll frames, and to test them we took them up into the Port Hills above Christchurch where there is a lot of desolation today after the earthquake. We found a suitable steep and dangerous piece of ground to let an old, tethered tractor, complete with frame over a particularly bad piece of ground. The thing I remember was the DIFFICULTY we had in getting the machine to tip so we could assess the frames capability of stopping the tractor rolling. I know there have been a number of fatalities with farmers rolling on silage stacks, and some cockies do take their machines into places where they shouldn't. but it is almost always a sudden dip that sends the machine over.
Beowulf.......you have driven tractors on some pretty dangerous slopes, what's your experience.
The shots of the Northland Special and the GCS in post 5 of the 'sitting in someones workshop' thread shows a 'man sized' seat belt preventing Fred and George from being thrown from the race car in the heat of battle. We tried a rather different approach at Lincoln with one of the dairy farm workers in 1959. Apart from us farm trainees, there were a couple of permanent, paid staff, and one, Les decided that he was a cut above us, and had certain rights and privileges that he would protect rather vigorously. We had to be very quick to beat him onto the driving seat of the tractor, the Massey Harris 101 that was used for feeding out, and the general consensus was that he 'had his arse glued to the seat'. Somebody did a bit of lateral thinking and thought....'why not'. A tube of UHU was smuggled onto the site and while Les was otherwise engaged a good lashing of the said paste was applied to the perforated steel seat of the 101. We all sat back on the trailer, trying to keep a straight face, awaiting Les' return, whereupon he leapt onto the tractor with his usual gusto and planted himself firmly onto the prepared surface, and sat there quite happily! No seat belt needed here, he was securely attached. He obviously didn't notice anything untoward and we completed feeding out without further ado, and was only when he tried to get off that the fun started. It took some effort on his part to tear himself from the now very sticky adhesive, but to his credit he took it in good spirit, and from that point on was somewhat more generous in allowing us to have a turn at driving. 'Motorsport ????????? Well it was in fact Les that showed us the trick with the baling twine tied to the governor arm of the Massey Harris turning that fairly pedestrian machine into the King of the 1/4 mile sprints. "Don't say boohoo, say UHU" !!!!!!!!!!! [ see post 112 yards & yarns]
Well it looks as though the Yards part of the Y & Y is dead in the water. We haven't had a post on that for a few weeks. I think my suspicion was right in that all the 'interesting' yards disappeared years ago, although I'm going to have one last shot. There used to be a yard in Greenlane on the Gt Sth Rd called...was it' Chequered Flag.'.. or a name similar to that. They seemed to specialize, as the name would suggest in sports cars. I'm sure I took a TR2 for a spin from there about 35 years ago. As I have related, I had a TR2 that I bought from Fleetwood motors in 1962 and had fond memories of it, and 15 years later thought I would like another one. Well after a very short run up the Gt. Sth Rd. I was fairly convinced that I DIDN'T want this one anyway. I know I was spoiled by the first one, it having just been completely rebuilt, new chassis and all, whereas this latest one was just another worn out old English sports car. The name of the yard might not be correct, but it was in Gt Sth Rd just off to the left after the Green lane turnoff. Bob, you probably know. Enjoying the new Books thread. I'm not much of a reviewer but should be able to dredge up some yarns about buying and selling rare and interesting books.
There will be some more Yard photos and stories in the future, just holding them back in case the thread needs a kick start at sometime.
What a good idea pallmall. I see we are heading for 4000 hits.....pretty damm good eh. Was having a think about that yard.......wasn't 'Chequered Flag' Charlie Conways' yards? Flippin-heck, you would think you would remember wouldn't you. [hows that for woulds in a sentence] No seriously, things that seem very important at the time, and that you would never forget just get taken over by all sorts of other stuff.
Thats it Bob.....Sports Car World. What nationality were the Favas......sounds Italian. I seem to remember it was a pretty successful outfit . What happened?
Maybe the Mafia paid a visit!!!!!!
Not sure on that one Gerald ,some one might be able to answer that one ,yes as Pall Mall said I too have probably got a few stories that I can trawl up some time along with a few other topics but hey they can wait ,I would like to see this site keep up the momentum its got keep going
Was van Thiel involved with the notorious Palm Court Motors?
Actually you are right Bob, yards and Yarns has got a good momentum, and do you know why. It's somewhere folk can recount all those stupid little stories and anecdotes that can't support a thread of their own and would otherwise never get told. I mean, I cant keep up with you guys with all your knowledge and the amazing photos I am seeing on here, so I have concentrated on the 'frivolous' side of motoring. The Concise Oxford English dictionary has....frivolous....as 'not having any serious purpose or value'. Well that may be so, but it makes for fun reading, and judging by the number of forum members reading Y & Y, they are more than just bedtime stories!!! Or maybe they are, something relaxing to look at while the're drinking their Milo. Talking of fun. I came across an old advertisement the other day which I'm going to share because although it has nothing whatever to do with Historic cars it is to do with History and does involve Horse-power, and a lot of danger! The advertisement from the Pony Express reads.......WANTED....YOUNG, SKINNY, WIRY FELLOWS. Not over 18. Must be expert riders, willing to risk DEATH DAILY. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week. Apply........ And you think we had it bad!!
OK, it's Sunday, we are allowed to have a bit of levity today. One more funny, well sad actually, then back to the serious stuff. From the NY times......Bosses at a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for 5 days before anyone asked him if he was OK. George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof reader at the New York firm for 30 years had a heart attack in an open plan office he shared with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday when an office cleaner asked why he was working during the weekend!! His boss, said 'George was always the first guy to arrive in the morning and the last to leave at night', so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself. A post mortem revealed that he had been dead for 5 days after suffering a coronary. George was proof reading medical manuscripts when he died. You may want to give your fellow office workers a nudge occasionally!!!! The moral of the story is this....DONT WORK TOO HARD....NOBODY NOTICES ANYWAY.
Talking of Horsepower in the Pony Express ad.......'.Ben Hur...... his chariot had less horsepower than a Williams, but he still won'.
Thats a cunning trick Bob. If the guy had not screwed the grease nipples in so tight he might have got away with it. I did the king-pins on the 1935 SS1 that I had. I seem to remember it was a sod of a job to get them just right....tight with no play, and yet not too tight. They probably did free up a bit with use, but the steering, which was dodgy at the best of times was dynamite with tight king-pins.
Was thinking about the Nash Metropolitan in your thread on the Mobilgas trial Bob......I dont think the Girls would have needed the No-Doz ,as I doubt that the car would have lasted for more than a few hours. There used to be a Nash in a wrecking yard here in Cambridge. Glen Horn is well known amongst BMC collectors, both here and in Japan, where incidentally he used to sell a LOT of stuff. The Metropolitan sat all forlorn for ages out in the damp Waikato weather, then Glen in his advancing years decided he had had enough of getting cold and wet wrecking cars and put the yard on the market. Unfortunately the local council got involved, and demanded that Glen clean up the site to the extent of removing the top soil to a depth of 1 metre, because of contamination problems.......oil, batteries etc. Holy-smoke that was going to set him back a bob or two, as there was about 3 acres to do, and after getting a quote from John Lamont to remove all the said 'contaminated soil', put it all on the back burner and is still untouched today. Anyway in the excitment to clean the place up I think the Metropolitan went the way of all flesh......the crusher. I mean who would want to restore one, even the Japanese didnt seem to want it, although it is the sort of thing they would go for. Glen used to wreck a lot of the big 6 cylinder Austin saloons and the Healey boys would snap this stuff up. Glen still has sheds full of parts on site, and I just wonder what is going to happen to it all. The trouble is that the site is now registered in the council records as being contaminated, and any potential buyer is going to be very wary of making a purchase. I think Glen is going to be stuck with it for a while.
Gerald,if you are driving back from the Pukekohe race track on the Pukekohe - Tuakau Road ,about halfway to Tuakau you go down quite a long straight over a bridge on the corner ,just there to your left you will stil see a little old shed amongst a bit of gorse and fern there ,in my younger days that was Partridges wrecking yard ,often wonder whats buried in the ground out there ,I can remember going out there for work looking for a Packard gearbox which he knew he had somewhere,eventually we found it and a even stranger tale about it when we pulled the lid of it ,it didn't look like second gear had ever seen much use ,the previous owner must have just gone 1st to third ,which was a huge help to us as second was completely gone in the box we had taken out,now Packard that's a bit like Nash that must set a couple of minds thinking
By the way, the contractor, John Lamont who was mentioned in the last thread in regard to carting 100's of metres of contaminated soil away from Glens yard, is the bloke responsible for having the pre 65 Morris 1100 that Foggy now drives, built. John is a larger than life chappie who lives in Cambridge, and who has been a motorsport fan for years. He did some racing in a MK 2 Ford Zephyr and a Mustang then unfortunately got bowel cancer and had to have a bag, which effectively put a stop to his motoracing. But John is as cheerful as ever and is always good to have a natter with. The story of how the Morris came into being, is rather interesting. Angus and John were in the pub one night having a natter, as you did, and John expressed the desire to build a pre 65, but NOT another bloody Anglia!! [sorry Bob] So Angus, just as a joke said 'well what about a Morris 1100,' being about the least sporting car you could imagine. Well the next thing we know the 1100 is under construction and those of you that have seen it perform will know how well it goes. John drove it initially until he was unable to for health reasons, and then the car just sat outside his house in the long grass. Eventually Angus made John an offer he couldn't refuse, and the mighty Morris had a new home. Sitting out in the weather hadn't done the car any good at all, but is now up and running and doing the old David and Goliath act on the race track. You don't want to know how much John forked out for the build, needless to say Angus only paid about an eighth of the cost of the car originally. We had a great time with the 1100 and the Amco mini in the South Island this year and with us both competing in the same races I was able to get some tuition from the Morris driver who positioned himself about half-a-hairs breadth from my back bumper!!!!!
Back to Glen Horn's wrecking yard. There can't be many of these old yards left now, so close to a town centre. Glens' is situated down on Carters Flat in Cambridge, an area that used to be the local stock sale-yards and is now a busy industrial site. I think Glen is a bit of a thorn, or maybe Horn, in the side of the council, and it is fortunate that the yard is at the end of a street out of the public gaze. I actually looked up the site report at the council offices, and it says' POSSIBLE contaminated site', but clearly this is enough to put potential buyers off. Glen has actually done a few test digs to see how far the oil has soaked in and nowhere has it penetrated further than about 100mm, about 4 inches. In these politically correct times ,some little jumped up, self important clerk, has decided that a big overkill is necessary, probably to protect his backside against any future litigation. And 'Eureka', I was wrong about the Metropolitan......it was saved from an ignominious fate by a chap, or his wife, who just fell in love with it's 'cuteness' and just beat the crusher truck. It hasn't emerged yet, but when I last saw it was certainly an extensive and expensive restoration. I seem to remember that the 'Met' had a very limited turning circle due to the way the front wheels were shrouded by the guards. This made it not very suitable for round town, and parking, the very place it was designed for. I guess someone out there used to love them, but to most people they were an object of derision, so good luck to the restorer I say.
Talk about winning against petty Council clerks......as James Hunt has said.......'there is only one way you can ultimately win at motoracing and that is to get out of it!! Well said James...... 'On yer bike Glen'.