{"id":54476,"date":"2018-05-21T11:33:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T10:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/issue_content\/historic-scene-november-2017\/"},"modified":"2019-07-19T14:45:45","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T13:45:45","slug":"historic-scene-november-2017","status":"publish","type":"issue_content","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/archive\/article\/november-2017\/50\/historic-scene-november-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic scene: November 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joining a road trip to commemorate a spectacular triumph for British \u2013 and Scottish \u2013 sports car racing six decades ago<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

It was back in April I received a call \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s 60 years since the D-type 1-2-3-4-6 walkover at Le Mans and we\u2019re getting as many of the cars together as we can.\u201d A hard task, yet in August a spectacular convoy of curvaceous blue bolides homed in on Jaguar Classic Works, where the new Lightweight Es, Ds and XK-SSs are built, before visiting Wappenbury Hall, one-time home of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons. There was a nice family connection here as Lyons\u2019 grandson Michael Quinn was part of the party.<\/section>\n

After a lap of Silverstone and a visit to Silverstone University Technical College, which provides engineering courses that bridge school and university, the convoy blue-streaked down to Williams F1 where I caught up with them in time for a tour of the advanced engineering shop, eloquently guided by Claire Williams, the outfit\u2019s deputy team principal. Apart from its Formula 1 racing activities, the firm through its associated arms develops a huge range of prototypes and technologies for others: a team was just finishing the FW-EVX electric chassis module \u2013 a sort of electric skateboard with integrated batteries and four motors that can carry a wide variety of stuctures \u2013 for its public announcement, while nearby sat a pair of Nissan BladeGliders. Never seen one? You\u2019re unlikely to \u2013 these sporty three-seat EV concepts, wedge-shaped in the idiom of the Japanese firm\u2019s DeltaWing and ZEOD Le Mans experiments and sporting a Williams-developed 246bhp powertrain, were a Nissan flag-flier at the Rio Olympics to show that battery power can still be fun. But while those built were fully working vehicles they were exploratory studies, not pre-production prototypes, so you can expect your shopping Nissan to continue having a wheel at each corner for a while yet.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere sat the scorched form of a C-X75, the gorgeous sports car Jaguar decided not to build (and which would have been assembled here in the building where we are standing). This wasn\u2019t the result of problems with the mooted gas turbine power unit; this was the stunt car that featured in the explosive Spectre Bond film \u2013 hence the charred finish. Photos on the wall showed Daniel Craig \u2018driving\u2019 behind a bonnet filled with cameras while attached to the roof is a cage where a fearless stunt driver is actually controlling the vehicle \u2013 the only double-decker Jaguar known to science.<\/p>\n

Along with the expected \u2018you can\u2019t look at that\u2019 four-wheeled secrets, Williams has developed its lightweight Babypod, a hi-tech portable incubator that benefits from F1 survival cell technology, and it\u2019s also testing an aerodynamic spoiler for supermarket freezers which saves 30 per cent on electricity and means you don\u2019t have to wear thermals to buy your frozen peas.<\/p>\n

From future to past, in the shape of the Williams Heritage museum. Through its theatrical entry you are guided sinuously from start-up to today via the great, the disappointing and the occasional ugly \u2013 I\u2019m pointing a rude finger at the sabre-toothed FW26 and the broken-nosed 34 \u2013 as well as a Metro 6R4 and quarter-size BMW V12LMR wind tunnel model, which both enjoyed Williams involvement. It\u2019s a magnificent show of racing glory, as is the trophy cabinet upstairs, a dazzling wall of gleaming silver justifiably boasting of 16 world championships.<\/p>\n

On the way out Sir Frank came to admire the Jaguars \u2013 apparently the noise of their arrival stopped all work \u2013 and we exchanged memories of Stoke Mandeville hospital as we\u2019re both \u2018alumni\u2019.<\/p>\n

This was my first chance to inspect the Bedford van that Clive Beecham, owner of XKD 603, has restored into a faithful copy of the 1950s Ecurie Ecosse service van \u2013 a perfect accompaniment to the main dish, consisting of the 1957 Le Mans winner from the Louwman museum, Beecham\u2019s second-placed car, the bright blue short-nose privateer that came third, plus XKD 504, the prototype long-nose car, and Jaguar\u2019s own works long-nose from its Heritage collection. All four of the Europe-based long-noses in one place, and the first three cars over the line at 4pm at the Sarthe in 1957 \u2013 an amazing feat of organisation, and all about to hit the road just as the team would drive to Le Mans 60 years back. In a touching gesture, Sir Frank was by the gate to see the convoy off. A proper racer.<\/p>\n

Likewise the shimmering blue D-types as their rounded rumps disappeared down the road toward the next rendezvous, the RAC\u2019s Woodcote Park clubhouse where there was to be a gala dinner. It was a brilliant sight to see these five historic machines upstaging everything else on the road, even if they did get jammed on the M25. Not a fair test for a car designed to do 175 down the ligne droite des Hunaudi\u00e8res<\/i>; yet all made it without exploding, a tribute to the robustness of the D and to the attention of their present carers.<\/p>\n

At Woodcote Park (venue for Motor Sport<\/i>\u2019s Hall of Fame events) the Ds posed on the lawns among a large array of Jaguars of all types, while inside speeches and films lauded that extraordinary 1-2-3 achievement and Ecurie Ecosse\u2019s part in it. Hugh McCaig, who reinvigorated the team in the 1980s, attended along with senior Jaguar figures including design chief Ian Callum, who briefly silenced the room by declaring he had probably already designed his last pure petrol car.<\/p>\n

Ron Gaudion, mechanic for all three D-type Le Mans wins, related his memories and swapped recollections with the evergreen, bootlace-necktied Norman Dewis, Coventry\u2019s test driver when the D-type was a twinkle in Malcolm Sayer\u2019s eye. Remarkable to have two people from those heady days, both with pin-sharp recall, discussing something that seems history to us but which was their live experience.<\/p>\n

On the next day the Ds paused at Brooklands to pose on the banking, a nod to the Race of Two Worlds, or Monzanapolis, of 1957 when the Scottish team sent a trio of cars to that lop-sided event on the Italian track\u2019s high banking.<\/p>\n

From there this convoi tr\u00e8s exceptionnel<\/i> made a blaring midday arrival at the Hampton Court Palace concours, where in front of Wren\u2019s baroque frontage it formed the centrepiece display among some magnificent machinery stretched up and down the gardens. Among the 8C Alfa Romeos, V12 Ferraris and Bugattis old and new, unexpected treasures included a chunky but good-looking Fiat 1100 barchetta, Piero Frua\u2019s first car, a truly lovely 1954 Siata 208S spider concealing Fiat\u2019s 2-litre 8V motor within a svelte Motto body, and a swooping streamlined Castagna body on a Lancia Astura.<\/p>\n

Duncan Hamilton Ltd showed a Can-Am Ferrari 712 that grew out of a 512M, while Abbeyfield brought an Arnolt Bristol Bolide, its surging Bertone lines hiding a Bristol engine about three storeys high.<\/p>\n

Returning to the Jaguars\u2019 location you had only to turn your head to see both an 1896 Arnold Benz and a McLaren P1 GTR, six decades each way of extraordinary automobile development all arrayed within lush green lawns. It was a fine close to an eventful week.<\/p>\n

AN IMPRESSIVE<\/b> 21 works competition Minis reunited in August at the Abingdon, Oxfordshire, base where BMC\u2019s motor sport team once hand-assembled the giant-killing vehicles for their attack on races and rallies around Europe. The 1930s building, now reclad as a mail distribution centre, held many memories for the likes of team chiefs Stuart Turner, Bill Price and Peter Browning, Monte winner Paddy Hopkirk, co-drivers Paul Easter, Willy Cave and Mike Wood, Mini racers John Rhodes and Christabel Carlisle and mechanics Den Green and Dudley Pike, who all contributed to the Mini Cooper legend. More than 70 race or rally Minis came out of this place between 1959 and 1970, and survivors are keenly sought after.<\/p>\n

Appropriately the weekend wrapped up in the nearby Dog House pub, which was the team\u2019s drinking hole in period.<\/p>\n

Long-time staffman Gordon Cruickshank learned his trade under Bill Boddy and competes in historic events in his Jaguar Mk2 and BMW 635<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"author":750,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167,181],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121674],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/750"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223345,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54476\/revisions\/223345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54476"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=54476"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=54476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}