stewartwillsher
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A romantic and scary WAFFLE from the sixties.
She looked good, sounded good and she went like the clappers; and there were two of them, like twin sisters.
In August 1961 the Goodwood Tourist Trophy race was won by Stirling Moss in a Ferrari.
Another Ferrari driven by Mike Parkes came second.
But third and fourth were the two Essex Racing Stable Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos of Roy Salvadori and Jim Clark.
These cars are thought by many to be amongst the most beautiful ever made.
Now at this time, I lived on the top floor of a small block of council flats on the Eastern Avenue (A12) at Newbury Park, about a dozen miles to the East of London.
About three quarters of a mile to the West, closer to the city, were a set of traffic lights at a junction called the Green Gate, by a pub of that name.
In 1961, the traffic petered out to zero late evening, and all was quiet.
In the flat below me lived my best mate, and both of us were car nuts keen on rallying and racing; I marshalled both for track and road events for a local car club long before reaching car driving licence age, and he was still in love with his Manx Norton.
Here's the scene:
In the very early hours of the morning, I shot up in bed as if given an electric shock.
On coming to, I heard a sound that put the hairs up on the back of my neck.
My mate downstairs must have had an equal awakening, as we both threw open our windows and exchanged exclamations.
From the direction of the Green Gate lights there came the most amazing cacophony.
Not one, but two engines being revved up through the gears.
Very soon, as the sound grew and the gears changed up, they came into sight and the windows rattled, as they passed.
VEV 1 and VEV 2 were returning in close formation, to Hanningfield, near Chelmsford, where John Ogier's Essex Racing Stable team was based.
The very same stunning motors that Salvadori and Clark drove the day before were going back to base, driven on the public highway, no doubt by some very fortunate mechanics.
They were certainly not hanging about, and being before the national speed limit was imposed, were making the most of it.
The sound continued for a short while as they headed East.
Then it was silence as usual with the pair of us trying to accept what we had experienced
It was a very short space of time and somewhat incredulous, but it will stick in my mind for ever.
They were the pair of Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos that had run at Goodwood.
Some say amongst the most beautiful cars of all time.
Auction houses that have had them pass through their books have realised seven figure sums for these cars.
Ogier and Astons themselves had veered away delicately from true British Racing Green to a slightly paler shade, which they retain to this day on some works cars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Mar ... _GT_Zagato
Incidentally, the 1961 Tourist trophy had some of my heroes further down the finishing order.
In sixth was my idol at that time, Graham Hill with co-driver Dan Gurney.
Seventh was Les Leston, who had a shop in Holborn London, where many years later I bought my helmet, racing overalls, boots, etc.
And in nineteenth with co-driver John Whitmore was Chris Barber, one of my favourite trad jazz musicians.
Coincidentally, about eight years later, approaching the very same traffic lights described above, in my Clubman's Formula lightweight racing Lotus Seven (yes quite legitimately and legally testing it on the highway), one of the rear radius rods snapped and the car went sideways.
Gathering up my wits and brown trousers, I drove gently back to base, with the rear end doing a sexy shimmy.
Thank goodness I was not at full chat on a circuit!
On presenting the broken item at the counter at Lotus Cheshunt works I was quickly given a free replacement pair, by a metallurgist moaning "not another dodgy pair".
Chapman would save weight wherever he could, and the tubular chassis in many places was seam welded conduit, which was what electricians used to channel cables in industrial installations; I kid you not!
And just to go back on the Aston topic, I had a chap working for me, who received income also from a huge trust fund left to him by a wealthy German uncle.
This chap's hobby was doing up classic motors, which he would, on occasions, lend to me for the weekend to test for him.
One such, was a DB2, a beast of a motor, which I classified as a "point and shoot" wagon, in that its roadholding left plenty to be desired, being more like a truck, but in a straight line it was awe inspiring.
Cornering or negotiating roundabouts was a hell of a lot of elbow waggling with a huge diameter steering wheel and several turns lock to lock.
The fuel went in via big SU carbs (before many sports engines used Webers) and banging the throttle down caused them to eject petrol, so much so that a haze of fuel invaded the interior; cough, splutter!
It was a fixed head coupe, so it got a bit chewy despite opening windows.
It just so happened that the weekend I had it, was when I went to view the Clubmans Lotus I ended up buying.
I have always wondered if the vendor rubbed his hands with fiscal glee when I turned up in an Aston, albeit one of a past era.
The seller happened to be the Cessna agent for the UK and was based at an airfield.
So, not only did I put the Lotus through its paces on the perimeter road, but I was also able to scare myself with the Aston; getting opposite lock on was a very frantic affair.
However, not until the DB4, and subsequently the DB5, were the general public really aware of the classic marque, driven by 007.
The DB2 I drove was built as a luxury Gran Turismo, but latter years and models gave the title a more refined meaning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_DB2
She looked good, sounded good and she went like the clappers; and there were two of them, like twin sisters.
In August 1961 the Goodwood Tourist Trophy race was won by Stirling Moss in a Ferrari.
Another Ferrari driven by Mike Parkes came second.
But third and fourth were the two Essex Racing Stable Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos of Roy Salvadori and Jim Clark.
These cars are thought by many to be amongst the most beautiful ever made.
Now at this time, I lived on the top floor of a small block of council flats on the Eastern Avenue (A12) at Newbury Park, about a dozen miles to the East of London.
About three quarters of a mile to the West, closer to the city, were a set of traffic lights at a junction called the Green Gate, by a pub of that name.
In 1961, the traffic petered out to zero late evening, and all was quiet.
In the flat below me lived my best mate, and both of us were car nuts keen on rallying and racing; I marshalled both for track and road events for a local car club long before reaching car driving licence age, and he was still in love with his Manx Norton.
Here's the scene:
In the very early hours of the morning, I shot up in bed as if given an electric shock.
On coming to, I heard a sound that put the hairs up on the back of my neck.
My mate downstairs must have had an equal awakening, as we both threw open our windows and exchanged exclamations.
From the direction of the Green Gate lights there came the most amazing cacophony.
Not one, but two engines being revved up through the gears.
Very soon, as the sound grew and the gears changed up, they came into sight and the windows rattled, as they passed.
VEV 1 and VEV 2 were returning in close formation, to Hanningfield, near Chelmsford, where John Ogier's Essex Racing Stable team was based.
The very same stunning motors that Salvadori and Clark drove the day before were going back to base, driven on the public highway, no doubt by some very fortunate mechanics.
They were certainly not hanging about, and being before the national speed limit was imposed, were making the most of it.
The sound continued for a short while as they headed East.
Then it was silence as usual with the pair of us trying to accept what we had experienced
It was a very short space of time and somewhat incredulous, but it will stick in my mind for ever.
They were the pair of Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos that had run at Goodwood.
Some say amongst the most beautiful cars of all time.
Auction houses that have had them pass through their books have realised seven figure sums for these cars.
Ogier and Astons themselves had veered away delicately from true British Racing Green to a slightly paler shade, which they retain to this day on some works cars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Mar ... _GT_Zagato
Incidentally, the 1961 Tourist trophy had some of my heroes further down the finishing order.
In sixth was my idol at that time, Graham Hill with co-driver Dan Gurney.
Seventh was Les Leston, who had a shop in Holborn London, where many years later I bought my helmet, racing overalls, boots, etc.
And in nineteenth with co-driver John Whitmore was Chris Barber, one of my favourite trad jazz musicians.
Coincidentally, about eight years later, approaching the very same traffic lights described above, in my Clubman's Formula lightweight racing Lotus Seven (yes quite legitimately and legally testing it on the highway), one of the rear radius rods snapped and the car went sideways.
Gathering up my wits and brown trousers, I drove gently back to base, with the rear end doing a sexy shimmy.
Thank goodness I was not at full chat on a circuit!
On presenting the broken item at the counter at Lotus Cheshunt works I was quickly given a free replacement pair, by a metallurgist moaning "not another dodgy pair".
Chapman would save weight wherever he could, and the tubular chassis in many places was seam welded conduit, which was what electricians used to channel cables in industrial installations; I kid you not!
And just to go back on the Aston topic, I had a chap working for me, who received income also from a huge trust fund left to him by a wealthy German uncle.
This chap's hobby was doing up classic motors, which he would, on occasions, lend to me for the weekend to test for him.
One such, was a DB2, a beast of a motor, which I classified as a "point and shoot" wagon, in that its roadholding left plenty to be desired, being more like a truck, but in a straight line it was awe inspiring.
Cornering or negotiating roundabouts was a hell of a lot of elbow waggling with a huge diameter steering wheel and several turns lock to lock.
The fuel went in via big SU carbs (before many sports engines used Webers) and banging the throttle down caused them to eject petrol, so much so that a haze of fuel invaded the interior; cough, splutter!
It was a fixed head coupe, so it got a bit chewy despite opening windows.
It just so happened that the weekend I had it, was when I went to view the Clubmans Lotus I ended up buying.
I have always wondered if the vendor rubbed his hands with fiscal glee when I turned up in an Aston, albeit one of a past era.
The seller happened to be the Cessna agent for the UK and was based at an airfield.
So, not only did I put the Lotus through its paces on the perimeter road, but I was also able to scare myself with the Aston; getting opposite lock on was a very frantic affair.
However, not until the DB4, and subsequently the DB5, were the general public really aware of the classic marque, driven by 007.
The DB2 I drove was built as a luxury Gran Turismo, but latter years and models gave the title a more refined meaning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_DB2
