MOPAR at Brooklands show PICS!

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:40 pm

Got a bit of a monster one for you here. This is a tale that takes in the entire gamut of petrol emotion, from bizarre rescues of heritage war machinery from the inky depths of Loch Ness to the sheer hedonism of unrestrained 50's Americana via the severe and iconic engineering solutions of the most enduring of German marques. Planes, service trucks, ancient and modern race thoroughbreds, and a fading corner of the great neglected Great British past play supporting roles to the cornucopia of Mopar-based delights that were the focus of the day.

Interested? Well, come on in then. I'll see if I can find something you'll like...

The pitch for the day was basically "let's go to Brooklands cos there's a Mopar day on and it's soooooooooooo tiring having to drive three hours each way to Santa Pod all the time." How nice to have a show day within an hours' drive of home for a change. So me and Rich/Phil, guru of all things American and V-8 powered, set off for the Surrey site of the world's original dedicated motorsports venue.

Some of you in the audience may have been there before, perhaps under the auspices of a little-known and almost-derelict certain Japanese car "club", plenty have probably been just out of curiosity for a mooch around the museum or to see the amazing concrete banking, the scattered vestiges of what was once one of the scariest venues in racing. In which case, you'll know that to access the Brooklands Museum you have to circumvent the enormous edifice of the slightly distastefully-named Mercedes Benz World. I always feel there's a silent "TM" at the end of that...

Anyway, passed the handling circuit and massive building complex, we parked up to the sound of lazy Merc V8s blorrrrting around the skidpan and found an unexpected treat waiting. No idea if we randomly plotted up on a meeting of the SL OC, but just around the corner from the carpark was as fine a display of Mercedes original sporty roadster as you'd hope to see.

SLs of every colour and state of preparation abounded. OK, to be fair most of them were concourse-quality and looked like they barely turned a wheel, so immaculate were they. For that very reason this one was probably my favourite;

Simply because it's clearly used in a fashion Sir Stirling would approve of, and that alone made it stand out in a field of outstanding cars

In fairness, I did have quite a soft spot for this black with red interior roadster as well. Very nice, great colour combination and despite the evident retrim and resto, it looked a very honest car

Actually, to be fair there was just one other that really stood out. Parked out in front alone you'd probably have noticed it was a bit special anyway...

Hunched there with its hands in its pockets, as it were, and refusing to show of its defining party piece, you could equally have missed the significance really. It looks... unassuming.

Funny to think that a car has become so iconic from being forged from a series of engineering compromises. Or at the very least, unorthodox solutions to intractable design parameters.

The doors are gullwing because the birdcage chassis meant sills so wide normal doors were impossible. The low stance was possible only by use of the swing axle that made the car a widowmaker on the limit for all but the most skilled of pilots, and so added instantly to the mystique as all true intractable beasts tend to. Even the fact that they were sold in a "LHD-or-leave-it" tone of voice added to the aura of no-compromise and purity of vision, this fact necessitated by the laid-over engine head required for the low bonnet line meaning that a RHD steering column was impossible. A car of strange paths to circumvent odd pitfalls, then. But who could argue against it being one of the defining cars of the post war sports scene?

Anyway, it was sulking with its doors shut and we didn't fancy our chances of getting one of the attendant flunkies to open them just for our humble lens... and we could hear the rumble of lazy Yank V8s over the more insistent thrash of the Benz ones out on track, so we abandoned the arbitrary display of SLs in favour of some more blue-collar cars. And what a bargain of a day, too. Ten quid each plus one for Gift Aid got entry to the old Clubhouse Paddock and the display of American musclecars as well as access to the Brooklands Museum and aeroplane sheds. Bargainous!

Wandering around the very period buildings of the museum (remind me of the days when schools all seemed to have "auxilliary classrooms", or "huts" as they were also known. They put me in mind of damp wellingtons and rain dripping through the leaky roof, heaters in wire cages that always smelt a few scant degrees away from outright fire. Eee, I went to school in black and white, tha knaas) we arrived at the paddock and display of cars and trucks. In no especial order of importance or interest (because they're all interesting), let's have a wander round, shall we?

First thing that hove into view was this rather nice Chevy Apache, perhaps the less glamorous younger cousin of the more ubiquitous Stepside (or GM Advanced Design to give it's proper appellation) everyone seems to want but no less humongous and overstated

The Apache was merely one amongst ten different designations of the modern (well, in 1954) Task Force range. By 1958 it was the designation for the 1 1/2 ton model in the range. So now you know. This one seems to have had some Buick-style ventiports carved into the hood.

This lovely turquoise task Force is earlier, as shown by the single rather than twin headlights. There were a lot of firsts on these trucks back in the day; first wraparound windscreen, first power brakes on a truck, first power steering. You could even get a wraparound rear glass if you could stump up for the Deluxe! This ain't it...

Another little-known fact about Task Forces is that they're great for attracting pussy

Still on the subject of groovy Chevrolets, how about a nice Camaro? This lovely RS trim example is a '68. You can tell because it wasn't until the end of the '67 model year that American cars had to have parking lights.

All Cobras seem to be replicas now in an age where the genuine examples are like million-dollar cars. This one was a Woodcraft or some such IIRC, but it certainly does look the part

And arguably it doesn't matter if it began life as a Norwood-built AC sportster with an engine breathed on in a chicken shed in Texas or as a giant meccano set in some suburban garage, so long as it's got a 427cui V8 hung out front and thick tyres on the back, it's a Cobra. I'm sure Carroll wouldn't have minded

Out of all the current crop of re-launched musclecars, the forgotten child sat at the back picking its nose and slightly forlorn is the Charger SRT thing. Which is a shame, cos I think it looks great, despite the much-criticised fourdoor platform. This black one looks like it's planning a murder. Or maybe wondering why it didn't get offered a role in that F&F film with the Rock (or Dwayne, as his mum calls him)

The paddock was pleasantly popular with enough punters to give it a vibe but not so many it was annoying. It was refreshing to be at a car do where you weren't permanently rushing photos in gaps between people, or getting frustrated with fools blundering across your shot at the last second. Mind you, some people were clearly suffering for their art. Fortunately I'm far too old and fat to contort myself like this any more, lol

I believe this rather unusual and delightfully oversized beast is the excellently-named Oldsmobile Starfire. A '63 model in fact, but that's easy, you can just read that off the number plate

Olds brought the Starfire name back in the mid-70s with a rather disfigured offering somewhat akin to the bloated and depressed-looking bastard child of a Pacer and a frog. It wasn't great. This one is proper, in contrast

There were plenty of hotrods scattered around. As usual, I'm hopeless at guessing what they're derived from so I'm not even going to try. I like the patination here, it's not obviously trying too hard. I also like the flathead, and as any fule kno, three carburettors is better than two. Just becos

I have a lot of love for this black pickup Ford. Not only did it look tough as a butchers dog smoking a stogie and juggling chainsaws, it also had plenty of nice little touches that made it stand apart.

It certainly has what the yoof would call stance

As well as plenty of attitude. Those easily upset by uncouthness, bad behaviour and swearing might want to look away now...

It's OK, you can come back now, it's gone. Here, have a nice calming pic of the steering and suspension setup by way of recompense

Lol. Great name for a clothing range. Wonder if there is such a thing.... hang on, I'll just pop off and google it... well I'm damned, it would appear that there is. http://www.zombiehotrodwear.com/ Marvellous!

I was trying to get some pics of this '50 Coupe and some random old boy kept nattering away at me about how nice it was. It wasn't his, as evidenced by the way he kept on about the big boot so they could carry lots of samples cos it was a salesman's car... and then he got onto the rumour that the travelling salesman would actually sleep in the boot... sorry, trunk... whilst out trading, and it rang a bell finally where I'd heard all that nonsense before

I think it was the hood rocket nosecone that bamboozled him into thinking it was a Studebaker "Business Coupe" Champion.

He seemed happy spouting away so I didn't have the heart to point out that the car was literally drenched in Ford logos. And that the producers of Desert Car Kings have no idea what they're blithering about, either....

Lovely sparse interior but not somewhere I feel you'd want to be hours on end. It's very... red. You'd get out the other end like Norman Bates

Of course, no-one needs telling this is a Ford. One of the most iconic rumps in automotive (and cinema) history. Highland Green, fastback, Torquethrusts, can only be one.

See what I did there? Highlander? There can be only one? Oh, never mind. No need to be like that. Anyway, no American car show would be complete without a Bullitt rep. So here it is. Ever think how someone with a name like "Bullitt" could only really end up as a either cop or a homicidal lunatic? It's not fair really, poor bloke never had a chance. I mean, it's not like you ever see janitors in films called like "Dalton Irongrip" or something , is it? He could hardly have been a lollipop man with a name like Bullitt, could he? No one would have taken him seriously

Giant Hotwheels toy, anyone? Mach 1 Mustangs always make me feel about eight years old. I had a Piston Popper one. Actually, that'd be Matchbox, wouldn't it?

There were Mustangs of every shape, size and flavour, as is usually the case. After all, they sold like twenty zillion of the damned things. One there definitely stood out. Been in the hands of the same owner for decades, and it really shows with the sort of attention-to-detail and loving finish that only long term obsession can lavish on a car

OK, that's the worst part of it over now, don't run away. If the dude wants to airbursh lace doilies around his bonnet pins, that's his choice, yeah? Some more important decorations, then?

The 428 Cobra Jet engine is a downright, all-ends-up monster. That's a seven-litre race engine with a 735 cfm Holley four-barrel perched on top developing over 400 bhp, and the auto box managing to hold on to around 9+ lbs per horsepower. Suffice to say, it goes

I said the car was wonderfully finished, too, a great combination of iron fist in a velvet glove. Perhaps I might lose the stainless mudflaps, but I love to see a car that's so sensitive to originality yet still has the owner's personality so intrinsic to its look

There's not many people who'd go to the effort of having the rear quarter lights etched. Unless they got a Dremel for Christmas and needed something to practice on...

Time for a shameful confession... I'm not generally a huge fan of 'Stangs. Maybe it's just their ubiquity, maybe it's that they're always taken as some sort of zenith by people who know nothing about cars but don't let that stop them holding an opinion on them (in much the same way as people who've never ridden a motorbike cos they're too scared and the wife said they weren't allowed to think that Harleys are fast). I dunno. They just don't move me. But this one... this one's special and I gotta a whole lotta lurrve...

...and I even like the colour

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:41 pm

In contrast, considering how short a lifespan the pure Chargers actually had, it sometimes seems odd that it's the one other musclecar everyone's heard of. I guess all those General Lee '69s didn't die in vain... The Charger was first a concept in the mid-sixties, then a trim package for the Dart platform, and finally a coupe in its own right from 1966. This toothy grin is on a '67 model but they were essentially the same

Seems to have got a bit steamed up there. Still, better than those "Lexus-style" lights that blighted all M*xed-up motors throughout the nineties and noughties. I've seen ones you could keep tropical fish in. At least this logo has the excuse of being older than me. And it's worn better, leaks less, etc, etc

Beautiful colour, this burgundy. And look; it was sunny! Yeah, that's right, a sunny day for a car show!? Who'd have thought? After all, it's not like the end of May or anything. Oh, wait, that's not right, is it?

This '67 in white shows off how they didn't quite get it right first time on this most famous of fast Dodges. Looks great from this low frontal aspect, really shows off the uncluttered lines (no sidelights either, '68-on, remember?)...

...but from the back it's a little... awkward. And hunched, but not in a good way, a sort of pouncing predator sorta way. More in a lumbago sorta way. But it does have "CHARGER" written across the rear lights in chrome, which makes up for a lot. And check out that whiplash uplift on the edges of the screen! They must have lost money on every one they installed....

When I took the pic of the red '67s emblem I'd forgotten I'd already taken this one. But I did, and I went to the trouble of adjusting the contrast and balance and everything and uploading it to Photobucket, so you can damn well pretend to enjoy another almost identical picture. Hey, this one's white, it's nothing like

Speaking of nothing like... here's something different. Yep it's a Charger, but nope, not as you know it. Yeah, the grille's sorta elements of Challenger innit... but rather more 'Cuda... but that's a Plymouth innit? Oooh, confusing, crossed wires. What year could it be? Anyone who's already got it wins...

... undying kudos and little else. It is a Charger. But it's not. It's an Australian version based on the Dodge (Chrysler) Valiant and built from 1971 to 78, although by '75 it was decidedly neutered and feeble. It came with everything from baby 215cui straight six to fairly manly 340cui V8s (3.5 litre up to 5.6) and even raced in Bathurst (where else) finishing a creditable third first time out in '72 before both Chrysler and Ford boycotted the race therafter. Mostly because they were sulking about homologation rules.

OK, that's enough Antipodean oddness then. Back on more familiar ground, this is the one for me. A '68, as defined by the way the grille is still one-piece and the little round side repeaters and quad circular rear lights. This for me (and for afficianados of that daft San Fransisco film, again) is the Charger

And now for something completely different, only so many Chargers one can take in one sitting. This is an early ('69) Roadrunner, by Plymouth. Except of course, being built on the Chrysler B-platform it is to all intents and purposes a Charger by any other name. Or a GTX... Satellite... Belevedere... ooooh, so incestuous! Actually, these vintage of Roadrunner are often mistaken for the more poverty-spec GTX it kinda supplanted. This was a proper performance car; everything non-essential was stripped out, all the running gear and powertrain was hopped up. Plymouth spent ten thousand bucks developing a horn that sounded like the Roadrunner's meep-meep noise, then paid a further 50 grand to licence it from Warner Brothers. Mad but true! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP-9GsM_P2M

And back to Dodge. This Bobby Isaac rep Polara was pretty well turned out

Hard to think of this as a race car nowadays but this at the time was Dodge's answer to the Galaxies (and less so Impalas), some which which were very much racing cars. This was the premier full-size platform back in the early years but by the time of this one ('64) the platform had been shrunk to more contemporary to Fairlanes, leaving the Polara in what many considered a slightly awkward no-man's land.

As always on American cars, I respect the sheer level of trim and ornate detail that goes into anything even as simple as a headlight nacelle

If the '64 was a clumsy halfway house, the previous '63 was little short of gopping, in all fairness. Like, only a mother could love it. Just look at that overbite!

Poor thing. I still love the ludicrous rococo grille, it looks like it was modelled on a prolapsed cow the designer had handy. An interesting factoid about the Polara range (originally named after Polaris, the North Star in an attempt to conjure the allure of the space race) is that the last hurrah for the name was on a '77 Brazilian-built rebadged Chrsyler (Hillman) Avenger. Odd

One of the cars that was definitely causing a stir (and I believe went on to win best in show) was one that seemed to be new to the scene;

... an extraordinarily nice and well-preserved 1970 Plymouth 'cuda

They'd dropped the unnecessary "Barra-" part of the name from the early days of the marque as a boulevard bruiser (y'know, the one with that "biggest backglass ever made" thing going on?) but the fish is still present, if you know where to look

Yeah, so it's essentially a re-imagined Challenger, but more exclusive. And let's be honest, nicer

By way of illustration...

Here's a handy sad-face Challenger. I mean, yeah you would... you'd go with the Challenger. But you'd be thinking about the 'cuda. From '72 to '74 they had this gloomy sorta Eeyore face which really didn't help

Of course the one you'd want would be the one from vanishing Point, which was a far happier-looking '70. Can't offer you one of those just now, I'm afraid. Maybe a '71 will placate you? Hey it is in paint code FC-7, otherwise known as Plum Crazy. You gotta respect that!

Here's another 'cuda then. The obvious difference being that this one's a convertible. American cars don't have a trim level as effete-sounding as "cabriolet", clearly. It's a 'vert and that's that.

It's all about the livery

Apparently this actual car had a role in a film, one Dark Shadows which as I understand it is a Tim Burton film unusually for him starring Johnny Depp. I've never seen it cos the overwhelming tide of "cool" vampire genres leaves me rather cold, tbh. Vampires are rubbish, they're not cool. They're the supernatural equivalent of geeky kids who stay in bed all day and spend all night trying to chat up girls using all sorts of preposterous lines. And if all else fails they go for the sympathy line... "yeah, got sumfink wrong wiv my blood, yeah. Need transfusions like all the time, or I like actually die, yeah"...anyway, evidently this particular film is a cut above the average vampire nonsense on account of having a 'cuda convertible in it, innit. But I'm still not going to watch it...

I guess I'd have to agree that it certainly has filmstar looks.

Sitting next to the Isaac Polara in the middle of the main paddock was another car that had clearly seen a bit of track action. This is a '65 Plymouth Fury, which clearly had calmed down a bit since the '50s hedonism of the Christine-style Furies

This one's a Fury III, the highest trim level until the introduction of the "VIP" or "Very Important Plymouth" option a year later. Yes, honestly. The Fury I was basically a stripped-out car for taxi firms and police fleets who would install their own trim and fittings. The II and III were successively higher levels of option packs. This one's clearly seen a bit of action

...and judging by the Bay Area race meet scrutineer stickers going back to '65 it appears it's been in competition at some level most of its life

I love the period metalflake Evel-style pisspot lid propped on the rear rainlight mounting

By now the place was filling up nicely, though still not heaving. The beauty of a day like this is that your admission also gave you access to the museum and aircraft displays, so people would wander off and spend time there, and also punters who had no idea the mopar day was on and had simply come for the museum were stopping by to see what was going on. It was very relaxed and informal. A late arrival did make the crowds part though

and even those who know nothing about American cars recognise this one

Oh, yes. It's Mr The King from Cars. Otherwise known as a Plymouth Superbird Petty replica built by a bloke called Don from down our way. It might be a replica, but it's certainly absolutely of the highest quality. It includes a crate Hemi motor that cost more than a lot of people's entire cars did. And it does unarguably look and sound the part

Funnily enough, there was another Richard Petty replica there. Perhaps not that surprising, after all, he was the winningest driver in NASCAR for some huge time period, so he's had a few cars worth replicating

As you no doubt know, the Superbird was based on the Roadrunner platform and had bonkers factory aerodynamics added in order to homologate them for the ovals. However, if all you have is a stock Roadrunner why not do your own homage?

This really works for me. I love the '72 Roadrunner shape, those massive rear haunches and droopsnoot front makes it look like a crouching beast. One of my favourite musclecar shapes, and as we'll see later, much nicer than the equivalent year Charger on which it's based.

The interior showed some wonderful patination on the "wood" as well as one of the odder car/identity crossovers. Wouldn't it be good if manufacturers still had enough sense of fun to align their products with cartoon characters? You could get the Ben10 Mazda RX-8, for example (yeah, if you wanna be pedantic he drove one in the live-action film, not the cartoon, OK, be like that). Or even the Vin Diesel RX-7, he's nearly a cartoon character after all

Pistol-grip shifter looks great but must be like stirring porridge trying to find a gear after four decades of wear have got into the eight miles of linkages it needs

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:42 pm

Remember I alluded to the cousin of the Roadrunner, the '72 Charger, being not quite as.... elegant... a treatment? Well, as luck would have it...

Looks a bit gloomy, doesn't it? lol. To be fair, it's still a hadsome enough car, just not as nice as the Plymouth. Rich/Phil has one of these currently in restoration since his Cougar's nearly done. The front wing is as long as Ada when you stand it upright. Which is about six foot lots. Not a small car, then. Love the period fuel pumps of the Brooklands paddock making it look young

Rich/Phil's one admittedly has rather less in the way of floors than this, but it'll all come good one day. These days the pattern panels are pretty accurate, although it's still easier with more common cars like Mustangs, even more leftfield stuff like '72 Chargers are catered for in the US

This one's pretty uncommon as musclecars go. And also a good example of how incestuous and convoluted the Chrysler web actually was. Badge engineering is nothing new and to prove it, here we go;

right, this is a Dodge Demon. In fact, it's based on the Plymouth Duster, their poverty-spec entry level performance car, which was in turn based on the Valiant of the time. Dodge re-engineered the car into their Dart model range. This particular model was going to be called the "Beaver" until someone more prescient in marketing pointed out what beaver was slang for and that people would either laugh or get outraged, and it was changed. Unfortunately it was changed to "Demon", along with a little devil cartoon character, which righteously upset the bible belt types and proved probably less popular than naming it after a slang term for the female unique anatomy. So this was essentially a Plymouth Duster with Dodge Dart sheetmetal (got all that?)and sold rather less well than either. The cartoon devil was dropped after a single year, the car itself after two.

This next up is a Dodge Coronet, a car that had been around in various guises since 1949. What had always been an entry-level car had shrunk form full-size to mid platforms by the time this 5th-generation model came out. This is a '70

Having tried to sensible-ise their range, Chrysler were now only offering their performance options on their actual badged musclecars; the Super Bee which came with a properly beastly 440 motor and six-barrel carb setup, or even a 426 Hemi. However, they were never optioned with the 440 Magnum, that was reserved for this car, the Coronet R/T. The front grille was redesigned for '70, allegedly to resemble the bumblebee wings of the Super Bee name, but it proved a very unpopular styling motif and the sales plummeted

I don't mind it myself, but maybe it's better from behind, lol

It's an odd setting for a car show, every so often you loose focus on taking pics of the motors and suddenly realise you're in the home of original motorsport, there's history all around, and a Harrier protoype parked in the front with neat lawns and sponosred benches. How quintissentially English, lol

...and there's like, half a Lancaster bomber in the car park

Right, need to rediscover focus....

That's better. The cars were spilling out into the front park by now as well as the two paddocks. This is a good thing, cos it meant there were lots of cars to look at. And also a bad thing because unlike many shows where there is a lot of dross you barely look at let alone want to photograph, just about every single car here was awe-inspiring and needed recording from every angle. Which makes my job of doing this thread rather larger than normal. Sorry. But it's got to be done.

Even those ubiquitous Chevy wheel covers didn't detract from how well this Camaro sits

More 'rods out here. Which I still can't tell you anything much about. This one's orange. And a Ford

This one's blue. And a Ford

Lovely, simple ice white interior contrasted perfectly with the blue exterior

Nice machine-turned dash panel and elegant clocks proving less is sometimes more

See that clubhouse dome up there? You're not allowed up there. El and safe tea, no doubt. Shame, be a good view. I had to sneak up onto the Members' Only bar balcony to take some overhead pics, but everyone was very polite about it and no-one threw me out lol

Quality engineering going on here. And some *cough* arty shizzle an all, though I say so myself

Actually, now I think about it, I'm not 100% that other orange thing was a Ford. This one is though. It says so on it.

Yeah, easy that one. Nice to see people giving pickups the same treatment and love as they would coupes or sedans. After all, it was trucks that built America, as the saying goes.

A very minimalist place to be, as befits the utilitarian nature of the vehicle I guess. Just given a modern twist and some paint and that's all it needs

It's the ultimate chest-wig chariot of all time!

The car that launched a thousand Burt Reynolds-style 'taches and CB aerials. That flaming chicken in full...

It's not like American cars were ever subtle exactly but this must mark some kind of tipping point in the loss of any vestige of restraint; a time when the design team were locked into a room with their choice of drugs and hit with sticks unless they went for the most excessive of everything. "What do you mean, the alloys have spokes? We don't do old outdated motifs like that any more! Spokes?! We must have hexagons! Polyhedra are the way of the future! Take more crack and do it again." Firebird TransAm design team, we salute you

Thank God for the calming influence of a nice understated Challenger. '71 again, sorry still can't find a Vanishing Point one. Mind you, this 'un's a wee bit special if you look a bit closer...

...and you see those four magic letters emblazoned on the air cleaner. Four hundred and twenty six of the United States of Wiiiiiiiide America's hemispherically-chambered cubic inches (7 litres to you) developing just one too few horsepowers to be one for every cube. This is the one you want.

Rich/Phil seemed to think this Camaro was a Z28 model. He's not usually wrong about such things (this after all is a man who can decipher windscreen VIN plates and tell you not just the year, engine and trim level of a car but the place and date of manufacture as well. Humbling). I dunno, mind. It's the right colour and there were so many options even on packages that the lack of headlight covers and suchlike isn't necessarily any indication.

What isn't in question is that it's bloody gorgeous, whether it's a Z28 or not. Why it hasn't got any badging is what baffles me. Maybe it's deliberate in this eBay age where anyone could get a Korean Z28 badge for three dollars, maybe the owner's right in leaving them off

It's certainly the right colour, mind. I kept coming back to this throughout the day and taking more photos in case I'd missed anything. One of my personal cars of the show all day long

Anyone who wants to tell me what this is wins eternal respect. It's just gone, I've got a complete mental blank. I ought to google the hell out of it, but I've another five hundred pics to get up here and it's sapping the life out of me. Anyway, looks gangsta enuff for me to put it up despite my shameful and appalling ID muppetry. Hopefully it'll come back to me in time to come back and edit this, lol

Another race car now. Despite what it might look like

Yep, believe it or not this was Mercury's race car option back in the mid 60s. You may have seen one being restored on that Wrecks to Riches USA programme. This was basically Mercury's version of the Ford Galaxie platform (as you know, Mercury was the mid-level marque in the Ford stable for trim and opulence, running from Ford at the base to Lincoln at the top). Hence the Mercury helmeted godhead in the hupcaps.

The Marauder package was available on Monclairs, Park Lanes and, as here, the Monterey and was basically defined by the fastback sloping roofline (yes, really, this was 1965) and the performance Ford engine and driveline packages. Fortuntely just because it was the performance/competition option, didn't mean they saw fit to reign in the design madness

It's not like it was even very race-bred inside, not with those chrome and madness dials and dash and the half-perspex steering wheel

Speaking of Galaxies, here's one...admittedly not the nicest, being one of the blander years' styling ('65) and having arguably the wrong number of doors... but a Galaxie nonetheless

and even in years when the stylists were having a sombre patch, there was still some basemark of excess that was expected

Rare to find steels and wheeltrims that don't upset, but this is the second one today. Must be getting old...

That Lancaster from the other side, since we've moved on a bit. I love bomber art murals, we're all a sucker for a nice bombslut aren't we? Try Lethal Threat for modern takes on bomber art laydeeees for you motor. I've got a couple. *ahem* Maybe I'm not getting old after all, I seem to still be very much a child at heart

Right, time for a wee break now before ploughing on with Part Two. Still to come are loads more cars, and not just American. I can promise you some British, German, Italian and even Swiss (oh, yes, weren't expecting that, were you?) as well. Plus, a tour around the Brooklands museum for those who never have, bikes, cars, even some iconic pushbikes... planes, Concorde... oooh, just loads. But my eyes are boggling from screenburn so you'll just have to be patient. Back soon

myatt1972 · Post by **myatt1972** » Fri May 31, 2013 9:06 pm

Fantastic Nik, I love it when you go to a show s(c)

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:17 am

Right, suitably refreshed, shall we plough on with Part II then? We haven't even completed a sweep of the paddocks yet!

Sat at the end of the row was this rather nice El Camino. Funny really considering how long America had been relying on trucks that no-one really thought of making a performance alternative to the heavy and stolid sort of pickups until the end of the 50s. The first el Caminos ("The Road" in Spanish) were essentially an Impala with a load bed, but in '64 they changed to the Chevelle platform, and from the B-pillar forward were essentially identical. This one's a '67, the last year before they went to the Station Wagon chassis to add a bit of length and practicality. But hey, who buys a 6.5 litre pickup for practicality?

We now reached a section where the vehicles were a bit removed from strict muscle cars (and Mopar, for that matter, since plenty were Fords and even more unusual stuff). But that isn't a problem when they were as cool as this Ford minivan

I'm not sure if this would have been an ambulance or something in another life (and let's face it, it's only a "mini"van in an American context) because it had this excellent flashing red light on the roof from the excellently-named "Federal Sign and Signal Company" of Blue Island Illinois. I mean, a "Beacon Ray" light, even the damned lights are cool. This is a proper old school spinny twin searchlight thing like in the start of Police Squad!

I like the wraparound rear lights to give plenty of door aperture. Anyone knows what it actually is, write in and let us know

Every time I glance at this pic I think the steering wheel has "IDIOT" written on it. A bit like when I see a Volkwagen Transporter I read it as "Trainspotter". Maybe that's my problem though, no need to concern yourselves

Another 'rodded pickup here, with truly impressive attention to detail and finish throughout

Even the aircleaner assembly had got the matching turquoise flame job. In the sunlight the flames were really subtle on the bodywork, the pictures actually make them stand out more than they did

Another clean and simple interior. Surprisingly tight in here, considering it's hardly a small vehicle. You'd need to be good friends with any passenger. And hope they'd stayed off the onions

Slightly disconcerting!

And yet another utility vehicle, a Chevy this time. This is a Suburban, though not as we think of it in a modern SUV context. The name has been in use on various utilitarian vehicles way back to the woodies of the early '30s

Essentially the Suburban was an enclosed version of whatever the current pickup range was, this one dating from the times of the Advance Design Range (the good ol' Stepside again). They came in "Thriftmaster" or "Loadmaster" sizes.

Thriftmaster? Yeah, right! Perhaps not so thrifty with a blower the size of a small jetski nailed on top

No treatise of commercial Americana would be complete without a Ford F100 of some flavour, of course. The most sellingest pickup, indeed the most sellingest vehicle, like evarr.

Errr... well, it is a V8, I suppose. No idea how this interloper managed to sneak in, but who doesn't fancy a nice Interceptor convertible?

Getting back on in time, before the muscle car there were things like this. And the world wasn't a worse place for it, to be honest. Garages must have been larger or something. Fairly unusual to see a convertible BelAir, though.

It's a fairly unusual colour too, to be fair. By some strange act of cosmic balance, it exactly matches the colour we painted our downstairs bog. Which means I must like it, you can make your own mind up lol. If it helps any, I think I prefer it on a BelAir than in a khazi

I took a load of pics of this very Olds 88 Holiday at the Aldershot Wheels show, but I feel it bears repeating. Apart from anything else, I'd love to know how the letters that made up the grille have ended up spelling "Oldsmobele"! What happened with the spurious "E"? Did the "I" snap off at some point and the only replacement the owner could find was a second "E"? Is it, like an African version? Its one of those automotive quirks you're sure there must be a story behind. I'll probably never know, but then I guess it saves me being disappointed if it's some really humdrum explanation

This car has such fantastically over-the-top styling that I can't not love it. Just everything is chromed, ribbed, finned, logo-ed up, unnecessarily ornate or just plain bonkers

Even in the mid-fifties when there was a hood rocket arms race going on to see who could most extravagantly deify the space race, this one stands out as an ornament that would have had Dan Dare himself reaching for the H/P agreement to sign. In fact, were it not for one other yet to come, it would emphatically win Bauble of the Day award

This, however, definitely wins Clock of the Day. Just madness, glorious madness

The Chrysler New Yorker was redesigned for the '57 model year with the legendary Virgil Exner's "Forward Look"... which in short meant cars would henceforth be styled by proper designers, not by engineers trying to clothe a chassis with as little fuss as possible. While this meant that the previous rather stuck-on ornamentation should now be incorporated into a stylistic whole, sometimes this holistic approach produced some truly gopping monstrosities. If proof is needed, a quick Google Image search for the '62 version of this very car should serve to convince. This, however, is a '59 and much nicer. It was the end of an era for the model as well as a new beginning; this was the first year the car could not be specified with a Hemi engine, instead getting the 413cui Golden Lion V8

There's a link from the New Yorker to the next car, which had a shared platform. It's just a little bit uncommon, though

This is a DeSoto Fireflite. Yep, me neither. Cool though, innit?

There's a lot of weirdness about the DeSoto marque, one of Chrsyler's lesser known portfolios. Like, why the hell was it named after Hernando de Soto (C.1496-1542), a Spanish explorer and conquistador, famed for his ability as a horseman, tactician and fighter but most notable for his utter brutality and emotionless subjugation of native populations in Central American territories. I guess he also explored much of the Southern USA (clearly before it was the USA) and several places still bear his name, maybe that's why it appealed to Walter Chrysler. The car marque that also bears his name lasted from 1928 until Chrysler somewhat abruptly killed it off in 1961, shortly after the birth of this FireFlite. Hernando himself died of semitropical fever in either Arkansas or Louisiana.

The FireFlite came out in 1955 as the flagship DeSoto, and you can see the influence both of the Forward Look philosophy and the New Yorker platform it sat on in this '57. The "Flite" part of the name derived from the PowerFlite automatic trans, controlled by a "Flite Control" lever on the dash. Oh, yes

Plenty of bauble abound, though this car is very restrained compared to filigree-work grilles and art deco excess that defined the marque in the 50s. Still enough raptor heads and chromework to outfit a small mountain Schloss, though

This is a Sportsman model, as evidenced by the proliferation of doors. There were also station wagons and convertible models available. Weirdly, a gold and white 'vert served as the Indianapolis 500 pace car in 1956. Hmmm, very appropriate

Right, enough esoteric leftfield wierdness. How a bout a nice T-bird?

Now in its indescribably bloated and deformed eleventh generation after a 58 year lifespan, this fortunately is nowhere near as hideous, being a second-gen fiddy-eight (ish). This was the first model not a strict two-seater as Ford realised this was restricting the market. All the better for fitting your surfboard in

I don't think there's one single component on the car that doesn't have a little thunderbird logo on it

Another fast Ford, another Galaxie. A '67, a proper sledgehammer bruiser of a car. Sadly, the only pic worth a damn is this tailight. So you can't see the aggressive twin headlight thrust-forward nose or the defining sweptback fastback roofline. Sorry

Saw this Oldsmobile 442 at Wheels Day, too, but it's paintscheme was much more rewarding here in the sun than under the pewter of Aldershot. Still in there as a contender for my top three fave musclecars, but I've wittered on about them so often I'm not even going to do the "what does the 442 mean" bit.

Yayyyy! A white Challenger at last, hurrah! Not a '70 though, still. Boo!

The Mercury Cougar was Ford's mid-table marque's entry into the ponycar market. Based on the Mustang underpinnings but styled in a more European way (well, to Americans, at least), it proved a perennial bestseller. This one is a '70 model, showing off the vacuum-operated concealed headlights but sadly not the sequential turn/tail rear light treatment

The interior is a rhapsody of genuine imitation fake wood faux veneer and icy white genuine non-leather vegan-option vinyl. Hey, it's of its time

"Cougar" meant something else then to what it does nowadays, too. Those times were more pastoral, when it simply meant "mountain lion type cat" rather than "catty urban predator". Unusual sorta ten-spoke Minilite style alloys.

Another fast Ford, and another performance pickup next

The Ranchero was the Blue Oval answer to the el Camino, in this case essentially a Gran Torino with the back seats throw away in favour of a load deck. This is '68 or '69 (those sidelights laws again, here using clever wraparound side markers to save having to put in extra lamps). The sales slogan was "More than a car! More than a truck!". When you could spec one of these with a 428 Cobra Jet and even the more humble package was the 351 Windsor, it was most definitely more than many cars

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:18 am

So, from the sublime to the ridiculous, the Series 62 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. What a whopper! The Coupe had been around since 1949 in Series 62 form but the four-door Sedan didn't appear until 1956. It was an expensive range-topper but still sold a good 42 000, resulting in being given their own Series designation of 6300 after one year of significantly outselling the donor 62

The "artillery shell" protruberances on the bumpers of Sedan de Villes (and contemporary BelAirs and such) were affectionately nicknamed "Dagmars" after the actress Virginia Ruth Egnor, whose starred in a TV series in the 50s as Dagmar. She was a sort of proto-Monroe, busty and blonde star of the big and small screen, and the bumper overriders were said to resemble her most famous assets. True.

Hmmmm... dunno if I see the resemblance...(pic not author's own, lol)

Anyway, moving on... all the while cars were shifting around, leaving, new ones arriving so it was easy to end up going in an endless loop trying to keep up. We agreed that since time was ticking by and it was hot and the smells from the restaurant were becoming very enticing that we'd finish a circuit of the paddock and then have lunch. And then go round the museum, or we'd end up aimlessly wafting around the cars all day and never get to the museum. So, these pics were taken in a bit of a hurry because my soss an chips were calling to me. Yet another Charger. This is a '69, a General Lee one. Only a much better paintcheme. You can tell the year a couple of ways... the lozenge tailights replaced the '68 twin circles, the front grille had a nosepiece bifurcating it. Oh, and it says so on the numberplate

I find it impossible to stop taking photos of this silly great thing. I'll try and keep the number to an acceptable level, lol

I always like a bit of people-watching (in my working life it's about the only perq I get anyway, so it's just as well). So I have to admire anyone comfortable enough with their style to wear this jacket. Aha, found that flathead at last, too

Still no idea what year/model/starsign/anything with hotrods. It's a Ford.

Oh, for God's sake, just stop it now

OK, how about another Camaro then? This one's a bit less stock than the others, no bad thing. Proper stripped drag beast with ludicrous rimmage on the back implies it means business...

...just in case the subtle and understated paintscheme left any doubt to the matter

Another T-bird, this one being what I think of as "the" Thunderbird for no very definite reason. Just in my world, like. It's got "50 years of" plaques but the '05 Thunderbird seems a very tragic thing to commemorate a half-century of such an iconic model with. You'll have to google it yourself, I refuse to give the twisted abomination airtime.

Anyway, this one's lovely. It's a '63, complete with properly awesome rocket thruster tailights, such as appeared on Fairlanes and Galaxies of the day also

Slight case of overbite, perhaps. This Third-Generation car is pretty rare because not only is it a hardtop coupe, it's the Landau edition

...which means it not only has the excellently-wrinkly textured vinyl roof covering (incredibly well preserved, not sure if it's a resto) but simulated S-bars redolent of the old pre-war convertible roofs

This series of T-bird is another past Indy 500 pace car (in '61) and as befits the model, has thunderbird logos adorning pretty much every spare square inch. Wasn't it nice when car emblems were made of actual metal and enamel rather than chromed plastic?

Dunno if it shows, but I have quite a bit of love for this one. Mmmm, shiny

Unlike the musclecars from the likes of Ford and Dodge et al, the Chevrolet Corvette has never been a cheap car, and was never meant to be. OK, it's cheap speed compared to prestige marques like Ferrari or Porsche but in the scheme of American power cars, it was supposed to be in a niche of its own. At least, that was the plan. It does at least mean that the ones that survive tend to be looked after.

This is a second-generation C2 version (though I seem to remember having the discussion about 'vette "generations" before. Arguably the second gen really was the twin-headlight model that took over from the original single-light and added proper engines to the marque, but whatever. It's a C2, OK?) and is therefore a Sting Ray rather than the later Stingray (all one word). Got that? No, me neither

The interior still featured the twin nacelles and dual cockpit-style tubs of the original designs, and for an American car it's almost strait inside, so much so it's got that vertical-mounted Corvette tape player with separate controls to keep the dividing console narrow.

The C5, separated from this C2 by about forty years was the first appearance of the now legendary LS1 alloy small block that's since made its presence felt in just about any application you care to name. It was also Chevy's re-entry into the sportscar market after a while lost in the wilderness with the blunderbus C4 monsters. They took many styling cues (ironically, given how the Japanese marques started by copying what was going on around them when they first began car manufacture) from contemporary sportscars like the Nissan 300SX and Mazda RX-7. In the case of the 3rd gen RX-7, it was of course styled by Mazda's American design studio already famous for the Miata treatment, but it does pee me off slightly when people say the Rex "looks like a shrunk Corvette". It's the other way round; the 'vette looks like a swollen Rex. So there. Tell your friends, lol. Anyway, 2003 saw the fiftieth anniversary of the Corvette, now the longest-running sportscar production evar, and some people felt the need to celebrate this. Personally, I feel the owner of this C5 might possibly be over-compensating for something, but hey, so long as they're happy

In contrast, this Dodge Ram shows how some small amount of tacky can actually be quite cool. The flame grille was pretty much the only adornment on the giant black beast. When you're basically running a pickup with a Dodge Viper V10 in it, you can definitely speak softly and carry a big stick. Although if they'd had V10 missiles back then maybe Teddy Roosevelt would have adjusted his famous aphorism to read more like "speak softly and do twelve second quarters out of the box"

While we're on the topic of big pickups, have another F100. This '57 is the third generation of F-series, the first where the wings (fenders) were incorporated into the actual body

Who'd have thought turquoise and brown would work outside of a Fry's Peppermint Cream?

Stuck in a corner under one of the paddock tents were a few old cars that were clearly nothing to do with the meeting on today, I guess they were club member's cars or something. There was a competition-prepped big Healey that I conspicuously failed to get any decent pics of, and this little MG midget

I love these radiator shroud-mounted temperature gauges. I suppose they were needed when head gaskets were whittled from agricultural by-products and the temperatures would rocket if the car was stationary for more than an eyeblink. Even my mum's "modern" MGB gets all hot and tries to boil its head when stuck in traffic for more than about twenty seconds.

Eee, cars was built from proper materials back then, plywood dashboards, and steering wheels lined with... actually, I dunno what it's lined with. It looks like a special effect from Akira. Maybe some sort of weird dried tripe-style organ?

I love the elegant instruments and MG-logoed grab handle. I also love the way the passenger is evidently the only one who needs to worry about what speed they're going, the driver gets the rev counter to worry about instead

By now, of course, a new crop of cars had filled this second paddock where we'd originally started and it was starting to look like I'd never get my soss an chips. However, we had to pause for things as excellent as this BelAir. Great colour, proper roof and the right number of doors. Spot on

Love the chrome half-shrouds for the headlights, too. From a distance they make the entire light look mirrored. Tricksy

Another hotrod. Nope, still no clue. It's a Ford, as if there's a theme emerging. This one's sorta green though, nothing like the rest. Or maybe khaki? Olive? Avocado...

Another 'vette rolled in just as we were making a break for the soss dispensary. I snapped it quickly in case it was gone by the time we got back, but I was starting to digest my own internal organs so it was time to eat.

So, after a bracing and filling luncheon of soss, chips and beans (how very English, lol) I took a quick detour before we hit the museums to try to get some overhead shots. The dome is verboten because you might hurt yourself and clearly can't be trusted to perform complex tasks without supervision by some social inadequate in a yellow tabard... such as climbing stairs and being in a high place without a safety harness and fire hazard training course. So I sneaked up onto the Club Members only bar balcony instead. Everyone seemed fine about it, maybe they couldn't tell I was a pleb because of the cunningness of my disguise. Of cargo trousers with holes in the knee and a Chumbawamba t-shirt. OK, maybe it wasn't that, then. Anyway, it gave me a chance to get some different angles on stuff.

Some of these I couldn't resist faffing about tiltshifting

And some of them were interesting just because they show that even cars with a perfect coke-bottle side profile are just big rectangles from above

I seem to have this bronze Charger following me about everywhere, since the Mopar Nationals last year I've seen it at the Classic Motor Show, Aldershot, and now here. It's a proper job, Magnum lump and all, and finished as immaculately under the hood as on the outside. That ridiculous blue thing again, too. The humongous yellow job the other side of the fence is another Viper-engined Ram. Don't see one for ages then two pop up together...

A few of the cars seemed to be leaving by now, as it was mid-afternoon. Got that white BelAir down just in time, it seems...

...and this... well, whatever the hell kind of Ford 'rod it actually is. Green one. It was time for us to leave, too, me before they chucked me out of the Members Only bit and Rich/Phil because he was itching to get round the aircraft museum hangar.

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:20 am

So off we set to the big dilapidated hangar holding the planes If you're not into planes and stuff go and have a nice cup of tea for a bit, there'll be more cars in a while. It's worth a quick look round though, I think. It's one of the sad aspects of Brooklands; they clearly don't have enough money, end of message. More elaborately put, everything is slightly tatty, old, faded, foxed, badgered or carnivorous mammal-ed of your choice. In fact some of it is downright knackered. The banking itself is a case in point; one of the most iconic sights in motorsport history, absolutely defining of pre-war racing, the original birthplace of organised motor powered competition in the entire world, and it's basically falling apart. Or at least, the token vestige that's left is. Sad to see. The sheds and hangars are the same; if your car had anywhere near the patination that the structure inside the hangar does, you'd be very pleased indeed and win every barn-find category at every concourse going.

Right, [/rant]. This is a Tall Boy. It's a bomb. It was designed by Barnes-Wallace of bouncing bomb fame, and weighed 12000lbs. In fact, the weight was so immense the Lancasters that carried it had to be stripped out of all possible weight and modified to attain greater altitude. This latter was to exploit the extremely aerodynamic shape of the Tallboy, meaning they needed to be dropped from a greater height than regular ordinance in order to achieve a higher terminal velocity. The payload of explosive was around 5200lb. And this was designated a medium capacity armament! And also an Earthquake Bomb. Hmmm.. slight difference of opinion there. Anyway, if it landed on you it would leave a crater 80 feet deep and 100 feet across and go through 16 feet of solid concrete. Fair to say there wouldn't be enough of you to send home on a greasy sponge. The Vickers works manufactured these here during the War as part of Brooklands' other main historical significance. These are the bombs that pretty much sank the Tirpitz, the last German Bismarck-class battleship. She suffered near misses on two earlier bombing raids that pretty much crippled her and then two direct hits and four near misses on the evocatively-named Operation Catechism of 12 November 1944. She rolled over and sank. As you would under the influence of over 40 000lbs of explosive.

Stepping into the gloomy dimness of the hangar, one of the first things you see is a proper survivor from the days of pioneering aircraft. It looks rather like an old pram brazed onto a big kite and with a motorbike engine nailed to the top. Which I guess is pretty much what early aircraft were

Lovely bit of hand fabrication on the prop nosecone, scary bit on the gravity fuel tank for the engine. Engine looks the sort of thing that would have been considered of marginal power and reliability in a ground vehicle, let alone being the only thing keeping you airborne. How the hell people ever persevered to conquer powered flight when this is what the first efforts looked like speaks volumes for the tenacity... and pigheadedness... of the human spirit

One of the problems of photographing stuff in here is that everything's so packed in tight that it's impossible to single out the bit you want. So even though there's a part-stripped Hurricane sat here it's really hard to get any meaningful photos of the entire thing. I had to contend myself with taking detail shots of important bits. Like this Rolls-Royce PV-12. Or Merlin, if you prefer.

Hurricanes were manufactured here at Brooklands before and during the war. Their box-structure endoskeleton was initially covered with fabric wing material, and though a few of these early variants flew in the Battle of Britain, the later ones had metal skinned wings. Although a more outdated and less excellent in terms of pure engineering method than the all-metal monocoque of the more glamorous Spitfire, the Hurricane's simpler construction mean they were quicker to produce and easier, simpler and cheaper to repair if damaged. Arguably a more effective weapon in context for these reasons, but doomed to be forever in the Supermarine's shadow. Looks funky from down here. RR zoomie pipes FTW

The other main problem with photographic stuff in here is that even on a sunny day it's bleedin dark and trying to get good pics without flash is hard (there are no good pics with flash, lol) and I apologise for the horrible graininess of high ISO settings. Right, here's something funky. This is the rotary Clerget engine of a Sopwith Camel (or at least four-ninths of it). Tricky one to get your head round, rotary plane engines but if you can think your way through a corkscrew without turning your head or using your index finger you've a fighting chance. If it takes you a week to finish a sudoku I'd perhaps give it a miss.

Essentially you need an odd number of cylinders mounting to a common crankshaft, presented in a radial formation (although it's NOT a radial engine, the crankshaft turns in those though the cylinder arrangement looks similar), and then get the entire plot to rotate around the crank. There is a considerable advantage in aviation in as much as the engine has terrific power to weight ratios and due to the lack of reciprocation, very smooth running without needing complexity and weight like flywheels. The disadvantages were numerous, unfortunately. Carburation was horrendous to establish efficiency in, lubrication likewise given the impossibility of a sump on an engine that spins constantly. Oil was usually introduced with the fuel, meaning the filthy-burning fumes would often coat the plane and pilot in oil, leading to involuntary consumption and frequent diarrhoea (it was castor based). In addition, the considerable gyroscopic precession of the rotating mass (you can replicate this for yourself; hold a spinning bicycle wheel by the spindle. Now try to turn it. Hard, isn't it? That's gyroscopic precession; a spinning object tries to continue in a straight line along its axis) meant that right turns were done in the blink of an eye, left turns were extremely difficult and very ponderous. Did I mention it's a miracle we ever conquered flight?

Even more scarily, there was a motorbike powered by a rotary mounted within the front wheel! The German Megola of the 1920s must have been one of the most horrific devices to steer ever to take to the road, given the gyroscopic precession of a heavy steel engine spinning within the axis of the only steered wheel. Google it, it's definitely worth a laugh

Phew! that was a big one, wasn't it? Anyone still out there? Cool, have a nice leather flying hat as a calmer. Looking at this it's easy to see how George Lucas got his simple yet visionary concept for used functionality in his Star Wars films. All he did was take objects like this and realise that even in science fiction humans still have the same heads, and thus helmets need to look like they fit human heads, blasters like they work in human hands, ships like they're piloted by humans, etc etc. Then just make everything look used and abused. The hangar is lined with display cabinets filled with great period artefacts like this

Dominating much of the hangar space is the carcass of one of only two surviving Wellington bombers, and the only one to have been built at Brooklands and have seen active bomber service

As you can see, the ol' girl's seen better days but there is a good reason for the dilapidated skeletal state. N2980 developed engine trouble on a training flight in 1940, and the crew were forced to bail. All made it out though the tailgunner died when his parachute failed and the plane ditched into Loch Ness. In 1976 a team of American Loch Ness Monster hunters discovered the plane (yes, really) and she was eventually salvaged in 1985 using National Heritage Fund money to support the Loch Ness Wellington Trust. In actual fact, considering she spent 45 years underwater she's in pretty good condition!

The Wellington was derived from Barnes-Wallis's (him again) earlier Wellesley. See what they did there.. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington? It had a geodesic construction of a latticework of 1650 alloy Duralium components with wooden battens screwed on to support a doped fabric outer skin. This made them able to survive terrible damage that would have brought down other constructions of aircraft, as every spar supported the stresses of almost every other spar to some degree. Wellingtons would frequently make it back from raids with large sections of sparwork blown out and the doped skin burning away.

There's an amazing story where one Sergeant James Allen Ward was co-pilot on a Wellington that was attacked by a German Bf 110 on the way home from a night raid. The starboard engine caught fire and Sergeant Ward climbed out through one of the holes in the fuselage whilst in flight, kicked foot and handholds into the doped wing fabric, and smothered the fire in the engine before returning safely to the cabin. Rightly bloody so, he earned the Victoria Cross for his heroism in bringing the aircraft back home. Here the open structure of the fuselage lets the visitor see through to the period fittings inside

the sparwork of the bomb bay resembles something HR Giger might have dreamed up!

The violence of a crash into deep water is borne out by the crazy shape the deHavilland variable-pitch props have ended up, the erosive properties of the water shown by the wear in the blades. The fact they're bloody tougher than a very tough thing is borne out by the fact they're still there at all!

There was another iconic British aircraft in the hangar, one that really was impossible to get a picture of in its entirety. These five letters should give a clue;

Rather like Concorde, it's strange and a bit sad to think we'll never see the like of the Harrier again, at least not for the forseeable future. Such an incredible feat of visionary design over physics; a fixed-wing aircraft that could actually develop enough thrust to fly backwards. Amazing. They do my head in and blow my socks off all at once

In fact, as I alluded to earlier, there's an ephemeral feeling of sadness in the whole place, of passed glories and faded might. This place was once an immense powerhouse, churning out incredible amounts of what were the cutting edge of aeronautical weaponry. The manufacturing shed stretched deep into what are now housing estates and business parks. Middle England stood astride the world like a colossus and now it's curled up on a park bench swearing into its paper bag of White Lightning. All that's left of the vast workshops is a worn Vickers-Armstrong plaque that once proudly surmounted a gable end, now left gathering dust and pigeon guano on an old pallet. Sad times

Go and have a look before what's left rots away too from lack of funding and disinterest

Right, important tip now for all you toggers (good word! Courtesy of Major Tom) out there. When you go out of a really dark place into brilliant sunshine, remember to adjust your damned camera settings. Yeah, I know, if I was any kind of professional I'd check after every shot, but I'm not and I didn't. Fortunately I realised before I'd taken too many and switched it back down from "set the controls for the heart of the sun" before I ruined too many pics. I thought maybe I'd be able to just retouch them so people thought I was being deliberately arty but even this one took so long I just simply CBA. Anyway, this is "Dodge Daytona retouched to resemble rubbish old 70's film camera overexposed by a retard"

See, cars were appearing throughout the day and it was easy to miss some otherwise awesome machines. This baby is a genuine Daytona that the owner drives like he hates it, regularly pummelling it on the strip. Good man, that's the ticket. Obviously it's nothing at all like a Superbird, besides being the same platform and almost identical aero treatments. OK, they are a bit similar. Homologation specials have brought us some of the most iconic cars but there can be few as bonkers as this

I can't help but feel this is probably a more suitable home for an 8 litre V10 than some fat old pickup

That is-it-isn't-it Z28 Camaro was still around, so I had to take some more of that, too now the bonnet was shut. Would have been even nicer if I hadn't still had the camera set to like 1600 ISO, too. *sigh*

Rich/Phil was now wanting to go and pay homage to the other iconic of British aerospace engineering that lives in these parts, so I got dragged away from my favourite Camaro again to go look and to listen to him bang on about how marvellous it was having a workshop under Heathrow's flightpath and seeing/hearing these things take off. Can you tell what it is yet?

Yep, that's a pair of Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 twin-spool turbojets (with afterburner) so this can only be one thing

One of very few aeroplanes to never have a definite article. True fact. Anyway, this has of course become a colloquialism for all the wrong reasons, having become synonymous with a zenith that can never be re-attained. Nothing is as good since. Concorde was so fast it actually travelled faster than its engines' ability to scoop in useable amounts of air. It needed this clever spill door arrangement to slow the intake speed from the mach 2 the plane could achieve to the mach 0.5 the engines could cope with. Sound advice on the intake ramps there...

You can book onto a "Concorde Experience" tour at the museum shop, a sort of guided walkabout thing and actually go on board the aircraft. However, it sells out quickly and it's expensive, we're tight and Rich/Phil probably knows as much about the bloody thing as any other living human, so we didn't. Those who did seemed to enjoy the experience. Maybe I'll take the li'l 'un on it one day. "Those" tyres in full...

One of the most recognisable profiles in modern culture. Sad to think it'll never cut the air again.

Round the back here (fnarr) is a collection of service vehicles, many of which seem to be left outside to return to the soil. There are some great ones like fuel tenders, fire engines, and an excellent Moggy Traveller Caledonia-liveried van. This engineering tractor's a bit of a thing, too

This mad fuel tender had some phenomenal patination as well as being about as safe-looking as Gazza at a Wetherspoons two-for-one night. It was basically a droptank on wheels, and rickety ones at that

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:21 am

And that was our brief soiree through the aircraft side of the museum dealt with. This brings us out by the back of the restaurant, en route to the vehicle museum, only to find a new crop of cars had showed up. Here's something different...

yeah, didn't I promise you a Swiss car? As anyone who was winningest at Top Trumps in the 70s can tell you, this is a Monteverdi High Speed coupe, rather than the more "common" sedan. Why is it here? It's pedalled along by a 440 cui Chrysler Magnum (7.2 litre). The real "why?" of it is... why the hell a country where it's illegal to mow your lawn in a noisy manner on a Sunday and using fossil fuels to propagate speed is one step down from nun rape in the sin barometer make their only significant contribution to world motoring a ridiculously fast and thirsty V8 monster?

Actually, who cares, it's great and the sheer lunacy of it gives me some new repsect for the Swiss. Even if it was designed by Frua of Turin and built by Fissore of Savigliano (who also made the gopping Safari for Monteverdi, proving not everything to come from the Turin area is stylish and desirable). This thing is damned handsome though, isn't it?

Right then, into the automotive museum now. Just as tricksy taking photos in here due to the low light, and due to the way the exhibits are a bit wedged in together. I haven't even bothered posting pics of cluttered cars stuck in each others way. Well, I've tried to keep it to a minimum, anyway, lol. There might be a lot of detail shots rather than entire cars...

The museum buildings are a series of period sheds and workshops and they're brilliantly "dressed" inside with side-rooms stuffed with authentic props from back in the day. I like this gramophone for reasons I'm unable to convincingly explain. HMV, another thing gone forever...

I tell you what, when you won a trophy back in Brookland's racing heyday, you bloody well knew you'd won something! The size of a spitful of doner kebab and more ornate than the Queen's coach, this must have really made you feel a winner!

One of my favourite ever things on four wheels, the gloriously bonkers Napier Railton. This is the fastest thing ever round Brooklands, a lap record at 143.44 mph AVERAGE. How downright terrifying must that have been! This was designed by Reid Railton for John Cobb to drive, and apart from decimating all in circuit racing also set speed records at Montlhéry and Bonneville

One of my cherished car memories is seeing this mad thing run at Brighton Speed Trials. Some kindly looking-old gent donned his goggles and leather hat and gave it bally what-for up the strip, smoke boiling off the tyres for a good eighth mile. The noise! Awesome

Mind you, it's hard not to smoke the tyres when they're a) bike tyres and b) turned by a 23 litre Napier Lion W-12 aeroplane engine

There's a great display model (pictured, lol) which helps you get your head around this beast of a motor, including an example of the engineering masterpiece that is the siamesed conrods

Everything's massive and overengineered. I guess you really don't want things breaking in an aircraft engine, to be fair. Valve gear built from girders.

And you think you have a job remembering where the plug leads go for the 1-2-4-3 firing order on your pre-crossflow Kent four. Or wait... was it 1-3-4-2? Gahhh... pick the bones out of this one...

This is a fairly unusual sort of vehicle, even for a marque that's produced as many leftfield cars as Alfa

It is the prototype and rather awkwardly named Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Aerodynamica Spider (or Aerospider to its friends). It was designed to be a rival to the Silver Arrows of Germany, the Auto Unions and Mercedes that were decimating all on the tracks of between-war Europe. Comissioned by Vittorio Jano, then Alfas head of development, it was briefed to be a mid-engined aero-efficient racer boasting a 430bhp 2.3 litre V12 engine

What a visionary shaped thing it is too! Must have seemed science fiction in comparison to the open-wheeled lozenges of the time. The work was contracted to the brothers Gino and Oscar Jankovits in Fiume, Italy, removed from the normal Alfa works for reasons of secrecy. Unfortunately, the project faltered... Jano got the sack, the car got a lesser V6 than the proposed V12 and Fiume was fiercely contested territory, finally becoming Rijeka... in Croatia. Apparently the Jankovits brothers used the car to escape from Communist Jugoslavia, racing over the border in it back into Italy in 1947, where they sold the car to an Anglo-American serviceman to fund the re-start of their lives. The car then disappeared until 1967, was finally returned to Italy for restoration and has been on display since 2002. Quite a history!

There's a lot of innovative stuff to like about this car, the headlights, doorhandles and any protruberances are smoothed into the aerodynamic bodywork, the brakes and suspension are very advanced and even the central driving position with a passenger either side and set back pre-empted the McLaren F1 by some 55 years

Of course, it wouldn't be Brooklands museum without at least one Bentley. After all, they even had a model named after the place. Here's one then. I love the "Running In - AGAIN" plate on the back. As a serial rotary engine murderer, I can fully sympathise with that

Saw some threads recently in the vein of "what're the most awesome dashes" and this for me must be a contender. Looks like they used whatever was handy, including old walking stick handles and doorbells, lol

Not a Blower, of course, but W.O himself didn't like the fact the supercharged cars were the ones everyone wanted (in actual fact, they weren't eve appreciably faster than the n/a ones and were certainly more fragile). In a very American stance he thought that there ain't no replacement for displacement... though he'd probably have phrased it with better grammar. Basically, if the car wasn't fast enough, the engine wasn't big enough

looks like another bit of furniture or cutlery or whatever has been pressed into service as the radiator cap release

Nice bit of enamel work, even the lights get a little crest of their own. This particular one belongs to Joe Lucas, Prince Of Darkness

Moar totally humongous trophies, this one makes the FA Cup look subtle and understated

Plenty of vintage bikes around, for those who prefer their thrills on two wheels. And let me tell you, if it was brave to "take the cement" on four wheels, those who hurtled round the unforgiving banking on two were guilty of bravery verging on pathological lunacy. Here's a nice Brough with interpretation boards showing how it was meant to be ridden

Brough Superior SS100s were famous for plenty more than killing Lawrence of Arabia (though one did). They were the fastest things around, they were advertised by George Brough himself as "the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles", an aphorism that RR eventually quashed though not before it entered common parlance. The "100" part of the name referred not just to the swept volume, but also meant that the factory guaranteed that every single bike had been individually tested to 100 mph before it was sold. Brilliant, imagine that marketing campaign today!

The bikes really were shoved in tight together so I won't put too many pics up of this bit, cos they're too rubbish and confusing. Some good details to spot though, such as the apparently home-made bearing race cup, bracketry and trailing-link forks on this Earle JAP-engined tracker. Note the spare spark plugs lockwired to the yoke!

What a great juxtaposition of underconfidence with the marque name and overcompensation with the model name... the OK Supreme

To my eternal shame, I forget the name of this fine lady. She has a self of one of the trophy cabinets dedicated to her, and rightly so. She must have truly been a pioneer, not just to race motorcycles in such a dangerous time for sport, but to do it as a woman in what is even today very male-dominated arena must have taken some incredible strength of character. She competed in her final race in 2002, at the age of 90-odd. Amazing

Another Brough here, taking pride of place on its own pedestal. Gorgeous machine, even weighed down with the bathchair

I call this one "portrait of your humble scribe via the medium of Brough Superior tank"

This is the Alpine Grand Sport touring model with the JAP (J.A. Prestwich) engine used in later versions was called the "two of everything" because it had two-valve heads, two cylinders, two magnetos and two oil pumps. Sturmey-Archer three speed gears, just like on your old Raleigh

I like the neatness of mounting instruments in the top of the headlight shell. The bars on old bikes were cluttered enough after all, what with advance/retard levers, decompressors, brakes, throttle, manual oil pump prime levers, etc etc. Still sound advice today, "Keep wiring clear of all moving parts"

There's an entire hall dedicated to the history of the bicycle, which I suppose is fine if that's what you're into. Personally I prefer things with engines, but I guess cycling seems to be the new rock'n'roll nowadays. There are plenty of parallels; the lead protagonists have preposterous hair, dress in a manner that'd get you arrested outside your chosen niche, and the immense quantities of esoteric drugs have many and far-reaching effects beyond that of simply making your penis vanish. So quite rock'n'roll indeed. Anyway, I'd prefer it if they made more space for cool engine-powered things and less for crap lycra-powered things, but I did find a couple of items worth sharing. A genuine Chopper and Grifter, for a start. If like me you're a child of the seventies, this is the absolute zenith of playing card spoke-slapping cool

and of course a few examples of Uncle Clive's last great white elephant. Again, so of it's time but I bet if he'd launched it today, right now in our eco-nazi super-expensive motoring age, he'd sell all he could build. Yep, Sinclair products, every one an icon, every one not properly appreciated in its own era, from red LED calculators used for spelling "BOOBLESS" in the back of maths lessons... to ZX81s; used for 3D Monster Maze. Shortly before it crashed... to the epic Spectrum with deadflesh zombie keyboard; ten minutes of listening to vweeeeeeee.-zip-zip-zip-vweeeeeeeee tape loads and watching flappy lines in the margin. And then it crashed...to the C5; post-pub transport for the more forward-thinking and well-heeled reprobate. Sir Clive Sinclair, utter mad genius, we salute you!

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:23 am

On that note, we blunder back out into the sunshine from the gloom of the museum sheds, to find a little quadrangle stuffed with cars we'd managed to completely miss up till then. Doh! Here's an old, old F100, a first generation1950 example. The truck only came out in 1948 as the Ford Bonus-Built, so this is very nearly as old as they get

I promised a while back (no, I don't blame you for forgetting) at the Olds Holiday that there was a hood rocket emblem more ridiculous at the show, so as promised, here ya go;

This proud adornment is affixed to the prow of a Pontiac Star Chief

This particular groover is a 1956 example, two years into the model life. The original year they were (barely) powered by Pontiac's straight eight of Jurassic vintage, but by the time this one was sold (in Tucson, evidently), they were V8-powered.

This beast was the top of the Pontiac range, and no holds were barred when it came to emphasising this fact. Two years later, the Star Chief Bonneville became a separate model in its own right, and left the Star Chief bereft of its premier status. It was still a very prestigious car, and remained a mainstay of the range until 1966 when it was pretty much obsolete anyway

Nice to see another quality motor painted the same shade as our downstairs loo, as well. Something of a trend for giant 50s Yank behemoths, evidently

And it does sport the most epic hood ornamentation on anything short of a Nash Metropolitan. Just look at it, all chrome and crystal... well, see-through plastic anyway... it's not a rocket, it's a bloody Flying Fortress!

Yet another early Camaro. They're really becoming almost passé now, lol

Here's another vast land yacht, perhaps the defining one. The full nine yards. Or more accurately perhaps, the full nineteen feet.

The Sedan de Ville clearly has plenty of shock and awe about it, but nothing can hide the fact it's got a surfeit of doors. This '58 Coupe deVille is just right in every regard.

Of course, just a year later with the second-generation restyle these fins would be boasting they were the biggest ever made on any car. This are hardly vestigial, though

This is a very expensive car... not that it's news Coupe de Villes are expensive... but this particular one clearly ticked every option when it was new. Power everything, aircon, the whole 18.75 feet. We couldn't work out if it was the exclusive limited Biarritz edition or not. Perhaps not, but it's certainly one class motor

Wheel trims though. No matter how brightly chromed they are and how lavish the crest embossed... Oh well, I guess they're true to the car. You could hardly see it on a deep dish set of mag Torquethrusts

So then, back into the next part of the museum, the shed holding more modern competition machinery not necessarily from the era of Brooklands as a race venue. The same disclaimer applies, hard to get clear shots of stuff, yeah? Sorry. This...

...believe it or not, is an Aston Martin. Hell, yeah. Even Aston had a "concieved in the pub, built in a shed" period, apparently. Logo needs some work there too, guys

How difficult to make a crank of this magnitude that doesn't flex like a politician's values or shatter into its component parts? maybe there's a reason straight engines were phased out in favour of Vs beyond that of necessitating a car the length of Egremont to fit one in

Luton's finest, Griffins look better in brass

A Cooper Climax, the car that revolutionised motor racing. Again. The idea of mid-engined cars seems blindingly obvious in hindsight, but it took Jack Brabham taking a T51 like this to the constructors and drivers championship in 1951 that set the seal this was the way forward. Ironically, he pushed it over the line at Sebring to do so, but we'll pass over that bit. Not bad for a car powered by an engine originally designed as a fire truck water pump!

The first ever use of the now-iconic Minilite-style wheel? Cooper used to cast the brake drum liner into the inside of the hub, thus reducing the amount of componentry and of course, unsprung weight

Wonderful organic manifold on the Allard you can see in the background of the Cooper Climax pic. Ceramic coatings would appear not to be a new thing, then. Nothing new under heaven, nothing unique over hell.

Bit of a rarity to find a single-seater competition Alvis, since mostly they were incredibly well-built sedans and gentlemen's expresses. For a company who employed the services of such evocative names as Mulliners, Park Ward and Tickford to build bodies, and had luminaries such as Alex Issigonis pass through it's engineering department, not enough is heard of Alvis cars. maybe it's the tragic end they met at the hands of Rover and BL that's too depressing to contemplate

Nothing in the world of carburation makes as good a noise as an SU on full suck, so imagine the noise three of them must make. Like God's bathtub emptying

Alvis always prided itself on forward thinking and astonishing engineering prowess. They had many firsts, the first in-house motor in the 20s had aluminium pistons and pressurised lubrication. They had independent front suspension in '27, the first production synchromesh gearbox in '33, servo brakes in the mid-30s. There are many rumours about how the name came about, some thinking it was from a compound of "aluminium" and the Latin "vis" meaning "strength". Some say it was from a Norse weaponsmith of legend called "Alviss". Geofffrey de Freville, the company founder, said this was all rubbish and he made the word up so that it would be pronounced the same no matter what language was being used.

This is a bit of an oddity, the Alfa Romeo-powered Assegai car. Based on a Cooper F1 racer, it was designed to compete in South Africa's Gold Cup race series. It was lower and narrower than the Cooper, but of limited success. Builder Tony Kotze only entered it for one grand Prix, the Natal in 1962, where it failed to qualify. Looks excellent with its aggressive sharknose front though

I know almost nothing about F1, other than it's not been very interesting for a long time. This, apparently, is a Jordan EJ11 as driven by someone called Frentzen that was supposed to have the Mojo to achieve great things but never did. Evidently the team had works Hahhhnda engines to replace their previous Mugen-Hahhhnda ones and should have been on level ground with BAR in 2001. It didn't really happen. But I like the colourscheme. Competition vehicles of any kind look best when they're painted like a packet of fags

and I very much like the carbon fibre suspension arms and brake disc cooling intakes

Lucky · Post by **Lucky** » Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:24 am

That was our tour of the museums pretty much down, so after a quick whistle stop tour of the paddocks to check whether anything was going on, it was time to go. Annoyingly, a few of the cars were just coming down from the banking where they'd been to park up and look cool, so I missed the chance to get some pics on the hallowed cement itself. Oh well. Gave us an opportunity to take some pics of stuf I'd *ahem* cocked up the settings on before...

...tidy up on any little details I may have missed first time around....

...red 'vette interior is RED!

...and shoot any cars that hadn't been around before. I always find these 80s trans Ams put me in mind of a droopsnoot Firenze, just bigger. T-Bar roof is definitely FTW

Slightly more restrained C5 Corvette shows off it's RX-7 homage looks, lol. Red is the fastest colour, y'know

John of the incomparable JC Auto Refinishing (he who did all the metalwork on Rich/Phil's Cougar) had brought along his Imperial le Baron

For 1973 new federal laws on bumper overriders and such meant this was the longest car in production in North America, at 235 inches. Errr's a bigun. TBH, it doesn't really need the concealed headlights, the sidelights are the size of many lesser cars headlights!

Last time I took photos of this car it was covered in half an inch of frost and ice, so it's nice to see it basking in the sun, pillarless windows down and wonderful button hide benches there for all to see. An interior more opulent than the House of Commons

"20 Original Hits"! I shudder to think...

The dash on this '68 Charger is interesting for one aspect of instrumentation. Y'see how the rev counter cunningly has the clock set in the middle of it? Yeah, leaving aside how annoying that must make reading either in a hurry, y'know what's even more annoying? That is known colloquially as a "tick tock tach". Yeah, it uspet me pretty badly when I found that out, too

And that was that. Time to go. On the way out, starting to feel rather footsore, to be fair, we passed this giant tent at the back of the paddocks. It was some kind of members parking, presumably people can get there cars there ready for upcoming events or something. Anyway, we had to stop and have a quick mooch cos the selection of cars there couldn't have been more eclectic or interesting...and certainly very different to the Yank Tanks we'd come to see

Incredibly rust-free and clean GTV must be about the last one left!

Yes, I know pedantically it's not technically a Ferrari but the Dino 246 is still about my third-favourite Ferrari nonetheless. Such a cool shape. Dunno what's with the odd teledial wheels, they look massive compared to the more usual styles

Massive Humber drophead was immensely stately, slightly clumsy colour combination for me, but regal and refined regardless

Though the poor old stork bonnet mascot's lost his beak at some point! Humber used to make rotary aero engines, so there's another link back into this thread. See, I am the weaver, me

Remember way back in the dim and distant past, back when we started on our trip through this thread together, we passed a cluster of arbitrary Mercedes SLs and we were all a bit upset that the prima donna wasn't performing her party trick, preferring to sulk with her wings shut?

Well, like a flower opening to the spring sunshine or a butterfly taking flight from the pupa for the first time, she had burst forth into marvellous joie de vivre and was celebrating with a peacock display of frivolity

Steering wheel hinges to the horizontal to actually make it feasible to get in and out of the daft thing. Clocks are brilliantly art deco.

A completely unexpected bonus, nothing whatever to do with what we'd come to see, but hey, I'll take it, thanks.

And that was that. As you can maybe guess from the extravagant length of this thread, I enjoyed the day enormously. A great mix of cultures, history, heritage and cool cool vehicles. I'd definitely recommend a trip to Brooklands, it's well worth a trip, although if you can go on a day like this when there's a show on so much the better. Realistically the museums on their own would be a short day out, so the car display really makes it worthwhile.

As always, thanks for reading (if anyone's still with us out there). Hope you enjoyed it.

Now, go away

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