Butch Cassidy the Race Driver - part 1

Mark Cole looks back at the career of PLN

Butch Cassidy came late to motor racing. He was, along with Steve McQueen, Hollywood’s top-grossing movie actor during the 1960s and 1970s. But unlike McQueen, Paul Newman had given little thought to cars - which would happen to be the title of his final film - until he was in his 40s.

However, it led to a hard-earned second place in the 1979 Le Mans 24-Hours, sharing Dick Barbour’s Hawaian Tropic Porsche 935 with its owner and factory driver Rolf Stommelen, almost 10 years after fellow actor Steve McQueen had taken his Porsche 908 to 2nd place in the Sebring 12-Hours. 

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The Richard Heseltine Column - Celebrating Tony Crook

Over the past 25 years or so, I have been fortunate enough to interview umpteen car designers, racing drivers, motor moguls, and more besides. Of these, almost all have been men and women I have liked and admired. There are exceptions, of course, not least a couple of ‘Eff One’ stars who were insufferable. One refused to shake hands or make eye contact but was more than happy to drone on about his property empire. The other gave one-word answers during our pre-arranged meeting, harrumphing like a stroppy teenager from start to finish.

Première Night, part 4 - PDK and 4WD
By Serge Vanbockryck

With the arrival of Group C in 1982, extreme engineering, wandering to and from the boundaries and frontiers of the technically achievable and regulatory permissible, eased off a bit as manufacturers were first and foremost trying to get to grips with limited fuel consumption figures and ground effects. Still, in 1986 something new was presented to the ACO’s scrutineers: one of the three works Porsche 962Cs ran with a so-called PDK gearbox, short for Porsche Doppel-Kupplung or double clutch transmission. 
 

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PERIOD DELIGHTS from Michael Cole

In this issue we have another selection of period photos from top tennis photographer and E-type owner, Michael Cole. We are sharing them because they are rather different and have a delightful period atmosphere.

Michael comments, of the lady featured, “I met Anthea at Beckenham Art School when she was attending there too in either late ‘62 or early ‘63 ... she was my first girlfriend.”
 

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BRP’s Indianapolis Swan Song, part 5

By Ian Wagstaff

Even though BRP itself was no more, the Indy cars continued to appear on the USAC trail. George Bryant’s crew chief Howard Gilbert modified them for the 1966 season with Quinn Epperly adding new bodywork. Boyd again drove one of the, now yellow, cars hitting the wall in turn one after five laps. However, that year’s first lap, multiple wreck which saw a third of the field drop out, meant he was still classified as high as 22^nd.. Bobby Johns, who had been Jim Clark’s Lotus team mate at Indianapolis the previous year, failed to complete a qualifying run in the other car.
 

FAST-FEED-BACK!

'While we were talking with Peter Brock, designer of the Cobra Daytona Coupe, for Octane's cover feature about Cobras in issue 203, he recommended this new book to us. Which tells you all you need to know: if you're interested in these shapely racing coupés, it's an essential purchase.

'... there's far more to this book than the history of a single Daytona Coupe. As Brock himself writes in the foreword: ' [The author's] first-hand accounts ... bring into focus so many of the guys on the crew who have never had the recognition they deserved.' And for this reviewer, at least, it's the behind-the-scenes pictures inside and outside the Shelby workshops that really resonate - guys with shirtsleeves rolled up, working around the clock to finish a project that they're completely immersed in...'
 

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