Philip Porter writes:
Flying high with anniversaries and Richard Goode
Welcome! In this issue we are celebrating two important June anniversaries. It is 50 years since Porsche took its first Le Mans win, and we published a book, in our Great Cars series, about that very car 917 - 023. To complement that, we have a video we made with Richard Attwood, who shared the victory with Hans Herrmann.
Just two weeks after the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Jaguar took a famous win 67 years ago, a win in which the newly-developed Dunlop disc brakes played a very significant role. Also in the Great Cars series, we have a book on the winning car, XKC 051, and this is the subject of our latest quiz.
Due from the printers shortly is an amazing autobiography we are delighted to be publishing. Please read Richard Goode's piece (below) for a taste of his extraordinary life. It is the sort of book you delve into and then cannot put down.
Hope you enjoy this issue (coincidentally, Paul Newman appears in two articles) and my sincere thanks to all our contributors.
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The High Life, by Richard Goode
From my earliest days, I had a feeling that everything was possible. When, as a teenager, I said to my father that I planned to hitchhike from London to Cape Town, he was characteristically unemotional and indeed rather encouraging even though I would be travelling through two major civil wars in The Sudan and Congo!
Then, when I went from a curious and very ‘outdoor’ school in the African ‘bush’ to the arcane world of Cambridge University in what was, for me, a foreign country, it was simply another interesting challenge.
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Butch Cassidy the Race Driver, Part 2
Mark Cole continues his look back at the career of PLN
Being disenchanted with Haas, in 1981, on Green’s advice, Paul Newman (PLN) switched to March-Chevrolet, and Teo Fabi took four wins and again Newman Racing finished 2nd in the points.
His final CanAm season was 1982, running Danny Sullivan, but only one win came, in the last race at Caesar’s Palace. CanAm was coming to an end, its glory years over, so PLN was looking for new opportunities, although he continued his own driving with Bob Sharp, taking his first TransAm win at Brainerd in 1982.
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The Richard Heseltine Column
He stretched self-deprecation beyond its elastic limits. Either that, or he was simply disinterested in what had happened decades ago. With Alan Mann, it was hard to tell. This sometime racer, team principal, and tycoon wasn’t the easiest of men to interview. It was not as though he was unfriendly, more that he would proffer no more words than he deemed necessary. As such, you would be obliged to stretch quotes to breaking point in order to write an article. Then, on publication, he would invariably phone and morph into Mr Loquacious. You couldn’t shut him up...
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Extract from Great Cars book Porsche 917 - The autobiography of 917-023
The Famous Win
Attempts to portray motor racing in fiction tend to fail. In trying to dramatise something that is already dramatic in real life, novelists and film scriptwriters often resort to trite. 'Le Mans' was poorly received at launch but has stood the test of time to achieve cult status. Moody in its approach, its lack of flowing dialogue, something for which it was originally criticised, is perhaps one of its saving graces as this style allows the viewer to concentrate on Le Mans itself...
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Première Night, part 4 - Carbon Brakes, ABS and natural Gas
By Serge Vanbockryck
Run from 1982 till 1990, Group C was arguably the most spectacular period in sportscar racing, with a record number of manufacturers involved and spectators attending. To master the fuel consumption limits, the engine designers had to pull out all stops, but the team’s technical suppliers weren’t exactly sitting still either. By 1990, composite materials had slowly replaced the GRP for the bodyworks and some monocoques were now also being made of carbon fibre rather than aluminium.
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BRP’s Indianapolis Swan Song, part 6
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 22nd.. 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.
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Name The Car, Part 2 Results
Photos by Michael Cole
Photos taken by Michael at the 1970 Earl's Court London Motor Show.
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Below are the answers to the Name The Car competition - Part 2. A big thank you to everyone who entered the competition.
1) Lotus Elan +2
2) Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Convertible
3) Vauxhall SRV Concept (I reckon!)
4) MG Number One
5) AC 428 Convertible
6) TVR 3000M
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Porter Press Books Update
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Delighted to report that Daytona Cobra Coupe was the last ‘Book of the Month’ in Octane and All-American Heroes is the current ‘Book of the Month’ in Octane.
Our next book to be launched is Living The Goode Life, at Full Throttle, as mentioned above. The ROFGO Collection book, written by Doug Nye, is with the owner for approval. The book on Chris Craft and Gordon Murray’s amazing Rocket is nearing completion. An amazing Bugatti book, which our author has been working on for 18 months, is nearing the editing stage. Vol 1 of Ultimate McLaren F1 GTR is written, edited and designed, with Vol 2 well advanced. Ian Wagstaff has completed writing our Alfa T33/3, the next in our Exceptional Cars series. We have added several more titles to our list in the last fortnight - please see below.
Personally, I am working on editing an amazing book put together by Michael Kliebenstein. Named SuperFinds, it consists of 1,000+ (probably a lot more - must count them!) photographs of important cars as they were found in the ‘60s and ‘70s. A unique book.
Also in the pipeline: Michael Turner Christmas Card Collection, First Production Land Rover, Ferrari Breadvan, Ultimate Ferrari 250 GTO, XK 120 Profile, Ferrari 250 GTE, JCB Scrapbook, Ultimate Works Porsche 962s, Original E-type, Make Your Classic Car Work Perfectly, Trans-Africa Land Rover...
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Who doesn't love a quiz?
If you have any suggestions of how we could improve our quizzes or you would like to submit some questions, please feel free. We would like to build on our newsletters bringing like-minded people together and having fun at the same time.
Click on registration plate to take the latest quiz
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