Beachcomber's Tales from the day

The Germans have a word for events that go beyond coincidence, although I can't pronounce it, never mind spell it, a mate of mine bought a GT250 last year to restore, it's the same one he bought new in 1977. If he had bought the bike in our home town it would have been just coincidence, but he bought it off ebay and it was located in Wales, it's had 16 owners since he sold it in 79. Really enjoying the tales by the way.
 
Rumbaldi / Frog - thanx for the encouragement [ don't need much prompting ! ]. ;)

I'm sure regular contributors [ like Hoof ] will tell you it is enjoyable relating these tales - as, in relating them - you relive them ! 8)

It WAS [ the 60's ] a Golden era for biking and bikers, and there's so much BS and urban myth spouted by "those that were there" [ yea right ], that when there is a good source of info., it's worthy of noting.
 
It's always better to get the stories from the horses mouth, as professional historians often miss out the small and personal tales. The one annoying thing with historical documentation of cultural events, is that often they are written by someone who wasn't there and their outlook is one of an outsider, which is always flawed. I was a punk rocker 76-77 and when I watch programmes about the era they usually get it wrong, everyone in zips and chains etc, which came later when everyone jumped on the bandwagon. If they can't get it right about something as recent as thirty years ago, how are they going to make accurate observations about something even older, keep the tales coming.
 
Spot on Frog - easy to tell the real tales from the wannabes. ;)

One of my all time pet hates is the myth about "record racing". Actually never "Record Racing" but "Juke Box Racing", doesn't really matter as it was bollox anyway.

The average early Sixties pop record was less than 2 minutes. 8)

OK - dash from the juke box through the door, swing a leg over the bike - ASSUME it starts first kick filter out onto the main road and then ride a mile or so - including a roundabout and back before the record ends .................never in a million years.

YES there WERE races from the Caff out to a predetermined point and back to the Caff - first one back the winner - but under 2 minutes .......nah. ::) ::) ::)
 
I remember Pete Townsend recalling a tale about his younger years as a mod, there were about twenty of them walking along the seafront when they spotted five or six rockers, they started shouting abuse at them, the rockers charged at them, and not wanting to tangle with such nutters the mod's did a runner, what I found interesting was that he said some of the rockers were in their early-mid twenties and the ones he encountered from London's east end were serious hard cases, whist most of the mods were teenagers.
 
I was never in the Rocker, Mod or anything else mob and as such it was quite amusing to watch the antics of others around me. No doubt people have read the stories about Dangerous Roy - a mod through an through AND one of my best pals.

In the main, this cult warfare was whipped up by the media - searching for lary headlines [ just like "Juke Box Racing" ! ::) ].

One BIG mistake a lot of the herd [ Rockers ] made was to assume that all mods were a limp wristed bunch. Far from it - there were just as big and mean Mods as Rockers!

Include the womenfolk in that category ! :eek:

Parilla Tale coming up in the next 2-3 weeks - and not a Mod or Rocker in sight 8)
 
Here it is then, a gentle Tale about my involvement with Moto Parillas.

Beachcomber’s Tales from the Day – June 2012
“2 Moto Parilla’s and the Renault R8 Gordini”

By way of explanation, the Renault R8 was a compact saloon, produced from 1962 and like previous Renault models, spawned a competition version – the Gordini. See previous pix.

The cars were way ahead of the UK competition featuring 4 wheel disc brakes, independent suspension all round and a HEATER ! Yes, at this time in the UK [ early 60’s] a heater was still considered an optional extra. :eek:

The cars had an excellent large passenger compartment with truly luxurious seats. Being rear engined, the front “boot” [ trunk ] space was quite limited, and of course you couldn’t just prop the lid open for large loads as you could with traditional front engined car.

Anyway – that was the car. Now the bikes. 8)

I’d come to own a Parilla courtesy of my pal Ted Bloomfield. He’d put me in touch with a guy that owned one and wanted to build a Triton – I had a spare Dommie rolling chassis, so a deal was done.

The bikes were typical of small Italian machines of the era – beautifully made and exquisitely crafted. They were also quite quick compared to British offerings of the same / similar capacity. There was absolutely nothing wrong with my model, but the engine looked so ……. right – that I just had to strip it down and take a look inside! Inside was no different to the outside appearance – fine tolerances and parts that just fell together. It was on one of my trips to Ted’s [ to get gaskets ] that he told me of a guy that he knew about 25 miles south of the River Thames and only 40 miles from my house who “was into Parillas”.

Unfortunately there was no phone number for the guy, so it was down to swift drive down to see if he had any spares for sale. I called my Father to see if he fancied a trip out, as he’d been housebound for a few months following a knee joint replacement. And so we set off in my Gordini, with a pocket full of cash hoping to get a bargain or two.

As we pulled up at the house I spotted a complete Parilla in his front garden.

Fortunately for me he was in and it soon transpired that he had 2 complete bikes – both up and running. He’d also had an ultimatum from his Wife – new kitchen required, which meant he’d have to sell something to raise the cash. He’d actually got the first bike out of storage to start it up and make sure it was in a salesworthy condition ready for advertising in the “Exchange & Mart” – our weekly advertising “bible”.

We got the second bike out and both started and ran, albeit with a bump start due to flat batteries. I made certain his Wife was present for the negotiations ;) and made a stupidly low offer for the lot – which she saw as a new cooker, fridge, whatever and made him accept the offer on the spot – provided I took them then and there!

Now came the fun bit. ::)

Anyway – an hour later the wheels and forks were out and the engines dropped on his garage floor. I took the tanks off and some of the ancillaries to stop them getting damaged. That was the easy part – the parts were crammed into every nook and cranny and no matter how we tried, the front boot lid just couldn’t be closed shut. Aerolastics [ elastic luggage straps ] – don’t you just love them . With four of them secured underneath the front wheel arches and over the boot lid, we eventually got everything packed in – AND I could just about see over the lid [ front hinged, rear opening ]. After a few miles everything settled down to the point where I could go round corners without something or the other hurtling across the car. Boy was I happy, especially when wifey came out just as we were leaving with a big box of spares, gaskets and handbooks / manuals and insisted that we took them so she could clear some cupboard space.

In those days there were various tunnel crossings of the lower Thames – the newest being the Dartford crossing. When it was first opened it shortened our journey to Brands Hatch by some 1 ½ hours each way – saving a trip up the Thames virtually into the East End of London. Eventually a second parallel tunnel was opened to cope with the additional traffic – each one being two lanes one way. At the same time toll booths were installed which were manually operated. The Parillas were only 25 miles south of the tunnels and a further 15 miles or so from home.

Another piece of relevant info. for non – UK residents. A vehicle has to be taxed for road use – a Road Fund licence, and although insurance was de-rigeur, we would often avoid paying the Road Tax as long as possible. Usually you could get away with it on a casual Police check by saying “The tax is in the Post” – which then meant you had to buy tax for that complete month – a risk you’d take. Mainly because this was a council matter and NOT a police issue, the bobbies couldn’t be bothered with the paperwork. As I had been in the process of applying for the tax when the Parilla offer came up, I had all the relevant documents in the glovebox ready to send off. Anyway, on this occasion I’d chosen to use the “Tax” money to buy Parilla spares ! As I pulled up at the booth, the guy was giving us the evils due to the aforementioned propping open of the boot lid – but as I could see over it, and it was secure, there was bugger all he could do about it. However, just as I was driving off he ran out of the booth and stopped me – as he’d spotted my tax was out of date [ disc on windscreen ]. I was busy telling him I’d sent the documents off only 2 days before – when Father piped up “No you’re mistaken I saw them in the glovebox” !! :mad: Then it was too late and the jobsworth insisted on seeing the documents. Caught red handed. Thanx Father ! So my Parilla spares had now cost me the Road Tax and fine. Even that wasn’t enough to take the shine off my bargain purchase. Memory fade’s set in now as far as the price, but I do remember it was about a week’s wages. Or to put it another way - about a quarter of what they were worth.

It wasn’t until quite recently that I became aware that Ted Bloomfield had at one time been an importer for the Moto Parilla range – that was before his secondhand bike breaker business.

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Update on the Carroll Shelby tribute story. Going well, I'd forgotten just how many "Tales" there are to tell [ that I was involved in ] - so, I've decided to break it into 2 specific tales. One revolving around the "Innes Ireland Memorial Rally" - a 4 day event held in the UK and attended by all the good and great of motoring legend. It culminated in a huge cavalcade of Classic and Race cars from Birmingham to Silverstone Race circuit.

The second will be the story of Carroll's World Championship Anniversary at Le Mans, which also commemorated his race win with Roy Salvadori [ now also recently passed away ] in the Aston.

Whilst these 2 tales are being finalised [ can't rush these ], there'll be another concerning Mrs.B the first, my Connie, a train and a long push. Probably 2-3 weeks away.

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Loving ghis thread BC. Took me 3 or 4 tries to tell my dad your story of resting the manx engine in a safe place b'cos i couldn't stop laughing.
I would be keen for a book if you do it.
 
MikeyG said:
Loving ghis thread BC. Took me 3 or 4 tries to tell my dad your story of resting the manx engine in a safe place b'cos i couldn't stop laughing.
I would be keen for a book if you do it.

Thanx for the kind words MikeyG.

Book is progressing nicely. The storyboard has more or less been finalised. I CAN'T rush John Hancox [ the artist ], as he's in great demand for commission work [ie pays him money ! ] and to be truthful, this is a labour of love for him.

There's still a few more Tales in the locker to come before the Shelby tribute Tales.
 
There'll be a final Tale before I go off to Saxony for our Summer break.

"Mrs.B 1st., the Connie, the train, and the long push home"

The 2 Shelby pribute Tales will be later in the year.
 
Here it is then, the final Tale before the off to Saxony for our Summer break.

Beachcomber’s Tales from the Day

“Mrs B. 1st., the Connie, the Train and the long push home”.

Another gentle tale of what it was like in the day. On this occasion I’d just bought yet another Connie – bog standard and exceedingly cheap – they really weren’t rated back in the day, apart from lugging sidecars around.
As an indicator – a boggo secondhand T110 would be say £120, and a really good Connie £70 -£80.

My parents had moved to the Midlands area, while I was still living with Granny in Dagenham. As I hadn’t seen them for while and I wanted to introduce the future Mrs.B. ::), we decided to take a trip up for a long weekend. I’d only had the Connie for a week and the only mods I’d had time for were fitting Norton straight bars and a Goldie silencer [ Siamese pipes ]. Previous Connies I’d owned were pretty bullet proof, so the thought of a 200 mile journey was no problem – or was it ? This was 1965 and Brit bikes were not known as distance cruisers, and yes I know, 200 miles today is a trip around the block, then – it was a trip into the unknown.

And so it was Friday after work with the rucksack packed with weekend items, we filled the tank and set off. I decided to use the M1 motorway, still a novelty for most of us. All went well round the North Circular [ past the Ace ] and up to the Busy Bee at Watford where a final tank fill and Coffee break was in order. As it was November and the weather none too predictable I’d decided to wear my Tank oversuit – both waterproof and warm. It was also blessed with many odd pockets and pouches, ideal for stuffing all manner of tools and essentials.

All went without incident – a cruising speed of 70 – 80 was more than comfortable for the 700cc Twin, and not too thirsty at that speed. There were very few service stations actually on the Motorway in those days so if you needed petrol or a pit stop generally that meant coming off into one of the now bye-passed sleepy little villages.

After what should have been our final stop we rejoined the Motorway in company with a 3.8 Jag S Type ………………..big mistake. :( Before long we were matching speeds – 70, then 80………then 100 and soon flat on the tank at an indicated 120. We blasted down the Motorway side by side for 20 miles or so, when suddenly the Connie lost power – dramatically and terminally. :eek: Nothing for it, but to pull over onto the hard shoulder. Pitch black, freezing cold and of course in those days no cell phones ! A brief inspection showed there was almost no compression and I immediately suspected a holed piston. Oh dear me, 80 miles from home and with a dead bike in the middle of the night.

First priority – get off the Motorway and into some civilization. Fortunately the road was downhill nearly all the way to the slip road some 2 miles away. Just as we were contemplating the push up the fairly steep slip road, a guy stopped with a Thames 15cwt panel van. We soon had the bike inside and he said he’d take us to the nearest garage. That then conjured up visions of lots of money changing hands. He then suggested leaving the bike at his house and getting the train home to return later with a van or trailer to collect the dead Connie. Turned out there was a mainline train station not 3 miles from his house.

Then I reasoned, if we’re getting the train, why not take the Connie as well ? In those days you could take a pushbike [ pedal bike ] on the train in the goods van – after all the Connie was only a pedal bike, without pedals. ;)

So that was the decision, after a welcome coffee we set off for the station – now 2.0 am Saturday. I decided to park the Connie outside the station as there was some 2 hour wait for the first train through. I then took the tank suit off so as not to appear too obvious as a motorcyclist and bought 2 passenger tickets and a “bike” pass at the kiosk. Although the tickets were bought “through” to our home station of Romford, that did entail a change of train at London Euston – another point at which my plan might fall apart.

I waited around the concourse until all the officials and guards had wandered off and then pushed the Connie down the 30 or so steps [ !! ] of the passenger stairway down onto the platform. There was a pile of goods on the platform ready for loading into the goods carriage, so I simply hid the Connie in the middle of the pile and attached the bike pass to the handlebars. When the train eventually pulled in I went over and helped the guard to load all his parcels – including the Connie ! He expressed surprise that the railway policy was now to accept motorbikes, as they’d been banned following an unfortunate petrol fire some years before. Still he couldn’t argue with the stamped pass attached to the handlebars.

I thought I’d give the guard a few quid to ease his conscience about having the Connie aboard, only to realize that my wallet and fallen out of one of the many pockets in the suit when I’d taken it off. A frantic rush back up all the steps to the ticket office was well rewarded when my missing wallet was there in the lost property dept.

I decided to spend the journey in the goods van with the Connie, as much as anything to inspect the motor to see if I could find out what was wrong. Removing the spark plug on the suspect cylinder and poking a screwdriver down revealed that there was indeed a hole where there should have been aluminium.

By the time we were an hour into the journey, the guard became very chatty and I’d told him the story of our mishap. That resulted in copious cups of coffee and a share of his swag from the buffet car !

The train finally pulled in to Euston, and again we helped the guard to unload the parcels. He had a word with the Euston Station guards and the Connie’s onward journey was assured. The guys even put the Connie onto one of those curious 3 wheeled “tugs” to take it the ½ mile to the Romford platform. Dawn was just breaking and I was able finally to get to a public telephone box to let my parents know what had happened as they had been expecting us at 10 o’clock the previous evening. Finally we got the bike on to the Romford bound train’s guard van and settled down to the last part of the journey – almost.

At 7 am the train arrived at Romford station and we were virtually home – except Mrs. B’s house was some 3 miles from the station ! No chance of calling any of my mates out at that hour, so I decided to push the dead bike and send Mrs. B home on the bus. I hadn’t realized just how “not flat” the flat roads were around where she lived. What was just a brief whiff of gas on the bike now turned into a lung bursting uphill push ! I finally got the bike back at 10 am – some 15 hours after starting out.

By mid-day the motor was out and stripped – and yes there was the holed piston………..Fortunately there was no other damage apart from a very small score on one of the bottom end shells. All back together with a spare piston and barrel by 2.0 pm – and ready for the night’s blast down the lay-bye!
 
Just a headsup before the off to Saxony. The first of the Shelby Tales is coming along well and will be ready early September.
 
You are taking your time with it. As you should I suppose, Anything involving someone that reputable and famous should be well thought out and prepared before sharing with the world.
 
The 1st tale involving Shelby is almost completed - no earth shattering revalations here, just a personal insight into the private man when he's amongst like minded souls and without the glare of the camera or the eavesdropping microphone.

End of the month latest.
 
Quick update - just giving the Tale the final proof read and checking my memory banks ...........

There will be some unique pix attached to the Tale, just need to find how to post multiples - doesn't seem to work with Photobucket.

I'm just going through my pix now - these were all taken in the day when 35mm film ruled, so I need to go through them one by one and scan them for upload.
 
That's it - final pix now sorted out and awaiting scanning. Early next week. 8)

Pro-S - there's NO way you'd be able to get away with that in the UK now.

You'd have to book the bike as freight, drain all petrol and oil and cover any sharp or sticky out items.

The bike would have to be booked in to the freight department who would then load / unload your bike and in all probability damage / scratch it with NO chance of their insurance ever coughing up !
 
Well yeah, but at least you can get on a train without breaking the bank. Its cheaper for me to fly to Toronto or Montreal then to take the train!
 
Beachcomber’s Tales from the Day – October 2012.

“Carroll Shelby – The Innes Ireland Memorial Rally”

Several people have contacted me over my connections with Carroll Shelby – so here’s a brief backgrounder as a prelude to the main story.

In 1978 I visited my old pal [ and partner in the UK based “Americar” speed shop ] Keith Harvie, who had moved to the US to set up Performance Automotive Wharehouse [ PAW ].

I spent some time with Keith – including visiting his neighbours on the trading estate in Tarzana – including one Don Prudhomme !

Keith was busy building an Arntz Cobra complete with genuine 427 side oiler and all the good bits. I felt there was a good market for such a replica in the UK and we spoke with Steve Arntz to try to set up a deal for 2 cars. He refused to supply outside the Continental USA – so Keith bought the 2 kits for me [ !! ] and shipped them to England where I’d just set up my speed shop “Muscle City”.

The “chassis” was an abysmal mess, the body wasn’t much better. So we completely revamped the body and I designed a chassis taking Jaguar suspension. That was my introduction to Cobra replicas – there then followed 25+ years of involvement developing, manufacturing and selling. Along the way I developed a friendship with my pal Adrian Cocking from Realm Engineering [ RAM ] – who at that time made the fiberglass bodies for me. I continued to liaise with and design for AC over the years, so when Shelby American contacted Adrian to discuss a sole UK approval for Cobra replicas – I was called in to head the negotiations. Long story short – the approval was granted [ unique outside the US ] and I became very friendly with Shelby and ended up assisting in the setting up of his European Transplant Trust – handling organ transplants for underprivileged people. I was designated as the European Liaison Officer.

It was under this guise that I organized the vehicles for the celebrities to drive during the memorial festival for Innes Ireland. Innes was a truly talented driver who like many succumbed at a far too young age to cancer. This was at a time when the drivers were not so full of their own importance and counted each other [ in the main ] as comrades as well as competitors.

I arranged for a display at the National Racing Car show to showcase the Transplant Trust and it was during this time that all Shelby’s car racing buddies got together to honour Inness Ireland with a huge cavalcade, culminating at Silverstone Race track.

I arranged cars [ replicas ! ] for Carroll [ Cobra of course ], Sir Jack Brabham [ D Type ], Richard Noble MBE – former world speed record holder [ XKSS ], D Type for John Surtees MBE and various D’s and Cobras for other dignatories including the Lord Mayor of Birmingham.

After a Black tie dinner the preceeding night – the public in their classic cars – all 2000+ of them - congregated in the car parks of the National Exhibition Centre. The first stop over was the Jaguar Works in Coventry, where a lavish lunch had been put on by Jaguar for the dignatories. When the cavalcade started out it was emphasized that this was taking place on public roads and that the national speed limits should be observed ………………………

Well that lasted for all of 5 miles until Shelby overtook Sir Stirling Moss and gave him the finger ! Later the police reported a convoy of “fast moving cars” travelling on the motorway at speeds in excess of 140 mph !! No action was taken and the whole trip turned into a bit of a tear up.

I was travelling in my Cobra with the BBC television cameraman [ lady actually ] to record as much as possible.

It was a pure delight to see Shelby totally at ease with his racing mates, even my intrusion with the camera and interviews was not an imposition as I was considered a friend.


It was a revelation to hear stories that at the time could not possibly have been published. Like the time a certain driver at Le Mans put the Ford GT into the sandbank at Mulsanne corner rather than drive it as in his words it was “Bloody lethal”. Or when describing his championship winning Aston [ with Roy Salvadori as co-driver ] as “basically, a sack of shit”. Or when Carroll was asked about Enzo – “a man who needed a size 12 up his ass”.

All the celebs and dignatories gave up a considerable amount of time – some travelling 1000’s of miles to be there. The rally raised over £50K that was split with specific Cancer Charities, and apart from the evening soiree – the celebs received not a penny.

Apparently Innes Ireland was a definite hooligan – in a nice way. A rebel rouser and one to party.

Carroll told us of the time after the Spa race, when Innes decided he wanted to see the view from the top of the local church. Having had a few drinks [ after the race ] he was refused entry to the church …….Carroll and the boys bet him he wouldn’t be able to get to see the view as the priest was adamant at not letting the drunken revellers into the church. So Innes proceeded to climb up the outside of steeple ! He did make it to the top, but didn’t make it down again before the priest had called the local gendarmerie. When they arrived - lucky for the boys they were race enthusiasts – Carroll arranged for all present to autograph copies of the race programmes and forget about Innes’ little escapade.

When the cars eventually arrived at Silverstone they were all lined up around the circuit – with Carroll with Moss riding shotgun in the lead Cobra. The cars stretched 3/4s of the way round the circuit and were 4 abreast. The Cavalcade then took 3 tours of the circuit before parking up for the speeches from the various celebs. The whole event was filmed by a bunch of friends from a local Film and lighting hire company, who with the management’s blessings took out several exceedingly valuable cameras, sound and lighting equipment – not to mention two company support vans and a specially adapted motorcycle film platform!

It would be hard to imagine today’s crop of F1 superstars all coming together for such an event for one of their number.

Our stand and Cars
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Carroll in our Parade Cobra at Silverstone with Sir Stirling Moss and Berek Bell waiting for the off.

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Carroll, Roy Salvadori [ Carroll's co-driver ] an Sir Stirling Moss with the Le Mans winning Aston.

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The Unique Endorsement fender plaque for RAM cars.

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The BBC "Camera Car" - my Cob.

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More pix to follow next week – scanner’s gone awol !
 
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