www.eoinyoung.com
Eoin Young's Collector's Column no. 16
Still open for
business!
The recent auction of some of my
stuff at Loveridges was a great success - Thanks to all those who attended and
I hope you found some treasures.
Despite some
of the rumours around this was NOT a closing down sale and I'd like to reassure
everyone that I'm still in business and will continue to offer the best in motor
sport books and memorabilia here on the web site. - E.S.Y.
Fickle French cars
I've come
to the conclusion that 'fifties French cars are essentially feminine. I
drove Tony Haycock's 1956 Peugeot 203 back from the classic car show in Christchurch,
New Zealand, largely un-coached in the ways of conducting such a relatively
aged piece of machinery. Try and tell the cogs from the column shift
where to go and I was always rewarded with a loud series of graunches. Caress
the column shift and ask it where the gears where and it was all sweetness
and silence. Bloody thing. Michael Clark adds that it helps the
feminine side of things if you apologise now and then. Even if you haven't
done anything wrong.
Haycock
enters the column again immediately by winning the Topless Rally to Naseby,
inland from Ranfurly, at the end of August, driving a Clyno that had its top
resolutely up all weekend because Tony claimed he had the 'flu. I may
try that excuse next year. I rode with Frank Renwick in his 1925 Bentley
special with its top resolutely down and never mind that we had to virtually
chip the car out of the frost on Sunday morning. I asked the landlord
of the Ancient Briton pub in Naseby what the temperature was. "Eight," he
said. "Eight?" I query in surprise. "t gets colder than that in
Christchurch!" He looked at me sadly, as with people who don't fully
understand. "Eight below…" he said. It wasn't cold enough,
apparently for the 100 permanent Naseby residents. The ice needed to
be thicker for the five curling clubs based there!
The
Renwick Bentley was built up from bits around one of W.O.'s original 3-litre
thumpers and has come out as a vintage driver short on pedigree but long on
character, which I think is what vintage motoring is all about. It's
easy to become precious if you're fortunate enough to have the real thing,
but I believe that old cars are to for enjoying, not just for polishing. We
drove in convoy with Clynt Inns and Dowel McLeod in Clynt's 1926 Alvis 12/50
with its rakish polished aluminium boat-tailed sports body. It loped
along handily around the legal limit on the open road. Lex Davison
Lex Davison
summed up Donald Campbell's short chances of setting a new Land Speed Record
on the sodden salt Aussie Lake Eyre in 1964. David Tremayne quotes him
in "The Man Behind the Mask" saying he doubted that Bluebird would ever break
the record on the terrible salt. "With full steam up, the car would become
a 5,000hp trench digger…and a rather dangerous one at that."
Diana Davison,
who would marry Tony Gaze after Lex's death, remembered the trip to Lake Eyre. "I
thought it was a pretty terrifying monster, but really all Lex was terrified
about was what would happen if he bent it, with all the millions of dollars
that were involved. It was a difficult situation, just to pop in it cold
and have a cockpit drill that probably lasted ten or fifteen minutes. But
it was an interesting thing for him to do. Totally different from anything
he'd raced. But I don't think you could ever say that he raced Bluebird. I
think he drove it, as he would have said himself, like a flannel-footed curate. If
the surface had been perfect, Campbell would have been driving it himself…"
Eoin Young.
To read previous columns click on the links below:
1. SCRAPBOOKS and THE EDDIE HALL PHOTO ALBUM MYSTERY
2. GOODWOOD CIRCUIT REVIVAL 2001
3. SPRING RACING IN NEW ZEALAND
5. "CHASING THE TITLE"- A 'must-read' book...
8. NEW BOOKS, PRESCOTT AND GOODWOOD 2002
10. CLASSIC RACERS, FORZA AMON! and COLIN CHAPMAN
11. MY NEW BOOK... & BERNIE'S NEW BOOK
12. SELLING AT GOODWOOD AND BUYING AT BEAULIEU
13. TARGA NEW ZEALAND, BRABHAM ON SCHUMACHER, AMON ON CLARK
15. PUSHING BUTTONS; F1 DRIVER SHUFFLES
17. EXCITING COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS IN WARSAW
20. "FORZA AMON" COLLECTOR'S EDITION
21. DURANT RECORD BREAKING RUN
29. FRANK GARDNER LIVE ON STAGE!
Eoin Young is a
New Zealander
who left a bank job to join Bruce McLaren and help set up his racing
team.
More or less. He arrived in the UK in 1961 as a freelance journalist,
covered
the Formula Junior season with Denny Hulme, joined McLaren in 1962.
Founder
director of team. Established Motormedia 1966. Started weekly "Autocar" diary
page in 1967 -- it ran until 1998. Covered CanAm, Indy and GP series.
In 1979 established as a dealer in rare motoring and motor racing books
and ephemera. Still trading with regular lists. Autobiography "It
Beats Working" published in 1996. with its sequel "It Still beats
Working"
in 2003. After more than three decades based in the UK he has now returned
to his native New Zealand.
The stock of
Motor racing
books and ephemera is constantly changing.
Click
here to view the current catalogue.
