Back in 2003 I prepared a series of articles for the F1 web site pitpass.com. They described Grand Prix happenings from 50 years earlier. I intend to post some of them on my blog for those who are interested in F1 from the “classic” era. This is the first.

When the Grand Prix circus rolled up to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in 1953 there were high hopes of a great race after a fantastic fight for the win at Reims two weeks earlier.
British fans hoped for another win by rising star Mike Hawthorn after his French triumph, but the big question was, could Ascari return to his winning ways or would Maserati finally break through on this fast circuit?
Many fans would have been mystified by the small towers of scaffolding that had sprouted around the track. BBC Television had arrived.
The race started well, with Ascari in the Ferrari and Gonzalez in his Maserati swapping fastest laps and Fangio (Maserati) in close attendance. That didn’t last and Ascari eased away from the others, leading from start to finish to re-establish his stranglehold on the championship.
One highlight of the day was Hawthorn’s spin out ofWoodcote. Pushing hard to make up for a poor start, he ran wide out of the corner and hurtled backwards on to the wide verge, flattening a small wooden fence as he went. The Ferrari was doing a fair imitation of a whirling Dervish as it continued down the grass, scattering photographers along the way. Fortunately, it continued in the right general direction and Hawthorn was able to gather it all together and continue, without stalling the engine or losing too much time. The fuel cap popped open during the wild ride, so a quick pit stop was needed to bang it shut before the young Englishman rejoined in last place.
While Hawthorn began to carve his way back through the field, Gonzalez was having problems of his own. The back axle of the Maserati was leaking oil and officials informed his pit – who did nothing. With cars beginning to slide about on the oil, something had to be done and Gonzalez was duly black-flagged.
After a few laps of ignoring the flag, by which time the officials were just about poking him in the face with it, Gonzalez finally pitted in a towering rage and told the officials what he thought of them in colourful Spanish. The leak having stopped he then roared back into the fray in fourth place, leaving an unfortunate local journalist, who had volunteered to interpret, draped over the pit counter. There was some debate over whether this or Hawthorn’s spin was the high point of the afternoon.
Apart from Hawthorn climbing back to fifth place by the now discredited method of overtaking other cars, that was just about it. Farina (Ferrari) turned up in third place behind Ascari and Fangio, followed by Gonzalez, Hawthorn and Felice Bonetto in another Maserati, providing a neat alternation of Ferrari and Maserati in the top six places.
There was another brief flurry of activity a few laps from the end when a heavy shower of rain (and hail according to some reports) caused a few cars to spin and Ascari to slow a little. As the gap to second place Fangio was around a minute, there was little risk involved in slowing. One casualty of the rain was Jimmy Stewart, youngest driver in the race, who had climbed to sixth place in the Ecurie Ecosse Cooper-Bristol before he fell off the wet track. His younger brother Jackie was to do much better in later years.

All in all it was quite a modern race if one ignores Hawthorn surviving a massive spin and then overtaking most of the field to gain fifth place. The first British Grand Prix to be televised was probably the first Grand Prix to put viewers to sleep. The third and fourth cars were two laps behind and Hawthorn a further lap down, while Bonetto completed only 82 of the scheduled 90 laps.

Cheating in emissions testing by the Volkswagen Group has been headline news recently and, as I write, the accusations have spread to petrol engines and even to Porsche!

The group, which owns Seat, Škoda, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti, plus Ducati motorcycles and commercial vehicle manufacturers MAN, Scania, Neoplan and VW Commercial Vehicles, is probably too big for the scandal to bring it down, but sales have dropped significantly in many markets across the world.

But cheating is nothing new, and it has come in many guises. MG owners in the 1930s found that their cars were not as quick as those tested by The Autocar and The Motor among others. The factory had apparently tweaked the engines of the press test cars. That backfired on MG because enthusiastic owners were determined to match the performance described in the published road tests, resulting in many warranty claims from owners who had blown up their MG engines.

In 1961, The Autocar was able to attain 150 mph in the road test Jaguar E-type (registered 9600 HP, chassis number 885002, the second prototype coupé). Octane magazine recently attempted to duplicate that speed with a carefully restored to standard condition E-type. They managed 146 mph on a stretch of unrestricted German autobahn and the driver felt that 150 was possible given a little more space. However, on 1960s roads, it is unlikely that even the

nice new motorways (still unrestricted) would provide a long enough clear run for any proud owner to reach 150 mph safely. There was a strong suggestion that 9600 HP had been tweaked by the Jaguar factory, and it certainly wasn’t a normal production car, but Octane’s effort indicates that very little tweaking would have been necessary.

More recently, when I was assessing cars for the RAC of WA magazine Road Patrol in the 1980s and 1990s, I found that it was almost impossible to achieve fuel economy anywhere near the official figures from government approved testing. At one time, I found that the then current Toyota Camry V6, Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon returned very similar real world economy figures, in spite of the Toyota’s superior official figures and the Falcon being clearly third best officially. As all three cars were roughly the same weight, I came to the conclusion that hauling the same weight of metal through traffic needed the same amount of fuel. The differences between official figures could be put down to how well each manufacturer tuned engines and arranged gearing to suit the government approved test, which was conducted on a rolling road with computerised instructions to the operator. While the manufacturers wouldn’t see it as cheating, it does give prospective buyers exaggerated expectations.

On a similar line, how many of you know that the performance figures released by major manufacturers are actually created by computer simulation. If you had visions of jockey-sized test drivers destroying clutches, tyres and transmissions in the quest for the best possible acceleration times, forget them. It’s all done by computer.

Most new cars have at least six forward gears, the latest BMW even has an 8-speed automatic transmission. Why so many gears when for decades motorists made do with only three speeds or four in sporty models? You will find that the higher ratios are too tall for anything but highway cruising on flat roads. The multi-speed automatics are probably designed to keep the engine in its most economical rev range during government specified tests for fuel economy and low emissions.

Cars with manual transmissions tend to have indicators on the dash telling the driver to shift to a higher gear. If the car also has a trip computer, it is interesting to set the display to instantaneous fuel economy. Watch what happens on an uphill stretch of road if you follow the instruction to shift up. You will often find the the fuel economy is poorer in the higher gear. I have performed this exercise in two cars, one a Ford Falcon GT with a 5-litre V8 engine that was more economical in 4th gear than in 5th when climbing the hills behind Perth, Western Australia. The second was a Ford Focus on the motorway between Perth Scotland and Edinburgh with a relatively tiny engine. Shifting up a gear in the Focus as instructed by the dashboard indicator resulted in an immediate reduction in the miles per gallon. While the V8 pulled strongly in either gear, the Focus was labouring in the higher gear.

Others have reached similar conclusions. In his test report on the new Mazda MX-5 in the September 2015 issue of Motor Sport, Andrew Frankel said: “The only reason a car with a top speed of 127 mph will do 85 mph with half its gears still to go is to try to fool the official test from which fuel consumption and CO2 figures are deduced. They have nothing to do with real world consumption and even less with driving.”

Every historic racer has been asked at some time why he or she races old cars. The question is often put less politely, but that’s the gist of it.

My own theory is that old cars are a lot more fun than modern ones. They slide before the G-forces build up to the point where they are extruding your brain through your outboard ear.

The fast way through a corner in the fifties and sixties, before the advent of wings and slicks, was the four-wheel-drift, which according to Stirling Moss required a power to weight ratio of at least 200bhp per ton on those skinny 1950s tires. Moss and the incomparable Fangio were masters of the drift, their cars floating through corners, controlled by a delicate balance of power and steering. To compare the racecars of the fifties with today’s glued to the road, winged monsters is like comparing the Bolshoi Ballet with the Superbowl.

But then, most cars slid more easily in the days when we baby boomers were teaching ourselves to drive fast. Sideways was in. The late Roger Clark put it in words: “If you are not looking where you are going out of the back window, it’s recoverable.” Of course, we lived by that creed before anyone put it into words.

I worked for the government in my younger days, driving a basic Holden sedan mounted on locally made tires that skidded on principle if you drove past a lawn sprinkler. Senior members of the department warned me about that car. “Everybody who drives it regularly has spun that thing on a wet road. Watch it!”

That spelt challenge to a teenage hotshot. I soon discovered that, although the Holden needed fast reflexes to catch it if it let go unexpectedly, it was eminently controllable if you dirt-tracked it. Traffic must have been much lighter in those days. Roundabouts were an excuse for glorious oversteer slides and the downhill, off camber left-hander coming away from our state parliament building into Malcolm Street was terrific fun. I used to wonder why Holden didn’t put wipers on the side windows.

For some reason, passengers and other drivers didn’t share my enthusiasm – or my confidence in my driving skills. I loved sideways. Given the choice of routes, I would take a gravel road. That’s Western Australia’s infamous ball-bearing gravel, the surface of many country roads here in the sixties. Today the gravel roads are harder to find, are narrower and have more blind bends and crests. Or maybe Stirling Moss had it right when he said in Adelaide at the 1986 AGP: “As I get older, the threshold of fear seems to get closer.”

Be that as it may, I reckon that’s why so many people love to race vintage cars. You can drive them slideways!

Just for a change, this has nothing to do with motoring or motor racing, it is one of my pet whinges about the misuse of English.

There is a promotion on Foxtel at the moment plugging a programme about the owners of a stately home in the UK and their quest for new staff. What really annoys me about it is the much repeated statement that: “The hoi polloi are hiring!”

If the person creating this material were to look up “hoi polloi” in the dictionary, it would become clear that it comes from the Greek and is usually taken to mean  “the common people”. Usually meant in a derogatory sense, it is translated in my dictionaries as “the rabble”, “riff raff”, but in the original Greek actually means “the many”.

Now back to the television programme. The people doing the hiring are the landed gentry (they could be minor aristocrats, but I haven’t looked too closely). In other words, they are hiring the “hoi polloi”. The “hoi polloi” are the hirees and not the hirers.

End of rant.

The March 2015 issue of the magazine Vintage Racecar includes my story of the lost years of the Ascari Ferrari, now a prominent exhibit at the Donington Collection in the UK

In 1952 and 1953, Alberto Ascari drove Ferrari Tipo 500 chassis number 5 through the two seasons to win the FIA Drivers World Championship both years. In the course of the two years he won nine championship Grands Prix in succession, a record not beaten for over 50 years.

After the 1952 season the car was upgraded from a 2-litre Formula 2 car (the World Championship in 1952 and 1953 was run to Formula 2) to run in the new 2.5-litre Formula 1, making the car a Tipo 625, as Ferrari type numbers at the time were based on the capacity of one cylinder in cubic centimetres.

After running in a couple of non-championship F1 races the car was sold to Australian Tony Gaze after being fitted with a 3-litre engine, still of only four cylinders, thus making it a Tipo 750 if it followed Ferrari practice.

The car was passed to Top Australian driver Lex Davison who used it with great success including winning the Australian Grand Prix twice, at Caversham WA in 1957 and Bathurst NSW in 1958 – long before the V8 Supercars took over Mount Panorama.

In 1960 the old Ferrari passed to Western Australian Doug Green, who used it to dominate racing in WA for two years.

After almost being converted into a rather odd looking sports coupe in 1963, the Ferrari passed though several owners before being sold  to British owners who raced it in VSCC historic racing events. In the late 1960s it was acquired by Tom Wheatcroft’s Donington Collection.

On the last Wednesday of January I renewed my acquaintance with Dudley. Dudley is not a person; it is a 1929 Plymouth, bought new by Dr Leslie le Souef in May 1929. Named after an Uncle Dudley who was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, Dudley has stayed with the same family since it was new and has been owned since 1963 by my old friend Kim le Souef, the good doctor’s nephew.

I have known Kim (and Dudley) since about 1965, but I didn’t drive Dudley until 1998, when I put together an article for the Post newspapers, telling the story of Dudley, who was then 69 years old and still running sweetly. The old Plymouth has never been restored, but has been well maintained for all its life and is probably running better now than at any time since 1963, in spite of being almost 86.

Kim and I took Dudley for a drive along the Canning River in Rossmoyne and Shelley. I took the wheel when we reached the riverfront and trundled Dudley along the foreshore roads until they ran out, then turned back and retraced our route back to Leach Highway and on to Kim’s Rossmoyne home where we discussed the maintenance jobs that the Plymouth has required recently.

The old car drives very nicely, although the brakes and steering might seem very heavy to those used to modern cars with power steering and servo assisted brakes. However, it does steer well and the hydraulic drum brakes do a very good job of stopping – it just takes a firm push on the middle pedal. What might be beyond modern drivers, particularly those who drive automatic transmission cars, is the three-speed crash gearbox. I was pleased to find that, apart from a couple of embarrassing moments when I misjudged the movement of the gearlever within the gate, I was able to move fairly smoothly between gears. Having said that, once moving there is almost no need to change down to the lower gears. Dudley will pull smoothly in top gear from walking pace and can move away from rest in second gear, although first will give you a brisker take-off. Dudley keeps up with the traffic, but you should remember the need for a firm push on the brakes and drive accordingly. As I said back in 1998: “Steering and handling is, well, vintage. Dudley goes where you point it and who could ask for more.”

The picture shows Kim and Dudley in “sports” mode with the roof down.

I am putting together an updated story of Dudley for a classic cars magazine. More when I complete the story.

I have completed my second complete year of producing the Vintage Sports Car Club of Western Australia newsletter, Vintage Metal. the February 2015 issue is under preparation.

The February issue will include a redesigned front cover that will increase the professionalism of the presentation of the journal.

My story of the lost years of the Ascari Ferrari will appear shortly in Vintage Racecar magazine. This car, which is currently on display in the Donington Museum in the UK, was raced by Alberto Ascari throughout 1952 and 1953, the two years in which Ascari won the Drivers World Championship. The car was purchased by Australian driver Tony Gaze, fitted with a 3-litre engine for Formula Libre racing in Australia. In the hands of Lex Davison the car won the Australian Grand Prix in 1957 and 1958, but was just another old racing car when it narrowly escaped conversion to a GT coupe in the early 1960s. The article will tell the story of the car from Gaze’s purchase to its return to the UK in the late 1960s.

Other work includes assisting FSA Technology in developing web sites for various clients. My part is the creation of the web content.
That’s about all that is happening at the moment. More later.