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rocketonarail said:

Now a public park .....

Hosted Formula 1 for the last time just four years after this was filmed , in 1961 , victory going to Stirling Moss , driving a Lotus - Climax .
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You couldn’t design a more dangerous track- luckily Fanj was wearing his protective black tee shirt, moped helmet and a pair of Mk9’s that he could easily put on by driving no hands! He was a taxi driver- drives a bit like a Dunstable mini cab driver called Gary that used to take us to the pub in his Opel Manta..
 
Exmoor beast said:
You couldn’t design a more dangerous track- luckily Fanj was wearing his protective black tee shirt, moped helmet and a pair of Mk9’s that he could easily put on by driving no hands! He was a taxi driver- drives a bit like a Dunstable mini cab driver called Gary that used to take us to the pub in his Opel Manta..
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i dunno - that runoff area would be good for ... about 15mph!!! Safe as houses (on fire).
 
Vittorio Bambilla, “ the Monza Gorilla” got the nickname from his manhandling of the car. Ex Moto - Guzzi rider , famously won the ridiculously dangerous wet Austrian GP. Although known for his wet driving skills surprised everyone by winning and spun as he crossed the finish.
Amazing story..recently his mechanic admitted noticing the speed/ timing light was positioned next to the pit lane, he swiped the timing light with his pit board just before Brambilla crossed the line giving him pole position! That’s what I call a good mechanic!
 
Exmoor beast said:
He was a taxi driver- drives a bit like a Dunstable mini cab driver called Gary that used to take us to the pub in his Opel Manta..
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Back in the `nineties our local bus company sub-contracted the No 20 route from Westbuty on Trym to Cotham to a taxi / mini bus company called EuroTaxis .......... Not many paying customers ........ usually just me , to get to the pub .

This would be about nine o`clock at night .

The EuroTaxi mini bus would eventually appear over the horizon , always being driven by the same ( Greek / Turkish ? ) maniac , screeching to a halt at the stop , to let me get on .

He would then set off again , often with me as the only passenger , again still driving like a man possessed ........ only to stop half way across a darkened Horfield Common , to let who I guess was his wife and daughter to get on ...... ( no idea what they had been up to ) ........ he would then set off , still with the pedal buried into the metal , but this time with his wife stood beside him , giving him some massive verbal grief , presumably over something he had or hadn`t done earlier in the day .

The more she nagged him , the faster and more reckless his driving became .......... he never answered back ............... he also never bothered to close the folding passenger door , just on the opposite side to him .... ( ever ) ........ one sharp lefthander could easily have seen her being catapulted out of the bus , but she somehow managed to hang on through the corners , with hardly a pause in her words of retribution ........

As I was nearly always the only ( paying ) passenger , he got to know my intended destination ...... ( providing we all made it in one piece ) ....... so he would stop right outside the pub to let me get off .........

........ and would then pull away again , in a puff of black diesel smoke , still with his wife stood beside him , still giving him an ear bashing .......
 
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Had a Davies Charlton Super Merlin ,..... 0.75 cc ...... ( the Super came with an integral fuel tank ) , which was compression ignition ........ and a DC Bantam , which was glow plug , as in the Cox featured here .

Never fitted them into planes , just bought them when I was 11 years old , because I was interested in engines .

The guy in this clip gets some grief for starting it whilst holding it in his hand , but that is what we would do ............. ( me and another kid at school called Colin Hayes ) ........... we`d bring our Merlins into school in our blazer pockets , and start them up in the playground .

Cox I think was an American brand ....... DC were manufactured in the Isle of Man ...........

Best of all was the ED Racer , manufactured in Surrey by Electronic Developments ........ Green painted barrel ..... 2.46 cc ..... radial porting ....... and a ball bearing supported crank ........... a Ford Cosworth , compared to DC`s Mini Coopers ..... wouldn`t mind one now ........
 
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rocketonarail said:

Had a Davies Charlton Super Merlin ,..... 0.75 cc ...... ( the Super came with an integral fuel tank ) , which was compression ignition ........ and a DC Bantam , which was glow plug , as in the Cox featured here .

Never fitted them into planes , just bought them when I was 11 years old , because I was interested in engines .

The guy in this clip gets some grief for starting it whilst holding it in his hand , but that is what we would do ............. ( me and another kid at school called Colin Hayes ) ........... we`d bring our Merlins into school in our blazer pockets , and start them up in the playground .

Cox I think was an American brand ....... DC were manufactured in the Isle of Man ...........

Best of all was the ED Racer , manufactured in Surrey by Electronic Developments ........ Green painted barrel ..... 2.46 cc ..... radial porting ....... and a ball bearing supported crank ........... a Ford Cosworth , compared to DC`s Mini Coopers ..... wouldn`t mind one now ........
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When my passenger was injured, I bought him a model dope plane until his skin graft got better ( sorry) he got bored building the plane and started playing with the motor, stuck a 9” prop on it and stuck it in the vice. Shagged about flicking the prop, mucking about with the fuelling for ages when it fired up- full throttle. It leapt out of the vice and literally flew after him as he hobbled out the shed on crutches. I would have love to have seen that!
 
Another thing I used to mess around with when I was 11 - 12 years old were jet engines , which you could purchase from the local hobby shop .

When I say jet , what you actually got was a cylinder about an inch in diameter , and about a couple of inches long , which was opened at one end ...... you would then stuff a couple of pellets into the tube / cylinder ...... seal them inside with a piece of gauze , and end cover , and light them ........

I " bench tested " this thing a few times ...... the pellets would fizz away inside , and the cylinder would slowly turn from being merely red hot to orange .......... definitely not one to start whilst holding it in your hand .... ! .......

There was a range of plastic ( ! ) planes , boats , and cars available to which you could attach this lethal little lump of metal ...... whichever one you chose , it`s obvious you would never see it again once the plane , car , or boat became airborne .... and would doubtless have caused serious injury to anyone unlucky enough to be standing in it`s way ..........

Happy days .............
 
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I will tell of a guy called Julian that was involved with the Tate & Lyle sugar rocket. Along with other rocketry he was told you couldn’t import solid fuel boosters from the US as they were classed as explosives. Jules was in air freight and managed to get some in as fireworks 🤔.
Being a twat he wanted to see what one would go like, they were about two foot long & give a set boost for so many seconds and the idea is you use as many as you need to propel said rocket etc. He also did the vice trick and linked the booster to an ignition and set it off..
This was in a north London suburban back garden, apparently the noise was horrendous, it blasted the shed down in seconds and ran for what seemed an eternity, probably 30 seconds- belching smoke and 4 foot orange flames , scorching grass and what was left of shed.
So then he has to fan, dowse the smoking ruin whilst also pretending not to know what the noise was to the neighbours.
 
rocketonarail said:
Another thing I used to mess around with when I was 11 - 12 years old were jet engines , which you could purchase from the local hobby shop .

When I say jet , what you actually got was a cylinder about an inch in diameter , and about a couple of inches long , which was opened at one end ...... you would then stuff a couple of pellets into the tube / cylinder ...... seal them inside with a piece of gauze , and end cover , and light them ........

I " bench tested " this thing a few times ...... the pellets would fizz away inside , and the cylinder would slowly turn from being merely red hot to orange .......... definitely not one to start whilst holding it in your hand .... ! .......

There was a range of plastic ( ! ) planes , boats , and cars available to which you could attach this lethal little lump of metal ...... whichever one you chose , it`s obvious you would never see it again once the plane , car , or boat became airborne .... and would doubtless have caused serious injury to anyone unlucky enough to be standing in it`s way ..........

Happy days .............
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I seem to remember a teacher telling us about these- they’ve banned the hexagon blocks for Mamod tractors so you can forget getting hold of these now.
 
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