Dave,
I met Doane Spencer twice. At the time, I was only interested in
Tigers, and what he had to say about them, and I could care less about the
lowly Alpine! But listening to him speak, I learned a great deal of his
"intent", meaning his way of circumventing rules. With this in mind, when I
decided to build an Alpine race car, I collected the 3 articles from Sports
Car Graphics concerning the project car that he built for Hollywood Sports
Cars. His tips are also discussed in another book about tuning sports car
engines that I have, though the name escapes me. With these very specific
outlines, and his intent, as well as direct comparisons with what he did to
the Tiger, I am quite sure I could build a car that he would at a glance
mistake for the Hollywood Sports Car Alpine!
Sadly, Doane passed away just recently and any more information from
him concerning the Alpine is probably locked within the poor quality
videotape that no one knows where it is currently located, though I would
certainly be interested in finding!
Doane had no reason to be tight lipped about his mods since it was all
history. Even "in the day", when Jerry Titus, Ken Miles, or Doane were in
direct competition, they were comparing notes, and sharing tips that made a
difference at the race! They also shared spares on comp day! This is found
in the SCG articles. I think this was either due to the fact they were
friends, or most likely due to Rootes encouraging cooperation to ensure that
at least 1 Alpine was in the winners circle, Maybe both. When I met him, he
seemed like he was willing to tell anyone how to make a car perform because
his nature was all about sucess.
I got to tell you that his spirit is certainly alive in this current
generation of Alpine racers, because everyone is willing to share all
"secrets", odd part numbers, and parts with anyone who has got the balls to
get a car together and go wheel to wheel. I think this stems from the fact
that there are just too damn many people with red Porches, BRG MG's, abd
TR's that need their asses spanked, but there are so few of us to do it! Lou
----- Original Message -----
From: <sosnaenergyconsulting@home.com>
> Lou:
> Interesting that you brought up Doane Spencer. I was reading the March
> 2001 issue of Classic and Sportscar magazine and there was an article
> about Mr. Spencers's hot rod. The interesting thing to me was a sidebar
> written by Julian Balme who talked about building a replica of the
> Hollywood Motors tiger. He mentioned that in the early '90's he met Mr.
> Spencer and got together with him about 4 times before Spencer's death.
>
> I had always thought that Doane Spencer was pretty closemouthed about
> the modifications he made to his cars (he probably was, at the time!:-))
> but according to the author, he found Mr. Spencer very willing to
> discuss the modifications to the cars he had built.
>
> It may be that those modifications are well known today (if so, to
> everyone but me:-). I don't know if there would be crossover information
> from the tiger that would be useful to us alpiners or whether they spoke
> of the Hollywood alpine during their tiger discussions, but perhaps the
> author of the article would be willing to share what information he
> collected. Haven't tried contacting him yet and I don't recall anyone on
> the list ever mentioning talking to Doane Spencer about his wizardry
> with Sunbeams, but it's a thought.
|