~ along with one from Graham Hill, telling a novice journalist why he
~ dropped out af a GP.
~ Hill: "Exhaust problem"
~ Journalist: "What was wrong with the exhaust?"
~ Hill: "There were little bits of pistons stuck in it."
Hey, *my* exhaust manifold looked like that...
Another favorite excuse for failure was when one of the works Sprites
at Sebring broke its crankshaft. Of course, you *couldn't* admit that,
so when timing & scoring came to ask the Healeys why their car retired,
they said that a bird had gone through the radiator and caused complete
coolant loss. There was apparently some discussion over whether or not
the scrutineer could actually bring himself to write this, with the net
result that the logbook lists "Bird through radiator (hard!)" as the
official reason for retirement.
~ Road & Track was so much better when it had Manney, Rob Walker and that
~ crew writing for them.
A plug for the book about Rob Walker here: Chris lent me his copy of
the Walker bio, and it's an absolute charmer. Rob Walker, as used to
be well known to R&T readers, lists his occupation on his passport as
"Gentleman." The name Walker should be significant to drinkers of
Scotch whisk[e]y, which explains where he got the money to do all the
fabulous things he did in the Fifties and Sixties, and even into the
Seventies. Well worth a read.
--Scott "I'll subscribe as long as Peter Egan writes for them" Fisher
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