[TR] The Jabbeke car (update)

Wed Apr 12 06:50:26 MDT 2017

Dear John,
Thank you for the update and providing a clearing of the air around this question, I find all these bits of history fascinating. Is there any recommended reading that covers the Sir John/Ken Richardson era of Standard-Triumph?

I especially appreciate the "Jabbeke Run" as is was on the day/year that SWMBO was born.  A very helpful reminder indeed.  

Seemingly minor anecdotes like the veterans who stamp the commission plates and the sloppy orange "TR3" on the side of the engine block need to be preserved.  

All the best,
Bill B
TS30800L

Sent from my Altair 8800

On Apr 11, 2017, at 3:11 PM, John Macartney <john.macartney at ukpips.org.uk> wrote:

A few weeks ago I promised to do a bit of research into the newly restored example of MVC 575 as it seems a number of people consider it may have parts of the original development car in it. To do this, I contacted my old friend Paul Richardson whose Dad, Ken, was the man who drove it at Jabbeke.

When I told Paul there was a climate of opinion that the earlier prototype had some or all of the earlier version as part of its structure, he was somewhat puzzled and asked for a few days to check his Dad's notes and reports. He responded a few days later and while I can't quote him verbatim, this was the substance of the reply.

"When my father was asked by Sir John Black to re-engineer 20TS, it was made absolutely clear that no structural parts of the earlier car could be used and you know as well as I do that anyone who defied Sir John would find himself in Big Trouble. Sir John made it clear that from an appearance aspect, the earlier car could be copied but it had to make use of new materials throughout and Dad adhered to that directive. While the front end had only minor changes, the rear was completely new and completely re-fabricated using new drawings. As it was a development car, it's therefore hardly surprising that the back end may have looked internally a bit of a dog's breakfast but as you know, prototypes often took that form."

Paul then went on to say, "while you're correcting myth that will probably become fact unless challenged PDQ, please make it clear there is no way Dad did the first of the two timed runs on only three cylinders as has often been entirely misreported. Yes, he did lose a plug lead about 200 yards short of the finish line on the first timed run but there's no room for debate that Dad drove that measured mile/kilometre on just three cylinders - because he didn't. It's also worth mentioning that the Sunbeam Talbot which also achieved a similar speed a few weeks earlier at Jabbeke had been substantially performance modified (which I already knew), while 575 had only the flat steel undertray, rear spats and no screen. In all other respects, the state of tune was as Dad normally drove it and was not performance tuned to achieve the speeds it did."

I told Paul the car had recently been unveiled at the RAC Club in PA few weeks ago I promised to do a bit of research into the newly restored example of MVC 575 as it seems a number of people consider it may have parts of the original development car in it. To do this, I contacted my old friend Paul Richardson whose Dad, Ken, was the man who drove it at Jabbeke.

When I told Paul there was a climate of opinion that the earlier prototype had some or all of the earlier version as part of its structure, he was somewhat puzzled and asked for a few days to check his Dad's notes and reports. He responded a few days later and while I can't quote him verbatim, this was the substance of the reply.

"When my father was asked by Sir John Black to re-engineer 20TS, it was made absolutely clear that no structural parts of the earlier car could be used and you know as well as I do that anyone who defied Sir John would find himself in Big Trouble. Sir John made it clear that from an appearance aspect, the earlier car could be copied but it had to make use of new materials throughout and Dad adhered to that directive. While the front end had only minor changes, the rear was completely new and completely re-fabricated using new drawings. As it was a development car, it's therefore hardly surprising that the back end may have looked internally a bit of a dog's breakfast but as you know, prototypes often took that form."

Paul then went on to say, "while you're correcting myth that will probably become fact unless challenged PDQ, please make it clear there is no way Dad did the first of the two timed runs on only three cylinders as has often been entirely misreported. Yes, he did lose a plug lead about 200 yards short of the finish line on the first timed run but there's no room for debate that Dad drove that measured mile/kilometre on just three cylinders - because he didn't. It's also worth mentioning that the Sunbeam Talbot which also achieved a similar speed a few weeks earlier at Jabbeke had been substantially performance modified (which I already knew), while 575 had only the flat steel undertray, rear spats and no screen. In all other respects, the state of tune was as Dad normally drove it and was not performance tuned to achieve the speeds it did."

I told Paul the car had recently been unveiled at the RAC Club in Pall Mall, London - with some of "the UK Triumph Party Faithfull" in attendance and was more than disappointed and surprised to learn that no-one from the RAC, TR Register, the car's owner/restorer or any other involved group of people had even bothered to invite either Paul or his two brothers to the event! Can't see that happening if the 'colours' were changed and it was MG instead of Triumph. Whether any of them would have gone to the unveiling is not the point of this observation - but IMHO it would have been courteous for all three  surviving members of the Richardson family to have at least been contacted and invited - but they weren't - and no-one can claim that any of them are uncontactable. 

My apologies for this delayed feedback. Three weeks ago I was blue-lighted to hospital with advanced sepsis and an infected gall bladder. I'm now home but it wasn't until my wife told me on my return that I was within a cats whisker of hanging up my driving gloves for good and descending to hell where I could have played Frisbee practice with a few fallen angels halos😊

Jonmac

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