*** Historic Silverstone - Part 7 ****

[Colin]

RALLY CAR DISPLAY

This looked rather less formal than the billing in the program, but there was an area dedicated to historic rally cars, many of which seemed very familiar from trips to the Race Retro event. It was good to see them in a warmer setting!
















Some historic BMC Group cars were also to be seen, along with a couple of period transporters:













DAVID LESLIE TRIBUTE

A small area in the paddock, in memory of a great motor sports man, showing some of the many cars in which he competed







IN THE PADDOCK and THE PITS

Unrestricted access is one of the great features of an event like this, allowing for close up inspections of the cars before and after their track appearances.

One of my absolute favourites, the Alfa 8C 2300





Jaguar "D" type



BMW "Neue Klasse", ready for action in the historic saloon car race





Mercury Monterey - a behemoth of a car!





Mercury Comet Cyclone - clearly a real handful on the track





Group C Cars











ERA



Alfa P3



ACTION ON THE TRACK

I confess that I did not take many pictures of the cars while they were racing. Piers' brother, Alex, was with us on the Saturday, and he filled an entire memory card with his efforts. He took a lot of pictures of cars entering the pit lane at the end of their race, as we happened to sipping pimms, and enjoying the hospitality of Chris and Sandra Notley (owners of the yellow Ford GT40 that some of you have seen), at the time, in their suite, so were perectly placed to do so. I did capture some of the cars, generally on their warm up laps, and here they are:







   







 











   



   



 











OTHER ATTRACTIONS

A select group of people had been able to fly in their own historic planes, and we did see a few of these make a departure on the Sunday evening. We were treated to a number of aerial displays, from 2 YAK fighters, the Hawker Hunter plane from the 1950s, and on Saturday evening there was a Hot Air Baloon ascent in almost perfect conditions.







All in all, then, a truly excellent weekend. The sunburn on the back of my legs has mostly faded, but the nose has started to peel! Infinitely preferrable to Prescott weather, all the same!

[Nethead]

Colin:  Among your many excellent pics are two of a light-aqua-with-a-white-roof car that you describe as:
"Mercury Comet Cyclone - clearly a real handful on the track"

A correction is needed:  It is NOT a "Mercury Comet Cyclone" but a Mercury Monterey, almost certainly a 1966 model.  The Monterey was a "full-sized car"--as it was classed in the US in 1966--whereas the Comet was a much smaller car that had just been moved up to an "intermediate car" chassis from a "compact car" chassis in 1966.  The Cyclone was a better-trimmed and better-appointed model of the Comet, and the sportiest version of the Comet was the Cyclone GT, with the 390 cubic inch displacement V8 engine.

The 1966 Cyclone GT was an imitation Pontiac GTO, and a poor one at that.  Mercury did not have a really competitive model to the GTO until the Cyclone GT of 1968, and it was not performance-competitive with the GTO until the Cyclone CJ428 of 1969 with its 428 cubic inch displacement Cobra Jet engine (which I owned an example of in 1972-1973). 

The Monterey in your pictures may have the front fender decals associated with stockcar racing in the US, but I doubt if anyone would have actually entered such a stuffy geriatric's car in a stockcar race in 1966--and with the boat anchor 390, it had less than absolutely no chance of winning a stockcar race in 1966 or any other year.

Be thankful that this Monterey belongs to someone other than you! 

[Colin]

Interesting.......... the commentator definitely described it as a Comet Cyclone, which is why I said that is what it was. However, we all know that people make mistakes, so I defer to your superior knowledge!

[cawimmer430]

I had a look your Silverstone threads a few days ago. Excellent stuff. 

Some of your BEST picture threads ever! 

[cawimmer430]

PS: GET A DSLR CAMERA ALREADY!!! 

[Nethead]

Interesting.......... the commentator definitely described it as a Comet Cyclone, which is why I said that is what it was. However, we all know that people make mistakes, so I defer to your superior knowledge!

Colin:  No problemo!   Hell, when the owner of the Monterey was giving out incorrect info on an obscure US sedan from 1966--produced 42 years ago--how could you be expected to know otherwise?   I know the info only because at that time all I ever bothered to expend any serious thought upon was the performance parts of cars and cheerleaders .  Well, maybe majorettes, too, on occasion ... 

[Nethead]

Colin:  The Nethead here luckily came across this link that shows a side view of a 1968 Mercury Comet Cyclone, which you can see is vastly different from a Mercury Monterey.  I had the 1969 version with a Cobra Jet 428, differing only in having a slightly different grille and the front side marker lights were moved about 8"-10" lower on the fender.  The model subname was "CJ428", and the ram-air required a very large hoodscoop to feed air to the beast.  The Cyclone GT in the pic is a somewhat darker shade of blue than the Monterey at Goodwood. 

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=15607&catid=3

Now THIS was a NASCAR stockcar racer extraordinaire--which Cale Yarborough drove to four superspeedway victories in 1968, breaking the record of three superspeedway wins in one year first set by Fred Lorenzen in 1963.  The following year, 1969, Lee Roy Yarbrough, driving for Junior Johnson, obliterated that record with seven superspeedway wins in one year driving a 1969 Cyclone--a record which held until Awesome Bill from Dawsonville scored nine superspeedway wins in one year in the 'Eighties driving a Thunderbird.

To this day, it is the most beautiful Mercury ever built...