Race Retro, Stoneleigh Park, 12-14 March 2010

Strength in Depth

Race Retro and the Autosport show might be thought to be competitors. They're both off-season shows with racing cars. But they're as much competitors as a vintage Bentley and a new Ferrari Scuderia are competitors - each has a different job to do, and each does it rather well. The Autosport Show concentrates on the leading edge of the sport, and succeeds in that aim, but some of the glitz wore a bit thin this year as the big (and some smaller) names spent a bit less on extravagent stands. By contrast, compared with a couple of year ago when I last went, Race Retro seemed to be booming. There were some beautiful cars - the Alfa 8c supercharged 3 litre in the entrance foyer was one - but there was also a buzz on the stands. Perhaps it's that many of the visitors are a bit older so that their finances have got a bit of padding and therefore they won't allow a recession to stop their sport. A friend who visited the show for the first time commented on how friendly and polite everybody was - as if the behaviour came from the same era as the cars. Perhaps that's not a bad thing, and perhaps it's why we think the Monoposto Racing Club fits into this show quite well.

Our Stand, its neighbours and other Monoposto related items

First of all, many thanks to Jonathan Baggott for organising the stand, Chris Helliwell and his Dad for loaning us the beautifully rebuilt Swift as a centrepiece, and to both of them, David Cox, Nick Harrison, Mark Smith, Peter Whitmore, Simon Davey, and Andrew/Emma Cliffe for manning the stand. If I've missed anybody, apologies. According to Jonathan, "we had a good steady stream of interest from potential new members on all 3 days, and our objective of keeping our name in the forefront of amateur motorsport enthusiast's minds was achieved."

It was good to welcome back old friends on the stand. 1960's competitor, and still a supporter of the club, Philip Hancock called in. Marcus Sheard who raced with us in 1987 and is expecting to join in this year with a Mygale commented that he was about the average age for his class in 1987 - and from what he could see in the 1600/1800 class, he still is! Rob Manger, a winner from the late 1990's and early 2000's is still instructing at Thruxton, but is also putting a lot into the excellent GoMotorsport project as a project maanger. It's promoted by the MSA and encourages children into motosport in particular and engineering in general.

There are also the people who have something to complain about. We saw a chap who must be one of the unluckiest men in motorsport. 2 years ago he harangued me because we wouldn't allow his car to run below 40mm and so it was uncompetitive. He apparently decided to move instead to a different class - a bike powered car - but with our class changes he had to abandon that project at great cost. How unlucky can you be? Speaking to a component supplier, they had somebody come onto their stand and complain vociferously and at length about a particular product, outlining all its weaknesses. As it wasn't a product that supplier sold, they really didn't know what they could say to placate him.

And so to a walk round the show, with captions. If I've made mistakes please email the corrections.

Chris Helliwell's beautifully turned out Swift SC97 Zetec on the Mono stand. The sign said "Designed by Mark Bailey". Is this the gearbox Mark Bailey?	Jonathan Baggott checks the car while David Cox welcomes some guests.	A number of universities showed Formual Fords. Surely Mono would be a far more fertile ground for developing engineering skills?	1000cc F3 as a class was nurtured by Mono. This unique Vesey Ford was not a known Mono runner but was a Curborough sprint regular in the early 1980's.
On the other hand, this Jomo F3 certainly did run in Mono, and its owner Colin Cummings contacted us some time ago.	Driver of the Day sponsor and Startline interviewee/author, Superclutch's Tony Tewson	Shirley Tewson, on their stand	We're rarely far from the Midland Automobile Club's stand, whose philosophy of friendly, well run sport which people enjoy we tend to share. If you've never seen Shelsley Walsh, you really must.
"That's the last time you'll get a smile from a Clerk of the Course this year". Robert Williams of CSCC is a CoC who understands club racing and compet itors rather better than many CoC's we've had with other clubs. Thanks for the quote, Robert!	Next door neighbours Itchy Feet showed a Lotus 101 Judd from 1989...	...and a "Phaeton" motorhome which looked like this inside. Nearly as good as some Mono Transits...It was impressive to say the least with nearly enough room for the AGM,

The Show's Featured Make

Alfa Romeo was the show's featured make. Here's a selection. If they'd also had Mono competitor Steven Griffin's GTV, that would have been the icing on the cake.

1938 8c supercharged 3 litre GP car also competed very successfully post-war. Beautiful.	Not quite as enveloping as our more modern Monoposti, the cockpit was beautifully trimmed and had just the right amount of patina. One thing many of our cars lack is string and tape on the steering wheel.	Tipo B P3 carries a prancing horse because the team manager was, of course, Enzo Ferrari, formerly an Alfa driver.	8C 2300 Monza and 1960's sports racer. It was hard to find a badly shaped Alfa on show.
1984 184T F1 car. This was from the era when the Alfa F1 cars retired with electrical problems, as the rod coming through the side of the block removed a plug lead.	Not as extreme as the famous Mercedes flatbed, the cute '60's transporter and pretty Giuletta looked good together.

The "Other" Cars

There's nothing looks like a Corvette. Many Mono drivers must have had the iconic '60's Corgi model	Lola Indycar shown without wheels which was quite effective.	H&H advertised their auction with this perfect Lagonda tourer.	Penske Mercedes Indycar
About as far from a Penske Mercedes as you could get - Austin 7 Single Seater.	Maserati 450S was unusual in being right hand drive and with a UK reg.	Peerless GT had a Triumph TR3 engine in a glass fibre body. Stylish and purposeful rather than pretty it spawned the Warwick GT and indirectly the Gordon Keeble.	W12 Napier Sealion engined Napier Railton - Brooklands stand
What could be more English and 1950's than this Riley convertible on David Brown Restorations stand?	Embassy Hill / Cosworth. Not a great car, and a horrible livery, but pure 70's nostalgia.	Short wheel base Quattro was very successful in rallies in the 80's. I recall an expert/professional explaining when the first Quattros appeared that 4wd was a marketing ploy because Audi couldn't abandon driving the front wheels.	Escort BDA dominated rallies in the 70's, giving Ford a sporting reputation that long outlived their participation, and at a price far cheaper than some of their later ill-fated efforts.
Killed prematurely by the rulemakers, the Reliant (yes!) built RS200 had Sierra derived doors and a 1700BDT engine. Arguably the prettiest Group B car of all.	Presumably "26" advertises this lovely Elan as a genuine 26R. It was on sale for £129k. That is not a typing error.	Sydney Allard made brutally effective sports cars with big American V8's in the 1950's. A true hero, he won the British Hillclimb Championship and the Monte Carlo Rally in cars of his own design.	He also built the first British dragster (seen here), with a Chrysler engine. To find out about rebuilding it see theaccelerationarchive.co.uk. Unusually for a dragster, it had front brakes so it could run at seaside sprints.
Maserati 250F, most beautiful and elegant of all front engined F1 cars.	Another Austin 7 based single seater	Damon Milnes of Cheshire Classics showed this March 79B

Elsewhere...

It's not all cars.

Norton were the featured motorcycle marque.	A row of Nortons. Famous Featherbed frame was designed by Rex McCandless, who was a great eccentric genius and utterly charming when I spoke to him shortly before his death in 1992.	The Norton name has reappeared (for the umpteenth time), this time on a sports bike with a modern engine and classic looks. £14k seemed a high price, but what price style?	If you needed some pre-enjoyed parts or bits to finish off a car, the cattle shed autojumble was the place to be. Some bargains and some overpriced tat. Not many cars this year though.
Scalextric brought a nostalgic lump to many a throat.	Glass refelctions spoil this picture of a superb 1/43 scale diorama of the Ferrari team at work in the 1950's. Maybe a bit too clean to be fully authentic...	Doyen of British motorsport photgraphy Jeff Bloxham.

Tony Cotton