A nice fellow that I have worked closely with for some time now had just
recently learned of my interest in old British cars, and was quite eager
to bring up some old war stories of road rallies he used to do in this
area in his old Triumph. In fact he has some now vintage rally computing
hardware that he says he would be thrilled to see in my M.G.! Gee, now
wouldn't THAT look cool...
Anyway, he has lent me a book called "Races that Shook the World" by
Rodney Walkerley published in the fifties. I just gotta pass on this
paragraph taken from a story of the English racer Dick Seaman who was
then racing for Mercedes.
"The car handed to Seaman for the German Grand Prix at Nurburgring
in 1938 was the latest Type W 163 which, though he was not driving, had
won the French Grand Prix a month before with ease. The engine was a V-12
of 2.9 litres with two-stage supercharging at about 30 lb. boost, developing
some 480 brake horse power at 7,800 r.p.m. in a car weighing 17.5 cwt.
(1,960 lb.). Performance was commensurate."
Commensurate?! I love a good English understatement.
I had no idea that cars before the war were capable
of this, alomst 200 m.p.h.! Seamen went on to beat the famous skidding
Von Brauchitsch and during a celebration that night became engaged to the
daughter of the director of the great German concern from Munich which built
the cars and aero engines known by the initials B.M.W.
Sadly Seaman was to die less than a year later in the Belgium
Grand Prix with a commanding lead, but trying to set a course record. With
talent like that it is no surprise that England was about to come from the
back of the pack to dominate racing for nearly a decade.
Skip
Cusack@gumby.msd.ray.com
Groton, MA (508) 858-5492
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