Hi Mike,
Thanks for the info. I've learned from some other e-mailers that the soaking
liquid was probably a mixture of 20 mule team Borax and water. Where did
you run your Cooper in the early '60's? I may have seen you drive! Dad drove
several Coopers including a Formula 2 car at Paramount Ranch....oh, mid
'50's I guess. He preferred the Cooper to the Lotus which he thought were
frail. BTW, Dad's last sports car race in 1960 was in a Joe Lubin owned
Cooper at Santa Barbara. As I've been told, (I wasn't there) he was on the
front row with Ken Miles on one side and Jack MacAfee on the other, both in
Porsches of course, for the start of the under 1500cc main. He was always
good at starts, but, this time, when he dropped the clutch the tranny
exploded into tiny little expensive pieces. He told me that he was sure
someone was going to nail him in the rear at about 100 mph, but luckily no
one did. He got out of the car and walked away never to race a sports car
again.
Bill Oker
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Gee [mailto:Michael_Gee@bc.sympatico.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 3:19 PM
To: vintage-race@autox.team.net
Subject: Helmets amd Driving Gear
Listers,
Following the Oker mail which I read with interest I
recalled my driving
gear in the early 60s. My driving suit (optional) was
cotton and one
piece. We were instructed to soak the suit in baking soda
or baking
powder (I don't recall exactly) to make it fire resistant.
I soaked it
once and considered it "fixed". You can see there were no
effective
guidelines back then. My gloves were leather palms with
woven backs -
very chic European "a la mode". Just for distinction I wore
a bandana
around my neck and a Bell helmet with a curved tinted
plastic face
shield. I was held in my Cooper with a three-point aircraft
belt. And
sitting beside me was a metal container holding 5 gal of
gasoline. How
many mistakes did I make? We all know nowadays that this
represented a
very dangerous combination. Hope you youngsters are paying
attention.
You can race vintage cars but stay away from vintage gear.
Cheers,
Mike
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