It's amazing what one finds out on these history searches... although
the current "owner" of Phil Spector's old Cobra may not feel as warmly
about it. ;)
I bought that fairly off-beat Crossle F5000/FA car (1 of 3) that no
doubt some of you may have glanced at on race-cars.com. Heppy wrenched
for the (2nd) owner at the time, a fellow by the name of T. Grant.
Heppy had no idea what the T stood for and I hold little hope of finding
Mr. T - anyone out there know a T Grant who ran a FA car in maybe '69,
probably in the Baltimore area???
The vendor, Victor, was a gentleman and actually personally delivered it
(Florida to Washington state!) and treated my wife and I to dinner. It
was a very pleasurable experience all the way 'round and I have a new
friend now.
I have located another of the three Crossles for sure (in Germany), and
maybe the final one too. Believe it or not, a vintage motorsports
photographer in Oregon had a nice period picture of the car, and there's
a 50/50 chance it's the one I have. This photo and another photocopied
from a book led me to the first owner of one of the cars (Roger Barr),
whom I am now in email contact with. Heppy provided the bridge to the
fellow I bought it from, and gave me valuable background on the car's
development (or lack of). I'm also looking for Ralph Loesser, who owned
the second stateside car - any leads here?
The really scary thing is Crossle is still very much in business (John
has retired), and still has the drawings, jigs, and moulds and can
supply almost any part! Wow.
The Crossle is awaiting the completion of my Brabham BT21, of which I am
now scraping the paint off the frame. What a nice car to work on (the
BT21, that is)! Both cars will definitely race again, both in the local
vintage group and the local club races when time permits.
tim
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Sieling [mailto:Rogsie@telesistech.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 5:03 AM
To: vintage-race-digest@autox.team.net; Tim Osborne
Subject: RE: Looking for Ray Hepinstal (spelling no doubt incorrect)
Well, after all this and now that you've found Heppy, are you going to
let us in on what the car is you've bought? Will we get to see it raced?
I was so lucky to find Keith Hall a few months after I bought my Lotus
Eleven. We knew some of the history of the car almost immediately, as it
came with it's 1959 tax disc, verifying the registration 4DTN. Then
Keith was kind enough to loan his color home movies and found a scrap of
old aluminum with the original color. After that kind of help, I
couldn't not paint it that color, and that is why 4DTN is the off light
green that it is. Many people have looked at it in the paddock and
thought it a poor attempt at BRG, but the actual color was quite
intentional. Researching history of our toys is a great part of the fun.
Roger
>>> "Tim Osborne" <timos@microsoft.com> 06/28/01 01:41AM >>>
Thanks to all for the tips - I located "Heppy" and had a very
illuminating and entertaining conversation with him. An amazing fellow
with boatloads of real race historical knowledge, from actually being
there in the trenches.
tim
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Osborne [mailto:timos@microsoft.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 8:35 AM
To: vintage-race-digest@autox.team.net
Subject: Looking for Ray Hepinstal (spelling no doubt incorrect)
Ray was/is a race mechanic in Baltimore and elsewhere, and wrenched a
car in '69 I just bought. I'm investigating it's past and need some
info probably only Ray can provide.
tim
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