This weekend I remembered I had a pile of old car magazines from
1959-1968. In flipping through them, I came across various articles with
fun information.
In "On the Grid", July 1960, Volume 1, No. 2,published monthly out of
Chicago, Illinois, by Edward F. Pazdur, there is an article reporting the
SCCA's Marlboro Nationals, there was: First race, G and H Production, 1st,
Charles Callanan in a Fiat-Abarth 850, 2nd, Brad Howes in a Sunbeam Alpine,
3rd, Vincent Tamburo in a Sunbeam Alpine. Then the comment in the text
that the Alpines "seem to be classed just right." How sad. being classed
just right with cars that have half the engine size. I know that the Fiat
Abarth was supposed to be hotter than the non-Abarth version. But over our
beloved Alpines? Heck, if this was what I read when I was buying sports
cars, I certainly would not pick the Alpine.
In the next day's race, the Fiat Abarth was 1st again, followed by Tamburo
in his Alpine, then Marilyn Taylor in her Alfa Giulietta, then Walt Hoover
in his Alpine.
I'm pretty sure I saw a write up on the Fiat Abarth in one of these
magazines. I'll have to find it.
The next magazine, "Sports Car Graphic", December 1962, Volume 2, No. 8, by
Peterson Publishing, we have a fun article with all sorts of familiar names
"Pacific Coast Championship, Santa Barbara" by Jerry Titus (sound
familiar). Here the first picture is a Porsche Speedster, followed by 3 or
4 Alpines then a couple more Speedsters and some MGA's. The caption reads
"The start of the F-Production race saw Jordan's Porsche take the lead,
with Miles (50) and Block (13) in Sunbeam Alpines behind. They finished
that way." The text reads "Charger Davie Jordon returned to the
F-Production fray with a fresh engine in his Porsche and promptly sent all
the Alpine competitors back to the dyno by turning super-hot lap times and
winning from Ken Miles. A first rate pilot, Dave makes good use of every
advantage, jumped into the lead right off the grid and stayed there. SCG's
Titus [the author] and Lew Spencer eliminated their Alpines from
competition on Saturday when the former spun to avoid a bobbling MG and the
latter clobbered him. Lots of bent metalwork, but no injuries." Sure
enough, there are two pictures with Alpine #330 spun out and the driver
holding his hands up with Alpine #45 going straight at it, the next shot
shows the two drivers jumping out of their connected cars and running away.
Last but not least, is an article on Ken Miles in another R&T. I'll save
that for another e-mail.
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