Late News From England
LATE NEWS FROM ENGLAND
TEXT & PHOTOS BY B. R. NICHOLLS
Scooters top the general news this month. Lambretta, old hands at the scooter game, have put a disc brake on the front of one of their models, the TV175. Machines with this modification are at present only available in Italy but quantity production of a disc brake on a two-wheeler is progress indeed. Who will be the first cycle manufacturer to do it? Well, the answer to that one is a question of time before we know. Prime consideration must be cost, related to the added advantage from such a major change.
Of even greater importance is “Tina”. She is a docile little lass of lOOcc produced by the Triumph Engineering Company of Coventry — yes, the same firm that produces Bonne villes has come up with a revolutionary, fully automatic scooter. No clutch, no gearchange, just throttle and brakes and the foot brake may be operated by either foot. Powered by a two-stroke engine that lies flat with the head facing forward, the primary transmission is by an endless belt. This runs on pulleys the dimensions of which are varied according to both engine load and road speed. The rear hub houses helical gears which give a final reduction, the overall ratios ranging from 514.75 to 1, with a maximum speed of about 40 mph. This is the machine to appeal to the ladies as it virtually requires nothing more than a sense of balance to be able to ride it.
The road racing season started in this country on April the First, celebrated by an old custom as All Fools Day. It is a day Bob McIntyre will not easily forget. Signed to ride Hondas for the 1962 season, the special 285cc machine built to challenge for World 350cc Championship honours was flown from Japan specially for him to ride. Over 40,000 race-hungry fans braved a cold biting wind to see the machine race but only the early arrivals saw Bob on that bike as he crashed in practice. Hitting the machine of a rider who had fallen in front of him, he wrote off the front end and himself sustained severe bruising.
Mike Hailwood was soon in the groove with a runaway win in the 250 class on the 1961 ex-works single cylinder Benelli. This machine belongs to Shrewsbury dealer Fron Purslow, an ex-racer, who will market a 50cc machine of the same marque with a claimed top speed of over 80 mph. With the East German MZ concern also entering the battle that 50cc World Title will really take some winning. Technically it will be most interesting and on the slower courses racing could be really keen but will it really provide a spectacle to draw the crowds? Few will go this season just to watch the fifties but following the dictum that racing improves the breed the F.I.M. were right to give the class championship status. But it will be a sad day when five hundreds are a thing of the past.
Because Benelli have sold last year’s machine does not mean they have lost interest, in fact they have a four-cylinder device on the stocks which should appear in the Isle of Man. By then Hailwood should be looking for a fast two-fifty as M.V. still remains silent about this year’s activity and the fact that Mike has signed to ride the British E.M.C. in 125cc World Championship events this year shows how fed up he is with the whole business.
Against the Honda fours will be a much improved M. Z. two-stroke twin. Plagued last season with cooling difficulties, they have jacketed the cylinder to give liquid cooling but the head remains in the open. Suzuki also will have a twostroke twin and should be a force to be reckoned with as Ernst Degner has been tuning the motors but we shall not know the effect until April the 15th when they race at Imola. It would have been ideal if they could have been matched against the M. Z.’s but politics cloud the racing scene as visas have been refused for the East Germans to enter Italy. Does the M. V. silence already mentioned mean that they will not race at all outside Italy? Some say the Count does not like losing but they should not forget that M.V. persevered for many years to gain their success and I prefer to think they will come back fighting with some brand new machines, especially in the hotly disputed 250 class.
A week after the Mallory meeting we had the Hutchinson Hundred meeting at Sil ver stone, a full blown international. The sensation of the day was the sidecar class where 47-year-old Jack Beeton, who first raced in 1934, came from behind in both races to win from the top European aces including Camathias, Vincent and World Champion Max Deubel, but in fairness to Deubel the five tight right hand and three fast left bends favoured chairs on the left.
In the 250 class we had a good scrap between Hailwood on the Benelli and Jim Redman on his works Honda four. Redman won by one fifth of a second thereby winning the coveted Mellano Trophy awarded to the rider whose race average makes the nearest approach to lap record speed.
In the 125 race the British water cooled two stroke E.M.C. finished 1-2-3 and it was after his ride when he finished second that Hailwood decided to ride the machine for the rest of the season.
On the moto cross front B.S.A. makes progress in the 250 class with a SmithLampkin first and second in the Swiss round of the Championship whilst Rolf Tibblin, riding a Husqvarna, won the Austrian round of the 500 Championship.
The trials season has virtually finished and ended with a major surprise for in the Bemrose trial Sammy Miller was beaten by seventeen-year-old Mike Andrews, a member of the A.J.S. works team and youngest rider ever to win a National trade-supported event in this country. Brilliant all-rounder Ron Langston continues to dominate the sidecar class but let me introduce you to one of your own countrymen who is keen on this branch of the sport. He is George Wolfe, a master sergeant serving with the U.S. forces in this country. His club back home is the Leap ’N Linx of Pittsburgh, Pa. and over here he has joined the Norwich Vikings. George has been riding for about twentytwo years and is a keen Triumph man. He has built up his own Sidecar outfit for use in sporting trials and is quite a part of the trials scene these days, unique in the fact that he is the only competitor with the chair on the right. His biggest success so far was in the tecent D. K. Mansell trial, a big national event for t~hafrs only, when he won the B.S.A. tfophy for the best performance for machines in the 500-lOIiOcc class. Just reward foF a man who starts every trial with a hafidicap inasmuch as courses are planned for the left hand chair. •
