Straightening the Record

Sir,

In his fascinating story, “More About Mercedes”, W.B. makes one mistake. He says that, at Phoenix Park in 1930. the “three blower 4 1/2s gave three 38/250s a start of two laps”. It was, of course, the other way round, since the handicap was based on engine size. May I quote from Sir Henry Birkin’s book “Full Throttle”: “I had my handicap of two laps, everything was perfectly fair” and later, “one of my laps (was) slipping helplessly away.” He goes on to say, “There was half an hour More before the end and about two-thirds of a lap’s handicap left; I thought I could just got borne before he (Caraceiola) caught me”.

I consider myself very fortunate to have. seen both this race and Caracciola’s other great drive, perhaps his greatest. at the Ards in 1929.

On an entirely different subject, in the same issue, in his piece “Rejuvenating GT4Os”, C.R. says that there was construction by three separate licensees. In fact, there were no licensees and all GT40 construction originated at Ford Advanced Vehicles which was a direct subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Two complete cars (nos. 1019 and 1023) were transferred to Alan Mann for race preparation and a total of eight cars (nos. 1011, 1012, 1015, 1016, 1031, 1032. 1046 and 1047) were shipped to Shelby American Inc., less engines and transmisions but otherwise complete, for conversion to Mark II specification. The J-car, or Mark IV, which owed little or nothing to GT40 ancestry, was built entirely by Kar Kraft in Dearborn and was never seen at Slough.

Fulmer. Bucks JOHN WYER