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Post by mybigtoe18 on Dec 31, 2009 13:40:29 GMT 1
I have this in my photo files and think it was taken at Rayleigh about 1955. Any ideas - is it a Parker prototype? atomcar.jpgAttachments:
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Post by rodpashley on Dec 31, 2009 14:24:26 GMT 1
Midget racer designed by Sidney Allard and Ronnie Green (of Wimbledon Speedway) and driven by Cyril Brine.
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Post by haflinger121 on Dec 31, 2009 14:54:01 GMT 1
It was also tested by speedway star Ronnie Moore, who put it upside down and broke his collar bone apparently. For further info bigtoe, check out the section UK Midget Car History, written by our administrator, Chapter 12 - The Allard Midget - and others.
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Post by mybigtoe18 on Dec 31, 2009 18:27:29 GMT 1
Midget racer designed by Sidney Allard and Ronnie Green (of Wimbledon Speedway) and driven by Cyril Brine. I thought it was Percy Brine who drove midget cars and stock cars and was known as 'Hellcat' Brine.
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Post by rodpashley on Dec 31, 2009 18:46:40 GMT 1
Cant answer that, just reciting from old news item.
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Post by haflinger121 on Dec 31, 2009 20:26:04 GMT 1
Percy and Cyril were brothers, both speedway riders. Cyril appears to have been the more successful speedway rider, while Percy looks like he did better on four wheels. However, I think both men may have been interested in cars as well as bikes, stock cars as well as midgets.
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Post by rodpashley on Dec 31, 2009 20:37:12 GMT 1
If you search Pathe newsreels, you will find some of this car being tested.
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Post by administrator on Jan 1, 2010 10:13:19 GMT 1
Percy and Cyril were brothers, both speedway riders. Cyril appears to have been the more successful speedway rider, while Percy looks like he did better on four wheels. However, I think both men may have been interested in cars as well as bikes, stock cars as well as midgets. A 1950s photo of Percy Brine in his midget car can be found on the board FOR PHOTOS and posted under VARIOUS MIDGET CARS as CHARLES-BATSON MIDGET 1957.
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Post by haflinger121 on Jan 1, 2010 11:09:05 GMT 1
Thanks John, I knew that photo at Aldershot was on here somewhere but just couldn't remember where.
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Post by administrator on May 30, 2010 10:48:44 GMT 1
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Post by administrator on May 30, 2010 10:49:39 GMT 1
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Post by davidkipling1 on Oct 19, 2010 17:13:58 GMT 1
You know, seeing that Pathe film clip and looking at these 1940's / 1950's cars, I can't help thinking they SHOULD have been a bigger success. Obviously they cannot compete as rivals in a Speedway fixture, but in stock car fixtures on shale tracks they would be a great spectacle. Today's UK midgets on tarmac are too fast/fragile, though entertaining. A modern 500 or 750cc motor in an old fashioned 'spec' chassis, on shale, could provide good close racing.
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Post by haflinger121 on Oct 20, 2010 11:50:09 GMT 1
I've been thinking the same as you for a long time, David. It would be simplicity itself to create a car that had the under-pinings of, say, a Legend car and top it off with a suitable midget bodyshell. The big stumbling block would be the same one there's always been, that the only really suitable tracks are speedways and they won't like sharing with cars for all the old reasons. Shame...
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Post by rodpashley on Oct 20, 2010 14:19:04 GMT 1
stock car promotions may well work, the two shale meetings we have had, I heard that the promotors phone was redhot with spectators wanting to know whe tbe midgets would be on again......despite small entry, and lack of shale experience...
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Post by administrator on Oct 21, 2010 9:51:19 GMT 1
I've been thinking the same as you for a long time, David. It would be simplicity itself to create a car that had the under-pinings of, say, a Legend car and top it off with a suitable midget bodyshell. The big stumbling block would be the same one there's always been, that the only really suitable tracks are speedways and they won't like sharing with cars for all the old reasons. Shame... It always has been the animosity of speedway promoters about running midget cars on their programmes that has held back the formula for so many years. As has been seen from old pre-war footage of the Skirrows, when on what was then cinders, they offer as much spectacle as the bikes. In the 1950s, I saw the Skirrows on speedways (in independent promotions) at Eastbourne and Southampton and (apart from a few technical problems with the ageing cars!) when they competed they were excellent. Sadly, modern speedway is so insular, even sidecars have problems getting on to the same programmes as the solo bikes. Your comments about an atomcar-type midget formula could be a step forward if ever enough interest could be created...and some finance found for such a venture. When we see what is offered in the UK as midget car racing nowadays, then get feedback about the class from Australia, Argentina, USA, New Zealand and South Africa it makes you want to cry...!!
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