Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Dogmanjack]

Hello.
My cousin was a racing driver in the 50s stock car scene. He was called Reg Saul, and he did quite well at Long Eaton.
I found some photos of his cars. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about him, or what his cars were derived from.
Many thanks.
I have a link to the photo here (they're in the Photo Gallery link, above his name):
http://www.briscaf1stox.co.uk/website/drivers.php?d=82&menu=h

[47p2]

My father used to Stock Car race in late 50s early 60s. I remember our back garden having several sit-up and beg Ford Pops in various state of disrepair.
_________________
ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

[ukdave2002]

We used to have a local track that hosted stock cars, it was built as a speedway track but was wide enough for cars, the longest circuit in the UK I believe. It closed in 1993 and is now a retail park.

Dave

[D4B]

Same here Dave,

My father used to race Stock Cars at a Speedway circuit at Tongham in Aldershot. My Uncle used to drive the Speedway car with the winners on parade lap.

Sadly it is now a housing estate....

Will ask him about Reg Saul when I see him next.

[Old Wrench]

[Keith D]

Old Wrench - Johnnie Melia???

I knew a Mick Melia very well back around 1960/61. My father was a mate of his father and although a few years older than me, we got along very well. I was a seventeen year old petrolhead! He owned a car wrecking business in Hockley/Hullbridge area of Essex. I used to travel up to Harringay and East Ham stadiums with him when he was racing a Ford V8 Pilot.

I helped him prepare this car. All glass removed, a new seat welded in the middle, the column change gearshift held in second gear by strong elastic straps to the top of the windscreen frame. Lots and lots of steel cross bracing inside the vehicle and a strong mesh across the front to see through.

I don't remember much in the way of small British stuff; the cars I can remember were nearly all big heavy Yanks. (Or pretend Yanks like the V8 Pilots) I can't remember Mick ever winning a race, but we certainly had fun. Even when it came to getting the damaged car on the trailer after the Meet!

I had completely forgotten all about my association with stock car racing until reading this post, so thank you very much! It's all come flooding back!

I was in the Hockley area last year and the wrecking yard is still there, although with new owners.

Keith

[Penman]

Hi

[Old Wrench]

[Keith D]

Old wrench, you have certainly opened the floodgates of my memory!

Mick's older brother was Peter. I met him the day he finished his two year national service. He had to get his car back on the road again for his new civilian life. The clutch was slipping and I was the young bloke who was sent around the neighbourhood begging for old medicine bottle corks! The car was a mid thirties Morris and had a wet clutch. At that time I had never heard of wet clutches, so I learned a lot as Peter repaired the car!

Mick's casual behaviour around fire was legendary. A favourite way of breaking up the old cars, (Most were twenties and thirties vehicles as the new MOT testing had just come in and was decimating the vehicles on the road) was to shove a piece of rag in the petrol filler and light it! A sort of Molotov cocktail! I never remember any explosion! It used to take anything up to twenty minutes before a gentle whoosh and a few flames under the car.

I bought my first car from Mick Melia. It was a 1936 Morris 18hp. I paid him five quid at the beginning of the 1959 school holidays and used it around my father's farm. I was just 16 years old, small in stature and needed a cushion under my bottom to see over the steering wheel! Petrol was five bob a gallon and any friends who wanted a drive in it, had to provide a gallon. A gallon gave us almost exactly an hours driving. I broke a back spring at the end of the holidays and sold the car back to Mick for two pounds ten! Fabulous days!

Keith

[Old Wrench]

Clutch corks! I remember those!

My first motor bike (at aged 14) was a Coventry Eagle, 1932, 150.c.c. two stroke; gate gear change on the tank which some fool had "converted" by the simple expedient of bending a bit of 1.4" mild steel strip at 90 deg, drilling and bolting onto the spigot! Finding a gear was a matter of chance, luck and panic!

The clutch friction plate, as you say, was made of oblong sections of cork and needed replacement. I paid about £3 of my hard won pocket money for this bike and wheeled it some 4 miles home.

Happy days.

[D4B]

[quote="Dogmanjack"]Hello.
My cousin was a racing driver in the 50s stock car scene. He was called Reg Saul, and he did quite well at Long Eaton.
I found some photos of his cars. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about him, or what his cars were derived from[/quote

Saw my father today and asked him if he knew Reg Saul, sadly not.
But he remembers that the stock cars were built mostly from pre war Ford Model 8's or Ford Model 10's, or 8's with engine from 10's....

[Dogmanjack]

Thanks for the help. I'm still looking for more info!

[47p2]

This picture was taken sometime in the 60s outside Eaglesham Motors garage. It belonged to Albert Wardle who used to race with my father



_________________
ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

[Ronniej]

I used to watch it at the "White City Stadium" in Bellahouston, Glasgow in the early '60s. (This site is now Govan Police office).
My recollection were that most were Y-model Fords with a handful of Morris 8s.
The only name I recall was "Tiger Thomson" who ran a motor business in Armadale, West Lothian.
I don't recall any serious incidents but safety precautions were pretty basic.