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Ex-Dennis Poore 1940 Dodge racing car transporter resto
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2018 3:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the list Mike, I also had a shufty but couldn't find an exact match either. It may forever remain a mystery!!!

RJ
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Rick
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Following on from finding that photo of an identical Dodge with a number of ladies from the WAAF during WW2 (repeated below), I've been looking into the truck's earlier history, and specifically digging up anecdotes of when these vehicles were used during the war. I picked up a book from Amazon (for the princely sum of 43p) titled "The Driving Force - Memoirs of Wartime WAAF Drivers", and it landed on the doormat today.

Happily I've discovered that it was put together by a lady who served in the WAAF at RAF Tilstock, just outside Whitchurch and only about 5 miles from here. A quick flick through brought up a reference to her driving a LHD Dodge crew coach while at Tilstock (they also had a Fordson). I've put the feelers out to see if the author - Peggy Drummond-Hay - is still around, and if so still in the area. I found reference to her attending an event elsewhere in 2015, so there's a chance.

I look forward to reading the book, even if there are no more Dodge references, there appear to be many stories of life at this local airfield that I'd not found in other books before.

As yet I still don't know where the following photo was taken, or who is in it.


RJ
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ukdave2002



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you "192" Elizabeth Drummond-Hay, I think you will find her contact details, looks as if she is Chichester way, was widowed not so long ago to an ex RAF chap who was 95.

Dave
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Rick
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ukdave2002 wrote:
If you "192" Elizabeth Drummond-Hay, I think you will find her contact details, looks as if she is Chichester way, was widowed not so long ago to an ex RAF chap who was 95.

Dave


Presumably there's no way of finding this number without coughing up to 192.com or ukphonebook? I'm going round and round looking for a phone number.

RJ
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Penman



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi
You have an email.
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ukdave2002



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PostPosted: Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rick wrote:
ukdave2002 wrote:
If you "192" Elizabeth Drummond-Hay, I think you will find her contact details, looks as if she is Chichester way, was widowed not so long ago to an ex RAF chap who was 95.

Dave


Presumably there's no way of finding this number without coughing up to 192.com or ukphonebook? I'm going round and round looking for a phone number.

RJ

Rick , I have used it a few times, I think it's a tenner at worst.

Dave
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Rick
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 8:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A couple of messages sent out over Facebook to people with the same surname, has put me in touch with the book author's son. The lady in question does indeed live in Sussex, although he lives not all that far from here as it happens, so it might end up being possible to organise a meeting.

RJ
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Penman



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PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2018 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi
RAF at 100, BBC tonight, 37:37 min might be one of the Dodges.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09xptsg/raf-at-100-with-ewan-and-colin-mcgregor
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Rick
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Photos of big Dodge appeared in Henry Cole's TV series "Find It, Fix It, Drive It" on More4 the other evening, apparently as inspiration for a period motorcycle transporter he and his oppo built using an old BMC ambulance as a basis. Fame at last !?

RJ
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Rick
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2019 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As a change from taking little Dodge to the local car show at Cholmondeley yesterday, instead we opted to prep and tow big Dodge's trailer over to the meet.

Bar one or two odd appearances in public in the very early 1950s, the trailer hadn't been anywhere public for the best part of 65-70 yrs so it was interesting to hear what people had to say about this faded old trailer.






RJ
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Rick
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I discovered that Poore's old MG J4 (reg. JB 3185) sold recently at a Bonham's auction. According to one of Poore's former mechanics it was a crownwheel and pinion from this racing MG, that ended up being adapted to make up the winch that still sits on the front of the trailer's frame. The MG was also carried in the trailer too, in its pre-Alfa Romeo days.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25453/lot/346/

RJ
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ukdave2002



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What are the plans for the trailer Rick? It looks nice as it is, but don't know how practical it is to keep it this way?

Dave
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Rick
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ukdave2002 wrote:
What are the plans for the trailer Rick? It looks nice as it is, but don't know how practical it is to keep it this way?

Dave


Plan is to leave well alone, apart from maybe have the (long-since-disappeared) small areas of white signwriting replaced - for example on the NOTWEN legend, and where the pegasus logo was on each side.

RJ
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Rick
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi all,

Over the last 25 years or so, I've managed to answer most of the questions I have with regard to big Dodge. However, one mystery remains.

Down either side of the original panelling, there clearly were - at some point - curved aluminium styling strips, identical to those that remain on the front doors and over the top of the bonnet to this day. You can see the route they took in these photos, taken not long after I found it. I've added the white dots just to make the route of the aluminium strips a little easier to see.

It's interesting that there are signs of more advanced surface corrosion on the panels, where the strips once lay, revealing the route of the strips. Is this a sign that the aluminium strips were originally screwed directly to the bare steel panelling, causing a reaction between the two metals that is visible here? I'd have thought that if the steel panelling was painted prior to the strips being fitted, there wouldn't be these signs of a reaction. Unless water/moisture was trapped behind the strips, causing the mild corrosion that you can see. This scenario suggests that the strips were in place for some time.




I don't recall the exact order offhand, but rubbing through paint on the original door skins revealed that the layers of paint differed above and below the strips.

They resemble the kind of strips you'd often see on coaches pre- and post-WW2, usually bodied by coachbuilders external to the chassis builder.

I'm curious as to when these featured on the Dodge, for whom they were fitted, why they were fitted, and when were they removed from the main body, especially given that its first role in life was for use by the RAF.

The main body was by Mulliners of Birmingham.

Thoughts so far:

1. The military wouldn't have wanted reflecting strips down the side of the bodywork, unless this was a "demonstrator" vehicle by Mulliners to prove the concept, used as a one-off to get sign-off for the overall design from the Ministry of Supply, or RAF. So perhaps one Friday afternoon, the coachbuilders added the strips for their own amusement just to this vehicle, maybe as a throwback to the vehicles they built prior to WW2.

2. Following WW2, could it have led a short life in civvy street as a coach, prior to being bought and turned into the car transporter? I know that Southend Corporation bought a number of VK62B crewbuses like this and re-bodied them as coaches. A google search will bring up photos. None of them re-used the wartime coachwork though, they were extensively modified before going into civvy service.

Perhaps they did try to convert this VK62B with its original wartime bodywork into a civilian role, adding the strips to brighten it up a little, before deciding to re-work the rear bodywork entirely. If that's the case, why didn't this one get converted like the others for which photo records survive?

3. Maybe Poore had all the strips fitted when he bought it, then removed them prior to having the truck painted and the signwriting applied. It seems like an unlikely and unnecessary task though.

I'd really like to finally find out an answer to the origins of these side strips.

If anyone has any information, please let me know, or if knows of anyone who might, please forward a link to this page for them to see.

Thanks, RJ.
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Peter_L



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PostPosted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think that your "Thought #3" covers the most likely scenarios. Over time I found only a couple of references to Dennis in races prior to WW2. One refers to him purchasing an ex-Hugh Hamilton MG Midget J4 in 1937 which he used in sprints. I have not found images of motor racing cars carrying sponsors names prior to WWII.

The outline can be seen on some your early photos such as those taken when it was delivered to you.
The alloy trim along the side I had always assumed to have been associated with the using the name Pegasus, the Winged Horse/Constellation and a simplistic representation of the same. I never thought otherwise. By 1950 at least, sponsors names were appearing on motor racing cars and played a great part in the BBC's reluctance to televise the sport. But old photos suggest that advertising first appeared on the trailers and trucks used to transport the racing cars. Stripping off the trim made it easier to paint the adverts.

In the late 60's my father owned an Anglia 1200 Super, which like several others had metal trim, secured with rivets, down the sides. Rust started to spread very quickly from each hole.
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