MORE ABOUT THE SCARBOROUGH SCHEME

MORE ABOUT THE SCARBOROUGH SCHEME

LAST October twelve months ago an article appeared in MOTOR SPORT under the title “Scarborough’s Social Prestige,” announcing plans for a really ambitious road-circuit at Scar

borough. At that time, although certain opposition was raised, the Scarborough Council did not turn the project down altogether and recommended that the Property Committee be empowered to proceed in negotiations with the Scarborough 8z D. Motor Club, which was promoting the scheme. The Club had actually persuaded the Mayor to visit Donington when the T.T. was run and this worthy gentleman sent in the very rosy report that he considered that we are not as horse-racing folk and that our influx into Scarborough would not lower social prestige. The Club has kept to its guns and the scheme has again been brought before the Scarborough Council. We do not yet know the result of this meeting, but the Motor Circuit Development Committee, with F. Winn as Chairman and J. Claxton as Hon. Secretary, had previously approached the Corporation, and at a full meeting of the Council on January 9th it was passed that a Committee, composed of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chairman of the Finance Committee and Chairman of the Property Committee, should meet the Race Committee and present a full report of the possibilities before next June. The Race Committee has various trade Organisations on its side and has already prepared estimates of possible attendances and revenue. It has also conducted timed noise-tests with six cars and six motor-cycles running without silencers (great fun, but who gave permission ? We assume the road which will form part of the course, and on which the tests took place, must be private property), to satisfy the Hospital Board that the hospital would not be affected by noise. Apparently these tests were entirely convincing. Those who believe our racing calendar to be too congested will not en thuse over another circuit. Those who believe that events should be more scattered will enthuse and it should certainly be borne in mind that the scheme is very ambitious, embracing a

sort of British Nurburg. The need for this road course may not be so pressing as it would have been before Donington was established, but Scarborough is about one hundred miles further north and well placed for drawing large crowds from the industrial areas to its proposed circuit on the bracing East coast. Anyway, lots of value should result from the preliminary discussions alone, with Mayors, Finance Chairmen, Shopkeepers and owners of noisy sports-cars debating the public appeal of racing—and let us hope these discussions will be the seed from which will flourish a British Nurburg.

ALTA’S NEW INDEPENDENT SUSPENSION

Already several racing Altas have been built with full independent suspension, having vertically rising wheels and coil springs. Now Geoffrey Taylor, the Alta designer and manufacturer, has patented a system of torsional-bar independent suspension, in which torsion rods run inside tubular” axles “set across

the chassis, damping the action of the short pivots at the end of the ” axles,” on which the road wheels swing. Jonas Woodhead & Sons Ltd.., the famous Leeds spring manufacturers, have acquired the sole rights of the Alta system and it seems likely that it will appear on various cars at the 1939 Show, quite apart from its adoption for Alta racingcars.

WANTED A MODEL T

The Ford Enthusiasts’ Club is anxious to acquire a pre-war passenger-bodied model-T Ford, preferably one about to be banished to the scrap-heap, so that it may be reinstated as a Club Mascot. Please send details to : W. Boddy, 21, Lucien Road, London, S.W.17. (Streatham 5086).