Whit-Monday Crystal Palace

More Lotus Successes

Over the Whitsun weekend Tetun Lotus seemed determined to emphasise their new-fotind superiority, entering cars in three meetings and gaining a good deal of success. In the Dutch G.P. Lotuses finished sceond and fourth, at Crystal Palace Trevor Taylor won the F2 Crystal Palace Trophy and the Formula Junior Anerley Trophy, and at Oulton Park Mike Costin won the 37-lap Formula Junior Cheshire Cup. A fair amount of driver shuffling went on when Jim Clark, who was due to arrive at Crystal Palace, was Sent to Zandvoort and Trevor Taylor was switched from Oulton Park to Crystal Palace. This gave Lotus Development Engineer Mike Costin one of his infrequent drives in the F.J. race at Oulton which did not please the B.R.S.C.C., who wanted a “name” in the Team Lotus car, but he proceeded to romp away with the main race of the day, lapping at 81.99 m.p.h. and making, joint fastest lap at 84.81 m.p.h with Spence’s Cooper.

At Crystal Pakee, before a 22.000-crowd, Taylor went into a comfortable lead in Heat 1 of the Anerley Trophy, with Peter Ashdown in the works Lola-Ford going much better than he has done before in the Lola Junior, mainly beeause of more power being available. Count Ouvaroff its his Lotus-Ford just held off Dennis Taylor in the Team Speedwell Lola-Austin. Heat 2 saw Keith Ballisat taking the leitd in the Ken Tyrell Monaco race-winning Cooper-Austin front the Lotus-Fords of Colin Andrew’s and P. Ellis. Unfortunately, when Changing into third gear for Ramp Bend on the first lap, the clutch pedal on Ballisat’s car stuck down; he gave it a kick to release it but it came up so fiercely that he was unable to avoid a spin. Andrew’s was close behind and struck the Cooper amidships as it rebounded off the bank. Andrews received some facial cuts and Ballisat had a small arm injury. Ellis was close behind and also spun, damaging the nose of his Lotus slightly, but he managed to get going again. There was much head wagging in the Paddock afterwards when Andrews’ car was towed in as it could he seen that the front-mounted battery had shattered. Fortunately no fire had resulted, although a mixture of radiator water and acid had been deposited on the track.

This incident left R. N. Prior’s Lola-Ford in a comfortable lead from Boden’s Elva but Ellis worked his way through the field and took second place. The poor entry for the heats let all the finishers into the Final, which provided Trevor Taylor With his second win of the day. He was shadowed by Peter Ashdown, who was unfortunately put out by a broken gearbox on the seventh lap. This gave Count Ouvaroff a comfortable second place, followed by Ellis and John Brown for a Lotus 1, 2, 3, 4; Peter Ashdown made fastest lap in 1 min. 02.1 sec. (80.19 m.p.h.).

George Wieken went into the lead of the F2 Crystal Palace Trophy, which commenced irt pouring rain, but Trevor Taylor soon passed him and went away from the field in impressive style. George Lawton passed his New Zealand compatriot Denis Hulme for third place and soon began to harry Wicken, who promptly spun in front of Lawton and retired with deranged steering. Lawton was then left with a comfortable second place, while Jack Sears in the Yeoman Credit Cooper, Campbell-Jones and Hulme in their Coopers scrapped for third place. Sears had not been able to practise in the Y.C. Cooper owing to a fire during Saturday’s practice but he was quickly learning the car and mixing it with the experienced Cooper drivers.

Campbell-Jones eventually spun and Iluline dropped back, leaving Sears to take a well-earned third place behind Taylor and Lawton. An interesting newcomer was the Lola-Smith driven by Peter Ashdown. This is basically a Formula Junior Lola chassis fitted with an early Climax-engine set at an angle so that the transmission runs to the left of the driver instead of to the right ason the Junior cars. Drum brakes are retained at present but will probably be replaced if the car shows promise. Driver Ashdown was pleased with handling but a further 30 b.h.p. will be necessary before a true assessment of the car’s capabilities can be made.

Of the supporting races A. S. Hutcheson won a dull seven-car saloon-car race from Peter Jopp’s Volvo 122S after Les Leston’s Volvo had been black-flagged for dragging its exhaust system. Peter Ashdown drove Vogele’s Lola to victory in the 1,100-c.c. sports car race, while Chris Steele’s similar car took second spot after spinning early on. American driver Ed Crawford and David Watson enjoyed a good scrap in Elva and Lotus, respectively, with Crawford getting third place after Watson had almost spun at Ramp Bend.

M. L. T.

THE NEW REGENT PETROLS

Regent have introduced two new petrols : Super (high-octane) and Supreme (pink-octane), to sell from new forecourts and pump’s, in a revised red colour scheme, at 4s. 9(1. and 45. I Id. a gallon, respectively. in the inner zone. The lower-octane regular grade will be continued unchanged. AA will Regent Benaole Mixture. Against a backcloth, composed of a gigantic. Regent puldicity hoarding by More °Tamil!, the Press sat in solemn eonelave in the Savoy Hotel on the last day of May to learn front Regent’s American Chemist, Barry Pool, what advantages may be expected front these new petrols and to receive a short lecture on petroleum in general.

It seems that Regent’s main aim is to cure carburetter icing. whieh oecursit, emnlitions of high humidity at temperatures up to 30 T., for which purpose they use a new agent which surface-coats the metal parts of the induction system to stop the formation of ice. It is claimed that this agent also overcomes rust formation in the foe) system and carbon deposits front forming’ in the combustion chambers and on the sparking plittr’s.

Mr. Pool emphasised that all petrols are now ” manufaetured,” being Virtually synthetic blends in which the total of aromatic’ is important and benzine unnecessary. He pointed out that alcohol cures carburetter icing and a pint poured into the tank is far more effective than the expensive anti-icing fluids now on the market. He also said that he places little faith in laboratory octane ratings, preferring to speak of ” road octane requirements ” assessed by driving every known make and model of car, and that, as individual ears off the production line can vary considerably, it is necessary to test five of each kind before arriving at its octane. requirement. Mr. Pool would not disclose the octane rating of Regent petrols but remarked that they are higher than those of previous Regent T.T. and 100 blends, although only about 2 c.c. per Imperial gallon of T.E.L. is used in their fuels, against up to 3.6 c.c. used by some petroleum companies.

While on the subject of this fluid which is indispensable to motorists, why do we have to pay for the transport of petrol to what are known in the petroleum industry as rioter zones ? A liar (if chocolate or a packet of cigarettes costs the same whether you indulge in it in London or Edinburgh, but petrol prices vary about the country. Surely the profits 11141de are sufficient to ensure that consumers do not have to help pay for the cost of tanker fleets ?

Incidentally, modern petrol:: Of all makes are very good and very inexpensive. Knock off the preposterous 2s. 6d. tax and a gallon of fuel for the majority Of modern cars ‘Coats only 2.5. 3d. (inner zone), while the ambitious Jet people have got. this down to a mere Is. 6/d. a gallon, sans tax, for their cheapest grade. – –

TWO SWISS-MADE THERMOMETERS

In winter an external thermOnteter, attached to a flat surface by means of the special glue provided, can often warn the driver of ice Ott the road thereby helpingto avert disaster, hut in summer au internal thermometer is of more interest to the oreurants of the. car. Available from D. J. Equipment (liersham) Ltd., of 43, Queen, Road, Hersham. Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, are both type, of thermometer which can be supplied in various colours and cost 8s. each or 15s. per pair.