My home town's place in Motorsport history

This panoramic view of the beach north of Mablethorpe hasn't changed since the days of the race in 1905

Anyone who was born and raised in the Lincolnshire seaside town of Mablethorpe, like me. Will tell you that the beach has probably the finest stretch of sand in the entire United Kingdom. A fact that did not go unnoticed by early Motor racing enthusiasts. 
Though the draconian “red flag” act that had limited a cars speed to 4mph with a man carrying  a red flag walking in front of a car had been repealed, the speeds on public roads were still limited to 14 Miles per hour and many motorists desired places to stretch the legs of their vehicles. 
When, in July 1905 the Lincolnshire Automobile club (itself the first motor club in England) announced in Autocar magazine their intention to hold a race on the wonderful Mablethorpe sands, there was great interest.
 Remember, that at this time, there were no motor racing circuits. Brooklands, the very first purpose built circuit, wasn’t completed until 1907. So enterprising “speed kings” had to resort to racing on private estates or, as in this case, the beach.There was to be two events, one over a flying kilometer (1,094 yards) and the other over a standing kilometer. It’s interesting to note that even at the height of the British Empire, the event was held over the “continental” kilometer distance rather than the imperial mile. The sands at Mablethorpe could certainly support the longer run. 
The races were to be handicapped to give all entrants a fair chance.The Mablethorpe Amusements committee put up prizes totalling 25 guineas, Including a 10 guineas cup for each race winner. The incentives must have worked because 28 competitors entered for both of the events. 
Perhaps they, and the spectators that lined the sands, were also there to rub shoulders with the famous Selwyn Francis (SF) Edge (1868-1940) He was a Lewis Hamilton of his day. Born in Australia, he came to England with his parents when he was three. He grew to be a talented sports man and businessman. He was a member of the team that won the Paris-Bordeaux cycling race in 1891 and ran a car importing and improvement business before moving on to motor racing. 
By the time of the Mablethorpe event he had already won the famous Gordon Bennett trophy race and was something of a star. When he announced his intention to attempt a speed record on our sands, a huge crowd was assured, with the Great Northern Railway laying on extra trains in expectation. 

Edwardian Motoring hero Selwyn Francis Edge.

Edge was a big attraction and many photographers, (or snapshotists as a contemporary journal described them) were trying to get pictures of him at the event. 
Edge had been joined on the sands by his cousin Cecil, who would ride as his mechanic during record attempts, and his good friend Clifford Earp, another well known motor ace of the day. In the end the weather conditions were against the attempt and it didn’t take place. Though Mr Earp expressed an interest in coming back to attempt some records at a later date.

Mr. Clifford Earp at the wheel of his Napier.

Though there could be no record breaking attempts that day, the racing went ahead on Saturday August 19th. The sands were described in all the automotive journals of the day as being in perfect condition, aside from a small patch at the start where a stream had run through the sands making for a small hollow spot. With 28 competitors, cars were run in pairs, in a head to head elimination format like modern drag racing, until they got down to three cars for the finals.

Dr. Gilpin's Richard-Brasier, is seen here easily beating Mr. Crow's Rexette which being a three wheeler got stuck in the sand. Note the huge crowd lining the entire length of the race course.

The cars were handicapped based on the published performances of the vehicles, the big 30/40 HP Daimler of Capt. H E Newsum and the 24 HP Wolsey of Sir H B Bacon the only 2 cars running from scratch in either event. In the standing kilometre Newsum would give up 400 yards of the 1,076 yard strip to some slower competitors. In one heat he gave a 250 yard start to  Mr. T M Winch in his 10HP Century beating him by over 500 yards according to one report. In the “flying” race Newsum gave up 32 seconds to some competitors. But it didn’t matter, Captain Newsum was an accomplished motorist and comfortably ran out winner. He bested Mr. C W Pennell in a Martini and Dr. E Crabb in his Baby Peugeot, in the standing kilometer final. While in the flying kilometer he got the better of Mr. W E Wadsley on his Orient Buckboard and Dr. Gilpin in his Richard-Brasier. But as the competition committee had written a meeting rule that the same person could not win both trophies, the prize for this race went to Mr. Wadsley. 

Mr. Wadsley's Orient Buckboard, leads home Mr. N. Isle's 8HP Rover. The size of crowd is amazing.

With such a successful meeting you would think that a future would be assured for this event. But the next year the meeting scheduled for Saturday July 21st 1906 only received 12 entries. So the committee reluctantly cancelled the meeting and it was never repeated. Wether it was because SF Edge and Clifford Earp would not be there or the competitors didn’t want to be beaten easily by Capt. Newsum we won’t ever know. But a letter to the editor of The Motor Car Journal from a person with the nom-de-plume “Mablethorpe” wrote extolling the virtues of Mablethorpe over Skegness as a year round resort and Motorsport centre. So the organizing committee were working hard to drum up support to run a second event. But it just didn’t work out.

"Mablethorpe" writes to the editor of "The Motor Car Journal"

What became of the Lincolnshire Automobile club, the first car club in the country? It’s still around and active, with it’s headquarters not so far away from our seaside town. With a slight change of name it is now known as the Lincolnshire Louth Automobile club.
All this history gives rise to a great what-if in English motor racing. What if SF Edge had been able to set a new speed record at Mablethorpe on that August day? Or what if Mr Earp if had come back and broke the hour record here instead of at Daytona Beach? Would people have come to the Lincolnshire coast for their attempts on Motorsport speed records? Perhaps the Mablethorpe sea front today would have memorials to those early racers on it. We can only wonder.

A Daimler 30/40HP of the type driven to victory by Capt. H E Newsum

The Orient Buckboard, similar to the one driven by Mr. Wadsley. Note the tiller steering.

Book review - The Mad Motorists by Allen Andrews

An Amazing adventure

In the early days of the automobile, the protagonists of this new, revolutionary form of transport knew no limits to their enthusiasm. This was typified by an announcement in the French newspaper, Le Matin, in January of 1907.
“What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?”
Fifty teams signed up for this great event but only five made it to the start line. This book is about this amazing, incredible adventure.
The five entrants were as follows:
An Itala driven by Prince Scipione Borghese, and his mechanic/chauffeur Ettore Guizardi. They were accompanied by Luigio Barzini from the Italian news paper Corriere della Serra.
A Dutch Spyker driven by Charles Godard with a reporter from Le Matin, Jean du Taillis.
There were two De Dion Boutons one driven by Georges Cormier with Edgard Longoni and the other Victor Collignon and Jean Bizac.
The final entrant was a Contal three wheeled cyclecar driven by Auguste Pons. With his mechanic Octave Focault.
As you read, your mind will boggle and you will stare at the page in disbelief as the adventures unfold. All the competitors wrote their own versions of the epic. Each one making themselves the heroes of the adventure, and as such, some aspects needed to be taken with a pinch of salt. Then in 1964 Allen Andrews undertook research to see if he could find out the truth, which turned into this book.
The early chapters of the book concern actually getting to the start line in China. Which itself was no mean feat. For up until a few days before the race started, the Chinese government had not even given permission for the trek to take place across their country.
Almost the next two thirds of the book are given over to the adventures getting across the Gobi desert. Once the rally started, it was found that many of the roads and tracks were too small for the Itala and the Spyker. So they actually had to be dismantled and manhandled by crews of men for a great many of the early miles. With motors being disassembled and wrapped to protect them in water crossings. Despite this the cars always started. Wether it was always first swing of the starting handle as the book suggests remains lost to history.
Before the start the entrants had made a pact to stick together until Europe for there was always strength and help in numbers. However, once into the Gobi desert things began to splinter. Borghese quickly set off at his own pace leaving the others behind, a lead he would not relinquish. Pons and Focault in their cyclecar got lost in the desert, ran out of supplies and very nearly died. Legend has it that their vehicle is still lost in the desert somewhere.
The other three did stick together for the most part, apart from a section when Godards car needed repair so badly he had to take a train ahead to effect repairs before returning to where he originally broke down and continue.
Borghese was the winner by three weeks, but to be honest he isn't the hero. Godard was. Admittedly he was a conman of a sort, making his way to the start by promising to pay with money he didn't have, even persuading car owner Jacobus Spyker to give him a car and all the spares necessary to complete  the event, and he would pay him back when he got to Peking. He didn't of course, in fact he sold all the spares Spyker had given him to help raise the money for the boat ticket to Peking!
However, as the race progressed, perhaps the camaraderie between the contestants affected him, and while he could have left the De Dions in his wake when the cars reached the good roads of Europe. He didn't, they all stayed together and ran in convoy.
What really set the Godard performance aside from anything else was when his magneto failed in Siberia. In order to get it repaired he had to get on a train, travel 1500 miles to Omsk, get it repaired, return to where he had broken down. Before driving 3,500 miles almost all of it non-existent roads to meet up with his fellow competitors again. Driving 20 hour stints for 14 days to catch up. This is without one of the greatest driving feats in the history of all Motorsports.
But it doesn't end there, in his absence, Godard had been found guilty of fraud and was arrested in Berlin, so he never actually made to to the finish line. Though the motives for the charges and arrest are not as clear cut as it may seem. But to tell you everything about it would spoil the fun of reading the book.
The tale is incredible, and someone should make a film of it. All Motorsport enthusiasts, particularly rallyists, should read this book.

Women Drivers?

As you may know, I have built up a collection of old postcards related to early automobiles. Particularly the work of Cobb X. Shinn and his Ford Model T cards. So when I came across this  Shinn automotive card that wasn’t Model T related I felt I had to add it to my collection.
Shinn has a whole series of these “foolish questions” cards, and not all were automobile related. The premise was simple, one person in the image would make a blindingly obvious remark about a situation in front of them, to be greeted with a positively surreal reply. Let’s be honest. “Operating on a Sphinx for appendicitis“? That wouldn’t be out of place in a Monty Python sketch.
The card might be seen as a very early example of the long held belief that persisted even into the 1970’s that women know nothing about cars. Though even in these earliest days of motoring there were some very accomplished female race car drivers. From Hélène van  Zuylen, from France, the first woman to compete in a motor race, to the American Joan Newton Cuneo who would regularly beat the best male drivers of the day in the USA. Her racing career was put to a halt when women were banned from competing in Motorsport in the USA in 1910,  allegedly because of her success.
That's one thing I love about collecting old postcards. You can be sent off on a journey of research that you never expect.

Book Review - How to build a cyclecar.

I don't have a huge selection of old car books in my collection, I'm not a great reader, so the books I have, are ones that have really grabbed my attention, and this tiny gem is my absolute favourite. "How to build a cyclecar." It's a facsimile edition of a 1913 book written and illustrated by Stanley Pontlage and reproduced by Tim Gunn of Gunn and Co. Specialist vintage bicycle and cyclecar restorer.

My favourite old car book.

Some of you may well be asking. "What is a cyclecar?" To find the answer we must go back to the earliest days of the automobile industry.
Before the days of the Ford Model T, cars were expensive and there was a gap in the market for small, lightweight and cheap vehicles to take advantage of the gap in the market between motorcycles and big expensive cars. There were hundreds and hundreds of cyclecar manufacturers around the world, Some barely lasted long enough to produce a car, other names like Bedelia, GN, and Morgan became automotive legend. But when the time the Model T came to the market the cheap mass produced car killed the cyclecar market.
History lesson over. What about the book?
The book describes in great detail how to build your own cyclecar. It gives you a full list of the wood,(ash is the preferred material for the chassis), tools and ironmongery that you'll need to build your own vehicle. The language and attitudes of the time are a charm. You are told what work you should get done by a blacksmith and it is suggested that if you don't have a coach-house available to store the project you should consider a small rental garage. The term "coach-house" (or carriage house) would indicate that the prospective builder might be slightly well to do.

This spread of pages discusses the advantages of wood over iron and steel, and even presents you with a cutting diagram for the chassis.

No construction step is left uncovered. From the square drilling of holes, to how to construct bobbin steering.
Manufacturers of parts that it would be beyond the prospective builder to make are suggested. Several models of suitable engines are also discussed. Nothing is overlooked.
In fact the project is described in such detail that if I could find Chater Lea gears, Skefco bearings and a Stag cyclecar engine, I'd probably have a go myself.
As this is a facsimile of the original all contemporary adverts are included. These are just as wonderful as the construction text. Advertisements from Chater Lea, Blenheim bodies and a Drummond Lathes for example.

Period advertisements are as much a part of the book as the text.

A work from another time and a great read. Lest you think a manual like this is just a curiosity and no-one would try to build such a vehicle from this book. Tim Gunn did.

New name, same old blog

What's this with a name change? You've not blogged for 8 months.
I started off the blog with the plan of documenting my life with the Model T. Then I discovered all the cool peripheral stuff.  That key ring, the postcards and photographs and all of a sudden there's a wonderful world of motoring history to get interested in. I started to build a selection of other postcards and pictures and learned about things like the Vanderbilt Cup motor race.
I still love the model T. I still go and sit it in the garage. I've washed and polished it for no good reason. I've done work on it that involved a visit to the urgent care at the end of it. I'm as frustrated as hell that I couldn't break the bead on the tyre I'm changing. So I'm still doing things. It's just the car awakened me to so much more.
So the blog title changed to reflect the change in content.
The new title might be corny but I love the word Jalopy and the word jottings seemed to go well with it in an alliterative sort of way.
So drop in once in a while for some Jalopy Jottings.

Drop me a line...

The last couple of posts in the blog have concerned early advertising postcards and the mysterious artists who produced them. At that time postcards were a popular thing. If people only wanted to drop someone a quick note then a postcard was sent. In the United States early postcards didn't even have an image on the front. It was the address on one side message on the other. 

The Post office had a monopoly on the printing of these cards. In 1907 they allowed the address and message to be written on the same side so the front could be used for an image. This was when when the postcard business took off in a big way. This allied with the booming photography industry lead to something known today as the RPPC.

In 1903, The Kodak company introduced the 3A folding pocket camera. The film this camera took gave postcard sized prints, 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" and so it was a sound business decision in 1907 when the Post office allowed the address and message on the one side that Kodak introduced a service where your images could be printed onto postcard stock. Thus was introduced the Real Photo Post Card.

The Kodak 3A

Though there were many mass produced RRPC's of tourist attractions and important events of the day (some of them none too savoury as well) This was also a popular service among the general populace. If you had a camera, You took some pictures of your travels and adventures had them processed as postcards and sent them out to family and friends, much in the same way as you'd email pictures today. Photography studios and travelling photographers who produced these cards were unknowingly documenting life in everyday America. Everything from marriages and births to new cars, these things were photographed and mailed around the country.

A typical RPPC with what appears to be an ordinary family in their car.

The message on the back gives some context to the image on the front.
"My dear friend I have been looking this long while for a letter from you. Perhaps you are busy - perhaps  you have forgotten us - No I don't believe you have forgotten. Would like so much to see you. Bro J---- took the picture while here holding our meetings. Jana, Paul, Jewel and sister O'neals girl and boy were p-------. Write me when you have time by by"

The rear of this card only states a couple of names. The person in the car might be one of them.

The technology of printing these cards was not without problems for some. Sometimes, as in the first card shared. The image was skewed and also was wrong way up in relation to the rear. 

There were other problems too, the images below are the same card. A Model T by a lake. It was printed as in the small image. However, closer inspection of the car and the registration plate shows it to be printed in reverse. 

The right way round, the image makes sense now.

I have acquired quite a few automobile related postcards since taking on the ownership of my Model T. I expect that I'll share some more of them with you as we go on.