The Place

At Aintree in the 70's you went for the bit of wire that looked like it had been straightened out the most cos everyone bent the low numbers

What a healthy debate recently...what a range of ideas and opinions.
We are lucky to have Ian to give his time and dedication for the benefit
of our sport. The ongoing debate regarding tyres worries me It would be
so unfair to anyone who buys or builds a new outfit for 2011 only to find
that he has ineligible tyres/wheels due to lack of clarity/guidance
I am reassured by the fact that Mike Richards is in contact with Ian.
Also how unfair to anyone who ends up at a dissadvantage through sticking
strictly to the regulations, only to find several others openly flaunting them.

May I make a suggestion? Should a driver wish to compete on an outfit which
for whatever reason is deemed to be outside the CRMC rules then providing
there is not a full entry list, why could he not be allowed to race, but for no
points, [not like the Howard Langham Konig bike which has every right to be on
the grid ,fitted with the correct tyres]

I remember many years ago introducing Chris Nickels to Roland Martini at the Mallory
Festival as Chris wished to compete at Jehonville. The Belgium regulations did not allow
the KOMNICK. Roland used his discretion and Chris and his team [possibly the nicest guys
in classic racing] have since enjoyed countless seasons competing in Belgium

Perhaps I was wrong suggesting a sub-committee... remember

"A CAMEL IS A HORSE DESIGNED BY A COMMITTEE"

Yours in Sport

Dick Hawes

Good reply from Dick Hawes as usual,however my over fertile imagination has sent down a thought, Dick says about the Langham Konig, I was just looking at the pics of the Renwick/Boret Bros outfit how would that cope with eligability,do they allow hub centre stuff.

No Pete - hub centre is not permitted.

I think there was a Renwick Vincent built in period ( just) which tried for eligibility but was refused. The first hub centre outfit that i recall made its first appearance was in 1964 and had a 1000cc imp mounted long way with a shaft drive. And the first hub centre bike was built in 1912 and was called a neracar

Ah Mr Bob - yes and no!

In your original manuscripts it may well have said "no" BUT copies I have in my little sweaty mitts state "Hub centre steering and sidecar wheel steering are not permitted unless specifically approved for that machine by the eligibility sub committee" - that's me and two others.

So my view of centre hub steering is - you cannot replicate an outfit or modify an outfit to have centre hub steering. However, if you have an absolute original outfit that can be scientifically carbon dated to be before 1972, and can prove, with time dated digital photography, that's one of Rusty's earlier cameras, that it raced pre-1972 then the answer could be "yes, you can".

The second "but" is the Konig, being 2 stroke, in a centre hub steering outfit we would have to shift those dates to pre-1968. If you look at the tax disc in the Transit you discover it doesn't appear to have one!! I don't watch NCIS for nothing!!

The first pic of Nick & Gerry ( racing number 50 ) was from the 1972 Silverstone GP, wasn't really a Gp but the organisers called it that. I was there with Kenny Arthur who was passengering Bill Currie on the works Weslake. But it's a Konnig.

Thanks Ian I discovered very recently that Fritz Scheidegger in conjunction with Rudi Kurth built an outfit with a sort of hub centre steering using Citroen car parts, engine was the 'usual' Rennsport. It was tested on a number of occasions but never raced. Will try to find a pic or two in one of my French bike mags.

ask Helvetica, she might have?

Bob B wrote:Thanks Ian I discovered very recently that Fritz Scheidegger in conjunction with Rudi Kurth built an outfit with a sort of hub centre steering using Citroen car parts, engine was the 'usual' Rennsport. It was tested on a number of occasions but never raced. Will try to find a pic or two in one of my French bike mags.

Look forward toseeing those

John Flood from Lincoln raced his hub center steering vincent outfit with 13" wheels from 1967 to 1973.

lang wrote:John Flood from Lincoln raced his hub center steering vincent outfit with 13" wheels from 1967 to 1973.

Any pics

In reply to Dicks post would it not be better when building a new outfit to build it to the rule of the club you want to race in instead of building it and then changing the rule to fit your outfit, (it save a lot of disappointment). Also it is unfair on those who have stuck to the rule of the book, Many more outfit could race in the club if they could prove it race in period or were the original outfit not a replica

lang wrote:John Flood from Lincoln raced his hub center steering vincent outfit with 13" wheels from 1967 to 1973.

Makes you wonder whether they were a little more open to innovation back in the "old days" ?