That’s Raymond Mays (later a co-founder of both the ERA and BRM companies) in his Brescia Bugatti at the Shelsley Walsh hill climb in Worcestershire. Mays was the undisputed master at this event for many years competing in Vauxhall, the famous ‘White Riley’ and ERA cars although possibly not ‘the master’ on that day!
Pete.
You beat me to it with your reply Pete, that’s a well-known photo of Raymond Mays, taken in the 1920s. Look at the size of the steering wheel… you could steer an eight-wheeler Foden with that
On the subject of BRM, I have recently been reading about the late. great, Sir Stirling Moss and his test drives for BRM, which was a notoriously unreliable car, and Sir Stirling was in his phase of only wanting to race British designed and built cars. The BRM engine would rev up 16,000 rpm, but it had no torque to speak of.
gingerfold:
You beat me to it with your reply Pete, that’s a well-known photo of Raymond Mays, taken in the 1920s. Look at the size of the steering wheel… you could steer an eight-wheeler Foden with that
On the subject of BRM, I have recently been reading about the late. great, Sir Stirling Moss and his test drives for BRM, which was a notoriously unreliable car, and Sir Stirling was in his phase of only wanting to race British designed and built cars. The BRM engine would rev up 16,000 rpm, but it had no torque to speak of.
Also of interest in that pic is the wheel which has the brake drum incorporated, that was a feature of all the later Bugatti racers so that when they came into the pits for tyres they went out again with cool brake drums. Going off topic I realise, but their engines had no head gaskets on them (considered a weak part of the engine by Ettore Bugatti, he wasn’t wrong there!) and the engineers at Bugatti spent many hours scraping, blueing etc to achieve a perfect seal between the head and block joint.
Buzzer:
Found this picture and the same happened to a mate of mine in the late 60s when on his way home from a night out in Bournemouth he was coming out of Lyndhurst at a rate of knots and lost a front wheel, it overtook him and hit a kerb and bounced over a garden fence, he managed to call me but I was fast asleep in bed but turned out to assist. There we were at 2am searching the under growth of the garden when the woman in the house appeared at an upstairs window and wanted to know what the hell we were doing, we said sorry and told her the story then she calmed down a bit but we had to return next day to recover me mates mini, Buzzer
I can beat that. Dark winters night, coming out of Chesterfield (delivered fuel to the glass works) with and empty 3 axle trailer, minding my own business, glanced in the N/S mirror “that doesn’t look right” says I…so I ‘investigated’, and what do I find ? one wrecked mudguard and 5 (yes) intact wheels and hubs. Eventually the police found #6…three miles away in someone’s garden.
The hub had failed, the twin wheels and brake drum were still fastened together
We had a few ‘lost wheels’ at Tilcon, it was a well documented happening with trucks in the seventies. I remember going to one of our loaded S50 Foden halfcabs at Newport Pagnell services, the driver was in the centre lane doing a steady sixty and overtaking a coach when a vibration started and to cure it he went faster and the vibration stopped! He kept going: “Folk were waving at me as I passed them all so I waved back” he said. Anyway he had been to Sheffield with a load earlier and was headed for North London now so needed a break and he pulled into the services and found the nearside fourth axle wheels missing! “I didn’t know wether to carry on as it was running OK, but another driver advised against it so I phoned in”. He reckoned he had travelled over twenty miles since losing them so they were lost forever.
I was fortunate when I worked for a local haulier, we kept both trucks inside a garage and I reversed in and parked up. Gaffer had just done the same, it was winter time so dark and the light switch for the garage was on the far wall so we had a flashlight to see our way around in the dark as there was a pit. Anyway I turned the light off and we headed out to go home when the light beam shone on a patch of oil under the nearside rear wheel of mine. I looked underneath and saw brake linings! The hub nut on the Eaton axle had come off and the hub etc had moved by a couple of inches. We stripped it down and the nut was knackered, it had been chattering on the half shaft. Luckily we were getting my next ‘new’ (12 year old!) truck ready for replacing the one I had so robbed a nut from that and all was well. A close shave though, I could have been like Boadacias Chariot the following morning!
When working for Bulkliner I lost the rear nearside outer wheel on my FL Volvo on a roundabout in Luton. Parked up on the other side and went off in search. It was 200 yards down the 1st exit to the roundabout in somebody’s front garden. Nobody home and no damage, but that was one heavy wheel to roll all the way back to the wagon.
Shortly afterwards, my mate lost the same wheel off his FL, but he was doing 60 on the motorway, he felt a bit of a shudder and saw the wheel fly ahead of him on the nearside, then veer across the motorway before bouncing back off the central barrier and ending up on the hard shoulder where my friend came to a halt to await someone to stick it back on again.
Buzzer:
Any one know what this cab belongs too ? Buzzer
thornycroft antar
tony
I’m surprised to see that such an old truck was already fitted with what looks like an efficient windscreen demisting/defrosting system! I doubt French trucks of that time had it.
Spardo:
When working for Bulkliner I lost the rear nearside outer wheel on my FL Volvo on a roundabout in Luton. Parked up on the other side and went off in search. It was 200 yards down the 1st exit to the roundabout in somebody’s front garden. Nobody home and no damage, but that was one heavy wheel to roll all the way back to the wagon.
Shortly afterwards, my mate lost the same wheel off his FL, but he was doing 60 on the motorway, he felt a bit of a shudder and saw the wheel fly ahead of him on the nearside, then veer across the motorway before bouncing back off the central barrier and ending up on the hard shoulder where my friend came to a halt to await someone to stick it back on again.
As Pete says, a common occurrence in the 70s.
the 70’s were when the all right hand thread spigot mounted wheels became popular , always the rear nearside too much torque on the wheel nut , crushed the conical washer - wheel came loose, not enough - wheel came loose. i checked mine with with a torque bar every 4 to 6 weeks , never had a problem , but a PITA after never having to do it on the old motors with LH and RH wheel nuts.
Spardo:
When working for Bulkliner I lost the rear nearside outer wheel on my FL Volvo on a roundabout in Luton. Parked up on the other side and went off in search. It was 200 yards down the 1st exit to the roundabout in somebody’s front garden. Nobody home and no damage, but that was one heavy wheel to roll all the way back to the wagon.
Shortly afterwards, my mate lost the same wheel off his FL, but he was doing 60 on the motorway, he felt a bit of a shudder and saw the wheel fly ahead of him on the nearside, then veer across the motorway before bouncing back off the central barrier and ending up on the hard shoulder where my friend came to a halt to await someone to stick it back on again.
As Pete says, a common occurrence in the 70s.
the 70’s were when the all right hand thread spigot mounted wheels became popular , always the rear nearside too much torque on the wheel nut , crushed the conical washer - wheel came loose, not enough - wheel came loose. i checked mine with with a torque bar every 4 to 6 weeks , never had a problem , but a PITA after never having to do it on the old motors with LH and RH wheel nuts.
tony
The ones we lost were all the old lh/rh thread ones, we never lost any of the later type although I had plenty of front wheel studs shear off on my Foden six wheeler. With it being short it was often overloaded on the front axle which probably didn’t help matters. I lost a right hand front stud when on nights and I was driving back to the yard in Wirksworth around 2 am when two coppers stopped me just as I was turning into the lane where we parked! They asked me why I was out at that hour so I showed them my job sheets and that satisfied them, I was just praying that they didn’t look down at the drivers side front wheel! The only wheel I ever had come loose was on the new Foden eightwheeler I had in 1996, I had a front tyre blow out on a site at Trafford Park and ATS came and fitted a new tyre and torqued the nuts up. On the way back to the quarry 40 miles away I heard a rattle on the Chapel by-pass and stopped, four nuts very loose. I tightened them with my bar and arrived back, they were loose again and the wheel was knackered. Gaffer phoned ATS who just said that the driver should have rechecked them after half an hour so they were not responsible.
"8 May 1985
A34, The Common, Stafford, Staffs, Eng
VTL 636K , AEC Matador, 4x4, in showland
service with American Circus.
They were some tough old motor’s “pyewacket947v”
Virtually indestructible…Iremember a Pat Kennett article in a Truck mag years ago, where he asked a guy who was using one on timber work, what would he replace it with, and he answered, ‘There isnt anything.’
2
this one was going off for a refurb a few months ago
They are still being dug out and put back together,
Yes its the Antar Mk 3 or 3A depending on a 5th wheel fitted or a ballast box, the Deep Bronze Green paint colour in the cab is a bit of a give away as to this one being military. I couldn’t find an interior pic but this one of a model of the Antar shows the same details. The military version of the tractor was never referred to as the ‘Mighty Antar’ just Antar. The Mk 3 and 3A had a redesigned narrower body and cab as it had the inline 8 cylinder Rolls diesel fitted, previous Marks had the V8 Rolls Meteorite petrol so needed the wider space. 5 speed constant mesh box plus overdrive, the second stick is the winch control. Couple of pics here Franky.
“that doesn’t look right” says I…so I ‘investigated’, and what do I find ? one wrecked mudguard and 5 (yes) intact wheels and hubs. Eventually the police found 
He reckoned he had travelled over twenty miles since losing them so they were lost forever.
all credit to Richard Says for the photo.