Does anyone else remember

[Iceni]

John Cooper's (?) 4 wheel sidecar outfit from the mid/late 1960s? Because of an odd quirk of "the rules" if the rear pair of wheels practically rubbed shoulders the outfit counted as a 3 wheeler though he had to start from the back of the grid.

And Helmut Fath?

Reading JJ's thread on Trikes at Goodwood for some reason awoke these long slumbering memories.

John

[Weedon]

I don't recall John Cooper racing a sidecar but do remember John Cooper (known as Mooneyes because of the helmet graphics) racing a solo.

Owen Greenwood created a bit of controversy around that time with his mini cooper engined 3 wheeler, which was untouchable in the sidecar class due to it handling like a car .

I do remember Helmut Fath, Max Deubel, Klaus Enders and Fritz Scheidegger who all raced in the sidecar world championships. British drivers were unable to compete on equal terms in the world championships at that time due to being unable to obtain the 500cc BMW engines that were only available to German racers.

In the 1960s I knew a couple of sidecar drivers Derek Bayley (raced on the IOM) and Eric Parkinson who used a Swedish Crescent 2 stroke engine in his outfit.

Without wishing in any way to blow my own trumpet (in any case it is a very small trumpet) I raced at Lydden on one occasion against Chris Vincent (British Champion) who failed to lap us.

 

[just john]

[quote user="Weedon"] I raced at Lydden on one occasion against Chris Vincent (British Champion) who failed to lap us. [/quote]

I don't believe you're gonna get away with that summary Weedon! what were you on and how close was he at the finish, nothing less than a blow by blow account will suffice!
(Is it on Youtube)[:D]

[quote user="Iceni"] Reading JJ's thread on Trikes at Goodwood for some reason awoke these long slumbering memories. John[/quote]

I was obliged to change the title on this when it was moved to Other Topics as the Mods deemed that
''The thread was moved as it id specific to Goodwood, as shown in the title, rather than France.''
so changed the title to Trikes for riding in France (or anywhere else) and argued that it was relevant to Motorcyling in France since while Goodwood is the site of the Trikes Sales Stand, in this case it is directly related to previous topics about the use of Trikes to go Motorcycling in France and when moved the connection is lost for people visiting the Motorcycling part of the site.
Subsequently it now been moved back under the new title[8-)]

 

[Iceni]

Weedon, I have done a bit of googling and it was Owen Greenwood with the 4 wheeler that raced as a 3 wheeler for a while. Perhaps I remembered it as Cooper because of the bits he used.

I think I recall H Fath racing an engine of his own design - very fast but oh so unreliable. Sideways on at every corner on the short circuit at Brands, clouds of blue tyre smoke often followed by clouds of dead engine smoke.

They certainly don't build em like that any more - TG.

John