GT40 wheel comes off - ha, ha, ha

The Kyalami Nine Hour always started at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and ended an 11 at night.

For the 1967 event on November 4, Mike Hailwood and Paddy Driver walked towards the members stand at Clubhouse corner to watch a practice session from there. As they were sitting on the small grandstand on the apex of the tight left hander, David Prophet appeared in his GT40 and under braking the left front wheel came off. It headed towards the embankment, jumped over it and headed straight for Mike and Paddy, who thanks to racing driver;'s reflex reactions, managed to dive off the stand before they were struck down by the errant Halibrand which had gone walk-about all on its own.

The Cape Town Three Hour was held on November 18 and during the race David Prophet came blasting by the main straight in the same GT40. Mike and Paddy were standing in the paddock immediately behind Pit number 1 of David Piper and Richard Attwood who were driving a Ferrari P4. Yeah, you guessed right, the same left front wheel came off, ran towards the left side of the main straight, suddenly changed direction and headed across towards the pit lane. This was in the years before Armco barriers separated the pit lane from the main straight. In a million to one shot the loose cannon Halibrand headed for a pole on which was mounted, proudly, the Blue Oval Ford sign. The wheel rolled vertically up the pole and knocked the Ford sign flying off its perch ( a Chevrolet sign would have been more appropriate!) and at this point Mike and Paddy looked up and saw what was happening. The wheel then changed direction and headed towards them. On the assumption that discretion was the better part of valour the two friends headed for the Piper pit in a great big hurry. Yeah, you guessed right for the second time, the undisciplined Halibrand changed direction again and crashed right through the asbestos roof sheeting of the pit missing Mike and Paddy by inches. It did however knock old Piper's tools about a bit!

The two wondered what David Prophet or the Ford Motor Company had against them!

For the following year's Nine Hour Mike co-drove Malcolm Guthrie's GT40, chassis no: 1009 and the year thereafter Paddy co-drove the car with Malcolm.

In 1978 Paddy's doubts were put to rest when Ford of South Africa sponsored his supercharged F100 in off-roads events.

He was entered in the Trans-Kalahari 1000 and as he needed a co-driver he phoned his buddy, 1966 le Mans co-winner, Denny Hulme in New Zealand.

Conversation something like this:

Paddy rings, sleepy voice answers

'Hi Denny, Paddy here'.

'Do you know what time it is in New Zealand?'

'No'

'It's three in the bloody morning!'

'Sorry, I forgot about the time difference'.

'What I can do for you at his unearthly hour?'

'I want you to be my co-driver in the Trans-Kalahari 1000 in my supercharged Ford F100'.

'What? You must be nuts, I'm a racing driver, not a rally driver'.

'Well, it's a kind-of-a race and a rally all rolled into one. You'll enjoy it. Great fun1'

'Don't give me an argument, I'll pick you up at Jo'burg airport the day after tomorrow'.

'Yeah, OK'.

Paddy and Denny were in the lead for most of the way until a broken chassis relegated them to second place.

Paddy's racing career lasted for close on 40 years and in the 1965 500cc World Championship he finished third behind Hailwood on a Honda and Ago on an MV, riding a Kirby Matchless.

Hammer the spinners tight!
Andre 40

 

Paddy Driver and feline friend.

 

Former Suzuki works rider, Frank Perris, left, Fred Bassett and Mike. In background is Mike's Iso Grifo, mentioned in a previous posting.Frank and Mike were in the building business and shared the house in Westville near Durban.

I was doing a photo shoot with Mike for the Autospray brochure and when by midday the temperature was about 100 degrees F we decided a plunge in the pool would be a good idea. It gave me an opportunity to get this great pic of the Frank, Fred and Mike.Judging by the grin of Fred's face he probably thought he was more famous than his owners!

 

Mike and the Iso Grifo

 

[David Morton]

One of my all time Hero's. In my previous motorcycle days I drove to many of the main m/c events and in approximately 1965 the main event at Mallory included Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini amongst others. I think Mike was riding a new Honda 500/6 and I wanted to watch him come past from Stebbe Straight from which the pits obscured the grid. This was in the days of push starting as well and it seemed to me that Hailwood appeared before the sound of the start reached where I was standing and the next bike appeared (Ago) much much later. Hailwood notched up a DNF unfortunately when the bike stopped at the end of Stebbe into the esses but I am sure he throttled back to let Ago catch up and then give us some incredible entertainment. I seem to remember his toes were peeping out of his right boot where he had worn it away. He always had time to say hello in the paddock unlike some 'precious' others I could mention. The sixties were incredible in so many ways, especially for the GT40. My Atlas is now a Ducati !!
Dave M

 

[David]

Sir,

You have some of the most interesting reminiscences on the WWW. Please keep your postings coming.

Thanks

David Lowell

 

[James]

You all worry the hell out of me, you bunch of animal lovers !

 

[James]

P.S I too have some wonderful picures of my tasty pussies!

 

[James]

Mike's car looks funky, looks a little like my brother's old Fiat Dino. Quick car, for its time. We had that car up to an easy 125mph, not bad for a Fiat from the 60's. Good reason for the Mafia to use it as preffered transport i guess.

Regards,

J.P

 

[Yuji]

Mike the Bike. He was my hero, too back in 60's w/ Motorcycle then fomula/GT cars and return to Motorcycle. My memories in 60's w/ Mike and Flying Scott, Jim Clark.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

The only time I was allowed to bunk off school with permission was when my Dad took me to meet Mike the Bike at the opening of a new Ducati store that was sponsoring my Dad,
I was 13 years old and it was also the first time I drank champagne...(my Dad would be locked up today for the latter)
Mike immediately picked up that my Dad had a Manx accent...I wonder why... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Truly a day to remember

 

Hi JP,

By tasty pussies I presume you're not referring to the four legged variety.

If had to post pics of some of the local talent many of you would jump on the first flight to Cape Town and forget all about GT40 factories and military jets at Thundercity! Urban legend has it that in Cape Town dolls out number guys by four to one. Judging by all the single women living alone the ratio is probably two to one.

Now what can beat coming home to happy grins and tail wagging after a sh!t day with human beings. Bill Cosby does a perfect rendition of the sound effects! In fact in the current edition of our medical aid magazine there's an article on the benefits pets have for lonely or old people or stressed out people. Terri, the one on the right of the pic is a laugh a minute. Her ball is permanently with her and she has now learnt how to take it upstairs and to throw it down the stairs. Chasing after it is then of course great fun.

If you ever saw the film Amadeus you'll recall Mozart's funny cackle. I've an English friend whose father headed up the British youth orchestra in London. By two remarkable coincidences his second name is Amadeus and he has a cackle just like Mozart in the film. His cockatoo parrot, Monty, is also a laugh a minute and mimics his master's laugh to perfection. Monty has the run of the house and when I visit he climbs up my arm to dip into my whisky. Then he gets really funny!

Also just look at ol'Pete from Oz swimming with the dolphins. Just look at the happy smile! He ain't got no blood pressure problems!

Some years ago we had two terrier pavement specials since departed to the Big Kennel in the sky., One was GT because of a perfect black stripe across his head and his brother was Mr Magoo, a few bricks short of a complete wall and named after the cartoon character. Once when I played Beethoven's Ninth Symphony something happened that became my party piece. Just before the Ode to Joy, GT got up and ran to the music centre and started howling for about five seconds until the music moved on. Mr Magoo followed him and sat behind him. With his bark that would put an Alsation to shame he spun through 360 degrees with one bark every 90 degrees. This show would be repeated precisely every time and of course family and friends would fall about laughing.

I also trained Mr Magoo to do 'lap records'. On the command he would go round and round a table, a a flower bed or swimming pool only ever clockwise. Often I would try and con him into going anti-clockwise. Not a chance! Once he did 32 laps of my sister-in-law's (another single one) swimming pool. On lap 28 he misjudged Turn Three and plunged head long into the deep end. I fished him out and after another four laps he said enough!

Yeah, JP the guys are great stress relievers!

There's the joke about the rough tabby bumping into a snooty upmarket Colour Point Siamese. 'Howzit' asks the tabby. "I'm fine, thank you, I've just had an hysterectomy'. Says the tabby, 'Where I come from we call a spayed a spayed!'

Yesterday when I went down to the GT40 works to tell the guys that my wife and I are heading for the coast for five days with two Swedish lady friends you can imagine the comments, can't you!

Anyway, that means that I won't be hounding this forum for five days.
Andre 40

PS The Iso Grifo, powered by a Chevvy V8, was a much bigger and faster car than the Fiat Dino, which was a good looking car. The Mafia would have got away a lot quicker!