It's a very small world. My father-in-law has bought, sold, built, repaired and raced cars all his life - and he's got an anecdote for most occasions. For example, he was the chauffeur of the Yellow Rolls Royce in the film of the same name (the Rolls was his dad's - originally blue, apparently MGM "restored" it for him using over 20 coats of yellow and black paint). He was also a stock car champion of the 1960s and built stock cars for (then) Radio 1 DJ Johnnie Walker, and he even bought a Ferrari off Gina Lollobrigida. The list is endless. So we talk cars - but we've never talked GT40s because he's never owned one.
However, when we got talking about my GT40 replica last weekend, he told me that although he never owned one, he had been offered a yellow MK1 for under £10,000 around 1968/9. he had even raced it at the Brighton Speed Trials in the late 1960s. Apparently, he was a friend of the owner, a chap called Olly Harris, who shared the GT40 at the Trials with father-in-law and another friend. He said Olly Harris also took a Ferrari 275GTB to the Trials. Lucky for some.
Back home, it did not take much digging around to find which car it was. Ronnie Spain's book even shows the car (1025) at Brighton in 1968, the only year that it went there. What's more, I'm almost certain that father-in-law is at the wheel. I must have flicked through those pages countless times without realising. Blimey!
Rob
However, when we got talking about my GT40 replica last weekend, he told me that although he never owned one, he had been offered a yellow MK1 for under £10,000 around 1968/9. he had even raced it at the Brighton Speed Trials in the late 1960s. Apparently, he was a friend of the owner, a chap called Olly Harris, who shared the GT40 at the Trials with father-in-law and another friend. He said Olly Harris also took a Ferrari 275GTB to the Trials. Lucky for some.
Back home, it did not take much digging around to find which car it was. Ronnie Spain's book even shows the car (1025) at Brighton in 1968, the only year that it went there. What's more, I'm almost certain that father-in-law is at the wheel. I must have flicked through those pages countless times without realising. Blimey!
Rob
