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JohnE
United Kingdom
366 Posts |
 Posted - 04/12/2016 : 11:43:56
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Lovely photo on the back of a Brooklands legacy booklet.
Is it possibly Doreen Evans in the R type?
JohnE |
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Onno
Netherlands
1027 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2016 : 12:03:34
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I think so.
What a lovely picture it is!
Onno "D" Könemann |
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JohnE
United Kingdom
366 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2016 : 12:50:03
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The suspension and exhaust look right, but the ar** end looks too high. Maybe a trick of the camera angle. The MG factory pictures done on plate cameras are so linear that you can measure things to a centimetre. I wonder if high dynamic range scans of the shop floor negatives (if they still exist) would yield even more little details.
JohnE |
Edited by - JohnE on 04/12/2016 12:51:48 |
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Chris Bucknell
Australia
107 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2017 : 01:16:32
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| IMHO almost certainly RA0255 with Doreen Evans in the car. Probably Brooklands in 1936 (my guess and not verified). If so then shortly thereafter car crashed and caught fire. As to the suspension configuration. In setting up our own car we were told by some really good racing suspension guys that to have the suspension set up with backing plates perpendicular to the wishbones so the suspension looked flat (and nice) was definitely the wrong thing to do. It either had to be what I call overslung like Doreen's car or underslung (our car). As I understand it, you do not want to be transitioning from one configuration to the other while racing as it would create instability. Remember these cars were designed with equal suspension arms but more conventional wisdom says they need to be unequal. |
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gerard van der veen
United Kingdom
152 Posts |
Posted - 17/01/2017 : 21:21:52
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The photo is also used in the centennial book of Brooklands, with subscript; 'Doreen Evans, MG driver in her R-type MG'. Citing J.W.Thornley in 'Maintaining the Breed', pg 62; After her experience in a NE, George Eyston(GE), chose her (among three other ladies, known as the 'GE Dancing Daughters'), in March 1934, to race the first P's at Le Mans. Later in '35, the P was that successful that it 'provided the basis for the new racing Midgets'; being the Q and later the R. No driver names for the R were mentioned, but their performance was less successful and not long after starting with the R racer, the racing department was (temporarily) closed, due to the take over by Morris...
gerard van der veen |
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JohnE
United Kingdom
366 Posts |
Posted - 18/01/2017 : 21:05:11
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Chris, I read somewhere that MG realised that 8 inches of suspension travel would be needed for racing at Brooklands as it was so uneven by 1935. Did that influence the wishbone angle do you think? Drop the whole car a few inches and it would roll a lot less, I would think.
JohnE |
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McEvoy
United Kingdom
252 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2017 : 21:33:50
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Always interested to see posts concerning R types but was away enjoying some winter sun when this picture was being discussed.
Like Chris my initial thoughts were that this car is 0255 however if so this would not be the car that Chris mentions suffering a crash and fire. The R Type that in twin OHC form that did catch fire due to fuel igniting in the under tray leading to a hastily departing driver and subsequent crash was RA 0253.
RA 0255 was purchased new by the Evans family and as far as I can tell from photographs was from new painted blue with a white stripe from nose to tail. The photograph does not show a white stripe and although B&W I think the colour is more creamy/white rather than blue which leads me to suggest this car may be 0253 in its original single OHC form.
0253 was purchased by the Evans family from Abingdon when they ceased racing and being one of the Eyston works team was finished in cream with dark wheels. Obviously fitted with new tyres I suggest that it could therefor be 0253 in August 1935 one month after MG sold the car, appearing at Brooklands where the Evans family had entered 750cc cars in 5 races and I guess before they had time to repaint it in their house colours. 0255 was at this time in Italy with Kenneth Evans.
The fact that the car appears to be riding high could be because the tank is empty and as Chris knows the rear torsion bars could be trimmed at their inner ends to adjust the ride height.
Interesting to read Chris's comments regarding the advice he was given on setting up the rear suspension. The back plate or wheel for that matter always stays perpendicular to the two wishbone outer pivot points as the wishbones are parallel and equal length but of course as the body rolls so the top wishbone in effect pulls the wheel over keeping it parallel to the body lean such that in extremis the car is running on the edge of the tread. It is correct that the car had for the time very large wheel movements as Brooklands and indeed other circuits had such bad lumps that the conventional cars of the time took off with loss of traction and resulting directional instability. The high centre of gravity relative to the roll centre exacerbated the R type lean not helped as will be noted in the photograph the inward mounting of the shock absorbers out of any cooling air, led them to overheat and become less efficient.
In addition the rate of the rear torsion bars relative to the front ones was incorrect. Having said all that an extremely comfortable ride in comparison to semi-elliptics and in the hands of Mark Piercy RA0255 showed us all just what an advanced and effective competition car it is with the car at full tilt winning at Goodwood cornering with its inner front wheel well clear of the ground not only showing the lean but also the immensely stiff chassis frame.
Bob Milton ex RA 0257 & 0258. |
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brooklands photo
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