LETTERS
Letters to the Bulletin on any topic connected with Brooklands – past, present or future, or about the BTM, are most welcome. Please send them to Chris Bass via
chris@chrisbass.co.uk or 2 Riverside Close, Brookwood, Woking, Surrey GU24 0AP.
‘Poofbird’ and a Cottin et Desgouttes
Dear Chris,
My long-time friend, and Brooklands Trust Member, Angus Clark came over for lunch on Sunday and left a copy of the September-October Brooklands Bulletin. Hopeless! If I did not have enough regular reading matter already a subscription would go off to you. Fascinating – in particular Tony Hutchings’ Mercedes feature.
I don’t know enough about Gordon Watney, but his house looks very similar to those off Queens Road, perhaps even where Glass’s Guide was. However it is about time that I ‘corrected’ an article from the 14th June 1935 Autocar, under the headline ‘A New Model?’ Whilst I don’t actually know why he is known as ‘Cupid’ Hornsted, my parents always referred to him as 'Poofbird' (nor do I know the reason for that!) In the article, it states that Capt Hornsted raced the big Benz for my father, but he didn’t.
Interestingly, although my parents referred to the car featured in the 1935 article, a Cottin et Desgouttes re-modelled by Hornsted, as being found as a tourer in a scrapyard, the dimensions of the engine are usually associated with a Grand Prix model. The car still exists (in North Wales) but alas not with the original engine, which is rumoured to have ‘dropped out’ on the Great North Road. It now has a Stutz engine.
The aluminium was found to be very brittle, 47
Coach-builder Offord and Sons’ photos of the Cottin et Desgouttes re-mod- elled by Brooklands racer, and ‘Blitzen’ Benz specialist, ‘Cupid’ Hornsted. In 1945 Motor Sport suggested that the car ran in its original form at Brooklands in 1925.
so a new body was made, carefully as the original, but with a ‘dickey’ seat added for the children – ha! They are now more than teenagers.
Best regards, Peter Marshall, via e-mail
The same car receiving attention to its engine. Autosport reported it taking part in a rally in 1955.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68