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.
How fast did it go?
Spikins in the car at Brooklands, probably during the Easter 1936 British Mountain Handicap where its best lap on that circuit was 69.74mph.
Dear Chris,
It was nice to see the note about the Spikins Bantam in the January-February issue of the Brooklands Bulletin [‘Updates – Museum Collections’]. Basil de Mattos drove it for Spikins on the Outer Circuit as the latter found it too bumpy as he had injured his back years before in a motorcycle crash in the French GP. In a letter sent to me in 1971, de Mattos also said it was essentially a short wheelbase sprint car, never intended for 100mph motoring and he had to be strapped in to stay in the seat. He stated in that same letter that it lapped the Outer Circuit at 104mph. However, I have very recently come across some correspondence in Motor Sport in 1978 where an advertiser claimed that it lapped at 114mph, presumably because this was the speed given in John Bolster’s 1949 book
48
Specials. He was taken to task by Bill Boddy who stated unequivocally: ‘The best lap speed officially recorded in a BARC race was 96.71mph, by Basil de Mattos in the August First Short Handicap in 1936.’ Even that must have been pretty scary sitting so high in such a short wheelbase car.
Neil Thorp, via e-mail
Working hangars? Dear Chris,
I at last managed to get to look at the new and re-positioned buildings last Thursday, a vast improvement on the old arrangement, who would have thought that the old Wellington Hangar could be resurrected to such a high standard. The restoration of some of the aircraft on display is excellent, they are looking better
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