Life of a racy grandmother

YOUR ARTICLE IN Octane 228 about Louis Zborowski reminded me of my many-times-betrothed grandmother Helen, who was married at the time to his friend and engineer Clive Gallop. The photograph [above] shows Helen in the Hispano-Suiza you reference in your article.

I realised that I knew little about this period of her life and it has been very interesting to do some family research. Barbara ‘Helen’ Dodd married Clive Gallop in 1923, aged 18, and spent a considerable time at Zborowski’s estate at Higham Park. She knew Tom ‘Scrap’ Thistlethwaite well, whom Clive Gallop drove with at Le Mans in 1926 in a Bentley 3 Litre, and she met and remained close to

Captain John ( JEP) Howey, who built the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature railway.

I was interested to learn that Helen became very close to Louis’ widow Violet after his untimely death in 1924, and it is suggested that their connection was romantic in nature – Violet was a chorus girl who I am told was very intelligent and she and Helen spent a great deal of time together before Violet then re-married an heir to the Singer fortune and moved to America.

During her time spent with Violet, Helen would regularly drive the Hispano-Suiza (Violet inherited all the cars) and they travelled extensively together on the Zborowski yacht. There are some interesting articles available online, including an interview with Violet’s chauffeur.

Helen left Clive Gallop to run off with my grandfather, Vivian Champion de Crespigny. She married him in 1930 and gave birth to my mother Fleur later that decade. This marriage was dissolved in 1940. Each party then re-married: Helen became Mrs Helen Whitehead and went to live at Newbury, but in 1947 she then rather extraordinarily re-married my grandfather (now Sir) Vivian Champion de Crespigny, who had by then become the eighth baronet. In March 1952 my grandfather shot himself on a small island off Singapore, apparently due to an impending court martial for what appears to be his bisexuality; it’s rumoured he had been in a relationship with a European monarch for many years.

Helen then seems to have married a Mr Powell and finally a Mr Baird-Murray, but I remember her being alone up to her death in 1991 while living in a small village outside Bexhill-on-Sea with her elderly maid Mary. It was unclear towards the end of her life who looked after whom.

Helen drove a 1930s 4¼-Litre Bentley right up to the end of her life and I remember her driving around Bexhill in the mid-1980s, where shopkeepers would come out to the car to serve her.

I think one could say that the chaos of the lifestyle displayed by this set of individuals was not in any way conducive to a balanced and stable family life – but it does appear that they never had a boring moment.

William Gordon-Harris, Sussex Boxsters, they’re brilliant I’ve just finished reading about Glen Waddington’s purchase of a Porsche Boxster in Octane 227 – well done! I was in a similar position four years ago after I’d sold an Alfa GTV V6. I was originally after an S, but a black 2004 2.7 (last of the 986 series) came into view and after a test drive I just had to have it.

It’s been fantastic; they are just so underrated. Before Easter, I went for a spirited drive in the company of a friend who had just purchased a Cayman and was driving it 2600km from Melbourne, here in Australia, to Rockhampton, plus his brother in a Corvette [above]. On the way we swapped cars; I had been thinking of a Cayman as the next step but, honestly, it’s hard to make the move as I enjoy the Boxster and it is so practical.

I’ll look forward to reading Glen’s updates in Octane Cars. Peter James, Brisbane, Australia

Carrier challenge

Your article in Octane 228 about Universal Carriers brought to mind my grandfather’s involvement in WW2, as he was in charge of the Carrier Assembly Shop at Wolseley’s factory, Adderley Park in Birmingham.

The photo [above] was taken in 1943 and shows the 10,000th unit built with the team that assembled them all. Second from the right, in the white cow gown and shaking hands, is my grandfather Joe Banham, who had just been awarded the British Empire Medal in recognition of all their efforts.

In 1940, a Ministry of Supply official had decided that Wolseley’s assembly building was much too small to build the minimum of 15 units a week required, but he eventually allowed it – and three years later well over 100 a week were all coming out of the same building.

Of roughly 57,000 Universal Carriers built in the UK by 1945, about 22,000 had been assembled by Wolseley – quite remarkable, considering that the original production requirement for 15 a week was initially questioned! Rod Bentley, East Yorkshire

Porsche ’planes

Regarding your article about Porsche aero engines in Octane 226 [the picture, above right, shows a Porsche-Mooney PM20K], I was fortunate to take delivery of the first production model Porsche-Mooney in 1988. I chose the tail number 911 LJ. It was a pleasure to fly – like learning to drive in a Porsche 930! – but fortunes change, and I sold it a few years later.

When Porsche decided no longer to support the engine, all owners were told to deliver their aircraft to an airport in Punta Gorda, Florida, where a new conventional replacement engine would be installed. Hurricane Charlie followed them there. News articles claim that 22 of the Porsche-Mooney aircraft were destroyed by the storm on 13 August 2004. Unfortunately, 911 LJ was one of them.

Larry Johnson, Texas, USA

Marvellous Marcos

An excellent article on the Marcos 1600GT by James Elliott in Octane 228. I’ve savoured a wooden 3.0-litre since the early ’70s but a more recently acquired 1600 is just as enjoyable, if different.

Frank Costin developed the carpentry and Aerolite glueing techniques with his 1959 Marcos chassis, but it is a myth that Costin was associated with the

WW2 Mosquito aircraft, no doubt one propagated by Jem Marsh. Frank started as a fitter with General Aircraft, then graduated through Percival and Supermarine before joining De Havilland as flight test engineer in 1951. De Havilland persisted with wooden composite components into the Jet Age, which in turn led to wood/metal bonding and the Araldite glues we know and love.

Peter Adams’ chassis production did not use drawings other than an exploded diagram; a series of patterns and jigs meant that chassis could be accurately assembled by semi-skilled labour.

I have the original Marcos floor pattern jig, which had been cut in two, with one piece used as a cement board and the other filling a hole in a fence for 30 years – but I’ve managed to build two replacement chassis from it. Richard Falconer, Gloucestershire

Milan’s mystery machine

I was most interested in your story about the V12-engined Alfa Romeo in Octane 228 but would like to clarify the history of the 8C 2900A, chassis 412013, because the story indicates that there was a confused period of ownership. As recorded in my book The Immortal 2.9, the history of that car is clear, although it has been fitted with five different bodies.

The car was built with a Carrozzeria Alfa body and sold new in Italy in 1937. It still had that body when imported into Switzerland by Jean Studer in early 1948. A photo [below] shows it then, still wearing its Italian licence plate.

Studer then asked Carrosserie W Martin AG, based outside Berne, to fit the body that your featured car wears, which was still fitted when he delivered 412013 to Pierre Strinati. The next owners were Albert Obrist and Al Guggisberg, and it was then acquired by Californian enthusiast Tom Price in 1985.

412013 was sent to Dino Cognolato’s shop in Italy where your featured car’s body was removed, and a new Touring-style body fitted. The Studer body remained at Cognolato’s for some years before being sold, separate from the car.

The next owner of 412013, Bob Rubin, returned the car to Dino Cognolato, who made a new

botticella body for it (similar to the 1936 and 1937 Scuderia Ferrari Mille Miglia cars). The car was then sold via Nick Harley to Burkhard von Schenk, after which it was looked after by marque expert Paul Grist in the UK. Paul confirms that the car was totally original except for the body.

Finally, 412013 received a replica Carrozzeria Alfa body in the UK in the early 2000s under the guidance of Paul Grist. The Carrozzeria Alfa-bodied car that I owned at that time (412007) was used as a pattern for the bodywork. The current owner, Ed Davies, is based in Florida. Simon Moore, London

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