What's new?

Lots in the queue - thank you to all the folks sending material. I'm slow, as usual these days, in getting things updated.

Disturbing news involving John Fitch....

http://www.cwnicholls.net/fitch/fitch.html

http://www.docrebuild.com/curr-evnt/currentevents-116.html

Added some excellent material to both the Thompson and Lime Rock sections. Many people will remember Charlie Rainville as a mover and shaker back in the period we cover and I'm very happy to have Paul Rainville on board providing photos and information.

Frank Cornell has provided some excellent photos of Berkeleys in the 1970's and 80's. You can find them here.

Stew Rutherford was well known in SCCA circles on the east coast back in the fifties and sixties, primarily for his blazingly fast (and terrifying loud) Chevy powered Rutherford Special. I am  very excited about adding many of the photos from his collection to the site, courtesy of John Rutherford who is spending untold hours converting them to digital form. Here are a first few - some shots at (I think) Westover Air Force base,  some great photos from Thompson, and Mt. Washington.

Received a ton of material while I was away over the holidays and it'll take a while to catch up. It may take a few weeks but there's a lot of good material. For starters, here's Geoff's new  Berkeley project.

People have asked me what happened after the time period covered on this site - did we continue in car related hobbies and so on. The answer is yes & no. My father stayed in the car business but the BMW 507 was the last interesting car he owned. I continued, with a TR-4 that wouldn't stop, an Alfa Giulietta that wouldn't go, a pitifully slow Spitfire, a quick but troublesome VW, a great Elan, an MGB that drove like an Oldsmobile, and other wheeled gems. Today, the 492 Berkeley is my only furrin' car. Shoulda' kept the Elan, though...

We recently received a collection of old negatives - well over a hundred - and have just started putting them up. This will be a slow process, since they are very old and very fragile and scanning is laborious. The first roll is up with just some placeholder captions so far, but we'll try to identify the cars & drivers before too long. Thompson, probably 1954 or 1955.

Added a page in the Berkeley tech section requesting information about the inspiration for the differential design used in the Berkeley. This was prompted by an astute observation by Australian Roger Brundle.

Moved the Thompson Today section to another page in the Thompson Raceway section, and added a new page containing a bunch of excellent new material from Duncan Johnson. There's more to come from yet another contributor!

A couple of folks from Australia sent some interesting Berkeley material, including pictures of the "Le Mans" B105 Berkeley then and now. Berkeley people should be sure to look at Vintage Racecar magazine's November issue - there's an excellent article about Mark Schoenlein's Swarm of Bees racecar. Also see Classic Motorsports this month for an article on Microcars that includes some Berkeley material.

Added some interesting Frazer Nash photos to Thompson, Lime Rock, and Other courses, and also to the Help Wanted page.

Doug Jayne is about finished restoring his father's Berkeley race car. Here are some new photos.

Unusual and humorous has a few additions.

Added temporary counters on a few pages to gauge traffic.

Yes - I never managed to update anything in September. I'll try harder in the future. I have quite a few things queued up. The first update this month is a complete replacement for the "Thompson Today" photos. David Kmetz sent numerous pictures taken just recently and they're now available on Thompson page 2. David, thank you again for these.

 It also appears that 2 of the historical societies in the Thompson area are interested in preserving the track's history, which is terrific news.

August already? I have several interesting Berkeley items in the queue. We'll start with an update on the ex-Schaefer Berkeley restoration being done by Phil Curren.

Thanks to Steve Tosi, we have some new Thompson photos. We also have an update on the current condition of the track at the bottom of that page.

Added a section on Berkeley racer Ted Jayne on this page, and added a page dedicated to the superb in-process restoration being done by Doug Jayne.

Anyone remember the Lester MG? Watch this space.

Old Pics - Our used cars, parts, boats,  planes, two dealerships, a girl, 2 NY International Car Shows, and more.  Original basis for this site. All period photos. (5 March  2007)
 

Berkeley! - Berkeleys in America. Our history project. (10 February 2008)

Unusual and humorous (4 November 2007)

Help Wanted - You have answers? We have questions (4 November 2007

Picture of the  month, some new, some recycled - Indulge me (17 February 2008)

Links and Credits 5 February 2008

Coldplugs in the news (4 February 2007)

"The greatest casualty is being forgotten ... "

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