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V8 RUNNING V TWIN RUNNING STRIPDUSTER VIDEO CLIP
STORIES
A
‘Crossed Up Pair of Rails’ as told by Harold Bull
One
meeting I was racing at Santa Pod and Bob Phelps asked if I would be interested
in a match race with Tony Densham in Commuter, a dragster which was about six
times the capacity of my Stripduster and two seconds faster in the quarter mile,
so I was to have a two second start!
Bob
was offering £100 to the winner
which was a lot of money in those days, so I agreed, just for a bit more
entertainment for the spectators !!
We
both lined up at the christmas tree and as soon as my green light came on I was
gone, but for some reason I got much more traction than usual and consequently
it picked up the front end into an enormous wheely, switching lanes in the
process !!!!!
I
was NOT going to let up, so as soon as the front wheels were back on the ground,
I steered across to my own lane thinking that Commuter would run into the back
of me if I didn’t. I carried on with my foot to the floor and still got to the
finish line first – HURRAH.
After
the race I was told that Commuter also switched lanes (she had a habit of doing
this) so the race was much more exciting than the bit I saw from Stripduster’s
driving seat. Owing to what happened in the race which the spectators loved
(swapping lanes means disqualification) Bob Phelps split the winnings and Tony
and I got £50 each. What a great day.
King Harold.
Our
family send condolences to Tony Densham's family for the very sad loss of a
great Man. 13th April 08
After
another weekend of great Drag Racing at Santa Pod, Bill Weichelt was having huge
problems with the gearbox of his Dodge Charger and didn’t know how he would
get back home to London. I offered to tow him behind my Mk9 Jaguar and trailer
at which he laughed and said ‘It would never pull my trailer with Stripduster
on and his Dodge as well as his trailer and Asmodeus (formerly Dos Palmos)’ I
had to disagree so we gave it a try.
We
hitched up my trailor and dragster, then put Bill’s Dodge, trailer and
dragster behind. We travelled down the M1 to London keeping to the speed limit
like law abiding citizens……and just so no-one got suspicious about what was
happening, Alan Wigmore towing his Itzaviva drove alongside the convoy in the
middle lane. We made it back to London, then I drove on home to Ascot, rather
later than usual and rather pleased with myself and my ever faithful MK9 Jaguar.
Harold Bull
In
1973 a group of friends and I bought an early allard dragster chassis. It was
just the bare chassis and even back then it needed roll cage upgrades (like
adding one). It was advertised in our local paper for £25, when we went to see
it in Fleet it was on the grass in somebody’s back garden and I think we got
it for £20.
We brought the car after going to Blackbushe, we only lived 5 miles away, where
we saw British engined cars and thought we should get involved, because ‘how
hard could it be’. How wrong can you be!! Once we got it home and started
looking at the bare chassis we had no real idea where to start. Even mounting
the seat/body was a stumbling block. We needed advice and I guess there were
some local racers, certainly no chassis builders like today. I noticed a for
sale advert in National Drag Racer with an Ascot phone number and as that was
less than 10 miles away I phoned the number and Harold Bull answered it.
Harold willingly invited us over. Stripduster was in its small trailer in the
front garden. Harold quickly pointed out what we needed to know by getting the
car out and then we spent some time just looking the car over. It was during
this time that Harold casually mentioned that he was thinking of selling it as
he had no intention of racing again and he did not like seeing the car just
sitting there. Spurred on by the visit I went away thinking about the car and,
at the time, its great engineering. Within a couple of days my offer of £550 for
the car, trailer, fire suit, spares and the offer of help in initially running
it was accepted. Typical of a seventeen year old I had done things in the wrong
order, asking my parents to loan me the money was the last thing on the list!
And for some reason I was very surprised when they flatly said no. I had to go
back to Harold, eat humble pie and say sorry for messing him about, but Harold
was very understanding and said not to worry.
Herb
I remember Harold blowing the engine in '67
or '68 on a Saturday at the Pod. I had a 948cc A series laying in the garage at
home. It had been removed from my Morris Minor to make way for something bigger.
On the Sat. night we drove to Harrow in Harolds Jag., possibly a MK9, and
collected the engine which he rebuilt overnight and was able to compete on the
Sunday.
GTIBOB (Bob Venison)
I've been enjoying your
Stripduster website. I knew Harold from my
involvement with Drag Racing & Hot Rod Magazine in the late 1960s – a
really nice man and a true gent. And what an innovator! I'm so glad
that he is still enjoying life to the full.
Incidentally, you have a picture on your site captioned as being at a
Swedish show. I'm certain that, in fact, it is Jersey. I remember
taking the cars to the island on a ship from Weymouth - they had to
be lifted into the hold with cargo nets slung under each axle, which
gave a few anxious moments because all the weight bias was at the
rear. Then, when we got to Jersey, there were no trailers, so we had
to tow them on their own wheels to the exhibition hall - more
excitement! Anyway, someone there found a supplier of plastic bricks,
which we used to build display stands for the various cars, and if
you look closely, you can see them in the picture concerned.
Many thanks for bringing back a few memories. Hope you find the car
one day.
Regards,
Ian Penberthy.
HOME HAROLD STRIPDUSTER OWNERS WORLD RECORDS LINKS
STORIES PHOTOS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONTACT GUESTBOOK
1/4 SCALE MODEL ENGINES V8 RUNNING V TWIN RUNNING STRIPDUSTER VIDEO CLIP