Falcon
Eric Fretten's 1972 car as featured in Hot Car magazine, October
1972...
THE GIRAFFE, they say, is a horse designed by a committee!
A fate that couldn't, fortunately, befall our 'Falcon'. The
Falcon wasn't designed' so to speak. That is to say, it wasn't
a drawing board project from the first nut and bolt to the last
lick of paint. It happened like this. The ragged remains of
Old Number Two (the mk 3 Dastle Racer, had four wheels in the
grave and more besides. Bent, bodged, ancient and creaking -
and thoroughly old fashioned, in appearance and technically.
It had had its glory days and its graunching days - and many
of 'em.
Today's racers are mostly mid-engine-beside driver for hotter
weight distribution and to get the gear lever from its potentially
deflowering position between the drivers legs! And for '72 the
scene had changed. From being chief mechanic on the '71 Whiting
Electrical team. Eric Fretten (a Chief Inspector with Met Traffic
Division) decided to own his own. In as co-driver came The King-of
-Spin himself. your very favourite Ed. In as chassis designer
came Dutch engine man 'Gerard-the-Tweak' Sauer And in as new
chief mechanic, Martin Bryant. As before - Official entrant,
ot Car Magazine: supplier of lubricants and team clothing, Duckhams
Oils And by coincidence and great good fortune, part -sponsorship
in cash-and-paints form from Rallyflek makers Sherwood Parsons
(Parsons Automotive Products) -newly venturing into racing.
So all was set. and with Gerard standing there directing operations,
two chassis were commenced at Hugh Sutton's Falcon Engineering
works (who have contracts with Ford and others) the second being
for Hugh.
Coal strikes came and ended. power was on and off, railways
ceased and roads got clogged, a winter came and went, and then
it was complete - but without a body, Baptismal raceday neared
- a body was hurriedly thrown together. A mighty roar of disapproval
rent the air! Very fussy, our members.
"Tidying up the bonnet" as the policeman had said,
wasn't difficult - it was impossible! Bodging a body would have
been bad enough - but the new nerf bars were narrower than the
bodywork. Get your tinshears round that! So for three whole
days and sleep-less nights your suffering Ed snipped hither
and thither, and measured and swore, and cut and swore - and
re-measured and swore and cut again. And drilled and Pop-riveted,
and bent and shaped, and filled and filed, and badge-made and
grille-made, and mated-up and blended-in, and steering-modded
and tail shaped. and firewalled and screen-fitted, and there
she was finished - above the off-cuts and the blood, and the
dust, and the crusts and the coffee cups, the broken drills,
the worn-out blades, and an Editor who had fallen into a deep,
deep sleep.
To Parsons the paint-men, where Peter the technician produced
a gleaming two-tone in Rallyflek blues and Rallyflek yellowatones
as flamboyant as the tow-car Triumph Vitesse. Two-toning was
a technique I used to the full to soften the silhouette of the
angular body - a contour dictated by the desire for a 'new look'
- and because Hot Car's wretched artist. the revisionary Peter
Weller. drew it that way for the preview (April Hot Car)! Designed
by one, drawn by another, parts from the last one, chassis by
a specialist, body by you-know who, fitting by both owner and
mechanic. Not a committee. Most unlike a giraffe. But truly
a team affair. Ovals she may race on - but what is an Oval?
Roundy-roundy, quarter-mile, hard and dry, and all left-handers?
Theoretically yes - in practice no. There's rainy wet. there's
hosepipe wet. there's shale and cinder wet or dry. There's half-mile
tracks and longer tracks. There's all right-handers. and lofts
and rights. There's ups and downs. and bumps and bounds. There's
shunts and spins. and hitting fences. The designer's task is
not a happy one!
The Falcon racer, our 'Rallyflek Special', takes much of this
into account. A robust chassis, rather heavy to withstand abuse
- suspension adjustable to suit every eventuality - protection
for fuel and rad and battery and driver. And into it all an
easy-starting. highly tuned. flexible and torquey engine. Tyres
for tarmac, tyres for shale. And handling to cope with small
oval Seventies and big track Hundred-and-Thirties.
And that's the Falcon. A versatile vehicle, which, a little
wider, a little longer, could be the basis of a very manageable
sports car!
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