Racing For Britain.
Discussion
Sorting out some photos of my old cars today and arrived at the Lotus years in the early 1980's. This Talbot Lotus Sunbeam replaced an Elan Sprint as "more practical" daily transport.
Glass sunroof...check.
Baggy white cloth seat covering...check.
Wind-up windows ..check.
Sponge to soak up condensation from leaky glass sunroof...check.
What caught my eye though was the "Racing for Britain" decal. So the plan was that young enthusiastic chaps like me would divert some of their "hard-earned" into a fund to help aspiring young British chargers to ascend the motorsport ladder to F1. From memory some drivers did benefit from this short-lived scheme - perhaps Palmer & Blundell in particular. Obviously BRM had come into being 3 decades earlier with a similar crowdfunding concept.
Can't see that a similar public subscription scheme would have much support these days ??
Glass sunroof...check.
Baggy white cloth seat covering...check.
Wind-up windows ..check.
Sponge to soak up condensation from leaky glass sunroof...check.
What caught my eye though was the "Racing for Britain" decal. So the plan was that young enthusiastic chaps like me would divert some of their "hard-earned" into a fund to help aspiring young British chargers to ascend the motorsport ladder to F1. From memory some drivers did benefit from this short-lived scheme - perhaps Palmer & Blundell in particular. Obviously BRM had come into being 3 decades earlier with a similar crowdfunding concept.
Can't see that a similar public subscription scheme would have much support these days ??
Edited by moffspeed on Sunday 31st October 17:48
Edited by moffspeed on Sunday 31st October 19:14
The idea in principle was good and like most things in Motor Racing politics took over and killed it. It wouldn't work today with the eye watering costs of getting a driver through junior formula. Back in the Racing For Britain days some of the FFord hot prospects were still towing cars on trailers.
A few drivers had similar individual opportunities like Justin Wilson, a few of us contributed to that. I guess nowadays people would see it as funding a rich mans hobby although there is no real difference to public money being spent on Team GB and various other sporting ventures other than the public seem happier with athletes getting funded from the public purse if there are medals to be won.
It was started by Steve Sydenham and helped a number of drivers. Five made it to F1, three won Le Mans.
History: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article...
Reincarnated version: https://www.facebook.com/Racing4Britain/?ref=page_...
History: https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article...
Reincarnated version: https://www.facebook.com/Racing4Britain/?ref=page_...
moffspeed said:
Then of course there was Jan Lammers and his "Racing For Holland" scheme.
If you couldn't find a title-sponsor for your Dome LM contender just divide the bodywork into small squares and attract multiple minor sponsors...
I think Tim lee Davey was the first one to try this when he had the 962.If you couldn't find a title-sponsor for your Dome LM contender just divide the bodywork into small squares and attract multiple minor sponsors...
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