Page Twenty, the final page of the diaries, has two press cuttings separated by five years.

The first comes from the British Drag Racing magazine and reads as follows;

American Dragster For Britain

About a week ago, the dragster driven by Bob Keith in the Drag Festival was due to arrive on the Royal Mail ship Loch Gowan at London Docks. The car has been purchased by a syndicate to be called the Croft Drag Racing Partnership which consists of five members - Bruce Ropner, Norman Barclay, John Ropner, Gerry Belton and Peter Godlee. Although we have been asked not to divulge the price paid for the car, we can say that it was amazingly low and if this price is in any way representative of machines capable of 180mph terminals then the fashion of importing second-hand American dragsters is likely to spread.

We asked Bruce Ropner, team skipper, about their plans and he informed us that it is the intention of all the syndicate to drive the car at times and any rumours that a famous racing driver had been contacted with a view to act as a pilot were false. The car will be kept at Darlington and the mechanical side will be under the guidance of Peter Godlee. The previous owners have been extremely helpful and they are supplying the partnership with a long tape recording covering the complete preparation of the car. The engine has been detuned to the extent that the blower drive is 1:1 instead of being overdriven. It is hoped that the car will be on static display at Croft race track on Whit Monday.

The second cutting is a letter from Peter from an unknown motoring publication. It gives an insight into Peters motoring history and explains why he was so interested in the Dos Palmos car.

Allard Memories

I was very interested to read your article about the Allard 81M and the Morgan. I have always been a V8 addict, and bought my first Allard in October 1949. It was a 4-seater sports tourer, LUA 883, second-hand, for a price then of £735. Performance in those days was shattering, as the Jaguar XK120 hadn't arrived, and the only car to push you around was the Healey Silverstone.

I bought the second Allard in June 1951, same model DVD 567, and again second-hand. This car had been in Africa and was covered in red dust. It had a habit of losing the wood-framed bodywork from the chassis: embarrassing on hump-backed bridges. But taking all in all they were marvellous cars for their time, and immense fun to drive.

I now have a Sunbeam Tiger, 1966, bought new, with 17,000 miles on the clock. Perfect for motorway and long straights, but very dodgy on windy roads. When recently tested for the Ministry test certificate the mechanic admitted he never got round to top gear and said it scared him!

I also have driven a fully extended AC Cobra with four twin-choke Webers etc which was incredible on the M1 before the 70mph speed limit - we always slowed to 100mph when passing anything.

I was in the partnership of the Dos Palmos dragster now driven by Bill Weichelt, and attempted to maintain it for four years.

I agree with you that there is nothing like a V8, except perhaps a V12, maybe Jaguar will bring out the latter.

Best of luck with your magazine, and thanks for bringing back Allard memories.

P. Godlee

Bedale

Here the diaries end and once again we find ourselves hanging in the breeze wondering what happened to the car after it returned to the US. All we do know for sure is that Bill returned to Pheonix Arizona with the car. If anyone knows what happened after that please contact me, in order to satisfy my own curiosity if nothing else. And Bill, if you're reading this I promise any contact will be treated with the strictest confidence.