[Memorabilia] Best Piece of Memorabilia ??

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by chunder

It used to be a Northern sport, but now its largely Midlands based, a lot of drivers still from up North though, but not that many tracks, only Belle Vue and SHeffield.
Tracks now in Northampton, Birmingham, Kings Lynn, Coventry Skegness, Ipswich.

One day, hopefully, I'll get to enjoy it again.

[racerkeke]

At my first Montreal GP, a first-lap incident caused Pier-Luigi Martini's car to go airborne and hit the fence above our flag station. (We ducked, but I remember looking up under my arm as the undercarriage went over us.) The car, or what was left of it, did not make it all the way over the fence and down the bluff to the river, luckily. After hitting the fence it just slid into the runoff minus most of its bits.

When the blue flagger and I stood back up we were surrounded by chunks of bodywork. Between my feet something tiny glinted. I picked it up. It was the Minardi badge off the nose of the car, still with the epoxy on the back where it had been glued on. Some of the blue enamel had been loosened and the whole thing had been through the wars, but it was intact.

I still have it.
keke

[chunder]

Seriously Ayes, give up with the endurance and watch some racing that only takes a few hours!.

I know an F1 mechanic who goes, has done for years, theya re revered in F1 coz of what they can dow ith van and lorry parts! I am not joking, the tech is weird, but it sort of works!!

[bella]

Originally Posted by racerkeke

It was the Minardi badge off the nose of the car, still with the epoxy on the back where it had been glued on.

all of the awards. i don't think this story and resulting souvenir is going to be bettered

[stevebrown]

Carroll Shelby's autograph
My copy of Archie & the Listers signed by Brian Lister
A Tony Kart book signed by Schumy
And somewhere I have an official Ford Rally crew shirt from the Mcrae era

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by chunder

Seriously Ayes, give up with the endurance and watch some racing that only takes a few hours!.

I know an F1 mechanic who goes, has done for years, theya re revered in F1 coz of what they can dow ith van and lorry parts! I am not joking, the tech is weird, but it sort of works!!

I'd be quite happy to do both mate! Just a case of finding some time to do it!

Originally Posted by bella

all of the awards. i don't think this story and resulting souvenir is going to be bettered

Agreed - that badge was very well-earned!

[Richard B]

My most treasured is Ayrton Senna's biography "hard edge of genius" signed "To Richard..Ayrton Senna", or...I've got a unused Williams cockpit sticker still on it's originally backing with the name Senna and the Brazillian flag.

[Robert Edwards]

I wear (on special occasions) the watch owned and worn by Archie Scott Brown. Big Ju-ju for me, as you may imagine. It's a Favre-Leuba and has led a hard life. He was wearing it at Spa, on the dreadful day. It still works, though. I think that it must be my most treasured possession.

[HJJ]

A Cosworth XFE engine spacer that was shipped with all Panoz DP-01 Champcars. A nice piece of glass on top makes a great end table for other items.

[david5]

I have a rusty bolt and nut that fell from a rotten wooden fence on the Catalina circuit. I have a BBS wheel from Terry Finnigans VN Commodore and a copy of DCNs biography of Sir Jack Brabham signed by Sir Jack and a photo of he and I while signing.

[JimW]

A bent, hammered and blued (due to overheating) conrod from a Jaguar (XK120? - the memory fails me) which fell out of the car as it powered up Clay Hill at Oulton Park in about 1977.

I kept it to remind me of the ages it took us to pick up the bits of engine and deal with the oil spill.

I have lost the bits of crowd fencing I picked up at Phoenix Park in about 1980 when the Clerk of Works in a big BMW forgot about the barriers at the straight on at Mountjoy(?) corner.

Jim

[Armco Bender]

Mine is Jochen Rindts autograph.I was 10 years l when I got it,how cool was that not only to see your hero race,but get close enough to get something signed.Cool guy he was too,he gave the programme to Piers Courage and said sign this.

[Mekola]

Now my best piece of memorabilia is a Carlos Reutemann-signed central poster of him and his Lotus of a 1979 "Grand Prix para coleccionistas" magazine. It's a pride both for the autograph of the driver and the editor of the magazine, who was the late journalist Alfredo Parga.

[lukej]

My best piece is James Toseland's left boot from his SBK double at brands in 2007, he threw it into the crowd at the end of the Cooper Straight/Surtees. He's promised to sign it for me so I need to organise that and get it in a display case.

Luke

[bauble]

Originally Posted by lukej

My best piece is James Toseland's left boot from his SBK double at brands in 2007, he threw it into the crowd at the end of the Cooper Straight/Surtees. He's promised to sign it for me so I need to organise that and get it in a display case.

Luke

Toseland gave you the boot? I should take him to an Industrial tribunal.

My Grandstand ticket from the 1955 Le Mans race.

A picture of my daughter with Ayrton Senna which he signed.

[Nial McCabe]

Some of you have amazing bits of motorsports history.

Probably my most personal piece of memorabilia is the shift knob from my current race car (a Sprite). It came on my first street car, an MGA I bought almost 50 years ago. I'll be on the track using it next weekend.

Also, as someone already said, the memories are wonderful, even if they are not physical items. I recall talking to John Fitch, Mark Donahue, Zora Arkus-Duntov and others. I once stood next to Paul Newman in a driver's meeting at Lime Rock and tried very hard not to stare at him or otherwise annoy him.
Other memories include seeing Courage, Elford, Hulme, Stewart, Surtees, Brabham, McLaren, G. Hill, Amon, Bonnier, D. Bell, Jackie Oliver, Pescarolo, Andretti, Beltoise, Rindt, Siffert, Gurney, Ickx, P. RodrÃ*guez, Fittipaldi, Peterson, Regazzoni, Cevert, and many others at the old F1 races at Watkins Glen.

Many years later, I arranged for our club to rent the track on that same early October weekend and we've been doing it ever since. I've raced at the Glen on that weekend every year since 2002.

I also have a few photos of meeting various people (below):

Meeting John Morton (below), the old Trans Am, Sebring and LeMans racer (he told us he started out by sweeping floors at Carroll Shelby's shop). John and I both have street Super 7s so we had a good chat about that.



Peter Brock and wife Gayle, below (not the late Australian fellow with the same name....though he told me he had met him). Pete worked for Shelby and designed the Cobra Daytona Coupe. A great guy and his wife is a delight too.


Brian Redman. The world's fastest mop salesman. Great fun and he has great stories. I've chatted with him many times.


Vic Elford. Also an excellent fellow.


Two older photos of me meeting Gerry Coker and the late Trevor Wilkinson. Gerry was very chatty; a real extrovert. Trevor was a quiet, soft spoken old fellow.


Having supper with Peter Egan at Watkins Glen. Peter wrote for Road & Track magazine for years. In the US, he is one of the top automotive storytellers. I highly recommend his book, "On The Road".


There's others but I can't find the photos.

[Scrut]

Mine has to be the front wing stay off Michael Schumacher's
Ferrari that hit the pit straight wall at Albert Park in his final
year of driving for Ferrari.

When he announced his return with Mercedes I packed it in
my kit and had it signed by him.

It now sits under glass in my games room.

[Gary Critcher]

Mine has to be an autograph I obtained at Silverstone in 1999 when I worked for FOM (I don't usually go in for autographs). I'd seen my intended 'victim' in the McLaren garage during qualifying and went down there after the session finished. Sure enough as we got there he appeared at the back of the garage with his son. They immediately started walking towards me and I then realised that I was going to have to talk to................a Beatle. George Harrison, for it was he, then dutifully signed my piece of paper and then looked expectantly at me as if we were going to have a conversation. I couldn't think of ANYTHING to say apart from 'have a good weekend'. He said 'You too.' and walked off. I've met a Beatle.