Post by Admin on Sept 1, 2005 11:57:38 GMT
The Foulkes Halbard Museum is now only open to groups by special arrangement, so we were fortunate to be escorted by Carl Foulkes Halbard round the collection put together mainly by his father during a lifetime of collecting. The main themes running through the “public display” are Malcolm Campbell's water speed record attainments and his Bugattis.
The “private collection” includes a very wide range of cars, including 3 Peugeots, boats and even the first man-powered flight machine dating from 1970 and made of a balsa wood frame covered with plastic sheeting shrunk on by heat. The mechanism to transfer human energy to the propeller was the back-end of a bicycle - a sort of airborne “pedallo”! This machine took the accolade in 1972 by achieving just over 1 kilometre - the minimum to qualify.
The oldest Peugeot dates from 1904 and was supplied by Friswells, the same London importer that supplied Tom Fussell's Type 57 featured in last month's Peugeotist. This is a swing-seat tonneau by Rothschild's of Paris and is thought to be unique. She participates every year in the London to Brighton run and certainly looked in fine fettle. I wonder if these two Peugeots have a private dual each year?
The Museum's Peugeot 201X had just been run for the first time for many years after a long rebuild. This is an interesting car and may even be the one in which Peugeot's works driver, André Boillot, lost his life during practice for the Coupe d'Ars in 1932. This was just 3 days after taking the International Class record at an average of over 110 km/hr, without a relief driver, at the Autodrome de Miramas in a 301 (similar to CPUK member Brian Whiteside's which was exhibited at the 2003 NEC Classic Car Show).
The impact of the Great Depression, which began in 1929, started to be felt at the beginning of the 30's and Peugeot needed to support falling sales. Their association with Bugatti went back to the baby car he designed in 1912 and licensed to Peugeot. He was commissioned to design an engine for a special series of 201s to replace the standard 23hp 1122cc engine. Designated the 201X, 20 cars were built in 1931, mostly with cabriolet bodies. The standard Peugeot suspension appears to have been retained unchanged - transverse leaf at the front and reverse-mounted, inverted 1/4 elliptic springs at the rear (in classic Bugatti style). The Bugatti Type 48 engine was virtually half a Type 35 Grand Prix engine with 4 cylinders giving 996 cc (60 x 88mm). Sadly, the supercharger, originally mounted to one side of the overhead cam cylinder head, was missing from this particular car, but the search is on…. The 1.15m (3ft 91/4”) track made the car very narrow for it's height and 2.47m (8ft 1 _”) wheelbase. It was probably somewhat unstable with so much power available to the unwary driver, which is likely to have contributed to Boillot's demise. His was not the only death at the wheel of a 201X and, no doubt, the attendant publicity is why no further cars were built.
Sitting sadly at the end of one of the sheds was the remains of a 302 Darl'Mat Cabriolet. This car sat in a garden for many years, with little or no protection, the owner refusing to sell it. Eventually Foulkes Halbard managed to acquire it, stripped off what remained of the body and found the chassis to be saveable. She now awaits her turn to rejoin the ranks of the surviving 105 cars originally built.
Foulkes Halbard was certainly an eclectic collector, as is clearly evident from the very diverse range of vehicles in the Museum. These include a very rare Vale Special, an Austin Princess, a UK-built Chrysler Airflow, a late-model Ford Capri and a barn-find Edwardian Hispano Suiza aero-engined racer undergoing restoration.
There was something of interest for every one of our party of 13. Six members came with their guests and we were delighted that this included Mike Smith's widow, Thelma, son and granddaughter. Others present were Joy Vaughan and friend in a Citroen van (well, almost a Peugeot!), Richard Barker in his 306 cabriolet, Mike and Barbara Doughty in their new
“eye-catching” red 206, Paul Zickel in his 605 and Nick Jones and his wife in their 406 Coupé. Alastair and Myra came in their Peugeot concept car, Han!
Our thanks to Carl Foulkes Halbard for giving us such an interesting day and to John Fowler for recommending the lunch venue.
Alastair Inglis
The “private collection” includes a very wide range of cars, including 3 Peugeots, boats and even the first man-powered flight machine dating from 1970 and made of a balsa wood frame covered with plastic sheeting shrunk on by heat. The mechanism to transfer human energy to the propeller was the back-end of a bicycle - a sort of airborne “pedallo”! This machine took the accolade in 1972 by achieving just over 1 kilometre - the minimum to qualify.
The oldest Peugeot dates from 1904 and was supplied by Friswells, the same London importer that supplied Tom Fussell's Type 57 featured in last month's Peugeotist. This is a swing-seat tonneau by Rothschild's of Paris and is thought to be unique. She participates every year in the London to Brighton run and certainly looked in fine fettle. I wonder if these two Peugeots have a private dual each year?
The Museum's Peugeot 201X had just been run for the first time for many years after a long rebuild. This is an interesting car and may even be the one in which Peugeot's works driver, André Boillot, lost his life during practice for the Coupe d'Ars in 1932. This was just 3 days after taking the International Class record at an average of over 110 km/hr, without a relief driver, at the Autodrome de Miramas in a 301 (similar to CPUK member Brian Whiteside's which was exhibited at the 2003 NEC Classic Car Show).
The impact of the Great Depression, which began in 1929, started to be felt at the beginning of the 30's and Peugeot needed to support falling sales. Their association with Bugatti went back to the baby car he designed in 1912 and licensed to Peugeot. He was commissioned to design an engine for a special series of 201s to replace the standard 23hp 1122cc engine. Designated the 201X, 20 cars were built in 1931, mostly with cabriolet bodies. The standard Peugeot suspension appears to have been retained unchanged - transverse leaf at the front and reverse-mounted, inverted 1/4 elliptic springs at the rear (in classic Bugatti style). The Bugatti Type 48 engine was virtually half a Type 35 Grand Prix engine with 4 cylinders giving 996 cc (60 x 88mm). Sadly, the supercharger, originally mounted to one side of the overhead cam cylinder head, was missing from this particular car, but the search is on…. The 1.15m (3ft 91/4”) track made the car very narrow for it's height and 2.47m (8ft 1 _”) wheelbase. It was probably somewhat unstable with so much power available to the unwary driver, which is likely to have contributed to Boillot's demise. His was not the only death at the wheel of a 201X and, no doubt, the attendant publicity is why no further cars were built.
Sitting sadly at the end of one of the sheds was the remains of a 302 Darl'Mat Cabriolet. This car sat in a garden for many years, with little or no protection, the owner refusing to sell it. Eventually Foulkes Halbard managed to acquire it, stripped off what remained of the body and found the chassis to be saveable. She now awaits her turn to rejoin the ranks of the surviving 105 cars originally built.
Foulkes Halbard was certainly an eclectic collector, as is clearly evident from the very diverse range of vehicles in the Museum. These include a very rare Vale Special, an Austin Princess, a UK-built Chrysler Airflow, a late-model Ford Capri and a barn-find Edwardian Hispano Suiza aero-engined racer undergoing restoration.
There was something of interest for every one of our party of 13. Six members came with their guests and we were delighted that this included Mike Smith's widow, Thelma, son and granddaughter. Others present were Joy Vaughan and friend in a Citroen van (well, almost a Peugeot!), Richard Barker in his 306 cabriolet, Mike and Barbara Doughty in their new
“eye-catching” red 206, Paul Zickel in his 605 and Nick Jones and his wife in their 406 Coupé. Alastair and Myra came in their Peugeot concept car, Han!
Our thanks to Carl Foulkes Halbard for giving us such an interesting day and to John Fowler for recommending the lunch venue.
Alastair Inglis
