Doug Nye: "News from the Mews – inside Ecurie Ecosse

I initially became aware then of an unsettling, distant, deep yet penetrating vibration. I had no idea where it was starting from but knew darned well where it was going to. Straight to the solar plexus. A distinctly unsettling feeling… and it was growing rapidly louder, and more vibrant, and more unsettling. The panes of agricultural glass in the chalet windows began to vibrate in sympathy. The stacks of stuff (a bloke’s got to have ‘stuff’) piled on my desk began to vibrate in sympathy. The first sheets of paper and pamphlets and magazines began to slip off onto the floor. The window panes were absolutely beating to the ‘Wokka’s’ rhythm. I ended up clutching my typewriter and trying to field my cascading, juddering, ‘stuff’ – the entire wooden chalet vibrating, clattering and rattling around me. And then the ‘Wokka’ appeared beyond one window, clattering directly overhead. I was excited to see the thing but aghast at the noise and commotion, and the disruptive effect.

Well – eventually – I managed to finagle permission to move my workplace back into the house, and since then the old chalet has been a storehouse, packed with this bloke’s ‘stuff’. But now it’s coming down, to be replaced by a fresh one which is larger, and with greater accommodation for this bloke’s ‘stuff’.

Now excavating through the store produced numerous surprises, none more so for me than some copies of the Ecurie Ecosse Supporters’ Association newsletter magazine from the turn of the 1950s/1960s, ‘News from the Mews’.

In period, of course, Ecurie Ecosse was an extremely prominent British team, and despite their home base being in Merchiston Mews, Edinburgh, they frequently made the 400-mile plus journey south to contest the majority of the major motor race meetings at Goodwood. 

The team’s chief engineer was W.E. ‘Wilkie’ Wilkinson who had a tremendous reputation during the 1950s. It was one that he – to be honest – worked very hard at establishing and then promoting, and it was one of which his mechanic team at the Mews did not altogether approve. Even so, ‘Wilkie’ was a popular and familiar figure around the race circuits of the world, and in ‘News from the Mews’ he left us a first-hand record of what Ecurie Ecosse had been doing within contemporary times.

Sitting here with the compact little magazines beside me, it’s interesting to read ‘Wilkie’s account of how; “Our next event was on the 30^th of March at Goodwood. The first job when arriving at the circuit was to change the axle ratios of the Lister and the Tojeiro which usually takes approximately five hours for each car. The back axle has to be dismantled which entails removing seats and disconnecting the driving shafts, dismantling the inboard Dunlop disc brakes, removing the ball races from the differential unit and pinion, fitting another ratio and carefully meshing it to give the correct clearance – this often means fitting up and dismantling several times with different shims. If this is not done carefully a lot of power can be lost through too much friction, or on the other hand, excessive wear can take place.

“After the unit has been assembled the disc and calipers have to be fitted, again with great care, to ensure that the discs are running true and the calipers then are shimmed to the correct position for maximum braking efficiency. There are always a hundred and one jobs after each race and we endeavour to ensure that the engine and chassis are always carefully checked over and presented in first class condition to the officials at the scrutineering bay.

“Before this race at Goodwood, Masten Gregory was driving a smaller car in another race and immediately after finishing he had to run down to the other end of the pit counters where our cars were all ready to proceed for the warming-up lap of the race. Unfortunately, though the weather had been fine previously, it suddenly started to pour with rain. Masten got in a flap, as he hadn't his visor with him, and in the excitement of getting away on his warming-up lap, over-shot the corner and spun on the grass. This naturally upset him as all drivers have butterflies in their stomachs before a race.

“When he came round after the warming-up lap we checked the car which had superficial body damage but was quite roadworthy. We managed to procure a visor for Masten and, after a few minutes the flag was up and the cars were away after a Le Mans start. Our car was not one of the first away and Masten found himself well hemmed in with eleven or twelve cars in front of him. On the other hand, John Lawrence made a very good get-away and was up amongst the leaders.

“Masten was driving very fast and in spite of the handicap of passing other cars came right through the field to third place. 

“He was moving up into second place who unfortunately he spun on the rain-soaked track and came into the pits the next lap round to see if the car was damaged. Once again there was just superficial body damage and after we bent the wing away from the front wheel, which took 20 seconds, he continued the race and finished in sixth position with John Lawrence fifth. There was a great deal of opposition in this 21-lap race and I thought John Lawrence drove extremely well…” 

In another section of ‘News from the Mews’ ‘Wilkie’ described how: “Our next outing was at Oulton Park on the 11^th of April. It was decided to run one car only at this meeting as we were not quite satisfied with the road-holding and suspension of the Tojeiro-Jaguar. We decided to modify the spring settings, also to put some modified wishbones on the front suspension and fit different type steering arms which would eliminate the slight kick back on the steering which the drivers had complained about. 

“These modifications were carried out on the car before we left our Edinburgh mews which is called the "home of Ecurie Ecosse" but you can take it from me it is far from home at times, when we are working until the early hours of the morning and sometimes all night. We had both cars in the transporter and in practice, Ron Flockhart had the opportunity to test both of them. He was quite satisfied with the modifications on the Tojeiro but as the Lister-Jaguar had a more suitable axle ratio in it for this circuit, it was decided to run this car. One of the opponents was a very fine ex-team driver, the late Ivor Bueb. He was driving a works-entered Lister-Jaguar. All went well in practice and we were quite satisfied with the times Ron was recording. This circuit is not altogether suited to large cars, although personally, I like it very much. The surroundings are very pleasant for a day out, as you can wander across the circuit seeing various corners and some fast up and downhill straights. There is plenty of grass where one can relax and picnic, with large trees to shelter you from the hot sun. For this race, we had nothing but pouring rain and the picnics were not for us… 

“Ron started off well but was not prepared to take any chances on this very slippery rain-soaked circuit. To give you some idea of conditions, Bruce Halford driving another works Lister-Jaguar skidded completely off the road and vanished with a tremendous splash into one of the two lakes adjacent to the circuit – fortunately he was unhurt. Ivor Bueb came first with the large sportscars, Ron Flockhart was next. Their final overall places were fourth and sixth. Here once again the smaller and lighter cars…” (such as the then-latest Lotus 15 and the rear-engined Cooper Monacos) “…had the advantage…

Later: “…The famous Tourist Trophy race (was) to be held at Goodwood. This was a race of six hours duration and it called for meticulous preparation and some fast and accurate pit work. We had all practised beforehand and each one of the personnel knew exactly what he had to do each time the car came in for a pit stop. 

“Goodwood is unlike Le Mans with regard to tyre wear. When we won at Le Mans, we only changed two tyres on each car but at Goodwood although one car did only five hours of the six and the other car completed the race, we had to change no less than 24 tyres. We had a D-Type which was driven by Ron Flockhart and John Beckaert and the new Le Mans Tojeiro, driven by Masten Gregory and Jim Clark.

“The cars were tested on the way to Goodwood at an aerodrome outside York, but with one of the cars, we had oil trouble so it was decided after testing all day to take it back to Edinburgh where we could investigate more fully. We left the aerodrome at 5 p.m. and the transporter arrived back in Edinburgh between 4 and 5 a.m. After two or three hours sleep, work commenced on the car and it was decided that the quickest way out in the short time available, was to change the whole engine with oil cooler, filter and reservoir. After doing this. we again proceeded to Goodwood and fortunately, all went well in practice. 

“A lower axle-ratio was fitted to the Tojeiro to enable us to use a tyre with a larger section which would wear better-and would ensure that both cars came in at different periods for tyre changes. 

“Our four drivers drove extremely well and once Jim Clark had got used to handling the Tojeiro there was nothing between his lap times and Masten Gregory's. There was plenty of drama during this race. Stirling Moss drove a wonderful race for Aston Martin which gained for them the World Sports Car Championship. Aston’s pits were next to ours and I think DM (David Murray – Ecosse principal) and myself were two of the first on the scene with the fire extinguishers when the Moss-Salvadori car caught fire.

“It was lucky for us that the wind was blowing away from our pit because our car was soon due to come in and there were six 5-gallon open churns of petrol on the counter. All our pit stops went pretty well according to schedule, but after five hours news came round that Masten had overdone it and the car had crashed into the banking, but, fortunately for Masten, he realised he was about to crash and leapt out of the car at the last moment, getting off with minor injuries. 

“The car suffered a worse fate and was a complete write-off. Even the main shaft in the gearbox was bent together with engine, chassis, radiator, back axle and body. The D-Type was still circulating steadily and finally finished in seventh place.

“LAST WORD:—And so another racing season was over for Ecurie Ecosse. It certainly wasn't our most successful one but it definitely was our most expensive When you consider the type of races in which we competed, races dominated by the cars of wealthy manufacturing concerns, I am sure you will agree, Ecurie Ecosse as a very small, private and independent team, didn't do too badly. After all, in the races in which we finished, we were never more than 7th behind the winner. Here are our actual results:— 

Mar. 22 Snetterton. Sportscar race. Lister Jaguar. 1st. Formula Libre race. Lister Jaguar. 2nd. 

Mar. 30 Goodwood. Sportscar race. Tojeiro Jaguar. 5th. Lister Jaguar. 6th.

Apr. 18 Aintree. Sportscar race Lister-Jaguar 3rd. Tojeiro-Jaguar 4th. 

Apr. 11 Oulton Park. Sportscar race Lister-Jaguar 6th.

May 2 Silverstone. Sportscar race Tojeiro-Jaguar 4th. The Lister-Jaguar crashed.

May 18 Goodwood. Sportscar race Tojeiro-Jaguar 1st. Lister-Jaguar 3rd.

June 7 Nurburgring. 1,000Kms race Tojeiro-Jaguar crashed. Lister-Jaguar crashed.

June 20 Le Mans. 24-Hours race D-Type mechanical failure. Tojeiro-Jaguar mechanical failure.

July 18 Aintree. sportscar race Lister-Jaguar crashed. Tojeiro-Jaguar crashed.

Sept 5 Goodwood. Tourist Trophy D-Type Jaguar 7th. Tojeiro-Jaguar crashed.

Today – ‘News from the Mews’ copies are collectors’ items. In my case some small reward for sweating buckets in that jam-packed – sun-soaked – old garden chalet…

Photography courtesy of The GP Library