A couple of years ago Mike Whitaker – the then current owner of Plumstead’s contemporary racing TVR ‘Mongoose’ – sent me a copy of what I had written 50 years before. For me, it recalls a happy age of enthusiastic, small-business-promoting club racing free of tiresome Championship series – before one-make racing had really become dominant – and in which variety was absolutely the typifying keynote.
This was exactly the kind of club-racing climate, in fact, which characterized the contemporary BARC Members’ Meeting scene at Goodwood, which was yet another of the venues at which Plumstead Racing and Bobby Bell had cut their teeth as budding competitors.
In mid-season 1965 DP and his friends, Capel and Bell had made some changes. As I reported then: “Capel has sold his rapid Lotus 11 GT in favour of the even more rapid ex-Dizzy Addicott Lotus-Buick sports-racer; and DP’s own car, the V8 TVR, has been modified beyond all recognition.
“This car is now far more Plumstead than TVR and, as such, has been renamed the ‘DP Mongoose Special’. Just in case you’re wondering, the ‘Mongoose’ tag was added because (says Plum) the car can – and will – eat Cobras.”
The story continued: “The team’s workshop was thrown into a right old panic because David had had his entry in the V8 accepted for the sportscar race at the British GP meeting. Work began immediately to modify the car, and the poor defenceless thing was given a real going-over.
“Borrani wire wheels were fitted all round, with 81⁄4-inch rims at the rear and 61⁄2-inch at the front. A set of Dunlop R7 yellow-spot tyres were added, but then the wheels wouldn’t go round so the body had to be cut about.
“This was done, and handsome flared ‘wings’ fitted to cover the wheels and tyres. The steering had to be altered slightly to accommodate the larger running gear, and a different radiator was added. Unfortunately, all this hard work took just a little too long and, turning up at Silverstone just minutes late for practice, the Mongoose was refused a start.
“The boys admitted that nobody was to blame but themselves, and so Plum cast about for another venue for the car’s debut. He finally managed to get a late entry for the Jaguar DC’s Brands sprint, the day after the GP, and so on a wet Sunday morning, the crew headed east. There the Mongoose went well first time out, and David notched up second FTD on a streaming wet track. Bobby Bell also had a go in the team’s Lola and added a class second to his personal list of successes (which) includes two good race wins earlier this year.