My Time At Trojan Works, London. By Ken Hyndman

[khyndart in CA]

I started this recently and then thought who in NZ would be interested in what I did in London 42 years ago.
Oh well "what the heck" if it is boring move on but I wanted to share this while I could still remember this "stuff".
I arrived in London in Sept. 1972 and then watched all my NZ friends move on to travel around the Continent. I stayed as I wanted to try to get into a motor racing team so I went north at the first weekend to a Formula Two meet at Oulton Park, near Chester. I went very early by train expecting it to be crowded at the track. It turned out the crowd was sparse compared to NZ events. Especially as the field consisted of; Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson, James Hunt, John Surtees, Graham Hill, Tim Schenken and Jody Scheckter etc,etc.
I wandered about the paddock area chatting to different people and teams etc. The only team that showed any interest in me that day was the Team McLaren. Their M 21 F 2 car was beautifully prepared and easily led the race until retiring with a failed clutch. I saw it a few weeks later later in the Trojan workshop.
I was excited that I had an opportunity to visit Team McLaren headquarters the following Monday.




Jody Scheckter's Impact McLaren M 21 pulled out a good lead before retiring on lap 16.

(Tried to copy image from "Autosport" magazine)

(Ken Hyndman )

[Grant Sprague]

Ken, this is not boring at all I relate to this , its every boys dream to go to the source of UK motor racing , I also was inspired to join a team to be a mechanic , I visited March in Bucks where my big brother worked this was winter of 76 & then off to McLaren at Colnbrook, just meeting the head men was a biggy for me , being winter they said" we are putting staff off at this time" .. .BUT please come back ?????? . Money was running out fast & needed a job so off to NZ house found a job with Aston Martin [Ian Mason]...around bays water , Holland park................ the people there all ended up like family & found it hard to leave , the owner Ian Mason' raced a DB4 GTin historics .... When Ernie came over on one of his trips he explained to Ian about bump steer etc as the DB4 was on the hoist, Ian thought Ernie was so cool........ Any way Ken I managed to visit lots of F1 GP,s.......remember them easily I never got up close & personal like you Gary & others I ended up travelling doing my own thing, Gary mentioned it was work work work being involved at that level...Thanks Ken you took me back to UK for a quick visit........... Grant

[jamie]

Please keep up story I never did the big O E so like hearing from the ones that did.
Jamie

[Grant Sprague]

Jamie ................ it was a blast , it took 3 trips back to UK to get it out of the system........I personally bought & sold cars & campers in the weekends moving around various parts of London , ended up with two mk 2 lotus cortinas, they were rough but I knew the value of the engines back home , I took the donks out & sent them home this helped fund my 2nd trip .......I tell you a wee story Jamie ..... before I left to go to UK the first time I thought I was so bullet proof after doing GTX & Super cars..... I jumped on a ship & away I went with a good mate ........ as it was cheaper than flying ....I bought a MGB from the wreckers [not much $$] I headed down to Brands .. saw the Capris , running Andy Rouse etc looked closely at them & thought shit I can do this so went back to my Bed sitter & wrote to Ford.........[ performance ] in London .............. wanting to get involved but not mechanic lol ,, I was cheeky very cheeky I did get a reply not sure the out come as about 20 yrs old at the time .. but was not in my favour.. BUT hey if you can keep pushing the right buttons you never know , this reminds me of Gary at Monaco a coulple of mechanics were given a treat to actually drive a F 1 car I am not sure the exact story but I can get more details, Garys turn [might have been down pit lane ??] any way Gary got in the car [March] & stalled it when he let the clutch out , that was him out of the car lol, so he might have got 2 inches for his efforts...................... Jamie hope this gave you a grin I can tell you plenty lol . BUT better get back to cleaning a few cars, Kind Regards as always guys ........... Grant

[Kevin Hirst]

Please keep up story I never did the big O E so like hearing from the ones that did.
Jamie

Yes please, MORE<MORE.

[khyndart in CA]

Grant, your humour and stories are great. Please keep them coming in.
Jamie & Kevin, thanks for the encouragement. That helps me keep adding to this.


(Ken Hyndman )

[khyndart in CA]

Sept 18. 1972.
I took the bus from Earls Court out to the London Airport area and finally ended up at Colnbrook and started looking for McLaren Racing thinking that after all its success it would be a large place (like it is today ). But it was just a plain structure as the photo shows.
The woman at the desk was friendly but upset that the 1972 Can Am race at Donneybrooke in Minnesota had just finished and Francois Cevert in a private McLaren M8F had beaten all the big boys including Hulme and Revson. Anyway I was introduced to Don Beresford, the shop manager and he showed me around including the construction of the first M23. I managed to ask some dopey
questions about side radiators versus the front intake. I think he was about to show me out when I pulled out some racing art work that I had done which seemed to get his attention. He said you must be keen if you have come this far and the only race experience I had was hanging around with Spinner Black's crew in Morrinsville ! So he called Bill Meace at Trojan Works to see if he had any openings. Don kindly loaned me a Hewland Transmission workshop manual and told me to read it before I went to the interview at Trojan in Croydon in two days. I appreciated that as I had not touched a Hewland gearbox before that.


(not the type of building I expected when I got off the bus. The transporter was not there when I arrived )



(they showed me the marks where Bruce did "wheelies" in this basic workshop that produced the best
race cars in the world .. this was like my Mecca !)

(Photos thanks to George Begg Collection"Bruce McLaren-Racing Car Constructor")

(Ken Hyndman )

[Grant Sprague]

Yep Ken , thank you ... it was like a home away from home ...... I remember the train or tube from London out towards Slough direction. Ken, it was a cold late afternoon ... those photos would have been taken about 48 months before I arrived but big brother would have been at March about then ......in a way I was happy working in London regardless MORE FUN ..... Kevin your remarks MORE MORE reminds me of the english bar maids......lol......

[John McKechnie]

"He said you must be keen if you have come this far and the only race experience I had was hanging around with Spinner Black's crew in Morrinsville !"
This is brilliant Ken, only a Kiwi could get away with this.
Obviously the news of the successes of Spinners Camaro and Monaro was well known to Don giving you credibility.

[gokiwi]

Brilliant stuff, Kiwi's have always punched above their weight in the international motor sports arena but to my thinking the 60's & 70's were probably the "golden time". (Its a curse to be so young , comparatively speaking - I'm 51). I would love to have been around the UK & Europe during that time period.

[khyndart in CA]

Croydon, London. Sept. 1972.
I took the train to Croydon and went to the Trojan Works headquarters at Kingsley House for my interview with Bill Meace. I had studied the Hewland manual and felt prepared. Bill came out and showed me all the different Trojan enterprises from the vintage restoration to the motor bikes for the Suzuki of Great Britain division, the Hewland gearbox division and finally onto the Trojan Racing workshop a short distance away on Beddington Farm road. I was completely enthralled with it all and Bill took me to lunch and was remembering Bruce McLaren and the day he learnt Bruce had died and what it all meant to the Trojan Company. So after lunch and not being asked any Hewland questions, I finally asked if I had a job and he said I did because when I spoke it reminded him of Bruce !
(So that is how I came to work at Trojan and I was the only Kiwi working there) I was to start there in 10 days on October 1st.

(During those 10 days I met Judy, my dear wife to be, who was travelling alone and was from California.
Grant, I used a different tactic from your barmaid approach and used to hang around the American Express office in Trafalgar Square and met American girls who ; could not understand English guys, Australians were too loud, South Africans were too quiet and Kiwi guys were just right ! )

[Kevin Hirst]

Yep Ken , thank you ... it was like a home away from home ...... I remember the train or tube from London out towards Slough direction. Ken, it was a cold late afternoon ... those photos would have been taken about 48 months before I arrived but big brother would have been at March about then ......in a way I was happy working in London regardless MORE FUN ..... Kevin your remarks MORE MORE reminds me of the english bar maids......lol......

Wanna tell us about the english barmaids Grant? or is this the wrong place.

[Grant Sprague]

Ha Ha Ken ....... Hey love the story.... re Trojan & meeting etc .......... getting back to FUN....... Yep Aussies were out , Poms [no disrespect here] were slow & boring.. this is why WE were in demand more ways than one ..I recall my last day in Timaru about to catch a flight to Auck & get the ship , Dad came up to me & said , "Grant here is my JPS lotus jacket, it will keep you warm, [remember those jackets , Black & pin strip gold] ..... that jacket did me a few favours lol, it also was used as an over blanket in the cold uk winters , it finally fell to bits....BUT got caught out re the other .......... ======I moved out to Middlesesex a village called Isleworth ....... half hour from McLarens ...... any way I found my local during the move called the Milford Arms.. I walked in & spotted the drop dead sooo pretty bar maid...... the next day I was taking her out into the country for a picnic, the following yearr or two I married her ............ BIG MISTAKE........she was about 18 or 19 & she had just got out of a marriage.........so an other great lesson in life no kids to her thank GOD so we should not always buy the prettiest race car or judge a book by the cover.. I had better go & pik up a fuel pump for a holden .. before Steve tells me off for getting off track . Talk soon Grant ......... PS Kevin I think I had better stop here ......... there were MORE I would love to tell you but my inner self is saying thats enough ..on this PC perhaps at HD over a beer in New Year??

[Allan]

I really do envy you guys who went to the UK and various race teams for your OEs. On my OE the machinery I got to play with was a PRC25 radio set and an M16 rifle. And the fellows on the other side weren't that friendly.

[khyndart in CA]

I really do envy you guys who went to the UK and various race teams for your OEs. On my OE the machinery I got to play with was a PRC25 radio set and an M16 rifle. And the fellows on the other side weren't that friendly.

Allan,
Where was that ?

[Grant Ellwood]

Croydon, London. Sept.

(During those 10 days I met Judy, my dear wife to be, who was travelling alone and was from California.
Grant, I used a different tactic from your barmaid approach and used to hang around the American Express office in Trafalgar Square and met American girls who ; could not understand English guys, Australians were too loud, South Africans were too quiet and Kiwi guys were just right ! )

Forget the Amex girls and the barmaids, I used to hang around the Virgin HQ in Oxford Street....

[Allan]

It was neither. Just a small altercation in South East Asia that we got invited to join.

[khyndart in CA]

A sincere thanks Allan.
For protecting our freedom which allowed us to roam freely around the globe.

(Ken Hyndman )

[bry3500]

+1

A sincere thanks Allan.
For protecting our freedom which allowed us to roam freely around the globe.

(Ken Hyndman )

[Shano]

Brilliant stuff, Kiwi's have always punched above their weight in the international motor sports arena but to my thinking the 60's & 70's were probably the "golden time". (Its a curse to be so young , comparatively speaking - I'm 51). I would love to have been around the UK & Europe during that time period.

Sorry Ken for this brief thread hijack but I think right now is the equal of the "Trio at the Top" golden days in many ways.

We have a bunch of drivers competing at the highest level - Scott Dixon, Brendon Hartley, Mitch Evans, Scott McLaughlin, Craig Baird, Jonny Reid, Hayden Paddon. How's that for punching above your weight?

And I'll bet there are a lot of Kiwis in support roles as well. I think we should all recognise this as a great time in NZ motor racing history and celebrate it like we celebrate the Trio at the Top days.