Infinity (and beyond?)

[quicksilver-wsr]

I think I might be right in saying that there were two different WWSR projects with the name Quest.

Yes, "polo" will be able to tell us about Thunderchild. I confess I don't know much about that one, but I do remember it being talked about in speed-record circles a long time ago.

The forum moderators might want this chat about other projects to migrate to the appropriate thread, as we have strayed well away from the vexed question of the infinity symbol! While we are on the subject, though, who remembers Craig Breedlove's water-speed project? And the Australian Water Shuttle? They were among the many such ventures that got no further than the ideas stage.

The other chap you mentioned, who certainly was a rogue, approached me back in the day. I soon cottoned onto him. Gina did too. I didn't have him sussed as an out-and-out crook, though - not at the time, anyway - but by all accounts that's what he was.

Nigel

[ace_chris]

Apologies if this takes the thread even further off course but just researched the mysterious Barry (not of Bowles fame?) and came across some audio interviews with Tony Fahey about his 'forthcoming' WSR attempt in 1977. More interviews can be found on the site...

http://bufvc.ac.uk/tvandradio/lbc/index ... 7700308013

Chris

[quicksilver-wsr]

Didn't Noel Edmonds put his name to something called Excalibur once as well..?

Noel Edmonds isn't my particular cup of tea, and never has been, but I feel for the chap as far as Excalibur is concerned, because he was the innocent victim.

People take the mick a bit - because he was so gullible, I guess, to fall for it in the first place - but the real culprit was the Wainwright fellow, who conned him.

Basil was his name, wasn't it? Bloody hell.

N.

[f1steveuk]

Interviewed Mr Edmonds once, when he owned the house that was used to film "To The Manner Born", and mentioned Excalibur. You could feel the air chill..................................

[quicksilver-wsr]

Apologies if this takes the thread even further off course but just researched the mysterious Barry (not of Bowles fame?) and came across some audio interviews with Tony Fahey about his 'forthcoming' WSR attempt in 1977. More interviews can be found on the site...

http://bufvc.ac.uk/tvandradio/lbc/index ... 7700308013

Chris

The "Barry" who caused the trouble - if that was his name, I can't remember - was nothing to do with Barry Bowles of land-speed fame, but talk of long-lost audio interviews with Tony Fahey puts me in mind of a telephone interview I did with him in 1981 or '82, the tape of which - funnily enough - I rediscovered quite by chance in a cardboard box here a few weeks ago, and listened to again.

At that specific time I wasn't particularly rapt with speed records, but a large proportion of my work as an author then involved interviewing sports personalities of the day, and so it was almost inevitable that among the swimmers, bobsleighers, boxers and mountaineers my path would lead me to both Richard Noble and Tony Fahey (I was contributing regularly to Eagle comic, which had been relaunched in the early 1980s).

The general tenor of Tony Fahey's words to me on tape was very much along the line of, "I'm a self-made man that has tackled and overcome every obstacle that has stood in my way". Having achieved considerable success in powerboat racing, and survived at least one lurid crash in the process, he now wanted the WWSR as the crowning glory to his powerboating career.

It didn't work out that way of course, in the end, but I remember having tremendous admiration for him back then for what he was attempting to do.

Nigel

[polo]

Nigel can you send me a copy of the Fahey interview please. He is still collecting stuff from his past.

Re 'BARRY' his real name was Nick Kerrell, I have to be careful what I type due to what occurred. I have paperwork of his 'Wicked Lady -Project 500' in front of me as I type.briefly it states :
Design team: Don Shead and gives a paragraph or 3 on his achievements in the racing world
The Engine team: quote 'In order to maintain this engine to Aviation standards, we have qualified Rolls-Royce engineers on loan from the RAF. This team headed by Flt Sgt Peter Wride who is a Rolls Royce expert' The engine quoted is Rolls Royce Spey 511 fully reconditioned with log books and ex British Airways off a B.A.C. 1 11 aircraft.
extra:
we have on our side the RYA under the experienced guidance of Richard Solomon
security by Martin Hill [don't know him] and his team of security experts
Kerrell quotes lots of magazines where product placement on the boat will be shown
It names a female[who I will not name] who was to also drive the boat. She was a a top class showjumper and put a considerable amount of money into the project.
I also have a copy of the minutes of a meeting of the RYA Powerboat records committee dated 16th October 1991 which mentions this record bid.
Kerrel had spoken to Ron Wolbold to build the boat and Ron mentioned me. I then ended up with hours of conversations with kerrell over the phone where he mentioned top companies such as 'Vodaphone' as his backers. Unfortunately he said things that I knew were clearly [to me] wrong. One day he turned up at my house [mentioned Ackers as consultant designer if I remember correctly] he was dressed in a blue shell suit and brown shoes ! He was driving a Land rover with the ace and queen of spades on the side with Wicked Lady project 500 emblazoned on it. He asked me to be the project manager for the team ! It was obvious to me that things were not as they seem and his version of the boat were well out of synch with what I knew. He even asked to stay the night at my house even though he knew I was going out to work on nights [Yes I was still in the Police !] The killer sentence which confirmed what I thought was ' I have been in touch with Beaulieu and I have permission to use the Bluebird car to do a double record'. I got to work and made the obvious enquiries. I got the Land Rover recovered for Lakeland Motors and The last I heard he was wanted by the Police for interview regarding several things.
This is of course a VERY brief snippet of what occurred.

Nigel / Steve if you want copies of this paperwork I will be happy to let you have them for your files.

[polo]

Project 'Thunderchild'
This was me. Tony Fahey had pulled out of record breaking due to work and family pressure so i formed my own team from the British Pursuit team
Aerodynamicist Raj Nangia, Plan Drawings and team advisor: Peter Allard. Designer Lorne Campbell. Builder Ron Wolbold. Driver Rick Frost.
I am sure I have mentioned the names of these before and their expertise.
Rick had been : World Champion F3, European Champion F4, British and World record holder OZ , British and World record F1, British immersed propeller record holder,American F1 Champion and winner of too many boat races to record here.
I had 2 PR companies getting sponsorship.
The engine was to be a Rolls Royce Adour.
The boat was to be a reverse 3 pointer built in wood and composites.
I had been playing with a reverse 3 pointer design boat which had been tested to some quite fast speeds using rockets [ and a police held radar speed gun !] on the local lake [Sale Water Park] until I got banned due to the speeds the boats was reaching! I am sure some of the SRC members will testify of the speed it reached using only a third of its power.
I conversed /liaised with Ken Norris re the boat and he followed the model with considerable interest and I ended up sending him drawings and video of her in action.
To cut the story short, a sponsor offered to fund the project and we went to the TV studios to film the 'contract signing' It all got filmed[but no actual contract was signed] and as soon as the cameras turned off the 'sponsor' renaged on the deal and offered only a fraction of what had been agreed. I got the footage shelved.
I continued trying to get sponsorship but it didn't work out. I had been seriously injured in 1985 and my second son was born in 1985 so I slowly lost interest in the project. I started to recover and then went back to playing sport with the project 'on the backburner' where it still lies. The model is still in the garage but falling apart due to a very high speed crash when I tried to run her in 6 inch waves, she is only 33 inches long!

Obviously Ken Norris thought a lot of my teams ideas as he wanted Nigel to use the Adour engine [until he saw it] and the profile of the QS reverse 4 and its ideas were so close to my TC model as to be nearly identical.

I still have most of the paperwork for the project in a file in the loft. All the designs have gone though.

[polo]

The info re Excaliber is on one of the other 'threads', I have given a breakdown re what occurred re this at the 'press unveiling'. I will do it again if someone wants the info.
Basil Wainright and his non existent 'papillion engine, 33 ft of underwater boat and the 100 % efficient propeller. I have paperwork on that at home somewhere. No photos though they were permanently borrowed with other stuff of mine in the 80's

[quicksilver-wsr]

Thanks for all the additional info, "polo" ...

Much of it, as you say, has appeared somewhere or another on this forum in the past, but there was some stuff I didn't know - and the info on Thunderchild was all pretty new to me.

Yes, Nick Kerrell was the name of the chap that caused strife for various folks. I still have his contact details here in a battered old address book. He lived on the Isle of Wight.

Wherever he is now, I hope he's grown up.

Regarding the interview I did with Tony Fahey back in the days before he got his boat on Coniston, I've no way of providing you with a copy at present, as it's on audio-tape and buried away. It was, if I remember right, one of the comparatively few interviews I've done that - for one reason or another - didn't get into print. I did such a lot of interviews with people back then that there was always more material stored on tape than I could get out into print at any given time. Then my writing career, and the magazine publishing game in general, took another turn and some of the stuff ended up never getting used.

If I'm wrong and I stumble across the article at some point, I'll certainly copy it for you. And as far as the original tape-recording goes, I'd love to get all the stuff converted into digital format some day (and then you could have a copy), as there are so many gems of interviews - dozens upon dozens of them - with test pilots, astronauts, sports personalities, TV and movie actors and directors, and even politicians. Speaking of powerboat racers, for example, I had some lovely chats on tape with Tom Percival a couple of years before the tragic accident that claimed his life in the Formula 1 Powerboat World Championship race on the River Meuse at Liège in 1984. He talked very openly about the things that were going on in his life and about the risks involved in what he was doing.

Quite historical material, all of it - in its own way. But there are only so many hours in a day and I've no stomach for digging through it all, or even looking at it.

It was another lifetime ago, and feels like it was someone else who did it, not me!

Nigel

[quicksilver-wsr]

Proof that Gene Simmons is a dork, irrespective of how many bags with dollar signs he has

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28826072

Nigel