From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE MONTE CARLO IRISH: When the latest running of the famous Monte Carlo Rally gets under way later this week, it will be exactly 40 years since Irishman Paddy Hopkirk took his Mini Cooper S to a famous win in the 1964 event. But Hopkirk wasn't the only Irish person to figure prominently in the Monte Carlo Rally results of that time.
Indeed, participation in the event was a path well-trodden by Irish representation in the years following the second World War. Jaguars of various types figured large in these assaults on the "Monte Carlo". One of the first crews to figure prominently was the driving team of Cecil Vard, "Bill" Young and Arthur Jolley, ably supported by "Doc" Jackson looking after the navigation, who took a borrowed 4.5 litre Jaguar Mark V Saloon to third place in the 1951 event, a crew of four being allowed under the rules of the time.
Other Irish crews taking part that year included Maurice Cavey in a 2.5 litre Jaguar and Major JB Harrington and MJ Fleming in an Austin A40. Cecil Vard, a superb all-rounder would take a superb second place in later years, while Arthur Jolley would become part of the "works" Jaguar effort throughout most of the 1950s. Other adventurous crews followed in the succeeding years, most notably Dudley Reynolds and Jimmy Millard, Hector Newenham, and Wilf Fitzsimmons.
However, it was the team of Ronnie McAdams from Lisburn, Dubliner Frank Bigger and Derek Johnson of Belfast who were to make the greatest impact. McAdam's performance, again in a Jaguar, in the 1954 event caught the eye of "Lofty" England, the Jaguar team manager, who offered him a drive with the team the following year.
In the 1955 event driving a Mark VII and crewed by Ernest McMillen and Desmond Titterington, McAdams took eighth place. For 1956, he was once again part of the three-car Jaguar "works" team with Appleyard and Vard driving the other two cars. In the event, they stayed "clean" all the way to Monte Carlo, with the result that the rally would be decided on the tests in and around Monte Carlo.
The Mercedes of German Walter Schock soon emerged as their main rival for outright victory in the tests, but a superb display of driving on the snow-covered roads on the mountain tests ensured victory for McAdams and Jaguar.
It was a famous victory and it was these achievements that were to lead to the even more famous victory of Paddy Hopkirk eight years later, 40 years ago this week.
FIRST TO START: The first car to be fitted with an electric starter was the Arnold Sociable which also had the distinction of being the first petrol-driven car to go into production in Britain.
Built in November 1896, it was sold to Mr HJ Dowsing of Ealing. Dowsing, an electrical engineer, added an electric self-starter of his own design the following month, for which he received a patent in due course. Dowsing's starter consisted of a dynamotor, coupled to a flywheel, which acted as a dynamo to charge the battery and as a motor when needed to start the engine.
The first production car to be sold with an electric self-starter system was the Belgian-made Dechamps of 1902.
The Delco self-starter, often wrongly claimed as the first self-starter on a production car, was first demonstrated in February 1911. It was offered as a standard fitting on the 1912 Cadillac and does have a significant claim to fame, in that it was the first completely self-contained electrical system which performed the three functions of ignition, starting and lighting.