northtoalaska

�John� Myerscough� also� an� early caller with his Mini Cooper� he worked for a well� known� biscuit� company� fancied� a spot of� motor� sport and asked that we sorted out gas flowed head� etc so he could get round his daily calls quicker!!!! ( Shades of a certain� Mr J R Aley� in JRA85� for doing the rounds in his vehicle insurance assessor� role� in earlier� times. John myerscough progressed over the years on to several different competition cars, all in the saloon car field except for drives offered to him from Mr J Butterworth in his Brabham and later an Mclaren M10B in the open wheeled Formula 5000 races John had many fine drives with many wins ,
He later on joined us in the quest to build a future taking control of the sales as the company continued to grow.

�� North to alaska

�� The� initial� plan was for us� to stay with Pats� parents� in Leyland� and I would� comute on a temporary basis� to Harwood
daily until the� out come of the� Jeremy Bates situation� was clearer.and more permanent accomodation� could� be sorted out the location of� which was dificult to finalise� in view of the uncertainties prevailing

�� In� order to� give� me liquidity John Clarke had arranged for me to work for the local Lotus agent� Radcliffe Garages ,a car sales� operation� operation� he had a� financial stake in.� Their� showroom was in a fairly central location in the town with a mews� wokshop to the rear..There was amove afoot to setup acompetition section in a building on the other side of town which
was currently being used as a paint shop. I was to sort this out and get it up and running, it was however in a poor state and was full of detritis and rubish., I started off with gutting the place and gettng rid of the rubish cleaning and painting the floor. to give us a chanceof presnting the best possible ambiance to attract customers.

�Two� Lotus� Elites� were� being� campaigned� by the� garage one� driven� by� John Clarke� the other� by Raymond� Entwistle� son of a local business man, a keen young man� trying to make his mark in the world. of� motor� sport resonable ability level on� the upward slope of the learning curve experience gaining with evry meeting.� The cars were getting sorted and as such after a few races� progress was being made.untill� disaster struck ,Raymond at Oulton Park� he had a nudge� from a Triumph� TR2� whist exiting Druids the exposed knock on wheel� nuts� clawed their way up� the side of the� TR , fliped the Lotus into a tree adjacent to the Bailey Bridge on the straight down to to� Lodge .�The car disintigrated as it wraped itself� around a tree� Raymond� was badly injured.he unfortunately lost his battle for life at� the hospital�,�This�� gave� me serious� forbodings as to the future of� my move north . There not being enough� work� to make my prescence viable with only one car to look after I was attached� to the main workshop.�� The used car business is a hard place� for an engineer that holds quality above all� else.��

�It� became apparent to me that� a fresh look at the whole thing was needed.� John Clarke� discussed the situation with his father� who fortunately for me was� a man of the highest integrity� the stable at Harwood lodge with its ample tool content , was offered by John and his father as a posible stopgap,to save me the embarasment of a return to Cambridge with all the implications that that would hold . Harwood lodge stood on a lane known as Stich -Mi- Lane so entity started to trade under the name of Stich-mi-Lane enginering .�

�� Local� enthusiasts Mr Tom Warburton and Mr J Mcartney both influential local businessmen Tom in the food trade and John in� Gents Outfitters ( they are� both still customers 30odd� years later ) both have a varied collection of automobile Jems� amongs Johns� collection� Model T Ford; and a device� called a Fanmobile a very early 1907 IC engined device with a psudo wicker body in pressed steel construction three wheled with a vee twin mounted over the front wheel turning with the steering which was Tiller action over the period to date he has� owned 31 diferent classic cars� competed in 19 of them 8 of them being ex F1 cars..

�� Tom has� an equally impressive record� sustaining high interest� into his eighties these days competeing in frequent classic� rallies� leaning towards� the warmer climes. Selecting the car for the event from his considerable� collection.�� They were amongst� the first visitors to� Stich-Mi -Lane Engineering with their E types they were both� keen� hillclimb exponents on the Northern Hills a certain amount of freindly rivalry� was evident .

�� Mr� J Bullough was another early� customer campaigning� his� Sunbeam Rapier in those days the in ; car for rallying.

. Jim was in� the Television sale and rental busines� and very successful� at it. He asked me to prepare his Rapier� for� a winter� event� the Monte Carlo Rally.� This was the� start of a long assosciation between us resulting in many successes� in various vehicles over a period of several� years as the search� for competitiveness was maintained� through� the Ford Cortina GT ,� the Lotus Cortina.(Leaf sprung) and� the Escort TwinCam .

Accidents were fortunately reasonably rare� and as such� this fact probably as a result of Jims precise driving� style shone� when he eventually� recruited the� impecable navigation skills of Don Barrow they .made a formidable team unbeatable� when lady luck smiled.

� This combination when applied� to a motor car prepared� with time consuming� care and attention to detail , with max reliability as the goal ,produced a string of� results� that� was the envy of many contemporaries as in all� distance events of any sort� to finish first you must first finish. The results surely speak for themselves.

The� work load was such that� in order to meet� the deadlines for� the various� events that our customers were� involved in a� second� pair of hands was needed .� The local Bolton paper� had run an� article on us with an apraisal of what we were trying to do.�� I was contacted by Anthony Taylor� local auto engineer asking if assistance was needed . A meeting was set up and terms agreed , which�started� and a very satisfactory� relationship began to develop. Tony was with me for a few years before settng up his own� business making self build kits for replica Jaguars� under the name of Autotune�� manufacturing Jaguar based kit cars of Tonys own design and marketed under� the name of� Aristocat in later years his interests include the restoration of classic race cars in both sports and open wheeled formula ,an interest shared with his son Richard ,

. 1966� was a busy year with many competition sucesses� across� the board .(see� Diary)�� It� was this fact that more or less forced the next move,� which was to� find� more suitable premises. moving to> >> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Victoria Garage

John Myerscough in some of his many race cars I built and prepared for him in saloon car racing
Some of his many fine results can be found in the Diary section on the opening page

Jim Bullough and Don Barrow the men to beat in tWestuune built Lotus Cortina on the RAC in Sherwood Forrest stage Nov 1967

Autotune Aristocat

The all GRP Lotus Elite

The results we had been able to generate in these early days resulted in a change in thinking from the rally people we were involved with primarilly Mr Jim Bullough , he had for some time
been keen to tackle the international rally scene the winter event being The Monte-Carlo rally the other the RAC rally.The work I had done on the Sunbeam Rapier resulted in several awards,on this classic event. His next move was to a Ford Cortina GT for 1966
The existance of service support on events of this standing was not lost on Jimmy , to this end on the next event he did , he asked us to run a volantary unpaid service back up operation.
To this end he aquired from his company an HA Viva van for us to load with tools and spares to give support on the next Monte the following winter Jan 1967 once the route was known a service .schedule could be worked out which had to bear in mind the route taken by the rally cars was usually "over the tops" whist the service car has to go the long way around up the valleys. This particular year we had heavy snow from the moment we got off the boat at Calais. this was bad news as the Viva was shod with" wiresoles"a tyre produced with steel wires embedded in the tread , a slight improvement on smooth ice but useless on snow.
Jim insisted that they were the best thing for his van so thats what we went with.We were offered expenses but the dynamic of the event made rest periods difficult to organise it was so dependant on the needs of the competing car .Subsequent years efforts were reviewed to give us a better chance of keeping up by using the replaced rally car for the service "barge " as they were known.