Question
Remembering Ecurie Ecosse - I think I read on the web-site that you were interested in any anecdotes or reminiscences about EE in the old days. As it happens, I had some close associations with EE in one form or another, from a schoolboy in Scotland in the fifties and sixties (my grandfather was Italian but I was raised in Scotland. I knew about Ecurie Ecosse mostly through my father who was one of the original members of the Association, having known David Murray through his Wine-Club.
I was at Merchiston Castle School where I became (and still am) a close friend of Ian Ballantyne, whose father Harry you will remember took on the management of EE after the departure of DM. Because my father worked overseas, the Ballantyne family were very kind to me and often took me out on various adventures, including home games at Murrayfield and race meetings at Ingliston, when it was first opened in the early sixties.
There are other incidents, like David Murray offering my father the last of the three long-nose 'D' Types for £ 1700 in the summer of 1959, an offer which sadly he declined as he was already heavily involved with racing a vintage 4 1/2 litre Bentley, and had a saloon Mark I 3.4, the tuning of which had been overseen by Wilkie Wilkinson. Through the Bentley Drivers Club, my father became a close friend of the great Selby Howgate when he was working for Walter Alexanders. ( Designer of the Ecurie Ecosse Transporter)
I was always a fan of EE and fiercely patriotic about Scottish motor racing. Later, my son went to Merchiston (he is 28 now) and was a contemporary of Max Bergius who was one of Ninian Sanderson's grand children, and whose mother, Ninian's younger daughter I guess, gave me a copy of Graham Gauld's excellent history of EE.
Sorry, I have rambled on at length, but as you will see I am so pleased to have contact with those who still care about EE.
I wonder if Laurence Jacobsen is the same one with whom I was at prep-school near Aberdeen, he was always interested in motor cars, and he and I booked a demo run in some go-karts on Fordoun airfield, when go-karts were in their infancy, about 1959 or 1960. Unfortunately it poured with rain and the demo was cancelled.
All good wishes, now that I have discovered the web-site I will be a regular visitor.
Kind regards
Michael Pancheri
Answer:
Dear Michael
To those of us who were around Ecurie Ecosse back then many of the names are familiar and in particular Pat Melville who, with Ronnie Miller had the Lister-Jaguar built at Merchiston Mews from a complete kit of parts sent from Brian Lister in Cambridge. Yes, it is the same Laurence Jacobsen who, in the 1990s owned and raced the Ecurie Ecosse Ecosse-Ford that was raced by the team from 1986.
Graham Gauld
05/05/2008
