Memories
Graham Gauld recalls some of the unpublished stories about Ecurie Ecosse.
The Tojeiro-Buick at Charterhall.
It was the last race meeting to be held at the Charterhall circuit back in August or September 1964 and Ecurie Ecosse were present with their young newcomer Jackie Stewart and the Tojeiro-Buick Coupe. At the time did not know it was to be the last meeting on the circuit but the announcement of it closing down appeared shortly afterwards. The reasons were heightened safety and that particularly dangerous flat out corner, Kames Curve, which earlier that season had claimed its third life. It is ironic that in the history of Scottish motor racing – which spans fifty eight years – only three drivers have ever been killed in an actual race, all were at Charterhall and all were at Kames Curve.
The first driver killed was Johnny Bain a young lawyer from Ayrshire who had bought a Frazer-Nash Le Mans Replica. It was the first race meeting of the 1956 season. He slid off the track, the car dug in and rolled. A few years later Sid Ritchie was killed in the Jaguar-Engined Saltire when his car spun at Kames and went off the track on the inside of the corner and finally John Carmichael was killed in a Lotus 6 when his car spun into the infield and rolled in the ploughed field.
The RAC were very concerned about the state of the track at Charterhall and the entry into Kames was pretty rough and they refused to issue a licence for the 1965 racing season.
That day late in 1964 everyone was in a good mood and as I had been working with the BBC on various motoring things they thought it would be a good idea if I did a few laps of the circuit with this new young upstart called Jackie Stewart in the famous Ecurie Ecosse Tojeiro-Buick.
David Murray, always one for publicity, was only too happy to oblige but the problem was how were we going to fit a camera on the car. It was decided that the bonnet would be removed and the BBC people would bind a Bell & Howell 16mm cine camera on to one of the frame cross tubes with it pointing forward and a second camera would film the car from the side of the track. We never thought about it at the time but wrapping a cine camera on a chassis tube with tape was not a very safe thing to do on a bumpy track like Charterhall and if it had come off on the one mile straight it would have gone straight through the windscreen into our faces.
As I was helped into the car David Murray suggested he take my Leica camera and take some pictures and the photos here were taken by Murray. I remember I had difficulty shutting the door and Jackie got out of the driving seat, came round and shut the door from the outside and then we rolled out on to the track.
As Jackie Stewart, or any of the Ecosse drivers who drove it will tell you, the Tojeiro-Buick coupe was not the best car Ecurie Ecosse ever owned. It was low, wide and it was difficult to see the corners of the car. Added to this it bounced and yawed all over the place on Charterhall which was so rough. It was the first occasion I realised just how good Jackie Stewart was. On our first lap he accelerated hard out of the last corner on to the main straight and the Tojeiro was hitting close on 140 mph when we hit the bump which was right on the start and finish line. There was an almighty crash and the Tojeiro actually left the ground by a few inches and then came down on the track again with a wollop and clearly the weight of an extra passenger had made all the difference. When we hit the back straight on the second lap I shouted to Jackie that he need not take it easy because I was in the passengers seat and he gave me one of those quizzical sideways looks. By the third lap Jackie was on form blasting through Kames Curve which looks formidable in a fast car and we even had time to wave to Jimmy Stewart who was flag marshalling at Paddock bend. When we came in the BBC unstuck the camera and set off for Glasgow to develop the film. Meanwhile Jackie and I got out of the car and David Murray rushed over to say that on the third lap Jackie had come within four tenths of a second of the lap record ! I now realised why he was giving me the “look” he had actually been driving hard but was so smooth it looked like he was stroking it.
The Tojeiro-Buick was raced by a number of people whilst in Ecurie Ecosse hands including Jimmy Blumer and Andrew Cowan. Since then it has been raced in historic events by Hugh McCaig, who owned it for some time and by Hugh Chalmers – who drove the Ecurie Ecosse Vauxhall Astra at Ingliston in the 1980s. Its sister car, the Tojeiro-Buick that was later given a Ford V8 engine was involved in a crash at Brands Hatch with Bill Stein and virtually destroyed. However a new tub was built for it and it is still in Scotland in the hands of Tom McWhirter.
