A Day at the Races Goes Badly!: Remembering Dr. Norbert McNamara M.D.

 A Day at the Races Goes Badly! Remembering Dr. Norbert McNamara M.D - Part Three

The following series of photos were taken at Cotati.

                Norbert McNamara visually inspecting the sad remains of his Fairthorpe. 

                Is this Fairthorpe an Electron or an Electron Minor or both? These photos were taken at Cotati Raceway, but don’t know exactly when. Also notice Norbert is wearing a white short sleeve shirt, but the corner workers in the background are wearing heavy coats (was this photo taken the middle of winter?).

 

Norbert A. Tracy on the left, Norbert J. McNamara on the right both enjoying a beverage of their choice.

 

 

“A Pile of Trash in a Field” 

            That was the A.I. suggestion as a caption for this photograph above, so I went with that.

"Not much left of this Fairthorpe"

Also notice that the rollover bar only covers the left or driver’s side. Whereas the Fairthorpe Electron #161 in my previous post, had a roll over bar that spanned width of the full cockpit.

            Norbert McNamara picks up his Fairthorpe for a closeup inspection.

The eagled eye among you will spot that this is a Mark 1 Electron Minor chassis with a Coventry Climax motor installed as it has Standard Ten front suspension and back axle. I believe that it also has an MGA gearbox as would be fitted to a Lotus Elite so likely also the 1220cc Climax engine. Looks like the right front coil-over shock absorber has collapsed. The cause or because of the accident? I also see that the rear SU carburetor broke off the Climax intake manifold, likely starting the fire.

The Fairthorpe Electron, in 1957, started out in G production where it was competitive. But it then moved first to F production, and then to E production, where it was no longer competitive.

Using an Electron Minor chassis with a Coventry Climax engine would be significantly lighter and therefore more competitive than Electron with  the heavier Triumph TR3 suspension. Did the Norberts think they were “cheating”? Or did the Norberts know that Fairthorpe were building Electrons from 1962 with the lighter Electron Minor Mk. II chassis? most likely the later. And that Fairthorpe had updated the homologation papers for the Mark II Electron using the EM Mk. II chassis to entry the Monte Carlo rally? 

        In 1964, McNamara entered two races in an Electron, the first was the U.S. Road Racing Championship in May 1964 at Laguna Seca in an Electron with a 1098cc Climax engine, program below.

            And the second entry was at Vaca Valley raceway, in September 1964, with a 1220cc Coventry Climax FWE engine, program below.

At some point, I’m told that the 1098cc engine from the original Electron threw a rod out the side of the block. Was the 1220cc FWE Climax engine and gearbox then sourced from, perhaps, a crashed Lotus Elite? Were both entries in 1964 the hybrid Fairthorpe Electron? Or the original Electron? Their Fairthorpe Electron Minor was last raced in 1963, and not raced in 1964, was that because it had been transformed an “Electron”? If so, the photos above taken a Cotati, probably late in 1964 or early in 1965.

With one Fairthorpe burning to the ground and the other having a rod out the side of the engine, was too heavy to be competitive, and the Fairthorpe Electron was being moved from E production to D production for 1965, was it time for Norbert to look for other options? Yes, I think so!