see the ‘’Senior’’
F1’s that we’d read
and heard so much
about. White City
Stadium was our
destination, and on
the way we called
in at a custom car
show at Belle Vue’s
exhibition halls.
Amazingly, sat
there nestling
amongst the hotted
up Morris Minors,
Ford Pop’s and
metallic flame
painted Cortina’s
(very slick for the
period), was a
massive F1 Stock car with the number 391
on the roof and
WOW . it had
huge white walled
Dunlop Weather
Masters!!
So from that point
on and throughout
the 1970’s and 80’s
we always made a
point of looking out
for any cars that
had our beloved
white walls.
Top of the list of
lookers’ has to be
Frank Bourne who
always somehow
managed to keep not only his white walls,
but his entire car
spotless,
regardless of how
bad the track
conditions were.
Gordon Smith was
another great and
vastly underrated
racer who became
synonymous with
them. In fact it’s
difficult to imagine
Gordon’s fantastic
Mini bodied cars
without his
trademark white
walls. Like Mr
Bourne, Roger
Bowyers car was
also immaculate and often regarded as one
of the best looking
cars in the sports
history, with its
looks of course
being greatly
enhanced by the
white walls.
While on the
subject of
presentation, who
could forget those
extremely, smart
cars of Tony
Leicester which
were also usually
adorned with a
fetching set of white
walls. One car that
www.insidestockcarworld.co.uk
will always remain enigmatic
to many veteran fans is that of
the late Brian Wallace 119,
whose well presented Allan
Barker built ‘model T’ always
looked quite stunning with it’s
terrific blue & red livery,
traditional sign writing, huge
chrome grille and typically,
some superb white walls.
This wasn’t just a northern
trend either, as down there in
the ‘’deep south’’ we had the
likes of Bob Boddington,
Sugar Shergold, Ray Scriven,
Lee Wilson, Les Mitchell and
early Baarlo Meister - the
always flamboyant Ian
Ireland. We didn’t see them very often, but
all were regular ‘white
wallers’. In the midlands, we
had Mo Masters, Barrie
Shepherd and Pete Hill to
name just a few. Plus there
was always the ‘’Stony
Stanton Pirate’’ himself, the
much missed Johnny ‘Gimpy’
Goodhall who’s white walls
perfectly complimented his
infamous trademark skull &
crossbones motif.
At the opposite end of the
map up in the North East,
‘Wor Kid’ Gerald Taylor and
Ted ‘Fozzie’ Frater were two
memorable Geordie white
wall exponents, particularly
Gerald who would usually have a set
adorning his oversized F2
style car, known affectionately
as the ‘Wild Wellie Special’.
No look back to the seventies
however would be complete
without a tip of the cap to the
late, great Wildcat 391. The
Maestro was a prolific user of
white wall tyres throughout at
least half of his incredible
career up until the late 1970s
and beyond. No matter which
car he had; whether it was his
early untamable short
wheelbase Tiger Griffin
machine, the Gertie and
Wildcat cars, or the futuristic
Super DoDo, they all looked
incredible when wearing their white walls.
(The latter looking particularly
good in either the traditional
Smithy blue, red and yellow or
the later Hertz Rentals
corporate livery). The sight of
Super Stu and Dave ‘Oggy’
Hodgson side by side at Belle
Vue on a summer evening in
their DoDo cars with those
gleaming white wall tyres is a
sight that has remained
etched into the memory of
this, and many other ‘stockkie’
fans for the past four
decades.
By the eighties however, the
white wall trend had
apparently all but died out. I
do seem to
remember Richie
Ahern, Ken Hope,
Phil Sm