Dear Sir,
No doubt your contributor, Mr. Paul Harris, knows the history of Bluebell.
I more or less watched her being built and when I compared certain points with the Forrest Lycett 4½, dear old Mac drew my attention to the fact that Bluebell was being built for his own amusement and with very restricted capital, whereas Mr. Lycett had very much more gold for disposal.
However, Bluebell was duly completed, won two Vintage races on the same day at Crystal Palace and competed in several other events pre-war.
When questioned about winning the second race, having been re-handicapped, Mac stated he merely had to go a little faster…
One day when Mr. Lycett’s 8-litre was competing at, I believe, Shelsley, Mac was of course there in attendance and had taken Ted Avery (his top mechanic) with him. When the event was finished, Mac said to Ted, “You can take Bluebell and visit your family and I will go back to London with Mr. Lycett.”
No doubt full of the of the joys of Spring, Ted flashed through several villages, causing alarm and despondency to the forces of law and order. Eventually disaster arrived, he (or rather Bluebell) hit an Austin 10 and more or less demolished that with four people in it.
Coming from that rather easy victory he then took on a bus, knocked the front axle off that so that it landed up on the bank, came out of that encounter backwards and into a large tree. The last named was the final victor, being too stout for even a “4 ½”.
Poor Ted got a good rap on the head which caused him discomfort for a very long time, especially when up-ending himself to look under Bentley dashboards, etc. He also lost his driving licence. Luckily, the occupants of the Austin survived without too much personal damage.
I saw Mac examining Bluebell with the body off and he remarked: “Out of line in 32 places”, and added some observations relative to Mr. Ted Avery.
The first owner after Mac was Jack E. Evan-Cook.
Yours Faithfully,
C.J.L. Mertens
155 Brondesbury Park,
London, NW2 5LJ.