Tag: Graham Robson

Robson
AAGR, himself.
Graham Robson: “He Was Always, Triumphantly, in Touch”

Graham Robson: “He Was Always, Triumphantly, in Touch”

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It was typ­i­cal of my dear friend of 47 years that he wrote his own advance obit­u­ary, for Clas­sic and Sports Car. Gra­ham Rob­son always planned ahead. I quote from it below, hop­ing to approx­i­mate the mag­ni­tude of our loss.

Alec Arthur Graham Robson 1936-2021

Gra­ham was born in Skip­ton, York­shire, the only child of Clif­ford and Kath­leen Rob­son. He was edu­cat­ed local­ly before going to Lin­coln Col­lege, Oxford, where he read Engi­neer­ing. His first job was as a grad­u­ate trainee at Jaguar Cars in 1957. His sub­se­quent career became a per­fect train­ing path for some­one des­tined to become a lead­ing author.…

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Harrington
A fanciful Sunbeam brochure shows the 1962 Harrington as raced at Le Mans that year.
Harrington Le Mans: Sunbeam’s Lovely Gran Turismo

Harrington Le Mans: Sunbeam’s Lovely Gran Turismo

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Moss on Sunbeams

Sun­beam-Tal­bot had a good com­pe­ti­tion pedi­gree before the Sec­ond World War. But the firm was bought by the Rootes Group in 1935, and not much hap­pened for awhile. In 1952, Stir­ling Moss fin­ished sec­ond in a Sun­beam-Tal­bot 90 in the Monte Car­lo Rally—the high point that decade. “You wouldn’t believe how slow my Sun­beams were,” Sir Stir­ling lat­er told my friend, motor­ing writer Gra­ham Rob­son. “Yes I would!” Gra­ham replied.

Arrival of the Sun­beam Alpine sports car in 1959 made com­pe­ti­tion worth con­sid­er­ing. Rootes com­pe­ti­tions man­ag­er Nor­man Gar­rad had the idea that they could win some­thing at the clas­sic Twen­ty-four Hours of Le Mans endurance race.…

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Triumph
Just Published! “Triumph Cars”: Tribute to a famous British marque

Just Published! “Triumph Cars”: Tribute to a famous British marque

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A True Triumph

We are bowled over by the sheer vol­ume of col­or, beau­ty and depth of pho­tographs in the lat­est and great­est edi­tion of Tri­umph Cars: The Com­plete Sto­ry. Large­ly this was the effort of my co-author Gra­ham Rob­son, but I nev­er expect­ed such a high qual­i­ty treat­ment by the pub­lish­ers. A big, square for­mat, 10×10 inch­es, it’s chock-a-block with lav­ish illus­tra­tions from the first spindly Tri­umph 10/20 of 1923 to the last, badge-engi­neered Tri­umph Acclaim of 1984. There are even appen­dices on Tri­umph-derived cars like the Bond Equipe, Amphicar, Peer­less and Swal­low Doret­ti.…

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Dolomite
1935 Triumph 8C Dolomite: The Big One….Is Back

1935 Triumph 8C Dolomite: The Big One….Is Back

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Jonathan Wood, Don­ald Healey’s 8C Tri­umph Dolomite. Wether­by, York­shire: Jonathan Turn­er & Tim Whit­worth, 2017, 300 pages, pro­fuse­ly illus­trat­ed in col­or and b&w, $275. Avail­able from the pub­lish­ers. Writ­ten for The Vin­tage Tri­umph Register.

Donald Healey’s Dolomite

In 1977 I wrote the pre-World War II chap­ters of Tri­umph Cars, now reap­pear­ing in an expand­ed new edi­tion, thanks large­ly to my co-author Gra­ham Rob­son (bla­tant plug, please order).

At the time, though, there was lit­tle to describe about Triumph’s most impres­sive fail­ure, the leg­endary straight-eight Dolomite. The only one built by the fac­to­ry had come to grief (along, almost, with Don­ald Healey) at a rail­way cross­ing on the 1935 Monte Car­lo Ral­lye.…

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“The Vintage Triumph” and Triumphs in My Life

“The Vintage Triumph” and Triumphs in My Life

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All Tri­umphs All the Time: Issue 150 of The Vin­tage Tri­umph mag­a­zine, 2015 

Har­ry Barnes was to have been our first edi­tor, but quick­ly decid­ed he couldn’t do it. I was elect­ed, pro­duc­ing issues 1-18 from 1974 to 1977. Look­ing at those pro­duc­tions, I’m struck that while Tri­umphs haven’t changed much else has in half a lifetime.

Annu­al dues were $10—equal to $48 today, but didn’t buy as much. Imag­ine a world with­out com­put­ers! You print­ed off sheets of clean, “cam­era-ready” type. We couldn’t afford type­set­ting; those who didn’t have elec­tric type­writ­ers put a brand new rib­bon in their Rem­ing­tons and banged hard on the keys.…

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Bulldog Not: Say it isn’t So

Bulldog Not: Say it isn’t So

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“The clas­sic British bull­dog, a sym­bol of defi­ance and pugnac­i­ty, may now dis­ap­pear. A shake-up of breed­ing  stan­dards by the Ken­nel Club has sig­nalled the end of the dog’s Churchillian jowl. Instead, the dog will  have a shrunk­en face, a sunken nose, longer legs and a lean­er body. The British Bull­dog Breed Coun­cil is threat­en­ing legal action against the Ken­nel Club. Chair­man Robin Sear­le said: ‘What you’ll get is a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent dog, not a British bulldog.’

I referred this one to long­time col­league, promi­nent motor­ing writer and bull­dog par­ti­san Gra­ham Rob­son, who writes:

As a long-time bull­dog own­er (you have met var­i­ous of my much-loved mutts) I am at once delight­ed and appalled by what is being pro­posed.…

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