BUY THE BOOK!
Click here for the paperback and hardcover options
Goldfinger
In addition to having spotlight covers named after a film, Eric Jackson also had a car named after a film too. It was his trials car - and it was named Goldfinger after the James Bond film. Discreetly, on the side of the car, was a decal showing a single raised digit...Recently added
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 20th
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 19th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 18th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 17th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 16th
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 15th
- 1963 London to Cape Town January 14th
- 1963 London to Cape Town – January 13th
- London to Cape Town – January 12th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 11th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 10th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 9th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 8th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 7th, 1963
- London to Cape Town – January 6th, 1963
- Petrol in My Blood – trade enquiries
- David Benson’s article about his arrest
- Press quotes from Eric Jackson and Ken Chambers
- The roads in Africa
- Round the world delays?
- The pretty girl on the docks at Cape Town
- Guns and tear gas
- Rosie’s Bar, Monte Carlo
- A few things I’ve discovered
- How’s the book going?
- Ouch
- Tulip Rally 1966
- The great meat pie race
- Cortina d’Ampezzo
- Mud, glorious mud
- First rally car – last rally car
- Meanwhile, back in Barnsley
- Across the Sahara and back
- Timbuktu
- George Hinchcliffe – London to Cape Town
- London to Sydney can’t be tougher than this
- Edgy Fabris
Tulip Rally 1966
I’ve seen them mentioned on motorsport forums, those bright orange spotlight covers. This photograph was taken on the 18th International Tulip Rally in 1966 which Eric Jackson did with Ken Deacon as his navigator. We used to call them the ‘what’s new pussycat?’ covers – after the film of the same name, filmed in 1965. There was a song of that name too – by Tom Jones.
Although you can’t tell from the black and white photograph, the flash down the side of the Cortina, and its roof, were also bright orange.
I’ve been asked about those covers – where did they come from? Now the exotic truth can be revealed. They were made by my mum with some offcuts of fur fabric she’d bought at Barnsley market! The eyes, mouths and ears were made from felt offcuts and the whiskers were pipe cleaners. Posh, eh?