I had a chat with Bob Winkleman of FFord fame recently. It was at
the SF Region SCCA Vintage event at Laguna Seca. A number of his
cars were running in the event, including a pair of FB cars. My
car is the Bourgeault F Jr. It turns out that Winkleman and
Bourgeault were neighbors, and worked out of the same shop for a
while. He had some great stories to tell. He said the two of them
used to race each other to work well after rush hour was over.
Bourgeault had a Fiat Topolino, and Winkleman drove a Hillman. He
said neither one of them could do the speed limit, so nobody knew
they were actually racing. ;=) At one point Bourgeault and
Winkleman got into an argument over whether you could turn a VW
transaxle upside down. We all know who one that one. Winkleman
also confirmed that my car was finished in '59, as he had moved
out of that shop by '60. That should make my car about the first
mid-engined race car built on the West Coast.
He had another story about my car. It seems that the shop they
worked out of was also home to a seaplane flying school as it was
on the mud flats right next to the bay in Sausalito. One day, a
flying student was trying to start a seaplane and go solo. He
was spinning the prop by hand. He spun it, nothing, opened the
throttle and spun it, nothing. He opened the throttle more, spun
it, and it roared to life. It knocked him into the water and took
off on its own! The plane skipped along the water, not going fast
enough to get airborne. It went around in a large circle and came
right back to where it started. It hit the bank, went up in the
air, and imbedded itself in the front of the shop. It turns out
that Bourgeault had JUST finished painting my car with about 20
coats of hand-rubbed lacquer. The plane knocked the whole rack
of lacquers over onto the rear of the car! The goofball pilot
didn't even stick around. He went home to change his wet clothes.
Winkleman arrived to see the plane in the shop front and nobody
around. Bourgeault had a royal fit.
The shop they worked out of was owned by Bob Cornish. Winkleman
also said that Bourgeault made his living as a body and fender
man. He also did a few rebody jobs that were supposed to be very
nice. If anybody has stories about Winkleman, Bourgeault, or
Cornish, I'd love to hear them. Apologies if I misspelled
Winkleman.
---
Simon Favre
|