Stefan, a new member from Germany, has an interesting story of how and when he came about his '56 Chevy.

Stefan Kirking "ChevyStefan" is 46 years old and lives in the town of Duisburg,  about 160 miles North of the Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt.  He is married to his lovely wife, Regina, and has two children a - daughter, Amelie and a son, Sebastian. For twenty years he performed field installations of equipment for Müller Martini Company.  This kept him on the road too much and he decided to find a job near his home so he could raise his family. This family, of course, included the beautiful '56 Chevy you see him sitting in above. 

"I worked together with some US guys (1997 – 1998).  It was a great time for me, we had a lot of fun and I could practice my “school English.” I learned a lot of technical English words. One of the guys was a former US Marine.   

I was very proud to work with him." I am guessing he probably learned a few not so technical words also.  

He has kept excellent records on his '56 Chevy and has a web site dedicated to it. 

Stefan is an electronic technician and works with a team of 15 people who maintain large motor driven equipment for the newspaper printing business, Bild – Zeitung "The First Build". The first edition was published in June 1952. This keeps him busy in both the mechanical and electronics part of the business.  I suspect it is pretty good training to be able to do the great job restoring his '56.  

He lives in a big house with his entire family, including mother, father, his married brother and his family and, of course, his wife and two grown children.

Stephan's hobbies are, electronics, the internet, music of the fifties, working in the garden and, of course, restoring his '56 Chevy.  Stephan seems to be a bigger fan of the US than most of us. He is a pleasure to get to know.  If you see him in the chat late at night our time, drop in and introduce yourself. 

The time trials started in 1905 on a two-lane seafront street named Mederia Drive.  It is organized by the Brighton and Hove Motor club and sponsored by Frosts, a company specializing in automobile restoration.   Since the start in 1905 they have run the competitive race all but a few years. Both times seems to be because of one World War or another.  This was the first anyone had seen tarmac used and it was clean and wide open.  Unlike our drag races at quarter and eighth miles, as the years progressed the length of the race changed from two miles down to our standard quarter mile.  They also changed the race years back due to a couple of tragic accidents so that now they race one car at a time against the clock.  This could be because of those narrow English roads.  It seems to be all open class cars, but there are stringent rules on the classes.  Some of the categories are under 1300cc and some are new model stock.  There are also strict rules on how much noise your car can produce.  During the race a guy walks around with a decibel meter checking your exhaust. No open headers are allowed, keeping this beachside community pleasant for the non gear heads.

The day of the race was beautiful. I was greeted with warm clear skies and a nice breeze coming off the English Channel.  The cost for entry was 5 British pounds if you wanted to walk through the pits and admire the cars up close.  I had to do it because  when I got there I saw what seemed to be the largest and most varied group of automobiles and motorcycles assembled in one place.  Early Mini Coopers, a huge Bentley luxury sedan, a formula one car, and even one car that looked like a prop from Puff 'n Stuff was there.  The officials lined them up and one guy had the unenviable job of holding a small wedge under the rear tire until the car took off throwing rock and rubber on him.  I am sure there was more fire control equipment than I could see, but all that was obvious was two large buckets of water near the starting line. Check them out in the pictures. 

The pictures you will see here are just a few of the many cars racing that day.  I can’t honestly say who won what class, but leaning against a hundred year old rail with a beer in hand and watching these cars race against the clock was a treat I will never forget. 

I was wishing I had my car there.  The British are stereotyped as better drivers due to all the corners and round-a-bouts they drive on.  What I noticed is they haven't learned the term speed shift as there were many missed shifts that day.

I recently returned to Brighton and contacted Terry Johnston, the secretary of the Brighton and Hove Motor Club.  They were having an awards ceremony that night for a recent winner of a local race.  He invited me down for an evening at their clubhouse.  It was easy to find as it is located at the starting line of the speed trials.  The building of the club is located right on Mederia Drive in three of the arches that are typical down the Brighton seafront.  

I arrived a few moments before my 8:00 PM appointment.  Cars were whipping into parking spots all around and I was fortunate to get one.  After a couple of failed attempts at parallel parking a right hand drive car, I nailed it.

Upon entering the clubhouse I was taken back to the old world gentility of the place.  People were wearing tweed overcoats and most of them already had a beer in hand. It had the smell of old history and you could almost taste the memories of years gone by.  I soon located Terry who was digging a trophy out of an old box, and I introduced myself.  He gave me a short run-down on the night's happenings.  The winner of one of the more recent races was going to speak tonight.  I was sad that I had less than an hour to spend there. 

Terry took me to a glass display case giving me access to the Club's history.  Programs from the early days on up to last summer's event were bound and organized in the glass case.  In another binder I found the rules for each race and in another, the winners all the way back to the start.  So many of the early car companies are now closed and are little more than memories.  But the names MG, Austin, Jaguar and Bentley were already well established.  A few American cars made it into the lists over the years. It was good to see we had a small part in this great history.

Please take the time to visit this website and look through the pictures linked below.

I know this is a venture away from our TriFives, however, I hope you enjoy the pictures.  The only American car that ran that day was a Viper and it didn't do well -- again, shifting problems.  The car I saw with the fastest time was running a big block Chevy. Go big block!!!!   editor