Interview with Maurice Hamilton

This is Maurice Hamilton.

I was lucky enough to meet him last year at a talk he did at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu hosted by The Friends Of Beaulieu about his 40 years as a journalist in Formula 1 and much more.

For those of you who don't know about Maurice Hamilton, here is an introduction. 

Maurice is an award winning journalist and author of over 30 books. He has attended over 500 Grand Prix. Maurice attended his first motorsport race aged 7 with his dad and uncle attended the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod in Northern Ireland and became hooked on motorsport. Maurice started attending all kinds of motorsport events while living in Northern Ireland but moved to London in 1970 due to the troubles during that time. While attending the Monaco Grand Prix in 1973, Maurice spotted the press people and thought about writing an article from the spectators point of view. He went home, wrote the article and sent it to every motorsport magazine going. Nigel Roebuck (another giant in the motorsport journalism world) was the editor for Competition Car magazine published the article. This was a big turning point for Maurice. In order to get a press pass, Maurice was told that he had to have a letter from the Royal Automobile Club. Maurice wrote to them and they refused his request as he was not a journalist. While on Victoria Station, Maurice noticed a company making security passes for businesses and went in. He spoke to someone and explained that he was seeking a press card and what it was for. After spending 50p a card was produced with his name and photo, an address and phone number borrowed from a friend due to it being more glamorous than his own address and some magazine names on the back, Motor Racing News Service would be his company name, Auto Sport (Japan) he had a photo published in, two others he had not written for, the last one listed being Cart and Track (Ireland), this was a magazine about horse and carts. With this, Maurice was able with a lot of persuasion able to gain a press pass for the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix. He then used this for a lot of the other Grand Prix throughout that year. In 1977, Maurice left his job in sales and became a freelance motorsport writer working with Ian Young. His first job was to write the James Hunt Magazine. Maurice then worked for The Guardian and The Independent before spending 20 years as The Observers Motorsport Correspondent but always being a freelance writer. Between 1979 and 1988, Maurice was the editor for Autocourse.

Maurice also commentated on Formula One for 20 years on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Below is a link to the interview I had with Maurice and a link to the talk I attended at Beaulieu.

So grab some refreshments and enjoy.

Interview link

https://youtu.be/BES-aNO9Zic

Introduction source information 

https://youtu.be/b_yRSBiHibE?si=_YXHxw9zT-rD0Xmb

                                 

Kirby's Cartastrophe Part 2

So in Kirby's Cartastraphe part 1, I wound up buying this blue Astra Sport, all was going very well until it started misfiring, after about 200 miles of driving .
What could have caused it?
 Possibilities; Contaminated fuel? Or something a more costly?
I called my friend Keith, a mechanic and explained the situation.
Initially he suggested to buy some Redex to clean the fuel tank to hopefully clear the issue,  if not he had other idea's but wanted to try the cheapest option first.
Leaving work I headed straight for Halfords to buy some Redex following the instructions carefully I put half of the bottle in the tank.
Reading the bottle it did state that this can take up to a week to clear the system.
  After a week the car had not improved, clearly there was nothing was wrong with the fuel but at least I had  a clean fuel tank and system.
I took the car to Keith where he had look and a listen to the engine, he concluded and instructed me to buy new spark plugs made by Bosch and an ignition coil pack made by Haas.
 I went straight to Halfords to buy the parts, they didn't  have the parts in stock but they ordered them and they arrived the following day at the cost of £75.
I then asked Keith if he would allow me to use his tools and guide me through the process of removing and re-installing the affected parts.
 He was happy to guide me through my first time working on an engine.

Below are the photos I took and step by step guide.

Open the bonnet and this is what greeted me  

Remove the plastic panel with Ecotec written on it to reveal two star bolts.

Remove the lead that attaches the ignition coil pack to the engine then with the correct tool, remove the star bolts.

you can now remove the ignition coil pack.

Below the ignition coil pack are the spark plugs. 

Using the correct wrench, turn anti clockwise to remove the spark plug

You can see rust on the bottom of the spark, all four plugs were the same. 

 Insert the new spark plug  into the wench and return the new plug where the old one was removed, turning clockwise to tighten it. This had to be done four times due to there being four spark plugs.

Initially, I tried the new spark plugs with the old ignition coil pack to see if the spark plugs had been the issue. I started the car up and it still misfired. I then replaced the ignition coil pack, refitted the plastic panel. 

Anxiously I went to start the car if this did not work, then it would be an expensive engine repair job that I could not afford. 

I turned the key and the engine started and it sounded smooth again. I was delighted that I had been able to fix the problem and not have it cost a great deal of money. 

I was grateful to Keith for his guidance and his tools. 500 miles on and everything is still running smoothly.