NICK BRITTAN
1936-2006
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Iris Porter ex wife of Nick
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Many wonderful memories of our life in Germany selling chinaware to Americans. We had great fun driving around in our old Citroen.
A great character, he will be missed.
13 March 2008 - CYPRUS
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John Williams
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I first met Nick when he bought an Alfa Romeo Giulia SS from me. We sorted the car for him to do the Scottish Malts & then the Ralley des Alpes. I'll never forget a phone call from him whilst he was on the Alpine. "John the SS is running a bit rough". "Where are you" I reply? "Top of the Stelvio" "Ah perhaps altitude has something to do with it". An hour later a laughing Nick phoned again. "Alls well, we found a hut off the mountain that sells just plugs. A quick change & the car is perfect again".
That call I will never forget & makes me smile to this day. We always received a bottle of something after each rally as thanks. Well, thank you Nick. I found Nick always kind & ready to take advice about his Alfa. Due to Nick's experience, I found this an honour indeed. I miss his visits & phone calls & wish he was here to share some more times with me & I'm sure he would appreciate my recently acquired Anglia.
I wish his family well for the future & Nick, if you're listening, watch your altitude.
John Williams
24 January 2008 - Wiltshire, England
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Brian Jordan
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NICK BRITTAN 1960 - 1970 - A SIGNIFICANT DECADE
There are just a very few people you meet whom you regard as much larger than life. People who really do make the world a smaller place without them. Nick was one such. When I heard of his death it was with such a feeling of disbelief that it has taken until now to sufficiently accept the fact to be able to make a contribution.
This isn’t a competition, but I probably pre-date all your contributors including Stuart McCrudden and Andy Marriott. 1960 was the first full season of kart racing in the UK and, although my working for Villiers engines directed me toward the motorcycle-engined classes 3 and 4 whilst Nick was active in the single and twin engined non-gearbox classes 1 and 2, we nevertheless formed a bond. Karting led to his first motorsport-oriented job as editor of Karting News and Record (price 1 shilling monthly!) working out of a tiny office at 329 High Holborn – needless to say, his lack of experience as a magazine editor didn’t inhibit him at all! And he also used me as a part-time photographer where necessary.
By now 24, up until this time Nick’s life had been “varied”. Conversations with Nick during these early years always seemed to encompass so much it was difficult to imagine one so young already had so much experience of life. His famous throw-away line that his career started as a deck chair attendant in Cannes, whilst factually accurate, ignores the influence up until this time of his truly remarkable mother Renee, an influence that had already steered him to live in Northern Ireland and then France where he qualified for The Sorbonne (but allegedly rejected it after just three lectures), together with periods in New Zealand, South America and South Africa as well. Back in London Nick inflicted his limited musical talents on theatre queues busking the then-new skiffle music, a pursuit not richly rewarding, before a short career working American airbases in Germany selling English porcelain, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, anything the Americans would offer valuable dollars for. During this period he not only met Iris, his first wife, but also Peter Boizot MBE, the now-famed originator of the UK’s Pizza Express chain who, in 1960, retained a room in Renee’s London flat and was similarly employed fleecing American servicemen.
In 1960 two events fortuitously coincided. His unlikely career path had led to a position as a jounalist for Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Retailer, and he met his first kart, a Clinton-powered bedframe by modern standards, but to us, at that time, this was cheap motorsport. Thus his motor-oriented career began, and much has been written that needs no repetition. However throughout this period, the two most decisive events regarding his future successes were probably getting out of karts into racing saloons, and out of racing saloons into single seaters. I was present, and affected by, both these events, both of which amply demonstrate Nick’s determination and self-belief.
He had graduated to editor of Popular Motoring at Mercury House opposite Waterloo Station and across the road from The Old Vic (where his Deputy Editor was Brian Smith who raced a Lotus XI and subsequently used me as mechanic), a fairly dull do-it-yourself magazine where every step by step photo included the famous “pointing finger” to ensure readers understood exactly where their attention was being directed. Nick decided a way was needed to spice up the endless articles on re-tuning Solex carburetteurs or re-fitting Lucas dynamos, and ran a series of articles on the various categories of motorsport in the UK. For each we contacted a top team, acquired a competitive vehicle, and went off and competed. The “rules” were that none of us could enter for a formula we had previous experience of. Thus Brian and I did a rally in a works Ford Cortina and a mud-plugging event in a Cannon, Brian did a kart meeting in a Brise kart and so on, but, typically, Nick kept the Superspeed Anglia arranged by Harry Calton of Ford for himself, and raced it at Mallory Park to good effect, coming an impressive second in his first race – and surely thus becoming the first to plot a successful course into race cars from karts?
The bias toward Ford for this series of articles Nick always ascribed to the fact he was driving (and loved) a Ford Cortina GT at the time. This occurred when Nick’s elderly Porsche was clearly fit only for the scrapyard, and he’d borrowed my Cortina GT (Registration AKO 1B) in British racing green with a white stripe as a reverse tribute to the Lotus Cortina livery of cream and Lotus green stripe. I helped him buy similarly-coloured AKO 444B from the Ford dealer in Tunbridge Wells, and we used these twin lookalikes for some advertising shoots, most notably at the late lamented Crystal Palace racing circuit where we spent a well-paid afternoon perfecting our multiple handbrake turns on the main straight.
Racing at Mallory Park inspired Nick to produce a dossier which he sent to the mighty Walter Hayes of Ford Motor Company. In this he proposed that Wally give him a Ford Anglia with which he would take on the oceans of Minis that were monopolising small capacity saloon racing. He pointed out that wherever he went he would gain recognition for Ford simply by towering over the other racers. Wally loved the idea. An Anglia was delivered, and in the tiny shed-like garage behind Mercury House we stripped it out before sending it to John Young at Superspeed for race-preparation. Nick used the Candy-Apple metallic green with a red, white and blue stripe colour scheme he had persuaded all UK international kart competititors to use as helmet livery, and Green Bean was born. The rest is history.
After his first season’s championship-winning success, and despite an offer from Alan Fraser who ran the works Rootes racing team, Nick considered moving into single-seaters. In typical fashion he started at the top and worked downwards by contacting John Webb, Director of Grovewood Securities who controlled several UK race circuits at the time, and asking “John, how can I get into single-seaters?” John suggested he contact Motor Racing Stables at Brands Hatch and arrange a session driving a school car and have a portfolio of photos of the event. For this Nick needed a photographer, and asked me…… On the day, after the photo shoot, having been impressed with the school I decided there and then to sign on for the introductory test and circuit outing, getting an “A” grade and assuring them I’d be back next week. Such was my progress I graduated through the grades and six months later became an employee as an instructor under Tony Lanfranchi as chief instructor, and driver of their top formula three Brabham and Lotus I hired for international race meetings.
Nick, probably wisely, decided the attractions of a works drive were too great to miss, and his move to Fraser Imps was significant – not least as it brought him into contact with Tony Good, who subsequently employed Nick at Good Relations moving him from journalism into PR – but also for me as it brought me into contact with wealthy Alan Fraser whom I persuaded to pay for an engine and gearbox for my Lotus 32 F3/F2 monocoque. The deal was that Alan wanted to produce a Rootes Formula 2 race engine (which would also power a Le Mans contender he was developing) but, as I pointed out, he needed a testbed car, and he needed to give his exclusively saloon experienced drivers instruction and experience in single seaters. This was a function I persuaded Alan I was ideally suited to provide, so he bought a F3 Holbay engine and Hewland gearbox – which, due to Alan effectively biting off more than he could chew, was never driven by anyone except me for a couple of seasons!
But Nick’s Ford contacts kept him in touch with the fledgling single seater Formula Ford, a formula created to fill a need at Motor Racing Stables and Jim Russell’s racing school where Formula 3 cars were far too highly tuned – developing over 100bhp from 1000cc 105E engines by revving to over 10,000rpm on three-bearing cranks with a single carburetteur and limited to a four speed gearbox – which meant drivers had to carry around 30 sets of fiendishly expensive extra gear ratios to try to best match their tiny useable rev range to the differing circuits around Europe. Of course, seeing a need, who goes and produces a booklet listing reccomended Hewland ratios for all European circuits? N Brittan of course!
But the schools needed similar power without using highly tuned and stressed full race spec engines, hence 1500cc Ford engined single-seaters with road tyres on steel rims as a new Formula. The idea was to prevent costs from spiralling. Easier said than done as Nick, myself, and Graham White, head of the British Racing and Sports Car Club, found out when we were tasked with producing the first set of regulations. We seriously considered ownership of engines remaining with Ford who would distribute engines for each race, or drivers owning their engines but having to be prepared to sell them at a season’s agreed price if they won, but, finally, accepted the inevitability of an uneven playing field. Strangely enough, the most successful level playing field formula for single seaters was the one Nick finally went into – Formula V.
The rest is fairly common knowledge. By now it’s 1967, and this history ends with Nick in his natural home, in PR, having a relatively unsuccessfull season back in an Anglia, but about to finally get his single-seater drive in Formula V in a championship he typically won in his first season. Then came the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon (Wally Hayes again!) with Jenny, Formula Ford publicity for Ford which led to managing Jody Scheckter and the rest is pretty common knowledge. A long way in a decade, from flogging china to American airbases in Germany to multiple motor racing championship successes and a life-long career as a motor sport promoter and visionary so ably supported by Jenny and with one foot in the UK and the other in Oz. Oh yes! And he displayed another fine talent when he acted as best man at my first marriage in 1965 to Pat, whom I met as she worked with Nick’s mother Renee at the Family Planning Institute.
Nick Brittan. Jack of all trades and master of most of them….
28 December 2007 - UK
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Mike Johnson
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My first contact with Nick was a phone call whilst i was on the M4. He had seen my pics and asked if we could work together. We arranged to meet at his flat in London and have lunch and from the first moment I met him liked him. He always treated me very fairly and with respect and on more than several occasions showed me genuine care and kindness. I miss his humorous emails and notes and his company which was always entertaining. My best wishes and thoughts go to Jenny and Barney and the family.
Wherever you are Nick i hope you are having a bloody good time!
Mike J (Photographer)
30 August 2007 - Somewhere!
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John Peaty
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I met Nick and Jenny in the late 80”s and like most had my up’s and downs with Nick, admired Jenny and enjoyed their company socially.
Nick’s capabilities in organising marathons, dealing with international borders, the bureaucrats and the marathon men is legendary stuff. He took us to fascinating places that you may read about but would never consider visiting, the experiences, the adventures, the stories, the people and the friends that I have met will live with me forever.
Life is very short and we have to make the best of it, in my memory Nick did. To Jenny and the boy’s my sincere condolences and fond regards. To Ron, Mike and the redshirts, best wishes, I hope that you can keep the business going and create more great adventures.
13 July 2007 - Sydney, Australia
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