Twenty Years Ago, the Alco Black Beast Reached 95 MPH in England
Jeff Norton has spent over thirty years helping owners prepare their racers for the "big race". He recently discovered two 1988 photos of himself working on the Alco Black Beast in England.
Enjoy a Happy Fourth!
Howard Kroplick
Jeff Norton: That's me in the car 1988 Clone Air Force Base in England. I was working for Ivan Dutton who had a Bugatti shop. One customer had a museum on the "Fruit Farm" was Ed Hubbard who then owned the Alco Black Beast.
Jeff Norton: At the Air Base, they were doing the flying mile. The Black Beast's number was 95 for the competition. Coincidently, Ed hit a speed of 95 miles per hour.
Check out the muffler system.
Jeff Norton: That's me putting Emerson Fittipaldi in my car owner's 1975 M23 McLaren in Austin, Texas in 2016. He won his last F1 race in that car.
Jeff Norton: I'm preparing race cars for Road America to be held on July 20 - 23, 2018. This is my car that I built, made the body...not too many original parts.
Comments
The Black Beast near 100 MPH, exhilarating ( and exhausting I’m sure ) at the same time! I’m no auto expert, but the car that Jeff built ( last image ); appears to have a stainless steel body?
Love to always see the history of the Black Beast but hate to see it in this experimental state. Don’t touch those exposed exhaust system pipes, you will regret it later. Did it achieve 95 mph or 95 kph in England (59.0 mph). I think the latter. Please prove me wrong. Either way, this is still the hottest car on Long Island today
The body is more likely to be aluminum on that Bug. Very nice handiwork!
I had the opportunity to quickly speak with Mr.Jeff Norton in the 2019 Jaguar Invitational at the Vanderbilt Museum in Long Island, the Bugatti clone was hand built by him, pencil marks with the measurements written on the metal still visible, Nissan engine and as close as possible to the original reflect the high level of craftsmanship and passion for the trade. So surprised on how little information you can find on this very interesting gentleman. Hopefully you guys enjoy a few of my pictures, and please let me know what you guys think.
Thank you so much for sharing Really valuable information and your experien
I remember the Alco - at VSCC Colerne, prob around 1987.
Driven by Ed Hubbard - during his interesting ‘period’ of collecting, buying and selling some
Very interesting pre-war cars..
Was there with my dad, Mike Collis, Will, and their lovely 3 Litre Sunbeam.