Thunderbird shootout.

[Highlander]

What's that...?

Brooklands has been somewhat sanitised in recent years, with a big Tesco's, Merc-World having swallowed up a major chunk of runway... last major landing here was a Vanguard, and that (unbelievably) touched down off the end of the runway, undamaged...
Rather splendidly, the baby Concorde that used to grace the roundabout at the entry tunnel to LHR (but was kicked out of her home by a rather bloated Arabic A380) now graces a roundabout in the centre of the Brooklands "arena"...
I hope to visit at least once more before heading north...

[TBird1958]

How.... mysterious. 

In the mean time, here's Dee Dee!!

Cool pic. love the bass!

[Highlander]

Hamer...?

[Alanko]

What's that...?

I found the picture on Flickr, and the photographer claimed they were TSR2 formers. I don't know what formers should look like, so I cannot comment.

[Highlander]

No, not the formers, which may or may not have been those beasties... I knew about those...
Dee-Dee's bass...

There was a story (Air Pictorial) that some of the scrap was sold to Hoover for washing machines; either that or Labour wanted to launder some of the filthy lucre...!

[Highlander]

... I was under the impression that XR222 was the best of a bad bunch. Visually it is most complete but there is still avionics missing and many cut wires.

Story goes that she was an assemblage of components and may not have been a complete work... I have a highly detailed set of images of both surviving airframes... there was a serious push to get XR220 airborne in the 80's, with redeveloped (read Concorde) intakes and better engines (that would have been fun, getting the proverbial quart into the pint pot), but like so many dreams...

[uwe]

"I'm slowly replacing the black tuners with chrome ones on my Tokai T-bird. It already looks better!"

Sigh, I'm stuck here in a leper colony of twisted and warped chrome lovers ...

[patman]

If it adjusts tuning accurately, it's a good tuner in my book. regardless of race creed color or national origin.

My sixer has black tuners. They tune just fine.

[Alanko]

I have a project lined up for the black hardware I remove from the Tokai.

In short, I have a pair of Schaller JBX pickups and a much abused Cort GB24 bass. I've coated the fretboard with CA and buffed to a high gloss, not unlike the neck of a Rickenbacker. I plan to install the pickups in the Rickenbacker positions, add a bass-cut cap to the bridge pickup and get a custom pickguard made up that is 80% of the Cort original and 20% Rickenbacker 4005 (down by the controls). The bass will get the black tuners and bridge off of the Tokai.

I've broken the back of this project but I need to get the neck up and running first.

As for the Tokai, it seems everybody overlooks just how versatile a T-bird is. Yes, you can slam them with a pick and it comes out sounding good. However, fingerstyle on the bridge pickup sounds like any number of modern Jazz bass tones. Turn down the tone on the neck pickup and you have a nice dubby/Motown sound. 

[TBird1958]

 Very true about the many tones you can get from a Thunderbird. FWIW on the black hardware there are some basses that almost demand it, like a Kubicki, and that's fine. On T Birds it does they no good with the possible exception of a post' 88 in natural finish.     

[uwe]

That last post should be regarded as of inconsequential nature. 

[planetgaffnet]

There's been several mentions of Brooklands in this thread.  It's in Weybridge, Surrey...about ten miles from where I type this. 

Just for clarity, anyone remember the film Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines?  I've detailed a few photos below.  See that grey cement off in the distance?  Brooklands...long before it was carved to pieces and sold off in chunks.  Hell, if it was in the US, it would be known as the Historical Brooklands Motor Speedway or something.  In the UK, nah.  We just cut it up and sell it in pieces to the highest bidders...supermarkets and Mercedes Benz.

[Highlander]

I'm closer... It's my local Tesco's too...

[TBird1958]

That last post should be regarded as of inconsequential nature. 

 You know I will fly to your homeland and you'll regret it! 

[Highlander]

You might best try a sneak in through Edinburgh in the slingbacks (no one will notice a purple haired tranny during the "Festival" season as there'd be so many of them already there), then slide down the east coast (practising your 4 Yorkshiremen sketch) and take the ferry from Hull to the Nederlands, not forgetting to have packed the camo-skirt, then sneak across the border into the Fatherland, and maybe slip up the back way to his eyrie and catch him unawares...