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Victor Gauntlett
Malcolm Victor Gauntlett (20 May 1942 – 31 March 2003) was an English petrochemical entrepreneur and car enthusiast, best known for forming the largest independent petrol retail business in the United Kingdom, and for reviving Aston Martin. Biography Malcolm Victor Gauntlett was born in Surrey. After attending St Marylebone Grammar School and a short period in the Territorial Army, he took a short service commission as an officer in the RAF, where he trained as a pilot. After leaving he was commissioned into the Kent and County of London Yeomanry. Among those who worked for him, Gauntlett was known as "MVG". An ebullient and well-dressed character who always wore a gold chained pocket watch, he was regarded as an inspirational leader, who worked extremely hard yet also had a great capacity for enjoying life. A Freeman of the City of London, in 2002 he was appointed master of the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers. As a result of his death halfway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as maize, palm fruit or sugar cane. The two most common petrochemical classes are olefins (including ethylene and propylene) and aromatics (including benzene, toluene and xylene isomers). Oil refineries produce olefins and aromatics by fluid catalytic cracking of petroleum fractions. Chemical plants produce olefins by steam cracking of natural gas liquids like ethane and propane. Aromatics are produced by catalytic reforming of naphtha. Olefins and aromatics are the building-blocks for a wide range of materials such as solvents, detergents, and adhesives. Olefins are the basis for polymers and oligomers used in plastics, resins, fibers, elastomers, lubricants, and gels. Global ethylene production was 190 milli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texaco
Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independent business, independent company until its refining operations merged into Chevron in 2001, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to Shell plc through Shell USA, its American division. It was one of the first gas stations to exist. Texaco began as the "Texas Fuel Company", founded in 1902 in Beaumont, Texas, by Joseph S. Cullinan, Thomas J. Donoghue, and Arnold Schlaet upon the discovery of oil at Spindletop. The Texas Fuel Company was not set up to drill wells or to produce crude oil. To accomplish this, Cullinan organized the Producers Oil Company in 1902, as a group of investors affiliated with The Texas Fuel Company. Men such as John W. ("Bet A Million") Gates invested in "certificates of interest" to an amount of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Racing Drivers' Club
The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) is an exclusive invitation-only members club for racecar drivers who are judged to have achieved success in the upper levels of motor sport for a number of seasons. Except under exceptional circumstances, members must have been born in the United Kingdom or Commonwealth. The BRDC owns and operates Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom. Early days The club was founded in April 1928 by Dr. J. Dudley Benjafield, one of an informal group of British racing drivers known as the " Bentley Boys". The BRDC began primarily as a socialising club for Benjafield and his fellow drivers, but by the time of its inauguration, its 25 members had devised a set of objectives for the club: *To promote the interests of motor sport generally. *To celebrate any specific achievement in motor sport. *To extend hospitality to racing drivers from overseas. *To further the interests of British drivers competing abroad. In 1929, the BRDC became involved in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK National Lottery
The National Lottery is the state-franchising, franchised national lottery established in 1994 in the United Kingdom. It is regulated by the Gambling Commission, and is operated by Allwyn Entertainment, who took over from Camelot Group (who had been running the National Lottery since its inception) on 1 February 2024. Prizes are paid as a lump sum (with the exception of the Set For Life which is paid over a set period) and are tax-free. Of all money spent on National Lottery games, around 53% goes to the prize fund and 25% to "good causes" as set out by Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament (though some of this is considered by some to be a form of "stealth tax" levied to support the National Lottery Community Fund, a fund constituted to support public spending). 12% goes to the UK government as lottery duty, 4% to retailers as commission, and a total of 5% to the operator, with 4% to cover operating costs and 1% as profit. Since 22 April 2021, players must be 18 years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Napier Railton
The Napier-Railton is an aero-engined racing car built in 1933, designed by Reid Railton to a commission by John Cobb, and built by Thomson & Taylor. It was driven by Cobb, mainly at the Brooklands race track where it holds the all-time lap record () which was set in 1935. The circuit was appropriated for military purposes during the Second World War, and never reopened in that form for racing. It has a W12 engine with 3 different exhaust systems. History Between 1933 and 1937, the Napier-Railton broke 47 world speed records at Brooklands, Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry and Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (photo of the Napier-Railton at Bonneville) The car is powered by the high compression version (6.1:1) (RAF specification) of the naturally aspirated Napier Lion, a W12 of capacity, producing at 2585 revolutions per minute (recorded at 5,000 ft – performance at ground level may be different), and of torque. The 12 cylinders are in three banks of four (broad-arrow co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beaulieu, Hampshire
Beaulieu ( ) is a village located on the southeastern edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England. It is home to both Beaulieu Palace House, Palace House and the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, National Motor Museum. In 2020, it was named the fifth most beautiful village in the UK and Ireland by ''Condé Nast Traveler''. History The name "Beaulieu" comes from the French language, French ''beau lieu'', which means "beautiful place". It is derived from Beaulieu Abbey, which was populated by 30 monks sent from the French abbey of Cîteaux, the mother house of the Cistercian order. The medieval Latin name of the monastery was ''Bellus Locus Regis'' ("the beautiful place of the king") or ''monasterium Belli loci Regis''. During the Second World War, the Beaulieu Estate of Lord Montagu in the New Forest was the site of group B schools for agents operated by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) between 1941 and 1945. One of the trainers was Kim Philby, who was later found to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Motor Museum, Beaulieu
The National Motor Museum (originally the Montagu Motor Museum) is a museum in the village of Beaulieu, set in the heart of the New Forest, in the English county of Hampshire. History The museum was founded in 1952 by Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, as a tribute to his father, John, 2nd Baron Montagu, who was one of the pioneers of motoring in the United Kingdom, being the first person to drive a motor car into the yard of the Houses of Parliament, and having introduced King Edward VII (then the Prince of Wales) to motoring during the 1890s. At first, the museum consisted of just five cars and a small collection of automobilia displayed in the front hall of Lord Montagu's ancestral home, Palace House; but such was the popularity of this small display that the collection soon outgrew its home, and was transferred to wooden sheds in the grounds of the house. The reputation and popularity of the Beaulieu collection continued to grow: during 195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the world's premier forms of motorsport since its 1950 Formula One season, inaugural running in 1950 and is often considered to be the pinnacle of motorsport. The word ''Formula racing, formula'' in the name refers to Formula One regulations, the set of rules all participant cars must follow. A Formula One season consists of a series of races, known as List of Formula One Grands Prix, Grands Prix. Grands Prix take place in multiple countries and continents on either purpose-built List of Formula One circuits, circuits or closed roads. A List of Formula One World Championship points scoring systems, points scoring system is used at Grands Prix to determine two annual World Championships: List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions, one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Mansell
Nigel Ernest James Mansell (; born 8 August 1953) is a British former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Mansell won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Williams, and won 31 Grands Prix across 15 seasons. In American open-wheel racing, Mansell won the IndyCar World Series in 1993 with Newman/Haas Racing, and remains the only driver to have simultaneously held both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship. His career in Formula One spanned 15 seasons, with his final two full seasons of top-level racing being spent in the CART series. Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved to CART, becoming the first person to win the CART title in his debut season, and making him the only person to hold both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship simultaneously. Mansell is the second most successful British Formula One driver of all time in terms of race win ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, which also became Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918, producing military aircraft such as the Wellington and civil airliners like the Viscount and VC-10. The circuit hosted its last race in August 1939 and today part of it forms the Brooklands Museum, a major aviation and motoring museum, as well as a venue for vintage car, motorcycle and other transport-related events. History Brooklands motor circuit The Brooklands motor circuit was the brainchild of Hugh Fortescue Locke King, and was the first purpose-built banked motor race circuit in the world. Following the Motor Car Act 1903, Britain was subject to a blanket speed limit on public roads: at a time when nearly 50% of the world's new cars were produced in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Birkin
Sir Henry Ralph Stanley Birkin, 3rd Baronet (26 July 1896 – 22 June 1933), known as Tim Birkin, was a British racing driver, one of the "Bentley Boys" of the 1920s. Background and family Birkin was born into a wealthy Nottingham family in 1896, the son of Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin, 2nd Baronet, and the Hon. Margaret Diana Hopetoun Chetwynd. In childhood, Henry Birkin gained the nickname "Tim", after the children's comic book character Tiger Tim, created by Julius Stafford Baker, who was extremely popular at the time. It was his nickname for the rest of his life. Birkin married Audrey Clara Lilian Latham, daughter of Sir Thomas Paul Latham, 1st Baronet, and Florence Clara Walley, on 12 July 1921; they divorced in 1928. He and Audrey had two daughters, Pamela and Sara, both of whom married and had issue. The elder daughter Pamela (d. 1983) married two Buxton cousins in succession, and her second husband was the Life Peer Baron Buxton of Alsa, KCVO, MC. She had seven chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
