London
Grand Prix Circuit (Won the Autosport Competition)
Design the
London Grand Prix was a competition in Autosport back in 1968/69.
In 1981 a group of business
men hired
8 leading professionals but after considering their proposals decided to
adopt the design of John Nichols
Published
1 April 1982. - Autosport
Article
London
Grand Prix Design the
London Grand Prix was a competition in Autosport back in 1968/69.
The competition
was won by John Nichols, this was his winning entry:
A lap of the
track will start in The Mall, where there is sufficient width of road already
exists for a half mile start/
straight with
pits located in the open space on the north side of Carlton Gardens. From
there the cars will pass
through the
roundabout in front of Buckingham Palace before heading up Constitution
Hill to Hyde Park Corner,
briefly up
Park Lane and then into Hyde Park. Here the road will need to be widened
considerably all the way past
the Serpentine
as far as the bridge after a 90 degree left-hander, which then leads along
a straight through a
left-hand
kink, to Queen's Gate Corner. The circuit then continues along Kensington
Road, through the underpass
beneath Hyde
Park Corner and up Picadilly as far as the Eros Chicane, which follows
the normal route for traffic
around Picadilly
Circus. After passing down Haymarket the cars then loop most of the way
around Trafalgar
Square before
rejoining the main street underneath the treacherously narrow Admiralty
Arch, which leads directly
to the start/finish.
An obvious
problem was that the track will run virtually through Buckingham Palace's
front garden! the Royal Family
have proved,
however, very amenable to the plan, their only worry being that the time-honoured
tradition of the
Changing of
the Guards will have to be broken for four days, a situation without precedent.
"I think that it highly
unlikely that
the Royal Family will stay in residence while the Grand Prix is on," said
a Buckingham Place spokesman
late friday,
" but obviously the palace will provide a marvelous vantage point for the
staff and guests who stay."
Swindon
Coate
Water (Circa 1970) Posted
on Sunday, 04 January, 2004 - 12:08 am:
Posted by Richard
Crozier
Abandoned proposal
for a circuit near Swindon, from the designer of the London GP circuit.
Extract taken from his
website, http://www.itccommunications.net/Fresume.html.
Any circuit map or any other info? (NO)
"1970/71 -
John Nichols whilst working as a Principal Planning Officer of Swindon
designed a permanent circuit for the
Coate Water
area of the town. The Publicity Manager of Burmah Oil* at that time had
found investors who would be
interested
in financing the project. John Webb of Motor Circuit Developments had advised
John Nichols , after he
designed the
circuit, that his company had carried out a computer study as to where
the ideal place in England to
construct
a new circuit would be. The result was Marlborough., approximately 10 miles
South of the proposed site.
The Engineers
Department were worried about the noise aspect and the project had to be
abandoned on these
grounds."
Michael Dixon - John Nichols currently went on to design Mr. Dixon´s
house which was featured in Ideal
Home Magazine
when he set up a private practice in Swindon.
Torremolinos
- Proposed Street Circuit (1980)
Torremolinos
(Permanent
Circuit circa 1982) - Area
map Hopefully
we will be able to publish plans of this which are currently in the
possession of the Mayor of Villanueva
del Rosario.
Posted on Sunday,
04 January, 2004 - 12:03 am:
Posted by Richard
Crozier I'm pretty
sure that this is a different abandoned proposal to the proposed street
track for Torremolinos (which you
already have
on this site), even if it is from the same designer, albeit 4 years later.
Extract taken from the
designer's
website, http://www.itccommunications.net/Fresume.html
"1984 - John
Nichols designed a permanent circuit for Torremolinos., Circuito Pinomar,
on the Costa del Sol. Spain.,
the site being
provided by the local authority. Subject to minor modifications it was
approved in principle by the FISA
Circuit Inspector
Derek
Ongaro. After a year of studying the proposal Malaga decided that whilst
they would welcome
a circuit,
they would prefer it to be located on a different site, so the proposal
was dropped even though potential
investors
had been found. Both Jerez and a proposed street circuit at Fuengirola
were designed subsequent to this."
Campillos
Antequera (Permanent Circuit). Area
Map Feasibility
Study for March
Engineering plc. Unfortunately the company purchased a stockbroker
in Southampton
which caused
the company to collapse.
Address
John Nichols.
Cortijo Milenium. Villanueva del Rosario 29312.
Málaga. Spain
Telephone
(+34) 952031010 or (+34) 660056527
Website www.racingdriver.oilpatch.com
