Durham Bridge on Top Gear

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

The website, that is.

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/lorr ... 2012-10-26

http://herald-sun.com/view/full_story/2 ... o-Top-Gear?

I won't name names, but somebody in this club has now been warned to stay away from the Brightleaf Square area of Durham!

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:15 am

The main website and YouTube channel...

http://11foot8.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/yovo68

The videos are pretty funny.

Richard

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:40 am

Richard Casto wrote:

The videos are pretty funny.

Richard

Depends on your perspective....

clinehall · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:04 am

Ryan Holton wrote:

Richard Casto wrote:

The videos are pretty funny.

Richard

Depends on your perspective....

This will never die!

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

I was reminded today that Gregson Street (which runs under the bridge) was originally named "Hated Street" by Duke tobacco heir Brodie Duke. http://www.thedurhamnews.com/2005/10/15 ... acter.html I suppose all of these unfortunate truck drivers would support reinstating the original name.

Pete Guthrie · **Posted:** Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:27 pm

why would someone stay away from, brightleaf square in durham? is it high in crime or something? I know most trucks are 13 foot 6 inches tall. most big rigs anyway from trucking school.Also, most trucking atlas have height reports on the local bridges . Mine is a few years old, and beat up, but it still has readings.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Pete, I was making an unappreciated and snide reference to a former club president, a club bus, and a railroad underpass in Bailey. Not that I'm going into any specifics.

Brightleaf Square

is one of the more popular destinations in Durham. Two ornate old brick tobacco warehouses were converted around 1980 into shops, restaurants and office space. It fell a bit out of favor in the 1990s, but has enjoyed renewed interest with the redevelopment of the nearby Liggett & Myers tobacco factory complex into trendy apartments, condos, office and restaurants under the name West Village. During the summer they host free concerts on Friday nights in the courtyard of Brightleaf Square. I ran into Chris Schimmel there last summer.

Now if anybody's interested, there is one building in the West Village (Liggett & Myers) complex that remains to be renovated. It's called the Chesterfield Building, and it's best described as a circa 1950 bungalow, with 360,000 square feet of charm

Has a bit of history -- L&M invited Bing Crosby to host the opening of the building, but he refused, which was kind of rude since L&M was sponsoring his radio show to the tune of $25K/week. So they had to call in the second string: Bob Hope, Perry Como and Arthur Godfrey. (I'm not even sure I know what Arthur Godfrey was famous for... Let's ask Charlie!) Anyway, I'm getting tired of reading about plan after plan to renovate it, so one of you guys buy it and do something interesting with it.

clinehall · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:55 am

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Pete, I was making an unappreciated and snide reference to a former club president, a club bus, and a railroad underpass in Bailey. Not that I'm going into any specifics.

.

Oh, it was appreciated just not by the former president.

MartynWheeler · **Joined:** Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:30 pm **Posts:** 303

Arthur McDonald wrote:

It's called the Chesterfield Building, and it's best described as a circa 1950 bungalow, with 360,000 square feet of charm

You say "renovated", I think "air-conditioned rain-free autocross site".

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2012 2:39 pm

clinehall wrote:

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Pete, I was making an unappreciated and snide reference to a former club president, a club bus, and a railroad underpass in Bailey. Not that I'm going into any specifics.

.

Oh, it was appreciated just not by the former president.

Ohhh I can appreciate a good jab about it. Mike Westerfields animated GIF's still make me laugh.

Charlie Guthrie · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 8:14 pm **Posts:** 832

Art said:

Quote:

(I'm not even sure I know what Arthur Godfrey was famous for... Let's ask Charlie!)

All I can remember is that he was a redhead like art....come to think of it, Art are you related?

Also, I seem to recall holding an autocross across the street from the Chesterfield building in that huge parking lot. I ran the MG Midget on Western Auto all season tires that looked huge on the car.
Charlie G

Pete Guthrie · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:32 pm

Werent they on the rims with the style of holes in it. the holes that went around the outer edge of the wheel, like a mag wheel or something.

Charlie Guthrie · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 8:14 pm **Posts:** 832

Wheels were from a Chevy Monza.
Charlie G

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Charlie Guthrie wrote:

Art said:

Quote:

(I'm not even sure I know what Arthur Godfrey was famous for... Let's ask Charlie!)

All I can remember is that he was a redhead like art....come to think of it, Art are you related?

Also, I seem to recall holding an autocross across the street from the Chesterfield building in that huge parking lot. I ran the MG Midget on Western Auto all season tires that looked huge on the car.
Charlie G

You're thinking about the old parking lot for the American Tobacco Factory.

The club used that lot for an autocross in 1988, the year before I joined. (I think you can figure out the out course from the black marks on the pavement)

Apparently your performance that day was so awful that in an effort to obliterate the memory, the city government bought the property, stripped away the pavement and about 20 zillion cubic feet of dirt below that, and put in a very expensive dirt track so a guy in a cow suit could show folks some REAL driving!

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:54 am

How things have changed...

Thanks for the pic Art!

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