I’ve always wished Bill was well enough to help me with my racing: so
many works cars he looked after and with his experience, but I always knew he couldn’t due to his illness and unfortunately
all I could do was make sure his name was on my car somewhere; Vauxhall would do well to realise they wouldn’t be where
they are now in the BTCC without Bill and there really wouldn’t be a road or race car without him and I hope they
make a point of "celebrating" Bill’s life when they are shortly at Thruxton like they did with Dad; VXR would be
nothing without Bill’s foresight and work back in the '60s and '70s
Some people will probably disagree with my engineer comment about Bill; but
they would be wrong! Bill was an economist; I’m not sure if that’s a Dutch Norwegian trait, but he was still
an economist!! He thought motor racing was about designing the quickest car with your ingenuity and making it as
frugal aswell as quick as possible and easily available to the public; he was right, that’s exactly what a race car
should be. Imagine if he had of been allowed that in F1, DTV’s ingenuity, Dad’s skill GM’s money
and the relationship and location DTV shared with Lotus and Colin Chapman’s bewilderment with Gerry Marshall, but it
never happened and I think Bill decided F1 was never going to happen. Supersaloons was about to implode; they
were quicker than F1 cars, there was nothing left to prove in circuit racing so rally was the only way forwards!!
Generally the car’s he built, raced and developed in the late ‘50s
and early ‘60s were the quickest racing things out there and they were also the most dynamic, buyer-friendly and I still
take knowledge from "Old Nail", the fastest Firenza in the West!!
A lot of people overlooked Bill’s driving; he was fantastic in the Isobella
Borgward, getting international results that no-one else could and he acheived the first ever international race victory for a
Mini Cooper. He decided Vauxhall was the way forwards and he approached Vauxhall when they had no interest, it
was Ford or Leyland, etc, Vauxhall didn’t exist!
Bill was extremely gracious in his retirement from racing, there was no reason
for him to stop racing, he was smooth and quick but he acknowledged Dad was quicker and would progress Vauxhall
on…Bill could still have done a very good job.
I cannot sit here and write something to sum Bill’s life up because
I don’t think anyone could, all I can do is say how he treated me in the last twenty years; he was brilliant, he lent
me all his drawings when I was a 14 year old (I wish I had of copied those!!), he explained the gas-flowing he did (again
I was 14 and I half understood it but I wish he explained!!), he was generous to a fault, he was a fanatic supporter to the
Droop Snoot Group and Vauxhall and what Dad thought about him was immense, a hell of a lot, he was one of motor racings last
proper, proper people.
Bill was the straightest person that you would ever meet in motor racing and
probably the best ever engineer to never make it into F1 through his morals; there was no reason why he shouldn’t have
got there other than economy and engine changes; funny how it’s gone full circle; if this was mid-70s now I think you
would see a Bill Blydenstein and Frank Costin F1 car filled by a certain Gerry Marshall and Tony Lanfranchi; but then I probably
wouldn’t be here!!
A few pictures below of some of the cars that people very kindly brought along on Friday to pay their last respects to
Bill.
