The sight that greeted us when we arrived in Birmingham the following week was not good.

On first impressions it seemed a hopelessly lost cause. The 16 inch alloy wheels had disappeared along with the tyres, the Rickman front hub and the Manx rear hub both made of magnesium alloy had vanished also, just leaving the wheel spindles and the front brake disc.

Of course, the sidecar platform and all of  the streamlining had been destroyed except for  the base of the nosecone which must have been saved by contact with the  floor of the museum preventing the fire from getting underneath it after the wheels had collapsed.