Jonathan Sharp at the Brooklands GP100

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Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

‘A brighter scene than Brooklands on August 7th 1926 would be hard to imagine; sunshine, dresses, sumptuous cars, grass, trees, advertisements, and lastly the little green and blue projectiles themselves, such as the picture retained in the mind’. so wrote the Brooklands Gazette in the September 1926 edition. The event in question ? Britain’s first Grand Prix, Not technically the ‘British Grand Prix’ but the first Grand Prix event held in the UK. Run under the title ‘The Grand Prix of the Royal Automobile Club’ Brooklands had been offered the chance to run the event in 1925 but the Royal Automobile Club had been unable to accept the offer but when the offer was renewed for 1926 it got the go ahead to run the event at Brooklands which had opened back in 1907 as the world’s first purpose built banked motor racing circuit.

Something we British do well, Queue!

So it was that exactly 100 years and one day later (August 8) I joined the queue on a hot and sunny Saturday morning for the already sold out ‘Brooklands GP100’ event a celebration of 100 years since that first Grand Prix. On the Friday evening at the gala dinner the organisers had lined up over 120 Grand Prix cars on finishing straight which must have been a fantastic sight and come Saturday morning the paddocks were still full of wonderful machinery. But the event was not just a static display, many of the cars could be seen in action either on the finishing straight where many of the pre war cars hoped skipped and jumped their way around the straw bails laid out as had been the case back in 1926 their drivers and passengers sometimes seeming to be hanging on for dear life. Or at the adjacent Mercedes Benz World Test track where mainly post WW2 cars were demo’d in the morning being joined in the afternoon by a selection of pre WW2 cars. Some drivers even attempted the Test Hill, and some even made it to the top. They used to say ‘Brooklands the right crowd and no crowding’ well the event was so popular that the 8000 tickets on offer sold out weeks in advance of the event but because the site is so big and with being able to use the adjacent test track it did not feel too crowded but it was more shorts and t shirts than summer dresses and some of cars were red or even multi-coloured.

I return briefly to the Brooklands Gazette ‘One was impressed by the resemblance to a horse-racing meeting, even to the parade of cars burbling gently out to the distant starting line from the paddock, to the delight of the huge crowd, many of whom did not again have an opportunity of examining the vehicles at such close range. The antics of the mechanics when climbing in to accompany the drivers to the start, were most amusing, some of them only just retaining their precarious seats as the driver “trod on the gas”. Different times indeed.

Below, while Brooklands listed the cars by year, we found it easier to break up the many race cars by front and rear engined, and then present them alphabetically. This week the front engined cars, next week the rear engined.-Ed.

Alta

All I can tell you is I believe this to be an Alta, Interestingly when I dropped the picture into a certain AI program it told me it was a Maserati 6CM which clearly it is not!

Alvis

The Alvis front wheel drive Grand Prix car was Powered by a supercharged 1.5 litre straight eight driving the front wheels. The front suspension was fully independent with a distinctive arrangement of four leaf springs with the steering connected above the hub on one side and below it on the other. This is chassis number 2 which was entered into the 1927 British Grand Prix but failed to make the start. Chassis 2 had better luck a few weeks later at the Brooklands JCC 200 mile race where driver George Duller was lapping in excess of 120 mph but had to retire on lap 52 due to engine failure.

Amilcar

1926 Amilcar CO Martin Le Mans Special. One of 12 chassis built and a two times Le Mans entrant. This diminutive machine can be termed a genuine barn find though, more accurately, it was discovered in a lock-up in Hastings in terrible shape. Painstaking research revealed that it was one of some 12 Works CO chassis, and had a two-times Le Mans racing history. The Amilcar’s restorer was Walter Heale, of Historic Motor Car Workshops.

Aston Martin

1922 Aston Martin Grand Prix car – ‘Green Pea’. Constructed by Bamford & Martin and entered into the 1922 French Grand Prix at Strasburg where it was driven by Count Louis Zaborowski- retiring with magneto problems. Later that year it was entered in the Grand Prix de Penya Rhin at Barcelona – driven by WD Hawkes again retiring. Then at the Shelsey Walsh hill climb claiming 4th place in the light car class. And finally in 1922 at the Aston Clinton Hill climb and driven by Bertie Kensington-Moir. In 1923 the car was sold to Mrs Marion Agnew who gave it the name ‘Green Pea’ and campaigned her around Europe sharing the car with Bobby Morgan. Notable results for 1923 included 2nd place at the 1923 Grand Prix de Boulogne (Morgan), 6th at the JCC 200 mile race at Brooklands (Morgan), a Gold Medal in the MCC London/Lands End Trial (Morgan), In 1924 1st in Ladies Race at the JCC May Meeting at Brooklands (Agnew), in 1925 2nd in the Grand Prix de Boulogne (Morgan). In 1958 it was bought and restored by NF Murray and has been raced and sprinted by family and friends ever since.

Austin

1908 6 cyl 9657cc Austin 100hp Grand Prix racing car, Created from the remains of two of the four cars built by Austin to compete in the French Grand Prix of 1908. Two had chain drive, and two had shaft drive. During practice both shaft drive cars crashed and their parts we combined to build this the fifth racing car. Three cars started the race driven by Warwick Wright, Dario Resta and John Moore-Brabazon (later the first Lord Brabazon of Tara). Warwick Wright retired with a seized engine but Moore-Brabazon and Resta finished in 18th and 19th place respectively; the only British cars to finish. As the cars had proved to be no match to its Continental rivals the cars were sold off as fast tourers with this chassis being owned by Sir Hickman Bacon for many years. He had a special body for touring fitted which could allow him to carry extra passengers but could be easily removed to return the car to a two seater.

Bentley

Vanden Plas bodied Bentley 4 1/2 litre Rather appropriately YW5758 opened the mornings proceedings on the Start/finishing straight. Purchased by Humphrey Cook, the money man behind ERA, YW went straight to Northern Ireland finishing second in class and seventh overall at the Newtownards Tourost Trophy. Jumping to 1929 the season did not start so well when engine issues forced a retirement at the Brooklands Double Twelve. Things did improve as on the 30th June YW, in the hands of Humphrey Cook, finished first in class and third overall at the Brooklands 200 mile race. On the 12th July YW finished fifth overall in the inaugural Irish International Grand Prix at Phoenix Park in Dublin and the season was rounded off with an outright win for Jack Barclay and Frank Clement at the Brooklands 500 mile race with a winning average speed of 107.32 mph despite surviving a high speed slide on the members banking in which Barclay, expecting the car to roll, had ducked under the scuttle to prevent decapitation.

However YWs most famous outing was the 1929 Le Mans were driven by Frenchman Jean Chassagne and Frank Clement as part of a five car factory team, With Clement at the wheel whilst running in second place behind the Barnato/Birkin Bentley Speed Six the ballast onboard designed to mimic the weight of a passenger slipped causing the bodywork to foul the brake rods causing one to break. Clement managed to return the car to the pits where Bentley mechanic Hassan managed to cobble together a fix allowing the car to re enter the race but back in eighth place but by 10am it had passed the Stutz and Chrysler entries going on to finish in fourth place in close formation behind three of its team mates with the winning car ‘Old Number One’ of Banarto/Birkin 17 laps ahead at the finish.

1931 Bentley 4.5 litre Supercharged (Blower) registration GP1630 chassis MS3936, one of 55 Blower Bentley’s constructed. Originally fitted with a Lancefield four seater drop head coupe body, purchased by Lieutenant Colonel Ivor Watkins Birts of the Royal Artillery a then 21 year old son of a solicitor from Oxford. During his ownership he raced the car in a private wager at Brooklands against a well known bridge player Sir Guy Domvil who was driving a supercharged Essex Terraplane Six, The Bentley won.

Bugatti

More Bugattis that one can shake a stick at…

A T23, presumably a Brescia, dared the track and looked good.

Type 37

Listed in the entry list as a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 carrying the French registration DG-755-PF.

Delage

Car 26, 1926/27 Delage 15-S-8, chassis number 4 was later raced by Richard Seaman at Brooklands. Next to it (car 32) is what is believed to be chassis 2 which is based on the factory team’s practice car for the 1926 race.

ERA

Owned by Duncan Ricketts since 1995 the 1939 ERA E Type GP1 was designed to challenge its rivals from Italy and Germany but it arrived too late and proved to be whilst very fast in a straight line (timed by Mercedes Benz at 172 mph at Reims) it turned out to be unreliable.

At its first race a the International Trophy Race at Brooklands it performed so poorly that it was withdrawn and at the French Grand Prix its unreliablity again forced its withdrawal. When it finally did start a race, at Albi, Arthur Dobson crashed whilst in the lead rapturing the fuel tank and forcing its retirement. Perhaps given more time but world events intervened.

Just three ERA E Types were constructed, This example is GP2 which had very little use before the onset of war. In 1946 it was sold to Leslie Brooke who retained it for a year before selling in 1947 back to ERA which had recently been purchased by Leslie Johnson.

Again GP2 proved to very very fast but very unreliable but did manage a fourth place finish at the 1947 British Empire Trophy race having set a joint fastest lap in practice with Reg Parnell’s 4CLT Maserati. GP2s final appearance was at the 1950 Grand Prix d’Europe at Silverstone where a blown supercharged caused yet another retirement.

Flatiron

1926 Thomas ‘Flatiron’ Special, Now remembered more for his exploits in breaking the land speed record in his 27 litre Babs, which ultimately claimed his life on Pendine sands, John Godfrey Parry Thomas was also a gifted engineer who created two striking 1.5 litre straight eight grand prix cars in his workshop at the Brooklands circuit with the idea to compete in the 1926 British Grand Prix though neither example took part however Parry Thomas did go on to win a 50 mile handicap race at Brooklands in October and later set new speed and distance records covering 112.77 miles in a hour. Both cars raced at the 1927 Brooklands Grand Prix but by then Parry Thomas had lost his life at Pendine. Both cars remained active and were competitive at the circuit right up until the circuits closure in 1939. Whilst one chassis was scrapped in Canada the remaining chassis has been painstakingly restored and made its first public appearance since WW2 at the event.

Frazer Nash

1926 Frazer Nash Boulogne Vitese, chassis 1126.

1935 Frazer Nash ‘Fane’ Monoposto.

Halford

One of the nine cars that started the 1926 Grand Prix of the Royal Automobile Club the Halford Special was built and raced by Major Halford and was running in a comfortable third place when on lap 82 of the 110 lap race transmission troubles caused it’s retirement. Based on an Bamford & Martin chassis, that had been previously crashed by a young George Eyston at a Voiturette race at Boulogne, and powered by a 1.5 litre straight six engine designed by the major himself and originally fitted with a exhaust driven blower. The Special was later sold to Captain George Eyston who raced it at Brooklands and took fourth place in it at the 1927 French Grand Prix. Major Halford went on to design a succession of aero engines that help shape British Aviation from the Gypsy Major engine to the 24 cylinder 3500 horse power engine that powered the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest.

Lorraine Dietrich

A Brooklands resident, the 1912 Lorraine Dietrich ‘Vieux Charles III, I understand this is the sole survivor of the French teams entry for the 1912 Dieppe Grand Prix. Following the Grand Prix its driver Victor Hemery brought the car over to Brooklands and set three British class A records. After WW1 Malcolm Campbell brought the car back from France and in 1920 won the first race held at Brooklands following its reopening in it.

Maserati