kop hill

Driving the Napier-Railton

March 23, 2021 By pete

Of course I drive a car. What makes you think I don’t drive a car?’ Copyright Stan Mott.

The Brooklands Museum Director, Allan Winn, takes us on a spin with the Napier W12-engined Railton, the car which conquered Brooklands for all time. We think you’ll find his words more informative and interesting than the videos, found at the end of the article. Our thanks to both for these exclusive stories Also, thanks to Paul Stewart, Brooklands Museum Marketing and PR Manager, and VeloceToday’s Jonathan Sharp

From our Archives, November 2013

Driving Impressions by Allan Winn, Brooklands Museum Director

First off, the Napier-Railton is an enormously powerful, iconic machine. However, the overwhelming impression you have from driving it on a regular basis is how benign and user-friendly it is. That’s not to say it is an easy car to start or drive, but it is an extraordinary, well-behaved machine.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
Login Subscribe

Driving the Big Ones: Napier Railton

November 21, 2013 By pete

'Of course I drive a car. What makes you think I don't drive a car?' Copyright Stan Mott.

Last week the owner of the Delage-Bequet described driving his aero-engined Grand Prix car; this week the Brooklands Museum Director, Allan Winn, takes us on a spin with the Napier W12-engined Railton, the car which conquered Brooklands for all time. We think you’ll find his words more informative and interesting than the videos, found at the end of the article. Our thanks to both for these exclusive stories Also, thanks to Paul Stewart, Brooklands Museum Marketing and PR Manager, and VeloceToday’s Jonathan Sharp

Driving Impressions by Allan Winn, Brooklands Museum Director

Starting
Starting the Napier requires concentration. There is nothing like a choke. The first thing you have to do is to turn the fuel on, then pump the Ki-Gas about eight times, which squirts neat fuel into the inlet manifolds. There is an enormously long distance from the triple carb throats to the rearmost pistons. Then, you need to lock the Ki-gas pump on the dashboard so the handle does not come loose.

Allan Winn tells the story of the Napier-Railton for the cameras. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.

Then it’s a case of rocking the car to get it into first gear on the three-speed gearbox, switching on the two magnetos (with what looks a lot like a Victorian electrical house switch), then releasing the fly-off handbrake and getting up to four people to push furiously up to a walking pace. Finally, drop the clutch – after alerting the pushers – and it will fire on the first or second compression.

As soon as it picks up to 12 cylinders, you knock it into neutral, then stop and check that the oil pressure is up to 65 psi and that you haven’t had a spitback through the carbs and you don’t have a fire burning in the inlets. (If it did, any fire should get sucked right back into the carbs and you wouldn’t have a problem.)

It takes a long time to warm up 15 gallons of oil. Photo by Jonathan Sharp.

Warm up procedure
One must bear in mind that the “broad arrow” Lion W12 is huge, and requires 52 liters of coolant and around 15 gallons (not quarts) of Castrol GP 50. Warming up means bringing the coolant up to about 70 degrees C which can take up to ten minutes. We run it at about 1,000 rpm for first couple of minutes then bring it up to 1,100-1,200 rpm to hasten the process. We are using a waterless vintage coolant which has very good non-corrosive and wetting qualities and keeps the car running much cooler than it did on a water/antifreeze mix. In normal running it’s extremely difficult to get any reading at all on the oil temp gauge.

The Napier W-12.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
Login Subscribe

This is Kop Hill

October 10, 2013 By pete

This is Kop Hill: Bugatti Type 39 GP 1500cc of David Hands.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
Click on photos to see large color images!

We are probably all familiar with the Prescott and Shelsley Walsh hill climbs, venues which have been running events right up to today. But what is Kop Hill? It is actually one of the oldest hill climb venues in England and was one of several hill climb locations in the Chiltern Hills during the early years of the past century.

First run in 1910, the hill climb became a major event on the motor sport calendar. It attracted many of the star names during its heyday, such as Captain Malcolm Campbell who drove his 12hp Talbot “Blue Bird” , Raymond Mays (in a Bugatti), Henry Segrave in his 2 liter GP Sunbeam, and Count Zborowski in an 8 cylinder Ballot. It was Zborowski who clocked the fastest time for motor cars in 1922 driving an aero-engined Ballot with a time of 26.8 seconds. However, the bikes were faster, with a 22.8 second time being the record set by Freddy Dixon on his 736cc Douglas, an average speed of 81 mph. Unlike Prescott, the climb is fairly straight but does have a 1 in 5 gradient.

The golden days ended abruptly on the 28th March, 1925, following a minor accident in which a spectator was injured. As this was a result of virtually uncontrollable crowds, the RAC (Royal Automobile Club, the sanctioning body) banned all forms of motor sport on public roads in the U.K.

In 1999, the local town council, in association with the Bean Car Club (a British club open to all cars made before 1941) held a commemorative run up the once famous hill. Ten years later in 2009, under the leadership of Tony Davies, the first revival meeting was held. Five years on and the event goes from strength to strength and does seem to have the ability to attract the cars that you do not normally see at other events.

As the hill is a closed public road, the runs are not timed, but this does not seem to slow the competitors down. The return to the start involves the cars having to descend the hill via a route that takes in a run through the middle of the nearby village. The entry list fpr the two-day event numbers around 400 cars and bikes and includes everything from a 750cc Austin 7 to the 24 liter Napier Railton.

During the afternoon runs on Sunday the skies above the climb where filled with the sights and sounds of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial flights with Hurricanes and Spitfires. All money raised goes to local charities.

For further information about the history of the event I would recommend taking a look at the event’s website which contains many period articles about the heyday of the climb. www.kophillclimb.org.uk

Roy Gibson's 1929 Alfa Romeo 1750 Super Sport. Coachwork by James Young. This car was owned in period by the British Alfa Romeo importer Fred Styles as was featured on the importer's motor show stand. This example is not supercharged, but Roy has another example with James Young coachwork and a supercharger.

This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.
Login Subscribe