Help tracing a car's racing history

[Chris71]

Hi,

Can anyone suggest how I'd go about tracing the race history of a car that competed in the UK in the early '50s?

As far as I'm aware it's only club events. We have know the car appeared at Goodwood and Silverstone later in its career, as well as hillclimbing in Cornwall, but don't know anything about the first few years.

Any thoughts?

Chris

[nicanary]

Try the Nostalgia Forum on the Autosport site - loads of old farts on there who go back eons. They could tell you what the owner had for lunch on 1 June 1947.

[OllieC]

Have you tried asking at ten tenths ?

http://www.ten-tenths.com/

there is a wealth of knowlege on there, other forums are available

[Chris71]

Thanks chaps, will enquire on both.

Already managed to uncover a couple of references to the car in old programmes stored in the National Hill Climb Association archives. Not exactly the Mille Miglia, but it's a start...

[lowdrag]

It'll be hard if not nigh on impossible. I tried researching the racing history of "Willie Eckerslike", whose real name was of course Nigel Moores but he used the rather Yorkshire name so his parents wouldn't know and I got nowhere. Club racing records don't, it seems, survive.

Edited by lowdrag on Friday 26th April 14:24

[Chris71]

lowdrag said:

It'll be hard if not nigh on impossible.

Quite possibly.

I do however, have the name of all the owners (I think...) and a partial race history. It would just be nice to fill in a few blanks.

[nicanary]

You could do worse than put up a few details and a photo on this site. PH members may know more than you think. We're not all 18 yr-olds with stanced Micras.

[Chris71]

nicanary said:

You could do worse than put up a few details and a photo on this site. PH members may know more than you think. We're not all 18 yr-olds with stanced Micras.

Fair point. Here's the car (at Goodwood by the looks of things):


And here's what I know from the Healey register:

Owners:
Capt H W Pearson Rogers 1950’s
Mr Scobey Sept 1952 – 1953 Cornwall
C.P. Green 1953 – 1956
Brian Palmer 1956
M. Meran 1964 - 1969

Competition history:
1952 Trengwaiton hill climb driver David Scobey
1952 Davidstow circuit driver David Scobey
1953 May Davidstow circuit driver David Scobey
1954 Goodwood 27th March driver C.P. Green Start no 67
1954 Goodwood 21st Aug ,, ,, ,,
1954 Sunbeam AC meeting ? Silverstone driver C.P. Green

My dad has owned the car since 1969 (by which point its racing career was long over). What I'd really love to know was whether Capt Pearson Rogers did anything interesting with it when the car was new.

A misprint in a recent article suggested that it might be a mille miglia car. Sadly this turned out to be a mistake, but it was produced when they were still being used for top flight competition. Of course even if the most it ever did was the Surbiton and District Motor Club Autotest it'd still be interesting to find out more.

[LordBretSinclair]

If the events were governed by the RAC Motor Sports Association they may have archive details.

http://www.msauk.org/custom/asp/home/default.asp

[nicanary]

All I can tell you is that David (Den) Scobey came 2nd in class (Sports over 1500cc) in a 20-minute speed trial at the Davidstow meeting on 9.8.52 (behind an Allard J2 Cadillac) , and at the same meeting was second to the same car in a standing-start half-mile sprint. After that the meeting was abandoned - same old Davidstow problem, the weather.

At the Davidstow meeting on 25.5.53 he was 8th in the 10-lap race for sports cars over 1500cc behind diverse machinery, such as the Allard, a couple of XK120s, a BMW 328 and Ashley Cleave's famous Morris Special. The meeting didn't start until 5.30pm (!!) because of fog, and the racing was curtailed.

Can't help with the Goodwood and Silverstone events. My history of Davidstow suggests that he was quite competitive in hillclimbs and sprints, but not at home in circuit racing.

[Chris71]

nicanary said:

All I can tell you is that David (Den) Scobey came 2nd in class (Sports over 1500cc) in a 20-minute speed trial at the Davidstow meeting on 9.8.52 (behind an Allard J2 Cadillac) , and at the same meeting was second to the same car in a standing-start half-mile sprint. After that the meeting was abandoned - same old Davidstow problem, the weather.

At the Davidstow meeting on 25.5.53 he was 8th in the 10-lap race for sports cars over 1500cc behind diverse machinery, such as the Allard, a couple of XK120s, a BMW 328 and Ashley Cleave's famous Morris Special. The meeting didn't start until 5.30pm (!!) because of fog, and the racing was curtailed.

Can't help with the Goodwood and Silverstone events. My history of Davidstow suggests that he was quite competitive in hillclimbs and sprints, but not at home in circuit racing.

That's brilliant! Can I ask where you found the information?

Like I say, the early years with Capt Pearson Rogers are the most intriguing. He may well have used it as a road car, but that's the period it would have been competitive in more high profile events. I can't find any references to him anywhere.

[Prof Beard]

I have a book - first published in 1951 - called "Racing a Sports Car" by Charles Mortimer - which describes the authors experiences of racing a Silverstone around that period and mentions numerous other Silverstone drivers. A quick look didn't show up the names you list, but I would commend getting the book anyway if you can find a copy as its describes all sorts of detail about competing/preparing the car. It was last printed in a "Handy" format in the later 1950s. It's a short - 135pp - book with nice period photos.

Edited by Prof Beard on Friday 26th April 17:12

[56Lotus]

The car and driver is mentioned in the book "A history of Cornwalls Formula 1 race circuit Davidstow" by Peter Tuthill.

It's my local area and I know a local gent who also raced and hillclimbed in the area in throughout the fifties and is mentioned inthe same book. Next time I see him I'll ask if he remembers the first drivers.

Jon Adams

[Chris71]

56Lotus said:

The car and driver is mentioned in the book "A history of Cornwalls Formula 1 race circuit Davidstow" by Peter Tuthill.

It's my local area and I know a local gent who also raced and hillclimbed in the area in throughout the fifties and is mentioned in the same book. Next time I see him I'll ask if he remembers the first drivers.

Jon Adams

Interesting. Would be fascinated to hear if he comes back with anything.

Might have to invest in a copy of that book...

ETA According to this site Scobey raced the car at Davidstow on 30th August 1952. Possibly another race?
http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/archive/E.%...

Edited by Chris71 on Friday 26th April 17:24

[Roy C]

Slightly OT, but there were a few Silverstones at their namesake last weekend.

[lowdrag]

A quick Googleation shows that the book by Peter Tutthill is still available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books/s?ie=UTF8&field-...

You're in luck!

[Mistron]

For more info on the Goodwood history of the car you could try Tony Gardiner or Robert Barker, both f whom have published books on the circuit's history and hold good records.
If you need email addresses, drop me a PM with your details and I can put you in touch

Al

[nicanary]

Chris71 said:

Interesting. Would be fascinated to hear if he comes back with anything.

Might have to invest in a copy of that book...

ETA According to this site Scobey raced the car at Davidstow on 30th August 1952. Possibly another race?
http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/archive/E.%...

Edited by Chris71 on Friday 26th April 17:24

The Tuthill publication is the one I got the results from. It's a slim volume but really interesting to fans of racing in the 50s. It's a circuit with a fascinating but short history - as a lad I went to Snetterton and thought the weather there could be bad, but Davidstow takes the biscuit.

There was no meeting on 30.8.52 - I'm pretty sure the result mentioned on the racingsportscars site is the 2nd place he got in the 9.8.52 meeting. The Tony Brooks biography would also be good for info about racing a Silverstone - he persuaded his mum to buy one for shopping so that he could race it at weekends ! They were very popular as reliable and tuneable cars, and were still racing in club events right up to the 60s.

[Chris71]

nicanary said:

The Tuthill publication is the one I got the results from. It's a slim volume but really interesting to fans of racing in the 50s. It's a circuit with a fascinating but short history - as a lad I went to Snetterton and thought the weather there could be bad, but Davidstow takes the biscuit.

There was no meeting on 30.8.52 - I'm pretty sure the result mentioned on the racingsportscars site is the 2nd place he got in the 9.8.52 meeting. The Tony Brooks biography would also be good for info about racing a Silverstone - he persuaded his mum to buy one for shopping so that he could race it at weekends! They were very popular as reliable and tuneable cars, and were still racing in club events right up to the 60s.

Thanks, will get hold of a copy.

I had heard that Tony Brooks used to race one. Roy Salavadori and several other notable drivers too, apparently.

My dad's has certainly done its fair share of grocery shopping. I used to get picked up from school in it quite often - he's owned it since 1969.

Edited by Chris71 on Monday 29th April 11:50