On Saturday and Sunday 3 and 4 August 2024 the SAHB was back at Prescott, once again in a prime position thanks to our friends at the VSCC Library, who very kindly lend us space at the end of their tent.
Thank you to all those who came to chat about cars and bikes, old and new, and inexpensive and very expensive.
Unlike last year the weather at Prescott was wonderful, and we were able to stroll around the paddock and the car parks and discover many racing cars and spectators’ cars.
Here are some of the cars we saw – many of them with some stories from owners who generously gave their time to chat with us.
1934 Aston Martin Ulster LM14. A team car that ran in the 1934 Le mans 24 Hours, now owned by Charles Trevelyan.
Aston Martin built three new team cars for the 1934 season: LM11, LM12 and LM14. They were based on the Mark II but with rakish two-seater bodies with the spare wheel stowed horizontally in the tail, as seen here. A.C. Bertelli was very superstitious and LM13 was never built. The three team cars, complete with drilled, lightweight chassis, were entered for Le Mans, but sadly all retired.
The purposeful cockpit of LM14. Note the gearchange, with first gear back left. Aston Martins had ‘reversed’ gearboxes with the constant-mesh gears at the back of the box; thus only the mainshaft had to speed up or slow down when changing gear, giving a very rapid gearchange. As we mentioned in last year’s report on the Thomas Flatiron, this arrangement was used on several racing cars (including all Grand Prix Bugattis from 8-valve to Type 59) and was based on the design in the 1908 Stefanini-designed Isotta-Fraschini FE and FENC cars. The prototype Aston of 1913 was built on one of these FE chassis and Aston kept the idea on their production cars.
Like father like son. Piers Trevelyan was competing in this 1921 Vauxhall E 30/98, an early side-valve car with brakeless front axle.
The cockpit of the 30/98. Sensibly, Piers Trevelyan is driving in his socks, presumably to avoid wrong-pedalling or to maximise sensitivity to the controls – or both.
1927 Bean 18/50 with a 2.7-litre six-cylinder Meadows overhead-valve engine. This model was only in production for one year, in which time 500 were made.
A close-up view of the original mascot on the 1930 MG 18/100 Mk III Tigress. This model was the racing version of the 18/80. Only five were produced and only two survive. The mascot is of a tigress, but it is just possible that a certain manufacturer of sports cars may have been influenced to use a similar mascot on a car named after a similar big cat…
The engine of the Tigress is a 2,468cc overhead-camshaft six-cylinder with dry-sump lubrication, twin-plug ignition and twin SU “egg-top” carburettors, producing 85bhp at 3,800rpm. This gives the car a top speed of around 95mph.
Moving into the Orchard car park, the first car to catch the eye is this 1972 or 1973 Volvo 1800ES shooting brake. This was the final version of the famous Volvo 1800, and its frameless, all-glass tailgate influenced later Volvos such as the 480.
There was a fine display of Roesch Talbots in the Orchard, but this much earlier car was especially interesting. It is a 1909 12HP 4AB, powered by a four-cylinder L-head side-valve engine of 2,414cc. The coachwork is by Rothschild of Westminster. It raced at Prescott from 1950 and then in the 1990s, and is the oldest Talbot in the Talbot Owners Club.
This 1948 Bristol 401 with coachwork by Touring Superleggera is one of only six built. It predates the standard 401 and has many unique features such as the strakes over the wheels and the double bumpers.
The rear view brings yet mor unusual elements such as the finely streamlined rear lights and the surround to the number plate with its stoplights and Touring Superleggera badge. Just visible are two of the four chromed ‘buttons’ on the roof. The owner conformed that these are indeed factory-fitted mountings for a roof rack.
This 1936 Delahaye 135 has been rebodied in the style of a 135 CS sports racer.
A particular ‘racing’ feature is the provision of sliding louvres on the bonnet. Permission was granted to slide the driver’s side ones shut, to prove that they work beautifully.
Just as louvres were being moved, up turned this 1938 Delage D6, itself rebodied in the style of a racer, this time a replica of the D6-75 TT raced by Louis Gerard. It has a Delahaye rear axle, which is correct for this model and illustrates the very close links between the two companies; Delahaye acquired Delage in 1935.
The delightful streamlined sidelights by Maly of Lyon.
A 1934 British Salmson S4C. It is powered by a 1,465cc four-cylinder twin-cam engine designed by Émile Petit.
This 6th-series Lancia Lambda sports Lancia’s characteristic sliding-pillar independent suspension. Although famed for being one of the first ever monocoque cars, by the 6th-series of 1925 the challenge of fitting bespoke coachwork forced Lancia to change to a more conventional bare chassis.
The overhead-camshaft narrow-angle V4 engine of the Lambda.
The talk of the paddock was this dramatically styled 1931 Bugatti Type 46. The body was made in the style of a Gangloff ‘Surprofilée’ designed by Jean Bugatti. The Type 46 is powered by a single-overhead-camshaft straight-eight of 5.4 litres. The three-speed-and-reverse gearbox is a transaxle in unit with the live rear axle.
The streamlined body of the Type 46. Note the alloy wheels; these are integral with the brake drums, making the changing of brake linings a much quicker process – a design with particular value in racing and therefore used on Grand Prix Bugattis from Type 35 to Type 59.
After the touring cars, back to the racers. This is an Oakland Romano Special; the chassis is from 1913 and the XO5 Curtiss aero engine is from 1918.
the 8.2-litre V8 Curtiss aero engine is popular with specials builders; there were five cars powered by Curtiss V8s in the paddock.
but not all the aero-engined specials were Curtiss-powered. This 1913 Théopile Schneider has a four-cylinder 9,934cc Hall-Scott aero engine.
Saturday 3 August was the 100th anniversary of the first race of the Type 35 Bugattis – a milestone in Bugatti history celebrated by a live link to the Lyon circuit. This car, on display during the weekend at the Bugatti Trust at Prescott, is one of the original Lyon cars, now belonging to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.
Some fine Bugattis gathered outside the Bugatti Trust building to celebrate the anniversary.
The Premier Inn near Prescott is popular with spectators at the event and often has some proper cars in the car park overnight. This is a 1935 Talbot BD105 with sports saloon coachwork by James Young. There was a superb display of Roesch Talbots in the Orchard car park at Prescott, organised by the Talbot club.
Also at the Premier Inn on Saturday evening was another Roesch Talbot, a 1929/30 14/45.
The H.R.G club was out in force. Here are just three of them. EPH 19 is of particylar interest; it is a 1936 1½-litre, the first model of sports car designed by the compnay and the sixth car built. 25 cars of this model were built between 1935 and 1938. It is powered by a four-cylinder 1,497cc Meadows 4ED pushrod OHV engine. This was H.R.G’s own works car and was known as the “Red Demonstrator”. It was road tested in several magazines at the time and featired in the company’s 1937 brochure.
More H.R.Gs. The initials stand for Major Edward Halford, Guy Robins and Henry Ronald Godfrey. The cars were produced from 1935 to 1956. The link to ‘chain-gang’ cars is clear: Godfrey was the G in GN, and the N was Archie Frazer-Nash.
Outside the Bonhams tent was this beautiful Sunbeam 3.0-litre twin-cam Super Sports Tourer, formerly the property of Anthony Heal and then his son Oliver.
Bonhams were also displaying this very unusual 1913 Wilkinson TMC. This four-cylinder shaft-drive motorcycle was built by the famed Wilkinson Sword company, known for its razor blades even today.
The elegant badge of the Wilkinson.
Homeward bound. One of the many lovely cars in the Orchard car park, leaving for home on Sunday afternoon after two excellent days of hill climbing.
See you there next year.
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