On the first of July, the Historic Racing Drivers team of Jack Quinn, Eoin Young and Tony Haycock travelled to Kinloch, for a chat with Chris Amon, Works Ford, Ferrari and Matra driver.
All we enthusiasts know how seductive cars can be and there have been dozens of men, clear- headed and successful in business, who have lost a lot of money trying to create their dream cars.
In the UK, in the motoring section of The Sunday Times a weekly feature is this weeks new supercar. In many cases the only person to show an interest is the guy’s bank manager.
Reid Railton was the most important figure in the field of high-speed performance engineering in Britain between the wars yet he never really received the credit he deserved for his amazing achievements. He was always the slim figure in the background, in a fedora and prescription sunglasses if the background was the Bonneville Salt Flats. Railton engineered the final and fastest versions of Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebirds and he designed and built a twin- engined 4-wheel-drive Land Speed Record car for John Cobb that was amazingly advanced yet devastatingly simple. It was the first car to top 400mph.
Between 1951 and 1953, 52 Jaguar C-types (or XK120C) left the Browns Lane works in Coventry. Following the strong showing by almost standard XK120's at the 1950 Le Mans 24 Hours, Jaguar founder William Lyons decided to have a proper attempt at the 1951 edition of the Grand Prix d'Endurance at the legendary Sarthe circuit, two hours southwest of Paris.
