Treen Rileys

Hi all,

A search has thrown up few posts on the above, so I launch my first foray into the forum with a new topic.

At a recent VSCC meeting I was introduced to some enthusiasts running one of the above. The history of the car seemed very sketchy, as also did the information I gained in a brief internet search of the type generally.

Can the members here offer any guidance to assist in researching the history of these cars?

Please note that I am temporarily posting on my office computer (my home computer is mid-rebuild) and most media/graphics are blocked; even most photographs!

Jim.

John Treen, who died only a couple of years ago, started out by modifying a Brooklands Nine (the car currently raced by Geoffrey Bradford) and went on to modify and build several more Rileys including one more Brooklands ( the car that was owned by Norman Goodman). I'm not sure how many in total but I would have thought around ten or so.
At the end of the run he built one or two space tubular chassis cars of which I believe the car you refer to is one. It is has been powered by a 2 litre six since it emerged in the mid 1970s in VSCC events but I believe I am correct in saying all the Treens used "nines" in period.

We know of 2 tubular chassis cars. 1 is the 6 cylinder engined car that was raced by Barry Gillies and his son Mark until a few years ago.

We have the other tubular chassis car, ours is the prototype car, still with its original 50's bodywork. It bears a resemblence to a healey silverstone with a cowl front end rather than a riley radiator and the spare wheel flat in the tail.

Eventually our car will end up with a rather special 9 engine again but to save time and get the car running we are going to drop in a running 12/4 that we just happen to have spare. Hopefully the car will be out and about again and on the road in 2009 (malvern??)

I've got a whole load of photos of treens, I'll try and sort them out and post a link to them

Thanks, that would be great. I think the one I saw must have been the other one, with six SU carbs. The team is still getting to know it, and working towards some regular runs.

If anyone can fill in some of the many holes in the history of the car that would be even better.

Thanks again.

Jim.

http://www.petermcfa...-2009/pr2-0129/

After a lot of help (many thanks to Keith Pointing for building the engine in record time and Stanton Motorsports for running it on the Dyno even quicker) and effort from the Brown family, our Riley Treen was finally in action again, for the first time since 1974.

It made it to VSCC Prescott in time for the weekend and also completed the Throckmorton VSCC sprints. It was only as we were putting it onto the trailer at the end of the week that reverse gear decided jam.

If anyone knows any history of the car between 1951 and the late 1960's we'd be really grateful. It was the prototype mark 2 car, we've an article from either motorsport or autosport featuring the car. My father bought it from Bruce Grahamslaw in about 1970. He had owned it for about 3 years. The only other information we have is from a guy whose school teacher owned the car in the 1950's. As it was built in Amberley in Sussex, we'd love to know whether it competed at Goodwood.

The car still has it riley 9, 1098cc engine, but now has a riley 4 speed gearbox, as opposed to the mid mounted ford gearbox it had at some stage in its life.

Tim

for photos of the Treen Rileys at Goodwood see Goodwood A PRIVATE VIEW BY CYRIL READE AND ROBIN READ , ITS A PHOT RECORD OF gOODWOOD 1948 TO 1956

http://www.petermcfa...-2009/pr2-0129/

...

Tim

Tim, I think the link should read Riley Treen in Action and be patient while the page loads (especially when it says 'sorry "vscc-2009" has 0 results').
Charles