I recently picked up this snapshot which I think depicts the start of a sprint/speed trial in the very early 50s or late 40s . I'm assuming that sort of date due to the lack of a helmet on the driver's head which would have been a requirement from around 1951 onwards (I think)

The car , reg CMP 1 seems somehow familiar (an Allard?) but a quick trawl of Google failed to thrown up any references as far as I could see.
The giveaway feature is perhaps the AEC sign in the background - maybe the bus/truck factory?
Does anyone have any idea who this is, and more specifically, where it is? The only venue I can recall that had this kind of industrial background was one that ran round a Lancashire mill works in the 1950s...but I can't recall the name of it!

THE AEC Factory was in Southall, Middlesex.

It could be a rally test
I agree the reg number seems familiar, but I don't think the car's an Allard

Sprint(s) at the AEC bus factory, Southall have been discussed somewhere - but probably under a totally different heading (maybe something about lost sprint venues). I think someone produced a period aerial photo of the factory site.
Similar speed venues included the Burton clothing factory (Leeds? Bradford?) - which retains the link today with one Harewood Hillclimb meeting being known as the "Montagu Burton Trophy"?
I get the impression some events that would fall into the sprint category today circumvented the helmet regs by being called "slaloms" - I recall one near my junior school, around 1958/9, on what is now Heston Services on the M4 but was then a remaining part of Heston Airfiel, not a milliion miles from the AEC factory.

I wondered about a rally test as the flag man seems somehow inappropriate for a speed trial but wouldn't there have been two people in the car or did tests at the time not require a passenger/navigator ?

The sprint round the Burton factory was in Leeds.

http://aec.middx.net/factory/aecworks_002.htm

Is it the pre war V8 powered (Hudson?) special that still runs in VSCC events?

I could be wrong (in fact, I probably am wrong!)

Sprints were held at the AEC works Southall 1935-1937.

So it would seem this shot is even earlier than I imagined.

Does anyone know the layout of the course (or was it just a straight line?) or even the results of these events?

Hi Simon

The car is the Spikins Special - a cut and shut 1935 Hudson Eight.

By strange coincidence I am 're-cycling' old Classic and Sportscar magazines and keeping the interesting bits. Last night I got to October 1983 and there in an article about the Hudson Motor Car company in Chiswick, London, is the car. The picture shows the Special wearing a rally plate, which appears to say RAC (logo) Rally 274 London. By the car are 2 trophies, presumably just won. In the whole text there is, frustratingly, no reference to this Special.

The picture is quite small and the repro not very good - I could scan and send it if you like. Send me a pm.

Cheers, David,

There are several pictures of the Spikins Special in this thread, together with some info from the then (and presumably current?) owner.

Some picture of the Burton Sprint can be found here, including Tony Lanfranchi in a stripped down Thames van:

http://www.motorsportphotographs.com/index.php?dpl=12

On 28th April, 1957, Jimmy Blumer set FTD in his Cooper Bobtail with a time of 44.34. Sprinting at the venue continued well into the 1960's.

Harewood's early August meeting is for the Montague Burton Trophy.

DC