Surrey, England - a motor racing focus point?

I wonder if it started with Brooklands at Weybridge ? But that was all over and done with effectively by 1939.

Surrey does rather seem to have a great deal more than its share of activity in the field of motor racing. Just a few that come to mind ...... Coopers at Surbiton, Tyrrell, Ralt, Brabham, Surtees, Palliser, Dastle, , Rob Walker at Dorking ,Tony Brooks, Maurice Gomm, Mclaren at Woking, Connaught, HWM, Condor and probably a great many more constructors , drivers etc.

Certainly in the 50s 60s & 70s it was a centre of excellence, knowhow and sub-contractors

An announcement of a new car constructor in Farnham Surrey caught my eye in Autocar last week
.
Two ex-Mclaren composites men Ben Scott-Geddes and Graham Halstead revealed their new road car 'The Freestream' Caparo T1 a two seater (just) weighing 500 kgs with 500 BHP yes that's 1000 BHP/ton ! making the Bugatti Veyron's 530 BHP/ton look quite pedestrian !
Looking not unlike a roofed in Grand Prix car getting to 60 in 2 secs and 100 in 5 ! 200 MPH for £150,000.

Looks an astonishing piece of kit .

There must be something in the water in Surrey !

Originally posted by RTH
I wonder if it started with Brooklands at Weybridge ?

Well, perhaps. At least it was probably the first solid manifestation. But I found some interesting snippets in The Motor and The Times. In the Spring of 1903 there were some references to a proposal for a motor racing circuit in Purley.

The Motor citations are from March 29th 1903 p203, which shows two pictures of the site for "the new automobile course at Purley" and May 27th 1903 which states that the Executive Committee of the Automobile Club of GB & I (ie the future RAC) had completed negotiations for the purchase of an estate on which they intended building a seven-mile circuit; apparently including straights of over 3 miles it was to feature "a level mile running upon the top of a ridge 500 feet above the sea level, commanding a view of London".

According to The Times of May 23rd 1903 the source of this information is the Journal of the Automobile Club, who had resolved to sign an agreement to purchase the land to build the circuit.

This was to be centred on an estate called Purley Bury, but from there the trail goes cold. Neither The Motor nor The Times mentions it again! Later in the year, The Motor published an editorial on the future of motor sport, but says nothing about Purley. I haven't had a chance to check The Autocar or any other contemporary journals though.

I suspect that the ACGBI may have dropped this project like a hot brick after the carnage on the Paris-Madrid on May 24th 1903 ....

I think a few prominent journos/historians live there as well

having received a prod from Vitesse 2, I contacted the local history society, the Bourne Society. they sent me a 3-page article about the proposed race track at Purley, 12 miles south of London. it describes the proposal in some detail with extracts from the minutes of the Executive Committee of the Automobile Club (later the RAC) in 1903 and a map.

To quote the announcement in the Vlub’s May 1903 Journal:

“The track will be 50ft wide in its narrowest part and 70ft wide at its broadest. it will have a hill running from 1 in 20 to 1 in 7 for a mile and a quarter”
“It will be possible, therefore, for Members of the Club to test their cars or go for a spin on a course free rfrom the restrictions imposed upon them when driving upon common roads, while the Club will have at its disposal a track suitable for both hill climbing trials and for mile and kilometre test”
“The track is to be 3 ½ miles long, with loops at both ends, so that the complete circuit is one of seven miles. Near the centre of the track there is a level mile running upon the top of a ridge 500ft above seas level. it does not require a very lively imagination to picture the delights of travelling along this breezy surrey ridge within sight of london on a track specially constructed for automobile purposes. A manor house upon the estate will be turned into a Club-house, where every convenience will be provided for Members”
“In addition to trials, it is in contemplation to hold race meetings upon the track, and one can easily imagine in the near future the British public journeying in their thousands and tens of thousands by means of trains, tramcars and motor cars, to Purley race track to witness races in which automatically-prepared vehicles - the productions of the mechanical ingenuity and skill of the cleverest engineers of this and other countries - will be pitted for speed and trustworthiness one against the other.”

By October 1903 an agreement had been signed and it was anticipated that the track would be ready a year later. Then the project was abandoned for unknown reasons.

The map shows the track to have been a single road that started between Purley and Purley Oaks stations and to run south eastward towards Warlingham along the top of the ridge parallel to and north of the present A22. At each end there were 120 yard radius turning loops.

As the track was planned as a single road, any races would have been, shall we say, interesting with cars charging towards one another at a closing speed of 200mph or so.

The location would have worked with access via the London-Brighton Railway and by trams from London that terminated at Purley. But Locke-King constructed Brooklands 5 years later …

Originally posted by RTH
I wonder if it started with Brooklands at Weybridge ? But that was all over and done with effectively by 1939.

Surrey does rather seem to have a great deal more than its share of activity in the field of motor racing. Just a few that come to mind ...... Coopers at Surbiton, Tyrrell, Ralt, Brabham, Surtees, Palliser, Dastle, , Rob Walker at Dorking ,Tony Brooks, Maurice Gomm, Mclaren at Woking, Connaught, HWM, Condor and probably a great many more constructors , drivers etc.

Certainly in the 50s 60s & 70s it was a centre of excellence, knowhow and sub-contractors

...

There must be something in the water in Surrey !

It's certainly been interesting to see the 'centre of gravity' of the racing car industry switch from south-west London to Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire/Northamptonshire, I guess McLaren were really the last major holdout in Surrey.

I wonder if the proximity of Heathrow was a significant factor in a lot of teams and constructors staying in that part of the world before Bernie started chartering whole planes?

To some extent 'success breeds success' -- look at North London when Lotus were there with all their suppliers springing up around them, or for that matter how Lotos moving to Norfolk kickstarted a racing industry there...

The beginning of the end was clearly the late 60s - factor in motorways, the increasing cost of property in/near London etc? As an interesting aside, why did March set up so far from the racing heartland? Bicester was somewhat off the map at the time, did it just suit them because of the secrecy (and/or cheapness of industrial units?)

Even a former member of the Connew team used to live there - me!

Originally posted by petefenelon


As an interesting aside, why did March set up so far from the racing heartland? Bicester was somewhat off the map at the time, did it just suit them because of the secrecy (and/or cheapness of industrial units?)

Probably the cheapness - Bicester was an expanding town at the time, and I seem to recall reading that the Council were doing good deals and offering incentives. Plus it made a certain logistical sense - not far from Cosworth and Silverstone, easy-ish access to the M1 plus I think Robin Herd lived in the area at the time.

Originally posted by ian senior

Plus it made a certain logistical sense - not far from Cosworth and Silverstone, easy-ish access to the M1

...which seemed to become the dominant factors in setting up "Cosworth-Hewland Kitcar" F1 teams in the 70s and 80s!

I thought that someone ought to add the Tourist Trophy Garage at Farnham.

PdeRL

And John Coombs.