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#1 Repco22

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 07:39

Can anyone help to identify this car please? I've just been given the pic from an old calendar. Most of the description has been torn off and all that remains is;'1945'. It looks familiar but I can't place it. Someone has cunningly removed the pertinent bit from the badge. Maybe it was from another make but they liked the wings!
Copyright is unknown too but it will of course be removed if there's a problem.
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#2 Barry Boor

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 07:40

I've looked through the A-Z of Formula Racing Cars but without finding this machine.

#3 GMACKIE

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 08:08

Looks a bit like the Mac Healey.

#4 uechtel

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 08:10

To me it definitively does look more modern than 1945. I would guess like early to mid fifties. What I find funny that the air scoops on the bonnet seem to point in the wrong direction.

#5 Peter Morley

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 08:17

Is it the CDL/Chorlton Special that was based on a Type 51 Bugatti and eventually fitted with an Alta engine?

#6 Alan Cox

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 08:30

Is it the CDL/Chorlton Special that was based on a Type 51 Bugatti and eventually fitted with an Alta engine?

Good spot, Peter
http://www.bugattibu...a...m=392&pos=0
http://www.bugattibu...a...=392&pos=11

From Old Racing Cars (copyright)

14.CDL (Michael Chorlton): The CDL was built for the 1949 F1 season by Centaur Developments Ltd, a London firm led by James Boothby, designer Michael Chorlton and Charles Brookes. The car is believed to have been built using one of Chorlton's Bugatti 51 chassis and engines but the Bugatti expert Hugh Conway was unable to resolve this to his satisfaction. The Bugatti bits of the CDL were later removed by Martin Dean to build up a Bugatti which is now accepted by the Bugatti Owners Club as 51126. The rest of the CDL was sold in 1994 and rebuilt around a replica Bugatti chassis and a 2.5-litre Alta engine. It is now known as the Chorlton Special. This is why OldRacingcars.com doesn't cover Bugattis.



#7 Repco22

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 08:51

Well done chaps! That didn't take long. I thought mid fifties rather than forties too. After '1945' there were the tiniest remnants of some letters at the top of the torn edge which looked like they could have been an A, an L and a T. It reminds me of a small article in an early 'Classic and Sportscar' or its previous title, about a fellow who built a similar open-wheeler in his house in England. It was based on a Bugatti and used an Alta motor. ISTR that he unfortunately passed away before getting much use out of the car. Thanks! :up:

#8 Ray Bell

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 09:32

Originally posted by GMACKIE
Looks a bit like the Mac Healey.


A quick look at the front suspension puts the kybosh on that idea...

the Mac Healey is an Austin Healey 100 with a racing car body and central steering (also a Champ gearbox if you want to be pedantic), so the front end would need to display those ugly Armstrongs.

#9 Repco22

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 09:57

A quick look at the front suspension puts the kybosh on that idea...

the Mac Healey is an Austin Healey 100 with a racing car body and central steering (also a Champ gearbox if you want to be pedantic), so the front end would need to display those ugly Armstrongs.

And smaller brakes and of course the exhaust is on the other side. The rear end is comparatively elaborate on the Chorlton Special too.

#10 Peter Morley

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 10:43

Good spot, Peter
http://www.bugattibu...a...m=392&pos=0
http://www.bugattibu...a...=392&pos=11


I did have a small advantage - the single seater was rebuilt by Spencer Longland and Roger Hart who did our Connaught, but I never saw it I've only ever heard it mentioned!

I think it first raced with the Type 51 engine and the Alta one was fitted later, the second picture (with the public school/Oxbridge boys in it!) looks very similar and is presumably from when it had the Alta engine.

#11 D-Type

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 12:56

Are the 'wrong way' air scoops to let the hot air out?

#12 Peter Morley

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 13:56

Are the 'wrong way' air scoops to let the hot air out?


Presumably - the carbs are on the left hand side so no obvious cold air intake benefit (too far back for that as well) and the scoops are too narrow to be clearing any parts of the engine.