4 replies to this topic

[mogger]

Was it difficult to get an entry into the Le Mans 24 hour race just after the war?

 

It appears that any entrant who completed the previous years race automatically received an entry...can anyone confirm this?

 

For example, the Aldingtons entered their Frazer Nash cars from '49-52 inclusive under the entrant Prudence Trevelyan (ne Fawcett) based on "her car's" finish in '39. It would appear that the Morgan factory car in '52 used Rob Lawries previous years finish as a means to gain an entry.  Does this indicate that places on the grid were oversubscribed  or was it just that their cars could then compete for the Biennial Rudge Whitworth Cup using this method or some other reason that I'm missing?.

 

I'm sure all the answers are out there....but where?

 

 

[D-Type]

I think that the postwar Rudge Whitworth Cup eligibility rule was that either the entrant or a driver had to have finished in the previous year (In 1949 they used 1939 as the qualifying year).  I don't know whether eligibility guaranteed a race entry would be accepted.

 

The ACO were certainly selective in which entries they would accept.  Ecurie Ecosse got an entry in 1956 on Lofty England's recommendation that they would be an acceptable replacement when Ecurie Franconchamps did not enter.

Edited by D-Type, 01 March 2014 - 09:05.

[Jagjon]

Robert Lawrie entry is an interesting case!  I would say to obtain an entry was  not easy. He & his co driver were both over 50yrs old.

He got to know members of the organising club through a mutual interest in climbing, he had always had fast cars but had never  raced,- but this was pre WW2.

He had always expressed an interest to enter Le Mans,  so after the war when he met up with the club members he had asked if the race was to be re held, at first he was told no, but later

that  there would be  a race. Apparently because he had been so enthusiastic & encouraged the club they wrote to invite him to compete if he provided a suitable car and that if he was not

fast  enough  & able to do suitable times that he would retire gracefully like a gentleman!

He went to the 1948 Motor Show to buy an Aston DB1 & Astons took some persuasion  to believe him, but eventually convinced by his story they built him a car.

Meanwhile he  had  gone to the RAC to obtain his competition licence & was refused it.

He related the refusal to his French friends who apparently then answered to the RAC that if Lawrie did   not race then no other British driver would be accepted.

The bluff worked & Lawrie got his licence never having done any  motoring competition.

He had a team of  friends, climbers & college friends who helped prepare the car & acted as pit crew, because he finished in 1949 in the Aston he qualified to enter the next year which he did

with a Riley RM Roadster 2.5L.  reg AEN10.  Again he finished & for the next year  bought & entered the Jaguar XKL120  reg AEN546, again he finished & entered for 1952, but Peter Morgan asked him if he would drive the Morgan, (they could not  get an entry)  but it had been poorly prepared & did not last.

He told me he wished he had never agreed to it & should have used the XK.

Interesting man who had lots of momentoes, photos of the circuit just post  war with all the war damage.. He made climbing boots & for expeditions & had part of Antarctica named after him.

The Riley, Aston  and XK survived (which I owned), I am unsure about the Morgan.

[mogger]

Many thanks Jon - I have sent you a PM

 

Re the Morgan - it was a very odd choice of car for LM in '52 for Rob. With it's "experimental" Vanguard engine of 2088cc it was pitched into the same class as Mercedes 300SLs and AM DB3s!! The car was only going to compete on reliability and John Isherwood (Rob's younger friend and racing novice) was under strict instructions on gear changes, brake points and speeds (the Morgan didn't even have a rev counter for goodness sake!). Ivan Waller was the brains having competed with Rob in your old XK120 the previous year. The car failed its reliability test in the race with a head falling off an exhaust valve and Isherwood never got to drive. The team were unimpressed after the three excellent prior placings.

 

Re the experimental engine - this was a bog standard Vanguard unit by all accounts but fitted with twin SUs on a special manifold-  probably the same unit as fitted to the Triumph TRX. The twin carbs raised the power output from 68bhp to 71bhp. Ivan Waller was very critical of the engine not helped by Peter Morgan's reluctance to increase the back axle ratio from 4:1 to a more sensible 3.73:1. The Vanguard engine wouldn't rev as the valve gear hit the blocks at 4,800rpm. Isherwood remembers that 105mph was tops on the Mulsanne during practice.

 

Two of the three TRXs apparently exist. Can anyone put me in contact with the owners?

Edited by mogger, 26 March 2014 - 11:51.

[raceannouncer2003]

According to the following, one with the Patrick Motor Group in Birmingham, the other in Germany:

 

http://www.numberpla...=232&category=4

 

http://www.sltoa.org...7/SLTOA1307.pdf   (see page 7)

 

Vince H.