Max Stahl has put together this brief resumé:
Clive was a competent race driver, too. His first mount was a front-engined supercharged Alvis which had raced at Penrith Speedway and various hillclimbs in the '30s.
The loss of the Alvis prompted Adams and Pryer to fabricate their own car from a concoction of MG, Amilcar and Bugatti parts, powered by a Ford V8/60 engine.
It was 1950 and this was the first Prad, to be followed by a series of four more over the next ten years
The next car, Prad ll, was based on a monoposto bodied Sydney Speedway car, stretched and widened, and achieved good placings at Bathurst and a record at Hawkesbury hill-climb before being replaced in 1956 by Prad lll, powered by Holden.
During the build, Clive kept his eye in with borrowed drives in such cars as Stan Coffey’s Cooper-Bristol, Tony Arditto’s Jaguar sports and Ray Fowler’s MG J2, in which he lapped at 3m.07s – just think about that!
Racing in those days was mostly at the Mt Druitt circuit, an abandoned wartime airstrip secured by Belf Jones, who became the ARDC’s first Secretary, with George Bell the President.
Along with Clive, the Committee comprised leading drivers Arthur Hayes, Jack Robinson, Laurie Oxenford and Leo Bernard, joined soon after by Doug Chivas and Frank Kleinig and in 1953 by Jack Brabham.
Clive and Jack Pryer continued their association and in 1959 produced probably their finest creation, Prad lV, with a 200bhp Grand Prix Alta engine and Jaguar XK120 gearbox, which they finally passed on as a gift to Spencer Martin, their ardent supporter.
Long past retirement age, and with a well-established workshop at Taree, NSW, Clive continued to work on his and other cars. These included those of son, Ian, who raced through the 1960s and 70s in a Lotus 7, a Lotus 23B and a Lola T330, and with grand-daughter, Chantelle, has been his most enthusiastic fan and supporter.
