16 replies to this topic

[EDELSTEN]

I am seeking any information and photos of Bob Berry who raced Jaguar sports cars and saloons in the mid 1950s to early 1960's. My daughter's boyfriend Chris Berry is his grandson. I saw him race several times and he appears in various race programmes that I have from that era but does not seemed to have won anything ! Any information would be appreciiated - especially the source of any photos - as Chris is keen to learn anything about his grandfather's racing exploits.

David Edelsten

[nexfast]

I bump this old thread since I am looking for information about the place where Bob Berry, the Jaguar driver, was born. In some of my old notes (which source was lost in time) I have him as being born in Northern Ireland but I haven't seen any possible confirmation and somehow it looks doubtful. Can any TNF member help?

 

Thanks.

[Simon Thomas]

Some years ago Bob signed a 1955 TT photo for me. He detailed his accident at the Quarry Bends in Jack Broadhead's D Type. I did not consider he had been born in Ulster and he did not advise otherwise.

Simon

[Ian Stewart]

Try the "Racing Sports Cars" website.   All you need to do is google:  racing sports cars bob berry

 

[Eric Dunsdon]

I am seeking any information and photos of Bob Berry who raced Jaguar sports cars and saloons in the mid 1950s to early 1960's. My daughter's boyfriend Chris Berry is his grandson. I saw him race several times and he appears in various race programmes that I have from that era but does not seemed to have won anything ! Any information would be appreciiated - especially the source of any photos - as Chris is keen to learn anything about his grandfather's racing exploits.

David Edelsten

I remember Bob Berry as a very rapid driver of his own XK120 Jaguar, and later the Jack Broadhead D Type in which he finished 5th in the 1955 Goodqwood 9 Hours race, co driving with Norman Dewis. I asked Mr Dewis about Bob at the launch of the Mike Hawthorn book 'Golden Boy' a few years ago and he told me that Bob Berry was now living in the United States..

[nexfast]

Try the "Racing Sports Cars" website.   All you need to do is google:  racing sports cars bob berry

 

I did   . It says Great Britain. Though one can say that strictly speaking Ulster is not GB (but UK) all over the years drivers like Ulstermen Watson or Donnelly, for instance, always appear in any magazine as GB drivers. So, the doubt remains though Simon's post seems to corroborate that my initial information was probably wrong. Still, it would be good to know where exactly Mr. Berry was born.

Edited by nexfast, 05 August 2015 - 20:52.

[Sharman]

Wasn't he Jaguar's Export Sales Manager?

[nexfast]

Wasn't he Jaguar's Export Sales Manager?

 

At least PR Manager according to this interview of Norman Dewis in MotorSport, April 2013:

 

"Norman's other long-distance race was the 1955 Goodwood Nine Hours, when Jaguar PR manager Bob Berry asked him to share the ex works D-type he was driving for entrant Jack Broadhead."

 

Meanwhile I got a reputable source, the Black Book on European Formule Libre 1929-1961, referring to Bob Berry as the "visiting Englishman" in the 1954 Wakefield Trophy report.

[Eric Dunsdon]

Wasn't he Jaguar's Export Sales Manager?

Bob Berry (in civvies)  can be seen in photos of the Jaguar pit counter at various 1950's Le Mans 24 Hour races.

[AAGR]

And later (in the 1970s) I believe he was CEO of Alfa Romeo's importing concessionaire in the UK.

 

AAGR

[ReWind]

According to several company websites in the early 1990s the hometown/residence of Robert Emmanuel Berry, b. 09 November 1929, was Ross-on-Wye which is in Herefordshire.

 

Maybe the full name is useful for further research.

[Doug Nye]

Motor Racing Directory 1955-56 - Robert E. Berry - Driver - Born Prescot, Lancs, 9 November 1929 - On Administrative Staff, Jaguar Cars Ltd. Address: 6 Quinton Road, Coventry.  Nice man. Good driver - if somewhat accident prone as D-Type owner Jack Broadhead repeatedly found...

 

DCN

[bradbury west]

Doug, is he the chap who also raced that special alloy or mag/alloy bodied mk VII in period? ISTR that there was an article on it years ago
Roger Lund

[AAGR]

The alloy-bodied Mk VII was actually an experimental machine owned (and occasionally raced) by Jaguar in touring car races. Bob was on the PR staff at Browns Lane at the time, also - as is now clear from this thread - a part-time race driver, and was sometimes allowed to pedal that machine at Silverstone and elsewhere.

 

  As a young Jaguar design engineer at the time, we enjoyed having office windows overlooking Lofty England's offices on the other side of the drive. Monday mornings were often eventful in that driveway, when the broken-down wreckage of the weekend's motor racing turned up for speedy rebuilds.

 

O/T, my own drawing board was about ten yards from that of Malcolm Sayer, who made sure that no-one else - no-one, except perhaps Bill Heynes - knew what he was up to ....

 

[David Birchall]

The ex Bob Berry XK120, registered by Berry MWK120 known as LT1 as a result of the very special body fitted to it was here in Vancouver for many years and I worked on it and drove it very briefly.

The car was fitted with one of the electron bodies originally made for LeMans but not used because the C Types were ready. It had no boot lid, a small bonnet opening-just big enough to get the engine and box out of as we discovered. The engine was a wet sump D Type unit fitted by Berry apparently. The undertray was missing by this time and we made up a very basic shield for the bottom of the boot area so that it didn't act as a "parachute".

The car was owned in Vancouver by the late Bill Makin who was a Jaguar nut and bought the car from David Cottingham through an advert in Road & Track in 1968.

Bill was no driver and the car was raced by the late Peter Bolingbroke-Price a close friend of mine who owned a classic car shop in a very seedy part of Vancouver (Powell Street). We would work on MWK120/LT1 and other cars until late and then hit the bars on Powell Street until midnight or so-then do it all over again the next day...

Peter was a very big man who bore a strong resemblance to Henry V111-however he was a Bolingbroke so I will leave that to the historians. He raced and won at most of the West Coast tracks in MWK120/LT1 from 1978 until 1981 when Peter moved to Portland and owner Bill Makin decided he should keep the car near him.

Bill Makin was a wealthy alcoholic who lived in beautiful house with an indoor swimming pool. However, LT1/MWK120 was left sitting out in the car port for years-never driven again. The car deteriorated dreadfully, numerous people tried to buy it off Bill but he would not part with it. Until one day David Cottingham phoned from England and asked Bill if he would sell it back to him. "Of course I will!" said Bill, so he did and then he up and died...

Peter can be seen racing the ex Berry XK120 in the wonderful movie Mercedes Benz made of the 1978 Monterey Historic races. Except that M.Benz couldn't accept a Jaguar beating their "Lightweight" 300SL so they edited the end of the movie to show the 300SL ahead-I watched the race standing next to Henry N. Manney and still have the official results-the ex Berry MWK120 beat the 300SL fair and square!

[nexfast]

Fascinating Stuff. I'm not sure the OP is still around - it was his only post 10 years ago - but there is here now a lot of information about Bob Berry. And I was able to get my records straight . Thank you all.

[ExMotorMan]

Not sure if any of this is of any interest now but I worked with Bob in the late seventies/early eighties. I attended the Ulster Motor Show with him around that time and he said nothing about having been born there. Nor did he have a Northern Irish accent. He did, however, tell me about an accident he had during practice for the Ulster TT. Apparently, the roads weren't closed for practice as they were for the race but Bob forgot about that. He was on a good lap and came to a cross roads at a reasonable speed. Unfortunately somebody was on the junction when he got there. He was a lovely man to work with. My last contact with him was when he was working for a car dealership in (I think) Cardiff some time in the mid-eighties.