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Colour of a car in the 1937 24 Heures du Mans ?


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#1 legendmartini

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Posted 08 September 2011 - 16:04

hello everybody :wave:
research color ford ten number 42 "24 heures du mans 1937"
driver Joan Richmond
best regards

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#2 raceannouncer2003

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Posted 09 September 2011 - 05:18

There are black and white photos at this link:

http://www.lemans-hi...k...q=0&piloto=

I believe it was a British entry. Would it have been British Racing Green?

Vince H.

#3 Paul Parker

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Posted 09 September 2011 - 15:40

There are black and white photos at this link:

http://www.lemans-hi...k...q=0&piloto=

I believe it was a British entry. Would it have been British Racing Green?

Vince H.


What a surprise, a side valve Ford, I think these pre-war versions were known as the C model and somebody (I wonder who) has gone to considerable trouble to make what looks like a pretty good job of turning it into a convertible.

I wonder what its top speed on Mulsanne would have been, 65-70 mph? As for colour most of these side valve Ford models, or at least the many I saw during the 1950s/60s (Prefects, Populars or E93A I think they were known as) were painted black and the car looks very dark in the pics. Can't imagine it was BRG or dark blue but then who knows.

#4 Paul Parker

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Posted 09 September 2011 - 16:07

There are black and white photos at this link:

http://www.lemans-hi...k...q=0&piloto=

I believe it was a British entry. Would it have been British Racing Green?

Vince H.


Further to my first response I did a bit of surfing and discovered this on a site called dailysportscar.com which might be of interest to some here thus:
The Donington 12 Hours was marred by a fatal accident, which caused the race to be temporarily halted while ambulance crews worked at the crash scene. It seems that M.K.H. Bilney (who had recently finished 14th at Le Mans in an open-bodied Ford ten – just think of that!) lost control of his AC while alongside Robinson’s Riley going through Holly Wood (the section from today’s Redgate Corner to the Craner Curves) and his car finished up crushed between the Riley and a wall: Robinson escaped with a broken thigh, but poor Bilney was killed.
Maurice Bilney, known as Bill, had also entered the 1936 Le Mans but it was of course cancelled.

Joan Richmond (1904-1999) was an Australian who had enjoyed a considerable career driving various sports cars during the 1930s, details of this and more can be found in her biography contact for which can be found at jr2publishing@gmail.com according to the website www.joanrichmond.com.

I am not otherwise involved and merely pass this on as being of interest to persons like us.


#5 Vitesse2

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Posted 09 September 2011 - 18:30

The car was apparently owned by Bilney and had been built by ex-Aston Martin engineer Jack Bezzant. It was based on a Ford Ten CX and there's a description of it on page 275 of "French Sports Car Revolution", presumably copied from a contemporary magazine (Autocar? Motor?). The engine was a short-stroke version of the normal Ford Ten 1172cc unit, fitted with a Ford Eight cylinder head: Blight suggests that this meant it was technically the only Ford Nine ever built!

Motor Sport's report of the 1936 Autumn JCC Members' Day refers to it as "the Le Mans Ford" and says it was "slower than expected".

Nothing I've found says what colour it was though.

#6 Geoff E

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Posted 09 September 2011 - 18:44

Maurice Kenneth Hope BILNEY (or, as his father wrote in the 1911 census, Kenneth Maurice Hope BILNEY) was born in Weybridge in 1904, the son of a solicitor. He married Constance A E A SYDENHAM-CLARKE in Kensington in 1932.

#7 legendmartini

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Posted 23 September 2011 - 14:38

Thank you very much for your participation in this research
next questions
color "sara number 19 and 20 le mans 1928"
best regards