14 replies to this topic

[68targa]

I am a recent convert to these forums and realise that there is a lot of knowledge and talent waiting to be tapped so I am hopeful that someone can help.

 

On sorting out some photos I came across some I took many years ago of a photograph album that an uncle of mine kept (I photographed the photos).  This was of a single seater that he built.  I am now keen to try and piece together some history on the car and whether it may even still exist.

 

My Uncle Rodney Stafford built his Stafford Special in 1936-37. It had a supercharged 1496cc Meadows engine and is mentioned by John Bolster in his book Specials who gives it some praise. I have photos of him using the car at Lewes Speed Trials in 1937 and again in 1939. He raced at it at Brooklands during the October Road Handicap in 1939 and also at a Prescott meeting the same year. He then advertised the car for sale in the July 1939 issue of Motor Sport.

In August 1946 Motor Sport visits a garage in Lightwater, Surrey – Cowell, Whittet & Co – who also have it for sale. I am not sure if this is  Robert Cowell later Roberta Cowell?  After this it appears at the 1947 Brighton Speed Trials driven by a Colbourne-Baber (timed at 79.89mph beating Stubberfield’s Bugatti 76.19mph).

 

According to John Bolster when he published ‘Specials’ in 1949, the car was owned and still raced by R.W. Shakspeare but I can only find mention of this at a Silverstone speed trial 23 Apr 1949 and also at Prescott Hill on 12 June the same year. Are there any others ?

Finally, the last definite mention of the car is when it was entered (and presumably raced) at the Richard Seaman Trophies meeting, Oulton Park on 28 June 1958, entered by a Mr M.L. Beecroft and riven by J.A.R. Grice. After this I can find no further mention.

One name that crops up a few times is Shakspeare. According to Motor Sport  a Richard Shakspeare was killed on active service in Sicily in 1944, apparently he was quite well known pre-war.  However after the war an R.W. Shakspeare is still around racing Bugatti’s as well as the Stafford. Spl.  Is this the same man and MS got it wrong or maybe a brother or just a co-incidence – does anyone know?

I would like to know details of the any of the names mentioned, however small, and especially any copies of programme entry lists where the Stafford Special may have been entered between 1949 and 1958.

 

 

1) This is the car at Brooklands - Tony Rolt in Remus is probably overtaking the Stafford Special - not the other way round !

 

 

 

 

2.  1939 at Lewes Speed Trials -

Edited by 68targa, 15 May 2021 - 14:23.

[Rupertlt1]

V.S.C.C. Siverstone 11 April 1959

Non-starters included the Stafford Special, the cylinder head of its Meadows 4ED engine being removed in the paddock for internal investigations,.."

Motor Sport, May 1959, Page 307.

 

RGDS RLT 

[68targa]

Many thanks for this. At least it got through to 1959. 

[Rupertlt1]

Motor Sport, April 1964, Page 301

HISTORIC RACING CAR, "The Stafford Special," 1½-litre

supercharged Meadows engine, single-seater. In Bolster's

Book Of Specials. Engine requires assembling. New tyres all

round. Offers : Beecroft, Ross Cottage, Long Preston,

Skipton, Yorks. Tel: Long Preston 203

 

Offered again Sept 1964, same advertisement but priced at £150.

 

Motor Sport, March 1967

HISTORIC SINGLE seater, The famous Stafford Special

(Bolster's Specials p 149), now rebuilt with 3½ litre

Grand sport Hotchkiss engine and cr gearbox, very com-

petitive performance with reliability and ERA looks. £450

or vintage sports car taken in p/exch. Tel Knottingley

2740 (Yorks).

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 05 January 2020 - 19:16.

[Steve L]

The Stafford Special still exists. It is owned by the son of the second owner, and he often runs it at Brooklands events.

It is painted pale blue.

Edited by Steve L, 05 January 2020 - 19:38.

[Tim Murray]

Google throws up several recent photos, including this one:



and this one, captioned as the Stafford Special being driven by Steven Colborne-Barber at Brooklands in 2017:

https://www.mediasto...l-13663313.html

This one is captioned as Peter Colborne Baber on the Brooklands test hill in 2009:

https://www.alamy.co...um=1&flip=0&pl=

It would seem that Colborne-Baber (not Barber) is the correct spelling.

[68targa]

That's fantastic !  Thanks Steve and also to you Rupertlt1 for the MS adverts. IT helps fill some gaps.

I am amazed and very pleased to hear that it still exists.  I know that my uncle would be as well.   After the war he moved to Rhodesia (as it was then known) and ran a tobacco farm.  He came over to visit my father sometime in the 1970's and I remember them going off to find Colbourne-Baber to try and find the car but think they drew a blank.

 

According to Rodney Stafford he painted it 'Cerulean Blue with silver wheels'  so it would appear to be still in the same colour. 

 

I shall try and trace the owner a good reason to get down to a Brooklands event.

Chris

[Vitesse2]

Cowell Whittet was indeed Bob Cowell's business in Lightwater. I'll have some more details on Mr Shakspeare for you later - just about to eat! He's not the only person Motor Sport killed off in error during WW2: Hermann Lang and 'Schorsch' Meier (at least) fall into that category. Automobil Revue in Switzerland weren't immune to that either - they reported the (non-)deaths of both Tony Rolt and Whitney Straight.

[68targa]

Tim.  I should have known that Google was good for something. Right under my nose.

[Vitesse2]

The confusion over Richard Shakspeare's death is perhaps understandable. There's a Trooper NF Shakespeare of the Royal Tank Regiment buried in the Anzio Beachhead War Cemetery and a Trooper L Shakespeare of the Royal Armoured Corps buried at Arezzo; the 1939 Register records that Richard Warwick Shakspeare was then a 2nd Lt in the Royal Tank Corps; he's one of the very small minority of service personnel who were at their family homes when the register was taken - presumably on leave - although he had only been commissioned on September 2nd - from the rank of Trooper in the TA! Previously he'd been a Lance-Corporal in the Eton College Division of the OTC, so presumably he was an Old Etonian. His military career appears undistinguished and he was still in the TA until at least 1963 - with the rank of Lieutenant (Honorary Captain).

 

That 1939 family home was on St George's Hill, Weybridge - notoriously within earshot of Brooklands and the source of many noise complaints!

 

Richard Warwick Shakspeare was born on July 20th 1912, registered at St George, Hanover Square. His father, born in Liverpool, is variously described as a merchant and company director - his mother was apparently Australian and he had at least one sister who was born there. The family seem to have had some connection to Ceylon, as there are travel records showing the young Richard travelling from there, the first as an infant in the care of a nanny.

 

As already established, he wasn't killed in Italy, but died on August 3rd 1984 - home address was in Marston Meysey, Wiltshire. He appears to have been unmarried and possibly involved with the Talyllyn Railway - his death notice in The Times, August 6th 1984, requests that donations should be made to them in lieu of flowers.

[Ray Bell]

It appears that the wheels have shrunk vertically...

 

And maybe grown horizontally.

[Perruqueporte]

It appears that the wheels have shrunk vertically...

And maybe grown horizontally.

Rather like most of us!

Christopher W.

[68targa]

Cowell Whittet was indeed Bob Cowell's business in Lightwater. I'll have some more details on Mr Shakspeare for you later - just about to eat! He's not the only person Motor Sport killed off in error during WW2: Hermann Lang and 'Schorsch' Meier (at least) fall into that category. Automobil Revue in Switzerland weren't immune to that either - they reported the (non-)deaths of both Tony Rolt and Whitney Straight.

And I thought I could trust everything all I read in the Press - even Motor Sport !

[D-Type]

And I thought I could trust everything all I read in the Press - even Motor Sport !

Only if it had the DSJ byline  .

Edited by D-Type, 06 January 2020 - 12:19.

[Bloggsworth]

Cowell Whittet was indeed Bob Cowell's business in Lightwater. I'll have some more details on Mr Shakspeare for you later - just about to eat! He's not the only person Motor Sport killed off in error during WW2: Hermann Lang and 'Schorsch' Meier (at least) fall into that category. Automobil Revue in Switzerland weren't immune to that either - they reported the (non-)deaths of both Tony Rolt and Whitney Straight.

Monsieur Comb-Over would be pleased to know that Fake News existed even then.