Solved NIC#633 - IFS Riley Special (ERA engine) built by Percy Maclure

[nicanary]

Please tell me the year, the place, and the car.

[FrontMan]

Is that Ballamy front suspension?

[nicanary]

Is that Ballamy front suspension?

I don't know. It looks a lot like it.

[FrontMan]

It's the Doug McClure 1937 Riley-ERA Special, perhaps at Prescott.

[nicanary]

It's the Doug McClure 1937 Riley-ERA Special, perhaps at Prescott.

I'm going to LOCK it for you, whilst I check my records. I've forgotten exactly what it is! 

[nicanary]

I've used this morning to contact another member who has better knowledge of this era of racing, and his reply has been very helpful. By sheer coincidence there is a thread running on another well-known website concerning this very sporting event, which is,  as you correctly say, Prescott in 1947. Using information from that site, and then my own reference books, I've found out what it is!

The "Bellamy" suspension is in fact an Andre-Girling set-up. The car is a Riley special built by Percy Maclure pre-WW2  (commonly known as the IFS Riley Special) into which he fitted a 1488cc supercharged ERA engine. At this event it was entered by S B Reece and driven by Sheila Darbishire. The numbers on the side of the car don't fit the programme details, but it was common in those days for 2 drivers to share a car at one event, and possibly the numbers were changed in between runs up the hill.

In 1948 the car was purchased by Geoff Richardson and he began a series of modifications which resulted in it becoming the RRA, which we've had as a previous puzzle.

Sorry for the delay - I think you've done enough to win the point. (Doug McLure was a well-known American actor in Westerns).

[FrontMan]

Fascinating. Thanks for the detailed low-down. Sorry for the Percy and Doug error.  These days the car is on smaller but fatter tyres and has lost its character.  The racing fraternity has been doing that sort of thing for yonks, bless 'em.

[nicanary]

Fascinating. Thanks for the detailed low-down. Sorry for the Percy and Doug error.  These days the car is on smaller but fatter tyres and has lost its character.  The racing fraternity has been doing that sort of thing for yonks, bless 'em.

I suspect from your lingo that you're not 100% Gallic.

Very soon we'll have the Goodwood Revival, where we can watch "historic" racing - that is, cars which look historic and are similar in appearance from a novice's point of view , with cars which raced in period. Sadly those which are genuinely old and haven't been altered are left trailing at the back of the field. Many of the cars will have been built in recent years using a suitable chassis plate.

Such is progress, and of course intrinsic value. If you've got a mid-50s Ferrari with Le Mans provenance  worth £15/20m you really don't want to take a risk.