LANDMARK IN RACING HISTORY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXX, Issue 13622, 21 April 1942, Page 3

LANDMARK IN RACING HISTORY

TEN-YEAR-OLD CAR

WON AX IMPORTANT RACE

It is not often that an old car. even when rebuilt to bring it up to date, wins an important race, and such an event forms a landmark in racing history. In 193 6 Dick Seaman, probably one of the greatest British drivers, performed this feat with his ten-year-old Delage by winning, at 69.76 m.p.h., the lj-litre race in the Isle of Man, beating E.R.A.'s, a Maserati, Bugatti, and such famous drivers as Lord Howe, Bira, Lehoux, Raymond Mays and Pat Fairfield. Bira was second. The course was an experimental one, four miles round. The Delage. was originally a Grand Prix car, run by the French firm itself, and it created something of a sensation when it appeared in 192 6. The team of which it was a member scored great successes in that year as well as in 1927. When the official team was broken up, this car, that eventually became Richard Seaman's was

acquired by Lord Howe, who achieved a Brooklands lap with it at 127.05 m.p.h. in 1931, which was a 11-litre record.

Seaman, when he bought -it, had various modifications made, and, apart from the race now mentioned, had an extremely successful season with it in 1936. Then, in turn, he sold it to Prince Chula, against whose equipe he had driven it with such good results.

The straight eight engine is a wonderful piece of work, made regardless of cost. Bore and stroke are 55.5 by 75 mm., and the two overhead camshafts each have nine roller bearings; crankshaft and bigends also have roller bearings. The engine has been run up to 9,000 r.p.m., inadvertently, and 7,000 has been maintained.