I am trying to locate a car my grandfather built from scratch in 1947/49, for sporting trials and some circuit racing in southern england until the mid 1950's . The registration was RPA 539, and was named the M&H special (after Murcutt and Harris), and was registered we believe the following year with the DVLA, although they have been unable to find any record of it so far. My grandfathers name was Charles Henry Harris, although he was known as Harry, or CH to close friends.
The engine was retrieved from a sunken boat in Chichester harbour, which took 2-3 visits including being hauled up from the boat below using a winch. and then a full rebuild was done, to obviously include drying out and removing any rust etc from the engine. The chassis was from a pre war Austin 7 straight from a scrap yard, and was also modified to suit the car and style of driving. The car was made for car trials in Kent Surrey and Sussex, in events that were known as “mud plugging”, which you can see from a couple of the pictures where the mud must have been close to a metre deep, unlike some of the trials today. The car was at times known to be used in local circuit racing aswell.
The M&h special, with its 1172 cc sidevalve Ford engine on an aquaplane head, twin SU's were mated to a Wolsey 4 speed gearbox. My grandfather competed with the likes of Bernard Dees of Croydon, and Percy Barden to name a couple of people of that time. Percy Barden was a well known Builder who owned a large estate in Maidstone, which was also used for car trials before it was developed it into the massive housing estate.
Another name that comes to mind is Rex Chapple, who was an undertaker, Rex drove with his glamorous wife as passenger. Rex from Bromley in Kent, was like many others drivers from that period, from Kent Surrey and Sussex who gave up their Sunday for pleasure after such a hard War
After the War my grandfather won a Engineering scholarship to study at Walthamstow College, and then as a young man later served his apprenticeship at AMC in Plumstead, and like many after the war started his own car business (in Redhill). He was soon working for Rob Walker of Pipbrook Garage Dorking repairing the race cars that had been damaged either the week before or during practice, including Rob Walker's stable of race cars. In later years he worked with Alf Francis who was head mechanic at Pipbrrok garage, a tempermental eastern eurpean perfectionist
This brings me onto the M & H special, which was a very well designed car for all intents and purposes. All of the chalk technical drawings were on the workshop doors and looked as if they had come straight out of a Ford factory. At an airfield sprint event, my grandfather and uncle started talking with a guy who had a car which looked very similar, he and my grandfather chatted, he turned out to be Colin Chapman of Lotus.
Charles Henry Harris, or Harry, was born in 1908, and lived in London until his family was bombed out in 39, then moving to Redhill in Surrey, and lived to the ripe old age of 86. He was also and was a member of the 750 motor Club.
It would mean a great deal to me and my family if we could find this car, or any news about it. anything would be very gratefully received.
yours faithfully,
Nick de Meyer.
Ford 1172cc sidevalve powered sportscars.
Once upon a time, back when space travel was the stuff of Dan Dare, people didn't look upon crusty old Ford Pops with the fondness and adoration that most get heaped upon them today. Back then, and even more so when the 10 year test (the original MOT) came in, they were seen as little more than rickety outdated old relics, whose best use, once beginning to decay, would be as hardcore for the new fangled motorways.
However they did serve one purpose, and manys the 10hp 103E Popular and E493A Prefect, or earlier 8hp Anglia, thats seen a new lease of life like this. Dashing young men, having just passed their test, were looking for affordable sportscars with which to impress the Dames, after all, trying to pull some skirt in a wheezy Wolseley or similar just wouldn't do the trick. Their option was to build a Special, something that was a popular pastime during the late 1940s through to the early 60s.
The idea was simple, take a dog-eared but mechanically sound Ford Pop, chuck away the remains of its bodywork, and fit instead one of a large number of fibreglass bodies that would drop onto the Pop chassis. Instant cred was there for the asking, although it must be said that whereas some Special bodies were high quality, others were definitely built down to a price. Once the body was on the chassis, there was then available many tuning options with which your asthmatic 10hp Ford engine could be modified with. From companies such as Buckler, Aquaplane, Ballamy, EB and others, you could get twin SU carbs, sexy inlet & exhaust manifolds, lightweight flywheels, independent suspension, racy bucket seats, remote gearchanges, groovy drilled steel wheels, sports exhausts, extra gauges and, for the well-healed enthusiast, tasty options such as a supercharger or the super rare Willment OHV conversion (anyone got one I can buy off them?). The fact that many sidevalve Ford (and Austin) specials headed to the racing track, to compete in races held by the 750 Motor Club for instance, only served to fuel the interest in these cars.
On this page I've assembled some photos of these Ford specials, including my Ashley, and I'll be adding some period advertisements as and when I get time. I must thank Malcolm Buckler, son of the founder, for the photos he kindly sent me of his car, and the Buckler cars photo'd back in the 50s. All Buckler photos (C)"The Malcolm Buckler Collection". If you have a photo or two of your Special, please send it in & I'll include it here.
More information on tuning companies, 1950s/60s engine & suspension upgrades, and special tuning information, please visit the car tuning companies page. I also received an interesting story from a visitor to the site, about his experiences building Ford and Austin 7 based specials - read about his cars, including the "Terrapin", on this page.
Period tuning and car performance upgrades
A look at companies that sold parts to make your car go quicker
During the 1950s, interest in tuning and upgrading standard road cars really took off. It was around this time that the craze for building sporty specials, using saloon car underpinnings wrapped up within a shapely fibreglass or alloy body, increased in popularity. People had been building specials for a long time of course, with many being used in competition prior to WW2, but it was in the 50s that tuning, modifying and building your own car became a popular pastime, and not just the preserve of eccentric engineers in their sheds.
All manner of bolt-on goodies were now available, transforming the mediocre performance of many humdrum saloons into something altogether more sparkling. Some were simple bolt on upgrades, and others much more in-depth and requiring a deep knowledge of mechanical issues, and even deeper pockets.
One of the most tuned engines, certainly in the 50s at least, was the humble sidevalve Ford engine. All iron, and with no pretensions of glamour or grunt, this solid old plodder at first wouldn't seem an obvious choice for tuning. However as the interest in Ford-based specials took off, demand for parts to liven-up the Ford engine followed. Many companies waded in with performance upgrades. Some worked well, others less so.
Well-known purveyors of tuning parts for sidevalve Fords included Aquaplane and LMB (Ballamy). They could sell you tasty aluminium 'cylinder heads', oil coolers, tubular exhausts and twin carb setups. Ballamy concentrated on handling kits for the wobbly upright sidevalve, and offered trick split independent front axle set ups, wheels, and other add-ons.
Wooller would sell you remoted gearshifts, and companies such as Lucas would happily supply you with all the auxiliary lamps, switches, gauges, and other essential upgrades for the motorist who wanted to liven up his existing car, without the expense of buying an expensive performance car.
Interest in tuning carried on through the 1960s, with the emphasis shifting towards more contemporary motorcars. By the early/mid 1960s the craze for building Pop-based sportscars was waning, and interests switched to making newer saloons go quicker. Spurred on by competition success by the BMC Works drivers, many drivers chose to pep up their roadgoing Minis with big bore exhausts, big valve heads, lightweight alloy wheels (Minilite being an example), bucket seats, bolt on lamps and sporty steering wheels all being available. Speedwell were one of the key players when it came to making BMC products go quicker, although there were other outfits equally adept at making bog standard road cars fly - Downton springs to mind as one.
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