Friend, fellow car guy, and frequent commentator here John “Mad Dog” Morrow sent me this photo in the hopes of being able to identify the cars. He says:
Hi Chuck,
Recently I found some old negatives in my basement. I had them printed, digitally speaking, and some treasure were revealed. Several were from a car show at the Brooklands race track, c1967/8 taken by me with my Dad’s Zeiss Ikon camera. The cars are very interesting and there are some I can’t identify. Like the two (or three if you’re really good) in the attached pic. I’m really curious as to what these are and would be grateful if you could shed any light on this…
John
I replied that I see 4 cars (so I must be REALLY REALLY good!) and that two of them are certainly Bugatti’s. (Though I am not sure of the exact models on the Bugs.) The main “#18” car with the modified nose remains a mystery (though I suspect it could be a Bug too?), as does the Sprint-looking racer with the Brooklands Windscreen in the far background. I figured that the ace car spotters here (Roger, Paul, Shaun, etc) should be able to positively ID just about every car here. How about it guys?
Not entirely sure but, I’m 99% sure the cars to the left and right of the weird-nosed one are indeed Bugattis, both of which *might* be Typ 37s or variants thereof (different front brakes). The weird nosed one? Clueless.
The far right car (which I cannot see well, due to how I see chuck’s pages) appears to be of a sprint car body style. Isn’t there a way someone over in Jollye Olde could do a verification of the rego plates? They stay with the car for life, in England, no?
Paul: Right click the photo and choose ‘Open image in new window” or something similar (Life is too short to try and do Windows support via website comments, but this should work!)
Ah, my photo. Sorry it’s a bit imperfect -I found only the negs ( whole collection, in fact) in my basement and took them to one of those processing places to be put straight onto disk. Clearly there’s been some overcorrection going on. In anycase the pic is somehow clearer on this site than looking at it on iPhoto. I now think that all three cars are Bugattis (it’s probably a Bugatti display) . The modified nose on the central one through me off for a bit but its now obvious that this is just a bit of bolt on streamlining. I love the guy in his white overalls/race suit. They had class back then!
Comment to Vroomie: yes the license (rego) plates are usually permanent in the UK but there is no was of accessing the records unless you have a friend in a Law Enforcement (and even then it’s tricky).
HI All,
I am taking my stab at the middle Car #18. My research shows it to be a 1929 Bugatti Type 37. The front coachwork is so heavily modified it is difficlt to get an exact bead on things.
Cheers,
Shaun