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MG MGA - Back In The Race - Brooklands 1935

There I was being towed around the shops by Wifey today (Saturday morning) when a car print in a charity shop window caught my eye.

£5.99 ($9) later I was the proud possessor of a rather nice framed print titled 'Back in the Race - Brooklands 1935' by Kevin Walsh.

The blue car is, I think, an R-Type midget. Can anyone confirm.

My late Mother-in-law was a time keeper at Brooklands in 1935, so a sort of family link to the scene depicted.

Not MGA I Know, but I thought you might like to see the painting/print.

Steve


Steve Gyles

I bought something very like that on a jigsaw puzzle a few years ago.
Geoff Ev

Sure looks like one:

http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/front_website/octane_interact/carspecs.php/?see=316
Del Rawlins

Hi Steve..There are a number of prints available by the same artist all featuring a variety of MG's and are post cards,place mats and coasters etc......Yes it is a R Type.....But the poster you have looks good...Cheers Rex
Rex Thompson

Kevin Walsh did an MGA too, see http://www.rutgerbooy.nl/mga-postcards/aa

Rutger
Rutger Booy

Steve, I am sure that others will know, I would say that was Doreen Evans after a pit stop at Brooklands. Probably painted from a well-known photograph. I think that I am correct in saying that she passed away a couple of years ago. They were quite a well-known motoring family, I think. R-types produced nearly 200 hp per litre, not surpassed until the early 1950's by the GP Alfa Romeos (type 153?).
Barry Bahnisch

Good info Barry. However, did Doreen have a moustache?!! It is a male that is depicted in the car.

What I find slightly odd is that I have a couple of the pit lane photos taken by my Mother-in-Law showing the cars race in the opposite direction (one of the pictures attached).

Perhaps someone who knows the old Brooklands circuit can explain.

Steve


Steve Gyles

Good point, Steve, I was unable to distinguish the moustache! Maybe the artist took some licence when he copied from the photograph? I think that the cars ran in the opposite direction in front of the pits when the Mountain Circuit was used? Wonderful old circuit, the "home" of motoring competition in England, now sitting on prime land but no-one seems to be game to destroy the hallowed old place! It is now a bit of an anachronism and apparently noise was a problem, practically from the start! Pity we have moved on, such wonderful feats were achieved there!
Barry Bahnisch

I meant to add that I think that the Evans family ran Bellevue Garage (?) and their cars, having been prepared by that organisation, had white stripes on their bonnet sides. Not sure whether the picture depicts this?
Barry Bahnisch

Barry

That hangar in the photo still exists. The clubhouse and some workshops are still there and form a historic car and aircraft museum. A few hundred metres of the banking has survived but is quite dilapidated, although the museum regularly exercises cars on it for the public's enjoyment. Next door to the museum Mercedes has its UK HQ, complete with a car testing circuit. Over the other side of the old airfield is a business park. One of the buildings houses the Sony HQ for the UK and, I think, Europe. And around the entire complex is a sea of houses!

Steve
Steve Gyles

For some reason I can't upload any pictures, so I'll try later.

Steve, the poster by Kevin Walsh is a copy of a picture taken in 1935 which shows Doreen Evans with R-type #38 rejoining the Brooklands International Trophy Race after a pitstop at the model's racing debute

Rutger
Rutger Booy

Here's the picture of Doreen. I scanned it from the book 'MG by McComb'

Rutger



Rutger Booy

The Evans family that owned Bellevue Garage also had a shed on Brooklands where the R-type was prepared for the race. I took this picture in 2006

Rutger



Rutger Booy

Here' my Brooklands contribution's Steve:

JCC 200-Miles Race at Brooklands, 20 September 1924

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hesterracing/Austin7/TA%20Hester%20Austin%207%20Racing.JPG

and my grandfather again at the same even (not brookands this time) as old No 1 - MG

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hesterracing/Austin7/The%20Motor%20April%2014%201925%20p496.JPG

.... more modern view of brooklands by myself two weeks ago, this time MGA related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3onolbTNzn4

Cheers
Mark
Mark Hester

Excellent picture, Rutger! It seems rather churlish of Steve and Barry to comment on Doreen's mustache.

Ken
Ken Korey

Ken

Please explain what is churlish to me. The combination of a question mark and explanation mark is one way of showing a sense of humour. Not sure where churlishness comes into it.

The artist's interpretation does not depict a female driver, showing instead what very much appears to be a moustache.

Steve
Steve Gyles

This and many more Kevin Walsh paintings can be found on this page of my site: http://www.mgnuts.com/artwork/paintings/

It is indeed an R-Type, easily noted by the independent rear suspension.
Steve Simmons

Not wanting to fan the flames Steve but I just double checked the word "churlish" in my dictionary and apparently it means rustic and/or ill bred! :-)


It may well have been facial hair or possibly just an unfortunate reflection in her crash helmets visor.

But whichever it was, Doreen must have been one formidable woman to race an R-type.

Steve, you are an absolute gem (and a true gent) on this forum, but churlish? Definitely not.

Colyn

Colyn Firth

Colyn

Thank you for your words. Following the sequence of posts above you will see that Doreen only became confirmed as the driver of the car in that painting after my 'churlish' post. Up to that point it was unconfirmed, hence the light banter between Barry and myself. Paintings can be interpretated in many ways. Yes, you could argue the case for visor reflections. Equally, in the light of any other qualified information at the time it sure looked like a moustache to me - and still does.

Steve

Steve Gyles

An R Type with 'handlebars', perhaps, Steve?

I have two MGA jigsaws mounted on the garage wall, including the AA box one (the other is of a red A in Malham, Yorkshire)
Shane
Shanerj

Doreen Evans and her brothers, Doreen sitting atop her R-Type:
http://www.mgnuts.com/gallery/historical-prewar-late/Evans-Family.jpg

Doreen Evans portrait:
http://www.mgnuts.com/gallery/historical-people/doreen_evans1.jpg

Doreen racing her R-Type, in the pits:
http://www.mgnuts.com/gallery/historical-prewar-late/evans_car45.jpg

A fiery end to Doreen's R-Type in 1936:
http://www.mgnuts.com/gallery/historical-prewar-late/rtype_wreck.jpg

Notice gentlemen, no mustache! ;)
Steve Simmons

Steve, I looked thru a history of Brooklands book that I have, and could find no reference to the cars racing in either direction. However, the attached photo from the Brooklands web site appears to be taken from the same spot as your image was, but the pits seem to be gone. There was no date to this picture. I wonder if the direction of racing was changed between Double Twelve races, I seem to remember reading about that some where.

George


G Goeppner

George

I will have to take a closer look at the old race track plans when I am next up there (20 miles up the road).

I have attached 4 pictures of the museum as it is now - basically what is behind the doors of the surviving garages as shown in Rutger's photos. Also shown is part of the aircraft collection inside the hangar. Sadly, also shown is the last remaining section of the banked track leading on to Railway Straight.

The Wellington bomber crashed landed in Loch Ness (monster and all that) during WW2 and was recovered in 1985.

Steve


Steve Gyles

This thread was discussed between 21/04/2012 and 26/04/2012

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