|
A page from a 1930 American Austin Catalogue listing just a few of the many hundreds of Austin 7 competition victories. From "stuartu" in the AustinSevenFriends Forum: The Urquiola Hill Climb would be when Arturo Palmero had a big day out in October 1927 with what was listed as a "tipo Brooklands" (presumably a Gordon England Brooklands) fitted with a roots supercharger. Although no pictures of this car are to be found, there are phtographs of Arturo in the Archive's wonderful Gladys de Havilland album. I must admit I tend to think of this as the Spanish Album, but what's in a name? Arturo is shown in charge of his Chummy on the way to and competing in (from memory) the Madrid 12 Hours. You might guess that Arturo was not of Spanish origin - in fact he had been Pietro Bordino's mechanic but had ended up in Bilbao as a 'garagiste'. I have come across mentions of his involvement with another rapid Austin circa 1931 but have yet to find a photo of that particular car. Later editions of the Fahrt Durch Schlesien ran up a mountain near Breslua in Silesia during the mid to late 1920s - though all such events in the area were banned after mid-1929 due to a number of fatal accidents. Although outright winners f this event are recorded, no Austins are mentioned so their successes must have been class wins. The Brooklands reference concerns the British Racing Drivers' Club 500 mile race where various International class records were broken including 500 miles at 80.24 m.p.h. and 200 miles at 83.53 m.p.h. Nothing certain is known about the German event but it might have been where a Dixi /BMW was first in the 'Hamburg Police Run'.
|
|