PRESS RELEASE
1 May 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NAPIER RETURNS TO PARIS-MADRID

Historic Beaulieu car joins rush of late entries

H&H Classic Rallies is thrilled to announce that the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu has entered May's Paris-Madrid Rally with its priceless 1903 Napier.

 

It is particularly fitting that this car should compete for the Charles Jarrott Trophy, inaugurated last year in honour of the British ace who drove car No1 in the epic 1903 Paris-Madrid race, as the Beaulieu machine was actually driven by Jarrott himself.

 

Several cars on the rally have an interesting sporting pedigree, among them Dr Wolfgang Brunk's 1937 Riley Preston 12/4 and the gorgeous, Touring-bodied 1938 Alfa Romeo 6C SS Torpedino of 2013 winners Alastair Caldwell and Catriona Rings.

 

The event's new, post-war class has also drawn British rally driver Edmund Peel in the ex-works Triumph TR2 which Maurice Gatsonides and Rob Slotmaker drove to second in class and sixth overall on the 1954 Alpine Rally, while other classic entries include a Triumph TR3A, a Citroen Traction Avant and a Series 1 Jaguar E-Type FHC.

 

Meanwhile, the pre-war competition has been joined by Cornelis Willemse, in a very rare 1937 Hudson Century, fast lady Mel Hatton in a 1928 Riley Brooklands and Roy Hatfield's 1924 Bentley 3/4.5 Litre, which brings the total number of Bentleys to five.

 

Nevertheless, the National Motor Museum's Napier has particular significance. Powered by a 7,708cc, four-cylinder engine and capable of 75mph, it is one of the oldest surviving British racing cars. With Jarrott at the wheel, it was one of three Napiers which raced for Britain in the Gordon Bennett Cup of July 1903, where the team's decision to paint its cars green established the country's racing livery for much of the 20th Century.

 

The race actually took place in Ireland, as racing on public roads remained illegal in mainland Britain; unfortunately, Jarrott managed to complete only one lap of the 92-mile County Kildare circuit before his steering broke, causing the car to crash and overturn - he was thrown clear, but his mechanic, Cecil Bianchi, was trapped underneath. Somehow, before falling unconscious, Jarrott managed to lift the heavy machine enough to allow spectators to pull Bianchi free and both men lived to tell the tale, although their team mates SF Edge and JW Stocks initially thought they had perished.

 

We trust this historic car and its crew will encounter better fortune on the 2nd Paris-Madrid Rally, and look forward to recreating the attached photo of private entrant Mark Mayhew on his 40HP Napier L1, taken at the start of the original Paris-Madrid race on 24 May 1903. In fact, as the works team was busy with preparations for the imminent Gordon Bennett Cup, Mayhew drove the only Napier in the race, and unfortunately failed to finish. Indeed, the entire event was halted at Bordeaux after a series of terrible accidents, bringing the era of city-to-city racing to a sudden end. The full route was finally completed last year, on the inaugural Paris-Madrid Rally, marking the 110th anniversary of the ill-fated race.

 

Entries are still being accepted for the 2014 Paris-Madrid, which starts from the Trianon Palace in Versailles on 23 May and runs via Limoges and Pamplona to finish at Alcala de Henares, a medieval World Heritage site on the outskirts of Madrid, on 25 May. The event is open to all pre-1974 cars; the pre-war class will once again compete for the prestigious Charles Jarrott Trophy - won last year by Alastair Caldwell and Catriona Rings in a 1938 Alfa Romeo 6C -  while the post-war classics will battle for their own separate award.

 

For more information, please visit http://hhclassicrallies.com/paris-madrid-event-2014.html, or contact the rally office: by email on [email protected] or by telephone on +44 (0)1252 717175.

[Distributed by CDWrite on behalf of H&H Classic Rallies Limited. To unsubscribe from all CDWrite email lists, please reply with "STOP" as the subject line]

 

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