From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Page from 'The Autocar' magazine reporting on the T.T. motor race.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 90a\1\ Scan069 | |
| Date | 13th September 1935 | |
| September 13th, 1935. 459 Dixon's Riley Wins the T.T. tage possessed by the group of M.G. Magnettes, and were at the head of the field. Apart from the speed of the Rileys, interest at once centred upon the biggest and the smallest groups of cars in the race, in both of which classes a fine struggle was going on. A murmur of excitement went up when the two blue Bugattis of Brian Lewis and Lord Howe came by, leading the seven largest cars. Rumours of the speed of the new French cars were evidently well founded, and applause greeted the announcement that Lord Howe, passing Lewis, had set up a Class C lap record at 81.55 m.p.h. Hindmarsh's big red Lagonda got by Hall for a lap, but by the fourth lap Hall with the Bentley was next behind the Bugattis. The third Bugatti, driven by an Irish sportsman, McFerran, had a touring four-seater body, and while travelling well was obviously not in the hunt. Singer v.{VIENNA} Fiat The Singer-Balilla Fiat battle was tremendous. For lap after lap ffrench-Davis (Fiat) kept his nose ahead of Norman Black (Singer), S. C. H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} Davis (Singer), and Langley (Singer). A little way behind A.{Mr Adams} C. Dobson (Fiat) led Donald Barnes' Singer by a fraction, with Austin Dobson's Fiat a yard behind again. Blue flags were exhibited to the two groups, indicating that the rivals were pressing close, but this they knew well enough already, and for lap after lap kept hard at it, passing the stands in exactly the same formation. At the back of the course the Singer-Fiat battle was even more exciting. The Singers would pass ffrench-Davis down Bradshaw's Brae, then the Fiat would get the slipstream and pass again; at Newtownards the three green cars would get by, on the straight to Comber the Fiat would lead, and so all the way round the lap, though ffrench-Davis always managed to have his car just ahead at the grandstands. Town Hell. Von der Becke finds Hall's Bentley close upon him, and rams the sandbank. admits the expert. "Without timing every single car, we shall have to wait till they put it up on the board. Then we shall see the first six who are improving most on their handicap schedule." " 'I give it up.' " It is, of course, the fault of most handicap races that it is practically impossible to follow the leaders, at all events away from the scoreboards. Even with such aid it is only possible in the intervals to guess at the leaders on handicap. Last Saturday, however, things were clarified to a certain extent by the fact that Freddie Dixon with his squat blue Riley was obviously travelling so fast that, considering the size of his engine, with a little work with stop-watches one could estimate he was in a strong position. Furthermore, if one kept a record of the position of the cars with their actual mileage covered from the start—disregarding credit laps—one found that after three laps both Dixon and c 7 Paul with their Rileys had wiped out the 1 min. 8 sec. starting time advan- Charles Dodson's Lagonda on the approach to Newtownards. | ||