Topic: Mysterious sand racer

[nicanary]

Keen followers of AP will know that el_monty recently posted a puzzle (Monty092) of an odd small beach racing car pictured at Southport in 1934 and captioned as being built and driven by a Mr. Killick. It looks quite small and probably rear-engined.

I hope Allan L doesn't mind me coming on this forum and leaving the puzzle here for those of us interested in pre-WW2 machinery. There's still a point available from el_monty if anyone can work out what on earth it is. I can find nothing on the internet although I have seen Mr. Killick's name mentioned in results at Southport driving an Austin. Even Motor Sport magazine's articles are scant on details of the sand races, only mentioning the leading cars.

I have a suspicion that it wasn't built for racing, but more likely to take part in the flying kilometre and flying mile speed trials. It's so unusual and offbeat that I would have thought that it was well-known, but clearly not. Here's the image - I apologise to the impoverished Getty family for unauthorised use of the picture. Do you know what it is, Allan?

[Allan L]

If I knew what it was I'd have collected a point from el_monty!
All I can say is it doesn't look like Southport where it's all so flat you have to imagine the curvature of the earth to understand why the sand and the sea are separated!

[nicanary]

I know what you mean about Southport beach, but nontheless I think the caption is correct. I think the races took place nearer the sea where the sand would have been harder, and the timed runs over a distance would have been run further up and nearer the dunes because the surface of the beach would have been broken up during the racing. Quite possibly this car was photographed in some sort of holding area near the dunes before moving to the designated track to take part.

Here's a photo of a more modern retrospective meeting  showing the dunes in the background - I think that's the Davenport GN Spider.

[FrontMan]

Five years on, and I've only just latched on to this post!!  Must be Basil's "Spider", above;...and above that, the Mr. Killick car appears to have a GN front axle, and hand levers, at the very least.

I met Basil Davenport a couple of times through friendship with his son-in-law and daughter. Basil's wife had been a magistrate, and Lady Mayoress of Macclesfield. Very "blue-rinse" Tory, of course, but they were all charming people, so I refrained from inflicting upon them my Left Wing leanings. Cars often have a unifying effect on people, as do music, art,...and adversity. Sad though that events in 2022's Eastern Europe make one remember that, at one time, V. Putin was happy to let G.W. Bush have a drive of the former's V8-powered GAZ Volga!