MOTOR CARS | 1471Arthur Fox and Bob Nicholl were Lagonda specialists, whose sizable
business had been preparing and racing Lagonda cars since as early as
- Fox had persuaded the Lagonda company to support his team’s
competition activities and in 1929 he and Nicholl ran a flotilla of four 2-litre
cars in both the Irish Grand Prix and RAC Tourist Trophy races. He rapidly
established himself as a meticulous preparer of competition Lagondas,
and he was never slow in improving upon the factory specification if he
perceived any possible advantage. Just as Enzo Ferrari’s private Scuderia
ran the quasi-works Alfa Romeo team cars from 1932-37, so Fox &
Nicholl’s highly-effective organization became selected by the Lagonda
company to represent their vital interests in International motor racing. In
effect, one might read ‘Fox & Nicholl’ as ‘Britain’s Scuderia Ferrari’.
For 1936 the manufacturers’ production department at Staines Bridge
built four competition cars specifically for Fox and Nicholl. This quartet
comprised two four-seaters, bodied to comply with Le Mans 24-Hour
regulation requirements, and two two-seaters, this superb surviving
example offered here being one of the latter. It was completed in May
1936 and entered by the team for that year’s 24 Hour race at Le Mans,
which was unfortunately cancelled due to strikes in France. It was first
UK registered ‘EPE 97’ that August. Its sister two-seater was ‘HLL 534’
and also survives (incidently sold by the Bonhams team - when known as
Brooks – on behalf of the then owner Lord Dunleath in 1995) while the fate
of the sister four-seaters remains obscure.
At this point Fox & Nicholl’s as yet officially un-registered new car, chassis
‘12111’, made its racing debut, apparently painted French blue instead of
Fox & Nicholl’s normal racing red livery. It was driven by the experienced
hands of Algerian-born French driver Marcel Lehoux in the sports car
Grand Prix de l’ACF at Montlhéry, outside Paris, France on June 28, 1936.
While sister car ‘HLL 534’ won its class (in what appears to have been its
only race), Lehoux was forced to retire.
There is some suggestion that 12111 was the car that Lehoux also
campaigned at the Grand Prix de la Marne and that Seaman and
Clifford ran at the Belgian Grand Prix in July, but this has never been
definitively proven either way. What is certain is that by ‘12111’s
next appearance, it was registered as ‘EPE 97’ and finished in
Fox & Nicholl’s dark shade of red, for the RAC Tourist Trophy race
over the fabulous Ards public road circuit outside Belfast, Ulster,
in August 1936. It was driven there by the very capable aristocrat,
the Honourable Brian Lewis, later Lord Essendon. The car carried
race number ‘1’ and was running in a strong second place after two
hours, before sliding off the road and striking a bank. Lewis rejoined
and recovered to run a close third behind Eddie Hall’s famous Derby
Bentley in what proved to be an epic duel.Lewis’s fastest lap of the Ards circuit during his fight back through
the field was achieved at a shattering 83.20mph, compared to Hall’s
fastest of 81.07mph. If you imagine maintaining such an average
speed around a narrow, undulating, winding loop of Ulster roads,
through villages, a town centre and out around rolling farmland, you
will form an accurate impression of the remarkable performance of
these imposing-looking mid-1930s British sports-racing cars.