Book review: The Riley Nine Brooklands Speed Model

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Considering the significance of the Riley Brooklands both in period and in vintage competition today, it has been surprisingly difficult to obtain information on the model until now. Although no fewer than three respected historians have published books on the Riley marque since the 1960s, all have been of such broad scope that the Brooklands could not be singled out for special treatment. Karl Ludvigsen produced one of the most in-depth accounts of its development in Reid Railton: Man of Speed (2018) but now, at last, the Brooklands Speed Model has received the comprehensive treatment it fully deserves.

Adrian Smith and Keith Mountain approached the task as enthusiasts, rather than historians, but they have produced a work of which any experienced historian would be proud. Moreover, their enthusiasm shines through in their writing, and one gets the impression that they enjoyed every minute they spent on the project. It was much to their advantage that Victor Riley Jr. lent them his generous support, providing them with access to family records through which they appear to have learnt so much about the Riley family that one could be forgiven for thinking they must have been personal acquaintances. From the original, cycle-making William Riley, a bulwark of the Victorian business class somewhat out of his proper place in the 1920s motor industry, who did his utmost to prevent the "toy car" Nine from becoming a reality, to "painfully shy" Percy Riley, the Nine's designer, who when not at work was most at home tending to his shrubbery, even the reader starts to feel personally acquainted with these figures from a century ago.

Smith and Mountain's history proceeds as it should—chronologically—and after detailing the development of the Brooklands Nine, which was seen through to completion by Reid Railton after Parry Thomas, to whom the project was originally entrusted, met his untimely end in a Land Speed Record attempt, it proceeds to the review the Brooklands' performance year-by-year in major race meetings. The Brooklands was produced from 1928 to 1932, but the story doesn't end in 1932—when the Riley works and the first rank of drivers no longer had any use for them, second-hand Brooklands found their way onto the market at knock-down prices and continued to be enjoyed by a new wave of privateers. The authors even manage to illustrate the ways in which some owners enjoyed their Brooklands through the war and into peacetime, when the popularity of John Treen's Riley specials demonstrated that, while the motor sport industry may have moved on to the faster-paced action of Formula One single-seaters, there was still a fond nostalgia for the vintage machines of 20 years before.

Of course, not everyone appreciated vintage sports cars in quite the same way, and the authors touch on the subject of those racers who committed all manner of mutilations in their efforts (some possibly justified) to turn the Brooklands into a superior and more competitive machine, but those who did so post-war were merely continuing a practice which had begun when the model was still new. There's an excellent picture of D. S. E. Herrtage in 1930, grinning from behind the wheel of the Riley which he had substantially reshaped into the Kum-Bak Special. One of the most fascinating details concerned the fate which befell Victor Gillow's three Brooklands Nines—oval dirt-track racing in the London suburbs! Impressively, Smith and Mountain managed to locate and reproduce a set of eight photographs depicting the Gillow stable at probably the Crystal Palace dirt track in 1934.

After the thoroughly readable history, the authors also provide a very detailed technical description of the Brooklands, noting changes made during production, and follow it with a series of biographies concerning the racers most closely associated with the Brooklands Nine, such as A. W. von der Becke, Freddie Dixon and George Eyston and these are, again, written in great detail but with a respectful familiarity. Even after all that, one of the most useful parts of the book for researchers is the appendix in which the authors have, as far as possible, produced a record of the history of every Brooklands by chassis number.

It wouldn't do to describe The Riley Nine Brooklands Speed Model as scholarly, if only because that word carries implications of dryness. Instead, what we have is a supremely informative book, engagingly written, and with a few legends and anecdotes scattered throughout which manage to raise a smile. It might also be mentioned that, although a self-published volume, the overall production quality is about as good as it gets.

Words: Zack Stiling


The Riley Nine Brooklands Speed Model: The Car, the People, Their Times
Authors: Adrian Smith and Keith Mountain
Publisher: Self published. Hardback. 449 pages with numerous illustrations. See www.rileybrooklands.co.uk
Price: £95.00

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