UPDATE: No Napier, it's the 1905 V8 Darracq Speed record car....)

UPDATE by Bob Swanson: "I clicked onto the engine enlargement and saw the five spoked steering wheel that told me it was a Darracq, then I remembered this photo from "A Motorracing Camera 1894-1916" by G.N.Georgano. Laurent Friry added: "This car was equiped with a V8 engine of 22.5 liter(!) (un Cimetiere de Marques) and got the Land Speed record ( 174 km/h) in December 1905 with Victor Hémery as driver. If I'm right the car is currently being restored in UK."

EARLIER TEXT: Robert Rozeman, secretary of the Dutch Austin Seven Club sent us this great racing photo and added that the car possibly is a 1904 Napier. A bit like the one which was to be seen at Pebble Beach 1999 with wrap around copper piping that looks like a design bathroom radiator; the same car that caugth a 24 hour speed record at Brooklands in 1907 (Brooklands.org). At first glance -but not at second- this car is like that one. What about the pointed coolant tank on top of the engine? And how about the exposed valve gear ? Clifford Earp at the wheel? Quite a different car from the reproduction 1907 Brooklands version. (What kind of lighting used this car by the way during night, if any?). We have been asking around but maybe you know the answer. Is this the prototype of the 1907 Napier? Questions, questions, questions... Who has one or two answers ? (collection Robert Rozeman)

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