Brooklands Girl (UPDATE III: Marjorie Eccles, 1935)

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This fabulous Friday girl is Mrs. Eccles (Roy Eccles wife). Obviously she's chilling out between races with a smoke and a knit. Meanwhile her mechanic is adjusting the carby (just below the massive Roots blower). But which car is it? The Eccles brothers Roy & Lindsay have been quite active at Brooklands and elsewhere with cars as diverse as MG, Bugatti, Napier and their own Eccles Special. Click the photo for a wider view and more detail. Is her car a Napier? You may also be able to tell us more about the racing car on the left and the business coupe in the background. Contact Us (courtesy Harold van Ek )

UPDATE III by Tim Metcalfe:"The photo is of Marjorie Eccles sitting on the Eccles Rapier Special in 1935, a car I now own, probably at the BARC August Bank holiday meeting at Brooklands on 3rd August 1935. On that day the car was entered for 4 races at Brooklands, winning with Roy on the Outer Circuit, and it is the only time in 1935 that Majorie raced it, although she (and Roy) used it extensively in 1936 and 1937, before Roy died in early 1938.

The picuture is certainly taken in 1935 (its first year of competition) as the car was changed from cream to green at the end of 1935 together with certain other modifications including to a small door and the shock absorber mountings which can be seen in the photograph.

The following is a short profile of the car written by me:

Legend has it that Eccles' Lagonda Rapier chassis was smuggled out of the back door of the Lagonda factory as the Receiver was coming in the front door. Various engine modifications were undertaken by McEvoy's of Derby, including revised cylinder head cooling, stroking to reduce capacity to 1084cc and the fitting of a large Zoller supercharger. A lightweight offset single-seat body was also fitted finished in a cream colour.

The finished car, now styled the "Eccles Supercharged Special" was entered for the BARC Whitsun meeting at Brooklands on 10th June 1935, but it was not finished in time. Instead Roy's first outing was at the British Empire Trophy Race at Brooklands on 6th July 1935, where unfortunately the car only completed 49 laps of the 80 lap race.

Brooklands success was not long in coming as Roy won his first Brooklands Outer Circuit race at an average of 104mph at the 1935 August Bank Holiday meeting. However, the Brooklands authorities were somewhat concerned at the car being described as the "Eccles Supercharged Special" when it was so obviously a Lagonda Rapier and they wrote to Lagonda to request clarification. By then Lagonda had other things on its mind with receivership and transfer of Rapier production to Rapier Cars Limited. Following modifications over the 1935/36 winter carried out by Robin Jackson at Brooklands, including swapping the throttle pedal over to the right hand-side, modified bodywork and new dampers to cope with the Brooklands bumps, the car reappeared for 1936 styled as a Rapier Special and sporting the Rapier badge from the newly formed Rapier Cars on its radiator cowl.

Roy had to wait until the August Bank holiday meeting for further Brooklands success in 1936 when he again won on the Outer Circuit at an average of 108.8mph and also dead-heated with King-Clarke's MG for a win on the Mountain Circuit. A further win on the Mountain Circuit in early 1937 was followed by a win on the newly opened Campbell Road Circuit at Brooklands in October, which also saw Roy take the 1100cc Campbell Circuit lap record. This showed the true versatility of the Rapier with it having won on all three of the main Brooklands circuit configurations.

In all Roy and his wife Marjorie competed in over 20 races at Brooklands in the Rapier, before Roy's untimely death from a brain haemorrhage at the age of 37 in early 1938. Roy and Marjorie also enjoyed success with the Rapier at Donington, Shelsley Walsh, Brighton, the Isle of Man and notably a big crash for Marjory on the first lap of the 1937 London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace, when she rolled the car having previously caused consternation by jumping the start.

The Rapier was to race one last time at Brooklands in September 1938 when Marjorie entered the Dunlop Jubilee races for Rapier Cars Director, Neville Brocklebank, unfortunately without success.

With Brooklands closing on the outbreak of war in 1939 the Rapier passed to car dealer Ian Metcafe who was to store it for the duration at his mushroom farm. With the ending of hostilities the first post war British race meeting was organised at Gransden Lodge on 15 June 1946. Ian Metcalfe dusted off the Rapier and joined an assortment of eight cars in the main Voiturette race of the day. Ian continued to race the car for the next two years, most notably qualifying on the second row at Rheims for the Coupe de Petites Cylindrees, lapping quicker than the likes of Louis Chiron and Maurice Trentignant in more modern Gordini and Cisitalia. Unfortunately various problems let Ian down and after an eventful race he was to be the last classified finisher in 11th.

>From Ian's hands the car passed to HWM where Fred Hobbs ran it at Goodwood and elsewhere, but it was no match for the more modern 1100cc Cooper opposition, particularly driven by the likes of Stirling Moss. However, HWM did take advantage of some of the spares acquired with the Rapier, which were incorporated into a number of their early cars. From the early 1950's the car continued to be seen frequently in historic racing, sprints and hill climbs, most notably in the hands of Alex McCall who owned the car from the early 1960's until his death in 2002.

Following the acquisition of the Eccles Rapier by Tim Metcalfe in 2002 it was recommissioned for track use and soon winning in VSCC competition. However, the car had never been fully rebuilt since 1935 and was getting somewhat tired. It has therefore just finished a three year sympathetic rebuild by Tony Metcalfe and is back painted cream for the first time since the winter of 1935.

Testing is about to start of the newly rebuilt car and it is expected to be back in competition in 2009.

UPDATE II: Adrian Ward mentions that: "this car has just returned to the track after a large accident a few years ago and is raced by Tim Metcalf."
UPDATE I by Thomas Bibb: "The Lady is almost certainly sittng on her husbands's Eccles Rapier Special.

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