NY to LA in 1930. But what happened next..?

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We all know the age-old saying ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’, referring to motor manufacturers and car dealers selling more vehicles after one of their cars wins a race. And although the association between winning races in the weekend and selling cars after may have worn out just a little, it still goes (or so a study says).

Riley

It certainly went for the Riley ‘Brooklands’, which had come about at the circuit with the same name. Before Riley engineer, JG Parry Thomas died on Pendine Sands he had begun converting a Riley Nine in a sports racer. Reid Railton finished the job and in 1927 the Brooklands was born. They were used at Le Mans, the Nürburgring, the Tourist Trophy races and of course Brooklands. And they were good. In fact, these cars were still winning races in the 1950s.

But Riley was eager to spread the word also and decided a racing car in the US was the way to go. And so they shipped chassis 8070 to America in July 1930 to promote the marque. A long-distance rally over 4.200 miles from New York to Los Angeles was its chance and in 102 hours the car did just that. Behind the wheel were the very British team of aviator Noel Pemberton Billing and Riley’s own competitions manager Rupert Riley, who reputedly got fined in New Jersey for ignoring a red light. It is unknown (to us… but then we do not know much) what the car looked like at the time of the NY to LA drive and we couldn’t find images of it, but it is believed that the car was converted into the racer seen here, including a V8 engine.

Unfortunately, the history between 1940 and 1978 is unknown as well and the thread is only picked up when the car came over to The Netherlands in ’78. It was raced with its V8 still installed at the Nürburgring but in 1992 an original Riley 1100 four-cylinder was fitted once again. This car deserves some more sleuthing work as we'd love to find out more about its no doubt interesting background. Fact is that the next proprietor can have lots of fun with that alone.

Words by Jeroen Booij.

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