1929 Riley 9 Brooklands. Works Team Car

£179,700

Registration
VC 485

Year
1929

Chassis Number
8049

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Riley 9 Brooklands. Works Team Car

Date of first registration: 01/06/1929

Registration: VC 485

Chassis Number: 8049

VSCC Buff Form

An opportunity to acquire an original Riley Brooklands with extensive competition history, being the original car that John Treen purchased and campaigned and modelled his rare Treen specials against.

Built as one of a team of Riley Works Cars it raced at the Irish Grand Prix at Phoenix Park, Dublin in July 1929. These cars were fitted with 20 gallon fuel tanks, lightened support cradle and unique finned brake drums, the latter of which are still on the car. The cradle and tank are included in the sale.

Prewar drivers included Kaye Don and Sammy Newsome before being sold to works Bentley driver, Sir Ronald Gunter, who owned Weatherby Grange in Yorkshire, a prewar sprint venue.

VC 485 was bought by John Treen in 1938 and became his very successful alcohol competition car and the inspiration for the small number of Treen cars built by him after the war. John raced VC 485 in the 50`s and took part in the inaugural meeting of the new Goodwood meeting in Sussex (It would be welcomed back with open arms!) John gave the current owners the programs showing the results of all of his races.

This car has been owned by the Bradford family between 1971 and 2020 who competed throughout that time with the car at home and abroad. During this period it was maintained by Nev Farquhar, Arthur Archer and in more recent times Keith Pointing who rebuilt the engine in 2016. This very well known Brooklands has been campaigned extensively over the last 40 years and has achieved numerous class wins driven by the Bradford brothers at Coys, Motor Racing Legends and VSCC events.

Ashridge sold the car to the current owner in 2020 who has continued to campaign the car at numerous events, springs and hillclimbs; attending venues such as Goodwood, Silverstone and Shere. In this time the car has been maintained by DTR European Sports Cars who have fully rebuilt the hydraulic braking system, replaced the fuel lines and fitted a filter and tuned and retimed the engine. The tyres have also since been replaced all round with new Ensign B5s. The current owner has also fastidiously filed and indexed the included history.

The engine is fitted with twin bronze 1 1/8th pistons, steel cranks and rods, high lift cams, Brooklands water pump, lightweight flywheel and original Brooklands sump. The gearbox is a close ratio unit on needle roller bearings. Compression ratio is 10:1. Rear axle ratio is 4.89:1.

The ex Vic Gillow racing engine, fitted when the car was originally purchased, is included in the sale. It was rebuilt and fettled by Nev Farquhar who said that it was too original to be thrashed around race circuits!

This superb car is looking for it`s new custodian who will campaign it as it deserves to be; this should be no museum piece. Eligible and welcome for just about every event the car comes with a comprehensive history file, invoices, many many period photographs and numerous programs and entry details of the hundreds of events this superb car entered.