Goodwood Circuit Revival 1999

On October 13th 1934 R3A was entered in the BARC Mountain Championship race at Brooklands. Raymond Mays came second taking the Class E lap record at 78.88 mph.  He also set the Standing Start 1 km world record of 89.73 mph.

The car went on to have a somewhat chequered history but there were first and second places in abundance on the good days with a first at the Nurburgring on June 16th 1935 and a win in the hands of Charles Martin at the Avus Ring in May 1937.

In May 1938 R3A was advertised for sale in Speed magazine with an asking price of £875.00 (compared to a value these days in the region of £500,000) to be bought by Roy Hesketh who took it to South Africa where it stayed for 27 years. It was during this period that many of the cars in Britain underwent significant modification which R3A avoided as a result of its absence.

If you look closely at this rear quarter photo you can see Barrie Williams applying very slight opposite lock as the car skitters around Madgwick to take pole position for the very wet Sunday morning Goodwood Trophy race which he won at an average speed of 76.85 mph.