The sports 6

[jonto]

The interesting photo from a French facebook page. No Caption, when and where? Here in the UK or on a visit accross the water.

[Old Crock]

Hello Jonto, haven't heard from you for a while. I hope the restoration of the vintage four-cylinder proceeded as planned (finished maybe? If so, how about a couple of photos?)

The photo of the Sports six-cylinder (Montlhéry) was taken by Bill Brunell, who took thousands of photos of cars in the 1920's and 1930's. A few years back the Motoring Picture Library at Beaulieu acquired his entire collection. He accompanied the Hon Victor Bruce on the successful Monte Carlo run in 1926.

The photo above was taken on 1 June 1929 at Osterley Park Hotel, Isleworth, Middlesex. The cars were competing in the North West London Motor Club Trial. On the left a Salmson 1087 cc. Vehicle Reg. No. YF5128, Driver was Higgs. On the right, the AC Acedes Six. Vehicle Reg. No. PK6322. Driver recorded as: Freeman, but it appears to be A J Mollart of AC. I have one other photo of this car competing, shown below. There are many photos of the event itself, on the web, but most have copyright restrictions - try entering the search '1929 North West London MC' and you'll find a few.

This same car, PK6322, was driven by Mollart in the Edinburg Trial of 1929. He worked for AC at Thames Ditton, if I recall as Works/Service Manager, leaving when the company went into administration. He started his own successful engineering company in Thames Ditton which still survives today (under successful stewardship of three generations).

Interestingly, there is a photo of a different AC, late 1920's, that carried the same registration number. I assume some factory manoeuvres....

Click the link to see a photo of that car. There is a Montlhery at the side of the shot, but only rear of the body visible.

https://motoringpicturelibrary.com/index.php/mpl_images/ac-acedes-six-open-tourer-1929-1991-cc-vehicle-reg-no-pk6322-event-entry-no-27-driver-mollart-j-finished-4th-equal-of-17-place-bhmc-brighton-motor-rally-date-28-6-1-7-30

[Jam2]

Is this the same "Montlhery" that was used in the record run?  AC did rebody the car (the body being subsequently acquired by Ray Morley), do we know how many "Montlhery" style bodied cars were made?

[Old Crock]

Hi Jonto and Jam2

December 1927, the Bruce's returned from Montlhéry to much acclaim. They had broken the 10,000-mile record and had driven 15,000 miles at an average speed of 68 mph.
The original Montlhéry record car was sold to A J Mollart, who was the toolroom manager (correction to my earlier posting) at AC, Thames Ditton. He trialled PK6322 extensively throughout 1928 and 1929 before the body was removed for a lighter, fabric design in readiness for the Brooklands Double Twelve. This was the link above to the photo of PK6322, now carrying a tourer body.

In 1929 Ray Morley heard of the liquidation of AC and rushed over to buy a car and he purchased the old coachwork of the Bruce's car, mating the two together. His new AC Six was registered as PH 8013, and Ray and the car continued to collect an outstanding number of awards, including on the first RAC Rally in 1932. Ray Morley subsequently traded PH 8013 back to the factory for £25 against an ex-works 16/80.

So, in summary, the Montlhéry car was PK6322. The body was removed and PK6322 then competed with a lightweight tourer body. The original body of the Montlhéry car was fitted to PH8013, competed by Ray Morley, now owned by David Hescroff who has had the car for more than 40 years.

Final part of the story is the original chassis from the Montlhéry car was used to construct a special in the 1950's by John Vessey, a Lancia man, and was likely scrapped around 1960.

[Jam2]

Thank you for that information. Regarding the photo, David Hescroff tells me " the photo shows PK6322 - the Montlhery record car with its 4 seat body put on to enter the Brooklands Double Twelve Race in 1930. It is a very interesting shot (I have a copy of it) because the other car is Ray Morley in PH8013 with the Montlhery record car's original body which Ray bought from Mollart. "
David reckons that 5 cars may have been built with that body style.

[administrator]

As Old Crock notes, Mollart went on to set up a highly regarded engineering company which is still in existence....

https://mollart.com/history