This revolutionary front-wheel-drive car raced at Brooklands many times, including the 1931 Double Twelve-Hour Race.

The Alvis FWD was the first British production front-wheel-drive car. This one was delivered to Commander John Rooper RN in 1928. It had been intended for the Alvis team in the 1928 Tourist Trophy a few weeks earlier, but it was not completed in time. Although it started life with a supercharger, it soon had twin carburettors fitted instead.

On 5th August 1929, Rooper entered it in two BARC Handicap races and, in one of them, achieved an average speed of 96mph. After Rooper sold the car in 1930 it appeared in more Brooklands races including the 1931 Double Twelve-Hour Race, driven by Edward Farley and Philip Fotheringham-Parker.

Brooklands Museum Collection

Commissioned by the Brooklands driver John Cobb, and designed by Reid Railton, the Napier-Railton was built by Thomson and Taylor at their engineering works within the Brooklands Track.

The car was completed in 1933 and first appeared in a race at Brooklands in August of that year. Designed specifically to break endurance records and race at Brooklands, the Napier-Railton excelled at both. It won several high-profile races at Brooklands, broke numerous world endurance records, and set the ultimate Brooklands lap record.

The Napier-Railton’s racing days at Brooklands came to an end in 1937 as it became too heavily penalised by the handicapper to win races, but the story didn’t end there. In 1949, the car was hired from John Cobb by the Romulus Film Company and was used in ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’, a film about a racing car driver starring James Mason. Then in 1951, the car was sold to the GQ Parachute Company of Woking, who had the car modified for testing aircraft braking parachute on the runway at Dunsfold airfield. The car then passed through many private owners before Brooklands Museum returned it to its rightful home with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund.

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