CEO ' s MESSAGE
YT159 competing in a Speed Trial at Howard Park Hotel, driven by Marcus Chambers
location. However, a few weeks ago I had the good fortune to meet with Brian Rivett and a few of his colleagues from the Bentley Drivers Club at Motorsport UK. Brian and I began talking about my father’ s exploits with pre-war Bentleys as he was known as something of a tuning expert. So, I thought I would see what Brian made of the photograph that my father had seemingly erroneously placed on a hill climb that no longer ran. It would be rather a challenge I thought given that the number plate was obscured by the race plate on the front of the Bentley. Sure enough, immediately Brian emailed me back. He knew exactly what the car was, including the chassis number, engine number and registration YT159. My father was its third owner. Brian even knew it had been ordered with a Vanden Plas body finished in black and blue with black mohair weather equipment supplied by Withers! I’ m told that YT159 continues to race and is well known
4 in the Bentley circles … but back to Aston Clinton, as Brian explained, after the closure of the last Aston Clinton hill climb in February 1925 events were held on a private estate at Dancer’ s End about a mile from the top of Aston Hill from 1931 to 1939. However, he felt that given the annotation on the photograph it was more likely he competed in a speed trial at Howard Park Hotel, that was previously Aston Clinton House owned by the Rothschilds, and about half a mile from the bottom of Aston Hill. These were run from 1931 to 1936, so it is highly likely that that photograph of my father was the final running of that event. Once again, the knowledge and experience that is held by members of the community never fails to amaze me.
Revolution- April 2025