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Orstin
United Kingdom
633 Posts |
 Posted - 30/03/2021 : 15:54:26
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Last evening, I attended a Zoom presentation on the Southport Sand Races 1903 - 1939. This was given by Martyn Griffiths and was very interesting. Towards the end, reference was made to Geoff Highley and his MG that seems to have had an interesting history
Martyn was also able to provide me with a history of the car to the current day. This in itself is quite interesting. I have redacted the name of the current owner.
I wondered whether anyone on the forum could add any 'colour' to the story of both the car and the Man
So many dynamos |
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Simon Johnston
United Kingdom
5999 Posts |
Posted - 30/03/2021 : 16:22:55
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Now owned by Nev Churcher and there have been a number of threads about it.
Hard to resist adding this picture of the car getting ready for the off in the 1933 Monte
Simon J
J3437
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Edited by - Simon Johnston on 30/03/2021 16:42:01 |
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tjackson
Australia
105 Posts |
Posted - 31/03/2021 : 11:52:58
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We know a little about the car, not so much about Mr Highley. There are further photos of both in the MMM pictures section:
https://www.triple-mregister.com/cardetails_pub2.php?chassisno=J3755
J3755 was first driven at Southport Sands by Roy Jackson of Manchester who used it as transport to collect K3001 from Abingdon with H.J.P.Williams. The return trip with the J3 and K3 clearing fouled plugs and disturbing omnibus passengers in the streets of London is recounted in Motorsport:
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-1944/11/racing-with-a-k3-mg-magnette
Highley appears to have used the car briefly in standard form before embarking on the conversion to single seater configuration over the winter of 1937/38. At the same time another Southport Sands racer F.G.Lomax was converting his J3 (J3751) to single seater form. The two cars were used in the same races and converted in the same winter, however the connection between Highley and Lomax is not known.
Geoff Highley lived in Southport and the single seater body designed built locally with the special cast aluminum inlet manifold designed by his mechanic Bert Beck. The engine was developed to almost J4 specification, with a J4 crank and fully machined racing K type conrods, supplied from the works. The car ran a water pump made up from a Rover car, presumably belt driven. The carb was a bronze Solex, bought for five shillings from a scrap yard and overhauled. It ran a BTH vertical mag, and had a sealed fuel tank, pressurised by a hand air pump. The supercharger, belt driven on the nearside of the engine was a Centric 160 supplied by Chris Shorrock, and supplied the charge to the engine at approx 8 psi. Ferodo supplied special clutch linings. As no battery was carried, no started motor was fitted, and to lighten the flywheel, all the ring gear teeth were machined off. The twin full length exhaust pipes initially fitted were replace in late 1938 by short sub pipes.
J3755 retained the Highley single seater body up until the mid 1960s and was partly dismantled when purchased by J.W.Dickie who commenced a restoration and obtained a standard 2 seater body. The car remained in pieces until recently with a full restoration by Nev Churcher almost complete which has J3755 running again for the first time since the early 1960s.
Hope this is of interest and adds to the photos of Highley and his J3.
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Orstin
United Kingdom
633 Posts |
Posted - 31/03/2021 : 15:20:46
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That's really excellent piece, Tim. Thanks so much for taking the time to post it. I'll feed that back to Martin so he has a better story to tell on the Southport races in future...
all the best!
Hugh
So many dynamos |
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Colin Butchers
United Kingdom
1481 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2021 : 11:00:33
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Hugh. In Nev Churcher's hands the car is now almost complete and is looking really splendid. If Martyn would like to make contact with Nev I can supply contact details. I know that he would be delighted to hear from Martyn. He has managed to obtain copies of several programmes for Southport featuring his car when driven there by Roy Jackson and later by Geoff Highley.
Colin B. |
Edited by - Colin Butchers on 01/04/2021 11:07:47 |
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Orstin
United Kingdom
633 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2021 : 18:10:54
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Thanks Colin, I know Martin is very keen to add to his Southport programs. Just digital images are ok, it's the detail of entries etc that he is keen to gather. Let me contact you off line...
So many dynamos |
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Geoff Highley; Southport Sand Racer
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