THE WHITE RILEY

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.* * • THE WHITE RILEY

Sir,

In his letter in February MOTOR SPoRT, Mr. Farrar states that the White Riley was developed from an MPH and was the stepping-stone between the MPH Riley and the ERA., but when the MPH was announced towards the end of 1934 Raymond Mays had put aside the White Riley and the E.R.A. had already proved itself a force to he reckoned with.

The White Riley, which first appeared at the August Bank Holiday Meeting at Brooklands in 1933, had a 6-cylinder engine of 1,486 c.c., and for its beginnings we must go back to May 1932 when Riley announced a new Brooklands Riley Six with an engine of 1,486 c.c., which was obtained by reducing the bore of the fourteen-six from 60.3 mm. to 57.5 mm. while keeping the stroke at 95.2 mm. A team of these cars had a try-out in the T.T. of that year and E. McClure finished eighth to win the r,5oo-c.c. class, although his speed was nearly .5 m.p.h. less than that of C. R. Whitcroft who won the race in a 1,087-c.c. Riley. It was from this model that the White Riley was developed and not from the MPH which was a 1935 model on the twelve-six chassis with an engine capacity of 1,458 C.C. It does not seem to have been too popular, and fcir 1936 it was modified slightly and fitted with a 4-cylinder engine of 1,496 c.c. to become the Sprite.

Mr. Farrar is Also confused regarding the Shelsley Walsh record. Hans Stuck climbed in 42.8 sec. in 1930 with his AustroDaimler and this record was unbeaten until September 30th, 1933, when Raymond Mays in the White Riley achieved 42.2 sec. only to be beaten by Whitney Straight (Maserati), who ascended in 41.4 sec. On the second runs Mays failed to improve on his time but Straight set a new record of 41.2 sec.

W. 13. HATFIELD.