Straker-Squire flashback

Sir,

Nobody read your article on the Brooklands Straker Squire Six with more interest than, I did and, if I may be allowed to make some comments and suggestions after this lapse of time from the December issue, I would like to point out the following:

(1) You state that the Straker-Squire company went into liquidation in 1922 and say nothing of subsequent reconstruction, thus giving the impress:on that there were no Straker-Squire Sixes made after that year. In fact they were still being made in 1925 and I have a catalogue for the 1926 models.

(2) You repeat the slander that the bevel-drive for the camshaft was even noisier than the previous skew-gear. I am surprised and disappointed that your recollections of drives in my 1925 Straker Six, from South Kensington to Brixton on 1/8/1950 and from Fleet to Bristol and back on 5/11/1950 should have left you with the impression that the engine was noisy. In fact the makers’ claim in their catalogue that the car was silent in tick-over and running was fully justified, as I can demonstrate to any witnesses you care to nominate, on a car which has now covered over 200,000 miles. The Brixton Six, which had done twice that mileage, was even quieter than mine in 1950, so perhaps it was not only the Knight Sleeve Valve engine that improved with use.

Mr. G. F. Lomas, writing in Motor Sport for November 1940, said that the Six that he owned in 1932 had done some sand-racing in the hands of a Mr. John Lloyd, of West Kirby. It was the standard two-seater in body style, but was reputed to have reached 97 m.p.h. during its racing career, aided by a special camshaft. The radiator on Mr. Liddell’s car is the one shown in the 1919 catalogue. It is of interest to note that a photograph in thc 1921 catalogue of a Straker Six at speed, almost head-on, shows it with the later radiator, complete. with shutters. So one wonders whether this was a different car or merely the same one with the new radiator as an experiment. Unfortunately in this photograph the number plate is hidden behind the organisers’ number card. Other photographs of the dazzlepainted car show the registration number as MD 7901, which it still wears.

Tranmere, S. Australia G. H. BROOKS

(I have not forgotten the runs I had on George Brooks’ Straker-Squire, especially to Bristol where, had he not driven his smart motor-car into a breaker’s yard and announced its shipment from Australia, he might have acquired the axle he was seeking for rather less money! But I do not recollect the silence of the o.h.-camshaft gear. History, in a minor key, has repeated itself, inasmuch as Adrian Liddell recently secured a derelict Straker-Squire axle, mentioned in Motor Sport. As for Reg. nos. on the rear, I refuse to be drawn -Ed.)