John Blake's Salmson

Sir,

I enclose two photographs of Andre Lombard, one in a car fitted with a splendid set of wings, the other without. It must be the same Salmson?

In 1921 it was taken to Tarragona and was demolished in the Armange Trophy race – I am quoting from Chris Draper’s book then fitted with a 1922 racing body came back to England to be raced by Owen Wilson-Jones. He sold it in 1924 to a man in Cardiff.

I was hoping that Augustus Ivey would have remembered how he came by it, but he couldn’t. It then passed through Ian Kennedy’s hands (Mr. Ivey knew his father!), then while Geoff Clamp of Harpenden owned it or the remains thereof Chris Draper identified the engine as that of the Lombard car. I now have an AL chassis of the correct type, so 1978 Should be “The Year of the Salmson” – and probably most of 1979 as well.

Ealing JOHN BLAKE