The centenary celebrations of the first grand prix to be staged in Britain were held recently at Brooklands, and the Halford Special was one of the star turns. Just as it was, in the hands of its creator Frank Halford, in that historic Brooklands race back in 1926.
Motor Sport obviously thought so. We featured Major FB Halford in the October 1926 instalment of the Motoring Sportsmen series. These days, arranging an interview with any grand prix driver can take months of negotiation. Back then? “With the absence of convention for which interviewers are said to be notorious, we burst in upon him the other day just as he was engaged in a job of work at the ADC Aircraft Ltd, at Waddon, where his own office is situated.”
The profile – there are no direct quotes, as is customary for the time – details Halford’s aviation background. This, naturally, began at Brooklands, where he became a flying instructor.
One chap under Halford’s tutelage, goes the anecdote, was “suffering from the distressing malady of delirium tremens, which we understand is not exactly one of the most desirable qualifications for a would-be aviator. The pupil did not show any symptoms of his sad affliction until he was occupying the pupil’s seat at a height of several thousand feet and Halford had no end of a time in trying to persuade him that the earth was a very fair place and far less draughty than the upper regions.”
One hundred years ago, Brooklands hosted the first British Grand Prix, a race faithfully reported in the pages of Motor Sport, which began life two years earlier as the Brooklands Gazette. Now, we have joined forces to mark the momentous centenary
A more in-depth look at the Halford Special was promised in a future issue. But, for now, “the remarkable performance of the car and its driver in the RAC Grand Prix is still fresh in the memory of our readers, when the unfortunate collapse of a rear bevel wheel placed it hors de combat, just as it was giving the gravest anxiety to the victorious Delage drivers”.
The article concludes that “one or two masterminds behind the designs of famous Continental racing engines will not be at all surprised if firms will be literally falling over themselves to secure the services and advice of this young man.”
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