The Connaught L2 proved a successful sports car and by 1950 the company had moved to single seaters initially with the Connaught A Formula 2 cars. Kenneth gave the car its debut at Castle Combe in Oct 1950 and finished second behind Stirling Moss in an HWM. The following year he gave the marque their first single-seater win at Ibsley. Other drivers like Ken Downing, Dennis Poore and Eric Thomson became early customers. Mike Hawthorn became an occasional driver for the team.
For the next three years, as well as racing in British Formula Libre and F2 event, Kenneth competed occasionally in the world championship. He made his debut in the 1952 British Grand Prix at Silverstone and finished 16th and the team also went to the Italian GP with three cars although Kenneth retired. The following year he took in four grands prix – Holland, Britain, Germany and Italy, retiring at all bar the Nürburgring where he placed 13th despite damaged rear suspension. His final grand prix was back at Aintree in 1955 driving the streamliner. Again he retired. However, despite his part in running the McAlpine Construction business, he helped build Connaught into a considerable force with sometimes as many as six cars competing at events like the International Trophy meeting.
His best result was third in Goodwood’s 1954 Glover Trophy in the Grand Prix car and second in the British Empire Trophy sports car race at Oulton Park the following year, behind Archie Scott-Brown in the Lister-Bristol but ahead of Reg Parnell in the works Aston Martin DB3S0.
Competing for Connaught at Goodwood in 1954
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McAlpine, together with Eric Thompson, also raced at the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours but their Connaught retired after six hours when the engine blew. His final race came a few months later at the Goodwood 9 Hours, as McAlpine fulfilled a promise to retire from racing ahead of his impending marriage in November 1955. Sadly the end of the road was near for Connaught, despite Tony Brooks’ sensational victory in the Syracuse non-championship race, where Motor Sport’s Denis Jenkinson was the only British journalist on hand to witness the first win in a grand Prix by a British car and driver since 1923.
McAlpine had been receiving considerable tax incentives to invest in Connaught but when the concession was rescinded by the government, he had little option to withdraw his funding and in May 1957 Connaught announce they would be closing their racing division. Nearly all the cars and equipment were sold at auction, Bernie Ecclestone buying two cars for his protégé Stuart Lewis-Evans to race.
Kenneth McAlpine moved on to his new business interests and in 1974 set up the Lamberhurst Vineyard on Kent/East Sussex border. It became Britain’s foremost a wine maker, winning many awards and setting a trend for the rise of English wine. McAlpine sold the company in 1995 and it is now owned by Chapel Down, Britain’s largest wine producer. His estate manager tells the amusing story of a photo shoot after Lamberhurst had won a wine-making trophy. The idea was the pair of them would be photographed with the Cup by the local Kent paper. However the day the photographer he came, the trophy was away being engraved. McAlpine said he could find a substitute, went into his office and returned with the silverware from the 1955 Syracuse victory.
Kenneth also established McAlpine Helicopters in 1988, a company he later sold to Eurocopter. His son James, who raced trucks and a Tiga sportscars for a couple of years, ran the business for a while. Kenneth latterly lived in Lamberhurst, Kent, and he continued to be a director of Sir Robert McAlpine Enterprises Ltd at the age of 102. He was a remarkable man: an industrialist, entrepreneur, F1 team owner and pilot who quietly, almost under the radar, made motor racing history.
Final GP at Aintree ’55
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