An Exciting Discovery.

Trawling through the listings on eBay as I do, I came across a description for a McCoy 60 engine, which mentioned that the vendor’s father had used it when he was racing tethered cars. It is always fascinating to be able to establish some of the background history of items, so off went an email to see if I could find out any more. A very prompt reply told me that the person in question was a Major in the British Army and that he had raced the cars in the early 50s, whilst based in Hannover. This was entirely plausible as there was a very strong tether car movement in that area at the time, due in no small part to the strong American military presence and their enthusiasm for ‘cable racing’.

Another vital piece of information was that the cars involved had been raced at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London, and one of them had held a British Record for a period. This was much more helpful as the Horticultural Halls were the home of the Pioneer Club, and all their meetings were extensively reported in the Journals of the day. Not only did I now have an indication of the make of one of the cars, a Dooling F, and where it was raced, but Major B V Manley’s name as well. Sadly, Bernard Manley Died in August 2005, which prompted the sale of the engine; so all research would now have to be from secondary sources. It occurred to me that the chronology might be slightly wrong, as both the cars and venue were somewhat earlier, so I started looking through magazines from the late 40s and a very interesting story emerged.

Major Bernard Manley was a serving officer in the RAOC and had been taken prisoner during ‘Operation Market Garden’, which was the ill-fated attack on the Rhine Bridges at Arnhem. Although he had been captured, his family was not informed of this and he was presumed dead. After his release and repatriation in 1945, he continued with his Army career and settled at Loose in Kent and eventually found himself based at the Woolwich Arsenal in South London. As part of his work he used to visit an underground government or military site somewhere in the Knightsbridge area of London. It was on one of his visits to this establishment that he met the person who was to become a dear friend and provide the catalyst to his involvement with tethered cars, as well as being a significant factor in this story.

Guy Rickard was one of the earliest ‘names’ in tethered car racing. He lived with his wife Violet in plush surroundings at the hamlet of Beech, near Alton in Hampshire. Without a doubt he was wealthy, and as well as being one of the mainstays of the Surrey Model Car Club also had his own private track on the tennis courts of his house ‘Crompton’. Both he and Violet used to compete regularly and between them had a stable of very competitive cars. Rickard also owned a shop in Sloane Street London called Replica Models. Replica manufactured and sold parts for tethered cars and produced kits for a semi scale Bugatti and the wooden ‘Alton Special’ designed by Phil Smith of Veron, which was also a Rickard company at that time.

The friendship between Guy Rickard and Bernard Manley developed quickly on both a personal and competitive level, to the extent that Guy and Bernard raced as a team representing the Surrey Model Car Club, and travelled together to ‘away’ meetings such as the trip to the Eaton Bray Sportsdrome near Leighton Buzzard, a regular venue for tethered car racing.

Research has revealed that the cars Bernard competed with all came from Guy Rickard’s own ‘racing stable’ but whether they were borrowed ‘gifted’ or purchased outright at the time is not known. Bernard, however, did become the owner of the cars, and they remained in his possession until his recent death.

Bernard Manley’s first recorded appearance was at Eaton Bray Bedfordshire in early May 48 for the Austin Trophy meeting. The car he used for this event was a ‘Hornet Special’, which was an exceptionally well engineered car based on a fabricated aluminium chassis, with an American 10cc Hornet engine. ZN Motors manufactured all the commercial components in the car, and it is likely that the car originally belonged either to E.P. Zere or Cyril Catchpole. Although Bernard had been ‘burning the midnight oil’ to get the car ready for the meeting and the car was a ‘runner’, he had not managed to complete the bodywork. In this state the car ran at over 65 mph in round 1 of the competition. Round 2 saw the ‘Manley Special’ retire, ‘disliking its bonnet’. The bodywork problem was later solved by removing it all and replacing it with a one piece aluminium body from 1066.

The next outing was on June 12th at the Royal Horticultural Halls for a Pioneer Club meeting competing for the Westbury Efficiency Prize, where the Hornet Special was replaced by Guy Rickard’s ‘gleaming scarlet’ Dooling F. The 10cc McCoy engine proved very reluctant to start and no run was recorded. The following day Manley and Rickard both trekked up to Eaton Bray again where they teamed up for the Drysdale Trophy. Two cars had to run, one after the other and the total time for the two runs, including starting and changing cars, determined the winner. After the failure of the Dooling the previous day, the ‘Hornet Special’ was pressed back in to action. "The Surrey Club’s team opened the meeting; Maj B.V. Manley’s car ‘cracking off to a good speed’, but Guy Rickard’s 10cc McCoy special jibbed at starting" so their total elapsed time was over three minutes thirty, which left them well down in the results table.

In both the Russell Trophy and Hastings Trophy meetings Manley entered a car called ‘Black Magic’. The Hornet car had by now been rebodied and painted black, but whether it was this car, or one that he had borrowed, cannot be confirmed. Recorded speeds of only 33.6 mph in the Russell event and 57.8 in the Hastings Trophy were well below the norm for the Hornet. Was it just a bad day or an entirely different car?

The Surrey Club meetings took place at the delightfully named ‘home’ track of Christmaspie Normandy, and the June meeting resulted in a third place for Bernard with the ‘Hornet’ car. On the 25th July he recorded his best result yet, with a second place at 75.01 mph on the same track. The last event for the ‘Hornet Special’ seems to have been on 25th Sept 48 for the Guy Rickard Trophy meeting. Each car was to be judged in a Concours d’Elegance and then complete three ¼ mile runs to a handicap, based on previous performances. The Concours element had to be abandoned and Bernard found himself ‘second on the wire’ in the first round. A fault with the ignition ‘knock off switch’ restricted the speed to 72.55 mph, instead of the target 80mph. The ‘Hornet’ was one of six cars that failed to complete the second run, which effectively eliminated it from the overall results.

The ‘Hornet Special’ was consistent, but just lacking in pace so the McCoy engined Dooling F was expected to provide the extra speed, but had disappointed on the first outing. On its next appearance the bugs had been ironed out and the first competitive run was at 88mph, quite a leap by the standards of the day.

The second competitive outing for the car was as a second entry at the Rickard Trophy on 25th September, but the promise of the previous meeting seemed to have evaporated as problems with the battery saw only 75 mph on the board in round one. With a new battery the car was in to its stride for round two with a 90 mph run against a target speed of 88. Round three was even quicker, with the car recording its fastest speed ever at 91.8mph. The aggregate of the runs gave Bernard 3rd place overall. Strangely, a 90mph run in the first round would only have moved him up to second place.

As well as competing as a Surrey Club member, Bernard, became involved with the day to day running of the Club when the secretary, Mr C.E. Smith, had to go to America for a considerable while. Violet Rickard initially took over the reins in late 1947, but then Bernard became acting Secretary, and continued in that post until Cyril Catchpole’s appointment.

The last meeting that Bernard Manley competed in during the 1948 season was at the Horticultural Halls on the 6^th of November for the Lucas Cup, when he equalled his previous best result with another second place at 86.9 mph, again using the Dooling F.

In 1949 Bernard was posted from Woolwich to Donnington Park, which had been home to the British Grand Prix prior to being requisitioned for a huge army supply depot during the Second War. Moving to Donnington with his wife, daughter and very young son seemed to preclude any involvement with tethered car racing as there is no evidence that he competed at all during the 49 season. Almost immediately the family was on the move again when, in 1950, Bernard was posted to Germany, returning to Woolwich in 1953. Unfortunately no records exist of any of the competitions he took part in during his stay in Germany. There is, however, an interesting postscript to his recorded tethered car activities.

 

As quickly as tethered car racing had become popular in Britain so it declined, and by the time the Manley family had returned to Britain it was the pursuit of a very small band of dedicated and ultra competitive followers. The pit box containing the ‘Hornet special’ and the ex Guy Rickard ‘McCoy Special’ along with the Dooling F and accumulated spares was consigned to the loft where they have remained undisturbed for 50 years. The condition of each of the cars is remarkable given the passage of time, each being original and untouched, with only the tyres suffering from ageing.

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