John Cleland and Charles Rainford finished the weekend in second place overall in the St. Mary’s Trophy at Goodwood Revival 2019! Our 1958 Volvo PV544 has undergone a lot of development this year, all of which paid off this weekend. Both John and Charles drove the socks off the car to finish 2nd overall at the end of the weekend. Thanks again to all at Goodwood who work so hard to put on the event and all the other competitors who worked so hard to put on such a great race.
We were delighted to be asked by Mini Sport to come along to their BMC Abingdon Reunion at the 2019 IMM at Bristol. Chris Harper of Mini Sport had organised the event to bring together as many surviving members of BMC’s Competition and Special Tuning Departments and as many surviving Work’s Mini’s as he could. He asked us to attend with the John Rhodes Mini and also the FIA Appendix K Mini race car we built with Mini Sport for our book ‘How to Prepare a Historic Racing Mini’.
Watch Charles Rainford hit the hill at Chateau Impney Hillclimb in the John Rhodes Mini Cooper S.
We had a cracking weekend at one of the UK’s best little events. In it’s 5th year the Chateau Impney Hillclimb had a lot to offer. The weekend was pleasantly relaxed with great camaraderie between competitors and a party atmosphere in campsite. A fantastic range of historic vehicles took to the hill from the Edwardian aero engined to prewar sports cars to Canam cars to the Mini Cooper S. We were invited to bring John Rhodes Mini Cooper S as part of the Mini 60th Anniversary celebrations. Charles Rainford was behind the wheel going quicker with every session. Hopefully we’ll get to go back next year.
We got a head start on preparation for this years Goodwood Revival. We are honoured to have received an invitation to compete in the St Mary’s Trophy race with our 1958 Volvo PV544. The car has competed at Goodwood twice before but not since 2010. A fresh engine went it over the winter and with some further tweaking we think we can get this car up the front. Charles Rainford will be at the helm along with our seasoned professional and regular Goodwood partner, the legendary John Cleland.
Initial testing at Brands Hatch very positive. We will continue working over the next 8 weeks to get the most out of this old Volvo.
We had a great weekend at Donington for this years Historic Festival. This year we had the Jaguar XK140 of Joao Mira-Gomez and the Bill Thomas Cheetah of Ian Burford. Both cars were out for their first races of 2019 following successful test sessions. The XK140 ran great all weekend but the Cheetah’s running was sadly cut short after being picked up in a collision between the two cars in front. The XK140 will be back out out Thruxton in a couple of weeks. The Cheetah will be back out following repairs.
