Earl Howe lines up his Bugatti ready to pass a slower Talbot during a Mountain Circuit race in 1931.
Prince Bira stands by his ERA after beating Raymond Mays’ record for the 1500cc class on Brooklands’ Mountain Circuit.
Mountain Circuit in The Autocar : ‘Come under the Finishing Straight bridge on top, brake like blazes, engage third, with the brakes on hard and your right heel feeling for the throttle, then second almost on the corner, open up to pull, not too hard nor too little. Pull hard at the wheel to bring the machine round on the banking; meet the skid as it comes round. Exactly as the rev-counter reaches 5500 go up to third and, with the banking slope to aid, swing the car down the hill, again the rev counter limit, then top, then snap the throttle back, pile the brakes on, come down to third, to second, open up a little, round Chronograph Villa just on the skid point, and let her have it on the straight. Up to third once more, then to top, and so round again.’ He compared the whole experience favourably to chariot racing and opined that it was ‘Certainly one of the fi nest training grounds for road racing that anyone could contrive or enjoy.’ Davis was to return to writing about The Mountain in 1936, this time looking at different methods of tackling the course. From it, it is easy to see why lap speeds were low, with a minimum target speed of 27mph for the Chronograph Villa/Fork hairpin and 50mph for the turn under Members’ Bridge. Davis’ preferred technique for taking that top corner was
interesting to say the least. He wrote: ‘Come down the Finishing Straight about one third of its breadth from the outside railings, turn on the up-slope, and aim the right front wheel so that its hub almost clips the grass border of the Mountain
itself.Then I come through the turn fast in third, with a car on the balance point, and a lovely shrieking noise from the tyres.’ Swooping back down off this highest point
on the Banking, Davis liked to be on ‘The line taking one to a position so close to the inside edge that there is a general hope of startling the observer in his special bay out of his wits.’
The last-ever Mountain race, at the last-
ever Brooklands meeting, was won by band- leader Billy Cotton in his 1500cc ex-Seaman ERA R1B at an average speed of 77.15mph. This was almost 25 per cent faster than Earl Howe’s fi rst winning speed nearly 10 years earlier and shows just quickly the Mountain Circuit could be driven.
The Riley of Lucas shows how streamlining was beginning to show in race car design as it heads the Alvis of Powys Lybbe in a 1934 Mountain Circuit race.
Mountain Circuit Lap Records by class: Over 8,000cc No recorded record attempts
Up to 8,000cc Austin Dobson, Alfa Romeo Bimotore
…………… …………… 54.15sec 77.84mph
Up to 5,000cc Sir Malcolm Campbell, Sunbeam V12 LSR 55.20sec 76.31mph Up to 3,000cc Richard Shuttleworth, Alfa Romeo Tipo B 51.32sec 82.06mph Up to 2,000cc Raymond Mays, ERA (R3A?) Up to 1,500cc Raymond Mays, ERA (R4B?) Up to 1,100cc R J W Appleton, Appleton-Riley Up to 750cc Cyril Dodson, Austin Seven
51.82sec 81.28mph 49.96sec 84.31mph 55.36sec 76.10mph 54.69sec 77.02mph
MAY - JUNE 2020 | BROOKLANDS BULLETIN 29
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