- Stock: In Stock
- Author: T. R. Nicholson
- ISBN: None
- Publisher: David & Charles
- Publication Year: 1969
- Edition: 1st Edition
- Revised: No
- Reprint: No
- Language: English
- Pages: 273
- Illustrations: Black and White
- Format: Hardback - With Dustjacket
- Signed Author: Yes
- Condition Book: Very Good
- Condition Dust Jacket: Good
- Dimensions: 225.00mm x 145.00mm
Speed hillclimbs and level ground speed trials - sprints, in short, were the latest form of motor sport in Britain between 1899 and 1925, held at venues like Blackpool, Southsea Speed Trials, Caerphilly Hillclimb, Spread Eagle Hill Climb, South Harting and Shelsley Walsh. They attracted the most famous amateur works drivers of the time. They became a British institution, the only form of speed competition then tolerated on the nation's public roads. This is the first book to tell the story of these years, and covers nearly 900 sprints. It is illustrated with a variety of cars that competed such as AC, Bugatti, GN, Mercedes, Morgan and Vauxhall, with drivers such as Raymond Mays, Humphrey Cook, Parry Thomas. Combined within these pages are first-hand reminiscences of participants, providing a chronological record of the remarkable rise and eventual decline of a particularly British form of motor sport. The significant part played by the speed trials in the development of sports cars, and in the arousal of public interest, reflects many of the social, legal and political problems which mark the evolution of the motor car.