High Speed Diary - The Life and Times of Reginald Ellis Tongue

Reggie Tongue was only 22 when he drove in his first real motor race, the 24 Hour Grand Prix d'Endurance, at Le Mans in 1934 with his Aston Martin LM10. His family trustees had been against him taking part in speed events while at university, so although rallies and trials were deemed safe, at Le Mans he had to enter surreptitiously as 'A Vincent'. During practice, fearful of what would happen if he had an accident, he wired home confessing his duplicity. This account of the life and times of Mancunian Reginald Ellis Tongue is based on diaries, cuttings books, photograph albums, flying logbooks, and reminiscences he tape-recorded three years before his death in 1992. With his exploits in the 1933 Alpine Trial with a two seater sports Aston Martin (GX 72), and again in 1934 with a Singer Le Mans, a stint with MGs, both K3 and R Type, to his progression in running ERA R11B during the 1936-1938 season, and continuation of single seater racing with the 4CL Maserati, all are reported. His collection of race programmes, accounts books, and published articles are a priceless epitaph on a full life and include telegrams and correspondence from Richard Seaman and dinner menus autographed by the great and the good of the time. Reggie Tongue's reliquary is interwoven with his own version of events, creating a portrait of his careers in motor racing then as a fighter and later a Rolls-Royce test pilot. It is a social document of a time when motor sport was still essentially sport, and flying even in the heat of the Battle of Britain, was conducted in much the same style.