Obituaries - Vintage

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Reggie Tongue

We learned with sadness of the death of Reginald Ellis Tongue, aged 80.

Reggie was a well-known ERA and Maserati driver in pre-war events, was a member of the BRDC and joint MD of T&Ts of Brooklands. With ERA R11B he was third in the 1936 Prix de Berne, having only started serious racing at Brooklands in 1934, third at Albi in 1937 and second at the same venue two years later, this time with his Maserati. Typical of the wealthy pre-war amateur racers who raced purely for the enjoyment, Tongue competed in the loM, at Pescara, Peronne, Cork, where he won the 1936 200 mile race in his ERA, Turin, Naples, Florence, Milan and, of course, Donington and Brooklands. A fan of the continental circuits, Tongue was not often in the money, but took several fourth places.

He was also a proficient sprinter, setting FTD at Geneva and coming second to Stuck’s Auto-Union at Freiburg in the ERA. At Brooklands, he won the Oxford v Cambridge Mountain Handicap of 1936, ahead of Fane’s Frazer-Nash. He continued to race until the outbreak of war in 1939, and that year was third in the JCC International Trophy race, in his 16-valve Maserati 4CTL.

Sir Ralph Mallais

Sir Ralph Mallais died recently aged 84.

Stockbroker, businessman, RAF officer and one-time assistant private secretary to the Home Secretary during the 1926 general strike, Mallais was a great motoring enthusiast, educated at Marlborough and Cambridge, he began with a Levis motorcycle at the age of 14, graduating to a 16H Norton and an 8/18 Talbot car. He drove a racing AC in the Inter-Varsity Speed Trials in 1926, and in later years had such cars as a twin-cam three-litre Sunbeam. Type 38 Bugatti and a sleeve-valve Le Mans Peugeot, followed after the war by Packard, Lancia, Lagonda, seven-litre Duesenberg and, into his ’80s, Ferraris, Mercedes-Benzes, Alfa Romeos and, finally, a V8 Aston Martin.

He is perhaps best remembered for competing at VSCC events in the Sunbeam ‘Tiger’, Le Mans 2.3 Alfa Romeo and a Type 59 Bugatti.

Our commiserations to his family and friends.

Faud Mazjub

Faud Mazjub, father of Julian, passed away recently following heart surgery. After coming to live in this country, he took a fine country house near Redditch, which he filled with a number of covetable vintage cars. When time in-between visits from the Far East permitted, he competed in VSCC events in the Bowler Hoffman Bentley. He also financed the development of the modern engine which Varley, who had helped to plan the original Bentley three-litre, designed as a replacement power unit for vintage three-litres.

He inspired his son to become an accomplished VSCC racer, initially with a Brooklands-model Riley 9 and latterly with his ex-Malcolm Campbell Type 358 Bugatti. Our heartfelt sympathies to the family.