Arab queries

Sir,

I have followed with great interest the article on sand racing at Southport, and also the most interesting letters that have arisen out of it in subsequent issues. Regrettably, I am not able to add anything to this topic, but in view of the response it has sparked off I hope that some of your knowledgeable readers may he able to help me with information and, even better, perhaps a photograph of two unusual cars that to My knowledge appeared at Southport meetings in the mid-1920s.

The first of these was the SR, Or Spurrier-Railton, which was in fact the prototype of the Arab. The SR may have appeared at Southport on several occasions, and certainly did so in the hands of the Shorrock brothers in 1925/6. It was then a narrow four-seater with a somewhat canoe-like stern (something akin to the contemporary HE with valanceless swept wings, bolt-on wire wheels with large hubs (like the Marlborough-Thomas) and it had an Enfield-Allday radiator. Prior to its ownership by the Shorrock brothers it was, I believe, owned by a Kenneth Parker, who may have entered it at Southport events, for he was a local man.

The second query relates to an Arab fitted with a long narrow pointed-tail 2-seat body, fully undershielded, with outside exhaust, and said to have been fitted with a supercharger driven off the front of the crankshaft. I have been given a photo of this car at Southport, but the car is in the middle distance and details do not show up clearly. It found its way to a Southport garage much favoured by local enthusiasts about May 1920 and was subsequently bought front that garage by John E. Davis and later entered by hint and driven by the late Norman Coates at the September 1927 Shelsley Walsh meeting.

As I am in the process of restoring one of the only two known low-chassis Arabs. I would he most grateful for any reminiscences of the SR and the special Arab that a ppeared at Southport.

Tenbury Wells A. B. DEMAUS