"Where Are They Now?"

Sir,

Your evocative article “Where Are They Now ?” in the February issue, deserves to dredge up an interesting answer or two. I wish I could offer one, but the best I can do is to ask another question.

Whatever happened to Cyril Paul’s Beardmore Special, Shelsley Walsh winner in 19— ? I bought this from a gloomy house in a Manchester suburb in 1933 when I was working along the road in Widnes. I had some idea of racing it on the sand at that other well-known Lancashire health resort, Southport, but before this dream could be realised I was transferred to South Wales. I could not afford to take an un-taxed racer all the way to Cardiff, so I sold it—need I say through MOTOR SPORT ?—to a man whose name I have forgotten but who lived in Torquay and had something to do with a laundry there. He cannot have been any more affluent than I for it was agreed that the car should travel to Torquay in an open railway truck.

The Beardmore, by comparison with my Brough Superior bicycle or my cooking 30/98, I remember as a lively and powerful motor car. It is rarely written about and seldom seen, so this picture may be of some interest, spoiled though it is by a juvenile.

Aston-by-Budworth Kenneth Neve