Royal East African Automobile Association Fifth Langa Langa Meeting

On July 6th, the Royal East African Automobile Association held their fifth meeting on the Langa Langa road-racing circuit about 70 miles from Nairobi. The races, with the exception of the final handicap, were all of five laps of the 3.27 mile track.

The most interesting results were the performance of the 1,089-c.c. Skoda Sports which finished third in the race for sports cars of up to 1,300 c.c., beaten only by two TD M.G.s running on Methanol with a 12 to 1 compression ratio. The six XK 120 Jaguars were surprisingly beaten by the Ardun-V8 engined J2 Allard brilliantly handled by Richardson in the race for sports cars of unlimited capacity. The Allard was never seriously challenged, although Manussis drove well in his XK 120 to take second place with Jennings in his Ford Special in third place, followed by four more XKs. Manussis had a 9 to 1 compression-ratio, the stiffer torsion bars and the high-lift camshafts on his car. The Allard only arrived in Kenya six days before the meeting and was imported as a chassis only. The installing of the engine was done in Nairobi and was only completed in time for the compulsory practice laps the day before the meeting! Even so the car put in the fastest lap of the day at a shade over 80 m.p.h.

The first Cooper to be seen in East Africa appeared in one of the handicap races which it won easily, astonishing the crowd, few of whom considered it had any chance as it was on the same handicap as an XK 120. Once again Richardson was the driver.

A second Cooper is due to arrive in Kenya shortly and also another J2X Allard, both of which will undoubtedly add further interest at future meetings.