Nubar at Brooklands

Nubar at Brooklands

SOME TIME AGO,! QUERIED WHETHER THE MILLIONAIRE NUBAR GULBENKIAN WENT

to Brooklands. Mr D E Baldock suggested I read his autobiography Pantaraxi, which mentions his Mercedes-Benz test and many cars besides. For example, his mother’s Delaunay Belleville landaulette with basketwork body panels, as used much later on Gulbenkian’s famous London taxi.

The book confirms that it was Gulbenkian who took his Mercedes-Benz 36/220 SS coupe to Brooldands in 1928 and was timed at 100.4mph.

In 1920, the young Nubar had a valet and a 40hp Renault and chauffeur always at his service. But after his first marriage, the Rolls-Royce loaned by Constantine Chadroff, who was driving, overturned during the honeymoon, with injuries to its occupants.

After Nubar’s mother’s death, his Rolls-Royce was painted black with black upholstery, and its radiator was cowled, by Hooper’s. R-R did not approve of the latter change, and Gulbenkian admitted that the car was striking and distinctive but not an unmitigated success.