Page 20 - April 2023

No Joke

This one of a kind Br it ish Car Recent ly Went t o Publ ic
Auct ion

Images courtesy of UK based Cars & Classics Online Auction Service

Would you agree? Some people have a sense of
humor and some people do not. On the do not
side of the scale the sober sides at Rolls Royce
come to mind, at least when it when it came to
this car, famously known as The Beast. It was
once the fastest street legal car on the road,
according to the Guiness Book of World Records. unapologetic celebration of the life and brilliant

More about that, later. eccentricity of not only John Dodd himself, but also of
the British spirit of ingenuity and adventure.
There has bever been a lack of superlatives
about The Beast. It recently sold for 72,500 "This car boasts nothing sensible. It?s not sedate or
pounds at Cars & Classics Auction site. The final relaxed. It?s loud, it?s delightfully silly and it makes no
result on March 13th came after a spirited apologies for any of it."
bidding of 60 interested parties, and a death
And Now, t he Back St ory
match with continued extensions of the bidding.
What possesses some people or in this case what
The final bid was a bit disappointing for the Dodd
family who lost John Dodd, 90, in December of possessed two people, because while John Dodd is
2022 , after a tulmultous history with the car ( the name most associated with The Beast, the two
that's his intials you see on the grille above). The ton, 19 foot long car did not originate with him. The
"On our first dat e impetus towards greatness
family had hoped the never- to- be -repeated, credit for the original
one of a kind vehicle , would bring in excess of belongs to Paul Jameson.
100,000 pounds. However, with a 2 miles per we t oured my old
The Jameson Years
gallon fuel consumption required to feed the 27 homet own in my
Paul Jameson was a member of a distinctly British
litre Merlin engine plus looks only a mother Dad's 1958 MGA."
type, an engineer with an imagination outside of the
could love, the market was somewhat limited.
specs as well as restless tinkerer.
Cars & Classics ownership said it best, " "This is
According to author Richard Heseltine in his aptly
more than a car. It is a wheeled, ludicrous,
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