Page 18 - May2022

Left : The Short St ory of t he Kest rel Sprit e
"I met Don Caldwell of Oak Ridge, a lover of obscure Brit
cars, who had two Postwar Rileys of his own. A
friendship was born. As time progressed, Don really
liked my Lynx. Then, Ken Gregory of Union City,
Tennessee, started showing up at car shows with a 1936
Kestrel. Now, Don was ?in love? and he searched until he
found a 1937 Kestrel Sprite.

Don finally ended up inheriting a bit of money and it led
him to purchase his ?dream car? , an MGPA Airline
Coupe that had also been to Nashville shows.
We had already made a deal that I?d buy his Riley when
he passed away but, alas, to fix his MGPA he needed
some funds and offered me the Kestrel Sprite, if I
thought I might enjoy it, while still having him as a
living friend. Easy decision." Mike Long
I'm told some piddling repair needs to be
made to the RH drive Kestrel before it can
once again take its place in the higher regions.
(No stranger to craftsmanship, Mike next
shows me ( above) a photo of a radiator grille
for the Sprite race car he was required to
build because it couldn? be replaced. The
t
result, as well as the time it took to get it right,
was acknowledged with respect. )

It?s the second Riley, however, the one that
sits, sprung low, conveniently close to the
garage door, catlike, waiting for its chance to
launch into action, that captures my full
attention. There were only 700 of these lovely
cars produced in a four -year production run.

As far as Mike knows, his Lynx is only one of
four located in the United States. He found it
in the pages of Hemmings Motor News back in
1988 and had it shipped (thanks to formidable
networking skills) from England to the US.

Above: Carol and Mike in 2005 with their Lynx and Victor
Riley (son of Victor senior who founded the Riley company
with his brothers) behind the wheel at a Riley event at
Lime Rock racecourse. Left : The original ad from
Hemmings that brought the Lynx to Mike in the USA.

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