Page 44 - Sample pages "Kim: A Biography of M.G. Founder Cecil Kimber" by Jon Pressnell

RACING: THE DEBATE CONTINUES
All this was part of an enduring discussion in the British press about the direction of Grand Prix racing, and what hope there might be of British participation; inevitably the main block was that the exercise looked largely futile so long as the Nazi government in Germany was prepared to invest whatever it took to achieve supremacy.
In an October 1937 issue of The Motor in which Kimber and Sunbeam engineer Georges Roesch discussed the new GP formula, Kimber had said that no British concern could justify the expense – and if the government put a quarter of a million pounds into a project, what benefit would the producer of the cars derive from the exercise?
In February 1939 an editorial in M.G. house magazine The Sports Car said that a national GP racing team would bring in prestige, but that it would take three years before there were a reliable, full-developed contender – by which time the foreign teams would have moved the game on. Where, too, would Britain get the drivers? Not only that, but publicity gained on the Continent would be of little value, and the British press probably wouldn’t give the home-grown cars decent coverage – a perpetual and puzzling Cecil Kimber complaint – while a lack of success would make a British team a laughing stock.
All this was clearly echoing Kimber’s speech at the January 1939 celebratory lunch for Gardner. ‘On the subject of Grand Prix racing, Mr Kimber said it had become too costly for individual firms to embark on it and justify the cost to its shareholders,’ the magazine related. ‘It was a matter for national rather than individual expenditure. He thought we would do better to concentrate on the air, water and land speed records and that a co-operative motor trade scheme to run a team of GP cars would be foredoomed to failure. The manufacturers’ subscriptions would not be repaid by extra export business.’
Intriguingly, Lord Nuffield, admittedly never shy of demanding
346
Chapter Fifteen: Record-breaking in Germany – and a Life Renewed
Gardner’s congratulatory letter received from Lord Nuffield. (National Motor Museum)
state intervention to support his business interests, chimed in to suggest that maybe the time was ripe for a national team. ‘Lord Nuffield was on top of his form and said he could see no reason why our Government should not subsidise racing cars in the same manner as do the governments of certain continental countries. The expense of Grand Prix racing was so tremendous that no normal concern could stand it,’ he was reported as saying.
© DALTON WATSON FINE B
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS © DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS TON WATSON FINE B