1936 Alta Racing Car

Classic Alta

Geoffrey Taylor was a very clever engineer and built his first road going Alta for his own use in classic trials and speed events. It was built in 1928 on an underslung A.B.C. chassis with his own hand built engine which had twin shaft driven overhead camshafts, hemispherical combustion chambers in an aluminium crankcase. It was 1074cc and gave an output of 49bhp and 76bhp when supercharged.
The Alta attracted considerable interest and by 1931 Geoffrey Taylor was encouraged to build a new works at Fuller’s Way in Surbiton in which to make further examples for a limited number of customers. There were 13 cars built up to 1935 with a choice of 4 speed “crash” or preselector gearboxes. One of his customers was Geoffrey Last a pilot and photographer friend who won the 1935 King’s Cup Air Race in Tommy Rose’s Miles Falcon Six.. Although considered to be somewhat temperamental Briault completed the 300 mile Britsh Empire Trophy Race at Brooklands in 1934 and A.J.Cormack held the Brooklands Mountain Circuit lap record.
From 1935 to 1939 a further six cars were made with engine sizes of 1496cc and 1961cc and chain driven overhead camshafts to compete in the 1.5 litre and 2 litre classes. The power output was raised to 180bhp with a Rootes type supercharger giving a top speed of 120mph making them one of the fastest road cars of the pre-war period. In 1937 the cars were fitted with coil sprung independent front suspension.
During this time several single seat racing Alta’s were constructed for A.J. Cormack, Philip Jucker, Lady Mary Grosvenor and George Abecassis. They had independent coil spring suspension at both ends. Jucker’s car was timed at 144mph. The leading driver was George Abecassis who took the Prescott Hillclimb record in 1938.
After the war a new 1.5 litre racing car was built with square bore/stroke and suspension by rubber blocks in compression. Giving 230bhp it looked very competitive in a car weighing only 1344 lbs but development was slow due to lack of funds and George Abecassis commitment to H.W.M. However Geoffrey Crossley’s car took class records at Montlhery in 1949 and Joe Kelly competed regularly in a 2 stage supercharged car but without much success.
A Formula 2 car was made in 1950 and in 1951 Peter Whitehead raced an Alta with two twin choke Weber carburettors and twin spark plugs per cylinder. It produced 150bhp at 6000rpm. After this engines of 2.5 litre capacity were supplied to H.W.M. and Connaught for the then current Formula 1 cars.