First L-type ever entered in the VSCC Pomeroy Trophy
(Unless you know differently?)
Andrew Howe-Davis is best known in UK racing circles for his fabulous Edwardians – a SCAT and a Straker-Squire. (Off you go and Google them…) As both were broken in February, he entered instead his 1947 Allard L-type in “The VSCC Pomeroy Trophy.”
“The Pom” is bonkers, let’s be clear. Run since 1952, it attempts to decide the “Best Touring Car” with a series of trials. The bad news is that it takes place in mid-February and you need a race licence. The good news is that it runs on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, and is probably the only event that mixes oldies and moderns, from an Austin 7 to a genuine Ford GT40.
Cars are handicapped by engine capacity, age, space for luggage and having a hood, as well as the distance from the clutch pedal to the rear axle (honestly). All this puts older, smaller-capacity, well-braked yet longer cars at an advantage. Hint: A Frazer Nash won this year.
There’s a wiggle-woggle test, a ¼ mile sprint and a “brake from speed into a box” test but the fun part is that each car is set a target number of circuit laps to complete in the 40-minute high-speed trial. There are three of those trials during the day, split by likely speed ranges.
Our President Josh Sadler in his Porsche 911 RS Carrera was up against the fast boys and girls in the final session of the day. A full grid of classic Porsches, an original Ford GT-40 plus a few other classics sports racers holding their own beside modern road /race cars. Josh won a first-class award, beating (among other moderns) a BMW M2. But this is only to be expected from Josh.
Andrew finished his Trial firmly mid-field in the L-type, a fantastic effort, beating dozens of other cars, including vintage Bentleys, Lotus Cortinas, an XK150, a Galaxie, even a Toyota GT86.
Said Andrew at the finish: “Wow, that was fun!” “No overheating” (February, remember) and “No brake trouble.”
There are 13 L-types taxed and on UK roads, out of 191 made and roughly 30 left worldwide. Thank you, Andrew, for raising our profile. Anyone going to join in next year?