The 2010 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run has many unique vehicles within its capacity 550 entries, which all have a story to tell.  One of these cars can truly claim to be the first of its kind; the 1902 Napier, registration number Y19, owned and entered by Daniel Sielecki from Buenos Aires was the first ever British car to win an international race.
 
Today, Great Britain is recognised as a world leader in the production of successful racing cars and producers of some of the most renowned race engineers.  All of the UK’s racing achievements in the last 108 years can be traced back to the very first British car to win an international race, this same1902 Napier driven by Selwyn Francis Edge, who won the 1902 Gordon Bennett International Race.  The Napier was also the first to wear the British Racing Green colours that became the trademark of British drivers on the international stage.

The Gordon Bennett races had been started in 1900 by the owner of the New York Herald James Gordon Bennett and were run for representative cars from different countries and the races were held on public roads between different cities. French cars had won the Gordon Bennett races in 1900 and 1901, as they had in virtually all the races held at the start of the 20th Century, and the Napier was the first car to break the French strangle hold on racing at that time.

S.F. Edge, a motor-racing car salesman, bought the 8hp Panhard-Levassor that finished second in the Paris-Marseilles-Paris race of 1896 and was looking for an expert engineer to replace the tiller steering with a wheel and its solid tyres with pneumatic ones; that engineer was Montague Napier whose family firm made weighing machines in Lambeth, London. By 1900 Napier had built his first engine and Edge agreed to sell the cars that the firm built.  Edge decided that publicity could be gained by racing the cars and by 1902 the firm had built a light and powerful 6.4 litre engined car, which had a top speed of over 70mph.

The three day Gordon Bennett race started on the 26 June 1902.  The first day the cars raced 253 miles from Paris to Belfort on the Swiss frontier.  Day two was a tour, not a race, across Switzerland to Bergenz, a total of 190 miles and on day three they were to race the final 146 miles from Bregenz to Innsbruck in Austria.

A cracked cylinder head nearly scuppered the race before the British team had even reached the start line.  A spare was located and three mechanics spent the night on the cross channel ferry making the repairs.  On the way to Paris the gearbox started to have problems and the mechanics were forced to make even more repairs in Paris the day before the race was due to start.  More mechanical problems dogged the Napier prior to the start and it didn’t look good for the gruelling 3-day race.

The start was situated on the top of the Hill of Champigny and at 3:30am the first car was sent away in front of 50,000 people.  The Napier had been misfiring on its way to the start line but as Edge pulled away at the start the engine was running sweetly.  A puncture 20-miles into the race forced Edge off the road but a broken air pump was the next in a long line of problems that the team had to face. However a fellow competitor came to the rescue, throwing them his pump as he sped past.  The leading car of Chevalier Rene de Knyff reached Belfort, covering the 253 miles in 7 hours 11 minutes, with the Napier reaching the finish at the end of day one, some distance behind the leader.

Day two wasn’t a race but it began badly for the British team when they discovered four flat tyres the next morning before the start at 3am.  A quick repair had them on their way but it was a hot day and the competitors found themselves eating dust all the way to Bregenz.

Day three began at 3am and the Gordon Bennett competitors faced their greatest challenge, the route to Innsbruck lay over the 5000 ft-high Arlberg Pass.  The third day also began badly for Edge as the Napier went off the road, dropping 15ft onto a cushion of shrubs and moss.  Surprising the car was undamaged and after regaining the road.  De Knyff held a huge lead but Edge knew that if he kept going there was a chance that he could still win if his rival had a problem. 

The Napier travelled up the mountain pass with a sheer drop on one side and a cliff on the other.  The brakes on the Napier were by now nearly non existent and the descent proved to be even more difficult than the ascent.  The Napier passed many broken cars but Edge kept his speed as high as dared in his attempt to get on terms with the leader.  At the bottom of the pass the British team discovered they had lost their tool chest and all their spare inner tubes but were determined to press onto Innsbruck.  While they were stopped they received news that one of the cars by the side of road was de Knyff’s Panhard and that they were now in the lead of the Gordon Bennett race.  Edge drove on and reached Innsbruck in the Napier to record the first win for a British car in an international motor race. 

The prestige of the Napier’s win brought brisk business to SF Edge and Montague Napier, who opened a factory at Acton, London to cope with the flood of new orders.

The 1902 Napier first participated in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 1992 and was last seen on the event in 2008 when the Napier reached the finish line in good time at the end of the 60-mile Run.  The current owner, Daniel Sielecki, bought the car in 2004 and will be behind the steering wheel in the 2010 LBVCR on Sunday 7 November.