1948 Alta 2 litre

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1969.

It’s the 1948 Alta 2 litre of Peter Moores and a note in the programme of the event says: ‘Peter Moores, of immaculate single-seater Austin fame, has now acquired Hugh Clifford’s Alta.’ It seems to be the car that was subsequently part of the Donington Museum Collection, and the book ‘Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection’ says this about it:

 

'The Alta

Geoffrey Taylor's 'Special'

Geoffrey Taylor was an arch motoring enthusiast. He built his first Alta car in a small workshop behind his home in Kingstone-upon-Thames between 1928 and 30, painstakingly fashioning vital engine parts out of the solid. This was followed by a line of sports and independently-suspended racing cars until he outbreak of the war.

He outlined a design for a 1½ litre supercharged Grand Prix car towards the end of the war, and announced his plans with a flourish in November 1945. But post-war shortages delayed the car's debut until 1948, when 'GP No. 1' appeared in the British Empire Trophy race in Douglas, Isle of Man.

The new Alta used an updated version of Taylor's well-proven twin overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine, supercharged by a Roots-Alta blower driven from the crankshaft nose. He used a special four-speed all-synchromesh gearbox of his own construction with a low drive-line, allowing the driver's seat to be very low-mounted within a rakish and sleek bodyshell, reminiscent of the pre-war Mercedes also copied by ERA in their unsuccessful E-Type.

George Abecassis raced the car throughout 1948 and 1949, while his HW Motors partner John Heath also drove on occasions. Its best performance was in the 1949 British GP, when Abecassis ran fifth before a broken float chamber forced him to stop. He then fought his way back through the field to finish seventh.

For 1950 this duo concentrated on their own Alta-engined HWMs, while the same engine became standard in 2½ litre form in Connaught cars. Tony Brooks won the 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix in one of these Connaughts to score the first all-British Continental GP victory since 1924!

Three of the rubber-block suspended GP Altas were built; the others went to Geoffrey Crossle and Joe Kelly, and the Collection's car includes parts from all three.’