Beschreibung:

Rodney Clarke and Mike Oliver were both World War II Royal Air Force pilots who established their business, Continental Cars Ltd., at Send, Surrey, late in 1946. They shared a passion for racing cars and Clarke backed this up with three years of training at the Chelsea College of Automobile and Aircraft Engineering. Up-to-the-minute competition cars were few and far between in the immediate post-war years and Clarke and Oliver were to concentrate on the preparation of pre-war Grand Prix and thoroughbred machinery, specialising in the Bugatti marque and frustrated that their aspirations to becoming Bugatti agents failed to materialise as Bugatti production ceased following the end of the war. Notable among competition cars prepared by Continental Cars was the ‘Continental’ Bugatti Type 59 and amongst their noted clients was Kenneth McAlpine who entrusted competition preparation of his ex-Whitney Straight Maserati 8CM to their fledgling business. McAlpine recognised the potential of Continental Cars Ltd. and Clarke and Oliver shared with him their ideas and designs for their own competition cars. The enormous wealth from the McAlpine dynasty was to support CC Ltd. in developing their enterprise and the Lea-Francis-powered L2 sports racing car was soon to make its debut. Oliver’s workbench wizardry, combined with the skills of Monaco Motors of Watford, coaxed an extra 32bhp from a standard Lea-Francis 1,767cc engine and, with stylish, lightweight, all-enveloping aluminium coachwork by Leacroft of Egham, the new model made its mark. The new Connaught (Continental Automobile) made its debut at Prescott on 12th June 1949, winning the unsupercharged 3-Litre Sports Car class with a time of 53.05 seconds, driven by McAlpine. At Goodwood in August, Clarke and McAlpine finished first and second respectively in the opening handicap race and at Blandford that year those positions were reversed, Clarke perhaps deferring to his financial backer. The prototype cars, MPH 329, MPH 995 and MPH 996 had proved their credentials and the L-Series cars were to go into limited production. AHC 82 was the fourth of just six L2’s produced and was the first privateer car, delivered to one P L Jonas. The Lea-Francis based car, like its predecessors, was equipped with revised leaf springing, four speed manual gearbox and all-round drum brakes. This car was actively campaigned by Jonas and second owner, E N Ketch, before acquisition by Dr. Arthur Goldthorpe in 1952. Finding himself competing with BMW 328’s, Healey Silverstones and Bristol-engined Frazer Nashes, he was to equip AHC 82 with a 2 1/2 litre, four-cylinder Lea-Francis engine which boasted 125bhp at 5,000rpm in standard tune. Goldthorpe campaigned the car with some success on the circuits, in hill climbs and sprints in Coronation year and modified the coachwork for more practical road-going purposes into the straight-sided 2+2 configuration which it retains. Its long and distinguished competition career continued after Goldthorpe sold the car in 1952, driven by John Whitton, Anthony Miller, Jeremy Broad and Graeme Simpson, seemlessly continuing its contemporary racing career with a subsequent career in historic competition. Purchased by Karl Ludvigsen in 1968, AHC 82 was exported to America where it was raced at Watkins Glen and used for fast touring. Returning to the U.K. in the 1970’s, AHC 82 was laid-up for a decade or so prior to acquisition by the present owner in whose hands it has remained for almost 20 years. Restoration was entrusted to Barry Price and Peter Lander of Sigma Engineering was entrusted with the engine rebuild. The old warrior returned to the road in July 1999. Presented in British Racing Green livery with tan upholstery, originality has been carefully retained. Its owner describes the car as “an excellent road car, very useable, fast and ideal for both speed and fast touring events such as the Malts Classics etc.” This historic car comes with a Swansea V5 registration documen