10-08-2021, 10:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-08-2021, 10:41 AM by Nick Salmon.)
I have an update on that photo of 'Chitty' in a London Mews posted on page 313 of this thread (https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/for...1&page=313)
Chitty I was last raced by the Count at the September 1922 meeting at Brooklands. During practice he crashed after shredding a tyre and although he rebuilt it, Zborowski never raced the car again.
In 1924 he was invited to drive for Mercedes and it was while competing in a Mercedes 2-litre car in that year’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza that the Count was killed after crashing into a tree. Legend has it that when he died he was wearing the same cufflinks that had brought about the death of his racing-driver father, Eliot Zborowski, when one of them had caught up in the hand throttle of the car during a hill climb in 1903 at La Turbie in Provence.
After Louis Zborowski's death Chitty 1 was bought by the Conan Doyle brothers,Adrian and Denis, playboy sons of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of Sherlock Holmes.They subsequently ran the car at a speed trial in the 1930s and it was then exhibited at Brooklands but subsequently abandoned outside.The weather took its toll but the end came when someone sawed the chassis in half to get the gearbox out for use in another car. Apparently the gearbox was found not to fit but this was the last of Chitty 1 and the remains went for scrap.
The picture shows Chitty 1 in Lancaster Mews W2, presumably some time in the 1930’s.The picture is captioned as showing the Conan Doyle brothers in the driving seats of the cars but as there was only a year between them in age there is doubt about the attribution.
Chitty I was last raced by the Count at the September 1922 meeting at Brooklands. During practice he crashed after shredding a tyre and although he rebuilt it, Zborowski never raced the car again.
In 1924 he was invited to drive for Mercedes and it was while competing in a Mercedes 2-litre car in that year’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza that the Count was killed after crashing into a tree. Legend has it that when he died he was wearing the same cufflinks that had brought about the death of his racing-driver father, Eliot Zborowski, when one of them had caught up in the hand throttle of the car during a hill climb in 1903 at La Turbie in Provence.
After Louis Zborowski's death Chitty 1 was bought by the Conan Doyle brothers,Adrian and Denis, playboy sons of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of Sherlock Holmes.They subsequently ran the car at a speed trial in the 1930s and it was then exhibited at Brooklands but subsequently abandoned outside.The weather took its toll but the end came when someone sawed the chassis in half to get the gearbox out for use in another car. Apparently the gearbox was found not to fit but this was the last of Chitty 1 and the remains went for scrap.
The picture shows Chitty 1 in Lancaster Mews W2, presumably some time in the 1930’s.The picture is captioned as showing the Conan Doyle brothers in the driving seats of the cars but as there was only a year between them in age there is doubt about the attribution.