Post by administrator on Sept 8, 2009 11:53:37 GMT 1
JEAN REVILLE threw his energies into promotion and publicity. He set up a Speedway Racing Drivers Club, based at 14 Merton Park Parade, which organised the first British race meetings for midget cars, at Crystal Palace, and drew up rules for size and engine capacity of the cars. The first meeting was on 31 March 1934 (Easter weekend), and Reville interested Paramount Films sufficiently for them to send a film crew.
Both the first and the second (14 April) meetings were advertised in the Times, as was another on 26 May. All these were on Saturdays. Also in May, he posed for a publicity picture with the Hon. Victoria Worsley, a socialite and racing driver, before her attempt at a lap record at Crystal Palace on Whit Monday (the Wimbledon Boro’ News calling him ‘the well-known local racing motorist’).
As well as this activity, Jean was racing at least once a week throughout a season lasting until September; at Crystal Palace this was often as the captain of the local team of three drivers. By 23 November 1934 The Autocar could describe him as ‘the originator of miniature-car dirt-track racing in this country’.
The Gnat
In November 1934, Reville’s publicity machine announced a new car in the motoring press, while the Wimbledon Boro’ News had an early picture of Reville himself in ‘his latest baby car’ on 7 December.
This was the Gnat, a specially designed midget racer with a 992cc JAP motorcycle engine, one gear and one small brake. Initially the exhaust pipe ran between the driver’s knees, which ‘must have added to the excitement’. Only six feet long, the Gnat was billed as the ‘World’s Smallest Racing Car’, with ‘Jean Reville’ prominent in its paintwork, and ‘Palmer Special’ rather more quietly across the radiator. In January,
The Light Car had portrait photos of the machine itself, and commented approvingly that the ‘Palmer-Reville duo had done a great deal of serious thinking on the subject of the right kind of dirt-track car’. This was followed on 1 February by news of design changes as a result of testing. (But where were the test runs held ?) Later opinion was not so flattering: ‘unbelievably crude’ was one Australian comment delivered decades later with 100% hindsight – but what else could be expected of two pioneering young men with spanners ?
During February 1935 a certain unreality creeps into the publicity – there are reports that Jean Reville has plans to produce 50 machines ‘by Easter’, backed by a company with ‘unlimited capital’, and that he intends to take a team of six English drivers to California to compete against ‘the Americans’.
Such euphoric talk may have been stimulated by meeting Joel ‘Joe’ W Thorne, the playboy American heir to two millionaires, pilot, and driver of fast cars, boats and motorcycles. The two men were pictured in the local press in February, Thorne having just competed in the Monte Carlo Rally, and genially agreeing he would raise a team of midget racers (in the USA) and return in the summer.
On 21 February he sailed for New York from Southampton aboard the luxurious Ile de France, and apparently did not return to Britain before the Second World War: at least, he did not again leave Britain by ship in that period.) Of course, all Jean Reville’s talk may have been ‘shooting a line’ with his tongue firmly in his cheek. He must have known that producing 50 Gnats in eight or nine weeks was quite impossible on the Merton Park premises – in the event it seems only five or six machines were made over the next few months.
Jean Reville had a very busy and successful 1935 racing season, with much publicity. For example, he won three races at Crystal Palace on Easter Monday, raced at the Silver Jubilee meeting at White City in May, and the second Lea Bridge meeting on the Saturday before Whitsun, and competed in three meetings over Whitsun – on the Saturday at the opening meeting of the Perry Hill Stadium in Catford, on Whit Monday at Crystal Palace in the afternoon, and at Lea Bridge Stadium in the evening.
Probably his last appearance on a British track was at the recently opened Wimbledon Stadium on 1 September. This was a two-car match arranged by the stadium management to test the interest of the local greyhound racing (known locally as ‘gracing’) and motorcycle speedway fans. In the event, his opponent’s car ‘refused to function’ and Jean was reduced to driving a solo demonstration run, which was adjudged ‘insufficiently interesting’. This seems to have been the only occasion on which midget racing cars were shown at Wimbledon.
And Away...
At some point in 1935, Arthur Palmer had relinquished the sweetshop at 3 Merton Park Parade and taken a newly-built double-fronted shop at 215/217 Kingston Road, Ewell, where he sold toys and prams as well as confectionery. All six Palmers and Revilles moved into the new accommodation. Dennis continued the motor hire service until 1937, when 14 Merton Park Parade passed to Mr A G Spencer, motor engineer.
With the end of the 1935 British season, Jean Reville accepted a contract to race for a season in Australia, along with two other drivers. They were to tour as an ‘England’ team using three Gnats and competing against local drivers and machines. Reville was billed as the ‘British Champion’; the other two were ‘Bud’ Stanley (allegedly of Wimbledon, but whose given name no-one seems to know) and Ralph E P Secretan. On 13 September 1935, Jean Reville ‘racing motorist’ sailed from London for Sydney aboard the SS Orsova, together with Ralph Secretan and his wife, but without his own wife Daisy. And he never came back.
The team had a good Australian season, starting at the newly-opened Sydney Showground on 2 November, and later going on to race at Melbourne and Brisbane. Stanley and Secretan returned to England in early 1936, but Reville stayed on in Brisbane. (Why ?)
According to my Brisbane correspondent John Williams, Reville subsequently had a successful racing career in Australia, supplemented by a motor-import business and various half-hearted engineering enterprises. In 1945 he married the daughter of William Jolley, the mayor of Brisbane, and they later had a son. (What had happened to Daisy ? She had not sailed for Australia by 1948.) Jean Reville remained in Brisbane until he died in the early 1980s. Sadly, in later life he made many claims about his involvement with English midget car racing, but most if not all are exaggerated or false. (See Part 2.)
Arthur Palmer occupied his new shop with its prams and toys until at least 1960, when he retired elsewhere. The shop, with its window display of a working electric train set, is still fondly remembered in Ewell. I must also admit to a soft spot for Arthur Thomas Palmer, confectioner and racing car designer (part-time).
Both the first and the second (14 April) meetings were advertised in the Times, as was another on 26 May. All these were on Saturdays. Also in May, he posed for a publicity picture with the Hon. Victoria Worsley, a socialite and racing driver, before her attempt at a lap record at Crystal Palace on Whit Monday (the Wimbledon Boro’ News calling him ‘the well-known local racing motorist’).
As well as this activity, Jean was racing at least once a week throughout a season lasting until September; at Crystal Palace this was often as the captain of the local team of three drivers. By 23 November 1934 The Autocar could describe him as ‘the originator of miniature-car dirt-track racing in this country’.
The Gnat
In November 1934, Reville’s publicity machine announced a new car in the motoring press, while the Wimbledon Boro’ News had an early picture of Reville himself in ‘his latest baby car’ on 7 December.
This was the Gnat, a specially designed midget racer with a 992cc JAP motorcycle engine, one gear and one small brake. Initially the exhaust pipe ran between the driver’s knees, which ‘must have added to the excitement’. Only six feet long, the Gnat was billed as the ‘World’s Smallest Racing Car’, with ‘Jean Reville’ prominent in its paintwork, and ‘Palmer Special’ rather more quietly across the radiator. In January,
The Light Car had portrait photos of the machine itself, and commented approvingly that the ‘Palmer-Reville duo had done a great deal of serious thinking on the subject of the right kind of dirt-track car’. This was followed on 1 February by news of design changes as a result of testing. (But where were the test runs held ?) Later opinion was not so flattering: ‘unbelievably crude’ was one Australian comment delivered decades later with 100% hindsight – but what else could be expected of two pioneering young men with spanners ?
During February 1935 a certain unreality creeps into the publicity – there are reports that Jean Reville has plans to produce 50 machines ‘by Easter’, backed by a company with ‘unlimited capital’, and that he intends to take a team of six English drivers to California to compete against ‘the Americans’.
Such euphoric talk may have been stimulated by meeting Joel ‘Joe’ W Thorne, the playboy American heir to two millionaires, pilot, and driver of fast cars, boats and motorcycles. The two men were pictured in the local press in February, Thorne having just competed in the Monte Carlo Rally, and genially agreeing he would raise a team of midget racers (in the USA) and return in the summer.
On 21 February he sailed for New York from Southampton aboard the luxurious Ile de France, and apparently did not return to Britain before the Second World War: at least, he did not again leave Britain by ship in that period.) Of course, all Jean Reville’s talk may have been ‘shooting a line’ with his tongue firmly in his cheek. He must have known that producing 50 Gnats in eight or nine weeks was quite impossible on the Merton Park premises – in the event it seems only five or six machines were made over the next few months.
Jean Reville had a very busy and successful 1935 racing season, with much publicity. For example, he won three races at Crystal Palace on Easter Monday, raced at the Silver Jubilee meeting at White City in May, and the second Lea Bridge meeting on the Saturday before Whitsun, and competed in three meetings over Whitsun – on the Saturday at the opening meeting of the Perry Hill Stadium in Catford, on Whit Monday at Crystal Palace in the afternoon, and at Lea Bridge Stadium in the evening.
Probably his last appearance on a British track was at the recently opened Wimbledon Stadium on 1 September. This was a two-car match arranged by the stadium management to test the interest of the local greyhound racing (known locally as ‘gracing’) and motorcycle speedway fans. In the event, his opponent’s car ‘refused to function’ and Jean was reduced to driving a solo demonstration run, which was adjudged ‘insufficiently interesting’. This seems to have been the only occasion on which midget racing cars were shown at Wimbledon.
And Away...
At some point in 1935, Arthur Palmer had relinquished the sweetshop at 3 Merton Park Parade and taken a newly-built double-fronted shop at 215/217 Kingston Road, Ewell, where he sold toys and prams as well as confectionery. All six Palmers and Revilles moved into the new accommodation. Dennis continued the motor hire service until 1937, when 14 Merton Park Parade passed to Mr A G Spencer, motor engineer.
With the end of the 1935 British season, Jean Reville accepted a contract to race for a season in Australia, along with two other drivers. They were to tour as an ‘England’ team using three Gnats and competing against local drivers and machines. Reville was billed as the ‘British Champion’; the other two were ‘Bud’ Stanley (allegedly of Wimbledon, but whose given name no-one seems to know) and Ralph E P Secretan. On 13 September 1935, Jean Reville ‘racing motorist’ sailed from London for Sydney aboard the SS Orsova, together with Ralph Secretan and his wife, but without his own wife Daisy. And he never came back.
The team had a good Australian season, starting at the newly-opened Sydney Showground on 2 November, and later going on to race at Melbourne and Brisbane. Stanley and Secretan returned to England in early 1936, but Reville stayed on in Brisbane. (Why ?)
According to my Brisbane correspondent John Williams, Reville subsequently had a successful racing career in Australia, supplemented by a motor-import business and various half-hearted engineering enterprises. In 1945 he married the daughter of William Jolley, the mayor of Brisbane, and they later had a son. (What had happened to Daisy ? She had not sailed for Australia by 1948.) Jean Reville remained in Brisbane until he died in the early 1980s. Sadly, in later life he made many claims about his involvement with English midget car racing, but most if not all are exaggerated or false. (See Part 2.)
Arthur Palmer occupied his new shop with its prams and toys until at least 1960, when he retired elsewhere. The shop, with its window display of a working electric train set, is still fondly remembered in Ewell. I must also admit to a soft spot for Arthur Thomas Palmer, confectioner and racing car designer (part-time).
(c) DAVID HAUNTON 2009