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There are some companies that while
producing good cars, only occasionally come up with a thoroughbred. The
Riley marque engaged in successful motor sport and built a few beautiful
sports cars. However, their stock cars were good but not quite
thoroughbred. My first encounters with a Riley was as a small boy. My
father then had a bright red TT sports model that had a supercharger. He
drove this at breakneck speeds confident that this model of car had raced
in the TT. My childhood memories are interspersed with various expeditions
through hedges, collisions and so forth. If late for anything there was
always the stock reply..."its OK its supercharged". This became a
household catchphrase. One day the battery was flat and I was placed in
the car to jiggle the levers. Dad fired up using the armstrong method, I
panicked and somehow ran him over!
Later, my own car collection was
maintained by a real engineering genius, the late Mike Parker of Danbury,
Essex. He could fix anything from a Bugatti to a vintage Rolls....that is,
except Rileys....he had had an unfortunate experience as a boy after being
given a lift by a Riley driver. We never did dare to ask him about the
details!
As a consequence I turned down the
chance of buying a Brooklands model, but did eventually purchase a real
Riley thoroughbred, a 2.5 roadster. This was bought from Peter Ashdown,
the retired racing driver, also of Danbury. True to his word, Mike Parker
would not even allow me to park this wonderful car on his driveway and
maintenance was done elsewhere. This car in most respects equalled the
finest that Europe could offer. The slight lack of finesse was balanced by
excellent handling and performance with the confidence that this was
really a rugged individual. It felt much more like a pre-war American
classic and one was always a bit surprised to get out and see the Riley
grill!
Riley TT
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