H. Whitfield Semmence is a name well-known to any Frazer Nash enthusiast and in 1930 he acquired a Frazer Nash Super Sports and built a special which has enjoyed a long life of competition. Recently, Sarah entered it in the VSCC Winter Driving Tests held at Bicester Heritage. The car has a pre-war dashboard plaque that states "0-50 8 seconds. Brooklands flying lap 85.87, max 94 mph." and is on loan from her partner while he rebuilds her own GN. What a good chap!
The day consisted of ten tests scattered about the airfield with a large team of hardy marshals watching for cars following a wrong route, or clouting a bollard, both of which incur penalties. Sarah almost achieved a clean sheet - until she approached the finish line at test 8 a little bit too fast and failed to stop astride the line. Her stepdaughter Maddie was trying equally hard in her 1930 Austin 7 saloon (as shown in her navigator Kenny's picture!) and finished the day with a creditable 3rd class award despite hitting a bollard in 'Scroggs Scramble'.
The tests were as much a test of memory as driving skills and Sarah told us... "I loved test 2, including into and out of the hanger, as it involved lots of skidding around." You can view the provisional results here and see the wide variety of pre-war cars whose drivers enjoy testing their mental agility and their cars' versatility. See video. The next VSCC driving tests are at Brooklands in January- Sarah and Maddie will both be there wearing appropriate hats.
( Update - Sarah's partner has sent us early pictures of Whitfield and his Semmence Special . Thanks Jo! One, two, three. )
(Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy Jim Wood and author)