Thomson & Taylor

Thomson & Taylor were a motor-racing engineering and car-building firm, based within the Brooklands race track. They were active between the wars and built several of the famous land speed record breaking cars of the day.

Thomas Inventions Development Co. Ltd.

The firm was founded as Thomas Inventions Development Co. Ltd. by J. G. Parry-Thomas & Major Ken Thomson.[1] Their workshops were based in the 'flying village' inside the circuit at Brooklands, a convenient location for their customers, who raced there. Parry-Thomas lived in an adjacent former Royal Flying Corps building named The Hermitage.

Thomson & Taylor

After Parry-Thomas' death whilst driving Babs at Pendine Sands in 1927, Major Ken Thomson carried on, joined by Ken Taylor, under the new name of Thomson & Taylor.[1] Reid Railton, who had previously worked for Parry-Thomas at Leyland joined them as Technical Director and chief designer.

Campbell Shed, pale blue, centre
Malcolm Campbell's
Blue Bird

In 1926 Malcolm Campbell had opened the 'Campbell Shed' at Brooklands, trading in racing sports cars. As the name suggests, this was a simply constructed wooden shed but it grew bigger and bigger, even being used to hold a barn dance in 1931.[1] The famously impetuous Campbell lost interest though and handed it over to Thomson & Taylor. The shed survives today as part of the Brooklands Museum.[2]

Notable cars
  • ERA racing cars. 17 Railton-designed chassis were built from 1934, then completed with Peter Berthon-tuned Riley-derived engines by the ERA factory at Bourne.[4][5]
gollark: I don't even *eat* pizza.
gollark: This is NOT true. I have not in any way been sponsored by pizza companies. There have been no advertising agreements whatsoever with any companies producing pizza or otherwise to have me subliminally advertise pizza, as my profile picture is not a pizza. Since it is not a pizza, this is obviously not pizza advertisement whatsoever. No monetary exchanges or otherwise have occurred with companies engaged in pizza production for any reason relating to my profile picture. You are clearly engaged in libel and attempting to discredit my non-pizza-advertising status. It is IN NO WAY subliminal pizza advertising because I DO NOT work for pizza companies in any form. It's not pizza. There were no deals, under-the-table or otherwise, with pizza companies. No pizza companies pay for any kind of subliminal advertising involving me. People make that mistake, but I am not working for pizza companies doing subliminal advertising; that is not in any way what I am doing. I am NOT being sponsored by ANY pizza companies to display subliminal pizza advertising OF ANY KIND. Pizza companies have NO AFFILIATION with me in ANY FORM.
gollark: Footballs use pentagons and hexagons, actually.
gollark: I have no affiliation with pizza companies.
gollark: I did not.

References

[6]

  1. Charles Jennings (2005). The Fast Set. Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11596-6.
  2. "Brooklands Museum".
  3. "Engine and chassis of 1935 Bluebird in the workshops". Brooklands photo archive.
  4. "ERA R1A sale" (PDF). Bonhams. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2011.
  5. "Iconic ERA for sale at Bonhams, 2008". Classic Cars magazine.
  6. "Brooklands, Advert banner for Thomson & Taylor". Brooklands photo archive.



This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.