Kiefts front...

Sir,

I read with considerable interest the excellent article by Gordon Cruickshank on the grand prix Kieft. In September 1958 I acquired this car, which was a rolling chassis, from Merrick Taylor, who at the time owned Kieft Cars, near Meriden Street, Birmingham. The car had an ENV pre-selector gearbox with a special alloy housing to lower the driveshaft, alloy wishbones all round, coil springs at the front and a transverse leaf spring at the rear, rack-and-pinion steering, early-type Dunlop disc brakes and alloy wheels.

I do remember two other bare chassis frames existed, with some spare parts.

At the time Tony (Podge) Dealey and I were going to put a 2-litre Alta engine in the car with a Shorrock blower whilst I was away doing my national service. It turned out that Tony was too busy looking after Tom Norton’s Cooper 1100cc and ERA R4D. In the end the Zoller blower was not performing very well and, with the assistance of the Kieft engineers, we carried out some modifications in our works toolroom. These proved unsuccessful and so our blower went into R4D.

The whereabouts of the Godiva engines was unknown at this time. I eventually passed the car on to Tony and, with my cousin, acquired his HAR single-seater.

I am glad that Cyril Kieft has seen his brainchild come to fruition at long last.

I am, Yours etc,
A E Bettinson, Worcester