George's brother

Those conversant with pre-WW2 motor racing will know that Captain GET Eyston was a prolific record-breaker, up to his LSR of 357.6mph in the 2350hp ‘Thunderbolt’ in 1938, as well as being a capable driver of Aston Martin, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and MG cars, etc. The Eystons could trace their origins back to before the Reformation.

George Eyston began racing in 1923, with two Astons bought from Lionel Martin, a twin-cam and an engineless ex-Kensington Moir track car. He used the twin-cam for hill-climbs and trials, and raced at Boulogne where it was third. The other, engine transferred, raced at Brooklands where it won an AM race. With the twin-cam in his boat ‘Miss Olga’ GET came second in the 1926 Duke of York Trophy race on the Thames after Bamato’s Sunbeam-engined Ardenrun II’.

Basil Eyston, George’s brother, joined in by 1926, with a third at the BARC Whitsun Meeting in an ohv AM, and was second to GET’s sidevalve AM in another race. That summer Basil was racing a Frazer-Nash, while GET experimented with a Powerplus supercharger of his own design in a sidevalve Anzani AM.

In 1927 Basil resumed the AM and won a Surbiton MC Brooklands race, a yard ahead of Newman’s Salmson, and the brothers shared a Bugatti for the JCC ‘200’, finishing second to Malcolm Campbell’s Bugatti.

In ’29 Basil teamed with GET to compete at Phoenix Park with a T43 Bugatti but misfortune intruded. Driving to or from the circuit, Basil skidded on a road wetted by a water cart, and hit a horse and cart. A boy on the cart was flung into the Liffey and drowned. No action was brought but this seems to have turned Basil Eyston against racing.