Connaught Type B: Front-wheeled F1 perfection for sale

Few motor racing fans don’t love stories about underdogs coming through to victory, and a favourite of many concerns the against-all-odds win achieved by Tony Brooks behind the wheel of a Connaught Type B at the Syracuse Grand Prix of 1955.

Connaught Engineering was set up post-war in Send, Surrey, by former RAF pilots Rodney Clarke and Mike Oliver whose distinctive and beautifully built competition cars soon proved themselves a force to be reckoned with on the growing racing scene of the late 1940s and early ’50s. Both F1 and F2 meetings were contested by Connaughts, some of which were driven by the era’s many rising stars such as Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn, Tony Rolt and Peter Collins.

Another was Kenneth McAlpine – a grandson of civil engineering tycoon Sir Robert McAlpine – who not only bought and raced Connaught Type Bs but used some of his family wealth to back the team financially. But by the time of the aforementioned Syracuse Grand Prix, Connaught was suffering the effects of having had two poor seasons back-to-back and the money was running short.

Only the offer of a generous entry fee dragged Connaught to Sicily to contest the race, with drivers Les Leston and Brooks not being expected to make much of an impact against the works Maseratis and Gordinis.

The odds were only made longer by the fact that Brooks had never previously driven in F1 and that both he and Leston had to learn the circuit by riding around it on a pair of borrowed Vespas after their Type Bs failed to arrive on the first practice day.

It turned out, too, that the first time Brooks tried a racing start in the Connaught was at the beginning of the actual event, which, remarkably, he went on to win, taking the chequered flag 50 seconds ahead of second-place Maserati driver Luigi Musso. It was the first victory in a grand prix by a British driver in a British car since 1923 – but it still wasn’t enough to save the team, which had its swansong at the Monaco GP of 1957 before Bernie Ecclestone bought the last of the factory Type Bs to campaign the following season.

But, as the superb example on offer with Graeme Hunt demonstrates, a Connaught Type B can be counted among the quintessential front-engined F1 cars of the 1950s with elegant, cigar-shaped bodywork, distinctive steel wheels and rasping exhaust.

Originally owned by Rob Walker and later a familiar sight at historic race meetings around the UK and Europe, the car has recently undergone a £43,000 rebuild which included the conversion of its four-speed pre-selector gearbox to five-speed and the fettling of its 2.5-litre, twin-cam Alta engine to produce 270bhp at 7000rpm.

Up, running and ready to race, it has FIA papers valid until December 2025 and should earn its new owner guaranteed access to some of the most prestigious classic racing events throughout the world.

And they might even get to practice a racing start or two before the flag drops on the first one.

1954 Connaught Type B

On offer with Graeme Hunt, Battersea, London SW11. Asking: £450,000. graemehunt.com

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