Brooklands – 2006

Invicta display

In 2006 The Invicta Car Club was invited to have a display of cars at the Brooklands Reunion, and twenty one Invictas attended the event.

One of the S Types was also asked to be the car that officially opened the Test Hill for the day too. The car that was chosen had originally been owned when new by Lindsey Eccles, who raced at Brooklands in the early 1930’s.

The Invicta marque was linked to Brooklands in several ways. The Invicta Car Company used Brooklands to set various records with its cars, including the 30,000 mile record, when a high chassis 4 ½ litre car was driven by Violette Cordery and her younger sister Evelyn for 30,000 miles in 30,000 minutes – in fact their car averaged a speed of 61.57mph – and the company was awarded the Dewar Trophy for its performance (the second time that an Invicta and Miss Cordery had been awarded this prestigious trophy).

With the introduction of the S Type in 1930, Invictas became regular visitors to Brooklands. Although the S Type initially succumbed to bad publicity due to an accident suffered by Sammy Davis in his black car, S types soon proved to be popular with several well-known drivers of the time.

Raymond Mays competed with great success in his two white Invicta S Types, and Invictas were also raced by G. Field, Dudley Froy, Violette Cordery, Mrs ‘Bill’ Wisdom, Kay Petre and A.C. Lace, to name but a few.

Several of the cars that took part in the 2006 display had Brooklands history, and a large information board with period photographs gave an insight into some of the cars past histories and their connections with Brooklands.

Invictas have always made good competition cars, and in post-war times they continued to enjoy great success in the hands of enthusiastic amateur drivers such as John Shutler, Jack Marsh, Donald Monro, Arthur Ainsworth and Bob Wood. This certainly influenced the survival rate of Invicta cars, and S Types in particular – without these people it would be unlikely that such a selection of Invictas could have survived for us to enjoy today.