Prescott – May 2011

Invicta Class at ‘La Vie en Bleu’

The Invicta Car Club ran a special one-off ‘Invicta Class’ as part of the Bugatti Owners Club ‘La Vie en Bleu’ meeting on Sunday 29th May 2011. The Invicta Car Club historically ran a class at Prescott in the 1950’s and 1960’s, so this event was extremely significant for the marque.

Following months of planning, Invicta Car Club Secretary, Jo Moss Kitcher, had managed to persuade 17 of her club members to enter the class, and despite two non-starters, there were still 15 entries running on the day – a fantastic number of competitors for such a tiny car club.

One Invicta of particular interest was the 1931 S type ‘Red Gauntlet’, which had been brought over from Northern Ireland especially for the event by Jack Keatley and his son John, who both shared the car for the hill climb. ‘Red Gauntlet’ has a strong connection with Prescott, having competed there pre-war in the hands of then owner, and Invicta Car Club founder member Donald Monro.

The special ‘Invicta Class’ consisted of a superb selection of S types, including Bob Wood’s very well-known car ‘Felicity’ and Tony Mottram’s S type that was owned by amateur racing driver Lindsey Eccles when it was new in 1931. ‘Gulliver’ – another S type that had competed at Prescott in the 1950’s had been brought all the way from Germany for the meeting, and Alan and Rory Brown were driving their ex-Raymond Mays ‘India Tyre Co’ white Invicta. High chassis 4 ½ litre Invictas belonging to Duncan Arthurs, Clive Rides and Jeff Stow also competed, as did the 4 ½ litre Sports Special – RRM 500, belonging to Jo.

The special one-off class attracted a huge amount of interest, and the line-up of Invictas in the paddock at Prescott was quite simply superb. The eventual class winner was Trevor Swete in his incredibly quick S type – a car that is still campaigned regularly at VSCC race meetings and events such as Silverstone Classic.