1905 Gordon Bennett Cup Elimination Trial, Great Britain
Following the 1904 run it was soon apparent that Wolseley will use its two 1904 “Beetle” racers again. There was to be a third Wolseley-built entry: Siddeley. Wolseley have been building cars for John Davenport Siddeley since 1902. The whole business was financed by banking magnate Leopold Rotschild, whose son, Lionel was interested in racing. For 1905 Rotschild financed the construction of a chain-driven, 100-hp Siddeley racer, which was built by Wolseley and raced by Sidney Girling.
Napier had four entries lined up: Mayhew’s 1904 racer was to be driven by Earp, while S.F. Edge gave his car to his cousin, Cecil Edge. Arthur Macdonald entered the curious looking, six-cylinder L48 (later known as the Samson). There was just one new Napier: John Hargreaves, a long-time customer returned with a new car.
Additionally there was a new player waiting in the wings: Star of Wolverhampton. The company built two massive racers, powered by a massive 10.108 litre four cylinder engine configured into two banks of twin cylinders, developing approximately 90 hp. In construction and appearance the racer followed the design of the contemporary Mercedes racing cars. The cars, carrying starting number one and two were driven by the Goodwin brothers.
The last entry was provided by Sir Algernon Guinness, who bought one of the G.J.Weir-built Darracq racers, which failed to qualify at the 1904 Gordon Bennett Elimination Trials (more on that is available here). This car was powered by a 11-litre, four-cylinder, 100-bhp engine.
So on 30 May, 1905 ten cars gathered on the Isle of Man.
- H.G. Goodwin: Star (1)
- F.R. Goodwin: Star (2)
- A.L. Guinness: Weir-Darracq (3)
- C. Bianchi: Wolseley (4)
- C. Edge: Napier (6)
- C. Earp: Napier (7)
- J. Hargreaves: Napier (9)
- S. Girling: Siddeley (10)
- C.S. Rolls: Wolseley (11)
- A.E. Macdonald: Napier (12)
The Star and Siddeley cars used disc clutches, the others having the ordinary cone clutch. The numbers 5 and 8 were not used, owing to the difficulty of distinguishing them from the number 3 at high speeds.
The fifty-mile course was the same as in 1904. The course afforded as good a test as could be selected anywhere, for fifty-one miles of the road circled around the island, for the most part very winding and hilly. After going up to Ramsye, the Snaefell mountain had to be crossed, and the six miles of severe gradient brought out the full powers of the cars.
When the cars weighed in and examined by the officials of the Automobile Club of Great Britain, the No1 Star and Siddeley were overweight. This was soon remedied by taking off exhaus tubes, lock nuts and similar small parts, which soon brought them under the 1000 kilos limit.
The trial was run on Tuesday. At 9 AM the two Stars were sent off early, but probably owing to their low power, did not seem to get away very fast. At intervals of five minutes the other cars followed. By the end of the first lap Guinness was in the lead, having passed both Stars on the road. The others followed in quick succession, several having stoppages to report. The second Star had to change all its sparking plus; Macdonald lost the chain from his water pump; Hargreaves stopped twice for water. Rolls was nearly upset when trying to avoid a dog; he ran up against the side of the road, but luckily his wheels did not break.
It was round two which commenced the eliminating process. First casualty was the Siddeley: its sterring arm broke at a speed of 70 mph. The car charged a cottage, throwing both Girling and his mechanic onto the road. Marvellously enough there was no serious injury. Later Guiness retired. His engine cracked a piston. Though his mechanic fitted a new one, they lost more than an hour.
Round three put out Star No2 through a broken spring, while Macdonald was vanquished by a broken gear, leaving only six to finish.
Bianchi was able to complete six rounds or 306 miles. As the organisers did not want to keep the race on for more than eight hours he was not allowed to do a seventh round. Earp also completed six rounds. Rolls did five, Goodwin, Hargreaves and Edge four.
After considering the times taken on the speed stretches, the judges gave their awards thus: 1, Earp; 2, Bianchi; 3, Rolls, with C. Edge and Hargreaves as reserves. Thus, one Napier and two Wolseleys were set to represent England.
Sources: The Automotor Journal, The Automobile
