Talk Morgan Forums Community General Photo Gallery More good old days

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Ok, By popular request. I've scanned these. Sorry about the quality but they are from prints around 80 years old. TC Griffiths (my father), Percy Mclure, Jack Warner (later of Dixon of Dock Green fame), and the (slightly mad) Freddie Dixon were at various times part of the Riley rally team which my father headed. In those days the Monte, the Six Days Alpine Race and the Scottish Rally were very important for manufacters and well publicised. The old man competed from about 1931 to 1937. They often started the Monte from difficult places (Bucharest/Stavanger or Warsaw) because that gave the team more points than starting in the UK. My favourite picture of him is in a Romanian forest with some very odd looking people. He's the one in the fur trimmed flying suit. They carried a sawn off shotgun and pistols in case of bandits or wolves in the Romanian forests.

Many thanks for posting more of your super pics, quality is great.

The pic taken in West Regent Street was no doubt captured outside the Royal Scottish Automobile Club building in Blythswood Square, Glasgow. The building is still there but is a hotel these days. The Rileys in that pic are MPH models, the same model as the first pic you posted.

First time I saw an MPH was competing at Forrestburn in a Production Car Trial a few years back, I posted a pic of it on here a few weeks back. Apparently it competed in the rally and may be one of the cars in the picture... Small world indeed..!

Wonderful pictures. Thank you for posting. You have given me an idea.

Thanks very much for these Griffo. I am a big Monte Carlo Rally fan and actually took part many times on the Monte Carlo Challenge which was run by a chap called Phillip Young who incidentally drove a Morgan +8 on the 1980 Monte.

If you still have the sawn off shotgun, maybe I could borrow it, rob a bank, and then I would be able to afford one of those Rileys. The MPH is my dream car and the first picture you showed with the 2 gals is a fantastic shot of that time. Were the girls related to you by any chance?

Brilliant, thanks again Griffo, brought some sunshine to a rainy day in Yorkshire today.

Sir P

Marvellous pictures and a great story.

With regards to Jack Warner, not that many people are aware of his motoring background. If you ever get a chance to see episodes of Tell Me Another with him in (they turn up occasionally on Talking Pictures TV) he tells some wonderful tales about his early life with cars, like working for Sizaire-Berwick and driving bare chassis from Paris to the coast!

Thanks very much for posting.

Thanks for posting, clearly a different type of plus-four in those days?