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1932 was
not a good year to launch a
new sports car –
marketed squarely at the
sons and daughters of the
upper middle classes.
Economic recovery was slow,
and the fear of
unemployment was still
tangible in the wake of the
1929 market crash. Salaried
employees were fearful of
company failure or
takeover, and even the
fringes of the upper
classes had been haunted by
the spectre of genteel
poverty. ’Champagne
Charlie’ had turned
to brown ale, and the
market for big, lorry like
sports cars of the late
twenties had largely
disappeared.
Motor sport throughout the
United Kingdom had
reflected these economic
constraints, and
reliability trials and
rallies became increasingly
popular due to their low
cost. Some of the new breed
of light cars, with the
benefit of a small capacity
high revving engine, and a
low first gear, were able
to excel at these events,
and above all they were
comparatively cheap to buy.
Horsepower tax also
increased the incentive to
‘buy
small’.
Into
this post market crash
world stepped Pownoll
Pellew, a man destined to
become the ninth Viscount
Exmouth. He had been to
engineering school, but had
followed this with a
chequered period at
Cambridge and agricultural
college.
Despite
parental disapproval, and
periods of ‘genteel
poverty’, he dreamed
of building his own sports
car. He started off by
renting a workshop,
situated behind the
‘Warrington’
public house in Maida Vale,
employing a crony of his,
and one mechanic. Being
something of a dreamer, the
venture might have
foundered, but
Pellew’s girlfriend
had a steely ambition and
determination, and spurred
him on to achieve his
dream.
Kay
Walsh came from the other
side of the class divide.
She was a dancer, and
budding actress,who
introduced Pellew to her
friends in the world of
theater and film.
These
contacts led Pellew to meet
with two men who were
willing to put money into a
new company that would
build the car he had
designed. Allan Gaspar and
Robert Wilcoxon were hungry
and ambitious men, and
turned the Vale Motor
Company (as it became) from
being a gentleman’s
hobby into a company able
to build a radically
designed sports car that
briefly created a vogue in
the early 1930s. The
company might have been
successful, but despite
bulging order books, too
few cars were manufactured
at the Warrington Garage
for it to be a commercial
success.
The
directors had planned to go
into line production (after
an initial period of low
volume ‘hand
built’ production)
with the Vale Special in a
purpose built factory.
Unfortunately, a series of
catastrophes overcame the
fledgling company,
including the losses of key
individuals. They could not
recover from these setbacks
- despite the concerted
efforts of Allan Gaspar,
Bill Francis- James, and
finally Guy Griffiths.
This
book covers the whole of
the Vale Motor Company
history 1932-1934, and the
ensuing Vale Engineering
Company history 1934
– 1937. The text puts
particular emphasis on the
motor sport actively
engaged in by the company
and amateur
owners of the cars. The
closing section of the book
examines some of the
divided opinions expressed
about these cars over the
years. – i.e. should
the car be remembered as
the ‘Vile
Special’ - a car for
‘Promenade
Percy’, or was it a
fine small sports car of
its period that deserves to
be remembered for its
undoubted technical
ingenuity, attractive
styling and outstanding
handling abilities.
The
origins of this book date
back to 1979, when
motorcycle journalist Brian
Woolley placed an appeal in
the ‘Vintage
Postbag’ section of
Motorsport Magazine. He was
seeking information to
assist him with the
restoration of his newly
acquired Vale Special car,
and received a surprising
number of replies –
testimony to the affection
with which past owners
remember this now largely
forgotten marque.
Two of
the replies to
Woolley’s appeal were
of particular significance
to this book. The first of
these was from Allan
Gaspar, former Sales and
Competition Manager of the
Vale Motor Company. The
second reply came from
Gaspar’s
long-time friend, Bill
Francis-James, former Works
Foreman and racing mechanic
with the Vale Engineering
Company, Aston Martin and
Talbot. In pre-war years he
was known as Bill
Joshua.
During
the following eighteen
months, letters passed
regularly between the three
of them, and they decided
to write a book on the
history of the company.
Bill Francis-James was an
accomplished writer of
short stories, and took it
upon himself to write a
1500 word synopsis for a
book on the Vale Motor
Company, entitled
“Ave Atque
Vale” (Hail and
Farewell). Sadly, the
synopsis was all that they
got down in writing.
In the
early 1980s, Bill hawked
the original synopsis
around publishers for a
while and, being one of
life’s optimists,
could not understand the
lukewarm reception it
received. He wrote back to
the Editorial Director of B
T Batsford Ltd:
“I
am going to take you up on
the question of lack of
interest in a specialised
venture such as the Vale
Motor Company. There is no
drama or humor in the
manufacture of a Vauxhall
– still less in that
of a Fiat – but the
Vale Special enterprise had
strong moments of both,
moments that must appeal
very strongly to anyone
interested in four wheel
transport and we are thick
on the ground.”
Just when Bill appeared to
be making progress with
Batsford (after wearing
down their resistance with
a series of amusing
letters), his health
started to fail. At the age
of seventy, he had recently
married Anne, his partner
for many years, and Gaspar
believed this had: “
...put him off his
stroke”.
Sadly, he had contracted
an aggressive form of
cancer that was to claim
him within a few short
months. Gaspar had also
been suffering with
declining health for a long
period, and tragically died
within a few months of his
friend. Brian Woolley,
saddened by the loss of
these two, by now, good
friends, penned an article
on the Vale Special for
Thoroughbred and Classic
Car Magazine (January 1982)
and all ideas of a book
were quietly dropped.
Having acquired all of the
correspondence, which came
with the purchase of
Brian’s car in 1991,
it gradually dawned on the
author that if the reins
were not picked up quickly,
then the story would never
be told.
Fortunately for this
project, the hundred or so
letters detailing the
workings of the company
were saved, and with
company documents kept by
Gaspar and Pellew, form the
single most important
source of historical
material for this book.
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