Summer 1962, St Ouen’s Harbour, Jersey

There’s no need to adjust your eyesight if the cars in this Sixties beach scene appear just a little bit too Technicolor, as there’s a very good reason. Do any of them look strangely tinged to you?

If everything somehow appears to be brighter and cheerier than you might expect, there is a reason for that – this image comes from a postcard that hundreds of people would have bought while holidaying in Jersey in the Sixties.

In 2017 it featured as part of an exhibition called ‘Britain In Focus: A Photographic History’ at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. It was common in those days to tint or re-colour images, even if photographed in colour to start with, as in this case. These vivid, hyper-real colours were eye-catching on a wire rack of post cards, but created some oddities, like the lilac Standard Vanguard Phase 1 in the far row – it’s grey in the original shot. Two things stand out, firstly the peculiar mix of racing cars: a Cooper MkII JAP, what looks like a cutdown pre-war MG, a Jaguar XK120 and another tiny Formula car, perhaps a Cooper MkIX. They’re ready to begin a few oval laps, we think, heading around and back between the sea and the parked cars.

Sand racing goes back decades in Jersey, at least to the Thirties. By the Fifties, races were organised on a points handicap system and contributed to a championship which, along with slithery sand, helped level the playing field.

What’s also striking is the high proportion of tiny cars, but they make good sense on narrow lanes through the hamlets and hedgerows of a small island.

From left, we see an AustinHealey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite, a Mini, an NSU Prinz MkI, MkII or MkIII (it’s almost impossible to tell from this far away) plus another Mini, a Ford 100E Popular, an Austin A40 and a Reliant Regal MkV or MkVI. Next to that is an Austin Nash Metropolitan; Donald Healey introduced Nash to Austin, who agreed to build a car with Nash’s American styling on a tiny scale. Intended for America, it was also offered in the UK from 1957. It had far more show than go, but it was cute – you might say it was the Nissan Figaro of its day.

Adjacent to the Nash is a Morris Minor, followed by another Mini, a Sprite MkII or MG Midget, a Wolseley 1500 or Riley 1.5 (again, it’s hard to tell at this distance) and finally an Anglia 105E.

Highlights from the other side of the track include a Vauxhall PA Velox or Cresta, the aforementioned pale purple Standard Vanguard, a red Bedford CA pick-up and another Spridget – more egg-yolk-yellow in this version than the pale lemon original. Chartreuse Yellow, perhaps?

It’s scenes such as this which are ( barring this year, at least) recreated annually on Pendine Sands on the South Coast of Wales, albeit with a more hot rod flavour than the selection of four racers seen here. As for Jersey, it holds its own International Motoring Festival, based around St Ouen and St Hellier – but we’d love for beach racing to be a feature when it returns in 2021!

STILL SPORTY By 1962, the Jaguar XK range had been replaced by the E-type 3.8. Still, with a top speed of 122mph, it would give most of the cars lined up against it a run for their money. ‘THEY MAKE CARS NOW?’ NSU introduced its first car, the Prinz, in 1957, having license-built Fiats before that. In the UK though, the marque at this time would’ve been renowned for its motorbikes. RARE LIGHT COMMERCIAL It’s hard to tell from this distance, but this particular Bedford CA pick-up appears to have the rare canopy body that was offered by coachbuilder G Walker & Sons of Watford.

MOTOR SHOW STARS With numerous examples of the Mini, a Triumph Herald and this Ford Anglia 105E, the trio of stars from the 1959 Motor Show are all here in Jersey three years later.