John, George and the HWMs
SIMON TAYLOR, Evro Publishing, £130, ISBN 978 1 910505 32 8
If ever someone were qualified to tell the HWM story it is Simon Taylor, whose own dedication to Hersham & Walton Motors is nothing short of heroic. For something like two decades now, Taylor has owned the famous HWM known as the Stovebolt Special. Bought from Murray Smith and widely campaigned since, this car started life as an F2 car that a very young Stirling Moss raced before it wound up in the US, starred in the Kirk Douglas movie The Racers and then had its 2.0-litre Alta engine swapped for a smallblock Chevy V8 by Tom Carstens. What is best about Taylor’s ownership is that, apart from when it went to Australia to race at Phillip Island or the USA for an outing at Laguna Seca, I am not aware of it ever having got to an event other than under its own steam, and that includes regular appearances at the Bo’ness Revival, a 1000-mile round trip.
Enough about the author, what of his book? Well, it is a beautifully presented twin-volume set in a simple slipcase. The first volume, each of which has a Michael Turner painting on the cover, focuses on the history of the team, while the second is all about the cars, the tracks and the drivers.
Taylor’s approach is unapologetically flag-waving, with lots of words such as ‘plucky’ applied to John Heath and George Abecassis’ shoestring Surrey operation as it took on the might of the Italian teams in the early 1950s, before it all ended prematurely following Heath’s death on the Mille Miglia in 1956.
Taylor’s approach is also as exhaustive as two entire pages of acknowledgements would suggest.
It is worth it, though. As someone who once researched just a small corner of HWM’s history for an article on the ex-Phil Scragg HWM-Jaguar, I am blown away by what he has unearthed. I suppose that, given his works as a commentator and businessman, it is easy to forget that Taylor, a former editor of Autosport magazine, is still just a racingmad kid at heart and a fine journalist, too.
The result is comprehensive, the first volume amusingly dedicating some 250 pages to HWM’s first decade and just 12 to the next 60 years, in which it has been an Aston Martin dealership. The second volume, majoring on the 19 cars built – plus drivers, and results – is, if anything, even more definitive.
Finally, the book’s designer Paul Harpin merits a mention. From nearly the very start, where a photo of George Abecassis racing an Alta at Brooklands in 1938 is lavishly reproduced over two whole pages, it is reassuringly obvious that the subject is being accorded both respect and empathy. Bravo.