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Where's the Sopwith's Sphinx? (update: in France?)


Of all the sports-racing specials built by enterprising amateur racing drivers in the 1950s, few had as unlikely a mechanical base as Tommy Sopwith's Sphinx. Sopwith was the son of Sir Thomas Sopwith, chairman of Hawker Siddeley, and was employed at Armstrong Siddeley's development department. He chose the 3.4-litre Sapphire engine, suitably modified and mounted in an Allard J2R chassis with an aluminium body he designed himself. Although the Sapphire was an unusual choice of power unit, Sopwith managed to win four races in the car in 1954 against Jaguar C-types and XK120s among others.
 
The late Anthony Pritchard talked to Sopwith about the car and his career at Armstrong Siddeley, and The Automobile magazine has published the story in their latest issue, but who knows where the car is now?
 

 

Published:
Wednesday February 19th, 2014

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