Chassis Number: F22
This remarkable “time machine” Formula Two racing car is offered here for the first time after no fewer than 49 years in its current ownership. Furthermore, this long ownership period has seen the car raced once only — back in 1975 — after which it was set aside pending more-thorough preparation, which its still-enthusiastic owner never got around to carrying out. Therefore, after only two properly active frontline seasons’ use back in 1951–52, this fascinating example of the small but in so many ways renowned Alta marque’s specialized output is, in fact, remarkably well preserved today.
Motor engineer Geoffrey Taylor was a practical-minded, truly hands-on racing enthusiast who founded his Alta Car & Engineering Company at Tolworth, Surrey, U.K., as early as 1929. He actually sawed, filed and fettled his very first Alta sports car engine virtually from solid stock on his home kitchen table, producing a simple-yet-effective 4-cylinder twin-overhead-camshaft power unit displacing 1,074 cc. Through the 1930s he built a small hand-to-mouth business producing sports cars powered by these engines, which he progressively enlarged from their original capacity intended for 1,100-cc racing, through 1,500 cc and on up to a 2-liter version.
In 1945, Geoffrey Taylor announced ambitious plans to build a supercharged 1½-liter Grand Prix car, later raced with some success by the hard-charging “Gorgeous George” Abecassis. Two other clients, Geoffrey Crossley and Joe Kelly, bought similar cars from Taylor. But since sale and service of the three GP cars hardly generated sufficient income to keep Alta Engineering afloat, Geoffrey Taylor then turned to the new un-supercharged 2-liter Formula Two category.
Initially he found greater interest in his engines than his complete cars. The contemporary Abecassis-run HWM team used Alta power units to achieve significant racing success throughout Europe in 1949–53. Taylor was able to launch his own prototype Formula Two car in 1951. The second car — “F2/2” now offered here — was completed for Gordon Watson.
Today “F2/2” survives in remarkably original unrestored condition, and it is offered here in historically unspoiled — and for many tastes, delightfully patinated — order. It has 16-inch front wheels instead of the original 18-inch, but overall, it has been considered to be the most original of surviving Alta cars. A complete technical inspection and rebuild will plainly be necessary before it is run again in earnest.
