1957 Arnott Climax 1100 GT

Daphne Arnott, arguably the first woman to construct a race car, was born into a motorsport family. Her father designed the Arnott supercharger and her grandfather had run the Werner Motorcycle Company. In 1948, Daphne joined the family business and soon established a special department, headed by George Thornton, to design and build F3 cars with 500 cc engines. By 1955, she had assembled a team to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans and had designed a new sports car for the event. The racing sports car was powered by a supercharged Coventry Climax engine and unfortunately, it crashed during practice.

Arnott returned to Le Mans in 1957 with an all-new GT car. It had a design created by Thornton and featured a complex tubular space-frame chassis with an advanced independent suspension system and inboard rear brakes. Power was from a Climax 1100 engine positioned well back in the frame to provide optimal weight distribution. It was given a streamlined body that was designed and built in-house. The body was constructed from lightweight aluminum panels and featured rear fender spats, a full-length undertray, and gullwing-style doors.

The new Arnot GT was registered as '3 LMD' and made its debut in June 1957 at LeMans. Driving duties were entrusted to English drivers Jim Russell and Dennis Taylor. During practice, the car clocked 116 mph down the Mulsanne Straight. It wore number 39 and it ran well during the early portion of the race. However, in the fifth hour, it was forced to retire prematurely due to a dropped valve. After the 1957 Le Mans race, Daphne Arnott disbanded her racing team. Their one-off GT race car then sat in a corner of the company's London workshop for over a decade before it was sold to a local dealer.

The current caretaker has driven the car on the Colorado Grand rally in 2016.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2017