1935 Riley 12/4 Special

Lot details
Registration No: PVS 179
Chassis No: 22T1136
Mot Expiry: Sept 2010

According to information kindly supplied by the vendor, this Special began life as a narrow track 22T saloon. Reduced to a rolling chassis by the time Stan Wain acquired it during the 1960s, the Riley has been in the current ownership since 1992. Commissioned to reconfigure the car that same year, Bruce Stops overhauled and shortened the chassis by twelve inches before fitting the current two-seater bodywork. Driving the rear wheels via a pre-selector ENV gearbox and 5.5:1 back axle, the original engine was supplanted in 1993 by a 1.5 litre racing unit that the seller had previously had built for his Riley Sprite. Put together by renowned specialist Barrie Gillies from 1983-1986 at a cost of £6,462, the powerplant's impressive specification included: a reworked, skimmed and gas-flowed cylinder head incorporating mnemonic valves, aluminium bronze valve guides, light alloy spring caps / special valve springs, lightened rockers with new rocker shafts / spacers, a new crankshaft running in a crankcase modified to accept MGB main bearings, a main bearing housing machined to suit Jaguar E-type shells, new Allen connecting rods, new special forged 10:1 CR pistons, altered flywheel, twin plate AP racing clutch, re-machined sump complete with sub sump, upgraded oil pump pick-up, full THRO-AWAY oil filter element, new inlet manifold hosting reconditioned 1.5 inch SU carburettors, new timing case, camshaft re-profiled to 27/67, 67/27 for each cylinder, crank, flywheel and clutch dynamically balanced, rods and pistons statically balanced, four-branch 4-into-2-into-1 exhaust manifold and new silencer / tail pipe. The engine is understood to have covered some 2,000 post-completion miles but not to have been circuit raced. The gearbox has reportedly benefited from a past overhaul with "new or refurbished bearings and a new rear extension". The seller further informs us that: "The Riley has been used occasionally over the past eighteen years for hillclimbs and sprints at venues such as Prescott, Loton Park (2nd-in-class out of 20, September 1994), Curborough (2nd-in-class out of 6, September 1994 / 8th-in-class out of 16, April 2000) and Harewood (9th-in-class out of 17, June 2006), the last event being at Loton Park in late June 2006 (12th-in-class out of 24). It has usually been trailed to meetings and is in very good running order. MOT tested to 30th September 2010, it is accompanied by the original engine (number M3930) which Bruce Stops reconditioned with postwar conrods etc".