AC BUCKLAND: PAR 419

Surprise realisation
I have just accessed the site, having been told about it by my sister, Pat Cudby, nee Day.
Imagine my surprise to realise that the photo at the top of the PAR 419 Buckland is of me, aged 18 or 19 at Brands Hatch in my father’s car. It was a sprint meeting and I put up best time of the day for the ladies but didn’t win as they had a secret handicap that was the best time between practice and run! I had gone all out on the practice!
The car did, indeed, have three drivers: my father Harold Day, George Grigs and myself. George was still alive a couple of years ago (aged 99). I have not heard from him since then. I have just checked my photo of that occasion to be sure it is me. Did you realise that Harold took the engine (well run in) from MAR 280 (I think) and had it put in the new car as it was running so well.
Elizabeth (nee Day)

Memories of Hayling Island
Pat Cudby (nee Day) here. I hear from my sisters that they have been in touch with you with some of their memories of PAR 419. My first memory of riding in the car was being taken home to Hayling Island and going up hill by the Hogs Back. My father put his foot down and the acceleration hit me in the back, quite an improvement on the little Morris Eight which my husband and I owned which could only reach 60 downhill with a following wind! Father was like a small boy with a new toy.
He promised mother that he would give up racing when he won at Silverstone and my husband and I were his pit crew when he succeeded in 1956. After that he competed in car rallies and when my elder sister got married and moved away my husband, cousin and I became his new team and continued to win more Eight Clubs rallies. I have many happy memories of the all night car rallies and we enjoyed the AC so much we bought a1936 AC Greyhound tourer for ourselves which sadly we no longer own. I remember a very enjoyable day at Brands Hatch where we exchanged cars and tried to beat each others time aroung the circuit. I must admit the Buckland was a great deal easier to handle on the bends in the circuit than our lovely old Greyhound.
Best regards,
Pat Cudby

The first 48-hour RAC rally
Jean (Day) here – many happy memories of my father and the AC, the love of his life! His ambition as a young man was to race at Brooklands. His father had a chauffeur-driven Austin 16 – we saw a similar car at the Exeter Show this year. Grandpa had never learned to drive – his first car registration was K3 – he was a farmer in Kent. My father drove him for a holiday to North Wales. Grandpa had his eye on the speedometer – he was a magistrate – but the needle never crept over 20mph, the speed limit in those days, as Harold had fixed it with a matchstick!
My father had a series of cars before the war, Clinos, changed every year for the new model, then costing him £150! With two small children and later a baby (Elizabeth), the cars became bigger.
With the introduction of petrol rationing in the war, he had a small car, with a “dicky” at the back in which he took Pat and me to school on his way to the station. Wartime restrictions then prevented him from having a car.
Then, after the war, he heard about Thames Ditton and fell in love with ACs – Frank Fletcher was his mentor – and soon we were away with car rallies, including the first 48-hour RAC rally. Our doctor gave us benzadrine to keep us awake! My boy-friend at the time had been in the Royal Signals and so was useful as a navigator on night rallies organised by the Hants and Berks and the Lagonda Clubs.
During this time a new Buckland came out with better brakes and steering – more sophisticated altogether – so Harold had to have it BUT he loved the engine in his first Buckland MAR 280. In those days engines had to be run in and he was very careful indeed about running in, so the old engine was switched with the new engine in PAR 419 – better cornering and a happy father!
Mention was made of damage to body work. I do remember one night rally when he was on a narrow country lane in the dark – he took off through a hedge and then back again onto the road – that didn’t do the car much good!
My sisters and I, as well as his grand-children, have silver momentoes of some of the victories, including the race meetings, in which Elizabeth was involved.
He was not well at the end of his life and gave up driving, which was sad. He died at the age of 62 in February 1965.
Jean (and Frank) Gibbs

Family affair
Hi, I’m one of Harold Day’s grandsons. I never knew him as he sadly died before I was born, but I wished I’d been able to accompany him to his racing events.
I treasure the picture of my mother Elizabeth in the AC – I have had a copy hanging in my hallway for many years! I am so proud of her.
Please let us know when you get the car in a fit state to take to an event – I would love to bring the whole family down to have a reunion with the car and its saviour!
Richard Loxley

Harold Day and Ernie Bailey
My cousin Jean told me about the article in Classic & Sports Car some time ago but I have only just run one to earth and read the article. Harold Day was my uncle and the three girls, of course, my cousins. Harold had his own wholesale business in Covent Garden and for a time when I first left school I worked for him. Pats future husband Michael and I used to sit in the back of PAR419 and navigate for Harold on the AC owners club night rallies whilst Pat made up the number in the front seat. Always claimed she got car sick in the back so couldn’t share the map reading!
A rather more tenuous link is with Ernie Bailey. His father Bill Bailey was a potato farmer who also had a wholesale business in the old Covent Garden. The chief salesman there was Leslie Dillon who was a friend of Harolds and in 1952 became my stepfather. Small world. One of the perks of Leslies job was to be given an AC Petite as a company car. Not very grand but in the 1950′s it was quite something to have any sort of personal transport. When I passed my driving test in 1952 I was allowed to borrow it, which again at that time was very welcome. The Petite had a nasty habit in that if you drove it too fast (ie. over 50 mph downhill) it developed the most alarming front wheel wobble! However I survived.
When Bill Bailey died the whole enterprise went to Ernie who whilst loving cars was not, I am afraid, a very good business man and did not involve himself enough in the nuts and bolts of the whole business. He in fact drove the whole company including the farm nto bankruptcy in I guess around 1958, although I cannot pinpoint the date exactly. My stepfather was now out of a job but went to work for Harold as general manager until the business closed in the late 1960,s when Covent Garden moved to Nine Elms.
I met Ernie and his wife Joan on a number of occasions when Leslie worked for them. She was a very attractive woman who stuck by him in his troubles. I think that some of Ernies problems were brought about because he was fairly short and had a club foot. I think that he had to keep on trying to prove himself.
Sorry if this is a bit rambling but I thought it might be interesting background.
John Berry

A former owner
I write to you as a former owner of the AC Buckland Tourer seen in your December 2008 issue. I owned her as my only car for some years, probably about 1950. I am certain my car was registered as PAR 419. I hope that I am right in presuming from the photo that she is still giving good service. Since then I have had a number of fairly decent cars, mostly Alvis, presently a TA 14 DHC (my only car).
Yours faithfuly
Leslie Whitehouse

More from Leslie
Thank you for your letter. At 88 my memory doesn’t work very well. I think the Buckland Tourer was my only car at the time. I can’t find any pictures. I think she was followed by an Aston Martin 2-litre long chassis tourer. When it needed a major engine overhaul I part exchanged it for an Alvis 12/50 which, with a RH gear change, would take three in the front seat and two in the dicky seat. I think this was followed by a big 3-litre Alvis Tourer. I then bought a Ford Escort for every day use and have had an Alvis ever since.
Yours sincerely
Leslie Whitehouse

Another owner revealed
I am one of the previous owners of the AC Buckland that you are planning to restore. I competed with it at Brands in an AC Owners Club sprint meeting some time mid 60′s and have a photograph that I will try to dig out of it coming through the tight right hander by the pits. I may be able to help in filling in at least one piece of the history if that is what you want to do. I understand that you are working on the car in the Newbury area. As I live in Marlow I wonder if it would be possible to visit and see the old girl once more. I have fond memories of my time driving PAR.
Michael Fines-Allin