Below: John Sutton driving the first production Marcos GT 

I started motor racing with an Austin 7 Special at the Surrey Sporting Motor Club meeting at Brands Hatch on the 3^rd March 1957.   Later that year I purchased the famous Maclachlan Austin 7 Special which I own today. 

In 1960 I purchased the first production Marcos GT (although I had to build it myself).   This car was very successful and enabled me to win the Autosport Championship in 1961 and many other non championship races.
 
In 1962 I was given a Vauxhall Velox by the factory and competed in the British Saloon Car Championship.  Not a particularly successful season but the Marcos was rebuilt for long distance races and was entered for the Nurburgring 500km race where a second place was achieved (see article on Racing a Marcos at the Nurburgring in the Austin Pages of http://motorsnippets.com). 

This result gave Marcos a 4^th place in the World Sports Car Championship for 1963.   Although by now a bit outclassed the Marcos was entered for the Nurburgring 500km race again in 1964 and achieved a 5^th place in class.

During this period I drove the first production Vauxhall VX 4/90 belonging to Peter Garrett and achieved several places in club events at Goodwood.
 
During my time at Vauxhall Motors I became enchanted by the 30-98 in their collection and determined to own one myself.  As it happened I had made a good friend of Malcolm Preston who was on secondment from Holden in Australia.  He and his brother, only known as Bro, knew of one in Australia and Bro arranged for me to purchase it and have it shipped to the UK.  I still have it.

After a period of retirement from racing and with a young family I was attracted to the idea of racing Vintage cars and purchased an Austin 7 Boyd Carpenter Special from my friend John Fuller who together with Robert Cook had ably assisted me when racing the Marcos.  The Boyd Carpenter was not particularly quick and was unfortunately “written off” whilst stationary in the pits at the 6 Hour Relay Race at Silverstone. 





I had always wanted an Austin 7 “Ulster” even when I was at school and so when Stan Goldthorpe, whom I met whilst working for Vauxhall Motors, confided in me that he planned to sell his I simply wrote him a cheque on the spot.  This car was very successful and I won several races and the VSCC Voiturette Trophy when it was run at Thruxton in 1968.  It has now been restored to original road specification.