Forties and fifties circuit, hillclimb and grand prix driver Anthony Crook, who in his later years owned, part-owned, managed and tried to save from collapse the Bristol car company, has died at the ripe old age of 93. He was associated with Raymond Mays and the ERA, but initially drove 328 Frazer Nash-BMW and Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica cars. He won Britain's first post-war circuit race in 1946.
The Bristol showroom at the Olympia end of Kensington High St bore his name for some years. Despite the demise of the company there were still a couple of Bristols in the showroom the other day when I passed. In 2007 Crook was ousted as managing director in an underhand coup, the other directors locking him out. Unable to open the door with his key, he collapsed in the street.
Rather a small photo of him in the comic's obit driving a red Frazer Nash Le Mans replica (in my view one of the best-looking retro early post-war sports cars, and with its tuned Bristol 2 litre engine* no slouch either).
* Essentially a close copy of BMW's pre-war 328 engine
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I've just read the obituary. He was once knocked unconscious by a cabbage, having overturned into a farmer's field.
They don't make gentleman-racers any more.
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Anthony Crook dies at 93 - Cliff Pope
