CLASSIC CARS FOR THE CONNOISSEUR AT FINDON PLACE

John Young lived at Findon Place, the Manor of Findon  during the late 1970s until the late 1980s and I thought you might like to know a little more about him.....and his background before coming to live in the village.  

The following are just a few extracts and photographs from "Cars for the Connoisseur".... with acknowledgement to the Editor, Charles Harbord......

THE EDITOR INTERVIEWS JOHN YOUNG..... The Grand Prix Driver, Garage Owner and Avid Collector Of Fine Motor Cars.

E.  Talking about your family business Rose and Young started by your father and Jack Rose in 1918.

J.Y.    Yes, they had met up during the war in the Royal Flying Corps and started off selling war surplus stuff from Streatham in South London.   They moved on to cars and when Jack Rose fell ill in 1937, my father bought him out but retained the name.

I learnt to drive on a Talbot, for which my father was agent, and used to practice down at our home at Bognor by the sea.   I was then packed off to Dulwich College as a boarder, but was mad keen to become a fighter pilot and fly a Spitfire.

E.  Weren't you too young for that?

J.Y.  I volunteered a bit under age I think.  I was accepted for air crew training but by then the war had ended and I was sent off to India where I played soldiers in the RAF regiment.   Mind you I learnt to fly after the war on a Chipmunk.

E. Then you went into the business after the war?

JY.  Yes, my old man took me into the business, he said .....

"I'll teach you about the motor trade"

.....so he took me up to Warren Street for some hard training with all the characters in their demob suits and camel hair coats.  In those days before auctions Warren Street really was the hub of the motor trade and acted as a kind of market barometer.   In fact that was how I first met Roy (Roy Salvadori, later to become John's great friend - Ed).

One of these traders, by the name of Ginger Farrow, came up to me one day ....

"Ere Sonny, wanna come up to the airfield, two or three of the boys are trying cars up there?"

Ginger and I went up to this disused airfield called Abridge near  North Weald and there was Roy testing a Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica.    He cames into the pits and says...

"I can't keep one side down, does anyone want to come for a ride to help the balance?"

"Yes, I'll come, sir, I'll have a ride with you".

What I hadn't realised was that the motor bikes, which had been testing earlier, had all come in with the riders cut and bruised from loose stones.   All the characters were saying...

"That lad, he's f....g mad going with him"...

...and off we go tearing round with stones being thrown up over me.   I think it was the same car that nearly killed Roy at Silverstone;  so that was my introduction to motor racing.

 This is the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica  that John Young owned many years later..

E.   That experience didn't put you off?

J.Y.   Not at all.   I was always mad keen on cars when I was young, my father always wanted to race but my mother would never let him.

E.   Your father didn't object to you racing?

J.Y.    He wasn't very happy and I'll tell you why.   When I first started racing my father bought me an MG TC when they first came out and at the time they were fetching way over list and my father had to give a few quid to get me one.   In fact my first car was a pre-war MG PA which my father bought me for passing an exam while I was still at Dulwich.   It had been stored throughout the war and looked immaculate but the anti-freeze had eaten the sump!   I think the old man gave £17 for it and I sold it when I went into the Air Force and sold it for £275. - my first experience in motor dealing.

John at the wheel of his MG TC - leaning into the bend.

John Young in his MG PB, only recently sold c.2000

With Tony Brooks at Brands Hatch.

John in the Healey Silverstone.

A paddock scene at Goodwood, 1955.  From left to right:  John Turner, John Coombs, Ken Tyrell, Alan Brown and J.Y.

E.  I see from these photographs that you took part in the Monte Carol Rally.

J.Y.    Yes, I did three Montes in the 'fifties.   In 1955 with Bill Lambert in a Ford Prefect, 1956 with Salvadori and Coombes in a Ford Anglia and 1958 with Graham Hill in a Riley 1.5 - I still have one of Graham's old crash hats from those days.

Arriving at Boulogne January 1955, 25th Monte Carlo Rally

On the way to the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally in the Ford Anglia.

XXVI Rallye de Monte-Carlo Janvier, 1956

Leaving Glasgow in the Riley for the 27th Monte Carlo Rally

XXVII Rallye de Monte Carlo 1958

E.  Two photographs here of the most handsome D8 Delage.

J.Y.   Yes, this was a 1932 Sedanca de Ville with bodywork by Fernandez of Paris.  I entered it in the Cartier Style et Luxe at Goodwood - can't remember how I got on.  

The other photograph is at a Brighton Concours where it was entered by my late wife Peta.   I had also entered a Rolls and a Bentley which I had lent to a couple of pals who each won their class.   My wife teased me about this and there didn't seem to be much interest in the Delage, for which Peta had made a special hat to match.   Then suddenly she spotted a blind man with his Labrador guide dog - also in the same colour.

"Excuse me, Sir, may I borrow your dog?"

A moment later, a flurry of activity from the judges who swarmed all over the car - and Peta - and the next we heard over the loud speaker...

"The overall winner is... Mrs John Young!"

The downside with that car was how appalling it was to drive, shocking - worse than a lorry.   That is so often the case with thee glamorous cars "of a certain age".

E. The photograph shows three cars outside a church.   What is the story behind this?

J.Y.  This is the 11th century church at Findon, our old home in West Sussex, of which Peta my late wife was very fond.   The vicar had told me that £100,000. was needed to save it from deathwatch beetle, so I decided to open my adjoining house and collection of some thirty cars to the public to help raise the money.    There is the Mercedes 300SL and the 1937 Jaguar SS100 came from Jersey where it had been hidden from the Germans in a haystack during the war.   The Rolls is a reconstruction of one of only three Phantom 1 Experimental Style Sports Tourers with which I did a number of rallies and tours.

John's late wife, Peta with Sue Salvadori

E.  The photograph of you behind the wheel of a 250F Maserati is presumably after you had retired from racing?

J.Y.   I did practice once at Silverstone but my wife said......

"You silly sod, you're much too old for that!"   So Richard Bond drove it for me in historic races before I sold it to Fangio for his museum in Argentina.

A delightful photograph of John Young outside of Findon Place with his Maserati 250F.

J.Y.     The cars here are the Rolls-Royce Phantom 11 Continental, ex-Dalton of Dalton Watson fame, the 1921 Silver Ghost - owned by Lady Maclean, mother of Donald the spy;  this had a spring-loaded porthole in the rear division to allow for communication with the chauffeur.   The 1933 James Young 20/25 drophead coupe and the R-type Continental Bentley - an ex-works demonstrator which I always regret selling.

                                             

More delightful photographs of John Young of Findon Place

I KNOW YOU CAN'T RESIST A FREE SAMPLE...  if you are interested in historic automobiles written about by the connoisseurs for the connoisseurs, I've had a word with Charles Harbord the Editor of Cars for the Connoisseur who has said that if you give him a ring on 01747 830755 24-hour hotline, he will send you a free sample issue of Cars for the Connoisseur. 

The full interview with John Young can be read in the 4 back issues of Cars for the Connoisseur dated   January, February, April and May 2004.

Continue if you would like to read about John Young and The Golden Dolphin

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.