Cliff Davis (1917-1986) by Andrew Eason
From the club magazine
Cliff Davis was born in Shepherds Bush in October 1917. Looking
at photographs of Cliff Davis competing in the fifties one
could be forgiven for thinking that he came from a 'posh'
background - his handlebar moustache, dark glasses and check
shirt with sleeves rolled up suggested an upper class type.
This, in fact, was not the case. He had a distinctive cockney
accent that stayed with him all his life.
Cliffs motoring interest started as early as 1929, acquiring
his first motor car, a Morris, at the tender age of twelve.
After a spell working, as a motor mechanic he purchased and
sold his first American car - a Hudson. His career as an American
car dealer had begun!
The war came and Cliff was taken prisoner. He was held in
Silesia in Poland. The various tasks he was given to do by
his German captors stood him in good stead for the future,
learning about diesels and h6w to speak German were just two
examples.
Early in 1946 he was demobbed and using his severance pay
of £89 to good effect he bought a Singer Le Mans in need of
substantial repair. For an outlay of about £20 and a lot of
hard work he repaired the car and then sold it for £200. This
was the start of greater things to come.
His motor sporting life started in 1950 with the ex-Lionel
Leonard pre-war MG Magnette. Cliff raced and sprinted this
car for just a couple of years with his first race win coming
at a rain soaked Boreham beating some stiff opposition. Then
came one of his most famous cars - the Cooper MG registered
'JOY 500'. Again this was an ex-Lionel Leonard car. This was
a very pretty Ferrari Barchetta inspired car and is still
pretty having recently undergone a rebuild and featured in
Classic Car magazine just a short while ago with a polished
aluminium body. The MG engine was 1.5 litre. Cliff and the
Cooper MG were a formidable combination in the early 50's
notching, up class wins all over the national motor racing
map time after time.
In 1953 JOY 500 was joined by the Tojeiro Bristol registered
LOY 500. It was to be a good' season with both cars he a to
take a total of 16 wins and 14 second places good enough to
net him the important Brooklands Memorial Trophy for his outstanding
achievements. Over the next t three seasons his motor trade
business began to grow and left himm less time for racing.
He had sold the Cooper MG in 1954 but continued with the Bristol
for a couple more seasons. He then found he was starting to
get beaten. He tried a Lotus but did not really get on with
it. 1957 was to be his last season in Sports Cars.
A little later came his involvement with Midgets. Cliff purchased
a Dastle from Les Leston. It. was fitted with an MG engine
with a special crossflow head. Cliff Davis Midget racing career
ran for about five years covering just about every venue available
at the time. Despite his long and varied racing/rallying involvement
he found Midget racing the best. In his own words, "I enjoyed
myself racing Midgets more than at any other time. It was
a fantastic sport".
His motor trading business continued successfully, mostly
dealing in American cars which he rated highly, until the
early 80's. In his later years he suffered deteriorating health
and sadly he died in 1986 age 68.
