Napier - The First to Wear the Green

This account of Napier cars - Britain's first internationally successful racing cars - describes the men who built and competed in them and the engines later used to achieve a number of land speed records. The book draws from sources such as Napier factory records and the notebooks of Edwardian drivers. It also includes information on: how racing cyclist S.F. Edge bought a Panhard and asked Montague Napier to modify it; how Napier built cars which Edge marketed through racing; the company's racing activities from 1896 to 1914, including victory in the 1902 Gordon Bennett Trophy, Britain's first international racing success; how during World War One Napier built aero engines, including the Lion engine which went into production in 1918; the successes for aero-engined cars using the Edwardian Napier chassis at Brooklands; the racing and record-breaking of the Napier Lion-engined cars from 1927 to 1947; and John Cobb's 1939 land speed record of 403 mph at Utah, in the USA - the first car to exceed 400mph, a record which remained unbeaten until 1963.