Kaye Don - the racing cars

Before the Great War, Brooklands racing driver, Kaye Don had worked for the Avon Tyre Company. While engaged in motorcycle trials he met Charles Newton Cooper, who was to become his racing engineer after the war. In the early twenties the two lived close to each other in Kingston Upon Thames, Don in Anglesea Road and Charles Cooper, with his new family, in Fassett Road.

In 1921, Don bought the A.C. track car that had been owned by Harry Hawker, who also lived in the Kingston area and who unfortunately died that year in an air crash at Hendon. Soon after, Don acquired the Wolseley Viper track car. Don and Cooper both lived near the Waggon And Horses public house. There was a builders yard next to the pub and this was leased for garaging purposes. Their neighbour was Harold Welham and many will remember Welham Motors from the 50s and 60s, when it was a Renault dealership.

Kaye Don was a works driver for Sunbeam and set outer-circuit lap records of 131.76, 134.24 and 137.58 mph. He was the only driver to achieve a 130 mph lap in the 1920s. In 1928, he used three Sunbeams - the Cub, the Tiger and the Tigress - and also drove a 2.3 litre Bugatti. In 1929, Sunbeam built a World Land Speed Record car called Silver Bullet, but this 24-litre giant never ran properly and the project was abandoned.

Don was best known for the big cars and the Bugattis, so it is easy to overlook that he set several class records, driving the Avon-J.A.P. Special.

In 1930, Charles Cooper travelled to Molsheim to assemble the 4.9-litre, straight-eight Bugatti that Kaye Don is most famous for driving. This car was prepared for racing at the garages next to the Waggon And Horses. In 1934, Don went to prison for manslaughter and, at about this time, Cooper went into partnership with Brooklands Driver "Ginger" Hamilton and business was started at Wyckham Mansions, Ewell Road, Surbiton. The garages at Waggon And Horses Hill were then used by Cecil Whelan, but later, Harold Welham took over the whole site. Kaye Don briefly returned to racing at Donington in 1936.