Dick Protheroe 1922 - 1966

Marina Rolls Royce

No information has been found so far on the relevance of these photographs in my possession. I have two batches of photographs taken by Rosemary Massey of both this car and the Ferrari 330 which were taken around about the same time.  A brief summary of the history of this car is provided at the bottom of the page. Email Geoff Protheroe

The car was seen recently with its Rolls Royce engine installed.
An interesting Autosport advertisement from 1965

The link here describes in detail this car.  Marina Rolls Royce 1963

        
    

      

     




Silverstone Historics July 2008

The image on the left is a recent one of the Rolls Royce engine that was used in the car originally. According to documentation in the link above Rolls Royce were very unhappy about this and the cars competition days were ended shortly after they started in the early 60's.
 This was taken  at the Silverstone Historic meeting in July 2008.



My thanks to Terry McGrath for the photo.

The advertisement shown here was placed in Autosport on 19th February 1965 . The 2nd car offered for sale may or may not be the Marina above however the time scale is about right. Also Rosemary was a keen photographer and tended to document all the cars they had. No other car was around at that time with that description as far as I am aware. Interesting wording also - "cast alloy wheels "- "body with two quickly detachable sections" - "suitable for any large American engine"

If anyone can shed light on this I would be very interested to hear.

My thanks to Roger Lund and Autosport.


This original drawing is one of a number I have found which show details of body work, suspension and tubular frame. Click drawing for larger view.


The two letters featured here are from the originals and clearly relate to Rolls Royce pistons.


I also have the scale engineering drawings of the pistons. Clearly marked as for a V8 with a note "One engine set comprises of 4 A pistons and 4 B"
The pistons show a valve cutout (inlet) mirrored in A and B.
The interesting part is that the car was advertised above in February of that year and yet these letters are June. Was the car sold with a rebuild ordered ?
Did Dick fail to sell and change his plans ?

A clear mention of Rolls Royce in both letters. If this was a marine engine hence "Marina" was it the marine engine cylinder head they mention in the letter which was discontinued.


Added to the above I also have engineering scale drawing, found with above,  of a transaxle by Hewland Eng Ltd. No dates or letters as yet however on the drawing are the following comments.

" Unit is intended to flange mount against rear frame member"

" Gear shift rod positioned high and to the right, gear rod intended to run down, and to the right, to clear coupling and clutch housing then cockpit under right hand cylinder bank. "



Acknowledgement to Motorbase

Simon Ashworth (current owner) very kindly emailed me a brief summary of the car below;
It was built in 1963 at the Beagle Aircraft Hangar in Shoreham by Alan MacDonald for Alan Mann. Alan Mann was keen to build a 'British car' to compete with the likes of the Cooper King Cobras etc that were becoming prevalent at the time. Having looked for a suitable engine he decided that the Rolls Royce engine would provide 'ample power' and so they set about trying to source an engine. In 1962 Rolls rejected the invitation to provide an engine stating that it was not in the business of racing cars. However, unperturbed the following year they applied for a Marine engine (6250cc V8) which they promptly demarinised and dry sumped. This was fitted in the bespoke tubular chasis that lent strongly on Cooper designs including front uprights etc with a Colotti box. It was raced by Jimmy Blumer in a number of meetings including, Brands Hatch,Crystal Palace, Goodwood and I believe Thruxton although it never finished.
Rolls Royce, were distinctly unimpressed and issued legal proceedings against the car which I suspect is how your father came to own it minus engine. I understand it then appeared at events such as the Brighton speed trials before being shipped to Belgium to protect it from being impounded. There it resided at the museum at Stavelot in Spa until the early 90's when it was shipped back. It then passed between a number of owners including Ron Harper and David Toms, who allowed it to be driven at the festival of speed by Chris Buncombe in 2005. I bought the car in December of that year and set about returning it to the track, albeit with a very standard engine until the proper replica engine is completed. Since buying it I have attempted to show it - drive it a number of times and it has proven to be something of a handful, if always good fun!

Back to top