Sydney Charles Houghton "Sammy" Davis (9 January 1887, London – 9 January 1981, Guildford) was a British racing motorist, journalist, graphic artist and clubman.

Early life

Davis was born in South Kensington, London on 9 January 1887, the son of Edwin and Georgina Davis, his father was a merchant and tea importer. He was educated at Westminster School and University College London. While at school, he met Malcolm Campbell, and the duo were involved in a "spectacular pile-up" with a borrowed penny-farthing bicycle. In 1906 Davis became an apprentice with the Daimler Company. Training as a draughtsman, he became involved with the design of various products, from the Daimler-Renard Road Train to Daimler's team of cars in the 1907 Kaiserpreis race. In 1910, he joined the staff of Automobile Engineer, just then being launched by Iliffe (also publishers of The Autocar) as a technical illustrator Motor Sport reported: "The victory, in spite of its accident of the crippled 3-litre Bentley driven by J.D. Benjafield and S.C.H. Davis, will always remain an epic, and even if the competition was not as keen as in the past, it is great thing to have won a race with a car which was damaged in the early part of the event." In 1928 he finished ninth overall at Le Mans on a 1½-litre front-wheel-drive Alvis.

In 1925, Davis finished second at Le Mans with co-driver Jean Chassagne in a 3-litre twin cam Sunbeam, covering , some behind the winner. Davis piloted a 3-litre Bentley at Le Mans in 1926, crashing in an attempt to take the lead only twenty minutes from the flag. At Le Mans that year, Davis became the stuff of racing legend when, at the wheel of the 3-litre Bentley "Old Number Seven", he skidded into a pileup at White House and saw the chassis twist, but nevertheless went on to win. He finished second again in 1930 on a 5,597 c.c. Bentley. At Le Mans in 1930 he met with misfortune, when his goggles were shattered by a stone, forcing his retirement; there were concerns he might be blinded. On 4 October 1930, Davis was partnered with the Earl of March in an Austin Seven and they won the B.R.D.C. 500-mile race at Brooklands outright, at an average speed of . Also at Brooklands that year, Davis set several Class H records in the Seven, including a flying kilometre of . skidding into a telegraph pole. The same year, his Wolseley earned "a special award for being the best-equipped car to finish". He also served on the Competitions Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, the governing body of motor sport in the United Kingdom.

While in hospital after his 1931 Brooklands crash, Davis wrote Motor Racing. He had completed the London-Brighton course in 1930 in the Léon Bollée in a time of 3hrs 20mins 0secs at an average speed of 17.17 m.p.h. Davis was honoured at the Royal Automobile Club in London on 19 February 1976 attended by 100 of his friends and many French dignitaries including the Mayor of the City of Le Mans and was awarded "The Le Mans Gold Medal and Honorary citizenship". He died in a fire in his home in Guildford on his 94th birthday,

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Books (incomplete list)

  • — (1930?). under the pseudonym Casque - Casque's Sketchbook, Motor Racing in a Lighter Vein (with cartoon illustrations also by Davis) London: Iliffe and Sons
  • — (1935). More Sketches by Casque (with cartoon illustrations also by Davis). London: Iliffe and Sons
  • — (1950) Expensive Noises (with cartoon Iluustrations also by Davis)
  • — (no date but probably late 1950s). Atalanta. Women as Racing Drivers London: G.T. Foulis & Co.

Footnotes

References

  • Boddy, W. 1999. The Trials of Sammy Davis. Motor Sport. LXXV/8 (August 1999), 50–55.
  • Dymock. Eric. Writing a page of history, The Guardian, 13 January 1981, Page 21.
  • Nagle, Elizabeth. Veterans of the road, Arco Publishers, 1955.
  • Wise, David Burgess. "Davis: The Grand Old Man of Motor Racing", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 5, p. 499. London: Orbis, 1974.