Although he by no means scored some degree within the Formula One international championship, for a number of years Kenneth McAlpine, who has died elderly 102, held the name of oldest surviving grand prix motive force. His seven appearances within the sequence between 1952 and 1955 yielded a easiest results of thirteenth position on the Nürburgring within the German Grand Prix of 1954. In every of the ones races he was once on the wheel of a Connaught, a automotive designed and in-built a Surrey storage through a workforce whose efforts he sponsored from his non-public wealth as a director of the huge development corporate arrange through his grandfather, Sir Robert McAlpine.
In the summer season of 1955 Kenneth McAlpine retired from the cockpit, honoring a promise to his fiancée. That autumn, at Syracuse in Sicily, a Connaught was the primary British automotive to win a postwar grand prix, beating the mighty works Maserati workforce on their house flooring. At the wheel of the successful automotive was once a 23-year-old dental scholar from Cheshire named Tony Brooks, making his Formula One debut.
Although the Syracuse Grand Prix was once now not a spherical of the championship sequence, the success was once historical. But additional luck could be elusive, and the workforce’s loss of life adopted the British executive’s resolution in 1957 to change a tax concession that had enabled McAlpine to give you the finance that stored them going. With his assist, then again, Connaught had given British equipment a brand new status in grand prix racing, making ready the bottom for the next championship victories of Vanwall, Cooper, BRM and Lotus.
McAlpine was once born in Cobham, Surrey, to Sir Thomas McAlpine and the previous Maud Dees. His father was once one of the vital 10 youngsters of “Concrete Bob”, the nickname of Sir Robert McAlpine, who started his operating existence as a kid down a Scottish coalmine close to Motherwell and went directly to create the family-owned civil engineering corporate that constructed the The unique Wembley Stadium, the Dorchester resort, the National Theater and lots of different landmarks.
Kenneth went to paintings for the corporate on leaving Charterhouse college earlier than becoming a member of the RAF Volunteer Reserve on the outbreak of the second one international warfare. After being skilled as a pilot in america, he returned to Britain in 1944 to function a flight trainer.
In peacetime he returned to the corporate whilst pursuing his interest of motor racing. The acquire of an Allard in 1948, adopted through a Bugatti, each obtained from Continental Cars in Send, Surrey, introduced him into touch with the storage’s proprietor, Rodney Clarke, and his affiliate, Mike Oliver, each former RAF pilots. Continental Cars ready the 2 prewar Maserati grand prix automobiles with which McAlpine took section in velocity trials and hill climbs, adopted through his first circuit race on a disused airfield at Gransden Lodge, close to Cambridge. There have been additionally outings in a JBS-Norton within the 500cc Formula Three, competing along Stirling Moss and different long run stars.
When Clarke introduced his plan to construct a sports activities automotive appropriate for racing, McAlpine equipped the backing. The first Connaught – its identify an elaboration of the primary syllables of “Continental” and “automobile” – used a closely changed Lea-Francis chassis and engine and aluminum bodywork copied from the design of Italian automobiles.
Modest luck in membership racing quickly led the workforce to lift their points of interest through development single-seaters. McAlpine gave the primary instance its debut in 1950, completing 2d to Moss’s HWM at Castle Combe and successful a Formula Libre race at Ibsley in Dorset in 1951. Several examples have been campaigned over the next seasons through drivers together with Roy Salvadori, Tony Rolt, Eric Thompson and Ken Downing.
In 1955 McAlpine took the workforce’s new sports activities automotive to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, co-driving with Thompson. They retired with engine failure after six hours, in a while after the crash through which the Mercedes of Pierre Levegh flew into the gang, killing the driving force and 83 spectators.
Although McAlpine endured to supply price range, the workforce may just by no means fit the sources to be had to their competition. The luck at Syracuse equipped an surprising spice up to their morale, but if the Suez disaster compelled the cancellation of a number of occasions in 1957, depriving them of assured beginning cash, the racing operation was once closed and the automobiles submit for public sale.
Their patron’s involvement in motor game was once additionally at an finish. While concentrating at the development industry, McAlpine went on to begin a helicopter provider, race crusing boats and open a a success winery at his house in Lamberhurst, Kent. He served as top sheriff of Kent in 1973–74 and was once appointed OBE in 1997.
In 1955 he married Patricia Jeans, the daughter of a naval officer. She survives him, as do their two sons, Richard and James, and 3 grandchildren.