Genevieve reunion: meet the Darracq and Spyker film stars

Few automotive reunions are as poignant, and we are the first to capture the moment.

The Darracq was named ‘Genevieve’ after the patron saint of Paris; the French car was made in one of the city’s suburbs

The film’s significant anniversary was marked in November 2023, when both of these cars completed the 88th running of the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

That is appropriate, because the global success of the film ensured the survival of what is now the world’s longest-running motoring event.

Perhaps more significantly, it cast ripples across all activities involving old cars, acting as a catalyst that transformed what had previously been perceived as a slightly eccentric hobby into one with global appeal.

In fact, the magazine you’re reading now may well owe its existence to Genevieve and, ultimately, the cars we’re driving today.

Genevieve won a BAFTA for Best British Film in 1953 © Getty

That both the 1904 Darracq 10/12hp, aka ‘Genevieve’, and the 1905 Spyker 12/16hp Double Phaeton alongside it were found in such inauspicious surroundings prior to cinematic fame makes their stories even more remarkable.

The car that was to become Genevieve was discovered in 1945, when East London bailiff Bill Bailey happened upon a builder’s yard on Lea Bridge Road in the capital, strewn with the remains of 15 veteran and vintage cars.

Bailey told his friends Bill Peacock and Jack Wadsworth – both old-car collectors – of the haul, and a deal was struck to secure the lot for £45.

Among them were two Darracqs: one a sound bare frame, stripped by local children of everything removable, the other a more complete car but with a badly rusted chassis.

The 1904 Darracq 10/12hp that became Genevieve was discovered in a London builder’s yard in 1945

As luck would have it, both Darracqs – 10/12hp models, manufactured by A Darracq & Co of Suresnes, Paris, in 1904-’05 – were taken under the wing of Peter Venning, who bought them for £25 and created one good rolling chassis from the two, with the missing front wheels replaced by Model T Ford items.

After moving his premises from London to a farm in Hertfordshire, Venning discovered a gig (a small two-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage), the lower body from which fitted his Darracq chassis perfectly.

However, he lacked the expertise and funding to complete the project and ended up advertising everything in Motor Sport magazine for £35.

The Darracq’s three-pedal layout lets you focus on the less familiar gearshift procedure

The ‘bitsa’ Darracq might have progressed no further had it not been for Norman Reeves, an Uxbridge-based Ford dealer.

Key to Reeves’ vision of making it roadworthy again was fabricating a new radiator, with his design based on that of a Darracq Flying Fifteen.

He also modified the bodywork, by extending the height of the high-set bench seat, and made the car more usable with the addition of a boot.

Reeves christened the finished car ‘Annie’ and wasted no time in entering the 1950 London to Brighton Run (the finishing medal from which is among 26 others scattered down both sides of Genevieve’s front bulkhead today).

London to Brighton Run finishing medals are displayed on Genevieve’s front bulkhead

The Spyker’s pre-fame days looked just as numbered as the Darracq’s when it was found in a West London scrapyard around the same time.

Originally built in 1905 as a rolling chassis by NV Industriële Maatschappij Trompenburg in The Netherlands, the 12/16hp model was shipped to Spyker’s London agent, based at 97/98 Long Acre, and fitted with an imposing Double Phaeton body.

Little is known of its history thereafter, but one Frank Reese saved the near-complete car from ruin and restored it, including repainting it green.

‘Once the engine has been cranked into life, everything vibrates to the jolly staccato beat of the 2356cc twin’

It’s at this point that a South African film producer and director enters the story.

In 1952, Henry Cornelius approached the British Veteran Car Club (VCC) with a script for a comic caper based around the London to Brighton Run.

Fearing the film would make a mockery of its hobby, the VCC was initially sceptical, but soon warmed to the idea.

Cornelius originally planned for the film’s automotive protagonists to be represented by British brands, but none was forthcoming.

The Darracq 10/12hp has a cosy two-seater perch

Seeing an opportunity, Norman Reeves offered ‘Annie’ for the starring role and recommended his friend Frank Reese’s Spyker as its co-star.

What resulted was cinematic gold.

Genevieve (Reeves’ Darracq was renamed after the patron saint of Paris, where the car originated) followed the fortunes of two car enthusiasts, Alan McKim (John Gregson) and Ambrose Claverhouse (Kenneth More), and their long-suffering partners, played by Dinah Sheridan and Kay Kendall.

Fine brass detailing on the Darracq 10/12hp

The story’s hook is the London to Brighton Run, but the comedic rivalry comes from a £100 bet made between McKim in Genevieve and Claverhouse in the Spyker about which car will be quickest on the return leg: “Genevieve would leave you standing,” taunts McKim.

“I don’t suppose you care to back that statement?” retorts Claverhouse.

“First to London!” declares McKim.

With the movie’s meagre budget (Cornelius remortgaged his house to part-fund the production) only stretching to a day each on location at the Run’s start in Hyde Park and the finish on Brighton’s Madeira Drive, the majority of filming was done within a 10-mile radius of the famous Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

Genevieve was created from the remains of two Darracqs

Keen to avoid ‘green screen’ back-projection of the actors driving, Cornelius had a replica of each of car made and mounted on slow-moving low-loaders.

When it came to front projections, Gregson and More had to drive specially designed lorries, on to which was grafted a replica of each car’s front end.

It was at this point, according to the film’s cinematographer, Christopher Challis, that it became clear John Gregson not only didn’t hold a licence, but also couldn’t drive.

He was sent on a “high-pressure driving course” and, claimed co-star Sheridan: “At the end of the film could have taken his test on Genevieve… but he still couldn’t drive a modern car.”

Genevieve’s Darracq 2365cc in-line twin is not very refined, even by vintage-car standards

None of which blighted Genevieve’s overwhelming box-office success.

As well as winning a BAFTA for Best British Film in 1953 and being voted the Top Comedy of Coronation Year, its composer, Larry Adler, was also Oscar-nominated for his memorably cheery harmonica theme and soundtrack.

Even the VCC entered into the comedic spirit of the film, permitting a wry ‘statement’ by the producers in the opening credits: ‘Any resemblance between the deportment of our characters and any club members is emphatically denied – by the club.’

It’s not fast, but the Genevieve Darracq 10/12hp is an exhilarating drive

Five months after Genevieve received its premiere at Leicester Square Theatre on 27 May 1953, the effect of the film’s popularity was laid bare at that year’s London to Brighton.

Despite appalling weather, record crowds turned out to see Dutch rally driver Maurice Gatsonides (inventor of the Gatso speed camera years later) pilot Genevieve, setting a precedent for future years’ mass attendance.

Owning such a famous vehicle became troublesome for Reeves and, after trying to sell the Darracq to Cornelius and, later, the Mayor of Brighton – both without success – he finally struck a deal with New Zealand enthusiast George Gilltrap.

John Gregson, at Genevieve’s wheel, had to be taught to drive for the film © Getty

From 1958, Genevieve went on display at Gilltrap’s museum in Australia, and after he died in 1966 the car stayed with his family until 1989.

It was then sold to Paul Terry, owner of the Esplanade Extravaganza motor museum in Albany, Western Australia, for £285,302 – a record price for a veteran vehicle Down Under.

C&SC covered Terry’s restoration of the car back in June 1991, and his insistence that it remain authentic to its cinematic specification rather than that of a regular 1904 Darracq.

“We agonised over keeping the car as ‘Genevieve’ for five minutes,” said Terry. “It wasn’t a big decision.”

Kay Kendall and Kenneth More extricate a stranded Spyker in Genevieve © MovieStillsDB

The car had seen many years of hard labour in Gilltrap’s ownership, so much work was needed, including new gears being cut for the gearbox and rear axle, and a previous crack in the cylinder block being re-welded.

After a 36-year absence, the car was then entered for the 1992 London to Brighton Run, with Terry set to be accompanied by Sheridan, then Genevieve’s sole-surviving star.

Tragically, Terry was killed in a helicopter crash on the lead-up to the event.

“The only good result was that it brought Genevieve back to England,” said Sheridan.

This 1905 Spyker 12/16hp Double Phaeton was Genevieve’s co-star in the 1953 film

Genevieve successfully completed that year’s run and was then sold at auction to Evert Louwman, whose eponymous museum in The Hague still owns the car today, and he regularly enters it in the London to Brighton Run.

Frank Reese clearly had no issue with his Spyker’s new-found fame after Genevieve’s release.

The production company reinstalled its high windscreen, which had been removed to avoid camera reflections, and repainted it green.

Reese kept the car until his death in 1964, when a condition of his will stated it should be returned to its native Netherlands.

The Spyker was found in a West London scrapyard around the same time as the Darracq

It then resided at the Autotron collection in Drunen for more than 40 years.

In 2004, the Spyker was reunited with Genevieve after it was bought by the Louwman Museum.

They’re an odd couple, these two automotive celebrities: the four-seater Spyker large and grandiose, laden with brass fittings and looking every bit the type of car in which Mr Toad would wreak havoc; and the two-seater Darracq, far smaller, quite boxy and almost skeletal in places, with its long steering column jutting skyward and its unfeasibly high-mounted bench risking occupant vertigo.

The Spyker’s 2544cc ‘four’ makes just 16bhp, but it’s torquey and tractable

But it’s the Spyker that is genuinely revelatory to drive.

The 12/16hp model uses a 2544cc sidevalve, four-cylinder engine designed by Jacobus Spijker.

It sends power to the rear axle via a three-speed gearbox and a propellor shaft, rather than the chain drive then still used by many manufacturers.

With ignition fully retarded, the Spyker fires on the first crank of its starting handle and settles to a surprisingly smooth idle.

The imposing horn outlet on the Spyker 12/16hp Double Phaeton

After checking that the Dubrulle oiler’s four vessels, mounted to the left of the inner bulkhead, are each receiving fluid (the oiler is pressurised off the exhaust and delivers vital lubricant to the main bearings), you then prepare to drive.

At your feet are two floor-hinged pedals, the left operating a multi-plate clutch and the right a transmission brake.

Your hands embrace a smallish, near-horizontal, wood-rimmed steering wheel with ignition control and throttle lever running through arcs inside the inner ring; that’s fine at the straight-ahead, but both unmarked controls revolve with the wheel, giving you a memory test when manoeuvring.

Mirror, extra horn, lamp – this Spyker is fitted with all the mod-cons

Shift the long external lever to your right forward by one notch in its quadrant to engage first gear, then preset your engine speed high enough not to stall.

Let in the smooth-operating clutch and the Spyker glides forward: it really is bewilderingly refined for such an ancient motor car.

The steering is high-geared and heavy, but with little play; the engine is torque-rich and, because it can operate on minimal revs, there’s no need to adjust the hand-throttle as you make a polite double-declutch, pushing the gearlever another notch forward into second.

The ignition and throttle levers are located on the Spyker’s steering wheel

The process soon becomes intuitive, and you find yourself revelling in the sheer majesty of this veteran leviathan’s brisk progress, while always mindful that slowing down requires a combination of the transmission- and hand-operated brakes – with some force, too.

And Genevieve? John Mitchell, former Veteran Car Club president and chairman, acknowledged that the film legend was “an absolute milestone” in the vintage-car movement: “But it was a miserable little motor car, a gutless wonder.”

A bit harsh, that, although I take his point that the Darracq perhaps wasn’t quite as advanced as some contemporary rivals.

The Spyker’s Dubrulle oiler must be checked before you set off

You tower above Genevieve’s windscreenless bulkhead, and once the engine has been hand-cranked into life – with one turn from cold, like the Spyker – you start to reconfigure your driving technique.

Everything now vibrates to the jolly staccato beat of the 2365cc in-line twin – amusingly, Darracq advertised the 10/12 as ‘perfectly silent and smooth running’ – and after a couple of pumps of the plunger atop the bulkhead-mounted oil reservoir, we’re off.

Incredibly, it has three pedals, laid out conventionally, with the steering column between the clutch and brake.

Like the Spyker, its three-speed gearshift operates through a quadrant, but the Darracq’s is under its wood-rimmed, five-spoke steering wheel and shares space with the advance/retard lever.

There’s comfy seating for four in the Spyker 12/16hp Double Phaeton

A notch up gets reverse, one back for neutral, then three down for each of the gears. It’s not an exact science, and each shift takes concentration.

Unlike the Spyker, Genevieve has a cone clutch, requiring a sensitive left foot to avoid lasting damage to its leather facings, while offering a lift-off abrupt enough to make you look like a rank amateur.

Once under way, though, Genevieve is a flawed delight.

Despite her size, the steering is lower-geared and not as accurate as the Spyker’s; the ride is less forgiving, too, and the brakes are only as good as the strength in your right arm.

The Spyker is surprisingly brisk to drive

She is not fast, even for a veteran, but you soon find yourself craning over her steering wheel, willing her on, selecting top and imagining Westminster Bridge in your sights…

For me, driving any veteran might well be as close to motoring nirvana as you can reach; they are all utterly intoxicating.

But Genevieve? She – and I use the pronoun unapologetically – is probably as special as any motor car has a right to be.

After all, where would our hobby be today without her?

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: David Burgess-Wise; Jonathan Gill; Ian Stanfield, National Motor Museum; the Louwman Museum; Peter Haynes, RM Sotheby’s

Film stars complete the 2023 London to Brighton Run

Genevieve got more people interested in the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run © James Mann

Celebrating 70 years since the film Genevieve was released, its eponymous lead actor and Spyker co-star led a 341-strong entry away from London’s Hyde Park for the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on 5 November 2023.

The London to Brighton is the world’s longest-running motoring event, originally instigated to celebrate the 1896 abolition of the law restricting motor vehicles to 4mph, preceded by a man on foot with a red flag.

The speed limit was raised to 14mph, and the UK’s first motoring club marked the passing of the new Light Locomotives on the Highway Act by driving 60 miles from London to Brighton.

Today, any motor vehicle manufactured before 1 January 1905 is eligible for the Brighton run, but a handful of historically significant veterans – Genevieve’s 1905 Spyker being one of them – are granted grandfather rights to enter each year.

Factfiles

Darracq 10/12hp ‘Genevieve’

• Sold/number built 1904/1
• Construction pressed-steel chassis, ash body frame with aluminium panels
• Engine all-iron, sidevalve 2365cc monobloc in-line twin, single carburettor
• Max power 12bhp
• Max torque n/a
• Transmission three-speed manual, RWD
• Suspension semi-elliptic springs f/r
• Steering worm and sector
• Brakes rear drums, plus transmission brake
• Length n/a
• Width n/a
• Height n/a
• Wheelbase 6ft 10in (2080mm)
• Weight 1433lb (650kg)
• Mpg n/a
• 0-60mph n/a
• Top speed 30mph
• Price new £350
• Price now £1million (est)*

Spyker 12/16hp Double Phaeton

• Sold/number built 1904-‘07/n/a
• Construction steel chassis with wood inserts, wooden body, aluminium panels
• Engine all-iron, sidevalve 2544cc pair-cast monobloc ‘four’, single carburettor
• Max power 16bhp
• Max torque n/a
• Transmission three-speed manual, RWD
• Suspension semi-elliptic springs f/r
• Steering n/a
• Brakes rear drums, plus transmission brake
• Length 13ft 4in (4064mm)
• Width 6ft (1828mm)
• Height n/a
• Wheelbase 9ft 1in (2769mm)
• Weight 2425lb (1100kg)
• Mpg n/a
• 0-60mph n/a
• Top speed 37mph
• Price new £370 (chassis only); 5950 Dutch florins with Double Phaeton body
• Price now £600,000 (est)*

_{*Prices correct at date of original publication}

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