John Godfrey Parry Thomas resigned from his position of Chief Engineer with Leyland Motors to develop his racing interests. The split was friendly and Thomas was given several chassis and a quantity of spares.

Setting up in a bungalow and garages within the confines of Brooklands Thomas started to develop a racing car and in 1923 achieved 8 first, 4 second and a third place.

By 1924 the car had become the Leyland-Thomas No 1 and sported streamlined bodywork. During the year Thomas used the car to raise the Brooklands lap record many times, finally setting 128.36 mph (205.38 kph) only to improve it again in 1925 to 129.63 mph (207.41 kph).

In 1927, while trying to regain the World Land Speed Record from Malcolm Campbell, Thomas had a fatal accident when his Higham Special ("Babs") overturned.

E-Mail: history@britishmm.co.uk