Revis
Revis
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| The Revis was the creation of Reg Bicknell of Southampton, with help from John Habin, and was particularly sophisticated by the standards of one off cars. It was also highly successful, Reg being one of the men to beat in 1952. For 1953 he raced a Staride but returned to the Revis for 1954, with revised bodywork. Reg developed the car extensively over the years, moving from wishbone rear suspension to a swing axle in early '52, substituting various engines starting with a single cam Norton, the JAP and finally a double knocker Norton and experimenting with aerodynamics. The Revis one of the most raced cars and certainly the most successful special.
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In January 1956, Reg offered the original Revis for sale. The advertisement is no understatement, it was known for being well turned out and had been a very competitive car. Pierre Moin, who was racing motor bikes on grass tracks on the east coast of the USA had decided to make a move into four wheeled racing, with the obvious choice of formula 3, being in his words like a 4 wheeled bike. Pierre arrange to buy the Revis after seeing an advert for the car in Autosport. So the Revis minus engine and with the fibreglass aero nose cut down headed state side. The car was stripped and modified to suit the regulations in the US, by Pierre with help from Lex Dupont. They fitted a Triumph twin race engine from Pierre’s last racing bike and had a new alloy nose made, a new lightweight seat, lightweight dash, and a roll hoop completed the job. Pierre’s racing career with the Revis was to be a fairly short lived affair. “I only raced the Revis 5 or 6 times with a 3rd place the best I could do against the Cooper Nortons. Everything kept vibrating off the damned car during each race “says Pierre “after the season I sold the car to someone in Pennsylvania”. Pierre went on to race Triumph TR’s Formula Juniors and other peoples Ferrari’s and winning SCCA national championships. At the Duryea hill climb on 7th & 8th of June 1958 the Revis re-appears in the hand of Len Seifert and Mickey Warner recording a brace of DNF’s. Springtown hill climb on 6th September Seifert was only bettered by two corvettes (with the base model corvette having 230hp) at the end of the season the Revis changed hands once more. Gary Jones, recollects going with his late father, R Vernon Jones on a very snowy day at the beginning of 1959 to swap a race prepared Jaguar XK120 for the Revis. After a bit of fettling the Revis was entered at Watkins Glen in September 1959 but again was a DNF. Finishes at Lime Rock and Montgomery followed in 1960 before R Vernon Jones and family headed west to California. Gary Jones remembers that in 1961 “The racing community in Los Angeles was very different and we never raced the car, my father traded it to Bill Krause” and he further mentions in a letter that the Revis was swapped for two Honda motorbikes. Bill Krause ran a number of car and motorbike dealerships in California and was a successful sports car racer running a Maserati Birdcage and D type Jaguar, he didn’t race single seaters so it is assumed this was just a deal. After two mare changes of ownership and many tears in storage, the original Revis finally returned home in 2010 and has been restored to it's 1954 specification complete with aerodynamic nose by Richard Bishop-Miller.
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| Revis II For much of 1955 and the first part of of '56, Reg appears in a Revis but clearly not the original car. It appears to be more inspired by the Staride and may have been a modified version of the car he used in 1953. Things didn't start well for the new Revis as Reg overturned at Ibsley in April '55 after the rear suspension collapsed. The whereabouts of Revis II are unknown.
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| Reg rounds Druids and in the cockpit at Brands Hatch in 1955. Photos by Ian Frost
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