Guy Griffiths

Guy Scudamore Griffiths was born in July 1916 in London. He was educated at Stowe School, near what is now Silverstone circuit, and his passion for photography and motor sport developed at a young age. On leaving school he went to work for Ealing Studios but was already dealing in second hand cars so he soon left the film industry to deal full time. One of the first cars that he bought was a 1922 Grand Prix Sunbeam which he began to race. He went into partnership with the tuner Louis Giron and established their company, GP Developments, at East Mosley with a paddock shed at Brooklands and Guy became a regular at the circuit. In 1938, Guy realised that racing was taking up too much time and retired from active competition to build up his business.  

The outbreak of war made cars almost un-saleable so he took a job at Napier developing the Sabre aero engine, which became the most powerful piston engine of WW II. Sadly the noise from the test beds permanently damaged Guy's hearing. At the end of the war, Guy returned to the motor trade, opening the Alton Garage in Bayswater and specialising in Alvis.

Guy became best known for his skill with the camera. He only photographed events in Britain due to his business commitments and was essentially an amateur but he took some of the finest motorsport photographs ever and became a well known personality on the English racing scene. His work covered all aspects of the sport including hills and circuits, at club level as well as major events and many of Guy's photos appeared in Iota magazine, MotorSport, The Autocar and Autosport. It was Guy who introduced John A Cooper to "Sammy" Davis as his replacement editor for The Autocar.

In the early 60s, Guy became concerned that many great racing cars had fallen into disuse. He created the Griffiths Formula as a way of keeping them in competition and from this came the founding of the Historic Sports Car Club. He also established his own collection of cars at the family home in Chipping Camden.

A number of Guy's photos appear throughout this site. He kept every negative and many of these were compiled into a book "1946 and All That" which was published in 2001. Guy Griffiths died at the age of 87 in December 2003.