{"id":498015,"date":"2019-01-21T14:27:46","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T22:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=71038"},"modified":"2024-01-08T14:27:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T14:27:55","slug":"s-c-h-sammy-davis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/s-c-h-sammy-davis\/","title":{"rendered":"S.C.H. “Sammy” Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

This man was a motor racing whirlwind, journalist, author of seven motor sport books, vintage car fan, ran driving courses for the British police and was the founder, president or vice-president of some of the UK\u2019s most prominent motoring and racing organizations. And he kept up that pace until he died at the age of 94 in 1981.<\/p>\n

The only time I ever met Sammy Davis was in 1978, when he was a friend\u2019s lunch guest at a London restaurant. We had all finished eating, so I was invited to join them both for coffee. And what an experience that was! Even at 92-years old, Sammy Davis was a motor racing dynamo, bubbling over with enthusiastic memories and still drove himself around in a frog-eyed Austin-Healey Sprite.<\/p>\n

\"Archivnummer:<\/a>
Davis started out as a draughtsman for the team that constructed the 1907 Kaiserpreis Daimler. Photo: Daimler-Benz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Born in central London on January 9, 1887, Sydney Charles Houghton Davis, aka Sammy, went to the Westminster School and, later, the University College, London. After that, Davis became a Daimler apprentice draughtsman and was a junior member of the team that designed the company\u2019s car for the 1907 Kaiserpreis, a motor race in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ruler of Germany, won by Vincenzo Lancia in a FIAT, while the Daimler retired. Sammy also fancied his chances in the motoring press, so in 1910, he first became a technical illustrator for the new publication Automobile Engineer\u00a0<\/em>and later a journalist sub-editor in 1912. After the First World War, Davis joined the British motoring magazine Autocar<\/em>, first as its motor sport editor and later he became the author of his famous \u201cCasque\u201d (French for helmet) column for the publication.<\/p>\n

As a racer, Sammy first drove for businessman and 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup winner Selwyn Edge\u2019s S.F. Edge Brooklands AC racing team in 1921. A year later he moved to Aston Martin, for whom he helped break no fewer than 32 world and class records at the mythical circuit in Weybridge, Surrey, England.<\/p>\n