This ultra-rare Attila Mk3 will be roaring at the Revival

Van Dare-Bryan was an ex-Lotus employee who had a dream of building his own racing cars after spending time working closely with Colin Chapman and Frank Costin. He formed his company, Racing Developments, alongside Mark Perry in the early 1960s and began work on a sports racing prototype.

By 1964, after producing a small run of front-engined cars, the little factory in North London developed what would come to be known as the Attila Mk3 to compete in sportscar races across the UK.

It was a lightweight prototype with a tubular spaceframe chassis and a big V8 engine mounted behind the driver, and was scheduled to compete for the first time at Aintree on 18^th April 1964. Roy Pierpoint was lined up to drive, but the car never arrived, so he had to wait to get his hands on the Attila for the first time.

When he did finally get to race, he managed a best finish of second in that year’s Guards Trophy at Mallory Park. That Ford-engined car went on to race extensively that season, but it was about to be joined by a second chassis for 1965, and then a third chassis — this one — was also produced.

Only three of the Mk3s were ever known to be built, so it’s a rare thing, now even more so since the original ’64 chassis is nowhere to be found. Two remain, and one of them has raced semi-regularly at Goodwood in recent years.

We caught up with current owner Chris Wilson during Revival testing to find out more.

“It raced in mostly British rounds,” he told us. “I think it went to Spa but didn't make the cut. Lots of different people drove it in period including Mark Hales, who I think was the most successful guy in it.”

The mid-1960s was a prime era for small-scale projects like the Attila to compete regularly with household sportscar names like Lola, Ford, Porsche and McLaren, but this car was a minnow swimming in a pond quickly growing into a lake.

Its arrival at British racetracks coincided with a period of rapid technological development in sportscars, and the small team behind the car was simply unable to keep up, reducing the Attila to an also-ran almost immediately. But that doesn’t diminish its potency as a lightweight sports prototype with a big, booming V8.

These days the Mk3 is powered by a 5.0-litre Chevrolet engine producing somewhere in the region of 385PS (283KW), and Wilson explained that his priority is to ensure the car is loyal to its period as it races now at the Revival. “It's in its ‘66 specification. It originally had a Ford engine with a different gearbox and different wheels, but every year it was updated and upgraded, so it's now in the ‘66 specification.

“We're trying to get all the documentation, but it's really difficult because we know this car was used with a LG gearbox for prototyping, but we can't prove that beyond any doubt. When people took pictures of cars, no one really showed the gearbox. We’ve got the engine, we've got the chassis, it’s hard to prove the gearbox, but we’re getting there.”

While many historic cars are prepared and fettled to guarantee strong performance in the world’s many historic racing series, Wilson is instead happy to keep the Attila for a select number of events each year, of which the Revival is one. But it’s the competition at Goodwood that motivates his continued push to maintain the car.

“When I first brought it here, Goodwood needed another car, so they said to bring it along. We hadn't had a great deal of time to prepare it properly, so we did a general preparation, but unfortunately we had a water leak which fried the engine so we were out on the second lap, which was frustrating.

“But since then, it’s done Revivals and Members’ Meetings and we've had the car prepped from bottom to top. We did a chassis restoration, everything was checked, everything was lined up and all the little nicknacks that were left to go to ruin over the time were sorted out. 

“We didn't change any of the fundamentals of the car, we just put everything right that should’ve been, and Julien’s done such a great job in driving the car.”

Julien Draper will be the man behind the wheel when the flag drops for the Whitsun Trophy on Saturday afternoon, and he’s been an influential figure in shaping the Attila’s preparation.

“He's happy with the car,” Wilson explained. “It's not massively powerful at all, it's 385 horsepower, but he says he thinks that's an advantage over 500 horsepower cars. He can brake later and accelerate quicker and harder than the other guys, so he can be on the gas more of the time.”

Day-to-day preparation and maintenance is carried out by Rawlson Racing, but much of the testing work is done by Wilson himself at Manston Airfield.

“We can just send it up and down the runway for an hour, take it back to the workshop, have a sort out, come back the next day and do the same thing again. That's a huge amount of running so the car has been very reliable, but our advantage is that we can try and try and try and try.

“What we want is an overall balanced package, rather than something that's absolutely knife edge and cutting-edge. It’s possible to get more power, but Julian said — and it’s the first time I've ever had it with a driver — ‘I don't want more power, I just want it to be good as it is’.”

The car looked to be running well during testing, and you’ll have the chance to see it in action yourself when the Attila takes to the Motor Circuit on Friday and Saturday at the Goodwood Revival. It’s easy to spot, thanks to a special Guernsey-inspired livery that Wilson has added to the car since he took ownership.

It’ll be up against the substantial might of Lola T70s, Ford GT40s and McLaren M1Bs, but you can be sure the plucky Attila will be fighting as hard as it did 60 years ago.

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Photography by Joe Harding.