In the early days of the sport, competitors were taking part with catalogue cars or perhaps limited production racing models such as the Mercedes 60. This rather limited drivers to the wealthier end of the earnings spectrum but this began to change in 1920 with Archie Frazer-Nash entering his GN vee-twin powered “Moldy”. 

Although this would not meet our description today as a ‘Special’, as it was a modified production GN, the concept of a very light, chain-driven chassis, powered by an air-cooled 2-cylinder engine, showed that power to weight ratio was more important than outright power and stimulated creation of unique lightweight vehicles – enter the ‘Shelsley Special’ on which bodywork was not always viewed as an essential feature!

Many Specials were built in the days up to the 2nd World War, mainly using the GN chassis as a basis but others were combinations of components from several sources, producing larger vehicles which were, none the less, Specials.

Over the years, various cars have been submitted for formal consideration as Shelsley Specials by the scrutineers and those approved have been recorded on an official listing. There are 106 cars on this list, dating from 1920 to 2008, which are listed below. The approved status of these cars will not be affected by any subsequent changes to acceptance standards. Sadly, there will be quite a few of these cars that have ceased to exist, and we will welcome any information on those no longer around.

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There will be a class for Shelsley Specials at our Classic Nostalgia and Vintage meetings where we hope to see a good number of competitors. Owing to the wide span of performance, the class will be run on a Target Time basis. 

Looking forward, an updated Definition for a Shelsley Special has been created to which owners can submit new cars for examination by the Approval Committee. This new Definition has been kept simple so compliance should be straightforward:-