MODEL HISTORY

Like Aston Martin and MG, Riley was keenly aware of the promotional and engineering value of motor racing, and for 10 years following the introduction of its four-cylinder Nine model, it was a mainstay of the competition scene.

With its high-mounted twin camshafts, inclined overhead valves and hemispherical combustion chambers, the Nine engine was ripe for tuning. The Brooklands Speed Model not only won its class in events such as the Brooklands Double Twelve and the Index of Performance at Le Mans, it won the 1932 Tourist Trophy outright.

Adding two more cylinders to the Nine engine enabled Riley to develop a series of sporting 'sixes'. They included the MPH, the prototypes for which were based on the works cars that had been campaigned in the 1933 Tourist Trophy. This latest model used a chassis that was underslung at the rear and featured a wheelbase of 8ft 1.5in, and three engines would be offered during its short life - 1458cc, 1633cc and 1726cc.

Two gearboxes were offered - a close-ratio manual or a pre-selector - and 18in Dunlop tyres were specified. Suspension was via semi-elliptic springs front and rear plus Duplex Hartford dampers. 'To the open-air-loving motorist with sporting tendencies,' wrote The Autocar in 1934, 'this new Riley MPH should prove singularly attractive.'

In the 1934 Le Mans 24 Hours, two works-entered MPH models finished an amazing second and third overall, beaten only by the Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 of Luigi Chinetti and Philippe Étancelin. Despite that success for the six-cylinder car, the next generation of competition Riley was represented by the four-cylinder TT Sprite.

Riley produced only a short run of roadgoing MPHs alongside the racing variants. With its sporting bodywork and low-slung stance, it has - as noted writer Mick Walsh put it when he drove an MPH for Classic & Sports Car magazine - 'the aura of a British Alfa Monza'. Little wonder it's become such a coveted choice of 1930s sports car.

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