Archie Scott Brown

Born in Paisley, Scotland, on the 13th May 1927, William Archibald Scott Brown overcame disability and bureaucracy from motor racing authorities (even having his licence revoked) to compete. Archie loved driving and, besides the Listers, his Ford Zephyr was entered into driving tests and sprints, he drove Elvas, an A35, a DKW, John Coomb’s Lotus XI, a Bugatti, Connaughts, a Jaguar D-Type, an MG TD, a Standard Eight. As a result of his Mother contracting rubella during the pregnancy, he was born with his feet twisted almost backwards, no shinbones and without a right hand. When he started racing, many people were unsure about him and Roy Salvadori said that “he and Tony Crook wondered, when Archie first came on the scene, if he really knew what he was doing. Within a very short time, they realised that he did…He proved it beyond all doubt, because he was quicker than I was…” His driving was praised by Fangio, who thought his car control was phenomenal, while Stirling Moss said “I’ve seen many drivers with two arms who could have done with as much ability as Archie had in one.” In a Le Mans style start he was as fast as the others sprinting to the car plus on track beat Moss, Brooks, Salvadori, Parnell, Collins and Lewis-Evans. His disability only presented problems when sharing sports cars as his regular cars were fitted with extended steering columns and pedals but if needed he would compromise and simply pack in cushions behind his back. He would often be seen in corners with his car sideways, with Brian Lister stating “he simply loved driving sideways and putting on a show” and when once asked what he would do if the brakes failed replied he would simply “carry on without them, old boy”.

The only child of William and Jeanette Scott Brown, his father had been an observer in the R.F.C. during the first World War plus an Alvis works driver while his Mother had twice raced at Brooklands. Showing tremendous determination by enduring 22 operations over a two year period and months spent in plaster, he was eventually able to walk although he never grew over 5 feet tall. Despite his physical problems he played tennis, soccer and golf, fenced for his school (Merchistan Castle) and played cricket for St Andrews University. He was introduced to speed in 1938 when his father built him a car (powered by a lawnmower engine) then in 1939 took him around Brooklands in a V12 Lagonda and taught him to drive.

His first competition appearances were in driving tests in a Standard Eight Saloon then a legacy from his Grandmother allowed him to buy an MG and in 1951 he finished fourth in a novice heat at Silverstone. In 1952 he finished fourth with the MG at Boreham plus took a win and two second place finishes at Snetterton and continuing with it the following year he had two podium placings at Snetterton. During this time he had formed a close friendship with Brian Lister, who had been racing a Tojeiro though eventually turned from driving to constructing. He asked Archie to take over the racing duties and in April and May he took victory and a podium at both Silverstone and Thruxton plus two wins and a podium at Snetterton.

Lister asked his father to fund the development of their own car, with a Don Moore tuned MG engine, and on its debut in 1954 at Snetterton at the beginning of April he won the two races entered. Hopes were high for the season but then his competition licence was withdrawn due to a complaint from another competitor at the following week’s British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park. Despite qualifying third with the Lister-MG during practice, the RAC Stewards then announced he was considered unfit to drive due to his disability. Poor Archie was devastated and Ken Wharton drove instead the next day, though after a pit stop to report falling oil pressure, he finished eighth in his heat and missed the cut for the final. Don Moore, who tuned the engines, stated “Archie was so gentle on his car and engine that he’d have finished in the top three..I never knew him to over-rev a car. Everyone who ever worked on his cars confirmed that Archie was exceptionally gentle with them even though as diagrams he once drew to demonstrate his lines around Goodwood and Silverstone show, he was ‘out of line’ for over 70% of each lap. When we used to hang out the ‘Slow sign’, Archie would ease off, become more smooth, and his lap speeds would actually increase.” Following his treatment at Oulton Park, Gregor Grant campaigned for the restoration of his licence and he was supported by Earl Howe, who in turn received support from former Bentley Boy and Le Mans winner Dr J.D. Benjafield. After the lobbying by them, plus friends and supporters, he finally returned to racing after two months, having proved his fitness to drive after being assessed by an RAC medical board. But even after this it was said the Dundrod TT organisers would never accept his entry. He was soon winning events all over the country, taking victories at Fairwood, Silverstone, Brands Hatch and twice at Snetterton. There were also ten second place finishes at Brands Hatch (four), Crystal Palace, Oulton Park, Snetterton, Fairwood (two) and Castle Combe plus fifth and seventh at Crystal Palace and Aintree and fifth and seventh at the British GP meeting.

Archie’s star was rising and 1955 saw him win thirteen races at meetings at Snetterton, Goodwood, Charterhall, Crystal Palace and Brands Hatch, plus eight podium finishes at Snetterton, Goodwood, Charterhall, Brands Hatch and Crystal Palace and a fourth place at Ibsley. In two of his victories in May, he beat Peter Collins (driving an Aston Martin DB3S) at Snetterton then Roy Salvadori (also in a DB3S) at Crystal Palace. However, he must have derived great satisfaction from his win at the British Empire Trophy after his treatment there the previous season, scoring a memorable victory ahead of Reg Parnell and Peter Collins’ Aston Martins and a Jaguar D Type driven by Duncan Hamilton. Besides the Lister, in outings with a Jaguar C-Type he had a podium at Snetterton and a win and podium at Brands Hatch then was sixth (and class winner) in a shared Connaught drive with Les Leston in the Goodwood Nine Hours.

March 1956 saw him in America at the Sebring 12 Hours with Lance Macklin, though they retired their Austin Healey 100. In outings with an Elva Mk11 he was twenty second at Oulton Park though won at Brands Hatch, plus was fourth in an Aston Martin at Snetterton while drives in a Lotus Eleven saw podiums at Snetterton and the Aintree 100 plus fourth at Brands Hatch. After the previous Listers being powered by MG and Bristol engines, they used a Maserati engine for this season but the success of the previous year was not repeated with results including second at Brands Hatch, fourth in both the Aintree 100 and 200 events, fifth at Oulton Park, ninth at Silverstone and thirteenth in the Empire Trophy. Although there were retirements with a Connaught at Castle Combe and the Aintree 100, he qualified second to Moss’s Maserati at Goodwood and held him off for half the race until his car failed. A motor sport magazine’s report was titled ‘Scott-Brown’s Magnificent Drive’ and described how “the big race of the afternoon was the Richmond Formula 1 Race, which produced a magnificent ding-dong battle between Hawthorn (BRM), Scott-Brown (Connaught) and Moss (Maserati). Driving in his first full-scale F1 race, Scott-Brown put up a sensational performance, leading Moss in the works, fuel-injection Maserati for 16 of the 32 laps in spite of failing brakes, after which he experienced a broken crankshaft but spun safely to a standstill….Undoubtedly this was one of the best short races we have seen for many a year-at all events up to half distance. Hawthorn in the compact B.R.M. got off well and led for two laps to cheers from a patriotic crowd, with Moss and Scott-Brown breathing hard behind him. The fantastic Archie got the lead on lap three and Moss was close behind him. Hawthorn having mysteriously slowed at the end of Lavant Straight at the close of lap two, to let the Connaught and Maserati by. Scott-Brown won the admiration of the crowd and proved that deformity is no bar in his case to driving of true G.P. calibre. He flung the Connaught through the corners, never in the least perturbed when it went nearly sideways-on. Moss was clearly having his work cut out to even hold the Connaught and confessed that he had no margin of safety in hand through the corners. On lap eight less than a length separated them and Moss tried to get by on Lavant Straight, to no avail. On lap 10 in lapping Bayol’s slow Gordini at Lavant Corner the Connaught never held back for a moment. A lap later Moss tried to take Archie on the inside at this corner-again it didn’t work. However, the Connaught front brakes were now fading and the car was snaking as well as sliding, and Stirling was right up behind. To yells from the spectators he got into the lead along Lavant Straight on lap 16 and it was evident that the Connaught wasn’t able to hang out. The gap widened and on lap 17 the crankshaft, perhaps overstressed in practice, broke, rod came out of the engine and the car spun wildly but cleanly at Woodcote. Had Moss been still behind he doubts whether he could have taken evasive action! Archie, his name now linked with Nuvolari and Brooks from different eras of racing history, stepped calmly out, unshaken, only mildly expressing his disappointment.” At the Aintree 200 several weeks later, he qualified on pole by more than two seconds and was comfortably in front when, as at Goodwood, a piston broke. Following this came the International Trophy at Silverstone where he finished second to Moss in the Vanwall plus at that meeting drove a DKW to ninth (and first in class) in the Production Touring Car race. He was one of three Connaught drivers (alongside Desmond Titterington and Jack Fairman) at the British GP at Silverstone and qualified tenth. During the race he had passed the works Lancia-Ferraris of Castellotti and de Portago and was running in seventh place (plus had set the fastest lap) before transmission problems forced him out after ten laps. Unfortunately, this would be his only GP. Although he entered the Italian GP at Monza and ran impressively on the first day of practice, he was informed by the authorities that he would not be allowed to race; they had also rejected an application for a new licence from Sergio Mantovani, who had lost a leg in an accident the previous year. Brian Lister later stated that “Archie was incredibly quick, that one day he did drive at Monza, even though the circuit was obviously new to him. I remember Fangio coming into our pit, watching Archie go by, then grinning and saying something in Spanish which I didn’t understand, but which was obviously very complimentary! We were all devastated when he wasn’t allowed to race.” However, it was said that Archie just shrugged his shoulders, flew to Geneva and bought himself a new watch. A month later he took victory at Brands Hatch from team-mate Stuart Lewis-Evans and Roy Salvadori in the Gilby Maserati 250F. Unfortunately, the team were struggling financially and would eventually fold and Lister said Archie “was heartbroken when Connaught went under. The cars had pre-selector ’boxes, which of course suited him, but still some of his F1 drives were extraordinary. Think of his first race, at Goodwood, when he had a hell of a scrap with Moss and Hawthorn, and got ahead of them. No-one will persuade me that a Connaught was superior, or even equal, to a works Maserati 250F or BRM.”

After the previous season’s disappointing reliability issues with the Maserati engines, Lister decided to switch to a Jaguar power source for 1957. Although it was leading on its debut at the end of March at Snetterton until the clutch failed, he would go on to win twelve races, often against factory teams with bigger budgets. At the British Empire Trophy, he was two seconds ahead of Roy Salvadori’s works Aston Martin DBR1 during practice and went on to win the race then beat Salvadori at Goodwood’s Sussex Trophy. Further victories came at Crystal Palace, Goodwood, Aintree, three at Brands Hatch and four at Snetterton. He would often race an Elva Mk11 at the same race meetings and he was third at Mallory Park, fourth at Brands Hatch, seventh at Crystal Palace and Goodwood plus won twice at Brands Hatch. Lister built another F2 car but it was not a success as he was way off the pace for the International Trophy and did not start due to low oil pressure. Two weeks later he retired at Goodwood with a broken oil pipe and though entered for Oulton Park’s Gold Cup, he refused to drive; Dick Barton said “He hated the idea of the propshaft rotating at full engine speed (the gearbox was at the rear), just inches away from his hip.” He retired a Connaught B at the Glover Trophy though had a victory with a Tojeiro at Snetterton, took second in a 6 Hour Silverstone relay race in an Austin A35 plus won in the Cambridge Automobile Club’s driving test with his Zephyr. In two Jaguar D-Type outings he and Henry Taylor retired a Murkett Brothers car in May’s Nurburgring 1000km though in August he was eighth in the Sverige GP 6 hours with John Lawrence in an Ecurie Ecosse car. Alongside his run in Sweden he also took part in that year’s Monte Carlo Rally but it was said he was a terrible passenger and spent his non-driving stints cowering under a blanket on the back seat! He was offered a drive by BRM to race at Aintree in the British GP but in testing at Folkingham an oil pipe broke and then the throttle stuck open and after discussions with friends he declined the offer.

At the end of the year the team went off to compete in New Zealand and in early 1958 he took wins in the Lady Wigram Trophy and at Teretonga, plus second at Levin and sixth at Teretonga. Lister stated “if Archie had a weakness as a racing driver, it was that he was so instinctive that he used to drive around a handling problem, or whatever. He wasn’t very good at analysing what the car was doing. At the New Zealand GP, for example, he was leading, and then he came into the pits and said to the mechanic ‘I think there’s something wrong with the tyre pressures’. In fact, something had broken and the wheels were leaning out at 45 degrees!” In the following month he was at Sebring, sharing a Lister with Walt Hangsen though it ended after an accident; early in the race, the Lister slowed suddenly but Olivier Gendebien’s Ferrari ran up its back, putting tyre marks on Archie’s helmet and its front wheel ended up in the Lister’s ‘passenger space’. Back in Europe, racing in April at Goodwood’s Sussex Trophy, he led from Moss’ works Aston Martin DBR2 until mechanical failure ended his race. Soon after he was at the British Empire Trophy, and was leading Moss until lap four when his steering broke though was third in the final driving Bruce Halford’s car (with cushions stuffed behind his back). In Connaught drives he was sixth in the Glover Trophy and ninth at the Aintree 200, plus at Aintree won the unlimited Sportscar race, ahead of Salvadori’s Aston Martin and Masten Gregory in an Ecurie Ecosse Lister. At a sports car race at the Silverstone International Trophy meeting at the start of May, he fought with Gregory before eventually finishing second but though he had beaten Hawthorn, Salvadori and Brooks, afterwards Archie sat in the car, bemused and in disbelief at being beaten. Lister stated “the defeat by Gregory unsettled him. In fact, I think it shocked him-that he could be beaten by a similar car. Hitherto he’d sometimes been beaten by cars from another manufacturer, but this time it was another Lister, and one not even prepared by the works. I think both he and I had underestimated Gregory.” The following weekend he won at Mallory Park and then prepared for upcoming GP Spa on the 18th May. The race took place on the same day as the Monaco GP and Archie should have been racing a Cooper but the car was not ready in time. He lined up on pole, with Gregory alongside, and from the start they constantly passed and re-passed each other, with the Lister even having a dent in its nose due to clipping the Ecosse car. But while leading on lap six, Archie found a sudden rain shower had made the surface slick, and the car left the road, then scraped along a wall and hit a road sign (which Paul Frere had requested the organisers remove). This snapped the car’s axle and the car plunged over the verge and ignited but though a gendarme bravely dragged Archie out he had suffered terrible burns. Sadly, he died the following afternoon with his father by his bedside and among his last words was a message to Brian not to feel too badly about the crash. A young Jim Clark was racing a Border Reivers D-type Jaguar and recalled “Suddenly there was an almighty howl of sound, a blast of wind, the whole car shook, and Masten went steaming past like a bat out of hell. He was well out in the lead with the Lister-Jaguar all sideways, his arms crossed-up and fighting the steering. I remember having a sudden twinge of shock and thinking: ‘To heck with this, if this is motor racing I’m going to give it up now’….it really put me off. I didn’t think anyone could drive as quickly as that…”. Sadly, he had met Archie for the first time only the day before the crash and was shattered by his accident. Brian Lister stated that “there’s no doubt Archie wanted to prove-at Spa-that he was still the master, as far as Listers were concerned, and it was a hell of a race for the first few laps, until the accident happened. The conditions were about as dangerous as they could have been-dry corners and wet corners..The doctor who treated Archie was the same one who had treated Seaman, and in both cases he gave up on them immediately and said they couldn’t possibly survive. Fire was such a terrible hazard in those days…After his death, his father said Archie had told him to tell me I shouldn’t feel too bad about it, and he also said that it may have been for the best, bearing in mind the problems Archie could have suffered in old age, with his feet and so on. Perhaps he said that to make me feel better, I don’t know.” Lister wanted to withdraw from racing and decided to continue after some lengthy introspection. However, little over a year later, he was driving home from Brands Hatch and related how “I heard on the radio that Jean Behra had been killed in Germany. He was a brilliant driver and one tough little man, Behra. I admired him tremendously and there had been some discussions about him driving for us. Then I got home and my wife greeted me with the news that Ivor Bueb, who’d often driven for us, had died from injuries received the previous weekend. I just thought, ‘That’s it-I don’t want to be part of this any more’. The fact is, it was never the same for me after Archie……Looking back, I had it pretty easy…I had the wonderful association with Don Moore, who always did our engines. On top of that, I was blessed with one of the most brilliant drivers that ever lived..We never had a contract. I think I paid him a retainer, as well as a percentage of the prize money, but I can’t really remember, to be honest. It wasn’t a matter of his driving for me-we worked together. We were mates.”

Brian Lister recalls how Archie liked to smoke while driving, “He’d pass around the cigarettes and then get out a box of matches. With his stump curled around the steering wheel, he’d take out a match with his left hand, close the box, light the match and pass it around. I never worked out how he did it.” At one race where Archie had crashed, a marshal who came to help saw his stump, and thinking it had been amputated during the accident promptly fainted. One wonders about the physical toll driving took on him as Bill Boddy recalled that at the end of a longish sprint race, his stump would often be raw and bleeding. Friends recalled him having a number of girl friends plus he was a great dancer who would dance as long as the band played. Ken Hazlewood, who was a mechanic for Archie, stated “he was never without a smile and a word for everyone. He was not at all fussy like some drivers we had, he put his faith in his team and got on with the job of driving and he drove so well because he wasn’t afraid of the Lister, he’d put it into a corner hard, bring out the tail and drive through it. The only other driver I’ve seen do anything like it is Gerry Marshall in Historic events.” On one occasion when they had the prototype Lister-MG ready to run in chassis form, they didn’t have a seat so he used a wooden box tied on to the chassis frame. Always friendly and cheerful, he was remembered as ‘a man totally without enemies’ and Brian Lister regarded his professional association with Archie as both the highest point of his career but sadly also the lowest.

Many years later, drivers at Snetterton would race for the prestigious Archie Scott Brown Trophy, which is awarded annually and a memorial plaque at the circuit reads he “represented everything that was best in the sport”.