Dinky Toys 23b; Hotchkiss Racing Car

Strictly speaking it is not a racing car but a road car specially adapted for breaking speed records. I found this quote many years ago and have now lost the source:

"The well-known Eyston and Denly won many a record on Montlhéry in a regular Hotchkiss (‘regular’ except for the body and presumably the engine), eg. 5,000 miles with an average speed of 152,46 km/h. Altogether 3 world and 11 international records"  This was in 1934. It is quite easy to find pictures of the Hotchkiss car this Dinky was modelled upon by Googling around a little. 

Eyston I assume was the same Captain George Eyston who was breaking records with the MG Magic Midget a few years later. There is a little bit of Abingdon area history here, Captain Eyston was one of the family who have held the Manor at East Hendred, near Abingdon for over 600 years and of course the Magic Midgets were produced at the Abingdon MG factory. Each has a pub named after it, the Magic Midget in Abingdon and the Eyston Arms in East Hendred. I can thoroughly recommend the Eyston Arms, great place for lunch, the Magic Midget used to be a bit iffy, but I think it has been tidied up a bit now.

Dinky made this car first in 1935, there was a break during WW2 when the factory switched to war work, resuming in 1946 until 1948. It has been reproduced in 2014 by Norev for the Atlas Editions reboot of the old Dinky Toys range.

Dinky Toys 23b; Hotchkiss Racing Car; Silver: Red Flash, RN 5	Atlas Dinky Toys 23b; Hotchkiss Racing Car; Silver: Red Flash, RN 5

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Last Edit: 14/02/2021		Page Added 01/01/2021