cliff and his cars
some people like to show pictures taken with celebrities, or presidents . .(like me and
Clint on the right) and some like to show pictures taken with their stable of cars (I wish) . . well
this is neither; its a bunch of random vehicles, real and conceptual, that have
crossed my path and caught my interest . . .
![](images/Hillman.jpg)
I don't remember this picture being taken but I remember the Hillman van, with its creamy paint finish and its Coventry Three Spires
horn button! I also remember the long gone days like this where you could drive on the beach!
![](images/Hillman2.jpg)
not my most flattering picture . . but just look at that Hillman van - awesome!! My father worked for Clokey & Co. Ltd.
![](images/Minor.jpg)
I do remember this day, another picnic . . I spent some time sitting in this Morris Minor in my uncle's garage
before we set out, assessing the design of the dashboard!
![](images/Rover-P4-History.jpg)
Instead of the Hillman van, my father arrived home one evening in a Rover 90. It was the most wonderful thing I had ever seen - it had orange flashing indicators!!
![](images/Beach-Car.jpg)
Early interest in racing cars!! Not a clay model . . a sand model!! I am trying to find out who took this and where - the transaprency has "made in the USA" stamped on it.
![](images/57Chevvy.jpg)
this isn't the actual car but I clearly remember the first American car I ever saw, a yellow 57 Chevy, in our street in Dunmurry(!?) I was struck by the slender screen pillars and its glorious turquoise tinted screen . . .
![](images/ThamesVan.jpg)
my father's company van from Coventry Glass - a reasonable vehicle, except for the vacuum wipers . . .
![](images/866.jpg)
replacing the Thames van, a brand new 1960 Morris Mini in Morris Clipper Blue (Code BU14), one of the three colours you could have your Morris Mini painted in in 1960.
![](images/Alex-Ruddell-Bullnose-Morris2.jpg)
my father's Bullnose Morris Cowley . . I never met this car, but constructing my drawing with lots of discussions about the detail components, I felt that I got to know it pretty well!
![](images/Austin-Cambridge.jpg)
whilst still using a provisional license in 1969 my uncle had me driving his Austin Cambridge A60, towing a trailer of pigs . . .
![](images/AustinA30.jpg)
Austin A30 which I bought for £30 in 1975 . . Browns Lane parking pass on the windscreen
![](images/Ed-Abbott-A40.jpg)
Ed Abbott on the Devon Rally in his Austin A40 in 1975. I used to get a lift home from Tile Hill College with Ed in this hairy Austin!!
![](images/1968Mini.jpg)
going to work in the winter - mid 70s: Kinwalsey Lane is not really on the way to Browns Lane,
but hey - Minis like the snow . . .
![](images/CitroenGS.jpg)
Flying low in the Scottish Highlands in the Citroen GS. With a drag coefficient of 0.29
and Jaguar like ride quality it was noteable car.
![](images/CitroenGS-2.jpg)
I was obviously impressed with it . . enough to do an old school marker rendering of the car . . . on red canson - what was I thinking!?
![](images/Lotus79.jpg)
1978 International Trophy at Silverstone - Mario Andretti about to unleash the Lotus 79 on
an unsuspecting pit lane . . .
![](images/Lotus79b.jpg)
the Lotus 79 approaching Maggots . . . no JPS livery in UK races
![](images/WilliamsFW07.jpg)
Thursday morning July 12th 1979, the two Williams FW07s sit virtually un-noticed in the pitlane before first practice. A few hours later they would
be the talking point of the circuit and would win their first Grand Prix two days later!
![](images/mole4.jpg)
MOLE, the driverless car, with zero emissions, that drove itself once programmed, that I presented to Chuck Jordan at
Detroit's GM Tech Centre in July 1980
![](images/mole1.jpg)
I didn't get the job . . however Stefan Habsburg wrote "Mr Jordan said your general thoughts concerning energy, microelectronics and ecology are certainly consistent with the way the world is moving" . .
![](images/Mole-House.jpg)
MOLE drove into your house and re-charged itself overnight from roof mounted solar panels . . . 22 years before Steven Spielberg's film Minority Report shows cars doing exactly that!!
![](images/Motul-XJS.jpg)
the TWR XJS ( original Motul livery ) passing my Alfasud in the pits at Donnington during a test day in 1982
![](images/Motul-XJS-2.jpg)
Tom Walkinshaw slides the car through the chicane during the test
![](images/JaguarClay1.jpg)
working on the XJ40 full size clay model with Martin Brough and Ken Boulton, the model had two different halves.
![](images/JaguarClay2.jpg)
proposed variation on the XJ40 full size clay model - raising the wing and boot line as well as a slightly taller glass area. But despite Jaguar's proclivity to add 4 inches to the length of its models, adding height was absolutely anathema to Bob Knight!
![](images/clay2.jpg)
scraping a ¼ scale clay model, soon to become a new Jaguar design; one thing I don't miss about the clay was its smell, and the way it stuck to your shoes!
![](images/Coupe3.jpg)
quarter scale fibreglass model of a ground up XJ40 2 door coupé that we worked on in 1986. Taped up as a 4 door this looks similar to the ground up XJ90 of a few years later, a project canned by Ford.
![](images/Coupe3a.jpg)
just checking the archives . . I had forgotten that the left hand side of the clay model was also taped up as a 4-door!! Love Mick Cann's moody lighting!
![](images/Jaguar-XJ6-Series3.jpg)
on the trail of The Prisoner in North Wales in one of Jaguar Experimental's highly tuned Series IIIs; this one was fitted with racing cams and D-Type valves.
![](images/Jaguar-XJ6-Series3b.jpg)
As one of Ed Abbott's experimental cars, he had "doctored" it a bit . . it produced well over 200bhp, and was used mainly to test the new 5 speed manual gearbox. Later (sad face) it was installed with a 3.6 Italian VM diesel engine . . .
![](images/Series-3-Jaguar-2.jpg)
Ed Abbott at high speed on the M.I.R.A. banking
![](images/Lincoln.jpg)
exploring Arizona and the Grand Canyon in some sort of Lincoln
![](images/956.jpg)
snooping round Derek Bell's Porsche 956 at Silverstone in the days when you could blag your way into the pits . . .
![](images/RCA.jpg)
our annual pilgrimage to the Royal College of Art degree show in Kensington, this time in a LHD Series II
![](images/Mondial.jpg)
testing a Lotus Esprit turbo and a Ferrari Mondial at the Gaydon test track
![](images/foamcore.jpg)
testing a secret new sports car . . . built from cardboard, plywood and foamcore . . .
![](images/PF6205-2.jpg)
My introduction to the world of Vintage Bentleys - the massive Bentley Speed 6 . . . 6½ Litre 6 cylinders, overhead cam, 4 valves per cylinder, 2 spark plugs per cylinder and 3 SU carburettors: advanced engne technology for the 20s!!
![](images/PF6205.jpg)
a young looking Richard Cresswell, with PF6205, which he comprehensively restored between 1984 and 1988 . . .
![](images/Bentley-Sketch-1a.jpg)
we were both still working at Jaguar Cars and I created this drawing of the car, hinting at it's Brooklands past
![](images/PF6205-3.jpg)
Vintage Bentley components I would become familiar with over subsequent years - huge headlamps, Hartford Shock Absorbers, centrally mounted Dynamo, leaf springs and a seriously substantial chassis frame . .
![](images/PF6205-4.jpg)
getting ready for a demonstration run around the Warwickshire lanes (at ridiculous speeds!!) in this beautifully restored Speed Six.
![](images/Autocar1988.jpg)
The car was tested at Millbrook against a modern Bentley R Turbo in 1988 by Autocar & Motor magazine.
![](images/Daytona2.jpg)
Bob Blake's Ferrari Daytona outside the Studio door. If it was a dry sunny morning we would expect the throaty roar of the V12 arriving outside!
![](images/Daytona1.jpg)
Bob bought the car from Jaguar as a written off wreck and rebuilt and straightened it by hand . . . as you do
![](images/PerformanceCar1986.jpg)
interestingly enough the car appeared in a Performance Car Magazine road test in October 1986 although little detail was given about its origins! We knew better . . . .
![](images/Andrews-Opel-Manta.jpg)
Stuart Spencer with the promotional Opel Manta from Andrews. Note several camouflaged XJ40s in the Jaguar experimental car
park - this is 1985, a year before the launch of the car.
![](images/Jaguar-XJR9-1988.jpg)
Le Mans 1988, the winning Jaguar XJR9 heads up towards the Dunlop bridge. The event was like a works day out - we kept bumping into people from the Factory!
![](images/BenettonB193.jpg)
on the subject of TWR I spent many a morning eating my bacon and eggs sitting next to Michael Schumacher's F1 car in the Leafield canteen . . I can't find any pictures of Leafield in the TWR period . . this was done in Photoshop, but it was always a memorable breakfast!!
![](images/limo6.jpg)
picking up the Bennetts, returning from South America, in one of Keith Cambage's demo Daimler Limos . . .
![](images/Pontiac-Transport.jpg)
April 1992 and the CDI Pontiac Trans Sport SE . . . my first visit to Grand Rapids. With its 3 litre V-6 I was able to amble round the lake to Chicago with the minimum
of fuss during the week-end!
![](images/Mini-Pick-up.jpg)
just the job for the weekly shopping - a really tidy Mini pick up
![](images/Mini-South-Africa.jpg)
a South African Leyland Mini, assembled at Blackheath in the Cape - my transport for exploring the garden route and the wine growing valleys around Capetown in the late 70s
![](images/CDI.jpg)
photoshoot for a magazine whilst at CDI, showing virtual sports car designing on the screen.
![](images/ruddell-sports-car.jpg)
early morning light falls on little known ruddell sports car, on location in France, with admirer
![](images/Lotus25.jpg)
Jim Clark's Lotus 25, chassis number R4, winner of seven Grands Prix in 1963, four on the same set of tyres, photographed at Classic Team Lotus in Norfolk.
![](images/Lotus25-painting.jpg)
capturing the iconic colours of Team Lotus with my watercolour of the car that will always be associated with double world champion Jim Clark, Lotus 25/R4
![](images/Lotus49-Jim-Clark.jpg)
Jim Clark winning the British Grand Prix. My painting of the sublime Lotus 49/R2 at Copse corner Silverstone 1967
![](images/MS80.jpg)
the Matra MS80, still ripping round the track 50 years since Jackie Stewart won his first World Championship . . amazing. Although MS80's other four wins featured front and rear aerofoils
![](images/matra-ms80-cars.jpg)
for my limited edition print I have drawn MS80/2 minus it's aero aids as it ran at Monza on 7th Sept 1969 - the last time an F1 car
sans aero won a grand prix!!
![](images/Silver-Seraph-6.jpg)
return to old school magic marker techniques!! This is my homage to the Rolls Royce Silver Seraph, which is a design I have always liked.
![](images/Silver-Seraph-7.jpg)
I was involved in working on the master surface model of the Silver Seraph to create a limousine option for the car:- by adding a massive 20 inches to it's length and 4 inches to it's height
![](images/Silver-Seraph-8.jpg)
the body lines through the doors may look horizontal but are in fact curved in all three axis, so the task was to re-blend them to a 20" in-fill without it looking flat . . no pressure then . .
![](images/Silver-Seraph-9.jpg)
visualisation of what the finished limousine would have looked like outside the Crewe reception area. Alas it was not to be:- Production was dis-continued after only 4 years when Volkswagen passed the rights to build Rolls Royce cars over to BMW in 2002
![](images/Silver-Seraph-10.jpg)
It looks like the CAD database survived though . . . to create a Bentley Arnage Limousine as this looks very close to my model!!
![](images/Silver-Ghost-Render.jpg)
some other Rolls Royce work . . this time on a 1921 Silver Ghost: rendering showing redesigned wings and a new colour scheme . .
![](images/Silver-Ghost-Wedding.jpg)
finished vehicle looking good with my "Jaguar-esque" wing designs!! This car took part in the Spirit of Ecstasy Centenary, joining more than 100 cars in a celebratory drive around London on February 6th 2011
![](images/RacingBentley.jpg)
Racing Bentley from the 30s, or is it? Created on CAD and handbuilt in aluminium.
![](images/Peter-Butler-Racing.jpg)
the late Peter Butler powers past lesser mortals at Snetterton . .
![](images/Vintage-Farm-Bentley.jpg)
little known agricultural version of the Vintage Bentley, good for keeping the farm free of pests . .
![](images/JaguarXJ13.jpg)
with the XJ13 at the Browns Lane JDHT museum, only a few hundred yards from where the car was built in the 60s . .
![](images/Competition-E-Type-1.jpg)
the first time I sat in an E-Type was an empty bodyshell upstairs in 60 shop, to have my lunch, when I was a Jaguar Apprentice . . I was reminded of this when Richard Cresswell commenenced restoring his 1961 E-Type chassis no. 885068 in 2010
![](images/Competition-E-Type-2.jpg)
VBE's version of engine to body assembly: lower the car (on ramp) very slowly over the engine which is sitting on the workshop floor below . .
![](images/Competition-E-Type-3.jpg)
engine in . . Chris Beaumont ticks off another job on the list! Next . . .
![](images/Competition-E-Type-5.jpg)
after some serious track action at the Silverstone Classic in 2011 . .
![](images/Competition-E-Type-4.jpg)
Richard demonstrating the car in the Flecknoe lanes in October 2013 for the article in Jaguar World Magazine
![](images/Competition-E-Type-6.jpg)
commemorating aspects of my work from 1968 to the present day - lunch in the E-Type bodyshell(!), working on the Jaguar XK assembly line, traditional draughtsmanship to draw the engine, marker rendering from my styling period and gouache painting from my current watercolour period!!
![](images/Sunday-Scramble.jpg)
cliff and his cars . . . or cliff and the cars he has drawn!! Selling my artwork at one of Bicester Heritage's Sunday Scramble events
![](images/The-Herbert.jpg)
taking part in the 2019 Festival of Creativity and Wellbeing at Coventry's Herbert . . catching up with Jaguar photographer Mick Cann
![](images/1960-Mini-Gallery-Cars.jpg)
during the event I painted the 1960 mini, which is in Coventry's Transport Museum. Looking at this car all the details come back to me of the original mini: the sliding windows, the Morris bonnet badge, the minimalist Issigonis lines. Wonderful!
![](images/Russian-Truck.jpg)
spent some time driving round Bates Farm pretending to be characters out of a John Le Carre novel, with this cold war military truck . .
![](images/VS1451.jpg)
1929 Vanden Plas 4½ litre Bentley with its Gurney-Nutting-Ruddell styled front and rear wings!
![](images/1928-Bentley-Engine.jpg)
my watercolour homage to the wondrous monoblock 4½ litre 1928 Bentley engine with which Woolf Barnato and Bernard Rubin won the Le Mans 24 hours in 1928
![](images/JaguarXF.jpg)
the Jaguar XF . . . after my time. The new Callum generation of Jaguars. I think he did a good job . . he broke the mould but carried over several powerful Lyons cues . . .
![](images/Jaguar-XJ6-2.jpg)
for example the XJ6-esque sculptured and recessed grille!!
![](images/F-Type.jpg)
Looking round the new Jaguar F-Type in the visitor centre at Castle Bromwich.
![](images/F-Type-2.jpg)
Assessing the F-Type interior - Peter Wilson and Russ Varney in the background!
![](images/F-Type-Coupe.jpg)
the Jaguar F-Type Coupe departing VBE after we'd given it the once over. Now that is a nice looking car . .
![](images/31Coupe1a.jpg)
computer visualisation of our Vintage Bentley Roadster, based on the 1931 Blower Bentley that Gurney Nutting created for Le Mans winner Woolf Bernato
![](images/31Coupe2.jpg)
conceived in the Bentley Boys era, designed on CAD and handbuilt by VBE, the project nears completion in the VBE bodyshop . .
![](images/Vintage-Bentley-Design-7b.jpg)
it is appropriate that my last car project before retiring ends with a day in the photographic studio with Jaguar photographer Jim Callaghan, replicating the many days we spent photographing ruddell models in the 80s!! Shoot was done at Junction Eleven Studios.
![](images/31Coupe3.jpg)
OCTANE magazine's Mark Dixon putiing
Petronella, the finished car, through it's paces for the March 2018 road test!!