Bio: Colin Crabbe - Automotive Super Sleuth and Privateer F1 Entrant
Born on April 14th 1942, Colin Crabbe went on to become an F1 and sportscar entrant but is perhaps best known for having extracted some of the 20th century’s most significant motor cars from all manner of unlikely locations around the world.
After university, Crabbe spent a period in the Scots Guards during which time he started to do a little car dealing on the side. There were often several vehicles outside the Officer’s Mess including Crabbe’s nearly new Maserati 3500 GT and his Downton-tuned Mini Cooper.
Crabbe resigned from the Scots Guards in July 1964 at the age of 22. Together with brothers George and Roger Hancox, he opened a small garage north of London which specialised in the sale and restoration of vintage cars: Antique Automobiles.
That summer, Crabbe made a trip to Australia where he purchased his first really significant motor cars: a Maserati 250 F from the father of Alan Jones and an A6 GCM.
On his return to Britain in September 1964, Crabbe bought a converted chapel and cottage in the village of Baston, Lincolnshire. Antique Automobiles relocated to Baston which was ideally located between London and Crabbe’s family home, the Findrack Estate, 24 miles west of Aberdeen.
From its new Baston facility, Antique Automobiles quickly became a major player in the burgeoning collector car market. Crabbe bought and sold a large number of significant vehicles and began to race his Maserati 250 F (chassis 2520), Maserati 8CM (3018) and Aston Martin DP214 (0194) with the Vintage Sports Car Club.
During those early days Crabbe was a frequent visitor to France. Among his most notable acquisitions was a nine-litre twelve cylinder 1936 Hispano Suiza Type 68 that he went on to sell to Jabby Crombac in exchange for a Hispano H6B and Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing. Crabbe kept the Gullwing for many years and drove it for thousands of miles.
In late 1966, Crabbe purchased a 50% share in the ex-Nick Cussons Ford GT40 (chassis P/1021) with Ed Nelson. Despite his substantial frame, Crabbe was able to shoehorn himself into the GT40 thanks to a special roof blister.
Crabbe and Nelson contested the 1966-1967 Springbok winter series in South Africa during which Crabbe was able to acquire a Maserati Type 34 in Cape Town. Once back in the UK, Crabbe purchased Nelson’s share to become the GT40’s sole owner.
Crabbe raced P/1021 throughout 1967 until he had a major accident at Brands Hatch in August. The GT40 left the track, hit a tree on the passenger side and burst into flames. Crabbe was pulled from the burning wreck by Peter Sutcliffe. While he continued to compete in historics, Crabbe’s brief front-line racing career was over.
Earlier in 1967, Antique Automobiles had purchased an old cottage next to the chapel in Baston which was demolished to make way for a new showroom and two new workshops which meant the firm was now able to restore everything in-house.
Thanks to the quality of Antique Automobiles’ restorations, they were awarded a contract with the Mercedes-Benz Museum to restore a number of vehicles. By this time, customers from the UK, Europe and North America all travelled to Baston to have their collectable motor cars restored.
Another major development in 1967 came when Crabbe took a holiday in Ethiopia. Afterwards, he headed to Eritrea which had been occupied by the Italians prior to World War 2. Crabbe managed to purchase a Ferrari 500 Mondial (0468 MD), a Maserati 4CM (1525) and an Alfa 8C 2.3 Special (2311247). The Eritrean deals whetted his appetite for unusual cars in offbeat locations.
In April 1968, Crabbe made an acquisition that garnered massive publicity in the automotive press.
A contact on the East German / Polish border had discovered a Mercedes-Benz W125 that had been hidden in Leipzig during World War 2. Crabbe purchased the 1937 Grand Prix car (chassis 2) with his friend, Neil Corner; they crossed the border with $10,000 in cash and extricated the car from behind the Iron Curtain. The W125 was rebuilt back in Baston and Crabbe used the car extensively in historic racing.
In the summer of 1968, Crabbe purchased a Cooper T86 from John Cooper complete with with two spare contemporary Maserati engines, a variety of spares and the major part of a prototype V12 from the 250 F era.
Over the course of a few months, the T86 (F1-2-67) was rebuilt. The car was then entered for Vic Elford to race in the 1969 Silverstone International Trophy (finished twelfth) and Neil Corner for the Madrid Grand Prix (finished fourth). An invite for the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix followed where Elford finished seventh.
As the year-old Cooper was not a realistic proposition for the remainder of the season, Crabbe purchased an ex-works McLaren M7B. The McLaren started life as a 1968 M7A (chassis M7A/3) which had then been converted to B-spec. for 1969 and used twice.
Elford finished tenth at the Dutch Grand Prix, fifth in the French Grand Prix and sixth at the British Grand Prix.
Unfortunately, Elford then had a big accident at the Nurburgring during the German Grand Prix.
The McLaren was hit by a wheel that had become detached from Mario Andretti’s Lotus which caused Elford to crash. The McLaren flew over a twenty foot hedge and landed upside down among the trees.
Elford suffered a badly broken arm and smashed the ball joint in his shoulder. The wrecked M7B was returned to McLaren and written off. There was no more F1 racing for Antique Automobiles that season.
Towards the end of 1969, Crabbe purchased two of the five Alfa Romeo 8C 2.9s that he went on to own. First to arrive was chassis 412033 bought from Count Johnny Lurani. 412033 was the unique 8C 2.9 Le Mans Coupe created for the 1938 24 Hour race.
Within a few weeks, an 8C 2.9 Touring Spyder was acquired from Monty Thackeray (chassis 412022). Both the 8Cs were purchased by Lord Doune and went on display in his Doune Motor Museum.
For the 1970 F1 season, Crabbe was approached by March Engineering who wanted to run a 701 for Ronnie Peterson to complement their works cars for Chris Amon and Jo Siffert. An arrangement was struck that saw March supply the chassis free of charge (701-8) while Antique Automobiles provided the personnel and Cosworth DFV (the unit from their wrecked McLaren).
The season turned out to be a disappointment. In the face of rapidly expanding budgets and increased professionalism, Antique Automobiles with their solitary power unit and unsorted March chassis spent most of the year in the midfield. A seventh at Monaco and ninths in Holland and Great Britain were the highlights from the team’s nine outings.
Although Crabbe was offered the opportunity to run a privateer Ferrari 312 in 1971, pressure from his family trustees saw him retire from F1.
However, back in Baston, Antique Automobiles’ core business was going from strength to strength.
Crabbe purchased several more significant machines to go historic racing with including a Maserati Type 60 Birdcage (2466) and the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hour winning Ferrari TR60 (0774 TR).
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Crabbe was a frequent visitor to South America and Cuba which proved to be rich sources of rare machinery.
In addition to the hordes of vintage and veteran cars purchased, large numbers of Ferrari and Maserati single seater and sports racing cars were bought. Many had been tucked away after their racing careers were over and quite a few had received engine transplants to keep them competitive.
Brazil in particular proved to be a large and previously untapped market; single trips would often yield half a dozen important vehicles and lots of valuable spares. However, after Crabbe had extracted several dozen cars, the Brazilian authorities imposed a law that prohibited the export of pre-1940 machinery.
This posed a problem when, in 1976, Crabbe discovered an Alfa Romeo 8C 2.3 Monza (chassis 2211138).
Nine months passed until Crabbe got word the car was ready for export in Montevideo, Uruguay; it had been painted jungle green and floated across the Parana River one night by a tribe of indigenous Indians on a home-made raft.
Another significant acquisition was made in 1977 when Crabbe and his friend, Hubertus von Donhoff, recovered a 1938 Auto Union D-type from Czechoslovakia which was still behind the Iron Curtain.
Although the car turned out to have an empty display engine, the transaction was otherwise smooth and Crabbe sold the D-type to American collector, Kerry Payne, who had also purchased Crabbe’s Le Mans-winning Ferrari TR60 two years earlier.
In a stroke of luck, Crabbe was subsequently able to locate a complete Auto Union engine in East Germany which was smuggled back to England.
In 1983, Crabbe closed the restoration side of his business to focus on buying rare vehicles from overseas. He also made his first trip to Cuba which turned out to be another goldmine of machinery. On that maiden visit over the course of seven days, Crabbe acquired a Maserati A6 GCS, BMW 507 and two Jaguar D-types that had been converted to XK SS trim.
A later Cuban deal saw an old Ferrari chassis thrown in free of charge after a disagreement with the price on a consignment of other cars; it turned out to be a Ferrari 500 TRC (0690 MDTR) which Crabbe restored and retained.
In 1988, Crabbe’s involvement in historic racing as a driver came to an end when his 4.5-litre Talbot Lago Grand Prix car was hit by an out of control ERA at Oulton Park. Crabbe was trapped in the car for 45 minutes in what was a very serious accident that involved multiple cars. His rib cage and right hip was shattered and he spent six weeks in an induced coma.
Having recovered, Crabbe spent the years 1989 to 1992 as Head of the Motor Car Department at Christie’s. He then retired although continued to do a little car dealing on the side.
For anyone interested in finding out more about Colin Crabbe’s remarkable life with motor cars, his book Thrill of the Chase published by Dalton Watson comes highly recommended.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Supercar Nostalgia & Wikimedia Commons (Auto Union)
