Grand Prix racing came to life not long after the creation of the motorcar itself. The first event to coin the name was organized by the Automobile Club de France in 1906, some twenty years after Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler presented their Patent Motor Wagen.

The venue for this first Grand Prix was a massive 103.18 kilometer triangular course set around the town of Le Mans. Unsurprisingly, a lap around the humongous track usually took over an hour considering the modest speeds of the contemporary racers, resulting in a 12 hour race length.

Race winner Ferenc Szisz (HUN) in his Renault ahead of Elliot Shepard (USA) in his Hotchkiss, who retired with wheel failure, Le Mans 1906. Race winner Ferenc Szisz (HUN) in his Renault ahead of Elliot Shepard (USA) in his Hotchkiss, who retired with wheel failure, Le Mans 1906.

The race had been held on a closed course as a response to the tragic 1903 Paris to Madrid road race, which had seen numerous casualties among spectators and drivers alike, including Marcel Renault. The inherent danger of racing on unclosed roads was seen as unacceptable, giving rise to a brand new discipline.

In the years that followed, Grand Prix racing became one of the most popular forms of motorsport on the European continent. The format was constantly revised, as cars gained speed and tracks became ever smaller.

Grand Prix racing reached amazing heights in the late 1930s. Grand Prix racing reached amazing heights in the late 1930s.

In 1931, the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs), the precursor to the modern FIA, created the European Driver's Championship.

This kickstarted an era of amazing innovation, as legendary brands like Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz engaged in a fierce technological arms race. In the end the German brands backed by Adolf Hitler's regime managed to thoroughly out-engineer their rivals, seizing a dominant position near the end of the decade.

The 1938 Alfa Romeo 158 found a highly successful second life after the war. The 1938 Alfa Romeo 158 found a highly successful second life after the war.

As Auto Union broke the 600 horsepower mark, the AIACR was already starting to tone down the cars with restrictions. For 1938 supercharged engines were limited to 3 liters in displacement, and the 1940 season was to feature 1.5L engines.

However, a world war intervened, and Grand Prix racing did not return until 1946, when Formula One was defined for the first time. The 1.5L supercharged rule was retained, while naturally aspirated cars were allowed a 4.5L capacity as before the war.

Cars like the humble four cylinder Ferrari 500 took over in 1952. Cars like the humble four cylinder Ferrari 500 took over in 1952.

This formula was used for the first Formula One World Championship in 1950, but lasted for only two seasons. Alfa Romeo's pre-war 158 supercharged monster dominated the category into extinction, as a lack of entrants following relegated the championship to be contested under naturally aspirated 2L Formula 2 rules in 1952 and 1953.

Even though F1 was essentially dead, the desire for bigger power figures and higher speeds remained. So in the same year that saw F1 die out, the Commission Sportive Internationale (another early moniker of the FIA/FISA), announced a new 2.5L naturally aspirated and 750 cc supercharged concept to take effect for the 1954 season.

Coventry Climax started out as a successful producer of stationary engines like this portable FW fire pump. Coventry Climax started out as a successful producer of stationary engines like this portable FW fire pump.

The new regulations attracted the attention of Harry Mundy and Walter Hassan, two leading engineers at British engineering firm Coventry Climax. Mundy had previously worked for Alvis, English Racing Automobiles, Jaguar and BRM, where he had designed the mad V16 engine. Hassan had a similar resume, having been employed by Bentley, ERA and Jaguar before joining Coventry Climax

The company had initially been known for the production of stationary engines used as generators or fire pumps, and the occasional light car. However, when they released the little one liter aluminium Feather Weight engine designed by Mundy in 1950, they received a lot of interest from racing firms, including a young Colin Chapman.

Colin Chapman's Lotus Eleven helped popularize Coventry Climax in racing. Colin Chapman's Lotus Eleven helped popularize Coventry Climax in racing.

Thus the Feather Weight for Automobiles was born in 1953, and Coventry Climax's motorsport career had begun. Following the success of the FWA, Mundy and Hassan saw the opportunity to promote the brand by designing an engine to the 2.5L specification to further promote the brand.

Design work on the new engine started soon after the CSI announcement in 1952, and introduced some quite novel ideas. Harry Mundy and Walter Hassan decide on a 90-degree V8 layout to make the unit compact and with a relatively low center of gravity. Dual overhead camshafts were used, though the engine only sported 16 valves in total.

Other noteworthy features were a twin spark ignition system, and initially a flatplane crankshaft. This type of crank allowed the V8 to operate as if it were two four cylinder engines joined at the hip, thereby evenly distributing the firing intervals between the two cylinder banks.

This inherently balanced layout allows for the deletion of the heavy counterweights needed to properly balance a crossplane layout, and increases the rev limit so the engine can produce more top end power. Mundy and Hassan had set a rather ambitious target of at least 100 horsepower per liter, making the flatplane a good option, but the team encountered a lot of trouble with it.

Aside from the increased noise and vibrations the engine produced in this form, Coventry Climax' engineers were unable to properly balance the inlet and exhaust pulses. This would cause the engine to spray unburnt fuel out its intakes all over the cell it was being tested in.

Not content on having supplying an engine which would occasionally become an impromptu flamethrower, the team abandoned the flatplane in favor of a more traditional crossplane example. Exhaust tuning still remained an issue however, but the team eventually settled on fitting individual straight pipes on each cylinder for peak power rather than low down torque.

A stubby set of individual exhaust was eventually used. A stubby set of individual exhaust was eventually used.

With the fundamental crankshaft issues solved, Harry Mundy and Walter Hassan turned their attention to another key feature of the unique engine. Though preliminary tests had been undertaken with a pack of four traditional twin-choke Solex carburetors fitted, the real intention was to run a novel fuel injection system taken from the aviation industry.

Produced by specialists Skinners Union, the system promised much more efficient combustion, resulting in even more power. Unfortunately, it was quickly found the unit was unable to quickly enrich its mixture as the driver punched the throttle, as it had been designed with the slow acceleration of aero engines in mind.

Weber carburetors replaced the ambitious SU system on the final design. Weber carburetors replaced the ambitious SU system on the final design.

Unable to make the complicated SU design work, Mundy and Hassan resorted to using a battery of Weber carburetors instead. Even with the downgrade, the engine was found to be capable of 240 horsepower at 8500 rpm, running on methanol fuel. As such, it had come agonizingly close to the initial 100 hp/L target.

The finished engine became known internally as the FPE, or Fire Pump Engine, a humorous reference to the FW. With the blessing of Coventry Climax executives, the engine was also branded as "Godiva", after a legendary medieval English noblewoman.

The Kieft 1100 was the first car to utilize the Coventry Climax FWA in 1954. The Kieft 1100 was the first car to utilize the Coventry Climax FWA in 1954.

Pleased with the performance of the first prototypes, the company supplied several to Cyril Kieft's racing organization. Kieft had been active in Formula Three and sportscar racing, and was one of the first backers and users of the Coventry Climax' transition into motorsport. The link gave him the opportunity to become one of the first FPE costumers, along with rival team Connaught.

With Don Parker, the team had won the British Formula Three championship twice in 1952 and 1953 in an innovative mid-engined car also raced by rising star Stirling Moss. After being given exclusive use of the FPE Godiva engine, Kieft readied itself to join the upper echelons of motorsport in its Wolverhampton shop.

Stirling Moss racing a Kieft-BSA 500 cc Formula 3 car, Silverstone 1951. Stirling Moss racing a Kieft-BSA 500 cc Formula 3 car, Silverstone 1951.

With the engine still being tests, a wooden mock up was given to Kieft to facilitate the construction of their chassis. Designer Gordon Bedson came up with an aluminium semi-spaceframe chassis, which incorporated a separate structure supporting the bodywork.

Though the car featured unequal length wishbones on all four corners, the rear axle was still suspended on an old-fashioned leaf spring. On the other hand, the front axle was completely independent, being sprung by coils. The braking system similarly advanced, utilizing the brand new Dunlop disc brakes on all four corners, the same type that would help Jaguar win that year's Le Mans race.

Disc brakes and coilovers were quite the novelty back in 1954. Disc brakes and coilovers were quite the novelty back in 1954.

Interestingly, the dummy FPE was connected to an ENV-Wilson 3-speed pre-selector gearbox as used in the pre-war ERA B-Type racer. To avoid fabricating a special bell housing to fit the ERA, and to improve weight distribution, the unit was connected to the engine by way of a torque tube, and placed slightly ahead of the driver's seat.

Patented by pioneering engineer Major Walter Gordon Wilson in 1928, the pre-selector gearbox drew from his experience designing drive systems for World War I-era tanks. The main advantage of the pre-selector in a time when gearboxes were all completely unsynchronized was the elimination of the clutch pedal.

Instead of having to furiously tap dance his way through constant double de-clutching and rev-matching, the driver could simply select the gear he wanted before he actually needed it. After selecting the next gear, all he had to do was press a pedal on the left hand side next to the throttle.

The gearbox would then immediately engage the gear of he had chosen previously, allowing for a smooth gear change. This made driving the car significantly less labor-intensive, and eliminated the threat of mis-shifting, over-revving the engine or even destroying the transmission itself.

All the great care and consideration Gordon Bedson had taken to produce a lightweight, highly advanced design turned out to be in vain. While the first car was being finished, and a second chassis was already being fabricated, Coventry Climax pulled the rug clean out from under the project.

The company had continued to test and develop the Godiva, and had even found 24 extra horses through better tuning. However, word came through the grapevine that Maserati, Ferrari and newcomers Mercedes-Benz were all in possession of engines capable of producing in excess of 300 horsepower from the off.

The reports sent Coventry Climax management in a blind panic, believing their new engine would become an immediate and very costly failure. Without any warning, the FPE project was promptly terminated. Instead, the firm decided upon cutting the V8 in half, converting it into the successful FPF four cylinder.

Though this worked out perfectly for Coventry Climax, it was a dramatic slap to the face of Cyril Kieft. He had hoped to capitalize on the arrangement by building and selling his F1 design from an auxiliary property in South Wales, allowing him to recoup some of his investment. But with the engine being pulled, he had nowhere to go.

As his fellow prospected Godiva costumers scrambled to find alternative powerplants, Cyril Kieft simply wound his racing business down. The British government had recently allowed for the re-privatization of the steel industry, allowing him to return to his roots.

The team was then sold off to Merrick Taylor, who promptly passed the partially completed GP1 chassis to hillclimb racer "Podge" Dealey. Meanwhile, the other chassis had been modified to become a De Soto V8-powered sportscar.

The Kieft GP1 De Soto sportscar. The Kieft GP1 De Soto sportscar.

Dealey made plans to fit the GP1 with a Chevrolet smallblock V8 to create a hillclimb special, but never followed through. The car was left to its own devices again, before enthusiast Gordon Chapman purchased it with the intent to mate it to the obscure Brooke-Weston 24-valve V8, another aborted 2.5L F1 project.

Chapman never got to work on this idea either however, as he soon learned of the discovery of a batch of FPE Godiva engines and parts. A man by the name of Andrew Getley had bought all five existing engines in the mid-Sixties, one of which he sold to the Shannon F1 project, who converted the engine to the new for 1966 3 liter formula.

The heavily modified FPE Godiva in the back of the Shannon SH1, Silverstone 1966. The heavily modified FPE Godiva in the back of the Shannon SH1, Silverstone 1966.

The rest of the batch ended up with saloon car racer Doc Mirfield in 1968, who handed a complete block over to Bill Lacey of Power Engine Limited, a local Coventry Climax specialist. In his workshop near Silverstone circuit, Lacey stretched it out to 3.0L like the Shannon unit, and made it fit in the engine bay of a Mirfield's Ford Cortina.

However, one of the connecting rods soon self-destructed, and the project was not pursued further, and the remains of the Godiva collection were locked away in Lacey's abandoned shop. It was there that Gordon and Martyn Chapman uncovered the remaining stock, consisting of three engine blocks, two crankshafts, sixteen cylinder heads, over twenty cam covers and two boxes full of smaller parts like timing gears and camshafts.

Sadly, the rebirth of the long-lost F1 racer would be thwarted once again, as Gordon Chapman passed away before being able to rebuild and install an engine in the unfinished GP1. His passing motivated Bob Morris, who had given Chapman the tip concerning the Godiva engines, to buy the entire project and finally realize a full restoration.

As the car had been sitting for ages, its sensitive alloy components had deteriorated to a dangerous degree. Because of this, the wheels, brakes and front wheel hubs were replaced by exact replicas, apart from the rear wheels, which were a damn side wider than the original examples.

With several key parts missing, Morris was forced to engineer his way around several problems. Originally, the engines had featured a reduction gear to reduce the strain it put on the transmission, as Coventry Climax expected its different costumers to use vastly different units.

As the Godiva Morris had completed lacked this reduction gear, he elected to abandon the ENV-Wilson pre-selector transmission in favor of an more forgiving Armstrong Siddeley unit taken from a passenger car. This was also done to avoid excessive wear and tear, as the original transmission lacked a genuine clutch, relying instead on the progressive engagement of the gearbox's band brake in first gear.

The chassis also took some work to properly fit the V8, as it was obviously never made with the real engine as a reference. Additionally, the frame had been damaged by Podge Dealey, who had stated cutting it up in an effort to fit the Chevrolet V8.

Similarly, the original bodywork was modified where needed, adding several louvers and a hood scoop for the carburetors, which were borrowed from an Alfa Romeo Alfasud.

The GP1 at Spa Classic. The GP1 at Spa Classic.

Finally, after 48 long years, the Kieft GP1 was graced with the engine it was intended to house all along in 2002. After a few shakedown tests, the car was raced for the first time at the VSCC's Hawthorn Trophy held at Silverstone.

A a spry 91-year old Cyril Kieft was present for the event, seeing his creation move under its own power after almost five decades. Under his watchful eye, driver Greg Snape guided the car to a 12th place finish from 21st on a grid filled with its better known contemporaries. It seemed like the car had been a step in the right direction after all.

"I was very proud, Bill's done an excellent job." Cyril Kieft.

The Kieft has become an important part of the international classic F1 scene. The Kieft has become an important part of the international classic F1 scene.

Ever since that first appearance at Silverstone, the Kieft GP1 has become an important part of classic racing revival events around Europe. The car has been seen in motion at the Monaco Classic Grand Prix, the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival, and Spa Classic.

At long last, the forgotten racer has found a second lease of life as a recreational speed machine, but one can't help but wonder what it could have done had it been given a chance back in 1954. Frustratingly, Coventry Climax' insecure attitude ultimately proved to be unfounded, as the rumors about 300+ horsepower engines proved to be completely fabricated.

This point was driven home by none other than John Cooper, who took a race winning works Maserati 250F to Coventry Climax for a dyno test. As it turned out, the Italian stallion only produced 225 horsepower, a hefty 39 less than the FPE had been capable of. Without Coventry Climax' cowardice, the innovative GP1 and the FPE Godiva might have had a real fighting chance. Sadly, we will never know.