1936 ADLER RACE CAR - Ex Charlie Manders

This story is one of a successful competitive driver and his Adler racecar.
Charlie Manders was 250 cc Motor cycle champion in the late 1920`s. He set up an Adler dealership in Dublin selling Adler motor cars imported from Germany. He was a very successful private entry racing driver and drove cars such as Delages and Sunbeams , Mg`s etc as well as Adlers .

For himself to race Charlie had built, regardless of the costs, in England using the chassis of an Adler Trumpf Junior, a single seat racing car. This car went on to campaign in Ireland in the 1930`s up until the war.
The car was very successful in its class and indeed at times was as fast as the bigger engine 1500cc cars;
he raced with drivers such as Prince Bira, Earl Howe, Sammy Davis, ER Hall, A Dobson etc in Phoenix Park, Taillight, Cork and Ards etc.
Charlie Manders used his car racing, which included some modified two seater cars to promote his business and many of his customers were allowed to take away cars from the works to race at weekends,
He was involved in 1937 in a major accident with a Riley in a handicap race meeting in Taillight, but both drivers and the Adler survived without serious injury.
Throughout his career with the Adler the little Junior was always up at the front end in races in Southern Ireland and during this time the car was developed by one of the most highly regarded racing mechanics of the time, who was Willie Wilkinson, who was also a very accomplished racing driver in his own right.
This single seater Adler is without doubt the most successful Adler Trumpf Junior racecar of its time and is a unique piece of Motor racing history from Germany, Ireland and England.
It has been the subject of a fifteen-year re build and tuning, by Brian Wilson and is now brought back to its present condition so that the story can continue today.