Fox & Nicholl

FOX AND NICHOLL FROM THE BEGINNING… 

 Arthur Wingrave Fox was born on January 15th, 1886. As a boy, his love of motorcars overcame his family's wish for him to enter farming and at the age of 20, he apprenticed himself to the Wolseley Motor Company, Birmingham. Service with the Ministry of Munitions during the Great War led to an M.B.E., and a continuing career with Wolseleys until a combination of competitive pressure and a difference of opinion lead to his resignation in April 1924. Robert Iltyd Nicholl had been a recruit of Fox, and when the opportunity arose they went into business together. In 1924 the firm of Fox and Nicholl was founded and initial premises in London were replaced when land became available on the new Kingston By-Pass by the village of Tolworth. Located on a busy junction the Tolworth Motor Service Station of Messrs. Fox and Nicholl sprung up, capitalising on the existence of local skilled labour, the growing car-owning population, Brooklands Track and the access to motor sport close by. In the workshops, Donald Wilcockson was joined by Howard Wolfe, whom Fox had coaxed away from Eustace Watkins; and a recent recruit to the sales staff was Basil Manuelle with his old 10/23 Talbot, which kindled Arthur Fox's interest in the make. He had been granted an agency for the impressive new 14/45 Talbot; and was to become one its of the most ardent champions. Bob Nicholl's 2-litre Lagonda was chosen for his opening competition venture in 1927. On the road it was no quicker than the 14/45 Talbot; but at Brooklands it could build up its speed, and in its first season the Fox and Nicholl car-driven by Howard Wolfe began to bring the Firm to the attention of the sporting motorist.

Lagonda saw the 2-litre's promise for long-distance events and were encouraged to run a Works team under Kensington Moir, recruited from Bentleys. However continual misfortune eventually lead to the disbanding of the team. The single Fox and Nicholl car fared better, though its activities had been confined to Brooklands. Perhaps more important than the racing successes, however, was the formation during the year of the Fox and Nicholl racing organisation. At the end of 1928 Fox and Nicholl formed a syndicate to buy the team and run them in the 1929 racing season. The Lagondas came to Tolworth and the season began with a class win but Le Mans was a fiasco, the single car entered blowing its gasket before nightfall, causing considerable financial loss to the Fox organisation. There were some compensations. The racing organisation, both at Tolworth and on the circuits, was becoming really efficient, for fifteen cars finished their races out of the nineteen that started throughout the season. Fox had entered two 3-litre Lagondas in the Essex Six Hours' Race where one of them won its class, causing Lagondas to believe that it bore the brightest of prospects for the 1930 season. Arthur Fox therefore had good reason to anticipate the renewal of his contract to manage a team of 3-litre Lagondas in 1930, so when a letter arrived from Lagondas saying his services were not required, it was a great shock. Fox was determined to beat Lagondas at their own game by putting up a competitor in the same class. Discussions with Vauxhall came to nothing but Fox had been in touch with Warwick Wright Ltd the main Lagonda Distributors in Bond Street, in the hope that they could sponsor a Lagonda team for him. They turned him down; but being also the leading Distributor for the Talbot, they had suggested that he consider the new 18/70. In the nick of time, Roesch's new creation had arrived on the scene; and if Lagondas had retained Fox to manage their 1930 team, the Talbot competition cars would probably never have come into being. Almost overnight Arthur Fox bludgeoned the factory into fitting the new engine into a trio of 14/45 Scout chassis and so was born the Talbot 90 and the first of the Fox and Nicholl Talbot teams. The cars' achievements in the 1930 season, and the 105s that followed them in 1931 and 1932 are well documented in Georges Roesch and the Invincible Talbot by Anthony Blight. "They were superb motorcars - superbly prepared, managed and driven by the Fox and Nicholl team, whose contribution to the results was every bit as important as that of Georges Roesch and his workers at Barlby Road. Highlights included good overall placings and 1st in class awards in the Double Twelve, Irish Grand Prix, Le Mans, the Tourist Trophy and Brooklands 500 in 1931 and 1932." More significantly a Talbot team under Fox's leadership went on to win an Alpine Cup in 1932 without loss of marks.

Never before in the history of the Alpine Trial had a team of three cars finished without losing any penalty points, and the Talbots thus secured the events's first-ever Coupe des Alpes. It is probably true to say that without Fox's intervention, the Talbot 90 and 105 models would never have existed at all; and at the same time the pace of Roesch's development was accelerated, while the sales impact of world-wide publicity helped the firm through very difficult times. Of all the cars that Fox owned and raced, it was the Talbots that he respected most as an engineer and enthusiastic driver. He never dreamed of taking any other cars through the Alpine Trial; and while he could have afforded any car in the world for his personal use, he simply rebodied the old 105 single seater as a saloon and kept it for twenty years, right up to 1952. Following Arthur Fox's decision to retire, Fox & Nicholl was finally closed in 1957, and their premises sold. Bob Nicholl died in 1967 and Arthur Fox in 1971