10549 Firefly Special driven by Audret Gilbert – body was built 1965 by an American, Bob Blake, who worked for Jaguar
10549 Firefly Special driven by Audret Gilbert – body was built 1965 by an American, Bob Blake, who worked for Jaguar
10549 Firefly Special driven by Audret Gilbert – body was built 1965 by an American, Bob Blake, who worked for Jaguar
Alvis Archive 
I am new to the site and I’m looking for information on the 10549 Firefly Special driven by Audret Gilbert in an archive image. I have an early (pre-World War 2) two man, aluminum body for an American race car that was built by Bob Blake in Arlington Virginia. The 10549 Firefly body was apparently built by Bob Blake in 1965. I am looking for any other images of the Firefly Special to see more of Mr. Blakes work.
I have passed your question to the current owner and will also see what other pictures have been published in the past
I have a single seat race car about 1936, with a boat tail built by R.F. Blake of Arlington. Beautiful design and proportions, would love to know more about this builder.
Andrew, I would love to see pictures of the Bob Blake race car that you mentioned. My two man aluminum Blake body was built by Bob Blake in Arlington around the same time, 1936.
Tim, I cannot add photos via this message box. Please feel free to contact me. I’m trying my best to connect the dots with Bob Blake, Briggs Cunningham and Jaguar with possibly Ted Horn thrown in the mix. Anyone that can provide information about Bob Blake’s early career, pre Cunningham Co. , would be vastly appreciated. Anyone know how Blake and Cunningham met ?
Your car body is intriguing as it is a two seater, seems very Indy to me. Don’t know of any two seater dirt track cars…but there’s a lot I don’t know at this point.
Update. We now have the R.F. Blake bodied Sprint car up and running with its Riley heads and Riley Carbs. I’ve learned a great deal more about Bob Blake and his career at Cunningham and Jaguar. The Jaguar book “ Cat out of the bag “ by Peter Wilson is a fabulous resource and wealth of information. It details Bob Blake’s tremendous involvement with the XKSS, the light weight E-types and the XJ13.
Mr Bob Blake’s work on LeMonstre , Cunningham’s LeMans entry is well documented and information readily available. Based upon Bob being born Aug 1914, graduating in 1935, I have copies of his draft registration and Sr. Class photo. At 6’4” he’s pretty easy to spot ! My best guesstimate at this point is our Sprint Car, the two seater Indy car were all made in his fathers garage in Arlington, VA between his graduation in 1935 and 1941 when he went into the service. Without a doubt he his doing work, building Sprint bodies for Ted Horn in Patterson, NJ, I think the Hinnershitz connection is via his driving for THE. After looking at thousands of Sprint car photos, the Wards Riverside Tires car with Ted behind the wheel is a VERY interesting picture, here it’s car #1. Later numbered #5 ( Hinnershitz?) and with Joie Chitwood #8. Same car, different race numbers . I don’t know how Bob Blake meant Ted Horn, perhaps hanging around the tracks or his phenomenal skill got him noticed.
My Riley heads and Carbs are dated about 1940/41; they weren’t made post WWII. We know Mr. Blake repaired an Alfa 6C gas tank for Alec Ullman which led him to Briggs Cunningham via the LeMans race repair . He was staying in England with his wife whom he had meant while in the Service when he was called by Briggs who asked if he could travel from England to the race in France. The rest they say: “is history “.