Dennis (Bill) Elwell-Smith was an outstanding precision engineer who many ways kept vintage and post vintage Aston Martins running. Bill was born on September 11th 1910 and died on his 82nd birthday in 1992.
Bill was one of the founding members of the AMOC when it was re-formed in 1948. His knowledge of early Astons was remarkable and he was the clubs technical consultant on pre war cars for many years.
In 1937 he acquired one of the Aston Martin team cars LM2 that remained with him until his death along with LM 10 when they were bequeathed to his business partner Rob Davies.
Throughout Bill’s ownership of LM2 he participated in numerous events often with much success. This meant LM2 remained competitive for many years maintaining its early competition history. He also competed with another of the team cars LM10 that he also owned. Bill competed for 44 years with both cars in VSCC, AMOC and BDC events.
Bill left school at an early age and following the 2nd World War was able to set up a successful precision engineering business and consultancy. In 1962 he obtained all the pre war car spares, patterns and drawings from Friary Motors . From this point on he built a business manufacturing pre war Aston parts and restoring pre-War Astons. Bill continued this business with his partner Rob Davies.
It is alleged that Bill was a true eccentric who was reputed to be modest and at times dogmatic. Competing in VSCC events he would not be alone as an eccentric. I myself competed in VSCC events and came across a good deal of eccentrics. Like a gentleman that would ride around the paddock with a wind up gramophone fixed to the handlebars and powered by a feather propellor or the likes of Dennis Jenkinson (Moss’s famous co driver on The Mille Miglia) who lived a frugal life with little home comforts. I am sure my wife considers me to wholly eccentric but on the plus side my youngest daughter’s dog loves me, a Black Labrador called Jango.
So in memory of Bill and probably even more eccentrics is the H Elwell-Smith trophy for the first Bertelli 1.5 litre class A to finish in the St John Horsfall Trophy Race.