Ken Wharton

[rw774]

Is there anyone who has information on this great driver?, his achievements,and his background

[eccles]

there's a brief biog of him here.....

www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-whaken.html

and a great photo of him on ebay.....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ORIG-Car-Racing-Press-photo-1951-Ken-Wharton_W0QQitemZ8702145618QQcategoryZ2875QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Hirich]

Quite a tricky one, and I don't know a modern book on him. Your problem is that he drove everything:- ERA, BRM, Cooper, Kieft, Maserati and more, so his story is spread about across several others. There are dozens of cars that claim to be "Ex-Ken Wharton"

Another brief biog is on www.500race.org (look under "Men". Ken's major place in the history books is four straight hillclimb championships with a Cooper Mk IV. surprisingly the 8w site does not yet have a biog for him

So for now I guess you are going to have to Google, then start piecing the different elements together.

[rw774]

Thanks for your help.I will follow up your leads.
Ken finished up winning the 51 Tulip rally in a Ford
Anglia!, with Joy Cook as his navigator. I am also interested in his time with Diamler, in which he raced the Conquest Century .It seems Ken was one of those rare people who were successful in all forms of motorsport during their time

[ettore]

The best place to ask this question is www.atlasf1.com, look at the nostalgia forum - there are plenty of genuine experts that could tell you plenty about Ken Wharton.

[LongQ]

A few pics here fwiw.

www.duerdencollection.com/

Cracking site.

[LongQ]

This site with its reports of the New Zealand GP's of the 1950's and early 60's may be of interest as Ken Wharton was a regular driver there and it was where he was killed in the sports car race preceding the 1957 NZ GP.


www.sergent.com.au


www.sergent.com.au/1957.html

www.sergent.com.au/wharton.html

In one of the earlier races he drove a V16 1.5ltr Supercharged BRM which, apparently, produced 450bhp. That's 300bhp per ltr 50 years ago.

www.sergent.com.au/1954.html

I didn't realise the V16 produced that much power and apparently would rev to about 12000 rpm.

[RW774]

Hi longQ
Thanks for your help on Ken This site, answered a lot of questions re his death but I am having difficulty finding more on his Diamler time.Any ideas anyone?