Archive
Chalenor-Barson’s Specials: Veteran to classic
Specials-builder supreme, not just in the vintage period but right up to the present, I took the opportunity of chatting about these cars with Mr E Chalenor-Barson while he was…
Ernest Chalenor-Barson obituary
Obituary of Ernest Chalenor-Barson, a prolific engineer, who modified a series of Specials
Ernest Chalenor-Barson
It is with personal sadness that I learn of the death, following a long illness, of Chalenor Barson, special builder supreme. I met him in 1991 when he was back in England from Cape Town to where he had emigrated and where in 1940 he competed in local events with one of his Barson Specials which had a prototype 4.4-litre straight-eight Alvis engine, one of only two built.
From the archive
When he was living in Beckenham he took part in a pre-war Brighton Run on an 1896 de Dion Bouton tricycle, and special building occupied him. thereafter all described in Motor Sport for May 1991. This happy enthusiast with the ever-cheerful smile was President of the Cape Town MC and drove in their speed events. He would turn anything into a Special, vintage or modern, for pure enjoyment, starting with an AV Monocar as a basis and coming up to two Honda coupe bodies cut-and-shut to contain a Ford engine. There had been something like a dozen or more by then, with time out to build himself a fine house and an ocean-going yacht. Our deep sympathy to his wife Pearl and family.
×