Cyril Paul

Cyril John Paul (1903-1984) was a British racing driver who drove at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Racing Career and Le Mans
Cyril John Paul worked for Riley tuning specialist Freddie Dixon and raced a variety of cars throughout his career.

Paul was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire in 1903. He worked for Riley tuning specialist Freddie Dixon and raced a variety of cars throughout his career.

He Started out hillclimbing and broke the Shelsley Walsh record with his Beardmore in 1924,

1928 at the Tourist Trophy race was run on a new road-course venue at Newtownards just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland. The event was open to production standard, sports and touring cars in full road-equipped configuration, and as at Le Mans, the cars would have to start the race with the hoods up, and carry a mechanic or co-driver for the full distance. Austro-Daimler, through their London offices, assembled a team of three cars to be driven by Lesley Callingham, Cyril Paul and Hugh Mason.

1930 was the last year the Alvis Works raced. They had finally developed the FWD Straight Eight into a reliable racing car. Paul had possibly one of the best drives of his career to claim fourth on both scratch and handicap.

In 1931 he won the BRDC 500 Brooklands driving Jack Dunfee in a Bentley.

The 1934 season opened somewhat dolefully for the team with the Junior Car Club’s International Trophy at Brooklands, However, Cyril’s Riley, from the slowest group, ran fourth.

Next on the home calendar, at the end of May, was the Mannin Beg run by the R.A.C. round the streets of Douglas, Isle of Man. The race was open to cars of up to 1500cc unsupercharged and 1100cc blown, the main contenders being a flock of supercharged Magnettes and a brace of very special 1500cc Rileys prepared by Freddy Dixon and driven by himself and Cyril Paul. Freddy Dixon, who had led for a considerable part of the race, retired, while Cyril finished sixth.

He went to Le Mans with Freddy Dixon where they came a creditable third.

In 1936 he drove the ERA R7B 1.5litre R7B with a 1.5litre engine. The car had a white paint scheme and a chrome plated radiator and was built for Arthur Dobson. Cyril Paul drove it for the first three races, until Dobson took over.