That same year Alfred left Riley Cycle Company and took over the Coventry Motor & Sundries business, establishing Grindlay Sidecars.
In addition to his contribution to the British motor industry, Grindlay was a prominent Coventry City Council member.
Alfred Stephen Chaplin Grindlay was born in 1909 and joined his father and older brother into the automotive industry.
In 1938 he married Francis Phyllis Burchell, an accomplished horse rider who played the role of Lady Godiva during the Coventry Hospital Carnival in the early 1930s.
[13] On Easter Monday 1934, Alfred fell 150 ft while climbing in North Wales, landing on a narrow ledge above a sheer cliff edge.
[15][16] Born around the turn of the 20th century, Lacey first started racing at Brooklands in 1922 on a 499 cc (30.5 cu in) Rudge Multi.
Meticulous in both his dress and motorcycle preparation, the tough but light Lacey was the ideal racer, weighing in at only 8.5 stone (119 lb; 54 kg).
Winning his coveted Brooklands Gold Star (awarded for a rider's first 100 mph (160 km/h) and over lap in a given class) in 1927 on his 498cc Grindlay Peerless, he hit the headlines again in 1928 by becoming the first rider to cover over 100 miles (160 km) in a single hour, riding a 500 cc (31 cu in) machine on British soil, again at Brooklands.
[17] The personally modified 498cc Grindlay Peerless (Lacey fashioned his own pushrods, their tubes, cams, rocker gear and rocker box castings and used an experimental Brampton front-fork which had progressive friction dampening) covered 103.9 miles in the hour for a Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) world record.
[18] In 1929 at Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, France, Bert Denly broke Lacey's record on an AJS motorcycle.
[19][20][better source needed] After his retirement from racing, Lacey based himself in Slough to focused on managing his precision engineering business where he tuned and modified both cars and motorcycles for customers and friends.
Following this, Bill Lacey again retired from motorcycling, to concentrate on race car engine preparation, particularly GP units.
Beart holds the unbroken record for the Test Hill of 6.99 seconds (an average of 34.55 mph), riding a Grindlay Peerless fitted with a 500cc speedway type J.A.P.
He also helped sort out the handling, screwing the Grindlay's steering damper down tight, which cured it of a tendency to 'wobble' at high speed.
With the costs of racing the Grindlay becoming prohibitive, Baragwanath had to rebuild the engine twice, on the second occasion following a major blow-up in 1937, Tubb retired the bike and after World War II its use was confined to sprinting.