V-E-V Odds & Ends., April 1975

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Somewhere in Wales a 1932 20/25 Rolls-Royce Barker saloon is seeking a good home.
A pre-war Triumph Dolomite with open bodywork, thought to have been a rally car, was in danger of being scrapped after overhaul but is now likely to be saved.
The Midland Austin 7 Club is inviting members of all clubs belonging to the Austin 7 Clubs Association to its Longbridge Rally on May 24/25th. Details from N. A. Bateman, 9B, Drury Lane, Solihull, Warwickshire.
The “History on Wheels” Museum at Syon Park has closed down but a new display, under new management, is scheduled to open there in the Spring, called “The World of Wheels”.
News comes from Queensland of a 1927 Essex still in the hands of its 88-year-old first owner, who has driven it 80,000 miles without an accident or any major trouble. It appears to be a four-cylinder two-seater model, which cruises at 40 m.p.h. Many offers for it have been refused.
A sectioned Model-T Ford engine, believed to be the only one in existence outside the Science Museum in London, came up for auction in the Muir of Ord recently. It had been bought as part of a job-lot in a sale at Brora, in Scotland, a year previously, and appears to include the two-speed planetary transmission.
Among the glass negatives left by an old Dereham photographer when he died two years ago was one of a solid-tyred single-decker United ‘bus, with oil sidelamps and probably gas headlamps, running on the Norwich-Hethersett-Wymondham service; as this is a side view, the make is uncertain.
A race for vintage cars, sponsored by Maritime Hotels, is to be held September 12/24th, as part of an International rally between Hamburg and Lubeck.
The race is for vintage racing and sports cars, over the ADAC circuit. Details from: Maritim Hotelgesellschaft GmbH, 6000 Frankfurt a. Main, Ulmenster 5, Germany.
In Australia eleven years ago a Frenchman found a circa-1900 four-cylinder Gardner-Serpollet steam car, at a remote cattle station in Georgetown, in a generally good state of preservation. Even the various gauges had been carefully stored in a drawer in the adjacent house, in case they might have come in useful on other steam equipment. The instruction manual in English and French was also intact. The car was given to the finder, who has restored it and intends to put it in a transport museum at Rutherglen, near Victoria. Apparently sums of up to 80,000 Australian-dollars have been refused for the car. Two years ago it made a 130-mile journey from Cairnes and Townsville and it is said to be capable of 58 m.p.h. It is described as the very rare 12 h.p. four-cylinder chain-drive model but the detachable-rim wheels and vintage-type Dunlop tyres with which it is now shod are not the original ones. It seems that this Gardner-Serpollet was sold originally to someone in York, England, and later exported to Australia, where it is believed to have been used for a short period by the French Consul in Sydney. In 1904 it was bought at an auction by a travelling photographer, who sold it to the owner of the cattle station where it was unearthed. It was used by the rancher to take his son to Forsayth, the nearest railhead, when he joined the Forces in 1914/18 as a volunteer, a return journey of 74 miles, but it was unused from 1918 until discovered, as recounted, in 1964.
The STD Register announces that its annual Wolverhampton pilgrimage will happen on July 6th, following a visit to Crick Tram Museum, and that it is planning a 25th Anniversary event for September 27/ 28th. Among the interesting cars its members are using or restaging are a 1924 Sunbeam 20/60 Plaxton saloon, a 1922 Sunbeam Fourteen, a 12/16 Sunbeam, a 1919 24 h.p. Sunbeam once used by the sister of the Chilian Ambassador, a 1913 12/16 Sunbeam that was burned and buried in 1916 but has its original bearings, pistons and even piston rings, and the 1922 8 h.p. Talbot-Darracq that ran in the 1935 RAC Rally.
A 25 h.p. Sunbeam limousine may come on the market next month and a garage in Wales seems to have disposed recently of a Roesch Talbot.
Many vintage and veteran vehicles are expected to take part in “The Yesterday Show” at Rushmore Arena, near Aldershot, on July 20th.
We have been sent a picture of Armstrong Siddeley AXC 1 being polished by four hotel maids while its driver is being served breakfast at the wheel by a waiter, during the 1934 RAC Rally. The car has inbuilt headlamps and a full-width body with vestigial front wings, thought to have been styled by Capt. Fitzmaurice, of Singer “Airstream” fame. The person who sent the picture asks if anyone can confirm this and say where this picture of exceptional service, or the publicity gimmick, if it was one, was taken. Our records show that the car was, in fact, a Siddeley Special entered by G. Wansborough; its body was said to give an extra six m.p.h.
We regret to report the death of Vernon Balls, the wellknown Amilcar driver. Mr. E. Wilkinson, who sold Bugattis in Scarborough and looked after the late Cynthia Turner’s cars, died in hospital in his 80s recently.