Miscellany, April 2001
The gremlins got at last month’s piece on the GP Opels. The last line of the paragraph commencing “It passed to Bill Short…” should have read: “…this Opel (the Westwood/ Lindsay car) then joined Mavro’s as a respected VSCC competitor.”
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Montlhery track has had a reprieve until 2004. But make the most of it while those vintage meetings in the style of the 1930s are held in such a happy atmosphere, with Lalique sponsorship. The next one is on 21/22 April, Tel. 00 33 1 6424 2127.
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This year’s Brooklands Society Reunion is on 1 July. Last year Aston Martin was the invited make; this time it is to be Bentleys. The usual Test Hill ascents and banking runs by all manner of cars and motorcycles promises a great occasion.
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George Stanton has rebuilt the 1923 14/40 HE which the late Alan Southon, who ran the Phoenix Green Garage when the VSCC met in the hotel there, had made into a special during the war years. He had kept it as original as possible, except for having to resort to 14/40 Vauxhall axles.
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The Ford Special which had made FTD at the 1951 Gosport speed-trials and which I tried for Motor Sport the following year to see how an American Ford V8 ‘Hot-Rod’ performed, is being rebuilt by Alan Collins in Malden. It was brought back to England and his son now owns it. It is scheduled to appear, largely unchanged, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
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Almost all the major one-make clubs have full-scale magazines, and the smaller registers and clubs useful bulletins or newsletters, as those of the Trojan OC, Humber Register, Fiat Register, Crossley Register and Gwynne 8 Register. The Clyno club has a four-page sheet, the Clyno Gazette, for owners of Clyno cars and motorcycles, its title taken from the Rootes inserts which appeared for a time in The Autocar‘s advertisement pages in the 1920s. The latest has a picture of 10 Clyno flat-radiator 12/35 taxis, some of which were shipped to Hong-Kong, but others used in Birmingham. The club secretary is Ron Sulman, Swallow Cottage, Langton Farm, Burbage Common Road, Elmesthorp, Leics LE9 7SE.
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May I say that the C-Type and D-Type Auto Unions which will be demonstrated at the VSCC/HGPCA race meeting at Donington in May, exciting though this one-off occasion will undoubtedly be, are not the actual cars which won the 1937/38 grands prix, as has been stated. I don’t think Auto Union Tradition have ever made such a claim. The engine of the D-Type 3-litre is, however, that from the car driven in 1938 by Christian Kautz, who retired after the second lap when he hit a bank. WWII caused these fabulous AUs to be scattered, and only a few have been found and restored to running order.
The VCC’s magazine Veteran Car, has an eight-page account of the Kelvin in issue 275, a car made from 1904 by the well-known marine-engine concern, but a make little known about until now. There are also excellent colour pictures of the Club’s events and cars, not always found in Club journals, including a splendid study of the 1875 Grenville steam-carriage passing Big Ben at 8.42 am on last year’s Brighton Run. The club is to ‘visit VSCC Headquarters on 31 March, has a rally at Old Hunstanton on 20/22 April, a Cheltenham Rally.on 11/13 May and, on 20 May, will re-enact its first Croydon-to-Eastbourne Run of 1931.
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Last year, the Northants section of the VMCC held a version of the Castle Ashby speed-trial, first held in 1906 (FTD: the Rev W Pratt, 16hp FIAT), and this is to be held again on 2 September at Castle Ashby House. The estate is off the A426; racing starts at noon. Admission £3, children 5-16 £1.50. The contact is M Laundon on 01604 586144.
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It was splendid that David Masher commented that the ban on traction-control in F1 may be the nail in the coffin of true driver skill in grand prix racing. How right to make this important point! I was privileged to see the wheel-spinning, oversteering Mercedes-Benz W125 in action pre-war. Difficult cars to drive effectively, so much so that, despite their purpose as Nazi propaganda, top foreign drivers had to be added to the team. Cross-armed cornering was definitely the norm, certainly with the rear-engined Auto Unions, which only Bernd Rosemeyer conquered at first.
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Congratulations. The only car to clean the dreaded Simms Hill in this year’s MCC Exeter Trial was Ian Williamson’s ex-`Cream Cracker’ MG, which won the pre-war class.
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The Bexhill Festival of Motoring is to be staged at Bexhill-on-Sea on May 6/7, from 10am to 5.30pm each day. Public entrance is free and owners of classic older cars will parade along the former speed-trial course and through the town. Concours d’Elegance prizes will be awarded, with a class for female beauty. A replica of the Serpollet steamer which took the Land Speed Record at Nice at 75.06mph and then ran at Bexhill will be on show. More details are available from The Festival Director, Brian Starkey, on 01424 730504.
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The Jowett CC’s 2001 rally will be held in Coventry on May 25-28 with classes for all types of Jowett cars and commercials, including Bradfords and special-bodied Jupiters, etc, of which its monthly Jowetteer has many pictures. More details are from available from D R Grounds, on 0121 355 1488.