"Oh Dear" Department

As two different dates were quoted for Hans von Stuck’s appearance at Shelsley Walsh with the Auto-Union, in last month’s article on the famous hill-clintb, it should be made clear that the correct date is June, 1936. We said only the rain prevented Stuck from pulverising the record, which may seem unfair to Raymond Mays, who held it, in 39.6 sec, although he clocked only 41.6 sec that day before the rain arrived. Stuck, in winning his class was 3.6 sec. slower, in a car which was very adversely affected by a wet course, in spite of its twin rear wheels, but whether he could have knocked more than 5.6 sec. off this on a dry course to break, if not pulverise, the then-existing record, should perhaps have heen left to conjecture.

In the same article we stated that Sir Francis Winnington is resident at Court House; although he owns the land on which Shelsley Walsh is situated, the Kirby family are, in fact, now in residence. Then, in “Book Reviews,” I said that Geoffrey de Havilland was killed during the Farnborough Air Display of 1952; in fact, as I well know, it was DH Test Pilot John Derry who lost his life on that occasion, in DH 110. Geoffrey de Havilland was killed before that, when the DH 108 crashed in 1946. And on page 1065 the power of Segraee’s “Miss England II” should have been given as 4,000 h.p. not 400 h.p. Otherwise, apart from a few changed meanings due to displaced cornmas. . DSJ