V-to-C Miscellany, August 1995, August 1995
The Lea-Francis OC’s celebrations of 100 years of Lea & Francis went well at Stanford Hall in June, with dinner afterwards and an address by Mr A B Price. The programme listed L-F machinery of all kinds, from 1902 pedal cycle to every type of car, down to the modern Jaguar-powered Lea-Francis. These included a dozen Hyper sports-cars, all three types of the very rare 6-cylinder cars, John Fellows’ Vulcan-built twin-cam 14/40, Bob Elliot Pyle’s sole-surviving 16/60 and two single-ohc Ace-of-Spades cars. These were joined by some 26 other vintage models, 20 P-type 12/40s, to the sole-remaining 1923 D-type owned by J Woodhouse.
At the celebration dinner at Stoneleigh the Guest of Honour was the son of designer Hugh Rose, and John Lea (ex-racing mechanic who worked at the factory in the vintage years) was present on the Sunday. Members came from Australia and New Zealand. Peter Watson drove his 1951 14hp saloon down from Aberdeen, and Erik Skreiner brought a 14-Sports all the way from Vienna. Tom Delaney, the Club President, won the driving tests, John and Nicole Walsh, the latter in “flapper’s” attire, the Concours d’Elegance, judged by Lady Braye.
Most of the one-make clubs and registers have their own magazines, which should keep the editors of professional journals on their tip-toes. We have from time to time mentioned various club publications and we see that the Austin Ten DC (Drivers’ Club, as distinct from catering only for restorers and beauty-prize contenders!) has long run a full-size magazine of glossy paper and clear pictures. The June issue lists 43 new members, with cars ranging from a 1929 Austin 20 tourer to a 1947 Ten saloon, this club catering for the larger Austin cars and not confining itself to vintage models. The President is Clive Loveless, the membership secretary Bill Colliver, 4 Hayes Close, Pinton, Nottingham, and the National ATDC Rally is to be held near Stow-on-the Wold on July 28.
Continuing the theme, the Riley RM Club has its own similar magazine, R-Memoranda, containing useful data on these later Rileys, the enrolment secretary being Jacque Manders, Y Fachell, Ruthin Road, Gwernymyndd, Mold, Clewd, and all the long-lived one-make magazines seem to flourish — Bugantics, the BDC Review, the highly respected VSCC Bulletin and RR EC’s Bulletin, the jolly FN Chain-Gang Gazette, the printed Amilcar Register Newsletter, the Bristol OCS Bulletin, the VMCC’s Vintage Motor Cycle, the exciting Morgan 3-Wheeler Club’s Bulletin, the Vintage Austin Magazine of the VAR, the 750 MC’s overall Bulletin, the more history-orientated Magazine of the A7 from the A7CA, the Daimler & Lanchester Club’s Driving Member, the AM Magazine, the delightful Brooklands Society Gazette, The Jowetteer, embracing all cars of the Jowett CC, and so many more, together with the newssheets of the smaller clubs. Forgive me for omissions.
The VSCC’s President from March 1996 to 1998 will be David Marsh, who has taken a prominent part in the Club’s competitions and affairs for many years.
A French resident who saw the “Forgotten Makes” piece on the Berliet and whose wife is the grand-daughter of Marius Berliet and the daughter of Henri Berliet is seeking a large pre-WWI car of this make or a 1920s six-cylinder Berliet tourer. If anyone has such a car for disposal, or can provide any facets of Berliet history, letters can be forwarded.