miscellany, August 2001

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miscellany

ANOTHER 1920s BROOICLANDS car which has survived is the 2-litre straight-eight Miller owned by Karl F Bloechle of Zurich. Mr Bloechle drives it on the road quite often and it has come here to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, has run in the Niirburgring’s Oldtimer GP and taken part in the 1998 Klausen hillclimb commemoration event. When Count Zborowski raced it, it was white but now wears

a different livery. RICHARD NOBLE’S THRUST SSC,

which broke the Land Speed Record and the sound barrier at 763.035mph in 1997, a wonderful British effort, will soon be on view at the Museum of Road Transport in Coventry. It was possible to purchase it thanks to a £510,000 grant from the Lottery Trust; the rest of the 1,680,000 purchase price came from the Prism Fund, Coventry City Council, and Museum funds. The Museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm, admission free. Thrust II now belongs to the nation; it will soon be displayed on an impressive exhibition stand of its own.

OF CLUB MAGAZINES, THOSE detectable historic BMWs are nicely catered for in the BMW Club magazine Bee Emm Words, edited by Mark Garfitt, and pre-1960 Renaults in Direct Drive, publication of the Renault Freres Club; the current issue of the latter has the best verse about having an old car restored that I have seen.