Vintage miscellany, December 1963

A reader is in desperate need of a 4.08-to-1 crown wheel or a complete axle for a 14/40 Delage. F. J. Gornall of Pilling, near Fleetwood, who died recently, was a pioneer carburetter designer who claimed to have built a car in 1890 and was the inventor of the vulcaniser. The Austin Twelve ice-cream van illustrated recently is a 1930 model and still in use. More hand-operated petrol pumps are reported between St. Columb Major and Newquay. A reader who has a Morgan-Blackburn asks the owner of a similar Morgan he encountered recently in a traffic jam near Victoria Station to ring him again at HAM 0380 and leave an address. Michael Sedgwick, Curator of the Montagu Motor Museum, has been commissioned by Cassell to write a book on the history of the Fiat Company and requests the loan of any information, old photographs or cuttings, etc. Eleven cars of the Amilcar and Salmson Registers took part in the Joint Rally on the Sussex coast last September. Batno’s Amilcar-Riley from Shropshire won the arrival award, Mrs. Rippon, on b.e. tyres from Solihull, being the runner-up. The tests were won by D. Peacock’s Amilcar.

An Australian reader has an 8 h.p. two-cylinder G.W.K. and seeks photos and data, and someone else wants details of the Ensign car. A 1923 Fordson tractor with vintage Junior mid-mounted mower, converted to magneto ignition, is still in use at Melton Mowbray. Another early B.M.W. sports 2-seater, similar to an Austin 7, was seen recently at Cambrils. J. N. D. Scarf is not only running a 3-litre Bentley and the ex-Hawthorn Mille Miglia Frazer Nash, but has saved a 6 1/2-litre Bentley from a henhouse in Wales, where it had lain since 1951 and has the Attenborough Special. The last-named, when found, had a 3.4 Jaguar engine but the original Aston Martin “Atom” engine has been rescued and will be re-installed.

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Recent discoveries.—Readers report as follows: A 1933 model-B Ford 4-door saloon is in danger of being scrapped, and a 1934 Armstrong Siddeley Long 15 saloon is seeking a home, both cars in London. An Edwardian Adler chassis lies rotting in a field in Bedfordshire. A 1937 A.C. Six, a Rolls-Royce-Bentley, an S.S. II and a Marmon, together with several other vintage and p.v.t. saloons, including Rolls-Royce and Talbot, are said to be derelict in Surrey and possibly for sale.

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A Fiat Tipo 52 is reported lying in a rubble dump in Kent.

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The Beaulieu car airfield having been broken up and the Motor Museum has laid down 3,500 sq. yds. of hard standing for club driving tests; this will be available at a moderate charge. Applications should be made to the Museum.

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A new exhibit at the Montagu Motor Museum is Count Lucio’s 1903 24-h.p. de Dietrich one of two he has restored.

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Betty Haig has acquired a p.v.t. in the form of a 328 B.M.W., and Barbara Marshall is working on the first Anzani that she owned some years ago.