The 1989 Lucas British F3 Championship
The 1989 Lucas British F3 Championship Barrie Hinchcliffe Productions Limited, Boston House, 36138 Fitzroy Square, London, W1P 5LL. Released by Virgin Vision. Running time —/75 mins. £9.99
nce again Hinchcliffe has come up with the goods. 1989 was a memorable year and this video captures every significant passing manouevre an incident to make it a precious record. As expected, the Brabharn/ Stewart/Warwick clan get maximum exposure (this footage was aimed at the casual Grandstand viewer as well as the enthusiast), but there is also plenty of opportunity to see Richard Dean, Gary Ward and, indeed, some of the Class B boys showing off their skills to a wider audience. Rule books don’t attract viewers, so don’t blame BHP for only a brief insight into the engine arguments. The viewer is led, however, to believe that McNish is the champion. A comment at the end of the final race to the effect that Brabham may still win in the courts would have been a fairer way of concluding the tape. PHM
Not to be outdone by the VSCC chaps and their Measham Night Rally, the Morgan 3-wheeler Club has its own night trial with, what is more, tests at the various controls. Last year’s event, run in heavy rain in Cheshire countryside, had eleven entries. The winner’s cup went to J. Shirley and J. Walters.
Classic cars down to the Sixties were due to take part in the replica Monte Carlo Rally during January. With the cars starting from Glasgow on January 28, they cross the Channel from Dover to Calais and complete the 2000 mile ordeal at Monte Carlo during the night of January 30/31. Once in the Principality, the competitors then start polishing for a traditional concours, with the Palace of Prince Rainier handing out cups to the survivors on February 1.
The entry list was originally limited to 60, but the organisers were able to swell the hotel accommodation to take an extra eight cars. These range from Tony Moy’s 1925 3-litre Bentley to a virtual revival of the famous Rootes rally team with Humber Snipes, Sunbeam Talbots, Hillman Minxes and Sunbeam Rapiers dominating the list with arch-rival teams in BMC cars, from 1960 Mini 850s, Austin A40s, Austin Westminsters, MG Magnettes to Healey 3000s.
The Historic Rally Car Register, the only club that fosters interest in classic rallying, has seen a “cabinet re-shuffle” among its top appointments with the aim of strengthening the service to members, which now tops the 1000 mark for the first time.
Martin Jubb is relinquishing his role as Membership Secretary so as to concentrate on the ever more time-consuming job of Competitions Secretary. The vacated post will be taken up by Alison Woolley who expands her role in the club from that as Editor of the magazine Old Stager.
While Jubb is Competitions Secretary, the committee has appointed Classic Marathon organiser Philip Young to handle enquiries for information on foreign events. This is a new service and follows from the “twinning” of the Register with the Historic Racing Club of Italy, the two clubs having agreed to exchange information through the Classic Marathon office in Tunbridge Wells. The Register hopes to be able to send a British team to the Coppa Dolomite regularity event in Cortina in September, and in return, see a bigger contingent of Italians in the Register’s two prestige events, the Monte Carlo Challenge and the Marathon.
Jeremy Hall has resigned from the post of Chairman due to pressure of work, so Vice President Don Pither reins as acting Chairman until the next AGM in April.
Robin Stretton is responsible for club regalia and Bill Price remains as Registrar handling the FIA Historic Identity Forms.
The Bognor Regis Centre, Belmont Street, Bognor Regis is the venue for an evening of nostalgic motor sporting films organised by Clive Sayer and film producer Bill Mason on the evening of Thursday, February 8. It is an excellent opportunity for enthusiasts to see some rare films in full 35mm cinema format including the 1949 British Grand Prix, the 1958 Coupe des Alpes, Round the ‘Ring with Graham Hill in 1963 and Racing Reborn and The Champions from the History of Motor Racing series. At the time of going to press all these films are subject to availability.
Tickets for the Film show are available from the Bognor Regis Centre Box Office, Belmont Street, Bognor Regis (0243 865551) at £3.00 each. All profits made will be donated to St. Wilfrid’s Hospice at Chichester. The 1989 Film Show raised a sum in
excess of £500 for this worthy cause and it is hoped to better this with the 1990 event.
Classic car restoration, body and paintwork and motorsport and kit car courses are being organised by the North Trafford College of Talbot Road, Stretford, Manchester. From the leaflets supplied, all the courses look roughly the same with welding techniques, soldering, painting taught on all three, but the body course is obviously less mechanically orientated than the other two.
All the courses are designed to enable the participants to make full use of all the facilities, including the rolling road and brake rollers, with instruction and guidance from lecturers who are also Group 2 scrutineers.
The ten week sessions involve three hours per week with the last in the current academic year commencing March 5 finishing May 26. Each of the three courses costs £29.10. A phone call to John M Johnson on 061-872 3731 ext. 61 will secure a place. Enrolment and fee payment can be dealt with on the first evening of attendance.
The third London International Classic Car Show will be held at Alexandra Palace over the weekend of March 9-11. The MG Car Club will be launching its 60th anniversary celebrations with a central feature of MG from the Twenties to the Eighties. For enthusiasts of pre-war cars the Morris Register will be mounting a display of a dozen Morris vehicles from the Twenties and Thirties. The show will also mark the launch of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Morris Register.
More than 60 club stands will vie for attention while an autojumble will be situated in the organ gallery area of the Great Hall. All three days of the show will feature an auction. On Friday, there will be just one lot, this being a programme from the
1988 Le Mans race, but unique in that it has been signed by the entire pit crew, management and drivers of the winning Jaguar team. All proceeds will go to research into cot deaths in the United Kingdom.
The Saturday auction for vehicles under £15,000 is aimed exclusively at the enthusiast who wishes to purchase a classic to drive and maintain himself. Sunday’s sale will be for vehicles with a value over £15,000.
Advance tickets, which at £4.00 each are £1 cheaper than when purchased on the day, are available from Greenwood Exhibitions, PO Box 230, Tring, Herts. HP23 5PU.
The 11th Bristol Classic Car Show will take place at The Bristol Exhibition Centre on 17th and 18th March at which The Morris Minor Owners Club, which was awarded the Best Club Prize in 1989, will be the special feature. Further information from Kay Hocking on 0272 701370.
Over the Easter Bank holiday, Sunday, April 15 and Monday April 16, Harewood House at Leeds will host the Yorkshire Festival of Transport. There will be classes for all types of veteran, vintage and classic vehicles as well as classes for kit cars, custom cars, vintage farm machinery and stationary engines.
Attractions over the two days include an Air Display, an autojumble, and both club and trade displays.
Further details and information can be obtained from: Geoff or Linda Price, 37 Comberford Drive, Tiffany Green, Wednesbury, West Midlands WSIO OUA. Tel.: 021-502 3713.
Club Lotus are organising a festival at Stoneleigh Exhibition Centre, near Coventry, on the weekend of April 21/22. Events will include two days of technical seminars and historic lectures about Lotus cars, a concours d’elegance with cash prizes and trophies, a wide variety of Lotus related trade stands, Lotus race preparation stands and the first Lotus auction.
Full details from Club Lotus, Lotus Lodge, PO Box 8, Dereham, Norfolk NR19 1TF. Tel.: 0362 694459. Fax.: 0362 695522.
The North of Scotland Motor Show is due to take place over the weekend of May 5/6 and Monday May 7 in the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. Apart from the latest crop of new models, the organisers are planning to feature veteran and vintage cars as well as rally and racing cars. The last North of Scotland Motor Show held in 1988 attracted 30,000 visitors from all over Scotland which the organisers hope will be bettered this time.
The Club d’Automobiles Anciennes & Rallyes (CAAR) is celebrating its first birthday this month. Based in Paris, the club now has satellites in Germany, Holland and North America.
Last year the club organised a three week tour of the USA and intends to follow this up with tours along the Rhine valley in July and, being French, a Wine Harvest Rally through the vineyards of France during the grape-picking season. In 1991 an Amsterdam-MoscowAmsterdam tour is being proposed.
Owning a car that is at least 20 years old is the only condition of membership plus the annual fee of 30 ECUs (!) (approx. £20.00).
More information can be obtained from CAAR International, 13 Rue Montorgueil, 75001 Paris, France.
The Bristol-based Tavern Motor Club are planning an historic rally for May 7. Sponsored by Sixties Cars of Caerlon, Gwent the new one day Rally Bristowe, a name revived by the club from its past, will cover a 250 mile route from Bristol to Exmoor and back. The whole event will run at 30 mph average speed and will include a couple of ‘tests’ en route.
Apart from being challenging and demanding, the club is organising what promises to be a pleasant social occasion with a buffet lunch and an end of rally dinner.
Even before the regulations have been printed over 80 crews have declared an Interest in participating in the event which is limited to 120 cars. Further details can be obtained from rally oganiser Paul Lewis on 0272 423021. We commend events which are re-runs of classic originals and another very interesting one should be the Alpine Reliability Trial which the Rolls-Royce EC proposes to hold in 1993, to commemorate the fine performance of four 40/50s in the 1913 Trial, which ran 1654 miles out and back to Vienna and embraced 19 punishing Alpine passes. The re-run is to follow
the 1913 conditions and rules as closely as possible and will be mainly for Ghosts (no pun intended!), with co-operation from the RROC of America. It will be interesting to see how many owners of these now so valuable cars will be prepared to subject them to this historic ordeal.
The R-REC elected 163 new members in the last two months of 1989, many of them with more than one Rolls-Royce or Bentley, a remarkable club. Its AGM is at the Royce Memorial Building on April 29.
Yet another Trust relating to motoring history is to be set up, the British Motor Centenary Trust which is to concern itself with the centenary of the British Motor Industry that is to be celebrated in 1996. The Trust intends to concern itself with education to GCSE and A-level standards, the publication of a comprehensive history through Haynes Publishing, a research scholarship with perhaps a University Chair, exhibitions, industry promotion, rallies and other events. The Trust operates from 49 Pall Mall, London, SW!.
The 1990 Colchester Classic Vehicle Show will be held on Sunday May 13, 1990 at the Colchester Institute, Colchester. Entries will include cars, commercial vehicles, military vehicles, customised vehicles and motor cycles with 1973 the cut-off date. There will also be club displays, an auto jumble and trade stands as well as two new areas for “classics for sale” and “steam power”. Details from June Whitaker, Colchester Institute, Sheepen Road, Colchester, Essex CO3 3LL. Tel.: 0206 761660 ext. 27613. Fax: 0206 763041.
The Chester Festival of Transport, in aid of the Hospice of the Good Shepherd, will be held on the Roodee on Sunday, 20th May at 11.00am. The event will be preceded by a parade of approximately 800 veteran and vintage vehicles through the City.
One of Britain’s biggest motoring events takes place on Bank Holiday Sunday, May 27 when up to 1000 cars take part in the Norwich Union RAC Classic Run. From eight separate starts around England, each route covers around 150 miles before converging at Donington circuit.
Open to four-wheeled passenger cars built before the end of 1970, the Classic Run attracts a unique mixture of old-car enthusiasts and celebrities. A choice of three new starts are available for those starting in the south east (Oxford, Woburn, Brocket Hall), Bath for the south west, Norwich for East Anglia and Stockport and Harewood for the Midlands and the north. An all new route for Edwardians starts at Donington and covers just 75 miles before returning to the circuit. Entries cost £60 per car (£25 for the short Donington route) and close March 1. Regulations and entry forms can be
obtained from RAC MSA, Motor Sports House, Riverside Park, Colnbrook, Slough, SL3 OHG.
The 1990 Bugatti OC International Rally will be based on N. Wales but ending at Prescott, between May 28 and June 3. The entry fee for both parts of the Rally will be about £190. Details from Mrs Ward, Prescott Hill, Cheltenham, GL52 4RD.
The Dutch run English car rally will be held in south Holland on the weekend on June 9th and 10th. Devoted to English motorcars of the past and present, the rally attracts in the region of 1000 cars.
There is also a slalom/sprint and concours for all those who wish to enter on the Sunday, and for those who wish to make a weekend of it, there will be tours of the local countryside and a Bar-B-Q.
The total cost of the weekend, including bed-and-breakfast, is FL.60 per person which should be sent to Kees v. Schuppen, Warmondstr. 3, 4273 EW hank, Holland. Entries close March 1 and the entry is limited to 125 cars.
Among the overseas events which these days attract such good entries of vintage cars is the VCC of New Zealand’s 2nd International Pan Pacific Rally to be held in 1992. In conjunction with it the “Monte Carlo Rally” arriving at Palmerston North on February 10 aims to bring competitors over the last part of their journey to the start of the Pan Pacific event of February 8-21. Entries of up to 1000 are visualised, for vehicles made prior to 1961. Although a long way ahead, those who like to plan in plenty of time can obtain details from R. Knight, PO Box 1363, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
The telephone number of the Triumph Sports Six Club has changed to 0462 456315. The MG Car Club has recently moved back to Abingdon, after an absence of twenty years, and will be moving into new offices in June 1990, the year of its Dia
mond Jubilee anniversary. At the moment, the MG Car Club can be reached 0235 555552 or written to at PO Box 251, Abingdon, Oxon. 0X14 3FA.
The VCC is developing its headquarter building at Ashwell at an estimated cost of £210,000 to which the club is contributing £50,000.
The Mercedes-Benz Club, which looks after all ages of these cars, gained 122 members recently, whose oldest car listed is a 1956 300C, which emphasises this club’s concern for the classic models.
Not to be outdone, the 750 MC had 48 new enrolments in the same period, its interests ranging from vintage A7s to formula racing. Its November 1989 Bulletin has an article about how 26 pre-war A7s visited five European capitals in five days, an off-shoot of our run in 1979 in a then-modern BMW, the A7 being, you see, the forerunner of this great make.
On the subject of club enrolments, the Daimler & Lanchester OC had 54 new members last October with cars from a 1934 Lanchester Ten to moderns. The Citroen Car Club, meanwhile, is 41 years old this month and is keen to expand its existing membership of just over 2600.
The Morgan Sports Car Club almost trebled in size over the last decade to boast a current membership of 3000, a growth which has been reflected worldwide in the number of Morgan clubs which have been formed. It has been the spread of international Morgan meetings, pioneered by the Morgan Club de France, which has seen the bonds between the various clubs ever strengthened, to the benefit of all club members.
As the British club grows increasingly larger, so various positions are having to be created. At present, for instance, both a public relations officer and an archivist, on a voluntary basis, are being sought. Even the smaller, but no less keen, Gilbern Owners Club is in good shape. The ’88/’89 financial year ended with 498 members, the third highest total, and the bulletin reports an increased awareness of
this rare Welsh marque, particularly at shows, where there has been more interest in the GT model in particular than for some time.
The Bullnose Morris Club now has over 550 members, 50 of them from overseas, which is a very satisfactory situation for a club catering for a more or less fixed number of vintage vehicles. It has a bi-monthly magazine, Ken Revis MBE, remains its President and the Secretary is Richard Harris, PO Box 383, Hove, Sussex BN3 4FX.
Membership of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club now exceeds 8500. Those who like watching early motorcycles in action should note that the 53rd Pioneer Run, organised as it has always been by the Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club, takes place on March 18.
The club is hoping to repeat the success of the 1989 Run when 370 entries were received of solos, sidecars and tricycles made before 1915. This event produces the world’s largest gathering of ‘veterans’ and represents a unique opportunity for seeing so many historic machines in action at any one time.
The 47 mile Run will begin at 0830 hrs from Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs and follows the A217 through Reigate joining the A23 at Gatwick and finishes on Madeira Drive, Brighton where the first arrivals are expected from 1030 hrs.
Regulations, entry forms and further information may be obtained from Marjorie Ayers, the Secretary of the Meeting, 59 Beechwood Road, Sanderstead, Surrey CR2 OAE. Tel.: 01-657 4671.
The Secretary of the Swiss section of the R-REC has owned since 1988 the rare 1933 Rolls-Royce P11 Continental, chassis 98PY, reg. AKX 386, which originally had a convertible torpedo body and was first registered in the name of Lt. Col. W B Du Pre of Beaconsfield. After the war it belonged to G. Biggs of Knotty Green and then it went to France. It was used for 1935 RAF Review attended by HM King George V. as shown in several R-R books. A saloon body was fitted subsequently but Mr. Schumacher is converting the body to its original form and wants to trace any previous owners who can give him details of what it then looked like.
Bill Morris is importing from Australia a 1922 3-litre Sunbeam tourer with one of the very rare Type OV 16-valve single overhead camshaft engines to which MOTOR SPORT referred last month. The car is apparently in original condition except for a Ford carburettor and low ratio back axle, fitted as more suitable to the short journeys made by its original owner; but the correct Claude Hobson carburettor and high axle ratio are with the car. These Sunbeam engines are very rare and we have seen only one, in the aforementioned Lambert Special, but George Jackson used one in a 1922 16/40 hp Sunbeam at the 1924 Blackpool Speed Trials, beating four 3-litre Bentleys with it.