Miscellany, February 2000

Last month a reader suggested that in the ‘Phi-Phi’ Etancelin article I had deprived this driver of his final placings. In fact, old WB has not quite ‘lost his marbles’; the last sentence was omitted. In it I wrote “In his final season (1953) he took third place at Rouen and was third again with Levegh in the 12-hour Casablanca race.

I am a great admirer of the MGCC’s triple-M Register Yearbook, which has new facets of MG history and interesting articles of sensible length, nicely illustrated. The latest edition is now available from Malcolm Green, 28 Allen Road, Gt Bookham, Surrey KT23 4SL, for £10 post-paid. It contains fine racing shots, an account of the first MG to win a major race, the history of the Midgets, why MG stopped racing, etc. Wonderful value.

If you were cast away on a desert island and could take only one book with you, besides the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible, what would it be? Personally, as I would probably not read much in the sand and the storms, I would go for the late TASO Mathieson’s wonderful picture-book Grand Prix Racing 1906-1914. Rather my period, you see, and you can study the wonderful photographs again and again.

After completing restoration of the ex-Joyce racing AC, Roger Smith has obtained another, if not quite so historic, Brooklands car, a CIME-engined, mahogany-planked EHP which raced there in 1926. It is presumably the car driven by GW Olive, later to become a Standard dealer in Guildford. I recall seeing the EHP’s photo in the showroom, its identity a puzzle to his salesmen.